Ecological Living

Ecological Living PDF Author: John Gusdorf
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429684053
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
This book emphasizes how we already have the technologies available, including renewable energy and the ability to recycle most materials, to make ecological living possible and that perceived barriers to energy transitions can be overcome. Human life relies upon two systems: the biosphere and the system that produces our goods and services. Today, these two systems are in conflict, and we all face the question of whether we can stop damaging our environment while still supplying the essential goods and services we have come to depend on. Ecological Living presents an optimistic vision of our future by showing how decoupling the productive system from resource extraction is possible, and how this is a key means of achieving an equitable world within environmental limits. For long-term sustainability, the book argues that we must become more efficient in the use of our resources so that resource extraction, and the accompanying environmental costs, can be reduced. Demonstrating the essential steps towards a just and sustainable world, Ecological Living will be of great interest to all students, academics, and policymakers working in the field of environment and sustainability.

Ecological Living

Ecological Living PDF Author: John Gusdorf
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429684061
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
This book emphasizes how we already have the technologies available, including renewable energy and the ability to recycle most materials, to make ecological living possible and that perceived barriers to energy transitions can be overcome. Human life relies upon two systems: the biosphere and the system that produces our goods and services. Today, these two systems are in conflict, and we all face the question of whether we can stop damaging our environment while still supplying the essential goods and services we have come to depend on. Ecological Living presents an optimistic vision of our future by showing how decoupling the productive system from resource extraction is possible, and how this is a key means of achieving an equitable world within environmental limits. For long-term sustainability, the book argues that we must become more efficient in the use of our resources so that resource extraction, and the accompanying environmental costs, can be reduced. Demonstrating the essential steps towards a just and sustainable world, Ecological Living will be of great interest to all students, academics, and policymakers working in the field of environment and sustainability.

The Living Landscape, Second Edition

The Living Landscape, Second Edition PDF Author: Frederick R. Steiner
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610910915
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
The Living Landscape is a manifesto, resource, and textbook for architects, landscape architects, environmental planners, students, and others involved in creating human communities. Since its first edition, published in 1990, it has taught its readers how to develop new built environments while conserving natural resources. No other book presents such a comprehensive approach to planning that is rooted in ecology and design. And no other book offers a similar step-by-step method for planning with an emphasis on sustainable development. This second edition of The Living Landscape offers Frederick Steiner’s design-oriented ecological methods to a new generation of students and professionals. The Living Landscape offers • a systematic, highly practical approach to landscape planning that maximizes ecological objectives, community service, and citizen participation • more than 20 challenging case studies that demonstrate how problems were met and overcome, from rural America to large cities • scores of checklists and step-by-step guides • hands-on help with practical zoning, land use, and regulatory issues • coverage of major advances in GIS technology and global sustainability standards • more than 150 illustrations. As Steiner emphasizes throughout this book, all of us have a responsibility to the Earth and to our fellow residents on this planet to plan with vision. We are merely visiting this planet, he notes; we should leave good impressions.

Ecovillages

Ecovillages PDF Author: Karen T. Litfin
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745681239
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
In a world of dwindling natural resources and mounting environmental crisis, who is devising ways of living that will work for the long haul? And how can we, as individuals, make a difference? To answer these fundamental questions, Professor Karen Litfin embarked upon a journey to many of the world’s ecovillagesÑintentional communities at the cutting-edge of sustainable living. From rural to urban, high tech to low tech, spiritual to secular, she discovered an under-the-radar global movement making positive and radical changes from the ground up. In this inspiring and insightful book, Karen Litfin shares her unique experience of these experiments in sustainable living through four broad windows - ecology, economics, community, and consciousness - or E2C2. Whether we live in an ecovillage or a city, she contends, we must incorporate these four key elements if we wish to harmonize our lives with our home planet. Not only is another world possible, it is already being born in small pockets the world over. These micro-societies, however, are small and time is short. Fortunately - as Litfin persuasively argues - their successes can be applied to existing social structures, from the local to the global scale, providing sustainable ways of living for generations to come. You can learn more about Karen's experiences on the Ecovillages website: http://ecovillagebook.org/

Living within a Fair Share Ecological Footprint

Living within a Fair Share Ecological Footprint PDF Author: Robert Vale
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136456074
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
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.

Low Impact Living

Low Impact Living PDF Author: Paul Chatterton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317658906
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
This book is the inspirational story of one project that shows you how you can become involved in building and running your neighbourhood. The author, co-founder of Lilac (Low Impact Living Affordable Community), along with other members of the community and the project team, explains how a group of people got together to build one of the most pioneering ecological, affordable cohousing neighbourhoods in the world. The book is a story of perseverance, vision and passion, demonstrating how ordinary people can build their own affordable, ecological community. The book starts with the clear values that motivated and guided the project’s members: sustainability, co-operativism, equality, social justice and self-management. It outlines how they were driven by challenges and concerns over the need to respond to climate change and energy scarcity, the limits of the ‘business as usual’ model of pro-growth economics, and the need to develop resources so that communities can determine and manage their own land and resources. The author’s story is interspersed with vignettes on topics such as decision making, landscaping, finance and design. The book summarises academic debates on the key issues that informed the project, and gives technical data on energy and land issues as well as practical ‘how-to’ guides on a range of issues such as designing meetings, budget planning and community agreements. Low Impact Living provides clear and easy to follow advice for community groups, practitioners, government, business and the development sector and is heavily illustrated with drawings and photographs from the architectural team.

Being Ecological

Being Ecological PDF Author: Timothy Morton
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262038048
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
A book about ecology without information dumping, guilt inducing, or preaching to the choir. Don't care about ecology? You think you don't, but you might all the same. Don't read ecology books? This book is for you. Ecology books can be confusing information dumps that are out of date by the time they hit you. Slapping you upside the head to make you feel bad. Grabbing you by the lapels while yelling disturbing facts. Handwringing in agony about “What are we going to do?” This book has none of that. Being Ecological doesn't preach to the eco-choir. It's for you—even, Timothy Morton explains, if you're not in the choir, even if you have no idea what choirs are. You might already be ecological. After establishing the approach of the book (no facts allowed!), Morton draws on Kant and Heidegger to help us understand living in an age of mass extinction caused by global warming. He considers the object of ecological awareness and ecological thinking: the biosphere and its interconnections. He discusses what sorts of actions count as ecological—starting a revolution? going to the garden center to smell the plants? And finally, in “Not a Grand Tour of Ecological Thought,” he explores a variety of current styles of being ecological—a range of overlapping orientations rather than preformatted self-labeling. Caught up in the us-versus-them (or you-versus-everything else) urgency of ecological crisis, Morton suggests, it's easy to forget that you are a symbiotic being entangled with other symbiotic beings. Isn't that being ecological?

A Book of Ecological Virtues

A Book of Ecological Virtues PDF Author: Heesoon Bai
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780889777569
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Despite our brief tenure on planet Earth, Homo sapiens have reached an epoch--the Anthropocene--that is characterised by our species' uncanny ability to spoil our own nest. In the face of this somber reality of ecological degradation and massive species extinction, the editors ask the critical question, "What does living well look like in the Anthropocene?" It is vitally important that we turn towards the cultivation of eco-virtues, a new set of values by which to live, if there is to be hope for us and other species to continue. These essays inspire readers not just to ponder, but to embody and live the ideals of these timeless ecological virtues.

Toolbox for Sustainable City Living (a Do-it-ourselves Guide)

Toolbox for Sustainable City Living (a Do-it-ourselves Guide) PDF Author: Scott T. Kellogg
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780896087804
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A radical how-to for creating locally based, ecologically sustainable cities.

Ecological Footprints

Ecological Footprints PDF Author: Dawn M. Nothwehr
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 0814633749
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
The Franciscan vision offers a powerful antidote to the moral malaise that prevents ordinary Christians from making the necessary choices to live more simply and share the worlds goods more equitably. Ecological Footprints unfolds the theological, spiritual, and ethical treasure trove of Christianityespecially as it has been developed and lived in Franciscan theology and traditionas it relates to our efforts to achieve sustainable living.