Transcript Stuff: The Intersection of Stuff with Sustainability

The Intersection of
Stuff with Sustainability
Professor Wayne Hayes
V. 1.2, Build #4 | 10/4/2012
The goal of this presentation is
. . . to identify important
information and concepts
that connect
production and consumption
with sustainability and fairness.
How does SoS fit with EEE?
The mission of ENST209:
How can the economy be harnessed to serve world
sustainability? What makes this question so ironic is that
the growth in the physical scale of the economy under
the prevailing regime of economic globalization has
depleted resources, destroyed ecosystems, overwhelmed
natural waste disposal sinks, waged war on subsistence
cultures, and produced shocking maldistribution of
wealth and income. How, then, can the economy be
turned around to reinforce sustainable development
rather than to destroy ecosystems, resource
endowments, and indigenous cultures? This alchemy
must be resolved to promote sustainability.
Remember our context:
The Anthropocene:
Are Humans Now Overwhelming
the Great Forces of Nature?
Ambio , Vol. 36, No. 8, December 2007
©Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2007
http://www.ambio.kva.se
Which framed a challenge:
• Human-induced change raises disturbing questions about the
future of Earth and the environmental services that support
human civilization.
• They ask: Has the Earth left the benign interglacial state of the
Holocene to enter a new era of Earth history, the
Anthropocene?
• They assert: “The Earth is rapidly moving into a less
biologically diverse, less forested, much warmer, and probably
wetter and stormier state.”
• This “represents a profound shift in the relationship between
humans and the rest of nature.”
We are in the Anthropocene!
How did we get there
from here?
From One Earth to One World:
This phrase, the subtitle of the Brundtland
Commission Report, Our Common Future,
implies that:
• The two images of Earth, one rooted in nature
and the other in global economic society,
must be reconciled.
• This broadly defines the challenge of World
Sustainability and puts EEE in context.
Remember the origins of
Anthropocene I:
The Industrial Era (ca. 1800-1945)
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Industrial Revolution
The widespread use of coal (fossil fuels)
The expansion of economic society
Human populations expands from about 750 million
to about 2.5 billion.
Note the emphasis on economics and not demography:
Population growth follows economic growth.
Remember the Anthropocene II:
The Age of Acceleration
(1945-ca. 2015)
“This first stage of the Anthropocene ended
abruptly around 1945, when the most rapid and
pervasive shift in the human-environment
relationship began.”
This is also the advent of the USA as a world
military, economic, and cultural power.
Examine indicators of
the Anthropocene:
See the original report
for indicators.
See especially table 1 and figure 2, page 617 of
the original article on the Anthropocene.
Or see The Story of Stuff page xv.
Anthropocene III:
Stewards of the Earth (ca. 2015-?)?
“Humankind will remain a major geological force
for many millennia, maybe millions of years, to
come. … Can humanity meet this challenge?”
Humanity is becoming aware
by these means:
1. Research, particularly on “interdisciplinary
work on human-environment systems”
2. The Internet as “a global self-organizing
information system”
3. The spread of free and open societies
4. Democratic political systems and the
emergence of civil society.
Three paths are open.
1. Business as usual
2. Mitigation
3. Geo-Engineering
We need to examine them and perhaps go
even further, regarding the challenge as an
opportunity.
Might there be another path?
How do we get there?
Hypotheses:
1. There is another path: a just and sustainable
world society that opens up human
potential in a verdant natural world.
2. Humanity has the capacity to envision and
create such a world.
3. You can fit in and can have a role that opens
up a path for your own fulfillment.
But you should ask yourself
how you fit in
. . . to make the transition from
. . . this . . .
. . . to this . . .
Paul Hawken puts it this way:
“You are Brilliant
and
the Earth is hiring.”
(Graduation Address, University of Portland, 2009)
Poet Wendell Berry puts this
another way:
“The real work of planet-saving will be small,
humble, and humbling, and (insofar as it
involves love) pleasing and rewarding. Its jobs
will be too many to count, too many to report,
too many to be publicly noticed or rewarded,
too small to make anyone rich and famous.”
(Hayes, Economic Aspects of Sustainability. )
How does The Story of Stuff help?
The Story of Stuff assembles
pieces of information and concepts
within the context of
the Materials Cycle.
The goal of this presentation is
. . . to identify important
information and concepts
that connect
production and consumption
with sustainability and fairness.
I provide supplementary notes.
The notes are meant to explain important points
and enhance the book. The notes are linked
from my web site.
The Story of Stuff assembles
information around the materials cycle
The framework of SoS is dynamic and coherent:
1. Extraction
2. Production
3. Distribution
4. Consumption
5. Disposal
Annie introduces the economy.
Notice how she embeds the economy, page xvii,
within the context of
the materials economy
and
interdependence.
Where does The Story of Stuff start?
The icon of SoS is
Fresh Kills Landfill.
Which is arguably
one of the most
toxic places on Earth.
What is Annie’s mission?
Annie is waging a campaign
against waste and
superfluous consumption.
The triple bottom line of
nested systems is explicit.
See my wiki page for a discussion.
Exponential growth is
nearing limits.
See the charts from William Steffen page xv and
The Story of Stuff pages xiv-xvii.
Note how the evidence supports Anthropocene I
and Anthropocene II.
Look at economic growth:
some big (controversial) ideas.
Let’s pull out the book and look at the section
on economic growth, pages xix-xxii. Some key
points:
1. GDP
2. Limits to growth (Herman Daly)
3. Externalities
4. Growth and happiness
5. Capitalism
Annie talks about paradigms.
• Philosophy of science: “a very general
conception of scientific endeavor within which
a given enquiry is undertaken” (Dictionary.com).
• The concept originates with Thomas Kuhn’s
1972 classic, The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions. See Stanford Encyclopedia of
Science.
Do we need a paradigm shift?
• A paradigm is a conceptual system by which we
understand the world. The paradigm provides
form and meaning. We can use the metaphor of
operating system as a helpful heuristic.
• When information does not fit the prevailing
paradigm, such anomalies can shift to new
paradigms, not always smoothly.
• The dominant paradigm vigorously resists
paradigm shifts.
So, unpack your paradigm!
• Is nature a “reservoir of supplies” for human
consumption (utilitarianism) or is nature “a
sacred, complex system” (page xxiv)?
• Is pollution a right? Are markets always right?
Read what Annie says, page xxiv.
• Take the Red Pill? Remember The Matrix?
• Remember that the dominant social paradigm
will resist paradigm shifts.
Read a classic on paradigm shift.
Donella Meadows, Leverage Points: Places to
Intervene in a System (August, 2005). Notice the
context: classics in complex systems thinking.
This short article is highly recommended.
Some heuristics to frame
sustainability.
A heuristic provides an conceptual method for
understanding a problem.
SoS uses the well known heuristic (p. xviii):
I=P*A*T
I will explain another:
SY = ( VA / ( E + M) )
If you like diagrams, go to Computing for
Sustainability.
Annie states her goal.
Which is to “unpack the Story of Stuff
- the flow of materials through the economy as clearly as possible.
My aim is never to make you feel guilty.“
She considers you a citizen
and a conscious consumer
(page xxvi).
Annie offers a short glossary.
1. Consumer/consumption (commodification)
2. Corporations (keep in mind People, Profits,
and Planet and CSR)
3. Development
4. Externalized costs
5. Organic
6. Stuff
7. Sustainability
Conclusion to this presentation.
This PowerPoint sets up The Story of Stuff for
use in Ecology, Economics, and Ethics.
Next up is Extraction,
on another PowerPoint.