Suchergebnisse

How did climbers from the world's flattest, hottest continent become world-class Himalayan mountaineers, the equal of any elite mountaineer from countries with long climbing traditions and home ranges that make Australia's highest summit look like a suburban hill? This book tells the story of Australian mountaineering in the great ranges of Asia, from the exploits of a brash, young colonial with an early British Himalayan expedition in the 1920s to the coming of age of Australian climbers in the 1980s. The story goes beyond the two remarkable Australian ascents of Mt Everest in 1984 and 1988 to explore the exploits of Australian climbers in the far-flung corners of the high Himalaya. Above all, the book presents a glimpse into the lives – the successes, failures, tragedies, motivations, fears, conflicts, humor, and compassion – themselves to the ultimate limits of survival in the most spectacular and demanding mountain arena of all.

The emergence of climate change as a central political issue around the world, along with growing concern for the environment more generally, has raised the challenge to achieve sustainability as a high order social goal. Yet over the 20 y since the publication of the landmark Brundtland Report on sustainable development, humanity has moved further away from sustainability in many important aspects, particularly at the global scale. This paper provides an overview of the current understanding of how the human-environment relationship has evolved through time, analyzes the quest for sustainability in contemporary society, and briefly explores the implications of these analyses for the trajectory of the human-environment relationship in the twenty-first century. The focus is on an Earth systems perspective. Exploration of the human-environment relationship through time shows a fundamental switch about 200 y ago, when human society shifted from being largely the recipient of changes in Earth system functioning to becoming a global geophysical force itself, rivaling the great forces of nature in magnitude. Contemporary human societies are now on a demonstrably nonsustainable trajectory, especially with regard to climate change, with no sign at the global scale of any change in trajectory. An analysis of the sustainability gap suggests that a crucial missing component in our quest for sustainability is a failure to engage the humanities, along with the biophysical and social sciences, economics, and technology, in the search for solutions. An examination of the ways in which past civilizations have responded to external stresses and the analysis of the contemporary sustainability gap have come to the same conclusion. Those societies that respond to environmental and other stresses by transformation rather than collapse have the capability to question their core values if they become dysfunctional and to drive fundamental shifts in those values, leading to more adaptive and resilient societies.

The emergence of climate change as a central political issue around the world, along with growing concern for the environment more generally, has raised the challenge to achieve sustainability as a high order social goal. Yet over the 20 y since the publication of the landmark Brundtland Report on sustainable development, humanity has moved further away from sustainability in many important aspects, particularly at the global scale. This paper provides an overview of the current understanding of how the human-environment relationship has evolved through time, analyzes the quest for sustainability in contemporary society, and briefly explores the implications of these analyses for the trajectory of the human-environment relationship in the twenty-first century. The focus is on an Earth systems perspective. Exploration of the human-environment relationship through time shows a fundamental switch about 200 y ago, when human society shifted from being largely the recipient of changes in Earth system functioning to becoming a global geophysical force itself, rivaling the great forces of nature in magnitude. Contemporary human societies are now on a demonstrably nonsustainable trajectory, especially with regard to climate change, with no sign at the global scale of any change in trajectory. An analysis of the sustainability gap suggests that a crucial missing component in our quest for sustainability is a failure to engage the humanities, along with the biophysical and social sciences, economics, and technology, in the search for solutions. An examination of the ways in which past civilizations have responded to external stresses and the analysis of the contemporary sustainability gap have come to the same conclusion. Those societies that respond to environmental and other stresses by transformation rather than collapse have the capability to question their core values if they become dysfunctional and to drive fundamental shifts in those values, leading to more adaptive and resilient societies.

Climate change may just be the issue that triggers a fundamental reexamination of our place in the natural world.

Einleitung -- Weitläufig, unspezifisch, diffizil: Der Medienjournalismus, seine Terminologie(n) und Wirkungsfelder -- Innovationen im (Medien-)Journalismus -- Methode und Auswertung: Eine qualitative Befragung von ausgewählten Redaktionsverantwortlichen -- Interpretation und Diskussion -- Resümee, Limitationen und Ausblick -- Literaturverzeichnis.

What can we learn about the nature of technology by studying practices of maintenance and repair? This volume addresses this question by bringing together scholarship from philosophers of technology working at the forefront of this emerging and exciting topic.
The chapters in this volume explore how attending to maintenance and repair can challenge and complement existing ways of thinking about technology focused on use and design and introduce new philosophical perspectives on the relationship between technology, time and human practice. They examine the significance of maintenance and repair practices at different scales in relation to a diverse range of philosophical traditions and a wide variety of technologies, from urban infrastructure such as bridges and buildings to data technologies such as servers and software systems. Together, the contributions highlight common themes in the philosophical study of maintenance, including the role of skill, the significance of social values and the potential of these practices to transform the technologies to which they are applied. By reflecting on the different ways in which we keep technologies going, from the devices we use in our homes to the large technical systems which surround us, this volume reveals the philosophical significance of practices of maintenance, not only as a source of new insights but also as a resource for enriching our understanding of a variety of existing topics in philosophy.
Maintenance and Philosophy of Technology will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of technology, philosophy of engineering and science & technology studies.