The Face of the Earth: Environment and World History: Environment and World History

by Hughes,J. Donald

• ISBN13: 9780765604224
• ISBN10: 0765604221
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-04-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

By adopting the ecological process as their major theme, these essays show how the process of human interaction with the natural environment unfolded in the past, and offer perspectives on the ecological crises in our world at the beginning of the 21st century. Topics range from broad regional studies that examine important aspects of the global environment that affect nations, to a study of the widespread influence of one important individual on his nation and beyond. The contributors take different approaches, but all share a conviction that world history must take ecological process seriously, and they all recognize the ways in which the living and non-living systems of the earth have influenced the course of human affairs.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: Ecological Process in World History	3	(19)
J. Donald Hughes
Biodiversity in World History	22	(25)
J. Donald Hughes
Equity, Eco-Racism, and the Environmental Justice Movement	47	(29)
Martin V. Melosi
Of Rats and Men: A Synoptic Environmental History of the Island Pacific	76	(55)
John R. McNeill
Land and Agriculture in Australia: Coping with Change in a Fragile Environment	131	(19)
Helen Wheatley
Toward Eco-Revival? The Cultural Roots of Russian Environmental Concerns	150	(15)
Valery J. Cholakov
The Greening of Gandhi: Gandhian Thought and the Environmental Movement in India	165	(15)
Diane M. Jones
Selected Bibliography	180	(9)
Contributors	189	(4)
Index	193