Chasing Icebergs

A deeply intelligent and engrossing narrative that will transform our relationship with water and how we view climate change. The global water crisis is upon us. 1 in 3 people do not have access to safe drinking water; nearly 1 million people die each year as a result. Even in places with adequate freshwater, pollution and poor infrastructure have left residents without basic water security. Luckily, there is a solution to this crisis where we least expect it. Icebergs—frozen mountains of freshwater—are more than a symbol of climate change. In his spellbinding Chasing Icebergs, Matthew Birkhold argues the glistening leviathans of the ocean may very well hold the key to saving the planet. Harvesting icebergs for drinking water is not a new idea. But for the first time in human history, doing so on a massive global scale is both increasingly feasible and necessary for our survival. Chasing Icebergs delivers a kaleidoscopic history of humans’ relationship with icebergs, and offers an urgent assessment of the technological, cultural, and legal obstacles we must overcome to harness this freshwater resource. Birkhold takes readers around the globe, introducing them to a colorful cast of characters with wildly different ideas about how (and if) humans should use icebergs. Sturdy bureaucrats committed to avoiding another Titanic square off against “iceberg cowboys” who wrangle the frozen beasts for profit. Entrepreneurs selling luxury iceberg water for an eye-popping price clash with fearless humanitarians trying to tow icebergs across the globe to eradicate water shortages. Along the way, we meet some of the world’s most renowned scientists to determine how industrial-scale iceberg harvesting could affect the oceans and the poles. And we see firsthand the looming conflict between Indigenous peoples like the Greenlandic Inuit with claims to icebergs and the private corporations that stand to reap massive profits. As Birkhold shepherds readers from Connecticut to South Africa, from Newfoundland to Norway, to Greenland and beyond, he unfurls a visionary argument for cooperation over conflict. It’s not too late for icebergs to save humanity. But we must act fast to form a coalition of scientists, visionaries, engineers, lawyers and diplomats to ensure that the “Cold Rush” doesn’t become a free-for-all.

The most popular postings, lessons, and observations take from Gary Friedman's photography blog for The Friedman Archives from 2017 - 2019. (Electronic versions also available. See the Friedman Archives website.)

This pioneering volume explores the Arctic as an important and highly endangered archive of knowledge about natural as well as human history of the anthropocene. Focusing on the Arctic as an archive means to investigate it not only as a place of human history and memory - of Arctic exploring, ›conquering‹ and colonizing -, but to take into account also the specific environmental conditions of the circumpolar region: ice and permafrost. These have allowed a huge natural archive to emerge, offering rich sources for natural scientists and historians alike. Examining the debate on the notion of (›natural‹) archive, the cultural semantics and historicity of the meaning of concepts like ›warm‹, ›cold‹, ›freezing‹ and ›melting‹ as well as various works of literature, art and science on Arctic topics, this volume brings together literary scholars, historians of knowledge and philosophy, art historians, media theorists and archivologists.

Ecocriticism has emerged as one of the most fascinating and rapidly growing fields of recent literary and cultural studies. From its regional origins in late-twentieth-century Anglo-American academia, it has become a worldwide phenomenon, which involves a decidedly transdisciplinary and transnational paradigm that promises to return a new sense of relevance to research and teaching in the humanities. A distinctive feature of the present handbook in comparison with other survey volumes is the combination of ecocriticism with cultural ecology, reflecting an emphasis on the cultural transformation of ecological processes and on the crucial role of literature, art, and other forms of cultural creativity for the evolution of societies towards sustainable futures. In state-of-the-art contributions by leading international scholars in the field, this handbook maps some of the most important developments in contemporary ecocritical thought. It introduces key theoretical concepts, issues, and directions of ecocriticism and cultural ecology and demonstrates their relevance for the analysis of texts and other cultural phenomena.

1973 This is the love story of Elizabeth Highland and Timothy Blumefield. To be or not to be that is their question. Friends for 40 years they have lived 3000 miles apart for the past 20. Through the twists and turns of life somehow fate and destiny brings them together in an uncanny spiritual journey guided by the universe. Elizabeth chronicles their story a tale that takes her around the globe to find guidance and inner wisdom. The Chronicles of Elizabeth Highland is a hilarious tale of awakening consciousness. SHAMBHALA

The Rhetoric of Dystopia develops an idea of “emergent metalepsis” that describes the uncanny moments where fictive texts anticipate material events, blurring the boundary between the storyworld and the world of reception. Christopher Carter treats dystopia as rhetoric that shapes collective identities while speeding across platforms and geopolitical borders, at once critiquing and exemplifying the circulation of power relations through varied modes. This rhetoric features rampant viruses, authoritarian governments, corporate behemoths, corrupt educational and scientific institutions, and brutal policing, sometimes amplifying existing trends and sometimes merely documenting them. From Bong Joon-ho to Reed Morano, Octavia Butler to Richard McGuire, artists proffer arguments whose gravity we often fail to register, thus calling into question the uses of media literacy in an age of looming cataclysm. Carter situates this rhetoric within scholarship on literacy, built environments, border policies, global food production, and the Anthropocene.

The enduring influence of naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt on American art, culture, and politics Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was one of the most influential scientists and thinkers of his age. A Prussian-born geographer, naturalist, explorer, and illustrator, he was a prolific writer whose books graced the shelves of American artists, scientists, philosophers, and politicians. Humboldt visited the United States for six weeks in 1804, engaging in a lively exchange of ideas with such figures as Thomas Jefferson and the painter Charles Willson Peale. It was perhaps the most consequential visit by a European traveler in the young nation's history, one that helped to shape an emerging American identity grounded in the natural world. In this beautifully illustrated book, Eleanor Jones Harvey examines how Humboldt left a lasting impression on American visual arts, sciences, literature, and politics. She shows how he inspired a network of like-minded individuals who would go on to embrace the spirit of exploration, decry slavery, advocate for the welfare of Native Americans, and extol America's wilderness as a signature component of the nation's sense of self. Harvey traces how Humboldt's ideas influenced the transcendentalists and the landscape painters of the Hudson River School, and laid the foundations for the Smithsonian Institution, the Sierra Club, and the National Park Service. Alexander von Humboldt and the United States looks at paintings, sculptures, maps, and artifacts, and features works by leading American artists such as Albert Bierstadt, George Catlin, Frederic Church, and Samuel F. B. Morse. Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC Exhibition Schedule Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC September 18, 2020–January 3, 2021

Inspiring Academics draws on the experience and expertise of award-winning university teachers to help identify the approaches and strategies that lead to exemplary teaching practice. It is structured around five core themes: inspiring teaching, developing quality curricula, assessment for independent learning, student development and scholarship. Whilst celebrating individual teaching success, the book draws out core strategies which can be developed and replicated by others and which are not simply dependent on personal charisma and dynamism. Contributors reflect on approaches and initiatives that did not work for them, thus highlighting the inherent messiness and complexity of teaching and the difficulties of providing a blueprint for success. Contributors Gerlese Åkerlind, Donna Boyd, Ian Cameron, Jane Dahlstrom, Brian Detweiler-Bedell, Jerusha Detweiler-Bedell, Lisa Emerson, Sally Fincher, Rhona Free, Iain Hay, Mick Healey, Welby Ings, David Kahane, Sally Kift, Dennis Krebs, TA Loeffler, Ursula Lucas, Roger Moltzen, Bernard Moss, Kate Regan, Wendy Rogers, Peter Schwartz, Fred Singer, Michael Wesch, Carl Wieman, Susan Wurtele