The Metabolism of Islands

• Other Authors: Singh, Simron (Editor), Fischer-Kowalski, Marina (Editor), Chertow, Marian (Editor)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2021
• Subjects: Research & information: general; Biology, life sciences; Ecological science, the Biosphere; plastics; Trinidad and Tobago; institutional; metabolism; waste management; islands; public-private partnerships; social metabolism; island metabolism; quiet sustainability; Faroe Islands; landesque capital; historical political ecology; overgrazing; soil erosion; rural abandonment; sedentary extensive livestock systems; Common Agricultural Policy (CAP); socio-ecological systems; material flow analysis (MFA); mixed methods approach; material stock analysis; demolition of buildings; GIS; climate change; global warming; island sociometabolic regime; transdisciplinary research; real-world learning lab for sustainability transition; livestock herding, subsidies and overgrazing; tourism infrastructure; UNESCO Biosphere Reserves; MFA; nexus approach; industrial waste; metabolic profile; holarchy; holon; industrial ecology; material flow analysis; hurricane Irma; territorial metabolism; island waste management; post-disaster stock and flow evolution; Antigua and Barbuda; tourism; small island developing states (SIDS); island sustainability; resource use and efficiency; construction materials; geographical information systems (GIS); island industrial ecology; socio-metabolic research; metabolic risk; socio-metabolic collapse
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

This book makes the case for why we should care about islands and their sustainability. Islands are hotspots of biocultural diversity and home to 600 million people that depend on one-sixth of the earth's total area, including the surrounding oceans, for their subsistence. Today, they are at the frontlines of climate change and face an existential crisis. Islands are, however, potential "hubs of innovation" that are uniquely positioned to be leaders in sustainability and climate action. This volume argues that a full-fledged program on "island industrial ecology" is urgently needed, with the aim of offering policy-relevant insights and strategies to sustain small islands in an era of global environmental change. The nine contributions in this volume cover a wide range of applications of socio-metabolic research, from flow accounts to stock analysis and their relationship to services in space and time. They offer insights into how reconfiguring patterns of resource use will allow island governments to build resilience and adapt to the challenges of climate change.