Global Resources and the Environment

Chadwick Dearing Oliver is the Pinchot Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Director of the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at Yale University, Connecticut. His research focuses on global issues of landscape management, and he has considerable experience advising public and private forest resource organizations in the United States and abroad. He is the author of the highly cited book Forest Stand Dynamics, now in its second edition (1996). Fatma Arf Oliver was a statistical consultant for The Boeing Company until her retirement in 2000. She is the author of scientific and technical papers.

'Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio during 1992, international agencies, national governments, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, the media, and the public have recognized the significance of the interactions between social, environmental, and economic needs and problems. Considerable research, development, and application have emerged but interdisciplinary approaches to problems have often been lacking. This book provides a comprehensive and integrative approach to the dynamics of natural resources, the concept of sustainability, the needs and impacts of humans, and the roles of climate and biodiversity. This substantial tome is a major contribution to broader understanding and cooperation, written by outstanding authors, and will be a fundamental resource for policy-makers, managers, and academics for many years.' Jeff Burley, Oxford Forestry Institute

• Preface; Part I. Introduction, Dynamic Systems, and Change: 1. Socio-environmental systems; 2. A perspective on dynamic systems; 3. Change, sustainability, and resilience; Part II. People: 4. Where people live, communicate, and interact; 5. People, societies, populations, and changes; 6. Resources, governments, and other social influences; Part III. Climates: 7. Global distribution of climates; 8. Greenhouse gases, atmosphere, and climates; 9. Past and future climate changes; Part IV. Landforms: 10. Landforms and soils; 11. Bedrock landforms; 12. Landforms of transported materials; Part V. Biodiversity: 13. Biodiversity: individual species; 14. Biodiversity: communities and landscapes; 15. Robust and threatened species, communities; 16. Managing biodiversity; Part VI. Water: 17. The hydrologic cycle; 18. The annual hydrograph and water use; 19. Managing and mitigating the hydrologic system; Part VII. Agriculture: 20. Food groups and nutrition; 21. Agriculture and the green revolution; 22. Future agriculture production and distribution; Part VIII. Energy: 23. Energy sources, the energy cycle, exergy; 24. Conserving energy and renewable energy; 25. Future energy: reducing fossil fuel use; Part IX. Minerals: 26. Rocks and mineral properties, mining; 27. Rocks and minerals: production, use, and distribution; Part X. Forests: 28. Forests, ecosystem services, and timber; 29. Forest distribution, area, and volume changes; 30. Silviculture, forest degradation, and landscape management; Part XI. Perspective: 31. Integrating the environment, resources, and people; Appendix I. Country groups used in analyses; Appendix II. Elements, chemical symbols, atomic numbers, and masses; Index.