POLITEKNIK SULTAN IDRIS SHAH,

SG LANG, SG AIR TAWAR, SELANGOR

DAY 1: LECTURE 1
INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY

02-06 JULY 2018

INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY
Content

Introduction to Sustainability

Introduction to Green Technology

ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY
• Sustainability = the ability to sustain
• Since 1980s ‘Sustainability’ inclined to refer to human
sustainability on Earth
• Triple bottom line (TBL):
▪ Environment – conducive and viable for social/economic
development
▪ Social – peaceful while nurturing the economy and
environment
▪ Economy – sufficient for social development and
sustainability, but non-destructive to environment
ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY
(cont’d)

Sustainability ENVIRONMENT
Conducive & viable

SOCIAL ECONOMY
Peaceful & Sufficient & non-
nurturing destructive

Adapted from: Adams, W. M. (2006)

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SUSTAINABILITY:
THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE
• Social development
▪ Population / growth rate
▪ Food & Health
▪ Rich-poor gap
▪ Peace
• Economic development
▪ Growth & stability
• Environmental management
▪ Energy, water & other resources
▪ Climate change
▪ Waste management

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Environment & Sustainability
Chronology of selected events
PRE-INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
• Humans begin to change their environment with stone tools
and fire.
• The domestication of wild plants and animals in Asia, the
Middle East and Central America – the shift from hunting
and gathering to agriculture.
• Intensive cultivation, sometimes in combination with
deforestation and irrigation from nearby rivers.
• In 1661, industrial emissions are recorded blowing across
the English Channel.

Source: Environment Canada

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INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TO
MODERN AGE
• 18th & 19th century – shift from economies based largely on
farmers, merchants and crafts people to those based more
on industries.
• By the second half of the 19th century, over-hunting and
habitat destruction are leading to the extinction of
passenger pigeon and near extinction of plains bison in
North America.
• 1824: Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier proposes the first
scientific reference to the
greenhouse effect.

Source: Environment Canada

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INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
TO MODERN AGE
(cont’d)
• 1852: Chemist Robert Angus Smith writes of acid rain in and
around Manchester, noting that sulphuric acid in city air
damages fabrics and metals.
• 1873: First of a series of killer fogs in London. Over 1,150 die
in three days from severe air pollution from coal burning.
• 1885: Karl Benz builds the first successful gasoline-driven
automobile.

Source: Environment Canada

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INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
TO MODERN AGE
(cont’d)

• 1896: Svante Arrhenius notes that CO2 ‘helps’ to trap

reflected longer wave radiant heat emitted by Earth. This
leads to an understanding of CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

• 1900: World population is 1.65 billion.
• 1914: The last known passenger pigeon died in
Cincinnati Zoo.
Source: Environment Canada
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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1920s
• Polychlorinated biphenyl are used as liquid insulators and
heat-transfer fluids. Decades later, they will found to be
hazardous, widely distributed in the environment and the
food chain.
• CFCs are put into use in 1930s as refrigerants. They will later
be found to destroy the stratospheric ozone layer, and be
banned.
• Tetraethyl lead is used as gasoline additive, later declared a
health risk and gradually phased out.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1930s
• A combination of low rainfall combined with high winds,
light soil and poor land conservation methods lead to Dust
Bowl conditions in western Canada and the United States.
• The US Supreme Court sets limits on how much water can be
drained out of Lake Michigan through the Chicago Diversion.
Water conservation measures imposed on the Chicago
region, including re-use of water (industries), and water
meters.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1940s
• WWII sets the scene for very large-scale industrialization.
• Popularization of many chemicals, including pesticides such
as DDT.
• 1945: The first atomic explosions begin.
• 1948: The International Union for Conservation of Nature
and Natural Resources (IUCN) and the World Conservation
Union, is founded in France.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1950s
• 1950: World population is 2.52 billion.
• Atmospheric nuclear testing and nuclear accidents continue
to release radiation.
• 1952: The infamous London smog kills 4,000.
• 1953: New York smog kills about 200.
• 1956: Mercury poisoning discovered in the Japanese fishing
village of Minamata. Industrial discharges get into the food
chain through fish. 100 deaths and several hundred cases of
illness.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1950s (cont’d)
• 1958: Antarctica is protected as a wildlife and scientific
preserve by a treaty signed by representatives of 12 nations,
the first continent to be protected.
• 1958: The first United Nations Conference on the Law of the
Sea approves draft environmental protection.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1960s
• 1960: World population is 3 billion.
• Concerns about nuclear fallout and chemical pollution, with
protests against nuclear weapons and chemical pollution.
Acid rain is identified as a serious problem in Scandinavia.
Chemicals such as DDT and PCBs are found in wildlife. A
series of major oil spills arouse public opinion.
• 1961: Creation of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to protect
animals and plants from extinction.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1970s
• 1970: World population is 3.7 billion.
• 1970: The first Earth Day held in the US. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) established.
• 1970: Greenpeace is created by a small group of protestors
sailing from Vancouver to protest against underground
nuclear tests at Amchitka Island, Alaska.
• 1972: The Stockholm Conference on the Human
Environment was held.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1970s (cont’d)
• 1974: American scientists found that CFCs destroys the
ozone layer.
• 1975: Catalytic converters are mandated for Canadian 1975
model automobiles beginning the phase-out of leaded
gasoline.
• 1976: An accident at a chemical plant in Seveso, Italy
releases a cloud of chemicals including dioxin into the air,
killing wildlife and forcing the evacuation of a large region.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1970s (cont’d)
• 1977: United Nations Water Conference in Mar del Plata,
Argentina produces an Action Plan to deal with serious
global water quality problems.
• 1977: The Green Belt movement to plant trees is organized
in Kenya.
• 1979: A mass poisoning of people by PCB (polychlorinated
biphenyl) that leak into cooking oil in Taiwan.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1980s
• 1980: World population is 4.45 billion.
• 1980: Canada, the United States, Sweden and Norway ban
most aerosol uses of CFCs.
• 1982: Law of the Sea Convention – preservation and
protection of the marine environment.
• 1984: The World Commission on Environment and
Development is created.
• 1985: The hole in the Antarctic ozone layer is discovered by
ground observations.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1980s (cont’d)
• 1986: An explosion and fire in a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl
in Ukraine ejects about seven tonnes of radioactive material
into the atmosphere, kills thousands. Radiation circles world
in 11 days, and fallout contaminates food in parts of Europe.
• 1987: The world population hits 5 billion, doubling in less
than 40 years.
• 1987: Conferences in Bellagio, Italy and Villach, Austria –
scientific consensus on climate change.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1980s (cont’d)
• 1987: The Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, by the
World Commission on Environment and Development,
popularizes the term “sustainable development”.
• 1987: 24 nations signed the Montreal Protocol to control
substances that depletes the ozone layer.
• 1988: The UN created the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, group of world scientific experts who assess
the knowledge on climate change.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1990s
• 1990: World population is 5.3 billion.
• 1990: The second World Climate Conference hears first
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment.
• 1991: Gulf War leads to the world’s largest oil spill.
• 1992: UN Conference on Environment and Development in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Includes the Earth Summit. Many
governments sign the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1990s (cont’d)
• 1992: Hurricane Andrew levels parts of Florida and
Louisiana, and Typhoon Itaki devastates Kauai Island in the
Hawaiian chain, provoking concerns that climate change may
be causing more severe weather.
• 1992: The UN creates the Commission on Sustainable
Development to follow up the work of the UN Conference
on Environment and Development, and to report on
implementation of the Earth Summit agreements.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1990s (cont’d)
• 1993: The worst flood in recorded history affects the
Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
• 1994: The London Convention against dumping radioactive
material at sea comes into force.
• 1994: The World Conservation Union issues a Red List of
endangered and threatened species.
• 1995: The World Business Council for Sustainable
Development is created.
• 1996: A ban of CFCs in industrialized countries.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
- 1990s (cont’d)
• 1996: The ISO 14000 standard for environmental
management systems was introduced.
• 1997: Countries negotiating greenhouse gas controls signed
Kyoto Protocol, committing industrialized nations to cut their
emissions by 5.2% from 1990 levels by the period 2008-
2012.
• 1998: The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica grows to
more than 25 million square kilometers, more than twice the
size of Canada.

Source: Environment Canada

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THE 21 ST CENTURY
• 2000: World population is just over 6 billion.
• 2000: The Second World Water Forum in Netherlands
releases a World Water Vision for the sustainable
management and use of water resources on Earth.
• 2001: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
states that the global temperature is rising.
• 2002: 3,200 km2 section of an ice shelf on the eastern side of
the Antarctic Peninsula shatters.

Source: Environment Canada

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2010: THE YEAR OF NATURAL DISASTER?

“Nearly half a million people have

been killed in 2010 as a result of
natural disaster.”

- TIME Magazine online -

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2010: THE YEAR OF NATURAL DISASTER?

Haiti earthquake
Source: TIME Magazine Online
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2010: THE YEAR OF NATURAL DISASTER?

Pakistan flood
Source: TIME Magazine Online
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2010: THE YEAR OF NATURAL DISASTER?

Chile earthquake
Source: TIME Magazine Online
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2010: THE YEAR OF NATURAL DISASTER?

Russia forest fire

Source: TIME Magazine Online
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2010: THE YEAR OF NATURAL DISASTER?

North American major blizzard

Source: TIME Magazine Online
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OTHER 2010’s NATURAL DISASTERS
• China drought and dust storms
• Eastern Indian storm
• Gansu mudslide
• Afghanistan avalanche
• Northern Hemisphere summer heat wave
• Victorian storms
• Western Australian storms
• Tropical Storm Agatha
• Hurricane Earl & Igor
• Mexico & Uganda landslide

Source: Wikipedia.org
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THE GLOBAL WARMING

Source: NASA
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THE GLOBAL WARMING

Source: IPCC
37
EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
• A global temperature rise of 2.5oC will have a detrimental
effect on the earth.
• Rise in global sea levels due to melting ice in the north and
south poles – a 1 meter rise would put 118 million people at
risk.
• Change in vegetation zones – mass movement of people
away from dry regions (over-crowding).
• A rise of 3-5oC – increase risk of malaria from 45% to 60% of
the world's population.

Source: The UK Environmental Change Network

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EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE (cont’d)

Source: news.bbc.co.uk
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ENERGY AND ITS RESOURCES

• After food and water, energy is our most basic need

• Modern economies and cultures are built almost entirely
around energy production and consumption
• Fossil and nuclear fuel use (2008)

Source: Energy Watch Group

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THE WORLD POSSIBLE COAL PRODUCTION

Source: Energy Watch Group

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THE WORLD OIL PRODUCTION SUMMARY

Source: Energy Watch Group

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THE WORLD NATURAL GAS EXTRACTION

Source: Roper, 2007

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END .. Thank U

YNK SMART VENTURES