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These essays address one of the most pressing and significant issues that humanity has confronted to date - the lack of life-sustaining resources. Michael N. Dobkowski and Isidor Wallimann establish a disturbing but realistic scenario of the disastrous future that awaits humankind as surplus populations collide with dwindling resources. Authors consider a number of cause-and-effect situations on industrialization, biophysical limits, exponential population growth, and genocide, to name a few. This volume is a critical contribution to the field and will serve as an ideal introduction to courses in the environment, population, resources, genocide, and social conflict. ... Read more

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As the human population continues to grow and places increasing demands on the planet we inhabit we face the biggest challenge of our time: how can we exploit the natural resources available to us - be it for water, food, or energy - in a way that preserves the environment, and doesn't compromise its long-term future - and that of our species.

Environment, Development and Sustainability represents an examination of environment, development and sustainability as three integrated issues that form the main ongoing challenge of this century.

Looking beyond developing countries, this book presents examples from around the globe, reflecting the way that development is not a finished state: North America, the EU countries and Australasia continue to develop (and conversely have pockets of awful deprivation), and environment, development and sustainability are as much intertwined in these regions as elsewhere in the world.

With contributions from technologists, engineers, natural scientists and social scientists Environment, Development and Sustainability presents multiple perspectives on the issue of sustainable development. It celebrates the diversity of its contributors and uses positively this diversity as a resource for a more holistic approach to environment, development and sustainability.

Online Resource Centre

For registered adopters:
Figures from the book available to download

For students:
Library of web links cited in the book
Flashcard glossary ... Read more

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Agendas for Sustainability considers the processes used for devising global environment and development agendas and provides practical suggestions for their future development and influence. ... Read more

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This second volume in the Technologies of Architecture series - the only series of books tuned to the architectural technology syllabus - explores the environmental influences on building design.

Looking particularly at sustainable building, a holistic view is taken, so that the influence of any one set of choices on other areas – such as the trade-off of daylighting against thermal insulation, or the balance needed between heating and ventilation – are not overlooked. The authors discuss available technologies for establishing a suitable microclimate within buildings, for managing the transmission of sound and for minimizing the exploitation of scarce energy and of other resources.

Using the perspective of a designer who needs a sound scientific basis for arriving at the optimum outcome, this valuably informative volume is ideal for architectural technology students, as well as first and second year architecture students.

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The Business of Global Environmental Governance takes a political economy approach to understanding the role of business in global environmental politics. The book's contributors—from a range of disciplines including international political economy, management, and political science—view the evolution of international environmental governance as a dynamic interplay of economic structures, business strategies, and political processes. By providing comparative insights to the responses of business to major international environmental issues, the book illuminates the ways business activity shapes and is shaped by global environmental policies. It moves beyond the usual emphasis on state actors and formal regimes, instead providing empirical and theoretical contributions that examine the reciprocal relationship between corporate strategy and international environmental governance.

After developing a theoretical framework for understanding the role of business in environmental governance, the book provides empirical studies of business strategies across a range of cases, from formal regimes to combat climate change and ozone depletion to more informal and private regimes for tropical logging and the ISO 14000 environmental management standards. These case studies demonstrate the key roles of business, markets, and private actors in shaping international environmental institutions and constructing new forms of governance. ... Read more

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Few aspects of development are so complex as the need to reconcile anti-poverty and pro-environment goals. Often passions are exacerbated when experts with vastly different perspectives attempt to grapple with this problem. Yet the desired ends - poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability - are not mutually exclusive. This report deals with many of the questions which dominated the World Summit for Social Development, and elaborates on an integrated approach to sustainable development. It is intended to serve as a basis for dialogue and debate on the subject. ... Read more

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Sustainable development--meeting human needs while nurturing and restoring the planet's life support systems--requires a continuous process of scientific innovation, new knowledge and learning, and collaborative approaches to implementing technologies and policies. To address these challenges, different stakeholder groups are increasingly seeking to ally themselves through partnership, in order to implement projects, deliver services, establish secure funding mechanisms, and achieve on the ground results. Advocates of this collaborative approach point to the failure of governmental regulations, international commitments, or business as usual. However, skeptics often question the effectiveness of partnerships at achieving sustainable development goals and, in the absence of demonstrated results, wonder where partnerships are adding value.
A symposium held in June 2008 and summarized in this volume, attempted to advance the dialogue on partnerships for sustainability in order to catalyze existing knowledge and inform future efforts. Ideas that came out of discussions at the symposium will help leaders in government, the private sector, foundations and NGOs, and universities, both in the United States and internationally, as they develop and participate in new partnerships for sustainability.
... Read more

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Binational ecology and environmental management, especially in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, is destined to be one of the salient agenda items for Mexico and the United States in the twenty-first century. The upcoming century will be a time to contemplate the myriad problems and opportunities posed by economic integration and free trade. Lying squarely in the path of these debates is the physical environment shared by the two nations as they interconnect across their land border. The borderlands will emerge as a primary region for future Mexico-U.S. economic expansion. The challenge will be to harness the economic potential of the border region without compromising either the quality of life for its growing population or the environmental resources for future generations. The volume's contributors explore how these trends will interact and what might be done to mitigate the impacts of economic and population growth on the natural environment. This volume, it is hoped, will provide a catalyst for the growing body of discussion and research surrounding questions of sustainable development, economic growth, and the U.S.-Mexico border environment. ... Read more

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Pure environmentalism and pure resource exploitation can be integrated together to form an encompassing sustainability solution. This is the main message of this book based on an innovative "structure-concentration-incentives" methodology applied to Egypt. This methodology provides a basis for achieving environmental sustainability based on endogenous source-driven forces of change in contrast to the traditional effects-dominant oriented approach. Though the book's methodology could be used as a framework of analysis in environmental sustainability research for any developing country, Egypt provides a rich case study because of its historical, socio-economic, and political constructs. Sustainable development is generally seen as a tradeoff between resource efficiency and social equity such that total resource essentials in society can become sustainable in the long run in a manner that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Environmental sustainability cannot be implemented without the direct inclusion of structure (form), concentration (effect), and incentives (drivers) as critical policy choices because: (1) they constitute a necessary condition in any country's path towards sustainable development, (2) they must be implemented simultaneously as a target and constraint, and (3) they require social and political sacrifice complemented by endogenous-based systems in contrast to authoritarian solutions. Egypt, Energy and the Environment presents research on Egypt's energy and environmental resources from multidisciplinary perspectives. It offers sustainability solutions to many of the country's problems relating to energy, pollution, water, gender, wildlife, politics, economics, management, ecology, and information technology.The book's method of analysis can be applied to other developing countries as well. ____________________________Tarek H. Selim is Associate Professor of Economics at the American University in Cairo and Faculty Affiliate to Harvard Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. He has published extensively in leading international journals and presented papers in many conferences. His research output includes more than fifty research articles and book reviews, and he won his school's research excellence award in 2006. Professor Selim has PhD in economics from George Washington University, MBA from Johns Hopkins, and holds professional certificate programs from MIT, Harvard, Georgetown, Oxford, and Imperial College. ... Read more

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Arising from the 1st Interdisciplinary Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability in Potsdam, this book brings together Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics and Peace - top-level representatives from politics and NGOs, and renowned experts on sustainability. In an unparalleled attempt to address humankind's transformation to global sustainability, the authors explore the best scientific and political strategies for reconciling our civilization with its physical and ecological support systems. The book features a radically interdisciplinary approach through a broad range of contributions, covering the latest insights from climate impact research, environmental economics, energy resource analysis, ecosystems science, and other crucial fields. It is for everyone interested in sustainability issues. Intellectually stimulating articles address the complex challenges arising from the need to avoid dangerous climate change, covering both advanced mainstream concepts and novel transformational approaches. ... Read more

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This book contains papers presented at the Third International Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Malta. The Meeting focused on empirical work and case studies from around the world, and the book offers new insight and best practice guidance for supporting sustainable tourism. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, this book examines the practice of sustainable tourism from global travel trends through to destination and site
management.

Of interest to scientists, practitioners and policy makers, the topics covered in this volume include: Art, culture and nature; Climate change and tourism; Coastal issues; Community Involvement; Ecological issues; IT and
tourism; Modelling and estimates; Risk and safety; Rural tourism; Tourism
and protected areas; Tourism as a factor of development; Tourism as a tool of urban development; Tourism impact; Tourism strategies. ... Read more

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How can we get from where we are to where we want to be? Metaphors for Change attempts to answer this question and provide a roadmap for sustainability by bringing together the thoughts of a unique collection of leading change agents from business, government and academia. Environmental questions have previously been dealt with metaphorically, by catastrophism or manicheism (zero growth; Malthusianism, Deep Ecology; 'man is the enemy'; less is more). These metaphors have had limited impact because they have failed to connect with the mainstream of cultural, political, and business ideas. This book examines a number of new metaphors - and related partnerships, tools and action - which appear to have greater possibilities for the world in which we now live. The editors argue that Metaphors for Change can deliver to the public and to decision-makers new perceptions ('structured knowledge') that can help interpret the past and the present, and help us forge the future. The wider the gap between the 'now' and the 'necessary', the stronger the bridging perceptions have to be in order to break through barriers of fear and conservatism.Some of the concepts considered are: sustainable development; the polluter pays principle; the precautionary principle; eco-efficiency; eco-effectiveness; life-cycle assessment; design for the environment; eco-services; dematerialisation; industrial symbiosis; industrial ecology; and zero emissions. There are of course other useful metaphors on the horizon, some of them included in this book. Including key contributions from the ground-breaking conferences ECO 97 and ECO 99, along with other specially commissioned and reprinted pieces, Metaphors for Change provides a treasure chest of new ideas, innovations and action. Accessible and forward-thinking, it will prove indispensable both as a student learning tool and as a panoramic overview of the sustainability metaphors key thinkers believe we should be putting into practice. ... Read more

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It is not possible to understand the apparent stability of the Earth's climate and environment unless we can fully understand how the best possible environmental conditions may be maintained for life to exist. Human colonization of areas with natural biota, for industrial or agricultural activities, will lead to degradation of those natural communities and violation of the BRE (biotic regulation of the environment) principle. Thus to maintain an environment on Earth that is suitable for life it is necessary to preserve and allow the natural recovery of natural biotic communities, both in the oceans and on land. This book is devoted to a quantitative version of the BRE concept, and is built on a foundation of modern scientific knowledge accumulated in the fields of physics and biology. ... Read more

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The forest ecosystems of the southern United States are the region's predominant land use and comprise vital resources of economic and biological significance. These forests, covering 85 million hectares or 40% of the land area, are subject to numerous physical and chemical stressors. Temperature, precipitation, and nutrition are three factors that currently limit forest ecosystem health and productivity in the region. In a changing global environment, these forest ecosystems face an unprecedented rate of change and will be directly and indirectly affected by additional stresses from air pollutants and climate change, including increasing concentrations of carbon dixoide, methane, other trace gases and atmospheric aerosols, and altered land use patterns.

The research presented in this book provides a sound scientific basis for management and policy decisions regarding the productivity and sustainability of forest ecosystems in the context of a rapidly changing global environment.

This volume is a synthesis of five years of field and laboratory research on southern forests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service to provide scientific assessments to the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The book will provide scientific information for policy makers and land use managers. It will also be of interest to researchers in the environmental disciplines of ecology, forestry, atmospheric science, hydrology, soil science, and biogeochemistry.f ... Read more

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With the emergence of sick building syndrome in the 1970s and the emphasis on
LEED standards today, many interior designers are becoming interested in the topics
of health and sustainability. Health, Sustainability, and the Built Environment examines
the concept of sustainability as it pertains to sustaining human health. By analyzing
the many ways that humans interact with the built environment, the text teaches
students how to identify both the positive and negative effects that their designs can
have on the health of the occupants ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Humanistic
This book gives a practical approach to designing humanistically.It focuses on sustainability while giving some general good design tips and common sence.Unfortunately, it uses a lot of medical terminology that is foreign to the designer.

It often seems to contradict itself, but you have to understand that it is making suggestions for specific situations.It addresses dust mites saying that carpet can cause allergies.Then it says you should use broadloom stretch-in carpet around the elderly and those prone to fall.Once you understand that it is pointing out the best solution for individual situations, the book makes much more sense. ... Read more

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This volume aims to provide an analysis of the elements of sustainable public policy in a devolved Scotland, following the vote for a Scottish Parliament in the 1997 referendum. It asks questions such as: What will be the key opportunities, policy options and constraints around sustainability?; what practical difference will devolution make?; and what changes within and beyond government will be required to strengthen the roots of sustainable development? ... Read more

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Today s architects and engineers are increasingly being asked to address issues
of sustainability in our changing world. Architecture of Change presents outstanding
architectural projects that combine creativity, scientific knowledge,
technical innovation, social engagement and a strong sense of responsibility
to address environmental challenges. The book is based on the Zumtobel Group
Award for Sustainability and Humanity in the Built Environment.
Architecture of Change features recently built and realised projects that in
addition to their exceptional architectural quality make a notable contribution
to a liveable and sustainable future. But the book also covers current initiatives
that promote innovative research in this sector and thus encourage an emerging
generation of environmentally aware architects and urban planners.
Architecture of Change contains over forty international projects by architects
that include Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne, Steven Holl, Kenneth Yang,
Sauerbruch & Hutton, Architecture for Humanity and Rural Studio. The included
work ranges from development projects in Bangladesh, Nepal and Africa to open
source Internet platforms, experimental approaches to flood prevention and
modern high-rises for an urban context. The book also includes essays by and
interviews with internationally renowned experts in architecture, science, economics
and politics.
Its impressive examples of pioneering architectural projects make Architecture
of Change an inspiring book for all those interested in contemporary architecture
and questions of sustainability. Because it shows visionary solutions that are
improving our environment in real ways, the publication is a relevant reference
for both a professional and general audience. ... Read more

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Our morning cups of coffee connect us to a global industry and an export crisis in the tropics that is destroying livelihoods, undermining the cohesion of families and communities, and threatening ecosystems. Confronting the Coffee Crisis explores small-scale farming, the political economy of the global coffee industry, and initiatives that claim to promote more sustainable rural development in coffee-producing communities. Contributors review the historical, political, economic, and agroecological processes within today's coffee industry and analyze the severely depressed export market that faces small-scale growers in Mexico and Central America.

The book presents a series of interdisciplinary, empirically rich case studies showing how small-scale farmers manage ecosystems and organize collectively as they seek useful collaborations with international NGOs and coffee companies to create opportunities for themselves in the coffee market. The findings demonstrate the interconnections among farmer livelihoods, biodiversity, conservation, and changing coffee markets. Additional chapters examine alternative trade practices, certification, and eco-labeling, discussing the politics and market growth of organic, shade-grown, and Fair Trade coffees. Combining interdisciplinary research with case-study analysis at scales ranging from the local to the global, Confronting the Coffee Crisis reveals the promise and the perils of efforts to create a more sustainable coffee industry.

Contributors:
Christopher M. Bacon, David B. Bray, Sasha Courville, Jonathan A. Fox, Stephen R. Gliessman, David Goodman, Carlos Guadarrama-Zugasti, Shayna Harris, Roberta Jaffe, María Elena Martinez-Torres, V. Ernesto Méndez, Ellen Contreras Murphy, Tad Mutersbaugh, Seth Petchers, José Luis Plaza-Sanchez, Laura Trujillo, Silke Mason Westphal. ... Read more