1.

Record Nr.

UNISALENTO991003219649707536

Autore

Vallero, Daniel A.

Titolo

Paradigms lost [e-book] : learning from environmental mistakes, mishaps, and misdeeds / Daniel A. Vallero

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Boston : Butterworth-Heinemann, c 2006

ISBN

9780750678889

0750678887

Descrizione fisica

xxxii, 563 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm

Disciplina

363.7

Soggetti

Environmental education - History

Cumulative effects assessment (Environmental assessment)

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Risorsa elettronica

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index

Nota di contenuto

Part I: New Science and New Paradigms -- Lessons Learned: A Case Approach to Environmental Problems -- Pollution Revisited -- Part II: Key Environmental Events in Media -- Something in the Air -- Watershed Events -- Landmark Cases -- By Way of Introduction -- Environmental Swords and Damocles -- Part III: Other Paradigms -- Dropping Acid and Heavy Metal Reactions -- Spaceship Earth -- Myths and Ideology: Perception versus Reality -- Just Environmental Decisions, Please -- Part IV: What is Next? -- Bottom Lines and Top of the Head Guesses -- Appendix 1: Equilibrium -- Appendix 2: Government Reorganizations Creating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- Appendix 3: Reliability in Environmental Decision Making -- Appendix 4: Principles of Environmental Persistence -- Appendix 5: Cancer Slope Factors -- Appendix 6: Equations for Calculating Lifetime Average Daily Exposure (LADD) for Various Routs of Exposure -- Appendix 7: Characterizing Environmental Risk -- Appendix 8: Risk-Based Contaminant Cleanup Example -- Appendix 9: Shannon Weiner Index Example -- Appendix 10: Useful Conversions in Atmospheric Chemistry -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

Engineers and scientists have made great progress in advancing the



understanding of the principles underlying environmental quality and public health. However, all too often, society and the scientific community do not realize the connections between environmental occurrences. In their haste to remedy a situation, they overlook lessons that could be learned to prevent future disasters. Paying attention to the past instructs us about the future. Paradigms Lost combines the historical case perspective with credible and sound scientific explanations of key environmental disasters and problems. The author sorts through natural disasters and human mistakes from Love Canal, New York to Bhopal, India to provide larger lessons that can be applied by scientists, engineers and public safety officials. The analysis of these events includes viable alternatives for future generations. * Includes alternative approaches to environmental issues from preventative measures to contingency plans * Richly annotated with sidebars, discussion boxes and generous examples from Exxon Valdez and Love Canal to Agent Orange and Bhopal * A usable tool for all professionals from lawyers to chemical engineers