Sustainable Development
Viktor Oláh Dpt Botany, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Debrecen, [email protected]
The history of Mankind’s relationship to its surroundings
Man is both biological and social entity needs the resources of Earth but in parallel also destroys it via „development”
3 eras with shifting balances
1. paradigm: mankind as part of the ecosystem
2. paradigm: economy is incorporated to the society and society is incorporatedto nature
3. paradigm: the society is ruled by the economy and nature plays inferior role
1. paradigm: mankind as part of the ecosystem (prehistoric times)
• Hunting and gathering• Production of tools from slightly modified materials (e.g. stone, wood)• No significant infrastructure (e.g. buildings, roads)• Small population (a few tens of millions), very slow population growth (~0.008 % per
year), short projected life-span with high birth rate but also high mortality• Small-scale effects on the environment, human populations are parts of natural
ecosystems
The history of Mankind’s relationship to its surroundings
2. paradigm: economy is incorporated to the society and society is incorporated to nature (until the industrial revolution)
• Invention and development of agriculture permanent settlements (~8-10000 years ago)• Extensive and intensive development occupation and transformation of natural habitats• Larger population and faster growth rate but large fluctuations (e.g. famine, pandemics): by the
industrial revolution ~770 M people and ~0.06 % yearly growth rate• Locally and regionally significant impact (e.g. deforestation in the Mediterranean and in the
British Islands, soil salinization in the Middle East) but these were insignificant at a global scale• The economy was integrated into the society, basically local production and small fluxes in
trading
Nature
Society
Economy
The history of Mankind’s relationship to its surroundings
3. paradigm: the society is ruled by the economy and nature plays only inferior role
Since the industrial revolution until nowadays• Scientific and technological development, urbanization loosened connection between the
people and nature• The principal aim is to control the nature and to rule it according to human needs and
comfort nature is treated as source of materials, waste deployment area and stock • Machines, fossil fuels, synthetic materials continuous and exponential increment in the
population and economy globalization without physical borders• The economy has overgrown the society rules of the economy dominate society and the
natural environment, production beyond the needs
Economy
Society
Nature
The history of Mankind’s relationship to its surroundings
Ryan Murphy M.Ed Slideshare
Global biogeochemical cycles: continuous recycling of the elements, well-balanced processes
The ecological and humanitarian world crisis
Intensification of human activities
The ecological and humanitarian world crisis
http://www.pelicanweb.org
• Numeric growth of human population
+• Increment in the
thermodynamic effect
The formerly well-balanced natural cycles have been altered, accelerated or turned into one-way processes
The fluxes of human activities has become comparable to those in the nature
The ecological and humanitarian world crisis
Spatial and temporal expansion of the effects: • indirect global effects • upcoming generations
Economic considerations dominate natural processes:laws of business > laws of nature
The ecological and humanitarian world crisis
The social and economic development depletes its own
resources
Exploiting natural resources exceeds the Earth’s carrying capacity
Cunningham, Saigo: 1999: Environmental Science, A Global Concern. 5th ed. 1999, The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc
• Technological constrains
• Superfluous consumption
• Urge for growth
www.dreamstime.com
http://chrismadden.co.uk
The rising environmental and social crisis
Various alternative solutions are competing (e.g. transportation during the late 1800’ies: steam, electricity, internal combustion, etc. engines)
One alternative technology becomes dominant (e.g. internal combustion)
The dominant technology monopolizes the resources (e.g. engineering, production, supply infrastructure, etc)
Hard to switch even to a more effective alternative
1. Technological constrains: - the evolution of a given technology
hsph.harvard.edu
The rising environmental and social crisis
2. Consumer society and over-consumption
Rise of consumer society after WW II: easily available goods for most of the society rapid increase in the standard of living (mainly USA and W-Europe but later other developed and developing countries too)
www.123rf.com
wikimedia.org
The rising environmental and social crisis
Consumption is motivated by prestige and luxury: according to the fashion and commercials, sustained by debts, artificially created new consumer needs
• Superfluous consumption and wasting, other values and aspects became inferior• Extra efforts (plus work, debts) for gathering goods
Consumption have become the central dogma for developed countries self-supporting consumption: „work, consume and waste to save your job”
novus2017.weebly.com
2. Consumer society and over-consumption
The rising environmental and social crisis
Typical characteristics of the over-consumption: • Raw materials turn rapidly into waste: mass production, poor
quality, short life cycles, disposability, high energy and raw material inputs
• The package is often more expensive that the product• Priority of consumption at individual and family levels instead of
the community level
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2. Consumer society and over-consumption
The rising environmental and social crisis
Leads not only to environmental but also to social problems: the success is measured via consumption: „we have to consume more than others, this year we have to consume more than the last year”
But: above a certain threshold wealth and happiness do not correlate!
The „level of enough” has not been discovered yet
http://markhumphrys.com
All other traditional values e.g. integrity, responsibility, social sensitivity, etc. lose their significance
2. Consumer society and superfluous consumption
The rising environmental and social crisis
Economic growth is the basis for modern societies, the basic factor to reach individual, social and business goals:• Individuals: increasing standard of living• Developed countries: precondition for employment, progress and technological advance• Developing countries: the only way to overcome poverty
Society serves the growth and not the other way around
http://www.scoop.it
The rising environmental and social crisis
• Urge for growth
But: Earth is a closed system unlimited physical growth cannot be maintained need for an alternative, sustainable, harmonized growth model
The limits of growth
Overshoot (Meadows): to go beyond thresholds
growth + limit/threshold + lag/delay = overshoot
Could lead to:• Intentional correction and adaption to the limit• Crash (worst case scenario)
What are the present limits of growth:
1. Unsustainable rates in exploiting natural resources and producing wastes
2. Irrationally high material and energy fluxes: they could be decreased by technical, distributional and institutional reforms while maintaining the present standard of living
3. The present human pressure on Earth’s resources could have been maintained for 1-2 generations more
4. Price of resources is increasing
sunhomedesign.wordpress.com
http://crisisofworldnow.blogspot.hu/
Major components of the world crisis
• Overpopulation, poverty, starvation, demography, health issues
• Slowing increase in global food production, soil degradation, soil pollution
• Limited and polluted freshwater resources
• Declining biodiversity
• Atmospheric pollution and related issues (climate, smog, acid rain, ozone depletion, etc.)
• Parallel increase in both the amount and the toxicity of wastes
• Depletion of the non-renewable resources and over-use of renewable ones
The ecological and humanitarian world crisis
Managing all these issues needs an integrated approach
What are the bases for social and economic development?
Physical resources: for maintaining human life (in biological terms) and economy (e.g. minerals, energy, ecosystems).Information regarding these resources is usually expressed by economic indices (e.g. bytheir price) but laws of nature do not always concord with economic rules
Social needs: e.g. peace, social stability, equality, personal safety, education, institutional basis for advance, long-term planning, etc.
•Renewable resource: usage < regeneration
•Non-renewable resource: depletion does not exceed the rate at which the resource could be replaced by a renewable one
•Pollutant: discharge does not exceed the recycling, absorbing or storing capacity of the sink
What are the criteria for sustainability
M. Szabad K. 2013 (tankonyvtar.hu)
Global ecosystem
Resources
Economy
Sinks
energy of high quality
energy of low quality
heat loss
solar energy
materials and fossil
fuels
wastes and pollutants
Human activity Waste
Energy
Rawmaterials
What are the criteria for sustainability Present
Earth
Human activity Waste
Energy
Raw materials
What are the criteria for sustainability Desired future
Earth
Sustainable development
Economy is strongly connected to the social and environmental dimensions an integrated approach is needed to manage environmental and developmental issues
„sustainable development is a way of development which covers present needs without threatening future generations to meet theirs”
The principal goal of development is to ensure social wellfare and fair living conditions for everyone –including future generations
wikipedia
M. Szabad K. 2013 (tankonyvtar.hu)
„Development” is not narrowed down to the economic growth but systematically integrates economic, social and environmental subsystems (so-called pillars of sustainable development)
Besides profit environmental performance and social benefit are also desired
Sustainable development
Economy
Economy
Nature
SocietySociety
Nature
Unsustainable Sustainable
Indices for economic and social development
Population density, population growth:Population density: number of people living in a given unit of area (people per km2)Population growth: population increment over a given period (e.g. % per year, fertility rate)
wikipedia
wikipedia
wikipedia
Gross domestic product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP)
GDP: all final goods and services produced in a given period (e.g. quarterly or year) and area (country, region). Geographic approach
GDP = communal consumption + governmental consumption + investments + net export
GNP: the GDP is corrected by the products and services produced by the citizens of the country living abroad and foreigners living in the country. In countries with high capital and labor import or export GDP and GNP can be significantly different. Political approach
GDP and GNP are used to measure economic performance of a given country, and their per capita averages are to measure standard of living.
Indices for economic and social development
Gross domestic product (GDP) and Gross National Product (GNP)
Pros:Standard methodology easy to compare various periods or geographic units
Cons:• Externalities are not included (e.g. depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution)• Non-monetary and non-merchandisable processes are not accounted (e.g. domestic
production, barter, voluntary work)• An average per capita GDP hides social differences of a population• Can be easily distorted by e.g. military investments or reconstruction works after a disaster,
technological advancement cannot be measured• Retrospective comparison to a former state and does not indicate sustainability of economic
growth
Indices for economic and social development
Components of the newly developed indices:• health• education• natural environment• employment• monetary welfare• personal relations/social cohesion• political factors
Additional, strategic components:• Economic sustainability• Ecological sustainability• Social justice (distributional ratios of material
and social goods)
Recently developed indices of welfare
Natural resources:Pricing „free” natural resources due to include changes in their stocks into GDP before their exploitation (e.g. mining, fishing)
Social dimensions:People are not only biological creatures. Mental and social factors should also be included into welfare indices
Indices for economic and social development
Welfare indices
Human Development Index (HDI):Elaborated by Amartya Sen (India) and Mahbubul Haq (Pakistan) and published by UNDP (1990):Reflects long-term changes in peoples’ welfare integrating material goods, development and freedom of choice.
wikipedia
Indices for economic and social development
Several indicators:• Standard of living: GDP• Life Expectancy Index• Schooling (mean years of schooling, enrollment ratio
in primary, secondary and tertiary education, adult literacy rate): Education Index
Since 2010 new methodology: IHDI (Inequality-adjusted HDI)
Welfare indices
Other alternative indices e.g.:
Bhutan GNH index Gross National Happiness: originally a philosophical concept9 categories: physiological welfare, health, time management, education, cultural diversity and resilience, good government, vitality of communities, economic diversity and resilience, living conditions
OECD Better Life Index: since 2011QOL (Quality Of Life): Economist Intelligence Unit, 2005 HPI (Happy Planet Index): New Economics Foundation, 2006ESI (Environmental Sustainability Index) EPI (Environmental Performance Index, Yale University, since 2006)
Indices for economic and social development
Indices for environmental impact
Ecological footprint
Measures human demand for natural resources and waste disposal expressed in unit area per capita
Theoretical assumptions for calculation:
1. The exploited resources and the produced wastes can be measured and tracked
2. These needs can be expressed as biologically productive area to supply them
3. Areas for different needs can be expressed on the same basis, in so-called global hectares (gha)
4. These areas can be summed up to express total needs of the world population
5. Human demands are this way comparable to the biocapacity of the Earth
Indices for economic and social development
Indices for environmental impact
Ecological footprint
Components:
• Carbon footprint: forested area needed to sink the produced CO2
• Grazing land: area needed for livestock
• Forest: estimated by yearly wood consumption
Indices for economic and social development
• Fishing grounds: estimated by fishing data and needs for fish population recruiting
• Cropland: area needed for covering human consumption, feedstock and biofuel needs
• Built environment: land covered by infrastructure: (cities, roads, etc.)
www.overshootday.org
Indices for environmental impact
Ecological footprintEcological footprint correlates well with human consumption but is not an absolute measure rather used to shape public awareness and to inspire economic resource usage
Weaknesses e.g.:• Does not account for unsustainable
production methods• Does not include other pollutants than
CO2
• Only 8 land usage categories• Marine areas are included only
recently• Does not account for multiple land
usage• Estimations are made based on the
„western” life-style
wikipedia
Indices for economic and social development
Medvéné dr. Szabad Katalin 2013: A fenntartható fejlődés gazdaságtana. Budapesti Gazdasági Főiskola, Budapest, www.tankonyvtar.hu
Dr. Barótfi István 2011: Környezetgazdálkodás. Szent István Egyetem, Gödöllő.www.tankonyvtar.hu
Dr. Tóthné dr. Szita Klára, Dr. Csordás Tamás, Dr. Dabasi Halász Zsuzsanna, Roncz Judit, Síposné Nándori Eszter 2011: Fenntartható fejlődés; gazdálkodás a természeti és az emberi erőforrásokkal. Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest.www.tankonyvtar.hu
Gyulai Iván 2012: A fenntartható fejlődés - Fenntartható fejlődési stratégiák. Ökológiai Intézet a Fenntartható Fejlődésért Alapítvány, Miskolc.https://mtvsz.hu/dynamic/fenntart/ff_ffstrategiak.pdf
Dr. Csete Mária 2012: Regionális és környezetgazdaságtan. EDUTUS Főiskola, Budapest.www.tankonyvtar.hu