Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
early 1990s, Socolow became an advocate of industrial ecology; one exam-
ple of his work in this area is a recycling plan for lead batteries.
Rosen, Allenby, and Socolow see promise in applying the principles of
industrial ecology. “It is important,” Allenby notes, “to remember that
industrial ecology is an integrative, not a reductionist, field. It focuses on a
comprehensive, holistic understanding of systems rather than the reduc-
tionist approach of developing more and more knowledge about increas-
ingly specific subsystems, and, . . . cuts across a number of disciplines in
doing so.” Recognizing the importance of connections, he argues that “the
distinction between a 'human' system and a 'natural' one is itself somewhat
artificial in many cases.”
