Environment, power, and society for the twenty-first century : the hierarchy of energy
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Environment, power, and society for the twenty-first century : the hierarchy of energy
Columbia University Press, c2007
- : cloth
- : pbk
Available at 8 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
HTTP:URL=http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip075/2006038538.html Information=Table of contents only
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Howard T. Odum possessed one of the most innovative minds of the twentieth century. He pioneered the fields of ecological engineering, ecological economics, and environmental accounting, working throughout his life to better understand the interrelationships of energy, environment, and society and their importance to the well-being of humanity and the planet. This volume is a major modernization of Odum's classic work on the significance of power and its role in society, bringing his approach and insight to a whole new generation of students and scholars. For this edition Odum refines his original theories and introduces two new measures: emergy and transformity. These concepts can be used to evaluate and compare systems and their transformation and use of resources by accounting for all the energies and materials that flow in and out and expressing them in equivalent ability to do work. Natural energies such as solar radiation and the cycling of water, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are diagrammed in terms of energy and emergy flow. Through this method Odum reveals the similarities between human economic and social systems and the ecosystems of the natural world.
In the process, we discover that our survival and prosperity are regulated as much by the laws of energetics as are systems of the physical and chemical world.
Table of Contents
1. This World System 2. Systems Networks and Metabolism 3. Energy Laws and Maximum Power 4. Energy Hierarchy and Natural Value 5. Energy and Planet Earth 6. Energy and Ecosystems 7. Empower Basis for Society 8. Structure Information and Evolution 9. Energy and Economics 10. Energetic Organization of Society 11. Energetic Basis for Religion 12. Partnership with Nature 13. Climax and Descent 14. Formulas for Energy Systems Modules
by "Nielsen BookData"