This book is an introduction to the many challenges of sustainability. The first half of the book develops a framework for sustainability thinking. The second half considers application areas and personal and corporate responses to sustainability challenges. Basic facts, figures, and information related to sustainability are presented in a way that should convey to readers a sense of scale for the many sustainability challenges we face. Throughout, the end-of-chapter projects and discussion questions focus on tradeoffs among competing goods and the ethical and social implications of decisions related to sustainability. This book was written for a university seminar course on sustainability but could be used in other small-group discussion settings. It is intended to be easy to read but hard to digest.

Produced water contributes to the largest volume waste stream associated with oil and gas (O&G) exploration and production (E&P) operations. It is usually a complex mixture of inorganics and organics that is formed underground and brought to the surface during O&G production. Traditionally, produced water has been considered as a waste to the O&G industry. The conventional management strategies include disposal (typically by injection into depleted wells or permitted disposal wells), recycle (direct reuse within the E&P operation), and reuse (treatment and reuse offsite for food crop irrigation, livestock watering or industrial use). The O&G industry is going through a paradigm shift, where scarcity of water, economics of water management, declining oil costs, and increasing focus on environmental and ecological stewardship are shifting the focus toward integrated water management in E&P operations. Water is no longer a problem to be delegated to a third-party disposal or treatment vendor, but is becoming a cornerstone of O&G production. In this review, we summarize produced water characteristics, regulations and management options, produced water treatment fundamentals, and a detailed discussion of process equipment and advantages/disadvantages of currently available treatment processes. These results in peer-reviewed publications could provide a guide for the selection of appropriate technologies based on the desired application. Major research efforts in the future could focus on the optimization of current technologies and use of combined treatment processes of produced water in order to comply with reuse and discharge limits, under more stringent environmental regulations.

Over the past half century, reverse osmosis (RO) has grown from a nascent niche technology into the most versatile and effective desalination and advanced water treatment technology available. However, there remain certain challenges for improving the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of RO desalination plants in various applications. In low-pressure RO applications, both capital (CAPEX) and operating (OPEX) costs are largely influenced by product water recovery, which is typically limited by mineral scale formation. In seawater applications, recovery tends to be limited by the salinity limits on brine discharge and cost is dominated by energy demand. The combination of water scarcity and sustainability imperatives, in many locations, is driving system designs towards minimal and zero liquid discharge (M/ZLD) for inland brackish water, municipal and industrial wastewaters, and even seawater desalination. Herein, we review the basic principles of RO processes, the state-of-the-art for RO membranes, modules and system designs as well as methods for concentrating and treating brines to achieve MLD/ZLD, resource recovery and renewable energy powered desalination systems. Throughout, we provide examples of installations employing conventional and some novel approaches towards high recovery RO in a range of applications from brackish groundwater desalination to oil and gas produced water treatment and seawater desalination.

This book helps understand how the future Big One (a large-scale and often-predicted earthquake) is understood, defined, and mitigated by experts, scientists, and residents in the San Francisco Bay Area. Following the idea that earthquake risk is multiple and hard to grasp, the book explores the earthquake's "mode of existence," guiding the reader through different epistemic moments of the earthquake-risk definition. Through in-depth interviews, the book provides a rarely seen anthropology of risk from the perspective of experts, scientists, and concerned residents for whom the possibility of partial or complete destruction of their living environment is a constant companion of their everyday lives. It argues that the characterization of the threats and the measures taken to limit its impacts constitute an integrated part of both their residential experiences and their professional practices.

Like masterpieces of art, music, and literature, great mathematical theorems are creative milestones, works of genius destined to last forever. Now William Dunham gives them the attention they deserve.

Dunham places each theorem within its historical context and explores the very human and often turbulent life of the creator -- from Archimedes, the absentminded theoretician whose absorption in his work often precluded eating or bathing, to Gerolamo Cardano, the sixteenth-century mathematician whose accomplishments flourished despite a bizarre array of misadventures, to the paranoid genius of modern times, Georg Cantor. He also provides step-by-step proofs for the theorems, each easily accessible to readers with no more than a knowledge of high school mathematics.

A rare combination of the historical, biographical, and mathematical, Journey Through Genius is a fascinating introduction to a neglected field of human creativity.

Religion and Science is a definitive contemporary discussion of the many issues surrounding our understanding of God and religious truth and experience in our understanding of God and religious truth and experience in our scientific age. This is a significantly expanded and feshly revised version of Religion in an Age of Science, winner of the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence and the Templeton Book Award. Ian G. Barbour--the premier scholar in the field--has added three crucial historical chapters on physics and metaphysics in the seventeenth century, nature and God in the eighteenth century, and biology and theology in the nineteenth century. He has also added new sections on developments in nature-centered spirituality, information theory, and chaos and complexity theories.

To address the complexity of today's global challenges requires new ways of thinking. The idea that technology is always the best, maybe only, approach worth taking needs to be reconsidered. Sustainable approaches must also draw from non technological areas. To that end, this book introduces the idea of just technology by rephrasing the idea of just war in order to include concepts of sustainability in future engineering design. The book begins by defining justice and relating these definitions to technology. This is followed by illustrating several notions of sustainability and the awareness that needs to be focused on societal challenges due to the finite resources available in the natural world. Four questions are enumerated to be addressed in order to qualify as a just use of technology: (1) Is the harm being inflicted by the problem on the community, the environment, or humanity, in general lasting, serious, and certain? (2) Have all alternative solutions been investigated first, including non-technology-based solutions? Technology is the last choice, not the first! (3) Do we have confidence in the successful implementation of this technological solution? and (4) Is the potential harm from the technological solution potentially worse than the issue being addressed? Have all unintended consequences been considered that could arise from the technological solution? The book ends with a description for implementing these questions into the traditional engineering design process. Examples are included for reflection and help to understand how the design process proceeds.

Das Handbuch Psychoaktive Substanzen bietet einen fundierten UEberblick und vereint das aktuelle Grundlagenwissen einer neu entstehenden Drogenwissenschaft, die psychoaktive Substanzen mehrdimensional betrachtet, Chancen und Risiken bilanziert und gegenwartige Debatten mit Fakten fundiert. Das Handbuch ist ein wichtiges Referenzdokument fur verschiedene Disziplinen und Professionen; von Medizinern, Psychologen, Suchttherapeuten, Pharmakologen und Neurowissenschaftlern zu Sozialwissenschaftlern, (Sozial-)Padagogen, Kriminologen, Juristen und Polizisten. Es ist ausserdem fur jene Personen von Interesse, die sich mit den soziokulturellen und historischen Aspekten des Ge- und Missbrauchs von psychoaktiven Substanzen beschaftigen - einschliesslich Lehrern, Journalisten und Politikern. Basierend auf einem interdisziplinaren Ansatz wird in den Kapiteln das komplexe Wirkungsgefuge zwischen Mensch und psychoaktiven Substanzen untersucht und in strukturierter und ubersichtlicher Weise zuganglich gemacht. Aktuelle Entwicklungen wie das Erscheinen neuer psychoaktiver Substanzen (NPS) sowie die kulturellen und politischen Veranderungen der letzten Jahre werden ebenfalls beleuchtet. The Handbook of Psychoactive Substances integrates the current knowledge base of the evolving field of drug science that views psychoactive substances from an interdisciplinary perspective. Opportunities and risks are balanced alongside objective facts in order to add to current debates. The Handbook is an important reference document, with relevance to many disciplines and professions; from medical doctors, psychologists, addiction therapists, pharmacologists and neuroscientists to criminologists, police officers, lawyers and attorneys. It will also be of interest to those involved in the socio-cultural and historical aspects of drug use and misuse, including teachers, journalists and politicians. In a helpful structured form the handbook offers user-friendly and trustworthy information concerning classes of psychoactive substances. Chapters explore psychoactive drugs as therapeutic tools, their benefits for medicine and research and the problems associated with their harmful use. Current developments, including the recent appearance of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and the associated political and cultural changes in recent years are also explored in the book.

This book seeks to narrow the current gap between educational research and classroom practice in the teaching of physics. It makes a detailed analysis of research findings derived from experiments involving pupils, students and teachers in the field. Clear guidelines are laid down for the development and evaluation of sequences, drawing attention to "critical details" of the practice of teaching that may spell success or failure for the project. It is intended for researchers in science teaching, teacher trainers and teachers of physics.

This book focuses on the application of geospatial technologies for resource planning and management for the key natural resources, e.g. water, agriculture and forest as well as the decision support system (DSS) for infrastructure development. We have seen in the past four decades that the growing complexities of sustainable management of natural resources management have been very challenging. The book has been written to leverage the current geospatial technologies that integrate the remotely sensed data available from various platforms, the precise locational data providing geospatial intelligence, and the advanced integration tools of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Geospatial technologies have been used for water resources management employing geomorphological characteristics, analysis of river migration pattern, understanding the large-scale hydrological process, wet land classification and monitoring, analysis of glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), assessment of environmental flow and soil erosion studies, water quality modelling and assessment and rejuvenation of paleochannels through groundwater recharge. Geospatial technologies have been applied for crop classification and mapping, soil moisture determination using RISAT-1 C-band and PALSAR-2 L-band sensors, inventory of horticulture plantations, management of citrus orchards, crop yield forecasting, rice yield estimation, estimation of evapotranspiration and its evaluation against lysimeter and satellite-based evapotranspiration product for India to address the various issues of the agricultural system management. Geospatial technologies have been used for generation of digital elevation model, urban dynamics assessment, mobile GIS application at grass root level planning, cadastral level developmental planning and e-governance applications, system dynamics for sustainable development, micro-level water resources planning, site suitability for sewage treatment plant, traffic density assessment, geographical indications of India, archaeological applications and disasters interventions to elaborate various issues of DSS for infrastructure development and management. Geospatial technologies have been employed for the generation and reconciliation of the notified forest land boundaries, and also the land cover changes analysis within notified forest areas, forest resource assessment, management and monitoring and wildlife conservation and management. This book aims to present high-quality technical case studies representing the recent developments in the "application of geospatial technologies for resource planning and management". The editors hope that this book will serve as a valuable resource for scientists and researchers to plan and manage land and water resources sustainably.

Studies have found that the purchasing power of American women is potentially the greatest in the world. So why not support the rights of women while you shop? Fun to read, easy to use, and packed with the latest information available, The Feminist Dollar gives you the basic facts about gender fairness and equity as it is - or is not - practiced by corporations and governments, so that you can make informed decisions about the policies you want to support when buying merchandise and traveling abroad. Among the almost 400 companies covered here that make and market the products you buy and use every day, you will discover which promote women, have generous childcare or family leave policies, or contribute to organizations that benefit women, so that you can apply economic pressure where it can make a difference. Also, you will find the FEM - feminist evaluation measure - ratings of some of the states and countries to which you might travel.

This book provides an accessible overview of the societal relevance of contemporary geosciences. Engaging various disciplines from humanities and social sciences, the book offers philosophical, cultural, economic, and geoscientific insights into how to contextualise geosciences in the node of Culture and Nature. The authors introduce two perspectives of societal geosciences, both informed by the lens of geoethics. Throughout the text core themes are explored; human agency, the integrity of place, geo-centricity, economy and climate justice, subjective sense-making and spirituality, nationalism, participatory empowerment and leadership in times of anthropogenic global change. The book concludes with a discussion on culture, education, or philosophy of science as aggregating concepts of seemingly disjunct narratives.The diverse intellectual homes of the authors offer a rich resource in terms of how they perceive human agency within the Earth system. Two geoscientific perspectives and fourteen narratives from various cultural, social and political viewpoints contextualise geosciences in the World(s) of the Anthropocene.

The world as we experience it is full of colour. This book defends the radical thesis that no physical object has any of the colours we experience it as having. The author provides a unified account of colour that shows why we experience the illusion and why the illusion is not to be dispelled but welcomed. He develops a pluralist framework of colour-concepts in which other, more sophisticated concepts of colour are introduced to supplement the simple concept that is presupposed in our ordinary colour experience. The discussion draws on philosophical and scientific literature, both historical and modern, but it is not technical, and will appeal to a broad range of philosophers, cognitive scientists and historians of science.

This ambitious text is the first of its kind to summarize the theory, research, and practice related to pedagogical content knowledge. The audience is provided with a functional understanding of the basic tenets of the construct as well as its applications to research on science teacher education and the development of science teacher education programs.