Towards an Ecologically Sustainable Growth Society
Towards an Ecologically Sustainable Growth Society

Author: Bruno Fritsch

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 3642787428

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This book is the work of three specialists from the field of Economics (B.F), Business (S.S.) and the Natural Sciences (W.S.). While each chapter concentrates more or less on one or other of these areas, with varying degrees of complexity, it is hoped that the readers whatever their background will fmd something of value in each section, in particular those outside their own disciplines. The authors believe that such cross fertilization of ideas will become increasingly needed in the coming development of a sustainable growth society and it is therefore their hope that this book, as a first example of its kind, will thereby contribute in an interdisciplinary way to the general understanding of the issues of sustainable growth. The authors divided their main contributions to the book as follows: Bruno Fritsch Chapters 1,2,3,4,5 and 8 Stephan Schmidheiny Chapter 7 Walter Seifritz Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 6 They would like to thank in particular Lloyd Timberlake for his editorial advice and his assistance on chapter 7. Special thanks are due to Irena Kusar for preparing the original figures and diagrams and to the Paul Scherrer Institute for permission to use the illustration, printing and copying facilities during preparation of the manuscript. They would also like to thank Richard Stratton for assembling, typing and correcting the text, editing and final layout and for his helpful advice and contributions to organising the presentation of the material.

Just Sustainabilities
Just Sustainabilities

Author: Robert Doyle Bullard

Publisher: Earthscan

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1849771774

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Environmental activists and academics alike are realizing that a sustainable society must be a just one. Environmental degradation is almost always linked to questions of human equality and quality of life. Throughout the world, those segments of the population that have the least political power and are the most marginalized are selectively victimized by environmental crises. This book argues that social and environmental justice within and between nations should be an integral part of the policies and agreements that promote sustainable development. The book addresses the links between environmental quality and human equality and between sustainability and environmental justice.

Reuniting Economy and Ecology in Sustainable Development
Reuniting Economy and Ecology in Sustainable Development

Author: Charles R. Beaton

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2020-07-24

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 1000153797

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Reuniting Economy and Ecology in Sustainable Development is part of a series on the various aspects of sustainable development, where "community" focuses on the primacy and quality of relationships among people sharing a particular place and between people and their environment. "Development" means personal and social transformation to a higher level of consciousness and a greater responsibility to be one anothers keepers, and "sustainability" is the act whereby one generation saves options by passing them to the next generation, which saves options by passing them onto the next and so on. The vision put forth in this book is one of melding ecology and economy into a unifying concept of social-environmental sustainability. The author suggests that dividing ecology and economy conceptually will destroy society as we know it. Our task as adults is to repair the environment for the children who must inherit it. The link between economics and ecology and the immense potential of that connection to influence the process of change within communities is the focus of this book. The authors theorize that in a healthy, future-oriented community there is a dominant role for sustainability. Each of these four concepts - economics, ecology, community and sustainability - are intimidating on their own. There has been volumes written on each topic separately but very little written on how they are connected in relation to the environment. Reuniting Economy and Ecology makes those connections and provides a base for finding solutions to achieving sustainable communities.

Economy & Ecology: Towards Sustainable Development
Economy & Ecology: Towards Sustainable Development

Author: F. Archibugi

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 9401578311

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After a period of relative silence, recent years have been marked by an upswing of interest in environmental issues. The publication of the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development on 'Our Common Future' (1987) has acted as a catalyst for a revival of the environmental awareness, not only regarding local and daily pollution problems, but also -and in particular- regarding global environmental decay and threats to a sustainable development. In a recent study by W.M. Stigliani et al., on 'Future Environments for Europe' (Executive Rep~rt 15, IIASA, Laxenburg, 1989) the environmental implications of various alternative socioeconomic development pathways with respect to eleven environmental issues that could become major problems in the future are analysed. These issues include: Managing water resources in an era of climate change. Acidification of soils and lakes in Europe. Long-term forestry management and the possibility of a future shortfall in wood supply. Areas of Europe marginalized by mainstream economic and agricultural development. Sea level rise. Chemical pollution of coastal waters. Toxic materials buildup and the potential for chemical time bombs. Non-point-source emissions of potentially toxic substances. Transportation growth versus air quality. Decreasing multi-functionally of land owing to urban and suburban land development. Increasing summer demand for electricity, and the impact on air quality.

Principles of Sustainable Development - Volume III
Principles of Sustainable Development - Volume III

Author: Giancarlo Barbiroli

Publisher: EOLSS Publications

Published: 2009-10-20

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1848260814

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Principles of Sustainable Development is the component of Encyclopedia of Development and Economic Sciences in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Sustainable Development is a term of differing definitions. Standing alone, the term is abstract and ambiguous. The meaning most often cited is that adopted by the World Commission on Environment and Development: meeting today’s true needs and opportunities without jeopardizing the integrity of the planetary life-support base – the environment – and diminishing its ability to provide for needs, opportunities, and quality of life in the future. This definition may serve as a general principle, but for a guide to action its components sustainability and development must be given substance: what is to be sustained and what developed? Is development essentially economic or material growth, and is sustainability mostly a means to keep economic growth growing? Consequently, should development represent means toward ecologically sustainable ends? The concept of ecological sustainability has been advanced as a restriction on economic development. It follows therefore that principles of sustainable development depend upon how the term is understood and how it is put into practice. Even so the definition of the World Commission on Environment and Development, given the adequate definition of variable needs, provides the most reliable principle for testing the qualitative and ecological sustainability of development proposals. The Theme on Principles of Sustainable Development, in three volumes, deals with the diversity of points of view on this complex subject. These three volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

Creating an Ecological Society
Creating an Ecological Society

Author: Fred Magdoff

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2017-05-29

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 1583676309

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Aiming squarely at replacing capitalism with an ecologically sound and socially just society, Magdoff and Williams provide accounts of how a new world can be created from the ashes of the old. They show that it is possible to envision and create a society that is genuinely democratic, equitable, and ecologically sustainable. And possible--not one moment too soon--for society to change fundamentally and be brought into harmony with nature. --From publisher description.

Social-Ecological Transformation
Social-Ecological Transformation

Author: Karl Bruckmeier

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-06-03

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 1137438282

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This book advances a social-ecological theory to reconnect nature and society through sustainable transformation of interacting social and ecological systems. Social ecology develops as an interdisciplinary science by using knowledge from the social sciences, especially sociology and economics, and from natural-scientific ecology. Knowledge integration across the boundaries of social and natural sciences is not widespread, blocked by the specialisation of theories and their competing forms of explanation and interpretation. Chapters in this book describe a new social-ecological theory that connects concepts and theories from both sides to create a new interdisciplinary theory. Inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge synthesis creates possibilities to analyse global environmental problems more systematically by integrating specialized research on environmental problems. The author uses social-ecological theory to analyse and explain problems and processes of global change in modern society such as climate change and adaptation to it, ecosystem change, and transformation of the industrial energy regime , finally offering pathways of transformation to a future sustainable society.

Strongly Sustainable Societies
Strongly Sustainable Societies

Author: Karl Johan Bonnedahl

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-27

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 1351173626

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The response of the international community to the pressing socio-ecological problems has been framed around the concept of ‘sustainable development’. The ecological pressure, however, has continued to rise and mainstream sustainability discourse has proven to be problematic. It contains an instrumental view of the world, a strong focus on technological solutions, and the premise that natural and human-made ‘capitals’ are substitutable. This trajectory, which is referred to as ‘weak sustainability’, reproduces inequalities, denies intrinsic values in nature, and jeopardises the wellbeing of humans as well as other beings. Based on the assumptions of strong sustainability, this edited book presents practical and theoretical alternatives to today’s unsustainable societies. It investigates and advances pathways for humanity that are ecologically realistic, ethically inclusive, and receptive to the task’s magnitude and urgency. The book challenges the traditional anthropocentric ethos and ontology, economic growth-dogma, and programmes of ecological modernisation. It discusses options with examples on different levels of analysis, from the individual to the global, addressing the economic system, key sectors of society, alternative lifestyles, and experiences of local communities. Examining key topics including human–nature relations and wealth and justice, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental and development studies, ecological economics, environmental governance and policy, sustainable business, and sustainability science.

Implementing Sustainable Development
Implementing Sustainable Development

Author: William M. Lafferty

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2000-11-30

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 0191522279

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At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, political leaders from more than a hundred countries made a formal commitment to intensify efforts to resolve global environment and development problems and to strive for sustainable development. This volume examines how governments in the developed industrial world have responded to the challenge of sustainable development since it was catapulted into the international stage. It focuses on the central government engagement with sustainable development in Australia, Canada, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. The study shows that sustainable development has been integrated into governmental idiom in most jurisdictions and has come to be associated with a series of changes to the structures and approached deployed to manage environmental problems. Yet, it also reveals significant differences of interpretation and priority, and in enthusiasm with which sustainable development has been received.

A Future Beyond Growth
A Future Beyond Growth

Author: Haydn Washington

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-14

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1317358341

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There is a fundamental denial at the centre of why we have an environmental crisis – a denial that ignores that endless physical growth on a finite planet is impossible. Nature provides the ecosystem services that support our civilisation, thus making humanity unavoidably dependent upon it. However, society continues to ignore and deny this dependence. A Future Beyond Growth explores the reason why the endless growth economy is fundamentally unsustainable and considers ways in which society can move beyond this to a steady state economy. The book brings together some of the deepest thinkers from around the world to consider how to advance beyond growth. The main themes consider the deep problems of the current system and key aspects of a steady state economy, such as population; throughput and consumerism; ethics and equity; and policy for change. The policy section and conclusion bring together these various themes and indicates how we can move past the growth economy to a truly sustainable future. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of economics, sustainability and environmental studies in general.