Challenged Earth : an overview of humanitys stewardship of Earth

This timely book provides a comprehensive insight into the challenges facing humanity and Earth in the 21st century. It opens with a discussion of the domination of all the continents and oceans by a growing human population. This is followed by an appraisal of the extent to which water and food supplies will be able to accommodate this population, which may reach eleven billion by 2100. The rapidly increasing ability to change biology and evolution through genomics is considered next and complements a discussion of disease, which is viewed largely as an evolutionary struggle between humanity and pathogens. A seemingly insatiable demand for energy, future energy supplies and the impact of their use on climate and attempts to ameliorate these effects are next examined. The book concludes with a discussion of the partial destruction of the ozone layer and the international effort to repair the damage.

Chapter 1 The Living Planet	p. 1
1.1 Life on Earth	p. 1
1.2 Life's Vicissitudes	p. 2
1.3 A New Realization	p. 4
1.4 Humanity's Footprint	p. 5
1.5 Economics and the Environment	p. 9
1.6 Changing Earth	p. 12
1.7 An Ecological Accounting	p. 15
1.8 Biodiversity: How Many and How Much?	p. 17
1.9 The Sixth Extinction: The Loss of Biomes	p. 20
1.10 The Sixth Extinction: The Loss of Species	p. 22
1.11 The Human Condition	p. 27
1.12 Natural Disasters	p. 28
1.13 Unnatural Disasters	p. 32
1.14 Challenged Earth	p. 35
Chapter 2 The Human Population	p. 45
2.1 The Pressure of Population	p. 45
2.2 Where People Live	p. 47
2.3 Carrying Capacity	p. 48
2.4 The Growth of Population	p. 51
2.5 Birth Rates and Population Change	p. 56
2.6 Wealth and Birth Rate	p. 57
2.7 Education and Birth Rate	p. 58
2.8 Contraception and Birth Rate	p. 60
2.9 The Ageing Population	p. 61
2.10 Life Expectancy Decline in the Transitional Economy Nations	p. 66
2.11 The Missing Females	p. 68
2.12 Urbanization	p. 69
2.13 Migration	p. 70
2.14 The Future	p. 72
Chapter 3 Water: The Vital Resource	p. 76
3.1 The Water Planet	p. 76
3.2 Water and Life	p. 77
3.3 The Renewal of Fresh Water: The Hydrological Cycle	p. 82
3.4 Humanity's Use of Fresh Water	p. 83
3.5 The Global Distribution of Fresh Water	p. 85
3.6 Rivers and Lakes	p. 88
3.7 The Aral Sea: A Major Environmental Disaster	p. 91
3.8 Rivers and Dams	p. 95
3.9 Dams on the Colorado and Columbia Rivers	p. 98
3.10 Salt in the South: The Murray-Darling River Basin	p. 101
3.11 River in the Desert: The Nile	p. 103
3.12 The Twin Rivers: The Euphrates and the Tigris	p. 107
3.13 The Three Gorges Dam: The Biggest Dam of All	p. 110
3.14 A River Reclaimed: The Rhine	p. 113
3.15 Water Pollution: A Massive Threat	p. 116
3.16 Acid Rain: Atmospheric Water Pollution	p. 120
3.17 Water in the Twenty-First Century	p. 125
3.18 Glimmers of Hope	p. 127
Chapter 4 Food: Famine and Plenty	p. 140
4.1 Feeding Humanity	p. 140
4.2 Photosynthesis: The Origin of Food	p. 144
4.3 The Need for Food	p. 146
4.4 Food and Health	p. 150
4.5 The Sources of Food	p. 152
4.6 The Green Revolution	p. 155
4.7 Fertilizers	p. 158
4.8 Pesticides and Pest Control	p. 163
4.9 Food from Animals	p. 165
4.10 Soil: The Foundation of Agriculture	p. 166
4.11 Soil Degradation: Agriculture's Nemesis	p. 168
4.12 Fish: The Last Wild Harvest	p. 171
4.13 The Wild Fisheries	p. 174
4.14 Aquaculture	p. 176
4.15 Fertilizing the Oceans	p. 179
4.16 Genetically Modified Crops and Food	p. 181
4.17 Genetically Engineered Plants	p. 184
4.18 The Major Genetically Modified Crops	p. 185
4.19 Public Attitudes to Genetically Modified Crops and Food	p. 190
4.20 Genetically Modified Crops and the Developing Nations	p. 193
4.21 Food Prospects for the Twenty-First Century	p. 194
Chapter 5 A New Biology	p. 210
5.1 A New Understanding: Genetics	p. 210
5.2 Genetics at the Cellular Level: Prokaryotes and Viruses	p. 212
5.3 Genetics at the Cellular Level: Eukaryotes	p. 215
5.4 A Molecular View of Genetics: Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)	p. 216
5.5 The Molecular Machinery	p. 220
5.6 Ribonucleic Acid (RNA): The Genomic Enabler	p. 222
5.7 Genetically Engineered Children	p. 225
5.8 The Grand Design: The Genome	p. 226
5.9 Life Looks at Life: The Human Genome	p. 228
5.10 The Genome and Disease	p. 232
5.11 The Genomic Pandora's Box	p. 235
5.12 Commercialising the Genome	p. 236
5.13 Genetic Engineering: Bacteria	p. 238
5.14 Genetic Engineering: Plants	p. 240
5.15 Genetic Engineering: Animals	p. 243
5.16 The Cloning of Humans	p. 248
5.17 New Cells for Old: Stem Cells	p. 250
5.18 Gene Therapy	p. 253
5.19 Genetic Engineering and Humanity's Future	p. 255
Chapter 6 Health and Disease: An Evolutionary Struggle	p. 267
6.1 In Sickness and in Health	p. 267
6.2 The Black Death: A European Catastrophe	p. 269
6.3 Knowing the Enemy: Pathogens	p. 273
6.4 Prions: The Unexpected Pathogens	p. 276
6.5 The Immune System and Human Resistance to Disease	p. 277
6.6 Strengthening the Defences	p. 280
6.7 Vaccines: Training the Immune System	p. 283
6.8 Antibiotics: The Fallible Defence	p. 286
6.9 Antibiotic Resistance: An Evolutionary Fight	p. 288
6.10 Changing Patterns of Disease	p. 291
6.11 The Health and Wealth of Nations	p. 293
6.12 Influenza: The Perennial Threat	p. 296
6.13 The Influenza Virus	p. 297
6.14 The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Pandemic	p. 301
6.15 The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)	p. 303
6.16 HIV Treatment and Control	p. 305
6.17 The Origin of the HIV	p. 307
6.18 Tuberculosis: "The Captain of All These Men of Death"	p. 308
6.19 Malaria: A Mosquito Borne Tropical Scourge	p. 311
6.20 Defences Against Malaria	p. 313
6.21 Re-emerging and New Pathogens	p. 316
6.22 Cancer: The Global Nemesis	p. 321
6.23 The Causes of Cancer	p. 323
6.24 The Fight Against Cancer	p. 327
6.25 Ageing: Causes and Consequences	p. 330
6.26 Future Patterns of Health	p. 331
6.27 Climate Change: An Agent for Changing Disease Patterns	p. 334
6.28 Biological Warfare: The Great Betrayal	p. 335
Chapter 7 Energy: The Basis of Modern Civilization	p. 355
7.1 Civilization and Energy	p. 355
7.2 Total Primary Energy: The Sum of all Energies	p. 357
7.3 The Solar Origin of Energy	p. 360
7.4 The Wealth of Nations and Energy	p. 363
7.5 Oil: The Great Addiction	p. 366
7.6 Fossil Fuel Reserves: The Anxious Estimates	p. 370
7.7 Patterns of Energy Consumption	p. 373
7.8 Inflammable Ice: Methane Hydrate	p. 376
7.9 Capturing Carbon Dioxide: First Attempts to Slow Global Warming	p. 379
7.10 Biomass Energy: A Tried but Limited Solution	p. 384
7.11 The Hydrogen Economy: A Distant Dream	p. 387
7.12 Nuclear Power: The Divisive Energy Source	p. 392
7.13 Nuclear Fission	p. 395
7.14 Yucca Mountain: The Forever Nuclear Store	p. 399
7.15 The Limits to the Use of Nuclear Fission Power	p. 401
7.16 Nuclear Fusion: The Elusive Power Source	p. 402
7.17 Non Carbon Renewable Energy	p. 404
7.18 Future Energy Use and Supply	p. 408
Chapter 8 Greenhouse Earth and Climate Change	p. 417
8.1 The Greenhouse Effect: Earth's Solar Energy Balance	p. 417
8.2 The Greenhouse Gases	p. 420
8.3 The Enhanced Greenhouse Effect	p. 423
8.4 Increasing Carbon Dioxide and Other Greenhouse Gas Levels	p. 427
8.5 Biological Responses to Increasing Carbon Dioxide Levels	p. 431
8.6 Rising Methane and Nitrous Oxide Levels	p. 434
8.7 Clouds, Aerosols, Smoke and Soot	p. 435
8.8 Global Warming and Climate Change	p. 438
8.9 The Temperature Record in the Ground	p. 441
8.10 Melting Ice and Rising Oceans	p. 441
8.11 The Temperature Record in the Ice	p. 444
8.12 The Milankovitch Cycles and Climate Change	p. 447
8.13 The Role of the Oceans	p. 450
8.14 The Thermohaline Cycle	p. 453
8.15 El Nino and Sudden Climate Change	p. 458
8.16 Warming Oceans and Bleaching Coral Reefs	p. 461
8.17 The Future	p. 462
Chapter 9 The Ozone Layer: Earth's Stratospheric Defence	p. 477
9.1 The Atmosphere and the Ozone Layer	p. 477
9.2 Ozone in the Stratosphere	p. 480
9.3 Ozone Destruction	p. 482
9.4 The Antarctic Ozone Hole	p. 483
9.5 The International Response and the Montreal Protocol	p. 485
9.6 A Closer Look at the Ozone Layer	p. 487
9.7 The Antarctic Vortex	p. 488
9.8 Flight into the Antarctic Vortex	p. 491
9.9 Chlorofluorocarbons: Nemesis of the Ozone Layer	p. 494
9.10 Changes in Stratospheric Chlorine and Chlorofluorocarbon Levels	p. 496
9.11 Lingering Concerns	p. 499
Subject Index	p. 504

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