An Introduction to Practical Environmentalism and the Four Pillars
A Short History of Environmentalism in the United States
The Ethics of Environmentalism
Issue-Driven Environmentalism
Process-Based Environmentalism
Regulatory Environmentalism
Protest Environmentalism
Perspective-Based Environmentalism
The Nonbeliever
The Live Earth
Spaceship Earth
Back to Nature
Doomsday
Anticonsumption
Cornucopia
The Confounding Factors
Competing Objectives
Uncertainty
Measures of Success
Fallacy of Prediction
Assumption of Future States
The Problem with Percentages
History of Paranoia
Crisis Mentality
Environmental Degradation—The First Pillar
Resource Conservation—The Second Pillar
The “Human” Pillars of Economic Progress and Personal Benefit
Economic Progress
Personal Benefit
Scoring with the Pillars—A Few Simple Examples to Illustrate the Method
The Pillars in Daily Life
The Pillars and the Really Big Issues
More Really Big Issues—The Sacrificial Ones
The Pillars and Global Warming
Other Measures of Environmental Performance
Carbon Footprint
Carrying Capacity
Life-Cycle Costing
Government and Scientific Reports
Green Accounting—ISEW (Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare)
Simple Monetary Economics
Some Final Thoughts
Index
Most chapters include references.
Biography
Dr. Weldon is an engineer by training and experience. He holds bachelors and masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering and earned his doctorate in Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa. He has spent much of his career working in industrial power plants. His experience includes working for large corporations in the pulp and paper, building products, and food products industries. He has also worked as a plant engineer for a Midwestern municipal electrical utility. His current position is focused on energy conservation and environmental sustainability for a large food manufacturer. Dr. Weldon has been a college instructor and carried out research in the areas of ground source heat pump systems and the association of water quality in Midwestern rivers with agricultural land use patterns. He is married with four children and lives in a wonderful small town in eastern Iowa.
"… a timely, practical, and well-focused book on the topic of "practical environmentalism." … Good foundational reading for a wide audience including activists, policy makers, researchers, and resource managers in both public and private sectors. Summing Up: Recommended."
— CHOICE Magazine, April 2012
