People and Nature

Preface to the Second Edition x Acknowledgments xiii 1 Human Agency and the State of the Earth 1 Introduction 1 Can One Conceive of Ecosystems Without Human Agents? 11 Human Agency: Individuals Making a Difference 14 Overwhelming Evidence for Concern with the Condition of the Earth System 17 Looking Back and Looking Forward 26 Additional Resources 27 References 28 2 A Reminder: How Things Were... 33 The Study of Human Ecological Relations 33 The Contemporary Study of Environmental Issues: The Rise of Cross?]Disciplinary Team?]Based Approaches 39 The Evolution of Human-Environment Interactions 47 Hunter?]Gatherers: Setting Our Preferences 52 How Did We Decide to Become Farmers? 56 Herding and Farming: An Uneasy Relationship 59 More Food for the Masses 61 Additional Resources 64 References 64 3 The Great Forgetting 75 Earth Transformations in Prehistory 75 The Archeology of Environmental Change 83 The Urban-Industrial Revolution and the Unleashing of Prometheus 86 The Contemporary Situation: Human?]Dominated Ecosystems 89 Additional Resources 91 References 92 4 The Web of Life: Are We In It? 96 The Web of Life and Trophic Relations: Thinking Ecologically 96 Ecosystem Productivity and Net Primary Production 103 Land Use and Long?]Term Disturbance 105 Additional Resources 117 References 117 5 What Makes People Do That? 122 Learning, Adaptation, and Information 122 Mitigation and the Cautionary Principle 135 Transforming the Face of the Earth: Making Better Decisions 136 Additional Resources 139 References 140 6 Population and Environment 145 Theories about Population 146 The Demographic Transition 147 Aging and International Flows of Labor 150 Addressing the Needs of 10 Billion People 153 Changing the Population and Environment Nexus 159 Additional Resources 162 References 163 7 Rebuilding Communities and Institutions 166 Community in Human Evolution 166 What is Sacred in Human Evolution? 169 Tragedies of the Commons 172 Institutions and Self?]Organization 176 Bioregionalism, Deep Ecology, and Embedding People in Nature 180 Additional Resources 182 References 183 8 Can We Learn When We Have Enough? 188 Material Boys and Material Girls 188 Patterns of Consumption in Developed Countries 189 Patterns of Consumption in Developing Countries 196 A Feeding Frenzy and a Crisis in Public Health 200 Burning Fossil Fuels instead of Calories 202 Do We Have Enough Material Goods Now? 205 Additional Resources 207 References 208 9 Quality of Life: When Less Is More 210 Resource Abundance versus Resource Scarcity 210 When Less is More 220 The Scale of the Problem and the Scale of the Solution 229 Restoring Our Balance: Valuing Community and Trust 233 Are We Happier When We Have More? 238 References 241 Index 244