Framework for Sustainability ENSn4673 Brian D. Fath, Ph.D. – bfath@towson.edu Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Senior Research Scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria •Course Description: –This investigates the concept of sustainability from first principles of energetics and ecology applied to socio-economic systems. It deals with the ecological, physical, economic, social, and moral dimensions of sustainability. – •Grade evaluation (points available): –Paper (50), Exercises (50), Discussion (50), Group discussion lead (50), Final Exam (100) = Total (400) – •Format: –Each session will begin with a ~30-minute overview and summary of the topic/reading, 20-minute exercise, and 40-minute discussion. Students are expected to come to class prepared and ready to discuss with an open and curious mind. Framework for Sustainability ENSn4673 (Autumn 2022) Schedule Introductions • Framing questions 1)What are the most important threats to achieving global sustainability in the 21st Century? 2) 2)What may be the most practical and effective ways to mitigate these threats? 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/ United Nations Brundtland Report, 1987 •To develop? • –Or – •To sustain? Goal Some of the most threatening environmental problems are caused by widespread poverty Development is often based on squandering our biological capital Image result for sustainable development Three pillars of SD Adopted September 2015 – also called Agenda 2030 Image result for environment economy society Environment is foundation for all aspects, others are subsets https://www.stockholmresilience.org/images/18.36c25848153d54bdba33eda2/1465905983520/sdgs-food-azot e-web.jpg Sustainable Development vs Sustainability •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” – wikipedia Hurricane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irma https://www.weather.gov/safety/tornado Tornado Ecosystem City Výsledek obrázku pro brno Campus All are open systems with energy driving and maintaining the processes All import, reuse, and export resources (water, wood, waste, minerals, metals, materials, etc.) Understanding SYSTEMS! •A set of inter-relationships between components or parts that function together to act as a whole • • • • • • • • •A system is simultaneously both a system and a part of a larger system Digestive system Economic system Computer system Hierarchy •A system is simultaneously both a system and a part of a larger system • •Better to think in terms of processes and connections than parts • System Boundary – identifies the system from its external environment, but it is always part of and interacting with this environment System (Self, Campus, City, State, Nation) Environment H Input Environment Output Environment New perspective, system is focus of two environments System Environment Old perspective, dichotomy between system and environment Where does it come from? Where does it go? FEEDBACK as a consequence of interconnections Systems possess capacity for (a) self-regulation: negative feedback – balancing, stabilizing (b) self-adaptation: positive feedback – reinforcing, destabilizing http://www.gerrymarten.com/human-ecology/images/02-8-english.gif 10.7: Homeostasis and Feedback - Biology LibreTexts Stabilizes body temperature Biological growth is a positive feedback More biomass à more photosynthesis à more biomass Positive feedback – when the signal is amplified and moves the system further from its original condition Sound system à Positive feedbacks can’t go on forever, coming up against constraints All system dynamics are an interplay of positive feedbacks that grow and change the system and negative feedbacks that stabilize and maintain the system For example: Positive feedback Negative feedback Casual Loop Diagrams (CLD) A visual representation of interrelation between variables. Positive causal link means that the two variables change in the same direction. Negative causal link means that the two variables change in opposite directions. The loop is: reinforcing if, after going around the loop, one ends up with the same result as the initial assumption. balancing if the result contradicts the initial assumption. www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/8/2/20/htm Developing a Preliminary Causal Loop Diagram for Understanding the Wicked Complexity of the COVID-19 Pandemic • Misuse of the term sustainable •Adjective that means “green” •“A little better for the environment than the alternative” •Less bad •greenwashing • What are we tracking? •If development is not sustainable, is it development – why so many bad decisions? • • • Too often we focus first and only on economic indicators, namely GDP, ignoring Environmental & Social factors Is sustainability still possible? •“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?” • • Is sustainability still possible? •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. • Alternative approaches Great Law of the Iroquois •In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation (~140 years into the future) • •What is the purpose of expressing concern for the consequences of decision-making down to the seventh generation from their own? • Guidance for answers •Western insight into the needed physical and ethical transformations •Alternatively, we should look to other traditions as well: indigenous, Eastern Aldo Leopold •Forest Service and Wisconsin professor, eloquent and passionate writer of our duty to protect the balance of nature: –humans should extend to nature the same ethical sense of responsibility that we extend to each other. • •A Sand County Almanac (1949) – regarded as the most influential book on conservation ever written. • •“The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.” http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/37.1/images/frese_fig02b.jpg Rachel Carson •1960s – The modern environmental movement is born • •1962 Silent Spring •Carson, writer and marine biologist, told how chemical use on farms, forests, and gardens, poison the environment. Insects were dying (not just the pest species) which meant no food for the birds. No birds, no bird song – a silent spring • •Public awareness that humans are damaging environment http://www.todayinliterature.com/assets/photos/c/rachel-carson-190x290.jpg http://library.furman.edu/resources/subject/women/images/rachelcarson.gif http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/science/cool-space-picture-5.jpg Apollo 17, Dec 1972, put world and all its people and resources into one frame http://www.clubofrome.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/ov-simmons1.jpg 1972 Integrated global model showing that indefinite growth on a finite planet is not possible Greta Thunberg •2018 – School Strike for climate – Friday’s for Future • •2019 Spoke before UN Climate conference • •We will remember… Cartoon by Joel Pett from USA Today, December 2009