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- Rivers of power : how a natural force raised kingdoms, destroyed civilizations, and shapes our world / by Smith, Laurence C.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.From a renowned geographer and professor of earth, planetary and space sciences, a sweeping natural history of rivers and their complex and ancient relationship with human civilization. Rivers, more than any road, technology, or political leader, have shaped the course of civilization. They have opened frontiers, founded cities, settled borders, and fed billions. They promote life, forge peace, grant power, and capriciously destroy everything in their path. And even as they have become increasingly domesticated, rivers remain a powerful global force, one that is more critical than ever to our future. In Rivers of Power, geographer Laurence Smith takes a deep dive into the timeless and vastly underappreciated relationship between rivers and civilization as we know it. Rivers are of course important to us in all the obvious ways (like water supply, sanitation, transport, etc.). But they also shape us in less obvious ways. Massive amounts of river water support the global food trade; huge volumes are consumed to provide the world's electricity -- not just by hydropower, but by coal, nuclear, and natural gas power plants too; most of our globally important cities are positioned on the banks of rivers or river deltas. The territories of nations, their cultural and economic ties to one another, and the migrations of people trace to rivers and the topographic divides they carve on the world. Beautifully told and expansive in scope, Rivers of Power, reveals how and why rivers have so profoundly shaped civilization, and examines the importance this vast, arterial power holds for our present, past, and future.- Subjects: Rivers.; Rivers; Water and civilization.; Science.;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Until proven safe : the history and future of quarantine / by Manaugh, Geoff,author.; Twilley, Nicola,1978-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Journalists Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley explore the history and future of quarantine, from the Black Death to Big Data. Quarantine is our most powerful response to uncertainty: it means waiting to see if something hidden inside us will be revealed. It is also one of our most dangerous, operating through an assumption of guilt. In quarantine, we are considered infectious until proven safe. The authors track the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space-from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean, built to contain the Black Death, to an experimental Ebola unit in London, and from the hallways of the CDC to closed-door simulations where pharmaceutical execs and epidemiologists prepare for the outbreak of a novel coronavirus. But the story of quarantine ranges far beyond the history of medical isolation. They also tour a nuclear-waste isolation facility beneath the New Mexican desert, see plants stricken with a disease that threatens the world's wheat supply, meet NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, tasked with saving Earth from extraterrestrial infections, and introduce us to the corporate tech giants hoping to revolutionize quarantine through surveillance and algorithmic prediction. We live in a disorienting historical moment that can feel both unprecedented and inevitable; Manaugh and Twilley help us make sense of our new reality through a thrillingly reported, thought-provoking exploration of the meaning of freedom, governance, and mutual responsibility."--- Subjects: Quarantine; Epidemics; COVID-19 (Disease);
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 11 to 12 of 12 | « previous