Environmental Conservation & Protection books

"How do urban communities in Asian cities experience the impacts of urbanisation and climate change? This book throws light on the ongoing processes of rapid urban transformation in many cities in developing countries, with particular reference to cities such as Chennai in India. Due to increasing demands on infrastructures and urban services, cities in developing countries are often pushed to the edge of collapse even when not in times of disaster. While such cities try to implement measures to safeguard the well-being of their citizens, looming impacts of climate change such as increasingly frequent and intense natural hazards pose new and additional challenges to their urban communities. This book connects critical issues relating to the general functioning of cities with climate-related disasters with the concept of resilience. Furthermore, this research takes a pro-solution stance, and demonstrates that individuals can form collective power to deliver added value before, during and after a disaster. The concept of resilience is applied to determine whether an urban community would be affected or damaged during a climate-related disaster, and to what extent."

The onset of global concerns about environmental risks, climate change and threats to the planet from industry have focused the minds of a generation. Throughout the world, new movements are emerging in an attempt to challenge those who would put profits before the planet. This volume brings together global contributions that represent the cutting edge of research in the area of global environmental movements. Contributions include chapters on the spatial impacts of environmental groups in Israel, the work of Greenpeace in Brazil, environmental activism in Ireland, animal rights and anti-hunt activism in Malta, the global de-growth movement, environmental movement mobilization in China, and anti-pollution activism in India. The scope and breath of this research indicates the emergence of both a global grassroots environmental mobilization in addition to analysis and documentation of these responses by researchers world-wide. With increased threats from climatic change and ecological degradation being highlighted as a threat to much of the world's population in the coming century, this activism and ensuing research becomes all the more significant.

Communities affected by natural disasters are often stigmatized as being passive with regard to disaster prevention, mitigation and adaptation, waiting only for government assistance in the aftermath of such events. However, many innovative community initiatives have been developed to address natural disasters, which are often characterized as "local responses". While scrutinizing the potential strength and comparative advantage of community-based disaster response, this book analyzes and illustrates how individuals, families and social groups in rural and urban communities perceive natural disasters, their underlying reasons and their effects on their livelihoods, and documents and analyzes the role of local responses to natural disasters and conflict. Key factors determining the degree of vulnerability and resilience of affected communities are also elicited. Several pivotal issues related to community-based disaster responses are addressed, such as the relationship between local and external knowledge in addressing disasters, the relevance of institutional and policy frameworks for community-based disaster response and the role of social capital and collective action.