GEOG 256 1st Edition Lecture 2 Outline of Last Lecture I Introduction II What do we need to do to sustain what we want to sustain III How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed IV Frontier Economics Spaceship Earth Outline of Current Lecture I Sustainability is II Kidd The Evolution of Sustainability III Carrying Capacity IV Impact Per person V Ecological Footprint Current Lecture I Sustainability is To continue To thrive Balance of the economy and the environment The capacity to support good lives for inhabitants of earth Toynbee s explanation for the rise and fall of civilizations Challenge Response die from suicide not by murder Moderate our activities that interfere with nature Develop a morality for our use of the earth R Carson shifted focus from scarcity to pollution What is the view of nature in frontier economics open earth worldwide view That nature is boundless and full of non ending resources Spaceship earth view The biosphere we currently live in limits the consumption of its resources II Kidd The Evolution of Sustainability 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 1 It has many roots ecology resource mgmt critique of technology so users need to state their meaning 2 Most definitions share a common element concern for future generation thus merging science and values 3 1970 s contrasting endless growth vs limited growth 4 Since then it has shifted toward sustainable development to address the issue of jobs vs environment Can prosperity be sustained or is there limits to growth The view before is that the economy and the environment were separate entities and that we could take and waste as much as we wanted Steady state paradigm The economy is part of our eco sphere III Carrying Capacity In population ecology The number of animals an ecosystem can support without damage A overshoot can damage the ecosystem and lower carrying capacity For humans carrying capacity can be interpreted as The max rate of reserve conservation and waste discharge that can be sustained indefinitely in a region without impairing the functional integrity of productivity of relevant resources Instead of focusing on of animals an ecosystem can support we focus on the amt of use that can be sustained or pollution that can be absorbed without impairing the system So the of humans that can be supported depends on their average impact per human and or definition of impaired IV Impact Per Person Less impact per person increases carrying capacity What drives impact per person 1 Total impact depends upon our population affluence and technology Ellrich Holden Thesis I PAT I Impacts including land use resource use pollution P Population of an area A Affluence average per capita consumption T Resource intensity of production eco efficency 2 So impact per person depends on affluence and technology So how can we reduce our impact per capita Must affluence consumption What creates happiness V Ecological Footprint The inverse of carrying capacity Rather than asking what population a region can support it asks how much land area is required to support a population equal to the acreage needed to provide urban areas food wood fuel waste processing etc Human carrying capacity is not fixed it depends on how much we consumed and the eco efficiency of our technology