Prosperity without Pollution: The Prevention Strategy for Industry and Consumers(Environmental Engineering S.)

The environment is "in." Global warming. Ozone depletion. Toxic waste. Acid rain. Concern that we are sinking ever deeper into "environmental debt" has sown the seeds of a growing U.S. Green Movement, transplanted from Europe. Unfortunately, all of the current talk and activity do not add up to a coherent environmental strategy on the part of government, industry, and environmental organizations. Here is the first book to explain why only a preventive environmental strategy can work, because growing population, consumption, and industrialization cripple current, rather haphazard, remedial efforts. Authored by two leading experts, this book shows how our society can make more with less, be more competitive and less polluting, while maintaining our standard of living by reducing and eventually eliminating the production of wastes and pollutants from industry, commerce, homes, farms, institutions.... This may seem far-fetched, but be prepared to discover in these pages that there can be a middle ground between ecology and economy--and that you can help achieve it. You'll find data and examples--facts few have had access to before--that any person can use, from engineers in industry to office workers to activists. Every concerned citizen will also want to consider the authors' innovative suggestions for taxing wastes and using the proceeds to help companies and communities switch to new industrial processes. Also, you should evaluate their proposals to require meaningful waste and toxicity information on product labels, to make bans on chemicals and products a more credible and available corrective measure, and to secure permanent, high-level government support for pollution prevention. But, above all, this book is a self-help book for all whose home is Earth. An ounce of pollution prevention that's worth a pound of environmental cure. A way for concerned individuals to become agents for change in the marketplace, the workplace, and the voting place. Read on.

About the Author :
JOEL S. HIRSCHHORN, PhD, is a world authority on clean technology and powder metallurgy. Following a distinguished academic career at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he joined the Office of Technology Assessment of the United States Congress, where he effectively championed environment and pollution issues. He is now President of EnviroSearch-East, an environmental consulting firm in Washington, D.C. KIRSTEN U. OLDENBURG, MA, an expert on materials policy, the environment, and pollution prevention, has been the coauthor of seven key Office of Technology Assessment of the United States Congress reports since 1983. She is also the author of numerous articles on pollution prevention and other related topics and has been selected to manage a pollution prevention project for an international environmental organization. (The author's views do not necessarily reflect those of the Office of Technology Assessment.)