1.4 Sustainability

Significant ideas:

All systems can be viewed through the lens of sustainability.
Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Environmental indicators and ecological footprints can be used to assess sustainability.
Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) play an important role in sustainable development.

International Mindedness

International summits and conferences aim to produce international tools (bodies, treaties, agreements) that address environmental issues.

EIAs vary across national borders.

ToK

EIAs incorporate baseline studies before a development project is undertaken—to what extent should environmental concerns limit our pursuit of knowledge?

Connections

ESS: Human systems and resource use (topic 8)

Diploma Programme: Geography (topic 3, options C and G); Economics

Knowledge and Understanding 1

Sustainability is the use and management of resources that allows full natural replacement of the resources exploited and full recovery of the ecosystems affected by their extraction and use.

Knowledge and Understanding 2,3

Natural capital is a term used for natural resources that can produce a sustainable natural income of goods or services.
Natural income is the yield obtained from natural resources.

Knowledge and Understanding 4

Ecosystems may provide life-supporting services such as water replenishment, flood and erosion protection, and goods such as timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops.

Knowledge and Understanding 5

Factors such as biodiversity, pollution, population or climate may be used quantitatively as environmental indicators of sustainability. These factors can be applied on a range of scales, from local to global. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) gave a scientific appraisal of the condition and trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide using environmental indicators, as well as the scientific basis for action to conserve and use them sustainably.

Knowledge and Understanding 6

EIAs incorporate baseline studies before a development project is undertaken. They assess the environmental, social and economic impacts of the project, predicting and evaluating possible impacts and suggesting mitigation strategies for the project. They are usually followed by an audit and continued monitoring. Each country or region has different guidance on the use of EIAs.

Knowledge and Understanding 7

EIAs provide decision-makers with information in order to consider the environmental impact of a project. There is not necessarily a requirement to implement an EIA’s proposals, and many socio-economic factors may influence the decisions made.

Knowledge and Understanding 8

Criticisms of EIAs include: the lack of a standard practice or training for practitioners, the lack of a clear definition of system boundaries and the lack of inclusion of indirect impacts.

Knowledge and Understanding 9

An ecological footprint (EF) is the area of land and water required to sustainably provide all resources at the rate at which they are being consumed by a given population. If the EF is greater than the area available to the population, this is an indication of unsustainability.

We often hear the words 'sustainable' and 'sustainability' in our daily lives. But what does it mean? Why is is so important?

Jonathon Porritt is a writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development. He is co-founder of the Forum of the Future, the UK's leading sustainable development charity. He is co-director of The Prince of Wales' Business and Sustainability Programme and was formerly Director of Friends of the Earth.

In this age of hyper-connectivity and 'big data', why is it that we have constructed the most unsustainable culture that the Earth has ever seen? Is it because we are not taught to see the connections?

Do we, can we, put a value on nature?

Sustainable development is critical in post-conflict countries like Afghanistan where peacebuilding must address issues relating to natural resource degradation, governance and benefit-sharing.

The Story of Stuff is a short film which looks at the darker side of our production and consumption patterns. It exposes connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and prompts us all to create a more sustainable and just world.

So, do we fit on our planet? Can the Earth support our existing population? What will happen as populations grow?

Do we value Environmental Impact Assessments enough?

Explain the relationship between Ecological Footprint and sustainability.

Explain: Give a detailed account of causes, reasons or mechanisms.

The ecological footprint of a population is the area of land, in the same vicinity as the population, that would be required to provide all the population’s resources and assimilate all its wastes. As a model, it is able to provide a quantitative estimate of human carrying capacity. It is, in fact, the inverse of carrying capacity. It refers to the area required to sustainably support a given population rather than the population that a given area can sustainably support.

Ecological footprints are the hypothetical area of land required by a society, group or individual to fulfill all their resources needs and assimilation of wastes.

As a model, it is able to provide a quantitative estimate of human carrying capacity. It is, in fact, the inverse of carrying capacity. It refers to the area required to sustainability support given population rather than the population that a given area can sustainably support.

Source: wwf.panda.org

Ecological footprints can be increased by:

greater reliance on fossil fuels
increased use of technology and energy (but technology can also reduce the footprint)
high levels of imported resources (which have high transport costs)
large per capita production of carbon waste (high energy use, fossil fuel use)
large per capita consumption of food
a meat-rich diet

Ecological footprints can be reduced by:

reducing use of resources
recycling resources
reusing resources
improving efficiency of resource use
reducing amount of pollution produced
transporting waste to other countries to deal with
improving country to increase carrying capacity
importing resources from other countries
reducing population to reduce resource use
using technology to increase carrying capacity
using technology to intensify land

Calculate your ecological footprint?

Think about the following:

How does it compare to other parts of the world that you have lived in or visited?

What steps could you take to reduce your ecological footprint further?

CAS idea: Is there anything that you could do to raise awareness of the issues discussed in this topic?

13/14 November 2015 was a day when climate change history started to change!

Watch the videos at Live Earth and note down 5 significant events that happened. What has happened in the time since then - how have the issues developed?

Remember that you can make your voice heard and make a difference when you show world leaders that you care.

Limitations of Ecological Footprint calculations

Information can be found at:

Sustainable Scale Project

Global Footprint Network (especially 'Interpretation and Criticism' and 'Data Accuracy and Improvement' sections)

TASK: Make your own notes to:

Explain the relationship between ecological footprint and sustainability.
Evaluate the use of an EF calculation - what are its strengths and limitations and what impacts do these have on it's use?

Ecological Footprint

Global Footprint Network

The Sustainability Scale Project

Ecological footprints for individual countries

Bird's Eye View of Changing Landscapes - Crossing Boundaries

Environmental Change - UNEP

Environmental Protection Authority of Australia - This site has a searchable database of real EIAs

Environmental Impact Assessment General Procedures - A paper by Pacifica F. Achieng Ogola of the Kenya Electricity Generating Company Ltd. (KenGen).

Sumatra Tsunami - San Jose University

Environmental Impact Assessments - National Archives

EIA Case Study

Isua Iron Ore in Greenland - BBC News 24 October 2013

Three Gorges Dam - National Geographic

Sustainable Yield (SY)

Sustainable Yield (SY) is calculated as the rate of increase in natural capital(i.e. natural income) that can be exploited without depleting the original stock or its potential for replenishment.

Exploitation must not affect long term productivity. SO teh annual SY for a given crop may be estimated as the annual gain in biomass or energy through growth and recruitment.

E.G.

Where

t= the time of the original capital

t + 1 = the time of the original capital plus yield

SY = (total biomass at t + 1) - (total biomass at t)

or SY = (total energy at t+1) - (total energy at t)

Because it is the amount of increase per unit are, the measurement is the rate of increase. The two equations above can be sumarised:

SY = total biomass at t+1 total biomass at t

________________ -

total energy total energy

Or simplified as:

SY = (annual growth and recruitment) - (annual death and emigration)

Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY)

is the largest yield (or catch) that can be taken from a stock of a species over an indefinite period. MSY aims to maintain teh population at the point of maximum growth rate by harvesting the individuals that woul d normally be added to teh population, allowing the population to continue to be productive indefinitely.

MSY is the point where the highest rate of recruitment can occur (this is often difficult to determine). It is used extensively by fisheries management.

Populations of cod have been particularly affected by overfishing in the North Atlantic.

Is it possible to have a truly sustainable world?

In terms of:

- development

- (new categories should be added to this as the year progresses)...

Examiners Tips, make sure that you can:

Explain the relationship between natural capital, natural income and sustainability.
Discuss the value of ecosystem services to a society.
Discuss how environmental indicators such as MA can be used to evaluate the progress of a project to increase sustainability.
Evaluate the use of EIAs.
Explain the relationship between EFs and sustainability.

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