The word industry
often conjures up images of dirty gray buildings with smokestacks that
soil the air and drainpipes that pollute rivers. This module takes a much
broader view of industry, proposing that industrial systems are analogous
to ecosystems: both consist of producers and consumers interacting
with one another in the input, output, and internal exchange of material
and energy. In industry, however, rapid technological advance has
increased the speed at which society converts raw material into products
and accompanying waste.
This module seeks
to provide students with an understanding of the key principles, concepts,
and problems in the emerging field of industrial ecology. We ask
students to decide for themselves whether industry can become “greener”:
can it be made to replicate ecological systems in the way ecosystems reuse
all the organic material they produce?
The module explores three broad
themes:
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the linkages among technological
change, industrialization, and global change;
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the utility of a systems approach to
analyzing industrial activity; and
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the opportunities and constraints involved
in making industries more closely resemble ecosystems in their productive
and consumptive processes.
Unit 1 examines how
technological change has enabled industry to transform nature in ever more
powerful ways. As industrial production has been empowered with increasingly
sophisticated technology, society’s ability to effect global change has
increased dramatically. The activities seek to develop the student’s
sense of connection to the global industrial complex and an appreciation
of industry’s ability to affect its local and global environments.
In Unit 2, students
use a systems approach to analyze industrial processes; students are asked
to pay particular attention to material and energy “inputs,” their internal
processing, and their “outputs” of products and waste. The activities
engage students in systems analysis by having them critique their own homes,
their local industrial sites, and popular case studies of their own choosing.
The third unit
examines the problems and possibilities involved in industrial ecology
study and practice. In the activities, students grapple with the socioeconomic,
technical, informational, and other constraints to making society’s industrial
activities sustainable. Students also identify instances where elements
of industrial ecology are being practiced or where the potential exists
to do so.
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