Sustainability of Humanity

From the past to the future, the development of human civilization has been closely related to the Earth's soil. However, we are now on the planet with the productive forces of soil resources that are gradually exhausting. In many agricultural areas, crop yields have been devastated by heavy soil erosion. Global warming, on the other hand, accelerates microbial greenhouse gas released in soils and has a key role in recent climate change. In the first part of this book, we show the challenges faced by human beings in the 21st century because of the direct and indirect responses of the soil expansion made by human past and future activities. We also stress that soil and forest are the future survival and development key factors for human beings. The circular economy is a philosophy of sustainable management. More specifically, it is a concept of zero waste. If the waste can be fully recycled or converted into energy, it will achieve the core values of the circular economy as well as the highest level of energy efficiency. The second part of this book presents an overview of the development of waste energy in three countries in the East Asian, namely, Taiwan, China, and Japan.