What is sustainability?

Task 1: Download the document ‘Sustainability Pictures’.

Write down the connections you see between the eight pictures shown

Task 2: Using the connections you identified in Task 1, define, in your own words, the concept of sustainability

Task 3: Go to the following website and find the United Nations’ definition of Sustainable Development/Sustainability –

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/geography/human_processes/sustainable_futures/revision/2/

Task 4: 3-2-1

a)  Outline 3 things you know about sustainability

b)  Identify 2 questions you have about sustainability

c)  State 1 key word related to sustainability

Task 5: The United Nations think that their current definition of Sustainability is out-dated (it does come from a report written in 1987!). With the help of a colleague, try and come up with a new definition of sustainability

Task 6: Carbon footprint tool

Take the Carbon footprint test - http://footprint.wwf.org.uk

Once finished, compare your carbon footprint to that of your colleagues

Task 7: Ecological footprint

What is an ecological footprint? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJtrMMa4VOM

World Footprint

Do we fit on the planet?

Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.6 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year.

Moderate UN scenarios suggest that if current population and consumption trends continue, by the 2030s, we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us. And of course, we only have one.

Turning resources into waste faster than waste can be turned back into resources puts us in global ecological overshoot, depleting the very resources on which human life and biodiversity depend.

Every year Global Footprint Network raises awareness about global ecological overshoot with our Earth Overshoot Day campaign, which attracts media attention around the world. Earth Overshoot Day is the day on the calendar when humanity has used up the resources that it takes the planet the full year to regenerate. Earth Overshoot Day has moved from early October in 2000 to August 13 in 2015.

The result is collapsing fisheries, diminishing forest cover, depletion of fresh water systems, and the build up of carbon dioxide emissions, which creates problems like global climate change. These are just a few of the most noticeable effects of overshoot.

Overshoot also contributes to resource conflicts and wars, mass migrations, famine, disease and other human tragedies—and tends to have a disproportionate impact on the poor, who cannot buy their way out of the problem by getting resources from somewhere else.

Ending Overshoot

The Earth provides all that we need to live and thrive. So what will it take for humanity to live within the means of one planet?

Individuals and institutions worldwide must begin to recognize ecological limits. We must begin to make ecological limits central to our decision-making and use human ingenuity to find new ways to live, within the Earth’s bounds.

This means investing in technology and infrastructure that will allow us to operate in a resource-constrained world. It means taking individual action, and creating the public demand for businesses and policy makers to participate.

Using tools like the Ecological Footprint to manage our ecological assets is essential for humanity’s survival and success. Knowing how much nature we have, how much we use, and who uses what is the first step, and will allow us to track our progress as we work toward our goal of sustainable, one-planet living.

Source: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/world_footprint/

[Wednesday, 23rd December 2015]

Ecological Wealth of Nations

Ecological assets are at the core of every nation's long-term wealth. Yet today, population growth and consumption patterns are putting more pressure on our planet's ecosystems, as seen in water shortages, reduced cropland productivity, deforestation, biodiversity loss, fisheries collapse and climate change.

Ecological Footprint accounting compares how much demand human consumption places on the biosphere (Ecological Footprint) to the area, or supply, of productive land available to meet this demand (biocapacity). Both Footprint and bio-capacity are measured in global hectares. Footprint accounting exposes the unique risks and opportunities that natural resource constraints pose to each nation.

Task 8: Complete the following table based on information on the website - http://www.footprintnetwork.org/ecological_footprint_nations/index.html

Country / Total Ecological Footprint / Total Biocapacity / Ecological Footprint per capita / Biocapacity per capita / Ecological deficit/reserve
China
United States
Russia
India
Brazil
South Africa
Indonesia
United Kingdom
Iraq
New Zealand

Ecological Footprints of Individual Nations

Task 9: Compare the ecological footprints of China and Zambia

China

Zambia

Task 10: Identify the trend in the ecological footprint and biocapacity of Bangladesh since 1971

Task 11: Identify reasons as to why DR Congo’s ecological footprint has remained stable since 1971 yet its biocapacity has declined continuously in the same period

DR Congo

Task 12: Write a reflection on what you have learned in this unit topic

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