Unit 3 concepts

poverty reduction

efforts to reduce or eradicate poverty

Approaches to poverty reduction

• direct assistance (cash, food)

• creating job opportunities

• improving access to education and healthacre

• promoting economic growth and development

MDG’s

• reduced extreme poverty → In 1990 50% lived on less than $1.25, in 2015 14%

• “New global middle class” - incraesed average income thus reduced extreme poverty

Rising middle class

• at least $4 a day - tripled from 1990 to 2015

• increased consumption of high end goods - phones, electrical, cars

• people still vulnerable to unemployment

• wokring in informal sectors - no economic or social security

• 300 million still extreme poverty

• 50% of workers work in unsafe conditions

Reasons for reduced poverty

• rapid developemnt of countries in Asia

• globalization and trade

• increased participation of India and China in global economy

• reduced colonial and neocolonial influences in some coutnries

• greatest reduction seen in China and India

Reasons for rising middle class

• economic growth

• urbanisation

• technological advances

Earth Overshoot Day

date when humanity’s demand exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenarate in a year

Impact of rising middle class

• increased consumption

• increased waste

• rising inequality

• resource depletion

• growing demand for high end goods

• global trade

Ecological footprint

measure of the land and water area a population requires to produce the resources it consumes and absorb its waste

→ measured in global hectares (gha)

UN predcited by 2030 we will need the equivalent of two earths to suppply the worlds population

Individual footprint

• food

• water

• energy

• materials

Calculating ecological footprint

• Bioproductive lqnd → grazing land, gardens, forests and farmlands

• Bioproductive sea → mostly fishing grounds

• Buikt environment → needed for road and settlement construction

• Biodiverse land → for non human species

• Non-productive land → eg deserts

Limitation: species extinction, toxip pollution of air water and other non renewable resources not taken into account

Reducing ecological footprint

• reducing resourced used

• renwable fuels

• recycling

• reusing

• reducing pollution

• improving technology

• not meat-rich diets

Challanges associated with calculating the ecological footprint

• Involved snalysis of various interconnected systems and processes → challange to accurately measure those

• Environmentak footprints dont give full environemntal imoacts → dont account for switching to more environmently friendly options

• Ecoloficsl footprint calculation based on simpke principiles hard to used in complex situations

• Diffrent methods of calculating give diffrent results → as they are based on assumptions of the data used

• Precicting future consumption patterns, technological advancemnts and impacts can be chalkanging making long term footprint calculations less reliable

Comparison of ecological footprint in HIC’s and LIC’s

HIC’s:

• higher consumption and demand

• more waste and pollution

• meat rich diet - 30% based on animals

• more agriculture - more emmisions - 6.2 billion tonnes of ghg emmisions yearly - 12%

LIC’s

• smaller rate of resource consumtpion - less money

• informal economy - recycles waste

• more plant base diet

• lower use of fossil fuels

• less land for agriculture as not enough money

Water availability facts

• 780 million people dont have access to clean water

→ 70% agricluture

→ 17% industry

→ 11% domestic

Physical factors affecting water distribution

• uneven spread of land ans sea

• climatic diffrences: temp and precipitation

• altitude and latitude

• wetland lakes and rivers

• soil type and groundwater stores

Human factors affecting global water distribution

• level of economic development

• use of water

• embedded water

• population numbers

• affordability

• contaminated water

Causes of water shortages

• population growth

• growing middle class - showers, baths, gardens

• growth of tourism and recreation - pools and water parks

• urbanization

• cliamte change

• hydorelectric power

• virtual water present in food, drinks, textiles, drugs

Water in diffrent sectors

• Agriculture: 70% of groundwater withdrawals → production of food, livestock and industrial crops

• Industry: 17% → stema generation, washing and cooling of manufacturing equipment and goods, cooling agent for energy generation in fossil fuels and nuclear power plants

• Domestic: 13% → cooking clening washing drinking

Food comsuption trends

• incresed calorie intake in East Asia, North America, Middle East - due to rising middle class

• meat consumption per capita inceased by 150%

• increasing fast food due to urbanisation and globalisation

• more meet rich diet

• number of people that can be supported - 20 from potatoes, 19 rice, 2 lamb and 1 beef

Increasing food production

• more farmland

• multicropping, often using irrigation

• GMO’s

• machinery

• pesticides and chemical fertilizers

• growing farm sizes

Challanges of the nutrition transition

• incraesed demand for animal feed

• incraesed pressure on water supplies

• leading to increasing methane and hence climate change

• clerance of land for grazing and crop production incraeses defirestation

Why consumption of energy is increasing

since 2004 energy insecurity

• incraesing global population

• incraesed demand - rising middle class - devices and vehicles

• development

• decreased reserves

• global warming and natural disasters

• terrorist activity

• conflict

Middle East energy

• controls 50% of world’s oil reserves → 20% Saudi Arabia

• countries have to be friendly and good political links with the Midlle East to receive the oil

Non renewables

• fossil fuels - gas, oil and coal

• nuclear energy

• majoritty of energy supply - 80%

Advantages of fossil fuels (6)

• cheap

• plentiful

• allows safe extraction

• generate 80% of energy

• can be delivered over long distances

• available equipment

Disadvantages of fossil fuels

• unsustainable

• greenhouse gases

• contribute to climate change

• extraction is becoming danagerous and hard

• oil spoilages - damage to ecosystems and expensive to clean

Renewables types

• solar

• tidal

• wind

• biofuel

• hydroelectric

Renewables characteristics

• dont release pollutants

• won’t run out

• more expensive

• technologies not available large scale

• eg USA’s car culture favors non renewables

Tidal Power

• good tidal range required

• expensive

• impacts wildliffe

• instalations can impact migration

Hydroelectric power (6)

• dams can be used for leisure, food source and irrigation

• once set - cheap

• may cause floods → loss of habitat, farmland and displacement of people

• restricts flow of sediment

• increased erosion

• cost is high

wind power (3)

• relies on weather

• needs to be in areas of consistent wind

• can be negatively seen by the community

Advanatges of nuclear power (4)

• dont emit CO2

• technology is available

• can generate large amount of energy

• efficient - 1 kg of uranium 20 000 times more than 1 kg of coal

Disadvanatges of nuclear power (6)

• waste is dangerous - remain radioactive for thousands of years

• previous distasters - Chernobyl and Fukishima

• radiation can cause serious diseases

• nuclear plants can become targets for terrorist attacks

• uranium is scarce and non renewable

• building and planning - 30 years

Solar power (3)

• passive solar energy is cheaper for heating homes than fossils

• expensive to turn into high quality energy needed for manufacturing

• dependent on weather

Biofuel energy (4)

• great potential for circular economy

• produce emmisions

• use large amount of land

• take land used for crops - pushing price of food

HIC’s and LIC’s consumption of energy (5)

HIC’s

• based of fossills

LIC’s

• dont have enough technology for high consumption

• use will increase with increasing population and technological developments

• rising middle class - increasing consumption with imports of goods and services

• Venezuela- already recahed its peak and now is expirincing a decline - no oil left

Energy mix

percentage contribution of esch energy sources to the total energy consumption

Factors affecting energy mix

• Level of development → developin countries use natural resources such as firewood for cooking, emerging countries will rise in oil as tranport and car ownership increases, developed countries use gas and nuclear as technology advances

• Environment → concers about climate change lead to decraese in fossil fuels

• Safety → Chernobyl and Fukishima make people have concers about nuclear energy

• Technology→ improvements in tech decraese cists of renewable energy production

• Politcial → Conflict Russia Ukraine decraesed Europes reliance on russian gas

• Physical: affects wind speed, sunlight availability, water access for tidal and wave power

Water food energy nexus definiton

very close links between those 3 sectors and how changes in one sector have an impact on one or both of the other sectors

Examples of water food energy nexus (6)

water → food : africulture depends on irrigation

water → energy : water needed for mining, transport and extraction of energy, also hydropower

food → water: food prodcution can pollute waters

energy → water : energy needed for transport and distribution of water

energy → food: energy is needed for machinery and tranport of food

food → energy : needed for biofuel

Energy security

having access to clean reliable and affordable energy sources

water security

access to safe drinking water and sanitation

food security

availability and access to sufficient safe and nutricuous food to meet dietary needs

Climate change and the nexus (6)

• wil incraesed climate related disatsters

Examples

• drought, floods, salination→ water insecurity

• with rising hydroelectric power nad biofuel → more water demand

• reduced precipitaiom → less crops and chalkange in growing biofuel

• flods → destruction of crops

• incraesed temp → fiddrent fish breeding patterns and populations

• need for purification of water → more energy needed

• increased competition for water between energy and food sector

• desalinasition - energy intensive

• changes in weather will impact renewables

Waste trends and patterns (4)

• developing countries produce more waste due to higher consumption

• cities generate 1.3 billion tonnes of waste annually - half comes from HIC’s

• 50% of world lacks safe disposal

• 40 disposed unsafely

Unsafe waste

• pollutes waters, air,s oil

• disease for people who livenear

• no protection from waste - clothing or masks

Waste managemnt strategies (4)

• landfills

• reusing

• incineration

• composting

Landfills pros and cons (6)

→ burrying waste

+cheap

-generates metahne → health probelms

-conamination of water, supplies and soil

-a lot of land required

-people dont want it close by

-has to be located near the pollution

Reusing (4)

+saves energy

+cheap

+circular economy

-not suitable for every product

Incineration (7)

→ burning

+reduces volume of waste by 80-90%

+safe disposal of hazardous and chemical waste

+heat can be used to generate electricity

-air polution

-toxis ash

-transport → pollution

-expensive

Composting (4)

+good for soil and plants

-managemnt

-odour

-not always suitable

E waste (5)

• increases as technical innovation incrases

• technolgy has a shorter lifetime

• illegaly dumped in developing countries

• 50 million tonnes generated annually

• life of mobie phone - less than 2 years

Malthuse’s theory (5)

• pessimistic view on the relationship between population and food

• population growth is increasing at a faster rate than food supply - pop grows at geometric rate and food at arithmetic

• crush - not enough food to sustain population which is a positive check → disease, famine or war

• population grows at a geomteric rate while food at an arithmetic

• Negative checks (preventative) - to lower birth rate before crisis reached

• predictions were incorrect ue to technological developemnt which increased food supply

Neo Malthusian theory

→ Based on Malthuse’s theory - more balanced

• Humans used most of agricultural land

• Fertile land is declining

• food prices are increasing

• population is increasing

→ they believe famine shows how malthus was right and pop control is essential im avoiding a malthusian catastrophe

Club of Rome

“Limits to growth”

• positive checks will occur in the future

• soon humans will exceed the carrying capacity of the Earth

Ester Boserup (3)

• population growth will stimulate developments in technology to increase food production

→ more efficient resources will be discrated

→ renewable resources will replace non renewable

→ population growth enables agricultural development to occur

Actual trend of population growth and food consumption

• Between 1800-1900s food production increased faster than population growth

As a result of:

• Intenisve farming - irrigation, crop rotation, fertilisers and selective breeding

• Incaresed araea for crop production

• Technological improvements- greater use of machines -

• For developing countries imported foods increased

Carrying capacity

maximum population size that can be sustained by the resources available

Earths capacity is determined by:

• size of population

• level of resource consumption

• technological innovation

• level of wealth

Tragedy of the commons

• global commons: parts of earth that are not owned or managed cooperatively

• lack of control over the way common resources are used and how selfish acts of a few individuals can destroy resources for others

• managed cooperatively to stop the tragedy

• people act for their self intrest not considering the effect on others, environment or resources

Circular economy

• recycling, reusing and reducing

• minimizing waste

• regeneration of nature

Population theory in reality

• In 1800’s and 1900’s food production increased due to:

→ increased farming

→ increasing land

→ technological improvements

Optimum population

number of people who when working with all the available resources, will produce the highest per capita economic return

Resource stewardship

concept that suggests that humans can use resources in such a way that they will be available for future generations