Green Planet : : How Plants Keep the Earth Alive / / Stanley A Rice.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Rutgers University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Rice, Stanley A,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2009]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (314 p.) :; 38 illustrations

2009 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Plants are not just a pretty part of the landscape; they keep the entire planet, with all of its human and nonhuman inhabitants, alive. Stanley Rice documents the many ways in which plants do this by making oxygen, regulating the greenhouse effect, controlling floods, and producing all the food in the world. Plants also create natural habitats for all organisms in the world. With illustrations and clear writing for non-specialists, Green Planet helps general readers realize that if we are to rescue the Earth from environmental disaster, we must protect wild plants. Beginning with an overview of how human civilization has altered the face of the Earth, particularly by the destruction of forests, the book details the startling consequences of these actions. Rice provides compelling reasons for government officials, economic leaders, and the public to support efforts to save threatened and endangered plants. Global campaigns to solve environmental problems with plants, such as the development of green roofs and the Green Belt Movementùa women's organization in Kenya that empowers communities worldwide to protect the environmentùshow readers that efforts to save wild plants can be successful and beneficial to the economic well-being of nations. Through current scientific evidence, readers see that plants are vital to the ecological health of our planet and understand what can be done to lead to a betterùand greenerùfuture Benefits of plants: Help modulate greenhouse gases Produce almost all oxygen in the air Create cool shade that reduces energy costs Prevent floods, droughts, and soil erosion Produce all of the food in the world Create and preserve soil Create natural habitats Heal the landscape after natural and human disasters

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. Remnants of Paradise -- Chapter One. An Injured Paradise -- Chapter Two. Plants Put the Oxygen in the Air -- Chapter Three. Greenhouse Earth: Plants Help to Keep the Earth from Overheating -- Chapter Four. Shade: Trees Make Good Air Conditioners -- Chapter Five. The Water Cycle: Plants Prevent Droughts and Floods -- Chapter Six. Plants Feed the World -- Chapter Seven. Plants Create Soil -- Chapter Eight. Plants Create Habitats -- Chapter Nine. Plants Heal the Landscape -- Chapter Ten. How Agriculture Changed the World -- Chapter Eleven. Why We Need Plant Diversity -- Chapter Twelve. What Can We Do? -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author