GEOG256 Lecture 2 Outline of Last Lecture I Syllabus and Class Guidlines Outline of Current Lecture II Ecological Footprint III Four Conceptual Problems IV The Capital Approach V Thermodynamic Approach VI Material Input Approach Current Lecture Lecture 2 Expansionist Paradigm Rees 1995 Review Questions Q The Great Reconciliation refers to the shif A From limits to grow to managing limits Q when a population overshoots carrying capacity what is the typical result A Death rates exceeds birth rate Q What is not equivalent to open earth paradigm A Spaceship earth Q According to Kidd when did sustainability emerge as a major theme A 1970 s Q According to Kidd most definitions of sustainability share a common element What is it A Concern for future generations Ecological Footprint How much land and sea area is required to support the material and energy budget of a city and to process the waste it generates Urban areas food wood fuel waste processing etc anywhere around the globe 180 times the metro area for Vancouver BC The problem our welfare has depended on overshoot see powerpoint 4 Conceptual Problems with CC 1 It s not fixed it can change with technology or consumption These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute 2 It s a maximum not an optimum short of die off what standard of well being do we want 3 There are data problems we don t know the planetary capacity 4 Difficult to say a region of the planet can support a certain number when humans transport themselves and resources over fast distances The Five Capitals Natural Capital Social Capital our ability to work together effectively Human Capital Financial Capital Manufactured Capital Capital Approach CC focuses on population and impacts the focus here is the resource base Our well being comes from the goods and services produced from Capital Socks k K can be natural or man made If capital decreases and productivity remains the same well being declines Capital must not decline if you want to preserve future generations opportunities for wealth and well being chart see powerpoint Natural Capital Natural K provides non renewable and renewable resources for o Production source function e g timber o Assimilative capacity sink function e g air o Life support functions aka ecosystem services like pollination climate regulation o Aesthetic spiritual values e g historic sites o Protection safety functions e g coastal wetlands Examples of KN reductions fishery depletion farmland loss Weak vs Strong Sustainability Weak sustainability allows sustainability of KM for KN Strong sustainability requires constant stock KN o Because manufactured capital ofen requires natural capital e g you need energy to run desalination o Because natural capital fulfills functions that can t be replaced you can t manufacture air wilderness o Because there is uncertainty and nature is irreplaceable once lost extinction o Critical natural capital o Triple bottom line accounting Resilience KN increases the resilience of society to major shocks war drought energy crisis and to cumulative shocks or chronic processes industrialization urbanization Some see resilience as preferred way to think about sustainability Includes Robustness absorb shocks and adaptive capacity change if needed Thermodynamic Approach Moving from low entropy to high entropy produces an irreversible loss of energy so 100 recycling is impossible We can t know the stock of KN because exploration depends on an unknown future price SO o Progress should be efficiency increasing not throughput increasing Material Input Approach It is impossible to measure the extent of natural capital how do you sum more trees but less natural gas or assign an accurate value there is no market for air So we need a rule of thumb to move us in the right direction Reducing material input is a good alternative objective Material input means all the resources moved to produce a good or service from cradle to grace We need to reduce material input per unit of service by perhaps 10 fold aka dematerialization SD is a process not a hard to measure end state which improves the long term health of human and ecological systems AKA continuous improvement approach Good for those wanting small steps Carrying capacity and natural capital are outcome or end state approaches