Long unknown in the West, The Biosphere established the field of biogeochemistry and is one of the classic founding documents of what later became known as Gaia theory. It is the first sustained expression of the idea that life is a geological force that can change Earth's landforms, its climate, and even the contents of its atmosphere. A complete, unabridged translation has never before been available in English. This edition - complete with extensive annotations, an intr...

In this volume security specialists, peace researchers, environmental scholars, demographers as well as climate, desertification, water, food and urbanisation specialists from the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and North America review security and conflict prevention in the Mediterranean. They also analyse NATO’s Mediterranean security dialogue and offer conceptualisations on security and perceptions of security challenges as seen in North and South. The latter half of the book anal...

During recent years, environmental debate worldwide has been dominated by climate change, carbon emissions and eff orts to achieve low carbon economies. But a number of academic, technical, political, business and NGO initiatives indicate that there is a new wave of environmental attention focused on a wholly different set of subjects: namely that of natural capital, ecosystem services and biodiversity, or in other words, what Nature does for us. From recycling miracles in the soil to the ...

Witnessing at first-hand the failure of the Copenhagen Climate Conference and wondering what went wrong, Andrew Charlton realised the truth of a colleague's words: 'The world is split between those who want to save the planet and those who want to save themselves.'In this groundbreaking essay, Charlton discusses the rift that will shape our future- progress versus planet- rich versus poor. In recent times environmentalists have argued with mounting force that the...

Fundamentals of Applied Reservoir Engineering introduces early career reservoir engineers and those in other oil and gas disciplines to the fundamentals of reservoir engineering. Given that modern reservoir engineering is largely centered on numerical computer simulation and that reservoir engineers in the industry will likely spend much of their professional career building and running such simulators, the book aims to encourage the use of simulated models in an appropriate way and exerci...

Bacterial Biogeochemistry, Third Edition focuses on bacterial metabolism and its relevance to the environment, including the decomposition of soil, food chains, nitrogen fixation, assimilation and reduction of carbon nitrogen and sulfur, and microbial symbiosis. The scope of the new edition has broadened to provide a historical perspective, and covers in greater depth topics such as bioenergetic processes, characteristics of microbial communities, spatial heterogeneity, transport mechanism...

Earth is our Business takes forward the argument of Polly Higgins’ first book, Eradicating Ecocide. This book proposes new Earth law, but it is also about something more than law: it advocates a new form of leadership which places the health and well-being of people and planet first. Polly Higgins shows how law can provide the tools and be a bridge to a new way of doing business. She argues, in fact, that Earth is the business of us all, not the exclusive preserve of the executives of the ...

This work focuses on urban governance in the developing world, its aim being to bring a holistic perspective to the debate on urban governance in Asia and around the globe. It has been divided into three sections: The first section is on rural interventions as they influence urbanization and its problems/solutions. The second focuses on urban governance, infrastructure programs, service delivery reforms and their evaluation. The third and final section focuses on urbanization and the envir...

Petroleum Rock Mechanics: Drilling Operations and Well Design covers the fundamentals of solid mechanics and petroleum rock mechanics and their application to oil and gas-related drilling operations and well design. More specifically, it examines the role of formation, strength of rock materials, and wellbore mechanics, along with the impact of in-situ stress changes on wellbore and borehole behavior. Practical examples with solutions and a comprehensive glossary of terminologies are provi...

At a time of global economic crisis and disillusionment with capitalism, Adodo offers refreshing and positive insight into a more integral way of business management, enterprise and community development as well as holistic healing in Africa. For over three decades, Africa was the recipient of billions of dollars in aid funds that were meant to catapult the continent from undeveloped to developed status. Yet the more the aid poured in, the poorer African countries became.The devast...

This book is mainly about the field geology of granites at all scales from that of a single outcrop to plutons and batholiths. All field geologists work initially at the scale of the outcrop, consequently most of the phenomena treated herein are those which are visible at outcrop scale. However, granites typically occur as plutons and batholiths, some of which are so large as to apparently defy any effort at systematic treatment. Having had the opportunity of mapping two very large and ver...

One of the early set of reforms that South Africa embarked on after emerging from apartheid was in the water sector, following a remarkable, consultative process. The policy and legal reforms were comprehensive and covered almost all aspects of water management including revolutionary changes in defining and allocating rights to water, radical reforms in water management and supply institutions, the introduction of the protection of environmental flows, and major shifts in charging for wat...