1491 is not so much the story of a year, as of what that year stands for: the long-debated (and often-dismissed) question of what human civilization in the Americas was like before the Europeans crashed the party. The history books most Americans were (and still are) raised on describe the continents before Columbus as a vast, underused territory, sparsely populated by primitives whose cultures would inevitably bow before the advanced technologies of the Europeans. For decades, though, among the archaeologists, anthropologists, paleolinguists, and others whose discoveries Charles C. Mann brings together in 1491, different stories have been emerging. Among the revelations: the first Americans may not have come over the Bering land bridge around 12,000 B.C. but by boat along the Pacific coast 10 or even 20 thousand years earlier; the Americas were a far more urban, more populated, and more technologically advanced region than generally assumed; and the Indians, rather than living in static harmony with nature, radically engineered the landscape across the continents, to the point that even "timeless" natural features like the Amazon rainforest can be seen as products of human intervention. Mann is well aware that much of the history he relates is necessarily speculative, the product of pot-shard interpretation and precise scientific measurements that often end up being radically revised in later decades. But the most compelling of his eye-opening revisionist stories are among the best-founded: the stories of early American-European contact. To many of those who were there, the earliest encounters felt more like a meeting of equals than one of natural domination. And those who came later and found an emptied landscape that seemed ripe for the taking, Mann argues convincingly, encountered not the natural and unchanging state of the native American, but the evidence of a sudden calamity: the ravages of what was likely the greatest epidemic in human history, the smallpox and other diseases introduced inadvertently by Europeans to a population without immunity, which swept through the Americas faster than the explorers who brought it, and left behind for their discovery a land that held only a shadow of the thriving cultures that it had sustained for centuries before. --Tom Nissley A 1491 Timeline Europe and Asia Dates The Americas 25000-35000 B.C. Time of paleo-Indian migration to Americas from Siberia, according to genetic evidence. Groups likely traveled across the Pacific in boats. Wheat and barley grown from wild ancestors in Sumer. 6000 5000 In what many scientists regard as humankind's first and greatest feat of genetic engineering, Indians in southern Mexico systematically breed maize (corn) from dissimilar ancestor species. First cities established in Sumer. 4000 3000 The Americas' first urban complex, in coastal Peru, of at least 30 closely packed cities, each centered around large pyramid-like structures Great Pyramid at Giza 2650 32 First clear evidence of Olmec use of zero--an invention, widely described as the most important mathematical discovery ever made, which did not occur in Eurasia until about 600 A.D., in India (zero was not introduced to Europe until the 1200s and not widely used until the 1700s) 800-840 A.D. Sudden collapse of most central Maya cities in the face of severe drought and lengthy war Vikings briefly establish first European settlements in North America. 1000 Reconstruction of Cahokia, c. 1250 A.D.* Abrupt rise of Cahokia, near modern St. Louis, the largest city north of the Rio Grande. Population estimates vary from at least 15,000 to 100,000. Black Death devastates Europe. 1347-1351 1398 Birth of Tlacaélel, the brilliant Mexican strategist behind the Triple Alliance (also known as the Aztec empire), which within decades controls central Mexico, then the most densely settled place on Earth. The Encounter: Columbus sails from Europe to the Caribbean. 1492 The Encounter: Columbus sails from Europe to the Caribbean. Syphilis apparently brought to Europe by Columbus's returning crew. 1493 Ferdinand Magellan departs from Spain on around-the-world voyage. 1519 Sixteenth-century Mexica drawing of the effects of smallpox** Cortes driven from Tenochtitlán, capital of the Triple Alliance, and then gains victory as smallpox, a European disease never before seen in the Americas, kills at least one of three in the empire. 1525-1533 The smallpox epidemic sweeps into Peru, killing as much as half the population of the Inka empire and opening the door to conquest by Spanish forces led by Pizarro. 1617 Huge areas of New England nearly depopulated by epidemic brought by shipwrecked French sailors. English Pilgrims arrive at Patuxet, an Indian village emptied by disease, and survive on stored Indian food, renaming the village Plymouth. 1620 *Courtesy Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Collinsville, Ill., painting by Michael Hampshire. **Courtesy Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, N.M. (Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España, 1547-77).
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Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop introduces principles of GIS as it teaches the mechanics of using ESRI’s leading technology. Key concepts are combined with detailed illustrations and step-by-step exercises to acquaint readers with the building blocks of ArcGIS® Desktop including ArcMapâ¢, for displaying and querying maps, ArcCatalogâ¢, for organizing geographic data, and ModelBuilderâ¢, for diagramming and processing solutions to complex spatial analysis problems. Its broad scope, simple style, and practical orientation make this book an ideal classroom text and an excellent resource for those learning GIS on their own. A data CD for working through the exercises and a fully functioning 180-day trial ArcGIS® Desktop 10 software is included.
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Paper or plastic? Neither, say William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Why settle for the least harmful alternative when we could have something that is better--say, edible grocery bags! In Cradle to Cradle, the authors present a manifesto calling for a new industrial revolution, one that would render both traditional manufacturing and traditional environmentalism obsolete. Recycling, for instance, is actually "downcycling," creating hybrids of biological and technical "nutrients" which are then unrecoverable and unusable. The authors, an architect and a chemist, want to eliminate the concept of waste altogether, while preserving commerce and allowing for human nature. They offer several compelling examples of corporations that are not just doing less harm--they're actually doing some good for the environment and their neighborhoods, and making more money in the process. Cradle to Cradle is a refreshing change from the intractable environmental conflicts that dominate headlines. It's a handbook for 21st-century innovation and should be required reading for business hotshots and environmental activists. --Therese Littleton
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US Student Edition. Paperback. ISBN-0495560162 Used couple times. no writing or highlight. ship fast
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The Solar Electricity Handbook is a simple, practical guide to using electric solar panels and designing and installing photovoltaic PV systems. Significantly updated for 2011, the latest edition assumes no previous knowledge of solar electric systems. The book explains how solar panels work and how they can be used. It explains the advantages of solar energy and the drawbacks that you need to take into account when designing a solar power system. As well as explaining the underlying principles, it provides a step-by-step guide so that you can successfully design and install a photovoltaic solar system from scratch. Internet Linked Accompanying the book is one of the most comprehensive solar resource websites in the world. It contains powerful online tools such as the Solar Project Analysis toolkit, which provides a full feasibility and cost document for your project; Solar Irradiance Tables and Solar Angle Calculators for every major town and city in every country in the world; lists of suppliers and a Contact the Author form if you have any questions about your specific project. Why buy the Solar Electricity Handbook? The Handbook is a simple, practical guide to using electric photovoltaic panels.The book is suitable for enthusiastic novices and building professionals.Clear examples, diagrams and example projects are given to demonstrate the true capabilities of these systems.The Handbook is updated yearly, providing an up-to-date reference for anyone planning to use solar power technology.It is the most comprehensive book on photovoltaic electric systems available today.It is backed up by the most powerful online calculator tools available, to make your design and calculations as straightforward as possible.The Handbook provides you with information that is relevant to you and your project, wherever you live in the world.
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Rather than the 25 to 30 chapters found in most environmental science textbooks, the authors have limited Principles of Environmental Science: Inquiry and Applications to 15 chapters--perfect for the one-semester, non-majors environmental science course. True to its title, the goal of this concise text is to provide an up-to-date, introductory view of essential themes in environmental science along with offering students numerous opportunities to practice scientific thinking and active learning.
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Price: Mastering ArcGIS is an introductory GIS text that is designed to offer everything you need to master the basic elements of GIS. The author's step-by-step approach helps students negotiate the challenging tasks involved in learning sophisticated GIS software. The fifth edition is updated to follow the new software release of ArcGIS 10. An innovative and unique feature of Mastering ArcGIS is its accompanying CD-ROM with narrated video clips that show students exactly how to perform chapter tutorials before attempting an exercise on their own.
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Call it âZen and the Art of Farmingâ or a âLittle Green Book,â Masanobu Fukuokaâs manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book âis valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical. It is an inspiring, necessary book about agriculture because it is not just about agriculture.â Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror natureâs own laws. Over the next three decades he perfected his so-called âdo-nothingâ technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort.Whether youâre a guerrilla gardener or a kitchen gardener, dedicated to slow food or simply looking to live a healthier life, you will find something hereâyou may even be moved to start a revolution of your own.
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The definitive history of water resources in the American West, and a very illuminating lesson in the political economy of limited resources anywhere. Highly recommended!
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