{"title":"Christopher J Preston","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"tenacious-beasts-book-christopher-j-preston-9780262047562","title":"Tenacious Beasts","description":"An inspiring look at wildlife species that are defying the odds and teaching important lessons about how to share a planet.  First Honorable Mention, The Rachel Carson Environment Book Award  Winner of the 2024 High Plains Book Award, Non-Fiction Category  Finalist, 2024 PROSE Awards: Popular Science and Mathematics Category  Included in The New Yorker's \"Best Books of 2023, So Far\"  The news about wildlife is dire—more than 900 species have been wiped off the planet since industrialization. Against this bleak backdrop, however, there are also glimmers of hope and crucial lessons to be learned from animals that have defied global trends toward extinction. Bear in Italy, bison in North America, whales in the Atlantic. These populations are back from the brink, some of them in numbers unimaginable in a century. How has this happened? What shifts in thinking did it demand? In crisp, transporting prose, Christopher Preston reveals the mysteries and challenges at the heart of these resurgences.  Drawing on compelling personal stories from the researchers, Indigenous people, and activists who know the creatures best, Preston weaves together a gripping narrative of how some species are taking back vital, ecological roles. Each section of the book—farms, prairies, rivers, forests, oceans—offers a philosophical shift in how humans ought to think about animals, passionately advocating for the changes in attitude necessary for wildlife recovery.  Tenacious Beasts is quintessential nature writing for the Anthropocene, touching on different facets of ecological restoration from Indigenous knowledge to rewilding practices. More important, perhaps, the book offers a road map—and a measure of hope—for a future in which humans and animals can once again coexist.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49566399103249,"sku":"GOR013120266","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742950465809,"sku":"NGR9780262047562","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50007509598481,"sku":"CIN026204756XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50347482186001,"sku":"CIN026204756XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/026204756X.jpg?v=1750738402"},{"product_id":"synthetic-age-book-christopher-j-preston-9780262037617","title":"The Synthetic Age","description":"Imagining a future in which humans fundamentally reshape the natural world using nanotechnology, synthetic biology, de-extinction, and climate engineering.We have all heard that there are no longer any places left on Earth untouched by humans. The significance of this goes beyond statistics documenting melting glaciers and shrinking species counts. It signals a new geological epoch. In The Synthetic Age, Christopher Preston argues that what is most startling about this coming epoch is not only how much impact humans have had but, more important, how much deliberate shaping they will start to do. Emerging technologies promise to give us the power to take over some of Nature's most basic operations. It is not just that we are exiting the Holocene and entering the Anthropocene; it is that we are leaving behind the time in which planetary change is just the unintended consequence of unbridled industrialism. A world designed by engineers and technicians means the birth of the planet's first Synthetic Age.Preston describes a range of technologies that will reconfigure Earth's very metabolism: nanotechnologies that can restructure natural forms of matter; molecular manufacturing that offers unlimited repurposing; synthetic biology's potential to build, not just read, a genome; biological mini-machines that can outdesign evolution; the relocation and resurrection of species; and climate engineering attempts to manage solar radiation by synthesizing a volcanic haze, cool surface temperatures by increasing the brightness of clouds, and remove carbon from the atmosphere with artificial trees that capture carbon from the breeze. What does it mean when humans shift from being caretakers of the Earth to being shapers of it? And in whom should we trust to decide the contours of our synthetic future? These questions are too important to be left to the engineers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49663716000017,"sku":"GOR009620308","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50454290366737,"sku":"CIN0262037610VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50486974873873,"sku":"GOR013966395","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262037610.jpg?v=1751356642"},{"product_id":"tenacious-beasts-book-christopher-j-preston-9780262548335","title":"Tenacious Beasts","description":"An inspiring look at wildlife species that are defying the odds and teaching important lessons about how to share a planet.  First Honorable Mention, The Rachel Carson Environment Book Award Winner of the 2024 High Plains Book Award, Non-Fiction Category Finalist, 2024 PROSE Awards: Popular Science and Mathematics Category Included in The New Yorker's \"Best Books of 2023, So Far\"  The news about wildlife is dire—more than 900 species have been wiped off the planet since industrialization. Against this bleak backdrop, however, there are also glimmers of hope and crucial lessons to be learned from animals that have defied global trends toward extinction: bears in Italy, bison in North America, whales in the Atlantic. These populations are back from the brink, some of them in numbers unimaginable in a century. How has this happened? What shifts in thinking did it demand? In crisp, transporting prose, Christopher Preston reveals the mysteries and challenges at the heart of these resurgences.  Drawing on compelling personal stories from the researchers, Indigenous people, and activists who know the creatures best, Preston weaves together a gripping narrative of how some species are taking back vital, ecological roles. Each section of the book—farms, prairies, rivers, forests, oceans—offers a philosophical shift in how humans ought to think about animals, passionately advocating for the changes in attitude necessary for wildlife recovery.  Tenacious Beasts is quintessential nature writing for the Anthropocene, touching on different facets of ecological restoration from Indigenous knowledge to rewilding practices. More important, perhaps, the book offers a road map—and a measure of hope—for a future in which humans and animals can once again coexist.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49745535107345,"sku":"NGR9780262548335","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51000618713361,"sku":"NIN9780262548335","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/026254833X.jpg?v=1751435927"},{"product_id":"synthetic-age-book-christopher-j-preston-9780262537094","title":"The Synthetic Age","description":"Imagining a future in which humans fundamentally reshape the natural world using nanotechnology, synthetic biology, de-extinction, and climate engineering.We have all heard that there are no longer any places left on Earth untouched by humans. The significance of this goes beyond statistics documenting melting glaciers and shrinking species counts. It signals a new geological epoch. In The Synthetic Age, Christopher Preston argues that what is most startling about this coming epoch is not only how much impact humans have had but, more important, how much deliberate shaping they will start to do. Emerging technologies promise to give us the power to take over some of Nature's most basic operations. It is not just that we are exiting the Holocene and entering the Anthropocene; it is that we are leaving behind the time in which planetary change is just the unintended consequence of unbridled industrialism. A world designed by engineers and technicians means the birth of the planet's first Synthetic Age.Preston describes a range of technologies that will reconfigure Earth's very metabolism: nanotechnologies that can restructure natural forms of matter; molecular manufacturing that offers unlimited repurposing; synthetic biology's potential to build, not just read, a genome; biological mini-machines that can outdesign evolution; the relocation and resurrection of species; and climate engineering attempts to manage solar radiation by synthesizing a volcanic haze, cool surface temperatures by increasing the brightness of clouds, and remove carbon from the atmosphere with artificial trees that capture carbon from the breeze. What does it mean when humans shift from being caretakers of the Earth to being shapers of it? And in whom should we trust to decide the contours of our synthetic future? These questions are too important to be left to the engineers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49937218732305,"sku":"CIN0262537095G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0262537095.jpg?v=1751290799"},{"product_id":"saving-creation-book-christopher-j-preston-9781595340504","title":"Saving Creation","description":"Holmes Rolston III has long been recognized as the \"father of environmental ethics.\" Internationally renowned for the synthesis he has found in evolutionary biology and Christianity, Rolston has followed an immensely interesting life course. In this compelling biography, Rolston's story is traced from childhood to the present, detailing the process by which he has come to hone his profound philosophies. Culled from countless interviews with Rolston himself, along with his family and colleagues, this biography is both an engaging life story and a compendium of Rolston's thoughts on the value of nature, resource management, aesthetics, international development, and the relationship of culture to nature, wilderness, and natural theology.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50559321342225,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50559323570449,"sku":"CIN1595340505VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1595340505.jpg?v=1751408502"},{"product_id":"gibbs-states-on-countable-sets-book-christopher-j-preston-9780521090117","title":"Gibbs States on Countable Sets","description":"The book is an introduction to some of the 1967–1974 results and techniques in classical lattice statistical mechanics. It is written in the language of probability theory rather than that of physics, and is thus aimed primarily at mathematicians who might have little or no background in physics. This area of statistical mechanics is presently enjoying a rapid growth and the book should allow a graduate student or research mathematician to find out what is happening in it. The book is self-contained except for some basic concepts of probability theory, and can be read by any undergraduate student in mathematics who has a reasonable background in probability.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51119186215185,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51119189721361,"sku":"NIN9780521090117","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52402418974993,"sku":"NLS9780521090117","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0521090113.jpg?v=1751007683"},{"product_id":"climate-justice-and-geoengineering-book-christopher-j-preston-9781783486373","title":"Climate Justice and Geoengineering","description":"It is already clear that climate engineering raises numerous troubling ethical issues. The pertinent question yet to be addressed is how the ethical issues raised by climate engineering compare to those raised by alternative proposals for tackling climate change.   This volume is the first to put the ethical issues raised by climate engineering into a comprehensive, comparative context so that the key ethical challenges of these technologies can be better measured against those of alternative climate policies . Addressing the topic specifically through the lens of justice, contributors include both advocates of climate intervention research and its sceptics. The volume includes a helpful blend of the theoretical and the practical, with contributions from authors in philosophy, engineering, public policy, social science, geography, sustainable development studies, economics, and climate studies. This cross-disciplinary collection provides the start of an important and more contextualized “second generation” analysis of climate engineering and the difficult public policy decisions that lie ahead.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51503641198865,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51503641952529,"sku":"CIN1783486376G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52536928600337,"sku":"NLS9781783486373","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1783486376.jpg?v=1753785989"},{"product_id":"climate-justice-and-geoengineering-book-christopher-j-preston-9781783486366","title":"Climate Justice and Geoengineering","description":"It is already clear that climate engineering raises numerous troubling ethical issues. The pertinent question yet to be addressed is how the ethical issues raised by climate engineering compare to those raised by alternative proposals for tackling climate change.   This volume is the first to put the ethical issues raised by climate engineering into a comprehensive, comparative context so that the key ethical challenges of these technologies can be better measured against those of alternative climate policies . Addressing the topic specifically through the lens of justice, contributors include both advocates of climate intervention research and its sceptics. The volume includes a helpful blend of the theoretical and the practical, with contributions from authors in philosophy, engineering, public policy, social science, geography, sustainable development studies, economics, and climate studies. This cross-disciplinary collection provides the start of an important and more contextualized “second generation” analysis of climate engineering and the difficult public policy decisions that lie ahead.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51553905803537,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51553906196753,"sku":"NIN9781783486366","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52538706198801,"sku":"NLS9781783486366","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1783486368.jpg?v=1750801713"},{"product_id":"engineering-the-climate-book-christopher-j-preston-9780739190548","title":"Engineering the Climate","description":"Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management discusses the ethical issues associated with deliberately engineering a cooler climate to combat global warming. Climate engineering (also known as geoengineering) has recently experienced a surge of interest given the growing likelihood that the global community will fail to limit the temperature increases associated with greenhouse gases to safe levels. Deliberate manipulation of solar radiation to combat climate change is an exciting and hopeful technical prospect, promising great benefits to those who are in line to suffer most through climate change. At the same time, the prospect of geoengineering creates huge controversy. Taking intentional control of earth's climate would be an unprecedented step in environmental management, raising a number of difficult ethical questions. One particular form of geoengineering, solar radiation management (SRM), is known to be relatively cheap and capable of bringing down global temperatures very rapidly. However, the complexity of the climate system creates considerable uncertainty about the precise nature of SRM's effects in different regions. The ethical issues raised by the prospect of SRM are both complex and thorny. They include: 1) the uncertainty of SRM's effects on precipitation patterns, 2) the challenge of proper global participation in decision-making, 3) the legitimacy of intentionally manipulating the global climate system in the first place, 4) the potential to sidestep the issue of dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, and, 5) the lasting effects on future generations. It has been widely acknowledged that a sustained and scholarly treatment of the ethics of SRM is necessary before it will be possible to make fair and just decisions about whether (or how) to proceed. This book, including essays by 13 experts in the field of ethics of geoengineering, is intended to go some distance towards providing that treatment.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52139249729809,"sku":"NLS9780739190548","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780739190548.jpg?v=1757567977"},{"product_id":"nature-value-duty-book-christopher-j-preston-9789048172153","title":"Nature, Value, Duty","description":"This is a collection of contemporary writings on the work of Holmes Rolston, III. Rolston himself, in a detailed reply to each of his critics at the end of the volume, reveals where some of these criticisms sting him the most.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52150040625425,"sku":"NLS9789048172153","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9789048172153.jpg?v=1757608771"},{"product_id":"engineering-the-climate-book-christopher-j-preston-9780739175408","title":"Engineering the Climate","description":"Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management discusses the ethical issues associated with deliberately engineering a cooler climate to combat global warming. Climate engineering (also known as geoengineering) has recently experienced a surge of interest given the growing likelihood that the global community will fail to limit the temperature increases associated with greenhouse gases to safe levels. Deliberate manipulation of solar radiation to combat climate change is an exciting and hopeful technical prospect, promising great benefits to those who are in line to suffer most through climate change. At the same time, the prospect of geoengineering creates huge controversy. Taking intentional control of earth''s climate would be an unprecedented step in environmental management, raising a number of difficult ethical questions. One particular form of geoengineering, solar radiation management (SRM), is known to be relatively cheap and capable of bringing down global temperatures very rapidly. However, the complexity of the climate system creates considerable uncertainty about the precise nature of SRM''s effects in different regions. The ethical issues raised by the prospect of SRM are both complex and thorny. They include: 1) the uncertainty of SRM''s effects on precipitation patterns, 2) the challenge of proper global participation in decision-making, 3) the legitimacy of intentionally manipulating the global climate system in the first place, 4) the potential to sidestep the issue of dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, and, 5) the lasting effects on future generations. It has been widely acknowledged that a sustained and scholarly treatment of the ethics of SRM is necessary before it will be possible to make fair and just decisions about whether (or how) to proceed. This book, including essays by 13 experts in the field of ethics of geoengineering, is intended to go some distance towards providing that treatment.. However, the complexity of the climate system creates considerable uncertainty about the precise nature of SRM''s effects in different regions. The ethical issues raised by the prospect of SRM are both complex and thorny. They include: 1) the uncertainty of SRM''s effects on precipitation patterns, 2) the challenge of proper global participation in decision-making, 3) the legitimacy of intentionally manipulating the global climate system in the first place, 4) the potential to sidestep the issue of dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, and, 5) the lasting effects on future generations. It has been widely acknowledged that a sustained and scholarly treatment of the ethics of SRM is necessary before it will be possible to make fair and just decisions about whether (or how) to proceed. This book, including essays by 13 experts in the field of ethics of geoengineering, is intended to go some distance towards providing that treatment.. However, the complexity of the climate system creates considerable uncertainty about the precise nature of SRM''s effects in different regions. The ethical issues raised by the prospect of SRM are both complex and thorny. They include: 1) the uncertainty of SRM''s effects on precipitation patterns, 2) the challenge of proper global participation in decision-making, 3) the legitimacy of intentionally manipulating the global climate system in the first place, 4) the potential to sidestep the issue of dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, and, 5) the lasting effects on future generations. It has been widely acknowledged that a sustained and scholarly treatment of the ethics of SRM is necessary before it will be possible to make fair and just decisions about whether (or how) to proceed. This book, including essays by 13 experts in the field of ethics of geoengineering, is intended to go some distance towards providing that treatment.. However, the complexity of the climate system creates considerable uncertainty about the precise nature of SRM''s effects in different regions. The ethical issues raised by the prospect of SRM are both complex and thorny. They include: 1) the uncertainty of SRM''s effects on precipitation patterns, 2) the challenge of proper global participation in decision-making, 3) the legitimacy of intentionally manipulating the global climate system in the first place, 4) the potential to sidestep the issue of dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, and, 5) the lasting effects on future generations. It has been widely acknowledged that a sustained and scholarly treatment of the ethics of SRM is necessary before it will be possible to make fair and just decisions about whether (or how) to proceed. This book, including essays by 13 experts in the field of ethics of geoengineering, is intended to go some distance towards providing that treatment. about the precise nature of SRM''s effects in different regions. The ethical issues raised by the prospect of SRM are both complex and thorny. They include: 1) the uncertainty of SRM''s effects on precipitation patterns, 2) the challenge of proper global participation in decision-making, 3) the legitimacy of intentionally manipulating the global climate system in the first place, 4) the potential to sidestep the issue of dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, and, 5) the lasting effects on future generations. It has been widely acknowledged that a sustained and scholarly treatment of the ethics of SRM is necessary before it will be possible to make fair and just decisions about whether (or how) to proceed. This book, including essays by 13 experts in the field of ethics of geoengineering, is intended to go some distance towards providing that treatment.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52432889872657,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52432890462481,"sku":"NLS9780739175408","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780739175408.jpg?v=1759176294"},{"product_id":"sind-wir-noch-zu-retten-book-christopher-j-preston-9783662581896","title":"Sind wir noch zu retten?","description":"Nanotechnologie, synthetische Biologie, Wiedererweckung ausgestorbener Arten und Geoengineering – werden Menschen die Natur in Zukunft mit solchen Methoden grundlegend umgestalten? Man könnte es sich vorstellen.  Auf der Erde gibt es keinen von Menschen unberührten Ort mehr – das hat wohl jeder schon einmal gehört. Aber die Bedeutung dieser Tatsache erschöpft sich nicht in Statistiken, die Gletscherschmelze und Artensterben dokumentieren. Vielmehr kennzeichnet sie den Beginn einer neuen Epoche der Erdgeschichte. Und das Auffälligste an diesem Synthetischen Zeitalter, so Christopher Preston, sind nicht nur die Auswirkungen des Menschen als solche, sondern die Veränderungen, die wir von nun an gezielt und absichtlich herbeiführen werden. Neue Technologien werden uns die Macht verleihen, viele grundlegende Abläufe der Natur selbst in die Hand zu nehmen. Damit verlassen wir nicht nur das Holozän und treten ins Anthropozän ein; wir lassen auch eine Zeit hinter uns, in der globaler Wandel nicht nur die unbeabsichtigte Folge einer ungezügelten Industrialisierung ist. Mit einer von Ingenieuren und Technikern gestalteten Welt beginnt das erste Synthetische Zeitalter unseres Planeten.  Preston beschreibt eine Reihe von Technologien, die den „Stoffwechsel“ der Erde umgestalten werden: Nanotechnologie gibt den natürlichen Formen der Materie eine neue Struktur; „molekulare Produktion“ eröffnet unzählige neue Anwendungsmöglichkeiten; synthetische Biologie erlaubt es uns, Genome nicht nur zu lesen, sondern auch aufzubauen; „biologische Mini-Maschinen“ überflügeln die Evolution; Arten werden umgesiedelt und wieder zum Leben erweckt; und mit Geoengineering kann man die Sonnenstrahlung mit Vulkandunst abschirmen, die Temperaturen auf der Erde durch hellere Wolken senken und mit künstlichen Bäumen, die Kohlenstoff aus Wind gewinnen, das CO2 aus der Atmosphäre beseitigen.  Was bedeutet es, wenn Menschen  die Erde nicht nur verwalten, sondern auch grundlegend umgestalten? Und wem sollten wir vertrauen, wenn es darum geht, über die Umrisse unserer synthetischen Zukunft zu entscheiden? Solche Fragen sind zu wichtig, als dass man sie den Ingenieuren überlassen sollte.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52535354327313,"sku":"NLS9783662581896","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9783662581896.jpg?v=1760671107"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-christopher-j-preston.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}