Sustainability

Posted on Jun 20, 2019 in Other subjects

Week 1: What is Sustainability?

EPA definition
- Sustainability – ideas, aspirations and values that inspire public and private organizations to become better stewards of the environment and that promote positive economic growth and social objectives
- Sustainable Development – implies that environmental protection does not preclude economic development and that economic development must be ecologically viable now and in the long run
Three periods of Environmental Policy
- American Conservation Movement (1850s to 1930s)
  - Resource efficiency group
    - Issue was poor agricultural practice, solution was scientific method
  - Transcendental movement
    - Response to urbanism, valued individualism
  - Organized industrial interests
    - Railroad and steamboat transportation, commons viewed as infinite, political will to preserve areas for public use

- Environmental Risk Management (1960 to 2000)
- Sustainability and Public Policy

Week 2: What is Sustainable Development?

Environmental Contamination & Risk
- 1920-1950: global conflicts and economic uncertainty took precedence
- Wide scale mismanagement of natural resources
Sanitation Risk
- Cholera in the 1850s
- Chlorination of drinking water in 1908
Worker Risk
- Tax on phosphorus
- Overall industrial hygiene standard
- Toxicological research on solvents, vapors etc.
Dust Bowl, Clear Cutting, & poor water quality byproducts of mismanagement
Environmental Risk Management ( 1960-2000)
- NEPA – national goal to create and maintain conditions where humans and nature can exist to fulfill social, economic, and requirements for future generations
New Complex Issues Arose
- Urbanization/sprawl
- Infrastructure renewal
- Stromwater management
- Malaria, Acid rain, and ozone depletion were unintended consequences
Malaria
- Half a million deaths
- Affected 91% of Africa
- Technology solution: bed nets
- Malaria is third biggest killer of children globally
- Nets used for fishing and found to be uncomfortable
Command & Control
- Permit based emissions
Market Driven
- Marginal costs to equal benefits
- Allocate costs to equal marginal benefits
- Incentive to innovate
Societal needs were met with a technological fix and lead to unintended consequences
- Cleaner air > taller stacks> acidification
Ozone depletion was caused by CFCs
- Montreal Protocol was successful
- Ozone hole now shrinking

Week 3: Climate Change & Sustainable Energy

Sustainability Challenges
- Env pollution
- Limited energy resources
- Uneven geographical distribution of energy
Env. Impacts of Coal
- Air emissions
- Water resource use
- Water discharge
- Solid waste
Fracking
- Groundwater contamination
- Air quality degradation
- Can trigger small earthquakes

Week 5: Hunger and Sustainable Agriculture

Over 1/3 of all food produced worldwide is lost or wasted
800 million people today remain food insecure
- Periodically hungry
Group 1: Poverty challenge
- 2 billion people are employed in agriculture
  - Women make up the majority of agricultural workers in many developing countries
Group 2: Deforestation and drought
- Trees take up moisture from the soil and transpire it – 1 tree releases 1000 liters of water vapor/day
  - Skyborne river carries more water than the Amazon river
Group 3: Climate change challenge
- The production of crops and animal products today releases roughly 13% of global greenhouse gas emissions
  - We must boost production of agriculture while cutting current levels of emissions
Group 4: Biodiversity challenge
- Croplands and pasture occupy roughly half the global land that is not covered by ice, water, or desert.
  - expansion of cropland and pastures is the primary source of ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss.
Group 5: Pasture challenge
- To meet projected crop needs just by increasing production and without expanding the annual area harvested, crop yields on average would need to:
  - grow by 32 percent more from 2006 to 2050 than they did from 1962 to 2006

Concentrated ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATIONS (CAFO)
- Plants do not exist for animal waste
- Spraying of manure
  - Nutrients, pathogens, heavy metals, and other potentially toxic agents in the waste can make their way into local watersheds, with implications for drinking water and aquatic ecosystems.
  - Watersheds don’t matter.

Week 6: Fucking shit load of trash (solid waste management)

Single use
- The transition to throwaway containers started before WWII and was completed in the 1980s
Solid waste
- Garbage or refuse
- •Sludge from water or wastewater treatment
- plants, or air pollution control facilities
- Other discarded material including solid, liquid, semi-solid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations and from community activities
- • Surplus to the economy
- • Can be hazardous or non-hazardous
Recycling
- New Jersey
- • NJ Statewide Mandatory Source Separation and Recycling Act (1987)
- Plastic market – resin is cheaper than recycled material

Sustainable materials management
- Start with extraction of natural resources and material processing through product design and manufacturing then the product use stage followed by collection/processing and final end of life (disposal).
- By examining how materials are used throughout their life cycle, an SMM approach seeks to use materials in the most productive way with an emphasis on using less; reducing toxic chemicals and environmental impacts throughout the material’s life cycle; and assuring we have sufficient resources to meet today’s needs and those of the future.