Megadrought In The Carolinas

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Megadrought in the Carolinas

Author : John S. Cable
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780817392765
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (927 download)

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Book Synopsis Megadrought in the Carolinas by : John S. Cable

Download or read book Megadrought in the Carolinas written by John S. Cable and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An enigma in southeastern archaeology is why a vast swath of land in coastal central South Carolina was abandoned in the 1400s. By 1540 and the Spanish Entrada of De Soto, this area was called the Desert of Ocute, after the Ocute people. Cable's long-term research shows that abandonment took place because of prolonged drought, in fact a megdraought, as there was elsewhere from Chaco Canyon to Cahokia in earlier centuries. This book considers the implications of the displacement of the Ocute into the surrounding settlements. Cable suggests that these immigrants experienced regional hostility and that new cultural groups formed that began to replace the old social structure of chiefdoms and platform mounds. Confederated societies emerged that had a much wider geographic reach. Crowding into the sustainable river valleys of the Piedmont and Mountain zones necessitated technological and social adaptations for an intensification of agriculture. Cable surmises that if European contact had been delayed several hundred years, these peoples would have developed as per the complex Cahokians"--

Megadrought in the Carolinas

Author : John S. Cable
Publisher : University Alabama Press
ISBN 13 : 0817320466
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (173 download)

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Book Synopsis Megadrought in the Carolinas by : John S. Cable

Download or read book Megadrought in the Carolinas written by John S. Cable and published by University Alabama Press. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considers the Native American abandonment of the South Carolina coast A prevailing enigma in American archaeology is why vast swaths of land in the Southeast and Southwest were abandoned between AD 1200 and 1500. The most well-known abandonments occurred in the Four Corners and Mimbres areas of the Southwest and the central Mississippi valley in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and in southern Arizona and the Ohio Valley during the fifteenth century. In Megadrought in the Carolinas: The Archaeology of Mississippian Collapse, Abandonment, and Coalescence, John S. Cable demonstrates through the application of innovative ceramic analysis that yet another fifteenth-century abandonment event took place across an area of some 34.5 million acres centered on the South Carolina coast. Most would agree that these sweeping changes were at least in part the consequence of prolonged droughts associated with a period of global warming known as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly. Cable strengthens this inference by showing that these events correspond exactly with the timing of two different geographic patterns of megadrought as defined by modern climate models. Cable extends his study by testing the proposition that the former residents of the coastal zone migrated to surrounding interior regions where the effects of drought were less severe. Abundant support for this expectation is found in the archaeology of these regions, including evidence of accelerated population growth, crowding, and increased regional hostilities. Another important implication of immigration is the eventual coalescence of ethnic and/or culturally different social groups and the ultimate transformation of societies into new cultural syntheses. Evidence for this process is not yet well documented in the Southeast, but Cable draws on his familiarity with the drought-related Puebloan intrusions into the Hohokam Core Area of southern Arizona during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to suggest strategies for examining coalescence in the Southeast. The narrative concludes by addressing the broad implications of late prehistoric societal collapse for today’s human-propelled global warming era that portends similar but much more long-lasting consequences.

Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America

Author : Cheryl Claassen
Publisher : Oxbow Books
ISBN 13 : 1789259312
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (892 download)

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Book Synopsis Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America by : Cheryl Claassen

Download or read book Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America written by Cheryl Claassen and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2023-03-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the long history of documenting the material culture of the archaeological record, meaning and actions of makers and users of these items is often overlooked. The authors in this book focus on rituals exploring the natural and made landscape stages, the ritual directors, including their progression from shaman to priesthood, and meaning of the rites. They also provide comments on the end or failure of rites and cults from Paleoindian into post-DeSoto years. Chapters examine the archaeological records of Cahokia, the lower Ohio Valley, Aztalan Wisconsin, Vermont, Florida, and Georgia, and others scan the Eastern US, investigating tobacco/datura, color symbolism, deer symbolism, mound stratigraphy, flintknapping, stone caching, cults and their organization, and red ochre. These authors collectively query the beliefs that can be gleaned from mortuary practices and their variation, from mound construction, from imagery, from the choice of landscape setting. While some rituals were short-lived, others can be shown to span millennia as the ritual specialists modified their interpretations and introduced innovations.

Sustainable Policies and Practices in Energy, Environment and Health Research

Author : Walter Leal Filho
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030863042
Total Pages : 627 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Sustainable Policies and Practices in Energy, Environment and Health Research by : Walter Leal Filho

Download or read book Sustainable Policies and Practices in Energy, Environment and Health Research written by Walter Leal Filho and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-12-15 with total page 627 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims to give a contribution to a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of the cross-cutting issues on energy, environment and health research topics in the current world scenario, where nations all over the world are struggling to accomplish the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and to ensure sustainable patterns for all. This interdisciplinary implies a commitment between all fields of science, working together to provide knowledge that could result in the promotion of quality of life. At the present, it is evident that not all people benefit from sustainable policies and practices and the communication between health, energy, environmental and social problems is undeniable. A call for different views could be a pathway attracting universities, stakeholders, organizations and civil society to deeply discuss how one solution does not fit all societies. Few publications are coherently handling this matter. This book is expected to fill this gap and to develop an interest in a larger audience working in general sustainable development and cross-cutting issues. This book is produced by the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR). It gives special emphasis to state-of-the-art descriptions of approaches, methods, initiatives and projects from universities, stakeholders, organizations and civil society across the world, regarding cross-cutting issues in energy, environment and health research.

Following the Mississippian Spread

Author : Robert A. Cook
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030890821
Total Pages : 397 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Following the Mississippian Spread by : Robert A. Cook

Download or read book Following the Mississippian Spread written by Robert A. Cook and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-06-29 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first to specifically trace the movement of Mississippian maize farmers throughout the US Midwest and Southeast. By providing a backdrop of shifting climatic conditions during the period, this volume also investigates the relationship between farmers and their environments. Detailed regional overviews of key locations in the Mississippi Valley, the Ohio Valley, and the peripheries of the Mississippian culture area reveal patterns and variation in the expression of Mississippian culture and interactions between migrants and local communities. Methodologically, the case studies highlight the strengths of integrating a variety of data sets to identify migration. The volume provides a broader case study of the links between climate change, migration, and the spread of agriculture that is relevant to archaeologists and anthropologists studying early agricultural societies throughout the world. Key patterns of adaptation to and mitigation of the effects of droughts, for example, provide a framework for understanding the options available to societies in the face of climate change afforded by the time-depth of an archaeological perspective.

Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith

Author : Philip Jenkins
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197506372
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith by : Philip Jenkins

Download or read book Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith written by Philip Jenkins and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the world's leading scholars of religious trends shows how climate change has driven dramatic religious upheavals. Long before the current era of man-made climate change, the world has suffered repeated, severe climate-driven shocks. These shocks have resulted in famine, disease, violence, social upheaval, and mass migration. But these shocks were also religious events. Dramatic shifts in climate have often been understood in religious terms by the people who experienced them. They were described in the language of apocalypse, millennium, and Judgment. Often, too, the eras in which these shocks occurred have been marked by far-reaching changes in the nature of religion and spirituality. Those changes have varied widely--from growing religious fervor and commitment; to the stirring of mystical and apocalyptic expectations; to waves of religious scapegoating and persecution; or the spawning of new religious movements and revivals. In many cases, such responses have had lasting impacts, fundamentally reshaping particular religious traditions. In Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith historian Philip Jenkins draws out the complex relationship between religion and climate change. He asserts that the religious movements and ideas that emerge from climate shocks often last for many decades, and even become a familiar part of the religious landscape, even though their origins in particular moments of crisis may be increasingly consigned to remote memory. By stirring conflicts and provoking persecutions that defined themselves in religious terms, changes in climate have redrawn the world's religious maps, and created the global concentrations of believers as we know them today. This bold new argument will change the way we think about the history of religion, regardless of tradition. And it will demonstrate how our growing climate crisis will likely have a comparable religious impact across the Global South.

New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery

Author : Bretton T. Giles
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 1683402464
Total Pages : 283 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (834 download)

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Book Synopsis New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery by : Bretton T. Giles

Download or read book New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery written by Bretton T. Giles and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, contributors show how stylistic and iconographic analyses of Mississippian imagery provide new perspectives on the beliefs, narratives, public ceremonies, ritual regimes, and expressions of power in the communities that created the artwork. Exploring various methodological and theoretical approaches to pre-Columbian visual culture, these essays reconstruct dynamic accounts of Native American history across the U.S. Southeast. These case studies offer innovative examples of how to use style to identify and compare artifacts, how symbols can be interpreted in the absence of writing, and how to situate and historicize Mississippian imagery. They examine designs carved into shell, copper, stone, and wood or incised into ceramic vessels, from spider iconography to owl effigies and depictions of the cosmos. They discuss how these symbols intersect with memory, myths, social hierarchies, religious traditions, and other spheres of Native American life in the past and present. The tools modeled in this volume will open new horizons for learning about the culture and worldviews of past peoples. A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series Contributors: David Dye | Shawn P. Lambert | Bretton T. Giles | Vernon J. Knight, Jr. | Anna Semon | J. Grant Stauffer | Jesse Nowak | George E Lankford

Dendroclimatology

Author : Malcolm K. Hughes
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1402057253
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Dendroclimatology by : Malcolm K. Hughes

Download or read book Dendroclimatology written by Malcolm K. Hughes and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-10-28 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A top priority in climate research is obtaining broad-extent and long-term data to support analyses of historical patterns and trends, and for model development and evaluation. Along with directly measured climate data from the present and recent past, it is important to obtain estimates of long past climate variations spanning multiple centuries and millennia. These longer time perspectives are needed for assessing the unusualness of recent climate changes, as well as for providing insight on the range, variation and overall dynamics of the climate system over time spans exceeding available records from instruments, such as rain gauges and thermometers. Tree rings have become increasingly valuable in providing this long-term information because extensive data networks have been developed in temperate and boreal zones of the Earth, and quantitative methods for analyzing these data have advanced. Tree rings are among the most useful paleoclimate information sources available because they provide a high degree of chronological accuracy, high replication, and extensive spatial coverage spanning recent centuries. With the expansion and extension of tree-ring data and analytical capacity new climatic insights from tree rings are being used in a variety of applications, including for interpretation of past changes in ecosystems and human societies. This volume presents an overview of the current state of dendroclimatology, its contributions over the last 30 years, and its future potential. The material included is useful not only to those who generate tree-ring records of past climate-dendroclimatologists, but also to users of their results-climatologists, hydrologists, ecologists and archeologists. ‘With the pressing climatic questions of the 21st century demanding a deeper understanding of the climate system and our impact upon it, this thoughtful volume comes at critical moment. It will be of fundamental importance in not only guiding researchers, but in educating scientists and the interested lay person on the both incredible power and potential pitfalls of reconstructing climate using tree-ring analysis.’, Glen M. MacDonald, UCLA Institute of the Environment, CA, USA ‘This is an up-to-date treatment of all branches of tree-ring science, by the world’s experts in the field, reminding us that tree rings are the most important source of proxy data on climate change. Should be read by all budding dendrochronology scientists.’, Alan Robock, Rutgers University, NJ, USA

French on Shifting Ground

Author : Nathalie Dajko
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN 13 : 1496830962
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (968 download)

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Book Synopsis French on Shifting Ground by : Nathalie Dajko

Download or read book French on Shifting Ground written by Nathalie Dajko and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In French on Shifting Ground: Cultural and Coastal Erosion in South Louisiana, Nathalie Dajko introduces readers to the lower Lafourche Basin, Louisiana, where the land, a language, and a way of life are at risk due to climate change, environmental disaster, and coastal erosion. Louisiana French is endangered all around the state, but in the lower Lafourche Basin the shift to English is accompanied by the equally rapid disappearance of the land on which its speakers live. French on Shifting Ground allows both scholars and the general public to get an overview of how rich and diverse the French language in Louisiana is, and serves as a key reminder that Louisiana serves as a prime repository for Native and heritage languages, ranking among the strongest preservation regions in the southern and eastern US. Nathalie Dajko outlines the development of French in the region, highlighting the features that make it unique in the world and including the first published comparison of the way it is spoken by the local American Indian and Cajun populations. She then weaves together evidence from multiple lines of linguistic research, years of extensive participant observation, and personal narratives from the residents themselves to illustrate the ways in which language—in this case French—is as fundamental to the creation of place as is the physical landscape. It is a story at once scholarly and personal: the loss of the land and the concomitant loss of the language have implications for the academic community as well as for the people whose cultures—and identities—are literally at stake.

The Quaternary Period in the United States

Author : A.R. Gillespie
Publisher : Elsevier
ISBN 13 : 0080474098
Total Pages : 594 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis The Quaternary Period in the United States by : A.R. Gillespie

Download or read book The Quaternary Period in the United States written by A.R. Gillespie and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2003-12-17 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reviews advances in understanding of the past ca. two million years of Earth history - the Quaternary Period - in the United States. It begins with sections on ice and water - as glaciers, permafrost, oceans, rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Six chapters are devoted to the high-latitude Pleistocene ice sheets, to mountain glaciations of the western United States, and to permafrost studies. Other chapters discuss ice-age lakes, caves, sea-level fluctuations, and riverine landscapes. With a chapter on landscape evolution models, the book turns to essays on geologic processes. Two chapters discuss soils and their responses to climate, and wind-blown sediments. Two more describe volcanoes and earthquakes, and the use of Quaternary geology to understand the hazards they pose. The next part of the book is on plants and animals. Five chapters consider the Quaternary history of vegetation in the United States. Other chapters treat forcing functions and vegetation response at different spatial and temporal scales, the role of fire as a catalyst of vegetation change during rapid climate shifts, and the use of tree rings in inferring age and past hydroclimatic conditions. Three chapters address vertebrate paleontology and the extinctions of large mammals at the end of the last glaciation, beetle assemblages and the inferences they permit about past conditions, and the peopling of North America. A final chapter addresses the numerical modeling of Quaternary climates, and the role paleoclimatic studies and climatic modeling has in predicting future response of the Earth's climate system to the changes we have wrought.

Purified

Author : Peter Annin
Publisher : Island Press
ISBN 13 : 1642832820
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (428 download)

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Book Synopsis Purified by : Peter Annin

Download or read book Purified written by Peter Annin and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2023-11-09 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2000, a transformative climate-driven “megadrought” swept over the Colorado River watershed. By the early 2020s, levels on the river’s two largest reservoirs were hitting record lows and threatening the water supply for forty million people. Outside the West, water stocks are stressed even in states with bountiful rainfall such as Florida. From coast to coast, conventional measures to sustain the most fundamental natural resource on earth—drinking water—are coming up short. Recycled water could help close that gap. In Purified: How Recycled Sewage Is Transforming Our Water, veteran journalist Peter Annin shows that wastewater has become a surprising weapon in America’s war against water scarcity. Annin probes deep into the water reuse movement in five water-strapped states—California, Texas, Virginia, Nevada, and Florida. He drinks beer made from purified sewage, visits communities where purified sewage came to the rescue, and examines how one of the nation’s largest wastewater plants hopes to recycle one hundred percent of its wastewater by 2035. At each stop, readers come face to face with the people who are struggling for, and against, recycled water. While the current filtration technology transforms sewage into something akin to distilled water—free of chemicals and safe to drink—water recycling’s challenge isn’t technology. It’s terminology. Concerns about communities being used as “guinea pigs,” sensationalist media coverage, and taglines like “toilet to tap” have repeatedly crippled water recycling efforts. Potable water recycling has become the hottest frontier in the race for expanded water supply options. But can public opinion turn in time to avoid the worst consequences? Purified’s fast-paced narrative cuts through the fearmongering and misinformation to make the case that recycled water is direly needed in the climate-change era. Water cannot be taken for granted anymore—and that includes sewage.

Principles of Water Resources

Author : Thomas V. Cech
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118790294
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (187 download)

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Book Synopsis Principles of Water Resources by : Thomas V. Cech

Download or read book Principles of Water Resources written by Thomas V. Cech and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proper management of water resources can take many forms, and requires the knowledge and expertise to work at the intersection of mathematics, geology, biology, geography, meteorology, political science, and even psychology. This book provides an essential foundation in water management and development concepts and practices, dissecting complex topics into short, understandable explanations that spark true interest in the field. Approaching the study of water resources systematically, the discussion begins with historical perspective before moving on to physical processes, engineering, water chemistry, government regulation, environmental issues, global conflict, and more. Now in its fourth edition, this text provides the most current introduction to a field that is becoming ever more critical as climate change begins to threaten water supplies around the world. As geography, climate, population growth, and technology collide, effective resource management must include a comprehensive understanding of how these forces intermingle and come to life in the water so critical to us all.

Unstoppable Global Warming

Author : S. Fred Singer
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 144220933X
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis Unstoppable Global Warming by : S. Fred Singer

Download or read book Unstoppable Global Warming written by S. Fred Singer and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2006-09-13 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Singer and Avery present—in popular language supported by in-depth scientific evidence—the compelling concept that global temperatures have been rising mostly or entirely because of a natural cycle. Using historic data from two millennia of recorded history combined with the natural physical records found in ice cores, seabed sediment, cave stalagmites, and tree rings, Unstoppable Global Warming argues that the 1,500 year solar-driven cycle that has always controlled the earth's climate remains thedriving force in the current warming trend. Trillions of dollars spent on reducing fossil fuel use would have no effect on today's rising temperatures. The public policy key, Singer and Avery propose, is adaptation, not fruitless attempts at prevention.Further, they offer convincing evidence that civilization's most successful eras have coincided with the cycle's warmest peaks. With the added benefit of modern technology, humanity can not only survive global climate change, but thrive.

America’s Water Crises

Author : David E. McNabb
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 303127380X
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (312 download)

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Book Synopsis America’s Water Crises by : David E. McNabb

Download or read book America’s Water Crises written by David E. McNabb and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-05-13 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is focused exclusively on water problems in the 48 U.S. states. The authors provide an accessible overview of the work of many federal, state and academic researchers and water system administrators whose investigations have focused on the state of water and the water crisis now accelerating in the United States. David McNabb and Carl Swenson seek to bring to a wider audience some of the current research findings and data on the perilous state of the United States’ surface and groundwater resources during this time of climate change and the extreme drought taking place in many sections of the nation. Descriptions of the water resource systems are based on research and the subsequent findings published by water scientists in the United States Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Corps of Engineers and water related agencies of the Departments of Agriculture and of the Interior and state and local water management agencies.

Global Drought and Flood

Author : Huan Wu
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119427215
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (194 download)

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Book Synopsis Global Drought and Flood by : Huan Wu

Download or read book Global Drought and Flood written by Huan Wu and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent advances in the modeling and remote sensing of droughts and floods Droughts and floods are causing increasing damage worldwide, often with devastating short- and long-term impacts on human society. Forecasting when they will occur, monitoring them as they develop, and learning from the past to improve disaster management is vital. Global Drought and Flood: Observation, Modeling, and Prediction presents recent advances in the modeling and remote sensing of droughts and floods. It also describes the techniques and products currently available and how they are being used in practice. Volume highlights include: Remote sensing approaches for mapping droughts and floods Physical and statistical models for monitoring and forecasting hydrologic hazards Features of various drought and flood systems and products Use by governments, humanitarian, and development stakeholders in recent disaster cases Improving the collaboration between hazard information provision and end users The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals.

With Speed and Violence

Author : Fred Pearce
Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 0807085855
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis With Speed and Violence by : Fred Pearce

Download or read book With Speed and Violence written by Fred Pearce and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2007-03-15 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nature is fragile, environmentalists often tell us. But the lesson of this book is that it is not so. The truth is far more worrying. Nature is strong and packs a serious counterpunch . . . Global warming will very probably unleash unstoppable planetary forces. And they will not be gradual. The history of our planet's climate shows that it does not do gradual change. Under pressure, whether from sunspots or orbital wobbles or the depredations of humans, it lurches-virtually overnight. —from the Introduction Fred Pearce has been writing about climate change for eighteen years, and the more he learns, the worse things look. Where once scientists were concerned about gradual climate change, now more and more of them fear we will soon be dealing with abrupt change resulting from triggering hidden tipping points. Even President Bush's top climate modeler, Jim Hansen, warned in 2005 that "we are on the precipice of climate system tipping points beyond which there is no redemption." As Pearce began working on this book, normally cautious scientists beat a path to his door to tell him about their fears and their latest findings. With Speed and Violence tells the stories of these scientists and their work-from the implications of melting permafrost in Siberia and the huge river systems of meltwater beneath the icecaps of Greenland and Antarctica to the effects of the "ocean conveyor" and a rare molecule that runs virtually the entire cleanup system for the planet. Above all, the scientists told him what they're now learning about the speed and violence of past natural climate change-and what it portends for our future. With Speed and Violence is the most up-to-date and readable book yet about the growing evidence for global warming and the large climatic effects it may unleash.

North American Droughts

Author : Norman J. Rosenberg
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429727372
Total Pages : 147 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (297 download)

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Book Synopsis North American Droughts by : Norman J. Rosenberg

Download or read book North American Droughts written by Norman J. Rosenberg and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-08 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recognizing drought as a characteristic feature of the North American climate, the contributors to this volume seek to organize available evidence of both prehistoric and modern drought events and to provide information on the severity of droughts, especially those which have occurred since weather records have been kept. The impacts of modern-era droughts on production and the potential impact of future droughts on the productivity of North American agriculture are examined. The authors explore the effeats of past droughts on the social, cultural, and political life of the population; the possible effects of drought on today's energy- and techno logy-intensive society; and the ramifications of drought for the national economy. The social and political strategies that local, state, and federal governments may use to meliorate the effects of drought are also considered, as are some possible technological defenses against drought—weather modification, expanded irrigation, new techniques of water harvesting and storage, and new agronomic adaptations. Finally, the critical question of whether future droughts can be forecast is examined.