Breathing Space

Dr Mark Everard's work in all four sectors of society – private, public, academic and voluntary – has taken him across five continents to undertake applied research, policy development and capacity-building relating to the ways in which people connect with ecosystems. The author of 14 other books, including Common Ground (Zed Books, 2011) and The Hydropolitics of Dams (Zed Books, 2013), over 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers and over 250 technical magazine articles, Mark is also a communicator on sustainability and wider environmental and resource-use matters on TV and radio. He has served on numerous government advisory and expert groups in the UK, as well as advising other governments and multinational corporations on sustainability matters. His speciality is systemic thinking, particularly around connections between the water environment and other environmental media and the human activities that depend on and influence them. Mark’s work includes environmental ethics and economics as a means to bring our intimate interdependencies with ecosystems into the mainstream of public awareness and government thinking.

For too long, our airspace has been overlooked unless it pollutes, but no longer, now that Mark Everard's engaging book is on the scene. It places air at the heart of an ecosystem of interconnected human interactions and biodiversity. Rules that shape our treatment of air need to change urgently and this book challenges us with a blueprint to do it. Essential reading for environmental students and practitioners alike.

• Introduction1. Air and the making of the atmosphere2. Living in a bubble3. What does air do for us?4. Abuses of the air5. Managing our impacts on air6. Thinking in a connected way7. Rediscovering our place in the breathing space8. Resolution for integrated management of the air spaceAnnex : Ecosystem services and the Ecosystem Approach