What sustains society

What Sustains Life Becomes What Sustains Society (Biomolecular Machines as Advanced Materials for the Future)... 

What Sustains Life Becomes What Sustains Society ... 

In this chapter, we try to offer a glimpse of what the future of the energy and chemical industries may hold and try to point out some of the technological hurdles that have to be overcome to reach the goal, a sustainable society. We point out that we have not discussed nuclear power industries and do not know what role they will play in the future, but we foresee an increased use of nuclear power, perhaps temporary or longer term. 

The title of the report reflects the theme of DuPont becoming a sustainable growth company. A yes score has been awarded since the CEO s foreword examines what sustainability means to DuPont in terms of the environment, society and the shareholders, even though the CER fails to make a strong link between the three. 

No one knows what a sustainable society will look Uke, we can only speculate on possibilities. Some current approaches focus on product life cycle assessment (LCA), others on product longevity, disassembly or the use of recycled materials (Walker, 2006). 

The principles of a sustainable society make us consider water-borne discharges from industries like pulp and paper as sources of useful chemicals rather than as wastes to be treated and disposed 4). By converting what is now considered as waste material into useful products, the waste producers, chemical manufacturers, and regulators are offered new opportunities. 

Acids and bases are two of the most common types of substances in the laboratory and the everyday world. We need to know how to recognize them, what their characteristic reactions are, and why they are such important chemicals. We shall see that keeping the concentrations of acids and bases in plant and animal cells within certain limits is necessary for the survival of individual organisms, and controlling the acidity of rain, of natural waters such as lakes and rivers, and of municipal water supplies is necessary to sustain human societies. 

Uncertainties of understanding sustainable management of our land, debates about what level of energy use is both adequate and sustainable for our society, and the unknown potential for future advances in science and technology all fuel controversy over the appropriate use of land. The public, policymakers, and even experts in energy find themselves bombarded with widely divergent perspectives. Here are just a few examples of the pessimists ... 

Looking around the corner, there are a number of sustainability issues that could be financially material in the chemical sector. The research on body burden, or what trace (and otherwise) substances exist in humans as a result of environmental exposure is perhaps the most troubling in that little is known about how this occurs, especially among populations that are not in proximity to known sources. Look for the level of concern on this issue to rise and for potential societal and policy push-back fuelled by the uncertainty. Body burden could serve as a gateway issue to a wide range of actions by civil society on a whole host of specific substances and pathways of exposure. In particular, results that pertain to body burden in children have a huge emotional resonance beyond the scope of most issues of pollution. ... 

As chemical companies commit to expand their role in assuring a sustainable future for themselves and society, it will be increasingly important to understand what roles leadership and corporate governance play in shaping this commitment. Taschler (2004) analyzed publicly available information on the eight companies in the chemical industry sector of the 2004 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index to understand any contributory patterns between board member characteristics... 

This then is the image of the future we are evoking, the future context we believe FCVs will enter. The processes of mobilization and globalization, and the sociotechnological systems that modern societies build to sustain those processes lead, to a world in which each of us, increasingly, must ask ourselves the following question What will we do—when we can do anything, anywhere, anytime ... 

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