Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth

Large Octavo, green boards with gold stamping, pictorial endpapers, in lime green and black pictorial jacket, xxxviii, 1193 pages illustrations, tables and charts, index, maps (some folded, color on lining papers) 25 cm; 5 lbs 6 ounces. "Man's role in changing the face of the earth is the first large-scale evaluation of what has happened and what is happening to the earth under man's impress. Presented at an international symposium organized by the Werner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and held at Princeton in June 1955, these papers focus viewpoints from nearly all fields of knowledge upon man's capacity to transform his physical-biological environment and upon his cumulative and irreversible alterations of the earth. In these pages fifty-three contributing scholars provide important insights into a pioneer field of study"--Jacket flap Contents: Part I. Retrospect. [Section 1.1] Man's tenure of the earth. The agency of man on the earth / Carl O. Sauer. Changing ideas of the habitable world / Clarence J. Glacken. Cultural differences in the interpretation of natural resources / Alexander Spoehr. The antiquity and world expansion of human culture / Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. [Section 1.2] Through the corridors of time. Fire as the first great force employed by man / Omer C. Stewart. Early food-producing populations / Karl J. Narr. The hydraulic civilizations / Karl A. Wittfogel. Effects of classical antiquity on the land / Fritz M. Heichelheim. The clearing of the woodland in Europe / H.C. Darby. The ecology of peasant life in western Europe / E. Estyn Evans. The quality of peasant living in central Europe / Gottfried Pfeifer. On the role of nature and man in changing the face of the dry belt of Asia / Hermann von Wissmann et al. Changes in climate, vegetation, and human adjustment in the Saharo-Arabian belt, with special reference to Africa / Soliman Huzayyin. Introduction to the subsistence economy of India / E.K. Janaki Ammal. The quality of land use of tropical cultivators / Pierre Gourou. The grassland of North America: its occupance and the challenge of continuous reappraisals / James C. Malin. The age of fossil fuels / Eugene Ayres. The natural history of urbanization / Lewis Mumford. [Section 1.3] Symposium discussion: retrospect. Man's tenure of the earth. Subsistence economics. Commercial economics. Industrial revolution and urban dominance. Part II. Process. [Section 2.1] Introductory. Environmental changes through forces independent of man / Richard J. Russell. The processes of environmental change by man / Paul B. Sears. [Section 2.2] Man's effects on the seas and waters of the land. Harvests of the seas / Michael Graham. Influences of man upon coast lines / John H. Davis. Man's ports and channels / Lester E. Klimm. Changes in quantities and qualities of ground and surface waters / Harold E. Thomas. [Section 2.3] Modification of rural microclimates / C.W. Thornthwaite. The climate of towns / H.E. Landsberg. Artificially induced precipitation and its potentialities / Vincent J. Schaefer. [Section 2.4] Slope and soil changes through human use. The nature of induced erosion and aggradation / Arthur N. Strahler. Land use and sediment yield / Luna B. Leopold. Physical, chemical, and biochemical changes in the soil community / William A. Albrecht. [Section 2.5] Modifications of biotic communities. The re-creative power of plant communities / Edward H. Graham. Fire, primitive agriculture, and grazing in the tropics / H.H. Bartlett. The modification of mid-latitude grasslands and forests by man / John T. Curtis. The impact of exotic invasion on the remaining New World mid-latitude grasslands / Andrew H. Clark. Man as a maker of new plants and new plant communities / Edgar Anderson. Man's ecological dominance through domesticated animals on wild lands / F. Fraser Darling. Man as an agent in the spread of organisms / Marston Bates. [Section 2.6] Ecology of wastes. Disposal of man's wastes / Abel Wolman. Sanita.…