Working with our environment - an introduction

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Topic outline

 

 
1

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • Global warming: are we responsible? Is our environmental impact damaging the planet? This unit examines the use of ozone depleting technology, the impact of fossil fuel use and explores how the development...
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Introductory advice

  • Introductory advice Resource
  • There are two ways to approach this Introduction. The first is the more natural one: to read it straight through to get a general feel for its style and content, and to see whether you are going to find...
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1 The world we live in

  • 1.1 Environment and technology Resource
  • A central concern of environmental studies is the relationship between technology and our environment: how people use technology to transform materials into forms which can meet our needs and wants. In...
  • 1.2 We are part of nature Resource
  • Take a few minutes to look around at your surroundings before you read on. What do you see? Obviously this depends on where you are at the moment: at home, at work, or perhaps travelling in between, or...
  • 1.3 The Industrial Revolution and its environmental impacts Resource
  • The environmental issues you have identified in your answer to the first exercise are likely to be complex and difficult to unravel, yet alone resolve. Rather than attempt that at this stage I'd like to...
  • 1.4 Changing environmental attitudes Resource
  • So, from the start of the Industrial Revolution, people have been aware that the development of an industrial economy brings problems as well as benefits. But the benefits, in terms of productive capability,...
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2 Case study 1: Refrigerators and the ozone layer

  • 2.1 Refrigeration and chlorofluorocarbons Resource
  • A domestic refrigerator consists essentially of two elements. First, it has a well-insulated box that minimises the flow of heat energy from the warmer outside environment to the cold space inside. Second,...
  • 2.2 The agreement to protect the ozone layer Resource
  • After a decade of controversy about the possible effects of CFCs, in 1985 British scientists discovered over the Antarctic a quite unexpected ‘hole’ in the ozone layer which was the size of the USA. This...
  • 2.3 Greenfreeze: the Greens fight back Resource
  • Some campaigners were not convinced by the arguments of refrigerator manufacturers and suppliers (who also happened to own some patents for HCFCs and HFCs) that the only solution, in the short to medium...
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3 Case study 2: Refrigerators and climate change

  • 3.1 Domestic appliances and fossil fuels Resource
  • For this second case study I shall look specifically at the energy use of domestic ‘cold appliances’, that is freezers and refrigerators, and discuss whether efficiency measures can play a significant...
  • 3.2 The US experience: wasteful innovation? Resource
  • In the 1950s and 1960s many industrialised countries experienced a prolonged period of economic expansion which, together with the rise of consumerism, created an increased demand for domestic appliances....
  • 3.3 The UK experience: competing trends Resource
  • But one striking example does not make an argument. To try to get a fuller and possibly fairer picture of energy use by domestic refrigerators I'd like also to look at the UK experience over the past few...
  • 3.4 Discussion Resource
  • In this second case study, I have described two different trends in energy use by cold appliances over the last few decades. On the one hand the efficiency with which appliances use electrical energy has...
  • 3.5 Global climate change Resource
  • I would like to turn now to the possible consequences of our use of energy for global climate change. Our pattern of energy use relies heavily on burning carbon-based fossil fuels, releasing carbon dioxide...
  • 3.5 Global climate change continued Resource
  • Record global temperatures
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4 Case study 3: Some early uses of refrigeration

  • 4.1 Food preservation and the development of refrigeration Resource
  • Most societies have had traditional methods of preserving food: drying, baking, pickling, salting, smoking, the use of sugar, and in cold climates, freezing or chilling, with the use of ice houses in the...
  • 4.2 New Zealand's changing environment Resource
  • In this study I want to explore some possible effects of this new trade on the environment of one of the countries involved. I've chosen New Zealand, partly because the developments we have just been discussing...
  • 4.3 Settlement, deforestation and endangered species Resource
  • The proportion of New Zealand converted to farmland is large by world standards (52 percent compared to the world's 37 percent in 1993). Although our human population density is comparatively low (13 people...
  • 4.4 Discussion Resource
  • We seem to have travelled a long way from the Industrial Revolution in Europe, but many of the impacts on New Zealand's ecosystems described here can be traced, in part at least, to reverberations from...
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5 Finding a balance

  • 5.1 The path to prevention Resource
  • So far in this Introduction I have concentrated on some specific environmental issues, which has inevitably meant I have spent time looking at problems and their possible causes. A balanced account would...
  • 5.2 The hierarchy of human needs Resource
  • A second approach is to look at the human needs and wants from a more theoretical perspective. One such model was developed in the 1950s and 1960s by Abraham Maslow. Although it exists in many variants...
  • 5.3 Sustainable development Resource
  • The third approach to balancing human needs with environmental protection is to try to come to grips with what we mean by sustainability.
  • 5.4 Technology and environment Resource
  • At the start of this unit I asked a simple question: am I damaging the environment by using my fridge? I warned that it wasn't my intention to give a simple answer that we should all stop using refrigerators...
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6 Conclusion

  • 6 Conclusion Resource
  • In this Introduction we have explored the development of technology from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the present day. At the same time we have traced the increasing impact our industrial...
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Glossary

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References and Acknowledgements

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