by Simon Jenkins
Sports Science was originally concerned with how athletic performance could be improved and injuries prevented. It has increasingly become concerned with 'health-related' exercise. The Sports Science Handbook captures the contemporary scope of the field that is increasingly referred to as 'exercise and sports science.' In the USA, the term 'kinesiology' is frequently used to refer to the academic study of physical education, including the scientific and health aspects. In addition to explaining many scientific and technical terms, the Sports Science Handbook provides concise overviews of subject matter and clarifies confusing issues. It is an encyclopedic dictionary that is largely a 'review of authoritative reviews,' with many references to key books and journal articles.
Inverse & Risk Methods in Hydrocarbon Exploration
A Compendium
by Professor Ian Lerche
This book looks at how modern developments have enhanced the utility of basin analysis in hydrocarbon exploration. A major factor is modern computing power, which enables complex Monte Carlo-type calculations to be rapidly carried out; a second is the transfer of concepts from the economic arena to the theatre of hydrocarbon production, for example setting risking procedures to cope with data uncertainties. In addition now there are available powerful methods for handling the determination of parameters in the highly non-linear world of equations describing various facets of basin analysis. These methods include genetic algorithms, simulated annealing methods and the so-called 'fast path' method. All these novel procedures and methods are brought together in this volume so that students, as well as professionals, can see what the recent developments in basin analysis have amounted to, and so invoke the procedures as a solid stable platform to build on.
Editors: Dr W. Tempest and Dr H. G. Leventhall
This volume contains the 40-plus papers presented at the 11th international meeting on low frequency noise and vibration and its control, at Maastricht in September 2004. As such, it represents the state-of-the-art in low frequency research. The phenomena of low frequency noise and vibration and their powerful effects on man, animals and the environment spread across several disciplines including psychology, civil and mechanical engineering, architecture, geophysics and acoustics.
Climate Change: A Natural Hazard
by William Kininmonth
The recurring community and environmental impacts of climate extremes, such as the global pattern associated with the El Niño phenomenon, can bring hardship and set back development. It is no accident that those countries that recognise the importance of planning for climate extremes, adequately engineer public infrastructures, and implement appropriate community response strategies are better adapted. When we take a long view, from many decades to centuries, it is important to understand that there are natural fluctuations in climate system. The warming trend of the recent century is not unusual, although a colder climate has been a more persistent characteristic during the past few million years.
Economics of Petroleum Production - A Compendium
Volume 1: Profit & Risk • Volume 2: Value & Worth
by Ian Lerche & Sheila Noeth
There is an oil industry adage that exploration for hydrocarbons always loses money, while production of hydrocarbons always makes money. To what extent that statement is true, is at the heart of this work. Production may indeed always make money, but it is always possible to make more or to make less! To maximise a given opportunity, the skills of a geologist alone are not sufficient, neither are just an economist's skills enough. This Compendium recognises the complexity of petroleum production economic risk problems, and offers itself as both an introduction and a foundation for further thought and research.
Why Carbon Fuels Will Dominate The 21st Century's Global Energy Economy
by Peter R. Odell
Global energy demand has grown only slowly since the mid-1970s. This is predicated to continue, even without actions to limit/reduce CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, increasing energy use is required to eliminate energy poverty, not only for the 2 to 3 billion of the world's present population which suffer from the condition, but also for the net additional 3 billion inhabitants of planet earth by 2050. Sustainability for a more populous 21st century world depends on this development.
Modern Biology & Visions of Humanity
Axel Kahn, Karin Knorr Cetina, Evandro Agazzi, Gilbert Hottois, Fraser Watts, Steven PR Rose, Marilyn Strathern, Ladislav Kovác, Sophie Bessis, Lewis Wolpert, Helga Nowotny, Massimiano Bucchi, Christopher Bigsby, Carl Djerassi
How do the most recent developments in the life science affect our understanding of what it is to be Human? In March 2004 in Genoa, under the auspices of the European Group on Life Sciences, this question was debated by leading figures in science, in philosophy, in the arts, from all over Europe. How modern biology might impact on notions such as progress, with its metaphysical element, on democracy, in a political context, were considered; the dangers of reductionism were debated, and time was made to consider the interactions between science itself and science fiction. This book brings together the speeches of fourteen of the participants. The preface is written by Philippe Busquin, European Commissioner for Research.
Man-Made Global Warming: Unravelling a Dogma
by Hans Labohm, Simon Rozendaal & Dick Thoenes
These three Dutchmen - respectively an international relations expert, a scientific journalist, and a chemical engineer (past chairman of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society) - form part of that growing body of reasonable and qualified people who feel unease at the claims of 'scientific consensus' on climate change, and wonder at the policies flowing from those claims. If the science is flawed, plainly the policies are too. Worldwide, billions of public money will be mis-spent, unnecessary costs placed on existing industry, new industrial development hampered. Together, these three authors are well-placed to point up the weaknesses in the scientific argument that global warming is a man-made phenomenon, and are able to analyse that murky place where the needs for recognition, research grants and votes all come together. Could it really be the case that the 'global warming crisis' is really as much about careers and power as anything else?
The Rapid Growth of Human Populations 1750-2000
W. Stanton
The Rapid Growth of Human Populations 1750-2000 in which first Dr Stanton dramatically shows, by means of graphs of every country's population history, just how world population has grown, and just how irrelevant is the claim that 'rates of growth are slowing'. In his analysis, he looks at the effects of population pressure on land, on migration, on raw materials, and considers likely outcomes.
A Critique of "Climate Change 2001"
by Vincent Gray
Dr Gray's stimulating monograph sets out to challenge the consensus over global warming. As the title suggests, his particular target is the 2001 reports of IPCC Working Groups I, II, and III. Dr Gray argues that while the IPCC has provided a wealth of scientific information on climate, it has not convincingly made its case that increases in carbon dioxide levels are occurring and that increase will have harmful effects. Among his several lines of attack are reflections on the quality and reliability of measurements; views on what weight should be given to different influences on the earth's temperature; the validity of computer modelling in this context.
The Essence of Oil & Gas Depletion
by C. J. Campbell
Oil and Gas are finite fossil fuels from the geological past that are inevitably subject to depletion. Eventually we must run out, but what matters more is the inevitable peak of production when growth gives way to decline. The wider implications of this historic discontinuity are colossal. Colin Campbell, author of the highly acclaimed 'The Coming Oil Crisis', is a leading member of the growing number of experts whose models of depletion show that the world will reach peak within about ten years. After peak comes increasing scarcity, as production can no longer meet demand. The implications for Mankind are huge, opening an entirely new world.
Oil & Gas: Crises and Controversies
Volume 1 - Global Issues
by Professor Peter Odell
Oil and gas are the drivers of modern economies and issues relating to them impinge importantly on national and international politics. This first of two volumes of Odell's collected papers and essays charts the sequence of significant developments, over the past 40 years, of this most international of industries. At one level, his book is a work of recent economic history, but an appreciation of the past is essential for proper interpretation of the present, and all the more so, if forecasting is one's trade. For these reasons, this book needs to be on the shelves of all who are professionally concerned with contemporary and/or prospective global oil and gas issues.
Oil & Gas: Crises and Controversies
Volume 2: Europe's Entanglement
by Professor Peter Odell
Volume 1 of Professor Odell's collected studies and commentaries, Oil
& Gas: Crises & Controversies - Global Issues, has been warmly received.
It is concerned partly with issues of resources' availability and exploitation,
but it also charted how the structure of the industry changed since the early
1970s; and with the implications of the changes for the western world's economy
by Lars Bergman and Marian Radetzki
This monograph sets out to describe the evolution of international climate policy since Kyoto, and to analyse the likely consequences of implementing the policies on nations and markets. As an example, impacts on the electricity market in Sweden are considered in some detail. Authors Lars Bergman and Marian Radetzki generated this work from research carried out under the auspices of SNS, Centre for Business and Policy Studies, Stockholm, a leading Swedish think-tank. The rigorous economic analysis this monograph offers is aimed, firstly, at the politicians and civil servants responsible for formulating and monitoring policy; secondly at senior executives in the energy production sector and other industries responsible for large greenhouse gas emissions, the activities of whose business are the most likely to be affected by climate policy measures. For both groups, it is crucial that policies are good, in that they are scientifically valid, that they contain efficient instruments for achieving their purposes, and that risks of unintended consequences are minimised.
Does economic activity necessarily harm the environment? "No" is Professor Radetzki's uncompromising answer - in fact, quite the opposite! This book challenges the common belief that economic growth constitutes an insurmountable threat to the environment. A wide array of empirical observations are presented to show that environmental quality tends to improve as economic activity is expanded.
The basis for the Kyoto discussions was a set of studies commissioned, compiled and published by the UN's International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). At first glance this scientific foundation plainly shows that significant climate change will occur unless emissions of greenhouse gases are sharply curtailed. On closer examination, the scientific evidence provided in the IPCC material is far from clear. Reputable scientists have expressed critical views about the interpretation of the scientific results and, even more, of the way the material is being used for policy purposes. The main purpose of this book is to voice this critique.
Fashions in the Treatment of Packaging Waste
In early 1998, Producer Responsibility Legislation for the treatment of packaging waste was introduced in Germany. The German example has been followed by several other European countries. More recently, the EU authorities have also jumped on the bandwagon. The legislation mandates the original package users to collect the package waste, mainly for reuse or recycling purposes. To facilitate the process, households and other waste generators are forced to sort, clean and transport the waste to special collection centres. This book should prove an effective tool for convincing politicians across Europe that Producer Responsibility Legislations, as currently designed, involve high costs and small benefits, and require fundamental change.
Campbell's work reviews the geological origins of oil and gas, and the history and current status of this key industry. It assesses how much oil and gas has been produced; what remains in known fields; and what is yet-to-find, explaining how to properly interpret published numbers, many of which are spurious or distorted by vested interests.
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