Governing sustainability - Appunti

Governing sustainability

Exam: Clearness, synthesis, consistency and critical judgment will be given particular merit.

Lez. 1-2 aims: To introduce the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development and their evolution overtime. To assess the role of governance for sustainability.

22/02 lez 1

There is an urgent call for change about sustainability matters (climate change, ecological matters, human call, unfair working conditions, economic justice). It is necessary a new way to govern these matters.

“These crises of human development are very much in our own making. It is the relationship between humans and their environment and, ultimately, the relationship between us all that is at the root of the sustainability problematique […]. Consequently, it is this relationship that has to be a full part of any solutions to the almighty mess that we as human race now face” Adger and Jordan (2009) Preface of Governing Sustainability.

A possible change in this situation is based on a new role in the economic system: change new relationships through people, systems, actors.

Holistic approach interconnected process.

In this course it will be proposed an holistic approach to sustainable development, which encompasses three overarching concerns:

• Maintaining ecological and environmental health;
• Creating economic welfare;
• Ensuring social justice;
• And three different levels societal (macro-level), organisational (meso), and individual (micro) levels.

The human being is the start in and the ending point.

People are part of the organization and are part of the business transition.

Governance and sustainability

A polycentric way to look at governance sustainable related:

Sustainability as a crisis of governance.

• We need a system of governance that is capable of putting society on a more sustainable track.
• The real innovation and dynamism in governance systems for a sustainable world lies anywhere other than in conventional sites (like governments).
• Central role of relationship � New modes of governance where different actors at different levels are involved.
• Polycentric governance.

We need to rethink to a new system of governance with a more sustainable truck.

Different ways outside of the conventional studies:

Evolution of goals through UN policy.

Emergence and evolution of the concept of sustainability

Emergence and evolution of the concept of sustainability The demand for raw materials and its impact on the environment have been a constant issue throughout human history. As early as the ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek and Roman civilizations environmental problems such as deforestation and the salinization and loss of fertility of soil occurred, which we would today refer to as sustainability problems. Different classical authors discussed different types of environmental degradation resulting from human activities such as farming, logging and mining (see Plato, Strabo and Columella, Pliny the Elder, etc.).

We can, by care … ‘we can, by care, lessen the evil effects’ Varro (1st century AD) These authors were not only aware of environmental degradation, but also recommended what we would call sustainable practices to maintain the ‘everlasting youth’ of the earth.

- wood intense usage.

18th century

Wood was both as fuel and construction material an indispensable raw material up to at least the 18th century and it was used in almost all production processes:

• Massive consumption of wood (for ship-building, mining and many other purposes).
• A shortage of wood became a very real danger in Europe.
• Fears that such a shortage would threaten the basis of people’s existence.
• Stimulated a new way of thinking in favour of the responsible use of natural resources.

From the 1950s

From the 1950s…

Industrial revolution: a drastic growth in production, consumption and wealth.

Between 1800 and 1970: World population: about +3 times (from around 978 to 3,632 million).

Quantity of manufacturing production: + 1730 times Expectations of unlimited economic growth and ever-increasing affluence Power of technology.

The limits to growth 1970

First Earth Day held as a national teach-in on the environment. An estimated 20 million people participate in peaceful demonstrations across the United States. 1972 Club of Rome publishes the controversial Limits to Growth, which predicts dire consequences if growth is not slowed 1973 – First oil crisis Reflection upon the causes of the recession led to an awareness of the limits to economic growth.

Begin some environmental movements bringing Limits to growth.

‘‘If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity’’. Meadows et al. 1972: 23.

What are the ”Limits to growth”?

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=limits+to+growth&&view=detail&mid=74D15123E919ED935E1474D15123E919ED935E14&FORM=VRDGAR � since the 1900 the natural resources was use intensively, due to the expansion of populations. The limits to growth suggest the world faced a stark choice: cut down its waist or face imminent global collapse. Mathematical way to measure data. The trend predicted by studies was the purple point in the graph. We are very close to the prediction, but in a worse position than predicted years ago. This study predicted a collapse in 2030, for this reason UN wants to achieve several goal by 2030 to avoid this collapse predicted.

There is a general thinking about growth.

Technology is not able to solve all types of problems. It is not an unlimited power.

25/02 lez. 2

What has happened in the last few decades? Why now the call is urgent?

Population growth, urbanization and ecological footprint.

Now the recall for a change is urgent because there are a lot of signals.

There are some good points on the graph but they are not enough.

We were less than one billion people, so the situation was variable with different resources available. The real shift/change was in 1950 and started really in 1970. At the beginning of ’70 we realized that we were on an unsustainable track.

There is warring data because there are a lot of people on the planet and we will reach 10 billion people in 30-40 years. (population growth fast).

In Asia and Africa there are the most populated countries of the world and they are affected by the problem of poverty, migrations. It is a vicious circle.

Until 2010.

The ecological footprint

• Ecological Footprint accounting measures the demand on and supply of nature.
• On the demand side, the Ecological Footprint measures the ecological assets that a given population requires to produce the natural resources it consumes (including plant-based food and fiber products, livestock and fish products, timber and other forest products, space for urban infrastructure) and to absorb its waste, especially carbon emissions. https://youtu.be/EjyrAHzthTo we can calculate our personal ecological footprint of one entire city.
• The Ecological Footprint tracks the use of six categories of productive surface areas: cropland, grazing land, fishing grounds, built-up land, forest area, and carbon demand on land.
• On the supply side, a city, state or nation’s biocapacity represents the productivity of its ecological assets (including cropland, grazing land, forest land, fishing grounds, and built-up land). These areas, especially if left unharvested, can also absorb much of the waste we generate, especially our carbon emissions.
• The Ecological Footprint can be calculated for a single individual, city, region, country and the entire planet.

There are a lot of indicators in how the natural resources are consumed. How much did we create an impact on the environmental system?

Mexico absorbs the same quantity of waste produced. Qatar consumed much more resources it is able to produce it is wrong.

In red there is the ecological deficit the biocapacity is imported, because it is consumed much more resources than produced. All the developed countries are red, because they used much more resources.

The green area has a very strong capacity to produce resources. Brazil is light green because there was a worst situation in the last years.

Actually the world has an average of red situation regarding the human’s ecological footprint. (from 1970! Before there was a perfect equilibrium).

Earth overshoot day

Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources (fish and forests, for instance) and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. We keep growing this deficit by liquidating the Earth’s natural capital and accumulating waste, primary.

“Our data show that we use as much from nature as if we lived on 1.75* Earths, yet we only have one. This is not a judgement, just a measurement. In this context, bringing human activity back within the ecological budget of our one planet is not about doing the noble thing or easing our guilty conscience. It is about choosing self-interest and what works. We will move out of ecological overshoot. Why choose to get there by disaster rather than by design?” MATHIS WACKERNAGEL, Founder and President of Global Footprint Network.

Try to find/design new solutions, to face these new challenges the new situation has presented.

Urban population

• Humanity is turning from rural to an urban species.
• Global urbanization is seemingly unstoppable worldwide.
• In developed and developing countries cities offer more opportunities.
• Today, there are more than 300 cities of 1 mil. people and 22 megacities of over 100 mil. people (16 in developing countries).

Why is it a problem?

We have a strong movement in the city to try to catch new opportunities. The carbon footprint of cities is the problem. The impact of big cities is really huge.

Cities’ ecological footprint

• London ecological footprint = 125 times the surface area of the city itself (= England’s entire productive land).
• A typical North American city with a population of 650,000 would require 30,000 square km of land to meet its domestic needs.
• A similar size city in India (with significantly lower living standards and a predominantly vegetarian diet) would require just 2,800 square km.

A possible trend ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDS_BqDeZ4k&list=PLbkp8T4KsMtrdNSzt3XOXvHHo6Z4itF1j&index=92

The rise of megacity increases year by year: in Africa there will be a fast urbanization, in India too.

Planetary boundaries and climate change

Planetary boundaries is an index/calculation in different areas, regarding the biodiversity problem, climate change, desertification, fresh water, acidification of ocean… each area has a color between green, yellow and red, in accordance with the risk.

The global average temperature anomaly is increased and is increasing: from 1950 to 2018 from -0.8 to 1 grade.

--> -lose of species, extreme weather, sea-level rise, arctic sea ice and people.

A tale of humanity and habitability

A Tale of Humanity and Habitability.

By 2070 one third of the global population is projected to experience an average annual temperature greater than a scorching 29 °C. For 3.5 billion of us, the very places where our hearts and identities lie may become parched and unforgiving deserts, or hot and humid open-air saunas. Our house is on fire. By rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we can halve the number of people exposed to such hot conditions. For every degree of warming we prevent, we can relieve one billion people.

Climate change

Climate Change.

Scientists attribute the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century to the human expansion of the "greenhouse effect» — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space. Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-permanently in the atmosphere and do not respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature are described as "forcing" climate change. Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include carbon dioxine.

Melting glaciers

Melting glaciers.

The glacial melt we are witnessing today in Antarctica and Greenland is changing the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean and has been linked to collapse of fisheries in the Gulf of Maine and more destructive storms and hurricanes around the planet.

The strong extreme weather changes a lot the melting of glaciers.

Climate change is making extreme weather stronger

Climate change is making extreme weather stronger.

Research shows the polar vortex is appearing outside of the Arctic more frequently because of changes to the jet stream, caused by a combination of warming air and ocean temperatures in the Arctic and the tropics.

Attributing extreme weather to climate change

Attributing extreme weather to climate change.

Carbon Brief’s analysis reveals:

• 69% of the 355 extreme weather events and trends included in the map were found to be made more likely or more severe by human-caused climate change.
• 9% of events or trends were made less likely or less severe by climate change, meaning 78% of all events experienced some human impact (were affected by human actions). The remaining 22% of events and trends showed no discernible human influence or were inconclusive.
• Heatwaves account for 47% of such events, while droughts and heavy rainfall or floods each make up 15%.
• Of the 125 attribution studies that have looked at extreme heat around the world, 93% found that climate change made the event or trend more likely or more severe.
• For the 68 studies looking at rainfall or flooding, 54% found human activity had made the event more likely or more severe. For the 61 drought events studied, it’s 61%.

The effects of extreme weather � are much more higher and stronger: social, economical and natural impact.

Extreme can cause not only environmental and economic, but also social problems like migration, inequality, clean water not available.

A question of justice: climate change, conflicts and poverty

A question of justice: climate change, conflicts and poverty.

Ecological justice is a problem: Access to live, access to clean water are problems of countries that contribute less to climate change (less footprint).

The recent stream of resources and environmental events are linked to the conflicts present in our planet. Ex access to fresh water can create conflict.

It is a problem of justice, human being social conflict.

60% of the gdp is vulnerable to climate change!

All these data show us the interconnection between the social, economical and environmental dimensions.

1/3 of world top land has been abandoned in the last years.

Nobel peace price in 2020 was for the world food programme WFP: it is a program that contributes to help to create peace in terms of reaching food in conflict-affected areas.

01/03 lez. 3

10% of people around the world live in poverty conditions. It is unsustainable from the point of view of UN.

Friedman put a strong ethical field on the stakeholder theory. This association tries to put the attention on the environmental clock, poverty is rising and we are out of track. We have some countries like New Zeland that are on track. A little number of population use a large amount of natural resources available inequality.

Covid has raised the inequality.

Unequal distribution of resources

Unequal distribution of resources.

Inequality has increased anywhere in the world despite substantial geographical differences, with the richest 1% twice as wealthy as the poorest 50%.

World Inequality Report 2018.

The increasing the level of the seas, rivers, increasing the storms but it is also increasing the human movement to fight against all these problems.

Link/interconnections between refugees and sustainable development: poor people become vulnerable because they are impacted by unsustainable problems that make poor people migrants. the sust. problem could be a problem caused to the migration economic consequences, because it is not only a social problem but also an economic problem.

We also have a huge economic impact.

There is a strong interconnection on every part of sustainability problems. The countries where these people move are not very well developed/rich countries. These movements of people increased the instability of a country (like from Afghanistan to Pakistan, from Bolivia to Venezuela..) they are hosting in developing countries, not in developed countries. It is a much more problem of the developing countries were economic and social situation is really fragile.

Human development index: expectation of life, human development in social dimension, born expectation…

In the rectangular, the countries on the borders are empty.

Survival of the human race. We should think in our way of thinking, how to set our community, how to produce goods, how to keep and maintain our community, how to create an equilibrium…

Sustainability as a complex and multidimensional concept � social environment economic where Economic is inside the social and social is included in environment.

Video from LASTCALL � a man that invented chess. More is not necessary because there are limits. There are limits on human growth and it was written in a book. But not all people agreed. The need is for the present/early to avoid the problem in the future. Capitalism will not solve this problem. Sustainable world no poverty, no hungry. SENTENCES IN THE VIDEO: importance in look in the long-termterm on the future generation not only in the presence. We need to think about the future of our children. It is not a question of conveniconvenience,ence, but is a problem of survival in the future ethics of care. We need to change some habits and it is very difficult. (the differentiation of wastes was a difficult process in Italy).

The last call

The last call …

This growth is going to stop, it must stop and it will stop. Jay Forrester.

We have learned that more is not necessarily better but even our great nation has to recognize limits. Jimmy Carter, 1977.

We believed then and now there are no limits to growth and human progress when men and women are free to follow their dreams. Ronald Regan 1984.

Democracy and capitalism will not solve those problems w