Social work is inadequately focused on an individual deficit view of social problems. Consideration of global social problems such as environmental degradation and poverty requires fundamental shifts in thinking about economics and our cultural history. Possibilities for social work intervention, based on transformational thinking about the…

Describes the cumulative impact of rapid population growth, industrial and military activity, agriculture, and motor vehicles on California's environmental and social fabric. Discusses these problems in California as a forecast for the nation and test to consensus-based U.S. representative government. (Author/ MCO)

This book was developed to highlight the risks that confront societies, and to indicate the most promising avenues for preemptive policies and actions. The document contains chapters on: (1) the emergence of change; (2) analyzing demographic factors; (3) assessing the future of urbanization; (4) reassessing nuclear power (including an analysis of…

Describes Ocean Thermal Energy Conservation (OTEC) as a method for exploiting the temperature difference between warm surface waters of the sea and its cold depths. Argues for full-scale demonstrations of the technique for producing energy for coastal regions. (TW)

Discussed are the costs of deriving energy from the earth's natural reserves of salt. Argues that, as fossil fuel supplies become more depleted in the future, the environmental advantages of salinity power may prove to warrant its exploitation. (TW)

In 1987, a record 126,000 automobiles rolled off assembly lines each working day, and close to 400 million vehicles are used on the world's roads today. Prior to the 1970s the automobile's utility and sustainability were hardly questioned. A decade of oil price increases and worries about future fuel availability slowed automobile use somewhat,…

From their experience in the National Science Teachers Association's Project for an Energy-Enriched Curriculum, the authors discuss short-range and long-range energy problems and the multidisciplinary responses that education must make to these problems. Energy/environment/economics topics should be infused into the curriculum and vocational…

The notion of optimal population is recast as a problem of optimal scale (population times per capita resource use). Considers bioeconomic limits to scale. Discusses the choice between many people at low resource use per capita versus fewer people at higher resource per capita and suggests a policy that serves both efficiency and sufficiency.…

It is argued that the geographic concentration of the poor often serves to concentrate other negative social and physical conditions. From this ecological perspective, the growth of concentrated poverty is examined in Cleveland (Ohio). The investigation uses a database developed for Cleveland and its suburbs with information on social, economic,…

A COMMUNITY PROFILE OF ROCHESTER, N.Y. CITES HISTORY, PRESENT COMMUNITY CHARACTERISTICS, AND CURRENT IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS AS THEY RELATE TO CULTURAL DEPRIVATION AND AN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAM. TO DETERMINE WHAT EFFECTS HISTORICAL, ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, ECOLOGICAL, AND SOCIAL FORCES HAVE UPON HEAD START CHILDREN, MATCHED GROUPS OF EIGHT HEAD START…

Claims that the exploration of geothermal energy has a somewhat marginal role to play today in the overall world energy budget. Discusses the applicability, however, of geothermal heat to some national and local energy developments. (TW)

Suggests that wind energy for electrification will prove to be an appropriate technology with very positive socioeconomic benefits, especially in developing countries. Provides examples of projects conducted by a Danish wind research laboratory. (TW)

Discusses how the increasing pollution and decreasing effectiveness of agrichemicals has spurred a new interest in "natural" farming practices in the midwestern United States. Provides the testimony of farmers who have converted their farming operations from chemically intensive to sustainable or alternative agricultural practices. (MCO)

Explores why some European countries are much more eager than the United States to endorse international environmental treaties and the roles history, culture, economics, and geography play. Influential policymakers throughout Austria, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are interviewed. (12 references) (Author/MCO)

The ecological perspective suggests that distal socioeconomic status (SES) actually affects young children via the more proximate influences of parental beliefs and the quality of their home environments. A diverse sample of 189 kindergarten children, their families, and their schools provided data on SES indices, parental beliefs, the quality of…