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Principles of Environmental Sciences
Abstract
Principles of Environmental Sciences provides a comprehensive picture of the principles, concepts and methods that are applicable to problems originating from the interaction between the living and non-living environment and mankind. Both the analysis of such problems and the way solutions to environmental problems may work in specific societal contexts are addressed. Disciplinary approaches are discussed but there is a focus on multi- and interdisciplinary methods. A large number of practical examples and case studies are presented. There is special emphasis on modelling and integrated assessment. This book is different because it stresses the societal, cultural and historical dimensions of environmental problems. The main objective is to improve the ability to analyse and conceptualise environmental problems in context and to make readers aware of the value and scope of different methods. The authors contributing to Principles of Environmental Sciences come from several countries and a wide variety of scientific backgrounds in the fields of natural and social sciences, and the humanities. This book will be ideal as a course text for students, and will also be of interest to researchers and consultants in the environmental sciences.
Chapters (29)
This chapter examines the contribution of environmental sciences and scientists to the fi nding to solutions to environmental
problems. It defi nes and describes important concepts, highlights methods used to analyse human impacts on the environment,
and it discusses the ways in which sustainability can be measured. The chapter is subdivided into three sections:
The term environment in environmental sciences is derived from the science of ecology. The term ecology or oekologie was coined by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866, when he defi ned it as ‘the comprehensive science of the relationship
of the organism to the environment’. In the environmental sciences these organisms are humans. This explains why the term
human ecology is used sometimes as a synonym for environmental sciences. By using the latter term we want to avoid that humans are only
seen as biological beings and to emphasise that we consider them primarily as social beings and as members of a society. A
further restriction is placed on the use of environment: the social environment is excluded as an object for study. The focus is on the physical (living and not living) environment:
air, water, land, and all the biota that grows and live therein. Environmental scientists are not concerned with angry neighbours,
although they may well be interested in noisy traffi c, the fate of cod and smokestacks (at least nowadays).
It is now often assumed that life first appeared on planet Earth about 3,500 million years ago. Since then ‘our’ Sun has changed considerably. While the flux of solar energy to the Earth has increased by about 30% over this period, though, this has not led to a corresponding increase in the Earth's temperature or the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the planet's surface.
The main reason for the absence of any major change in the Earth's temperature over this extended period is that the concentrations of so-called greenhouse gases — i.e. gases transparent to visible light but absorbing infrared radiation — such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) have fallen dramatically. Ultraviolet irradiation of the Earth's surface has in all probability declined substantially since life's fi rst origins, a crucial development because DNA and other vital cell components are easily damaged by ultraviolet radiation. The decrease in the UV radiation striking the Earth's surface is due to the presence of an ‘ozone layer’ in the stratosphere, the section of the atmosphere 15–50 km above the Earth's surface containing about 90% of atmospheric ozone. The ozone in this layer is a strong absorber of UV radiation. This long-term decline in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and the formation of the ozone layer are intimately linked to the development of life on Earth.
Ever since the Earth's creation, some 5 billion years ago, environmental change has been a defi ning characteristic of our planet. At fi rst these changes were purely inorganic in nature: weathering and erosion of the Earth's surface, and tectonic processes beneath the crust. As life forms began to develop, though, a new, organic infl uence came to be exerted on the planetary environment. These abiotic and biotic infl uences continue to this day and are reciprocally related through the various biogeochemical cycles that transport chemical elements within and between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. In addition to these ‘internal’ planetary characteristics and mechanisms, external factors also exert a degree of control over processes of environmental change, the most important of which is the periodicity of the Earth's movement around the Sun, defi ned by so-called Milankovitch cycles, as shown in Fig. 3.1.
Environmental history (in Europe also commonly named ecological history) emerged as a separate sub-discipline of environmental science in the 1980s. Although there had been several earlier historical stud ies on the state of the environment, many spurred by the fi rst report to the Club of Rome and the fi rst oil crisis of the 1970s (Van Zon 1993), it was in the 1980s that environmental history fi rst began to develop as a dynamic fi eld of research in its own right, pulling ever more themes into its orbit as the scope of the environ mental debate broadened (Winniwarter et al. 2004).
While early environmental history studies were infused mainly by concerns about pollution and resource depletion, today even climate history falls within its province. One of the consequences of this dynamic, in a sense ‘cyclonic’, development is that a variety of longer-standing fi elds of study are now subsumed under the umbrella term ‘environmental history’. Such is the case with historical studies of health and sanita tion, for example, subjects traditionally studied as part of social history (Corbain 1982). Similarly, some aspects of economic history and the history of technology are today studied within the context of environmental his tory. In European historiography much has been writ ten about whaling, (over)fi shing, deforestation, erosion and overgrazing, for example. The contemporary envi ronmental debate has given these older studies new political relevance; as they are re-read from an envi ronmental rather than economic or geographic perspective.
This chapter examines human history from an environmental perspective and, at the broadest level, isolates those trends which have shaped current environmental problems. It argues that it is impossible to understand the complexity of modern environmental problems without considering their historical background. It is built around a number of key themes:
Population, land and food
Resources and energy
Inequality
Pollution
Ideas and actions
Although these themes are considered separately they do of course run in parallel.
Although we often speak of ‘the’ environmental problem, what we in fact have is a large family of problems affecting the geophysical system, ecosystems and human health and varying enormously in magnitude, nature and temporal and spatial scale. There is a similar diversity in how these problems are framed conceptually by individual societies, under the infl uence of myriad historical, cultural and social factors. It is therefore instructive to start out by considering a few historical examples of the way in which perceptions of environmental issues have changed over time.
In 19th-century Western Europe the main focus of what we today term environmental hygiene was on the agents of infectious disease. The classic anecdote concerns the London doctor John Snow, who in 1849 suspected that the prevalence of cholera in the vicinity of Broad Street was related to a mixing of sewerage and drinking water. His advice, correctly, was to take the handle off the Broad Street water pump. Since then there has been a thorough-going separation of sewerage and drinking water supply systems in industrial countries, where the incidence of (drinking) water-borne infections has consequently plummeted. Measured in so-called disability-adjusted lost years the burden of disease associated with drinking water, sanitary facilities and poor personal hygiene is now about 0.1% of what it once was. Indeed, in industrialised countries infectious diseases associated with drinking water now scarcely feature on the environmental agenda. The situation in the developing world is quite different, though. Here substandard drinking water and sewerage systems and poor standards of personal hygiene are responsible for 7.6% of the burden of disease (Murray and Lopez 1997; Prüss and Havelaar 2001).
When one speaks of the principles of a particular sci ence or scientifi c discipline, one means that which is presupposed in all activities of the discipline. Such presuppositions are essentially of one of two kinds, namely principles of action, and ontological principles. Principles of action are the rules saying how the disci pline is to be pursued, while ontological principles are presuppositions made in the discipline about the fun damental nature of reality. It is a discipline's principles that determine just what the discipline is.
Principles of action can themselves be divided into two groups, one concerned with the goal of the action, and the other with the means for reaching the goal. In the pure sciences the goal is epistemological, that is, it is to acquire knowledge or understanding for its own sake. In the applied sciences, such as environmental science, knowledge and understanding are not goals in and of themselves, but are rather to be (part of) the means for reaching some other goal.
Among the environmental problems identifi ed as such today are some that already have a very long history. Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in Australia changed Australian ecosystems greatly, may have contributed to the extinction of some plant and animal species and caused signifi cant pollution especially by their use of fi re (Goudsblom 1992; Reijnders 2006). The problems of soil erosion and salinisation have plagued agricultural communities for millennia, as pointed out by Ponting in Chapter 5. Furthermore, as again noted by Ponting, agriculture has from its very inception ‘rolled back’ living nature, with a substantial impact on natural ecosystems and biodiversity (also Roberts 1989). From their earliest beginnings mining and metalworking have been associated with toxic impacts (Lucretius 1951; Hughes 1980). Similarly, indoor use of open indoor fi res must have had a negative impact on lung function from the very outset. And in cities there is a long tradition of nuisances associated with productive activities, transport and wastes (Hoesel 1990). This does not mean that what we now consider to be environmental problems were viewed as such in the past or indeed even recognized at all. It does seem likely, however, that there has been substantial continuity in how certain environmental problems have been perceived and managed over the ages. A case in point is the nuisance caused by excessive noise and bad smells, a long-standing source of irritation for city-dwellers. References to such forms of nuisance are to be found in contemporary descriptions of Roman and Judaic cities of the classical era and the same holds for the cities of medieval Europe. There is a long tradition of pragmatic efforts to limit such nuisance, again dating back to classical Roman and Judaic times and continuing in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Abatement measures included imposition of limits on the offending activities (e.g. limited access for carriages), physical planning (e.g. separating odorous production facilities from dwellings) and technological change (e.g. using horse-drawn sleighs instead of wheeled carriages). Legal means were usually invoked to implement such measures, in these cases Roman law, Judaic Halacha and medieval city ordinances.
Interestingly, similar basic approaches to environmental problems are still prevalent in much of environmental policy today. At the same time, though, major discontinuities are also apparent. From a historical perspective, some of the views currently held in the west about the relationship between man and living nature may seem relatively eccentric. Animistic religions often attribute supernatural powers to elements of their natural surroundings. A theocentric religion like Judaism sees nature as being in God's hand. The God of Judaism treats nature as he sees fi t (Gerstenfeld 1999). Within such systems of belief there are limits as to how living nature may decently be treated. In all cases, though, these limits are of supernatural origin. Contemporary arguments in favour of nature conservation, for instance that natural species have intrinsic value or legal status in and of themselves, are very different and quite alien to theocentric and animistic systems of belief. Such notions are likewise at variance with the important tradition in classical Mediterranean and Near Eastern beliefs that nature was created for mankind (Cohn 1999). Furthermore, deterioration of natural resources has traditionally often been viewed as supernatural revenge for transgression of divine precepts or as the work of evil supernatural powers, again in contrast to current opinion that such deterioration is in many cases due to human activity (Cohn 1999). In addition, traditional concepts of pollution often stress the element of ritual impurity rather than negative impacts in the physical sense. Thus, in the Judaic tradition adding salt to fresh water is seen as a means of purifying the water (Gerstenfeld 1999), while today it is generally perceived as pollution.
This chapter seeks to provide a behavioural science per spective on environmental problem analysis and manage ment. Why is
there a need for such a perspective and what does it involve? How can a behavioural science perspec tive be aligned with a
physical science perspective? Our emphasis in this chapter will be on the scientific methods available for studying environmental
behaviour. A method is a means of doing something or getting somewhere. This means that before any particular method is adopted,
the researcher must fi rst be clear about the rationale of the study, answering such questions as ‘what?’, ‘why?’, ‘to what end?’, ‘with or for whom?’, ‘with what intended results?’,
‘to be used for what purpose?’.
Environmental problems may relate to sources (of energy, water, raw materials), sinks (for absorbing emis sions and waste) or ecosystems (for supporting diverse forms of life). Interaction between the human species and the natural environment is a two-way process,
with environmental quality affecting human functioning and well-being, and human behavioural patterns impacting on environmental
quality. To clarify the nature of this interaction, we shall discuss various behavioural science conceptions of environmental
problems.
This chapter discusses a range of concepts and methods for analysing ‘the natural environment’, here considered as the physical, chemical and biological (i.e. living and non-living) environment and as the ‘resource base’ of human society, to which it thus bears a reciprocal relationship (Boersema et al. 1991: 22). This defi nition does not include the social environment, which is treated in Chapter 9. Although the natural and engineering sciences potentially provide a plethora of methods for studying the environment, we shall here restrict ourselves to those used specifi -cally for analysing and resolving environmental problems, which we shall here take to mean an actual or potential deterioration of the quality of the environment, or a disturbance of the relationship between the environment and human society (Boersema et al. 1991). The term ‘environmental quality’, in turn, is taken to comprise the structural and functional properties of the environment in the context of human appreciation, either positive or negative (Boersema et al. 1991).
This chapter is concerned with relating the fl ows of matter and energy through the social system to the fl ows of money through
the economy. Clearly there is a close connection between the two types of fl ows. Most resources fl owing through the social
system have been mobilised by the economy, and these resources inevitably become wastes of production and consumption, and
are emitted into the environment, in due course. The extraction of resources and the emission of wastes are important causes
of environmental damage and degradation.
In this chapter methods for analysing the physical interactions between the economy and the environment will be discussed. The historic roots of such methods lie in the 19th century and go back to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who used the term ‘metabolism’ (Stoffwechsel) to imply a relationship of mutual material exchange between man and nature, an interdependence beyond the widespread notion of man simply ‘utilising nature’. Like many of his contemporary economists in the mid-19th century, John Stuart Mill linked this concept of metabolism to the idea of a ‘stationary state’, a form of economic development with no physical growth. This fi rst phrasing of ‘sustainable development’ was then forgotten for some time.
It was not until the 1960 of the 20th century that the physical interactions between the economy and the environment again formed a basis for scientifi c thought, induced by the upcoming acknowledgement of the side effects of economic growth. Thus the economist Kenneth Boulding was worried that a ‘cowboy economy’ might not be compatible with ‘Spaceship Earth’, and outlined a coming change to a ‘spaceman economy’ that was suitably cautious in its dealings with fi nite resources. At the end of the 1960s, the physicist Robert Ayres and economist Allen Kneese laid the basis for a physical model, for the United States, of the material and energy fl ows between the economy and the environment, proposing to view environmental pollution as a mass balance problem for the entire economy.
What is the role of environmental policy instruments? In simplifi ed terms, environmental policy instruments can be said to link policy development and decision-making to policy implementation. Starting from policy development, the policy problem is translated into operational goals, the appropriate instruments are cho sen, and their implementation achieves the goals. This picture of policy as a linear, stepwise activity is an over-simplifi cation. For instance, the defi nition of the policy problem is often already based on instrument choice, resulting in a circularity that disrupts the seemingly rational linear picture. Permits for the operation of installations tend to defi ne problems in terms of the effects the installation has on its environment, for instance in terms of noise, stench and eutrophication of a nearby lake. Having defi ned the problem in this way, the choice of policy instrumentation is then more or less limited to variants of the permit, as emission taxes and liability rules simply do not fi t the problem defi ni-tion. Such more abstract instruments require a more aggregate view of the problem, involving for instance groups of installations or activities (see Huppes 1993).
This chapter on environmental policy institutions and learning opens with a brief introduction on the problems and dilemmas political institutions face in dealing with knowledge and power. The reason is twofold: on the one hand, such an introduction provides a framework which, in our view, is critical for an adequate understanding of the challenges for environmental institutions and the policy science's concepts, theories and methods to investigate and advise with respect to these institutions. On the other hand, the study of environmental institutions and the way they may adapt to the needs of society may provide valuable lessons for the current discussions on political institutions in general.
In this chapter, the concept institution is defi ned in a somewhat different way than may happen in everyday speech, where the concept is often used as identical to organisations. In the social sciences, institutions refers primarily to formal and informal ‘rules of the game’ that shape individual and group behaviour. Defi ned in a broad sense, this may include organisations as well, but institutions may exist with and without organisations. Examples of political institutions are visible organisations such as national states, the European Union or the United Nations. But equally important are less visible though infl uential institutions such as markets, formal and informal policy-science interfaces and laws.
This chapter examines the potential role to be played by technology in resolving today's environmental problems. First, though, we consider some of the positions that can be taken on the extent to which technology can itself be held responsible for these problems and how this bears on the extent to which technological innovation can help solve them. To provide some background for this key issue, we briefl y explore the history of western technology. We then move on to consider the range of environmental technologies in use today as well as several principles that can be applied to design inherently more benign technologies. The chapter closes with some thoughts on sustainable development and technology.
Current technology is neither the best possible, given present scientifi c understanding, nor the result solely of socio-political choice.1 In the large-scale technological systems of today, social institutions and technological hardware form a seamless web and any distinction between the ‘social’ and ‘technological’ dimensions of these systems becomes futile. Particularly when systems fail, attempts are made to blame casualties on either ‘human’ or ‘technological’ factors. Such attempts are doomed to failure, though, for it is in fact impossible to distinguish the human and technological factors in any given technological system: is it the hardware that is not properly adapted to the humans operating, administering or maintaining it, or are the humans not functioning in accordance with the demands set by the hardware they are dealing with? This question cannot be answered empirically.
In the preceding chapters the term 'integration' was used many times, but what is in fact meant by integration, or integrated, as in 'integrated policy instruments' or 'integrated environmental management'? According to the dictionary, to integrate means 'to combine parts into a whole', 'to complete by the addition of parts', or 'to bring into equal participation in or membership of society', as for instance in 'Can these immigrants be integrated into our society?' Applied to policy, 'integrated' often tends to correspond with 'integral' and statements on environmental issues often suggest that the word 'integrated' means 'covering all aspects' - although this is in fact usually a hollow pretence. In practice, it is rarely possible to integrate all relevant aspects in a project or method, if only because time or manpower restrictions make choices inevitable. On closer inspection, then,'integrated' approaches usually turn out not to be 'fully integrated' in the absolute sense of the phrase, but 'more integrated', usually signifying that the analysis includes a few more factors than earlier approaches. This process may repeat itself, leading to greater and greater 'integra-tive' scope, but the concept may well lose some of its meaning along the way, reminding one of the detergents that claim to make your wash 'ever whiter'. There would thus seem to be a need for a more precise defi nition of the concept of integration.
In the previous chapter, the concept of integration was introduced from a broad perspective. This chapter focuses on one of the major tools for understanding environmental system behaviour: models. It is not my intention to give a thorough and complete overview, but rather a feel for how models can be and are used, and some recent developments. I fi rst discuss what a model is. Next, to suggest a model classifi cation, the notion of complexity is discussed from an epistemological point of view. This is followed by an overview of some important developments in dynamic environmental modelling using illustrative examples and focusing on population-resource-environment models. In this manner, my aim is to prepare the way for the next chapter on integrated assessment models and their use.
It has been mentioned in Chapter 12 that Life Cycle Assessment (or LCA) is one of the analytical instruments within the toolbox for analyzing the interface of economy and environment. This section provides a worked example of the LCA technique. It is a fairly elaborate demonstration of a quite simple hypothetical product system. No real case study and data were chosen, the reason being that the number of data items would be too large to be sorted out in an educational setting. All data are therefore fi ctional and no claims should be made with respect to the results of the exercise. With respect to the methods that are presented, a similar though weaker statement must be made. There is not one unique interpretation and implementation of the principles of LCA, and any attempt to illustrate LCA by means of a concrete example should be understood as an illustration indeed. The purpose of this section is therefore to point out the main idea and methodological principles of LCA by means of a hypothetical example with fi ctitious data.
The development of environmental policy with respect to the current and future quality of air, water and soil cannot be considered in isolation. Alleviation of one environmental problem may lead to an increase in the importance of another problem. For example, the reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions may decrease the risk of acidifi cation but can, under particular circumstances, lead to an increase in the formation of tropospheric ozone. Climate change may lead to changes in land cover that may affect biodiversity. Another example often mentioned is the relationship between sulphur dioxide emissions in which the risk of acidifi cation is increased, while the enhanced greenhouse effect is, through the formation of sulphate aerosols, decreased. This is why relationships between environmental problems need to be recognised by policies aimed at reducing these problems. This also holds true for policies affecting socio-economic activities, since these can generate externalities in the environment. For example, both the fi fth and the sixth Environmental Action Programmes of the European Commission identify fi ve target sectors (industry, energy, transport, agriculture and forestry, and tourism), all having an important — but different —l impact on the environment.
Scholars working within the field of comparative environmental policy have regularly noted the disparity in how different countries react to ecological threats. The 1986 Chernobyl accident, a catastrophe that spread measurable amounts of radioactivity across a broad stretch of northern Europe, provides a particularly poignant illustration of the ways in which predominant public responses to environmental risk can vary. During the months following the incident, a number of commentators quipped that the ill-effects of atmospheric dispersal oddly seemed to stop at the German-French border. These remarks were motivated by the sardonic observation that while Germans typically refused to eat locally-grown vegetables during the months following the incident, their French neighbours evidenced no similar vigilance.
On a broader scale, we have witnessed over the past decade cross-national variation in the form of Dutch environmental advocates cooperating with industry in a way hardly imaginable in Germany, British eco-warriors burrowing themselves into underground bunkers to obstruct the construction of new roads, and American communities aggressively protesting the construction of hazardous waste incinerators. These multifarious forms of agitation around environmental concerns invariably lead to very different political responses and policy outcomes.
Many people will remember the controversy that arose around the Brent Spar oil platform in the summer of 1995. Plans by oil
company Shell to sink their drilling platform in the open sea were opposed in public actions by the environmental organisation
Greenpeace, leading on to wider protests, especially in Germany. Eventually, Shell withdrew its plans.
The question arises why the Germans in particular were so concerned, something even Greenpeace was at a loss to explain. Some
commentators pointed to ‘a difference in national character’. One of them was Dutch journalist Willem Beusekamp, who related
the Brent Spar affair to the aspect of the German ‘national soul’ embodied in the phrase Den Wald im Kopf, translatable as
‘forest-mindedness’, and equivalent to an almost mythical alliance with nature (Beusekamp 1995). It seems that nations may
differ when it comes to the values accorded to nature and this in turn affects the processes of political decision-making.
These national characteristics, including the socio-cultural roots of a country, are part of a broader set of institutional
factors. In this chapter we examine the infl uence of these institutional factors on contemporary national waste policy.
In southern Africa some 54 million people occupy just over 3 million km2 of land. The four southern African countries discussed in this chapter are Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
Most of the southern Africa land mass lies between 500 and 1,000 m above sea level, is fairly fl at (Botswana) or slightly
undulating, with interspersed Inselbergs. The Drakensberg in the south-east of South Africa (Lesotho) and the eastern Highlands
of Zimbabwe are the only mountain ranges with peaks over 2,000 m.
Southern Africa, as here defi ned, has a total area of about one-third that of the USA, or 3,100,000 km2, and a human population of about one-fi fth, or 54,000,000 inhabitants. In terms of core statistics like population density,
Gross Domestic Product and environmental variables like rainfall the four countries differ substantially, sometimes by an
order of magnitude (Table 21.1).
International climate change politics provides a clear example of how cultural differences, confl icts of interest and scientifi c assessments interact to shape environmen tal policy-making. This section will explore these inter relationships by analysing the role of the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany in international cli mate change negotiations. All three countries are impor tant and infl uential players on the international stage. From the start of the international climate change nego tiation process, they have taken very different positions and favoured very different policy options — refl ecting country specifi c approaches to dealing with the complex ities and uncertainties involved in climate change. Given the global character of the climate system though, they also needed to reach a minimum of agreement amongst themselves as well as with other countries in order to develop global mitigation and adaptation strategies. This has resulted in a long and arduous process of negotiation, that will be briefl y introduced in the following sections.
In the remaining part of this section, we shall argue that the origins of the diverging policy positions of the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany are as much of a cultural as of an economic nature. These ori gins encompass differences in national perceptions as well as differences in national interests. These differ ences shape scientifi cally based yet country-specific understandings of the causes, effects and solutions of climate change. Consequently, they predetermine coun try-specific preferences for particular solutions. By analysing these cultural and economic origins of coun try-specific policy preferences, we aim to clarify part of the cultural, scientific and political-economic dynamics that shape environmental policymaking in the modern, globalising yet culturally heterogeneous world.
The structure of my argument is as follows. First, I shall try to show that the widespread belief that society should adopt some policy of ‘sustainable development’ on account of considerations of justice or equity between generations and the ‘rights’ of future generations is false. I am not concerned here with criticisms of the concept of ‘sustainable development’ as such, and I have published my objections to this concept elsewhere (Beckerman 1995). In this chapter I try to show that its underlying philosophical premises concerning the rights of future generations are mistaken.
The fact that future generations may not have any rights does not mean, however, that we have no moral obligations to take account of the interests that they will have. Our problem then is to try to predict what their most important interests will be. The chapter goes on to argue that economic growth is likely to continue at a pace that will mean that future generations will be vastly richer than people are today. Furthermore, this growth will not be impeded by any resource constraints. By contrast with the improvement that this will bring in the relief of major problems, such as widespread poverty and environmental pollution, there will be no improvement in the various sources of suffering imposed on the vast majority of the world's population on account of violation of basic human rights or fear of such violation. The most important bequest we can make to future generations, therefore, is to bequeath to them a more decent society than the one in which most people live today, namely a society characterised by tolerance and respect for basic human rights.
The loss of natural functions has traditionally not been recognised in national income accounting (Hueting 1980). Loss of
environmental function has been an unmeasured reduction in both productive capacity and direct welfare. To account for this
loss in true national income it is necessary to value natural functions in order to subtract the loss. This requires prices
for natural functions, which in turn requires supply and demand curves. Roefi e Hueting has proposed a supply function that
is the marginal cost curve of restoration of the natural function. His diffi culty arises with the demand curve that is unknown
because markets for many natural functions do not exist, and even if they did, most interested parties (for example future
generations, other species) are not allowed to bid in the market. The logic of income accounting requires the subtraction
of the value of sacrifi ced ecological functions. But sacrifi ced functions cannot be valued in the same way as other goods
and services because the demand curve cannot be defi ned — that is, cannot be defi ned in the same way as other demand curves,
namely in terms of individual preferences expressible in markets. Hueting's resolution is a perpendicular ‘demand curve’,
an expression of objective value, not individual preferences (Hueting 1991). The objective value is sustainability. This entails
a rejection of the dogma that individual subjective preferences are the sole source of value, and introduces collective objective
value as an additional source.
According to Wilfred Beckerman, environmental considerations provide no grounds whatsoever for concern about the physical conditions under which future generations will have to live. In his opinion, a study of Sustainable National Income (SNI) designed to estimate the distance between actual and sustainable levels of production and consumption is therefore entirely superfl uous. The value of such a study rests, moreover, so Beckerman holds, on the erroneous notion that rights can be conferred upon future generations. Any undertaking on behalf of such generations can at best be based on ‘imperfect obligations’ borne of moral considerations.
Let me start with the second point. Conferring rights has nothing whatsoever to do with studying Sustainable National Income. The SNI according to Hueting is not based on the rights of future generations, nor on inter-generational equity, but on the preferences of the present generation for handing down the vital functions of our physical surroundings (the environment) intact to generations to come. There are two grounds for assuming such preferences. First, the existence of ‘blockages’ preventing these preferences from being expressed (Hueting and de Boer 2001b). Second, the postulate that ‘man derives part of the meaning of existence from the company of others'. These others include in any case his children and grandchildren. The prospect of a safer future is therefore a normal human need, and dimming of this prospect has a negative effect on welfare’ (Hueting 1987).
One of the great themes of the social debate about environmental protection has been the question whether environmental quality can be safeguarded without major economic or social change. With the advent of the notion of ‘sustainable development’ in the late 1980s a new consensus emerged which sug gested that the economy and the environment could be complementary, so long as the economy internalised the costs of damage to the environment and techno logical innovation provided for smarter and cleaner ways of doing things. Sustainable development rested on the argument that it would be possible, through the adjustment of incentives and the application of knowl edge, to reconcile increases in welfare with a healthy environment. This conviction grew out of the great successes achieved through environmental regulation, beginning in the 1960s, which had brought radical improvements in environmental quality — air, water and soil — in richer, industrialised countries. New tech nologies — less toxic products, more effi cient produc tion processes and a panoply of abatement techniques — modifi ed the environmental impact of social and eco nomic activities, while also enabling growing welfare. By adjusting the economic incentives of innovators in such a way that socially-desired trade-offs were made between economic and social welfare and environmen tal quality, growth and sustainability could be recon ciled — so the argument ran (cf. Elkington 1994).
Agriculture provides more than 99.7% of the world food supply; the oceans and aquatic ecosystems contribute less than 0.3%.
With the human population projected to grow from its 2005 level of 6.5 billion to 9–11 billion by 2050, it will be increasingly
diffi cult to meet future basic human food needs given the fi nite resources of the earth.
The status of the food supply has already become critical in many areas of the world. Based on data of the Food and Agricultural
Organization and the World Health Organization, it is estimated that roughly 3.7 billion people are currently malnourished
whereas about 800,000 suffer from hunger. Not only are hunger and malnutrition signifi cant problems in and of themselves,
but they also predispose people to infectious diseases. This relationship is evidenced by the growing number of people dying
from infectious diseases and illness associated with such environmental problems as air pollution and chemical pollutants.
Diseases in humans worldwide have increased during the past decade.
Managing sustainable development as a policy issue is a complex task. The European Union Sustainable Development Strategy (CEC 2001) has stimulated EU member states to develop national sustainable development strategies. However policy makers are mostly lacking reliable and practical tools to measure progress and to indicate where adaptation to new or unbalanced developments is needed. In this chapter a new approach to develop an integrated sustainability index for nations is proposed and illustrated.
Since the UN World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) published its report ‘Our Common Future’, sustainable development has been accepted widely by governments, businesses and civil society as a common goal. Sustainable develop ment was defi ned in this report, I paraphrase, as our obligation to increase and not reduce overall devel opment possibilities for the next generations. We should leave our Earth behind in a better shape than we found her at the moment we were born, not only for moral reasons, but also to promote future pros perity. Many attempts have been made to defi ne the concept of sustainable development in a way that makes it possible to link operational targets to it. (Biesiot 1997; Bossel 1997; Daly and Cobb 1990; Hueting and Bosch 1990; Meadows 1998; Wackernagel and Rees 1996). As yet no defi nition obtained general support and I have not the pretense to provide the ultimat e solution to the operational ization of sustainability. But the proposals presented here may serve as a contribution from the viewpoint of a former policy-maker.
... According to the book Principles of Environmental Science, environmental policy instruments link policy development and decision-making with the execution of policies [8]. Beginning with policy formation, political issues are converted into operational goals, appropriate methods are chosen, and objectives are met through their implementation. ...
... The above example describes the use of bioindicators to access environmental conditions. Using indicators is a specific method of environmental science, as per Boersema and Reijnders (2009). The example includes an observational aspect where the effects of sewage on water bodies are described. ...
This study analyzes the elements of the nature of science (NOS) with respect to environmental issues in middle-school science textbooks, covering three collections (nine and 12 books) from South Korea and Brazil, respectively. Content analysis was used to categorize the elements of the NOS using the reconceptualized family resemblance approach to the NOS (RFN) framework. The results showed that middle-school science textbooks mentioned the NOS when discussing environmental issues. The Brazilian textbooks mentioned RFN categories more often than the South Korean textbooks (103 vs. 24). Specifically, professional activities were the most mentioned RFN category in the Brazilian textbooks (32, 31.1%), while social values (6, 25%) were most mentioned in the South Korean textbooks. Additionally, the categories of aims and values (2, 1.9%), scientific ethos (1, 1.0%), and political power structures (4, 3.9%) were present in the textbooks from Brazil but not in those from South Korea. The financial system category was not identified in the textbooks of either country. Notably, most mentions of RFN categories in the textbooks were implicit in nature and did not have in-depth descriptions. Based on these results, this study discusses how exploring the general principles of the NOS and its specific applications in environmental issues can promote the role of science textbooks in environmental education. Further, the study findings contribute to clarifying the differences between South Korea and Brazil regarding environmental issues associated with the NOS, indicating that both countries can learn from each other’s perspectives on environmental education and the NOS.
... Risk assessment (RA) stands for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the risk that a certain pollutant or mixture of contaminants poses to the environment and human health (Boersema & Reijnders, 2009). RA is used as a path to prevent unacceptably adverse effects that technology systems might have on the environment, human health, resources, economy, and the society. ...
This book provides an overview of technical sustainable water management in the Global South, mainly in India, and is structured in five sections: The current status and challenges for sustainable water management in IndiaNew-age materials for water and wastewater treatmentNew technologies for water and wastewater treatmentSensors for water quality monitoringUrban water management
Section 1 provides the latest information about the status and challenges for sustainable water management in India from the perspective of water quality, industrial and domestic wastewater treatment, urban water infrastructure and policy and governance towards water security. Section 2 discusses new framework solids for water purification, new materials for arsenic and fluoride removal, nanocomposites for water and wastewater treatment and removal of hazardous materials, and toxicity of these materials. Section 3 presents the new technologies developed for water and wastewater treatment; dealing with pulsed power technology, constructed wetlands, nutrient recovery, low-cost filters and pollution abatement using waste derived materials. Section 4 focuses on sensors, including the development of low-cost colorimetric sensors for eutrophying ions, sensors for conductivity and flow parameters, and multi-analyte assessment for water quality. Finally, Section 5 addresses the issues related to urban water infrastructure, sustainable urban drainage and integrated flood and water scarcity management.
This section also discusses virtual water.
The unique feature of this edited volume is its special perspective on emerging economies in the Global South, such as India. It provides information about adaption of technologies, development of new technologies, and management practices which are context driven and region specific. It also deals with economical and easy to use sensors for large-scale monitoring of water quality and water quantity parameters.
ISBN: 9781789063707 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781789063714 (eBook)
... It includes integrated environmental assessment [6] as the interdisciplinary process of identification and analysed appraisal of all relevant natural and human processes and their interactions that determine both the current and future state of environmental quality, and resources on appropriate spatial and temporal scales. It facilitates the framing and implementation of suitable policies and strategies [7]. Environmental management for the operational manufacturing and fossil-fuel based energy plants needs to include devising systems [8] to meet long term challenges like improving the understanding on structure-toxicity relations, biological and physic-chemical interactions in response to environmental stresses, fate and transport of anthropogenic chemicals, bio-geochemical cycles, gas-to-particle conversion in the atmosphere, functional genomics and the chemical processes that govern organism environment relationships, chemical-gene interactions in the real environment, and persistent organic products. ...
... En primer lugar, la contribución de cada una de ellas introduce la variable o la dimensión ambiental a partir de los diferentes campos del conocimiento, en un esfuerzo de las ciencias tradicionales por comprender y contribuir a las soluciones de los problemas ambientales. En ese mismo sentido, Guerrero (2010) expresa que "lo ambiental es todo", como una forma de asumir que las disciplinas teóricas y tradicionales brindan elementos conceptuales que permiten construir un acervo para el reconocimiento de las ciencias ambientales.En esa búsqueda del concepto,Boersema (2009) destaca una definición de ambiente entendida como naturaleza, en el sentido de lo biótico. Pero, en Principles of Environmental Sciences, prefiere definir ambiente como "el derredor físico, vivo y no vivo ...
... Second, the estimation of monetary values for ecosystem services has been advocated as a means to more explicitly account for environmental effects in decision-making. This policy relevance has been a major driver of environmental sciences (Boersema and Reijnders, 2009;Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2010). Especially, economic decision-making processes that use monetary values as a leverage, such as cost-benefit analyses, can take advantage of the opportunity to incorporate environmental effects by means of monetary valuation of ecosystem services. ...
Ecosystems are vital for life on earth. They provide food and freshwater, sequester carbon, purify water, prevent soil erosion, and provide opportunities for recreation and tourism, amongst others. While ecosystems thus have concrete benefits for human society, these benefits are typically overlooked in policymaking.
This is problematic because ecosystems – and thus the benefits that ecosystems provide – are under increasing pressure from human actions. The ecosystem services concept aims to better reflect the benefits of ecosystems for human well-being, such that the human impact on ecosystems can better be accounted for in policy and decision-making.
As a tool to quantify ecosystem services, their value is often estimated in monetary terms. This thesis investigates whether this approach is valid in ecological terms: do monetary value estimates adequately reflect the ecological status of the ecosystem? Two sets of water-related services in two different types of regions have been investigated: water quantity-related services in global drylands (chapters 2 and 3) and water quality-related services in the Scheldt river basin (chapters 4 and 5).
This thesis shows that the selected methodological approach to estimate the value of ecosystem services in monetary terms has a dominant impact on value estimates for water-related services, while the ecological status of the ecosystem is of minor importance.
This finding casts doubts upon the validity of monetary valuation as a means to take the ecological status of ecosystems into account in public decisionmaking. For the ecosystem services concept to be truly of value for policy and decisionmaking, valuation methods need to be further improved such that they better account for the ecosystem’s ecological status. Specifically, this asks for a thorough exploration how the ecological status of the ecosystem can be better integrated in ecosystem services valuation.
The fully updated second edition of this innovative textbook provides a system analysis approach to sustainability for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. To an extent unparalleled in other textbooks, the latest scientific data and insights are integrated into a broad and deep transdisciplinary framework. Readers are encouraged to explore and engage with sustainability issues through the lenses of a cultural and methodological pluralism which promotes dialogue and alliances in the search for a (more) sustainable future. Ideal for students and their teachers in sustainable development, environmental science and policy, ecology, conservation, natural resources and geopolitics, the book will also appeal to interested citizens, activists, and policymakers, exposing them to the variety of perspectives on sustainability issues. Review questions and exercises provide the opportunity for consolidation and reflection. Online resources include appendices with more advanced mathematical material, model answers, and a wealth of recommended additional sources.
Penyuluhan pertanian sangat berperan penting sebagai wadah petani untuk belajar secara terus menerus. Selama ini penyelenggaraan penyuluhan masih fokus kepada efektivitas misalnya diukur dengan produktivitas pertanian namun kurang memperhatikan keberlanjutan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji bagaimana upaya dan tindakan strategis dalam peningkatan pelaksanaan penyuluhan pertanian di Kecamatan Balongpanggang Kabupaten Gresik. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah sensus kepada tujuh orang penyuluh dan 4 orang ketua gapoktan yang dipilih secara sengaja. Metode analisis menggunakan analisis deskriptif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan diperlukannya upaya dan tindakan strategis untuk meningkatkan pelaksanaan penyuluhan pertanian melalui stakeholder yang terlibat, yaitu pemerintah, penyuluh, dan petani secara Bersama-sama. Kata kunci : Upaya, Tindakan, Penyuluhan
Applying sustainable horticulture as an innovation in The Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY) Indonesia can be a commendable example in agricultural extension education. Previous research has revealed that understanding farmers' perceptions of innovation is essential for appropriate interventions to change their behavior. In DIY, the surveys were conducted in 2016 with 257 males and 93 females of farmers groups member from 21 villages in Sleman, Bantul, and Kulonprogo Regency. The objective of the survey was to determine the effects of farmer's internal factors on the perception of ecological, social economy, and ethical (ESE) urgency as a component of sustainable horticulture practices. The findings from the ecological, social, and ethical dimensions among the farming community in DIY indicated that, directly and indirectly, the farmers can acknowledge and practice sustainable horticulture. However, this was altering several factors, most notably, motivation and the prospect of increased income. The important thing in extension work was motivation, and a major motivating factor was the possibility of increased agricultural income. This study suggests that extension education of achieving horticultural sustainability in DIY should be based on the motivation of farmers and thoughtfulness of their basic needs especially needs to have higher income.
Semiconductor nanowires are widely considered as the building blocks that revolutionized many areas of nanosciences and nanotechnologies. The unique features in nanowires, including high electron transport, excellent mechanical robustness, large surface area, and capability to engineer their intrinsic properties, enable new classes of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors in the form of nanowires are a hot spot of research owing to the tremendous possibilities in NEMS, particularly for environmental monitoring and energy harvesting. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the recent progress on the growth, properties and applications of silicon carbide (SiC), group III-nitrides, and diamond nanowires as the materials of choice for NEMS. It begins with a snapshot on material developments and fabrication technologies, covering both bottom-up and top-down approaches. A discussion on the mechanical, electrical, optical, and thermal properties is provided detailing the fundamental physics of WBG nanowires along with their potential for NEMS. A series of sensing and electronic devices particularly for environmental monitoring is reviewed, which further extend the capability in industrial applications. The article concludes with the merits and shortcomings of environmental monitoring applications based on these classes of nanowires, providing a roadmap for future development in this fast-emerging research field.
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