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Technology
Technology & Production Systems-General
Standing between society and the environment are the artefacts of technology. The term is used here in its widest sense. Technology is not just specific machines and other gadgets. It also embraces processes and systems. A farm is as much a technology as a conveyor belt or a car. Technology forms the third part of the 'PAT' impact equation, alongside population and affluence (per capita consumption). It is the transformation since 1945 of the technologies we use that, in part, explains why many environmental problems-and many social ones-have got worse. In farming, there has been a dramatic shift from what were primarily organic and mixed crop systems to ones based on agrochemicals and monocultures, with many farm animals kept indoors for all or part of their lives. In transport, the private motor car took the place of the bus and train. In the manufacturing sector, all kinds of new synthetic substances replaced naturally occurring resources such as wood and wool.
Examples abound across all sectors of economic activity. One of the simplest examples is the switch from the technology of returnable glass bottles to that of non-returnable plastic containers. One choice is more appropriate to a sustainable society than the other. In the USA, for example, beer consumption has remained fairly steady in per capita terms but related environmental impacts have soared-not because there are more beer drinkers (population) but because of the change to canned drinks.
Many people think that technologies are essentially neutral tools, and that any failings merely a result of their misuse in the wrong hands. In reality, technologies not only embody different human values and priorities but also produce different social and environmental impacts-regardless of who owns them or how they are used. If it is assumed that different technologies possess different intrinsic characteristics, the question then follows whether it is possible to distinguish 'inappropriate' technologies from more appropriate ones.
Put simply, technological choice essentially boils down to two alternatives-the 'hard' technology path or the 'soft' technology path. We can, of course, put a windmill next to a nuclear power plant, but in a more meaningful sense the two paths are mutually exclusive. Hugh Nash claims that a society 'cannot aspire to be both conspicuously consumptive and elegantly frugal the hard and the soft paths are culturally and institutionally antagonistic and further more, compete for the same limited resources... a society cannot dedicate itself simultaneously to vegetarianism and cannibalism'.
. In many ways, science and technology are the modern opiates of both the masses and elites. In particularly, society at large, not just big business, believes in the 'technological fix', a phrase popularised by the nuclear scientist Alvin Weinberg referring to the promise that the combinaiton of scientific knowedge and technological prowess might provide solutions that would avoid the need for painful, slow, and difficult political, social and economic changes. Examples of this include the green revolution of hybrid high-yielding plants in agriculture to feed exploding populations; more sophisticated police hardware to combat crime; bypasses to ease traffic congestion; the diversion of rivers and even the towing of icebergs to provide water; more guns and bombs to combat global insecurity; even the colonising of the moon and outer space to solve problems here on Earth.
Typical of the technofix mentality is the unwarranted faith in the potential of pollution control technology. In reality, it only shifts pollutants from one form, place or time to another. Such changes might be a real improvement but they do not make pollution simply disappear. However there are more serious limits to technological 'clean-ups'. Many pollutants, for example, are too dissipated to catch and contain, for example, carbon dioxide, fertiliser run-off, and methane from cattle and paddy cultivation.
In the case of pollutants amenable to capture and treatment, there is still the cost of making and using the necessary gadgetry. The cost of installing full-scale tertiary treatment of the existing 'throughput' of sewage is likely to astronomical (such plants are twice as expensive to build and four times more costly to operate than secondary treatment works which, in any case, only cover a small minority of the current world population).
Already, great damage is being done producing the raw material for pollution abatement techniques, not least limestone mining and the production of lime for desulphurisation. Similarly, the manufacture of equipment like catalytic converters causes resource depletion and more pollution, while their use can create new pollutants. At the end of the pipe, there are still waste residues, often highly toxic, awaiting disposal. Sometimes, all that happens is a short-circuiting of the process by which they end up in the soil or water. Often there are penalties of reduced energy efficiency in power plant where pollution scrubbers have been fitted.
In the attempts to improve water quality, for example, an increasing number of end-of-pipe treatments have been used on industrial and municipal effluents. Usually, all that happens is that pollutants are transferred from one medium to another. Heavy metals, for instance, often end up in the treatment sludge. Subsequent incineration or land 'disposal' either degrades air quality or pollutes other water supplies by leaching out of the ground in which they are disposed.
It is also said that pollution control by-products, for example gypsum from desulphurisation, can be used elsewhere. One obvious problem is the cost of transporting those wastes to their future user. Furthermore, closer scrutiny reveals that the 'recycling' outlets are often activities like new road and building construction, the very things to be minimised in a sustainable society.
The only way to reduce the more serious pollutants is to generate less of them in the first place. Revealingly perhaps the biggest anti-pollution success story in recent years has been the fall in lead emissions. Between 1975 and 1987 total annual lead emissions in the US decreased by 94%, with quite dramatic falls in the lead levels in children's blood. The key to this victory was the removal of lead from products like petrol, not the deployment of on end-of-pipe techniques.
Such 'fixes' might work for some problems for a short time. However, they may compound the problem they were meant to solve, not least by providing positive feedback to damaging activities (e.g. new roads attracting new traffic and thereby creating more serious congestion rather than easing it). By postponing change, technofixes may make the transition to an ecologically sustainable society much harder and more unpalatable than if moves in that direction were begun now.
There is also the question whether knowledge and its application are themselves free from constraints and costs. Are they the one thing in life that is 'free' (in the sense of potentially unlimited, unlike energy and raw material) or are they too subject to limits? Some technical problems may have no solution and it might be better to accept our 'impotence' (this has not stopped recurrent attempts down the ages to develop perpetual motion machines). In other cases, there might be theoretical solutions but which simply are not logistically or financially viable in practical situations. There is an obvious danger that what works in the laboratory or under closely monitored (and usually heavily subsidised conditions as in the case of nuclear technologies) may not work safely, economically or even at all 'out in the field'.
All new technologies bring of course new risks of unforeseen side-effects which may outweigh their bebefits. Technologies are also interdependent. Breakthroughs in one area often produce mismatches elsewhere, for example between bigger tankers, on one hand, and, on the other, existing harbour and canal facilities. Problems of wasteful obsolescence are often multiplied by technological innovation, as, for instance, in the field of computers. New and more powerful technologies often bring bigger risks from breakdown, accident and error, while the greater use of capital hardware could be at the expense of human job satisfaction and employment. Lack of foresight, time and money can all prevent technology from galloping to the rescue. Apart from the risks, it might be that technofixes are simply irrelevant, since many of our problems are not technical at all, but are social and cultural.
The ultimate technofix is perhaps the belief in abundant cheap energy, currently centred on the prospect of nuclear fusion. Even if we could solve this technology's problems (the equivalent of recreating the conditions on the surface of the sun down here on Earth), and even if we could afford the enormous capital costs involved, it seems likely that the biophysical constraints would still limit its use on a scale sufficient to maintain physical expansion.
As John Holdren, Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich explain, energy is not the only problem: 'Food, shelter, clothing, education, and opportunity for the billions will certainly require energy, but they will also require other raw materials, social organisation and co-operation, and much help from the already beleaguered processes of the biosphere.' Social organisation and co-operation are themselves subject to constraints.
Adams, P., and L. Solomon, L. In the Name of Progress. Energy Probe, 1985.
Bauer, M., ed.. Resistance to New Technology: Nulcear Power, Information Technology, and Biotechnology. CUP, 1995. Not everyone has welcomed this trio of technologies at the core of the whole 'superindustrialism' project as these essays show.
Braun, E. Futile Progress: Technology's Empty Promise. Earthscan, 1995.
Cockburn, C. & R.F. Dilic. Bringing Technology Home: Gender and Technology in a Changing Europe. Open Univ., 1994. Case studies of some new household technologies.
Drengson, A. Four Philosophies of Technology. Phil. Today, 9(2), 1982: 103-117
Drengson, A. The Sacred and the Limits of the Technological Fix. Zygon, 19, 1984: 259-275
Drengson, A. Toward a Philosophy of Appropriate Technology. Humboldt Jnl. Soc. Rels., 9(2), 1983: 161-176
Drengson, A. The Practice of Exploring Technology, Ecophilosophy & Spiritual Disciplines for Vital Links. SUNY Pr., 1995.
Ellul, J. The Technological Society. Vintage Books, 1964
Ellul, J. The Technological Bluff. Erdmans Books, 1990
Farvar, M. T. & Milton, J. P., eds., The Careless Ecology and International Development. Nat. History Pr., 1972.
Ferkiss, V. Nature, Technology and Cultural Roots of the Current Environmental Issues Adamantine Press, 1993. An erudite and powerful study of the way our attitudes to the environment and to technology have created so much harm.
Ferkiss, V. Technological Man. Braziller, 1969.
Glenndinning, C. When Technology Wounds. Morrow, 1990. Study of the casualties of inappropriate technological development.
Goldsmith, E. High Technology Euphoria. The Ecologist 13 (5), 1983: 190-192
Hardin, G. Interstellar Migration and the Population Problem. J. of Heredity, 50, 1959: 68-70. An early critique of the ultimate technological myth namely that we can all leave the Earth and start afresh somewhere else.
Holdren, J. Technology, Environment and Well-Being. In C. Cooper, ed. Growth in America, Westview, 1976.
Juenger, G. The Failure of Technology. Regnery Gateway, 1949. Particularly interesting as an early example of themes that three decades later became more commonplace.
Leiss, W. Under Technology's Thumb. McGill Queen's Pr., 1990.
Luke, T. Reproducing Planet Earth? The Hubris of Biospegre 2. The Ecologist, 25(4), 1995: 157-162. The arrogance and irrelevance embodied in this giant techno. toy, an 'Earth' in minature.
Lyons, D. Are Luddites Confused? Inquiry, 22, 1979: 381-403
Manders, J. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology. Sierra, 1991.
McDermott, J. Opiate of the Intellectuals. In A. Teich, ed., Technology and Man's Future. St. Martin's Pr., 1972
Mumford, L. The Myth of the Machine. H.B.J., 1970.
Noble, D. The Religion of Technology. Knopf, 1998.
Pedlar, K. The Quest for Gaia. Granada, 1979.
Perrow, C. Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies. Basic Books, 1984.
Postman, N. The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Knopf, 1992.
Rifkin, J. Declarations of a Heretic. RKP, 1985.
Schwartz, E. Overskill. Ballantine, 1971. The best refutation of the illusion we can simply invent our way out of social and environmental crises by means of 'technofixes'. Out-of-print but well worth ordering on inter-library loan.
Shiva, V. Letter. The Ecologist, 27(5), 1997: 211-212. A response to Norman Borlaug, 'father' of the so-called Green Revolution in farming, taking up the popular argument that we needed such innovation to avoid starvation.
Skolimowski, H. The Myth of Progress. The Ecologist, 4(7), 1974: 248-258.
Smith, M.R. & L. Marx, eds. Does Technology Drive History. MIT Pr., 1994. Provides evidence against technological determinism, a view which renders us helpless in the face of unwanted or undesirable technological change.
Suzuki, D. Can Science 'Manage' Nature. The Ecologist, 28(1), 1998: 7.
Waters, W.B. Landing a Man Downtown. Bull. Atom. Scientists, 29(9), 1973: 34-35. A useful essay which looks at the oft-made remark that 'if we can put people on the moon, surely we can solve problems likedown here on Earth'.
Winner, L. The Whale and the Reactor. Univ. Chicago Pr., 1986.
Wynne, B. & S. Mayer. How Science Fails the Environment. New Scientist, 1876, 1993: 33-35.
Zerzan, J. and A.Carnes, eds. Questioning Technology. Freedom Pr., 1988. The best collection on the limits to technology and the dangers of the technofix mentality.
Many of the references above discuss issues concerning the control and funding of scientific & technological innovation. See also:
Clement, K. Investing in Europe: Government Support for Environmental Technology. Greener Business International, 9, 1995: 41-51. Comparisons across the EU.
Livingston, D. Little Science Policy. Policy Stud. Jnl., 5 (2), 1976: 185-192
Various. Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGAIR): Agricultural Research for Whom. The Ecologist, 26(6), 1967: 259-270. An informative case study of the biased direction of research and development
Wynne, B. & D. Crouch. Responsiveness of Science & Technology Institutions to Environmental Change; A UK Case Study. Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University, Working Paper 92.7, 1992.
Technological Regulation, Risk Assessment and Safety Studies
It will always be the case that decision-making on all these issues will take place against a background of considerable uncertainty. Fortunately, it is the case that measures, say, to halt global warming will be solution multipliers since they will help to resolve many other social and environmental problems. To that extent, the balance of 'opportunity costs' favours action now, even if subsequent research were to demonstrate that the greenhouse effect was nothing more than the mirage produced by a few overheated imaginations.
In general, the accumulation of more information by itself will not make choices any the easier or wiser. There never will be a point at which, for example, a piece of additional proof about the number and nature of cancerous fish in the North Sea conclusively demonstrates that drastic measures must be taken to stop pollution of its waters.
Similarly, there are so many potential sources of cancer that it will be impossible to say with absolute certainty that nuclear plants like Sellafield are blighting human health. Yet there are sufficient grounds for fearing that the risks of radioactive contamination are now too great to permit the continued operation of such facilities. It is a dereliction of public duty to use the absence of absolute certainty to delay action.
Even if all necessary evidence could be collected, facts do not speak by themselves. The fundamental issue is in fact not quantity of data but quality of thinking. It alone can give order and meaning to what, usually, will be a limited supply of hard fact. It was wisdom and understanding that enabled people like Vogt and Osborn in the 1940s to foresee that contemporary trends would lead to disaster. Only an ecologically based approach to analysis and policy can prevent their worst predictions coming true.
Decisions about many aspects of pollution are made, then, under conditions of inevitable ignorance, but guidance is available from nature herself. As biologist Barry Commoner notes, 'the consistent absence of a chemical constituent from natural biological systems is an extraordinarily meaningful fact'. We must always proceed with the utmost caution. In fact, 'the slightest probability of a pollutant's guilt must be sufficient reason to warrant its removal from the market' (Edward Goldsmith).
Designs and operating procedures must be judged not on claims of being fail safe, but on their tolerance of failure. In other words, we must accept that things may go wrong and ensure that the consequences are not socially and environmentally unacceptable. Only if we begin to initiate all these measures seriously will nature's own self-cleansing mechanisms eventually be able to restore pure air, clean oceans and sweet water.
Braun, E. & D. Wield. Regulation as a Means for the Social Control. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 6, 1994: 259-172.
Epstein, S. Corporate Crime: Can We Trust Industry-Derived Safety Studies? The Ecologist, 19 (1), 1989: 23-30.
Goldsmith, E. Are the Experts Lying? The Ecologist, 28(2), 1998: 51-53.
Howard, V. Synergistic Effects of Chemical Mixtures-Can We Rely on Traditional Toxicology?. The Ecologist, 27(5), 1997: 192-195.
Shaoul, J. Mad Cow Disease. The Ecologist, 27(5), 1997: 182-187. Includes expose of government-industry safety fudging.
North, R. Pesticide Use on Farm Animals: Can We Regulate It. The Ecologist, 28(2), 1998: 82-92. Critique of Britain's veterinary medicines control system.
Steinbrecher, R. From Green to Gene Revolution: The Environmental Risks of Genetically Engineered Crops. The Ecologist, 26(6), 1996: 273-281. Includes panel on the risks of current risk assessment on genetically modified organisms.
Walker, M. Sir Richard doll: A Questionable Pillar of the Cancer Establishment. The Ecologist, 28(2), 1998: 82-92. Critique of the objectivity of celebrated British scientist.
Western, R. Scientific Uncertainties and Technical Deficiencies: Underground Burial of Nuclear Waste. The Ecologist, 27(2), 1997: 44-45.
EcoDesign-General
Ecological design has been a fast growing force in recent years. Yet it has long and deep roots. There are many examples in artefacts created by people down the ages that were sustainably made from renewable materials sourced from the locality, functional, durableand beautiful. Such creations, ranging from buildings to pots and pans, satisfied human needs without inflicting unsustainable damage on the environment in their manufacture, use or disposal. There were, of course, plenty of exceptions but the real change in demands placed upon environmental systems by design choices came with the industrial revolution.
Under industrialism, design entered the world of mass production, standardisation, large-scale and long distance transportation, and a resource base dominated by non-renewable and heavily polluting fossil fuels and synthetic materials. Although there had been large cities before, nothing rivalled the new conurbations and the outward march of suburbia. After the First World War came the first stirrings of consumerism and 1945, per capita consumption levels began to rise dramatically during the long years of the post-war boom.
Novelty, product differentiation and, of course, increased (and often conspicuous) consumption became to be perceived as inherently good things. The private increasingly replaced the public, with, for example, the domestic television replacing the more public medium of the cinema or the private motor displacing the bus and the train. In the industrialised countries, the average household was filling up with what past generations would have regarded as an Aladdin's cave of appliances, furnishings and all kinds of other objects.
Few questions were asked about the ecological sustainability of this revolution in lifestyles. Other fashions and fads came and went as one design movement followed another, each with its own intended and unintended impacts on individual lifestyles ('from Bauhaus to our house', as Tom Wolfe once put), society as a whole, and environmental systems. Pauline Madge suggests that the glass-walled skyscraper symbolises these trends-profligate in energy and raw materials, physically unpleasant if not downright unhealthy for its users, and destructive of local character.
Yet there was a minority who were not swept away by the values of Industrialism. Some looked back to the craft skills of pre-industrial society while other sought to identify new ways of working with, not against, nature. Such thinkers (e.g. Lewis Mumford) and designers (e.g. William Morris and John Ruskin) perceived a twin degradation-of both people and planet. What others saw as the work of enterprising, modern individuals, such critics perceived the products to be homogenised, trivial, insensitive and frequently brutal to the mind, body and the natural world.
In more recent times, such criticism has been fuelled when the 'developing nations' attempted to follow the ways of the already industrialised lands. The latter's technologies proved to be to economically costly, culturally insensitive, and ecologically destructive. The transfer of labour-saving equipment and techniques often proved disastrous in countries where population growth had meant that the one thing in surplus was human labour.
Critics such as Fritz Schumacher campaigned for alternatives, for tools and production systems appropriate to local needs, one which would be an improvement on what was being used before, but not out of the technical and economic reach of their intended users. This approach stressed self-reliance, rather than dependence, conviviality and co-operation, instead of alienation and competition, localism not globalisation, and human in scale as opposed to 'giantism', putting society on an ecologically sustainably footing.
Not surprisingly, a body of theory and practice soon developed that drew similar lessons for the so-called 'advanced countries'. The fading of the post-war boom, the return of persistent unemployment, a variety of worsening social ills and, of course, the growing signs of environmental decline all encouraged this shift in focus. It connected with the concerns expressed by ecologists like Rachel Carson and Paul Ehrlich on the one hand, and, on the other, those critics such as Vance Packard who had been denouncing the artificial creation of unnecessary and often harmful wants amongst consumers.
Designers like Victor Papanek criticised the design profession's addiction to worthless fads and explored options that could satisfy sustainably fundamental human needs. Their efforts received a boost from the spread of 'green consumerism' with shoppers voting with their wallets in favour of environmentally friendlier goods and services (the shift in consumer allegiances should not, however be exaggerated).
At the same time, the changing regulatory framework has been putting further pressure on designers to green their ways, not least via directives from the European Union on matters such as recycling, packaging and hazardous chemicals. Tightening environmental constraints are likely to express themselves in terms of higher prices for many resources. Waste generation is also likely to attract increasingly severe financial penalties and in turn encourage consumers will seek longer life and less bulky products.
Frugality in original resource inputs and longevity of use are likely to become economically as well as environmentally desirable. It seems as if the future in design is likely to be one in which 6 'Rs' of reduction, reliability, repair, reuse, recycling, and regionalisation are the guiding forces. Hopefully, they will be seen not as a threat but as a stimulating and rewarding challenge. Clearly, however, there will have to be broader changes in society, not least its economic structures. They will be necessary not only to encourage the work ecological designers but also to cushion the transition to sustainable systems. Otherwise shifts towards product longevity and generally more frugal lifestyles will cause severe disruption, not least amongst those whose profits and jobs depend upon overconsumption, waste and built-in obsolescence.
Carr, M., ed. The AT Reader. Intermediate Technology Publications, 1985.
Dadd, D. Nontoxic and Natural. Tatcher, 1990
Dadd, D. Earthwise. Tatcher, 1990.
Drengson, A. The Practice of Exploring Technology, Ecophilosophy & Spiritual Disciplines for Vital Links. SUNY Pr., 1995.
Hemenway, D. Eight Principles for Designing Natural Systems. Whole Earth Rev., 48, 1985: 72-73.
McRobie, G. Small is Possible. Abacus, 1982.
Mollison, B. Permaculture: A Designer's Manual. Tagari, 1988. Arguable the bible of ecodesign, especially regarding land use, combining vision with practicality.
Naar, Jon. Design for a Living Planet. Harper & Row, 1990.
Papanek, V. Design for the Real World. Granada, 1974.
Papanek, V. The Green Imperative: Ecology & Ethics in Design & Architecture. Thames & Hudson, 1995.
Todd, J. & N. Todd. Tomorrow is Our Permanent Address. Harper and Row, 1980.
Todd, N. & J. Todd. Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City Farming: Ecology as the Basis of Design. Sierra, 1984. Very valuable overview from leading lights from the new Alchemy Institute and Ocean Arks International.
Todd, J. & N. Todd. From Ecocities to Living Machines: Designing for Sustainability. N. Atlantic Pr., 1993.
Wann, D. Biologic. Johnson Books, 1990. Brilliant and accessible guide on how to design with Nature.
Applied EcoDesign
Burall, P. Green Design. Design Council, 1991.
International Council for Societies of Industrial Design. Design for Need: The Social Context of Design. ICSID, 1976.
Mackenzie, D. Green Design: Design for the Environment. Laurence King, 1991.
Madge, P. A History of Ecological Design. Ecological Design Association, 1992. Very informative briefing sheet.
Whiteley, N. Design for Society. Reaktion Pr., 1993.
For examples of such ideas applied to specific problems, see:
Goldbeck, D. The Smart Kitchen: How to Design a Comfortable, Safe, Energy Efficient and Environment Friendly Workspace. Ceres Press, 1991 (?)
Water Supply
Water supply, both its quality and quantity, has forced its way to the surface as one of the biggest problems facing society. Yet, incredibly, this critical issue made no splash as a substantive political issue. Debate has been confined to the minutiae of privatisation such as water company profits but not the big issue of what our population levels, lifestyles and land use patterns are doing to the most fundamental of all resources, water.
There are interesting parallels with the oil crisis of the early 1970s. The world suddenly woke up to an energy crisis in which those with their hands on the oil pumps were able to force massive price increases. Shock waves reverberated around the world economy, sowing the seeds, amongst others, of the massive movement of petrodollars and the ensuing timebomb of debt. It has provoked armed conflict over the control of oilfields. However, a combination of factors-greater energy efficiency, the opening of new oilfields, reduced demand due to recession, for example - took the heat out of the oil crisis and the world returned to its bad old ways as if oil was a renewable resource that would last forever.
We could live without oil. Indeed the whole timespan of our oil addiction is a mere blink in human history, lasting perhaps 150 years at the most. We cannot live without water. It is essential to every aspect of living. Indeed, that great energy guzzler and polluter , the modern motor car, could not be constructed without vast quantities of water, something like 500,000 gallons per vehicle. We share our need for water with other lifeforms and the effects upon them of the water crisis are even worse. In many regions, water tables are falling, underground aquifers drying out, rivers and lakes shrinking. Lake Chad, once one of the biggest lakes in Africa, is now a tenth of its previous size. In the CIS, ships lie stranded in the dried up Aral Sea.
Freshwater supply should be a renewable resource but overpopulation, greater per capita consumption and water-wasteful technologies not only directly tap it to excess but create other effects which indirectly magnify the problem. This is most clear in the case of pollution, deforestation and human-induced climatic change. Acid rain, for example, has been polluting waterways around the world. Deforestation destabilises water supply as the sponge of tree cover is lost and water runs off the land, often causing devastation downstream. However it is the emerging 'greenhouse effect' that will deepen the crisis dramatically.
Though the total water budget may remain the same, the 'greenhouse effect' will mean more water falling in some areas and less elsewhere. The world will witness more devastating floods and more crippling droughts. The drying out of many parts of Africa is already creating havoc but Britain too seems set to become warmer and drier. Many countries, it seems, will have to make do with a significantly reduced water supply. The danger is that we treat the present water crisis like the 1970s energy crisis, a temporary hiccup to be overcome by palliative measures before we get back to business-as-usual again. Nothing could be more foolish than to treat it as just another period of drought, of no more significance than those before.
The conventional response is to treat the problem as a shortage of supply rather than a longage of demand. There may be hosepipe bans and other conservation measures but the focus remains firmly on new reservoirs, massive water movement schemes and, in some instances, fantastic ideas about the towing of icebergs to water-short areas. Indeed we are faced with the prospects of a new round of what might be called hydraulic imperialism. Plans are afoot for more powerful and richer regions to tap the resources of other communities (both human and wildlife).
Such schemes fly in the face of ecological reality. They would require truly massive amounts of energy and raw materials to construct, all of which come with enormous environmental and economic price tags. Human and wildlife communities in the way of new dams and reservoirs will be destroyed. They would require highly centralised management systems too. The fears expressed about the authoritarianism inherent in nuclear power should be directed as well at the managers of large-scale water schemes. Indeed in history 'hydraulic' civilisations have tended to be some of the most brutal and repressive on record, including those of Mesopotamia. And they have all suddenly collapsed with remarkable speed.
Even the less megalomaniac schemes on the engineers' drawing board are still fundamentally flawed. The extra water they might deliver would only provide positive feedback to current patterns of overconsumption, just like more roads generate more traffic. In any case, in a changing climate coupled to increasing demand, there is no certainty that new dams will remain filled. In the long run, increased water supply by itself, would exacerbate, not relieve, our thirst.
It is particularly important to analyse supply and demand in the context of current lifestyles and technologies, not imaginary ones. We could live much more frugally but at present there is little sign that significant change is underway in present water consumption patterns in homes or factories. Therefore, greater emphasis must be put on the population part of the water demand equation.
It could be argued, for example, that the presumption must now be against all further large-scale expansion in areas such as the South East of England or the 'sunshine' states of the SW USA. If a development is to be permitted that will increase water demand, there must be evidence, it might be further argued, that it should be balanced by cuts elsewhere. In particular, it seems vital that land released by 'set-aside' schemes is not used for water profligate uses, for example golf courses. Instead, they must be reforested with native woodlands, amongst whose many benefits is the role they play in water conservation.
The water crisis also emphasises the importance of government action. We cannot rely upon the mechanisms of the market. It seems fairer and faster for the necessary standards to be set by government rather than leaving to the distorted 'signals' sent by buying and selling in the market place. Privatisation, it now appears, undermined the need for a thoroughly integrated approach. It is also biased decision-making towards the sale of water, rather than its conservation.
There is an increasing case for strict standards to be set for water efficiency in both production processes as well as particular products such as washing machines and the design of new buildings. The biggest argument, however, will come over the issue of water metering. This has long been opposed in traditional 'radical' circles, on the superficially plausible grounds that the poor would be hit the hardest. Yet non-metering is surely a recipe for waste. As long as the benefits of water consumption are separated from the true costs of its supply, there will never be an incentive to conserve. Just as in the case of energy taxation, it is perfectly possible to cushion the impact of water charges upon more vulnerable sections of society.
It is clear that we can no longer take for granted the Earth's water resources. We need a vigorous and radical programme of water conservation. Without it, not only will we experience more frequent and severe droughts but also the danger of water wars will increase. Then the future will be dammed!
Adams, W. Wasting the Rain: Rivers, People & Planning in Africa. Earthscan, 1992.
Cook, J. Dirty Water. Unwin, 1989. British focus.
Clarke, R. Water: The International Crisis. Earthscan, 1991.
Craig, F. & P. Craig. Britain's Poisoned Water. Penguin, 1989. Deteriorating quality of drinking and bathing water in the UK
Haigh, N., et al. Water & Waste in Four Countries. Graham & Trotman, 1986. EU-based case studies
Hunt, C.E. Down the River: The Impact of Federal Water Policies on Biodiversity. Island Pr., 1988.
Lewis, Scott Alan. The Sierra Club Guide to Safe Drinking Water. Sierra Books, n.d.
Pearce, F. Watershed. Junction Books, 1982. Mismanagement of UK water resources
Sear, J. A Reprieve for Ennerdale. The Ecologist, 15(4), 1985: 177-181. The ecological impacts of water withdrawals from lakes, in this case in the Lake District.
Wheeler, D. Britain's Polluted Drinking water. The Ecologist, 16(2/3), 1986: 130-131.
Wilkinson, C.F. Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water and the Future of the West. Island, 1993. Case study of land and water mismanagement in the arid American west.
Hydraulic Megalomania
The following are a few case studies of ecologically insane schemes such as megadams, large-scale groundwater extraction and massive interbasin water transfer schemes.
Barber, M. & G. Ryder, eds. Damning the Three Gorges: What Dam Builders Don't Want You to Know. Earthscan, 1993.
Bowden, C. Killing the Hidden Waters: The Slow Destruction of Water Resources in the American Southwest. Texas Univ. Pr., 1977. How to turn a renewable resource into a non-renewable one.
Horta, K. The Mountain Kingdom's White Oil: Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The Ecologist 25(6), 1995: 227-232.
Reisner, M. Cadillac Desert: The American West & Its Disappearing Water. Secker & Warburg, 1988.
Worster, D. Rivers of Empire. Pantheon, 1985. Demonstrates how water development becomes a kind of hydraulic imperialism.
Management of Water Supply
Bowers, J. Water Privatisation & the Environment. Economic Review, 8(3), 1991: 9-14.
Gordon, S. Down The Drain: Water, Pollution & Privatisation. Optima, 1989.
Schofield, R. & J. Shaoul. Regulating the Water Industry: Swimming Against the Tide or Going through the Motions. The Ecologist, 27(1), 1997: 6-13.
Irrigation
Goldsmith, E. Learning to Live with Nature: The Lessons of Traditional Irrigation. The Ecologist 28 (3), 1998: 162-170.
River Engineering, Levee Construction and Canalisation
McCully, P. Time to Retreat: Lessons from the Mississippi Floods. The Ecologist, 23(5), 1993: 163-164.
Ecological Water Management
Agarwal, A & S. Narain. Dying Wisdom: The Decline and Revival of Traditional Water Harvesting Systems in India. The Ecologist, 27(3), 1997: 112-116. The old ways can provide a more sustainable alterantive than mad megaprojects such as dams.
Costner, P. We All Live Downstream: A Guide to Waste Treatment That Stops Water Pollution. Waterworks Books, 1989.
Newsom, M. Land, Water and Development-River Basin Systems and their Sustainable Management. Routledge, 1992. Watersheds and river basin management strategies are a critical component of a sustainable water use strategy.
Postel, S. Conserving Water: The Untapped Potential. WorldWatch Institute, 1985.
Rees, J. Water For Life: Strategy for Sustainable Resource Management. CPRE, 1994. Review of what is called 'sustainability failures" and suggestions for better water management.
RMI. Water-Efficient Technologies. R.M.I., 1988.
See also:
Gray, N. Drinking Water Quality: Problems & Solutions. Wiley, 1994.
Agriculture
No human activity has transformed and damaged the Earth more than the shift from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to the tillage of soil and domestication of plants and animals. This impact has accelerated since World War 11 with what has amounted to an industrialisation of farming through an interconnected series of developments: the creation of large monocultures, cultivation of a fast decreasing variety of crops, increased mechanisation (including greater use of computer systems), dependence of large inputs of agrochemicals, the creation of intensive livestock units, production for distant markets, farm amalgamations, elaborate systems of farm price support, and increasing domination of all stages of the food supply system by a few multinational corporations. This process took root in Western Europe and North Europe but the model is being copied elsewhere, with Tanzania, for example, introducing Canadian-style wheat farming.
There is a considerable material on the inequities of the world food supply system, not least the way it drains foodstuffs from poorer countries for the supply of wasteful and unhealthy diets in the richer ones. See, for example, the writings of Francis Moore Lappé. This section concentrates not so much on maldistribution as on malproduction and the problems intrinsic to current methods of agricultural activity.
It should be remembered that all arable farming, including organic systems, and large-scale grazing of domesticated livestock simplify the ecological systems they replace, with consequent losses in biodiversity and long-term stability. The phenomenon of food mountains in the EU should not conceal that modern agriculture is a system fast undermining the very environmental systems on which it depends.
The industrialisation of food production, especially mechanisation and dependence upon large inputs of agrochemicals, is also linked to social and economic as well as environmental problems. It has cut rural employment and contributed to the break-up of rural communities. Its financial overheads have increased indebtedness amongst those farmers who have survived the tide of farm amalgamations, whilst agricultural support such as the Common Agriculture Policy of the EU, has also cost the public exchequer dearly.
Such problems emphasises the overriding importance of population levels. Clearly the impact of food production systems is linked to the number of mouths to be fed. Paddy cultivation of rice, for example, produces the greenhouse gas as a by-product so it follows that the more rice eaters there are the worse global warming will be. At the same time, however, a shift away from a meat-centred diet would reduce significantly the environmental costs of agriculture since large amounts of crops now grown are fed to farm animals, with a significant loss of available foodstuffs for people (the actual food conversion ratio varies from animal to animal). Even without that change, there is still considerable scope for putting today's farming on a less damaging basis, as a number of pioneering organic farmers and 'permaculturalists' are now demonstrating.
Baldock, D. Agriculture and Habitat Loss in Europe. WWF, 1990.
Berry, W. The Unsettling of America. Sierra, 1977. A broad-ranging critique of 'agribusiness' not just its environmental impacts but also its effects on rural communities and human culture as a whole.
Bunyard, P. Industrial Agriculture-Driving Climate Change. The Ecologist, 26(6), 1996: 290-298.
Buttel, F.H. & O.W. Larsen. Farm Size, Structure and Energy Intensity. Rural Sociology, 44, 1979: 471-488
Clemings, R. Mirage: The False Promise of Desert Agriculture. Sierra Books, n.d.
Clunies-Ross, T., & Hildyard, N. The Politics of Industrial Agriculture. Earthscan, 1992. Who gains and who loses from chemical-intensive farming.
Cornucopia Project. Empty Breadbaskets: The Coming Challenge to America's Food Supply and What We Can Do About It. Rodale Press, 1981.
Crossroad group. Agriculture & Spirituality. International Books, 1995.
Doyle, J. Altered Harvest: Agriculture, Genetics and the Fate of the World's Food Supply. Penguin, 1985.
Fox, M.. Agricide. Schocken, 1987.
Goering, P. et al. From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture. Zed, 1993.
Goldschmidt, W. As You Sow: Three Studies in the Consequences of Agribusiness. Osmun, 1978. Careful study of how intensive agriculture in California destroyed small and socially successful farming communities as well as local environments. Suppressed at the time of its original publication in the 50s.
Jackson, W. Altars of Unhewn Stone. North Point Press, 1987.
Kneen, B. From Land to Mouth: Understanding the Food System. NC Pr., 1989.
Kiley-Worthington, M. Problems of Modern Agriculture. Food Policy, Aug., 1980:208-215
Lambert, T,A., 1980. Energy, Entropy and Agriculture. Cornell Jnl of Soc. Relations 15/1, 1980:84-97. How agriculture has become hungry for energy and resource inputs and degrades the environment in the process.
Leach, G. The Energy Costs of Agriculture. In F. Steel & H. Bourne, eds. The Man/Food Equation. Academic Pr., 1975.
Mansolt, S. The Common Agricultural Policy. The Soil Association, 1979. A devastating critique of EC Farm Policy by one of its original architects!
Pimentel, D. Ecological Aspects of Agricultural Policy. Nat. Resources Jnl. 20/3, 1980: 555-585.
Pimentel, D. & Hall, C.W., eds. Food and Natural Resources. Academic Press, 1990.
Reichert, W. Agriculture's Diminishing Diversity. Environment, 24 (9), 1982: 6-11 & 39-43.
Shiva, V. Letter. The Ecologist, 27(5), 1997: 211-212. A response to Norman Borlaug, 'father' of the so-called Green Revolution in farming, taking up the popular argument that we needed such innovation to avoid starvation.
Tansey, G. T. Worsley. The Food System: a Guide. Earthscan, 1996. Lookat the institutional framework of today's globalised food supply system.
Various. Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGAIR): Agricultural Research for Whom. The Ecologist, 26(6), 1967: 259-270. Shows how research and development in farming is biased in favour of agrobusiness.
Waller, R. The Agricultural Balance Sheet. Green Alliance, 1982. Brief but effective critique
The Livestock Industry
Barker, R. And the Waters Turned to Blood. Simon & Shuster, 1997. Pollution from Carolina pig farms and the devastating knock-on ecological disruption it is causing off the eastern seaboard of the USA coast.
Durning, A. & Brough, H. Taking Stock: Animal Farming & The Environment. WorldWatch Institute, 1991.
Ferguson, N. & D. Sacred Cows at the Public Trough. Maverick Pr., 1983. Expose of the publicly heavily subsidised destruction caused by ranching in America's west.
Hecht, S. The Sacred Cow in the Green Hell: Livestock & Forest Conversion in the Brazilian Amazon. The Ecologist, 19(6), 1989: 229-226.
Jacobs, Lynn. Waste of the West. Publisher not known, 1991. Critique of American livestock industry and overgrazing of public lands.
Morgan, D. Grazing and Forest Health: How Cows Worsen Forest Fires. Wild Earth, Summer, 1996: 20-23.
Nations, J. & D. Komer. Rainforests & the Hamburger Society. The Ecologist, 17(4/5), 1987: 161-167. The 'hamburger connection' is sometimes exaggerated but it certainly has bitten into Central American forests.
Rifkin, J. Beyond Beef. Thorsons, 1994. The real price of large-scale meat consumption
Shaoul, J. Mad Cow Disease. The Ecologist, 27(5), 1997: 182-187. Includes expose of government-industry cover-up.
Stauber, J. & S. Rampton. Mad Cow USA. Common Courage Pr., 1997. Health and other hazards bred by the American beef industry.
Wuerthner, G. How the West was Eaten. Wilderness, Spring, 1991: 28-37.
Wuerthner, G. Some Ecological Costs of Livestock. Wild Earth, Spring, 1992: 10-14.
Other Specific Food & Drink items
Ayres, E. & A. Durning. The History of a Cup of Coffee. Worldwatch, 7(5), 1994: 20-22.
Ayres, E. & A. Durning. An Order of French Fries. Worldwatch, 8(1), 1995: 34-36.
Glantz, S., et al. The Cigarette Papers. Univ. California Pr., 1996.
Madeley, J. Tobacco; a Ruinous Crop. The Ecologist, 16(2/3), 1986: 124-129.
Sexton, S. Going Bananas. The Ecologist, 2793), 1997: 117-118.
Tanner, J. Cocoa Addicts. New Internationalist, Feb., 1990:14-15. Portrait of cocoa production and its effects in Ghana.
Thomson, R. Green Gold: Bananas & Dependency in the East Caribbean. Latin American Bureau, 1987
Diet, Food Processing and Transportation
Ehrlichman, J. Gluttons for Punishment. Penguin, 1986.
Energy Efficiency Office. Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Catering Establishments. Dept of Environment, 1991.
Hall, R.H. Food for Nought. Doubleday, 1974.
Millstone, E. Food Additives. Penguin, 1986.
Norberg-Hodge, H. Think Global-Eat Local! Delicious Ways to Counter Globalisation. The Ecologist, 28(4), 1998: 208-214. Shows that we can do ourselves, society and the environment all a big flavoursome favour by eating what is available locally and seasonally.
Paxton, A. The Food Miles Report: The Dangers of Long Distance Food Transport. SAFE Alliance (London), 1994.
Polunin, M. The Right Way to Eat. Dent/Ecoropa, 1984.
Wardle, C. Changing Food Habits. Earth Resources Research, 1977.
Walker, C., and G. Cannon. The Food Scandal. Century, 1985.
Webb, T., and T. Lang. Food Irradiation: The Facts. Thorsons, 1987.
Towards Sustainable Food Production Systems
Altieri, M. Agroecology: The Scientific Basis of Alternative Agriculture. Westview, 1986.
Anon. The Human Face of Sustainable Agriculture. Paper 4, Centre for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, Univ. of California, 1995. How sustainable systems can protect people as well as the environment.
Boeringa, R., ed. Alternative Methods of Agriculture. Elsevier, 1980.
Burrill, G & J. Nolfi. Strategies for Bioregional Food Systems. In G. Coates, ed., Resettling America: Energy, Ecology & Community. Brick House, 1981. Looks at Vermont in the USA
Clunies-Ross, T. Mangolds, Manures and Mixtures: The Importance of Crop Diversity on British Farms. The Ecologist, 2595), 1995; 181-187.
Conford, P. Ed.. A Future for the Land: Organic Practice from a Global Perspective. Green books, 1992.
Conviser, R. Towards Agricultures of Context. Environmental Ethics, 6, 1984: 71-85. Good summary overview of new and greener approaches.
Douglass, G., ed. Agricultural Sustainability in a Changing Order. Westview, 1984.
Douglas, J. Sholto & R. Hart. Forest Farming. Intermediate Technology Publications, 1985.
Drengson, A. Toward a Redefinition of Progress in Agricultural Technology and Practices: From Industrial Paradigms to Natural Patterns. Quarterly J. of Ideology, 11(2), 1987: 59-66
Ebenreck, S. A Partnership Farmland Ethic. Environmental Ethics, 5. 1983: 33-45
Fukuoka, M. One-Straw Revolution. Rodale Pr., 1978. The work of a pioneering Japanese farmer.
Fukuoka, M. The Natural Way of Farming. Japan Publications, 1989.
Goering, P., et al. From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture. Zed Books, 1993.
Hart, R. The Forest Garden. Green Books, 1991. A working model of working with nature to sustain both human needs and those of other species.
Hodges, R.D. The Case for Biological Agriculture. The Ecologist Quarterly, Summer, 1978: 122-143.
Jackson, W. New Roots for Agriculture. Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1985.
Jackson, W., et al. Meeting the Expectations of the Land. North Point Press, 1984.
Johnson, W., et al. Energy Conservation in Amish Agriculture. Science, 198, 1977: 373-378. The farming techniques of the Amish community centred on Pennsylvania are amongst the most sustainable in the world.
Kiley-Worthington, M. Ecological Agriculture: What it is and how it works. Agriculture and Environment, 6, 1981: 349-381
Kiley-Worthington, M. Eco-Agriculture: Food First Farming, Theory and Practice. Souvenir Pr., 1993.
Lockeretz, W., ed. Environmentally Sound Agriculture. Praegar, 1983.
Merrill, R., ed. Radical Agriculture. NY. Univ. Pr., 1976.
Pretty, J. Regenerating Agriculture: Policies and Practice for Sustainability and Self-Reliance. Earthscan, 1995.
Selincourt, K. De. Local Harvest. Lawrence & Wishart, 1997. Critique of argribusiness but with positive emphasis on how healthy and tasty food can be produced locally and sustainably for local needs.
Soule, J., & J. Piper. Farming in Nature's Image. Earthscan, 1993.
Terrason, F.& G. Tendron, G. The Case for Hedgerows. The Ecologist, 11: (5), 1981 210-221
Tilth. The Future is Abundant: A Guide to Sustainable Agriculture. Tilth Pr. 1982.
Whitefield, P. How to Make a Forest Garden. Permanent Publications, no date on my copy but suspect 1997. For further information try: permaculture@gn.apc.org
Widdowson, R.W. Toward Holistic Agriculture. Pergamon, 1987.
City Farming.
Many cities used to grow lots of food locally. Some still do, perhaps notably in China. This should be amjor focus of ecologically guided urban redevelopment. Conservation of areas like allotments are clearly part of this strategy. It would inclide as well development of 'soilless culture such as hydroponics and roof growing boxes, 'gardens in the sky'. Without drastically reduced pollution, o course, such foodstuffs might be more a menace than a boon.
Britz, R., et al. The Edible City Resource Manual. Kaufmann, 1981.
Creasy, R. The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping Sierra, 1982.
Garnett, T. Farming the City: The Potential of Urban Agriculture. The Ecologist, 26(6), 1996: 299-307.
Hynes, P. H. A Patch of Eden: America's Inner City Gardeners. Chelsea Green, 1996.
Kourik, R.. Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally. Metamorphic Pr., 1986.
Nelson, T. Urban Agriculture. WorldWatch, 9(6), 1996: 10-17.
Olkowski, H. & W. Olkowski. The City People's Book of Raising Food. Rodale, 1975.
Olkowskil, W. & H. Urban Agriculture: A Strategy for Transition to a Solar Society. In Coates, G., ed. Resetling America: Energy, Ecoogy and Community. Brick House, 1981.
Somers, L. The Community Gardening Book: New Directions for Creating & Managing Neighbourhood food Gardens in Your Town. National Gardening Assoc., USA, 1984.
Sustainable Agriculture and Farming Policy
CPRE. Less Intensive Agriculture: Proposals from the CPRE. CPRE, 1988.
Groh, T., & McFadden. Farms of Tomorrow; Community Supported Farms, Farm Supported Communities. Island Pr., 1990.
Jenkins, T. Future Harvests: The Economics of Farming and the Environment: Proposals for Action. CPRE/WWF, 1990.
Laurence Gould Consultants. Conserving the Countryside: Costing It Out. CPRE, 1989.
Maynard, R, ed. Off the Treadmill: A Way Forward for Farmers and the Countryside. FoE, London, 1991.
Potter, C. Investing in Rural Harmony: An Alternative Package of Agricultural Subsidies and Incentives for England and Wales. WWF, 1983.
Pye-Smith, C., and R. North. Working the Land. Temple Smith, 1984.
Sinclair, G. How to Help Farmers and Keep England Beautiful: Study of EEC Farm Funding. CPRE/CNP/WWF, 1985.
Forestry-general
The destruction of the world's tropical moist forests rightly has caused mounting alarm and protest. However, across the temperate parts of the world, woodlands are also being devastated. Even forests that have recovered in recent decades, as in New England, are now under renewed attack. In some regions, there have been big afforestation programmes. However, they have taken the form of monocultural plantations where the goal is the maximum crop of timber in the minimum time.
Banuri T. & F. Marglin, eds. Who Will Save The Forests. Zed, 1993.
Carrere CC. & L. Lohmann, Pulping the South: Industrial Tree Plantations & the World Paper Economy. Zed Books, 1996.
Hall, C. The Forestry Club. Ecos, 3(1), 1982: 10-13. Vested interests behind coniferous afforestation in the UK.
Moore, P. The Unacceptable Face of Private Forestry. Ecos, 6(4), 1985: 34-39. UK study.
Repetto R. & M. Gillis. Public Policies & the Misuse of Forest Resources. CUP, 1988.
Wilson, R. The Political Power of the Forestry Lobby. Ecos, 8 (4), 1987: 11-17
Wuerthner, G. Ecological Differences between Logging and Forest Fires. Wild Earth, Summer, 1995: 40-44. In passing, a rebuttal of the claim by loggers that their activities are no different to first fires or, for that matter, wind throws.
See also:
Westoby, J. The Purposes of Forests: Follies of Development. Blackwell, 1987.
The references on deforestation and on specific forested ecosystems elsewhere on the site concentrate more on the ecological role of forests and threats to them.
Forestry in Temperate Regions
Contrary to the labels on many products proclaiming their origins in 'sustainably managed forests', in reality these plantations are little more than tree mines. Sweden leads the world in the intensive exploitation of her forests: wildlife habitats are being destroyed, broad-leaved woodlands replaced by conifers, wetlands drained and old-growth coniferous woods cut down. In Norway too, very little old growth forest is left while Germany's forest cover, originally 75% deciduous, is now dominated by just one conifer, Norway Spruce, which covers 40% of today's forested area. Russia's forests are now being rapidly felled while in Australasia, Chile and North America, old-growth forests are down to the last few stands. In the UK, ranks of even-aged coniferous plantations account for some 70% of woodlands; most of the semi-natural woodland destroyed here since 1945 (some 50% of what was then standing ) was due to 'coniferisation'.
Such forestry does not even work in its own terms-in managed forests around the world, especially in the oldest in central Europe and eastern Canada, there is a decline in productivity with the quality of timber falling from one rotation to the next. Moreover, the very intensity of high throughput systems creates cumulative stresses, predisposing trees to the effects of the 'forest death' syndrome, linked to acid rain.
The public's voracious demand for both wood and paper products combines with the self-interest of the forestry industry to maintain the momentum of destruction. The Shotton mill in Wales, for example, needs an annual flow of some 650,000 tonnes, which, in planting terms is equivalent to 3,500 hectares per annum for around 12 years. This leads directly to a forestry based on big, dense blocks of even-aged trees of one or two species, harvested by big machines. At the same time, the main beneficiaries of the large amounts of public money injected into forestry have been a small number of rich landowners and forestry syndicates.
The financial framework of forestry, especially high interest rates and demands for an 'adequate' rate of return on capital, encourages shorter-term rotations of fast growing conifers as well as the rapid felling of hardwoods to make way for such plantations. The discounting procedures adopted in forestry effectively write-off the long-term and devalue the ecological functions of forests. Even in conventional accountancy terms, a fraud is being perpetrated: an asset, old-growth woodland, is being liquidated but it is not (and cannot) be restored by short-term plantations.
Afforestation also has failed to create large numbers of jobs on a sustainable basis. Mechanisation has cut the number of employees in forestry around the world, though the industry is quick to blame environmentalists. In Canada, 94,000 workers were employed in 1978 to cut 75 million cu. metres of timber; by 1986, 20,000 jobs had gone though production increased by 4 million more cu. metres. The UK's Forestry Commission has reduced its field force to a third of that of the mid-1950s though its acreage has doubled.
In any case, no job is secure in an ecologically unsustainable production system. In a 'tree farm', indigenous flora and fauna are eliminated or drastically thinned in favour of 'useful' species for the maximum production of specific goods. These environments depend upon external human controls and upon inputs of external resources: energy in the form of machinery, fertiliser and biocide production; deep ploughing; herbicide and pesticide sprayings; replacement of the processes of natural selection and regeneration by artificial selection, most frequently by use of exotic species which grow faster than indigenous ones. There is also increasing interest in the use of biotechnology to maximise desired traits in new 'super' trees.
However, short-term high output is purchased at the price of increased simplification and instability of the overall forest system. The lifespan of a tree farm, for example, is strikingly different from that of natural forest systems which run in long cycles, from perhaps some 400 to over a 1,000 years. A Sitka Spruce in the Pacific Northwest might live 500-750 years. Tree farms replace it with a cycle of only one tenth or less of that. In effect, they speed up early successional stages and abolish later mature ones.
As a result, tree farms cannot make the same contribution as old-growth woodlands to soil conservation, wildlife diversity, the rain-evaporation cycle and the maintenance of the normal composition of the atmosphere. One third of a tree's ecologically useful life, for example, may well be after it dies, as it decomposes and releases its nutrients back into the common pool. In general, plantation forestry takes out at harvest far more than it gives back to the environment, no matter how generous the rate of replanting may be.
Other symptoms of unsustainability include soil erosion, large losses of trees blown over by the wind, water pollution (increased acidity, eutrophication, sedimentation), pest and disease infestation, the loss of checks and balances between species. These create a need for 'repair kits' (mechanisation, artificial fertilisation, biocides, genetically engineered trees) which not only fail to solve the original problem but also create new ones, not least from toxic sprayings. The extraction of timber by clear-felling exacerbates just about every problem. In effect, it destroys a whole living matrix.
The cost to biodiversity is particularly high. Homogeneous plantations only support homogeneous wildlife and when exotic species are used, with which domestic species have not co-evolved, the problems multiply. In Britain, fir trees, for example, provide food for only 16 different insect species compared to the native oak which sustains 284. The elimination of dead standing and fallen trees may remove nearly a third of species diversity in a forest. For such reasons, even broad-leaved tree farms will never match the wildlife found in old-growth woodlands.
In short, then, industrialised forestry is heading for disaster. Cosmetic measures like the creation of picnic areas and beauty strips along roadsides do not alter this reality.
Anon. Cutting Down Canada. Greenpeace Canada, 1990.
Carle, D. Whole-Tree Logging: Vacuuming the Northern Forests. Wild Earth, Spring, 1994: 35-37.
Devall, B, ed. Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry. Sierra, 1993
Francis, I.. Afforestation: What Really Does Go Down The Drain? Ecos, 9(1), 1988: 23-27
Fritz, E. Sterile Forest: The Case Against Clearcutting. Eakin Pr., 1983.
Grove, R. The Future of Forestry. Packard, 1983. British critique of conventional afforestation.
Hambler, C. & M. Speight. Seeing the Wood for Trees. Tree News, Autumn, 1995:8-12. Argues that traditional practices such as coppicing, often viewed as a greener alternative, can be harmful for wildlife, especially if practised on a large scale.
Isomaki, R. Paper, Pollution & Global Warming: Unsustainable Forestry. The Ecologist, 21(1), 1991: 14-16. Finnish case study.
Kardell, L. et al. Eucalyptus in Portugal. Ambio, 15(1), 1986: 6-13.
Lansky, M. Beyond the Beauty Strip: Saving What's Left of Our Forests. Tilbury House, 1992. Critique of industrial 'forestry' with suggestions for reform.
Pelisek, J. Conifer Plantations and Soil Deterioration. The Ecologist, 5(9), 1975: 332-336
Rice, R. Old-Growth Logging Myths. The Ecologist, 20/4, 1990: 141-146. Important critique of the surprisingly widespread idea that cutting down old trees and planting new ones is good for the environment (as, for example, used in adverts which proclaim 'two trees planted for every tree felled)
Stewart, P.J. Growing Against the Grain. C.P.R.E., 1987.
Tompkins S. Forestry in Crisis. Helm, 1989. A critique of industrial forestry in Britain.
Wood, N. Clearcut: The Deforestation of America. Sierra, 1971.
Vail, D. The Internal Conflict: Contract Logging, Chainsaws & Clear-Cuts in Maine Forestry. In T. Banuri & F. Marglin, eds. Who Will Save The Forests. Zed, 1993. American case study.
Forestry in the Tropics
Tropical moist forests are being destroyed at a rate of 50 acres a minute. Each year, an area the size of the UK is destroyed. The likely effects include heightened risk of adverse climatic change, especially changes in rainfall patterns and more extreme temperatures (albedo effect). The balance of greenhouse gases were alter as more CO2 produced by burning while less absorbed due to decreased tree cover.
Particular destructive is the impact upon biodiversity. 40-50% of world's plants & animals live in the tropical moist forests which contain between 5 to 20 times the number of species per acre than do temperate forests. One million could become extinct within next 10 years as a result of deforestation. Further consequence of tropical deforestation range from increased flooding and silting of rivers and dams to greater levels of soil erosion and laterisation as well as lost fuel wood supplies. Tropical moist forests are also the habitats of many tribal peoples whose cultures are being eliminated as their environments are destroyed.
International action to protect these forest, however, has been quite ineffective. In particular, the International Tropical Timber Organisation is more like a fox put in charge of the chicken house than a body capable of enacting true conservation measures.
Environmental Defence Fund. The Failure of Social Forestry in Karnataka. The Ecologist, 17(4/5), 1987: 151-154. A critical look at programmes sometimes touted as solution for forest crisis.
Lohmann, L. Commercial Tree Plantations in Thailand: Deforestation by Any Other Name. The Ecologist, 20(1), 1990: 9-16.
Marshall, G. FAO & Tropical Forestry. The Ecologist, 21(2), 1991: 66-72. Critique of the FAO's role in promoting industrialised forestry in tropical forest regions..
Rietbergen, S., ed. The Earthscan Reader in Tropical Forestry. Earthscan, 1993. Different perspectives on the causes of and cures for tropical deforestation
Shiva, V. & J. Bandyopadhyay. Ecological Audit of Eucalyptus Cultivation. Research Foundation for Science and Ecology, 1987
Shiva, V. Forest Myths and the World Bank. The Ecologist, 17 (4/5), 1987: 142-149.
The timber trade and timber products industry,
including the International Tropical Timber Organisation
Anderson, P., 1986. The Myth of Sustainable Logging: The Case for a Ban on Tropical Timber Imports. The Ecologist, 19(5): 166-168
Carrere CC. & L. Lohmann, Pulping the South: Industrial Tree Plantations & the World Paper Economy. Zed Books, 1996.
Colchester, M. The International Tropical Timber Organisation: Kill or Cure. The Ecologist, 20(5), 1990: 166-173.
Dudley, N., et al. Bad Harvest: The Timber Trade & the Degradation of Global Forests. Earthscan, 1994
FoE. Life After Logging? FoE, 1990. Report on the effects of tropical timber extraction on biodiversity.
FoE. 'Sustainability' and the Trade in Tropical Timbers. FoE (London), 1991. Series of briefing sheets giving profiles of individual countries-Brazil, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia & Philippines.
Johnson, B. The Value of Tropical Timber and who Benefits from It. WWF, 1991.
Kerski, A. Pulp, Paper and Power: How an Industry Reshapes Its Social Environment. The Ecologist, 25(4), 1995: 142-149.
Mattoon, A. Paper Profits. WorldWatch, 11(2), 1998: 20-28. The price of paper.
Monbiot, G. Mahogany is Murder. FoE (London), 1992.
Nectoux, F., & N. Dudley. A Hard Wood Story. FoE (London), 1987.
Pratt, L. & I. Urquhart. The Last Great Forest: Japanese Multinationals and Alberta's Northern Forests. NeWest Pr., 1994.
Read, M. Mahogany-Forests or Furniture. Fauna & Flora Preservation Society, 1990.
Rice, T. & S. Counsell. Forests Foregone: The European Community's Trade in Tropical Timbers and the Destruction of the Rainforests. FoE (London), 1993.
Sherman, J. Some Consequences of Cheap Trees and Cheap Talk: Pulp Mills and Logging in Northern Alberta. The Ecologist, 27(2), 1997: 64-68.
Sustainable Silviculture
We do need large-scale reforestation but it must be based on ecological design. Instead of designing backwards from the goal of high output, the design and management of what might be called a 'forest farm' would be based on an assessment of the whole system, the sustainability of the inputs (physical space, energy and raw materials) and of their side-effects upon other human needs and upon those of other species.
Compared to today's coniferous afforestation in which product extraction is maximised, with a system of ecological management it is the sustainability of the forest which is maximised: product extraction is kept at a level and done in a way that does not impinge on the sustainability of the forest. 'Ecoforestry' would try to replicate the self-sustaining, self-repairing and self-regulating capacities of unmodified ecosystems. A forest is a living organism and human production from it would have to mesh with its patterns of succession and diversity. Techniques such as selective felling, for example, create disturbances akin to natural treefalls, stimulating regeneration.
Existing plantations would have to be redesigned so that there would be a decreasing need for external inputs. A significant percentage of very old trees, for example, would be left standing and more dead wood retained as part of the nutrient cycle and as habitat, not least for the decomposers vital for effective nutrient recycling. Management would be based upon long rotations, maintaining a mixture of trees of different ages as well as of living and dead trees. The system would be based upon locally distributed trees acclimatised to the vagaries of local environments.
Multiple uses would be integrated around the maintenance of such a system. Those uses would include non-human (i.e. the habitats of other species) as well as human needs in all their diversity-material, psychological and spiritual. Truly sustained yield exists only when a forest can produce perpetually. Cuts would be limited to no more of the standing crop than new growth can replace quickly.
Working examples of ecological forestry are beginning to increase as well as theoretical studies. In Shropshire, for example, there is a pioneering attempt to create a 'forest garden' by Robert Hart. Another source of inspiration is the design philosophy called Permaculture developed by Bill Mollison. Other possibilities are being explored in the North California-British Columbia region where the rate of tree felling exceeds that of Brazil. It is also here that the most important work is being done on ways to ensure that an 'environmentally-friendly' alternative land use actually is friendly to non-humans as well as humans. However perhaps the most comprehensive proposal for an ecological alternative to conventional forestry comes from the Scottish Highlands. Here a group has produced a manifesto for 'Creating The Second Great Wood of Caledon'.
Clearly, ecologically guided reforestation cannot take place without radical changes in society, not least land reform and an overhaul of our financial system. But the really critical point is that ecologically sustainable systems must be part of a transition to a 'slimmed-down', steady-state society. Though 'ecoforestry' would supply a greatly increased diversity of produce, necessarily its output would be smaller and slower than today's superficially efficient tree mines. They could only work if demand is cut-and that means we cannot avoid what McGonigle calls the 'forbidden' questions of overpopulation and overconsumption.
Aplet, G., et al, eds. Defining Sustainable Forestry. Island Pr., 1993.
Camp, O. The Forest Farmer's Handbook. Sky River Pr., 1984.
Drengson A. And D. Taylor, eds. Ecoforestry: The Art and Science of Forest Use. New Society, 1997.
Hammond, H. Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Case for Wholistic Forest Use. Polestar Pr., 1991.
Harris, L.D. The Fragmented Forest. Univ. Chicago Pr., 1984.
Maser, C. The Redesigned Forest. Island Pr., 1988.
Pilarski, M. Ed.. Restoration Forestry: An International Guide to Sustainable Forestry Practices. Kivaki Pr., 1994.
Postel, S. & L. Heise. Reforesting the Earth. WorldWatch Institute, 1988.
Pryor, S. et al. Future Forestry: A New Direction for Forest Policy. Wildlife Link, 1992. British study.
Raphael, R. Tree Talk. Island Pr., 1981. A look at conventional forestry and those pioneering alternatives.
Robinson, G. The Forest and the Trees: A Guide to Excellent Forestry. Island Pr., 1987
Sapunor, M. Eco-Logging. Earth Island Jnl, Summer, 1990: 32. Report on small-scale sustainable forestry enterprise.
Wilkinson M. With R. Loomis. Wildwood: A Forest for the Future. Reflections, 1990.
Fishing and Fish Farming
Berrill, M. The Plundered Seas: Can the World's Fish Be Saved? Sierra Books, 1998
Beveridge, M.C.M., et al. Aquaculture and Biodiversity. Ambio, 1994, 23(8): 497-502
The Ecologist. Overfishing: Causes and Consequences. Special Double Issue, vol 25 (2/3), 1995
Gray, T. The Politics of Fishing. Global Environmental Change Programme, Briefing no. 12, 1997.
Kane, H. Growing Fish in Fields. Worldwatch, 6(5), 1993: 20-27. Investigation into another unsustainable 'free lunch'.
Keller, B.C. & R.M. Leslie. Sea Silver: Inside British Columbia's Salmon Farming Industry. Horsdal and Schubart, 1996.
Lymbery, P. The Welfare of Farmed Fish. Compassion in World Farming, 1992.
McGinn, A.P. Rocking the Boat: Conserving Fisheries and Protecting Jobs. WorldWatch, 1998.
McGoodwin, J.R. Crisis in the World's Fisheries. Stanford Univ. Pr., 1990
McKibben, B. Cod is Dead. Observer, 14/6/98, Review section 2-3.
Meffo, G. Techno-Arrogance & Halfway Technologies: Salmon Hatcheries on the Pacific Coast of North America. Conservation Biology, 6, 1992: 350-354.
Morton, A. Salmon Weren't Meant To Be Farmed. Wild Earth, 1997/98, Winter: 52-55.
Ross, A. Marine Fish Farming-Scotland's Pride or Problem? Ecos, 1989, 10(3), 8-12.
Weber, P. Net Loss: Fish, Jobs and the Marine Environment. Worldwatch Institute, 1994.
Westra, L. Ecosystem Integrity, Sustainability and the "Fish Wars". Wild Earth, Summer, 1996: 66-69.
Extractive Industries
Adams, J. Determined To Dig: The Role of Aggregates Demand Forecasting in National Minerals Planning Guidance. CPRE, 1990.
CPRE. Fatal Extractions. CPRE, 1992. Short Statement, looking particularly at mineral extraction
FoE. The Peat Debate and Critique of Peat Producers' 'Code of Practice'. FoE, London, 1990.
Greer, J. The Price of Gold: Environmental Costs of the New Gold Rush. The Ecologist, 23(3), 1993: 91-96.
Lawson, T. Peat in Peril. Green Magazine, January, 1990: 62-65
Macmillan, G. At the End of the Rainbow: Gold, Land & People in the Brazilian Amazon. Earthscan, 1995.
Moody, R. The Gulliver File. Minewatch, 1992. Encyclopaedic study of the destruction caused by mineral extraction around the world and the companies that profit from it
Royal Society for Nature Conservation. Blast from the Past. RSNC, 1992. Environmental threat from expanding mineral extraction to British countryside, particularly in relation to the exploitation of past Interim Development Orders.
Stanton, W., 1989. Bleak Prospect for Limestone, New Scientist, 13 May, 1989: 56-60. Effects of quarrying in limestone hills.
Young, J. Mining the Earth. Worldwatch Institute, 1990.
Also see elsewhere on the site the sectiona on Energy for references specifically on coal, oil, gas and uranium extraction plus Waste Management section for discussion of recycling of waste minerals
Energy Supply
Energy policy is undoubtedly the most important of all technological choices. No technology more faithfully reflects social values and structures. No technology so forcefully moulds society around it. Compared to their predecessors, industrial societies use far more energy, and most of their supply comes from 'capital' rather than from 'income', from non-renewable rather than renewable sources. Historically, policy has focused upon the search for means to supply more energy to meet ever greater demands.
The fundamental question, however, is not the rival claims of nuclear power, fossil fuels and renewable energy. Rather it is the burning challenge from present, let alone projected, levels of energy consumption, which, it is claimed, are simply too high. That said, it is also true that there are significant differences between the impacts and costs of one energy source compared to another.
Bartlett, A. Forgotten Fundamentals of the Energy Crisis. Am. Jnl. Physics, 46(9), 1978: 876-888. Reminder of the need never to leave out of the equation the fundamental thermodynamic and ecological facts of life on a finite planet.
Budnitz, R. and Holdren, J. Social and Environmental Costs of Energy Systems. Ann. Rev. Energy, 1, 1976: 553-580
Bunyard, P. The Future of Energy in Our Society. The Ecologist, 6(3), 1976: 87100.
Clark, W. & J. Page. Energy, Vulnerability & War. Norton, 1983.
Commoner, B. The Politics of Energy. Knopf, 1979.
Cook, E. Man, Energy & Society. Freeman, 1976.
Daly, H. On Thinking about Energy in the Future. Natural Resources Forum, 3, 1978: 19-26.
David, D. Energy Politics. St, Martin's Pr., 1993.
Farinelli, U. & P. Valant. Energy as a Source of Potential Conflicts. Int. Jnl. Global Energy Issues, 2, 1990: 31-40
Foley, G. The Energy Question. Penguin, 1987.
Gates, D. Energy & Ecology. Sinauer, 1985.
Georgescu-Roegen. N. Energy and Economic Myths. Ballinger, 1976. Robust explanation why the basic laws of energy (and matter) must be at the base of sound policy.
Hall, C. et al. Energy & Resource Quality. Wiley, 1986.
Hammarlund, J. Y L. Lindberg. The Political Economy of Energy Policy. Institute for Environmental Studies, 1976.
Harte, J. & A. Jassby. Energy Technologies and Natural Environments: The Search for Compatibility. Ann.Rev.Energy, 3, 1978: 101-145.
Holdren, J. et al. Energy: Calculating the Risks. Science, May 11 (204), 1979: 564-68
Holdren, J. Global Environmental Problems Related to Energy Supply. Energy, 12, 1987: 975-992.
Holdren, J. Energy and the Human Predicament. In K.R. Smith et al, eds. Earth and the Human Future: Essays in Honour of Harrison Brown. Westview, 1986.
Hooker, C.A. Value Judgements and Energy Policy. Social Alternatives, 1(5), 1979: 35-38.
Hubbert, M. King. Energy Resources. In National Academy of Sciences. Resources and Man. Freeman, 1969. Hubbert's was long a lone-and often reviled-voice, warning that fossil fuels, like all geologic resources must become progressively less available on a finite planet, particularly where humans demands were rising exponentially.
Illich, I. Energy & Equity. Perennial, 1974.
Lovins, A. & L.H. Lovins Energy: What's the Problem? The Ecologist, 11(6), 1981:302-313.
Lovins, A. & L.H.. Brittle Power. Brick House, 1982.
Lovins, A. Re-examining the Nature of the EEC Energy Problem. Energy Policy, Sept., 1979: 178-198. Argues that the real challenge is to match more appropriately end uses with the right energy sources, always focusing upon efficiency.
Lovins, A.. Cost-Benefit Assessment in Energy Policy. Geo. Wash. Law Rev. ,45 5, 1977: 911-943
Lovins, A.. The Limits To Energy Conversion. In D. Meadows, ed., Alternatives To Growth 1, Ballinger, 1977.
Lovins, A.. World Energy Strategies. Ballinger, 1975.
Odum, H. Energy Basis for Man & Nature. McGraw-Hill, 1978.
Odum, H. Environment, Power & Society. Wiley, 1971.
Schumacher, D. Energy: Crisis or Opportunity? Macmillan, 1985.
Webb, A. & C. Gossop, 1993. Towards a Sustainable Energy Policy. In A. Blowers, ed., Planning for A Sustainable Environment. Earthscan, 1993. Work from a study group linked to the Town and Country Planning Association.
Woodwell, G.M. Short-Circuiting the Cheap Power Fantasy. In R.L. Smith, ed. The Ecology of Man. Harper & Row, 1976.
Fossil Fuels
The Industrial Revolution was fired first by a massive increase in coal burning, followed by increasing use of oil and gas. The thirst of the industrial countries is fast depleting finite supplies of all these energy sources. In the short-term, prices may fall but the long term problem of resource depletion remains. Conservation measures could make energy resources last longer, but this is only a temporary breathing space before there is a further growth in demand for energy, especially by the newly industrialising countries.
Resource availability and its economic price are not the only issues. Environmental degradation and pollution are associated with all stages of the energy production, distribution and consumption chain. Subsidence, spoil heaps, water and air pollution around coal (and uranium) mines illustrate not just the immobilisation, but also the wholesale degradation of environmental systems. The dead zones around offshore oil wells, tanker spillage, blowouts, and leaks from pipelines and storage tanks provide parallel examples from the oil and gas industries. Increased reliance on centralised electricity generation from the conversion of primary fuels only compounds the problems. There were protests about smoke pollution from coal fires as far back as the Middle Ages. Today lakes, soil and forests are being destroyed by the airborne acids produced by the burning of coal, oil and gas, in power stations, factories, commercial buildings, homes and vehicles.
Anon. Coal and Economic Growth. Wales Green Party, 1984. Outline of greener approach to problems of declining coal industry.
Boyle, S. Energy Without Oil: The Technical & Economic Feasibility of Phasing Out Oil. Greenpeace, 1993.
Cross, M. The Future for Coal: A Very Dirty Business. New Scientist, Jan. 1993: 28-31.
Davidson, A. In the Wake of the Exxon Valdez: The Devastating Impact of the Alaska Oil Spill. Sierra Books, n.d.
Dials, G. & E. Moore. The Cost of Coal. Environment, 16(7), 1974: 30-37.
Epstein, S. The Real Cost of Petrol. The Ecologist, 19(4), 1989: 137-138. Overview of health & environmental costs of addiction to oil.
Flavin, C. World Oil. WorldWatch Institute, 1985.
Gever, J. et al. Beyond Oil. Ballinger, 1987.
Harte, J. & A. Jassby. Energy Technologies and Natural Environments: The Search for Compatibility. Ann. Rev. Energy, 3, 1978: 101-146
Horejsi. B. The Hidden Costs of Developing Natural Gas Reserves. Wild Earth, Winter, 1991/2: 28-31. Canadian experience.
Holing, D. Coastal Alert: Ecosystems, Energy & Offshore Oil Drilling. Island Pr., 1990.
Kamp, H. van de & E. Schluper. Oil in Troubled Water. Green Magazine, June, 1990: 37-39. Overview of routine pollution of North Sea due to oil exploitation.
Rowell, A. Crude Operators: Future of the Oil Industry. The Ecologist, 27(3), 1997: 99-106. Includes fl page panel summarising ecological impact of the industry
Scmidt, E. The World Bank and Russian Oil. The Ecologist, 27(10, 1997; 21-27. Destructive effects of oil development in western Siberia
Taylor, V. The End of the Oil Age. The Ecologist, 10(8/9), 1980: 303-311.
Timoschenko, V. & Krolikova. Oil Pipeline Threatens Russia. Earth Island, Summer, 1997: 23. More bad news for the Caspian and Black Seas.
Welling, P. A Pipeline Killing Field: Exploitation of Burma's Natural Gas. The Ecologist, 24(5), 1994: 189-193.
Yergin, D. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power. Simon & Shuster, 1990.
Open-Cast Mining
Aubrey. C. A Shallow Grave for the Dying King. The Guardian, 11/10/91: 33. Critical look at new growth of open-cast mining in UK.
Baker, S. Community Survival & Lignite Mining in Ireland. The Ecologist, 1992), 1989: 63-67.
Brown W. The Rape of Black Mesa and Davis, W. The Stripmining of America. Both In A. Gilliam, ed. Voices for the Earth. Sierra, 1981. Attack on large-scale open-cast coal mining, past and present, in the USA
CPRE. Campaigner's Guide to Opencast Coal Mining. CPRE, 1991.
McCaul, J. Wringing Out the West. Environment, 16(7), 1974: 10-17. Impact of coal mining in western USA, including its huge demand for and pollution of the region's scarce water resources.
Electricity Generation & Consumption
See fossil fuel and nuclear power references, plus:
Allen, P. & B. Todd. Off the Grid: Managing Independent Renewable Electricity Systems. CAT, 1995. Booklet.
Bennet, J. Heat Electric? The Ecologist, 18(1), 1988: 14-14. Critique of the use of electric heating programmes.
Flavin, C., & N. Lenssen. Powering the Future: Blueprint for a Sustainable Electricity Industry. WorldWatch Institute, 1994.
Flavin, C. Power Shock: The Next Energy Revolution. Worldwatch, 9(10, 1996: 10-21. Looks forward to new decentralised systems.
FoE. Efficiency of Electricity Use. FoE (UK), 1989.
FoE. Cutting Your Electricity Use. FoE (UK), 1990.
FoE. Pollute Electricity? FoE (UK) Briefing Sheet, 1990.
Ottinger, R. et al. Environmental Costs of Electricity. Oceania Publications, 1991.
Surrey, J., ed. The British Electricity Experiment: Privatisation, The Record, The Issues, the Lessons. Earthscan, 1996
Todd, B. & P. Allen. Off the Grid. CAT, 1995. And switch to independent electricity systems.
Nuclear Power: Fission Reactors & General Issues
Nuclear power has long been a controversial policy area. Certainly few if any people believe that it will now deliver electricity 'too cheap to meter', as argued back in the 50s. It might also be worth remembering that many statistics about the amount of energy derived from nuclear sources usually refer to delivered electricity at the point of consumption, not its share of total energy production, which is a much smaller figure.
Nuclear power production has been linked to many environmental and other problems, including:
the low level radiation routinely released as part of the nuclear fuel cycle;
worse thermal pollution than that from coal-fired power plants;
unsolved problems of radioactive waste disposal;
the potential risk of catastrophic accidents in fuel transportation, and in power and reprocessing plants;
the comparatively short lifespan and decommissioning problems of nuclear power stations;
financial costs and covert subsidies;
poor job creation per pound spent;
lack of versatility in terms of energy delivered;
the low net energy yield from the nuclear cycle, and its thermodynamic unsuitability for many end uses of energy;
its limited relevance to poorer countries, especially rural and shanty town dwellers without grid electricity;
the dependence of fission reactors' upon finite supplies of uranium whose future price and political security are uncertain;
the provision of an ideal and camouflaged route to nuclear weapons manufacture;
vulnerability to terrorism and sabotage;
and possible threats to civil liberties from its strict operating requirements.
The fast breeder reactor cycle and the associated 'plutonium economy' might intensify many of these hazards and costs, whilst bringing its own additional problems. Its very viability might be in doubt if reprocessing fails to recover sufficient fuel to keep the cycle going.
Bertell, R. No Immediate Danger. Womens Pr., 1985. Attack on complacency about danger from low-level radiation.
Boyle, S. What Price Windscale? FoE (London), 1986.
Bunyard, P. & F. Morgan-Grenville. Nuclear Power: What It Means To You. Ecoropa, 1981. Short but hard-hitting pamphlet.
Bunyard, P. Nuclear Power-The Grand Illusion. The Ecologist, 10(4), 1980: 116-130.
Bunyard, P. & G. Searly. The Effects of Low-Dose Radiation. The Ecologist, 16(4/5/), 1986: 171-181. Includes critique of the Black Report on radiation risks around Sellafield nuclear facilities.
Bunyard, P. The Myth of France's Cheap Nuclear Electricity. The Ecologist, 18(1), 1988: 4-8.
Bunyard, P. Uranium: Do Leave it in the Ground! The Ecologist, 20(5), 1990: 164-165. Refutation of the argument that nuclear industry is doing us all a favour by using up rock uranium which otherwise would be releasing radioactivity into the environment anyway.
Bunyard, P. Nuclear Shut-Down: Why Not Just Dounreay? The Ecologist, 28(4), 1998: 190-194.
Durie, S. & R. Edwards. Fuelling the Nuclear Arms Race. Pluto Pr., 1982. Civil-military nuclear links explored.
Flood, M. End of the Nuclear Dream. FoE, 1988.
Ford, D. The Cult of the Atom. Touchstone, 1986.
Gofman, J. Radiation and Health. Sierra, 1981.
Gould, J. & B. Goldman. Deadly Deceit: Low-Level Radiation, High-Level Cover-Up. Four Walls Eight Windows Pr., 1990. The authors, one a former member of American EPA Science Advisory Board, allege large number of illnesses and premature deaths in the USA due to radiation from nuclear industry.
Harding. J. The French Nuclear Debacle. The Ecologist, 14(3), 1984: 101-110. Critique of programme which has put France's energy eggs in the nuclear basket.
Hertsgaard, M. Nuclear Inc. Pantheon, 1983. Look at 'atomic brotherhood' in USA.
Jeffrey, J.W. The Unique Dangers of Nuclear Power. The Ecologist, 16 (4/5), 1986: 147-163
Jeffrey, J.W. The Sizewell Report: A Foregone Conclusion. The Ecologist, 17 (2), 1987: 102-107. Critique of Layfield Report on PWR reactor at Sizewell.
Mortimer, N. Nuclear Power & Carbon Dioxide: The Fallacy of the Nuclear Industry's New Propaganda. The Ecologist, 21(3), 1991; 129-132.
Patterson, W. The Fissile Society. Earth Resources Research, 1977.
Patterson, W. In Search of the Peaceful Atom. Energy Policy, June, 1986: 196-200. Historical overview and critique of the dream of harnessing nuclear energy for peace, instead of war..
Pringle, P. & J. Spigelman. The Nuclear Barons. Sphere, 1983.
Ryle, M. Is There A Case for Nuclear Power? Menard Pr., 1982. 'No' answers a Nobel prize winner.
Stevens, M. Three Mile Island. Junction Books, 1981. Story of nuclear near-miss at Harrisburg, USA.
Valentine, J. Atomic Crossroads. Merlin, 1985.
See also sections on pollution for specific references on radioactive contamination. A two volume 800 page dossier on the case against nuclear power and alternatives to it is available for the price of postage from The Ecologist magazine (Agriculture House, Bath Road, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, DT 1DU, UK). Within the UK the cost is £5.00., outside £10.00.
The Economics of Nuclear Power
Committee for the Study of the Economics of Nuclear Electricity. The True Cost of Nuclear Energy: A Special Report. The Ecologist, 11(6), 1981: 253-292.
Jeffrey, J.W. The Collapse of Nuclear Economics. The Ecologist, 18(1), 1988: 9-13.
Sweet, C. The Price of Nuclear Power. Heinemann, 1983. Critique of economic costs of nuclear power and attempts to camouflage them.
Nuclear waste transport and disposal
Bartlett, D. & J. Steel. Forever More: Nuclear Waste in America. Norton, 1985.
Brown, P. The Dustbin that Cost £100 Billion. Guardian, 16/11/94. Problem of nuclear waste disposal in UK.
Lowry, D. Trouble in Store. Green Magazine, August, 1991: 15-18. Radioactive waste disposal hazards reviewed.
Tolstoy, I. High Level Waste: No Technical Solution. The Ecologist, 16 (4/5), 1986: 205-209.
Welsh, I. Don't Take the A-Train: A Critical Examination of Nuclear Waste Transport. SCRAM, (Edinburgh), 1981.
Western, R. Scientific Uncertainties and Technical Deficiencies: Underground Burial of Nuclear Waste. The Ecologist, 27(2), 1997: 44-45.
Nuclear Reprocessing, Fast Breeder Reactors & Nuclear Fusion
Bunyard, P. The Fast reactor-Pipe Dream. The Ecologist, 11(6), 1981: 296-297.
Bunyard, P. Reprocessing: Counting the Cost. The Ecologist, 14(2), 1984: 50-52.
Bunyard, P. Global Possible or Wishful Thinking. The Ecologist, 14(3), 1984: 98-99. Critique of nuclear fusion fantasies.
Martin, S. & P. Roche. Dounreay Expansion; The Case Against. NFZ Scotland, 1987. Pamphlet attacking Dounreay reprocessing project in northern Scotland.
Rotblat, J. The Folly in Breeding Deceit. The Guardian, 29/5/80: 11. Attack by eminent physicist on notion that nuclear power is an answer to our energy problems.
Renewable Energy Supply, Efficiency, & Energy Conservation
For most of its history, humanity has depended upon what were either (potentially) renewable or inexhaustible energy sources. They have included in rough historical order:
human and animal 'muscle power'
biomass energy, especially wood-burning
passive solar heating and cooling;
wind power (sails and windmills);
water mills
(use of currents and tides for sea crossings, harbour entries and exits might be counted as well)
In very recent times, such energy sources have been tapped in new ways:
hydro-electricity power;
wind turbine machines
wave power;
tidal power;
geothermal power from hot rocks and springs;
power harnessed from ocean thermal gradients;
biomass energy from special 'energy crops' and biomass wastes;
solar power from direct harnessing of sunlight by photovoltaic arrays and solar 'furnaces', as well as more sophisticated variations of passive solar heating systems.
That we still depend on direct and indirect solar sources of energy to a considerable extent is partly disguised because much of our use of solar energies is 'free', and therefore is not reflected in statistics recording energy consumption. People who dry their clothes on the washing line rather than switch on a tumble-drier are ignored by such book-keeping. As a result, this makes the transition to a solar-powered society seem more daunting. Indeed, if the role of solar energy in keeping the Earth warm enough to be habitable is included, the contribution from other power sources is put into even sharper perspective.
There are obvious advantages to an energy resource base that taps what are the combined effects of solar radiation, the moon's gravitational pull and the Earth's physical shape. The wind will continue to blow, tides rise and fall, water flow downhill and the sun shine regardless of human actions. We can satisfy our needs today from these sources without robbing future generations of their energy supply.
What will be called solar technologies for simplicity have other advantages. They do not disrupt the planet's heat balance since they are a use of, not an addition to, the earth's natural heat balance and therefore create no significant disturbance. Sunshine falls virtually everywhere so that solar energies are appropriate for self-reliant, decentralised and democratic societies. Social vulnerability to disruption and external threats would be correspondingly reduced. The relative simplicity of what in many cases are already tried and tested technologies makes them amenable to individual and public control. Communities should directly benefit from as well as face the true costs of their mix of energy technologies, a positive incentive to wise decision-making.
Berger, J. Charging Ahead: The Business of Renewable Energy and What It Means for America. Henry Holt & Co., 1997.
Browning, W. & L. Hunter Lovins. Energy Casebook. RMI, 1989.
Examples of energy efficiency and renewable energy development schemes linked to sustainable local economic development.
Clark, W., 1977. Renewable Energy Sources and a Conservation Economy. The Ecologist, 7(7): 283-296
Deudney, D. & C. Flavin, 1983. Renewable Energy: The Power To Choose. Norton, 1983.
Flavin, C.. Energy & Architecture: The Solar & Conservation Potential. WorldWatch Institute, 1980.
Flavin, C., & N. Lenssen. Beyond the Petroleum Age: Designing A Solar Economy. WorldWatch Institute, 1990.
Flavin, C. & N. Lenssen. Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution. Norton, 1994.
Flood, M. Energy Without End. FoE, London, 1991.
Flood, M. The Power To Change: Case Studies in Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. Greenpeace, 1994.
Johansson, T. et al., eds. Renewable Energy. Island Pr., 1993.
Leach, G. et al. A Low Energy Strategy for the UK. I.I.E.D., 1979.
Lovins, A.. Soft Energy Paths. Harper and Row, 1977.
Lovins, A. & L.H. Lovins. Energy Unbound. Sierra, 1986.
McDaniel, B. Economic and Social Foundations of Solar Energy. Environmental Ethics, Summer, 1983: 155-168.
Nash, H., ed. Soft Energy Path: Questions and Answers. Brick House, 1979.
Patterson, W. The Energy Alternative. Optima, 1991.
Shea, C. Renewable Energy: Today's Contribution, Tomorrow's Promise. WorldWatch Institute, 1988.
Socolow, R. The Coming Age of Conservation. Ann.Rev.Energy, 2, 1977: 239-289.
Steinhart, J., et al. Pathway to Energy Sufficiency. F.O.E.( San Francisco), 1979.
See also:
Twidell, J. & T. Weir. Renewable Energy Resources. Chapman & Hall, 1990.
de Winter, ed. Solar Collectors, Energy Storage & Materials. MIT Pr., 1990.
Limits to Energy Supply from Renewable Resources
In practice, there is a very real gap between the lifestyles now powered by fossil fuels and the projected, let alone current, levels of delivered energy supplied by other means. Once we think not in abstract terms but of the actual purposes energy serves, the potential of many alternatives, even of comparatively low energy quality, becomes clear. Energy from renewable sources tends to be diffuse and variable in nature, with resulting costs in concentration, upgrading and storage.
If we take into account the fossil fuel used to manufacture the hardware for renewable technologies, it seems likely that little if any net energy has been yielded so far from such sources. It might further be argued that schemes for large-scale hydroelectric dams, tidal barrages and monocultures of fuel crops will only perpetuate the errors inherent in a high-energy society, and should therefore be avoided. Renewability does not necessarily make an energy technology more socially and ecologically appropriate than one based upon non-renewable sources.
Holdren, J. et al.. Environmental Aspects of Renewable Energy Sources, Ann. Rev. Energy, 5, 1980: 241-291
Mackillop, A. & P. Bunyard. The Wrong Alternatives. The Ecologist, 2, 1978: 42-46
Trainer, F. The Limitations of Alternative Energy Systems. Conservation & Recycling, 7(1), 1984: 27-42.
Passive Solar Systems
Horne, B. Tapping the Sun: A Solar Water Heating Guide. CAT, 1994. Booklet.
Trimby, P. Solar Water Heating. CAT, 1994. Booklet.
Photovoltaics
Allen, P. Wired Up to The Sun: A Guide to the Photovoltaic Revolution. CAT, 1994. Booklet.
Baumannn, A. and S. Sarkar. Rays of Hope. Real World, 11, 1995: 10-11. Two contrasting views of the potential of photovoltaics.
Flavin, C. Electricity from Sunlight. WorldWatch Institute, 1982.
Swan, C. Suncell: Energy, Economy, Photovoltaics. Random, 1986.
Solar-Hydrogen Economy
Bockris, J., & Veziroglu. Solar Hydrogen Energy: The Power To Save The Earth. Optima, 1991. Enthusiastic advocacy of this option.
Ohta, T., ed. Solar Hydrogen Energy Systems. Penguin, 1979.
Trainer, T. Gas Masque. Real World, 8,1994: 7. Limits of the 'hydrogen economy'.
Hydroelectricity, Tidal & Wave Energy
Perhaps the best example of the downside to so-called renewable energy programmes is provided by hydro-electricity. It can be a massive consumer of land, destroying forests, cropland and settlements, it disrupts drainage, silt movement, and fish migration patterns, the sheer weight of water can cause seismic instability, construction costs can be economically and environmentally high and, last but not least, water impoundments can worsen greenhouse gas emissions, especially in tropical regions. The impact on global warming stem from carbon dioxide and methane emissions from vegetation rotting in the water behind the dam. The effect is not confined, however, to the tropics. Similar results have been found by researchers examining reservoirs in Northern Canada.
Alvares, C. & R. Billorey. Damning the Narmada. The Ecologist, 17(2), 1987: 62-73. Attack on colossal HEP & irrigation project in India.
Bawe, L. Private Profit at Public Expense: The Bakun HEP Project. The Ecologist, 26(5), 1996: 29-233. Sarawak case study.
Bell, J. Hydrodollars in the Himalayas. The Ecologist, 24(3), 1994: 113-115. Attack on Nepal HEP scheme.
Chandler, W. The Myth of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Environmental Policy Institute, 1984. A critique of a flood control/HEP programme often cited-naively-as a model of 'managing' nature for human ends.
Echeverria, J. Rivers at Risk: The Concerned Citizen's Guide to Hydropower. Island Pr., 1989.
Goldsmith, E. & N. Hildyard. The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams. Wadebridge Ecological Centre (Cornwall), 3 vols., 1984. Comprehensive and damming dossiers.
Jhaveri, N. The Three Gorges Debacle. The Ecologist, 18(2), 1988: 56-63. Denunciation of what currently is world's largest dam project.
Lohmann, L. Remaking the Mekong. The Ecologist, 20(20, 1990; 61-66.
McCully, P. Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams. Zed Books, 1996.
Pearce, F. Building a Disaster: The Monumental Folly of India's Tehri Dam. The Ecologist, 21(3), 1991: 123-128. Himalayan case study.
Richardson, B. Strangers Devour the Land. Chelsea Green Publishers, 1991. Another megafolly documented-the James Bay projects in northern Quebec.
Sears, J. & K. Bragg. Bio-Bio: A River Under Threat. The Ecologist, 17(1), 1987: 15-20. Chilean case study
Taylor, G.R. Tidal Barrages: Boon or Blight. The Ecologist, 10(5), 1980. 167-169
See also:
Ross, D. Power from the Waves. OUP, 1995.
Biomass Energy
Brown, L. Food or Fuel: New Competition for the World's Cropland. Worldwatch Institute, 1980.
Brown, L. Fuel Farms. Futurist, June, 1980: 16-28.
Carle, D. Whole-Tree Logging: Vacuuming the Northern Forests. Wild Earth, Spring, 1994: 35-37. Critique of a very intensive form of biomass energy production which is spreading in the USA.
Coates, J. et al. Environmental Consequences of Wood and Other Biomass Sources of Energy. Office of Strategic Assessment, EPA (Washington), 1982.
Cook, J.H. Potential Impacts of Biomass Production in the US on Biological Diversity. Ann. Review of Energy & Environment, 16, 1991: 401-431.
Eckholm, E. The Other Energy Crisis: Firewood. Worldwatch Institute, 1975. An older but still informative study.
de Montalembert, M.R. Biomass Resources for Energy. Ceres, Jan-Feb., 1983: 40-44.
Pimentel, D. et al.. Solar Energy, Land and Biota. SunWorld 8, 1984: 70-73 & 93-95
Pimentel, D. et al. The Environmental and Social Costs of Biomass Energy. Bioscience 34 (2), 1984: 89-94.
Wind Energy Systems
Anon. When the Wind Blows. Wales Green Party, 1994. Pamphlet from Welsh Greens backing wind energy development.
Horne, B. Where the Wind Blows: An Introduction to Wind Energy. CAT, 1994. Booklet.
Elliot, D. Wind up! Real World, 7, 1994: 8. A look at wind programme in UK.
Harper, M. & M. Rand. Removing the Windbrakes: Wind Energy, Landscape and the Government. FoE, 1991.
Piggott, H. It's a Breeze: A Guide to Choosing Wind Power. CAT, 1995. Booklet.
Smith, M. Tilting at Wind Turbines. Independent on Sunday, 27/3/94: 38. Look at some of the drawbacks of wind energy programmes.
Geothermal Energy
Anon. Lava Louts. Green Magazine, Sept., 1990: 29-31. Report on opposition to Hawaiian geothermal scheme.
Kerr, R.H. Extracting Geothermal Energy Can Be Hard. Science, 12 Nov., 1982: 668-669.
Local & Regional Appropriate Energy Planning
Okagaki, A., and J. Benson. The County Energy Plan Guidebook. Institute Ecologica, 1979.
Pomerantz, D., 1981. A Renewable Energy Future for Franklin Country, Massachusetts. In G. Coates, ed., Resettling America: Energy, Ecology & Community. Brick House, 1981. An exploration of how to meet local energy needs sustainably for local energy resources.
Ridgeway, J. Energy-Efficient Community Planning. J.G. Pr., 1980.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation
Renewable energy sources, used in an ecologically appropriate way, can only power a 'slimmed down' society. Efficiency in energy use is obviously vital. However there is always a point beyond which there are no inefficiencies to be eliminated. Energy conservation in its fullest sense is therefore crucial. This means more than insulation, efficient equipment and processes, and the use of technologies such as heat pumps and co-generation power systems.
It also means the general elimination of waste and unnecessary production in the economy. Society must cut its coat according to its limited energy cloth. Professor Poleszynski of Oslo University has estimated potential savings of as much as 80-90 per cent, especially by what he calls 'trimming off the fat' of military expenditure, space exploration, the car industry, food processing and packaging, marketing, pharmaceuticals, cosmetic and fashion products and areas of international trade where virtually identical products are exchanged over great distances.
In the assessment of appropriate energy supply systems, it is critical that alternatives are compared in terms of whole fuel cycle and associated impacts from 'cradle to grave', not just one facility against another. It is absurd to compare the impacts and dangers of coal mining (i.e. pits) with those of nuclear power plants-the real comparison in this case should be between coal and uranium mines.
Furthermore, the basic laws of energy should never be forgotten. If you are reading this Guide warmed by an electric fire that runs off nuclear power, 85% of the original potential energy has been lost in the steps between you and the uranium mine due to conversion losses and the energy costs of fuel transportation and electricity distribution. The American physicist Amory Lovins argues that centrally generated electricity is primarily suited to about 8 per cent of energy needs. Beyond that it is, in his much-quoted phrase, 'like using a chainsaw to cut butter'.
Anon. The Energy Conservation Bill 1993: How It Could Work. Association for the Conservation of Energy, 1993. Useful local studies included of what councils could do.
Anderson, V. Energy Efficiency Policies. Routledge, 1993
Energy Efficiency Office. Energy, Environment & Profits: Making a Corporate Commitment. DoE, 1993. Some encouraging success stories in energy-saving, with examples ranging from paper mills to sugar refining
Flavin, C., & A. Durning. Building on Success: The Age of Energy Efficiency. WorldWatch Institute, 1988.
FoE. Efficiency of Electricity Use. FoE, 1989. Submission to House of Lords Committee.
FoE. Warm Homes-Cool Planet. FoE, 1990. Briefing paper outlining a programme for tackling damp, cold housing at the same time as defusing the global warming threat.
Geller, H. et al. Getting America Back on the Energy Efficient Track. American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, 1991. Study of energy efficiency initiatives and linked policies.
Hannon, B. Energy Conservation and the Consumer. Science, 189, 1975: 95-102. An earlier article arguing importance of taxes on energy use to encourage shift to conserver economy.
Jackson, F. Save Energy Save Money: A Guide to Energy Conservation in the Home. CAT, 1995. Booklet.
Jackson, T. Efficiency Without Tears. FoE, 1992.
Lovins, A. & L.H. Lovins. Least Cost Energy: Solving the Carbon Dioxide Problem. Brick House, 1982.
Roberts, S. Energy Efficiency. FoE, 1990. Submission to House of Commons Select Committee.
With specific references to particular establishments & activities:
Energy Efficiency Office. Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Further and Higher Education Buildings. Dept of Environment, 1991
Part of a series which also includes booklets on 'Libraries, Museums, Art Galleries & Churches', ''Sports Centres' and 'Catering Establishments'
Energy Efficiency Office. Energy Champions: A Selection of Case Histories. Good Practice Guide 67, Dept of Environment, 1992. Part of the EEO's Best Practice Programme documenting what can be done to conserve energy and increase efficiency.
Somervill, D. & R. Talbot, eds. Educated Energy Management of Energy Resources in Educational Buildings. Spon, 1991. Study of the education sector, with case studies taken largely from higher education sector.
Manufacturing Industry
The birth of modern industry was a decisive change in the level and nature of environmental impacts, though it must be remembered that agriculture has transformed the face of the earth to a far greater extent. Similarly, mining creates far more wastes than does the industrial sector per se. Yet in all kinds of ways the way industrial production currently takes place contributes considerably to the overall unsustainability of modern society. The relentless advance of automation and the shift of entire industries to low cost, poorly regulated locations, particularly in the Third World, has undermined the economic foundations of many communities in the older industrial regions.
A number of themes arise from the challenge of putting industry on a more sustainable basis. For example:
Good housekeeping:
the elimination and prevention of leaks through improved management and documentation of stocks and flows etc.
On-site Closed Loop Recycling:
the closure of material cycles, particularly for hazardous materials.
Input Substitution:
substitution of hazardous materials in the plant for non hazardous ones: e.g., the substitution of water-based cleaning methods for chlorinated organic solvents.
Process modification:
modification of the process in such a way as to reduce emissions of hazardous wastes.
Cleaner Production Technologies:
new, specifically designed, low impact technologies and processes, with low hazardous waste usage, and high material efficiency.
Product Reformulating:
Reformulation or re-design of products can reduce hazardous waste generation both within the process and within the product as well as facilitate subsequent upgrading, repair reuse and recycling.
Use of renewable resources:
a shift from processes and products using scarce minerals and fossil fuels to ones based on widely occurring minerals as well as renewable biotic resources.
Product liability
acceptance of responsibility for the environmental impacts associated with a product once it leaves the factory, plus development of mechanisms such as return and recycling schemes to reduce any such problems.
Employee awareness
a commitment to develop appropriate awareness amongst staff in order to reduce adverse environmental impacts from factors such as faulty operation and risky shortcuts.
'Cleaner and leaner' production systems call for process-integrated solutions, rather than add-on or end-of pipe ones, with full life-cycle assessments. This means concentrating attention on both processes and products, and ensuring that the entire product life-cycle is designed so as to reduce the volume and toxicity of wastes generated. Greener industry would be firmly based on a preventative approach, seeking to minimise environmental hazards by introducing preventative solutions which are oriented towards the design and conceptual stages of product life-cycles. Every effort would be made to decrease the emission into the environment of all substances which are known to be hazardous to human health and the environment. Realistically, this will depend upon statutory action in many cases.
An integrative approach to industrial development, would seek to minimise potentially hazardous throughput at the earliest stages of design of both specific products and of technological processes. The entire life-cycle of products and services would be addressed. By the same token, clean production solutions must draw on the potential for infrastructural changes where these would be appropriate. It is crucial to be able to identify and to overcome the problems associated with the wide variety of boundaries, geographical, institutional, economic, and social which militate against integrative solutions.
A crucial component of more sustainable manufacturing is product durability. There have been significant gains in, for example, the energy efficiency of consumer durables like refrigerators but in many case their lifespan is not much longer than their predecessors 30 years ago. Vance Packard's The Waste Makers first blew the whistle on 'planned obsolescence' but the problem does not seem to have diminished.
We need to ask questions about the durability of manufactured goods and the ease with which they can be serviced and repaired, as well as raise the more familiar issues of input reduction, cleaner technology, design for ease of disassembly and recycling and, of course, the big question of whether we really need the items in the first place. At the same time, there may be an environmental case for short lifespan in some circumstances.
In sum, then, the greening of industry would seek to eliminate potentially harmful emissions into the environment, close material cycles, either through improvements in the material efficiency of the economy, or in terms of the utilisation of naturally occurring biogeochemical cycles, in ways compatible with sustaining those natural flows. Last but not least it would depend upon renewable material and energy resources
Anon.. The "GreenFreeze" Story Greenpeace, 1993. A short document telling the story of the development of an 'atmospherically safe', and energy-efficient fridge by two German scientists whose work was at first greeted with derision .It could be used as case study exploring the barriers to environmentally friendlier research and development.
Ayers, R.U.,. Industrial Metabolism. In J.S. Ausubel & H.E. Sladovich, eds., Technology and Environment. National Academy Press, 1989.
Blunden, J., & A. Reddish. Energy, Resources and Environment. Hodder & Stoughton, 1991. An Open University volume which gives a good overview of the issues. Source of many statistics in this section.
Carr, M. Sustainable Industrial Development. Intermediate Technology, 1988. Case studies from the Intermediate Technology Group.
Department of the Environment. A Business Guide to Environmental Good Practice. DoE, 1994. A general guide with a number of case studies including food manufacturing, electronics, engineering and chemicals firms.
ECOTEC. The Development of Cleaner Technologies: A Strategic Overview. Business Strategy & the Environment, 1(2), 1992: 51-58.
Fischer, K. & J. Schot, eds. Environmental Strategies for Industry. Island Pr., 1992.
Frosch, R. and N. Gallopoulos. Strategies for Manufacturing. Scientific American, Sept., 1989: 144-152. A vision of how one manufacturing industry could 'feed off' the wastes of another to make industry as a whole more sustainable.
Gee, D. Clean From Industrial Dinosaur to Eco-Efficiency. MSF (London), 1994.
Hemming, C. Business Success from Seizing the Environmental Initiative. Stanley Thornes, 1994. Case studies in fields such as waste management, byproduct utilisation and cleaner technologies
Hirschom, J. Cutting Production of Hazardous Waste. Technology Review, 91(3): 52-61.
Holmes, J. Manufacturing & the Environment. Department of Trade & Industry, 1992. DTI booklet, with some interesting case studies.
Hooper, P. & D. Gibbs. Cleaner A Means to an End or an End to a Means? Greener Management International, 9, 1995: 28-40.
Irwin, G. & P. Hooper. Clean Technology, Successful Innovation & the Greening of Industry. Business Strategy & the Environment, 1(2), 1992: 1-12.
Jackson, T., ed. Clean Production Strategies: Developing Preventive Environmental Management in the Industrial Economy. Lewis Publishers, 1993.
Johnson, N. Waste Minimisation: A Route to Profit & Cleaner Production. Centre for the exploitation of Science & Technology, 1994.
Larsen, E. et al. Beyond the Era of Materials. Scientific American, June, 1986: 24-31. The search for reduced material and energy intensity in industrial production, with lighter, higher performance components and 'smarter' systems.
McLenighan, V. Sustainable Manufacturing. Centre for Neighbourhood Technology, Chicago, 1990. American examples.
Mitsch, W.J. & S.E., eds. Ecological Engineering: an to Ecotechnology. Wiley, 1989.
Vaitilingham, R., ed. Industrial Initiatives for Environmental Conservation. Pitman, 1993.
Wood, C. Planning Pollution Prevention: Anticipatory Controls Over Air Pollution Sources. Heinemann Newnes, 1989.
Yakowitz, H. Policy Options to Encourage Cleaner Production & Products. Nature & Resources, 28(4), 1992: 26-37.
See also:
Advisory Council on Science & Technology. Cleaner Technology. HMSO, 1992.
Longevity of Manufactured Goods
Cooper, T. Durability & Consumer Durables. Business Strategy & the Environment, Spring, 1994.
Cooper, T. Beyond Recycling. New Economics Foundations, 1994.
OECD. Product Durability and Product Life Extension. OECD, 1982. Though the data is a bit dated now, this remains a good overview of the issues
Food Processing and Catering Industry
Food production has become a complicated system. No longer do people consume foodstuffs that are largely sourced locally and consumed in season. Now food is produced and processed in one part of the world, frozen and flown to the other side of the globe, where juggernauts take it to huge edge-of-town supermarkets where it is kept in arrays of refrigerated shelving before it arrives eventually in the final consumer's home, usually after yet another road journey.
The food itself has undergone many transformation since it left the farm gate, creating products that are more processed, refined and chemically flavoured, coloured and preserved as well as packaged than ever before in history. The variety of foodstuffs produced by this process is deceptive since close study of the ingredients usually reveals the same small set of cheap ingredients disguised by intensive technological manipulation. There is no need to romanticise past patterns of eating-food adulteration was, for example, a severe problem in the 19th century-to recognise that the present food processing system is bad for the health of both people and environment.
Ehrlichman, J. Gluttons for Punishment. Penguin, 1986.
Energy Efficiency Office. Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Catering Establishments. Dept of Environment, 1991.
Hall, R.H. Food for Nought. Doubleday, 1974.
Millstone, E. Food Additives. Penguin, 1986.
Polunin, M. The Right Way to Eat. Dent/Ecoropa, 1984.
Wardle, C. Changing Food Habits. Earth Resources Research, 1977.
Walker, C., and G. Cannon. The Food Scandal. Century, 1985.
Webb, T., and T. Lang. Food Irradiation: The Facts. Thorsons, 1987.
Paper, Structural Timber & Other Forest-Based Industries
Anon. Dioxins & the Paper Industry. ENDS Report, 168, 1989: 9-12.
Anon. Feature: Paper. Warmer Bulletin, 31, 1991: 10-12, with insert on paper recycling.
Anon. Tissue Paper Products. Ethical Consumer, April/May, 1990: 3-9.
Anon. The Paper Industry. Ethical Consumer, June/July, 1990: 14-23. Includes list of major companies involved.
Ayres, E. Whitewash: Pursuing The Truth About Paper. Worldwatch, Sept./Oct., 1992: 17-25.
Ayres, E. Making Paper without Trees. Worldwatch, 6(5), 1993: 5-8.
Budd, J. et al. A Tissue of Lies? Disposable Paper and the Environment. Womens Environmental Network, 1990.
Costello, A. & A. Link. Report in UK Paper Mills Environmental Impact. Womens Environmental Network, 1990.
FoE. Paper and the Environment. FoE (London), 1991.
Greenpeace. The Greenpeace Guide to Paper. Greenpeace (Vancouver), 1990.
Kroesa, R. Worldwide Roundup on Pulp Mills. Jnl of Pesticide Reform, 10(2), 1990: 2-4.
See also:
Anon. Environmental Report. James River Fine Papers Ltd, 1993. Example of manufacturer looking at and reporting its environmental impacts.
Clothing, Jewellery, and Household textiles
The impacts of the clothing, jewellery and textile industry stem from three factors-population size (the number of wearers), affluence (how many items we own) and technology (how clothes etc. are made). These pressures are shaped by a number of other forces, such clothing fads and changing expressions of status. The textile and fashion industries thrive on overconsumption and excess waste.
The manufacturing system and the actual use of clothes raise a variety of issues. For example:
the materials from which they are made:
e.g. vegetable fibres (eg wool, cotton, flax, hemp, sisal), animal fibres, bones, shells and skins (eg silk, fur, leather, ivory, turtleshell, & mother-of pearl oysters) wood cellulose (eg rayon) synthetic fibres (eg polyester, nylon, & acrylic)-and their environmental impacts and possible cruelty to animals during their production;
the distance travelled by raw material from source (farm, plantation or petrochemical plant) to factory as well as by finished products to shop and home;
the methods by which the products have been made-energy consumption, use of strengtheners, dyes and bleaches, other treatments (eg for crease and shrink resistance and 'easy-care'), fastenings, resultant emissions and effluents etc;
the adaptability, durability and reparability of the products; allergies & other health risks; environmental impacts during use-washing, ironing, dry cleaning etc.;
the disposal of unwanted or worn out clothing;
the use of recycled materials in clothing and jewellery.
In all these areas, there is scope for designers, manufacturers, and consumers to make greener choices.
Anon. Clean Clothes, Dirty Water. Womens Environment Network, 1994. Guide to detergents and effects on the environment
Anon. Environmental Assessment of the Canadian Textile Industry. Environment Canada Report EPS 5/TX/1, 1989.
Anon. Textile Industry Feels the Pollution Squeeze, ENDS Report, 186, 1990: 14-17 and Anon. Textile Industry Threads Its Way Through the Effluent Challenge. ENDS Report, 225, 1993: 15-18. 2 reports on the pressure from British legislation on local textile industry.
Cook, F. Textiles May Be Running Out of Acceptable Dyes. Textile World, Nov., 1980: 80-85. Problems of American textile industry with government clampdown on dyes because of suspected carcinogenic effects.
Grau, P. Textile Industry Wastewaters Treatment. Water Sci. Technol, 24 (1), 1991: 97-104.
North, R. Jeans: Cotton & Pesticides for the Image-Conscious. In Ch. 18 of his The Real Cost. Chatto & Windus, 1986.
Pal, P. B. & B. Mohan. Management of Occupational Environment in Textile Industry. Indian J. Env. Prot., 10(10), 1990: 767-773 Deals with health and safety hazards in Indian textile industry
Polk, T. The Market is Willing: Post-Consumer. Resource Recycling 11(2), 1992: 56-61. American perspective on reducing waste from clothing and textiles.
Polyzou, A. Energy Consumption for Textiles and Apparels. Family Eco. Rev., 1979, 3-11
Roberts, J. G. Low Energy Processing for Textiles. CEC, Report 10018, 1985. Ways in which the industry could save energy-and water.
Rowles, R. Jewellery, Women and the Environment. Women's Environmental Network, 1992. Short pamphlet.
Ryan, J. & A. During. The Secret Life of a Shoe. WorldWatch, 11(2), 1998: 29-32. The real price of footwear.
Watson, J. Textiles and the Environment. Economist Intelligence Unit, paper 2150, 1991
Motor Vehicle Industry
Anon. Rethinking Efficient Cars: How Best to Pick the Low-Hanging Fruit. Rocky Mountain Newsletter, Summer, 1991: 1, 3-4. The RMI of Colorado runs an on-going project on transportation, particularly concentrating on fuel-efficient designs.
Flavin, C. Jump Start: The New Automotive Revolution. Worldwatch, 6(4), 1993: 27-33.
Freund, P. & G. Martin. The Ecology of the Automobile. 1993.
Gouldson, A. Life-Cycle Environmental Management and Product Innovation: The Case of the Volkswagen Audi Group. In R. Welford, ed., Cases in Environmental Management and Business Strategy. Pitman, 1994.
Haout, G, et al. How New Requirements on Car Recycling will Jolt the Automotive Industry. Greener Management International, 9, 1995: 52-61.
Nieuwenhuis, P, et al. Making Cars More Efficient. In Ch. 4 of their The Green Car Guide. Green Print, 1992
Way, A. Environmental Issues & the European Motor Industry. Financial Times Management Reports, 1995.
Wittenberg, G. We Buy WrecksWe Sell Dreams. Purchasing & Supply Management, July 20, 199225-26. Focus upon design for recyclability.
See also the section on Transport Policy.
Electrical & Electronics Industry
Anon. Electrical & Electronic Wastes. Warmer Bulletin, 48, Feb., 1996. Pull-out supplement.
Bashford, D. Strategic Implications for Increasing the Recycling of Electrical & Electronic Products. Greener Management International, 9, 1995: 62-72. See section below on broadcasting & information technologies
Medical Technology
See references in the section on Health in the Society section of the Ecobibliography as well as under Biotechnology.
Biotechnology
The development of genetic engineering or biotechnology attracts support from many quarters. Some are dazzled by the prospects of increased power and profit from the colonisation and industrialisation of evolution's basic building block, the genetic code. Others have less selfish aspirations. Humanistic aspirations to combat crippling physical and mental dis