Transcript Introduction: Education and Sustainable Development

Introduction:
Education and Sustainable
Development
The Earth is the bank
upon which we draw all
our cheques
It is a 3.8 billion-year
investment that created
our natural capital
Lets not spend it all at once….
The earth provides…………
1. Life support systems
2. Recreation, Leisure and Tourism
3. Providing waste decomposition - the place called
‘away’ - but in the future the earth will no longer be our
dustbin!
4. Providing Commodities - Raw
Materials & Resources
Commodities - Raw Materials &
Resources
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Timber
Metals
Chemicals
Crops
Wind & Waves
Genes
Everything in fact!!!!!
See the earth/environment as
“nature”
and
for business it contains,
provides for and sustains
the entire economy.
Commodity values
retail price/Kg or litre in US $
• Human growth
hormone: 20 million
• Cocaine: 150,000
• Lear’s Macaw: 24,000
• Gold 10,000
• Bear Gall Bladders:
7,000
• Saffron: 6,500
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Tiger bones: 3,000
Italian truffles: 650
Sharks fin: 550
Coffee:10
Cotton: 1.5
Petrol: 1.0
Roughly one fifth of all our products
purchased at our local chemist’s shop owe
their manufacture, in one way or another to
start point materials from tropical rainforest
organisms….these products range from
antibiotics and antivirals, to diuretics and
tranquillisers, to analgesics to contraceptives;
and from skin creams to shampoos, among
many other toiletry and cosmetic items…….
We sometimes forget that the environment is
the place where we go to play!
When you see the next slide
Read the words slowly and
imagine each one of of the
sensations….
Outdoor environment
Moonlit meadows, crickets chirping, birds singing,
snow crunching under foot, the smell of the
spring thaw, summer sweetness, autumn decay,
a salty breeze, burning leaves, the squish of
mud, the sting of hot sand and the cold of snow
are just a few among the plethora of sensory
images we experience while outdoors. These
sensations often tap emotionally and
spiritually uplifting memories. (Consalvo, 1995)
The tourism industry is the biggest industry in the
world….ecotourism and adventure tourism are also growing
rapidly
The animal business?
Not all business takes place in factories
Popular and unpopular animals
What if they became extinct………or extremely rare…….?
The ironic attraction of rarity
If the Mahogany trees are harvested for
short term gain by one business then other
long term businesses loses out (e.g.
tourism) – is this the right way to do
business?
This was the place where I lived in a hammock 30
years ago – it no longer exists
The Amazon Rainforests
• Water levels vary some 80 feet….
• The region contains 2000+ species of
birds…there are only 8,600+ in the world
• In the UK there are some 2,000 species of
flowering plants - in some rainforests
there are over 80,000 species….
• 1,600 tropical plants have great potential
as vegetable crops….
Gene Hunters……
One teaspoon of soil may contain 5
billion bacteria, 20 million fungi, and
1 million protocists………in one
square metre…..there may be perhaps
100 of each of ants, spiders, wood lice,
beetles and their larva, 2000
earthworms, 8,000 slugs and snails,
20,000 pot worms, 40,000 springtails,
120,000 mites and 12 million
nematodes……
The $200 million Biosphere 2
Experiment
• 8 scientists entered a glass-enclosed 3.15
acre structure in Arizona….included a
desert, a rainforest, a savannah, wetland
and a field for farming…the ‘bionauts’ were
accompanied by insects fish, reptiles and
mammals especially selected to maintain
the ecosystem functions…
The result
• Cockroaches multiplied rapidly, of the
original 25 small vertebrate species 19
became extinct….and at the end of 17
months the drop in quality of the air was
equivalent to the humans inside living at
17,500 altitude…..
• It cost $200 million to sustain 8 people for
24 months….!
African plant drug starves
cancer
• Nigel Hawkins reports that the first trial of
a cancer drug designed to starve tumours
into submission has shown that it might
work….
• Seventeen cancer patients …..
• The Times, October 5 1999….
Ecology and economy?
How do you stimulate and
promote consumption whilst
promoting the conservation of
natural resources?
Consider this statement
Patagonia wants to
contribute to the formation
of an economy which
restores the ecological
health of the planet….
The square and the circle
All industries are experiencing
regulatory forces that create
movement away from the circle.
E-
take
E-
dump
E+
Business will eventually produce more
products and services that actually
produce environmental benefit….in order
to do this we need to go beyond design for
recycling recovery and repair….here lie
exciting opportunities to significantly
rethink product design principles……