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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Applied ecology
Despite the urgent need for action, there is a widespread lack of understanding of the benefits of using green energy sources for not only reducing carbon emissions and climate change, but also for growing a sustainable economy and society. Future citizens of the world face increasing sustainability issues and need to be better prepared for energy transformation and sustainable future economic development. Cases on Green Energy and Sustainable Development is a critical research book that focuses on the important role renewable energy and energy efficiency play in energy transition and sustainable development and covers economic and promotion policies of major renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as economics, energy storage, and transportation technologies, this book is ideal for environmentalists, academicians, researchers, engineers, policymakers, and students.
Five stunningly large forests remain on Earth: the Taiga, extending from the Pacific Ocean across all of Russia and far-northern Europe; the North American boreal, ranging from Alaska's Bering seacoast to Canada's Atlantic shore; the Amazon, covering almost the entirety of South America's bulge; the Congo, occupying parts of six nations in Africa's wet equatorial middle; and the island forest of New Guinea, twice the size of California. These megaforests are vital to preserving global biodiversity, thousands of cultures, and a stable climate, as economist John W. Reid and celebrated biologist Thomas E. Lovejoy argue convincingly in Ever Green. Megaforests serve an essential role in decarbonizing the atmosphere-the boreal alone holds 1.8 trillion metric tons of carbon in its deep soils and peat layers, 190 years' worth of global emissions at 2019 levels-and saving them is the most immediate and affordable large-scale solution to our planet's most formidable ongoing crisis. Reid and Lovejoy offer practical solutions to address the biggest challenges these forests face, from vastly expanding protected areas, to supporting Indigenous forest stewards, to planning smarter road networks. In gorgeous prose that evokes the majesty of these ancient forests along with the people and animals who inhabit them, Reid and Lovejoy take us on an exhilarating global journey.
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This book provides an in-depth analysis of the concept of the Circular Economy (CE), as well as an assessment of the drivers and barriers for circular practices by firms, and its implications for managers in firms and public policy makers. It includes proposals for policy frameworks and instruments that will encourage the uptake of CE practices. The book is presented in three linked parts. The first part of the book provides a broad view of the topic, put into the wider context of sustainability. In the second part, the drivers of and barriers to the uptake of the CE are analysed, with a special focus on the micro-level not seen often in the previous studies on the CE. This book is of interest to researchers, policy makers and post-graduate students in areas such as environmental management and economics.
Thomas Berry had a gentle yet mesmerizing and luminescent presence that was evident to anyone who spent time with him. His intellectual scope and erudite manner were compelling, and the breadth, depth, clarity and elegance of his vision was breathtaking. He enthralled thousands of people who came to listen and learn from him in academic and public settings and he was an intellectual giant and cultural visionary of extraordinary stature. Thomas Berry's vast knowledge and specific expertise as a cultural historian -united with his concern for the future of the planet-reveals him to be a genuine original thinker. Those who knew him, in person or through his publications, were aware of his genius and his appeal for a viable future for humanity and the natural world. Many know of his proposal for a functional cosmology, the need for a new story, and a vital Earth sensitive spirituality, but few know the intellectual roots of his thesis because he presented his thoughts as a seamless and studied synthesis. This book is about those intellectual roots and particular emphases and insights that are hidden within Thomas Berry's proposal.These essays probe into and reveal distinct themes that permeate his work, but are not obvious upon first glance. The authors of this collection were students of Berry, and did their Ph.D. work using elements of his thought. More importantly, Thomas Berry's influence has both grounded and oriented their intellectual pursuits.
With this remarkable book Eric Zencey changes the way we think about nature by changing how we think about history. "The ecological crisis is also a historical crisis," he writes. "If we are out of place in nature, we are also out of place in time, and the two kinds of exile are related." Zencey's way home takes us many places: to a starlit mountaintop, where a nineteenth-century sect awaits the second coming; to the northern woods during hunting season; to the salt marshes of a Delaware childhood; to the softball games and abandoned mill ponds of his adopted Vermont. Always we are shown a world outside our preconceptions. In the essay "In Search of Virgin Forest" we see that virgin forest is not the pure escape from civilization that romantics make of it. Like the second-growth forest around it, virgin forest too is a human construct, one whose "different disturbance history" is not natural but is equally the product of human perception and appropriation. A nationally acclaimed novelist, Zencey has brought together autobiography and philosophy to produce a work at once accessible and intellectually rigorous. Perceptive, urgent, and lyrical, these essays are alive with warmth and wit and the occasional glint of melancholy. Virgin Forest is a passionate call for ecological health. It amply demonstrates (as the final essay has it) "Why History Is Sublime" if we suffer a postmodern lack of grounding, only a rooted-in-place ecological sensibility can supply our need, and historical understanding is its inescapable prerequisite.
Sustainability has become an increasingly vital topic of discussion in modern society. Various businesses and their professionals have begun adopting environmentally friendly practices and continue to search for new ways to incorporate sustainability into their protocol. Managerial Strategies and Green Solutions for Project Sustainability is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly research on core concepts of project sustainability and its applications. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics and perspectives, such as energy systems, climate change, and human capital, this publication is ideally designed for managers, researchers, and students seeking current information on structured managerial strategies for planning, executing, and assessing project sustainability performance.
Ecotones are dynamic over-lapping boundary areas where major terrestrial biomes meet. As past studies have shown, and as the chapters in this book will illustrate, their structure, size, and scope have changed considerably over the millennia, expanding and shrinking as climate and/or other driving conditions, also changed. Today, however, many of them are changing at a rate not seen for a long time, perhaps largely due to climate change and other human-induced factors. Indeed ecotones are more sensitive to climate change than the biomes on either side, and thus may serve as critical early indicators of future climate change. As ecotones change, they also redefine the limits of the biomes on either side by altering their distributions of species because, in addition to their own endemic species, any ecotone will also have species from both adjoining biomes. Consequently, they may also be places of high levels of species interaction, serving as active evolutionary laboratories, which generate new species that then migrate back into adjacent biomes. Ecotones Between Forest and Grassland explores how these ecotones have changed in the past, how they are changing today, and how they are likely to change in the future. The book includes chapters from around the world with a special focus on South American and Neotropical ecotones.
Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is the main instrument used by governments and regulators to appraise the likely effects of their policy proposals. This pioneering Handbook provides a comparative and comprehensive account of this tool, situating it in the relevant theoretical traditions and scrutinizing its use across countries, policy sectors and policy instruments. Comprising six parts, university researchers, international consultants and practitioners working in international organizations examine regulatory impact assessment from many perspectives, which include: research traditions in the social sciences implementation, regulatory indicators and effects tools and dimensions such as courts and gender sectoral case studies including environment, enterprise and international development international diffusion in the European Union (EU), Americas, Asia and developing countries appraisal, training and education. With its wealth of detail and lessons to be learned, the Handbook of Regulatory Impact Assessment will undoubtedly be of great value to practitioners and scholars working in governance, political science and socio-legal studies. Contributors: C. Adelle, A. Alemanno, L. Allio, C. Arndt, F. Blanc, A. Bond, G. Bounds, P.G.H. Carroll, P. Coletti, F. De Francesco, C.A. Dunlop, M. Fazekas, O. Fritsch, F. Gains, J. Howell, S. Jacobs, A. Jordan, J.C. Kamkhaji, M. Karliuk, S.-J. Kim, T.-Y. Kim, C. Kirkpatrick, I. Lianos, D. Macrae, A.C.M. Meuwese, G. Ottimofiore, J.R. Palmer, D. Parker, A. Peci, C.M. Radaelli, A. Renda, D. Russel, L. Schrefler, J.A. Schwartz, W.R. Sheate, J. Torriti, J. Turnpenny, S. van Voorst, E. Vecchione, W.F. West
This important text develops an institutional response to the core issues raised in public policy making and develops a distinct understanding of the role of institutions, not least in the study of environmental problems. It questions: how are conflicting interests shaped and taken into account in policy making? How should they be accounted for? What motivates the behaviour of firms and individuals, and how is it possible to change these motivations to produce the favoured common outcomes? The author addresses these questions by integrating elements from classical institutional economics, neoclassical economics, sociology and ecological economics. He argues that public policy in general, and environmental policy in particular, are best examined from an institutional perspective. In this way the author presents a distinct and consistent alternative to standard neoclassical economics for students and scholars who are interested in an institutional understanding of environmental policy making. The book is written in a clear and accessible style with boxes and figures to help explain the issues and, as such, would be an ideal alternative or supplement to the standard environmental economics texts.
This study addresses the many initiatives to decrease industrial pollution emitting from the Pechenganikel plant in the northwestern corner of Russia during the final years of the Soviet Union, and examines the wider implications for the state of pollution control in the Arctic today. By examining the efforts of Soviet industry and government agencies, Finnish and Swedish officials, and Norwegian environmental authorities to curb industrial pollution in the region, this book offers an environmental history of the Arctic as well as a transnational, geopolitical history.
This book is presented to demonstrate how energy efficiency can be achieved in existing systems or in the design of a new system, as well as a guide for energy savings opportunities. Accordingly, the content of the book has been enriched with many examples applied in the industry. Thus, it is aimed to provide energy savings by successfully managing the energy in the readers' own businesses. The authors primarily present the necessary measurement techniques and measurement tools to be used for energy saving, as well as how to evaluate the methods that can be used for improvements in systems. The book also provides information on how to calculate the investments to be made for these necessary improvements and the payback periods. The book covers topics such as: * Reducing unit production costs by ensuring the reduction of energy costs, * Efficient and quality energy use, * Meeting market needs while maintaining competitive conditions, * Ensuring the protection of the environment by reducing CO2 and CO emissions with energy saving and energy efficiency, * Ensuring the correct usage of systems by carrying out energy audits. In summary, this book explains how to effectively design energy systems and manage energy to increase energy savings. In addition, the study has been strengthened by giving some case studies and their results in the fields of intensive energy consumption in industry. This book is an ideal resource for practitioners, engineers, researchers, academics, employees and investors in the fields of energy, energy management, energy efficiency and energy saving.
"The fourth sector" is a relatively new sector that consists of for-benefit organizations that combine market-based approaches of the private sector with the social and environmental aims of the public and non-profit sectors. This book examines trends of entrepreneurship in the fourth sector, describes specific ecosystems fostering new ventures around the world, and characterizes the most common and innovative business models. It covers as well the main effects, among others, of technological change, innovation, and institutional behavior on the sector in the last years.
Indigenous knowledge has become a catchphrase in global struggles
for environmental justice. Yet indigenous knowledges are often
viewed, incorrectly, as pure and primordial cultural artifacts.
This collection draws from African and North American cases to
argue that the forms of knowledge identified as "indigenous"
resulted from strategies to control environmental resources during
and after colonial encounters.
The Bahia Blanca Estuary is one of the largest coastal systems in Atlantic South America. This mesotidal estuary, situated in a sharp transition between humid subtropical and semiarid climates, has a unique combination of large interannual climatic variations. The estuarine area encompasses roughly 2300 square kilometers and is composed of wide expanses of intertidal flats, salt marshes, and emerged islands, which create intricate landscape patterns. Natural environments in the estuary sustain a high concentration of marine and terrestrial species, including endemic, threatened, and endangered fish and shorebirds. Puerto Cuatreros, in the inner zone of the estuary, hosts a permanent marine research station, whose records span more than 30 years of biophysical variables, and represent one of the largest time series of ecological data in South America. Beyond its ecological relevance, the Bahia Blanca Estuary is under increasing anthropogenic pressure from large urban settlements, industrial developments and harbors, raising the question of how to balance conservation and development. The Bahia Blanca Estuary: Ecology and Biodiversity offers a comprehensive review of life in the ecosystems of the estuary. The book is divided into five major sections, the first of which provides a description of the regional setting and covers key aspects of estuarine dynamics. The three following sections are dedicated to different habitat types and, within each section, the chapters are organized around major functional groups from pelagic and benthic environments. The fifth and final section covers issues related to management and conservation. Overall, the book provides essential and up-to-date reference material on the biodiversity and ecosystem processes of the Bahia Blanca Estuary, and will appeal to a broad international audience.
Is corporate social responsibility (CSR) a universal idea? Is the same exact definition of CSR relevant for any organization, regardless of context? Or would such a definition need to be adapted to fit different types of organizations, in different cultures, industries and sectors? This book discusses how CSR should preferably be practiced. The expert authors share their knowledge on whether a broad definition of CSR can be practiced as is or if it first has to undergo changes to suit the context. The leading group of contributors argues that anyone wishing to adopt the CSR idea in their organization needs to take the context into account and, thus, find a version of CSR that fits the specific industry, sector, national culture, religion and so on, in which the organization exists. The book discusses the universality of CSR and includes a comparison of the relevance of a broad, general definition of CSR for organizations in contexts such as Buddhism and Islam, developing countries and the food processing, shipping and pharmaceutical industries. Guidelines for conducting studies on the examination of the relevance of CSR for organizations in any particular generalized context are also provided. Academics, students and practitioners involved in the fresh field of CSR will find this an essential resource. Contributors include: A. Ahmad, T. Aroni, A. Athanasopoulou, F. Azmat, W.L. Chan, J.E.-T. Cheah, D.K. Davidson, I. Fafaliou, S. Goerpe, P. Gottschalk, G.M. Hall, J.M. Hansen, M. Z. Haque, S.-w. Hsu, D. Jamali, C. Karam, M. Lekakou, L. Montanheiro, B. OEksuz, A. OErtenblad, P. Perry, P. Reinmoeller, J.W. Selsky, E. Stefanidaki, I. Theotokas, W. Visser, J. Weikert
Ecology has become one of the most urgent and lively fields in both the humanities and sciences. In a dramatic widening of scope beyond its original concern with the coexistence of living organisms within a natural environment, it is now recognized that there are ecologies of mind, information, sensation, perception, power, participation, media, behavior, belonging, values, the social, the political... a thousand ecologies. This proliferation is not simply a metaphorical extension of the figurative potential of natural ecology: rather, it reflects the thoroughgoing imbrication of natural and technological elements in the constitution of the contemporary environments we inhabit, the rise of a cybernetic natural state, with its corresponding mode of power. Hence this ecology of ecologies initiates and demands that we go beyond the specificity of any particular ecology: a general thinking of ecology which may also constitute an ecological transformation of thought itself is required. In this ambitious and radical new volume of writings, some of the most exciting contemporary thinkers in the field take on the task of revealing and theorizing the extent of the ecologization of existence as the effect of our contemporary sociotechnological condition: together, they bring out the complexity and urgency of the challenge of ecological thought-one we cannot avoid if we want to ask and indeed have a chance of affecting what forms of life, agency, modes of existence, human or otherwise, will participate-and how-in this planet's future.
Technological change plays a crucial role in realizing energy efficiency improvements and, therefore, in ameliorating the conflict between economic growth and environmental quality. However, the diffusion of new technologies can prove a costly and lengthy process, meaning that many firms do not invest in best-practice technologies. The author offers important new explanations for this energy-efficiency paradox. This volume contributes to a better understanding of the interplay between economic growth, energy use and technological change, with particular emphasis on the adoption and diffusion of energy-saving technologies. In the theoretical section, the author examines how several characteristics of technological change and environmental policy affect the dynamics of technology choice. He demonstrates how technological complementarity, learning processes and uncertainty can help explain why the innovation and diffusion of new technologies is such a protracted and complex procedure. The empirical section explores long-run trends in energy and labour productivity performance, as well as patterns of substitutability and technological change across a range of OECD countries. The book concludes by integrating the results in an applied policy model of economy-energy interaction. This book is unique in applying insights from different perspectives to the field of energy economics, and by focusing on the diffusion of energy-saving technologies rather than their innovation. It will be of immense value to academics and policymakers with an interest in energy economics, environmental economics and the interaction between economic growth and natural resources.
Old men used to sit in corner stores and discuss business, work, and politics. Women used to come together and talk about the men as they took care of the home and children, or even more recently as a part of the workforce. Today, however, politics is a shunned topic, and conversation is all but dead. It is difficult to stay informed and talk with each other about life and politics. It is even more difficult to stay informed on a technical topic such as energy and something as double-sided as politics. Yet it is imperative that people stay informed and well-connected to direct their government. This book shows how the government (President, House and Senate, left and right) have destroyed the energy industry, taxed the middle class, and prevented well thinking, regular folks from solving our energy supply crisis. This book has thirty-three charts and graphs, most from bi-partisan or independent government sources to make a case for less government involvement in the energy industry. There are some astonishing revelations and a compelling case for reducing air emissions by 60 percent and creating jobs at the same time by building a particular type of new generation. This is a compelling argument that has never been presented before. I hope you enjoy the read.
This book addresses the status quo of Corporate Social Responsibility practices and their development since 2008. How have things changed in the practice of CSR? What new opportunities and challenges have arisen? The book reports on an international set of cases and case studies on how CSR is practiced at business and organizations in various countries. It analyzes country-specific and industry-specific issues, as well as general global issues in connection with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The contributions gathered here provide comprehensive information on CSR for both practitioners and researchers around the globe.
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