Sustainability and Sustainable Development
Sustainability
The industrial revolution began a process of strong economic growth in developed countries and population growth worldwide. This led to dramatic environmental changes, resulting in a major environmental crisis. The economic system has grown and continues to grow, regardless of the global ecosystem and the risks this growth generates.
Concept 1: Carrying Capacity of Ecosystems
The carrying capacity of an ecosystem refers to its ability to sustain a population of a species. It is measured by the maximum number of individuals (K) that an ecosystem or region can support. As a population grows, resistance factors limit this growth. (Maximum number of individuals of any kind that can live forever). After strong growth, the population decreases to a point where it stabilizes at (K), the carrying capacity of the ecosystem.
Environmental resistance is due to many factors, including mineral matter, competitors, and diseases. The most important factor that enables and limits growth is the Gross Primary Production (GPP) in an ecosystem. Organic material is synthesized by producers (plants) through photosynthesis.
Net Primary Production (NPP) is the organic matter available to heterotrophs and is the most important limiting factor for controlling the growth of animal populations. Overall loading capacity is defined as the ability of an ecosystem to sustain life, not just for one species but for all.
One key feature of the human species is the ability to avoid and minimize environmental resistance, controlling its population through agriculture, livestock, and health improvements. Another feature is the use of endosomatic energy. Therefore, the capacity of a region to sustain human settlements and activities depends not only on crop production (SSP) and available water but also on other resources like energy, minerals, and the land’s fragility to absorb shock. This is called human carrying capacity.
The impact of an animal population on a territory depends on its population density. In the case of humans, the impact also depends on individual behavior.
Per capita environmental impact = NUMBER OF RESOURCES / PERSON X AMOUNT OF DEGRADATION / PERSON
The ecological footprint is the area of productive land or sea (ha) needed to produce resources and assimilate all wastes, including the vegetation needed to absorb the produced CO2. This footprint has a global average of 2.3 hectares/capita, while the planet’s carrying capacity is 2.1 ha/inhabitant.
ECOLOGICALLY ECONOMIC BALANCE = PRODUCTION-AREA LAND POPULATION X ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
If the balance is positive, there is an ecological deficit (the country exceeds its carrying capacity and compensates by obtaining resources from others).
Concept of Sustainability
Sustainability is the viability of the interaction between a socio-economic system and an ecosystem (natural environment). This interaction produces an evolution of the socio-economic system that preserves the carrying capacity of the ecosystem and the overall carrying capacity for resources and waste assimilation.
As the socio-economic system extracts resources from and expels waste into the ecosystem, it undergoes changes that affect both the socio-economic system and the natural processes, requiring changes in its organization.
Both the socio-economic system and the ecosystem evolve over time through the following phases:
Evolution of the Socio-economic System:
- Quantitative growth (population, infrastructure, services)
- Qualitative growth (improving quality of life but not population growth)
- Regression phase (if the relationship with the environment becomes untenable)
Evolution of the Ecosystem:
- Succession: the ecosystem is growing (increasing the number of species and interactions between them)
- Climax: maximum system complexity
- Regression: occurs whenever there is an impact or disturbance (low load capacity)
Operational Principles of Sustainability
- Principle of Sustainable Harvesting (Renewable Resources): The rate of collection (harvesting) should be equal to or less than the rate of renewal (regeneration) of these resources. This applies to resources such as water, soil, wild and domesticated species, forests, grasslands, cultivated land, and marine and freshwater ecosystems that are sources for fishing.
- Principle of Sustainable Use (Non-Renewable Resources): Non-renewable resources can be depleted. This principle applies to resources that are renewable but not recyclable or reusable. Their use is almost quasi-sustainable when the depletion rate equals the creation rate of renewable substitutes. For non-renewable but reusable resources (minerals, paper), use is quasi-sustainable if the discharge rate is compensated by recycling or reuse (never 100%).
- Principle of Sustainable Issue (Biodegradable Waste): The emission rate of biodegradable waste must be equal to or less than the natural assimilation capacity of ecosystems. Action can be taken to reduce emission rates and pollutant concentrations through purification.
- Principle of Zero Emissions (Non-Biodegradable and Toxic Waste): This principle aims to avoid pollution from non-biodegradable and toxic waste, which accumulate in food chains (unsustainable).
- Principle of Sustainable Integration: Human settlements and activities should be integrated into the natural environment without exceeding the integration and carrying capacity of an ecosystem.
- Principle of Sustainable Technology Selection: This principle favors more efficient technologies, such as transport efficiency, energy efficiency, and waste treatment efficiency.
- Precautionary Principle: Due to the complexity of interactions and natural processes, a degree of uncertainty remains. This principle advocates for consuming less than the limits set by the biosphere and ecosystems to avoid stressing them and to anticipate potential negative effects.
Environment and Sustainable Development
Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Mechanistic Environmental Vision
Most orthodox systems have viewed the economic system as isolated from its surroundings. This idea persisted until awareness of environmental issues and their consequences grew. Some argue that environmental quality deteriorates with the economic and population growth of a society, making the environment an asset that must be protected. They believe that environmental quality improves with increasing living standards.
This idea is illustrated by the which is a global rather than a local concept. Following this”U-curv” conception comes the idea that money, science, and technology can solve environmental problems and allow for continued growth. However, before recognizing these limits, proponents believe that science and technology can solve environmental problems and maintain that natural functions are replaceable and repairable (if a resource is depleted, a replacement will be found).
This principle of substitution is related to the mechanistic philosophy, which views the environment as a machine that can be dismantled and repaired. If one part breaks down, it can be exchanged for another. This philosophy allows for the monetary valuation of the environment.
In short, the design of today’s economy and most of the political environment is mechanistic, parochial, and monetarist.
Concept of Environmental Systems
According to UNESCO, an environmental system comprises physical, chemical, biological, and social components and their interactions. These interactions can cause direct and indirect effects, both short-term and long-term. This concept is systemic and relative: systemic because it is composed of several interacting components, and relative because it must refer to a subject. When the subject of reference is the socio-economic system, the environment is the surrounding environment.
The systematic approach posits that human societies are systems within and dependent on ecosystems (the natural environment). There is constant interaction between them: socio-economic systems obtain resources from and expel waste into ecosystems. This causes resource depletion and environmental impacts that can, in turn, negatively affect societies (induced risks). Human and economic assets are subject to natural hazards resulting from natural processes.
Science and technology cannot replace the functions of the natural environment; they are complementary. Both, along with the capabilities of the natural environment, are necessary for human societies to develop. Human science and technology cannot replace the natural environment because they are dependent on it. Human societies depend on the maintenance of ecosystem functions.
The solution is to curb growth and reduce and stabilize production and consumption to preserve natural capital and generate fewer environmental problems. From a systemic perspective, the environment should not be valued monetarily (except for very specific resources).
Ecological, Economic, and Social Sustainability
The contemplation of ecological, economic, and social policies has led to discussions of three types of sustainability: ecological, economic, and social. Ecological sustainability focuses on conserving natural capital, while economic and social sustainability aims to preserve productive capital, including human capital, and promote a more equitable distribution of resources.
Although contradictions exist and achieving complete sustainability in the present is impossible, practical action should be directed towards sustainability. Projects can be considered sustainable when they approach these three types of sustainability, following the operating principles of ecological sustainability, cost-effectiveness, human well-being enhancement, and wealth redistribution.
Environmental Management from the Perspective of Environmental Sustainability
To achieve true sustainability, growth (population or economic) will have to stop and reduce but not possible in today’s economy.Although follows the criteria of economic growth, states are also fighting the consequences of measures regulating it through settlements and productive activities. They are developing a series of environmental management measures to regulate human activities in ways that natural systems can continue to fulfill its functions of being a support of activities, resource and waste sink and risk planning.