Ecological Numeracy: Quantitative Analysis of Environmental Issues [Paperback]

Robert A. Herendeen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471183091 | ISBN-13: 978-0471183099 | Publication Date: April 20, 1998 | Edition: 1

Master the fundamental math skills necessary to quantify and evaluate a broad range of environmental questions.

Environmental issues are often quantitative--how much land, how many people, what amount of pollution. Computer programs are useful, but there is no substitute for being able to use a simple calculation to slice through to the crux of the problem. Having a grasp of how the factors interact and whether the results make sense allows one to explain and argue a point of view forcefully to diverse audiences.

With an engaging, down-to-earth style and practical problem-solving approach, Ecological Numeracy makes it easy to understand and master basic mathematical concepts and techniques that are applicable to life-cycle assessment, energy consumption, land use, pollution generation, and a broad range of other environmental issues. Robert Herendeen brings the numbers to life with dozens of fascinating, often entertaining examples and problems.

Requiring only a moderate quantitative background, Ecological Numeracy is a superb introduction for advanced undergraduate students in environmental science, planning, geography, and physical and natural sciences. It is also a valuable professional resource for environmental managers, regulators, and administrators.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...Herendeen has crafted an accessible guide to quantitative thinking in environmental policy analysis. He describes the logic of several recurrent analytical frames of reference (e.g., end use analysis, discount rates, exponential growth, and stocks and flows) at a level that should convince readers that these are natural ways to formalize ideas that already exist in their minds. Each model is illustrated with topical examples, often including lists that provide a feel for the relative size of related phenomena (e.g., energy consumption intensity and environmental recovery rates). -- Baruch Fischhoff, Carnegie Mellon University, Environment, November 1998

...Herendeen has produced a guide to the straightforward, often simple mathematics that has the potential to guide...ecological thinking. The book is largely based on four equations...[which] analyze components of change,...exponential growth,...resource budgeting, and... indirect environmental effects...Exercises are liberally provided, with the level of difficulty indicated. Along the way, students will face calculations designed to estimate the number of piano tuners in Chicago, the supply of coal in Illinois, and the alteration of global carbon cycles...Herendeen is at his best when the topic being treated is clearly defined and susceptible to straightforward mathematical treatment, as in the solid chapter on end-use analysis and excellent one on dynamics, stocks and flows....Herendeen's book has much to offer and deserves serious consideration as a component of modern science and engineering curriculums. -- Thomas E. Graedel, Yale University, Physics Today, February 1999

The book's prose tends to be dense and terse, as befits its subject, but it is not impersonal. Herendeen discusses his sojourn in Norway in the late 1970s as a way of introducing the difference between fixed and variable costs. He and his wife were happy not owning a car there because they thought in terms of average costs, and taking the bus seemed cheaper. But once they had bought the car, they thought only in terms of marginal costs, and they were happy with that too because in those terms, it was cheaper to take the car, even for short trips...The great value of Herendeen's book is that it demands precise thinking about emotional issues. -- Harold Henderson, Planning, October 1998

With a down-to-earth style and practical problem-solving approach, this book lays out the basic mathematical concepts and techniques that are applicable to life-cycle assessment, energy consumption, land use, pollution generation and a broad range of other environmental issues. Herendeen teaches the reader to make reasonable quantitative assessments pertaining to environmental issues, whether this is the rate of biodegradability of water melon rinds, the ability of forests to sequester carbon, or the costs of using a car....The book is immensely readable and entertaining, including gems such as the effects of different rules when playing the 'tragedy of the commons game'. A fair degree of mathematical knowledge is needed but this should be well within the capability of senior undergraduates. I can see this book being valuable in teaching any undergraduates with connections to environmental science. -- Bulletin of the British Ecological Society, November 1998

From the Publisher

Most environmental problems require skill in quantifying complex concepts such as energy use, waste generation, pollution production, contaminant loading, and the economic costs or benefits of regulatory action. This book is an introduction to the quantitative analysis of environmental problems, written for a broad range of environmental professionals whose quantitative skills may vary from negligible to adequate.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 20, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471183091
• ISBN-13: 978-0471183099
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,645,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thank god some sanity on the issue!, December 18, 2000

By 

Michael Williams "mike-on-peakview" (Boulder, Colorado USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ecological Numeracy: Quantitative Analysis of Environmental Issues (Paperback)

This book should be read by any who want some reality applied to their ecology beliefs. This book is really a competent upper division text book that takes quantitative analysis seriously. My take is that Herendeen is attempting to make ecology into something akin to current day economics. The education about and then critique of cost benefit analysis (consider the time discount rate of the value defined over 300 years) was informative to novices like me who are inclined to promote simple cost benefit analysis approaches of almost all ecology problems. The raw data on large numbers of ecology parameters is also useful (e.g. half life of CO2 in the atmosphere, and hundreds of other data points) just to get some scale to your ecology intuitions.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too broad range for an environmental issue, November 22, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Brasil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ecological Numeracy: Quantitative Analysis of Environmental Issues (Paperback)

This book presents a broad range of environmental analysis. We have a brief introduction to the problem. The best way must be a focus in quantitative analyis of specific environemtal problem