The Human Impact on the Natural Environment: Past, Present, and Future

by Andrew S. Goudie

The seventh edition of this classic student text explores the multitude of impacts that humans have had over time upon vegetation, animals, soils, water, landforms and the atmosphere. It also looks into the future and considers the ways in which climate changes and modifications in land cover may change the environment in coming decades. Extensively re-written, it contains many new statistical tables, figures, and references. It is essential reading for undergraduates in geography and environmental science, and for those who want a thorough, wide-ranging and balanced overview of the impacts of humans upon natural processes and systems from the Stone Age to the Anthropocene and who wish to understand the major environmental issues that concern the human race at the present time.Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/goudiehumanimpact.

Genres: Environment, Science, Reference, Nonfiction

410 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Professor Andrew Shaw Goudie (born 1945) is a geographer at the University of Oxford specialising in desert geomorphology, dust storms, weathering, and climatic change in the tropics. He has also known for his teaching and best-selling textbooks on human impacts on the environment. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of thirty-nine books (many of which have appeared in numerous editions) and around two hundred papers published in learned journals. He combines research and some teaching with administrative roles.

Goudie was born at Cheltenham on 21 August 1945. He was educated at Dean Close School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA first class with distinction 1967, MA, PhD 1972). In 2002 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Oxford.

He has been working at the University of Oxford since 1970. In 1976 he was appointed Fellow of Hertford College. He was appointed Professor of Geography in 1984 and was head of the School of Geography from 1984 until 1994. From 1995 until 1997, he was President of the Oxford Development Programme and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the university. He became Master of St Cross College in 2003 and left the post in 2011.

In 1970, he was elected a Member of the Institute of British Geographers (of which he was later a member of Council) and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He was Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society from 1980 until 1988 and has been a Vice-President of the Society. In 1991 the Society awarded him its Founders' Medal. In the same year he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In 2002 he was honoured by The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium. He has been President of the Geographical Association and of the International Association of Geomorphologists. He has served as a Delegate to Oxford University Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_G...

Reviews

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good textbook that provides a broad overview for a very broad topic. There are a lot of references so there is opportunity to learn more about everything as needed/desired.

[Garry Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Human impacts are often subtle and complex. They easily escape our notice as they make small cumulative changes in the environment. Only by intensive analysis of the chemistry and spatiotemporal dynamics of particles, forces, and flows can some impacts be detected. But as human population and land use have grown, so has the visibility of the impacts.

In this book, British geographer Andrew Goudie gives well-illustrated discussions of many types of human impacts. Throughout, he points out the complexity of the impacts and uncertainties about their causes. With examples drawn from hundreds of studies, Professor Goudie summarizes a broad array of previous research.

Following an introduction to the development of human attitudes toward nature, the book covers vegetation, animals, soil, water, geomorphology, and climate. It ends with a chapter on the current view of human impacts.

When The Human Impact was first published in 1981, one reviewer, Paul Ward English, said, "this is an unusually fine book." I agree.

[for-much-deliberation ...]

Quite an interesting text for use in geography disciplines, focusing on human developmental impacts on the natural landscape.....

[Mindy Otto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good textbook but my teacher was way more entertaining!