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Sustainable Future (sustainable + future)
Selected AbstractsNeed for Integrated Research for a Sustainable Future in Tropical Dry ForestsCONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2005G. ARTURO SÁNCHEZ-AZOFEIFA No abstract is available for this article. [source] Human Perspectives on Sustainable Future No: 99INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 1 2008Sue L.T. McGregor No abstract is available for this article. [source] Psychology of Promoting Environmentalism: Psychological Contributions toAchieving an Ecologically Sustainable Future for HumanityJOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 3 2000Stuart Oskamp The most serious long-term threat facing the world is the danger that human actions are producing irreversible, harmful changes to the environmental conditions that support life on Earth. If this problem is not overcome, there may be no viable world for our descendants to inhabit. Because this threat is caused by human population growth, overconsumption, and lack of resource conservation, social scientists have a vital role in helping our world escape ecological disaster and approach a sustainable level of impact on the environment,one that can be maintained indefinitely. Enormous changes to human lifestyles and cultural practices may be required to reach this goal. This article discusses major obstacles to this goal, describes a variety of motivational approaches toward reaching it, and proposes that we should view the achievement of sustainable living patterns as a superordinate goal,a war against the common enemy of an uninhabitable world. [source] Sustainable futures: Encouraging risk screening of industrial chemicals at the R&D stageENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2004Maggie Wilson First page of article [source] Current Developments and Trends in Social and Environmental Auditing, Reporting and Attestation: A Review and CommentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 3 2000Rob Gray This is a discursive paper which attempts to provide a personal review of current and recent developments in social and environmental reporting with particular emphasis on the attestation and auditing implications. The paper takes the essential desirability of social, environmental and sustainability reporting as a crucial element in any well-functioning democracy as a given. It further assumes that any civilised, but complex, society with pretensions to social justice, that seeks a potentially sustainable future and which wishes to try and rediscover some less exploitative and less insulated relationship with the natural environment, needs social and environmental reporting as one component in redirecting its social and economic organisation. With reporting being such a central issue, the paper further takes good quality attestation of that information as essential to both its reliability and its ability to fulfill its required role in developing transparency and accountability. The paper has three motifs: the need to clarify terminology in the field of social and environmental ,audits'; the current weakness of attestation practices in the area; and the significant , but unfulfilled , promise offered by professional accounting and auditing education and training. The paper concludes with a call for a substantial re-think of accounting education and training. [source] Nitrogen: the essential public enemyJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2003Howard Dalton Summary 1Increased demand for food and energy is leading to changes in the global nitrogen cycle. These changes are resulting in increasing levels of nitrogen in the environment in its pollutant forms with consequences for both biodiversity and human health. In this paper, we discuss the impacts in the UK and give examples of the steps that are being taken by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to tackle these problems. 2Over 70% of the UK land area is farmland. The farmed environment is composed of a wide range of semi-natural habitats including heather moorland, chalk downland, wet grasslands farm woodlands and hedgerows. As a result, much of the UK's cherished biodiversity is an integral part of agriculture and therefore vulnerable to changes in farming practices. 3Defra's overall goal is to build a sustainable future for the UK. With regard to nitrogen pollution, this involves finding ways of continuing to meet our food and energy requirements whilst causing little or no harm to the environment. 4Defra's science programme has a central role to play in the development of its nitrogen pollution policies. These pollution policies provide a key input to the Department's evidence base for policy formulation, and support international negotiations on pollution targets. 5The Department's science programme has addressed the major components of the nitrogen cycle associated with harmful impacts on the environment and human health. The main aims have been the understanding and quantification of impacts through monitoring and modelling and the development of abatement measures. 6Synthesis and application. It is becoming increasingly apparent that whilst advances can and have been made in the reduction of emissions from combustion processes, the problem of nitrogen pollution from agriculture is far more intractable. This scientific challenge, when taken together with emerging regulatory initiatives, will require imaginative solutions if the UK Government is to forge a sustainable way forward1, 2. [source] The Obvious Aspects of Ecological Underprivilege in Ankarana, Northern MadagascarAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2005ANDREW WALSH On the basis of research conducted in the Ankarana region of northern Madagascar, I discuss the speculating that Malagasy participants in the local sapphire trade do about foreign ecotourists who come to this region. Although some have been promoting international ecotourism in the region as a viable means to a sustainable future for local people and ecosystems, others, including many of the observers discussed here, see the rise of the ecotourist trade and the increasing presence of its clients in Ankarana as signs of foreigners' long-standing interests in Malagasy resources. I argue that to understand the perspectives of these critical observers, it is necessary to appreciate what they take to be obvious about ecotourism and the conservation projects with which they are commonly associated. [source] The role of zoos and aquariums in education for a sustainable futureNEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT & CONTINUING EDUCATION, Issue 127 2010Jan Packer This chapter explores visitors' environmental learning in zoos and aquariums, inclusive of narrative accounts that demonstrate the impact of such experiences in the lives of visitors regarding the process and outcomes. [source] Managing Britain's Marine and Coastal Environment: Towards a sustainable future edited by Hance D Smith and Jonathan S PottsTHE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006Stephen Fletcher No abstract is available for this article. [source] The big ecological questions inhibiting effective environmental management in AustraliaAUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2009S. R. MORTON Abstract The need to improve environmental management in Australia is urgent because human health, well-being and social stability all depend ultimately on maintenance of life-supporting ecological processes. Ecological science can inform this effort, but when issues are socially and economically complex the inclination is to wait for science to provide answers before acting. Increasingly, managers and policy-makers will be called on to use the present state of scientific knowledge to supply reasonable inferences for action based on imperfect knowledge. Hence, one challenge is to use existing ecological knowledge more effectively; a second is to tackle the critical unanswered ecological questions. This paper identifies areas of environmental management that are profoundly hindered by an inability of science to answer basic questions, in contrast to those areas where knowledge is not the major barrier to policy development and management. Of the 22 big questions identified herein, more than half are directly related to climate change. Several of the questions concern our limited understanding of the dynamics of marine systems. There is enough information already available to develop effective policy and management to address several significant ecological issues. We urge ecologists to make better use of existing knowledge in dialogue with policy-makers and land managers. Because the challenges are enormous, ecologists will increasingly be engaging a wide range of other disciplines to help identify pathways towards a sustainable future. [source] Chronic disease profiles in remote Aboriginal settings and implications for health services planningAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 1 2010Wendy E. Hoy Abstract Objective: To report the short-term experiences and outcomes of a program to support chronic disease management in three remote communities in Top End Northern Territory and in two Aboriginal Medical Services (AMSs) in Western Australia, and to discuss the implications of findings for health service delivery and policy. Methods: Programs were health-worker centred. They espoused regular screening of all adults for chronic disease, initiation and modification of treatment where indicated and rigorous documentation. Process measures were documented and rates of hypertension, renal disease and diabetes among adults were calculated. Results: Rates of hypertension, proteinuria and diabetes rose throughout adult life and multiple diagnoses were common. Most people with these conditions were young or middle age adults. Rates were uniformly excessive relative to AusDiab data, but varied greatly among settings. Adherence to protocols improved, many new diagnoses were made, treatments were started or modified and blood pressures in treated hypertensive people fell. In the NT, productivity was seriously limited by lack of health workers and their absenteeism. In the WA AMSs, executive and staff support carried the programs forward to a sustainable future, despite various challenges. Conclusions: Integrated chronic disease testing must be repeated throughout adult life for timely diagnosis. Health workers can perform all tasks well, with appropriate supports. Blood pressure outcomes alone predict lower cardiovascular and renal mortality. The findings support incorporation of chronic disease into lifetime health care plans. [source] The integration of green chemistry into future biorefineriesBIOFUELS, BIOPRODUCTS AND BIOREFINING, Issue 1 2009James H. Clark Abstract The use of biorefineries for the production of chemicals as well as materials and energy products is key to ensuring a sustainable future for the chemical and allied industries. Through the integration of green chemistry into biorefineries, and the use of low environmental impact technologies, we can establish future supply chains for genuinely green and sustainable chemical products. The first step in these future biorefineries should be the benign extraction of surface chemicals; here the use of greener solvents, such as supercritical carbon dioxide and bioethanol, should be considered. The residues will often be rich in lignocellulosics and the effective separation of the cellulose is a major challenge which may, in the future, be assisted by greener solvents, such as ionic liquids. Lignin is nature's major source of aromatics; we need new ways to produce small aromatic building blocks from lignin in order to satisfy the enormous and diverse industrial demand for aromatics. Fermentation can be used to convert biomass into a wide range of bioplatform chemicals in addition to ethanol. Their green chemical conversion to higher value chemicals is as important as their efficient production; here clean technologies such as catalysis , notably biocatalysis and heterogeneous catalysis , the use of benign solvents, and energy efficient reactors are essential. Thermochemical processes for the conversion of biomass, such as the production of pyrolysis oil, will also play an important role in future biorefineries and here again green chemistry methods should be used to go to higher value downstream chemicals. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [source] Nanostructured Carbon and Carbon Nanocomposites for Electrochemical Energy Storage ApplicationsCHEMSUSCHEM CHEMISTRY AND SUSTAINABILITY, ENERGY & MATERIALS, Issue 2 2010Sheng Su Abstract Electrochemical energy storage is one of the important technologies for a sustainable future of our society, in times of energy crisis. Lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors with their high energy or power densities, portability, and promising cycling life are the cores of future technologies. This Review describes some materials science aspects on nanocarbon-based materials for these applications. Nanostructuring (decreasing dimensions) and nanoarchitecturing (combining or assembling several nanometer-scale building blocks) are landmarks in the development of high-performance electrodes for with long cycle lifes and high safety. Numerous works reviewed herein have shown higher performances for such electrodes, but mostly give diverse values that show no converging tendency towards future development. The lack of knowledge about interface processes and defect dynamics of electrodes, as well as the missing cooperation between material scientists, electrochemists, and battery engineers, are reasons for the currently widespread trial-and-error strategy of experiments. A concerted action between all of these disciplines is a prerequisite for the future development of electrochemical energy storage devices. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||