Reconstructing Earth

Technology and Environment in the Age of Humans

Braden Allenby

• Publisher: Island Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781597260152, 9781597260145
• eBook ISBN: 9781597266208
• Topic: Ciencias biológicas
• Subtopic: Geología y ciencias de la Tierra

The Earth's biological, chemical, and physical systems are increasingly shaped by the activities of one species-ours. In our decisions about everything from manufacturing technologies to restaurant menus, the health of the planet has become a product of human choice. Environmentalism, however, has largely failed to adapt to this new reality.

Reconstructing Earth offers seven essays that explore ways of developing a new, more sophisticated approach to the environment that replaces the fantasy of recovering pristine landscapes with a more grounded viewpoint that can foster a better relationship between humans and the planet. Braden Allenby, a lawyer with degrees in both engineering and environmental studies, explains the importance of technological choice, and how that factor is far more significant in shaping our environment (in ways both desirable and not) than environmental controls. Drawing on his varied background and experience in both academia and the corporate world, he describes the emerging field of "earth systems engineering and management," which offers an integrated approach to understanding and managing complex human/natural systems that can serve as a basis for crafting better, more lasting solutions to widespread environmental problems.

Reconstructing Earth not only critiques dysfunctional elements of current environmentalism but establishes a foundation for future environmental management and progress, one built on an understanding of technological evolution and the cultural systems that support modern technologies. Taken together, the essays offer an important means of developing an environmentalism that is robust and realistic enough to address the urgent realities of our planet.

Reconstructing Earth is a thought-provoking new work for anyone concerned with the past or future of environmental thought, including students and teachers of environmental studies, environmental policy, technology policy, technological evolution, or sustainability.

Index

A Global Ethic and Global Responsibilities: Two Declarations

AAAS

Abrams, M. H.

Abriani, A.

Adam Smith

Adaptive management

Africa

Agrarian as utopian

Agriculture et seq.

as earth systems engineering and management

organic versus industrial

Air pollution:

historical

description of London’s in 1851,

Ak-kum Desert

Alkali

Alkali Act of 1863,

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

Allenby, B.

Amazon:

as “pristine”

as product of human activity

Anderson, P.

Andrews, C.

Anthropoceneet seq.

and reification of human culture

as challenge to ethics

Anthropogenic Earth et seq. et seq.

Aquaculture

Aral Sea

as cautionary case study

Aristotle

At Home in the Universe

AT&T

Australia

Axtell, R.

Ayres, L. W.

Ayres, R. U.

Bacon, F.

Baltic Sea

Barabasi, L.

Barrett, W.

Barriers and Bridges

Barthes, R.

Berkes, F.

Berkhout, F.

Berman, M.

Berry, T.

Bijker, W. E.

Biodiversity

anthropogenic versus evolutionary

Biomasset seq.

Biotechnology

and commoditization

Black Monday stockmarket crash

Blitzkrieg

Bookchin, M.

Bronx River Parkway

Bronze Age

Brundtland Commission

Candide

Capitalism

as mechanism

Caravel

Carbon cycle

Carbon dioxide:

and scrubbing ambient atmosphere

atmospheric buildup

Carbon sequestration

Carson, R.

Castells, M.

Categorical Imperative (Kant)

Central Park

Chesapeake Bay

Chaos

China

Cisco

Cities in Civilization

City of Tomorrow and its Planning

Clark, W. C.

Climate system

Cognitive science

Cohen, J. E.

Columbia River basin

Communist Manifesto, The

Complexity

and emergent characteristics

and firms

and globalism

and path dependency

and scaleet seq.

end-of-pipe versus core technologies

human versus “natural” systems et seq.

Complexity

Concrete and Clay

Consequences of Modernity, The

Consumption, U.S.

Copper:

in Greenland ice

production in ancient China, Greece and Rome

Corporate social responsibility

Cotton

Cronon, W.

Cultural constructs

and env...

Table of contents

• About Island Press
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction - The Evolution of a Movement
• CHAPTER1 - The Human Earth
• CHAPTER 2 - Real Rubber on Real Roads: Technology and Environment
• CHAPTER 3 - From Overhead to Strategic
• CHAPTER 4 - Alice in Wonderland: Environmental Management in the Firm
• CHAPTER 5 - Thoroughly Modern Marxist Utopianism: Sustainability
• CHAPTER 6 - Faith and Science
• CHAPTER 7 - Complexity: The New Frontier
• CHAPTER 8 - How Humans Construct Their Environment
• CHAPTER 9 - Implementing Earth Systems Engineering and Management
• Index
• Island Press Board of Directors