4.1.

1 -
CRITIQUES OF
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
▰ To "critique" something is to analyse or assess it.
▰ There are many issues with sustainability,
mainly centred around:
 The vagueness of the term
 That it is a contradiction/oxymoron
 The difficulty of measuring it
 It disadvantages developing nations
 Cost/expense involved
 VA G U E N E S S O F T H E T E R M
• The term is used too widely and has become meaningless – known as
‘greenwashing’
• ‘Sustainability’ is a term that is overused
• The term is used in many things from government policies to cars, holidays,
lifestyles and products. It has become a trend
• “It’s come to be a squishy, feel-good catchall for doing the right thing” -
Robert Engelmann
• Because of how easily, freely and often it is used, often without any
accountability or understanding and consequence for the Earth’s resources; it
can be deemed meaningless
Greenwashing: The practice of promoting the perception that an
organisation’s products are ‘green’ or environmentally friendly.
 CONTRADICTION/OXYMORON

• Contradiction of the term - sustainability is an oxymoron

Oxymoron: a figure of speech used when the subject contradicts itself.
• To be ‘sustainable’, any development would need to have no lasting impact on the environment.
• To develop is to advance, improve or expand. Therefore the Earth’s resources need to be used.
• Due to the Earth’s ever-expanding population, increasing amounts of resources are needed… is it truly
possible for society to develop and be sustainable at the same time?
Worldometers: https://www.worldometers.info/

Open and compare the following worldometer statistics:

• World population vs. Government & Economics

• World population vs. Environment
• World population vs. Energy

Discussion:
How could this be used to point out the contradiction that is ‘sustainable
development’?
 MEASUREMENT
• Sustainability is too difficult to be measured.
(think of the issues with measuring your ecological footprint in a basic
way)
• There is no universal measurement indictors or a criteria for measuring
sustainability.
• Ecological footprints provide a basic understanding of our reliance on
the Earth’s resources, yet don't provide solutions to any problems.
• How are we to measure the effectiveness of any sustainable
developments without measuring tools?
 D E V E L O P I N G N AT I O N S

• Developing nations are disadvantaged by

having to develop sustainably.
• Developing countries aren't able to adopt expensive new technologies
• Developing countries have larger emissions, not by choice. Their industry
revolves around making sure that the needs of people are met e.g. food
and shelter.
• They are unable to meet these needs, so how could it’s very difficult for
them to focus on sustainable practices.
 COST

• Sustainable practices can be very expensive

• Solar panels, grey water systems, economical cars etc. are all very costly.
• These can take years to pay themselves of (7 on average for solar panels).
 ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
Measuring an ‘ecological footprint’ is one of the methods
used to help people understand their impact on Earth’s
resources.

This is a measure of how much

productive land (global hectares) is
required to produce the goods and
services and dispose of the waste
necessary to support a particular
lifestyle.
 10
W H AT D O E S I T M E A S U R E ?
▰ An ecological footprint allows us to consider and
recognise the following:
• How everyday activities consume resources
• That many of these resources we consume unconsciously-
that is, we use them with out even considering the
environmental effort that goes into producing them
• Human activity consumes these resources
faster than the Earth can produce them
• The Earth’s capacity to produce materials and
absorb waste generated by humans is
known as its biocapacity
A U S T R A L I A’ S E C O L O G I C A L
FOOTPRINT

Fishing
Built up land 4%
4%
Forest use
9%

Greenhouse gas
emissions
52%

Crop land and graz-

ing
31%
 HOW DO WE MEASURE IT?

▰Humans can take a short questionnaire on they lifestyle.

▰Some of the lifestyle measurements the questionnaire considers:
•transport habits
•food consumption
•household energy use
•ownership of goods
▰The questionnaire determines how many global hectares would be
required to support your consumption.
▰ http://www.footprintcalculator.org/
 H O W D O Y O U S TA C K U P ?
▰ Your results will include:
1. Your personal overshoot day- this relates to the date in the year where you have used all of the
resources the planet is able to produce in a year.
2. How many Earth’s- indicating the number of planets we would need for everyone to live like
you.
3. Resource use by land type- indicating how much land is used to provide the resources you use.
4. Ecological footprint (global hectares)- indicates the biological share of the planet your lifestyle
uses.
Note: 1 global hectare = 10,000m2 (roughly one soccer field worth of biologically productive space)

5. Your Carbon footprint- which gives a measure of how much CO 2 your lifestyle produces in a
year.
 THE REALITY OF THESE
R E S U LT S
• The earth can support 1.7 global
hectares per person.
• The current average footprint is 2.7
global hectares.
• The Australian average is 6.7 global
hectares
• If everyone in the world lived like the
average Australian, we would require
3.8 Earths worth of resources.