Living within a Fair Share Ecological Footprint

Living within a Fair Share Ecological Footprint
Author: Robert Vale
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2013-09-02
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1136456074

According to many authorities the impact of humanity on the earth is already overshooting the earth’s capacity to supply humanity’s needs. This is an unsustainable position. This book does not focus on the problem but on the solution, by showing what it is like to live within a fair earth share ecological footprint. The authors describe numerical methods used to calculate this, concentrating on low or no cost behaviour change, rather than on potentially expensive technological innovation. They show what people need to do now in regions where their current lifestyle means they are living beyond their ecological means, such as in Europe, North America and Australasia. The calculations focus on outcomes rather than on detailed discussion of the methods used. The main objective is to show that living with a reduced ecological footprint is both possible and not so very different from the way most people currently live in the west. The book clearly demonstrates that change in behaviour now will avoid some very challenging problems in the future. The emphasis is on workable, practical and sustainable solutions based on quantified research, rather than on generalities about overall problems facing humanity.

Living within a Fair Share Ecological Footprint

Living within a Fair Share Ecological Footprint
Author: Robert Vale
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2013-09-02
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1136456066

According to many authorities the impact of humanity on the earth is already overshooting the earth’s capacity to supply humanity’s needs. This is an unsustainable position. This book does not focus on the problem but on the solution, by showing what it is like to live within a fair earth share ecological footprint. The authors describe numerical methods used to calculate this, concentrating on low or no cost behaviour change, rather than on potentially expensive technological innovation. They show what people need to do now in regions where their current lifestyle means they are living beyond their ecological means, such as in Europe, North America and Australasia. The calculations focus on outcomes rather than on detailed discussion of the methods used. The main objective is to show that living with a reduced ecological footprint is both possible and not so very different from the way most people currently live in the west. The book clearly demonstrates that change in behaviour now will avoid some very challenging problems in the future. The emphasis is on workable, practical and sustainable solutions based on quantified research, rather than on generalities about overall problems facing humanity.

Our Ecological Footprint

Our Ecological Footprint
Author: Mathis Wackernagel
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Total Pages: 178
Release: 1998-07-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 086571312X

Our Ecological Footprint presents an internationally-acclaimed tool for measuring and visualizing the resources required to sustain our households, communities, regions and nations, converting the seemingly complex concepts of carrying capacity, resource-use, waste-disposal and the like into a graphic form that everyone can grasp and use. An excellent handbook for community activists, planners, teachers, students and policy makers.

Live Sustainably Now

Live Sustainably Now
Author: Karl Coplan
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2019-12-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0231549164

Any realistic response to climate change will require reducing carbon emissions to a sustainable level. Yet even people who already recognize that the climate is the most urgent issue facing the planet struggle to understand their individual responsibilities. Is it even possible to live with a sustainable carbon footprint in modern American society—much less to live well? What are the options for those who would like to make climate awareness part of their daily lives but don’t want to go off the grid or become a hermit? In Live Sustainably Now, Karl Coplan shares his personal journey of attempting to cut back on carbon without giving up the amenities of a suburban middle-class lifestyle. Coplan chronicles the joys and challenges of a year on a carbon budget—kayaking to work, hunting down electric-car charging stations, eating a Mediterranean-style diet, and enjoying plenty of travel on weekends and vacations while avoiding long-distance flights. He explains how to set a personal carbon cap and measure your actual footprint, with his own results detailed in monthly diary entries. Presenting the pros and cons of different energy, transportation, and lifestyle options, Live Sustainably Now shows that there does not have to be a trade-off between the ethical obligation to maintain a sustainable carbon footprint and the belief that life should be fulfilling and fun. This powerful and persuasive book provides an individual-level blueprint for a carbon-sustainable tweak to the American dream.

The New Autonomous House

The New Autonomous House
Author: Brenda Vale
Publisher:
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2002
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780500282878

"I've seen many books on this subject, but none so well documented and honest."—Whole Earth

The Ecological Footprint

The Ecological Footprint
Author: Andrea Collins
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2015-05-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0857936964

The ecological footprint is one of the most prominent tools used to measure environmental sustainability, and its rise in academic and policy debates since the early 1990s has been remarkable. Drawing upon research and examples from around the world, t

Facing Up to Global Warming

Facing Up to Global Warming
Author: N.F. Gray
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2015-08-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319201468

In this volume, Professor N.F. Gray offers a comprehensive primer on climate change, sustainability, and how the two concepts are related. This book consists of fifteen chapters, each treating a specific aspect of the current global crisis, including scientific background as well as an up to date appraisal of the issue at hand. It covers the reasons behind climate change and the effect it will have on the planet and on the reader directly. Gray also presents readers with the means to assess their own environmental impact and details positive individual and community actions to address global warming. “Climate change,” “global warming,” and “sustainability” are phrases that almost everyone has heard, whether on the news or around the dinner table. The increasing frequency of major events such as droughts, severe storms, and floods are beginning to make these concepts inescapable, and being fully informed is an absolute necessity for students and indeed for us all. Nick Gray (PhD, ScD) is a founding member of the Environmental Sciences Unit (1979) at Trinity College Dublin, which was the first center for postgraduate research and training in environmental science and technology in Ireland. He has written a number of books and over 150 research papers and book chapters, and currently serves as the Director of the Trinity Centre for the Environment.

Everyday Lifestyles and Sustainability

Everyday Lifestyles and Sustainability
Author: Fabricio Chicca
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2018-04-09
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1315529122

The impact of humanity on the earth overshoots the earth’s bio-capacity to supply humanity’s needs, meaning that people are living off earth’s capital rather than its income. However, not all countries are equal and this book explores why apparently similar patterns of daily living can lead to larger and smaller environmental impacts. The contributors describe daily life in many different places in the world and then calculate the environmental impact of these ways of living from the perspective of ecological and carbon footprints. This leads to comparison and discussion of what living within the limits of the planet might mean. Current footprints for countries are derived from national statistics and these hide the variety of impacts made by individual people and the choices they make in their daily lives. This book takes a ‘bottom-up’ approach by calculating the footprints of daily living. The purpose is to show that small changes in behaviour now could avoid some very challenging problems in the future. Offering a global perspective on the question of sustainable living, this book will be of great interest to anyone with a concern for the future, as well as students and researchers in environmental studies, human geography and development studies.

Collapsing Gracefully: Making a Built Environment that is Fit for the Future

Collapsing Gracefully: Making a Built Environment that is Fit for the Future
Author: Emilio Garcia
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2021-07-24
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 3030777839

This innovative book investigates the concept of collapse in terms of our built environment, exploring the future transition of modern cities towards scenarios very different from the current promises of progress and development. This is not a book about the end of the world and hopeless apocalyptic scenarios. It is about understanding change in how and where we live. Collapse is inevitable, but in the built environment collapse could imply a manageable situation, an opportunity for change or a devastating reality. Collapsing gracefully means that there might be better ways to coexist with collapse if we learn more about it and commit to rebuild our civilisations in ways that avoid its worst effects. This book uses a wide range of practical examples to study critical changes in the built environment, to contextualise and visualise what collapse looks like, to see if it is possible to buffer its effects in places already collapsing and to propose ways to develop greater resilience. The book challenges all agents and institutions in modern cities, their designers and planners as well as their residents and users to think differently about built environment so as to ease our coexistence with collapse and not contribute to its causes. .

This Crazy Time

This Crazy Time
Author: Tzeporah Berman
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2011-09-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 030739980X

From one of the world's most controversial campaigners, This Crazy Time is the No Logo of the NEW environmental movement, an essential must-read that combines Bill Bryson's personable style and humour with Naomi Klein's hard-hitting activism and research. Passionate, profound, inspiring and funny, Berman is inspiring people from all walks of life to get off the sidelines and fight the good fight--and win. This unique book--part manifesto from a leader, part humorous activist memoir from a soccer mom--offers a wryly honest, behind the scenes, ultimately uplifting look at the state of the planet. For almost 20 years, Tzeporah Berman has been one of our most influential environmentalists. A founder of ForestEthics and PowerUp Canada, she was instrumental in shaping the tactics and concerns of the modern environmental movement. In her early 20s she faced nearly one thousand criminal charges and 6 years in prison for her role organizing blockades in Canada's rainforest. With ForestEthics she took on Victoria's Secret with a photo of a chainsaw-wielding lingerie model, convincing the catalogue manufacturer to stop using paper made from old-growth forests. She then transformed her tactics and sat down with CEOs and political leaders to reshape their policies and practices. She participated in saving over 12 million acres of endangered forests, including Canada's Great Bear Rainforest, and has campaigned against the development of Canada's oil sands. In her new role at Greenpeace International she is fighting the problem of our time: climate change, including researching the impacts of the Gulf Oil Spill and protesting oil drilling in the Arctic. As a concerned mother, her book is an impassioned plea for a better world.