Bringing the Biosphere Home: Learning to Perceive Global Environmental Change

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This book shows how to make global environmental problems more tangible, so that they
become an integral part of everyday awareness. At its core is a simple assumption: that the best way
to learn to perceive the biosphere is to pay close attention to our immediate surroundings. Through
local natural history observations, imagination and memory, and spiritual contemplation, we develop
a place-based environmental view that can be expanded to encompass the biosphere.Interweaving global
change science, personal narrative, and commentary on a wide range of scientific and literary works,
the book explores both the ecological and existential aspects of urgent issues such as the loss of
biodiversity and global climate change. Written in a warm, engaging style, Bringing the Biosphere
Home considers the perceptual connections between the local and global, how the ecological news of
the community is of interest to the world, and how the global movement of people, species, and
weather systems affects the local community. It shows how global environmental change can become the
province of numerous educational initiatives -- from the classroom to the Internet, from community
forums to international conferences, from the backyard to the biosphere. It explains important
scientific concepts in clear, nontechnical language and provides dozens of ideas for learning how to
practice biospheric perception.