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Searching for Franklin : new answers to the great Arctic mystery / by McGoogan, Ken,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Arctic historian Ken McGoogan approaches the legacy of nineteenth-century explorer Sir John Franklin from a contemporary perspective and offers a surprising new explanation of an enduring Northern mystery. Two of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin's expeditions were monumental failures--the last one leading to more than a hundred deaths, including his own. Yet many still see the Royal Navy man as a heroic figure who sacrificed himself to discovering the Northwest Passage. This book, McGoogan's sixth about Arctic exploration, challenges that vision. It rejects old orthodoxies, incorporates the latest discoveries, and interweaves two main narratives. The first treats the Royal Navy's Arctic Overland Expedition of 1819, a harbinger-misadventure during which Franklin rejected the advice of Dene and Metis leaders and lost eleven of his twenty-one men to exhaustion, starvation, and murder. The second discovers a startling new answer to that greatest of Arctic mysteries: what was the root cause of the catastrophe that engulfed Franklin's last expedition? The well-preserved wrecks of Erebus and Terror--located in 2014 and 2016--promise to yield more clues about what cost the lives of the expedition members, some of whom were reduced to cannibalism. Contemporary researchers, rejecting theories of lead poisoning and botulism, continue to seek conclusive evidence both underwater and on land. Drawing on his own research and Inuit oral accounts, McGoogan teases out many intriguing aspects of Franklin's expeditions, including the explorer's lethal hubris in ignoring the expert advice of the Dene leader Akaitcho. Franklin disappeared into the Arctic in 1845, yet people remain fascinated with his final doomed voyage: what happened? McGoogan will captivate readers with his first-hand account of traveling to relevant locations, visiting the graves of dead sailors, and experiencing the Arctic--one of the most dramatic and challenging landscapes on the planet."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Franklin, John, 1786-1847.; Great Britain. Royal Navy.; John Franklin Arctic Expedition (1845-1851); Explorers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Black horizon [sound recording] / by Grippando, James,1958-; Davis, Jonathan.;
Read by Jonathan Davis."Three summers after the biggest man-made environmental disaster in history, millions of gallons of oil are again spewing from a hole in the ocean floor. But this rig explosion was in Cuban waters, just 50 miles away from Florida, and the situation is complex. The consortium doing the work is state-owned Venezuelan, Chinese and Russian, controlled by a mineral lease from the Cuban government. And the Cubans not only refuse assistance from the U.S., they also vow to fire on "hostile" American vessels that enter Cuban waters. Enter Jack Swyteck, who's honeymooning with his new wife Andie in the lower Keys. As an ominous black slick appears in the water, CIA agent Andie is called back to an undercover assignment. So Jack heads to Key West to see his buddy Theo Knight. There Jack is transformed from bystander to player in the unfolding oil catastrophe when he takes on a client whose husband was on the rig that blew up. She wants Jack to file a wrongful death in U.S. court. Taking on this unimaginably complicated case pitches Jack into a dangerous world, only to find that his case and Andie's assignment may be lethally connected"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Legal stories.; Suspense fiction.; Audiobooks.; Lawyers; Swyteck, Jack (Fictitious character);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Into the clear blue sky : the path to restoring our atmosphere / by Jackson, Rob,1961-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."One of the world's leading climate scientists, a superb storyteller, shares his hopeful and attainable vision for restoring the atmosphere and ending the climate crisis within our lifetime.Climate change is here. From the millions displaced by the floods in Pakistan to California and Canadian towns incinerated by wildfires, we are experiencing the anguish that climate change causes. Fossil fuels are making the planet unlivable, and they are deadly. We know that we must cut emissions if we are going to limit the catastrophes, but is that enough? In Into the Clear Blue Sky, climate scientist and chair of the Global Carbon Project Rob Jackson explains that we need to redefine our goals. As he argues here, we shouldn't only be trying to stabilize the Earth's temperature at some arbitrary value. Instead, we can restore the atmosphere itself in a lifetime -- and this should be our moral duty. Restoring the atmosphere means reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the air to pre-industrial levels -- starting with super-potent methane -- to heal the harm we have done. Emissions must be cut, first and foremost. But to safeguard a livable planet for future generations, we must repair the damage we have caused. Jackson introduces us to the brilliant leaders and innovators behind some of the boldest and game-changing climate solutions under development. When it comes to greenhouse gas mitigation, our choices matter, because it is easier to stop emissions from happening than to remove greenhouse gases from the air later. But while mitigation is crucial, no number of solar panels, electric cars, and veggie burgers alone will be enough to halt climate change. Decades of inaction have convinced Jackson that we need to remove greenhouse gases from the air using everything from nature to cutting-edge technologies. Into the Clear Blue Sky is a heart- and mind-changing book. Guided by one of the leading scientists in this fight and a deeply gifted storyteller, we learn why we should all feel hopeful. One way or another, we will restore the planet together. The question is how, and how long will it take?"--
Subjects: Climate change mitigation.; Climatic changes.; Global warming.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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After sundown : a novel / by Howard, Linda,1950-author.; Jones, Linda,1954-author.;
"Sela Gordon, the shy owner of a Tennessee general store, finds safety in solitude. But if anyone can pierce her protective shell it's the handsome, mysterious ex-military man living alone in the wilds of Cove Mountain. For two years, he's kept his distance--until the day he appears to warn her that a catastrophic solar storm capable of taking down the power grid is coming. Now, Sela must find the courage to become the leader Wears Valley needs. Bitter experience has taught Ben Jernigan it's best to look out for number one. The former soldier has been living in a self-imposed exile, using a top-notch security system to keep people away, but he had to let Sela know about the impending threat. And now the quiet and undeniably sexy woman is making it too easy for him to lower his guard. As panic spreads, Sela and Ben discover that in the dark, cut off from the outside world, there's no more playing it safe--in life or in love."--Jacket flap.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Businesswomen; Veterans; Man-woman relationships; General stores; Communities; Solar flares; Survival;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 3
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A love catastrophe / by Hunting, Helena,author.;
"Kitty Hart has become internet famous as the Kitty Whisperer for her expertise on all things feline, and as a result, her cat-sitting business is booming. But lately, she has a terrible feeling that maybe her life isn't quite going where it's supposed to-especially after falling face-first into her newest client. Not exactly the best first impression. Fortunately, Miles Thorn is just as bad at first impressions. Strike one: he doesn't like cats, especially Prince Francis, the haughty and mischievous Sphynx his mom left in his care. Strike two: tackling Kitty to the floor in a misguided attempt to save the pet he continually calls "the gremlin." As awkwardness slides into attraction and things start to turn purr-sonal, will these two complete opposites ever be able to find their furry-tail ending?"--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Novels.; Cat owners; Businesswomen; Cats; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Weimar years : rise and fall 1918-1933 / by McDonough, Frank,1957-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Established in 1918-19, in the wake of Germany's catastrophic defeat in the First World War and the revolution that followed swiftly on its heels, the Weimar Republic ushered in widespread social reform, a radical cultural flowering and the most democratic conditions the German people had ever known. At its beginning, Weimar held out the hope that democracy, stability and prosperity would take root in Germany, but it was beset by frequent changes of government, waves of economic upheaval and spasms of violence of increasing intensity between the forces of left and right. Agitation and assassination by right-wing nationalists -- enraged by the severity of the Treaty of Versailles and the acceptance of its terms by liberal German politicians -- formed a threatening descant to the conciliatory efforts of successive coalition governments. Ultimately, the instabilities of Weimar would lead to the appointment as German Chancellor of the Nazi Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, who created a one-party dictatorship that abandoned the rule of law, democracy and civil rights. In the words of Gustav Stresemann, Germany's Nobel Peace Prize-winning Foreign Minister from 1923 to 1929, Weimar democracy was 'dancing on a volcano'. The Weimar Years is a vivid and compelling narrative of a dramatic period in German history. Year by year, from 1918 to 1933, Frank McDonough covers the major events in both domestic and foreign policy and the personalities who shaped them, together with developments in music, art, theatre and literature. McDonough places particular focus on the parliamentary history of Weimar, arguing that it was the failure of parliamentary democracy to bring stability that eroded public confidence and allowed the power of the elected Reichstag to gradually diminish, culminating in Hitler's accession to power in January 1933. The Weimar Years is the tragic story of a rise and fall, as well as a warning of how, under poor leadership, economic pressure and unrelenting political volatility, a democracy can drift towards a form of authoritarian rule that eventually destroys it.
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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2020 : one city, seven people, and the year everything changed / by Klinenberg, Eric,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Crisis has a way of laying bare our truest selves: who we trust, which principles and impulses we heed, whose lives we deem expendable. As it ravaged millions of lives, the Covid-19 pandemic revealed and accentuated the dividing lines that had already, for decades, splintered American public life. Against the backdrop of the 2020 presidential election, misinformation regimes, and the transformation of the facemask into a flagrant political symbol, acclaimed sociologist Eric Klinenberg takes careful inventory of how the U.S. and other nations handled the extraordinary challenges of that seminal year. Any autopsy searches for causes, and in this book, Klinenberg uses seven people's piercingly vivid reflections to examine how communities across the globe reckoned with the profound tragedy and loss of 2020-and how they built networks of solidarity in an attempt to survive. We move from the gross negligence in Canadian for-profit nursing homes, to England's gradualist approach to instating robust Covid safety protocols, to early policy innovations in Australia, South Korea, and Taiwan, which dramatically curtailed the virus' spread. According to Klinenberg, our capacity to bear witness to the rampant failures and successful models of resilience of 2020 will help shape our responses to the escalating climate emergency, the ongoing fight for racial justice, and widening global economic disparities. This book is both mirror and roadmap-a reflection of the social divisions that plague our world and a set of principles for how we might approach the next global catastrophe differently"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-; Equality; Presidents; Social history;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Commanding hope : the power we have to renew a world in peril / by Homer-Dixon, Thomas F.,author.;
"Calling on history, cutting-edge research, complexity science and even Lord of the Rings, Homer-Dixon lays out the tools we can command to rescue a world on the brink. For three decades, the renowned author of The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, and The Ingenuity Gap: Can We Solve the Problems of the Future?, has examined the threats to our future security--predicting a deteriorating global environment, extreme economic stresses, mass migrations, social instability and wide political violence if humankind continued on its current course. He was called The Doom Meister, but we now see how prescient he was. Today just about everything we've known and relied on (our natural environment, economy, societies, cultures and institutions) is changing dramatically--too often for the worse. Without radical new approaches, our planet will become unrecognizable as well as poorer, more violent, more authoritarian. In his fascinating long-awaited new book (dedicated to his young children), he calls on his extraordinary knowledge of complexity science, of how societies work and can evolve, and of our capacity to handle threats, to show that we can shift human civilization onto a decisively new path if we mobilize our minds, spirits, imaginations and collective values. Commanding Hope marshals a fascinating, accessible argument for reinvigorating our cognitive strengths and belief systems to affect urgent systemic change, strengthen our economies and cultures, and renew our hope in a positive future for everyone on Earth."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Creative ability.; Environmental responsibility.; Social change.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Intervention Earth : life-saving ideas from the world's climate engineers / by Dyer, Gwynne,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Historian, journalist, and author Gwynne Dyer tracks down the world's top climate engineers to discuss the extraordinary measures we must contemplate to counter the irreversible effects of climate change. The global climate emergency is now an alarming fact of life. Much as we still need to get emissions under control, many are thinking that it's all too little, too late. As scientists, politicians and concerned citizens scramble for solutions to the catastrophic effects of a warming world, is it time to be exploring the controversial topic of geoengineering? For decades, discerning readers have turned to journalist and historian Gwynne Dyer for his unparalleled acumen in serving up hard geopolitical truths. 'Intervention Earth' is built around Dyer's interviews with sixty climate scientists from around the globe, including the leading figures in the geoengineering field. One of the most interesting topics: the pros and cons of Solar Radiation Management, a possible planetary Hail Mary that is rife with political risks. But 'Intervention Earth' is about more than technological mega-projects. Dyer devotes ample space to the many innovative ideas on offer, but there is no get-out-of-jail-free card. We will need a whole portfolio of techniques and technologies-and a lot of hard, thankless work-to keep the planet hospitable for humanity. What's more, many of the technologies that can help us avoid the worst outcomes require years of investment and development before they can be successfully deployed. Global cooperation will be key in implementing the life-saving strategies outlined in the book. 'Intervention Earth' offers a probing, eye-opening look at the problems we face, and the innovations that just might keep us ahead of encroaching disaster and carry us to a safe harbour.
Subjects: Climate change mitigation.; Environmental engineering.; Solar radiation.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Death in the family / by Chipman, John,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In a work of vigorous reporting, careful analysis, deep compassion and unerring integrity, award-winning journalist and documentarian John Chipman investigates the lives left ruined in the wake of Dr. Charles Smith's ignominious career. In the mid-'90s, the Ontario Coroner's office decided that death investigation teams needed to "think dirty." They wanted coroners, pathologists and police to be more suspicious--to "assume that all deaths are homicides until satisfied that they are not." They were particularly concerned about pediatric deaths, which historically had been exceedingly difficult to investigate. There were usually no witnesses; no evidence to gather at the scene; no outward signs of trauma on the body. If the pathologist did not discover the truth of what had happened, child abuse could go uncovered. Among those charged to "think dirty" was Dr. Charles Smith, Ontario's top pediatric forensic pathologist at the time. But with virtually no training in forensics, Dr. Smith was ill prepared for his work. Instead of basing his judgments on forensic evidence found during autopsies, he allowed himself to be swayed by circumstantial evidence. The defendants were often single mothers--some on welfare, some struggling with substance abuse. And they made for easy targets. Dr. Smith made dangerous assumptions, and the results were catastrophic. Numerous individuals were pronounced guilty, and incarcerated, on his shaky evidence. This penetrating investigative work explores the wide ripples of destruction caused when the justice system fails, the burden felt by ethical individuals working within that system and the importance of its victims finally being heard."--
Subjects: Smith, Charles (Charles Randal); Coroners; Death; Forensic pathology; Judicial error; Justice, Administration of;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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