unit 8

Renweable natural capital

It can be generated and/or replaced as fast as it is being used. It includes living species and ecosystems that use solar energy and photosynthesis. It also includes non-living items, like groundwater and the ozone layer.

Natural capital

The natural resources of Earth, such as air, water, and minerals. They provide goods and services that have aesthetic, cultural, economic, environmental, ethical, intrincis, social, spiritual, and technological value.

Non-renewable natural capital

It is either irreplaceable or can only be replaced over geological timescales (e.g. fossil fuels, soil, and minerals).

Sustainable use of of renewable natural capital

When human well-being depends on the goods and services provided by a certain natural capital, then long-term harvest and pollution rates should not exceed rates of capital renewal. One should instead live within the means of nature and not degrade resources.

Unsustainable use of of renewable natural capital

The complete opposite of sustainabele use. An example of this is groundwater. Pollutants from agricultural products and run-off from storage tanks, landfills, and septic tanks are reducing the water quality. This combined with other unsustainable uses of groundwater creates an evil circle.

Example of renewable natural capital being mismanaged

Pacific bluefin tuna fishing. It's heavily priced for its meat in Japan (sashimi) which has lead to its numbers declining by over 30% over the last 20 years. It is classed as 'vulnerable' on the Red List by IUCN.

Catching fish has environmental impacts including use of GHGs for transport, use of dynamite on coral, and over-fishing. Also, the processing of fish uses fossil fuels to run machines. Fossil fuels are also used when transporting the finished product.

Example of non-renewable natural capital being mismanaged

Minerals are needed to provide food, clothing, and housing. A United States Geological Survey (USGS) study found a significant long-term trend over the 20th century for non-renewable resources such as minerals to supply a greater proportion of the raw material inputs to the non-fuel, non-food sector of the economy

an example is the greater consumption of crushed stone, sand, and gravel used in construction.

Large-scale exploitation of minerals began in the Industrial Revolution around 1760 in England and has grown rapidly ever since. Technological improvements have allowed humans to dig deeper and access lower grades and different types of ore over that time. Virtually all basic industrial metals (copper, iron, bauxite, etc.), as well as rare earth minerals, face production output limitations from time to time, because supply involves large up-front investments and is therefore slow to respond to rapid increases in demand.

Minerals projected by some to enter production decline during the next 20 years: Gasoline (2023) Copper (2024). Zinc.

Minerals projected by some to enter production decline during the present century: Aluminium (2057) Coal (2060) Iron (2068)

Types of ecosystem services

Supporting services: The essentials for life, including primary productivity, soil formation, and the cycling of nutrients. All other services depend on these.

Regulating services: There are many services here. E.g. pollination, regulation of pests and diseases, production of goods like food. Climate, water and hazard regulations are also included here.

Provisioning services: These are the services that people obtain from ecosystems and from which they obtain goods such as food, fibre, fuel, and water. The production of these can be either from heavily managed ecosystems (intensive farm) or semi-natural ones (hunting, fishing).

Cultural services: They are derived from places where people interact with nature, enjoying cultural goods and benefits. Open spaces, like gardens, parks, rivers, forests, lakes, sea-shores, provide opportunities. E.g. learning, spiritual and physical well-being.

Direct use values

Ecosystem goods and services that are directly used by humans.

Consumptive use values

Includes harvesting food products, timber for fuel or housing, medicinal products, and hunting animals for food and clothing. Basically using the ecosystem for one's own needs.

Non-consumptive use values

Includes recreational and cultural activities that don't require harvesting of products.

Indirect use values

These come from ecosystem services that provide benefits outside of the ecosystem iteself (e.g. natural water filtration that may benefit people downstream).

Optional values

Values derived from potential future use of ecosystem goods and services which are not currently used.

Non-use values/existence values

Intrinsic and aesthetic values.

Ways of measuring a resource's value

• The cost of replacing it with something else.

• The cost of mitigating its loss.

• The cost of averting the cost of its degradation.

• Its contribution to other income or production.

• How much people are prepared to pay for it.

Recreational value

The value that is concerned with an activity that is done for enjoyment, e.g. holiday destinations

Dynamic nature and concept of a resource

The concept of natural capital is dynamic. Whether or not something has the status of 'natural capital' and the marketable value of that capital, varies regionally and over time. It's also influenced by other factors like cultural, social, economic, environmental, technological, and political. E.g. cork, uranium, lithium.

Solid domestic waste (SDW)

All the solid waste created by households:

• biodegradable

• recyclable

• WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment)

• hazardous

• toxic

• medical

• inert

• mixed

There are different types of SDW of which the volume and composition changes over time. However, there's a steady increase of SDW as the population also increases.

Case study: Plastic waste in the Thames

In 2012 scientists collected trash from the river Thames in seven locations over 3 months. They got over 8400 items, including plastic cups, food wrappings, and cigarette packaging.

The two most contiminated spots were close to sewage treatment works, which suggests that the filters do not work as they should and are not filtering out larger waste. It could also be because of sewage overflow due to heavy rains.

The possible impacts on wildlife are far-reaching: not only are the species that live in and around rivers affected, but also those in seas that rivers feed into.

Electronic waste (e-waste)

• Trash comprising of digital materials e.g. old computers and phones.

• In 2012 about 50 million tonnes of e-waste was genereated worldwide. This means 7 kg per person.

• This waste is very toxic because the toxic materials seep into the environment and contaminate land, water, and the air.

• There's a huge increase in e-waste because of the rapid technological development.

• Guiyu in China is called the 'e-waste capital of the world' because there's so much e-waste there and it's being recycled in people's homes. The population there have elevated rates of lead poisoning, cancer, and miscarriages.

Recycling and composting SDW

Recycling: Properly sorting trash so that it can be reused. This is mostly done in MEDCs because it's more expensive than just throwing all of the trash together and e.g. burning it.

Composting: This is the decomposition of biodegradable material. Very useful for organic waste, but has the same cons as recycling.

Evaluation of landfilling SDW

• Cheap.

• Will run out, shortage of space.

• Living near landfills causes health problems and birth defects.

• They take up space that could be used for something else.

• When biodegradable waste decomposes methane is released.

• Chemicals and heavy metals that leach can pollute the soil and groundwater.

Evaluating incinerating SDW

• Burning the waste, converting it into ash and gas particulates.

• The heat can be used to generate electricity.

• Incinerators can reduce the volume of the original waste by 80-90%.

• Beneficial to dispose of clinical and hazardous waste safely.

• It causes air pollution, releasing CO2, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, etc, intro the atmosphere.

• Traffic is increased because there will be trucks driving to get the SDW to the incinerators. This creates air and noise pollution.

• The ash that remains after burning is toxic and needs to be stored somewhere, usually a landfill.

• It's expensive to build an incinerator.

Strategies for managing SDW

• Altering human activity: reducing consumption and composting of food waste.

• Controlling release of pollutant: governments create legislation to encourage recycling and reuse initiatives and impose tax for SDW collection, impose taxes on disposable items.

• Reclaiming landfills, use of SDW for trash-to-energy programmes, implementing initiatives to remove plastics from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP)

Aka top 5 reasons to give up on humanity :-)

• Patch of SDW 3x the size of Spain + Portugal floating in the currents of the North Pacific gyre, mostly consisting of plastics.

• It is basically imposible to clean up the Garbage Patch at this point because it's so large and composed of super small parts.

• Plastic waste can be collected when washed up on beaches, but there aren't that many in the region of the GPGP. Putting up booms around it and hauling in the plastic, or hoovering it up seems like the only solutions to getting rid off it. However, this is impractical due to its size and it will take a long time and be expensive. Therefore it's much more essential to control the pollution first to ensure no more damage.

Problems caused by plastic

• Plastic fouls beaches reduce potential income from tourism and recreation.

• Plastic entangles marina animals and drowns them, strangles them, and makes them immobile.

• Plastic garbage destroys habitats when washed ashore.

• Plastic gets inside ships propellers and keels, making skip maintenance more expensive.

• Plastics never fully break down, they just become smaller and smaller over time. This makes them an ideal medium for invasive species.

Crude birth rate (CBR)

• The total number of births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.

• Calculated by taking the total number of births divided by the total population and then multiplying everything by 1000.

Crude death rate (CDR)

• The total number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.

• To compare mortality rates, one uses age-specific mortality rates (ASMR), such as the infant mortality rate (IMR).

• Generally death rates are higher in LEDCs compared to MEDCs.

• Other factors that affect it is social class, occupation, and place of residence.

Total fertility rate (TFR)

• The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years.

• This is different in every country.

• The highest in 2013 was in Niger with a TFR of 7.6.

• Lowest in 2013 was Taiwan with a TFR of 1.1.

• Genereally LEDCs have higher TFRs than MEDCs.

• Education plays a huge role in TFR.

• Governmental laws and programs also affect it, e.g. birth control, awareness, planned parenthood, etc.

• As GNP increases, TFR decreases.

Doubling time (DT)

• The time it takes for a human population to double in size, assuming the natural growth rate remains constant.

• Calculated by taking 70 years divided by NIR.

Natural increase rate (NIR)

• The percentage by which a population grows in a year.

• Calculated by subracting CDR from CBR and dividing the whole thing by 10. Expresses as a %.

Global human population growth

• The world's population is growing very rapidly.

• The population doubled between 1804-1922, 1922-1959, and 1959-1974. This means that it has taken less and less time for us to grow.

• About 95% of population growth is happening in LEDCs.

• It is expected that the population stabilizes at 8.5 billion and reaches a peak at 11 billion.

• As the human population grows, increased stress is placed on all of Earth's systems.

Exponential growth

A growth rate that increases rapidly.

Age/sex pyramids

• Representations of the population based on characteristics such as age, sex, and ethnicity.

• They show birth and death rates, baby booms and emmigration and immigration crises.

The demographic transition model (DTM)

• Shows the change in population structure from LEDCs to MEDCs.

• It suggests that death rates fall before birth rates, and that the total population expands.

• It's only based on data from England, Wales, and Sweden.

Population dynamics

• The range of factors which affect population growth is varied and differs with different scales.

• E.g. national and regional changes in populations take emmigration and immigration into account, which global changes do not.

• There are cultural, historical, religious, social, political, and economical factors.

• E.g. in agricultural cultures there is an advatage to having several children that can help with the labour

National population policies

Official government actions to control the population in some way. There are pro-natalist policies and anti-natalist ones.

Pro-natalist policies

Government policies in favor of increasing the birth rate.

Anti-natalist policies

Government policies attempting to limit the birth rate. E.g. China.

Case study: China's anti-natalist policy

• One-child policy 1979. They maintained it by rewarding those who followed it and penalized those who didn't by increasing their taxes and making sure they couldn't reach certain positions in their jobs. Even extreme measures like forced sterilazation and abortions were done.

• The policy has been relaxed since 1999.

• A result of the policy has been gender imbalance, there being many more boys than girls (due to traditional values). The government thereby offered money if people got daughters.

• The government offers wellfare incentives to couples with two daughters and they have tightened the prohibition on sex-selective abortions.

• Statistically, the one-child policy was successful. It prevented 400 million births which ensured that China could combat rural poverty and improve living standards.

• The one-child policy was loosened in 2013, allowing couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child.

• Party conservatives are concerned about this because they fear the population might grow rapidly and perhaps there will even be a baby boom (unlikely).

Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)

The UN's creation of eight goals for economic development and social progress in 2000:

1. Eliminate extreme poverty and hunger.

2. Guarantee universal primary education.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women.

4. Reduce child mortality rates.

5. Improve maternal health.

6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability.

8. Develop global partnership for development.

Sustainable development goals (SDGs)

Goals resulting from a UN-led effort to end extreme poverty by focusing on 17 key indicators, the top five of which are no poverty, zero hunger, good health, quality education, and gender equality. They replaced the MDGs in 2015.

Carrying capactiy

The maximum number of species or load that can be sustainably supported by a given area.

Optimum population

When the population and resources are perfectly matched, meaning that the people will use all of the resources and produce the highest economic return. It is here that people has the highest living quality.

Over-population

When the number of people in an area exceeds the capacity of the environment to support life at a decent standard of living. They are unable to reach optimum population because the resources are too few and the people too many. E.g. Bangladesh.

Under-population

Occurs when there are far more resources in an area than can be used by the people living there in order to reach the optimum population. E.g. Canada could technically double its population and still maintain its standard of living. However, instead that country exports its goods.

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)

An English Reverend who in 1798 wrote an essay that stated that the there was finite optimum population size in relation to food supply and that any increase in population beyond that point would lead to a decline in the standard of living and to war, famine, and disease.

Esther Boserup (1910-1999)

Had an opposing theory to Malthus. She believed that people have the resources to increase food production. The greatest resource is knowledge and technology. When a need arises, someone will find a solution.

While Malthus believed that food supply limits population growth, Boserup suggested that it instead stimulates populations to come up with technology and techniques to increase the supply.

She examined different land-use systems according to their intensity of production and eventually concluded that people knew the techniques required by more intensive systems, but adopted them only when the population grew.

Factors determining human carrying capacity

• The rate or energy and material consumption.

• The level of pollution.

• The interference with environmental life-support systems.

Ecological footprint definition and how to increase/decrease them

The hypothetical area of land and water required to support a defined human population at a given standard of living. It takes into account the area required to provide all the resources needed by the population, and the assimilation of all wastes.

It is a model used to estimate the demands that human populations place on the environment.

They can be increased due to:

• greater reliance on fossil fuels.

• increased use of technology and therefore more energy.

• high levels of imported resources (transport).

• large per capita production of carbon waste.

• large per capita consumption of food.

• a meat rich diet.

They can be reduced by:

• reducing amount of resource use.

• recycling.

• reusing.

• improving efficiency of resource use.

• reducing amount of pollution produced.

• transporting waste to other countries.

• improving technology and carrying capactiy.

• importing more resources from other countries.

• reducing population to reduce resource use.

• using technology to increase carrying capacity and intensify land use.

Factors considered when calculating ecological footprints

• Bioproductive (currently used) land: land used for food and materials such as farmland, gardens, and managed forest.

• Bioproductive sea: sea used for human consumption.

• Energy land: equivalent amount of land that would be required to support renewable energy instead of non-renewable energy. The amount of energy land depends on the method of energy generation and is difficult to estimate for the whole planet.

• Built (consumed) land: land that is used for development such as roads and buildings.

• Biodiversity land: land required to support all of the non-human species.

• Non-productive land: land such as deserts is subtracted from the total land available.

The calculations ignore:

• Land or water required to provide any aquatic and atmospheric resources.

• Land or water needed to assimilate wastes other than CO2.

• Land used to produce materials imported into the country to subsidize arable land and increase yields.

• Replacement of productive land lost through urbanization.

Ecological footprints of MEDCs and LEDCs

• There are huge differences between ecological footprints for MEDCs and LEDCs due to the different standards of living, resource consumptions, energy usage, and waste production.

• Generally, LEDCs have smaller footprints than MEDCs. This is because people in MEDCs have more money and therefore use and demand more energy. Consumption is also high, leading to more waste. Eating meat and other animal products is also common in MEDCs, which increases the footprints. MEDCs eat about twice as much animal products as LEDCs.

• The United Arab Emirates has the highest ecological footprint per person (15.99) while Bangladesh has the lowest (0.89).

Case study: Ecological footprints in Peru vs Canada

• In 2001, the per capita ecological footprint in Canada was 5.4, and in Peru it was 0.9.

• Peru is an LEDC with an enery component of 16% in its ecological footprint, while Canada has 53.7%. Canada has a larger consumer-driven economy, a greater car culture, uses more energy for heating, and has a higher consumer spending per capita than Peru.

• Canada uses non-renewable energy, which increases its footprint.

• Peru's higher rates of photosynthesis and NPP due to its location near the equator contribute to its lower atmospheric CO2 levels.

Overpopulated country characteristics

• LEDCs

• Poverty

• Disease

• Food scarcity

• Famine

• High migration

Underpopulated country characteristics

• MEDCs

• High standards of living

• Unused arable land

• Producing more than what is being used, export based economy