BiblioAsia - National Library Singapore

Environmental ethics: An antholgy (Rolston & Light, 2003). Thistext is compilation of classical and contemporary essays on keyenvironmental debates and issues.Cities throughout the world face the common challenge tobalance sustainability, economic progress and good governance.There are many discussions addressing the subject ofenvironmentally sustainable development such as: Resilientcities: Responding to peak oil and climate change (Newman,Beatley & Boyer, 2009) and World cities: Achieving liveabilityand vibrancy (Ooi & Yuen, 2010).The largest and most discussed report in recent years isStern Review on the Economics of Climate Change (Stern,2007). This 700-page report is a comprehensive analysis ofthe economic aspects of environmental issues. Compiled by aneconomist, the review gives an optimistic assessment for thefuture but warns that the world must act now on climate changeto avoid devastating economic consequences.A deluge of eco-literaturehas been coming to the libraryshelves. Some bookscarry weight for the specificmessage they convey. Othersstand out for the clarity theybring to environmental andclimate issue such as globalwarming, carbon footprints andgreenhouse emissions. Manypopular works have becomeinstant classics.Some of these greenAll rights reserved, Farrar,Straus & Giroux, c2008.books include: Our choice:A plan to solve the climatecrisis (Gore, 2009), Hot, flat,and crowded: Why we need a green revolution – and how itcan renew America (Friedman, 2008), Earth in mind: On education,environment, and the human (Orr, 2004) and Eco barons:The dreamers, schemers, and millionaires who are saving ourplanet (Humes, 2009).GLOBAL RACE FOR CLEAN RESOURCES“Because our economic future depends on our leadershipin the industries of the future, we are investing in basic appliedresearch... We know the nation that leads in clean energywill be the nation that leads the world.”United States President Barack Obama’s speech 3 on the economyand job creation ideas on 8 December 2009.The benefits of producing clean and sustainable powerfrom renewable energy sources have received growing attentionworldwide, including in Singapore. The International EnergyAgency (IEA) reports 4 that nations must invest US$37trillion in energy technologies by 2030 to avoid climate catastropheand meet energy needs. Asia’s rising “clean technologytigers” 5 – China, Japan and South Korea – are poised to win theclean energy race with their hefty investment in clean energyinfrastructure and technology.All rights reserved. John Wiley& Sons, 2009.All rights reserved, CollinsBusiness, 2008.Since identifying clean technology as a strategic part of asustainable economy, the Singapore government has committed$700 million 6 for R&D and manpower training to growthe sector. Clean technology or “clean-tech” is applied in abroad range of industries, including energy, water, manufacturing,advanced materials and transportation. Examplesof clean-tech are solar and wind energy, water filtrationand electric vehicles.To support the information needs of this rapidly emergingfield, the library has built a collection of key publications onmarket trends, investment, technological and economic aspectsof renewable energy. Recent titles include: Global energytransformation: Four necessary steps to make clean energy thenext success story (Larson, 2009), Clean money: Picking winnersin the green tech boom (Rubino, 2009) and The clean techrevolution: Discover the top trends, technologies, andcompanies to watch (Pernick & Wilder, 2008).The push for environmental and water technologies (EWT)industry has also thrown up new and exciting challengesfor those in the engineering fields. Job seekers and practicingengineers looking to strengthen their career prospectscan refer to titles like Alternative energy systems and application(Hodge, 2010) and Energy systems engineering:Evaluation and implementation (Vanek & Albright, 2008), TheYaws handbook of properties for environmental and greenengineering (Yaws, 2008) and Handbook of environmentalengineering calculations (Lee & Lin, 2007).Online databases 7 , such as IEEE/IET electroniclibrary, SpringerLink, Nature.com and Proquest Science offer,premium content from international journals and reports. Libraryusers can access these resources at the library or at home.Some of the periodicals available are Energy Design Update,Energy Compass, Energy Engineering, Energy Intelligence,The Energy Journal, The Journal of Energy Markets, Water &Wastewater International, Water Environment Research andJournal of Water Resource and Protection.GOING GREENGreen is now mainstream. A National Geographic survey,Greendex 8 shows that consumers are buying more green30 biblioasia • April 2010