Conservation and Sustainability

1
Conservation and Sustainability
2
Barbara Tuchman (The March of Folly)

• A phenomenon noticeable throughout history
  regardless of place or period is the pursuit by
  governments of policies contrary to their own
  interest. Why does intelligent mental process
  seem so often not to function? Why does American
  business insist on growth when it is
  demonstrably using up the three basics of life on
  our planet land, water, and unpolluted air?

3

• Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology
  of the cancer cell.
• - Edward Abbey
• All I have been able to do in my career is slow
  the rate at which things get worse.
• David Brower

4
How can we continue to make improvements in the
human condition around the world without harming
the natural environment further?

• Sustainability Ecological, social, and economic
  systems that can last over the long term.
• Sustainable Development Meeting the needs of
  the present without compromising the ability of
  future generations to meet their own needs. . . .
  
• Sustainable Development. Extending progress,
  without exhausting resources, beyond the
  foreseeable future.

5

• It does not mean raising worlds population to
  same level of consumption that North Americans
  and Europeans have. This would be disastrous!
• It does mean raising level of health, security,
  political stability, and quality of life around
  the world.

6
Can development really be sustainable?

• Yes, but it requires changes on our part.
• Demands that we acknowledge true price of
• things like
• gasoline (local pollution, carbon emissions,
  congestion, military expenditures, etc.)
• electric power (air and water pollution, mining
  and drilling, etc.).
• It requires us to consider social and ecological
  consequences of consumption, consequences which
  ripple throughout the world.

7
Can development really be sustainable?

• Forces us to weigh short-term benefits vs.
  long-term damages.
• Demands that we hold politicians/decision-makers
  accountable on a whole range of environmental,
  health, and energy-related issues.
• We have to be held accountable. We need to
  educate ourselves about these issues. And act.

8
According to E. O. Wilson

• Environmentalism is still widely viewed,
  especially in the United States, as a
  special-interest lobby.
• Environmentalism is something more central and
  vastly more important.

Harvard University
9
Conserving Biodiversity

• The deteriorating quantity and quality of
  ecosystems has caused
• us to adopt a variety of conservation measures
• Today, about 4 of worlds land area is protected
  in parks, wildlife refuges, and nature preserves.
• An estimated 12 of the worlds forests have been
  accorded some form of protection.
• U.S. established the worlds first national park
  in 1872.
• A system of forest reserves established starting
  in 1891.
• Passage of the Weeks Act in 1911 permits
  establishment of national forests in the East.

10
(No Transcript)
11

• Intrinsic versus instrumental value
• Anthropocentric versus non-anthropocentric

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
Other Conservation Strategies

• Public-private partnerships (e.g., conservation
  easements)
• Debt-for-nature swaps
• Involving indigenous groups in the conservation
  of natural resources
• Educating the public so that they see the
  critical connections between a healthy and stable
  ecosystem and their own well-being

15
Our Energy Future

• What direction shall we take as a country? Is it
  time to
• formulate an energy policy which weans us off
  fossils fuels?
• A more conservative approach would have us focus
  our efforts on the supply side increasing fossil
  fuel production, easing environmental
  regulations, backing off from conservation and
  limiting demands.
• A more progressive approach would have us focus
  on becoming more efficient, diversifying our
  production so more of our supply comes from
  alternative sources, conserving energy, raising
  fuel efficiency standards.
• Which of these tracks will make America more
  competitive in the future?

16
Our Energy Future

• Would we sacrifice our standard of living by
  adopting a
• more progressive approach?
• Several European countries (e.g., Sweden,
  Denmark, and Switzerland) have higher standards
  of living than us, but consume half as much
  energy because they have adopted very effective
  energy conservation programs.
• Becoming more energy efficient will also be
  important as fossil fuels become increasingly
  expensive and/or scarce.

17
Saving negawatts instead of building megawatts
18
Our Water Future

• Already we have seen some major improvements.
• Despite adding close to 40 million people to the
• population since 1980, Americans use 10 less
• water! How?
• Low-flow toilets
• More efficient plumbing fixtures
• More efficient irrigation techniques

19
Our Water Future

• With regard to the future, water resources must
  be managed more responsibly and sustainably.
• Conservation is critical. Among the things we
  need to do
• 1) pay the real cost of water
• 2) limit population growth in flood-prone
  areas dry areas
• 3) control demands of agriculture

20
Our Agriculture Future

• According to Richard T. McNider and John R.
  Christy of the University of Alabama, Huntsville
  . . .
• Increasing demand for water in the arid West in
  an era of diminishing supply has put our
  agricultural system in jeopardy.
• There is also increasing pressure to produce more
  biofuels like corn ethanol.

21
Our Agriculture Future

• McNider and Christy argue that a sustainable
  solution exists A return to using the land and
  the water of the East, which dominated
  agriculture in the United States into the 20th
  century.
• Prior to the mid-20th century most of our food
  and fiber was produced east of the Mississippi.
• Potatoes in Maine and New York
• Cotton in the South
• Vegetables in the Mid-Atlantic states
• Corn in almost every state

22
Our Agriculture Future

• By 1980, subsidized irrigation and improved
  transport had shifted advantage to the West.
• Potatoes in Idaho and Washington
• Cotton in Arizona, Texas, and California
• Corn more concentrated in the Midwest
• Irrigation allowed western farmers to avoid
  droughts that plagued eastern farmers..

23
Our Agriculture Future

• There was a price . . .
• Rivers ran dry
• Salmon runs disappeared
• Salinization damaged soils

earthobservatory.nasa.gov
24
Our Agriculture Future

• In the West, 3-4 acre feet of water is needed to
  produce a good crop.
• In the East, only a few inches of irrigation
  water is needed.
• Due to the huge size of rivers in the East, only
  a small fraction of water from eastern rivers
  would be needed for irrigation.

25
Our Agriculture Future

• If the United States does not expand agriculture
  in the East, the nations food production will
  move offshore, to developing countries that may
  not manage herbicides, pesticides and health
  safety as well as our country does.
• By moving more of its agriculture into the East,
  the United States can show the world that
  irrigation can be done sustainably, by irrigating
  where water is plentiful.

26
Our Agriculture Future

• The cost of food is rising around the world. Do
  we have a moral obligation to change our ways in
  the U.S.?
• Do we grow crops for fuel or food?

27

• Every day, issues such as these, issues related
  to
• the ones we have been talking about in class are
• making front-page news.
• I hope that you leave this class better informed
  and ready to tackle these problems at least on a
  local level.
• Carve out a goal for yourself this year, today,
  now even a modest one.
• Whatever . . . Just do it!

28
Remember . . .
Global-scale environmental threats have
national and local roots. - James Gustave Speth
Yale University
29
Use CFLs instead of incandescent bulbs
30
Get some of your food at the farmers market
www.pps.org
31
Eat less meat!

• Theres a schizoid quality to our relationship
  with animals, in which sentiment and brutality
  exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will
  get Christmas presents this year, yet few of us
  pause to consider the miserable life of the pig
  an animal easily as intelligent as a dog that
  becomes the Christmas ham.
• - Michael Pollan

pbs.org
32
Just say no . . . To mow, blow, and go!
(www.treehugger.com)
33
William A. Niering

• Smaller American Lawns Today, or SALT, is a
  concept developed by William Niering, who for
  many years was a professor of botany at
  Connecticut College. Niering planted trees around
  his property, then left most of the rest of his
  yard unmowed, to become a meadow. The meadow can
  take as much of your remaining lawn as you want,
  he observes in an essay posted on SALTs Web
  site.

- Elizabeth Kolbert
34
Recycle one more thing aluminum or glass
(www.80stees.com and www.aclandcellars.com)
35
Purchase recycled items

• Buying 100 Recycled Toilet Paper helps preserve
  our forests.

(grass roots environmental products)
36
Drive less . . . Much less!
(www.retrojunk.com)
37
Drive less . . . Much less!

• What would Jesus drive?
• A Honda Civic?

38
Drive less . . . Much less!
39
Drive less . . . Much less!
40
Drive less . . . Much less!
41
Greener Cities
42
Denmark, a country where few have too much and
fewer have too little.
43
The Bridge at the Edge of the World

• How serious is the threat to the environment?
  Here is one measure of the problem all we have
  to do to destroy the planets climate and biota
  and leave a ruined world to our children and
  grandchildren is to keep doing exactly what we
  are doing today. With no growth in the human
  population or the world economy.

James Gustave Speth
44
The Bridge at the Edge of the World

• Just continue to release greenhouse gases at
  current rates, just continue to impoverish
  ecosystems and release toxic chemicals at current
  rates, and the world in the latter part of this
  century wont be fit to live in. But, of course,
  human activities are not holding at current
  levels they are accelerating, dramatically.

James Gustave Speth
45
The Bridge at the Edge of the World

• It took all of human history to build the
  seven-trillion-dollar world economy of 1950
  today economic activity grows by that amount
  every decade. At current rates of growth, the
  world economy will double in size in a mere
  fourteen years. We are thus facing the
  possibility of an enormous increase in
  environmental deterioration, just when we need to
  move strongly in the opposite direction.

James Gustave Speth
46

• We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is
  today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency
  of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and
  history there is such a thing as being too late.
  Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life
  often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected
  with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs
  of men does not remain at the flood it ebbs.
  We may cry out desperately for time to pause in
  her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and
  rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled
  residue of numerous civilizations are written the
  pathetic words Too late.

Martin Luther King (4 April 1967)
47

• What kind of human are you going to be?

Cornel West, Ohio University, 2009