Is less bad good

1
Is less bad good?

• Arguments made by McDonough and Braungart

2

• Early conservationist movements (and most today)
  based on romanticism Muir, Thoreau, others.
• Nature as restorative, ideal, spiritual.

3

• Most efforts focused on preserving highly
  appreciated landscapes the Yosemites,
  Yellowstones, etc.

4
The National Park System Caring for the
American Legacy

• "...to promote and regulate the use of
  the...national parks...which purpose is to
  conserve the scenery and the natural and historic
  objects and the wild life therein and to provide
  for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and
  by such means as will leave them unimpaired for
  the enjoyment of future generations."
• National Park Service Organic Act, 16 U.S.C.1.

5

• Scientific basis for ecological concern
  highlighted in 1962 with publication of Rachel
  Carsons Silent Spring.
• (Not exactly true Adirondack State Preserve (6
  million acres) driven in part by erosion,
  flooding, and other issues. Soil conservation
  service (1930s) by loss of soil and fertility
  differences is that those were direct impacts
  Silent Spring was about the indirect impacts due
  to systemic nature of the environment.)

6
Population Growth

• Malthus
• folly of greatest good for the greatest number
• Paul Erlich the Population Bomb prediction of
  famine in which hundreds of millions starved to
  death.

7
Did population bomb predictions come true?

• 852 million people across the world are hungry,
  up from 842 million a year ago.
• Every day, more than 16,000 children die from
  hunger-related causes--one child every five
  seconds.
• From Bread for the World web site. Data
  Source State of Food Insecurity in the World
  2005. Food and Agriculture Organization of the
  United Nations.

•  

8
An Approach

• if resources are fixed, and population
  increasing, then to maintain resource stability,
  each individual must consume less

9
Ecological footprint

• The Ecological Footprint is a resource accounting
  tool used to address underlying sustainability
  questions. It measures the extent to which
  humanity is using nature's resources faster than
  they can regenerate. It illustrates who uses how
  much of which ecological resources, with
  populations defined either geographically or
  socially. And, it shows to what extent humans
  dominate the biosphere at the expense of wild
  species

10
(No Transcript)
11

• From Material World, 1994. Menzel,Charles C.
  Mann,Paul Kennedy

12
So what about Ecological Efficiency?

• Ecological Efficiency aka Conservation
• Not a new concept National ForestsBenefit Cost
  Analysis, etc. economic efficiency.
• Issue does less matter?
• Effects of even small quantities of particulates,
  chemicals, etc. have adverse health effects.
• Even bio-remediation doesnt convert all material
  to safe levels.
• Reuse often simply a transfer or concentration of
  bad materials elsewhere
• Land application of waste (as fertilizer)
• Effects of hormones, antibiotics, etc, Mad Cow
  disease

13
(No Transcript)
14
Legislative Action

• 1875 Division of Forestry (under agriculture)
• 1885 New York creates Adirondack Forest
  Preserve (now 6 million acres)
• 1891 Forest Reserve System created by President
  Harrison
• Congress never appropriated funds
• 1897 President Cleveland accedes to National
  Academy of Sciences to create new forest reserves
• Congress passes law setting aside forests if land
  is better used for ag or mining, and permitted
  forestry for firewood, mining, etc. and waters
  for mining, milling and irrigation.

15
Issues in Recycling

• Materials mixed.
• Paint bonded to metals
• Copper, aluminum
• Eg. Computer Recycling.
• By-products of recycling also polluting (e.g.
  Dioxins).

16
What about Regulation?

• Government is used to counter act failures
  market failures, economic failures, environmental
  failures. But it does so often by regulating
  (restricting) the current issue, rather than
  transformation.
• Eg. Wastewater pollution mandates specific
  forms of treatment of domestic sewage, industrial
  outputs, etc. Look at UI Abbott Power Plant.
  Electrostatic Precipitator

17
Efficiency is good, right?

• Efficiency as a value dependent on context
  efficient bad things are not desired.
• Consider home construction Heat loss through
  air infiltration. Reduce infiltration through
  better insulation, sealants, etc.
• Result, increased energy efficiency, decreased
  indoor air quality.

18
Eco-Effectiveness

• Design for reuse/regeneration from the ground up.
• Tree example
• Produce more fruit than needed for reproduction,
  yet excess provides basis for additional life.
  Nothing is wasted

19
Green Roof Example
20
Performance
21
Goal

• Buildings that produce more energy than they
  consume, and purify their own wastewater.
• Factories that produce drinking water as a
  by-product
• Product waste become nutrients or raw materials
  for other products
• Abundance, not limits
• (Of course, all this depends on the sun, and
  inherent natural properties, and humanity).

22
Fords River Rouge Plant