Reconstructing Earth: Technology and Environment in the Age of Humans

by Braden Allenby

Overview

The Earth's biological, chemical, and physical systems are increasingly shaped by the activities of one species-ours. In our decisions about everything from manufacturing technologies to restaurant menus, the health of the planet has become a product of human choice. Environmentalism, however, has largely failed to adapt to this new reality.

Reconstructing Earth offers seven essays that explore ways of developing a new, more sophisticated approach to the environment that replaces the fantasy of recovering pristine landscapes with a more grounded viewpoint that can foster a better relationship between humans and the planet. Braden Allenby, a lawyer with degrees in both engineering and environmental studies, explains the importance of technological choice, and how that factor is far more significant in shaping our environment (in ways both desirable and not) than environmental controls. Drawing on his varied background and experience in both academia and the corporate world, he describes the emerging field of "earth systems engineering and management," which offers an integrated approach to understanding and managing complex human/natural systems that can serve as a basis for crafting better, more lasting solutions to widespread environmental problems.

Reconstructing Earth not only critiques dysfunctional elements of current environmentalism but establishes a foundation for future environmental management and progress, one built on an understanding of technological evolution and the cultural systems that support modern technologies. Taken together, the essays offer an important means of developing an environmentalism that is robust and realistic enough to address the urgent realities of our planet.

Reconstructing Earth is a thought-provoking new work for anyone concerned with the past or future of environmental thought, including students and teachers of environmental studies, environmental policy, technology policy, technological evolution, or sustainability.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597260152
Publisher:	Island Press
Publication date:	06/15/2005
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Braden R. Allenby is a Professor of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering at Arizona State University. Until 2004, he was the Environment, Health and Safety Vice President for AT&T. He has been a Batten Fellow in Residence at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
From 1995 to 1997, he was Director for Energy and Environmental Systems at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, on temporary assignment from his position as Research Vice President, Technology and Environment, for AT&T.

He graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1972, received his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia Law School in 1978, his Masters in Economics from the University of Virginia in 1979, his Masters in Environmental Sciences from Rutgers University in the Spring of 1989, and his Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Rutgers in 1992.

Dr. Allenby is a member of the Virginia Bar, and has worked as an attorney for the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Federal Communications Commission, as well as a strategic consultant on economic and technical telecommunications issues.

He joined AT&T in 1983 as a telecommunications regulatory attorney, and was an environmental attorney and Senior Environmental Attorney for AT&T from 1984 to 1993. During 1992, he was the J. Herbert Holloman Fellow at the National Academy of Engineering in Washington, DC. He is currently a member of the Environmental Law Institute Board of Directors; a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Michigan Corporate Environmental Management Program; a member of the Advisory Committee of the UNEP Working Group on Product Design for Sustainability; a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the DoE/DoD/EPA Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program; a Trustee of the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation; a member of the editorial boards of The Journal of Industrial Ecology, Environmental Science and Technology, the Environmental Law Institute Forum, The Journal of Sustainable Product Design, The Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, and Environmental Quality Management; and a former member of the Secretary of Energy's Advisory Board and the DOE Task Force on Alternative Futures for the DOE National Laboratories. In June, 2000, he chaired the second Gordon Conference on Industrial Ecology.

Dr. Allenby has authored a number of articles and book chapters on industrial ecology and Design for Environment; writes a column for the Journal of Industrial Ecology; is co-editor of The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems, published by the National Academy Press in 1994, and of Environmental Threats and National Security: An International Challenge to Science and Technology, published by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and is co-author or author of several engineering textbooks, including Industrial Ecology, published by Prentice-Hall in January of 1995, Design for Environment published by Prentice-Hall in 1996, Industrial Ecology and the Automobile, published by Prentice-Hall in 1997, and Industrial Ecology: Policy Framework and Implementation, published by Prentice-Hall in 1998.

He has taught courses on industrial ecology and Design for Environment at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and at the University of Wisconsin Engineering Extension School; and has lectured widely on earth systems engineering and management, industrial ecology, and Design for Environment.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures & Commerce.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
 
Introduction: The Evolution of a Movement
Chapter 1. The Human Earth
Chapter 2. Real Rubber on Real Roads: Technology and Environment
Chapter 3. From Overhead to Strategic
Chapter 4. Alice in Wonderland: Environmental Management in the Firm
Chapter 5. Thoroughly Modern Marxist Utopianism: Sustainability
Chapter 6. Faith and Science
Chapter 7. Complexity: The New Frontier
Chapter 8. How Humans Construct Their Environment
Chapter 9. Implementing Earth Systems Engineering and Management
 
Index