}Sustainable Development: “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” – Our Common Future/ Brundtland Report, 1987 } } }Sustainability: “the capacity to endure; how systems remain diverse and productive over time” – wikipedia Image result for sustainable development Three pillars of SD Image result for environment economy society Environment is foundation for all aspects, others are subsets }Adjective that means “green” }“A little better for the environment than the alternative” }Less bad }greenwashing } Adopted September 2015 – also called Agenda 2030 https://www.stockholmresilience.org/images/18.36c25848153d54bdba33eda2/1465905983520/sdgs-food-azot e-web.jpg Amsterdam airport promotes the SDGs!! }Why eco-literacy matters; understanding ecosystems ◦Energy flow –in ecosystems –In society ◦Biogeochemical cycles – Where does it come from? Where does it go? What is it used for? –Carbon –Nitrogen –Phosphorus –Water, … ◦Dynamics – how systems change over time –Succession –Human development http://autocww.colorado.edu/%7Etoldy3/E64ContentFiles/VirusesMoneransAndProtists/Protista.jpg A single cell possesses all the necessary aspects to be alive What is life? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Loxodonta_africana_-_old_bull_%28Ngorongoro,_20 09%29.jpg A single organism possesses all the necessary aspects to be alive http://www.bostonbakesforbreastcancer.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/sun.jpg Rain Cloud Clip Art http://www.cityfarmer.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/soil.jpg Abiotic and ecological interactions Life Environment Tragedy of the Commons Humans win, environment degrades davinci-man-sepia earth 002 Figures by Dan Fiscus •Inherent in this paradigm, life is separate from environment in mind and action •Once fragmented, it is possible and likely that the value of environment is seen and treated as less than the value of life • •Environment is consumed and degraded as manifest in many symptoms of ecological crisis Art work of Jan Heath, entitled “food chain” Ecosystem is full of Interconnections and Interdependencies http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRJjKUkHB6gIOngBao_fcpDbgu_RIESE5qVbRcAMNPToWb6yep-bRiTohCA jg Interacting ecological community and its abiotic environment is an ecosystem An ecosystem possesses all the necessary aspects to sustain life Environment Source Sink Input-State-Output Sustained Life Support System Open systems connect to their environment through both inputs and outputs …build and maintain order and organization by taking in high quality energy, using it, and passing degraded energy outside of the system. System (human or natural) High quality Energy Input Low quality Energy output (heat) Thermodynamically, Open Systems http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/102/ecycle.gif Simplified Ecosystem F:\MEDIA\1794\179429.JPG Simplified Human System What is sustainable? Sustainability Constraints Input, Output, and System Dynamics Sustained Life Support System Input ? Output ? Input availability AND Output absorbance }Renewable resources should be used such that: } }1) harvesting rates do not exceed regeneration rates, and } }2) waste emissions do not exceed the renewable assimilative capacity of the local environment. System Input Output }Solar radiation }Global carbon cycle }Rate of nutrient cycling }Rate of hydrological cycle System Input ? Output }Rate of decomposition }Rate of accumulation of unwanted byproducts }Finding others to take your waste System Input Output ? Art:Primary succession begins in barren areas, such as the bare rock exposed by a retreating glacier. The first inhabitants are lichens or plants that can grown on bare rock. Over hundreds of years these “pioneer species” convert the rock into soil that can support simple plants such as grasses. These grasses further modify the soil, which is then colonized by other types of plants. Each successive stage modifies the habitat by altering the amount of shade and soil composition. The final stage of succession is a climax community, a very stable stage that can endure for hundreds of years. Primary succession – initial establishment and development of an ecosystem in an area devoid of an ecological community http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=95198&rendTypeId=36 Secondary succession – reestablishment of an ecosystem from the remnants of a previous biological community following disturbance Logistic growth from early to late successional stages C:\bfath\Research\Misc\salzau\untitled.jpg Early stage Late stage Ecosystem services are extracted to exploit growth phase Human induced succession –deforestation, agriculture– moves the system back to earlier stage. C:\bfath\Research\Misc\salzau\untitled.jpg }There are more of us }We are trapped in growth phase of system dynamics }Lack of conservation awareness/ethic ◦Systems thinking vs. Short-term thinking ◦wrong temporal and spatial scale }Full utilization of non renewables }Impact on biogeochemical cycles and global drivers }Human systems are designed linearly, Nature works in cycles }Economics ◦Externalities ◦Low rate of regeneration of renewables Emergence of humans, from a minor component of natural system to predominant occupant Scale of humanity has increased greatly putting pressure on all natural resources The changes have come so fast our customs, ethics, and religious patterns may not have adapted to them. http://www.csc.noaa.gov/coastal/economics/images/sa7_fig06.gif http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/cool-space-picture-5.jpg }“There are limits. Let’s celebrate the limits, because we can reinvent a different future.” } }Sunita Narain }This Changes Everything } http://www.clubofrome.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/ov-simmons1.jpg Growth à Quantitative increase Development à Qualitative increase "We must realize that growth and development are two very different things. You can develop without growing and vice versa.“ Tibor Vasko, 2009, www.solon-line.de/interview-with-tibor-vasko.html Extensive Intensive }“Natural principles of chemistry, mechanics and biology are not merely limits. They’re invitations to work along with them.” } Jane Jacobs, 2000, p. 12 } The Nature of Economies Recognize the bio-physical limits Purposefully build quality and well-being following nature’s way }Meeting Input-Output requirements are necessary but not sufficient conditions for sustainability } }Also, necessary for persistence of functional gradients } }What causes the persistence? }Positive reinforcements maintain a system at high level of organization }Each process in the cycle facilitates the next } } }Sustaining systems possess a configuration of autocatalytic processes – coupled and overlapping at different scales } A C B + + + Simple autocatalytic cycle }Output feeds in as input to another part of the system }Recycling – nature and humans http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Recycling_symbol.svg/220px-Recycling_symbo l.svg.png http://ecology4development.org/uploads/2/9/5/0/2950098/2311722.jpg?428 }The process or action of fitting into the system, provides roles or actions for others in the system }The act has to be in the flow of the already chosen actions } } http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Berge_naturreservat_omkullfallet_liten_tal l.jpg/220px-Berge_naturreservat_omkullfallet_liten_tall.jpg http://img.ehowcdn.com/article-new/ehow/images/a08/5u/ss/principles-terrestrial-ecosystem-ecology-8 00x800.jpg http://www.india.philips.com/shared/global/assets/Sustainability/4a2-Recycling_560x250.jpg }once a vibrant economic system, existing to reinforce other activity in the town, now a Disneyfied, nostalgic, showcase of boutique shops, restaurants, and ice cream parlors to attract tourists, but dependent on external inputs and not efficiently closed http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQUHtNMME6HT7YgtWl9eK-aR09PcfpNN3B-4OuTX8nVlOAnyaTu4WZV3rMp GA http://www.loving-long-island.com/image-files/cold-spring-harbor-main-street.jpg A candle shop Restaurant }“Each center is (recursively) dependent on other coherent centers for its own coherence” Alexander (2012) referring to urban planning Spiral up Spiral down – lack of coherence context decomposer composer Most basic sustainable system requires a producer/composer and consumer/decomposer in an autocatalytic process “It may be that all self-sustaining systems are reciprocating” Jacobs, 1969, p. 126 }Protection and investment in place }Finding the balance of what the environment offers: sustaining (and enhancing) those flows } } Place worth protecting } }Geography of Nowhere }Linking together of processes that are positively reinforcing: autocatalysis }Systems are costly to maintain unless closing its own function }Closure leads to niche extension and creation: Emergence of diversity and complexity }Reliable Inputs }Healthy Outputs }Recycling of material – my output is your input ◦ }Processes functionally linked together - my useful byproducts happen in the act fitting into the network } } System Input Output A C B + + + Summary 1.Ecosystems are very good at maintaining at the carrying capacity with substantial but not growing production. 2. 2.Current economics emphasizes increasing production—in addition to supporting all the existing built structure. 3. 3.Quantitative production/growth is an early immature stage according to ecological succession. 4. 4.How production/growth is viewed in ecological versus societal systems is one of the main conflicts and leads to much of the tension in resolving environmental management. }“Growing human populations are eating more meat, using more carbon-based energy, shouldering aside more natural resources, and tapping into more renewable and nonrenewable commodities than ever before.” }“If humanity fails to achieve sustainability, when, and how, will unsustainable trends end?” } } }Why has it proved so hard to conform human behavior to the needs of a life-supporting future? }Our political and economic institutions evolved before anyone imagined the need to restrain human behavior out of concern for the future. } THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION