Part One

1. Part One Principles of Sustainability

2. Objectives After reading the assigned chapter and reviewing the materials presented the students will be able to understand: • What is sustainability? • Measuring sustainability • Sustainable consumption • Sustainable population

3. What is sustainability? • Sustainability, or sustainable development was defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). • Sustainability transcends and supersedes environmentalism. It involves transformation to a cyclical model built around reduction, reuse, and recycling.

4. Measuring Sustainability • Achieving sustainability requires addressing the following: agriculture, fisheries, forest and wood products, water supplies, energy, biodiversity, climate change, manufacturing and industry, justice and equity. • A sustainable society must preserve agricultural land, practice sustainable agriculture, and produce sustainable food supplies locally. • Growing herbivorous fish like carp and tilapia puts less strain on resources compared to carnivorous species like salmon. Shrimp farming puts great stress on coastal ecosystems, since mangrove communities are often cleared to make room for shrimp ponds. • Forests protect water supplies and provide habitats, enhancing species diversity. They store carbon, mediating climate change. • Reducing waste of water in irrigated agriculture is one of the easiest ways to increase water supplies. Subsidies for irrigation, however ofter encourage waste over conservation.

5. Measuring Sustainability • Sustainable societies cannot be built on nonrenewable energy sources. Producing transport fuels from agricultural waste, and even waste cooking oil, can make a dent in expensive imports. • An ecosystem is a geographical area including all living organisms (people, plant, animals, and microbes), their physical surroundings (such as soil, water, and air), and the natural cycles that sustain them (such as the hydrologic cycle). • Too rapid climate change overwhelms the ability of the natural ecosystems to adapt. • Many businesses have found that waste reduction and even elimination can enhance profitability. • Examples of injustice are lack of adequate housing, lack of access to education, poor sanitation, inadequate supply of pure water, exposure to environmental toxins, and environmental degradation.

6. Sustainable Consumption, Health, Population • Responsible consumption is based on education, not coercion, in a democratic society. • Poor individual physical and mental health imposes significant costs upon society, in the form of health care expenses, crime, and lost productivity. • Human numbers must eventually become stabilized, since it is physically impossible for growth to continue forever.

7. Development • Development has historically involved: deforestation for fuel wood and to provide land for farming, urbanization, and mining for fossil fuels and metals. • Countries with higher per capita incomes tend to have cleaner environments along with increased consumption of goods and services. • Poverty and high rates of population growth are the major causes of environmental degradation, such as deforestation.

8. Economic Growth and the Environment • The environmental Kuznets curve plots the relationship between environmental quality factors and per capita income. • Many argue that the goods imported to the United States from China reflect the price advantage inherent in goods produced without regard to the environmental or human impact. • The charter of the World Trade Organization (WTO) allows for the optimal use of the world’s resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development, seeking to both protect and preserve the environment. • The Montreal Protocol was adopted in 1987 as an international treaty to eliminate the production and consumption of ozone depleting chemicals.

9. Summary • Sustainability was defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. • Achieving sustainability requires addressing the following: agriculture, fisheries, forest and wood products, water supplies, energy, biodiversity, climate change, manufacturing and industry, justice and equity. • An ecosystem is a geographical area including all living organisms (people, plant, animals, and microbes), their physical surroundings (such as soil, water, and air), and the natural cycles that sustain them (such as the hydrologic cycle). • Development has historically involved: deforestation for fuel wood and to provide land for farming, urbanization, and mining for fossil fuels and metals.

10. Home Work • 1. What is sustainability? • 2. What is an ecosystem?