Personal computers have made life convenient in many ways, but what about their impacts on the environment due to production, use and disposal? Manufacturing computers requires prodigious quantities of fossil fuels, toxic chemicals and water. Rapid improvements in performance mean we often buy a new machine every 1-3 years, which adds up to mountains of waste computers. How should societies respond to manage these environmental impacts?
This volume addresses the environmental impacts and management of computers through a set of analyses on issues ranging from environmental assessment,...

This study examines Japan's transnational environmental policy through environmental technology transfer to Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) in the 1990s. It addresses the ability of Japan to take up the challenges in this transnational sphere. Social scientists differ in their assessment about the future of nation-states' capability to steer policy formulation under this changing framework. However, transnationalization does not necessarily undermine the state, but includes transformations of state forms and policy making. The transfer of environmental technology to NICs proceeds on...