Although there isn’t much academic literature on it (at least in the social
sciences), studies of construction and demolition waste definitely get at these
questions (sometimes with a climate perspective). But I just took a look at the
op-ed and they didn’t make the step that someone else may have pointed out:
there’s no point in lauding solar fields without confronting the concrete that
forms the bases of those fields, often in fragile desert ecosystems. I used to
follow the work of one of my former undergrads in the Amargosa desert
wilderness, threatened by a large-scale renewable energy project - and some of
the efforts to come up with a compromise that protected the ecosystems (see
here
<https://www.kcet.org/redefine/new-desert-plan-will-help-wildlife-along-the-amargosa-river>
- published in September 2016, so no guarantees of what’s happened since…
And here’s a piece that just popped into my mind as a “big picture” overview:
Zalasiewicz, J., et al. (2017). "Scale and diversity of the physical
technosphere: A geological perspective." The Anthropocene Review 4(1): 9-22.
Best to all!
Kate
> On Apr 22, 2021, at 12:32 PM, Rafael Friedmann <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I heard a talk by the head of sustainability at Autocad about 2 years ago at
> a HAAS/UC Berkeley event on the future of work. She showed the daunting
> amounts of materials that would be used to further urbanize our growing human
> population by 2050. Without rethinking very deeply what Earth can provide
> sustainably, we will not be able to build a future that offers wellbeing to
> most of humanity. Your point of the need to align the lovely calls of Biden’s
> summit (and others) with how our economic systems are set up and the
> infrastructure we continue to build (vested interests means we always have
> too much inertia!), is right on the ball.
>
> I suspect that the reality check will need to partly come from Academia –
> with quick analyses (we don’t have another 20 years to spare, actually, can’t
> even spare one more!), coupled with social movements and the threat of
> product boycotts as well as financial pressure—to get the actions needed by
> both public and private sectors (as well as our own).
>
> Rafael
>
> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10
>
> From: Debra Javeline <mailto:[email protected]>
> Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2021 10:15 AM
> To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
> Subject: [gep-ed] RE: Opinion: We Don't Need More Life-Crushing Steel and
> Concrete
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> Biden announced new commitments on climate action today, and it reminded me
> that I received not a single response to my query below about the Biden
> infrastructure plan. I wonder why. If the climate plans and the
> infrastructure plans are not integrated, how can the climate plans succeed?
> Is no one conducting research on the ideal infrastructure for a
> climate-altered planet?
>
> All the best,
> Debra
>
> From: Debra Javeline <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
> Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2021 10:36 AM
> To: '[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>'
> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
> Subject: Opinion: We Don’t Need More Life-Crushing Steel and Concrete
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> Paul Greenberg and Carl Safina have a compelling op-ed in the NYT, “We Don’t
> Need More Life-Crushing Steel and Concrete: The long-term needs of ecosystems
> should come before our knee-jerk expectations about infrastructure
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/opinion/infrastructure-biden-nature.html?fbclid=IwAR3sdOmAFMVPOp5vSgBUfgUBUP2zo4BlQ1O9pU71iEmnSYW3warBXHO5F5Q>.”
>
> Is there any scholarship related to this topic? Presumably, those focused on
> climate change even within Biden’s own government understand the potential
> harms of an infrastructure program that ignores climate issues, but is there
> a holistic approach, with the infrastructure people talking to the
> climate-concerned? And is the conversation informed by good research on what
> infrastructure should be rebuilt to maximize mitigation and adaptation
> efforts? Does such research exist? Suggestions for specific publications
> would be most welcome.
>
> All the best,
> Debra
>
> *****
> Debra Javeline
> Associate Professor | Department of Political Science | University of Notre
> Dame | 2060 Jenkins Nanovic Halls | Notre Dame, IN 46556 | tel: 574-631-2793
> <tel:(574)%20631-2793>
>
> Fellow, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies <http://kroc.nd.edu/>,
> Kellogg Institute for International Studies <http://nd.edu/~kellogg/>,
> Nanovic Institute for European Studies <http://nanovic.nd.edu/>
> Core faculty, Russian and East European Studies Program
> <http://germanandrussian.nd.edu/russian/faculty/program-faculty/RussianandEastEuropeanStudies.shtml>
> Affiliated faculty, Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative
> <http://environmentalchange.nd.edu/>
>
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