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Sustainability
Background – Concerns
In the past, environmental degradation has contributed to the collapse of some advanced human societies.
Currently, humanity on this planet is passing through a period of accelerating change. Over the last century the world’s population has increased and human life expectancy has extended. During the last 50 years the world’s ecosystems have been undergoing rapid and unprecedented change. Human population increases have led to increased demand for food, fuel and clothing. This has led to an expansion of agriculture, forestry, and other human activities, causing large scale changes in habitat, and diminishing biological diversity. Some of the most important factors leading to change are technology and innovation.
There are three main areas of concern:
- The chemical composition of the atmosphere has been changed by the addition of greenhouse gasses.
- Biodiversity has been diminished due the extinction of species.
- The chemical composition of oceans and waterways has changed as a result of the introduction of particulate and chemical waste.
Due to increased carbon in the atmosphere, Earth’s climate is now warmer than at any time in the last 500 years. Warming of the climate is largely a result of CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere due to human consumption of fossil fuels. Agricultural development accounts for the accumulation of other trace gasses affecting climate.
Human populations have intensively utilized earth’s resources and contaminated land, air and water. Human mobility has distributed disease, non-native plants and non-native animals more rapidly than ever before. All this has been led to deterioration of earth’s environment. Global changes have been catastrophic for many species. Sustainability has been compromised.
The impact of humanity on planet earth can be better managed to reduce and reverse the deterioration of the atmosphere and waters, and to retain what is left of the gift of biodiversity.
- Nature is the physical world we see around us—a world that can be understood through the sciences (physics, chemistry, biology and medicine) and through observation.
- Ecosystems consist of organisms (plants, microbes, animals and people) and the physical components (atmosphere, soil, water, etc.) with which they interact by exchanging energy, materials and properties.
- Environment is the nutrients and materials (soils, elements, compounds and other organisms) of a location that interact. So, the environment is the climate, chemical components (substrate) physical geography and other organisms, in the location of an organism.
Sustainable Development
Sustainability requires that people be able to meet their needs. Sustainability implies the persistence of the productivity of earth’s natural resources and requires that the productive base required to support well-being, be maintained, and increased over time. The needs of future generations are compromised when utilization of resources depletes resources or causes damage to nature.
Sustainability requires that the productive base be available to future generations. We can’t know what future generations may want. If the productive base of Earth’s systems is sustained, future generations can make their own choices about how best to meet their needs. Well-maintained forests, fields or rivers may provide an indefinitely sustainable flow of new trees and food, whereas over-use of these resources may lead to a permanent decline in timber or food availability.
Sustainability does not require that ecosystems remain unchanged.
Human Needs
Basic physiological needs such as food and water are most fundamental human needs, followed by the need to feel safe and secure.
The Right to a Healthy Environment
In November 2021, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment—the first formal recognition of this right at the global level.
On July 28, 2022, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution recognizing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right. The UNGA calls upon States, international organizations, businesses, and other stakeholders to “scale up efforts” to ensure a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for all.
The resolution (A/76/L.75) notes that the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is “related to other rights and existing international law,” and affirms that its promotion “requires the full implementation” of the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) “under the principles of international environmental law.”
Read the resolution: The human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
Earth’s Capacity
Earth’s capacity to meet human needs is limited. Through the application of science, earth’s capacity can be expanded to an extent.
Activities and development can have a cumulative effect. Climate change, the warming of the earth as a result of overuse of fossil fuels, is having an impact on everyone on the planet. The oceans are suffering from warming, contamination due to chemical waste, microplastics and salination. More and more, people are affected by the increased frequency of natural disasters, the increased frequency and severity of storms, hurricanes and drought. Desertification continues to increase, and acid rain has reduced the availability of arable land.
Earth’s population is growing at rates that can’t be sustained indefinitely. In absolute numbers, more people are hungry. Food production and housing has not kept pace with the need. Per capita income is diminishing, probably more because of the limits of resources rather than as a result of economic mismanagement. Changes are directional, showing a persistent trend over time.
Recognition that human actions are threatening Earth’s life-support systems has generated a sense of urgency.
Ecological Services & Functions : The Role of Nature
Nature provides ecological life-support systems that sustain life on earth. Ecosystem functions and services contribute to human welfare on this planet. The economies of the Earth would grind to a halt without these services.
Ecological services are the goods and services, the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. Ecosystem functions refer to the biological processes of ecosystems. There are four types of ecosystem services:
Ecosystem goods (such as food) and services (such as waste assimilation) represent the benefits human populations derive, directly from ecosystem functions.
Services have dynamic interactions. They influence each other and are influenced by each other.
Provisioning Services
Provisioning services are the goods produced by ecosystems. They are the benefits consumed by humans. Provisioning services are therefore the ecosystem properties that receive most direct attention from managers and communities. Provisioning services include:
- food
- fibre
- clothing
- wood – construction materials
- water
Wildlife management, agricultural, fishing and forestry practices have developed to harness nature for the benefit of Earth’s human population.
Support Services
Support services are fundamental ecological processes that control the structure and functioning of ecosystems and sustain provisioning services. Support services provide natural resource inputs and environmental services needed for economic production. Support services include:
- soil and maintenance of soil resources providing the substrate for growing vegetation
- the water cycle : Runoff leads to evaporation from streams, lakes, and oceans. Transpiration and evaporation provide humidity and lead to precipitation
- the carbon cycle : plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere, absorbing CO2 through photosynthesis and act as a carbon sink
- the nitrogen cycle
- the nutrient cycle : Plants absorb nutrients. When they die and decay the nutrients are recycled. Similarly, when plants and animals are eaten, the nutrients they contain are recycled.
- biodiversity : retaining a diversity of similar organisms allows species which are better adapted to replace species on the decline as a result of climate change and other disturbances
- waste management
- pollination : maintenance of the variety of pollinators (insects, birds, and bats) allows for the development of fruits and seeds, providing food and the next generation of organisms
Because of the fundamental dependence of all ecosystem services on support services, the integrity of ecosystems services needs to be maintained. Support services sustain the provisioning services that are valued more directly by humanity. Supporting services are not immediately valued by humanity because they are not consumed directly and their effect is not immediately noticed.
Degradation of key support services erodes ecosystem resilience, leading to loss of provisioning services.
Regulating Services
Regulating services are the benefits obtained from self-regulation of ecosystem processes. Regulating services are also largely invisible to society and can also be ignored. Regulating services include:
- climate regulation : the carbon cycle regulates climate by regulating the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
- erosion control : vegetation growth regulates erosion of soil by wind and water
- regulation of water quality and control of pollution
- pest and disease control
Failures to sustain regulating services often have devastating consequences.
Cultural Services
Cultural services meet the recreational, aesthetic and spiritual needs of humans. Key ecological sites and the resources they supply are the focus of scientific inquiry.
The use of Cascades (eco service charts) assists in the identification of the benefits of ecological services.
Ecological Management
There is growing realization that it is not possible to separate economic well-being from environmental issues. When people use a common resource independently, for their own self-interest, and contrary to the common good of all users, the resource is likely to be depleted. This is known as the tragedy of the commons, a concept originating in an essay written in 1833 by the British economist William Forster Lloyd. Some activities have led to the collapse of ecosystems such as the overfishing of the cod fishery in Newfoundland. In some countries logging has destroyed forests.
Human use of Earth’s services lead to most of today’s urgent problems and necessitate development of a framework for planning and stewardship. Sustaining the desirable features of our current world for future generations is an important world goal. Ecosystem services are recognized as ecological assets, as natural capital. Sustainability is enhanced by basic ecological management.
A resource policy that is not ecologically or economically sustainable will lead to the reduction or crashing of resources.
Resource management must be multifaceted, recognizing the interactions between ecological factors, economic and cultural values, and goals.
Support services are controlled by influences that change relatively slowly and may have a sustained lag period (period of delay). Large changes in support services may be difficult to reverse if thresholds are exceeded. Sometimes, as a result of the lag period, the loss of a resource is only noticed when it is too late to recover from the loss. The impact of global warming may be realized too late by a majority of Earth’s population for effective counter measures to be instituted.
The United Nations Role
The United Nations was established in 1945, following World War 2, to address problems of human conflict and as a forum to facilitate international cooperation. UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization uses education, science, culture, communication and information to foster mutual understanding and respect for our planet.
UNESCO is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group, a coalition of UN agencies and organizations tasked to meet Sustainable Development Goals.
The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development was established in 1992 and replaced in 2013 by the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. The Forum recommended a global agreement to raise international awareness of the need to integrate development with the environment. In 2012 the Commission published Sustainable Development Goals in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.
The Declaration contains the following key sustainability principles.
Principle 8
To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, states should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.
Principle 9
States should cooperate to strengthen endogenous capacity-building for sustainable development by improving scientific understanding through exchanges of scientific and technological knowledge, and by enhancing the development, adaptation, diffusion and transfer of technologies, including new and innovative technologies.
Principle 10
Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided.
Principle 11
States shall enact effective environmental legislation. Environmental standards, management objectives and priorities should reflect the environmental and developmental context to which they apply. Standards applied by some countries may be inappropriate and of unwarranted economic and social cost to other countries, in particular developing countries.
Principle 13
States shall develop national law regarding liability and compensation for the victims of pollution and other environmental damage. States shall also cooperate in an expeditious and more determined manner to develop further international law regarding liability and compensation for adverse effects of environmental damage caused by activities within their jurisdiction or control to areas beyond their jurisdiction.
Article 5.2 of the Paris Agreement encourages Parties to adopt conservation and management as a tool for increasing carbon stocks. Article 7.1 encourages Parties to build the resilience of socioeconomic and ecological systems through economic diversification and sustainable management of natural resources.
The Parliament of Canada has adopted the Federal Sustainable Development Act which contains sustainable development principles to be followed by all Federal Government departments.
