Environment, Power, and Society for the Twenty-First Century

Environment, Power, and Society for the Twenty-First Century

Author: Howard T. Odum

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2007-06-08

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0231502931

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Howard T. Odum possessed one of the most innovative minds of the twentieth century. He pioneered the fields of ecological engineering, ecological economics, and environmental accounting, working throughout his life to better understand the interrelationships of energy, environment, and society and their importance to the well-being of humanity and the planet. This volume is a major modernization of Odum's classic work on the significance of power and its role in society, bringing his approach and insight to a whole new generation of students and scholars. For this edition Odum refines his original theories and introduces two new measures: emergy and transformity. These concepts can be used to evaluate and compare systems and their transformation and use of resources by accounting for all the energies and materials that flow in and out and expressing them in equivalent ability to do work. Natural energies such as solar radiation and the cycling of water, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are diagrammed in terms of energy and emergy flow. Through this method Odum reveals the similarities between human economic and social systems and the ecosystems of the natural world. In the process, we discover that our survival and prosperity are regulated as much by the laws of energetics as are systems of the physical and chemical world.


Energy and Civilization

Energy and Civilization

Author: Vaclav Smil

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2018-11-13

Total Pages: 564

ISBN-13: 0262536161

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.


Energy

Energy

Author: Joseph Russell Rudolph

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 9780810830110

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A road map for the novice researcher contemplating the broad field affected by and concerned with energy.


Food, Energy, and Society

Food, Energy, and Society

Author: David Pimentel Ph.D.

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2007-10-04

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 1420046683

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Since the publication of the first edition of Food, Energy, and Society, the world's natural resources have become even more diminished due to the rapid expansion of the global human population. We are faced with dwindling food supplies in certain geographic areas, increasing pressure on energy resources, and the imminent extinction of many


Resources and Society

Resources and Society

Author: James Zucchetto

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1461251249

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Although this book is about a specific area of the world (i.e., Gotland, Sweden), the interdisciplinary nature of the study, with regard to resources, environment, and society, makes it of interest to a number of fields. We have tried to make this book readable for a wide variety of interested parties including systems ecologists, environmental scientists, resource economists, geographers, regional planners, and regional scientists, as well as those interested in Nordic conditions. Since this project was part of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) pro gram, this book should be of general interest to the international community. This book is certainly not a textbook, but we see it as being useful for courses in regional analysis with plenty of examples for illustrating analysis and models related to energy, environment, and economics, or to the general field of systems ecology. An instructor could, of course, supplement the material on systems and models with other sources. We hope this small book will serve as a helpful example of the analysis of the complex interdisciplinary problems associated with resources and society. In Chapter 1, we present a brief introduction to the Gotland study as well as to some of the concepts and theories that have guided our investigations.


Energy Guide

Energy Guide

Author: Virginia Bemis

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-06-26

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 0429556071

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Originally published in 1977. This annotated guide to sources of information on the social science aspects of energy and energy alternatives describes materials and sources of interest to users at all levels. The chapters separate information according to the type of material or the issuing organization. The index classifies according to type of energy, or energy issue. The final chapter is a special section of listings of empirical social science studies on energy and the energy crisis which contain detailed annotation on the methods, variables and findings. Those research projects cover attitudes, behavior, costs, policy and other energy-related matters.


Civilization Critical

Civilization Critical

Author: Darrin Qualman

Publisher: Fernwood Publishing

Published: 2019-05-14T00:00:00Z

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1773630873

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The modern world is wondrous. Its factories produce ten thousand cars every hour and ten trillion transistors every second. We carry supercomputers in our pockets, and nearly a million people are in the air at any time. In Civilization Critical, Darrin Qualman takes readers on a tour of the wonders of the 21st century. But the great strength of our modern word is also its great weakness. Our immense powers to turn resources and nature into products and waste imperil our future. And plans to double and redouble the size of the global economy veto sustainability. So, is our civilization doomed? No. Doom is a choice. We can make different choices. Qualman demonstrates that a 19th- and 20th-century transition to linear systems and away from the circular patterns of nature (and of all previous civilizations) is the foundational error—the underlying problem, the root cause of climate change, resource depletion, ocean’s full of plastics, and a host of mega-problems now intensifying and merging, with potentially civilization-cracking results. In this sweeping work, Qualman reinterprets and re-explains the problems we face today, and charts a clear, hopeful path into the future.


Energy in Nature and Society

Energy in Nature and Society

Author: Vaclav Smil

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 495

ISBN-13: 0262195658

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A comprehensive, systematic, analytically unified, and interdisciplinary treatment of energy in nature and society, from solar radiation and photosynthesis to our fossil fueled civilization and its environmental consequences.


The New Map

The New Map

Author: Daniel Yergin

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 0698191056

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A Wall Street Journal besteller and a USA Today Best Book of 2020 Named Energy Writer of the Year for The New Map by the American Energy Society “A master class on how the world works.” —NPR Pulitzer Prize-winning author and global energy expert, Daniel Yergin offers a revelatory new account of how energy revolutions, climate battles, and geopolitics are mapping our future The world is being shaken by the collision of energy, climate change, and the clashing power of nations in a time of global crisis. Out of this tumult is emerging a new map of energy and geopolitics. The “shale revolution” in oil and gas has transformed the American economy, ending the “era of shortage” but introducing a turbulent new era. Almost overnight, the United States has become the world's number one energy powerhouse. Yet concern about energy's role in climate change is challenging the global economy and way of life, accelerating a second energy revolution in the search for a low-carbon future. All of this has been made starker and more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic dark age that it has wrought. World politics is being upended, as a new cold war develops between the United States and China, and the rivalry grows more dangerous with Russia, which is pivoting east toward Beijing. Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping are converging both on energy and on challenging American leadership, as China projects its power and influence in all directions. The South China Sea, claimed by China and the world's most critical trade route, could become the arena where the United States and China directly collide. The map of the Middle East, which was laid down after World War I, is being challenged by jihadists, revolutionary Iran, ethnic and religious clashes, and restive populations. But the region has also been shocked by the two recent oil price collapses--and by the very question of oil's future in the rest of this century. A master storyteller and global energy expert, Daniel Yergin takes the reader on an utterly riveting and timely journey across the world's new map. He illuminates the great energy and geopolitical questions in an era of rising political turbulence and points to the profound challenges that lie ahead.