Search

"Managing Federalism Through Pandemic," edited by Kathy L. Brock and Geoffrey Hale, is a comprehensive study of Canada's response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic at the federal and sub-state levels. Unlike other contributions in this field, the book focuses solely on the Canadian federation's response and primarily addresses normative research questions. Divided into four parts, the book examines various issues such as emergency management, crisis communications, climate change, and economic recovery, offering policy recommendations based on lessons learned. While the readability of chapters may vary, the volume is a valuable resource for students of Canadian politics, public policy, and public administration, as well as comparativists interested in federalism and pandemic studies. [Extracted from the article]

"The Right to Be Rural," edited by Karen R. Foster and Jennifer Jarman, explores the concept of rural rights and citizenship from a Canadian perspective. The book challenges the urban-centric focus of discussions on legal rights and citizenship advocacy and highlights the unique challenges and opportunities within rural environments. It argues for the redefinition of rights and citizenship to bolster rural community resilience and emphasizes the need for depoliticizing the digital transformation of public health services. While the book overlooks critical intersections of energy, climate, and food security, it provides practical solutions for bridging the rural-urban divide and advocates for community participation in policy formation. Overall, "The Right to Be Rural" contributes to the discourse on rural rights and citizenship and strengthens rural communities' leadership. [Extracted from the article]

"Bending Archaeology toward Social Justice: Transformational Action for Positive Peace" by Barbara J. Little is the first book in the "Archaeologies of Restorative Justice Series" and aims to move the discipline of archaeology towards antiracism and equity. Little debunks the notion that archaeology is an objective field of study and argues that it is deeply rooted in settler colonialism and white supremacy. The book explores various systems of oppression within the field of archaeology and calls for archaeologists to engage in self-reflection and take action to create a more sustainable and just future for the discipline. [Extracted from the article]

But, according to the authors, understanding pathogen history and evolution holds the key to saving technological humanity from the onslaught of those many EIDs that have yet to explore the immense opportunity space that climate change and human civilization have provided them with. By taking us on a whirlwind tour through the history of such diverse topics as evolutionary biology, the history of vaccines, past pandemics, and climate change, Brooks, Hoberg, and Boeger dismantle our preconceived notions about host-pathogen co-evolution, they explain how we got into the current mess, as they aptly call it, and propose a possible way to get out of it before it is too late. Daniel R. Brooks, Eric P. Hoberg, Walter A. Boeger, The Stockholm Paradigm: Climate Change and Emerging Disease. [Extracted from the article]

This article by Adam Tamas Tuboly discusses the publication of Otto Neurath's complete works, which cover his writings from 1903 to 1946. Neurath was a philosopher and a key figure in logical empiricism. The article highlights the efforts of Neurath's colleagues and friends to preserve his philosophy and publish his works. The expanded edition of Neurath's works offers a comprehensive collection of his writings, providing a deeper understanding of his ideas. The article emphasizes the relevance of Neurath's philosophy today, particularly in economics, education, and visual education. However, it notes that the volumes lack substantive editorial introductions and notes, which could have provided more context for readers. Overall, the publication of Neurath's complete works is seen as a significant achievement and an essential resource for researchers interested in Neurath and the Vienna Circle. [Extracted from the article]

The editors teach postgraduate and undergraduate courses on climate change adaptation in regional planning and landscape architecture disciplines at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the American University of Beirut. The final paper identifies urban planning and landscape design methods that publicly visualise local climate change effects so citizens can also appreciate how this global issue relates directly to the local urban form. This edited book explains the necessity for urban planners to have a role in addressing climate change and clarifies how the urban form is affected by global climate change. [Extracted from the article]

. Sarah E. Vaughn. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022. 256 pp. (Paper US$27.95; Cloth US$102.95) [Extracted from the article]

The chapters are grouped into four parts: Part I: Extreme Environments: Responses and Adaptation to Change (three chapters); Part II: Biodiversity, Bioenergetic Processes, and Biotic and Abiotic Interactions (three chapters); Part III: Life in Extreme Environments and the Responses to Change: The Example of Polar Environments (six chapters); and Part IV: Life and Habitability (two chapters). The two chapters in Part IV discuss aspects of astrobiology. Several chapters discuss extremophile microorganisms (viruses, archaeans, bacteria). [Extracted from the article]

A book entitled 'Wattles: Australian Acacia Species Around the World' was published in November 2023. It has reviewed the 'biology, ecology, biogeography and management' of the clade of 1082 species. It examines their spread around the world both as commercial species and invasives. The book represents a very major contribution to the literature on acacias and includes 31 chapters written by 120 authors from 17 countries. The aim of this perspective paper is to provide useful introductory information to assist the management of native and plantation forests both in Australia and overseas under conditions of changing climates. It considers the following three key points that provide additional information to complement the 'Wattles' book: 1) The Atlas of Living Australia provides very detailed information on environmental conditions at native occurrence sites of acacia species, as well as powerful tools for bioclimatic analysis, 2) Australian advances in bioclimatic analysis provided not only the basis for modern species distribution modelling (SDM) but also for a 2023 SDM analysis of nearly 50 000 tree species, including most Australian Acacia species, 3) SDM analyses can help to suggest which Australian Acacia species and which occurrence areas may be most vulnerable to climate change impacts in future years. The development of a global tree trial database, which collates data from ex situ trials of Australian acacias, as well as for other woody species, is recommended. • A new book has reviewed the ecology/management of Australian Acacia species. • Modern species distribution modelling (SDM) was developed in Australia. • The Atlas of Living Australia provides occurrence data and SDM analysis tools. • Climatic requirements of most of the 1082 Acacia species have been analysed. • SDM analyses identify occurrences most vulnerable to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Swedish author Stefan Casta has written several books for children and adults, thematically addressing nature and environment. This paper highlights and discusses ideological and aesthetical aspects in his recent novel, Den gröna cirkeln (2011) and its sequel, Under tiden (2012), from an ecocritical perspective. The novels combine environmental commitment with a dystopian story about four young people who survive a climate catastrophe but get lost in a world they no longer recognize and where ordinary logic does not seem to exist. The paper elucidates this process by a comparison with Buell's (2001) concept of toxic discourse as there are several parallells, such as elements like a lost paradise, inescapable toxic, and the oppression of powerful societal interests, throughout the story. Simultaneously, ambivalence towards culture and civilization is expressed. Nature and culture become intertwined in a way that differs from the conventional dichotomy and this complexity is the supporting structure of the texts. The four teenagers, and even more so the following generation, become symbols of a new future, a pattern recognized from much dystopian as well as children's fiction, where the weak and oppressed turn out to be the heroes. The optimistic and didactic ambition in this kind of dystopian stories is often aimed at creating an engagement for environmental issues and a sustainable future among young people. By placing the story in an imagined future as well as adding fantastic elements, Stefan Casta creates a kind of "Verfremdungseffekt" on phenomena we often do not question in our lifestyle. This could be a liberating relativization to the young readers; the social and cultural drives that rule many of our life choices are not essential and can therefore always be reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper was once the lightest, lowest-cost way to make information widely available in a form suitable for study and self-improvement. But paper-based textbooks, in the modern era, tend to be heavy and they can also strain the budgets of typical students. Given the fact that you are now reading an open-access journal, you may understand why many faculty members would possibly want to use an open-access textbook for some of their courses. This editorial considers one such course, and the assessment is generally favorable. But in addition to the classroom, a good open textbook may be regarded as a suitable foundation for one's research. By citing an open textbook in the introduction to your research article, you can provide your readers with the option of gaining enough background to better appreciate your latest research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karen Solie's poetry redefines the ways in which language problematizes contemporary issues such as climate change, the nature of our physical environments, the conception of agency, the politics of gender, and our understanding of the increasingly divergent social orders we inhabit. This article focuses on Solie's early poetry and her first book, Short Haul Engine. It aims to explore her aesthetic values and to identify some of the prominent motifs and concerns that animate her work. Solie is interested in thinking about the particular conditions and consequences of decisions made, paths taken, relationships begun and broken. But she is also interested in critique as an epistemological form of inquiry: how do we know what we think we know, and what factors account for that knowing? One aesthetic principle uniting many of the poems is the identification of absence as a key to desire – the need to explore desire as a means of accessing what is beautiful through what is lost, absent. Paradoxically, language does not always provide a means of accessing experience; it often gets in the way, turning the person behind the words into a creature of imprecision – the "near miss" of accurate description becoming a central problem in the poetry itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a summary of the book "Principles of Institutional and Evolutionary Political Economy: Applied to Current World Problems" by Phillip Anthony O'Hara. The book applies political economy principles to global, regional, and national issues, using eight core concepts and associated principles. It analyzes diverse topics such as the global pandemic, climate change, corruption, and artificial intelligence. The review praises the book's comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, but questions the use of the term "contradiction" to describe tensions between opposing forces. Overall, the book is accessible and contributes to the literature on world problems. [Extracted from the article]

The need for developing an ethic(s) of climate change is characterized by the far ranging and complex moral questions that arise through the anthropogenic warming of the earth. This paper provides a literary review of recent advancements in climate change ethics, primarily concerning the issue of climate justice. The books examined are The Moral Challenge of Dangerous Climate Change: Values, Poverty, and Policy, by Darrel Moellendorf; Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle against Climate Change Failed--and What It Means for Our Future, by Dale Jamieson; and Research, Action and Policy: Addressing the Gendered Impacts of Climate Change, edited by Margaret Alston and Kerri Whittenbury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Politics of turbulent waters: reflections on ecological, environmental and climate crises in Africa" is a book edited by Nnimmo Bassey that challenges the traditional Euro-Western view of climate change. The book argues that climate change is a consequence of colonialism and capitalist exploitation, and emphasizes the need for justice in addressing environmental issues. It contains 50 chapters by contributors mainly from the global South, who critique neoliberalism, corporate exploitation, and market-based solutions. The book also explores topics such as civil disobedience, the Green New Deal, genetically modified organisms, and the impact of global capitalism. Overall, it provides a comprehensive examination of environmental justice and calls for systemic change and people power to address these issues. [Extracted from the article]

A review of the book "Drawn to Change the World: 16 Youth Climate Activists, 16 Artists," by Emma Reynolds, is presented.

A review of the book "You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories," by Octavia Cade, is presented.

My former colleague and mentor, Prof. David Boyce, loved Vaclav Smil's ([3]) I How the World Really Works i . Here is Smil's thesis in a nutshell: Complete decarbonization of the global economy by 2050 is now conceivable only at the cost of unthinkable global economic retreat, or as a result of extraordinarily rapid transformations relying on near-miraculous technical advances. To be sure, Smil is no climate change denier. [Extracted from the article]

"Intermedial Ecocriticism: The Climate Crisis Through Art and Media" by Jørgen Bruhn and Niklas Salmose is a comprehensive exploration of the intersection between media, communications, and ecological discourse. The book advocates for an intermedial approach to ecocriticism, emphasizing the importance of understanding how different forms of media interact and shape our understanding of environmental issues. The authors propose a methodology that combines intermediality with ecocriticism, examining how various media types blend and contrast to create new meanings in the context of ecological and environmental discourse. While the book provides valuable insights and case studies, it falls short in exploring the concept of transmediality and the audience experience in participatory arts practices. [Extracted from the article]

The book "Land: How the hunger for ownership shaped the modern world" by Winchester explores the history and consequences of land ownership. It emphasizes that land is not an immutable entity and can be shaped by both nature and human intervention. The book provides examples such as land reclamation in the Netherlands and the impact of climate change on land. It also delves into the conflicts that have arisen from land ownership, including border disputes and territorial conquests. The author argues that land ownership is a human construct and discusses the relative and absolute aspects of owning land. The book highlights the constructive and destructive aspects of land ownership and its impact on society and the environment. [Extracted from the article]