Higher Education and Sustainable Development

Higher Education and Sustainable Development
Paradox and Possibility
by Stephen Gough and William Scott

This book examines whether it is actually possible to mandate, plan, monitor and evaluate the higher education sector’s route to the production of educated, innovative, independent, self-determining, critical individuals while at the same time achieving a range of wider policy goals on the side. This book examines this question in the context of a particular international policy issue – sustainable development – which is now seen across the globe as a necessary and urgent response to a range of social and environmental issues that threaten the integrity of the biosphere and human well being. The book concludes that the idea of sustainable development holds both opportunities and dangers for universities as they pursue their proper role in a free society.

Environmental Learning

Environmental Learning

This book is about how school and university students experience and respond to learning activities concerned with environmental issues. While the learning demands associated with sustainable development become ever greater and more complex, our understandings of the nature and dynamics of such learning are in their early infancy. Environmental education and education for sustainable development have become features of many countries’ formal education systems, but very little is known about what such provision looks and feels like for the learners concerned. The aim of this book is to bring learners and their experiences to the centre of current debates about environmental education and education for sustainable development. By exploring the real-time actions, interactions and interpretations of individual learners in various environmental learning situations, we show how insights from research into the student experience can provide powerful pointers for future practice, policy and research. The last 4 decades have seen growing international recognition for the educational dimensions of environmental and sustainable development issues. Since the late 1960s, international statements from organisations such as the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) have called for environmental problems to be tackled through environmental education for all age groups. The 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm declared that: ‘education in environmental matters, for the younger generation as well as adults […] is essential’ (United Nation 1972).

Debate Climate Change

Debating Climate Change
by Elizabeth L. Malone

As greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated and contentious voices fill the air, the question gains urgency: How can people with widely varying viewpoints agree to address climate change? Each participant in the debate seems to have a different agenda, from protecting economic growth in developing countries to protecting the energy industry in industrialized countries, from those aghast at the damage done to the Earth to optimists who think we just need to adjust our technological approach.

Debating Climate Change sorts through the tangle of arguments surrounding climate change to find paths to unexpected sites of agreement. Using an innovative sociological approach - combined discourse and social network analyses - Elizabeth L. Malone analyzes 100 documents representing a range of players in this high-stakes debate. Through this she shows how even the most implacable adversaries can find common ground - and how this common ground can be used to build agreement.

Written in a clear, accessible style, this original research and insightful use of communication analysis will help advance understanding and negotiation on climate change throughout the pivotal times to come.

Sustainable Solar Housing

Sustainable Solar Housing

This far-reaching and authoritative two-volume set examines a range of potential solutions for low-energy building design, considering different strategies (energy conservation and renewable energy) and technologies (relating to the building envelope, ventilation, heat delivery, heat production, heat storage, electricity and control). Energy and life-cycle impacts are considered as crucial factors, including passive and active solar use, daylighting and high efficiency conventional heat production. Each volume assesses the potential of these options in a variety of contexts, covering different housing types (apartment, row and detached) in cold, temperate and mild climates. The impressive list of expert authors from 14 countries includes a mix of internationally respected academics and practitioners, working together within the framework of a five-year International Energy Agency (IEA) research project.

Volume 1 presents strategies and solutions, offering the reader a solid basis for developing concepts, considering environmental and economic concerns for housing projects in a variety of contexts.

Volume 2 offers a detailed analysis of exemplary buildings in different European countries and examines the various technologies employed to achieve their remarkable performance. Aided by clear, full colour illustrations, it offers invaluable insights into the application of these technologies.