Resilience Thinking

How Can Landscapes and Communities Absorb Disturbance and Maintain Function? Humanity has been spectacularly successful in modifying the planet to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population. Between 1960 and 2000, the human population doubled and economic activity increased six-fold, yet we were able to increase food production by two-and-a-half times, resulting in declining food prices and reduced hunger. The changes made to the environment to meet our growing demands have been so sweeping that cultivated ecosystems now cover more than a quarter of Earth's terrestrial survace and as much as six times more water is held in reservoirs than flows in natural river channels. But the gains achieved by this reengineering of the planet have not been without costs, and as we enter the 21 century these costs are mounting rapidly. It is now widely apparent that humanity's use of the bioshpere is not sustainable. Human-induced climate change is the ..... What has gone wrong, and how can it be fixed? Read this book to find out. 174 pp