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Humanity's Footprint: Momentum, Impact, and Our Global Environment
For the first time in history, humans have exceeded the sustaining capacity of Earth's global ecosystems. Our expanding footprint has tremendous momentum, and the insidious explosion of human impact creates a shockwave that threatens ecosystems worldwide for decades-possibly centuries.
Walter K. Dodds depicts in clear, nontechnical terms the root causes and global environmental effects of human behavior. He describes trends in population growth, resource use, and global environmental impacts of the past two centuries, such as greenhouse effects, ozone depletion, water pollution, and species extinctions and introductions. Dodds also addresses less familiar developments, such as the spread of antibiotic resistant genes in bacteria and the concentration of pesticides in the Arctic and other remote ecosystems. He identifies fundamental human activities that have irreversible effects on the environment and draws on recent social science and game theory results to explain why people use more than their share. Past behavior indicates that as resources grow scarce, humans will escalate their use of what remains instead of managing their consumption. Humanity's Footprint paints a lively but ultimately sobering picture of our environmental predicament. Dodds calls for a consilient approach to socioenvironmental restoration that draws on new thinking from across disciplines to develop sustainable solutions to global environmental problems.
Walter K. Dodds depicts in clear, nontechnical terms the root causes and global environmental effects of human behavior. He describes trends in population growth, resource use, and global environmental impacts of the past two centuries, such as greenhouse effects, ozone depletion, water pollution, and species extinctions and introductions. Dodds also addresses less familiar developments, such as the spread of antibiotic resistant genes in bacteria and the concentration of pesticides in the Arctic and other remote ecosystems. He identifies fundamental human activities that have irreversible effects on the environment and draws on recent social science and game theory results to explain why people use more than their share. Past behavior indicates that as resources grow scarce, humans will escalate their use of what remains instead of managing their consumption. Humanity's Footprint paints a lively but ultimately sobering picture of our environmental predicament. Dodds calls for a consilient approach to socioenvironmental restoration that draws on new thinking from across disciplines to develop sustainable solutions to global environmental problems.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 4, 2008
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April 5, 2017
As a society, the earth is reaching a point of no return. As a race, humans will need to change our ways or adapt to the changing planet. Humanity’s Footprint by Walter Dodds expands on driving forces behind the changes that are happening to earth as well as what they mean to humans. Overall, I thought this book was a very interesting read, not quite a textbook and not quite a nonfiction book.
In this book, I really liked the information and how he portrayed it. Instead of approaching the topic the way a scientist would – in terms that only scientists understand – Dodds opened a unique cross between science and people so that everyone can understand. I have a great appreciation for his ability to blend the two worlds in a way that makes it possible for people who have no scientific background to understand that there is truly a problem. Education is the next step towards a sustainable world and explaining something so complex in a way that everyone can understand will be very important for this change.
There were some things about Humanity’s Footprint that I really didn’t care for. I, along with most scientists, understand that the world is changing at an alarming rate and that bad things are bound to happen if nothing changes. However, people without background knowledge coming into reading this book will not find it very enjoyable. Although very real, the doom and gloom aspects of the book are depressing and make the read very difficult to enjoy. I understand that this is a problem and people really DO need to know that it has many, many negative effects, but it is almost too depressing to read at certain points. The sadness of the material shared wasn’t the only problem, solutions were rarely proposed and, even then, they were not feasible or not the best choice. It’s hard to accept an idea that is so negative, and I think that Dodds would have been able to get his point across a lot better if there had been some positives in the book.
In addition, I think that the writing was difficult to read. I can’t imagine trying to teach scientific principles to people who have little to no knowledge about it, but Dodds’ writing style wasn’t for me. I think that he was trying to balance the scientific information with simpler terms, but I just found it harder to follow. I’m not saying that it’s all bad, but the overuse of examples and numbers became confusing, making the entire book difficult to follow along with.
Overall, I thought that the book was good, sharing important information with people who may not have much experience with it previously. The combination of the two worlds was impressive and it’s nice to see all the information together in one place. However, there were some things in the book that were difficult to read, including the writing style and the depressing information that was portrayed. I think that this is an interesting read and it brings many important issues to the forefront, providing a painfully honest view of the world. Dodds does an exceptional job portraying these complex scientific ideas to people who may not have any understanding of science.
In this book, I really liked the information and how he portrayed it. Instead of approaching the topic the way a scientist would – in terms that only scientists understand – Dodds opened a unique cross between science and people so that everyone can understand. I have a great appreciation for his ability to blend the two worlds in a way that makes it possible for people who have no scientific background to understand that there is truly a problem. Education is the next step towards a sustainable world and explaining something so complex in a way that everyone can understand will be very important for this change.
There were some things about Humanity’s Footprint that I really didn’t care for. I, along with most scientists, understand that the world is changing at an alarming rate and that bad things are bound to happen if nothing changes. However, people without background knowledge coming into reading this book will not find it very enjoyable. Although very real, the doom and gloom aspects of the book are depressing and make the read very difficult to enjoy. I understand that this is a problem and people really DO need to know that it has many, many negative effects, but it is almost too depressing to read at certain points. The sadness of the material shared wasn’t the only problem, solutions were rarely proposed and, even then, they were not feasible or not the best choice. It’s hard to accept an idea that is so negative, and I think that Dodds would have been able to get his point across a lot better if there had been some positives in the book.
In addition, I think that the writing was difficult to read. I can’t imagine trying to teach scientific principles to people who have little to no knowledge about it, but Dodds’ writing style wasn’t for me. I think that he was trying to balance the scientific information with simpler terms, but I just found it harder to follow. I’m not saying that it’s all bad, but the overuse of examples and numbers became confusing, making the entire book difficult to follow along with.
Overall, I thought that the book was good, sharing important information with people who may not have much experience with it previously. The combination of the two worlds was impressive and it’s nice to see all the information together in one place. However, there were some things in the book that were difficult to read, including the writing style and the depressing information that was portrayed. I think that this is an interesting read and it brings many important issues to the forefront, providing a painfully honest view of the world. Dodds does an exceptional job portraying these complex scientific ideas to people who may not have any understanding of science.
Displaying 1 of 1 review