The Global History of Human Migration
Rating: Peter Bellwood (ed). 2013. The Global Prehistory of Human Migration. Wiley. ISBN978 1 118 97059 1 We are used to the idea of migration, largely as a movement of people. If we go back in time, the the various ‘Out of Africa’ hypotheses help us to understand the spread of modern Hominins/Hominids. There is an assumption that there is movement but often of a “silent” people. I would guess there is less focus on the language of such people […]
Urban Ecology: An Introduction
Rating: Ian Douglas and Philip James. 2015. Urban Ecology – an introduction. Routledge. ISBN978 0 415 53895 4 It’s fairly clear that the human future is urban. We passed the half-way mark some time ago and now we are increasingly urbanised. Yet this urban future is not totally concrete. Cities have parks and other designated open spaces. Almost half of London can be considered as greenspace! It’s increasingly obvious, from bomb sites as havens of rare species to brownfield sites […]
Global Food Security and Supply
Rating: Wayne Martindale. 2015. Global Security and Food Supply. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978 1 118 69932 4 Malthus might have written about a time long past but his Essay on the Principle of Population published in 1798, still has a power to engage. The idea that, unchecked or unaided, population will always outstrip food supply is one of the fundamental tenets of population ecology but, some some reason, it never seems to apply to us. Malthus, in an age of […]
Understanding Sustainable Development
Rating: John Blewitt 2015. Understanding Sustainable Development. 2e. Earthscan. ISBN 978 0 415 70782 4 It’s always instructive to find oneself reviewing a second edition with the first edition (also reviewed) sitting next to it! There’s a temptation to check out the contents page, size, figures etc. to see the immediate differences. It’s fair to say I’ve given in to this but there’s more than just changes to discuss (especially as no-one will recall the first review!). So, we need […]
Fynbos
Rating: Nicky Allsopp, Jonathon Colville and G Anthony Verboom (eds). 2014. Fynbos: ecology, evolution and conservation of a megadiverse region. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978 0 19 967958 4 I first heard of the Fynbos from neighbours who had lived and travelled in South Africa years previously. It sounded dramatic but it wasn’t until later that I was aware of its biodiversity and uniqueness. From that point of view, I was pleased to see a text devoted to the topic […]
Sustainable Futures
Rating: Jennie Goldie and Katharine Betts (eds). 2014. Sustainable Futures: Linking population, resources and the environment. CSIRO. ISBN 978 1 486 30189 8 When I first saw the sub-title I was transported back to my beginnings. Surely population, resources, environment was the name of the text and wasn’t it by the Ehrlich’s ? Yes on both counts and the issues they identified there are still with us but in slightly different ways. The authors are also still active, providing not […]
Spatial Analysis
Rating: Mark RT Dale and Marie-Josée Fortin. 2014. Spatial Analysis: A Guide for Ecologists. 2e. Cambridge University Press.. ISBN 0 521 14350 9. The advent of relatively low-cost but powerful computational technologies has revolutionised many fields, not least ecology. It has allowed for ideas to be tested might might once only have been thought about. Whilst this is a great advantage, there are also problems, not least that the techniques used need to be clearly understood! The most obvious example […]
Dirty Teaching
Rating: Juliet Robertson. 2014. Dirty Teaching: a beginner’s guide to learning outdoors. Independent Thinking Press. ISBN 978 178135107 9. Up to now, there’s been an increasingly alarming move towards taking the field out of fieldwork and replacing it with a computer screen. Let’s be very clear on this – fieldwork cannot be replaced by any software. You cannot get the same feeling standing in an ecosystem as you can seeing a video (however good). There’s an increasing body of research […]
Coastal Environments and Global Change
Rating: Gerd Masselink and Roland Gehrels. eds. 2104. Coastal Environments and Global Change. Wiley. ISBN 987 0 470 65659 4. “I must go down to the sea again…” Coastal areas – sources of enjoyment, wonder, human activity and, of course, highly dynamic geophysical and biological systems. Coasts have always been a major attraction to people but now, the pressure is so great in some areas that the ecosystem health of the area is under threat. This might be less obvious […]
Exploring Spatial Scale in Geography
Rating: Christopher D Lloyd. 2014. Exploring Spatial Scale in Geography. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN978 1 119 97135 1 The opening sentence says it all: “spatial scale is central to geography and to all disciplines concerned with the spatial arrangements of properties”. I think it fair to say that you can substitute a number of other words: ecology and conservation seem to fit but I’m sure there are others. The preface continues by arguing that the extent of a phenomenon might show […]
