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No two sciences have been more directly informative of sustainability than thermodynamics (the science of energy and material resources) and economics (the science of how those resources are allocated for production, distribution, and consumption). Both disciplines share a preoccupation with understanding efficiency, which is critical to many interpretations of sustainability and so it is not surprising...
Past waves of technological evolution, characterized by core technologies such as steam engines, have been characterized by powerful, and not always peaceful, change across institutions, economies, and cultures. We are currently moving towards an anthropogenic Earth characterized by integrated built/human/natural systems of extraordinary complexity, increasingly defined by technology and technology...
Throughout history, technological evolution and military activity have been linked to each other. The existential challenge to a particular society represented by warfare, combined with the immediate advantage that technology can deliver, tends to accelerate technological innovation and diffusion. The relationship between them, and the social and ethical issues that arise from that relationship, are...
We now live in an era that many scientists are beginning to refer to as the ldquoAnthropocenerdquo - roughly translated as the Age of Humans. The anthropogenic Earth is characterized by integrated built/human/natural systems of extraordinary complexity. Technology and technology systems are important dimensions of virtually all of these systems, an important observation because foundational technologies,...
A first order assessment was performed to evaluate the tradeoffs involved in transportation mode choice. A total of six potential modes of transportation were evaluated, including a midsize car, hybrid car, motor scooter, city bus, bicycle, and foot. Each mode of transportation was evaluated for energy use, cost, convenience, and health and safety implications. It was concluded that there is no single...
This article explores concepts and methods to characterize long-term limits on the capacity of technology to deliver energy services based on thermodynamics, or more generally, physical laws. Carnot's law, for example, places an upper limit in the ability of a heat engine to deliver useful work. The framework developed starts with characterizing different energy services deemed necessary for a sustainable...
In this paper we address the problem of taking the general notion of sustainability as reported in the Brundtland Report and later in Arrow et al approach and interpreting it from a thermodynamics point of view, with a goal of developing operational principles of sustainability in terms of physical principles that complement economic views.
The value in identifying current trends and viewing them in a historical light is that the results can be used to inform ongoing policy and investment decisions. This paper highlights historic and current patterns in human population, energy use, and culture, with technological development as both a facilitating and resultant factor. It is shown that there is a positive relationship between national...
A schematic method to characterize the human health impact of toxic chemicals is presented. This schematic method uses a streamlined three-tiered hierarchy process which includes intake, toxicity and persistence of a chemical release for its impact characterization. The human health impact of a chemical is represented by its position in a two-dimensional characterization plot, which enables the benchmarking...
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