• Home
  • About Dan
  • Books by Daniel Botkin
    • Signed Books
  • Reflections & Opinions
    • Renegade Naturalist Radio
  • Research
  • Dan Botkin’s Newsletter
    • Manage Your Account
  • Speaking & Consulting

Daniel B. Botkin

Solving environmental problems by understanding how nature works

  • People & Nature
  • Climate, Energy & Biodiversity
  • Myths, Folklore & Science

Changing the Global Environment

Perspectives on Human Involvement
By Daniel B. Botkin, Margriet Caswell, John E. Estes, and Angelo Orio


In 1956 a distinguished group of scientist met and wrote chapters in what became a classic book about people and environment, Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth. With the development of the then new global perspective on life. Inspired by this book, a similarly distinguished group experts teamed up to write a book that took the same themes to a planetary level. The result was Changing the Global Environment: Perspectives on Human Involvement.

Where to buy:

Hardcover:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Paberback
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

More About the BookReviewsExcerpt
In the last human generation we have learned that life existed on our earth for more than three billion years, yet man has done more to change the earth and its ability to support life in the last few centuries than preceding life forms have over hundreds of millions of years. And nearly all of these changes were brought about as unforeseen or unconsidered side-effects of our technologies.

The editors of this book feel that rather than accepting environmental degradation as the wages of progress, today we are seeing "a more widely accepted idea that concern for the environment is simply good economics and planning."

In a series of essays written by environmental, economic, and social scientists from around the world, Changing the Global Environment looks at the ecological problems facing us as we move into the next century and examines possible solutions suggested by such new techniques as remote sensing and the implementation of worldwide computer-based data systems.

Edited by Daniel Botkin, economist M. Caswell, geographer and remote sensing expert J. E. Estes, and biologist A. Orio, it was originally published in 1989 by Academic Press, N.Y. This book was one of the products of a project intended to develop an international center for environmental studies on an otherwise unused island in the Venetian Lagoon, an idea suggested by a group of leading Venetian citizens and the government of that city.

Hardcover, Elsevier Science & Technology Books (July 1989)
ISBN-13: 9780121187316
ISBN: 0121187314

This book contains 27 essays written by environmental, economic and social scientists from around the world….They provide an overview of the role of human beings in changing the global environment: what we have done, are doing, and could accomplish in the future.
–Geocarto International
Multiple perspectives on global environmental concerns are effectively presented in this volume…
The focus of most current discussions of global environment is on the concept of sustainability; such is the case in this book, where it is done well.
–Environmental Professional
Share Button

From Daniel B. Botkin, Ph.D

Daniel Botkin
I believe we are mostly on the wrong track in the way we try to deal with the environment. Everything I do, study, learn, and advise about the environment is different from the status quo. Throughout my career, I have tried to understand how nature works and use that understanding to figure out how we can solve our most pressing environmental problems.

My process over the past 45 years has been to look carefully at the facts, make simple calculations from them (sometimes simple computer models) and then tell people what I have learned. It’s surprising how rarely people bother to look at the facts. This has surprised me every time I’ve started a new ecology research project or work on an environmental issue.

In the course of my work and studies, I have learned many things and I want to tell you about them. That is the purpose of this website.

Follow @danielbotkin

Books by Dan Botkin

The Moon in the Nautilus Shell  Strange Encounters
Powering the Future  No Man's Garden
See all books by Dan Botkin

Jabowa III Forest Model


Jabowa Forest Model
Jabowa Forest Model for Windows 7.
This forest model, used around the world, was developed first in 1970 by Daniel B. Botkin, James F. Janak and James R. Wallis

JABOWA remains the most completely detailed and well validated forest growth model available, accounting for 95% or more of the variation in real forests where it has been tested.

The book Forest Dynamics: An Ecological Model (available as an eBook) provides a complete description of the model and the rationales behind its development.

Order Online

Sea Ice Study

The Bockstoce and Botkin Historical Sea Ice Data Study has a new home at the University of Alaska website. The data include more than 52,000 daily observations in an unbroken 65 year record from 1849 – 1914.

See related papers

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2006–2023 Daniel B. Botkin · Site by Webdancers · Log in