Exploitation Conservation Preservation

Focusing on the environment and environmental policy, this text examines the dynamic interplay among the physical, economic, social, and political forces impacting the major natural resource issues of today's world. Written by authors with contrasting scientific and philosophical views, it presents a wide range of opinions and interpretations of these issues that results in a balanced review and solid basis for discussion. The inclusion of up-to-the minute, critical quantitative data on natural resource conditions and use, along with important Internet references, inform students while preparing them to analyze and evaluate the significance of resource patterns and trends as objectively as possible.

1 Natural Resources: Thoughts, Words, and Deeds

2 Economics of Natural Resources

3 Environmental History, Politics, and Decision Making

4 Ecologic Perspectives on Natural Resources

5 The Human Population

6 Agriculture and Food Production

7 Forests

8 Biodiversity and Habitat

9 Marine Resources: Common Property Dilemmas

10 Water Quantity and Quality

11 The Air Resource and Urban Air Quality

12 Regional and Global Atmospheric Change

13 Non-fuel Minerals

14 Energy Resources

15 The Transition to a Global Sustainable Society

Glossary

Index

Susan Lynn Cutter is a geographer and disaster researcher who works at the University of South Carolina, where she is a Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography and director of the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute. She is the author or editor of many books on disasters and disaster recovery. William H. Renwick is the author of Exploitation Conservation Preservation: A Geographic Perspective on Natural Resource Use, 4th Edition, published by Wiley.