People and Nature

Emilio F. Moran is John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor at the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, the Center for System Integration and Sustainability, and the Department of Geography at Michigan State University, USA.  Until 2012, he was Distinguished Professor and the James H. Rudy Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, USA. He is the author of ten books, fifteen edited volumes, and more than 190 journal articles and book chapters, which address human interaction with the environment under conditions of change. Most recently, he is the author of Environmental Social Science: Human-Environment Interactions and Sustainability(Wiley Blackwell, 2010). He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Applied Anthropology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010.

• Preface to the Second Edition xAcknowledgments xiii1 Human Agency and the State of the Earth 1Introduction 1Can One Conceive of Ecosystems Without Human Agents? 11Human Agency: Individuals Making a Difference 14Overwhelming Evidence for Concern with the Condition of the Earth System 17Looking Back and Looking Forward 26Additional Resources 27References 282 A Reminder: How Things Were… 33The Study of Human Ecological Relations 33The Contemporary Study of Environmental Issues: The Rise of Cross-Disciplinary Team-Based Approaches 39The Evolution of Human–Environment Interactions 47Hunter-Gatherers: Setting Our Preferences 52How Did We Decide to Become Farmers? 56Herding and Farming: An Uneasy Relationship 59More Food for the Masses 61Additional Resources 64References 643 The Great Forgetting 75Earth Transformations in Prehistory 75The Archeology of Environmental Change 83The Urban–Industrial Revolution and the Unleashing of Prometheus 86The Contemporary Situation: Human-Dominated Ecosystems 89Additional Resources 91References 924 The Web of Life: Are We in it? 96The Web of Life and Trophic Relations: Thinking Ecologically 96Ecosystem Productivity and Net Primary Production 103Land Use and Long-Term Disturbance 105Additional Resources 117References 1175 What Makes People Do That? 122Learning, Adaptation, and Information 122Mitigation and the Cautionary Principle 135Transforming the Face of the Earth: Making Better Decisions 136Additional Resources 139References 1406 Population and Environment 145Theories about Population 146The Demographic Transition 147Aging and International Flows of Labor 150Addressing the Needs of 10 Billion People 153Changing the Population and Environment Nexus 159Additional Resources 162References 1637 Rebuilding Communities and Institutions 166Community in Human Evolution 166What is Sacred in Human Evolution? 169Tragedies of the Commons 172Institutions and Self]Organization 176Bioregionalism, Deep Ecology, and Embedding People in Nature 180Additional Resources 182References 1838 Can We Learn When We Have Enough? 188Material Boys and Material Girls 188Patterns of Consumption in Developed Countries 189Patterns of Consumption in Developing Countries 196A Feeding Frenzy and a Crisis in Public Health 200Burning Fossil Fuels instead of Calories 202Do We Have Enough Material Goods Now? 205Additional Resources 207References 2089 Quality of Life: When Less is More 210Resource Abundance versus Resource Scarcity 210When Less is More 220The Scale of the Problem and the Scale of the Solution 229Restoring Our Balance: Valuing Community and Trust 233Are We Happier When We Have More? 238References 241Index 244