Research Catalog

Title

Unearthed : the economic roots of our environmental crisis / Kenneth M. Sayre.

Author

Sayre, Kenneth M., 1928-

Publication

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, c2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xxiv, 414 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

• "Kenneth M. Sayre's Unearthed: The Economic Roots of Our Environmental Crisis constitutes a major and significant contribution to our understanding of the grave ecological crisis facing humanity. It covers the complete picture, from the basic physical causes of the destruction of our environment to the sociological or anthropological forces that condition our self-destructive actions. The work not only is a brilliant and mind-sweeping piece of diagnosis and prognosis, but it goes all the way to point toward possible solutions."--Fernando Del Rio Haza, Laboratorio de Termodinßmica, Universidad Aut=noma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa, Mexico --Book Jacket.
• "Sayre's assessment forces all seeking a sustainable future to reexamine the preeminence accorded to clean energy. Unearthed uniquely combines thermodynamics and ethics to challenge and broaden readers' understandings of the systemic issues we face. Assembled and presented with piercing clarity, Unearthed constructs a brilliant framework for making sense of our quiet but growing crises."ùFelipe Witchger, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
• "With unerring logic and science, Kenneth Sayre dissects the origins of the ecological crisis and points to the necessary recalibration of industrial societies with the laws of thermodynamics and ecology. It is a radical book in that he gets to the heart of what ails us, and it charts a course toward a future grounded in authentic hope."--David W. Orr, Oberlin College.

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books

Subject

• Ecological engineering
• Economic development > Environmental aspects
• Energy conservation > Philosophy
• Energy consumption > Philosophy
• Energy dissipation > Environmental aspects
• Entropy > Environmental aspects

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 385-407) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Two laws of thermodynamics -- Entropy and disorder -- Life, negentropy, and biological feedback -- Ecosystems and top consumers -- Entropy trapped within the biosphere -- The rising tide of human energy use -- Economic production and its ecological consequences -- Technological solutions to ecological problems -- Replacing fossil fuel with clean energy -- History and theory of economic growth -- Why economic growth is considered a good thing -- Economics without continuing growth -- Desire for wealth in free-market economies -- Environmental and other ethics -- Typology of social values -- Ecologically destructive values -- Values for survival -- What can be done? What can one do?

ISBN

• 9780268041366 (pbk.)
• 0268041369 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^2010024338

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library