Clashing Views in Sustainability

Herausgeber: Taylor, Robert W.

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Taking Sides volumes present current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. Each issue is thoughtfully framed with Learning Outcomes, an Issue Summary, an Introduction, and an Exploring the Issue section featuring Critical Thinking and Reflection, Is There Common Ground?, and Additional Resources. Taking Sides readers also offer a Topic Guide and an annotated listing of Internet References for further consideration of the issues. An online Instructor's Resource Guide with testing material is available for each volume. Using Taking Sides in the Classroom is also an excellent instructor resource. Visit www.mhhe.com/takingsides for more details.

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Produktdetails

• Taking Sides: Clashing Views i
• Verlag: Dushkin Publishing
• Seitenzahl: 519
• Erscheinungstermin: August 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 231mm x 150mm x 30mm
• Gewicht: 699g
• ISBN-13: 9780073514505
• ISBN-10: 0073514500
• Artikelnr.: 34435423

Inhaltsangabe

Unit 1 Principles and Overview
Issue 1. Is Sustainability a Realistic Objective for Society?
YES: Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, from "Built to Trash: Is 'Heirloom Design'
the Cure for Consumption?" In These Times (November 2009)
NO: Sharon Begley, from "Green and Clueless," Newsweek (August 2010)
Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, an associate professor of journalism and a
freelance writer, believes that sustainability is a realistic objective
for society but is achievable only through sweeping changes in our
economic system. Enticing producers to market products that have a
longer life-cycle and are repairable would address much of our
overconsumption and help move toward a sustainable society. Sharon
Begley, a journalist for The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, believes
that people have little idea about how to achieve energy efficiency and
lead an eco-friendly lifestyle, and fail to understand how a move to
sustainability requires major societal steps.
Issue 2. Is Sustainability More About Politics Than Science?
YES: Bill McKibben, from "Hot Mess: Why Are Conservatives So Radical
About the Climate?," The New Republic (October 2010)
NO: Huub Spiertz, from "Food Production, Crops, and Sustainability:
Restoring Confidence in Science and Technology," Current Opinion in
Environmental Sustainability (December 2010)
Noted environmental writer Bill McKibben discusses how money and vested
political interests undermine efforts toward sustainability and how
this is reflected in politics. Huub Spiertz, a professor of crop
ecology and past president of the International Crop Science Congress,
elaborates on how applicable agrotechnologies and biotechnologies can
address global food and population issues and offer an example of how
science provides a more sustainable world.
Issue 3. Are Western Values, Ethics, and Dominant Paradigms Compatible with
Sustainability?
YES: Jo Kwong, from "Globalization's Effects on the Environment-Boon or
Bane?," Lindenwood Economic Policy Lecture Series ( July 2004)
NO: Erik Assadourian, from "The Rise and Fall of Consumer Cultures,"
2010 State of the World-Transforming Cultures from Consumerism to
Sustainability (The Worldwatch Institute, 2010)
Jo Kwong, vice president of institute relations at the Atlas Economic
Research Foundation in Fairfax, believes that globalization is a basic
part of the solution of the global problems that plague the developing
world. Greater movement of goods, services, people, and ideas can lead
to economic prosperity, improved environmental protection, and a host
of other social benefits. Erik Assadourian, a senior researcher at the
Worldwatch Institute and the project director of 2010 State of the
World, believes that Western culture is the origin of consumer culture
and the consumption trend and, therefore, leads to a global culture of
excess and is emerging as the biggest threat to the planet. Higher
levels of consumption can affect the environment and, in the long run,
limit economic activity. As a matter of fact, higher levels of
consumption require larger inputs of energy and material to produce and
therefore generates a high volume of waste products. It also increases
the extraction and exploitation of natural resources.
Issue 4. Does Sustainability Mean a Lower Standard of Living?
YES: Will Wilkinson, from "In Pursuit of Happiness Research: Is It
Reliable? What Does It Imply for Policy?" Policy Analysis (April 11,
2007)
NO: Saamah Abdallah, Sam Thompson, Juliet Michaelson, Nic Marks, and
Nicola Steuer, from "Unhappy Planet Index 2.0: Why Good Lives Don't
Have to Cost the Earth," http://happyplanetindex.org (2009)
Will Wilkinson, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, staunchly
supports the economist's perspective that happiness and standard of
living are related to economic growth. British psychologists Saamah
Abdallah and Sam Thompson, writing for the New Economics Foundation who
developed the Happy Planet Index, argue that we need to get away from
focusing on GDP and instead measure a successful society by supporting
life satisfaction that doesn't cost the earth.
Unit 2 Global Issues
Issue 5. Is Sustainability Practical for Emerging Economies?
YES: M. Asif and T. Muneer, from "Energy Supply, Its Demand and
Security Issues for Developed and Emerging Economies," Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews (September 2007)
NO: Yun Zhou, from "Why Is China Going Nuclear?" Energy Policy ( July
2010)
Professors M. Asif and T. Muneer of the School of Engineering, Napier
University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, indicate that emerging economies
like China and India are moving toward renewable energies and will need
to continue to do so if they want to stem the environmental degradation
due to global warming and climate change. Yun Zhou, a Nuclear Security
Fellow at the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom and
International Security Program at John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University, sees a continuation of the use of coal in China
with its environmental consequences due to its increased demand for
cheap energy. He sees nuclear fuel as the only alternative to coal.
Issue 6. Is Global Environmental Degradation an Issue of Poverty Rather
Than Environmental Policy?
YES: J.B. (Hans) Opschoor, from "Environment and Poverty: Perspectives,
Propositions, Policies," in Institute of Social Studies, Working Paper
437, Netherlands, 2007
NO: John Ambler, from "Attacking Poverty While Improving the
Environment: Towards Win-Win Policy Options," Poverty & Environment
Initiative, (United Nations Development Program, 2004)
Professor Hans Opschoor of the Dutch Institute of Social Studies, views
the relationship between environmental quality and poverty within the
wider context of the environmental-development system. He sees poverty
as both an agent of environmental degradation and as a cause of
deepened poverty. Researcher John Ambler, director of East Asia Program
Development, Social Science Research Council, dispels various myths on
poverty and environmental degradation and points to how specific
policies can produce a "win-win" situation.
Issue 7. Is Limiting Consumption Rather Than Limiting Population the Key to
Sustainability?
YES: Robert W. Kates, from "Population and Consumption: What We Know,
What We Need to Know," Environment (April 2000)
NO: J. Anthony Cassils, from "Overpopulation, Sustainable Development,
and Security: Developing an Integrated Strategy," Population and
Environment (January 2004)
Robert W. Kates is an American geographer and independent scholar in
Trenton, Maine, and university professor (emeritus) at Brown
University. He believes that consumption is more challenging to
sustainability than population but more difficult to study because of
its varied meanings. J. Anthony Cassils, a writer and an activist on
population issues for the Population Institute of Canada, states that
"nothing threatens the future of our species as much as
overpopulation," and advocates a comprehensive strategy to address
overpopulation.
Issue 8. Is Technological Innovation the Main Driver for Achieving
Sustainability?
YES: Joanna I. Lewis, from "Technology Acquisition and Innovation in
the Developing World: Wind Turbine Development in China and India,"
Studies in Comparative International Development (November/December
2007)
NO: Alan Colin Brent and David E. Rogers, from "Renewable Rural
Electrification: Sustainability Assessment of Mini-hybrid Off-grid
Technological Systems in the African Context," Renewable Energy (2010)
Joanna Lewis, a professor of science, technology, and international
affairs at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign
Service, discusses how technological "leapfrogging" in emerging
economies can "address concerns about rising greenhouse gases." She
explores the role that technology transfer holds in accelerating wind
power in India and China. Alan Brent and David Rogers, engineers from
South Africa's University of Pretoria, and leaders in sustainable
energy futures, conclude that alternative energy technology cannot
always be easily implemented and that policy must consider social and
cultural factors and involve multiple stakeholders.
Unit 3 Policy
Issue 9. Is Monetizing Ecosystem Services Essential for Sustainability?
YES: Stephen Polasky, from "What's Nature Done for You Lately:
Measuring the Value of Ecosystem Services," Choices (2nd Quarter, 2008)
NO: Clive L. Spash, from "How Much Is That Ecosystem in the Window? The
One with the Bio-Diverse Trail," Environmental Values (May 2008)
Writer Stephen Polasky presents the argument why putting a monetary
value on ecosystem services will improve decision making by clearly
illustrating the consequences of alternative choices. European
professor and economist Clive L. Spash questions the model of human
motivation and behavior underlying orthodox economics and its use in
ecosystem valuation and states that ecologists and conservation
biologists who use it fail in their awareness of the political and
ideological system within which it is embedded.
Issue 10. Does the Market Work Better Than Government at Achieving
Sustainability?
YES: Paul Krugman, from "Green Economics: How We Can Afford to Tackle
Climate Change," The New York Times Magazine (April 11, 2010)
NO: Leigh K. Fletcher, from "Green Construction Costs and Benefits: Is
National Regulation Warranted?" Natural Resources & Environment
(Summer, 2009)
Noted national economist Paul Krugman provides a history of both
market-based and command-and-control (regulatory) approaches in
environmental economics and recommends cap and trade, carbon taxes, and
a carbon tariff as the best market-based approaches to reduce carbon.
Leigh Fletcher, who is LEED certified and a lawyer in Tampa, Florida,
believes that building codes as a regulatory policy can reduce
electricity, which would significantly limit carbon since buildings are
the largest contributor to electricity consumption.
Issue 11. Does Sustainable Urban Development Require More Policy Innovation
and Planning?
YES: Bruce Katz, Smart Growth: The Future of the American Metropolis,
(Center for Analysis of Social Exclusion and Brookings Institution,
2002)
NO: David B. Resnik, from "Urban Sprawl, Smart Growth, and Deliberative
Democracy," American Journal of Public Health (October 2010)
Bruce Katz, of the ESRC Research Center for Analysis of Social
Exclusion within the Suntory and Toyota International Centers for
Economics and Related Disciplines at the London School of Economics and
Political Science, describes how current public policies facilitate the
"excessive decentralization" of people and jobs and how smart growth
reforms are being enacted, particularly at the state level, to shape
new, more urban-friendly growth patterns. David B. Resnik, a
bioethicist and vice-chair of the Institutional Review Board for Human
Subjects Research at the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences, National Institutes of Health, explains why urban sprawl, a
model of unsustainable development around the periphery of a city, has
a negative effect on human health and the environment. He believes that
smart growth is an alternative to the problem of urban sprawl;
nevertheless, he argues that smart growth has many disadvantages
including a decrease in property values, decrease in the availability
of affordable housing, restriction of property owners' use of their
land, disruption of existing communities, and a likely increase in
sprawl.
Issue 12. Should Water Be Privatized?
YES: Fredrik Segerfeldt, from "Water for Sale: How Business and the
Market Can Resolve the World's Water Crisis," Presentation at the Amigo
Society, Brussels (May 30, 2006)
NO: David Hall and Emanuele Lobina, from The Private Sector in Water in
2009, (Public Services International Research Unit, Business School,
University of Greenwich, March 2009)
Writer Fredrik Segerfeldt, on the Advisory Council of the European
Enterprise Institute, sees that "an increased role for private
enterprise and market reforms, if carried out properly and wisely, can
save millions of lives and give water connections to hundreds of
millions of people who today are deprived of it." David Hall is the
director of Public Service International Research Unit (PSIRU) at the
Business School of the University of Greenwich, London, and Emanuele
Lobina specializes in water research at PSIRU. Both writers boldly
state that the "experiment with water privatization has failed."
Unit 4 Natural Resources
Issue 13. Can Our Marine Resources Be Sustainably Managed?
YES: Benjamin S. Halpern, from "The Impact of Marine Reserves: Do
Reserves Work and Does Reserve Size Matter?," Ecological Applications
(February 2003)
NO: Andrew A. Rosenberg, Jill H. Swasey, and Margaret Bowman, from
"Rebuilding U.S. Fisheries: Progress and Problems," Frontiers in
Ecology and the Environment (August 2006)
Benjamin S. Halpern, marine biologist and project coordinator of
Ecosystem-Based Management of Coastal Marine Systems for the National
Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) demonstrates how
marine protected areas (MPAs) and marine reserves, tools for
sustainably managing marine resources, are producing positive results
based on four biological measures: density, biomass, size of organisms,
and diversity. Andrew A. Rosenberg, biologist and oceanographer and
presently dean of the College of Life Sciences at the University of New
Hampshire, states that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act has not significantly altered overfishing and the
rebuilding of fish stocks in the United States due mainly to pressures
from the commercial and recreational fishing communities.
Issue 14. Can the Conflict Between Humans and Wildlife Be Sustainably
Managed?
YES: Thomas M. Gehring, Kurt C. VerCautereen, and Jean-Marc Landry,
from "Livestock Protection Dogs in the 21st Century: Is an Ancient Tool
Relevant to Modern Conservation Challenges?" Bioscience (April 2010)
NO: Craig Hilton-Taylor, Caroline M. Pollock, Janice S. Chanson, Stuart
H.M. Butchart, Thomasina E.E. Oldfield, and Vineet Katariya, from
"State of the World's Species" in Wildlife in a Changing World-An
Analysis of the 2008 IUNC Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN, Gland,
Switzerland, 2009)
Biologist Thomas M. Gehring, wildlife disease specialist Kurt C.
VerCautereen, and dog protection expert Jean-Marc Landry discuss how
human-wildlife conflict at the junction of livestock protection and
wildlife conservation can be sustainably managed in a nonlethal way
through the use of livestock protection dogs (LPDs), an ancient tool of
human-wildlife management. Craig Hilton-Taylor, wildlife researcher
manager of the International Union for Conservation of Nature "Red List
of Threatened Species," leads a team that shows the rapid decline in
biodiversity as a result of unsustainable human-wildlife confrontation.
Issue 15. Should Sustainability in Energy Resources Be Based on
Conservation?
YES: Eric A. Woodroof, Wayne C. Turner, and Steven D. Heinz, from "The
'Secret Benefits' from Energy Conservation," Strategic Planning for
Energy and the Environment (April 2008)
NO: Hermann Scheer, from "The Cost of Renewable Energy: Time to
Disprove the Myths," in J. Nethersole, ed., Climate Action (pp.
128-131, Sustainable Development International, 2009)
Eric Woodroof, Wayne Turner, and Steven Heinz, certified energy
managers (CEM), show that energy conservation not only benefits the
consumer in the monetary reduction of their utility bill but also has
extra benefits in economic and energy savings as well as the positive
benefits in lowering the impact of greenhouse gases in the environment.
Hermann Scheer, founder of the nonprofit European Renewable Energy
Association and World Council for Renewable Energy, refutes the
argument that renewable energy is too expensive and hence not a viable
energy policy by discussing its long-term economic benefits to society.
Unit 5 Energy, Business and Society
Issue 16. Can Nuclear Energy Be a Sustainable Resource?
YES: A. Adamantiades and I. Kessides, from "Nuclear Power for
Sustainable Development: Current Status and Future Prospects," Energy
Policy (December 2009)
NO: Milton H. Saier and Jack T. Trevors, from "Is Nuclear Energy the
Solution?" Water, Air, & Soil Pollution (May 2010)
Engineer and energy consultant Achilles Adamantiades and economist and
writer I. Kessides discuss how burgeoning population, growing demands
for energy, dependence on foreign fossil fuels, and rising concern
about global climate are major reasons for the growing interest in
nuclear power. Biologist Milton H. Saier and environmental scientist
Jack T. Trevors argue that nuclear power is not cost-competitive
compared with other green energy sources such as solar and wind, which
can be installed much faster. They also discuss its inability to deal
with the issue of energy security since oil is mostly used for
transportation and nuclear energy is not used for this key activity.
Issue 17. Is Corporate Sustainability More Public Relations Than Real?
YES: Richard Dahl, from "Greenwashing: Do You Know What You're
Buying?," Environmental Health Perspectives (June 2010)
NO: Cristiano Busco, Mark L. Frigo, Emilia L. Leone, and Angelo
Riccaboni, from "Cleaning Up," Strategic Finance (July 2010)
Boston freelance environmental health issues writer Richard Dahl argues
that there is increasing competition between companies to portray
themselves as "green" and warns that if false green claims are not
controlled, then people's skepticism will grow and an important tool
for sustainability will be lost. Busco et al. describe how General
Electric and Procter & Gamble have operationalized corporate
sustainability initiatives using management control and management
accounting systems.
Issue 18. Are Social Concerns Taken Seriously in the "Triple Bottom Line"
of Sustainability?
YES: Michael Laff, from "Triple Bottom Line: Creating Corporate Social
Responsibility That Makes Sense," T 1 D (February 2004)
NO: Frank Vanclay, from "Impact Assessment and the Triple Bottom Line:
Competing Pathways to Sustainability?" Sustainability and Social
Science: Round Table Proceedings (July 2004)
Internet training and development blogger Michael Laff details how
corporations are utilizing triple bottom line (TBL) to develop
innovative approaches to improve their relationship with the local
community and reduce their impact on the environment. Frank Vanclay, a
professor of cultural geography at the University of Groningen in the
Netherlands, discusses the inability of triple bottom line (TBL) to
provide an adequate framework for organizations to assess their
progress toward social equity or justice in their management functions.
Issue 19. Are Cities Sustainable?
YES: Stephen M. Wheeler, from "Planning for Sustainability," in Local
Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice, by Gary Hack et al.,
eds., (International City-County Management Association, 2009)
NO: Giok Ling Ooi, "Challenges of Sustainability for Asian
Urbanisation," Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
(December 2009)
Community planner Stephen M. Wheeler delineates how cities can move to
sustainability by emphasizing compact urban designs, preservation of
open space, adopting transport alternatives, and implementing building
codes that emphasize energy conservation and efficiency. Urban
geographer Giok Ling Ooi of Nanyang Technological University shows how
the challenges of rapid urbanization in emerging Asian economies are
making it difficult for these cities to meet the basics of sanitation,
water supply, housing, and so on not to mention the most lofty goals of
sustainability.