ABSTRACT

Human practices are changing global environmental systems and are threatening the long-term sustainability of the biosphere. In 1990 the US Committee on Global Change divided human-induced change into two principal sources: industrial metabolism and land transformation. Industrial metabolism is the flow of energy and materials through the chain of extraction, production, consumption, and disposal of an industrialized world (Ayers 1989). Land transformation is the alteration of land surfaces and its biotic cover (Meyer and Turner 1992; Turner and Meyer 1991). In this chapter I will focus on the issue of industrial metabolism in terms of the consumption and use of energy by cars and their impact on environmental systems. This impact can be best understood by examining the link between human practices and environmental change.