Unearthed : the economic roots of our environmental crisis / Kenneth M. Sayre.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sayre, Kenneth M., 1928-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ecological engineering.

Energy dissipation--Environmental aspects.

Energy dissipation.

Entropy--Environmental aspects.

Entropy.

Economic development--Environmental aspects.

Economic development.

Energy conservation--Philosophy.

Energy conservation.

Energy consumption--Philosophy.

Energy consumption.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (442 p.)

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Unearthed: The Economic Roots of Our Environmental Crisis, Kenneth M. Sayre argues that the only way to resolve our current environmental crisis is to reduce our energy consumption to a level where the entropy (degraded energy and organization) produced by that consumption no longer exceeds the biosphere's ability to dispose of it. Tangible illustrations of this entropy buildup include global warming, ozone depletion, loss of species diversity, and unmanageable amounts of nonbiodegradable waste. Degradation of the biosphere is tied directly to human energy use, which has been increasing exponentially since the Industrial Revolution. Energy use, in turn, is directly correlated with economic production. Sayre shows how these three factors are invariably bound together. The unavoidable conclusion is that the only way to resolve our environmental crisis is to reverse the present pattern of growth in the world economy. Economic growth is motivated by social values. Key among them are the desire for wealth and consumer values including gratification, convenience, and acquisition of goods. Sayre maintains that economic growth can be reversed only by eliminating these social values in favor of others more conducive to environmental health. Eliminating these values will involve major changes in lifestyle within industrial societies generally. Only with such changes in lifestyle, he argues, does human society as we know it have a chance of survival. Clearly written and thoroughly documented, this book provides a comprehensive overview of our complex environmental predicament.

Contents:

Two laws of thermodynamics

Entropy and disorder

Life, negentropy, and biological feedback

Ecosystems and top consumers

Entropy trapped within the biosphere

The rising tide of human energy use

Economic production and its ecological consequences

Technological solutions to ecological problems

Replacing fossil fuel with clean energy

History and theory of economic growth

Why economic growth is considered a good thing

Economics without continuing growth

Desire for wealth in free-market economies

Environmental and other ethics

Typology of social values

Ecologically destructive values

Values for survival

What can be done? What can one do?

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 385-407) and index.

ISBN:

9780268092740

0268092745

OCLC:

768148096