Chemistry for Sustainable Future

CH.0 Introduction

* Large and small all of the species on our planet somehow connect. Exactly how this happens, however may not be so obvious to us.

* Shifting baselines refers to the idea that what people expect as normal on our planet has changed over time, especially with regard to ecosystems.

* Most human activities includes biking, driving, using bags of whatever sort, and eating having two things in common; they require the consumption of natural resources, and they result in the creation of waste.

* The waste products we release are unprecedented in their scale and in their potential to lower our quality of life and even shorten it.

* Underpinning much of our waste production is energy. The need to find energy sources that are both clean and sustainable arguably is the major challenge of our century.

* Because the term sustainability is used by do many groups of people, it has taken on different meanings. We have selected one that is frequently quoted: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This definition is drawn from a statement written in a 1987 report, our common future, by the world commission on environment and development of the United Nations.

* Four target identified to ensure environmental sustainability are:

1. Integrate the principles of sustainable into country policies.

2. Reverse biodiversity loss

3. Proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

4. Improvement in the lives of a least 100 million slum dwellers.

Triple bottom line –Three-way measure of the success of a business based on its benefits to the economy to society, and to the environment.

Cradle to grave- analyzing the life cycle of an item, starting with the raw materials from which it came and ending with its ultimate disposal someplace on earth.

Cradle to cradle- a term from the 1970s referring to a...