The Silver Lining (eBook)

The Benefits of Natural Disasters

Seth R. Reice (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-22567-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Floods, fires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes--we are quick to call them ''natural disasters.'' But are they? Did the great fires that swept Yellowstone in 1988 devastate the park, or did they just ravage our image of the park as a fixed, unchanging national treasure? This lucid, lively book reveals the shortsightedness behind conceiving of such events as disastrous to nature. Indeed, Seth Reice contends, such thinking has led to policies that have done the environment more harm than good--the U.S. Forest Service's campaign against natural forest fires and the Army Corps of Engineers' flood prevention program are examples. He points out ways in which we can better address the wide range of environmental problems humanity faces at the dawn of the new millennium. Reice argues, in terms refreshingly nontechnical yet scientifically sound, that the traditional, equilibrium paradigm--according to which ''stability'' produces healthier ecosystems than does sudden, sweeping change--is fundamentally flawed. He describes a radically different model of how nature operates, one that many ecologists and population biologists have come to understand in recent years: a concept founded on the premise that disturbances help create and maintain the biodiversity that benefits both the ecosystem and ourselves. Reice demonstrates that ecosystems need disturbances to accomplish indispensable tasks such as the production of clean air and water. He recommends changes in environmental management to incorporate the essential role of natural disturbances. This book shows that every tornado's funnel cloud, every forest fire's billowing cloud of smoke, has tremendous benefits for the ecosystem it impacts. As anyone concerned with man's impact on the environment will appreciate, this is the cloud's real silver lining.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.2.2021
• Zusatzinfo: 15 line illus., 3 tables
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geologie
• Schlagworte: Acer rubrum • Adaptation • Agriculture • agriculture and water pollution • algae • Aquatic insect • Aquatic insects • Availability • Bacteria • Benthic invertebrates • Biochemical oxygen demand • biodiversity • Biological interaction • blackflies (Simuliidae) • buffer zone • Building Codes • Catchments • Chaparral • climax community • coastal development • colonization hypothesis • colonizing species • Competition • Controlled Burn • coral reef • Decomposer • Decomposition • deforestation • Desertification • Detritus • disaster • Discharge • Downcutting • Drainage • Drainage basin • Drought • dynamic equilibrium model • ecological worldview • Ecology • ecosystem • Ecosystem Health • Ecosystem services • Endangered Species Act • Endemic species • Environmental issue • E. O. Wilson • estuary • Eucalyptus • eutrophication • extinction • Exxon Valdez • Fertilizer • Firebreak • Fire ecology • Firefighting • fire regime • fire suppression • firewood • fish kill • flame retardant • Flood • Flood insurance • Flood management • floodplain • Food Chain • forest floor • Fragmentation • fuel • fungus • Glen Canyon Dam • global warming • Greenhouse Effect • habitat fragmentation • Humus • Hurricanes • insect • insurance, rates of fire • Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis • Invertebrate • jungles • Kaufman, Wallace • Kissimmee River restoration • Lake Mead • limited membership • limiting similarity • lodgepole • Logging • Marshes • mayfly • Migration • Moisture • mutualism • National Park Service • natural disaster • Nile River floods • nitrogen • nutrient • organism • Overexploitation • patches • patchiness • photosynthesis • pinus palustris • pollution • predation • Primary production • Rainforest • rain forests • Redundancy • Reforestation • reinitialization • Requirement • restoration • riffle • River ecosystem • salt marsh • Schistosomiasis • Sediment • Sedimentation • serotinous pines • Shoal • silt • Smokejumper • Smokey Bear • Soil • spatial heterogeneity • Species richness • stability • Stormwater • Surface Water • The Nature Conservancy • tinder • Toxicodendron radicans • Trade-off • Tropical rainforest • Turbidity • Vegetation • wetland • Wildfire • Woodlot • year • Yellowstone fires of 1988 • Zooplankton
• ISBN-10: 0-691-22567-2 / 0691225672
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-22567-8 / 9780691225678