Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the SoilUniversity of California Press, 30 בספט׳ 1992 - 321 עמודים As the crucible of life, the source and final resting place of everything that grows, soil inspires reverence not only in the peasant who derives his daily bread from it, but also in the scientist who contemplates its meaning as the place where life and death meet and exchange vital energies. Out of the Earth is the culmination of the author's long career in conservation. This history of man's use and misuse of soil and water combines a description of the complex inner processes that form soil with a lyrical assertion of its powers and significance. |
תוכן
THE NATURE OF SOIL AND WATER | 21 |
THE LESSONS OF THE PAST | 53 |
Early Farming in the Near East | 71 |
Silt and Salt in Mesopotamia | 78 |
The Gifts of the Nile | 88 |
Husbandry of the Rainfed Uplands | 95 |
The Desert Rejoiced | 108 |
Tapping the Underground Waters | 120 |
The Sorrow of China | 169 |
Deforesting the Earth | 175 |
ManMade Deserts | 186 |
The Plight of Africa | 200 |
Endangered Wetlands | 215 |
Sweet Water and Bitter | 225 |
Water Management in Israel | 244 |
Abusing the Living Filter | 251 |
Farming the Wetlands of Mesoamerica | 125 |
The Advent of Chemical Fertilizers | 129 |
Illustrations following page | 132 |
THE PROBLEMS OF THE PRESENT | 133 |
Saline Seeps in Australia and North America | 135 |
The Promise and Peril of Irrigation | 141 |
Accelerated Erosion | 159 |
UNTO SOIL SHALT THOU RETURN | 259 |
A Global Accounting | 261 |
A Case for Conditional Optimism | 276 |
Notes | 285 |
| 301 | |
| 311 | |
מהדורות אחרות - הצג הכל
מונחים וביטויים נפוצים
Africa agriculture Anasazi ancient animals annual aquifer Aral Sea arid regions called canals cause century chemical civilization climate conservation countries crops cultivation decades deforestation degradation depletion desert desertification drainage drought earth ecological economic effect efficiency Egypt environment environmental erosion Euphrates evaporation farmers farming fertile flood flow forest global grazing groundwater growing habitat hectares Hillel human increase industrial irrigation Israel kilometers lake Mesopotamia meters million moisture Nabateans natural Negev Nile North China Plain nutrients organic percent plain plants pollution population growth practice problem production qanat rain rainfall residues result river roots runoff Sahel saline seeps salt season sediment semiarid silt slopes soil and water soil salinization species square kilometers streams Sudan surface surface runoff sustainable tend terraces tion topsoil trees tropical upland valleys vegetation waste water resources water supply water table waterlogging wetlands World Bank yields