The future of nature: documents of global change

Preface

How to Use This Book

Introduction: Documenting Global Change

Part 1. Population

Are We Too Many, or Are We Too Greedy?

An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) / Thomas Malthus

Commentary: Björn-Ola Linnér

The Shadow of the World's Future (1928) / George Knibbs

Commentary: Alison Bashford

"Ghost Acreage" (1962) / Georg Borgström

Commentary: Sverker Sörlin

The Population Bomb (1968) / Paul Ehrlich

Commentary: Michael Egan

Part 2. Sustainability

Are We Limited by Knowledge or Resources?

Sylvicultura oeconomica (1713) / Hans Carl Von Carlowitz

Commentary: Paul Warde

The Coal Question (1865) / William Stanley Jevons

Commentary: Paul Warde

"Possible Limits of Raw-Material Consumption" (1956) / Samuel H. Ordway Jr.

Commentary: Paul Warde

The Limits to Growth (1972) / Donella H. Meadows / Forgen Randers / Dennis L. Meadows For The Club of Rome

Commentary: Michael Egan

Part 3. Geographies

Are Human and Natural Futures Determined or Chosen?

The Pulse of Asia (1907) / Ellsworth Huntington

Commentary: Carole Crumley

"Nature Versus The Australian" (1920) / Griffith Taylor

Commentary: Carolyn Strange

The Northward Course of Empire (1922) / Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Commentary: Sverker Sörlin

Part 4. "The Environment"

How Did the Idea Emerge?

The Biosphere (1926) / Vladimir I. Vernadsky

Commentary: Pey-Yi Chu

Deserts on the March (1935) / Paul Sears

Commentary: Libby Robin

Road to Survival (1948) / William Vogt

Commentary: Sverker Sörlin

Silent Spring (1962) / Rachel Carson

Commentary: Christof Mauch

Part 5. Ecology

How Do We Understand Natural Systems?

Essay on the Geography of Plants (1807) / Alexander Von Humboldt / Aimé Bonpland

Commentary: Stephen T. Jackson

"The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms" (1935) / Arthur Tansley

Commentary: Libby Robin

Fundamentals of Ecology (1953) / Eugene P. Odum

Commentary: Stephen Bocking

Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems (1973) / C. S. Holling

Commentary: Libby Robin

Part 6. Technology

Does Technology Create More Problems Than It Solves?

The Tree of Science (1857) / Eugène Huzar

Commentary: Jean-Baptiste Fressoz

To Choose a Future (1972) / Alva Myrdal

Commentary: Arne Kaijser

"The Dynamics of Energy Systems and the Logistic Substitution Model" (1979) / Cesare Marchetti / Nebojsa Nakicenovic

Commentary: Paul Warde

Part 7. Climate

How Can We Predict Change?

"On the Transmission of Heat" (1859) / John Tyndall

Commentary: Mike Hulme

"On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground" (1896) / Svante Arrhenius

Commentary: Sverker Sörlin

"Seasonal Foreshadowing" (1930) / Gilbert T. Walker

Commentary: Neville Nicholls

"The Artificial Production of Carbon Dioxide and Its Influence on Temperature" (1938) / G. S. Callendar

Commentary: James Rodger Fleming

"Unpleasant Surprises in the Greenhouse?" (1987) and / Wallace S. Broecker

"Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420,000 Years from the Vostok Ice Core, Antarctica" (1999) / J. R. Petit / J. Jouzel / D. Raynaud

Commentary: Tom Griffiths

Part 8. Diversity

Why Do We Need It, and Can We Conserve It?

The Invaders (1958) / Charles S. Elton

Commentary: Libby Robin

The Forestry Projections and the Environment: Global-Scale Environmental Impacts (1980): Council on Environmental Quality

Commentary: Mark V. Barrow Jr.

"What Is Conservation Biology?" (1985) / Michael E. Soulé

Commentary: Libby Robin

"Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique" (1997) / Ramachandra Guha

Commentary: Rob Nixon

Part 9. Measuring

How Do We Turn the World into Data?

An Investigation of the Currents of the Atlantic Ocean (1832) / James Rennell

Commentary: Sarah Cornell

"Current Problems in Meteorology" (1957) / Carl-Gustaf Rossby

Commentary: Maria Bohn and Sverker Sörlin

Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems (1997) / Gretchen C. Daily

Commentary: Richard B. Norgaard

The Economics of Climate Change (2006) / Nicholas Stern

Commentary: Paul Warde

Part 10. The Anthropocene

How Can We Live in a World Where There Is No Nature Without People?

"The 'Anthropocene'" (2000) / Paul J. Crutzen / Eugene F. Stoermer

Commentary: Will Steffen

"A Safe Operating Space for Humanity" (2009) / Johan Rockström / Will Steffen / Kevin Noone

Commentary: Susan Owens

"Reducing the Future to Climate: A Story of Climate Determinism and Reductionism" (2011) / Mike Hulme

Commentary: Libby Robin, Sverker Sorlin, and Paul Warde

Select Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Commentators

Selection Credits

Index