Sustainability Final

Ecosystems

Biological communities of interacting organisms and their physical environment

Three classes of ecosystems

• Terrestrial:land

• Saltwater oceans

• freshwater: rivers, streams, lakes

Terrestrial Ecosystems

• composed of food webs

• sustain air, water, and soil quality

• groups within this ecosystem are differentiated into biomes

• one ocean with ocean regions

Biomes

large biogeographical units characterized by a particular combination of vegetation and animals that are associated with a general climatic type

What do rivers and streams transport?

salt, sediments, and pollutants from watershed to coastal estuaries and oceans

Why should we care about water/marine ecosystems?

• Thermohaline circulation

• Carbon sink

• Produces half of earth’s oxygen and stores 50 more times the world's carbon dioxide than the atmosphere

• World’s largest ecosystem

• Billions of people rely on the ocean for food and jobs in the blue economy

• Absorbs impacts of pollution

• Transports 90% of international trade

Thermohaline circulation

Transports heat in a global circulation system that moderates global weather and climate

Human impacts of marine environments

• Marine ecosystems that have been impacted the most by human activities on the ocean

• There have been very high impact observed in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and the East China Sea

• the ocean is underrepresented in global environmental policy and protection

Food webs

• Begin with sun energy converted into organic matter by plants

• Animals that eat plants synthesize a portion of the plant material in their own bodies for energy

• Plants produce organic energy

• Herbivore, primary consumers

• Carnivores, secondary consumers

• Specialized carnivores, tertiary “apex” consumers

Herbivores

primary consumers

Carnivores

secondary consumers

Specialized carnivores

tertiary “apex” consumers

Four major categories of ecosystems services

• Provisionary services

  • Allow humans to exist and include natural resources

• Regulation 

  • Necessary for our sustained habitation of the earth. These services are the ones most likely taken for granted by most humans

• Cultural services

  • The non-material benefits of nature

• Supporting services

  • Are necessary to produce all other ecosystem services

Biodiversity

• Diversity within and among species and ecosystems

• More biodiverse communities are more productive

• redundancy  - insurance against the loss of ecosystems function

  • An ecosystem that has more biodiversity and more redundant species redundant is better able to adapt to change and avoid collapse

Measure of biodiversity in an ecosystem

• Species richness

  • Number of species

• Species abundance

  • Number of individuals in a species

• Species distribution and habitat size

  • Broad vs. narrow

• Genetic diversity

  • Number of genetic characteristics within a species

Reasons for ecosystem change and biodiversity loss

• Direct drivers of change

  • Influences ecosystems processes and can be identified and measured

  • Land use change

  • Pollution

  • Direct exploitation of organisms

  • Climate change

• Indirect drivers of change

  • Population change

  • Socio-cultural factors

  • Political factors

  • Economic factors

  • Technology changes

Land use change

• Agriculture

  • Most widespread form of land-use change 

  • Greatest losses in tropics, home to highest biodiversity levels

• Forestry: harvesting of natural vegetation for human use

  • Changes ecosystems

  • Removes carbon sinks

• Urbanization

  • Changes land to residential, industrial, and commercial use

Impacts of land-use change

• Reduction: loss in area or coverage

• Fragmentation: ecosystems are broken down from large continuous areas into smaller parcel

• Substitution: replacing one set of organisms in an ecosystems with another

• Simplification: ecosystems become less diverse 

• contamination: increase pollutants into the ecosystem through air, water or soil

• Overgrowth: pollution or contamination lead to overgrowth of ecosystems

Three primary pollution sources in oceans

• Agricultural

  • Fertilizers

  • pesticides

• Urban

  • Plastics

  • Organic solid waste

• industrial

Pollution’s impact on oceans

• Man mad chemicals are problematic

• Toxicity chemical substance that can produce injury in a body 

• Most concerning chemicals

  • Very persistent chemicals which break down slowly or not at all and bioaccumulate or biomagnify in the bodies of wildlife and people

  • Endocrine disrupting chemicals which interfere with the hormone systems of animals and people

  • Chemicals which cause cancer, reproductive problems or damage DNA

• Most non-point pollutants

  • Inorganic and organic debris

  • Solid waste

  • Oil and other chemicals discharged by tankers and cargo ships

Marine atmospheric pollution

• Atmospheric pollution is a part of the hydrologic cycle

  • Airborne pollutants combine with water vapor and cloud droplets then return to earth’s surface

• Nitrogen from atmosphere affects pH balance

  • nitrogen , iron and phosphorus from human activity has increased volume

  • Nitrogen and nitric oxide caused explosive growth of plants and algae

  • DDT, PCB, mercury introduced by human activity

Bioaccumulation

pollutants that are stored in organs and tissue can accumulate in individual organisms over the span of its life

Biomagnification

occurs when stored contaminants are not retained in the food chain, by accumulating in higher concentrations at higher trophic levels

Eutrophication

• an enrichment of water by nutrients that causes structural changes to the ecosystems, such as increased production of algae and aquatic plants, depletion of fish species, general deterioration of of water quality, and other effects

  • Causes harmful algal blooms, dead zones, and fish kills

    • hypoxia: low or depleted oxygen

    • Excess algae decomposing

Overfishing

Fishing rate is higher that the rate at which fish reproduce and repopulate or when there are not enough adult fish to breed and maintain a healthy population

Illegal/unreported and unregulated fishing

• Operatives outside the laws of a fishery or nation

• Threatens sustainability of fish populations

• Linked to labor and human rights abuses such as human trafficking and forced labor

Global Warming

long-term rise in global temperatures due mainly to the increasing concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere

Climate change

encompasses global warming but refers to a broader range of changes occurring, such as precipitation, wind patterns, temperature, rising sea levels, shrinking mountain glaciers, accelerated ice melt and shift in flower plant blooming times

The greenhouse effect

Greenhouse gases absorb some of the energy that is radiated from the surface of the earth stays in the atmosphere like a blanket, making the earth’s surface warmer than it would be otherwise

Greenhouse gases

• Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation produced by solar warming of the Earth’s surface

• Elevated levels of GHGs have been observed in the recent past and are related, at least in part, to human activities, such as burning fossil fuels

• Carbon dioxide

• Methane

• Nitrous oxide

• Fluorinated gases

What are the impacts of climate change

• Ice caps are melting,

• Disrupting thermohaline circulation 

• Severe weather 

• Sea level rise

• Ocean warming 

• Species loss and extinction

• Increase in poverty and disadvantage among some populations

• Projected increase in risks from some vector-borne diseases

• Smaller net production in yields of maize, rice, wheat and other crops

Regional variability of climate change

• At smaller spatial scales, climate change will have diverse impacts

• Wet areas will get wetter, dry areas will get dryer

• Tropical regions will become warmer

• Rising temperatures risk small islands

Climate Justice

• Climate change impacts are inequitable, low-income and people of color are more affected, which in turn increases inequality

• Climate change as driver of human displacement

• Climate change predicted to worsen gender inequalities

2015 Paris Agreement

• Focus mostly on mitigation: ensuring earth’s temperature does not rise more than 2 degrees Celsius

• 20-20-20 targets to meet by 2030

  • Reduce carbon dioxide by 20%

  • Increase renewable energy to 20%

  • Increase energy efficiency by 20%

• Up to countries to decide how to meet these targets

Mitigation

• Rescue the concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere either by reducing their sources or increasing their sinks

• Strategies include:

  • Reduce fossil fuels

  • Promote energy efficiency and conservation

  • Create carbon sinks (trees - sequester carbon)

Adaption

• The process of adjusting to our changing climate

  • In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm from climate change

  • No one solution exists, because climate change impacts vary by region

  • Adaptation efforts must be tailored to address localized climate change impacts

Three pillars of SDG 8: Decent Work

• employment

• international standards of work

• social protection

Decent Work

• Opportunities for everyone to work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration

• Human right

• Driver of sustainable development

Connections between SDG 8 and SDG 9

• Industries and innovations can provide opportunities for people to engage in decent work

• Industries can exploit people’s labor and prevent decent working conditions

• Innovation can support workers and the economy

• Innovations can make jobs obsolete, leading to unemployment

• Infrastructure provides the physical structures needed for industries and jobs to run and support the trade of good and services

Infrastructure

Refers to an arrangement of of elements of something complex

Three types of infrastructure

• hard

• soft

• critical

Hard infrastructure

• Large physical systems necessary to running a modern, industrialized economy

  • Water and waste systems bridges, roads, airports

Soft Infrastructure

• social, political and cultural institutions that support that social services in a community or country

  • Healthcare systems, education systems, parks and playgrounds, financial institutions and emergency services

Critical Infrastructure

• All of the assets, systems and network - physical or virtual that are essential to the proper functioning of a society’s economy, national public healthy or safety, security

  • Communications systems, highways, buildings, clean water

Industrialization in high income countries vs. low income countries

• High income countries: industry has achieved higher productivity, new technologies, and reduced industrial production’s environmental impacts

• Lower-income countries: structural transformation from traditional primary sectors to modern manufacturing industries

Industrialization

• Create jobs, improves income, reduces poverty, introduces new technologies, and produces essential good and services

• Manufacturing declining in Global North, shifting to Global South

• Industrialization improved Global North income and living standards by has degraded the environment and caused global inequity

Sustainable Industrialization

• Industrial development that is linked to formal job markets and health, safety, and environmental standards

• May have positive impacts on job creation, sustainable livelihoods, technology and skills development, food security, and equitable growth – some of the key requirements for eradicating poverty by 2030

Social Programs

sets of policies and programs designed to reduce and prevent poverty and vulnerability

Examples of social programs

• Maternity and paternity leave

• Unemployment benefits

• Employment injury

• Old age

• Disability

• Health protection

Modern Slavery

• Forced labor: being forced to work under threat or coercion as domestic workers

• Debt bondage: being forced to work to repay a debt and not being able to leave

• Forced marriage: forced to marry without their consent

Child Labor

• Work depriving children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity and is harmful to physical and mental development

• Work that interferes with schooling

• 160 million children in child labor-nearly half perform hazardous work

Solutions to SDG 8 and SDG 9

• expanding infrastructure and innovation

• Creating resiliency

• Strengthening protection

• increasing research and development

• Providing finance support

• Supporting green jobs, economies, and degrowth

Resilient Infrastructure

• resilience: the capacity to plan for, respond to, and recover from stressor and shocks

• planning or learning and adversity

Resilience Hubs

• Supply freshwater and resources: food, ice, refrigeration, charging stations, basic medical supplies, and other supplies needed in the event of an emergency

• Energy systems providing extended power during power outages

• Place to grow fresh and local food

• Critical communication and information functions that help educate community members about hazards

Migration Protection

• A high percentage of modern slavery victims are exploited outside their country of origin, underscoring the link between migration and modern slavery

• Migrants unique vulnerabilities should be addressed by migrant protection policies and reforms that maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of social costs of migration

Social Protections

• Social protection systems stabilize household incomes and address barriers to decent work through four policies

  • Unemployment protection

  • Cash transfer programs

  • Public employment programs

  • Payments for ecosystem services

Research and development

• Activities companies undertake to innovate and introduce new products and services

  • Basic research: research for the sake of research

  • Applied research: research done with a specific goal, use or product in mind

    • Interdisciplinary teams of scientists

  • Experimental research: systematic work, drawing on knowledge gained from research and practical experience and producing additional knowledge

Financial Inclusion

Individuals and enterprises can access and use a range of appropriate and responsibly provided financial services offered in a well-regulated environment

Microfinance or microcredit

• type of banking service provided to unemployed or low-income individuals or groups who otherwise would have no other access to financial services

• Offer low amounts, which transitional banks do not offer often these small amounts can help grow informal or formal businesses and engage in other profitable activities

Critiques of Microfinance

• Normalizes debt, encourages more debt

• Poverty is seen as a problem of lack of finance rather than due to the underlying uneven structure of capitalism

• Research not clear that females have been empowered by microfinance

Public employment programs (PEP)

•  Provide construction or expansion of public or social goods, such as infrastructure

Payments for ecosystems services

payments to farmers or landowners who have agreed to take certain actions to manage their land or watershed to provide ecological services: clean water, animal habitat, carbon storage, etc. 

Ecotourism

• Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education

• May provide economic benefits to economically weaker communities living around protecting areas and inspire them to protect the biodiversity in their own interest

Ecotourism critiques

• Promised benefits of ecotourism are not always realized

  • Increased pollution due to increased tourist activity

  • Private interests may not reinvest into community

  • Not a one size fits all, not a magic bullet

Critiques on economic growth

Economic expansion inevitable causes ecological harm

Degrowth actions

• Promote local currencies and end national currencies

• Transition to nonprofit and small-scale companies

• Reduce working hours

• Facilitate volunteer work

• Reuse empty housing

• Introduce a basic income and income ceiling

• Transition from a car-based system to a more local, biking and walking based one

Main two purposes of energy

• transportation

• electricity generation

Electricity

Secondary energy: energy from the conversion of other primary energy resources

Energy resources that produce electricity

• Coal

• Natural gas

• Nuclear energy

• Renewable energy

  • Water

  • Wind

  • solar

Energy Inequality

• Energy consumption varies at different scales:

  • Global north: highest access and consumption

  • Rural areas, often due to electrical infrastructure

  • Within places, low-income population often remain unserved

    • Urban slums vs middle or higher income housing in the same city

Why might some people have a lack of access to electricity?

• Insufficient power generation capacity

• Insufficient infrastructure

• High costs of remote supply

• Lack of affordable energy

Critical Political Ecologists on energy inequality

• Suggest the most important underlying reason for energy inequality is the inequitable global structure, politics, and economic power and the legacy of conditions from colonialism and capitalism

• The lack of energy power in and within many countries in the Global South is the result of the imbalance of political and economic power

Nonrenewable energy resources

• Energy resources that will not regenerate within a short period of time, once converted to energy and used, gone forever

  • Oil

  • Natural gas (methane gas)

  • Coal

  • Nuclear energy

Fossil fuels

• Derived from plant materials and living organisms converted to hydrocarbons over millions of years

• Combustion of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide particulate matter nitrogen oxides sulfur dioxide, mercury and heavy metals

Coal

• Coal combustion emits the highest percentage of carbon dioxide

• Cheap and widely distributed concentrated in: North America, Eastern Europe, China and Central Asia

• Classified based on hardness and relative amount of carbon

Oil

• Although coal started the industrial revolution, oil emerged as the primary source of energy in the twentieth century and has powered economic growth and development since

• US dominant fossil fuel as it is the energy for all transportation

• US consumes 20% of the world’s oil despite having less than 5% of the world’s population

Natural Gas (Methane Gas)

• Referred to as a cleaner fossil fuel because it emits less CO2 than oil and coal

• Recently replaced coal as the leading source of energy

  • Industrial: fuels process heating

  • Residential: heat buildings and water, cook, and dry clothes

  • Commercial: heat buildings and water, operate refrigeration and cooling equipment

  • Transportation: fuel, with most vehicles using natural gas serving in government vehicle fleets

• Releases methane, a highly potent GHG impacting climate change

Smog

• Impact of fossil fuels

• Smog = smoke + fog

• Primary source: transportation

  • Natural sources volcanic activity and forest fires

• Air pollution problem: unsafe levels of air pollution cause serious health impacts

  • Sinus irritation

  • Shortness of breath

  • Exacerbates respiratory issues

Renewable Energy

• Energy resources renewed by natural systems in a short amount of time

• Includes all energy forms consumed by humans except fossil fuels and nuclear energy

  • solar

  • wind

  • hydropower

  • biofuels

Hydropower

•  turbines driven by the force of falling water

  • Although largely nonpolluting, hydropower requires dams, which have environmental and social impacts

Solar power

• solar panels and the sun

  • Tremendous growth: job growth in solar outpaced job growth in coal and oil

Wind - wind turbines

• Abundant in many areas, but 80% wind power capacity is in 8 countries

• Growing debates about impact of wind turbine blades (noise, visual impact)

Biofuels

•  solid, liquid, or gas biomass from living matter

  • Ethanol, animal dung

Renewable energy challenges

• Soft costs: permitting, zoning and connecting with power grids

• Periodicity of energy sources, power generation does not necessarily align with the timing of power demand

• Producing energy and delivering energy will require advances in technology and energy infrastructure for storing energy and updating electrical grids

Energy portfolios

• Show the different mixes of energy sources used by a location

  • City 

  • State

  • Country

  • Region

Increasing sustainable energy

• Double the financing for SDG 7 globally

• Close the electricity access gap by nationally, regionally and globally

• Make clean cooking solutions a top political priority, and put in place and specific policies, cross-sectoral plans and public investments

• Accelerate the pace of transition towards renewable energy

• Harness the potential of decentralized renewable energy solutions

• Scale up investments in energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy

Solutions for SDG 7

• ensure equity in renewables

• improve energy conservation and efficiency

• carbon nuetrality

Carbon neutrality

• Reduce fossil fuel energy use

• Use renewable energy

• Buy carbon offsets or carbon sequestering

  • Plant trees

  • Buy carbon credits

Waste

material that has no apparent, obvious, or significant economic or beneficial value to humans

Two forms of waste

• solid waste

• less visible form of resources that have been use carelessly

Plastics Problem

• Single-use plastics: products that are typically used once before being thrown away or recycled

• Estimates are 100 to 150 million tons of plastic produced for single-use purposes

• Most plastics are not recycled or properly disposed

• Microplastics: less than 5 millimeters in length, often in water

Political Ecologists on Waste

• Discard studies - critical framework questioning what seems normal or given, and analyzes the wider role of society and culture, including social norms, economic systems, forms of labor, ideology, infrastructure, and power in definitions of, attitudes toward, behaviors around waste

• The materials are discarded are part of a wider sociocultural-economic system and are not produced by individuals

• Institutions and systems have avoided responsibility for the production of waste and its disposal, shifting that responsibility to the consumers

Ecological Footprints

• Approximates how much productive land and water are needed to provide for a population, the land used is then compared to the land occupied

  • The ecological footprint can be measured at any scale

• Highest levels of consumption in the Global North, particularly the United States

Four types of solid waste

• Residential

• Commercial

• Institutional

• construction/demolition

Main goal of SDG 12

The use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or products so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations

Circular Economy

• Design out waste and pollution

• Keep products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems, where the emphasis is on reuse

• Regenerate natural systems and return nutrients or materials to nature

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

• Chemicals that had unforeseen effects on human health and environment

  • Example: PCB, DDT

  • The dirty dozen

Life Cycle Assessment

Methodology used for understanding the environmental impact of a product throughout its entire life cycle: from raw material extraction through production, use, and waste treatment, to final disposal

Kuznets Curve

Suggests that the early stages economic development will initially lead to a deterioration in the environment, but at a certain level of economic development, society begins to improve its relationship with the environment

Jevon’s Paradox

• Occurs when making something work better actually leads to using more of it, not less

• Happens because when things get easier or cheaper to use, we usually start using them more, which can cancel out the benefits of the being more efficient in the first place