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Author: Federico M. Pulselli Publisher: WIT Press ISBN: 184564140X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
Is the concept of sustainability strongly founded on solid scientific bases? And can this elusive concept be introduced in the economic framework and embodied in people's behavior as well as public and private institutions' decision making? This book presents a view of sustainability that starts from the acknowledgment of physical conditions and limits that humans can no longer neglect. It also includes some epistemological foundations of the concept of sustainability and historical backgrounds. The view is optimistic to the extent that economics, the compass of our industrial society, is open to inputs and suggestions coming from outside orthodox schemes. Transdisciplinary science is one key element of such a change, and this book is a transdisciplinary project.In the field of the criticism to GDP as an omni-comprehensive instrument, the book also describes the methodology of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), proposed by H. Daly and John Cobb in 1989. They proposed some revisions to the System of National Accounts and GDP in order to add information for policy makers towards sustainability. Starting with consumption, some adjustments are proposed to allow for inequality of income distribution, environmental problems (such as pollution costs, long term environmental damage, depletion of non-renewable resources) and social issues (such as commuting costs, urbanization costs, public expenditure for health and education). Computations for different nations have shown that ISEW increases together with increasing GDP up to a point, beyond which it stagnates or even decreases, due to the environmental and social pressure of economic growth. The ISEW is a feasible calculation and some experiments at the local level in Italy are presented. Advances in integrating different sustainability indicators (both economic-based and physical-based) are also presented as well as their use under a sustainability viewpoint.
Author: Felix Dodds Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1136261907 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 338
Book Description
Forty years after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, the goal of sustainable development continues via the Rio+20 conference in 2012. This book will enable a broad readership to understand what has been achieved in the past forty years and what hasn’t. It shows the continuing threat of our present way of living to the planet. It looks to the challenges that we face twenty years from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, "The Earth Summit," in Rio, in particular in the areas of economics and governance and the role of stakeholders. It puts forward a set of recommendations that the international community must address now and in the the future. It reminds us of the planetary boundaries we must all live within and and what needs to be addressed in the next twenty years for democracy, equity and fairness to survive. Finally it proposes through the survival agenda a bare minimum of what needs to be done, arguing for a series of absolute minimum policy changes we need to move forward.
Author: Nolberto Munier Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 9781402035579 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 460
Book Description
This book develops a supporting structure for sustainable development, following a natural set of steps to reach an established goal. It provides the tools to navigate this Road to a Better Future by explaining concepts, giving ideas, proposing methods, and suggesting actions. To illustrate the utilization of techniques there are many examples, applied to a variety of activities, and to wrap up concepts, the last chapter is dedicated to the analysis of a community in search of a sustainable environment. A thematic index has been designed to help a person quickly find information on relevant topics.
Author: Alexander Gillespie Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 019881951X Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 305
Book Description
An examination of humanity's quest for sustainable development over the last millennium, Gillespie's well-timed work asks what economic, social, and environmental stars must be aligned for humanity, and its ecosystems, to survive.
Author: Robert Doyle Bullard Publisher: Earthscan ISBN: 1849771774 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 360
Book Description
Environmental activists and academics alike are realizing that a sustainable society must be a just one. Environmental degradation is almost always linked to questions of human equality and quality of life. Throughout the world, those segments of the population that have the least political power and are the most marginalized are selectively victimized by environmental crises. This book argues that social and environmental justice within and between nations should be an integral part of the policies and agreements that promote sustainable development. The book addresses the links between environmental quality and human equality and between sustainability and environmental justice.
Author: Gabriela Ionescu Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 1315341662 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 269
Book Description
This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. This new book takes a nuanced look at building a sustainable transportation infrastructure and provides an overview of the harmful effect of various modes of transportation on the environment. The environmental impact of transportation is significant. Transportation is a major user of energy, it burns most of the world's petroleum, and is the fastest-growing contributor to carbon dioxide emissions. Although environmental regulations in many countries have reduced the individual vehicle's emissions, this has been offset by an increase in vehicles on the road and airways.
Author: Bill Gates Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0385546149 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 201
Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.
Author: C. A. Brebbia Publisher: WIT Press ISBN: 1845645049 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 817
Book Description
This book contains a collection of papers presented at a series of meetings organised by the Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT) dealing with sustainability, the environment and ecological issues. The complexity of the modern world presents new challenges to scientists and engineers that requires finding interdisciplinary solutions. Any problem solving carried out in the isolation of a particular field of expertise may give rise to a series of damaging effects which can create new and unintentional environmental and ecological problems. Specialisation, while required in our culture, needs to be kept under control by the understanding of the whole, which leads to the need of relying on interdisciplinary teams. Nowadays this can be easily achieved thanks to the massive advances in information technology which ensure continuous and immediate contact between all partners. This collaboration needs to be effective and to produce results that will lead to a better world. For this to happen, it is necessary that different groups of scientists and engineers acquire the necessary skills to be able to talk to each other. Furthermore, they need to understand the social and economic aspects of a given problem, in addition to the scientific and engineering issues involved. The Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT) has a long and very successful record in organising interdisciplinary conferences. The papers in this book are a reflection of the proceedings of some of those meetings.
Author: Federico M. Pulselli
Author: Felix Dodds
Author: Nolberto Munier
Author: Conchita San Nicolas Taitano
Author: Alexander Gillespie
Author: Robert Doyle Bullard
Author: Gabriela Ionescu
Author: Bill Gates
Author: Nicole Walker
Author: C. A. Brebbia
Author: Jonathan M. Harris