Sustainable Development -...

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


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


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


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


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


Spatial and temporal expansion of the effects: • indirect global effects • upcoming generations

Economic considerations dominate natural processes:laws of business > laws of nature


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


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


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



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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9gag.com



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


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


• 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


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.


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


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


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


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 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



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


• 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


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


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

https://mtvsz.hu/dynamic/fenntart/ff_ffstrategiak.pdf

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