waste management etc

waste management

• includes the activities and actions required to manage waste from its creation to its final disposal.

• includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process.

• Waste can be solid, liquid, or gas and each type has different methods of disposal and management. Waste management deals with all types of waste, including industrial, biological and household.

• In some cases, waste can pose a threat to human health. For example, in investigative journalist Roberto Saviano’s book Gomorrah: Italy’s Other Mafia (which has been made into an acclaimed movie and television series), the activities of the Camorra (an organised crime syndicate based in Napoli) are catalogued.

• These include the illegal dumping of hazardous toxic waste into the surrounding Neopolitan countryside, which has resulted in a dramatic upsurge in local cancer cases.

sustainability

• most broadly, this is to with maintaining the ability of the earth to sustain life.

• e.g. if climate change goes unchecked, in the future many animal species may become extinct and the survival of humanity itself may be severely impacted

• More specifically, it concerns preserving natural resources e.g. sufficient stocks of edible fish species that may have been reduced through over-fishing.

environment act 2021

• all developments achieve biodiversity net gain (BNG) of at least 10% to be maintained over atleast 30 years

conservation

• this is the prevention of the wasteful use of a resource, in this instance, the natural world.

• In environmental ethics, the debate about conservation tends to focus around whether the natural world has its own intrinsic value, as suggested by by supporters of Deep Ecology,

• This contrasts with the anthropocentric view of what is known as ‘shallow ecology’, according to which the environment (or elements of it) should be conserved because human beings benefit from this.

climate change

• Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.

• Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions.

• But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

emissions trading

• capitalist solution to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions and is a method through which countries that emit more than their fair share of those gases can still meet their targets 

• they do so by purchasing extra capacity from other countries that have been set limits on emissions that they fall below 

• as high emitters tend to be rich countries, and developing countries are poor ones, everyone benefits 

• however, it can be said that this stops high emitters from facing up to their responsibilities