Book Description

This annotated bibliography introduces readers to preventive approaches for making the energy requirements of modern ways of life more sustainable. Since a society can neither create nor destroy energy, all energy is temporarily borrowed from the biosphere and returned to it in degraded form. The activities of a way of life of a society that involve energy flows may be represented as a network for which the biosphere acts as the ultimate source and sink. This network and therefore the energy basis for a modern life style will be sustainable when the biosphere can perform these roles indefinitely. The present bibliography regards the preventive approaches related to energy as a capital component of preventive approaches for improving the sustainability of contemporary civilization. This book, as well as the two companion volumes, Sustainable Production and Healthy Cities, is the result of a twelve-year research project carried out at the Center for Technology and Social Development at the University of Toronto. The research findings led to the development of a new conceptual framework and strategy aimed at converting technological and economic growth into development that would gradually become more sustainable.