6.4.4 Environmental limits There are many different definitions of what sustainable development means; you were given one in Section 5.3, and how this should guide policy. The underpinning concepts are: equity for human development, and limits on the capacity of the environment. The idea of environmental limits on the ability of the Earth's biophysical systems to cope with and adapt to pressures from human activity, whether from demand for natural resources, the waste products of modern economies, or from habitat modif
6.3 Sustainable development The third approach to balancing human needs with environmental protection is to try to come to grips with what we mean by sustainability. The most widely quoted definition of sustainable development is the one used by Gro Harlem Brundtland in the highly influential book Our Common Future (Brundtland, 1987): 'Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present withou 5.4 Discussion We seem to have travelled a long way from the Industrial Revolution in Europe, but many of the impacts on New Zealand's ecosystems described here can be traced, in part at least, to reverberations from these developments. What lessons can be drawn from this example? Perhaps I should start by emphasising this is not meant to be a complete account of the environmental history of New Zealand. For example, I have not discussed any responses from the population once they realised that harm w 3.3 Greenfreeze: the Greens fight back Some campaigners were not convinced by the arguments of refrigerator manufacturers and suppliers (who also happened to own some patents for HCFCs and HFCs) that the only solution, in the short to medium term, was to use the transitional compounds. They tried to demonstrate that there were practical alternatives. A group of scientists working with Greenpeace International designed a domestic refrigerator based on the use of hydrocarbons, using a mix of propane and isobutane for the refrigerant 3.1 Refrigeration and chlorofluorocarbons A domestic refrigerator consists essentially of two elements. First, it has a well-insulated box that minimises the flow of heat energy from the warmer outside environment to the cold space inside. Second, it has a motor to circulate a cooling liquid or refrigerant which extracts heat from the cold space and carries it to the outside, where it is released, usually through a radiator at the back. Most refrigerators make use of the principle that when liquids vaporise – that is, change 3.1 Voyages of discovery and settlement In Section 2, we saw that there are momentous new and recently transformed flows that are impacting on island territories. Some flows have important precedents, and others may not be quite as novel as they first appear. In this section, we look more closely at some of the flows that have helped make, remake and sometimes unmake is 1.2.2 Change and response in the ‘meadows of the sea’ Midway along the northern shore of the Blackwater estuary lie the Old Hall Marshes on a peninsula three and a half miles long and lying between tidal creeks and mudflats (see Figures 3 and 15a). It is a wild, flat, remote area of mixed ha 1.2 Offshore fragments of industry The rise of global factories in the 1970s owed much to the rapid improvement in transport and communications technologies which took place at that time and which made it possible to keep in touch with, and control, production processes in different parts of the world. Just as significant was the fragmentation of industrial production whereby parts of the manufacturing process could be relocated over vast distances. Sewing in garment and footwear production, for instance, was among the 1.1 Introduction Looking back over the 1970s, it is perhaps hard now to appreciate just how dramatic were the changes to the global map of industry taking place at that time. As more and more of the world's industry shifted from the affluent nations to the poorer, less developed countries in search of a cheaper labour force, the global economic map had to be redrawn to take account of the borders crossed and the distances traversed by firms from wealthier countries seeking to generate higher profits by reloca Groups and teamwork Structural devices Introduction In this course we examine one factor that very often seems to be found skulking around close to problems and solutions: temperature. Almost whatever we do, wherever we are, temperature changes. Stay in the same spot and you'll find daytime and night-time temperatures can be markedly different. You may even find significant changes in temperature during the day. When moving you can encounter more rapid variations. For example, an aircraft might leave a tropical runway where the air tempe References 1.1 Aim The activities and resources in this section engage you in an interdisciplinary investigation of your personal ecology by looking at a range of temporal, spatial, and organisational scales – from the personal to the global, from the short term to the long term. The aim is to gather evidence to help you r 6.2 Refining the specification The ideas for the boiler cut-out switch can now be based on some real knowledge about temperature effects. You are now ready to tackle the next exercise. List four temperature-dependent changes in mate 6.1 Review Let's see if we have made any progress in studying thermal effects. The following SAQ is based on Exercise 3, although this time I have a higher expectation of how much you should be able to do. 5.5 Summary of Section 5 The phase of a material is characterised by its physical state (e.g. solid, liquid or gas), a distinctive arrangement of the atoms, and its chemical composition. Material properties can change suddenly as the temperature increases or decreases, corresponding to changes of phase and the degree of order associated with the arrangement of atoms. Shape memory alloys are examples of a wide range of useful engineering materials that e Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce materia References Stage 5: Formulating measures of performance (how will we know when we have arrived?) The hard systems approach emphasises the need to have measurable means of assessing the efficacy of any potential solution or design, but recognizes that this may not always be possible.
Are you always the quiet one when it comes to group discussion? This free course, Groups and teamwork, will help you improve your working relationships with other people in groups of three or more. The course also deals with project life cycles, project management and the role of the leader.
First published on Mon, 10 Dec 2018 as Author(s):
Microelectronics has enabled designers of integrated circuits to exercise complete control over the electrical characteristics of each component they create. This free course, Structural devices, will illustrate how such control is achieved and the various methods that can be applied in differing circumstances.
First published on Tue, 07 May 2019 as
Exercise 7
