Sustainability

This book tackles possibly the biggest issue our planet faces: overpopulation. According to Weisman, cultural conceptions of the family and national regulations all play a role in the central problem of global warming.

By exploring the psychology of those viewing damage as irreversible and inevitable, Lappé eliminates barriers blocking the way to change. Lappé recognizes that to enact change, people need encouragement, not discouragement.

I have known I wanted to be an engineer since I was in the 8th grade, but for the first time this book made me step back and ask the big questions. Within the first ten pages the reader begins to question her morals and ethics, and how they will play into an engineering job: “What do you do if your firm commits fraud?” “How do you be environmentally friendly while still being efficient?” And the big question of the chapter: “What do you do if the tribe you are working with requires a human sacrifice in exchange for the building rights?”

Mosley covers such problematic subjects as fur trading, deforestation, agriculture, industrialism and urbanism. Throughout his sweeping study, he unveils how each has influenced and impacted the environment.

Townsend demonstrates how environmental anthropologists use their experiences to advocate for the neediest populations and she provides understanding about what is needed for the survival of our diverse world.

Dougherty suggests the principle of “designing backwards.” You begin, he says, by predicting the fate of the physical product of design, such as its ending up as litter, in a landfill or a recycling plant. You then move backwards in the process. Considering the path of a design step by step in reverse aids designers to plan for the “greenest case scenario.”

Throughout the twentieth century, Germany has developed one of the most efficient systems of an environmentally friendly society. From the abundance of public gardens open to all, to the special functioning of their toilets, the Germans have created a system that reduces excessive use of natural resources.

Tomlinson claims that since IT is good at handling a huge amount of information beyond the limits of time, space, and complexity that humans can deal with, it could be useful when we confront environmental problems.

Throughout the book, Kasser points to culture as one of the biggest contributors to our materialistic values. This leads us to put the connection between materialism and sustainability on the table. A materialistic culture has many negative effects – not only on individuals, but also on societies and on the earth.

Chapter 7 (Pollution Prevention, Waste Minimization, and Green Chemistry) is the most relevant chapter to sustainability. Producing and dealing with waste are unavoidable in laboratory work, but thinking in advance about how to reduce the amount of waste a laboratory will produce is a good approach to making it more environmentally friendly.

Kids today have I-pads, smartphones, and many other objects that prevent the need and desire to go outside and engage in nature – to their detriment. And indeed, Louv makes a powerful argument that this disconnection cannot be the direction we go in as a society, for not only will our children not reach their top potential, but we also may not be able to sustain the environment.

Plotkin looks at medicines and drugs from a natural and sustainable standpoint. He writes about the old times when there weren’t any electrical inventions or big machines to help heal wounds. Instead, plants, soil, bugs, and more were used for healing.

The reader is drawn into the book and made to feel as if she is experiencing and learning new material alongside the author: how fashion has changed throughout history and why it changes. As we read, we realize how problematic the wider world of fashion is, but also how problematic fashion is in one’s daily life.

The most important question raised by Stolzenburg’s book is this: do we interfere and try to fix the environmental mistakes that we make? Or do we let nature take its course? Deforestation, invasive species, biodiversity, and the overall impact that humans can have on a habitat are all discussed within the pages of Rat Island.

Sanford explains that being sustainable isn't always as clear-cut as choosing paper over plastic. Her stories and ideas are from real world business situations. In these situations, Sanford analyzes the great efforts of each to change the business not only for now, but for it to carry on.

This is a collection of scholarly research papers written by multiple authors, compiled and edited by Hidenori Tamagawa and translated from Japanese to English. It covers civil engineering and urban development within the context of sustainability and the ever-growing concern of global warming.

The authors' argument is that rather than focusing only on being “less bad” to the environment by conserving our resources, we should strive to be “more good”— by designing products and energy systems that actually benefit the planet as we use them in our daily lives.

Everyone knows that trash and garbage are harmful to the environment. However, through artistic processes, trash and garbage can be transformed into art that could make people think about protecting the environment.