Actions for The human footprint : a global environmental history
The human footprint : a global environmental history / Anthony N. Penna
- Author
- Penna, Anthony N.
- Published
- Chichester, West Sussex, UK ; Malden, MA : Wiley Blackwell, 2015.
- Edition
- Second edition.
- Physical Description
- xix, 364 pages ; 23 cm
- Contents
- Machine generated contents note: Introduction -- The Nature of World History -- The Nature of Big History -- The Nature of World Environmental History -- Earth's History and Human Origins -- Mass Migrations and the Rise of Agriculture -- Population Growth and the Rise of Cities -- Cities and the Rise of Manufacturing and Industry -- World Trade and New World Ecology -- Fossil Fuels and Climate Change -- Notes -- Introduction -- The Origins of Earth and Its Unique Atmosphere: From Hot to Cold Planet -- Icehouse Planet and Greenhouse Planet -- Plate Tectonics, Super-continents, and Climate Change -- The Warming -- The Cooling -- The Elevation of the Tibetan Plateau and Its Effect on the Global Climate -- The Birth, Death, and Rebirth of the Mediterranean Sea and Its Hemispheric Environmental Effects -- The Impact of the Isthmus of Panama on Global Climate Change -- The Mid-Pliocene, Glacial and Interglacial Cycles, and "Modern" Times -- Notes -- Introduction -- Climatic Changes and Evolution -- Another Effect of the Closing of the Mediterranean Sea -- Human Ancestry -- The Birth of Human Intelligence -- Early Diets and Their Nutritional Value -- Translating Human Intelligence into Action -- Tectonic Upheavals, Landscape Changes, and Climate -- Population Migration and Expansion -- Homo Neanderthalensis vs. Homo Sapiens -- The Broad Spectrum: An Economic Revolution -- Notes -- Introduction -- Early Farming and a Warming Climate -- Settlement and Domestication -- Early Agricultural Communities -- Early Agriculture in China -- Early Agriculture in Africa -- Early Agriculture in Mesoamerica -- Early Agriculture in Europe -- World Agriculture during the Age of Manufacture and Industry -- The First Green Revolution, 1840-1930 -- The Second Green Revolution, 1945- -- Agro-business, Food Prices, and Climate Change -- Notes -- Introduction -- A Modern Demographic Scenario -- The Role of Disease in Calculating Population Size -- The Impact of Migration and Settlement on Global Population Growth -- The Role of Nutrition in Early Population Growth -- The Role of Animal Domestication in the Spread of Infectious Disease -- Nutrition, Climate Change, and Population -- A Population Bomb or Not? -- Notes -- Introduction -- What Does "Urban" Mean? -- Early Urbanization and Its Environmental Effects -- Ancient Urbanization -- The Origin of Writing -- The Impact of Changing Rivers on Environmental Quality -- Urbanization in the Indus Valley -- China's Early Cities -- Ancient Mesoamerican Cities -- Early European Cities -- Notes -- Introduction -- The Age of Copper and Bronze -- The Effects of Ancient Mining on Human Health and the Environment -- Mining in the Roman World -- The Age of Iron -- Iron-Making in China and India -- Iron-Making in Premodern Europe -- Manufacturing in West Africa, 1350-1800 CE -- Manufacturing in Colonial America -- Manufacturing in the Modern World -- Notes -- Introduction -- The Economies of China and India -- European Hegemony and British Industrialization -- Economic Developments in China, Japan, and India -- Harnessing the Power of Water -- Disease, Death, and a Public Health Response -- The Power of Steam -- The Role of Invention and Innovation -- Comparing Industrialization in the United States and Britain -- Coal, Iron, and Steel -- Industrial Transformation and Global Auto Mobility -- Notes -- Introduction -- Global Trading Networks -- Distancing Consumers from Producers -- Material Goods -- Luxury Foods Become Commodities -- Tobacco -- Sugar -- Coffee and Tea -- Environmental Effects of Increased Cultivation of Coffee -- Conspicuous Consumption -- Global Consumption -- The Automobile and Electronics in Emerging Markets -- The Great Recession, 2008-2013 -- Notes -- Introduction -- The Eotechnic World: Waterwheels and Windmills -- The Paleotechnic World: Energy from Coal -- The Neotechnic World: Energy from Oil -- The Developing World's Demands for Energy -- The Case for Natural Gas: A Neotechnic Energy Solution -- Hydraulic Fracturing of Rock, or "Fracking," to Release Natural Gas Deposits -- The Case for Nuclear Energy: Another Neotechnic Solution -- The Case for Renewable Wind and Solar Power: A Return to the Eotechnic -- Notes -- Introduction -- The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Civilization -- The Medieval Warm Period (1000-1300 CE) and Little Ice Age (1300-1850 CE) -- Current Global Climate Conditions -- The Role of Solar Energy -- The Role of the Atlantic Circulation Energy Exchange -- The Role of Fossil Fuel Emissions -- What Is to Be Done? -- Notes -- Notes.
- Summary
- Updated to reflect the most recent research, the second edition of The Human Footprint expands upon Anthony N. Penna's multidisciplinary global history of Earth from its beginnings to the present day. While initial chapters focus on "big history," placing human history within a cosmic framework, succeeding chapters reveal the great natural and human transformations that have shaped civilization over millennia. --
Using the most up-to-date research from geologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, economists, historians, and others, individual chapters expand upon single topics within broader themes relating to Earth's history and human origins; mass migrations and the rise of agriculture; nutrition and population growth and the rise of cities, manufacturing, and industry; world trade, mass consumption, and new world ecology; modes of energy use; and more. New research into the world's warming climate serves to reinforce the fragile nature of world-human history interdependencies. Timely and essential, The Human Footprint provides illuminating insights into the future of our planet by revealing the interconnectedness of humans and nature throughout our past. --Book Jacket. - Subject(s)
- Genre(s)
- ISBN
- 9781118912461 pbk
1118912462 pbk - Bibliography Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
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