Supply-side SustainabilityWhile environmentalists insist that lower rates of consumption of natural resources are essential for a sustainable future, many economists dismiss the notion that resource limits act to constrain modern, creative societies. The conflict between these views tinges political debate at all levels and hinders our ability to plan for the future. Supply-Side Sustainability offers a fresh approach to this dilemma by integrating ecological and social science approaches in an interdisciplinary treatment of sustainability. Written by two ecologists and an anthropologist, this book discusses organisms, landscapes, populations, communities, biomes, the biosphere, ecosystems and energy flows, as well as patterns of sustainability and collapse in human societies, from hunter-gatherer groups to empires to today's industrial world. These diverse topics are integrated within a new framework that translates the authors' advances in hierarchy and complexity theory into a form useful to professionals in science, government, and business. The result is a much-needed blueprint for a cost-effective management regime, one that makes problem-solving efforts themselves sustainable over time. The authors demonstrate that long-term, cost-effective resource management can be achieved by managing the contexts of productive systems, rather than by managing the commodities that natural systems produce. |
Other editions - View all
Supply-Side Sustainability Timothy F. H. Allen,Joseph A. Tainter,Thomas W. Hoekstra Limited preview - 2003 |
Supply-side Sustainability T. F. H. Allen,Joseph A. Tainter,T. W. Hoekstra No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbasid achieve agricultural Allen and Hoekstra ancient animals antoninianus appear approach army become behavior biology biomes biosphere bunchgrasses Byzantine capture carbon century A.D. chapter climate collapse complexification complexity concept constraints context cost criteria criterion decline denarii diminishing returns Diocletian diversity ecological ecological systems economic ecosys ecosystem effect elaborate emergence energy energy subsidies environment environmental example extinction FIGURE fish forest function Gambel oak genetic global gradient Hanunóo human Hunter-gatherers increase industrial integrity irrigation issue land landscape material system matter Maya Maya civilization megafauna ment metapopulation move natural nomic organism outputs peasants percent plants political population positive feedback predict problem solving production Roman Empire scale scientists social society soil species strategy structure sustainability tainability Tainter temperature theory thermodynamics Tikal tion trees Umwelt University Press unsustainable vegetation whereas