Sustainability Unpacked

<p>Food, water and energy form some of the basic elements of sustainability considerations. This ground-breaking book examines and decodes these elements, exploring how a range of countries make decisions regarding their energy and bio-resource consumption and procurement. The authors consider how these choices impact not only the societies and environments of those countries, but the world in general. </p> <p>To achieve this, the authors review the merits of various sustainability and environmental metrics, and then apply these to 34 countries that are ranked low, medium or high on the human development index. The book assesses their resource capacities and the environmental impacts, both within and outside their country boundaries, from consuming food, water, and energy. The final section uses the lessons derived from the earlier analyses of resource consumption to explore the importance of geography, climates and sustainable management of forests and other natural resources for building resilient societies in the future.</p> <p>PART 1: From the Beginning</p> <p>1. Sustainability - Clues for Positive Societal and Ecosystem Change</p> <p>2. Learning From the Past: Why Societies Collapsed or Survived</p> <p>PART 2: Scientific Approach to Decoding Sustainability</p> <p>3. Today: Decoding Country Resource Stories</p> <p>PART 3: The Real Country Stories</p> <p>4. Fossil Energy Endowments and Externalities</p> <p>5. Forests - the Backbone and Circulatory System for Human Societies</p> <p>6. The Soil and Water Connection to Food: Adapt, Mitigate, or Die</p> <p>PART 4. Climate and Soils: Unavoidable Constraints To Solar Capital</p> <p>7. The Future: Climate Change as a Global Driver Impacting Sustainability</p> <p>8. Where the Past and Future meet: Soils or the Unseen Earth that Nurtures Societies</p> <p>9. The Ultimate Constraint to Human Sustainability: Solar Income</p> <p>PART 5. Societies Adapt To a Quagmire of Resource Choices</p> <p>10. Debunking Sustainability Myths</p> <p>11. Portfolio for Managing Natural and Human Capital</p> <p>12. Sustainable Ecosystems: Investments in Human and Natural Capital</p> <p>References</p>