The Earth as Transformed by Human Action: Global and Regional Changes in the Biosphere over the Past 300 YearsB. L. Turner, William C. Clark, Robert W. Kates, John F. Richards, Jessica T. Mathews, William B. Meyer The Earth as Transformed by Human Action is the culmination of a mammoth undertaking involving the examination of the toll our continual strides forward, technical and social, take on our world. The purpose of such a study is to document the changes in the biosphere that have taken place over the last 300 years, to contrast global patterns of change to those appearing on a regional level, and to explain the major human forces that have driven these changes. The first section deals strictly with the major human forces of the past 300 years and the second is a detailed account of the transformations of the global environment wrought by human action. The final section examines a range of perspectives and theories that purport to explain human actions with regard to the biosphere. |
Contents
The Great Transformation | 1 |
Marine Biota | 21 |
John F Richards | 163 |
Johnson Robert W Kates | 186 |
Changing | 276 |
R A Houghton David L Skole | 393 |
Merril Eisenbud | 655 |
LONGTERM PERSPECTIVE | 673 |
Eneas Salati et | 703 |
Common terms and phrases
Africa agriculture annual aquifer areas Asia average basin biosphere Cambridge Canal central cities Clark University climatic change coastal Colorado Colorado River consumption countries crops cultivation cultural decline deforestation demographic drainage earth ecological economic effects energy environment environmental erosion estimates Europe European example expansion exports fertility Figure flows forest frontier geomorphic Geomorphology global Holocene human activity human impact increase industrial Industrial Revolution institutions International irrigation km² land landscape Latin America London long-term major million modern Nations natural nineteenth century North America Oceania oceans past patterns people/km² period plants pollution popu population growth processes production reconstruction regimes regions reservoirs result river Rondônia runoff scale Science sediment settlement social society soil Source South spatial species surface surface runoff Table timber trade transformation trends tropical twentieth century U.S. Geological Survey United University Press urban variations vegetation Western York