News outlets seem to be full of tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint, from biking to school and work to repurposing old clothes and shoes. But what exactly is a carbon footprint—and how do you know how big yours is? Readers will find answers to these questions and much more through captivating content that takes on climate change, vehicle emissions, and wasting electricity. Practical solutions to reducing readers’ carbon footprints compliment social studies and science information that augment what they encounter in the classroom. Whether interested in the ecological impact of human actions on Earth or the technology working to counter that impact, readers will find plenty to think about! Detailed sidebars, eco-focused fact boxes, and bright, vivid photographs provide readers with even more knowledge about carbon emissions and how they affect the world.

Environmental Carbon Footprints: Industrial Case Studies provides a wide range of industrial case-studies, beginning with textiles, energy systems and bio-fuels. Each footprint is associated with background information, scientific consensus and the reason behind its invention, methodological framework, assessment checklist, calculation tool/technique, applications, challenges and limitations. More importantly, applications of each indicator/framework in various industrial sectors and their associated challenges are presented. As case studies are the most flexible of all research designs, this book allows researchers to retain the holistic characteristics of real-life events while investigating empirical events. Includes case studies from various industries, such as textiles, energy systems and conventional and bio-fuels Provides the calculation tool/technique, applications, challenges and limitations for determining carbon footprints on an industry by industry basis Presents the background information, scientific consensus and reason behind each case study

Part green-lifestyle guide, part popular science, How Bad Are Bananas? is the first book to provide the information we need to make carbon-savvy purchases and informed lifestyle choices and to build carbon considerations into our everyday thinking. The book puts our decisions into perspective with entries for the big things (the World Cup, volcanic eruptions, the Iraq war) as well as the small (email, ironing, a glass of beer). And it covers the range from birth (the carbon footprint of having a child) to death (the carbon impact of cremation). Packed full of surprises — a plastic bag has the smallest footprint of any item listed, while a block of cheese is bad news — the book continuously informs, delights, and engages the reader. Solidly researched and referenced, the easily digestible figures, statistics, charts, and graphs (including a section on the carbon footprint of various foods) will encourage discussion and help people to make up their own minds about their consumer choices.

Climate change poses many challenges that affect society and the natural world. With these challenges, however, come opportunities to respond. By taking steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, the risks to society and the impacts of continued climate change can be lessened. The National Climate Assessment, coordinated by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is a mandated report intended to inform response decisions. Required to be developed every four years, these reports provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of climate change impacts available for the United States, making them a unique and important climate change document. The draft Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) report reviewed here addresses a wide range of topics of high importance to the United States and society more broadly, extending from human health and community well-being, to the built environment, to businesses and economies, to ecosystems and natural resources. This report evaluates the draft NCA4 to determine if it meets the requirements of the federal mandate, whether it provides accurate information grounded in the scientific literature, and whether it effectively communicates climate science, impacts, and responses for general audiences including the public, decision makers, and other stakeholders.

This new book presents important research in the field of ecological economics which is a trans-disciplinary field of academic research that addresses the dynamic and spatial interdependence between human economies and natural ecosystems. Ecological economics brings together and connects different disciplines, within the natural and social sciences but especially between these broad areas. Ecological economics presents a more pluralistic approach to the study of environmental problems and policy solutions, characterised by systems perspectives, adequate physical and biological contexts, and a focus on long-term environmental sustainability.

How can we design more sustainable industrial and urban systems that reduce environmental impacts while supporting a high quality of life for everyone? What progress has been made towards reducing resource use and waste, and what are the prospects for more resilient, material-efficient economies? What are the environmental and social impacts of global supply chains and how can they be measured and improved? Such questions are at the heart of the emerging discipline of industrial ecology, covered in Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology. Leading authors, researchers and practitioners review how far industrial ecology has developed and current issues and concerns, with illustrations of what the industrial ecology paradigm has achieved in public policy, corporate strategy and industrial practice. It provides an introduction for students coming to industrial ecology and for professionals who wish to understand what industrial ecology can offer, a reference for researchers and practitioners and a source of case studies for teachers.

The negative impacts of carbon emissions from human activities continue to dramatically reshape the environmental, political, and social landscape. These impacts coupled with cap and trade schemes iterate the importance and need to properly measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon Footprint Analysis: Concepts, Methods, Implementation, and Case Studies provides up-to-date technical information and practical guidance on measuring and reducing energy and GHG emissions. Presenting a comprehensive framework for carbon management, this book: Provides definitions, concepts, benefits, and background information regarding carbon footprint analyses Discusses the GHG accounting methods Outlines the general systems framework for conducting an audit Features four case studies in higher education, service, and manufacturing organizations The book includes detailed discussions of the concepts and explains how the different concepts fit together. It supplies the necessary background as well as systematic tools and procedures for organizations to measure and reduce their carbon footprints and begin to adapt to a carbon-constrained world.