Patrick Roberts - Böcker

In popular discourse, tropical forests are synonymous with 'nature' and 'wilderness'; battlegrounds between apparently pristine floral, faunal, and human communities, and the unrelenting industrial and urban powers of the modern world. It is rarely publicly understood that the extent of human adaptation to, and alteration of, tropical forest environments extends across archaeological, historical, and anthropological timescales. This book is the first attempt to bring together evidence for the nature of human interactions with tropical forests on a global scale, from the emergence of hominins in the tropical forests of Africa to modern conservation issues. Following a review of the natural history and variability of tropical forest ecosystems, this book takes a tour of human, and human ancestor, occupation and use of tropical forest environments through time. Far from being pristine, primordial ecosystems, this book illustrates how our species has inhabited and modified tropical forests from the earliest stages of its evolution. While agricultural strategies and vast urban networks emerged in tropical forests long prior to the arrival of European colonial powers and later industrialization, this should not be taken as justification for the massive deforestation and biodiversity threats imposed on tropical forest ecosystems in the 21st century. Rather, such a long-term perspective highlights the ongoing challenges of sustainability faced by forager, agricultural, and urban societies in these environments, setting the stage for more integrated approaches to conservation and policy-making, and the protection of millennia of ecological and cultural heritage bound up in these habitats.

'A bold, ambitious and truly wonderful history of the world' Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees'A fascinating story and a crucial revision of the momentous importance of tropical forests to human history' Lewis Dartnell, author of Origins_________________________Jungle tells the remarkable story of the world's tropical forests, from the arrival of the first plants millions of years ago to the role of tropical forests in the evolution of the world's atmosphere, the dinosaurs, the first mammals and even our own species and ancestors.Highlighting provocative new evidence garnered from cutting-edge research, Dr Roberts shows, for example, that our view of humans as 'savannah specialists' is wildly wrong, and that the 'Anthropocene' began not with the Industrial Revolution, but potentially as early as 6,000 years ago in the tropics.We see that the relationship between humankind and 'jungles' is deep-rooted, that we are all connected to their destruction, and that we must all act to save them. Urgent, clear-sighted and original, Jungle challenges the way we think about the world - and ourselves._________________________'Welcome to the "Jungle" - a breathtaking book' Mark Maslin, author of How to Save Our Planet'Timely, readable and highly relevant' Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs'Its revelations and stories will stir, rearrange and populate your mind for years to come' Paul Hawken, editor of Drawdown'Brilliant ... it delivers a timely warning about our abuse of the environment' David Abulafia, author of The Great Sea'Finally, a book on rainforests that does justice to their majesty and importance' Simon Lewis, co-author of The Human Planet

Recent decades have seen much greater attention paid to risk management at an organizational level, as evidenced by the proliferation of legislation, regulation, international standards and good practice guidance. The recent experience of Covid-19 has only served to heighten this attention. Growing interest in the discipline has been accompanied by significant growth in the risk management profession; but practitioners are not well served with suitable books to guide them in their work or challenge them in their professional development. This book attempts to place the practice of risk management within organizations into a broader context, looking as much at why we try to manage risk as how we try to manage risk. In doing so, it challenges two significant trends in the practice of risk management:• The treatment of risk management primarily as a compliance issue within an overall corporate governance narrative; and • The very widespread use of qualitative risk assessment tools (“heat maps” etc.) which have absolutely no proven effectiveness.Taken together, these trends have resulted in much attention being devoted to developing formalized systems for identifying and analyzing risks; but there is little evidence that this is driving practical, cost-effective efforts to actually manage risk. There appears to be a preoccupation with the risks themselves, rather than a focus on the positive actions that can (and should) be taken to benefit stakeholders. This book outlines a simple, quantitative approach to risk management which refocuses attention on treating risks; and presents choices about risk treatment as normal business decisions.

Recent decades have seen much greater attention paid to risk management at an organizational level, as evidenced by the proliferation of legislation, regulation, international standards and good practice guidance. The recent experience of Covid-19 has only served to heighten this attention. Growing interest in the discipline has been accompanied by significant growth in the risk management profession; but practitioners are not well served with suitable books to guide them in their work or challenge them in their professional development. This book attempts to place the practice of risk management within organizations into a broader context, looking as much at why we try to manage risk as how we try to manage risk. In doing so, it challenges two significant trends in the practice of risk management:• The treatment of risk management primarily as a compliance issue within an overall corporate governance narrative; and • The very widespread use of qualitative risk assessment tools (“heat maps” etc.) which have absolutely no proven effectiveness.Taken together, these trends have resulted in much attention being devoted to developing formalized systems for identifying and analyzing risks; but there is little evidence that this is driving practical, cost-effective efforts to actually manage risk. There appears to be a preoccupation with the risks themselves, rather than a focus on the positive actions that can (and should) be taken to benefit stakeholders. This book outlines a simple, quantitative approach to risk management which refocuses attention on treating risks; and presents choices about risk treatment as normal business decisions.

First published in 1975, The Psychology of Tragic Drama offers an interpretation of some of the themes of both ancient and modern tragic drama through an investigation of the plays in the light of psychoanalytical ideas.In his introduction, the author explains and defends the application of psychoanalytical insights to the study of literature. Then in the first part of the book, he proceeds to an exploration of some primitive and infantile situations expressed in Euripides’ Bacchae and in a group of modern dramas by Strindberg, Pinter, Ionesco and Weiss. In the second part he turns to the drama of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, tracing the psychological history of Orestes and Electra from their Greek originals to their later re-creations in more modern settings, in the plays of O’Neill, Eliot and Sartre, and comparing the treatment of themes and motifs which also reappear in Macbeth and Hedda Gabler. In conclusion, Patrick Roberts discusses the loss and gain involved in the diffused awareness among modern dramatists of psychoanalytical ideas and influence; indeed, the book as a whole stands as a confirmation and expansion of Freud’s comment ‘that poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious’. As such, it will appeal not only to all students of serious drama but to all those interested in the two disciplines of literature and psychoanalysis.

First published in 1975, The Psychology of Tragic Drama offers an interpretation of some of the themes of both ancient and modern tragic drama through an investigation of the plays in the light of psychoanalytical ideas.In his introduction, the author explains and defends the application of psychoanalytical insights to the study of literature. Then in the first part of the book, he proceeds to an exploration of some primitive and infantile situations expressed in Euripides’ Bacchae and in a group of modern dramas by Strindberg, Pinter, Ionesco and Weiss. In the second part he turns to the drama of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, tracing the psychological history of Orestes and Electra from their Greek originals to their later re-creations in more modern settings, in the plays of O’Neill, Eliot and Sartre, and comparing the treatment of themes and motifs which also reappear in Macbeth and Hedda Gabler. In conclusion, Patrick Roberts discusses the loss and gain involved in the diffused awareness among modern dramatists of psychoanalytical ideas and influence; indeed, the book as a whole stands as a confirmation and expansion of Freud’s comment ‘that poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious’. As such, it will appeal not only to all students of serious drama but to all those interested in the two disciplines of literature and psychoanalysis.

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