Author: Mathilda Masters Publisher: ISBN: 9780500296035 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Did you know that: * Deserts provide food for fish? * 70% of all birds on the planet are chickens? * Climate change was the reason why humans began to talk? * Cows emit harmful methane when they burp or fart? Filled to the brim with 123 astonishing facts about the environment and climate, this accessible book explores the history of climate change and offers suggestions on how we can keep our planet liveable.
Author: Mathilda Masters Publisher: ISBN: 9780500296028 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Did you know that: * A giraffe can lick its own ears clean? * You can weigh your head by putting it in a bucket of water? * Astronauts urinate into a vacuum cleaner? What the encyclopaedia was to the 20th century, this book is to the 21st. Twelve elegantly designed chapters brim with 321 fascinating - and often surprising - facts, enabling people to dazzle their friends and family with their encyclopaedic knowledge of sports, science, plants and insects, famous people and space. The facts are all grouped together by topic, so readers can dip in and pick and choose the topics that they find most interesting. This well-structured collection of smart things you need to know will be fun for all the family.
Author: Vaclav Smil Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262536161 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 564
Book Description
A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.
Author: Rosie Cooper Publisher: National Geographic Books ISBN: 0500652465 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
A fresh approach to science for young brainiacs, this book on climate and weather includes incredible but true stories, interactive activities, and quirky infographics. What’s the difference between climate and weather? How do we know the climate is changing? The need-to-know answers to these and many other pressing questions are explained in this volume through incredible stories, infographics—including how many farts animals add to the atmosphere each year—and fun activities like engineering a solar oven from a pizza box. Budding brainiacs will love reading “Need- to- Know” stories, diving into interactive “Try This” activities, and building a trove of fascinating facts from a series of infographic “Data Dumps.” Featuring the artwork of Harriet Russell, the illustrator of the bestselling This Book Thinks You’re a . . . series, The Brainiac’s Book of Climate and Weather demonstrates how fun and relevant science is to our everyday lives. This brainiac’s book makes the subject interactive, interesting, and easy to relate to for young readers.
Author: Gernot Wagner Publisher: Hill and Wang ISBN: 1429969156 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 269
Book Description
You are one of seven billion people on Earth. Whatever you or I do personally—eat tofu in a Hummer or hamburgers in a Prius—the planet doesn't notice. In our confrontation with climate change, species preservation, and a planet going off the cliff, it is what several billion people do that makes a difference. The solution? It isn't science, politics, or activism. It's smarter economics. The hope of mankind, and indeed of every living thing on the planet, is now in the hands of the dismal science. Fortunately, we've been there before. Economists helped crack the acid rain problem in the 1990's (admittedly with a strong assist from a phalanx of lawyers and activists). Economists have helped get lead out of our gas, and they can explain why lobsters haven't disappeared off the coast of New England but tuna is on the verge of extinction. More disquietingly, they can take the lessons of the financial crisis and model with greater accuracy than anyone else the likelihood of environmental catastrophe, and they can help save us from global warming, if only we let them.
Author: Louis Csoka Publisher: AMACOM ISBN: 0814436110 Category : Self-Help Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
This book is your secret to harnessing the power of your mind and gaining the competitive edge you need! At the highest level of any pursuit, the outcome is not determined by a difference in skill, talent, or physical preparedness. When the pressure is on, and everything is on the line, the difference between the two top performers is always mental: one will hold it together and shift to a new gear, while the other succumbs to the pressure and falls short of the goal. This is true not only for physical competitions but in the business world as well. Whether you are confronting a crisis, making a pitch, negotiating a deal, or facing a deadline, your mindset can be the difference maker. In When the Pressure’s On!, sports psychologist Louis S. Csoka teaches readers how to bring peak performance principles to the boardroom, revealing five core mental skills that enable professionals to excel while under duress: Goal Setting--become mission-driven Adaptive Thinking--replace negative thoughts with positive ones Stress/Energy Management--keep your cool no matter what Attention Control--maintain focus despite distractions Imagery--see success before it happens Packed with guidelines, examples, exercises, assessments, and the latest advances in biofeedback and neuroscience, this book is your guide to success. Together, the five skills form the core of Csoka’s proven complete brain-training program shared in this invaluable resource.
Author: Alex Epstein Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0698175484 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 257
Book Description
Could everything we know about fossil fuels be wrong? For decades, environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet at the same time, by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation, energy expert Alex Epstein argues in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We’re taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives—their unique ability to provide cheap, reliable energy for a world of seven billion people. And the moral significance of cheap, reliable energy, Epstein argues, is woefully underrated. Energy is our ability to improve every single aspect of life, whether economic or environmental. If we look at the big picture of fossil fuels compared with the alternatives, the overall impact of using fossil fuels is to make the world a far better place. We are morally obligated to use more fossil fuels for the sake of our economy and our environment. Drawing on original insights and cutting-edge research, Epstein argues that most of what we hear about fossil fuels is a myth. For instance . . . Myth: Fossil fuels are dirty. Truth: The environmental benefits of using fossil fuels far outweigh the risks. Fossil fuels don’t take a naturally clean environment and make it dirty; they take a naturally dirty environment and make it clean. They don’t take a naturally safe climate and make it dangerous; they take a naturally dangerous climate and make it ever safer. Myth: Fossil fuels are unsustainable, so we should strive to use “renewable” solar and wind. Truth: The sun and wind are intermittent, unreliable fuels that always need backup from a reliable source of energy—usually fossil fuels. There are huge amounts of fossil fuels left, and we have plenty of time to find something cheaper. Myth: Fossil fuels are hurting the developing world. Truth: Fossil fuels are the key to improving the quality of life for billions of people in the developing world. If we withhold them, access to clean water plummets, critical medical machines like incubators become impossible to operate, and life expectancy drops significantly. Calls to “get off fossil fuels” are calls to degrade the lives of innocent people who merely want the same opportunities we enjoy in the West. Taking everything into account, including the facts about climate change, Epstein argues that “fossil fuels are easy to misunderstand and demonize, but they are absolutely good to use. And they absolutely need to be championed. . . . Mankind’s use of fossil fuels is supremely virtuous—because human life is the standard of value and because using fossil fuels transforms our environment to make it wonderful for human life.”
Author: Jostein Gaarder Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN: 1466804270 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 599
Book Description
A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.
Author: Dr. Frank Luntz Publisher: Hachette Books ISBN: 1401385745 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 414
Book Description
The nation's premier communications expert shares his wisdom on how the words we choose can change the course of business, of politics, and of life in this country In Words That Work, Luntz offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the tactical use of words and phrases affects what we buy, who we vote for, and even what we believe in. With chapters like "The Ten Rules of Successful Communication" and "The 21 Words and Phrases for the 21st Century," he examines how choosing the right words is essential. Nobody is in a better position to explain than Frank Luntz: He has used his knowledge of words to help more than two dozen Fortune 500 companies grow. Hell tell us why Rupert Murdoch's six-billion-dollar decision to buy DirectTV was smart because satellite was more cutting edge than "digital cable," and why pharmaceutical companies transitioned their message from "treatment" to "prevention" and "wellness." If you ever wanted to learn how to talk your way out of a traffic ticket or talk your way into a raise, this book's for you.
Author: Bill McKibben Publisher: Random House ISBN: 0804153434 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
“Highly personal and original . . . McKibben goes beyond Marshall McLuhan’s theory that the medium is the message.” ——The New York Times Imagine watching an entire day’s worth of television on every single channel. Acclaimed environmental writer and culture critic Bill McKibben subjected himself to this sensory overload in an experiment to verify whether we are truly better informed than previous generations. Bombarded with newscasts and fluff pieces, game shows and talk shows, ads and infomercials, televangelist pleas and Brady Bunch episodes, McKibben processed twenty-four hours of programming on all ninety-three Fairfax, Virginia, cable stations. Then, as a counterpoint, he spent a day atop a quiet and remote mountain in the Adirondacks, exploring the unmediated man and making small yet vital discoveries about himself and the world around him. As relevant now as it was when originally written in 1992–and with new material from the author on the impact of the Internet age–this witty and astute book is certain to change the way you look at television and perceive media as a whole. “By turns humorous, wise, and troubling . . . a penetrating critique of technological society.”–Cleveland Plain Dealer “Masterful . . . a unique, bizarre portrait of our life and times.” –Los Angeles Times “Do yourself a favor: Put down the remote and pick up this book.” –Houston Chronicle
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Author: Mathilda Masters
Author: Mathilda Masters
Author: Vaclav Smil
Author: Rosie Cooper
Author: Gernot Wagner
Author: Louis Csoka
Author: Alex Epstein
Author: Jostein Gaarder
Author: Dr. Frank Luntz
Author: Bill McKibben