Paradigms Lost: Learning from Environmental Mistakes, Mishaps and Misdeeds

Erscheinungsjahr 2005
ISBN: 978-0-7506-7888-9
Verlag: BUTTERWORTH HEINEMANN

Buch, Englisch, 600 Seiten, Format (B × H): 170 mm x 232 mm, Gewicht: 903 g

Engineers and scientists have made great progress in advancing the understanding of the principles underlying environmental quality and public health. However, all too often, society and the scientific community do not realize the connections between environmental occurrences. In their haste to remedy a situation, they overlook lessons that could be learned to prevent future disasters. Paying attention to the past instructs us about the future.

Paradigms Lost combines the historical case perspective with credible and sound scientific explanations of key environmental disasters and problems. The author sorts through natural disasters and human mistakes from Love Canal, New York to Bhopal, India to provide larger lessons that can be applied by scientists, engineers and public safety officials. The analysis of these events includes viable alternatives for future generations.

Zielgruppe

Environmental Engineers, Civil Engineers, Chemical Engineers, Chemists, Plant Managers, Public Safety Administrators, Lawyers, Surveyors, Petroleum Engineers, Waste Managers, Military Personnel,
Government Agencies (EPA, FEMA)

Autoren/Hrsg.

Vallero, Daniel A.

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umwelttechnik
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltverschmutzung, Umweltkriminalität, Umweltrecht
• Technische Wissenschaften Umwelttechnik | Umwelttechnologie Umwelttechnik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I: New Science and New Paradigms
Lessons Learned: A Case Approach to Environmental Problems
Pollution Revisited

Part II: Key Environmental Events in Media
Something in the Air
Watershed Events
Landmark Cases
By Way of Introduction
Environmental Swords and Damocles

Part III: Other Paradigms
Dropping Acid and Heavy Metal Reactions
Spaceship Earth
Myths and Ideology: Perception versus Reality
Just Environmental Decisions, Please

Part IV: What is Next?
Bottom Lines and Top of the Head Guesses

Appendix 1: Equilibrium
Appendix 2: Government Reorganizations Creating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Appendix 3: Reliability in Environmental Decision Making
Appendix 4: Principles of Environmental Persistence
Appendix 5: Cancer Slope Factors
Appendix 6: Equations for Calculating Lifetime Average Daily Exposure (LADD) for Various Routs of Exposure
Appendix 7: Characterizing Environmental Risk
Appendix 8: Risk-Based Contaminant Cleanup Example
Appendix 9: Shannon Weiner Index Example
Appendix 10: Useful Conversions in Atmospheric Chemistry
INDEX

Über Autor(innen)

Vallero, Daniel A.
Professor Daniel A. Vallero is a renowned environmental scientist and engineer with four decades of experience. He has advised U.S. government agencies on critical issues like PBTs, climate change, acid rain, and chemical risks. At Duke University, he led the Engineering Ethics program and taught courses on air pollution, sustainable design, and ethics. Vallero has served on the National Academy of Engineering's Online Ethics Committee and the National Institute of Engineering Ethics. An expert in emerging technologies, he focuses on societal, ethical, and public health challenges related to nanotechnology and environmental biotechnology. His work also encompasses emergency response and homeland security, making him a leading voice in environmental risk and ethics.

Dan Vallero is an internationally recognized expert in the transport, chemical transformation and environmental fate of hazardous pollutants. His three decades of professional experience in hazardous waste engineering and management have included research, teaching and regulatory advice related to a wide range of human health risk and ecological issues, from global climate change to the release of hazardous products of incomplete combustion from waste incinerators to the assessment of the risks from exposures to environmental endocrine disruptors.
Dr. Vallero recently established the Engineering Ethics program at Duke University. This innovative program introduces students to the complex relationships between science, technology and societal demands on the engineer. The lessons learned from the cases in this book are a fundamental part of Dukes preparation of its future engineers to address the ethical dilemmas likely to be encountered during the careers of the next generation engineers.