Critical Jurisprudence: The Political Philosophy of Justice

Book Description

Otfried H & ouml;ffe is one of the foremost political philosophers in Europe today. In this major work, already a classic in continental Europe, he re-examines philosophical discourse on justice - from Classical Greece to the present day. H & ouml;ffe confronts what he sees as the two major challenges to any theory of justice: the legal, positivist claim that there are no standards of justice external to legal systems; and the anarchist claim that justice demands the rejection and abolition of all legal and state systems. H & ouml;ffe sets out to continue the 'philosophical project of modernity', the legitimation of human rights, and their guarantee by the state, while at the same time rehabilitating the classical theory of political justice represented by Plato and Aristotle. He questions the success of the positivists in avoiding extra-legal normative claims, and casts doubt on the plausibility of their criticism of the Natural Law tradition. Most anarchists, he argues, rely on an uncritical assumption that social institutions other than states and legal orders do not coerce. In H & ouml;ffe's view, some coercion is unavoidable, and the grounds for its justification must be examined. Principles of justice will be those principles which define fundamental rights, and which must be enforced if rights are to be respected.

Book Description

This book deals with the role of plants in combating desertification. Desertification - the degradation of soils in drylands - is a phenomenon occurring in scores of countries around the globe. The number of people (in semiarid regions) affected by the steady decline in the productivity of their lands is in the hundred millions.
This work provides the reader with the experience of scientists from 30 countries and international institutions around the globe, working in cold and warm dry regions to bring plant-based solutions to one of the most severe problems of our times. The measures required to halt or reverse the process of desertification fall into many categories - policy, institutional, sociological/anthropological, and technical.

The Last Ranch: A Colorado Community and the Coming Desert

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Where have all the cowboys gone?
very accurate

The Last Ranch: A Colorado Community and the Coming Desert
Sam Bingham
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156005395

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Colorado's San Luis Valley is a land of broad, expansive range ringed by massive mountains that is visited only rarely by rain, about eight inches a year. It is also a place where a small enclave of ranchers struggle to make a living, fighting not only the elements but a host of forces--politics, the pressures of modern culture and technology, the marketplace--that conspire to put an end to their generations-old community. For a year beginning in 1992, naturalist and magazine writer Sam Bingham lived in the valley. In The Last Ranch he brings to life both the people of the valley and a flock of international characters who have targeted the San Luis Valley for exploitation. At the center of the story are Donnie and Karen Whitten, high school sweethearts who live in a doublewide trailer with their three children, and who come to symbolize the tenacity of the residents of the valley as they endure against very long odds.

Book Description

In a book that is “must reading for those interested in the future of the american West” (Kirkus Reviews), Bingham shows how ranchers in Colorado’s San Luis Valley-along with a Rhodesian expert, a Canadian billionaire, and a Hindu mathematician-coped with an unfolding environmental disaster: the rapid desertification of their land.

Customer Reviews:

Where have all the cowboys gone?.......1998-07-20

Like a string of wet years followed by the worst ever drought, the Last Ranch shows that progress is as much about going forward as it is going back, in that lessons must be learned and relearned by every generation, and what at once seemed right, is not right, and the obvious, easiest path is the slow road to ruin. I learned a lot about change and my interest in evapotranspiration was increased. There are enough details without explanation to where you can draw your own conclusions or where you are pointed to further consideration. Bingham points out ever so gently that our problems are social and individual, not political or technological. What a cast of characters and organizations.

very accurate.......1997-09-28

The San Luis Valley is a unique place which is hard to describe. This book has done an excellent job and is very accurate. I was born and raised there and my grandfather founded the town that much of his story relates to - Center, Colo. I can attest to the accuracy. It is also a very interesting story.

Desertification (Contemporary Issues in Geography)

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Desertification (Contemporary Issues in Geography)
Nicholas J. Middleton
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

The topic of desertification demands the application of all the skills that the geographer is concerned with. It is an issue that is studied at a variety of spatial scales from global through to village level. DT Takes students through a wide range of types of evidence and methods of study involved in looking at desertification DT Highlights some question marks which have made the subject an issue and questions some of the assumptions behind the issue DT Highlights the problems of working on such a broad-scale physical and social subject

The Causes And Progression Of Desertification (Ashgate Studies in Environmental Policy and Practice)

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Want to share 3 reviews ...

The Causes And Progression Of Desertification (Ashgate Studies in Environmental Policy and Practice)
Helmut Geist
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0754643239

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Want to share 3 reviews ..........2006-01-04

"Geist's book ... is an antidote to some of the uninformed hand-waving that has taken place in the past. It is useful not only because of its analyses, but also because it has a good review of some of the uncertainties and debates in desertification research and gives indications as to how indicators of desertification can be improved." Times Higher Education Supplement

"A fascinating book for those who are interested in the fate of our planet. An in-depth study that puts desertification in perspective at a moment when human-induced climte perturbations become significant." Guy Brasseur, chair of IGBP

"The Causes and Progression of Desertification is a timely contribution that provides additional perspectives on desertification and dry land degradation. This book brings together a variety of scientific perspectives that can begin to further inform several global environmental activities that are endeavouring to better manage such problems". Coleen Vogel, chair of IHDP

Governing Global Desertification: Linking Environmental Degradation, Poverty And Participation (The Global Environmental Governance Series) (The Global ... (The Global Environmental Governance Series)

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Governing Global Desertification: Linking Environmental Degradation, Poverty And Participation (The Global Environmental Governance Series) (The Global ... (The Global Environmental Governance Series)

Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 075464359X

As in the Heart, So in the Earth: Reversing the Desertification of the Soul and the Soil

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A powerful parable
Leads readers to ideas of planetary harmony and connections with the land

As in the Heart, So in the Earth: Reversing the Desertification of the Soul and the Soil
Pierre Rabhi
Manufacturer: Park Street Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1594770816
Release Date: 2006-06-17

Book Description

The world’s leading expert on reversing soil desertification shows how ecology can flourish only when spiritual elements are present

• Uses a parable from the African oral tradition to provide a living testimony of what has been lost with the rise of modern technology

• Provides a vital account of the strong relationship between soil and soul and how this relationship can be restored

As in the Heart, So in the Earth is a strong indictment of a civilization that, while seeking domination over the earth, mutilates, tortures, and desacralizes it. For Pierre Rabhi ecology is inseparable from spirituality. He shows how the growing desertification of North Africa is a reflection of the “desert” that is claiming the hearts and souls of the inhabitants of the Western world--how dead soil is mirrored in our deadened souls--and how reconciliation with Mother Earth must be accompanied by relearning our ancestors’ reverence for the soil.

Using a traditional African parable grounded in the very wisdom of the earth, Pierre Rabhi seeks to initiate the reader into a time when the people that dwelled on this planet did so harmoniously and could converse easily with the land. Village elder Tyemoro recounts the gradual destruction of his village’s culture and all that has sustained it as the miracles promised by modern technology brought more harm than good. This same drama is recurring throughout the world, where indigenous value systems that have endured for millennia are torn apart by contact with modern civilization. Yet Rahbi offers hope--if those in the modern world will stop to hear the words of their ancestors who worked the land, for our destiny is linked irrevocably to that of the earth.

Customer Reviews:

A powerful parable.......2006-10-03

Pierre Rabhi joins the ranks of great agro-ecologists such as Vandana Shiva, Wendell Barry, or Mansanobu Fukuoka. As an American journalist said on hearing of Rabhi, "An Arab ecologist? Thank God there's at least one!"

In this book, Rabhi tries a fictionalized approach, spinning a folk tale of modern Africa. Perhaps this will catch the world's imagination better than presentations of scientific evidence or documentation of alternative farming projects. A short quote illustrates the obvious dream:

"The village of Mafi fully deserved its reputation. Staring at this swath of greenery and life in the midst of a desert environment, I reflected how little we measure the miracles that can arise from generous intelligence and constructive will. Not only did this green island emanate a palpable sense of well-being, it ennobled the arid country around it. Much of its landscaping followed the principles of antierosion, and many young trees now grew there. This place was a message of hope carved in the very flesh of death. Now I understood better what was meant by the sickness of the earth and how it is possible for humans to transform themselves from destructive parasites to healers." (p. 127)

Leads readers to ideas of planetary harmony and connections with the land.......2006-09-09

Pierre Rabhi's As In The Heart, So In The Earth: Reversing The Desertification Of The Soul And The Soil blends ecology with spirituality, explaining how the growing desertification of North Africa reflects the desolation claiming the hearts and souls of the Western world and how dead soil mirrors dead souls. A traditional African parable leads readers to ideas of planetary harmony and connections with the land, and comes from Rabhi's southern Algeria roots and involvement in agri-ecology with many world organizations.

Postmodern Global Governance: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

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Postmodern Global Governance: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
Andreas Rechkemmer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3832910328

The Gardens of Their Dreams: Desertification and Culture in World History

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A very useful, positive and meaningful book
Fascinating combination of ecology, sociology and history

The Gardens of Their Dreams: Desertification and Culture in World History
Brian Griffith
Manufacturer: Zed Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 185649800X

Book Description

This magnificent history of the desert relates the human consequences of its relentless expansion. As a result of the past several thousand years, the Great Desert now stretches in almost unbroken continuity from Mauritania's Atlantic seaboard through the Middle East and Central Asia to the Great Wall of China. The author seeks to understand how the great civilizations in the original "green lands" of North Africa, Ancient Egypt, the Middle East, South Asia, and China responded and changed under the pressure of invaders fleeing growing environmental degradation in the surrounding deserts. In fascinating detail, Brian Griffith's cultural history of the deserts of Africa and Asia shows how the expanding wasteland fundamentally reshaped people's images of nature, women, politics, and religion.

Customer Reviews:

A very useful, positive and meaningful book.......2007-03-23

This book covers over 10,000 years of social, economic and environmental changes. It shows how our destruction of nature has changed society over time. The stories it tells are powerful and well written. I think it's a great book for anybody who really likes history and wants a peaceful and healthy environment in the future.

Fascinating combination of ecology, sociology and history.......2004-01-06

I admit that when I first came across this book I wasn't quite sure about the significance of the subject matter, or, indeed, if Id'be interested. It was my pleasure to discover, however, an entirely new approach to explain social and espcieally environmnetal degradation. The author interestingly shows how women are the first to suffer from environmental degradation. He uses the examples of lands facing - or that have faced - important desertification processes to show how a liberal society where men and women share more or less equal status can shift to favor the dominance of males. Students of ancient Egypt will be very interested to know there is a chapter on how desertification affected socio-cultural processes (and stagnation) in Egypt. There are chapters on China, North Africa and Europe some also touch on the effects that desertification has on racism and the strengthening of racial identities - namely aryan. It may all look imprpbable in thsi brief description that does little justice to the volume; however, it is surprising to find that there is a logical and sensical approach that allows for a very interesting,timely and satisfying read.

Resurrecting the Granary of Rome: Environmental History and French Colonial Expansion in North Africa (Ecology & History)

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Resurrecting the Granary of Rome: Environmental History and French Colonial Expansion in North Africa (Ecology & History)
Diana K. Davis
Manufacturer: Ohio University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0821417525

Book Description

Tales of deforestation and desertification in North Africa have been told from the Roman period to the present. Such stories of environmental decline in the Maghreb are still recounted by experts and are widely accepted without question today. International organizations such as the United Nations frequently invoke these inaccurate stories to justify environmental conservation and development projects in the arid and semiarid lands in North Africa and around the Mediterranean basin. Recent research in arid lands ecology and new paleoecological evidence, however, do not support many claims of deforestation, overgrazing, and desertification in this region.

Diana K. Davis’s pioneering analysis reveals the critical influence of French scientists and administrators who established much of the purported scientific basis of these stories during the colonial period in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, illustrating the key role of environmental narratives in imperial expansion. The processes set in place by the use of this narrative not only systematically disadvantaged the majority of North Africans but also led to profound changes in the landscape, some of which produced the land degradation that continues to plague the Maghreb today.

Resurrecting the Granary of Rome exposes many of the political, economic, and ideological goals of the French colonial project in these arid lands and the resulting definition of desertification that continues to inform global environmental and development projects. The first book on the environmental history of the Maghreb, this volume reframes much conventional thinking about the North African environment. Davis’s book is essential reading for those interested in global environmental history.

The Biblical Flood: Global Warming & Bush's Harvest

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The Biblical Flood: Global Warming & Bush's Harvest
William W Morgan
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

It is generally agreed by all reputable, mainstream climatologist that Global Warming is real. That there will be rising sea levels and temperature changes ranging from an ice age to desertification of large parts of the planet. With our present societal system based on coercion we have Global Dumbing. The result will be uncontrollable disorder and chaos, preventing us from solving the problems of Global Warming. We can not survive as a viable specie with our present societal system based on coercion. Darwin and Galambos tell us that the only system under which we can first solve Global Dumbing and then Global Warming-and they must be solved in that order-is with total and complete individual freedom. This book describes the problems and how to solve them. To prevent our extinction.

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