Industrial Ecology; An Environmental Agenda for Industry
"...Operating on a global scale brings problems at a global level. The environmental issues now facing industry are no longer focused simply on local toxic impacts -- although these remain potentially serious. There are now unindended effects on the total global environment, of which global warming and ozone depletion may be only the most visible of a multitude of adverse symptoms.
The emerging environmental challenge requires a technical and management approach capable of addressing problems of global scope... We still know too little about the adaptive capacity of the natural environment as a whole to predict confidently how it will react to continuing industrialization...
...The aim of this paper is to introduce and discuss the concept of industrial ecology as the best available candidate for this needed conceptual framework. In essence, industrial ecology involves designing industrial infrastructures as if they were a series of inter-locking man-made ecosystems interfacing with the natural global ecosystem. Industrial ecology takes the pattern of the natural environment as a model for solving environmental problesm, creating a new paradigm for the industrial system in the process. This is "biomimetic" design on the largest scale, and represents a decisive reorientation from conquering nature -- which we have effectively already done -- to cooperating with it..." --Hardin Tibbs, "Industrial Ecology; An Environmental Agenda for Industry"; read pdf on cite
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