ORALS
SESSION: ManufacturingMonAM-R4
Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Sustainability | Mamalis International Symposium on Advanced Manufacturing of Advanced Materials and Structures with Sustainable Industrial Applications |
| Mon Nov, 5 2018 / Room: Sao Conrado (50/2nd) | |
| Session Chairs: Dimitris C. Lagoudas; Session Monitor: TBA |
11:45: [ManufacturingMonAM02] Keynote
The Ethics of Sustainability Jeremy
Ramsden1 ;
Athanasios G.
Mamalis2 ;
Nikolaos T.
Athanassoulis3 ;
1University of Buckingham, Buckingham, United Kingdom;
2PC-NAE, Demokritos National Center for Scientific Research, Athens, Greece;
3Laboratory of Industrial and Energy Economics, NTUA, Athens, Greece;
Paper Id: 95
[Abstract] As crowding on our planet increases, sustainability has become a major preoccupation at many levels: national and supranational (for example, the European Union is strongly promoting the "circular economy", essentially a waste management strategy), but also local and even individual. A considerable body of academic work has arisen around the "circular economy", mostly of recent origin, even though the roots of the concept go back decades and even centuries. On the whole the field seems to suffer from a dearth of analytical thinking, and much of the literature is little more than polemics between supporters and detractors, along with the loose injection of words like "entropy". On the material plane, at the atomic level everything is recycled, except hydrogen and helium; at higher levels involving sophisticated superatomic structures, an illusion of recycling may depend on inadequate definitions of materials that fail to capture all their essential features (for example, paper cannot be endlessly recycled because the cellulose fibres are progressively shortened). This paper seeks to establish what precisely sustainability and the circular economy mean, what the intentions of their protagonists are, and how they fit in with alternative moral schemata, notably the individual versus the social. The goal of our investigation is to establish whether the circular economy can make any claim on our attention as a worthwhile pursuit.
References:
[1] Ramsden, J.J. The impacts of nanotechnology. Nanotechnol. Perceptions 7 (2011) 28-66.
[2] Ramsden, J.J. The sustainability of "postmodern" university research. In: Philosophy and Synergy of Information: Sustainability and Security (eds P.J. Kervalishvili & S.A. Michailidis), pp. 74-87. Amsterdam: IOS Press (2012).
[3] Ramsden, J.J. and Kiss-Haypál, G. On a possible limit to economic progress. Nanotechnol. Perceptions 9 (2013) 71-81.
[4] Ramsden, J.J. Applied Nanotechnology (3rd edn). Amsterdam: Elsevier (2018).
SESSION: ManufacturingMonAM-R4
Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Sustainability | Mamalis International Symposium on Advanced Manufacturing of Advanced Materials and Structures with Sustainable Industrial Applications |
| Mon Nov, 5 2018 / Room: Sao Conrado (50/2nd) | |
| Session Chairs: Dimitris C. Lagoudas; Session Monitor: TBA |
12:10: [ManufacturingMonAM03] Keynote
Nanotechnology and Sustainability Jeremy
Ramsden1 ;
Alexandra
Mamali2 ;
Athanasios G.
Mamalis3 ;
Nikolaos T.
Athanassoulis4 ;
1University of Buckingham, Buckingham, United Kingdom;
2Maersk Broker Hellas, Athens, Greece;
3PC-NAE, Demokritos National Center for Scientific Research, Athens, Greece;
4Laboratory of Industrial and Energy Economics, NTUA, Athens, Greece;
Paper Id: 94
[Abstract] The sustainability of our present civilization and, ultimately, of human life itself is challenged on many fronts. The most prominent of the challenges are climate change, extreme food and water shortages, rising chronic diseases, and rampant obesity. They are all of great significance in terms of death and morbidity, and at the same time seemingly intractable. This paper looks at the technical dimension of overcoming these challenges, contrasting the apparent impotence of conventional technologies with the potential of nanotechnology. Particular attention is paid to the scalability of any proposed nanotechnology-based solutions (bearing in mind the vast scale required for meaningful implementation), as well as the related aspect of realizable timescales. Where alternative solutions exist, a criterion of choice based on the life quality index is proposed. The paper concludes by examining the practical problems of implementing solutions projected to be successful.
References:
[1] Ramsden, J.J. What is sustainability? Nanotechnol. Perceptions 6 (2010) 179-195.
[2] Ramsden, J.J. The nanotechnology industry. Nanotechnol. Perceptions 9 (2013) 102-118.
[3] Mamalis, A.G., Ramsden, J.J., Holt, G.C., Vortselas, A.K. and Mamali, A.A. The effect of nanotechnology on mitigation and adaptation strategies in response to climate change. Nanotechnol. Perceptions 7 (2011) 159-179.
[4] Ramsden, J.J. Nanotechnology and Gaia. Nanotechnol. Perceptions 10 (2014) 173-189.
[5] Ramsden, J.J. Doomsday scenarios: an appraisal. Nanotechnol. Perceptions 12 (2016) 35-46.
[6] Ramsden, J.J. Applied Nanotechnology (3rd edn). Amsterdam: Elsevier (2018).
