Unraveling Environmental Disasters

Unraveling Environmental Disasters provides scientific explanations of the most threatening current and future environmental disasters, including an analysis of ways that the disaster could have been prevented and how the risk of similar disasters can be minimized in the future.

• Treats disasters as complex systems.
• Provides predictions based upon sound science, such as what the buildup of certain radiant gases in the troposphere will do, or what will happen if current transoceanic crude oil transport continues.
• Considers the impact of human systems on environmental disasters.

Dan Vallero is an internationally recognized expert in the transport, chemical transformation and environmental fate of hazardous pollutants. His three decades of professional experience in hazardous waste engineering and management have included research, teaching and regulatory advice related to a wide range of human health risk and ecological issues, from global climate change to the release of hazardous products of incomplete combustion from waste incinerators to the assessment of the risks from exposures to environmental endocrine disruptors.
Dr. Vallero recently established the Engineering Ethics program at Duke University. This innovative program introduces students to the complex relationships between science, technology and societal demands on the engineer. The lessons learned from the cases in this book are a fundamental part of Duke’s preparation of its future engineers to address the ethical dilemmas likely to be encountered during the careers of the next generation engineers.

Trevor M. Letcher is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is a past Director of the International Association of Chemical Thermodynamics and his research involves the thermodynamics of liquid mixtures and energy from landfill. He was awarded the South African Chemical Institute’s Gold medal in 1999 and in 2000 he was awarded the South African Gold medal by the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published over 250 papers in peer review journals and has edited, co-edited and written eleven books in his research and related fields. His latest books include Unraveling Environmental Disasters (2012), Materials for a Sustainable Future (2012), Waste (2011), Heat Capacities (2010), Climate Change (2009) and Future Energy (2008).