The negative environmental impacts of energy use, particularly soil and water pollution, continue to present serious policy dilemmas. The release of emissions and effluents and the build-up of solid waste throughout the fuel cycle have disruptive effects on natural habitats and human health. Further, fuel combustion can result in the emission of carbon dioxide, ozone, methane and nitrogen dioxide � the 'greenhouse gases' which have been linked to climate change. The safe and sustainable us...

Based on the ‘soft path approach to the energy sector, a transition is now under way to a soft path for water. This approach starts by ensuring that ecosystem needs for water are satisfied and then undertakes a radical approach to reducing human uses of water by economic and social incentives, including open decision-making, water markets and equitable pricing, and the application of super-efficient technology, all applied in ways that avoid jeopardizing quality of life.The soft pat...

Biocapital is a major theoretical contribution to science studies and political economy. Grounding his analysis in a multi-sited ethnography of genomic research and drug development marketplaces in the United States and India, Kaushik Sunder Rajan argues that contemporary biotechnologies such as genomics can only be understood in relation to the economic markets within which they emerge. Sunder Rajan conducted fieldwork in biotechnology labs and in small start-up companies in the ...

This book examines what lies behind the uncertainties surrounding the fuel and power markets. Exploring the role of renewables and how they potentially disrupt or create opportunities, it challenges widely accepted wisdoms in investment. The author asks questions such as: Are “business as usual” strategies that favour fossil fuels the best route to future prosperity? What prospects do firms face when their competitors diversify into renewables? Why do generous subsidies to renewables often...

Against the backdrop of rapid advances in the energy sector, this book provides a concise overview of the complex challenges in the energy paradigm today, which revolve around the seemingly unsolvable energy equation.The author, an experienced energy professional, combines the various aspects of the energy transition into a single perspective. While highlighting a number of salient problems, he also explores grounds for optimism that these challenges can and will be met.After...

Energy is an issue for everyone and nowhere more so than in the SADCC countries. But for sensible policy and planning, clear information about the extent of resources is needed.This innovative study combines the results of field assessment of biomass with advanced techniques in remote sensing by satellite to give the first comprehensive and detailed picture of biomass distribution throughout the SADCC region.The authors describe their techniques, classify the kinds of bioma...

Every day throughout Britain, by road, by rail and by sea, there are large numbers of routine movements of radioactive cargo. Materials at all stages of the nuclear cycle, from uranium ore to nuclear waste, from nuclear warheads to radioactive isotopes used in medicine, are constantly on the move. In normal circumstances handling low-level material exposes workers to small doses of radiation, but a serious accident could lead to widespread contamination and to the major risk of additional ...

Transport, in particular the motor vehicle, is a major source of environmental disruption and, in the developed world, accounts for thirty percent of energy consumption. In most countries, transport policy is a major government concern, yet it is rare for decisions to be made outside a narrow set of sectoral considerations.This book, commissioned by the OECD, looks at seven countries; the UK, the USA, West Germany, France, The Netherlands, Greece and Italy. Each case demonstrates, ...

The issue of 'sustainability' in the developed world is nowhere more critical than in the field of personal travel, which in many countries has become the fastest-growing contributor to global warming. Unless the use of cars can be brought under control, there is little chance of meeting government targets for reducing greenhouse emissions.Personal Transport and the Greenhouse Effect sets out the steps that could be taken to lessen the conflict between personal mobility an...

Over 60 million people live in the SADCC countries; by 2000 AD the number will be over 100 million. The vast majority, city-dwellers as well as farmers, rely on wood fuel for domestic use. Supplies are diminishing as consumption grows. The quality of life is deteriorating yet further and the environment is more and more degraded.But these phenomena are not simply the consequence of a wood shortage which might be cured by some cropping and management policy. They flow from a complex...

The globe is warming and while no one knows what will happen as a result, it is clear that slowing the process is a necessary goal. Other studies have considered 'warming fates', this one brings sophisticated computer modeling to bear on ways of minimizing the risks.Fossil carbon emissions, other trace gases and releases from other sources are all taken into account, and the authors demonstrate the global need to produce a budget for cumulative releases between now and the year 210...

In 1990, energy in the UK underwent a unique and fundamental transformation, with the privatization of the electricity supply industry. This is the first book to fully assess the experiment. It first explains how – and why – the British electricity supply industry was privatized. It then identifies the subsequent changes in electricity prices, profits, employment, investment, nuclear power and renewable, and the extent to which each of these was due solely to privatization or to other fact...