Download or read book Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain a Consumer Society written by Ted Trainer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-07-26 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is widely assumed that our consumer society can move from using fossil fuels to using renewable energy sources while maintaining the high levels of energy use to which we have become accustomed. This book details the reasons why this almost unquestioned assumption is seriously mistaken. It challenges fundamental assumptions and stimulates the discussion about our common future in a way that will be of interest to professionals and lay-readers alike.

Download or read book The False Promise of Green Energy written by Andrew P. Morriss and published by Cato Institute. This book was released on 2011-02-09 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The False Promise of Green Energy illustrates the irresponsibility of attempting to transform modern society with borrowed money, wishful thinking, and bad economics. It shows how the top-down control programs offered by green-energy and green-jobs advocates are unlikely to achieve positive results compared with allowing competitive forces to continue to provide ever greater environmental quality and energy efficiencies.

Download or read book Climate Politics And The Climate Movement In Australia written by Verity Burgmann and published by Melbourne Univ. Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change is the hottest topic of the twenty-first century and the climate movement a significant global social movement. This book examines the broad context of Australian climate politics and the place of the climate movement within it. Acting ‘from above’ are the most powerful forces—corporations and governments, both Labor and Coalition—with the media framing the issues. Climate movement actors ‘in the middle’ include the Australian Greens, major environmental and climate organisations, think-tanks, academics, public intellectuals and the union movement. Acting ‘from below’ are the numerous local climate action groups and various regional and national networks. This lowest level is the primary location of the climate movement; and grassroots mobilisation the source of its vitality. To advocate a safe climate and climate justice, the book ends by offering a vision for an alternative Australia based upon the principles of social equity and environmental sustainability.

Download or read book Building the Critical Anthropology of Climate Change written by Hans A. Baer and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book applies a critical perspective to anthropogenic climate change and the global socio-ecological crisis. The book focuses on the critical anthropology of climate change by opening up a dialogue with the two main contending perspectives in the field, namely the cultural ecological and the cultural interpretive perspectives. Guided by these, the authors take a firm stance on the types of changes that are needed to sustain life on Earth as we know it. Within this framework, they explore issues of climate and social equity, the nature of the current era in Earth’s geohistory, the perspectives of the elite polluters driving climate change, and the regrettable contributions of anthropologists and other scholars to climate change. Engaging with perspectives from sociology, political science, and the geography of climate change, the book explores various approaches to thinking about and responding to the existential threat of an ever-warming climate. In doing so, it lays the foundation for a brave new sustainable world that is socially just, highly democratic, and climatically safe for humans and other species. This book will be of interest to researchers and students studying environmental anthropology, climate change, human geography, sociology, and political science.

Download or read book Global Energy Policy and Security written by Walter Leal Filho and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-09-03 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite efforts to increase renewables, the global energy mix is still likely to be dominated by fossil-fuels in the foreseeable future, particularly gas for electricity and oil for land, air and sea transport. The reliance on depleting conventional oil and natural gas resources and the geographic distribution of these reserves can have geopolitical implications for energy importers and exporters. Global Energy Policy and Security examines the security of global and national energy supplies, as well as the sensitivity and impacts of sustainable energy policies which emphasize the various political, economic, technological, financial and social factors that influence energy supply, demand and security. Multidisciplinary perspectives provide the interrelated topics of energy security and energy policy within a rapidly changing socio-political and technological landscape during the 21st century. Included are two main types of interdisciplinary papers. One set of papers deals with technical aspects of energy efficiency, renewable energy and the use of tariffs. The other set of papers focuses on social, economic or political issues related to energy security and policy, also describing research, practical projects and other concrete initiatives being performed in different parts of the world. This book will prove useful to all those students and researchers interested in the connections between energy production, energy use, energy security and the role of energy policies.

Download or read book The Future Is Not What It Used to Be written by Jorg Friedrichs and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-08-16 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hard look at the twin challenges of climate change and energy scarcity that examines historical precedents and allows no room for complacency. The future is not what it used to be because we can no longer rely on the comforting assumption that it will resemble the past. Past abundance of fuel, for example, does not imply unending abundance. Infinite growth on a finite planet is not possible. In this book, Jörg Friedrichs argues that industrial society itself is transitory, and he examines the prospects for our civilization's coming to terms with its two most imminent choke points: climate change and energy scarcity. He offers a thorough and accessible account of these two challenges as well as the linkages between them. Friedrichs contends that industrial civilization cannot outlast our ability to burn fossil fuels and that the demise of industrial society would entail cataclysmic change, including population decreases. To understand the social and political implications, he examines historical cases of climate stress and energy scarcity: devastating droughts in the ancient Near East; the Little Ice Age in the medieval Far North; the Japanese struggle to prevent “fuel starvation” from 1918 to 1945; the “totalitarian retrenchment” of the North Korean governing class after the end of Soviet oil deliveries; and Cuba's socioeconomic adaptation to fuel scarcity in the 1990s. He draws important lessons about the likely effects of climate and energy disruptions on different kinds of societies. The warnings of climate scientists are met by denial and inaction, while energy experts offer little guidance on the effects of future scarcity. Friedrichs suggests that to confront our predicament we must affirm our core values and take action to transform our way of life. Whether we are private citizens or public officials, complacency is not an option: climate change and energy scarcity are emerging facts of life.

Download or read book The Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability written by John Barry and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-23 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Going against both the naive techno-optimism of 'greening business as usual' and a resurgent 'catastrophism' within green thinking and politics, The Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability offers an analysis of the causes of unsustainability and diminished human flourishing. It makes a case for seeing that it is profound and deepening unsustainability and growing injustice that characterizes the modern world. The books locates the causes of unsustainability in dominant capitalist modes of production, debt-based consumerism, and the imperative for orthodox economic growth. It suggests that valuable insights into the causes of and alternatives to unsustainability can be found in a critical embracing of human vulnerability and dependency as both constitutive and ineliminable aspects of what it means to be human. Rather than seeing invulnerability as the appropriate response, the book defends resilience, the ability to 'cope with' rather than 'solve' vulnerability, as a more productive strategy. The Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability offers a trenchant critique of the dominant neoclassical economic groupthink, which the book argues must be seen not as some value-neutral form of 'expert knowledge' but as a thoroughly ideological 'common sense' that has corrupted and limited creative ways of thinking about and through our current predicament. It offers a green political economic alternative which replaces economic growth with economic security, and views economic growth as having done its work in the minority, affluent world, which should now focus on human flourishing and lowering socio-economic inequality and fostering solidarity as part of that new re-orientation of public policy. Complementing this green political economy, the book outlines and develops an account of 'green republicanism', which represents an innovative and original contribution to debates on the political responses to the crises and opportunities of global unsustainability. The Politics of Actually Existing Unsustainability draws widely from a range of disciplines and thinkers to produce a highly relevant, timely, and provocatively original statement on the human predicament in the twenty-first century.

Download or read book Rise and Fall of the Carbon Civilisation written by Patrick Moriarty and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-10-27 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vast amount has been written on climate change and what should be our response. Rise and Fall of the Carbon Civilisation suggests that most of this literature takes a far too optimistic position regarding the potential for conventional mitigation solutions to achieve the deep cuts in greenhouse gases necessary in the limited time frame we have available. In addition, global environmental problems, as exemplified by climate change, and global resource problems – such as fossil fuel depletion or fresh water scarcity – have largely been seen as separate issues. Further, proposals for solution of these problems often focus at the national level, when the problems are global. The authors argue that the various challenges the planet faces are both serious and interconnected. Rise and Fall of the Carbon Civilisation takes a global perspective in its treatment of various solutions: • renewable energy; • nuclear energy; • energy efficiency; • carbon sequestration; and • geo-engineering. It also addresses the possibility that realistic solutions cannot be achieved until the fundamentally ethical question of global equity – both across nations today and also inter-generational – is fully addressed. Such an approach will also involve reorienting the global economy away from an emphasis on growth and toward the direct satisfaction of basic human needs for all the Earth’s people. Rise and Fall of the Carbon Civilisation is aimed at the many members of the public with an awareness of climate change, but who wish to find out more about how we need to respond to the challenge. It will also be of interest to technical professionals, as well as postgraduate students and researchers, from the environmental and engineering science sectors.

Download or read book The Common Good and the Global Emergency written by T. J. Gorringe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-03 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a theoretical and political framework of the common good, and applies this to the built environment.

Download or read book The Degrowth Alternative written by Diana Stuart and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-01 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Degrowth is a planned economic contraction in wealthy countries that reduces production and consumption—and, by extension, greenhouse gas emissions and stresses on global ecosystems—to sustainable levels within ecological limits. This book explores the idea of degrowth as an economic alternative to offer a more sustainable and just future. A growing number of scientists and scholars now recognize that a system that continues to prioritize economic growth will prevent us from effectively addressing the dual environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. To establish the case for degrowth, the text opens by posing critical questions about our current system and identifying its limitations, as well as discussing the ineffectiveness of "false solutions" that seem to offer something new but would actually preserve the status quo. The concept of degrowth is then fully introduced along with a discussion of core principles and goals as well as major critiques and questions. The book explores what living in a degrowth society would entail and the policies needed to support degrowth. Finally, the work concludes by examining the opportunities and challenges for degrowth and a successful transition to a sustainable steady-state economy. This book provides an advanced introduction to the environmental issues around degrowth for students, scholars and activists interested in economic alternatives, sustainability and the environment.

Download or read book Real Green written by Manuel Arias-Maldonado and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-23 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would a sustainable society look like? How could it be achieved? By challenging conventional wisdom about the ecological crisis and reframing the traditional values of green politics "Real Green; Sustainability after the End of Nature" offers new answers to the key questions of the environmental debate. In this ground-breaking and challenging work Manuel Arias-Maldonado convincingly argues that, since nature has now been transformed into a part of the human environment, it can be seen to no longer exist. Ecological problems thus become an inevitable and normal feature of our relationship with nature. Hence a post-natural environmentalism, realistic and liberal while remaining green, is advocated. In this framework, sustainability, democracy and liberalism become mutually reinforcing elements rather than conflicting ones. Only by combining them can a green society be realised.

Download or read book Environmental Policy is Social Policy Social Policy is Environmental Policy written by Isidor Wallimann and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ​ ​This book argues that social and environmental policy should be synthetically treated as one and the same field, that both are but two aspects of the same coin – if sustainability is the goal. Such a paradigm shift is indicated, important, and timely to effectively move towards sustainability. This book is the first to take this approach and to give examples for it. Not to synthetically merge the two fields has been and will continue to be highly insufficient, inefficient and contradictory for policy and public administration aiming for a transformation towards a sustainable world. In general, social problems are dealt with in one “policy corner” and environmental problems in another. Rarely is social policy (at large) concerned with its impact on the environment or its connection with and relevance to environmental policy. Equally, environmental problems are generally not seen in conjunction with social policy, even though much environmental policy directly relates to health, nutrition, migration and other issues addressed by social policy. This book intends to correct the pattern to separate these very significant and large policy fields. Using examples from diverse academic and applied fields, it is shown how environmental policy can (and should) be thought of as social policy – and how social policy can (and should) simultaneously be seen as environmental policy. Tremendous benefits are to be expected.

Download or read book Food for Degrowth written by Anitra Nelson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-22 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection breaks new ground by investigating applications of degrowth in a range of geographic, practical and theoretical contexts along the food chain. Degrowth challenges growth and advocates for everyday practices that limit socio-metabolic energy and material flows within planetary constraints. As such, the editors intend to map possibilities for food for degrowth to become established as a field of study. International contributors offer a range of examples and possibilities to develop more sustainable, localised, resilient and healthy food systems using degrowth principles of sufficiency, frugal abundance, security, autonomy and conviviality. Chapters are clustered in parts that critically examine food for degrowth in spheres of the household, collectives, networks, and narratives of broader activism and discourses. Themes include broadening and deepening concepts of care in food provisioning and social contexts; critically applying appropriate technologies; appreciating and integrating indigenous perspectives; challenging notions of 'waste', 'circular economies' and commodification; and addressing the ever-present impacts of market logic framed by growth. This book will be of greatest interest to students and scholars of critical food studies, sustainability studies, urban political ecology, geography, environmental studies such as environmental sociology, anthropology, ethnography, ecological economics and urban design and planning.

Download or read book Plan C written by Pat Murphy and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concerns over climate change and energy depletion are increasing exponentially. Mainstream solutions still assume a panacea that will cure our climate ills without requiring any serious modification to our way of life. Plan C explores the risks inherent in trying to continue our energy-intensive lifestyle. Using dirtier fossil fuels (Plan A) or switching to renewable energy sources (Plan B) allows people to remain complacent in the face of potential global catastrophe. Dramatic lifestyle change is the only way to begin to create a sustainable, equitable world. The converging crises of Peak Oil, Climate Change and increasing inequity are presented in a clear, concise manner, as are the twin solutions of community (where cooperation replaces competition) and curtailment (deliberately reducing consumption of consumer goods). Plan C shows how each person's individual choices can dramatically reduce CO2 emissions. It offers specific strategies in the areas of food, transportation and housing. One chapter analyzes the decimation of the Cuban economy when the USSR stopped oil exports in 1990 and provides an inspiring vision for a low energy way of living. Plan C is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in living a lower-energy, saner, and sustainable lifestyle.

Download or read book Energy Security written by Roland Dannreuther and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-07-24 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of the richest energy-producing regions of the world are wrought with conflict and billions of the world's poorest suffer the daily insecurity of energy poverty. All the while our planet is increasingly under pressure because of our continued dependence on fossil fuels. It is easy to see why energy security has become one of the major global challenges of the twenty-first century. In this book, Roland Dannreuther offers a new and comprehensive approach to understanding energy security. Drawing on the latest research, he treats energy security as a value that is continually in dynamic conflict with other core values, such as economic prosperity and sustainability. The different physical properties of the key energy resources – coal, oil, gas, nuclear and renewables – are of course critical for the differing manifestations of energy insecurity. But it is the social, economic and political contexts, developed over time and place, which are essential for a fuller appreciation of contemporary energy challenges. In highlighting the history and politics of energy security and the critical role played by power and justice in framing these debates, this incisive and cutting-edge analysis is a go-to introduction for students grappling with the complexities of energy security today.

Download or read book The Political Economy of Global Warming written by Del Weston and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-11 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humanity is facing an unprecedented global catastrophe as a result of global warming. This book examines the reasons why international agencies, together with national governments, are seemingly unable to provide real and binding solutions to the problems. The reasons presented relate to the existing dominant global economic structure of capitalism as well as the fact that global warming is too often seen as an isolated problem rather than one of a suite of exceptional, converging and accelerating crises arising from the global capitalist political economy. This book adopts a political economy framework to address these issues. It accepts the science of global warming but challenges the predominant politics and economics of global warming. To illustrate the key issues involved, the book draws on South Africa – building on Samir Amin’s thesis that the country represents a microcosm of the global political economy. By taking a political economy approach, the book provides a clear explanation of the deep and pervasive problem of the denial which fails to acknowledge global warming as a systemic rather than a market problem. The book should be of interest to students and scholars researching climate change, environmental politics, environmental and ecological economics, development studies and political economics.

Download or read book The Transition Handbook written by Rob Hopkins and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2008-02-25 with total page 818 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Move from feeling anxious about the oil crisis to developing a positive visions and taking traction action to create a more self-reliant existence with this ground-breaking book. We live in an oil-dependent world, and have become reliant in a very short space of time, using vast reserves of oil in the process – and without planning for when the supply is not so plentiful. Most of us avoid thinking about what happens when the oil runs out (or becomes prohibitively expensive), but the reality may not be as bad as we think. The Transition Handbook shows how the inevitable and profound changes ahead could have a positive effect. Written by permaculture expert Rob Hopkins, he discusses the possibility of a rebirth of local communities, which will generate their own fuel, food and housing. These will encourage the development of local currencies, to keep money in the local area, and unleash a local 'skilling-up', so that people have more control over their lives. The growth in interest in the Transition model continues to be exponential. There are now more than 35 formal Transition Initiatives in the UK, including towns, cities, islands, villages and peninsulas, with more joining as the idea takes off. With little proactivity at government level, communities are taking matters into their own hands and acting locally. If your community has not yet become a Transition Initiative, this upbeat guide, filled with beautiful black and white photographs, offers you the tools to get started. The Transition Handbook is the perfect manual to guide communities, as they begin this 'energy descent' journey.