Transcript Document

SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Seminar Unit #1
Prof. Christopher L. Howard
Sustainable
Development
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Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet
human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be
met not only in the present, but also for generations to come. The term was
used by the Brundtland Commission which coined what has become the
most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development
that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs."[1][2]
Sustainable development ties together concern for the carrying capacity of
natural systems with the social challenges facing humanity. As early as the
1970s "sustainability" was employed to describe an economy "in equilibrium
with basic ecological support systems."[3] Ecologists have pointed to The
Limits to Growth,[citation needed] and presented the alternative of a "steady
state economy"[4] in order to address environmental concerns.
The field of sustainable development can be conceptually broken into three
constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and
sociopolitical sustainability.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development
International Economy
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The world- or global economy generally refers to the economy, which is based on
economies of all of the world's countries, national economies. Also global economy
can be seen as the economy of global society and national economies - as
economies of local societies, making the global one. It can be evaluated in various
kind of ways. For instance, depending on the model used, the valuation that is arrived
at can be represented in a certain currency, such as 2006 US dollars.
It is inseparable from the geography and ecology of Earth, and is therefore somewhat
of a misnomer, since, while definitions and representations of the "world economy"
vary widely, they must at a minimum exclude any consideration of resources or value
based outside of the Earth. For example, while attempts could be made to calculate
the value of currently unexploited mining opportunities in unclaimed territory in
Antarctica, the same opportunities on Mars would not be considered a part of the
world economy—even if currently exploited in some way—and could be considered of
latent value only in the same way as uncreated intellectual property, such as a
previously unconceived invention.
Beyond the minimum standard of concerning value in production, use, and exchange
on the planet Earth, definitions, representations, models, and valuations of the world
economy vary widely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_economy
Economy and
Environment
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. Two conditions must be satisfied before international economic exchanges can become beneficial for all
involved. The sustainability of ecosystems on which the global economy depends must be guaranteed.
And the economic partners must be satisfied that the basis of exchange is equitable; relationships that
are unequal and based on dominance of one kind or another are not a sound and durable basis for
interdependence. For many developing countries, neither condition is met.
3. Economic and ecological links between nations have grown rapidly. This widens the impact of the
growing inequalities in the economic development and strength of nations. The asymmetry in
international economic relations compounds the imbalance, as developing nations are generally
influenced by - but unable to influence - international economic conditions.
4. International economic relationships pose a particular problem for poor countries trying to manage
their environments, since the export of natural resources remains a large factor in their economies,
especially those of the least developed nations. The instability and adverse price trends faced by most of
these countries make it impossible for them to manage their natural resource bases for sustained
production. The rising burden of debt servicing and the decline in new capital flows intensify those forces
that lead to environmental deterioration and resource depletion occurring at the expense of long-term
development.
5. The trade in tropical timber, for example, is one factor underlying tropical deforestation. Needs for
foreign exchange encourage many developing countries to cut timber faster than forests can be
regenerated. This overcutting not only depletes the resource that underpins the world timber trade, it
causes the lost of forest-based livelihoods, increases soil erosion and downstream flooding, and
accelerates the loss of species and genetic resources. International trade patterns can also encourage the
unsustainable development policies and practices that have steadily degraded the croplands and
rangelands in the drylands of Asia and Africa; an example of that is provided by the growth of cotton
production for export in the Sahel region. (See Box 3-1.)
http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-03.htm
Development
Assistance
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In the past, development assistance has not always contributed to sustainable
development and in some cases detracted from it. Lending for agriculture, forestry, fishing,
and energy has usually been made on narrow economic criteria that take little account of
environmental effects For instance, development agencies have sometimes promoted
chemical-dependent agriculture, rather than sustainable, regenerative agriculture. It is
important therefore that there should be a qualitative as well as a quantitative
improvement.
33. A larger portion of total development assistance should go to investments needed to
enhance the environment and the productivity of the resource sectors. Such efforts include
reforestation and fuelwood development, watershed protection, soil conservation,
agroforestry, rehabilitation of irrigation projects, small scale agriculture, low-cost
sanitation measures, and the conversion of crops into fuel. Experience has shown that the
most effective efforts of this type are small projects with maximum grass-roots
participation. The programmes most directly related to the objective of sustainable
development may therefore involve higher local costs, a higher ratio of recurrent to capital
costs, and a greater use of local technology and expertise.
34. A shift towards projects of this kind would also require donors to re-examine the
content of their aid programmes, particularly with regard to commodity assistance, which
has sometimes served to reduce rather than enhance the possibilities for sustainable
development. (See Chapter 5.)
http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-03.htm
Pollution Control
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52. The processing of certain raw materials - pulp and paper, oil, and alumina, for example - can have
substantial environmental side effects. Industrial countries have generally been more successful than
developing ones in seeing to it that export product prices reflect the costs of environmental damage and
of controlling that damage. Thus in the case of exports from industrial countries, these costs are paid by
consumers in importing nations, including those in the Third World. But in the case of exports from
developing countries, such costs continue to be borne entirely domestically, largely in the form of
damage costs to human health, property, and ecosystems.
53. In 1980 the industries of developing countries exporting to OECD members would have incurred direct
pollution control costs of $5.5 billion if they had been required to meet the environmental standards then
prevailing in the United States, according to a study conducted for this Commission./25 If the pollution
control expenditures associated with the materials that went into the final product are also counted, the
costs would have mounted to $14.2 billion. The evidence also suggests that OECD imports from
developing countries involve products that entail higher average environmental and resource damage
costs than do overall OECD imports./26 These hypothetical pollution control costs probably understate
the real costs of environmental and resource damage in the exporting countries. Furthermore, these costs
relate only to environmental pollution and net to the economic damage costs associated with resource
depletion.
54. The fact that these costs remain hidden means that developing countries are able to attract more
investment to export manufactured goods than they would under a more rigorous system of global
environmental control. Many Third World policymakers see this as beneficial in that it gives developing
countries a comparative advantage in 'pollution-intensive' goods that should be exploited. They also see
that passing along more of the real costs could reduce the competitive position of their country in some
markets, and thus regard any pressure in this direction as a form of disguised protectionism from
established producers. Yet it is in developing countries' own long-term interests that more of the
environmental and resource costs associated with production be reflected in prices. Such changes must
come from the developing countries themselves.
http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-03.htm
Population Growth
• Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can
be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any
species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement. In
biology, the term population growth is likely to refer to any known
organism, but this article deals mostly with the application of the
term to human populations in demography.
• In demography, population growth is used informally for the more
specific term population growth rate (see below), and is often used
to refer specifically to the growth of the human population of the
world.
• Simple models of population growth include the Malthusian Growth
Model and the logistic model.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_growth
Sustainable
Development
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The human population growth of the last century has been truly phenomenal. It
required only 40 years after 1950 for the population to double from 2.5 billion to 5
billion. This doubling time is less than the average human lifetime. The world
population passed 6 billion just before the end of the 20th century. Present estimates
are for the population to reach 8-12 billion before the end of the 21st century. During
each lecture hour, more than 10,000 new people enter the world, a rate of ~3 per
second!
Of the 6 billion people, about half live in poverty and at least one fifth are severely
undernourished. The rest live out their lives in comparative comfort and health.
The factors affecting global human population are very simple. They are fertility,
mortality, initial population, and time. The current growth rate of ~1.3% per year is
smaller than the peak which occurred a few decades ago (~2.1% per year in 19651970), but since this rate acts on a much larger population base, the absolute number
of new people per year (~90 million) is at an all time high. The stabilization of
population will require a reduction in fertility globally. In the most optimistic view, this
will take some time
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/human_pop/hum
an_pop.html
Ecosystems
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The entire array of organisms inhabiting a particular ecosystem is called a
community.[1] In a typical ecosystem, plants and other photosynthetic organisms are
the producers that provide the food.[1] Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary.
Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs.[2]
Ecosystems are functional units consisting of living things in a given area, non-living
chemical and physical factors of their environment, linked together through nutrient
cycle and energy flow.[citation needed]
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Aquatic ecosystem
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Lentic, the ecosystem of a lake, pond or swamp.
Lotic, the ecosystem of a river, stream or spring.
Artificial, environments created by humans.
Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms interact with every
other element in their local environment. Eugene Odum, a founder of ecology, stated:
"Any unit that includes all of the organisms (ie: the "community") in a given area
interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly
defined trophic structure, biotic diversity, and material cycles (i.e.: exchange of
materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system is an ecosystem."[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem
Mass Extinction
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Mass extinctions
Main article: Extinction event
Apparent fraction of genera going extinct at any given time, as reconstructed from the fossil record.
There have been at least five mass extinctions in the history of life on earth, and four in the last 3.5 billion years in
which many species have disappeared in a relatively short period of geological time. The most recent of these, the
Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, is best known for
having wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, among many other species. The massive eruptive event is considered
to be the likely cause of the "Great Dying" about 250 million years ago,[28] which is estimated to have killed 90%
of species existing at the time.[29]
[edit] Modern extinctions
Main article: Holocene extinction
Further information: Deforestation
According to a 1998 survey of 400 biologists conducted by New York's American Museum of Natural History,
nearly 70 percent believed that they were currently in the early stages of a human-caused extinction,[30] known as
the Holocene extinction. In that survey, the same proportion of respondents agreed with the prediction that up to
20 percent of all living populations could become extinct within 30 years (by 2028). Biologist E. O. Wilson
estimated [5] in 2002 that if current rates of human destruction of the biosphere continue, one-half of all species of
life on earth will be extinct in 100 years.[31] More significantly the rate of species extinctions at present is
estimated at 100 to 1000 times "background" or average extinction rates in the evolutionary time scale of planet
Earth.[32]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction
Fossil Fuels
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Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural resources such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms.
The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650
million years.[1] The fossil fuels include coal, petroleum, and natural gas which contain high percentages of
carbon.
Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to
nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon
fields, alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. It is generally accepted that they formed
from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals[2] by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth's crust
over millions of years.[3] This biogenic theory was first introduced by Georg Agricola in 1556 and later by Mikhail
Lomonosov in the 18th century.
It was estimated by the Energy Information Administration that in 2007 primary sources of energy consisted of
petroleum 36.0%, coal 27.4%, natural gas 23.0%, amounting to an 86.4% share for fossil fuels in primary energy
consumption in the world.[4] Non-fossil sources in 2006 included hydroelectric 6.3%, nuclear 8.5%, and others
(geothermal, solar, tide, wind, wood, waste) amounting to 0.9 percent.[5] World energy consumption was growing
about 2.3% per year.
Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to form, and reserves are being
depleted much faster than new ones are being made. The production and use of fossil fuels raise environmental
concerns. A global movement toward the generation of renewable energy is therefore under way to help meet
increased energy needs.
The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes (21.3 gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year,
but it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount, so there is a net increase of
10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year (one tonne of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to
44/12 or 3.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide).[6] Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that enhances radiative
forcing and contributes to global warming, causing the average surface temperature of the Earth to rise in
response, which most climate scientists agree will cause major adverse effects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel
Alternative Energy
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Alternative energy is an umbrella term that refers to any source of usable energy
intended to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced
fuels.[1]
The term "alternative" presupposes a set of undesirable energy technologies against
which "alternative energies" are contrasted. As such, the list of energy technologies
excluded is an indicator of what problems that the alternative technologies are
intended to address. Controversies regarding dominant sources of energy and their
alternatives have a long history. The nature of what was regarded alternative energy
sources has changed considerably over time, and today, because of the variety of
energy choices and differing goals of their advocates, defining some energy types as
"alternative" is highly controversial.
In a general sense in contemporary society, alternative energy is that which is
produced without the undesirable consequences of the burning of fossil fuels, such as
high carbon dioxide emissions, which is considered to be the major contributing factor
of global warming according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Sometimes, this less comprehensive meaning of "alternative energy" excludes
nuclear energy (e.g. as defined in the Michigan Next Energy Authority Act of 2002).[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_energy
Water Resources
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Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful
to humans. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household,
recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses
require fresh water.
97% of water on the Earth is salt water, and only 3% is fresh water of which
slightly over two thirds is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps.[1] The
remaining unfrozen freshwater is mainly found as groundwater, with only a
small fraction present above ground or in the air.[2]
Fresh water is a renewable resource, yet the world's supply of clean, fresh
water is steadily decreasing. Water demand already exceeds supply in
many parts of the world and as the world population continues to rise, so
too does the water demand. Awareness of the global importance of
preserving water for ecosystem services has only recently emerged as,
during the 20th century, more than half the world’s wetlands have been lost
along with their valuable environmental services. Biodiversity-rich
freshwater ecosystems are currently declining faster than marine or land
ecosystems.[3] The framework for allocating water resources to water users
(where such a framework exists) is known as water rights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_resources
Urban Sprawl
• Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a
multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading
outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to lowdensity and auto-dependent development on rural land,
high segregation of uses (e.g. stores and residential),
and various design features that encourage car
dependency.[1] As a result, some critics argue that
sprawl has certain disadvantages, including:
• However, critics of the current mainstream of urban
planning thought (which has become overwhelmingly
anti-"sprawl") respond that sprawl also has certain
advantages including:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_sprawl
The Commons
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The commons were traditionally defined as the elements of the environment - forests,
atmosphere, rivers, fisheries or grazing land - that are shared, used and enjoyed by all.
Today, the commons are also understood within a cultural sphere. These commons include
literature, music, arts, design, film, video, television, radio, information, software and sites of
heritage. The commons can also include ‘public goods’ such as public space, public education,
health and the infrastructure that allows our society to function (such as electricity or water
delivery systems). There also exists the ‘life commons’, e.g. the human genome.
The Ecologist (1996: 9)[3] refers to the commons as “the social and political space where things
get done and where people have a sense of belonging and have an element of control over their
lives”, providing “sustenance, security and independence”.
There are a number of important features that can be used to describe true commons. The first is
that true commons cannot be commodified – and if they are – they cease to be commons. The
second aspect is that while they are neither public nor private they tend to be managed by local
communities and cannot be exclusionary. That is, they cannot have borders built around them
otherwise they become private property. The third aspect of the commons is that, unlike
resources, they are not scarce but abundant (the Ecologist 1993: 9).[4] If managed properly, they
work to overcome scarcity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_commons
Wrapping It Up
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Sustainable Development defined
International Economy
Pollution Control
Population Growth
Ecosystems and mass extinction
Fossil Fuels
Alternative Energy
Water Resources
Urban Sprawl
The Commons