"Ecology and Ideology in the General Systems Community"
This paper gives an account of the participatory, democratic and pluralistic perspectives of Boulding and other important figures in the General Systems Community (GSC).
This paper gives an account of the participatory, democratic and pluralistic perspectives of Boulding and other important figures in the General Systems Community (GSC).
Eugene P. Odum and Howard T. Odum were at the forefront of the ‘new ecology’ of ecosystems, in the 1950s and 1960s. They were also firmly committed to bringing both natural and human ecosystems into accord with the laws of ecoenergetics (the flow of energy through a system).
A brief review of some of the major publications in environmental history at the worldwide and global scales suggests that authors are engaging in more studies that eschew a single approach.
Two substantive criticisms of Warren Dean’s ‘wood hypothesis’ are offered here: the wood hypothesis is accurate in general but underestimated the industrial consumption of fossil fuels, without conclusively rejecting the competing ‘hydroelectricity’ hypothesis; the method used for estimating potential energy supply from forest area was erroneous.
Burning cultivation of peatlands has been practised in peat-rich countries at one time or other throughout Western Europe. In these and other peat-rich countries, the inclusion of the emissions from burning cultivation could substantially alter historical carbon dioxide emission estimates.
Lajos Rácz, Carson Fellow from June 2010 to June 2011, talks about his research project, “An Environmental History of Hungary.”
The construction of a giant dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, proposed by the Munich architect Hermann Sörgel (1885–1952), would have created the largest hydroelectric facility in the world.
Colin Beavan’s year-long attempt to live ‘off the grid’ in the heart of New York City brings the environment, and his relationships, to the forefront.
Economic historian Paolo Malanima reviews a work of ambitious scale by geographer Ian Gordon Simmons.
This book presents a rich and extensive empirical study on biophysical aspects of two hundred years of economic history for Sweden.