Ecological challenges

1
Ecological challenges

• The global commons
• A commons is a shared resource that a group of
  people uses collectively.
• Preserving our common ecosystem and assuring its
  continued use is a new imperative.

2
Ecological challenges (continued)

• Sustainable development
• Development that meets the needs of the present
  without compromising the ability of future
  generations to meet their own needs.
• Protecting the environment will require economic
  development.
• Economic development must be accomplished
  sustainably.

3
Ecological challenges (continued)

• Threats to the Earths ecosystem
• Water resources
• Fossil fuels
• Arable land

4
Ecological challenges (continued)

• Forces of change
• The population explosion
• World poverty
• Industrialization

5
Ecological challenges (continued)

• The limits to growth
• The world resource base is essentially finite, or
  bounded.
• The Earths rapid population growth, peoples
  rising expectations, and the rapid
  industrialization of less developed countries are
  heading for collision with a fixed barrier.

6
Deciding How Much Global Warming Is Too Much

• Under first treaty (1994) addressing global
  warming, 193 countries, including U.S., pledged
  to avoid dangerous human interference w/
  climate
• Dangerous not defined
• Kyoto Protocol took effect 2/16/05, requiring
  participating industrialized countries to cut
  emissions
• But targets and timetable negotiated w/ no
  agreement on what amount of cuts would lead to
  climatic stability
• President Bush rejected Kyoto Pact in 2001
• Some experts say that by time clear evidence is
  at hand, calamity later in century will be
  unavoidable
• Any consensus on climate risks will likely
  intensify pressure on Bush administration to
  shift from current opposition
• Source New York Times, 2/1/05

7
Deep in the Sahara, BP Tries to Put Dent in
Global Warming

• Given Kyoto Protocol, companies that will have to
  curb emissions in compliance w/ their countries
  caps scrambling to figure out how to do so wo/
  killing bottom lines
• Even in U.S., companies looking for solution,
  figuring its only matter of time before they
  also face caps
• BP and its partners in Algerian natural-gas
  processing plant injecting carbon dioxide back
  one mile underground (geologic storage)
• Key question will CO2 stay underground or come
  burping back up out of earth?
• Concept drawing interest because it could curb
  global warming more quickly than switching to
  alternative energy sources or cutting energy use
• Source Wall Street Journal, 2/4/05

8
Nations Wince at Kyoto Reality

• Now govts have to figure out how to divvy up
  responsibility for cuts among companies and
  consumers that produce emissions
• Producing political backlash
• E.g., Canada pledged to cut emissions to 6 below
  1990 level by 2012
• But its emissions are increasing 1.5/yr
• If emissions continue to grow at current rate,
  Kyoto pledge will require cutting emissions to
  35 below what they would have been in 2012 w/ no
  action
• Source Wall Street Journal, 2/16/05

9
Senators Warm Up to Emissions Curbs

• Republican opposition to greenhouse gas curbs
  is slowly easing, as concerns mount over damage
  from climate change
• In Alaska, the two Republican senators say they
  are willing to reconsider carbon-dioxide
  regulation after voting against it two years ago
• According to recent report by GAO, melting sea
  and glacier ice has resulted in severe erosion
  and flooding problems in 86 of Alaskas native
  villages
• Legislation proposed in Senate would require
  industry to reduce emissions to 2000 levels by
  2010
• President Bush is opposed to regulation
• Many politicians arent sure to what extent
  man-made carbon dioxide is contributing to
  climate change, some scientists dispute link
• Source Wall Street Journal, 2/22/05

10
World Business Council for Sustainable Development

• Goals To encourage high standards of
  environmental management and to promote closer
  cooperation among businesses, governments, and
  other organizations concerned with sustainable
  development.
• Called for businesses to manufacture and
  distribute products more efficiently, consider
  their lifelong impact, and recycle components.
• Recommended revising systems of national
  accounting to include the costs of environmental
  damage, and pricing products to reflect their
  full environmental cost.

11
Voluntary business initiatives

• Life cycle analysis
• Involves collecting information on the lifelong
  environmental impact of a product, from
  extraction of raw material to manufacturing to
  its distribution, use, and ultimate disposal.
• Industrial ecology
• Refers to designing factories and distribution
  systems as if they were self-contained
  ecosystems.
• Design for disassembly
• Means that products are designed so that at the
  end of their useful life they can be disassembled
  and recycled.

12
Sustainable Development

• What does the principle of sustainable
  development mean when practiced at the level of
  an individual business?
• Select a business with which you are familiar,
  determine what kinds of changes that business
  would need to make in order to operate
  sustainably.
• Is it possible for a single business to operate
  sustainably, or does sustainable business require
  a coordinated effort by many companies,
  governments, and international agencies?