Environmental principles of Global Sustainable Development PDF

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Week 1 - The Natural Environment and HumanInterpretationsRelationship between plants earth and humans:- ‘Home planet’- Sustains human life by meeting basicneeds- Provides non-essential materialprovisions- Inspiration for socially constructedneedsHuman economy and theenvironment- primary activity: co...

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Week 1 - The Natural Environment and Human Interpretations Relationship between plants earth and humans:

- ‘Home planet’ - Sustains human life by meeting basic needs

- Provides non-essential! material provisions

- Inspiration for socially constructed needs

Human economy and the environment

- primary activity: conversion of natural/environmental capital into other capitals - all activities due to extraction of natural resources - mediated by financial capital History of Environmentalism and GSD Longstanding knowledge & concern

- Religious and spiritual traditions - Cultures embedded with sustainability praxis - Colonial interactions precipitate knowledge and regulation - 1799-1804 Humboldt: reflects on environmental impact of ‘development’ in Latin America (Zimmerer 2006) Post World War 2

- Emerging international concern for environmental impact - Continuing and reinforced concern for material development

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Degrees of Sustainable development Soft/weak Sustainable Development

- all capital can be substituted (win-wins) so preservation of total capital available - Oil + heavy metals + financial capital > energy > build photovoltaic cells > renewable energy Hard/strong Sustainable Development “Man-made and natural capital are fundamentally complementary and only marginal substitutes” (Daly 1996: 76).

- Raw material always needed - Raw materials are substitutable but ultimately finite - Tree are renewable natural capital (ecosystem services) - CO2 + H2O + solar energy = new trees - Compounds can be created and substituted - Atoms cannot be created or destroyed - Planetary waste sinks are finite - Serious recycling needed! - The sun has a limited life span - Fundamental physics: unsustainable Critical Natural Provisions => Limitations on a shorter timescale

- Thresholds and critical loads (e.g. of waste) beyond which a system is changed beyond natural, potentially supported, recovery (W3&4)!

- Critical Natural Capital, with no natural or human capital substitutes (Ekins 2003) - Not particular resources, but interactions and outcomes: Climatic conditions within which we have evolved, O Zone layer to protect humans from the harmful wavelengths, Biodiversity, Sustainable supplies of natural resources

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Week 2 - Constructing Knowledge of the Environment: Philosophy and Evidence Rockstrom (2009) Planetary Boundaries

- Together, the set of boundaries represents the dynamic biophysical “space” of the Earth System within which humanity has evolved and thrived.

- The thresholds in key Earth System processes exist irrespective of peoples’ preferences, values, or compromises based on political and socioeconomic feasibility, such as expectations of technological breakthroughs and fluctuations in economic growth.

Sachs (2015) Chap 6: Planetary boundaries The Planetary boundaries

- are crucial to identify to limit the human negative impact - established by Rockstorm and co. 1. Climate change: overuse of fossil fuels 2. Ocean Acidification: CO2 dissolves in water producing carbonic acid which has decreased the ocean’s PH level by 0.1 3. Ozone depletion: overuse of CFCs 4. Overuse of freshwater resources: 70% used for agriculture and major sources being depleted unsustainably 5. Atmospheric aerosol loading: small particles creating air pollution 6. Chemical pollution: industrial processing 7. Biodiversity loss: species extinction leading to ‘6th mass extinction’ due to human and not natural processes Growth dynamics

- convergence theory helps understand why developing countries are achieving faster economic growth than high income countries, they have access to the same technologies and knowledge, and have a gap to catch up with

- today the world’s growing at about 1.1% for 7.2 billion people (75 million people added to the world pop. each year)

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- can use the pop. forecast and the convergence idea to give us a sense of the world’s economy by the mid-century

- ‘business as usual’ is not sustainable The case of energy

- coal, gas and oil emit the most Co2 out of all energy resources - nuclear energy emits non as it isn’t a fossil fuel, just like hydroelectric, solar and wind power The case of food

- agricultural food system is a enormous source of: greenhouse gases, land use, habitat loss, chemical pollutants, pathogens/diseases, overhunting/overgrazing/ overharvesting, water depletion The case of population

- if we have a population peak and then a gradual decline it will be easier to meet the environmental challenges we face

- need to look at fertility rates and their determinants The world is made up of two things:

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Ontology

- the study or concern with what kinds of things exist, what makes up ‘the world’ Ontologically objective

- things created and done by humans. If I build a table, it does not require you to believe it in for it to actually exist.

- If I build a table, it does not require you to believe it in for it to actually exist. - Also, if I push you, this is an ontologically objective phenomenon. Again, it does depend on how you think about it, the action of me pushing you will have effects define by the nature of ontologically objective reality (physics), and if I push you hard enough, just thinking it away won’t stop you falling over.

- If you do hit the ground, the pain that you feel is however, ontologically subject. This is because although it is ‘real’ and can in theory be understood by investigation, it can only be experienced by you directly through your own conscious existence. Your pain requires your consciousness to exist. Ontologically subjective

- ‘Hard science’: premised on existence of an ontologically objective reality - The atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and biosphere of planet earth + associated processes (National Geographic 2017)

- Exist if humans weren’t here, and act irrespective of how we ‘think’ about them - If we use accurate methods, we can create ‘positive representations’ and knowledge about them —> ‘Positivism’ – the world is real, we can know it, we just need the right tools… The scientific method

- Aims to create ‘theoretical’ knowledge through the ‘systematic generation’ of ‘empirical evidence’ about our ‘external reality

- Theory: scientists do not only describe, but also explain why already observed phenomenon occur and aim to predict the outcomes from the yet unobserved

- Systematic: methodical process informed by a coherent set of ideas and principles - Empirical evidence: based on observation or experience - External reality: a world outside of human consciousness although accessible by it, proved to exist by our sensory experience, interactions and ability to predict

- ‘Deductive’, ‘Abductive’ & ‘Inductive’ approaches are different with different logic 5

Epistemology

- The philosophical consideration of ‘knowledge’, how we know what we know, and what constitutes valid knowledge or ‘truth’ Language

- it creates problems for science - The choice of signifier is fundamentally ‘arbitrary’ – we can call ‘a! thing’ whatever we want

- However, concepts are cross referenced with one another: Individual ‘things’ are associated with wider categories (other concepts): !Tomatoes are vegetables – or tomatoes are fruits. Which is correct?

Discourses and the environment

- I accept that the natural world ‘exists’ - But, we can only share knowledge of the environment through ‘language’ - Widespread understanding of knowledge creation through ‘discourses’: - A group of representations (language, images) on a particular subject e.g. the environment

- Have specific ontologies (things they see and don’t in the world) e.g. ‘ecosystems services’

- Different understandings of agency in the world - Influenced by values and material power - Mixture of ontologically and epistemically, objective and subject elements The implications of this philosophical discussion

- Empirical research must be the foundation of environmental knowledge - critical thinking is vital - rigorous writing is necessary

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Week 3 - Introduction to ecology and governance Hardin, G. (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons

- The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.

- Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum. However, by any reasonable standards, the most rapidly growing populations on earth today are (in general) the most miserable

- Adam Smith contributed to a dominant tendency of thought that has ever since interfered with positive action based on rational analysis, namely, the tendency to assume that decisions reached individually will, in fact, be the best decisions for an entire society.

- Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

- the air and waters surrounding us cannot readily be fenced, and so the tragedy of the commons as a cesspool must be prevented by different means, by coercive laws or taxing devices that make it cheaper for the polluter to treat his pollutants than to discharge them untreated.

- Analysis of the pollution problem as a function of population density uncovers a not generally recognized principle of morality, namely: the morality of an act is a function of the state of the system at the time it is performed

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- it is worth noting that the morality of an act cannot be determined from a photograph. One does not know whether a man killing an elephant or setting fire to the grassland is harming others until one knows the total system in which his act appears.

- But our society is deeply committed to the welfare state (12), and hence is confronted with another aspect of the tragedy of the commons. In a welfare state, how shall we deal with the family, the religion, the race, or the class (or indeed any distinguishable and cohesive group) that adopts overbreeding as a policy to secure its own aggrandizement (13)? To couple the concept of freedom to breed with the belief that everyone born has an equal right to the commons is to lock the world into a tragic course of action.

- it applies equally well to any instance in which society appeals to an individual exploiting a commons to restrain himself for the general good--by means of his conscience.

- "No good has ever come from feeling guilty, neither intelligence, policy, nor compassion. The guilty do not pay attention to the object but only to themselves, and not even to their own interests, which might make sense, but to their anxieties!»

- Responsibility is a verbal counterfeit for a substantial quid pro quo. It is an attempt to get something for nothing.

- The only kind of coercion I recommend is mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the majority of the people affected.

- Every new enclosure of the commons involves the infringement of somebody's personal liberty.

- The most important aspect of necessity that we must now recognize, is the necessity of abandoning the commons in breeding

- an appeal to independently acting consciences selects for the disappearance of all conscience in the long run, and an increase in anxiety in the short. 1. What parts of Hardin’s account are more rigorous than others? Think about his use of scholarly tools such as citations to support his claims - where has he dropped marks? 2. In what ways can the ideas of Hardin be connected to the idea of Planetary Boundaries? And of course, feel free to re-revisit this framework in!Rockstrom, J.!et al. (2009)!and!Steffen et al (2016).

- he shows the problems: constraints on the biosphere, we’ve set an unsustainable status quo and need to adopt a new equilibrium because there is a finite amount of resources that we cant keep using up

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- relationship between finite resources and population density - Malthus theory and exponential growth = pressure on common resources (rival and non-excludable)

- maximising individual benefit = social pressure 3. Most importantly, what solutions does Hardin propose to solve the tragedy of the commons and how does he evaluate them?

- recognition of necessity —> relinquishing the freedom to breed (for the population problem)

- mutual coercion: making people pursue a certain type of behaviour through some kind of social pressures, rules and regulations. a set of things that contain our behaviour that we’ve agreed to in a certain way —> privatisation of commons

- privatising of commons = private goods? —> widen the inequality gap even more - Hardin not a fan of community based solutions because due to human nature it would be impossible to maintain

- propaganda: to arrange the behaviour of people with informal norms and rules, which would result in to be responsible, he does not want it to control people but he wants it to make people more responsible.

- Double bind: create anxiety through two different contrasting narratives where people get stuck, (if i carry on i will be publicly criticised but if i stop i wont pursue this thing i want), anxiety isn't good for anyone which is why propaganda wouldn't work and why we need mutual coercion

- propaganda wouldn't work but education would be useful, sensitivise through information

Encyclopedia of Governance: Environmental Governance 1. What is Governace?

- Governance describes how social activity is rule-bound and socially regulated - Environmental governance can be provided by the state (as regulatory control), through the market (as a price mechanism) or by civil society, generating norms and expectations backed by moral sanctions.

- broad definition by Alistair: organising socio-economic activity 2. What types of governance are outlined - and what do you learn about the most effective? 9

Marketization of Environmental Policy

- marketization, in this context, refers to a trend toward viewing the market as the source of innovation, efficiency, and incentives necessary to combat environmental degradation without com-promising economic growth.

- there is increasingly evidence of the use of market tools for creating incentives for positive action and deterring polluting activities. Examples of pollution charging in China, Colombia, and the Philippines show that pollution from factories has been successfully reduced when steep, regular payments for emissions have been enforced.

- self-regulation or voluntary measures by industry: The trend follows a rejection of the efficiency and effectiveness of central government command-and-control policy measures, and reflects the preference of firms to set their own standards appropriate to their own circumstances in a way that avoids state intervention.

- self regulation, internal codes of conduct especially from private corps - Hardin would not like this ideas as it approaches the idea of propaganda and does not implement mutual coercion

- creation of markets, for eg: by the state (cap and trade, regulations, carbon credits, agendas, taxation) Civil Regulation

- As a reaction to the limitations of market-based and voluntary mechanisms, there has also been a growth in what has been termed civil regulation

- bottom-up strategy of governance empowering communities and groups to develop their own responsibility and strategies and implement at national and international levels Supranationalization of Environmental Governance

- decisions about resource use and protection are increasingly taken at regional and international, rather than exclusively national, levels

- In addition to rule creation, institution building, and monitoring and enforcement, environmental governance can imply a soft infrastructure of norms, expectations, and social understandings of acceptable behavior toward the environment, in processes that engage the participation of a broad range of stakeholders.

- This broader approach recognizes the significance of private actors and informal, normative structures and goes beyond official interstate and supranational arrangements.

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- decentralisation of authority - bigger orgs like EU, come into play, international rather than national. look at rules of protection or resource useage Decentralization of Authority

- Strengthening local institutions of decision making to improve both efficiency and the accountability of state actors to poorer groups has been an increasingly central feature of development orthodoxy.

- Community-driven regulation can play a key role in plugging gaps and improving existing forms of state pollution control.

- informal rules and cooperation between communities to ensure environemtally sustainable behaviour to create a plurality of approaches and governance which (pluralism, poly centric governance) 3. How do the ideas outlined here compare the argument that Hardin makes?

lecture

- Ecology: (from Greek: οἶκος, "house", or "environment"; -λογία, "study of") is the branch of biology which studies the interactions among organisms and their environment

- the scientific study of the distribution and abundance of organisms; and the interactions that determine their distribution and abundance

- why do we study ecology: life is under threat, existential threat that threatens the whole of society, planet is not doing well

- 4/9 global processes that underpins life on Earth are exceeding safe levels accord to planetary boundaries, this is driven by human activity

- if we can understand: the normal distribution and abundance or organisms, and the normal interactions that affect this, we can better understand how human activity impacts on natural ecosystems and develop mitigation strategies 1. physical conditions

- physiochemical features of the environment: temperature, humidity, salinity, PH,… - they are not consumed by using, cannot bemused up - the conditions determine the abundance and distribution of individuals - organisms are adapted to sets and conditions 11

- but organisms also alter the conditions in their environment 2. Resources

- biotic or abiotic components of the environment - consumed or used by organisms - solar radiation, water, food (other organisms) - ecological niche: a conceptual summary of the conditions and resources that allow a species to exist, grow and reproduce 3.

Interactions between species

Interspecific competition:

- in nature resources are limited, in crowded environments, competition restricts population development

- it is competition within a species - the environment function to limit population growth, competition occur when resources are limited

- population regulation involves density dependence: pop is affected in proportion to its size, rate of pop growth is slowed with increasing pop density, density-dependent mortality/fertility

- interspecific population growth can result in an s-shape curve - in nature, populations rarely follow logistic patterns of increase exactly - interspecific competition can result in co-existence or exclusion of 1 population species by another depending on resources availability and conditions Predation:

- true predators: kill prey straight after attack, consume many ov...