Global Environmental Challenges of the Twenty-First Century

Resources, Consumption, and Sustainable Solutions

Edited by David E. Lorey

Not available to order

Publication date:

01 October 2002

Length of book:

312 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780842050494

The most serious environmental problems of the twenty-first century have the potential to alter the course of life on this planet. Global warming, toxic waste, water and air pollution, acid rain, and shrinking energy supplies are frightening challenges that may threaten our future if we do not face up to them.

Global Environmental Challenges provides important information and gives us hope about the environment. This book first helps us to grasp these difficulties, then shows us the choices we can make. How long to leave a light on, whether to take the car, the train, or bicycle to work, whether to recycle or throw away, whether to vote to curb continued suburban sprawl-all of these decisions can make a difference.

This collection of some of the best essays and articles on the environment comes from a variety of sources, including journals, magazines, websites of ecological/conservation organizations, and other publications.

Five major sections investigate the interaction of population growth, consumption, and environment; the emerging crisis in freshwater around the globe; global climate and atmosphere (including global warming); biodiversity loss; and the concept of sustainable development-using natural resources to place future human development on a sustainable path. The final section on sustainable development reveals how we can take action. As individuals, we can make a difference readily and easily without making huge personal sacrifices. As societies, we can work together in a global community of interest to sustain the earth.

This valuable resource offers readers a better understanding of our environmental problems and presents solutions to improving the health of the planet.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 2 Driving Forces
Chapter 3 Environment and Health: Population, Consumption, and the Environment
Chapter 4 Food Security, Population, and Environment
Chapter 5 Population and Consumption: What We Know, What We Need to Know
Part 6 Water
Chapter 7 Water for Food Production: Will There Be Enough in 2025?
Chapter 8 Water Wars
Chapter 9 Water and Conflict in Asia?
Chapter 10 Life—or Death—for the Salton Sea?
Part 11 Global Climate and Atmosphere
Chapter 12 Synthesis of Scientific-Technical Information Relevant to Article 2 of the UN Framework Convention
Chapter 13 Shadows of the Climate Future
Chapter 14 Human Alteration of the Global Nitrogen Cycle: Causes and Consequences
Part 15 Biodiversity
Chapter 16 Losing Strands in the Web of Life
Chapter 17 Riches from the Rainforest
Chapter 18 Dying Seas
Part 19 Sustainable Solutions
Chapter 20 Easter Island's End
Chapter 21 Neotropical Restoration Biology
Chapter 22 What Are Ecosystem Services?
Chapter 23 Marine Ecosystem Services
Chapter 24 Environmentally Sustainable Business Practices
Chapter 25 NGOs and the Environment: From Knowledge to Action
Chapter 26 The Real Impacts of Household Consumption
Chapter 27 Suggested Readings

With selections from many leading scholars, Global Environmental Challenges of the Twenty-first Century is an accessible introduction to critical global environmental issues. While providing reviews of key issues such as water, climate, and biodiversity, it also addresses the causes and solutions to problems in ways that empower students to understand and act to solve global environmental challenges. This book will be especially useful for instructors of basic environmental courses who seek to combine an understanding of both the social and scientific aspects of global environmental issues.