Water
Water

Author: Steven Solomon

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2011-01-18

Total Pages: 610

ISBN-13: 0060548312

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Far more than oil, the control of water wealth throughout history has been pivotal to the rise and fall of great powers, the achievements of civilization, the transformations of society's vital habitats, and the quality of ordinary daily lives. Today, freshwater scarcity is one of the twenty-first century's decisive, looming challenges, driving new political, economic, and environmental realities across the globe. In Water, Steven Solomon offers the first-ever narrative portrait of the power struggles, personalities, and breakthroughs that have shaped humanity from antiquity's earliest civilizations through the steam-powered Industrial Revolution and America's century. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Water is a groundbreaking account of man's most critical resource in shaping human destinies, from ancient times to our dawning age of water scarcity.

Water Civilization
Water Civilization

Author: Yoshinori Yasuda

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-10-24

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 4431541101

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Water Civilization: From Yangtze to Khmer Civilizations comprises three major topics: 1) Discovery of the origin of rice agriculture and the Yangtze River civilization in southern China was mainly based on investigation of the Chengtoushan archaeological site, the earliest urban settlement in East Asia. The origin of rice cultivation can be traced back to 10000 BC, with urban settlement starting at about 6000 BP; 2) The Yangtze River civilization collapsed around 4200 BP. Palaeoenvironmental studies including analyses of annually laminated sediments in East and Southeast Asia indicate a close relationship between climate change and the rise and fall of the rice-cultivating and fishing civilization; and 3) Migrations from southern China to Southeast Asia occurred after about 4200 BP. Archaeological investigation of the Phum Snay site in Cambodia, including analyses of DNA and human skeletal remains, reveals a close relationship to southern China, indicating the migration of people from southern China to Southeast Asia. This publication is an important contribution to understanding the environmental history of China and Cambodia in relation to the rise and fall of the rice-cultivating and fishing civilization, which we call water civilization.

Water Civilization
Water Civilization

Author: Yoshinori Yasuda

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-10-23

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 443154111X

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Water Civilization: From Yangtze to Khmer Civilizations comprises three major topics: 1) Discovery of the origin of rice agriculture and the Yangtze River civilization in southern China was mainly based on investigation of the Chengtoushan archaeological site, the earliest urban settlement in East Asia. The origin of rice cultivation can be traced back to 10000 BC, with urban settlement starting at about 6000 BP; 2) The Yangtze River civilization collapsed around 4200 BP. Palaeoenvironmental studies including analyses of annually laminated sediments in East and Southeast Asia indicate a close relationship between climate change and the rise and fall of the rice-cultivating and fishing civilization; and 3) Migrations from southern China to Southeast Asia occurred after about 4200 BP. Archaeological investigation of the Phum Snay site in Cambodia, including analyses of DNA and human skeletal remains, reveals a close relationship to southern China, indicating the migration of people from southern China to Southeast Asia. This publication is an important contribution to understanding the environmental history of China and Cambodia in relation to the rise and fall of the rice-cultivating and fishing civilization, which we call water civilization.

Water, Civilisation and Power in Sudan
Water, Civilisation and Power in Sudan

Author: Harry Verhoeven

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-03-05

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1107061148

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Water, Civilisation and Power in Sudan offers an alternative account of how water policy, violence, and economic modernisation are linked.

Dirt
Dirt

Author: David R. Montgomery

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2007-05-14

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 0520933168

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Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.

Cultural Dynamics of Water in Iranian Civilization
Cultural Dynamics of Water in Iranian Civilization

Author: Majid Labbaf Khaneiki

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-09-23

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 3030589005

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This book traces “water” back to the most primitive animistic notions that are still lingering on in the shape of such rituals as qanat marriage or rain-making. Water, in the Iranian philosophy, is used in an attempt to find an explanation for the genesis of the universe, as described in Zoroastrian Akhshij philosophy, according to which water is one of the four fundamental elements of the creation. The concept of time began to germinate in the Iranian mind, when they had to count the passage of time in order to divide their scarce water resources. Water became so omnipresent in Iranian culture that it reached even the most mysterious seclusion of the Sufi monks. In Iran’s local communities, water culture is a thread that runs through different types of production systems. This book goes beyond indigenous water knowledge and traditional irrigation techniques, and conceptualizes water as a pivotal element of Iran’s social identity, cultural dynamics and belief systems, where it examines the role of intermittent droughts in engendering and diffusing intangible cultural elements across the Iranian plateau. This book delves into Iran’s political organizations most of which were ensnared in a water-dependent lifecycle constituting a historical pattern described in this book as “hydraulic collapse” .

Water Resources Management and the Environment
Water Resources Management and the Environment

Author: U. Aswathanarayana

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 9789058093226

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Addressing the techno-socio-economic challenges involved in the protection, conservation, recycling and equitable utilization of water as an economic good, this text explores the linkages and dynamics of interactions involving water, and includes the following key topic areas: dynamics of interactions involving water; water quality; augmentation and conservation of water resources; wastewater reuse systems; use of water in agriculture; industrial and municipal uses of water; water pollution; economics and management of water supplies; etiology of water-related diseases; climate change impacts on water resources and paradigms of water resource management.

Water
Water

Author: Giulio Boccaletti

Publisher: Pantheon

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1524748234

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Spanning millennia and continents, a revealing history that “tackles the most important story of our time: our relationship with water in a world of looming scarcity” (Kelly McEvers, NPR Host). "Far more than a biography of its nominal subject ... The book stands as a compelling history of civilization itself." —The Wall Street Journal Book Review Writing with authority and brio, Giulio Boc­caletti—honorary research associate at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Univer­sity of Oxford—shrewdly combines environmental and social history, beginning with the earliest civ­ilizations of sedentary farmers on the banks of the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates Rivers. Even as he describes how these societies were made possible by sea-level changes from the last glacial melt, he incisively examines how this type of farming led to irrigation and multiple cropping, which, in turn, led to a population explosion and labor specialization. We see with clarity how irrigation’s structure informed social structure (inventions such as the calendar sprung from agricultural necessity); how in ancient Greece, the communal ownership of wells laid the groundwork for democracy; how the Greek and Roman experiences with water security resulted in systems of taxation; and how the modern world as we know it began with a legal framework for the development of water infrastructure. Extraordinary for its monumental scope and piercing insightfulness, Water: A Biography richly enlarges our understanding of our relationship to—and fundamental reliance on—the most elemental substance on earth.

Energy and Civilization
Energy and Civilization

Author: Vaclav Smil

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2018-11-13

Total Pages: 564

ISBN-13: 0262536161

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A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.