Soft Science Sustainability

The central role of education in responding to climate change is noted by stakeholders of all kinds. Yet for education to act as a vehicle of change it must become more holistic, inclusive, critically reflexive, and transformative. Most critically, it must transcend the grip of Western hegemonic reasoning—of modern colonial habits of seeing, perceiving, relating, and structuring—as the only legitimate means of making sense of life and the earth we inhabit together. Because drivers of climate change involve multidimensional, intersecting anthropogenic processes that are at once global and local in scope and are often intimately personal in ways difficult to discern directly, educating to sustain the future will require competencies that exist beyond science and technological innovation. In Soft Science Sustainability, Ragnhild Utheim uses social cartography to explore the metacognitive, psychosocial, intercultural, collaborative, and interactive systems dimensions of what it means to sustain our common future together. The 3C cartography examines the less tangible human behaviors, thoughts and emotions, worldviews, interdependencies, complexities, and dynamic adaptability that factor into climate change and its threats to human and other-than-human life on earth.

This book offers a timely snapshot of soft computing methodologies and their applications to various problems related to sustainability, including electric energy consumption; fault diagnosis; vessel fuel consumption; determining the best sites for new malls; maritime port projects; and ad-hoc vehicular networks. Further, it demonstrates how metaheuristics and machine learning methods, fuzzy linear programming, neural networks, computing with words, linguistic models and other soft computing methods can be efficiently used to solve real-world problems. Intended as a practice-oriented guide for students, researchers, and professionals working at the interface between computer science, industrial engineering, naval engineering, agriculture, and sustainable development / climate change research, it provides readers with a set of intelligent solutions, helping them answer a range of emerging questions related to sustainability.

This book comprehensively covers the topic of sustainability in the clothing and fashion sector. Sustainability is applied under different industrial sectors and there has to be a distinction in every industrial sector when it comes to sustainability in its application. Though the definition is common for sustainability, sustainability in the clothing sector has its unique objectives, principles, and limitations, which this book highlights.

This book uses the concept of sustainability in science to address problems afflicting the environment, and to devise measures for improving economies, societies, behaviors, and people. The book pursues a scientific approach, and uses scientific evidence as the basis for achieving sustainability. The key topics addressed include: unemployment, health and disease, unsustainable production, our common future, renewable energies, waste management, environmental ethics, and harmful anthropogenic activities. Whereas past literature has mainly examined sustainability as an environmental issue, this book expands the conversation into various sciences, including mathematics, biology, agriculture, computer science, engineering, and physics, and shows how sustainability could be achieved by uniting these fields. It offers a wealth of information across various disciplines, making it not only an intriguing read but also informative and insightful.

This book demonstrates how practical science can be applied to real-life conservation and development problems.

Water is the life source of all living things on our planet. By honoring our environment and realizing the importance of our great resources, we not only restore our natural world, but we also create a sustainable planet and quality of life we so desperately need. Many do not have access to pure, clean water. In addition, natural disasters temporarily alter water systems and make them undrinkable, and as we look for healthy, on-the-go alternatives, many have turned to bottled water. This is one of the many issues involving water science and environmental sustainability. Leadership Approaches to the Science of Water and Sustainability highlights the many issues with water and sustainability. It details the lengths one goes to find, develop, and protect natural resources and highlights the scientists, state, and government agencies who work tirelessly to protect our great natural resources. Covering topics such as environmental law, the history of water, and water science, this premier reference source is a dynamic resource for government officials, conservationists, environmental engineers, agricultural scientists, environmental scientists, non-profit organizations, students and faculty of higher education, researchers, and academicians.

In this handbook social science researchers who focus on sustainability present and discuss their findings, including empirical work, case studies, teaching and learning innovations, and applied projects. As such, the book offers a basis for the dissemination of information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of research projects, especially initiatives which have influenced behavior, decision-making, or policy. Furthermore, it introduces methodological approaches and projects which aim to offer a better understanding of sustainability across society and economic sectors. This multidisciplinary overview presents the work of researchers from across the spectrum of the social sciences. It stimulates innovative thinking on how social sciences influence sustainable development and vice-versa.

Leading-edge organizations have discovered that fun can--and does--translate into bottom line success. By harnessing the power of fun, companies find they can better retain employees and customers, motivate teams, improve productivity, increase innovation, and create a sense of community. Leslie Yerkes details precisely how eleven successful companies--including Southwest Airlines, Pike Place Fish, Isle of Capri Casinos, EmployEase, and Prudential--have integrated fun into the normal course of business. This new edition provides updates on how these same companies have grown, prospered, and continued to thrive--in spite of national tragedies, natural disaster, growing competition, and changing economic conditions--in part because of the culture they have created through what Yerkes calls "The Fun/Work Fusion." Yerkes illustrates eleven principles--from capitalizing on the spontaneous to hiring good people and getting out of their way--that will inspire you to inject a sense of playfulness and joy into your workplace. Full of real-life examples, strategies, ideas, resources, tools, tips, and techniques, Fun Works will help any company in any industry become a place where people love to work.