Metabolismus společnosti

Over the last two centuries, humans have become the dominant force on the planet. Given their dependence on the global ecosystem and services that it provides to humanity, they should realize to what extent they affect key natural processes. The basic premise of the monograph is the opinion, that neither the current state nor the expected development in services provided by nature (or in more general terms the quality of the environment) is favourable in terms of meeting the needs of current or future generations of people. The second premise of the book is the existence of a relatively large number of approaches and methods that can be used to examine the relationship between man and nature. It is on this basis that it introduces the concept of a social metabolism, which utilizes various scientific disciplines and their methods for monitoring and analysis of metabolic process in man-made systems, including their relationship to natural processes, and places the concept of the social metabolism into a wider context for the exploration and the application of social context of environmental protection, which make up environmental sustainability. The monograph presents several new findings based on the authors' long-term research, including results specific for the Czech Republic.