Resource Recovery in Municipal Waste Waters provides various municipal wastewater remediation methods and techniques to recover materials from such wastewaters. Sections cover the basic principles of resource recovery, along with the recovery of methane, phosphorous, electricity and metals. The volume covers comprehensive cutting-edge techniques for resource recovery and municipal wastewater treatment and reports on new findings in these areas. It also introduces polluted waters as new and sustainable sources rather than seeing wastewaters as a source of hazardous organic and inorganic matters. The main advantages and disadvantages of both wastewater/polluted water treatment and recovery are also discussed. This three-volume set stresses the importance of contaminated waters remediation, including surface waters, municipal or industrial wastewaters, treating these waters as a new source of nutrients, minerals and energy.

Electricity Decentralization in the European Union: Towards Zero Carbon and Energy Transition, Second Edition examines progress in decentralization across the European Union, with each chapter focusing on developments and innovations in a specific country. Sections provide an overview of the current role and state of smart grids, the conceptualization of energy transition, and specific cases across all EU states. Across the chapters, regulatory frameworks are assessed to identify to what extent it is conducive to decentralization, with specific outcomes of decentralization covered in detail, including deployment of smart grids and meters, demand response, electric vehicles, and storage. The book highlights how specific EU member states are progressing towards deployment of these tools and technologies, along with the specific needs and regulatory barriers in each and recommendations for how regulation can be more encouraging. In addition, electricity interconnections in the EU are considered as a vital step towards decentralization in order to boost energy security and energy efficiency. Finally, the book includes a detailed examination of data protection concerns that arise from the advent of new technologies that collect personal information, such as smart grids, assessing current regulation on data protection and identifying areas for improvement, as well as innovative finance options for sustainable energy.

Emerging Contaminants in Soil and Groundwater Systems: Occurrence, Impact, Fate and Transport addresses the current need for comprehensive and detailed information on emerging contaminants in the environment. Due to increasing industrial expansion and evolving technologies, novel contaminants are being found in the environment with little information on their analysis, fate and transport. This book covers pharmaceuticals and personal care products, perfluorinated compounds, engineered nanoparticles and microplastics, providing the information environmental scientists require to study their occurrence and interactions, including case studies for each contaminant. This book is a valuable read for postgraduate students, academics, researchers, engineers and other professionals in the fields of Environmental Science, Soil Science, and Hydrology who need the most up-to-date information and analytical methods for analyzing newly emerging contaminants in soil and groundwater.

The image of western ranchers making a stand for their "rights"-against developers, the government, "illegal" immigrants-may be commonplace today, but the political power of the cowboy was a long time in the making. In a book steeped in the culture, traditions, and history of western range ranching, Michelle K. Berry takes readers into the Cold War world of cattle ranchers in the American West to show how that power, with its implications for the lands and resources of the mountain states, was built, shaped, and shored up between 1945 and 1965. After long days working the ranch, battling human and nonhuman threats, and wrestling with nature, ranchers got down to business of another sort, which Berry calls "cow talk." Discussing the best new machinery; sharing stories of drought, blizzards, and bugs; talking money and management and strategy: these ranchers were building a community specific to their time, place, and work and creating a language that embodied their culture. Cow Talk explores how this language and its iconography evolved and how it came to provide both a context and a vehicle for political power. Using ranchers' personal papers, publications, and cattle growers association records, the book provides an inside view of how range cattle ranchers in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana created a culture and a shared identity that would frame and inform their relationship with their environment and with society at large in an increasingly challenging, modernizing world. A multifaceted analysis of postwar ranch life, labor, and culture, this innovative work offers unprecedented insight into the cohesive political and cultural power of western ranchers in our day.

Genome Engineering, Volume 52 in the Methods in Microbiology series, highlights new advances in the field with this new volume presenting interesting chapters written by an international board of authors. Topics covered include Whole genome transplantation in Mollicutes, Natural transformation as a tool in Acinetobacter baylyi: evolution by amplification of gene copy number, Natural transformation as a tool in Acinetobacter baylyi: streamlined engineering and mutational analysis, Methods to characterize cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters in Streptomyces, Genome engineering in bacteria: current and prospective applications, Tools for activation and identification of cryptic biosynthesis pathways in Streptomyces.

This timely and incisive book combines an introduction to the core legal and policy issues presented by climate change with a deeper analysis of decisions that will define the path forward. Offering a guide to key terms, concepts, and legal principles in the field, this book will help readers develop a sophisticated perspective on issues central to climate change law and policy. Building a pathway to literacy in climate change policy, chapters provide an accessible overview of key energy regulations and laws governing energy projects, legal mechanisms to regulate GHG emissions, and the role of state and local governments in developing mitigation and adaptation policy, particularly in the building and transportation sectors. The authors highlight the relationship between human rights and climate change using the framework of human rights law, analyze the use of litigation to compel climate change mitigation and adaptation and suggest ways to achieve international cooperation. Providing a deep understanding of ongoing debates about the design and implementation of climate change law and policy, this book will be an essential resource for students and researchers of environmental and climate change law, governance, and regulation. It will also be useful for policymakers and practitioners in the field for its practical insights into future developments and solutions.

Transportation issues are often too complicated to be addressed by conventional parametric methods. Increasing data availability and recent advancements in machine learning provide new methods to tackle the challenging transportation problems. Readers will learn how to develop and apply different types of machine learning models to transportation related problems. Example applications include transportation data generations, traffic sensing, transportation mode recognition, transportation system management and control, traffic flow prediction, and traffic safety analysis.

Emerging Trends to Approaching Zero Waste: Environmental and Social Perspectives thoroughly examines the impact of various technological innovations, current guidelines and social awareness on the reduction of waste, with the ultimate aim of achieving the zero-waste target. Insights in the book will help users adopt the best possible methodologies at grass-root levels and show how modern societal procedures are becoming sustainable, with a goal of zero waste. It comprehensively discusses the scientific contributions of the environmental and social sector, along with the tools and technologies available for achieving the zero-waste targets. This book is the first step toward understanding state-of-the-art practices in making the zero-waste goal a reality. It will be especially beneficial to researchers, academics, upper-level students, waste managers, engineers and managers of industries researching or hoping to implement zero-waste techniques.

Sustainable entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems research is ever evolving and this timely book stimulates further exploration, offering a research agenda and alternative approaches. Presenting new scientific evidence together with policy and other practical implications, chapters demonstrate the vibrancy and diversity of approaches in the field. Chapters on sustainable entrepreneurship analyse the circular economy, entrepreneurial decision-making logics, the drivers of eco-process innovations and strategic sustainability decision-making. Entrepreneurial ecosystems are investigated through discussion of different ecosystem orientations as factors influencing entrepreneurial behaviour. This thought-provoking book concludes with consideration of the conditions predicting entrepreneurial activity or behaviour, including family background and the growth of social and commercial SMEs. This book's up-to-date analysis and practical insight will prove invaluable to scholars and researchers in entrepreneurship as well as other business and management academics, policy-makers and practitioners.

An eye-opening account of the tech arms race shaping out planet, from an award-winning journalist and AI insider to the world of Sam Altman and OpenAI

When longtime AI expert and journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, it was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely market forces.

But the core truth of this massively disruptive sector is that it requires an unprecedented amount of proprietary resources: the ‘compute’ power of scarce high-end chips, the sheer volume of data that needs to be amassed at scale, the humans on the ground ‘cleaning it up’ for sweatshop wages throughout the Global South, and a truly alarming spike in the need for energy and water underlying everything. We have entered a new, ominous age of empire with OpenAI setting a breakneck pace, as a small group of the most valuable companies in human history try to chase it down.

In exhilarating prose and with unparalleled access to those closest to Sam Altman, Hao recounts the meteoric rise of OpenAI and shows us the sinister impact that this industry is having on society.

Contaminants of emerging concern in the marine environment: current challenges in marine pollution reviews the available data in relation to contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in the marine environment: main sources, transport pathways, distribution in seawater and sediments, bioaccumulation, and biological effects. Each chapter recaps the most relevant information about the main groups of CECs, describing the particularities and specificities of each group and focusing on the most relevant individual contaminants. CECs are not regulated substances, and therefore not considered in national and international monitoring programs, even though they may have a potential impact on the environment due to their continuous input, relative persistence, and/or toxicity. CECs are relevant not only in continental and coastal areas close to their main sources, but also in the open sea, because some of them are likely to be transported long distances through air deposition or absorbed into particulate material. The persistence of many degradable substances in the marine environment increases when they are absorbed into particulate material/sediments and/or when they are subjected to anaerobic conditions that slow down the degradation kinetic of many contaminants. Bioaccumulation of several CECs has been confirmed in different coastal organisms; however, in general, the information available (species and trophic levels considered) is very limited because most studies are mainly focused on specific coastal areas. This book offers useful information about not regulated contaminants that are not considered in international monitoring programs but have potential impacts in coastal and open-sea areas. Therefore reading the book will allow them to improve their view about the real impact of current-use contaminants in the marine environment.

Physics and Ecology in Fluids: Modeling and Numerical Experiments develops mathematical and numerical modeling methodologies for coupled biological-hydrodynamic problems with a focus on process studies. The modeling is presented in a way that discusses mathematical background but does not depend on a large body of mathematical pre-requisites or experience. Models are built up from simple, to complex. This includes discussion of approximations and shortcuts commonly made by large computational models for natural bodies of water. Computational approaches are presented using conceptual explanations and pseudo-code along with well-documented, open-source code. Over a dozen codes that run locally on the reader's laptop provide hands on experience with various aspects of the modeling process and its scientific results. One large-scale code for basin scale modeling based on the Discontinuous Galerkin methodology is presented, along with a self-contained discussion of theoretical background and implementation details. Physics and Ecology in Fluids is written for graduate students, academic researchers and government scientists. Professors can use the book as a stand-alone resource for a one term graduate course, or to supplement teaching of their own graduate courses. All readers may also use the book as background/user's guide for the software included with the book.

Progress in Sustainable Development: Sustainable Engineering Practices provides readers with the latest research and best practices in sustainable engineering in the fields of urban, environmental, energy and sustainability sciences, reflecting a focus on state-of-the art insights and the latest developments. Chapters focus on the key engineering principles of effective resource use, reduction of excess waste, and taking advantage of natural resources to equip readers with the background information and practical considerations of successful implementations of sustainable technical solutions. Each chapter features detailed case studies and figures showing real-world applications of the latest technologies, ensuring they are reproduceable by the reader. The multidisciplinary chapters include environmentally-friendly technologies and the application of novel initiatives in engineering for infrastructure, renewable energy generation, advanced materials and waste, among other areas, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and conservation of resources.

Agricultural Soil Sustainability and Carbon Management presents long-term research in the field of sustainable soil use and management to guide in the prioritizing the multifunctional value of soil health and addressing interdisciplinary links between major issues such as biodiversity and climate change. As soil is the largest terrestrial carbon pool, as well as a significant contributor of greenhouse gases, much progress can be made toward curtailing the climate crisis by sustainable soil management practices.The book provides valuable insight into the soil and carbon management, the research gaps and the methodological challenges for research into soil carbon management will be include over the decades.

Managing Mining and Minerals Processing Wastes: Concepts, Design and Applications presents fundamental knowledge in waste management in mining and minerals processing and summarizes recent advances. The book offers readers insights into innovative ways to manage waste in the mining and minerals industry. Sections cover a brief introduction to this topic and an explanation of waste generation, and how to manage the six types of waste, including waste rock, mill tailings, coal refuse and coal fly ash, quarry waste, metallurgical slugs and washery rejects. The title then emphasizes the management of hazardous waste, the acid mine drainage and the lifecycle assessment of waste management. Finally, the book considers current and emerging challenges. This publication offers a comprehensive background to waste management in mining and minerals processing and a summary of recent advances and innovative strategies for managing each kind of waste.

Fruit and Vegetable Waste Utilization and Sustainability presents strategies to address the amount of waste generated from the industrial processing of fruits and vegetables. Sections address the valorization of fruit and vegetable waste for high-value products, the techno-economic assessment of fruit and vegetable biorefinery/valorization, environmental impacts through real-life examples of lifecycle assessment, and content on integrated biorefineries, policies and case studies. Food scientists and nutrition researchers, as well as food industry professionals working toward zero waste and academics and students studying related fields, are sure to benefit from this reference.

Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes and By-Products: Recent Trends, Innovations and Sustainability Challenges addresses the waste and by-product valorization of fruits and vegetables, beverages, nuts and seeds, dairy and seafood. The book focuses its coverage on bioactive recovery, health benefits, biofuel production and environment issues, as well as recent technological developments surrounding state of the art of food waste management and innovation. The book also presents tools for value chain analysis and explores future sustainability challenges. In addition, the book offers theoretical and experimental information used to investigate different aspects of the valorization of agri-food wastes and by-products. Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes and By-Products: Recent Trends, Innovations and Sustainability Challenges will be a great resource for food researchers, including those working in food loss or waste, agricultural processing, and engineering, food scientists, technologists, agricultural engineers, and students and professionals working on sustainable food production and effective management of food loss, wastes and by-products.

Electrification: Accelerating the Energy Transition offers a widely applicable framework to delineate context-sensitive pathways by which this transition can be accelerated and lists the types of processes and structures that may hinder progress towards this goal. The framework draws insights from well-established literature, ranging from technological studies to socio-technical studies of energy transitions, on to strategic niche management approaches, (international) political economy approaches, and institutionalist literatures, while also adopting wider social theoretical ideas from structuration theory. Contributors discuss a multitude of case studies drawn from global examples of electrification projects. Brief case studies and text boxes help users further understand this domain and the technological, infrastructural and societal structures that may exercise significant powers.

This incisive Research Handbook examines the relationship between energy and society, across both macro- and micro-scales, in the context of the climate crisis. Featuring an extensive examination of current research in the field from fifty expert international contributors, it offers important insights into the inter-connections between the globally organised fossil fuel energy system and the changing structures of society. Structured in four thematic parts, the Research Handbook begins with an analysis of the evolution of large-scale energy production and consumption using coal, oil and gas. Chapters then explore social divisions and inequalities in energy systems in different countries, before moving on to discuss energy governance, policy and politics, along with strategies to achieve transformation. In the final part, the Research Handbook investigates forms of knowledge, stories and public engagement being used to re-make energy futures, concluding that social sciences are identifying the inter-locking societal and technical changes needed to enable rapid systemic changes in energy. The Research Handbook on Energy and Society will be a crucial resource for social science scholars and students interested in the intersections of energy, climate change and society, including aspects of governance, policy and politics, social identity, social justice and inequalities.

Lakes of Africa: Microbial Diversity and Sustainability examines microbial ecosystems in African lakes, including the history and formation of African lakes. The book describes how environmental stressors-including seasonal variations, climate change, and anthropogenic activities-affect microbial ecosystem dynamics in African lakes and the microbial responses to these stressors. The book explores and evaluates extremophiles in African lakes, including industrial biotechnology applications. The book highlights challenges facing microbial ecology in African lakes, as well as the design of models for solving these problems and predicting the future of lake microbial ecosystem sustainability.

Exploring the important role of education in both pursuing and implementing sustainable development, this timely Handbook highlights how teaching methods at schools and universities can impact the future. It looks at ways not only to inform students about matters related to sustainable development, but also to empower them to adopt behaviours and actions that lead to more sustainable lifestyles. Chapters from an international team of contributors present and analyse experiences of different learning processes and methods, showcasing the impact of curriculum-related issues and teacher training. Using different pedagogical approaches, case studies and interdisciplinary initiatives, the Handbook explores a broad range of technological approaches and tools to foster better teaching and learning for sustainable development. It provides key insights into the implementation of teaching initiatives in helping to promote sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This Handbook will be crucial reading for those investigating curriculum policies and issues, and looking to enhance students' understanding of sustainability in schools and universities.