Industrial Ecology (main)
From The Encyclopedia of Earth
Industrial Ecology
Industrial ecology is relatively young interdisciplinary field of study that looks at the relationships between industrial operations and the natural world through a “systems” lens. Rooted in principles of physics, ecology, and systems theory, industrial ecology uses tools such as “life cycle assessments” and “material flow accounting” to track and study the interconnections among natural resources, raw materials, waste, industrial outputs, and related consumption patterns.
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Dark side of insulationBuilding insulation has become a modish activity in the western world since the 1980s. Considerable benefits can accrue in energy conservation, occupant comfort and reduction of... More »
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Rooftop runoff contaminationLead author of this article is Dennis Lye Rooftop runoff contamination is receiving increasing attention as environmental and health issues, particularly as human... More »
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Wind turbine bird mortality Last Updated on 2014-11-30 21:32:32 Wind turbine bird mortality is a by-product of large scale wind farms, which are increasingly promoted as an alternative to fossil fuel derived energy production. To adequately assess the extent of impact to avian populations, deeper factors than gross mortality by turbine action must be assessed. In particular, one must examine: (a) impacts to threatened bird species, (b) total impacts due to avian habitat loss as well as direct mechanicalkill, (c) ecological impacts due to apex predator bird loss and (d) future siting decisions for windfarms, since much of the prior bird mortality is due to poor siting decisions. Bird mortality from wind turbines is a significant adverse ecological impact, and threatens to expand in scope dramatically with the rush to develop new energy sources. This impact is measured as high due to the loss of threatened species and due to... More » 
Fossil fuel (Industrial Ecology) Last Updated on 2014-10-28 12:02:28 Fossil fuel is any naturally occurring carbon compound found in theEarth's crust that has been produced by anaerobic conditions and high pressures acting on dead organisms. These fossil fuel deposits are typically found at depths beneath the Earth surface or ocean floor of tens of meters to kilometers, and often occur in large agglomerations of gas, liquid or solid matter.Presently, combustion of fossil fuels account for over 86 percent of the world's artificial energy delivered to the human society. These fuels are considered non-renweable in that their natural creation time requires millions of years. The extraction, processing and combustion of fossil fuels causes significant adverse environmental consequences to biodiversity, air quality and water quality, as well as substantial impacts to human health and mortality. These processes also generate large... More » 
Sustainability (Industrial Ecology) Last Updated on 2014-06-28 09:40:31 Despite its popularity, the term sustainability is used in a wide variety of ways with a plethora of meanings. At the 1992 United Nations-sponsored Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, sustainable development was discussed in the context of a 1987 report entitled Our Common Future, which defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." However, challenges remain in understanding how this definition could be helpful in evaluating policy choices or business decisions, since avoiding impeding the "ability of future generations to meet their own needs" requires predicting both their needs and their abilities. More recently, industrial ecology has been referred to as the "science of sustainability", although industrial ecology itself is... More » Public Health Statement for 1,1,2-Trichloroethane Last Updated on 2013-09-17 22:09:18 This article is a verbatim version of the original and is not available for edits or additions by EoE editors or authors. Companion articles on the same topic that are editable may exist within the EoE. December 1989 CAS# 79-00-5 This Public Health Statement is the summary chapter from the Toxicological Profile for 1,1,2-trichloroethane. It is one in a series of Public Health Statements about hazardous substances and their health effects. A shorter version, the ToxFAQs™, is also available. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are present. For more information, call the ATSDR Information Center at 1-888-422-8737. 1,1,2-Trichloroethane is a colorless, sweet-smelling liquid that does... More » Anthropocene (Industrial Ecology) Last Updated on 2013-09-03 12:23:40 The Anthropocene defines Earth's most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans. The word combines the root "anthropo", meaning "human" with the root "-cene", the standard suffix for "epoch" in geologic time. The Anthropocene is distinguished as a new period either after or within the Holocene, the current epoch, which began approximately 10,000 years ago (about 8000 BC) with the end of the last glacial period. Anthropocene is a new term, proposed in 2000 by Nobel Prize winning scientist Paul Crutzen. A similar term, Anthrocene, was coined by Andrew Revkin in his 1992 book Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast, but was not adopted by scientists.... More » 
