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Water Ethics: A Values Approach to Solving the Water Crisis
by David GroenfeldtThis book introduces the idea that ethics are an intrinsic dimension of any water policy, program, or practice, and that understanding what ethics are being acted out in water policies is fundamental to an understanding of water resource management. Thus in controversies or conflicts over water resource allocation and use, an examination of ethics can help clarify the positions of conflicting parties as preparation for constructive negotiations. The author shows the benefits of exposing tacit values and motivations and subjecting these to explicit public scrutiny where the values themselves can be debated. The aim of such a process is to create the proverbial 'level playing field', where values favoring environmental sustainability are considered in relation to values favoring short-term exploitation for quick economic stimulus (the current problem) or quick protection from water disasters (through infrastructure which science suggests is not sustainable). The book shows how new technologies, such as drip irrigation, or governance structures, such as river basin organizations are neither "good" nor "bad" in their own right, but can serve a range of interests which are guided by ethics. A new ethic of coexistence and synergies with nature is possible, but ultimately depends not on science, law, or finances but on the values we choose to adopt. The book includes a wide range of case studies from countries including Australia, India, Philippines, South Africa and USA. These cover various contexts including water for agriculture, urban, domestic and industrial use, the rights of indigenous people and river, watershed and ecosystem management.
Environmental Security: Approaches and Issues
by Rita Floyd Richard MatthewEconomic development, population growth and poor resource management have combined to alter the planet’s natural environment in dramatic and alarming ways. For over twenty years, considerable research and debate have focused on clarifying or disputing linkages between various forms of environmental change and various understandings of security. At one extreme lie sceptics who contend that the linkages are weak or even non-existent; they are simply attempts to harness the resources of the security arena to an environmental agenda. At the other extreme lie those who believe that these linkages may be the most important drivers of security in the 21st century; indeed, the very future of humankind may be at stake. This book brings together contributions from a range of disciplines to present a critical and comprehensive overview of the research and debate linking environmental factors to security. It provides a framework for representing and understanding key areas of intellectual convergence and disagreement, clarifying achievements of the research as well as identifying its weaknesses and gaps. Part I explores the various ways environmental change and security have been linked, and provides principal critiques of this linkage. Part II explores the linkage through analysis of key issue areas such as climate change, energy, water, food, population, and development. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of the value of this subfield of security studies, and with some ideas about the questions it might profitably address in the future. This volume is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of the field. With contributions from around the world, it combines established and emerging scholars to offer a platform for the next wave of research and policy activity. It is invaluable for both students and practitioners interested in international relations, environment studies and human geography.
Environmental Security: Approaches and Issues
by Rita Floyd Richard MatthewEconomic development, population growth and poor resource management have combined to alter the planet’s natural environment in dramatic and alarming ways. For over twenty years, considerable research and debate have focused on clarifying or disputing linkages between various forms of environmental change and various understandings of security. At one extreme lie sceptics who contend that the linkages are weak or even non-existent; they are simply attempts to harness the resources of the security arena to an environmental agenda. At the other extreme lie those who believe that these linkages may be the most important drivers of security in the 21st century; indeed, the very future of humankind may be at stake. This book brings together contributions from a range of disciplines to present a critical and comprehensive overview of the research and debate linking environmental factors to security. It provides a framework for representing and understanding key areas of intellectual convergence and disagreement, clarifying achievements of the research as well as identifying its weaknesses and gaps. Part I explores the various ways environmental change and security have been linked, and provides principal critiques of this linkage. Part II explores the linkage through analysis of key issue areas such as climate change, energy, water, food, population, and development. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of the value of this subfield of security studies, and with some ideas about the questions it might profitably address in the future. This volume is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of the field. With contributions from around the world, it combines established and emerging scholars to offer a platform for the next wave of research and policy activity. It is invaluable for both students and practitioners interested in international relations, environment studies and human geography.
Urban Ecology: An Introduction
by Ian Douglas Philip JamesUrban Ecology: An Introduction seeks to open the reader’s mind and eyes to the way in which nature permeates everyday urban living, and how it has to be understood, cared for, and managed in order to make our towns and cities healthier places to visit and in which to live and work. The authors examine how nature can improve our physical and mental health, the air we breathe and the waters we use, as well as boosting our enjoyment of parks and gardens. Urban Ecology sets out the science that underlies the changing natural scene and the tools used to ensure that cities become both capable of adapting to climate change and more beautiful and resilient. The book begins with a discussion of the nature of urban places and the role of nature in towns and cities. Part 1 looks at the context and content of urban ecology, its relationship to other foci of interest within ecology and other environmental sciences, and the character of city landscapes and ecosystems. In Part 2 the authors set out the physical and chemical components of urban ecosystems and ecological processes, including urban weather and climate, urban geomorphology and soils, urban hydrology and urban biogeochemical cycles. In Part 3 urban habitats, urban flora and fauna, and the effects of, deliberate and inadvertent human action on urban biota are examined. Part 4 contains an exploration of the identification and assessment of ecosystem services in urban areas, emphasising economic evaluation, the importance of urban nature for human health and well-being, and restoration ecology and creative conservation. Finally, in Part 5 the tasks for urban ecologists in optimising and sustaining urban ecosystems, providing for nature in cities, adapting to climate change and in developing the urban future in a more sustainable manner are set out. Within the 16 chapters of the book – in which examples from around the world are drawn upon - the authors explore current practice and future alternatives, set out procedures for ecological assessment and evaluation, suggest student activities and discussion topics, provide recommended reading and an extensive bibliography. The book contains more than 150 tables and over 150 photographs and diagrams.
Urban Ecology: An Introduction
by Ian Douglas Philip JamesUrban Ecology: An Introduction seeks to open the reader’s mind and eyes to the way in which nature permeates everyday urban living, and how it has to be understood, cared for, and managed in order to make our towns and cities healthier places to visit and in which to live and work. The authors examine how nature can improve our physical and mental health, the air we breathe and the waters we use, as well as boosting our enjoyment of parks and gardens. Urban Ecology sets out the science that underlies the changing natural scene and the tools used to ensure that cities become both capable of adapting to climate change and more beautiful and resilient. The book begins with a discussion of the nature of urban places and the role of nature in towns and cities. Part 1 looks at the context and content of urban ecology, its relationship to other foci of interest within ecology and other environmental sciences, and the character of city landscapes and ecosystems. In Part 2 the authors set out the physical and chemical components of urban ecosystems and ecological processes, including urban weather and climate, urban geomorphology and soils, urban hydrology and urban biogeochemical cycles. In Part 3 urban habitats, urban flora and fauna, and the effects of, deliberate and inadvertent human action on urban biota are examined. Part 4 contains an exploration of the identification and assessment of ecosystem services in urban areas, emphasising economic evaluation, the importance of urban nature for human health and well-being, and restoration ecology and creative conservation. Finally, in Part 5 the tasks for urban ecologists in optimising and sustaining urban ecosystems, providing for nature in cities, adapting to climate change and in developing the urban future in a more sustainable manner are set out. Within the 16 chapters of the book – in which examples from around the world are drawn upon - the authors explore current practice and future alternatives, set out procedures for ecological assessment and evaluation, suggest student activities and discussion topics, provide recommended reading and an extensive bibliography. The book contains more than 150 tables and over 150 photographs and diagrams.
Understanding Human Ecology: A systems approach to sustainability
by Robert Dyball Barry NewellWe are facing hugely complex challenges – from climate change to world poverty, our problems are part of an inter-related web of social and natural systems. Human ecology promises an approach to these complex challenges, a way to understand these problems holistically and to start to manage them more effectively. This book offers a coherent conceptual framework for Human Ecology – a clear approach for understanding the many systems we are part of and for how we frame and understand the problems we face. Blending natural, social and cognitive sciences with dynamical systems theory, the authors offer systems approaches that are accessible to all, from the undergraduate student to policy-makers and practitioners across government, business and community. Road-tested and refined over a decade of teaching and workshops, the authors have built a clear, inspiring and important framework for anyone approaching the management of complex problems and the transition to sustainability.
Understanding Human Ecology: A systems approach to sustainability
by Robert Dyball Barry NewellWe are facing hugely complex challenges – from climate change to world poverty, our problems are part of an inter-related web of social and natural systems. Human ecology promises an approach to these complex challenges, a way to understand these problems holistically and to start to manage them more effectively. This book offers a coherent conceptual framework for Human Ecology – a clear approach for understanding the many systems we are part of and for how we frame and understand the problems we face. Blending natural, social and cognitive sciences with dynamical systems theory, the authors offer systems approaches that are accessible to all, from the undergraduate student to policy-makers and practitioners across government, business and community. Road-tested and refined over a decade of teaching and workshops, the authors have built a clear, inspiring and important framework for anyone approaching the management of complex problems and the transition to sustainability.
Environmental Policy in the EU: Actors, institutions and processes
by Andrew Jordan Camilla AdelleThe European Union (EU) has a hugely important effect on the way in which environmental policies are framed and implemented in many different parts of the world, but especially Europe. The new and comprehensively revised edition of this well-known textbook provides a state-of-the-art analysis of all the EU’s environmental policies. Comprising five parts, it covers the rapidly changing context in which EU environmental policies are made, the key actors who interact to co-produce policy and the most salient dynamics of policy making, ranging from decision making through to implementation and evaluation. Written by leading experts in the field, individual chapters examine how the EU is responding to a multitude of different problems including biodiversity loss, climate change, energy insecurity, and water and air pollution. They tease out the many important ways in which the EU's policies on these topics co-evolve with national and international environmental policies. In this third edition a mixture of learning features are employed to ensure that undergraduate and postgraduate students fully understand how EU policies in this vital area developed in the past and how they are now adapting to the rapidly evolving challenges of the twenty-first century.
Environmental Policy in the EU: Actors, institutions and processes
by Andrew Jordan Camilla AdelleThe European Union (EU) has a hugely important effect on the way in which environmental policies are framed and implemented in many different parts of the world, but especially Europe. The new and comprehensively revised edition of this well-known textbook provides a state-of-the-art analysis of all the EU’s environmental policies. Comprising five parts, it covers the rapidly changing context in which EU environmental policies are made, the key actors who interact to co-produce policy and the most salient dynamics of policy making, ranging from decision making through to implementation and evaluation. Written by leading experts in the field, individual chapters examine how the EU is responding to a multitude of different problems including biodiversity loss, climate change, energy insecurity, and water and air pollution. They tease out the many important ways in which the EU's policies on these topics co-evolve with national and international environmental policies. In this third edition a mixture of learning features are employed to ensure that undergraduate and postgraduate students fully understand how EU policies in this vital area developed in the past and how they are now adapting to the rapidly evolving challenges of the twenty-first century.
Green Infrastructure: Incorporating Plants and Enhancing Biodiversity in Buildings and Urban Environments (Routledge Studies in Urban Ecology)
by John W. DoverWith more than half of the world's population now living in urban areas, it is vitally important that towns and cities are healthy places to live. The principal aim of this book is to synthesize the disparate literature on the use of vegetation in the built environment and its multifunctional benefits to humans. The author reviews issues such as: contact with wildlife and its immediate and long-term effects on psychological and physical wellbeing; the role of vegetation in removing health-damaging pollutants from the air; green roofs and green walls, which provide insulation, reduce energy use and decrease the carbon footprint of buildings; and structural vegetation such as street trees, providing shading and air circulation whilst also helping to stop flash-floods through surface drainage. Examples are used throughout to illustrate the practical use of vegetation to improve the urban environment and deliver ecosystem services. Whilst the underlying theme is the value of biodiversity, the emphasis is less on existing high-value green spaces (such as nature reserves, parks and gardens), than on the sealed surfaces of urban areas (building surfaces, roads, car parks, plazas, etc.). The book shows how these, and the spaces they encapsulate, can be modified to meet current and future environmental challenges including climate change. The value of existing green space is also covered to provide a comprehensive textbook of international relevance.
Living within a Fair Share Ecological Footprint
by Robert Vale Brenda ValeAccording to many authorities the impact of humanity on the earth is already overshooting the earth’s capacity to supply humanity’s needs. This is an unsustainable position. This book does not focus on the problem but on the solution, by showing what it is like to live within a fair earth share ecological footprint. The authors describe numerical methods used to calculate this, concentrating on low or no cost behaviour change, rather than on potentially expensive technological innovation. They show what people need to do now in regions where their current lifestyle means they are living beyond their ecological means, such as in Europe, North America and Australasia. The calculations focus on outcomes rather than on detailed discussion of the methods used. The main objective is to show that living with a reduced ecological footprint is both possible and not so very different from the way most people currently live in the west. The book clearly demonstrates that change in behaviour now will avoid some very challenging problems in the future. The emphasis is on workable, practical and sustainable solutions based on quantified research, rather than on generalities about overall problems facing humanity.
Living within a Fair Share Ecological Footprint
by Robert Vale Brenda ValeAccording to many authorities the impact of humanity on the earth is already overshooting the earth’s capacity to supply humanity’s needs. This is an unsustainable position. This book does not focus on the problem but on the solution, by showing what it is like to live within a fair earth share ecological footprint. The authors describe numerical methods used to calculate this, concentrating on low or no cost behaviour change, rather than on potentially expensive technological innovation. They show what people need to do now in regions where their current lifestyle means they are living beyond their ecological means, such as in Europe, North America and Australasia. The calculations focus on outcomes rather than on detailed discussion of the methods used. The main objective is to show that living with a reduced ecological footprint is both possible and not so very different from the way most people currently live in the west. The book clearly demonstrates that change in behaviour now will avoid some very challenging problems in the future. The emphasis is on workable, practical and sustainable solutions based on quantified research, rather than on generalities about overall problems facing humanity.
The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society
by Arjen Y. HoekstraWater is not only used in the domestic context, but also in agriculture and industry in the production of commercial goods, from food to paper. The water footprint is an indicator of freshwater use that looks at both direct and indirect use of water by a consumer or producer. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book shows how the water footprint concept can be used to quantify and map the water use behind consumption and how it can guide reduction of water use to a sustainable level. With a number of case studies, it illustrates water use along supply chains and that water consumption at one place is often linked to water use at another. For example, it is calculated that it takes 15,000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of beef, or 8,000 litres of water to produce a pair of jeans. The book shows that imports of water-intensive products can highly benefit water-scarce countries, but also that this creates a dependency on foreign water resources. The book demonstrates how water-scarce regions sometimes, nevertheless, use lots of water for making export products. It raises the issue of sustainable consumption: how can consumers, businesses and governments get involved in reducing the water footprints of final consumer goods?
The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society
by Arjen Y. HoekstraWater is not only used in the domestic context, but also in agriculture and industry in the production of commercial goods, from food to paper. The water footprint is an indicator of freshwater use that looks at both direct and indirect use of water by a consumer or producer. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book shows how the water footprint concept can be used to quantify and map the water use behind consumption and how it can guide reduction of water use to a sustainable level. With a number of case studies, it illustrates water use along supply chains and that water consumption at one place is often linked to water use at another. For example, it is calculated that it takes 15,000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of beef, or 8,000 litres of water to produce a pair of jeans. The book shows that imports of water-intensive products can highly benefit water-scarce countries, but also that this creates a dependency on foreign water resources. The book demonstrates how water-scarce regions sometimes, nevertheless, use lots of water for making export products. It raises the issue of sustainable consumption: how can consumers, businesses and governments get involved in reducing the water footprints of final consumer goods?
Climate Smart Development in Asia: Transition to Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economies
by Ancha Srinivasan Frank Hiroshi Ling Hideyuki MoriThe future of China, India and Asia’s other emerging economies and their ability to take a ‘low-carbon’ and ‘climate-resilient’ development path determine the future of global carbon emissions and climate change. Indeed, the battle to confront global climate change will be won or lost in Asia. The transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy (LCE), which involves many steps towards improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources and transport systems, sustainable land use, eco-friendly consumption and proactive adaptation, may be regarded as the world's fourth revolution, after the industrial revolution, agricultural revolution, and the information revolution. Asia is highly vulnerable to impacts of climate change. Yet because of its dynamic economies and massive populations, Asia offers the greatest opportunity for overcoming the trade-offs and pursuing low-carbon development pathways. With a growing consensus that there is limited time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, scientists, engineers, policymakers, and economists across Asia have recently begun discussions on how Asia can make a transition to LCE. Most discussions, however, focused on transfer of technologies from developed to developing countries and overlooked other equally important challenges such as financing, governance, and information dissemination. This book is the first to look at these neglected aspects of LCE and attempt to integrate both market-based and technology-based solutions into a comprehensive strategy to creating a roadmap for LCE in Asia. This book is an essential reading for economists, policy makers, practitioners, engineers and researchers concerned with climate change, energy production and development in Asia and the impacts and potential for the world.
Environmental Commodities Markets and Emissions Trading: Towards a Low-Carbon Future
by Blas Luis Pérez HenríquezMarket-based solutions to environmental problems offer great promise, but require complex public policies that take into account the many institutional factors necessary for the market to work and that guard against the social forces that can derail good public policies. Using insights about markets from the new institutional economics, this book sheds light on the institutional history of the emissions trading concept as it has evolved across different contexts. It makes accessible the policy design and practical implementation aspects of a key tool for fighting climate change: emissions trading systems (ETS) for environmental control. Blas Luis Pérez Henríquez analyzes past market-based environmental programs to extract lessons for the future of ETS. He follows the development of the emissions trading concept as it evolved in the United States and was later applied in the multinational European Emissions Trading System and in sub-national programs in the United States such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and California’s ETS. This ex-post evaluation of an ETS as it evolves in real time in the real world provides a valuable supplement to what is already known from theoretical arguments and simulation studies about the advantages and disadvantages of the market strategy. Political cycles and political debate over the use of markets for environmental control make any form of climate policy extremely contentious. Pérez Henríquez argues that, despite ideological disagreements, the ETS approach, or, more popularly, 'cap-and-trade' policy design, remains the best hope for a cost-effective policy to reduce GHG emissions around the world.
Environmental Commodities Markets and Emissions Trading: Towards a Low-Carbon Future
by Blas Luis Pérez HenríquezMarket-based solutions to environmental problems offer great promise, but require complex public policies that take into account the many institutional factors necessary for the market to work and that guard against the social forces that can derail good public policies. Using insights about markets from the new institutional economics, this book sheds light on the institutional history of the emissions trading concept as it has evolved across different contexts. It makes accessible the policy design and practical implementation aspects of a key tool for fighting climate change: emissions trading systems (ETS) for environmental control. Blas Luis Pérez Henríquez analyzes past market-based environmental programs to extract lessons for the future of ETS. He follows the development of the emissions trading concept as it evolved in the United States and was later applied in the multinational European Emissions Trading System and in sub-national programs in the United States such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and California’s ETS. This ex-post evaluation of an ETS as it evolves in real time in the real world provides a valuable supplement to what is already known from theoretical arguments and simulation studies about the advantages and disadvantages of the market strategy. Political cycles and political debate over the use of markets for environmental control make any form of climate policy extremely contentious. Pérez Henríquez argues that, despite ideological disagreements, the ETS approach, or, more popularly, 'cap-and-trade' policy design, remains the best hope for a cost-effective policy to reduce GHG emissions around the world.
Managing Natural Wealth: Environment and Development in Malaysia
by Jeffrey R. Vincent Rozali Professor Mohamed AliThe remarkably rich natural environment of Malaysia attracts the interest of both industry and the environmental community. Managing Natural Wealth analyzes major natural resource and environmental policy issues in the country during the 1970s and 1980s-a period of profound socioeconomic change, rapid depletion of natural resources, and the emergence of serious problems with pollution. Managing Natural Wealth is an important up-date to Environment and Development in a Resource-Rich Economy: Malaysia under the New Economic Policy. First published in hardcover in 1997, this pathbreaking book emphasized economics as a source for analyzing the issues involved in environmental and natural resource management in developing countries. The access that Jeffrey Vincent and Rozali Mohamed Ali and the contributing authors had to unpublished data and key decisionmakers made their account an essential reference for policymakers and researchers in Malaysia and throughout the globe. Managing Natural Wealth includes a review of key developments since the 1990s by S. Robert Aiken and Colin H. Leigh, two geographers with a long-standing interest in environmental change in Malaysia and an understanding of the institutional context of its environmental policy that is unmatched in the scholarly community.
Managing Natural Wealth: Environment and Development in Malaysia
by Jeffrey R. Vincent Rozali Professor Mohamed AliThe remarkably rich natural environment of Malaysia attracts the interest of both industry and the environmental community. Managing Natural Wealth analyzes major natural resource and environmental policy issues in the country during the 1970s and 1980s-a period of profound socioeconomic change, rapid depletion of natural resources, and the emergence of serious problems with pollution. Managing Natural Wealth is an important up-date to Environment and Development in a Resource-Rich Economy: Malaysia under the New Economic Policy. First published in hardcover in 1997, this pathbreaking book emphasized economics as a source for analyzing the issues involved in environmental and natural resource management in developing countries. The access that Jeffrey Vincent and Rozali Mohamed Ali and the contributing authors had to unpublished data and key decisionmakers made their account an essential reference for policymakers and researchers in Malaysia and throughout the globe. Managing Natural Wealth includes a review of key developments since the 1990s by S. Robert Aiken and Colin H. Leigh, two geographers with a long-standing interest in environmental change in Malaysia and an understanding of the institutional context of its environmental policy that is unmatched in the scholarly community.
Finders Keepers?: How the Law of Capture Shaped the World Oil Industry
by Terence DaintithSince the beginnings of the oil industry, production activity has been governed by the 'law of capture,' dictating that one owns the oil recovered from one's property even if it has migrated from under neighboring land. This 'finders keepers' principle has been excoriated by foreign critics as a 'law of the jungle' and identified by American commentators as the root cause of the enormous waste of oil and gas resulting from US production methods in the first half of the twentieth century. Yet while in almost every other country the law of capture is today of marginal significance, it continues in full vigour in the United States, with potentially wasteful results. In this richly documented account, Terence Daintith adopts a historical and comparative perspective to show how legal rules, technical knowledge (or the lack of it) and political ideas combined to shape attitudes and behavior in the business of oil production, leading to the original adoption of the law of capture, its consolidation in the United States, and its marginalization elsewhere.
Finders Keepers?: How the Law of Capture Shaped the World Oil Industry
by Terence DaintithSince the beginnings of the oil industry, production activity has been governed by the 'law of capture,' dictating that one owns the oil recovered from one's property even if it has migrated from under neighboring land. This 'finders keepers' principle has been excoriated by foreign critics as a 'law of the jungle' and identified by American commentators as the root cause of the enormous waste of oil and gas resulting from US production methods in the first half of the twentieth century. Yet while in almost every other country the law of capture is today of marginal significance, it continues in full vigour in the United States, with potentially wasteful results. In this richly documented account, Terence Daintith adopts a historical and comparative perspective to show how legal rules, technical knowledge (or the lack of it) and political ideas combined to shape attitudes and behavior in the business of oil production, leading to the original adoption of the law of capture, its consolidation in the United States, and its marginalization elsewhere.
Forest Community Connections: "Implications for Research, Management, and Governance"
by Ellen M Donoghue Victoria E SturtevantThe connections between communities and forests are complex and evolving, presenting challenges to forest managers, researchers, and communities themselves. Dependency on timber extraction and timber-related industries is no longer a universal characteristic of the forest community. Remoteness is also a less common feature, as technology, workforce mobility, tourism, and 'amenity migrants' increasingly connect rural to urban places. Forest Community Connections explores the responses of forest communities to a changing economy, changing federal policy, and concerns about forest health from both within and outside forest communities. Focusing primarily on the United States, the book examines the ways that social scientists work with communities-their role in facilitating social learning, informing policy decisions, and contributing to community well being. Bringing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, political science, and forestry, the authors review a range of management issues, including wildfire risk, forest restoration, labor force capacity, and the growing demand for a growing variety of forest goods and services. They examine the increasingly diverse aesthetic and cultural values that forest residents attribute to forests, the factors that contribute to strong and resilient connections between communities and forests, and consider a range of governance structures to positively influence the well being of forest communities and forests, including collaboration and community-based forestry.
Forest Community Connections: "Implications for Research, Management, and Governance"
by Ellen M Donoghue Victoria E SturtevantThe connections between communities and forests are complex and evolving, presenting challenges to forest managers, researchers, and communities themselves. Dependency on timber extraction and timber-related industries is no longer a universal characteristic of the forest community. Remoteness is also a less common feature, as technology, workforce mobility, tourism, and 'amenity migrants' increasingly connect rural to urban places. Forest Community Connections explores the responses of forest communities to a changing economy, changing federal policy, and concerns about forest health from both within and outside forest communities. Focusing primarily on the United States, the book examines the ways that social scientists work with communities-their role in facilitating social learning, informing policy decisions, and contributing to community well being. Bringing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, political science, and forestry, the authors review a range of management issues, including wildfire risk, forest restoration, labor force capacity, and the growing demand for a growing variety of forest goods and services. They examine the increasingly diverse aesthetic and cultural values that forest residents attribute to forests, the factors that contribute to strong and resilient connections between communities and forests, and consider a range of governance structures to positively influence the well being of forest communities and forests, including collaboration and community-based forestry.
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Goods and Services: An Input-Output Approach
by Chris T. Hendrickson Lester B. Lave H. Scott MatthewsEnvironmental life cycle assessment is often thought of as cradle to grave and therefore as the most complete accounting of the environmental costs and benefits of a product or service. However, as anyone who has done an environmental life cycle assessment knows, existing tools have many problems: data is difficult to assemble and life cycle studies take months of effort. A truly comprehensive analysis is prohibitive, so analysts are often forced to simply ignore many facets of life cycle impacts. But the focus on one aspect of a product or service can result in misleading indications if that aspect is benign while other aspects pollute or are otherwise unsustainable. This book summarizes the EIO-LCA method, explains its use in relation to other life cycle assessment models, and provides sample applications and extensions of the model into novel areas. A final chapter explains the free, easy-to-use software tool available on a companion website. (www.eiolca.net) The software tool provides a wealth of data, summarizing the current U.S. economy in 500 sectors with information on energy and materials use, pollution and greenhouse gas discharges, and other attributes like associated occupational deaths and injuries. The joint project of twelve faculty members and over 20 students working together over the past ten years at the Green Design Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, the EIO-LCA has been applied to a wide range of products and services. It will prove useful for research, industry, and in economics, engineering, or interdisciplinary classes in green design.
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Goods and Services: An Input-Output Approach
by Chris T. Hendrickson Lester B. Lave H. Scott MatthewsEnvironmental life cycle assessment is often thought of as cradle to grave and therefore as the most complete accounting of the environmental costs and benefits of a product or service. However, as anyone who has done an environmental life cycle assessment knows, existing tools have many problems: data is difficult to assemble and life cycle studies take months of effort. A truly comprehensive analysis is prohibitive, so analysts are often forced to simply ignore many facets of life cycle impacts. But the focus on one aspect of a product or service can result in misleading indications if that aspect is benign while other aspects pollute or are otherwise unsustainable. This book summarizes the EIO-LCA method, explains its use in relation to other life cycle assessment models, and provides sample applications and extensions of the model into novel areas. A final chapter explains the free, easy-to-use software tool available on a companion website. (www.eiolca.net) The software tool provides a wealth of data, summarizing the current U.S. economy in 500 sectors with information on energy and materials use, pollution and greenhouse gas discharges, and other attributes like associated occupational deaths and injuries. The joint project of twelve faculty members and over 20 students working together over the past ten years at the Green Design Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, the EIO-LCA has been applied to a wide range of products and services. It will prove useful for research, industry, and in economics, engineering, or interdisciplinary classes in green design.