The Earth as Transformed by Human Action: Global and Regional Changes in the Biosphere over the Past 300 Years

by B.L. Turner II (Editor)

The Earth as Transformed by Human Action is the culmination of a mammoth undertaking involving the examination of the toll our continual strides forward, technical and social, take on our world. The purpose of such a study is to document the changes in the biosphere that have taken place over the last 300 years, to contrast global patterns of change to those appearing on a regional level, and to explain the major human forces that have driven these changes. The first section deals strictly with the major human forces of the past 300 years and the second is a detailed account of the transformations of the global environment wrought by human action. The final section examines a range of perspectives and theories that purport to explain human actions with regard to the biosphere.

729 pages, Hardcover

First published April 26, 1991

Reviews

[Ragdoll Metaphysics · Rating 5 out of 5]

More of a reference than a cover to cover situation but still jam packed with a ton of useful info that I hadn’t been previously exposed to about how social systems shape and are shaped by ecology. Drew a lot of interesting global connections for example I learned about the fur trade in the Americas because it had played a role in precipitated of the Revolution but I had no idea of it’s links to Polish forestry. They covered a good amount of precolonial history in the Global South which is under discussed especially Africa like iron smelting in Nigeria (although they oddly leave out stuff about soil erosion in Ethiopia in the East Africa essay despite it featuring in scholarship about the region by experts like James McCann and Dessalegn Rahmato). Overall really informative and full of a ton of tables charts and references.