Conference Objectives

1
Conference Objectives
stimulate international awareness and
understanding of global, international, and
common national environmental problems, and,
based on the understanding, to evolve agreements
in substance or in principle to deal with these
problems.
2
Conference Results

• Establishment of UNEP.
• Creation of environment departments/ministries.
• Publication of Declaration on the Human
  Environment.

3
Declaration Principles

• Basic human needs.
• Options open for future generations.
• ? injustice and achieving equity.
• ? self-determination.
• Ecological integrity and diversity.
• Conservation and development.

4
Science Council of Canada
In 1977, its analytical report advocated a
conserver society to replace Canadas consumer
society.
5
World Conservation Union (IUCN)

• Its 1980 document, World Conservation Strategy,
  contended that all development programmes should
  incorporate
• Maintenance of ecological processes and
  ecosystems.
• Preservation of genetic diversity.
• Sustainable use of resources.

6
Independent Commission on International
Development Issues (Brandt Commission)
Examining the economic and political aspects of
environmental degradation, its 1980 report called
for developed countries to accept some
responsibility for the problems plaguing
developing countries.
7
World Commission on Environment and Development
(Brundtland Commission)
Humanity has the ability to make development
sustainable - to ensure that it meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs.
8
Earth Summit Documents

• The Rio Declaration on Environment and
  Development.
• The Convention on Climate Change.
• The Convention on Biodiversity.
• Forest Principles.
• Agenda 21.

9
Convention on Climate Change Three Basic
Principles

• Scientific uncertainty must not be used to avoid
  precautionary action.
• Nations have common but differentiated
  responsibilities.
• Industrial countries with the greatest historical
  contribution to climate change must take the lead
  in addressing the problem.

10
Convention on Climate Change Requirements

• Submit reports on climate policies and GHG
  inventories.
• Voluntarily reduce net emissions of carbon
  dioxide and other GHGs not regulated by the
  Montreal Protocol to 1990 levels by 2000.
• Provide technical and financial assistance to low
  income countries.

11
Convention on Biodiversity

• Develop plans for protecting habitat and species.
  
• Provide funds and technology to assist developing
  countries.
• Ensure commercial access to biological resources
  and share revenues fairly.
• Establish safety regulations and accept liability
  for risks associated with biotechnology
  development.

12
Agenda 21

• Goals and priorities for environmental, resource,
  social, legal, financial, and institutional
  issues.
• In 1992, not legally binding and lacked timeframe
  for implementation.
• Generated the Sustainable Development Commission
  and the Global Environmental Facility.

13
Kofi Annan 2002
The political and conceptual breakthrough
achieved at Rio has not, however, proved decisive
enough to break with business as usual There is
a gap between the goals and promises set out in
Rio and the daily reality in rich and poor
countries alike.
14
Remaining Challenges

• gt 80 of commercial energy world-wide derives
  from fossil fuels.
• About 1.1 billion people lack safe drinking water
  and 2.5 billion people lack adequate sanitation.
• Number of species under threat of extinction
  continues to increase.
• gt one billion people in abject poverty
• Distribution of wealth is skewed.

15
Percent of Population with Access to Improved
Sanitation 2002www.prb.org
16
Threats to Biodiversity

• Unsustainable hunting, culling, and harvesting.
• Loss of habitat.
• Introduction of exotic species.

17
Percent of Population in Relative
Povertywww.prb.org
18
Medical Achievements

• 50 ? in child mortality from diarrhoea since Rio
  due to
• Oral rehydration therapy.
• Political will.
• Improved nutrition.
• ? access to safe water.
• ? practice of breast-feeding.

19
Emerging Trend Development Not Growth

• Triple bottom line.
• Human Development Index.
• Tax shifting.
• Extended producer responsibility.
• Microfinance. E.g. Grameen Bank.
• Socially responsible investment.

20

• Industrial ecology. See Frosch and Gallopoulos.
• Eco-industrial parks. E.g. Kalundburg.
• Service versus goods. E.g. mobility rather than
  vehicles.
• Green certification. E.g. Forest Stewardship
  Council.
• Backcasting.

21
Objective of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development

• evaluate the obstacles to progress and the
  results achieved since the 1992 Earth Summit to
  build on the knowledge gained over the past
  decade and to provide a new impetus for
  commitments of resources and specific action
  toward global sustainability.

22
Millennium Development Goals

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
• Achieve universal primary education.
• Empower women and promote gender equality.
• Reduce child mortality.
• Improve maternal health.
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
• Ensure environmental sustainability.
• Create global partnership for development.

23
Types of Value

• Instrumental.
• A.k.a. utilitarian.
• Valued as a means to an end.
• Anthropocentric perspective.
• Intrinsic.
• A.k.a. inherent.
• Valued as an end in itself.

24
Categories of Anthropocentric Instrumental Value

• Goods.
• Services.
• Information.
• Psycho-spiritual.

25
Giant Rat Cricetomys emini
http//www.fmnh.org/congo_French/phomam_cemini.htm
l
26
Madagascar Periwinkle

• Alkaloids
• vinblastine
• vincristine

? remission ? mortality
http//www.ntbg.org/plants/plantresource_new2.php?
rid333plant2497
27
Environmental Services

• Photosynthesis.
• Pollination.
• Protecting water resources soil.
• Regulation of climate.
• Waste disposal.
• Species relationships.
• Environmental monitoring.

28
Biodiversity contains the accumulated wisdom of
nature and the key to its future. If you ever
wanted to destroy a society, you would burn its
libraries and kill its intellectuals. You would
destroy its knowledge. Natures knowledge is
contained in the DNA within living cells. The
variety of genetic information is the driving
engine of evolution, the immune system for life,
the source of adaptability.
Meadows, 1990.
29
Psycho-Spiritual Value

• Aesthetic beauty and spiritual awe.
• Often expressed in
• Nature activities.
• Willingness to pay or act for protection of
  species or ecosystem.
• Inspiration.
• Diversity over monotony.
• Biophilia.

30
http//chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslo
w.html
31
Arguments for Objective Intrinsic Value

• Each species is unique solution to challenge of
  survival.
• All components of natural environment are
  interconnected and interdependent.
• A living organism is autopoietic.

32
Darwin 1904
All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single
premise that the individual is a member of a
community of interdependent parts.
33
Leopold Land Ethic
Ecology simply enlarges the boundaries of the
community to include soil, water, plants, and
animals, or collectively the land.
34
Updated Land Ethic
A thing is right when it tends to disturb the
biotic community only at normal spatial and
temporal scales. It is wrong when it tends
otherwise.
35
Additional Ethical Arguments

• Responsibility for actions.
• Responsibility to future generations.
• Live within same ecological limits as other
  species do.

36
Bartlett 1994

• By the time overpopulation and shortage of
  resources are obvious to most people, the
  carrying capacity has been exceeded. It is then
  too late to pursue sustainability in a reasoned,
  deliberate manner.