Key Components For Sustainability

(i) Natural capital

These are natural resources and natural services that keep
us and other forms of life alive and support our human economies
o Natural resources: materials and energy in nature
that are essential or useful to humans
o Natural services: processes in nature, e.g. purification of
air and water and renewal of topsoil, which support life and
human economies.

As long as we use natural resources and services in a

sustainable fashion, natural capital can support the earths
diversity of species

Fig. 1-4, p. 9

Natural capital: supported by solar capital

Nutrient Cycling
A natural service which is one of the key principles of
sustainability
This important natural service recycles chemicals
needed by organisms from the environment (mostly
from soil and water) through those organisms and back
to the environment

Fig. 1-5, P. 10

 An important component of nutrient cycling is topsoil

in which plants grow
Topsoil provides the nutrients that support plants,
animals, and microorganisms living on land
Without nutrient cycling in topsoil, life as we know it
could not exist

(ii) Human activities

Human activities can degrade natural capital:(i) By using renewable resources faster than nature can
restore them e.g.
Clearing mature forests much faster than they can grow back
eroding topsoil faster than nature can renew it
withdrawing groundwater that was stored for thousands of years
faster than nature can replenish it

(ii) Overloading natural systems with pollution and wastes

e.g.
loading some rivers, lakes, and oceans with chemical and animal
wastes faster than these bodies of water can cleanse themselves

(iii) Scientific solutions

Scientific solutions are needed for environmental

sustainability
e.g. solutions to unstainable use of natural capital
forests, animals, pollution of rivers, etc.

Are we Living Sustainably or Unsustainably?

 We are living unsustainably by wasting, depleting,

and degrading the earths natural capital at an
accelerating rate
This is referred to as environmental degradation or
natural capital degradation
Countries differ in levels of unsustainability because as
human population grows, more and more people seek
to satisfy their needs and wants by using more
resources

 Economic growth is an increase in a nations

output of goods and services.
Usually measured by the % of change in a countrys
gross domestic product (GDP)
GDP is the annual market value of all goods and
services produced by all businesses operating within
a country.
Per capita GDP:- Changes in a countrys economic
growth per person. Measured by the GDP divided by
the total population at midyear
Economic development is an effort to
economic growth to improve living standards.

use

 Based average income per person, countries are

classified as developed or less developed .
More-developed countries (high average income
PP): North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan,
most of Europe
The more developed countries contain 19% of
the worlds population
They use about 88% of all resources
Produce about 75% of the worlds pollution and
waste

 Less-developed countries: most countries in

Africa, Asia, Latin America
81% of the worlds people live

Less developed countries are classified into two:

(i) middle-income, moderately-developed countries e.g. China,
India, Brazil, Turkey, Thailand, and Mexico
(ii) low-income, least-developed countries e.g. the Congo,
Haiti, Nigeria, and Nicaragua.

Results of unsustainable living

Natural Capital Degradation

Climate
change

Shrinking
forests
Decreased
wildlife
habitats

Air pollution

Soil erosion

Species
extinction
Water
pollution

Aquifer
depletion

Degradation of Normally Renewable Natural

Resources due to population increase and resource
use per person

Declining
ocean fisheries

Fig. 1-9, p. 13

Selected environmental
problems

(i) Pollution

Pollutionany presence within the environment of a

chemical or other agent such as noise or heat at a level that
is harmful to the health, survival, or activities of humans or
other organisms.

Types of pollution are air, water, soil, and food pollutants

Pollutants can enter the environment into two ways;

(i)

Naturally e.g. from volcanic eruptions

(ii)

Through human activities, e.g. burning of coal or

gasoline, and the dumping of chemicals into rivers and
oceans

Pollutants sources
oPoint sources; are single, identifiable sources
E.g.
Smokestack of a coal-burning power or industrial plant

 Exhaust pipe of an automobile

 Discharges from a sewage treatment plant, a

factory

Nonpoint sources; are dispersed and often difficult to

identify
E.g.
Pesticides blown from the
land into the air,

Runoff
of
pesticides,

Trash from the land into

streams and lakes

fertilizers,

Nairobi river, Kenya

It is much easier and cheaper to identify and control or

prevent point source pollution than nonpoint sources

Types of pollutants
o Biodegradable pollutants- are harmful materials
that natural processes can breakdown over time. E.g.
human sewage and newspapers.
o Non-degradable pollutants-Harmful chemicals that
natural processes cannot breakdown. E.g. toxic
chemical elements such as Lead and mercury, plastics

Effects of Pollutants
(i) They can disrupt or degrade life-support systems for humans
and other species
(ii) They can damage wildlife, human health, and property
(iii)They can create nuisances such as noise and unpleasant
smells, tastes, and sights

Solutions to pollution
o Pollution prevention (input pollution control)
Reduces or eliminates production of pollutants
o Pollution cleanup (output pollution control)
Cleans up or dilutes pollutants after they have formed

Disadvantages of relying on pollution cleanup

(i) Temporary solution as long as population and consumption
levels grow without corresponding improvements in pollution
control technology.
E.g., Garbage collection in Nairobi.

(ii) Cleanup often removes a pollutant from one part of the

environment only to cause pollution in another. E.g. garbage
collection
what next?

Burned- possibly causing air pollution and leaving toxic

ash that must be put somewhere

Dumped on the land-possibly causing water pollution

through runoff or seepage into groundwater

Buried- possibly causing soil and groundwater pollution

(iii) Once pollutants become dispersed into the environment, it is

usually too expensive to reduce them to acceptable levels

There should be more emphasis on prevention because it

works better and in the long run is cheaper than cleanup

(ii) Overexploitation of Shared Renewable

Resources
Three types of property or resource rights
Private property- individuals or companies own the
rights to land, minerals, or other resources
Common property- the rights to certain resources
are held by large groups of individuals e.g.
community/government land in Kenya
Open access renewable resources- owned by no
one and available for use by anyone at little or no
charge e.g. atmosphere, underground water supplies,
and the open ocean and its marine life.

 Many common-property and open-access renewable

resources have been degraded.
This type of degradation is called the tragedy of the
commons.
Reasons for degradation:-human attitude
(i) If I do not use this resource, someone else will.
(ii) The little bit that I use or pollute is not enough to
matter
(iii) its a renewable resource

(iii) Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint: the amount of biologically

productive land and water (Biocapacity) needed to
provide the people in a region with indefinite supply
of renewable resources, and to absorb and recycle
wastes and pollution

It is measured in global hectares

Per capital ecological footprint:The average

ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or
area

It includes amount of land and water needed to

provide:oThe amount of building materials you use in your home and
workplace
oThe amount of water you use in your home, workplace and
garden
oThe fossil fuels (oil, coal, wood and natural gas) needed to:

provide the power to run your home and workplace

bring your food from all over the world
power your vehicles and transport
carry away and dispose of your waste

Ecological

deficit: Occurs if a country (or the

worlds) total ecological footprint is larger than its
biological capacity to replenish its renewable
resources and to absorb the resulting wastes and
pollution
In such scenario, the country or world is living
unsustainably by depleting its natural capital

So Where are We At?

Fig 1-13 Page 16: Humanity's Footprint (1961-2050)

No. of earths= Ratio between resource demand & Biocapacity

Demand = population times per capita consumption , Biocapacity =
1planet

 Humanitys ecological footprint exceeds by at least

30% the earths biological capacity to support life.
It now takes more than 1.2 years for the Earth to
regenerate what we use in a single year

Causes of increasing Ecological footprint

Population growth and increasing development and

means that we are increasing our use of Earths
carrying-capacity
Per capita consumption also influences
foot print

ecological

Developed countries have very large ecological foot

prints compared to less developed countries due to
high per capita consumption- influenced by wealth
and advanced technology

Comparative Per capita ecological foot print

Wealth
Technology

National Footprints
In

U.S. each person uses about 9.7 hectares/person

Worldwide
Therefore

average = 1.7 hectares/person

if everybody were to adopt the U.S.

consumptive style, how many planets would we
need ???

(See Supplement 8, p. S40, for a map of countries that are

either ecological debtors or ecological creditors).

Ecological Overshoot

When humanity's ecological resource demands exceed

what nature can supply, we reach ecological
overshoot/Ecological tipping point

A situation in which an natural system experiences a

shift to a new state, with significant changes to
biodiversity and the services to people it underpins

Potential tipping points;

(i) Collapse of certain populations of fish due to overfishing
(ii) Premature extinction of many species due to overhunting or
clearing their habitats
(iii) Long-term climate change due to burning coal and oil
(iv)Deforestation
(v) Loss of groundwater

Four Major causes of environmental

problems
1.

Population growth (group 1)

2. Wasteful and unsustainable resource use (group 2)

3. Poverty (group 3)
4. Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of
goods and services in market prices (group 4)

Three Big Ideas on sustainable living

1. We could rely more on renewable energy from the sun, including indirect
forms of solar energy such as wind and flowing water, to meet most of our
heating and electricity needs.
2. We can protect biodiversity by preventing the degradation of the
earths species, ecosystems, and natural processes, and by restoring areas
we have degraded.
3. We can help to sustain the earths natural chemical cycles by
reducing
our production of wastes and pollution, not overloading natural systems with
harmful chemicals, and not removing natural chemicals faster than those
chemical cycles can replace them.