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The demands placed on land, water, energy and other natural resources are exacerbated as the world population continues to increase together with the expectations of economic growth. This, combined with concerns over environmental change, presents a set of scientific, policy and management issues that are critical for sustainability. Resource Accounting for Sustainability Assessment: The nexus between energy, food, water and land use offers an approach for multi-scale, integrated assessment of this nexus. It presents a comprehensive and original method of resource accounting for integrated sustainability assessments. The approach is illustrated with three detailed case studies: the islands o...
Dialogue on global warming has progressed from the Kyoto Protocol to meetings in Copenhagen and Cancun and will soon resume in meetings in South Africa. Some observers consider the Copenhagen conference a failure. EU representatives, in contrast, present an optimistic evaluation of achieving a global temperature rise limit of not more than 2°C by 2100. Geoscience researchers and lead investigators of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have supported CO2 emission reduction pledges and contend that we can achieve the 2°C limit through international coordination. This position conflicts with evaluations of United States Congressional and Presidential advisors, who do not bel...
This is a book about the work of scientists in the era of the Anthropocene: where human beings appear to have become a driving force in the evolution of the planet. It is a diverse collection of empirical, methodological and theoretical chapters concerned with the practice of interdisciplinary social-ecological systems research. The aim of the contributors is to give the reader an appreciation for the range and complexity of the challenges faced by researchers, research institutions and wider communities trying to make sense of the causes and consequences of the this new era of global environmental change. The tragedy of the Anthropocene, of the large scale anthropogenic habitat destruction ...
This book argues that mainstream economics, with its present methodological approach, is limited in its ability to analyze and develop adequate public policy to deal with environmental problems and sustainable development. Each chapter provides major insights into many of today s environmental problems such as global warming and sustainable growth. Building on the strengths and insights of Post Keynesian and ecological economics and incorporating cutting-edge work in economic complexity, bounded rationality and socio-economic dynamics, this book provides an interdisciplinary approach to deal with a broad range of environmental concerns. The contributors show how and where the two traditions share common ground concerning environmental problems and shed light on how the two schools can learn from one another. The book will be of great value to Post Keynesian and ecological economists as well as to those interested in new approaches to important global environmental issues.
In this open access book, ecological economics and political ecology traditions converge into a single academic school. The book constitutes a common ground where multiple and critical voices are expressed, covering a broad scope of urgent matters at the crossroad between society, economy and the natural environment. The manuscripts composing this compendium offer appealing material for both experienced and younger researchers interested in interdisciplinary exchanges in the field of the social environmental sciences. It combines historical accounts with recent theoretical and empirical developments revolving around the interaction between three foundational notions of the Barcelona School: social metabolism, environmental justice and self-reflective science.
For science to remain a legitimate and trustworthy source of knowledge, society will have to engage in the collective processes of knowledge co-production, which not only includes science, but also other types of knowledge. This process of change has to include a new commitment to knowledge creation and transmission and its role in a plural society. This book proposes to consider new ways in which science can be used to sustain our planet and enrich our lives. It helps to release and reactivate social responsibility within contemporary science and technology. It reviews critically relevant cases of contemporary scientific practice within the Cartesian paradigm, relabelled as 'innovation rese...
'Unlike so many books that analyze material and energy flows in society and the developments therein, this is one of the few that link such information to developments in social organization and that discusses how limits in one sphere influence the other and in reverse.' – Arnold Tukker, Journal of Industrial Ecology 'This book is a neat summary of the main research developments achieved by the editors and their colleagues at the Institute of Social Ecology at Klagenfurt University in Vienna, and represents an interesting and important landmark in the social metabolism approach to sustainable development. The book is arranged over eight chapters, each of which can stand alone as an interes...
This book discusses current challenges in Japan, focusing on the nation’s rapidly aging population and low birth rate, along with persistent public bond issues with heavy interest payments, the potential collapse of social security systems, and income inequality, as well as the global picture. In turn, it examines the accessibility of global fossil fuels and feasibility of large-scale solar energy use. A new theory of money, interest, and capital is put forward, together with a proposal for an alternative system of international monetary cooperation, to promote a more sustainable and equitable world. Specific topics discussed include • the inverted population pyramid, due to the dramatic...
The vast majority of the countries of the world are now facing an imminent energy crisis, particularly the USA, China, India, Japan and EU countries, but also developing countries having to boost their economic growth precisely when more powerful economies will prevent them from using the limited supply of fossil energy. Despite this crisis, current protocols of energy accounting have been developed for dealing with fossil energy exclusively and are therefore not useful for the analysis of alternative energy sources. The first part of the book illustrates the weakness of existing analyses of energy problems: the science of energy was born and developed neglecting the issue of scale. The auth...
This book is a critical and multidisciplinary IPE of the unequal structures of South American development and uneven insertions in the global order following the decline of the commodities boom. The work explores the extent to which regional development issues are related to merely a decline of commodities ́ prices and/or to the resilience of the historical structures within an unequal world order. Thus, the authors seek first to analytically explore the regional issues beyond the formal limitations of North American and Eurocentric approaches. Secondly, they empirically scrutinize the complex dimensions of regional inequality and global insertions. Aspects analysed include economic reprimarization, the impact of China, development finance, trade and regional value chains, knowledge and technology, regional and transnational organised crime, cities, economic integration and the Global South.