Sustainability or collapse? : an integrated history and future of people on earth / edited by Robert Costanza, Lisa J. Graumlich, and Will Steffen ; Program Advisory Committee, R. Costanza [and others].

Format:

Book

Conference/Event

Contributor:

Costanza, Robert.

Graumlich, Lisa.

Steffen, W. L. (William L.), 1947-2023.

Conference Name:

Dahlem Workshop on Integrated History and Future of People on Earth (2005 : Berlin, Germany)

Series:

Dahlem workshop reports

Dahlem Workshop report

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human ecology--History--Congresses.

Human ecology.

History.

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxii, 495 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press in cooperation with Dahlem University Press, [2007]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Scholars from a range of disciplines develop an integrated human and environmental history over millennial, centennial, and decadal time scales and make projections for the future.Human history, as written traditionally, leaves out the important ecological and climate context of historical events. But the capability to integrate the history of human beings with the natural history of the Earth now exists, and we are finding that human-environmental systems are intimately linked in ways we are only beginning to appreciate. In Sustainability or Collapse?, researchers from a range of scholarly disciplines develop an integrated human and environmental history over millennial, centennial, and decadal time scales and make projections for the future. The contributors focus on the human-environment interactions that have shaped historical forces since ancient times and discuss such key methodological issues as data quality. Topics highlighted include the political ecology of the Mayans; the effect of climate on the Roman Empire; the "revolutionary weather" of El Nino from 1788 to 1795; twentieth-century social, economic, and political forces in environmental change; scenarios for the future; and the accuracy of such past forecasts as The Limits to Growth.

Contents:

Dahlem Workshops ix

1 Sustainability or Collapse: Lessons from Integrating the History of Humans and the Rest of Nature / Robert Costanza, Lisa J. Graumlich, Will Steffen 3

2 Human-Environment Interactions: Learning from the Past / John A. Dearing 19

3 Assessing and Communicating Data Quality: Toward a System of Data Quality Grading / Robert Costanza 39

Section II The Millennial Timescale: Up to 10,000 Years Ago

4 The Rise and Fall of the Ancient Maya: A Case Study in Political Ecology / Vernon L. Scarborough 51

5 Climate, Complexity, and Problem Solving in the Roman Empire / Joseph A. Tainter, Carole L. Crumley 61

6 Integration of Climatic, Archaeological, and Historical Data: A Case Study of the Khabur River Basin, Northeastern Syria / Frank Hole 77

7 The Trajectory of Human Evolution in Australia: 10,000 B.P. to the Present / Timothy F. Flannery 89

8 Toward a Comparative Study of Hegemonic Deline in Global Systems: The Complexity of Crisis and the Paradoxes of Differentiated Experience / Jonathan Friedman 95

9 Group Report: Millennial Perspectives on the Dynamic Interaction of Climate, People, and Resources / Charles L. Redman, Rapporteur Carole L. Crumley, Fekri A. Hassan, Frank Hole, Joao Morais, Frank Riedel, Vernon L. Scarborough, Joseph A. Tainter, Peter Turchin, Yoshinori Yasuda 115

Section III The Centennial Timescale: Up to 1000 Years Ago

10 Revolutionary Weather: The Climatic and Economic Crisis of 1788-1795 and the Discovery of El Nino / Richard H. Grove 151

11 The Lie of History: Nation-States and the Contradictions of Complex Societies / Fekri A. Hassan 169

12 Little Ice Age-type Impacts and the Mitigation of Social Vulnerability to Climate in the Swiss Canton of Bern prior to 1800 / Christian Pfister 197

13 Information Processing and Its Role in the Rise of the European World System / Sander E. van der Leeuw 213

14 Group Report: Integrating Socioenvironmental Interactions over Centennial Timescales - Needs and Issues / John A. Dearing, Rapporteur Lisa J. Graumlich, Richard H. Grove, Arnulf Grubler, Helmut Haberl, Frank Hole, Christian Pfister, Sander E. van der Leeuw 243

Section IV The Decadal Timescale: Up to 100 Years Ago

15 A Decadal Chronology of 20th-Century Changes in Earth's Natural Systems / Nathan J. Mantua 277

16 Social, Economic, and Political Forces in Environmental Change: Decadal Scale (1900 to 2000) / John R. McNeill 301

17 Integrated Human-Environment Approaches of Land Degradation in Drylands / Eric F. Lambin, Helmut Geist, James F. Reynolds, D. Mark Stafford Smith 331

18 Group Report: Decadal-scale Interactions of Humans and the Environment / Kathy A. Hibbard, Rapporteur Paul J. Crutzen, Eric F. Lambin, Diana M. Liverman, Nathan J. Mantua, John R. McNeill, Bruno Messerli, Will Steffen 341

Section V The Future

19 Scenarios: Guidance for an Uncertain and Complex World? / Bert J. M. de Vries 379

20 Evaluating Past Forecasts: Reflections on One Critique of The Limits to Growth / Dennis L. Meadows 399

21 Integrated Global Models / Robert Costanza, Rik Leemans, Roelof M. J. Boumans, Erica Gaddis 417

22 Group Report: Future Scenarios of Human-Environment Systems / Marianne N. Young, Rik Leemans, Rapporteurs Roelof M. J. Boumans, Robert Costanza, Bert J. M. de Vries, John Finnigan, Uno Svedin, Michael D. Young 447.

Notes:

"Report of the 96th Dahlem Workshop on Integrated History and Future of People on Earth (IHOPE) Berlin, June 12-17, 2005."

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

9780262270861

0262270862

1429421045

9781429421041

OCLC:

77564129

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.