The Ripple Effects of a Traumatic Birth

For anyone interested in wildlife, birds, wilderness areas, parks, ecology, conservation, environmental literature, and ethics, the name Aldo Leopold is sure to pop up. Since first publication, Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire has remained the classic short, inspiring biography of Leopold--the perfect companion to reading his ever popular A Sand County Almanac. Winning numerous awards, this comprehensive account of his life story is dynamic and readable, written in the context of the history of American conservation and illustrated with historic photographs. Marybeth Lorbiecki has now enriched A Fierce Green Fire in a way no other biography on Leopold has, adding numerous chapters on the ripple effects of his ideas, books, ecological vision, land ethic, and Shack, as well as of the ecological contributions of his children, graduate students, contemporary scholars, and organizations--and the wilderness lands he helped preserve. Lorbiecki weaves these stories and factual information into the biography in a compelling way that keeps both lay and academic readers engaged. In the introduction to this edition, Lorbiecki makes it clear how much better our lives are because Leopold lived and why today we so radically need what he left us to bring about paradigm shifts in our ethical, economic, and cultural thinking. Instead of losing relevance, Leopold's legacy has gained ever more necessity and traction in the face of contemporary national and world challenges, such as species loss and climate change. Even the phenological studies he started at as a hobby are proving valuable, showing the climatic shifts that have occurred at the Shack lands since the 1930s, recognized by the plants and animals.

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A Framework for Evaluating and Disclosing the ESG Related Impacts of AI with the SDGs

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13158503 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (15) ◽

pp. 8503

Author(s):

Henrik Skaug Sætra

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development Goals ◽

Sustainability Reporting ◽

Modern Society ◽

Ripple Effects ◽

The Core ◽

Social Governance ◽

Ai Ethics ◽

Development Goals ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Corporate Social

Artificial intelligence (AI) now permeates all aspects of modern society, and we are simultaneously seeing an increased focus on issues of sustainability in all human activities. All major corporations are now expected to account for their environmental and social footprint and to disclose and report on their activities. This is carried out through a diverse set of standards, frameworks, and metrics related to what is referred to as ESG (environment, social, governance), which is now, increasingly often, replacing the older term CSR (corporate social responsibility). The challenge addressed in this article is that none of these frameworks sufficiently capture the nature of the sustainability related impacts of AI. This creates a situation in which companies are not incentivised to properly analyse such impacts. Simultaneously, it allows the companies that are aware of negative impacts to not disclose them. This article proposes a framework for evaluating and disclosing ESG related AI impacts based on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The core of the framework is here presented, with examples of how it forces an examination of micro, meso, and macro level impacts, a consideration of both negative and positive impacts, and accounting for ripple effects and interlinkages between the different impacts. Such a framework helps make analyses of AI related ESG impacts more structured and systematic, more transparent, and it allows companies to draw on research in AI ethics in such evaluations. In the closing section, Microsoft’s sustainability reporting from 2018 and 2019 is used as an example of how sustainability reporting is currently carried out, and how it might be improved by using the approach here advocated.

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A COVID-19 Supply Chain Management Strategy Based on Variable Production under Uncertain Environment Conditions

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18041662 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 1662

Author(s):

Mohammed Alkahtani ◽

Muhammad Omair ◽

Qazi Salman Khalid ◽

Ghulam Hussain ◽

Imran Ahmad ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

Supply Chain Management ◽

Production Rate ◽

Manufacturing System ◽

Working Environment ◽

Data Set ◽

Manufacturing Firm ◽

Chain Management ◽

Ripple Effects ◽

Multi Stage

The management of a controllable production in the manufacturing system is essential to achieve viable advantages, particularly during emergency conditions. Disasters, either man-made or natural, affect production and supply chains negatively with perilous effects. On the other hand, flexibility and resilience to manage the perpetuated risks in a manufacturing system are vital for achieving a controllable production rate. Still, these performances are strongly dependent on the multi-criteria decision making in the working environment with the policies launched during the crisis. Undoubtedly, health stability in a society generates ripple effects in the supply chain due to high demand fluctuation, likewise due to the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Incorporation of dependent demand factors to manage the risk from uncertainty during this pandemic has been a challenge to achieve a viable profit for the supply chain partners. A non-linear supply chain management model is developed with a controllable production rate to provide an economic benefit to the manufacturing firm in terms of the optimized total cost of production and to deal with the different situations under variable demand. The costs in the model are set as fuzzy to cope up with the uncertain conditions created by lasting pandemic. A numerical experiment is performed by utilizing the data set of the multi-stage manufacturing firm. The optimal results provide support for the industrial managers based on the proactive plan by the optimal utilization of the resources and controllable production rate to cope with the emergencies in a pandemic.

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