When fire turns wood to ashes, a chemical transformation has taken place. These changes happen everyday all over the world. Find out more about the various types in this title.

We are facing ecological disasters that will affect our ability to survive and the crisis is forcing us to reexamine the entire value system that has governed our lives for the past two thousand years.

This book explores the experiences, causes, and consequences of food insecurity in different geographical regions and historical eras. It highlights collective and political actions aimed at food sovereignty as solutions to mitigate suffering. Despite global efforts to end hunger, it persists and has even increased in some regions. This book provides interdisciplinary and historical perspectives on the manifestations of food insecurity, with case studies illustrating how people coped with violations of their rights during the war-time deprivation in France; the neoliberal incursions on food supply in Turkey, Greece, and Nicaragua; as well as the consequences of radioactive contamination of farmland in Japan. This edited collection adopts an analytical approach to understanding food insecurity by examining how the historical and political situations in different countries have resulted in an unfolding dialectic of food insecurity and resistance, with the most marginalized people—immigrants, those in refugee camps, poor peasants, and so forth—consistently suffering the worst effects, yet still maintaining agency to fight back. The book tackles food insecurity on a local as well as a global scale and will thus be useful for a broad range of audiences, including students, scholars, and the general public interested in studying food crises, globalization, and current global issues.

On the night of April 9, 1997, Warren Macdonald, a fit and experienced bushwalker, set out to climb Mount Bowen on Hinchinbrook Island, an unspoiled tropical paradise off the Australian coast. These would be his last steps as a fully intact human being: a freak rock fall pinned him for two days alone under a one-ton boulder, resulting in a double leg amputation. A Test of Will is a story both tragic and inspiring, conveying the horror of what happened and the extraordinary spirit that helped Macdonald survive a seemingly impossible ordeal.

The phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ conjures an image of the most cutthroat individuals rising to the top. But Stefan Klein, author of the international bestseller The Science of Happiness, makes the startling assertion that the key to achieving lasting personal and societal success lies in helping others. Klein argues that altruism is in fact our defining characteristic: natural selection favoured those early humans who cooperated in groups. With their survival more assured, our altruistic ancestors were free to devote brainpower to developing intelligence, language, and culture — our very humanity. As Klein puts it, ‘We humans became first the friendliest and then the most intelligent apes.’ To build his persuasive case for how altruistic behaviour made us human — and why it pays to get along — Klein brings together an extraordinary array of material: current research on genetics and the brain, economics, social psychology, behavioural and anthropological experiments, history, and modern culture. Ultimately, his groundbreaking findings lead him to a vexing question: if we’re really hard-wired to act for one another’s benefit, why aren’t we all getting along? Klein believes we’ve learned to mistrust our generous instincts because success is so often attributed to selfish ambition. In Survival of the Nicest, he invites us to rethink what it means to be the ‘fittest’ as he shows how caring for others can protect us from loneliness and depression, make us happier and healthier, reward us economically, and even extend our lives.

“Offers clear, concise, effective, time-tested, even hallowed, means of going into any survival situation with your ‘A’ game.”—Jim Morris, Special Forces major (retired) and award-winning author of War Story Written by a student and teacher of Asian thought, martial arts, healing, and meditation, The Tao of Survival focuses on real-world, core survival skills that can save your life anytime and anyplace, in any emergency situation. It delves into fundamental concepts that most survival books don’t cover, including how to deal with fear, developing mind/body skills, and fully engaging your senses to be aware of your surroundings. “It is not every day that one comes across a gem. And that is exactly what this book is. For anyone who is into survival—that is, into life and living—then this book is truly a precious commodity to be read by everyone.”—Mykel Hawke, author of Hawke’s Green Beret Survival Manual and Special Forces combat commander “What a great book, not only well written and informative, but actually useful. There are many fine books written on the topic of survival . . . but this is the first I've seen which comprehensively focuses on teaching the essential fundamentals of true survival.”—Dr. Carl Totton, Psy.D., director of The Taoist Institute and martial arts grandmaster “[Ayres has] always had a seeker’s perspective and has applied it well in his search to know what one needs to learn to be a survivor . . . The Tao of Survival is a masterful synthesis of what it takes to survive . . . while living in a modern world.”—David Wescott, director of Backtracks and managing editor of the Bulletin of Primitive Technology