Technology and Environment (1989) / Chapter Skim
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From page 1... ...
Yet, traditional optimism remains widespread that innovations will be found to finesse or counteract harmful environmental consequences of the ways we transform the planet. W~11 the verdict on our realization of technology in the environment be life, "sustainable development of the biosphere," or 1
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The contemporary question is whether humans may now be so threatening the boundary conditions of the earth system that our technological tool kit will not suffice. Are we infinite or are we reaching closure?
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Generally in the industrialized countries, ways have been devised to accommodate and prepare the way for economic growth and increases in population density without decline of key measures of environmental quality and health. Will our ingenuity, technical and social, match current and future needs?
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We concept of industrial metabolism leads to more unified, continuous, and comprehensive consideration of production and consumption processes from an
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10. Regional air pollution, including acid rain Hazardous or toxic air pollutants Indoor radon Indoor air pollutants other than radon Radiation other than radon Depletion of stratospheric ozone associated with CFCs and other substances Global climate change associated with carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases Water pollution associated with direct and indirect point source discharges from industrial and other facilities to surface waters Water pollution associated with nonpoint source discharges to surface waters 11.
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From page 6... ...
The history of the chemical industry, for example, is in considerable part one of finding new uses for former waste products. It is probably safe to say, according to Ayres, that industry in the next century will recycle or use a number of today's major tonnage waste products, notably sulfur, fly ash, and lignin waste from paper manufacture.
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For example, differences in prices of coal, oil, and gas scarcely reflect the different environmental consequences of these energy sources. Industrial metabolism is not a complete model, but it is clearly a useful heuristic device.
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The significant decline in use of steel in the automotive industry does provide strong evidence in support of dematerialization in production. Further evidence of dematerialization in production is provided by data on overall industrial solid waste generation, which showed a significant decline for several years beginning in 1979.
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In other words, a characteristic density of use may be all that is achievable or socially tolerable for each source of energy within the context of the larger industrial paradigm in which that source of energy dominates. 1b accommodate further increases in per capita energy consumption, each time it is necessary for a society to shift to a source of primary energy that Is not only economically sound but also more environmentally compatible and in some ways more efficient, especially in transport and storage.
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However, this may be only a local or short-run solution, because it may increase the carbon dioxide emissions associated with global climate warming. From this point of view, natural gas is the most convenient fuel of choice for addition and replacement of electricity-generating capacity for the next decade.
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Meanwhile, gas produces less carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour than any other fossil fuel option and permits us some time to understand better the issue of climate change without imposing costly but ineffectual carbon dioxide removal requirements. At present, the United States seems to be adding boundary conditions to the energy industry in such a way that Balzhiser predicts market shares of primary energy sources for generating electricity will remain almost perfectly static as far as the year 2020.
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AUSUBE~ ROBERT A FROSCH, ID ROBERT HEM heaters, as a feedstock, or as a fuel for making hydrogen.
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It has created a process~riented, rather than a results-oriented, approach in a sector where the result, namely, environmental quality, is what we seek and need. In fact, the succession of legislative activities has resulted in an enormous, sometimes contradictory, uncoordinated patchwork of control requirements for smoke, air and water pollution, solid wastes, and noise, as well as aesthetics.
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The latter must be accented, while evidence grows that environmental consequences of consumer products may be more important than the direct effects of industrial activity, as demonstrated by the perspectives of industrial metabolism and dematerialization. Design should not merely meet environmental regulations; environmental elegance should be part of the culture of engineering education and practice.
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The last resort is avoiding exposure to released residues. It is important to point out that even with waste reduction, incineration, and recycling, no landfills will remain in a couple of decades or sooner for many major population concentrations.
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One of the most interesting questions is that of research and market opportunities with regard to efficiency, especially energy efficiency. In the past few years there has been a shift among many environmentalists to a revised view of the "soft path" option that emphasizes managing demand downward rather than supply upward to meet societal needs and problems.
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Ayres points out that a new process that saves one link in the chain between raw materials and final goods or services can usually be justified in terms of savings in raw materials, energy, or capital requirements. Final products are made by sequences of processes with an overall conversion efficiency that is the product of the efficiency at each stage.
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The key is to work on narrow or specific problems with an understanding of the interface with the overall problem; this is well illustrated by questions surrounding clean coal technologies (which could alleviate acid rain) and CFC substitutes (which might not destroy ozone)
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But there is a need to increase shared recognition of a long-run evolutionary imperative that favors an industrial metabolism that results in reduced extraction of virgin materials, reduced loss of waste materials, and increased recycling of useful materials. Although the overall trend may not yet exist, the imperative is to seek reduced materials intensiveness or dematerialization.
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AUSUBE~ ROBERT A FROSCH, ID ROBERT HEM Environmental engineering, recognizing our own nature as part of nature and our technology as in nature, can help bridge the dangerous compartmentalization of knowledge and professions that appears to be placing modern life in jeopardy.
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Frameworks forAnalysis
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Key Terms
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