Supply-Side Sustainability

Informationen zum Autor Timothy F. H. Allen! Joseph A. Tainter! and Thomas W. Hoekstra Klappentext While environmentalists insist that lower rates of consumption of natural resources are essential for a sustainable future! many economists dismiss the notion that resource limits act to constrain modern! creative societies. The conflict between these views tinges political debate at all levels and hinders our ability to plan for the future. Supply-Side Sustainability offers a fresh approach to this dilemma by integrating ecological and social science approaches in an interdisciplinary treatment of sustainability. Written by two ecologists and an anthropologist! this book discusses organisms! landscapes! populations! communities! biomes! the biosphere! ecosystems and energy flows! as well as patterns of sustainability and collapse in human societies! from hunter-gatherer groups to empires to today's industrial world. These diverse topics are integrated within a new framework that translates the authors' advances in hierarchy and complexity theory into a form useful to professionals in science! government! and business.The result is a much-needed blueprint for a cost-effective management regime! one that makes problem-solving efforts themselves sustainable over time. The authors demonstrate that long-term! cost-effective resource management can be achieved by managing the contexts of productive systems! rather than by managing the commodities that natural systems produce. Zusammenfassung This is the first book to integrate ecological and social science in an interdisciplinary treatment of sustainability. The book explains sustainability and collapse in human societies ranging from hunter-gatherers to empires and today's industrial world. Inhaltsverzeichnis PrefaceComplexity! Problem Solving! and Social SustainabilityThe Nature of the ProblemA Hierarchical Approach to Ecological SustainabilityComplexity and Social Sustainability: FrameworkComplexity and Social Sustainability: ExperienceThe Criteria for Observation and ModelingBiomes and the BiosphereEcosystems! Energy Flows! Evolution! and EmergenceRetrospect and Prospects ...

Product details

• Authors: Timothy Allen, Timothy F. H. Allen, Timothy F. H. Tainter Allen, Timothy F.h. Tainter Allen, Timothy Tainter Allen, Thomas Hoekstra, Thomas W. Hoekstra, Joseph Tainter, Joseph A. Tainter
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.02.2003
• EAN: 9780231105873
• ISBN: 978-0-231-10587-3
• No. of pages: 440
• Series: Complexity in Ecological Systems; Complexity in Ecological Syste; Complexity in Ecological Systems
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Biology > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Nature, technology > Nature and society: general, reference works