A unified theory of conservation that addresses the broad problem of conservation, the principles that inform conservation choices, and the application of those principles to the management of the natural world. The conservation of natural resources, like that of any other asset, involves trade-offs. Yet, in a world faced with the harsh realities of climate change, crafting the right environmental policies is an increasingly urgent task. In Conservation, Charles Perrings and Ann Kinzig bring together new research in economics and biodiversity to investigate conservation decisions and the theory behind them. Perrings and Kinzig apply the concept of conservation broadly to examine how the principles of conservation apply to the management of the natural world. They demonstrate that the same basic principles serve as the foundation of all rational conservation decisions, from managing financial assets to safeguarding at-risk ecosystems. Whether someone is deciding to hold or dispose of a stock or whether to exploit or preserve a natural resource, they are better off choosing to conserve a resource when its value to them, if conserved, is greater than its value when converted. The book also considers the context of such conservation decisions. Just as national tax rules influence choices about financial investments, environmental regulations within countries, and environmental agreements between countries, impact the decisions regarding natural resources. Building on their basic theory of conservation, Perrings and Kinzig address key issues in the field of environmental economics, including the valuation of ecosystem services and environmental assets; the limits on the substitutability of produced and natural capital; and the challenges posed by the often weak markets for ecosystem services oriented toward the public good. They also address the problem of scale: while decisions might be easier to make at the local level, many conservation policies need to apply at either the national or international level to succeed. Written by experts from both social and hard sciences, this book presents a unified theory of conservation and provides a model for a more effective way to approach the vitally important issue.

Worldwide, urbanization is steadily increasing, yet many modern cities are becoming less and less able to accommodate the growth in their population. Congestion, pollution, low-quality housing, social fragmentation, noise, crime and inadequate social services all contribute to a declining quality of urban life. Planners and policy makers are battling to alleviate the problems with a variety of urban renewal initiatives, and energy-environmental policies have become central to their quest for urban sustainability."Sustainable Cities in Europe" gives a comprehensive introduction to the available urban energy and environmental policies. Drawing on a detailed analysis of the CITIES programme of the Commission of the European Communities, the book includes detailed case studies of European cities which are devising and implementing alternative strategies for sustainable growth and development. The cities discussed include: Amsterdam, Besancon, Braganca, Cadiz, Dublin, Esch/Alzette, Gent, Mannheim, Newcastle, Odense, Thessaloniki and Turin.The policy discussions and case studies in this book will be invaluable for all those professionally or academically involved in the pressing issue of city planning development.

The book "Green Technologies for the Environment" brings together experts in the field of biotechnology, chemistry, chemical engineering, environmental engineering and toxicology from both academia and industry, to discuss green processes for the environment. The topics included finding replacements for crude oil to meet both our energy needs as well as the supply of chemicals for the production of essential products, advances in chemical processing, waste valorization, alternative solvents, and developments in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis as well as enzyme-based processes for chemical transformations. Advances in green chemistry concepts will further enhance the field through the design of new chemicals and solvents. In addition, obtaining a better understanding of the mechanistic pathways involved in various reactions is essential toward advances in the field. The goal of the work described in each of the chapters is to address the need for best practices for chemical processes and for the production of chemicals, while promoting sustainability.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURED DIRECTED BY AND STARRING CHIWETEL EJIOFOR - AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX When William Kamkwamba was just 14 years old, his family told him that he must leave school and come home to work on the farm - they could no longer afford his fees. This is his story of how he found a way to make a difference, how he bought light to his family and village, and hope to his nation. Malawi is a country battling AIDS, drought and famine, and in 2002, a season of floods, followed by the most severe famine in fifty years, brought it to its knees. Like the majority of the population, William's family were farmers. They were totally reliant on the maize crop. By the end of 2001, after many lean and difficult years, there was no more crop. They were running out of food - had nothing to sell - and had months until they would be able to harvest their crop again. Forced to leave school at 14 years old, with no hope of raising the funds to go again, William resorted to borrowing books from the small local library to continue his education. One day, browsing the titles, he picked up a book about energy, with a picture of a wind turbine on the front cover. Fascinated by science and electricity, but knowing little more about the technology, William decided to build his own. Ridiculed by those around him, and exhausted from his work in the fields every day, and using nothing more than bits of scrap metal, old bicycle parts and wood from the blue gum tree, he slowly built his very own windmill. This windmill has changed the world in which William and his family live. Only 2 per cent of Malawi has electricity; William's windmill now powers the lightbulbs and radio for his compound. He has since built more windmills for his school and his village. When news of William's invention spread, people from across the globe offered to help him. Soon he was re-enrolled in college and travelling to America to visit wind farms. This is his incredible story. William's dream is that other African's will learn to help themselves - one windmill and one light bulb at a time - and that maybe one day they will be able to power their own computers, and use the internet, and see for themselves how his life has changed after picking up that book in the library.

Feeding the world, climate change, biodiversity, antibiotics, plastics, pandemics - the list of concerns seems endless. But what is most pressing, and what should we do first? Do we all need to become vegetarian? How can we fly in a low-carbon world? How can we take control of technology? And, given the global nature of the challenges we now face, what on Earth can any of us do, as individuals? Mike Berners-Lee has crunched the numbers and plotted a course of action that is full of hope, practical, and enjoyable. This is the big-picture perspective on the environmental and economic challenges of our day, laid out in one place, and traced through to the underlying roots - questions of how we live and think. This updated edition has new material on protests, pandemics, wildfires, investments, carbon targets and of course, on the key question: given all this, what can I do?

An unprecedented look inside the global battle to power our lives from acclaimed Reuters reporter Ernest Scheyder.

A new economic war for critical minerals has begun, and The War Below is an urgent dispatch from its front lines. To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, and other vital building blocks. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change and powering crucial technologies. These tensions have sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of necessary materials, and no one understands the complexities of these issues better than Ernest Scheyder, whose exclusive access to sites around the globe has allowed him to gain unparalleled insights into a future without fossil fuels.

The War Below reveals the explosive brawl among industry titans, conservationists, community groups, policymakers, and many others over whether some places are too special to mine or whether the habitats of rare plants, sensitive ecosystems, Indigenous holy sites, and other places should be dug up for their riches.

With vivid and engaging writing, Scheyder shows the human toll of this war and explains why recycling and other newer technologies have struggled to gain widespread use. He also expertly chronicles Washington’s attempts to wean itself off supplies from China, the global leader in mineral production and processing. The War Below paints a powerfully honest and nuanced picture of what is at stake in this new fight for energy independence, revealing how America and the rest of the world’s hunt for the “new oil” directly affects us all.

Recognizing the urgent need to transform energy systems to low-carbon alternatives, this timely book offers evidenced and credible ways to accelerate actions towards meeting the Paris Agreement goals and achieving net zero emissions. Steven Fries analyses through the lens of government, business and household actions-their policies and investments-the systemic changes needed to eliminate net carbon dioxide emissions from energy. Fries explores how advancing low-carbon alternatives could maintain current economic activities while halting climate impacts. But his analysis of accumulating evidence on transforming energy shows how multiple market imperfections hold back alternatives. To overcome these barriers, the book develops heterodox energy reform strategies and ways to coordinate actions across countries, recognizing differences in their specializations and renewable resources. Going beyond orthodox economics, it sets out the role for supporting deployment of low-carbon alternatives in initial markets, calibrating emissions pricing to net zero emission goals, and adapting institutions and infrastructures to low-carbon alternatives. It also signposts policy sequencing and differentiation across sectors and countries. Providing comprehensive energy policy assessments and sound reform strategies, this book will be essential reading for government policymakers and business investors. Its rigorous approach to systemic change also makes it a valuable reference for energy economics and environmental economics scholars.

The solar photovoltaic sector is moving forward very fast, both in terms of its own technological advancement and its standing among global renewable energy technologies. Rapid increases in solar cell efficiencies, fast technical change in solar batteries and solar glass, and economies of scale in production fuel its rapid adoption and it is becoming clear that existing forecasts about its adoption need to be updated extensively. This timely and distinctive examination of the economic side of the field takes into account solar PV's recent and growing lead among renewable energies competing to replace fossil fuels. The Revolution in Energy Technology examines the birth of this technology in the United States, where the main innovators are still located, the emergence of China as a main production hub, and new and growing contributions to the innovation cascades from other countries including Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The participation of universities as investors and the role of venture capital are discussed, and particular emphasis is given to the domination of the sector by large firms. The book is interesting for both academics and graduate students as well as policy makers, technicians, engineers and companies involved in the field.

This book illustrates simply, but with many details, the state of the art of reliability science, exploring clear reliability disciplines and applications through concrete examples from their industries and from real life, based on industrial experiences. Many experts believe that reliability is not only a matter of statistics but is a multidisciplinary scientific topic, involving materials, tests, simulations, quality tools, manufacturing, electronics, mechatronics, environmental engineering and Big Data, among others. For a complex mechatronic system, failure risks have to be identified at an early stage of the design. In the automotive and aeronautic industries, fatigue simulation is used both widely and efficiently. Problems arise from the variability of inputs such as fatigue parameters and life curves. This book aims to discuss probabilistic fatigue and reliability simulation. To do this, Reliability and Physics-of-Healthy in Mechatronics provides a study on some concepts of a predictive reliability model of microelectronics, with examples from the automotive, aeronautic and space industries, based on entropy and Physics-of-Healthy.

Advances in Bioenergy, Volume Seven, the latest release in the series, highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters written by an international board of authors. Specific chapters in this new release include Arrested Anaerobic Digestion, PHA Production from Renewable Sources, Copolymers, Odor control for anaerobic digestion, and Lignin Biorefinery.

Solar Energy Engineering: Processes and Systems, Third Edition, includes updated chapters and extended resources to assist in the research and teaching of solar energy engineering. Sections cover advances in solar collectors, solar water heating, solar space heating and cooling, industrial process heat, solar desalination, photovoltaic technology, solar thermal power systems, modeling of solar energy systems, and a new chapter on wind energy systems. This book provides students, teachers and professionals with the basic principles and applications of solar energy systems and processes to help them understand how to operate and design solar systems. In addition, this best-selling title includes a student and academic companion site with additional materials on chapter PowerPoints for teaching, problems with a solutions manual, and equations files to assist in problem-solving.

The depletion of fossil fuels is a major issue in energy generation; hence, biomass and renewable energy sources, especially bioenergy, are the solution. The dependence on bioenergy has many benefits to mitigate environmental pollution. It is imperative that the global society adopts these alternative, sustainable energy sources in order to mitigate the constant growth of climate change. Biomass and Bioenergy Solutions for Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainability highlights the challenges of energy conservation and current scenarios of existing fossil fuel uses along with pollution potential of burning fossil fuel. It further promotes the inventory, assessment, and use of biomass, pollution control, and techniques. This book provides the solution for climate change, mitigation, and sustainability. Covering topics such as biofuel policies, economic considerations, and microalgae biofuels, this premier reference source is an essential resource for environmental scientists, environmental engineers, government officials, business leaders, politicians, librarians, students and faculty of higher education, researchers, and academicians.

With immense consumption of resources, increased global warming, and environmental pollution, the energy sector has inevitably embraced sustainability. Countries are releasing plans and programs to shift their fossil fuel-dependent energy sectors into clean energy sectors, and projections show that renewable energy will be a significant part of nations' energy mixes in the near future. Optimization and decision-making techniques have been commonly used in the energy sector as problems encountered in this sector are complex and therefore need comprehensive techniques to solve them. With the uncertainty and high-cost issues of renewable resources, the complexity increases in the sector and requires optimization and decision-making techniques. Optimization and Decision-Making in the Renewable Energy Industry analyzes renewable energy sources using current mathematical methods and techniques and provides advanced knowledge on key opportunities and challenges. The book discusses current and trending mathematical methods, tests their validity and verification, and considers their practical application in the field. Covering topics such as urban sustainability and renewable energy systems, this reference work is ideal for practitioners, academicians, industry professionals, researchers, scholars, instructors, and students.

This timely book examines the significant challenges and possible solutions for enabling efficient modernization of electric power systems. It addresses rapidly changing electricity infrastructure needs and technical requirements and provides a practical introduction to the past, present, and future of energy efficiency and power quality concepts. The book also looks at recent developments in custom power conditioners that help improve the performance of transmission and distribution systems, ensure reliability, and reduce costs. Modernization of Electric Power Systems is a valuable resource for practicing engineers, students, and researchers interested in exploring and implementing energy efficiency and power quality in modern energy systems with renewables. 

The book deals with the fundamentals, theoretical bases, and design methodologies of conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). The design methodology is described in mathematical terms, step-by-step, and the topics are approached from the overall drive train system, not just individual components. Furthermore, in explaining the design methodology of each drive train, design examples are presented with simulation results.