Changing the Global Environment

by Daniel B. Botkin (Editor), Margriet F. Caswell (Editor), John E. Estes (Editor)

In the last human generation we have learned that life existed on our earth for more than three billion years, yet man has done more to change the earth and its ability to support life in the last few centuries than preceding life forms have over hundreds of millions of years. And nearly all of these changes were brought about as unforeseen or unconsidered side-effects of our technologies.
The editors of this book feel that rather than accepting environmental degradation as the wages of progress, today we are seeing "a more widely accepted idea that concern for the environment is simply good economics and planning."
In a series of essays written by environmental, economic, and social scientists from around the world, Changing the Global Environment looks at the ecological problems facing us as we move into the next century and examines possible solutions suggested by such new techniques as remote sensing and the implementation of worldwide computer-based data systems.

488 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Daniel Botkin is a scientist, biologist, ecologist, physicist, professor, author and journalist. Renowned for his scientific contributions in ecology and environment, he has also worked as a professional journalist and has degrees in physics, biology, and literature. He is best known for the development of the first successful computer simulation in ecology, a computer model of forest growth that has developed into a sub-discipline in this field, with more than 50 versions in use worldwide. Botkin has also been a pioneer in the study of ecosystems and wilderness and the application of advanced technology to ecology. He has helped develop major national programs in ecology, including the National Science Foundation’s Long-term Ecological Research Program and NASA’s Mission to Earth. He has directed research on wilderness and natural parks around the world and is a leader in the application of environmental sciences to solve complex environmental problems.

Botkin has been a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 1979. Currently, he is Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara. He has been President and Founder of The Center for the Study of the Environment, a non-profit research and educational corporation. He serves on the board of the Environmental Literacy Council, the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has also been a fellow at the Rockefeller Bellagio Institute in Italy and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Among his awards are the The 2012 The Honorable John C. Pritzlaff Conservation Award; Astor Lectureship, Oxford University; The 2004 Tex and Academic Authors Association Texty Award for best textbook of 2003; The Fernow Award for Outstanding Contributions in International Forestry; and the Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development.

For more information visit www.danielbotkin.com or follow him on Twitter @danielbotkin.