Humanity's Environmental Future: Making Sense in a Troubled World [Paperback]

William Ross McCluney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2004

There has been a lot of exciting movement at the Capitol recently--climate change and energy are top priorities in the new Congress. The newly discounted Humanity¿s Environmental Future provides detailed background information concerning both climate change and the energy crisis, as parts of a much bigger picture, all tied together neatly in this one comprehensive treatment. The book comprehensively examines the wide variety of difficult environmental and socio-economic problems facing humanity as it struggles toward a sustainable future. Powerful forces are driving us to degrade Earth's life-support system--the biosphere. These assaults are taking their toll, resulting in a daily barrage of news reports of environmental decline and ecosystem breakdown, all of which threaten Earth's ability to support its growing human population. The issues involved are imbedded in the industrial world's economic and business theories, lifestyles, development policies, and educational and political structures. They extend to the developing countries, as these follow similar growth, development, and economic advancement patterns. Humanity has already exceeded Earth's carrying capacity, in the absence of adequate supplemental energy inputs from the fossil fuels and other sources. As world petroleum production reaches a peak and then declines, there will be increasing pressure on energy prices to soar, possibly causing serious adverse economic consequences, and certainly stimulating major shifts in worldwide energy production and use. Major lifestyle and other changes are likely to result. Humanity's Environmental Future addresses these issues head on, examines their causes, and provides a variety of suggestions for reform. A major conclusion is that misplaced values and beliefs both drive humanity toward environmental disaster and prevent us from taking sufficiently comprehensive actions to stop the unrelenting destruction. Seven chapters are devoted to the insights and skills most needed for humanity to reverse its destructive course and make the needed changes before things have advanced so far that it may become too late to stop the worst of the consequences. The book concludes with several chapters dealing with specific reform proposals and positive suggestions for personal, group, and governmental action.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This will be a very effective book. I commend you .... Its publishing will be a special event." -- Paul B. MacCready, winner of the Kremer prize for human-powered aircraft, inventor of the Gossamer Albatross, Gossamer Condor, and solar powered vehicles and aircraft

I congratulate you-it’s a great piece of work, and I hope it’s a huge success. -- Daniel Quinn, prize-winning author of Ishmael, Providence, The Story of B, and Beyond Civilization

From the Publisher

THE FATE OF THE EARTH —THAT’S REALLY UP FOR GRABS

"We are taking apart the life-support system of Planet Earth" proclaims Dr. Ross McCluney, Principal Research Scientist at the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa, Florida. He adds: "Without a major change in direction, we may be the first species to extinguish itself." The problem is that the industrialized countries of the world have become too successful. "We’ve developed an amazingly advanced civilization, sent men to the moon, made enormous strides in science, medicine, and the arts, and are feeding more people than ever before," says McCluney. "More people are materially prosperous now than at any time in civilization’s history. Our steady advance over the last several millennia can be thought of as a natural expression of humanity’s drive toward improved living conditions." And we’ve succeeded beyond our wildest expectations. But we are facing a time when much of this might come to an end.

"All good things come with a price," says McCluney. Following the recent shoot up of world population—coupled with powerful new technologies for exploiting and altering nature—Earth is now giving us signals that she’s had enough: global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, fisheries nearing exhaustion, soil erosion and depletion, freshwater shortages worldwide, grain harvests down in China, species extinction, and the peaking and subsequent decline of world oil production. "There are real limits to growth," McCluney writes, "and we are reaching them."

As are many other scientists around the world, McCluney is raising the alarm, pointing to the fact that humanity is extinguishing plant and animal species at the appalling rate of 100 or more each day, on average. He quotes author Daniel Quinn and scientist Alan Thornhill as saying that we are systematically replacing nonhuman biomass with human biomass. "If the process continues," McCluney says, "there will be nothing left for us to eat but each other!"

After examining the issues for several decades, McCluney has reached the conclusion that our modern way of living has the unfortunate side-effect of irreversibly damaging important portions of the biological, physical, and chemical systems needed to support life on the Earth. "The scientists who have studied these matters carefully have concluded that we have at most a couple of decades to turn things around, to back away from the cliff toward which we are headed, and find a truly sustainable way to live." McCluney adds that changing our ways—living sustainably—will lead to even better lives than the ones we are now leading in the affluent nations. A truly sustainable society will be safer, less hectic, more meaningful, more rewarding, and more comfortable, with less psychological wear and tear and more inner (and outer) enjoyment of life. His new book explains these issues in a clear, easy-to-read manner, making difficult subjects accessible to the average reader.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: SunPine Press (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974446106
• ISBN-13: 978-0974446103
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,276,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. McCluney is a nationally recognized scientist, author, and optical designer. His research specialties include optical system design and evaluation, building window solar radiation analysis, solar cooker and solar water distillation system design.

Since the first Earth Day in 1970'when he was a leader in the University of Miami's observance of that event'he has been writing and speaking on environmental issues for a variety of audiences.

As an optical physicist, McCluney's interests are in the optical and illumination performances of a variety of novel solar lighting systems, including the relatively new tubular skylight products being marketed by several companies.

Dr. McCluney served as technical consultant on the design and construction of the world's largest sundial at Walt Disney World and smaller ones at the University of Texas Pan American Campus in Edinburg and at the Council Bluffs Public Library in Council Bluffs, Iowa. More information about these projects is offered below. Dr. McCluney provides technical consulting services to private and governmental organizations in a variety of areas.

He has written more than 60 technical papers'including several papers for general audiences on environmental ethics'and three books. He has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses at the college and university levels. He supervised the M.S. thesis research of several students at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida.

His scientific career has spanned over three decades. His publication list can be seen at www.rossmccluney.com/RMpublist05.htm

His primary interest is in the energy and illumination performance of fenestrations systems, but he also pursues work in the optical aspects of solar energy collection as well as issues of energy and environmental policy, including environmental ethics and scientific responsibility.

He has served on the Boards of Directors of Indian River Audubon Society and Florida Audubon Society, and is currently Vice President of Floridians for a Sustainable Population.

Dr. McCluney's research activities in fenestration have received national and international recognition. He is past chairman of ASHRAE Technical Committee on fenestration; a member of the daylighting committee of the Illumination Engineering Society; a member and technical consultant of the U.S. National Committee on Interior Lighting of the International Lighting Commission (CIE), and a past member of the CIE's technical committee on international daylight and solar radiation measurements. He has authored over 70 papers and two books, on both technical and environmental topics. His textbook INTRODUCTION TO RADIOMETRY AND PHOTOMETRY was published by Artech House in 1994.

Dr. McCluney obtained a Bachelor's Degree in physics from Rhodes College in Memphis and his Master's Degree in physics from the University of Tennessee. His research at the University of Tennessee involved the diffraction of light by sound waves. From 1966 to 1967, he worked as a development engineer for Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York, and developed a holographic interferometer for testing large optical systems. He used this technique at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida to develop a ten-pass holographic interferometer for measuring very small changes in optical systems.

Dr. McCluney received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Miami in 1973. His dissertation research was based on the scattering of light by marine organisms. He worked as a research scientist in optical oceanography for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, from 1973 to 1976. Dr. McCluney's work there focused on the remote measurement of ocean color.

His current work focuses on the development of unique daylighting systems for buildings and writing and speaking on energy and environmental topics.