Humans require matter and energy for
survival. As such, their metabolic requirements are met by
the air they breathe and by the water and organically derived food
they ingest. Like other living species, they depend on the cosmic
system from which they have descended: essentially the sun together
with the ecosphere, the superficial part of our planet where the
environmental conditions exist that make life possible.
However, continual advances in technology have
caused other needs to appear in addition to those resulting from
natural biological processes. The development of an ever more
complex industrialized society in which the production of
manufactured objects is incessantly growing entails a continually
increasing use of primary energy and of organic and inorganic raw
materials.
Just as metabolic processes involve the discharge
of mineral and organic excreta, so the activities of a
technological civilization release waste products into the
environment. In both cases, the discharged material does not simply
disappear from the environment that receives it: instead, it
circulates in biological systems which can cease to function
properly if their homeostatic mechanisms are overstretched.
Another feature of the contemporary world that
arises from human activity and has a considerable impact on the
ecosphere is the explosive growth in population. This, along with
the unending increase in per capitaconsumption of
manufactured goods, puts great pressure on nature and natural
resources.
A resource can be defined simply as any form of
energy or matter necessary to satisfy the physiological needs of
humanity or to sustain all the various activities leading to
production. The flow patterns of such resources through human
civilization are very complex and so can be studied from several
different angles.Between the stage at which the resource is
extracted and that of its use by a consumer, it undergoes many
transformations, and these often have an impact on the overall
functioning of the ecosystems in which the processes occur. A
classic distinction is frequently made between non-renewable and
renewable resources. Potential sources of energy such as
hydrocarbons and fissile materials clearly come into the first
category, but for other types of resource the distinction is often
difficult to make. Even minerals could be allocated to the second
category since they can theoretically be recycled from both
domestic and industrial waste and this would circumvent the problem
of their exhaustion.
Water and all resources of a biological origin
are usually classified as renewable. Even when polluted, water is
not chemically modified in any way by being used and so can be
recycled after purification. Plant and animal resources, on the
other hand, although potentially renewable, are very often so
overexploited that the possibility of regeneration in many parts of
the world has been greatly reduced and sometimes completely
compromised by the destruction of the ecosystems on which they
depend.
The current rate of use takes absolutely no
account of the real size of available reserves of minerals or
fossil fuels, nor does it concern itself with the rate of renewal
of plant or animal resources.Between the late 1990s and 2020,
global energy consumption is projected to rise nearly 60 percent
due to population growth, continued urbanization, and economic and
industrial expansion. Consumption of electricity,the most versatile
form of energy, will increase even more sharply by most
estimates—nearly 70 percent. The largest share of this growth
is expected to occur in the developing world, where some 2 billion
people have no access to modern forms of energy such as electricity
and piped gas. And most of the additional energy is projected to
come from fossil fuels, according to national and international
agency forecasts. But meeting these demands with conventional fuels
and technologies will further threaten the natural environment,
public health and welfare, and international stability.
Each year new power plants, refineries,
pipelines, and other forms of conventional
infrastructure—facilities that will be around for at least a
half-century—are added to the global energy system to replace
existing capital stock and to meet ever-rising demand, much of it
in the developing world. An estimated $200- 250 billion is invested
in energy- related infrastructure every year, and another $1.5
trillion is spent on energy consumption, with nearly all of this
investment going to conventional energy. As a result, societies are
in the process of further locking themselves into indefinite
dependence on unhealthy, unsustainable, insecure energy
structures.
Global oil production is expected to peak early
in this century. "In 20-25 years the reserves of liquid
hydrocarbons are beginning to go down so we have this window of
time to convert over to renewables," according to Harry Shimp,
president and chief executive officer of BP's solar division. But
of greater concern to many is not when or if economically
recoverable fossil fuel reserves will be depleted, but the fact
that the world cannot afford to use all the conventional energy
resources that remain.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a
body of approximately 2,000 scientists and economists who advise
the United Nations on climate change, has concluded that global
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissionsmust be reduced at least
70 percent over the next 100 years to stabilize atmospheric
CO2 concentrations at 450 parts per million (ppm), which
would be 60 percent higher than pre-industrial levels. The sooner
societies begin to make these reductions, the lower the impacts and
the associated costs—of both climate change and emissions
reductions—will be. Because more than 80 percent of human-
made CO2 emissions are due to the burning of fossil
fuels, such reductions are not possible without significant and
rapid improvements in energy efficiency and a shift to renewable
energy.
The impact of growing population and economic
activity has already weakened the natural resource base of many
countries and poses increasing risks to the prospects for
sustainable development. But the ability to make development meet
the needs of the present and the future increases with scientific
knowledge and the development of ecologically sound
technologies.
Sustainable development does not imply cessation
of economic growth. Rather, it requires a recognition that the
problems of poverty and under-development and related environmental
problems cannot be solved without vigorous economic growth.
Sustainable development will require changes in current patterns of
growth, however, to make them less resource and energy intensive
and more equitable. Inequalities in international economic
relations, coupled with inappropriate economic policies in many
developed and developing countries alike, continue to cause
environmental degradation and otherwise limit the sustainability of
the development process. Growth derived from rapid resource
depletion is neither ecologically nor economically
sustainable.
Many environmental risks stemming from economic
activities cross national boundaries. Some are global in scope.
Although most of the activities that give rise to such risks are
concentrated in the industrial countries, the risks are shared by
all countries whether they benefit from these activities or not.
And most countries have little influence on the decisions that
affect these activities. These risks include harmful effects from
hazardous waste and from increasing concentrations of carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The issue of
greenhouse gases and climate change has emerged as particularly
urgent, with scientific observations and analysis indicating that
significant global warming and climate change are likely over the
next few decades. Although the effects may not reach critical
proportions until the next century, their potential magnitude is so
great that it would be unwise to postpone efforts to limit their
causes. In addition, there has been a transfer of environmental
costs from industrial to developing countries, as some of the
"dirty" manufacturing processes have relocated away from the
developed countries.
Environmental stress has long been seen as a
result of the demand for scarce natural resources and the related
pollution of the air, water, and land generated by rising living
standards. But poverty also creates environmental stress. In order
to survive, the rural poor often degrade and destroy their
immediate environment as they cut down forests for fuelwood,
overuse marginal agricultural land, and eventually migrate to the
shrinking areas of vacant land or to urban areas. Severe air and
water pollution is tolerated in many cities because it permits
other gains deemed more valuable than the immediate benefits of
pollution abatement and because the long-term benefits of abatement
are heavily discounted.
Proper management of the natural resource base is
actually especially important in poor countries that cannot afford
the consequences of rapid soil degradation and other irreversible
losses of potentially renewable resources. Nor can they afford
high-cost efforts to remedy environmental damage. Efforts to
develop sustainable agriculture, forestry, and fisheries may fail
unless population growth slows down. Appropriate technologies do
not exist in many resource- poor areas to sustain the present and
projected population; even some resource- rich areas are reaching
their maximum output.
As FAO has noted
"The
objective is to create an economic environment in which it is more
profitable to conserve resources than destroy them. Soil and
water conservation measures, for example, should, where possible,
be designed to show an economic return to the farmer in the year of
application, because otherwise they are unlikely to be widely
adopted. Similarly, habitat conservation and game cropping for
tourism should be seen as a socially and economically profitable
alternative to forest and savannah destruction."
Sustainable agriculture will thus require changes
in the ways the rural poor live, increasing their income-earning
capacity and helping them to withstand shocks and stresses in their
life support systems.
International economic relations pose a
particular problem for developing countries' efforts to manage
their environment, since the export of natural resources is a large
factor in their economies.
In its resolution 42/186, the General Assembly of
the United Nations adopted the Environmental Perspective to the
Year 2000 and Beyond:
"as a
broad framework to guide national action and international co-
operation on policies and programmes aimed at achieving
environmentally sound development. ..."
The resolution noted the
"...
perceptions generally shared by Governments of the nature of
environmental problems, and their interrelations with other
international problems, and of the efforts to deal with them . .
.,"
as presented in the Introduction to the
Environmental Perspective (para. 3). It welcomed
"as
the overall aspirational goal for the world community the
achievement of sustainable development on the basis of prudent
management of available global resources and environmental
capacities and the rehabilitation of the environment previously
subjected to degradation and misuse, and the aspirational goals to
the year 2000 and beyond as set out in the Environmental
Perspective, namely:
"(a) The achievement over time of such
a balance between population and environmental capacities as would
make possible sustainable development, keeping in view the links
between population levels, consumption patterns, poverty, and the
natural resource base;
"(b) The achievement of food security
without resource depletion or environmental degradation and
restoration of the resource base where environmental damage has
been occurring;
"(c) The provision of sufficient
energy at reasonable cost, notably by increasing access to energy
substantially in the developing countries, to meet current and
expanding needs in ways which minimize environmental degradation
and risks, conserve non- renewable sources of energy, and realize
the full potential of renewable sources of energy;
"(d) The sustained improvements in levels
of living in all countries, especially the developing countries,
through industrial development that prevents or minimizes
environmental damage and risks;
"(e) The provision of improved shelter
with access to essential amenities in a clean and secure setting
conducive to health and to the prevention of environment-
related diseases which would, at the same time,
alleviate serious environmental degradation;
"(f) The establishment of an equitable
system of international economic relations aimed at achieving
continuing economic advancement for all States based on principles
recognized by the international community, in order to stimulate
and sustain environmentally sound development, especially in
developing countries" (para. 4).
The General Assembly also agreed
"that
the recommendations for action contained in the Environmental
Perspective should be implemented, as appropriate, through national
and international action by Governments, intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations and scientific bodies" (para.
5).
In addition to the recommendations for action set
forth in the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond,
the following principles are relevant to many environmental issues.
Each Government should be responsible for educating its own
citizens regarding their effect on the environment, as both
producers and consumers, and for otherwise motivating them to
adopt less harmful practices. The developed countries have most of
the available pool of technical skills, and therefore most of the
responsibility, for devising less harmful techniques of production
in all fields, and for assisting the developing countries to
acquire and use them. Also, as their standards of consumption tend
to be advertised in and therefore copied by the citizens of
developing countries, they have the greater responsibility for
promoting less harmful patterns of consumption. The developing
countries have the primary responsibility, however, for evaluating
and modifying foreign consumption patterns so as to harmonize them
with their local climate, resources, and culture in order to
maintain the productivity of their resource base and the
healthfulness of their environment.
