Supply-Side Sustainability

This is undoubtedly the most thought-provoking book on sustainability that has appeared so far. Int'l Journal of Sustainable Development & World Economy Sustainability does not emerge just from activities such as recycling or conserving biodiversity; it requires problem solving. This, too, costs more and more for ever-smaller amounts of information, but Allen (botany, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison) and Tainter and Hoekstra (both, USDA Forest Service) offer recommendations for reducing costs... the importance of how a society can become sustainable makes the effort vital. Choice Using a very wide range of examples from ecology and social history, the authors seek to show how supply-side sustainability works in both social and ecological situations. The mix of disciplines encountered here is intellectually fertile, the social and the ecological inputs illuminating one another effectively and together producing a unified approach to a complex problem. British Ecological Society [A] thoughtful book that reviews historical topics associated with sustainability, presents model cases of sustainable or nonsustainable future,s outlines important principles associated with ecological management of material systems, and the theoretical approaches to manage them. It will appeal to a broad audience seeking solutions to these daunting problems. -- Clive A. Edwards Quarterly Review of Biology

Timothy F. H. Allen is a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Joseph Tainter is a project leader at the Rocky Mountain Research Station in the USDA Forest Service in Albuquerque. Thomas W. Hoekstra is director of the Inventory and Monitoring Institute of the National Resources Research Center of the USDA Forest Service.

Preface 1. The Nature of the Problem Part I. Complexity, Problem Solving, and Social Sustainability 2. Complexity and Social Sustainability: Framework 3. Complexity and Social Sustainability: Experience Part II. A Hierarchical Approach to Ecological Sustainability 4. The Criteria for Observation and Modeling 5. Biomes and the Biosphere 6. Ecosystems, Energy Flows, Evolution, and Emergence 7. Retrospect and Prospects References Index