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Urban jungle : the history and future of nature in the city / by Wilson, Ben,1980-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."In this exhilarating look at cities, past and future, Ben Wilson proposes that, in our world of rising seas and threatening weather, the natural world may prove the city's savior. Since the beginning of civilization, humans have built cities to wall nature out, then glorified it in beloved but quite artificial parks. In Urban Jungle, Ben Wilson--the author of Metropolis, a seven-thousand-year history of cities that the Wall Street Journal called "a towering achievement"--looks to the fraught relationship between nature and the city for clues to how the planet can survive in an age of climate crisis. Whether it was the market farmers of Paris, Germans in medieval forest cities, or the Aztecs in the floating city of Tenochtitlan, pre-modern humans had an essential bond with nature. But when the day came that water was piped in and food flown from distant fields, that relationship was lost. Today, urban areas are the fastest-growing habitat on Earth and in Urban Jungle Ben Wilson finds that we are at last acknowledging that human engineering is not enough to protect us from extremes of weather. He takes us to places where efforts to rewild the city are under way: to Los Angeles, where the city's concrete river will run blue again, to New York City, where a bleak landfill will be a vast grassland preserve. The pinnacle of this strategy will be Amsterdam: a city that is its own ecosystem, that makes no waste and produces its own energy. In many cities, Wilson finds, nature is already thriving. Koalas are settling in Brisbane, wild boar may raid your picnic in Berlin. Green canopies, wildflowers, wildlife: the things that will help cities survive, he notes, also make people happy. Urban Jungle offers the pleasures of history--how backyard gardens spread exotic species all over the world, how war produces biodiversity--alongside a fantastic vision of the lush green cities of our future. Climate change, Ben Wilson believes, is only the latest chapter in the dramatic human story of nature and the city"--
Subjects: Climatic changes.; Urban ecology (Biology); Urban ecology (Sociology);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The ride of her life : the true story of a woman, her horse, and their last-chance journey across America / by Letts, Elizabeth,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The incredible true story of a woman who rode her horse across America in the 1950s, fulfilling her dying wish to see the Pacific Ocean, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion. In 1954, Annie Wilkins, a sixty-three-year-old farmer from Maine, embarked on an impossible journey. She had no relatives left, she'd lost her family farm to back taxes, and her doctor had just given her two years to live--but only if she "lived restfully." He offered her a spot in the county's charity home. Instead, she decided she wanted to see the Pacific Ocean just once before she died. She bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men's dungarees, loaded up her horse, and headed out from Maine in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. She had no map, no GPS, no phone. But she had her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness. Between 1954 and 1956, Annie, Tarzan, and her dog, Depeche Toi, journeyed more than 4,000 miles, through America's big cities and small towns, meeting ordinary people and celebrities--from Andrew Wyeth (who sketched Tarzan) to Art Linkletter and Groucho Marx. She received many offers--a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher who loved animals as much as she did. As Annie trudged through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by her at terrifying speeds, she captured the imagination of an apprehensive Cold War America. At a time when small towns were being bypassed by Eisenhower's brand-new interstate highway system, and the reach and impact of television was just beginning to be understood, Annie and her four-footed companions inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Wilkins, Mesannie; Horsemen and horsewomen; Overland journeys to the Pacific.; Travel with horses;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Digital minimalism : choosing a focused life in a noisy world / by Newport, Cal,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives. Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can get lost in a good book, a woodworking project, or a leisurely morning run. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They stay informed about the news of the day, but don't feel overwhelmed by it. They don't experience "fear of missing out" because they already know which activities provide them meaning and satisfaction. Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips, like turning off notifications, or occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, don't go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions. Drawing on a diverse array of real-life examples, from Amish farmers to harried parents to Silicon Valley programmers, Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life, starting with a thirty-day "digital declutter" process that has already helped thousands feel less overwhelmed and more in control. Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you. This book shows the way.
Subjects: Self-help publications.; Information technology; Internet addiction; Technological innovations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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To speak for the trees : my life's journey from ancient Celtic wisdom to a healing vision of the forest / by Beresford-Kroeger, Diana,1944-author.;
"Canadian botanist, biochemist and visionary Diana Beresford-Kroeger's startling insights into the hidden life of trees have already sparked a quiet revolution in how we understand our relationship to forests. Now, in a captivating account of how her life led her to these illuminating and crucial ideas, she shows us how forests can not only heal us but save the planet. When Diana Beresford-Kroeger-- whose father was a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and whose mother was an O'Donoghue, one of the stronghold families who carried on the ancient Celtic traditions-- was orphaned as a child, she could have been sent to the Magdalene Laundries. Instead, the O'Donoghue elders, most of them scholars and freehold farmers in the Lisheens valley in County Cork, took her under their wing. Diana became the last ward under the Brehon Law. Over the course of three summers, she was taught the ways of the Celtic triad of mind, body and soul. This included the philosophy of healing, the laws of the trees, Brehon wisdom and the Ogham alphabet, all of it rooted in a vision of nature that saw trees and forests as fundamental to human survival and spirituality. Already a precociously gifted scholar, Diana found that her grounding in the ancient ways led her to fresh scientific concepts. Out of that huge and holistic vision have come the observations that put her at the forefront of her field: the discovery of mother trees at the heart of a forest; the fact that trees are a living library, have a chemical language and communicate in a quantum world; the major idea that trees heal living creatures through the aerosols they release and that they carry a great wealth of natural antibiotics and other healing substances; and, perhaps most significantly, that planting trees can actively regulate the atmosphere and the oceans, and even stabilize our climate. This book is not only the story of a remarkable scientist and her ideas, it harvests all of her powerful knowledge about why trees matter, and why trees are a viable, achievable solution to climate change. Diana eloquently shows us that if we can understand the intricate ways in which the health and welfare of every living creature is connected to the global forest, and strengthen those connections, we will still have time to mend the self-destructive ways that are leading to drastic fires, droughts and floods."--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Beresford-Kroeger, Diana, 1944-; Botanists; Biochemists; Celts; Forest ecology.; Forests and forestry; Trees; Trees;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The wisdom of plagues : lessons from 25 years of covering pandemics / by McNeil, Donald G.,Jr.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."For a certain class of American's, Donald McNeil was a comforting voice when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. He was the regular reporter on the New York Times's popular Daily podcast, and he was telling folks to prepare for the worst. A generation of NYT readers went out and stocked up on food and PPE stuff because of his clear advice. He'd covered public health for the Times for 25 years and understood what he was seeing out of China. THE WISDOM OF PLAGUES is his account of what he learned over a quarter-century of reporting on public health in over 60 countries: part-memoir, part history, and part activism. Many science reporters understand the basics of diseases--how a virus works, for example, or what goes into making a vaccine. But very few understand the psychology of how small outbreaks turn into pandemics: How everyone from hunters to farmers to guano-diggers gets exposed to animal diseases. How diseases spread through networks of similar people and by "mass-gathering" events. How surveillance fails. How countries respond slowly or even cover up outbreaks. Why people refuse to believe they're at risk, or why they reject protective measures like quarantine or vaccines. How wild rumors spring up and scare people away from common sense responses. How greedy makers of false remedies spread confusion. Why public health agencies fumble and let things spiral out of control. The Covid pandemic was the story McNeil had trained his whole life to cover. His experience and deep bench of sources let him make many accurate predictions in 2020 about the course that a deadly new respiratory virus in Wuhan, China, would take and how different countries would respond. By the time McNeil wrote his last Times stories about the Covid-19 pandemic he had not lost his compassion, but he had grown far more stone-hearted about how he thought governments should react. He had witnessed so many failures and read enough history to realize that while every epidemic is different, failure was the one constant. Again and again, containable outbreaks ballooned into catastrophes because weak leaders were mired in denial. Citizens refused to make even minor sacrifices for the common good and were encouraged in that by money-hungry entrepreneurs and power-hungry populists. Science was ignored, obvious truths were denied, and the innocent too often died. THE WISDOM OF PLAGUES is ultimately about what we can do to improve global health and be better prepared for the next pandemic, which is coming"--
Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); Epidemiology.; Pandemics.; Public health surveillance.; Public health;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The duel : Diefenbaker, Pearson and the making of modern Canada / by Ibbitson, John,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."One of Canada's foremost authors and journalists offers a gripping account of the contest between John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, two prime ministers who fought each other relentlessly, but who between them created today's Canada. John Diefenbaker has been unfairly treated by history. Although he wrestled with personal demons, his governments launched major reforms in public health care, law reform and immigration. On his watch, First Nations on reserve obtained the right to vote and the federal government began to open up the North. He established Canada as a leader in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and took the first steps in making Canada a leader in the fight against nuclear proliferation. And Diefenbaker's Bill of Rights laid the groundwork for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He set in motion many of the achievements credited to his successor, Lester B. Pearson. Pearson, in turn, gave coherence to Diefenbaker's piecemeal reforms. He also pushed Parliament to adopt a new, and now much-loved, Canadian flag against Diefenbaker's fierce opposition. Pearson understood that if Canada were to be taken seriously as a nation, it must develop a stronger sense of self. Pearson was superbly prepared for the role of prime minister: decades of experience at External Affairs, respected by leaders from Washington to Delhi to Beijing, the only Canadian to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. Diefenbaker was the better politician, though. If Pearson walked with ease in the halls of power, Diefenbaker connected with the farmers and small-town merchants and others left outside the inner circles. Diefenbaker was one of the great orators of Canadian political life; Pearson spoke with a slight lisp. Diefenbaker was the first to get his name in the papers, as a crusading attorney: Diefenbaker for the Defence, champion of the little man. But he struggled as a politician, losing five elections before making it into the House of Commons, and becoming as estranged from the party elites as he was from the Liberals, until his ascension to the Progressive Conservative leadership in 1956 through a freakish political accident. As a young university professor, Pearson caught the attention of the powerful men who were shaping Canada's first true department of foreign affairs, rising to prominence as the helpful fixer, the man both sides trusted, the embodiment of a new country that had earned its place through war in the counsels of the great powers: ambassador, undersecretary, minister, peacemaker. Everyone knew he was destined to be prime minister. But in 1957, destiny took a detour. Then they faced each other, Diefenbaker v Pearson, across the House of Commons, leaders of their parties, each determined to wrest and hold power, in a decade-long contest that would shake and shape the country. Here is a tale of two men, children of Victoria, who led Canada into the atomic age: each the product of his past, each more like the other than either would ever admit, fighting each other relentlessly while together forging the Canada we live in today. To understand our times, we must first understand theirs"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Diefenbaker, John G., 1895-1979.; Pearson, Lester B.; Prime ministers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Les producteurs laitiers / by Nelley, Elsie.; Edwards, Lindsay.; Drolet, Louise.;
LSC
Subjects: Éleveurs de bétail laitier; Dairy farmers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Woolly. by Nystabakk, Rebekka,film director.; Magnet Film (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Originally produced by Magnet Film in 2024.In WOOLLY, director Rebekka Nystabakk follows her sister Rakel as she becomes the 4th generation to run the family farm. Together with her wife Ida, Rakel is enthusiastic, but aware that they have a lot to learn. Rakel’s father, a farmer for 40 years, knows what lies ahead: years when spring never arrives, summers of significant losses to predators, poor harvests, and sheep on the run. Every day is full of surprises, both frustrating and awe-inspiring, as they navigate their way in this new life.Many would probably claim that this way of farming belongs to a bygone time. Parts of the hayfield are too steep for tractors. Consequently, these parts of the field are still mowed with a scythe. But when we ask our main character, Rakel, if she could really see this kind of farming as a part of the future, she said: “This is the future. Because I know how to make food by using the resources I have around me. That will never be old fashion."Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Science.; Agriculture.; Documentary films.; Women's studies.; LGBTQ.; Families.; Rural conditions.; Farmers.; Sustainable agriculture.; Norway.;
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The Border Crossing. by Lübbert, Orlando,film director.; Arias, Adelaide,actor.; Reyna, Aníbal,actor.; Medina, Hugo,actor.; Castro, Oscar,actor.; DEFA Film Library (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Adelaide Arias, Aníbal Reyna, Hugo Medina, Oscar CastroOriginally produced by DEFA Film Library in 1978.In 1973, shortly after the military Junta coup in Chile, three men—the worker Carlos, the student Juan and the government official Lorenzo—tried to escape to Argentina over the Andes. Along the way, they witness the murder of a farmer by Chilean policemen. Juan urgently needs medical attention for torture wounds from his time in prison, and they end up at the home of the farmer’s heavily pregnant wife. She takes them in, and the three men help her give birth. Once they finally cross the border, their application for asylum is denied. Carlos and Lorenzo are captured and brought back to Chile, but Juan escapes and tries to rescue his companions.Chilean director Orlando Lübbert worked in East Germany from 1977 to 1979. The Border Crossing is the only film he directed for the DEFA Studios.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Drama.; Motion Pictures.; Crime.;
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Red Shoes. by Eichelmann, Carlos,film director.; Ascacio, Eustacio,actor.; Tábora, Georgina,actor.; Solián, Natalia,actor.; Molina, Phanie,actor.; Pragda (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Eustacio Ascacio, Georgina Tábora, Natalia Solián, Phanie MolinaOriginally produced by Pragda in 2022.In a remote place in the mountains of the northern Mexico, lives Artemio, a farmer who sees his desolate plot of land and his own life slip through his fingers. When he receives the shocking news about his daughter whom he hasn't seen for years, he decides to leave for the city in search of truth and redemption, but he's faced with a brutal world, completely unknown to him.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Feature films.; Foreign films.; Motion pictures.; Drama.; Motion pictures--Mexico.; Families.; Motion pictures--Latin America.;
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Results 301 to 310 of 313 | « previous |