The Environment Of Man

Man and His Environment, Volume 2 covers the proceedings of the Second International Banff Conference of Man and His Environment, held in Banff Springs Hotel, Alberta, Canada on May 19-22, 1974. The conference addresses the broad environmental issues in relation to man and his natural environment. This book is organized into six sessions encompassing 17 chapters. The first session deals with the continuing development of the Canadian mineral resources and the role of the National Energy Board in the country's energy management. This session also provides an overview of the world hydrocarbon energy resources. The second session discusses various problems in overpopulated and industrially and technologically underdeveloped countries and developments in the environmental restraints on production practices to protect the environment. The subsequent two sessions look into the effects of human activities on his environment. Topics covered in these sessions include the use and misuse of technology; social, economic, and political impact of urbanization; and government environmental policies. The concluding sessions outline the ethical structure of Western Society and the development of a theoretical model of public morality. These topics are followed by discussions on the essential nature of the environmental problems and the systematic relations between the Western culture and Western environment.

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

Environment of Man is the eighth of the Croom Helm series of mono graphs on Biology and the Environment. The first volume, by this author, was a straightforward review of the principles of ecology as applied to the history of the earth. The second volume by J.L. Cloudesley-Thompson applied ecological principles to terrestrial habitats, and was followed by two volumes by C. F. Hickling and E. J. Ferguson-Wood on the ecology of aquatic habitats. The fifth volume, by Robert L. Snyder, reviews the natural ecological safeguards which control excessive growth of popUlation and discusses how these are operative in relation to the human race. Snyder's volume introduces man to the ecological scene and leads to the monograph by L. Harrison Matthews on the relationships of man with wildlife. In the seventh volume, Sir Cedric Stanton Hicks introduces us to the effects of agriculture on the ecology of the earth.

Most books about the environment build on dire threats warning of the possible extinction of humanity. Alan Weisman avoids frightening off readers by disarmingly wiping out our species in the first few pages of this remarkable book. He then continues with an astounding depiction of how Earth will fare once we’re no longer around. The World Without Us is a one-of-a-kind book that sweeps through time from the moment of humanity’s future extinction to millions of years into the future. Drawing on interviews with experts and on real examples of places in the world that have already been abandoned by humans—Chernobyl, the Korean DMZ and an ancient Polish forest—Weisman shows both the shocking impact we’ve had on our planet and how impermanent our footprint actually is.

17 papers on broad environmental issues in relation to man and his natural environment.

The purpose of this regional workshop in the Southeast was to broaden the environmental health perspective from its typical focus on environmental toxicology to a view that included the impact of the natural, built, and social environments on human health. Early in the planning, Roundtable members realized that the process of engaging speakers and developing an agenda for the workshop would be nearly as instructive as the workshop itself. In their efforts to encourage a wide scope of participation, Roundtable members sought input from individuals from a broad range of diverse fields-urban planners, transportation engineers, landscape architects, developers, clergy, local elected officials, heads of industry, and others. This workshop summary captures the discussions that occurred during the two-day meeting. During this workshop, four main themes were explored: (1) environmental and individual health are intrinsically intertwined; (2) traditional methods of ensuring environmental health protection, such as regulations, should be balanced by more cooperative approaches to problem solving; (3) environmental health efforts should be holistic and interdisciplinary; and (4) technological advances, along with coordinated action across educational, business, social, and political spheres, offer great hope for protecting environmental health. This workshop report is an informational document that provides a summary of the regional meeting.