Transcript ch24 - Napa Valley College

24
Tomorrow’s World
Overview of Chapter 24




Living Sustainably
Sustainable Living: A Plan of Action
Changing Personal Attitude and Practices
What Kind of World Do We Want?
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Living Sustainably

Environmental
Sustainability
 Ability
to meet
humanity’s current
needs without
compromising the
needs to future
generations
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Living Sustainably

Consumption


Human use of materials
and energy
World does not have
enough resources to
sustain everyone at
level enjoyed by US

Countries like China are
rapidly catching up (right)
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Five Recommendations For
Sustainable Living
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1. Eliminating poverty and stabilizing the
human population
2. Protecting and restoring Earth’s resources
3. Providing adequate food for all people
4. Mitigating climate change
5. Designing sustainable cities
From Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress
and a Civilization in Trouble, Published in 2006 by
Lester R. Brown
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendation 1 - Eliminating Poverty
and Stabilizing Human Population

Eliminating Poverty
 Improving
quality of life in
lower-income countries
will require increasing
economic growth
 Must
address issues of:
health, nutrition and
education
 Role
of women requires
attention (right)
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendation 1 - Eliminating Poverty
and Stabilizing Human Population

Eliminating Poverty
 Need
more trained
professionals in
developing countries
 Debts to poorest
countries should be
forgiven
 Population
 Must
devote necessary
resources to family
planning
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendation 2 - Protecting and
Restoring Earth’s Resources

The world’s forests
 Lost
for two reasons
 Converted
to cash
 Pressure from rapid
population growth
and widespread
poverty
 Need
to protect
forests
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendation 2 - Protecting and
Restoring Earth’s Resources

Loss of biodiversity
 Need

to protect
biodiversity
 Food,
medicine,
clothing
 Ecosystem services
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendation 2 - Protecting and
Restoring Earth’s Resources

Protecting and Restoring Earth’s
Resources
 Economic
development cannot ignore
functions of biological and physical
systems
 Depends on attitudes and practices
based on scientific information
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendation 3 - Providing
Adequate Food For All People
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
Link between poverty and food insecurity
Agriculture must be improved to achieve more
global sustainability
Manage farmlands and
grazing lands efficiently
(precision farming and
IPM)
 Reduce loss of soil
fertility, erosion, aquifer
depletion, etc

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendation 4 - Mitigating
Climate Change


Human activities are causing the increase in
global temperature
Must address climate change in aggressive
coordinated fashion
 Cannot
wait until scientific knowledge is
complete- earth is too complex

Stabilizing climate requires a comprehensive
energy plan
 Phase
out of fossil fuels in both developed AND
developing countries
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendation 4 - Mitigating
Climate Change
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Recommendation 5 - Designing
Sustainable Cities

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Almost 50% of world’s population now lives in
cities
Need to design sustainable cities
 Urban
transportation systems
 Parks and open spaces
 Innovative
approaches to handle
water scarcity and
sewage treatment
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Case-In-Point Jakarta, Indonesia

Megacity in a
developing country
 Badly
polluted air
 95% of human waste
dumped into rivers

2009 Green Hope
 Education
program
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Changing Personal Attitudes and
Practices

Consumption overpopulation
 Situation
where each individual in a population
consumes too large a share of resources

Sustainable consumption
 Use
of goods and services that satisfy basic
human needs and improve the quality of life but
that minimize the use of resources so they are
available for future use
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Changing Personal Attitudes and
Practices

Role of Education
 Accurate
information must be made widely
available
 People’s concerns
for the environment
do not translate into
action
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Role of Education

People must be educated to understand the
reasons for changing practices
1.
2.
3.
4.
Set up environmental curricula at all school
levels
Encourage environmental organizations
Support institutions that promote conservation
and sustainability
Encourage inclusion of relevant material in
programs of social groups
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
What Kind of World Do We Want?

Those who live in developed countries are the
source of most of the problems facing the
global environment
 Assumption
made that environment will take care
of itself
 This view needs to be changed radically
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
What Kind of World Do We Want?


Most critical environmental problem is our own
attitudes and values
Your generation must be the next pioneers
 Explore
a different way for humans to exist in the
world
 Requires reconnecting with natural environment
 Requires revaluing ourselves according to a new
set of ideals

What kind of world do you want to live in?
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.