ESS TOPIC 1.

4:
SUSTAINABILITY
21/11/22
Recap
 Laws of thermodynamics
 1st law: “Energy can be neither created nor destroyed.”
 2nd law: “Entropy of a system tends to increase over time.”
Energy can be transformed through energy transfers.

 More entropy = less order

 Energy conversions are never 100% efficient (some lost to the envir. as heat)
 Things move from order to disorder
 Efficiency = energy produced / energy consumed
 Equilibrium: the tendency of the system to return to an original state following a
disturbance
 Steady-state equilibrium: where there are continuous inputs and outputs of energy
and matter (aka open system), but the system remains in constant state
 Static equilibrium: no change over time. The system adopts a new euqilib. after a
disturbance.
Recap
 Stable and unstable equilib: a stable system tends to return to its original state,
unstable system adopts a new equilib., following a disturbance.
 Negative feedback: (stabilizing) occur when the output of a process inhibits or
reverses the operation of the same process in such a way to reduce change.
 Positive feedback: (destabilizing) tend to amplify changes toward a tipping point
where a new equilib. is adopted.
Negative and positive feedback control. Look at this example of feedback
control.
a) How is the growth of the animal population regulated in the diagram?
b) Explain why it is an example of negative feedback control.
2. Explain with a named example how positive feedback may contribute to
global warming.
3. Complete the diagram of a generalized ecosystem showing inputs, outputs
and stores. Remember to add in human activities.
Topic 1.4: Sustainability
Sustainability
 Sustainability: the use and management of resources that allows full natural
replacement of the resources exploited and full recovery of the ecosystems
affected by their extraction and use.
Living within the means of nature, on the ‘interest’ or sustainable natural income
generated by natural capital.
 Sustainable development: development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.
 Sustainability and sustainable development focuses on balancing between
competing needs - our need to move forward technologically and
economically, and the needs to protect the environments in which we and
others live.
 Sustainability is not just about the environment, it's also about our health as a
society in ensuring that no people or areas of life suffer as a result of
environmental legislation, and it's also about examining the longer term
effects of the actions humanity takes and asking questions about how it may
be improved.
Significant Ideas
 All systems can be viewed through the lens of sustainability.
 Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
 Environmental indicators and ecological footprints can be used to assess
sustainability.
 Capital: the means of production, used to create goods which provide income.
 Natural capital: term used for natural resources that can produce a sustainable
natural income of goods or services.
 Example: A forest (natural capital) provides timber (natural income).
 Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) play an important role in sustainable
development.
To think about

 Are you optimistic or

pessimistic about the
results of the impact of
humans on the Earth?
 What evidence are you
using for your decision?
 If you had the power,
what actions would you
force governments to
take now to safeguard
the environment but
also protect humans
from suffering? Give
your reasons.
 Sustainability
indicators
 How we measure sustainability is
crucial and there are many indices
we can use together, both
ecological and socio-economic.
 These could be anything:
 air quality,
 environmental vulnerability,
 Water poverty
 US$ GDP (Gross Domestic
Product) per capita,
 life expectancy,
 gender parity
 …
Why?
 You may wonder why this continues if we all
know it to be so. It is perhaps due to many factors
including:
 Inertia: when changing what we do seems too
difficult.
 The result of the ‘tragedy of the commons’ :
when many individuals act in their own self-
interest to harvest a resource but destroy the
long-term future of that resource so there is none
for anyone.
For example, hunting an endangered species may result in
its extinction but if your family are starving and it is the
only source of food, you will probably hunt it to eat it.
Why?
 Some people think that the real worth of natural capital is about the
same as the value of the gross world product (total global output)
 Yet we are only just beginning to give economic value to soil, water and
clean air and to measure the cost of loss of biodiversity.
 Capital: the means of production – factories, tools, machines – to create
goods which provide income.
 Natural capital: the goods and services that the environment provides
humans with in order to provide natural income.
 For example, a forest (natural capital) provides timber (natural income); a
shoal of fish or an agricultural crop provides food for us.
Natural capital also provides services, for example erosion control, water
management, recycling waste.
Environmental impact assessments
 An environmental impact assessment (EIA): a planning tool
that provides decision makers with an understanding of the
potential effects that human actions, especially technological
ones, may have on the environment.
EIA is a report prepared before a development project to change the use
of land, for example to plant a forest or convert fields to a golf course.

 EIAs look at what the environment is like now and forecast

what may happen if the development occurs.
 Both negative and positive impacts are considered as well as
other options to the proposed development.
Uses of EIAs
 EIAs are often, though not always, part of the planning process that
governments set out in law when large developments are considered.
 The developments that need EIAs differ from country to country.
 Certain types of developments tend to be included in the EIA process.
These include:
● major new road networks
● airport and port developments
● building power stations
● building dams and reservoirs
● quarrying
● large-scale housing projects.
Where did EIAs come from?
 In 1969, the US Government passed the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA). NEPA made it a priority for federal agencies to consider the natural
environment in any land use planning.
 This gave the natural environment the same status as economic priorities.
 Within 20 years of NEPA becoming law in the US, many other countries also included
EIAs as part of their planning policy.
 In the US, environmental assessments (EA) are carried out to determine if an EIA (called
EIS – environmental impact statement) needs to be undertaken and filed with the federal
agencies.

What does an EIA need in it?

 There is no set way of conducting an EIA, but various countries have minimum
expectations of what should be included in an EIA. It is possible to break an
assessment down into three main tasks:
● Identifying impacts (scoping).
● Predicting the scale of potential impacts.
● Limiting the effect of impacts to acceptable limits (mitigation).
Weaknesses of EIAs
 Different countries have different standards for EIAs which makes it hard to
compare them.
 Also, it is hard to determine where the boundary of the investigation should
be.
How large an area, how many variables, how much does the EIA cost?
 It is also very difficult to consider all indirect impacts of a development so
some may be missed.
Ecological footprints
 An ecological footprint (EF) is the area of land and water required to
sustainably provide all resources at the rate at which they are being
consumed by a given population.
 EF is a model used to estimate the demands that human populations place on
the environment.
The measure takes into account the area required to provide all the resources needed
by the population, and the assimilation of all wastes.
 Where the EF is greater than the area available to the population, this is an
indication of unsustainability as the population exceeds the carrying capacity
of the area.
 EFs may vary significantly from country to country and person to person and
include aspects such as;
 lifestyle choices (EVS),
 productivity of food production systems,
 land use,
 industry.
1.4.U1 Sustainability is the use and management of resources that allows
full natural replacement of the resources exploited and full recovery of
the ecosystems affected by their extraction and use
​
 Define sustainability
Environmental sustainability involves making
decisions and taking action that are in the
interests of protecting the natural world,
preserving the capability of the environment to
support human life.
Environmental sustainability is about making
responsible decisions that will reduce the
negative impact on the environment.
It is not simply about reducing the amount of
waste you produce or using less energy, but is
concerned with developing processes that will
lead to becoming completely sustainable in the
future.
Sustainability can be encouraged by:
 ecological land-use to maintain habitat
quality and connectivity for all species.
 sustainable material cycles, (ex carbon,
nitrogen, and water cycles).
 social systems that contribute to a culture of
sufficiency that eases the consumption
pressures on natural capital.