Global Environmental Change: A Natural and Cultural Environmental History - Softcover

This book aims to provide a synopsis of natural and cultural environmental history during the last three million years. The text integrates the topic of Quaternary research, the aim of which is to elucidate past environments using an amalgam of approaches with that of biogeography, which covers a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from the poles to the tropics, which are more concerned with the past than with the present. The author also aims to draw attention to the significance of elucidating past environmental changes in order to plan for the future. The first four sections of the book are concerned with temporal aspects of environmental change, dealing initially with the oscillations that have occurred between the ice ages and interglacials in the last three million years and then with the development of human communities as agents of environmental change throughout prehistory and history. The next four sections examine the changes that have manifested in the last two centuries as a result of industrial development and agricultural innovations in both the developed and developing world. These sections also refer to the impetus of social, economic and political factors on the environment since these are just as important as agents of change as the physical processes that can transform the landscape. The book also considers the potential environmental impact of new developments notably tourism, biotechnology and genetic engineering, of which the latter has the potential to provide a potent means of altering the environment. Finally a perspective is presented which aims to summarize past environmental changes and their relationships with the present and presents some tentative prospects for the future of planet Earth and civilization. The book includes a range of examples to illustrate specific types of environmental change, although there is a lack of information available from Eastern Bloc countries.