IB ESS
Sustainability
• Living Within the means of nature, on the
‘interest’ or sustainable natural income
generated by natural capital.
• Economists have a different definition.
• Any society that supports itself by depleting
essential forms of natural capital is
unsustainable.
• There is a finite amount of materials on Earth
and we are using much of it unsustainably –
living on the capital as well as the interest.
• Our societies and economics cannot grow or
make progress outside of environmental limits.
Environmental impact assessment
• Predicts possible impacts on habitats,
species and ecosystems • In 1969 the US Federal Government passed the National
• The purpose of an EIA is to establish the
impact of a project on the environment • This made it a priority for Federal agencies to consider
• The report should provide a non-technical
summary for the public and the media • Over the next 20 years other countries included EIAs in
• Helps decision makers decide if the
development should go ahead
• Addresses the mitigation of potential
environmental impacts associated with
the development
Sustainability indicators
Natural capital and natural income
• How we measure sustainability is
crucial & there are many indices we • Capital = the means of production – factories, tools, machines, and is used to create goods which provide
can use together, both ecological and income.
socio-economic. • Natural capital is the goods & services that the environment provides humans with in order to provide natural
• These could be anything from air income.
quality, environmental vulnerability & • E.g. a forest (natural capital) provides timber 9natural income);
water poverty to US$ GDP per capita,
life expectancy or gender parity.
• A shoal of fish or an agricultural crop provides food for us.
• Natural capital also provides services e.g. erosion control, water management, recycling waste.
• We can also measure sustainability
on scales from local to global. The
smaller the scale, the more accurate it
can be but we also need a global Ecological
measurement to get the whole overshoot
picture. UN data
states that
Max. level of sustainable resource exploitation. This humanity
has
shows we need 18 months to replenish resources used
overshot its
in 12 months. The demand is due to the:
sustainable
• Level of overall consumption level of
• Per capita consumption resource
exploitation
Unit 1.4 – Sustainability
Why does the unsustainability continue? Ecological Footprint
Inertia – when changing things seems too difficult • an accounting tool used to measure
the land and sea areas humans use to
• The result of the ‘Tragedy of the commons’ – when too many people act provide what we take from nature,
in their own self-interest to harvest a resource but destroy the long- such as timber and paper, seafood,
term future of that resource so there is none for anyone. livestock, crops and area needed to
• It may be obvious that this will happen, but each individual benefits absorb our carbon dioxide emissions.
from taking the resource in the short-term so they continue to do so. • On average, humanity would need the
• E.g. hunting an endangered species resulting in its extinction but if your regenerative capacity of 1.7 Earths to
provide what we need from nature.
family is starving this is your priority.
But according to analysis of Hong
• Some people think the real worth of natural capital is about the same as Kong’s Ecological Footprint, we will
the value of the gross world product (total global output) – about need 4.2 Earths if everyone adopts
US$ 65 trillion per year, yet we are only just beginning to give economic Hong Kong’s current lifestyle. Hong
value to soil, water and clean air to measure the cost of loss of Kong’s Ecological Footprint is the
biodiversity. second worst in Asia and ranks
10thglobally.
• Their EF is greater than the area
What are EIAs used for? available to the population, an
History of EIAs Oftem but not always part of the planning process indication of unsustainability as the
that governments set out in law when large population exceeds carrying capacity
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). developments are considered. They provide a of the area.
documented way of examining environmental
the natural environment for any land use planning. imacts that can be used as evidence in the
decision-making process of any new
Millennium development goals
development. The developments that need EIAs
their planning policies: differ from country to country: • Eradicate extreme poverty and Hunger
• Major new road networks • Achieve universal education
 Canada, 1973 • Airport amd port developments • Promote gender equality adn empower women
 Columbia, 1974 • Building dams and reservoirs • Reduce child mortality
 Netherlands, 1981 • Building power stations • Improve maternal health
 UK, 1988 • Large scale housing projects • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
 Mexico, 1988 • quarrying • Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development