Download or read book Essays on Technology and the Environment from an International Perspective written by Geoffrey Barrows and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this dissertation, I present three essays that consider the environmental consequences of technological change, from an international perspective. The first two chapters use firm-level production data to estimate the response of CO2 emission intensity to changes in competition in foreign markets. The first chapter estimates this response with respect to foreign demand shocks, i.e., a positive shock to exports. The second chapter exploits a specific liberalization episode to estimate the impact with respect to foreign competition shocks, i.e., a negative shock to exports. Both papers are co-authored with Helene Ollivier. The final chapter analyzes the decision to adopt genetically engineered seeds in different countries around the world, and the attendant impacts on supply and land-use. This last chapter is co-authored with David Zilberman and Steven Sexton and was previously published in Environment and Development Economics. The first chapter investigates the impact of exporting on the CO2 emission intensity of manufacturing firms in India. Recent papers have argued that export market access encourages firms to upgrade technology, which lowers the emission intensity of production; however, data limitations confound previous attempts to separately identify productivity impacts from simultaneous changes in prices and product-mix. We present a model of how these alternative channels could also explain the results documented in the literature. Then, using a highly detailed production dataset of large Indian manufacturing firms that contains information on physical units of inputs and outputs by product, we are able to decompose the overall firm impact into three components -- prices, product-mix, and technology. Export impacts at the firm level are identified from import demand shocks of foreign trading partners. We find that prices systematically bias down estimates of emission intensity in value, that firms adjust emission intensity in quantity through changing output shares across products, but that firms do not lower emission intensity within products over time (technology). The results imply that the productivity benefits from market integration alone are not enough to induce clean technology adoption. The second chapter investigates the ``third-party'' impact of trade liberalization on the environmental performance of firms in countries that lose market share as a result of the liberalization. If competition matters for exporting (as previous research indicates), and exporting matters for emission intensity, then emission intensity reductions in liberalized markets may be offset by emission intensity increases in countries peripheral to the liberalization. To test for this indirect effect, we exploit quasi-natural variation arising from the elimination of quota constraints on textile and apparel exports to the US between 1994 and 2007. Using a detailed panel of production and emission data at the firm-product level, we find that Indian exporters in Prowess lost on average 14% export sales as a result of liberalized trade between the US and India's competitors. This loss of export sales was accompanied by an increase in CO2 intensity of 9%. The results do not appear to be due to fuel-switching, but there is suggestive evidence that capital investments and switching to higher emission intensity varieties may have played a role. Overall, the results support the importance of international competition for production and pollution decisions of firms around the world. The final chapter uses aggregate data to estimate supply, price, land-use, and greenhouse gas impacts of genetically engineered (GE) seed adoption due both to increased yield per hectare (intensive margin) and increased planted area (extensive margin). An adoption model with profitability and risk considerations distinguishes between the two margins, where the intensive margin results from direct ``gene" impacts and higher complementary input use, and the extensive margin reflects the growing range of lands that become profitable with the GE technology. We identify yield increases from cross-country time series variation in GE adoption share within the main GE crops- cotton, corn, and soybeans. We find that GE increased yields 34% for cotton, 12% for corn and 3% for soybeans. We then estimate quantity of extensive margin lands from year-to-year changes in traditional and GE planted area. If all production on the extensive margin is attributed to GE technology, the supply effect of GE increases from 5% to 12% for corn, 15% to 20% for cotton, and 2% to 40% for soybeans, generating significant downward pressure on prices. Finally, we compute ``saved" lands and greenhouse gases as the difference between observed hectarage per crop and counterfactual hectarage needed to generate the same output without the yield boost from GE. We find that all together, GE saved 13 million hectares of land from conversion to agriculture in 2010, and averted emissions are equivalent to roughly 1/8 the annual emissions from automobiles in the US.
Download or read book The Perception of the Environment written by Tim Ingold and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-29 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this work Tim Ingold offers a persuasive new approach to understanding how human beings perceive their surroundings. He argues that what we are used to calling cultural variation consists, in the first place, of variations in skill. Neither innate nor acquired, skills are grown, incorporated into the human organism through practice and training in an environment. They are thus as much biological as cultural. To account for the generation of skills we have therefore to understand the dynamics of development. And this in turn calls for an ecological approach that situates practitioners in the context of an active engagement with the constituents of their surroundings. The twenty-three essays comprising this book focus in turn on the procurement of livelihood, on what it means to ‘dwell’, and on the nature of skill, weaving together approaches from social anthropology, ecological psychology, developmental biology and phenomenology in a way that has never been attempted before. The book is set to revolutionise the way we think about what is ‘biological’ and ‘cultural’ in humans, about evolution and history, and indeed about what it means for human beings – at once organisms and persons – to inhabit an environment. The Perception of the Environment will be essential reading not only for anthropologists but also for biologists, psychologists, archaeologists, geographers and philosophers. This edition includes a new Preface by the author.
Download or read book Managing the Unknown written by Frank Uekötter and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2014-03-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Information is crucial when it comes to the management of resources. But what if knowledge is incomplete, or biased, or otherwise deficient? How did people define patterns of proper use in the absence of cognitive certainty? Discussing this challenge for a diverse set of resources from fish to rubber, these essays show that deficient knowledge is a far more pervasive challenge in resource history than conventional readings suggest. Furthermore, environmental ignorance does not inevitably shrink with the march of scientific progress: these essays suggest more of a dialectical relationship between knowledge and ignorance that has different shapes and trajectories. With its combination of empirical case studies and theoretical reflection, the essays make a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary debate on the production and resilience of ignorance. At the same time, this volume combines insights from different continents as well as the seas in between and thus sketches outlines of an emerging global resource history.
Download or read book Man Nature and Technology written by Erik Baark and published by Springer. This book was released on 1988-06-18 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Perspectives on the Environment written by Sue Elworthy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in 1995, the essays in this book are papers presented to the second conference of the Interdisciplinary Research Network on the Environment and Society (IRNES) held in Sheffield in September 1993. It follows "Perspectives on the Environment" (ed. Holder et al, 1993, Avebury) to continue the dissemination of the work of IRNES members to a wider audience. Part I explores the social dimensions of environmental technology in the form of an examination of the construction of global climate models, a critical analysis of the discourses associated with agricultural biotechnologies and the environmental implications of building technologies. Part II explores national and international politics of the environment in Britain, the Ukraine and Burma, Thailand and Indonesia. Part III deals with planning for sustainability in Japan and Britain. Part IV examines theories of democracy and the state both nationally and in the form of the European Union's principle of subsidiary.
Download or read book Between Reason and Experience written by Andrew Feenberg and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-04-09 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading philosopher of technology calls for the democratic coordination of technical rationality with everyday experience. The technologies, markets, and administrations of today's knowledge society are in crisis. We face recurring disasters in every domain: climate change, energy shortages, economic meltdown. The system is broken, despite everything the technocrats claim to know about science, technology, and economics. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that today powerful technologies have unforeseen effects that disrupt everyday life; the new masters of technology are not restrained by the lessons of experience, and accelerate change to the point where society is in constant turmoil. In Between Reason and Experience, leading philosopher of technology Andrew Feenberg makes a case for the interdependence of reason—scientific knowledge, technical rationality—and experience. Feenberg examines different aspects of the tangled relationship between technology and society from the perspective of critical theory of technology, an approach he has pioneered over the past twenty years. Feenberg points to two examples of democratic interventions into technology: the Internet (in which user initiative has influenced design) and the environmental movement (in which science coordinates with protest and policy). He examines methodological applications of critical theory of technology to the case of the French Minitel computing network and to the relationship between national culture and technology in Japan. Finally, Feenberg considers the philosophies of technology of Heidegger, Habermas, Latour, and Marcuse. The gradual extension of democracy into the technical sphere, Feenberg argues, is one of the great political transformations of our time.
Download or read book Perspectives on the Environment Volume 2 written by Sue Elworthy and published by Routledge Revivals. This book was released on 2018-08 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in 1995, the essays in this book are papers presented to the second conference of the Interdisciplinary Research Network on the Environment and Society (IRNES) held in Sheffield in September 1993. It follows "Perspectives on the Environment" (ed. Holder et al, 1993, Avebury) to continue the dissemination of the work of IRNES members to a wider audience. Part I explores the social dimensions of environmental technology in the form of an examination of the construction of global climate models, a critical analysis of the discourses associated with agricultural biotechnologies and the environmental implications of building technologies. Part II explores national and international politics of the environment in Britain, the Ukraine and Burma, Thailand and Indonesia. Part III deals with planning for sustainability in Japan and Britain. Part IV examines theories of democracy and the state both nationally and in the form of the European Union's principle of subsidiary.
Download or read book Technological Change and the Environment written by Arnulf Grübler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much is written in the popular literature about the current pace of technological change. But do we have enough scientific knowledge about the sources and management of innovation to properly inform policymaking in technology dependent domains such as energy and the environment? While it is agreed that technological change does not 'fall from heaven like autumn leaves,' the theory, data, and models are deficient. The specific mechanisms that govern the rate and direction of inventive activity, the drivers and scope for incremental improvements that occur during technology diffusion, and the spillover effects that cross-fertilize technological innovations remain poorly understood. In a work that will interest serious readers of history, policy, and economics, the editors and their distinguished contributors offer a unique, single volume overview of the theoretical and empirical work on technological change. Beginning with a survey of existing research, they provide analysis and case studies in contexts such as medicine, agriculture, and power generation, paying particular attention to what technological change means for efficiency, productivity, and reduced environmental impacts. The book includes a historical analysis of technological change, an examination of the overall direction of technological change, and general theories about the sources of change. The contributors empirically test hypotheses of induced innovation and theories of institutional innovation. They propose ways to model induced technological change and evaluate its impact, and they consider issues such as uncertainty in technology returns, technology crossover effects, and clustering. A copublication o Resources for the Future (RFF) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
Download or read book Information Systems and the Environment written by National Academy of Engineering and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2001-09-13 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Information technology is a powerful tool for meeting environmental objectives and promoting sustainable development. This collection of papers by leaders in industry, government, and academia explores how information technology can improve environmental performance by individual firms, collaborations among firms, and collaborations among firms, government agencies, and academia. Information systems can also be used by nonprofit organizations and the government to inform the public about broad environmental issues and environmental conditions in their neighborhoods. Several papers address the challenges to information management posed by the explosive increase in information and knowledge about environmental issues and potential solutions, including determining what information is environmentally relevant and how it can be used in decision making. In addition, case studies are described and show how industry is using information systems to ensure sustainable development and meet environmental standards. The book also includes examples from the public sector showing how governments use information knowledge systems to disseminate "best practices" beyond big firms to small businesses, and from the world of the Internet showing how knowledge is shared among environmental advocates and the general public.
Download or read book Invasive Technification written by Gernot Böhme and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-08-23 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technology has extended its reach to the human body, not just in a literal sense, through implants, transplants and technological substitutes for biological organs, but in a more figurative sense too. Technological infrastructure and the institutions of a technified society today determine what perception is, how we communicate and what forms of human relationship with the natural world are possible. A fundamental new conception of technology is urgently needed. Technology can no longer be seen as a means for efficiently attaining pre-established ends. Rather, it must be seen as a total structure which makes new forms of human action and human relationship possible, while limiting the possibilities of others. In Invasive Technification, acclaimed German philosopher Gernot Böhme offers a reading of technology that explores the many dimensions in which technology presents challenges for modern human beings. It is a book about the preservation of humanity and humane values under the demanding conditions of a technically advanced civilisation and makes a major contribution to the contemporary philosophy of technology.
Download or read book Ch nge written by and published by Turner. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Internet has so entirely transformed virtually all aspects of everyday life that it seems almost impossible to assess its impact. Here, 19 esteemed scholars from around the world tackle the topic from different angles. Manuel Castells, David Gelernter, Juan Ignacio Vázquez, Evgeni Morozov, Mikko Hyppönen, Yochai Benkler, Federico Casalegno, David Crystal, Lucien Engelen, Patrik Wikström, Peter Hirshberg, Paul DiMaggio and Edward Castronova address such matters as the "Internet of things"; the sociology of the Internet; cybercrime and Internet security; the future of work; the Internet and urban-rural sustainability; the "Worldstream and the Cybersphere"; gaming and society; the Internet's influence on languages and new economic systems; the massive changes wrought by the net in the music industry; and other aspects of its many cultural, social and political ramifications.
Download or read book Technology Innovation and Industrial Economics Institutionalist Perspectives written by William E. Cole and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1998-07-31 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technology, Innovation and Industrial Economics: Institutional Perspectives, inspired by the work of William E. Cole, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, extends his work with essays on technology, innovation and industrial economics from an Institutionalist perspective. The managerial style, innovational practices and industrial setting of the continuous improvement firm are central to several chapters. This volume also features innovation and technology in Latin America, Adam Smith's writing on entrepreneurship and a comparison of American and European Institutionalism. The topics of technology, innovation, industrial organization and industrial policy are being widely discussed and debated in today's literature, but seldom from an Institutionalist perspective. The purpose of this book is to reduce substantially this missing dimension in the ongoing debates on these important issues.
Download or read book Media Technologies written by Tarleton Gillespie and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-01-24 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars from communication and media studies join those from science and technology studies to examine media technologies as complex, sociomaterial phenomena. In recent years, scholarship around media technologies has finally shed the assumption that these technologies are separate from and powerfully determining of social life, looking at them instead as produced by and embedded in distinct social, cultural, and political practices. Communication and media scholars have increasingly taken theoretical perspectives originating in science and technology studies (STS), while some STS scholars interested in information technologies have linked their research to media studies inquiries into the symbolic dimensions of these tools. In this volume, scholars from both fields come together to advance this view of media technologies as complex sociomaterial phenomena. The contributors first address the relationship between materiality and mediation, considering such topics as the lived realities of network infrastructure. The contributors then highlight media technologies as always in motion, held together through the minute, unobserved work of many, including efforts to keep these technologies alive. Contributors Pablo J. Boczkowski, Geoffrey C. Bowker, Finn Brunton, Gabriella Coleman, Gregory J. Downey, Kirsten A. Foot, Tarleton Gillespie, Steven J. Jackson, Christopher M. Kelty, Leah A. Lievrouw, Sonia Livingstone, Ignacio Siles, Jonathan Sterne, Lucy Suchman, Fred Turner
Download or read book Global Competition and Technology written by Robert Pearce and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Multinationals are increasingly taking internationalised approaches to the ways in which they generate new knowledge and develop innovative new products from it in the pursuit of global competitiveness. These new perspectives in MNEs' technological behaviour open up important additional possibilities for those countries that play host to operations of these companies. This book analyses in detail the new dimensions in MNEs' approach to global competitiveness and the role played in this by overseas R & D units, and discusses the implications of this for host countries' growth and welfare.
Download or read book Science Technology and the Environment written by James Rodger Fleming and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Science, Technology, and the Environment: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, James Rodger Fleming and Henry A. Gemery have collected thirteen essays that explore the various ways in which scientists and humanists apprehend environmental problems.
Download or read book The Social Shaping of Technology written by Donald A. MacKenzie and published by Milton Keynes ; Philadelphia : Open University Press. This book was released on 1985-01-01 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Information Technology and Sustainability written by Lorenz M. Hilty and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2008 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are contributing both to environmental problems and to their solution. Will ICT producers, users and recyclers be the major polluters of tomorrow, or will 'Green IT' and a dematerialized information society save the climate? This book provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between ICT and sustainable development, culminating in 15 recommendations - to producers, users and political decision makers - which show the way to a sustainable information society. Keywords: Information Technology, Environment, Sustainable Development, Environmental Informatics, Green IT, Green Computing, Data Centers, Energy Efficiency, Resource Productivity, Dematerialization, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), E-waste, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), Recycling, Technological Complexity, Critical Information Infrastructure, Open Standards, Rebound Effect.
