ABSTRACT
Environmental sustainability of human activities is nowadays of commonplace interest that comes along the nowadays economic and social issues. An economy is not a totally self-regulated system (Van Griethuysen, 2002). On the contrary, economic systems are subsystems of social systems, which are themselves subsystems of natural systems (Giddings et al., 2002). At the planetary scale, taking into account the
16.1 Ecosystems, Society, and Economy ............................................................447 16.2 Environmentally Conscious Development: How to Fathom the
Causes and Effects of Air Pollution ...........................................................449 16.3 Environmentally Conscious Development: Natural Capital
is Irreplaceable ......................................................................................453 16.4 Environmentally Conscious Development: The Carrying Capacity
and the Ecological Footprint ...................................................................... 454 16.5 CO2 Emissions and Climate Change: Risks to Ecosystems and
Human Health and Welfare ........................................................................ 455 16.6 Air Pollution and UV Radiation: Risks to Ecosystems and
Human Health .................................................................................... 460 16.7 Air Pollution and Acid Depositions: Risks to Ecosystems and
Human Health ...........................................................................................461 16.8 Air Pollution: Combined Effects on Ecosystems and Human Health ........ 462 16.9 Environmentally Conscious Development: The Quest for
Environmental Science and Technology ....................................................465 16.10 Environmentally Conscious Development: The Quest for
Ecological Economics ................................................................................ 472 16.11 Environmentally Conscious Development: The Quest for EE ................... 475 References ..............................................................................................................484
phenomenon of globalization, the above relationship can be described as follows: world economy is a subsystem of humanity, which is a subsystem of the Earth’s biosphere (Figure 16.1).
