Environmental Sciences Course Sustainable Development Revision

Environmental Sciences Course

Sustainable Development

Revision

Introduction

•Definitions•Earth Summits•The Concept Of SD•Principles Of SD

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"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Sustainability Development

1972: Stockholm Earth Summit

1992: Rio Earth Summit

2002: Johannesburg Summit

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Earth Summits


The 1972 Stockholm Earth Summit (UN conference on the Human Environment) produced an action plan which laid out clearly the educational, informational, social and cultural aspects of environmental issues.

• The three components of the Action Plan: ▫ the global environmental assessment program

(Earthwatch), ▫ the environmental management activities, ▫ International measures to support the national and

international actions of assessment and management.

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Earth Summits

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Question 2 What is the main outcome of Stockholm summit?

An action plan which laid out clearly: Educational, Informational, Social, and Cultural aspects of environmental issues.

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Question 2 What are the main components of Stockholm action plan?

The global environmental assessment program (Earthwatch),

the environmental management activities,

International measures to support the national and international actions of assessment and management.


The Convention to Combat Desertification was held in 1977 to address land use practices and management of dry area ecosystems in an effort to desist degradation of arid, semi arid and sub-humid dry lands.

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=97

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Earth Summits

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Stockholm in 1972

The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held at Stockholm in 1972

It was the first major international discussion of environmental issues. The meeting marked a polarization between the priorities of economic growth and environmental protection .

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Stockholm in 1972

This polarization has dominated the debate between rich and poor countries and between interest groups within countries for many years and - given the results of the Kyoto Climate Conference in December 1997 - is still not fully resolved.

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Earth Summits


In June 1992, more than 100 heads of state representing 179 national governments gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED),

The 1992 Rio Earth Summit was attended by 152 world leaders led to the signing of conventions on:• biological diversity• desertification,• a framework convention on climate change,• principles for sustainable forestry• Agenda 21.

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Question 2 What is Agenda 21?

Agenda 21 encourages the development of national strategies, plans, policies and processes capable of encouraging sustainable social and environmental development

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Earth Summits


Agenda 21 encourages the development of national strategies, plans, policies and processes capable of encouraging sustainable social and environmental development.

UNFCC: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, The mission of the Climate Change Convention is to stabilize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and prevent potentially dangerous interruption with the climate system.

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Earth Summits

Rio produced two international agreements, two statements of principles and a major action agenda on world wide sustainable development.

•The UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created in December 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of Rio Earth Summit (UNCED); to monitor and report on implementation of the Earth Summit agreements at the local, national, regional and international levels.

•The The Declaration on Environment + Development was produced after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and outlined 27 agreed principles, with the goal of establishing a new and equitable global partnership through the creation of new levels of cooperation among states, key sectors of societies and people.

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Question 2 What is Johannesburg declaration?

It is an agreement to focus particularly on "the worldwide conditions that pose severe threats to the sustainable development of our people.

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Earth Summits

World Summit: Programme 2002

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, WSSD or Earth Summit 2002 took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. It was convened to discuss sustainable development by the United Nations.

The Johannesburg Declaration was the main outcome of the Summit; however, there were several other international agreements

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Earth Summits

World Summit: Programme 2002

It is an agreement to focus particularly on "the worldwide conditions that pose severe threats to the sustainable development of our people, which include: chronic hunger; malnutrition; foreign occupation; armed conflict; illicit drug problems; organized crime; corruption; natural disasters; illicit arms trafficking; trafficking in persons; terrorism; intolerance and incitement to racial, ethnic, religious and other hatreds; xenophobia; and endemic, communicable and chronic diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis."

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The term sustainability is now used by scientists, technicians, development Planners, politicians etc. in many different ways and meanings hence, it means different things to different people, but the most frequently quoted definition is from the report Our Common Future (also known as the Brundtland Report

What is the Sustainability?

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In 1950 K. William Kapp published a comprehensive analysis of all the important issues. and it was for the first Book about Sustainable Development

The concept of Sustainability

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Question 2 What are the main aspects of sustainable development?

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Question 2: True or False When consumption of natural resources is more than environment ability to replenish then environment is sustainable.

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Sustainability Development

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Health-and-Environment Cause-Effect Framework

Sustainable Development

EnvironmentHuman Health

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Consumption of renewable resources

State of environment

Sustainability

More than nature's ability to replenish

Environmental degradation

Not sustainable

Equal to nature's ability to replenish

Environmental equilibrium

Steady-state Sustainability

Less than nature's ability to replenish

Environmental renewal

Sustainable development

Environmental sustainability

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Question 1 What are the main principles of sustainable development?

1. preventing problems rather than solving them.

2. Accounting for Long term costs.

3. Building decisions on high quality and extensive information.

4. Insurance of natural resources renewability.

5. Precedence of quality over quantity for development.

6. Respect and Insurance of rights and ability of futures generations to achieve their needs

PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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1- Anticipating and preventing problems are better than trying to react and fix them after they occur.

2- Accounting must reflect all long-term environmental and economic costs, not just those of the current market.

3- The best decisions are those based on sound, accurate, and up-to-date information

PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

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4- We must live off the interest our environment provides and not destroy its capital base.

5- The quality of social and economic development must take precedence over quantity.

6- We must respect nature and the rights of future generations.

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Q.2 How does overabundant hunting of immigrating birds contradict with sustainable development principles?

Q.3“preventing problem rather than solving it” how can this principle be applied to solve malaria epidemic ?

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The goal of environmental sustainability is to minimize environmental degradation, and to halt and reverse the processes they lead to.

Environmental sustainability is defined as the ability of the environment to continue to function properly indefinitely.

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Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife.

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Question 2 What do traditional environmental hazards result from? Modern hazards?

Question 2: True or False:The best way to formulate environmental regulations and policies is to transfer national polices from developed countries to apply them locally.

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Environmental Threats to Human Health

Environmental threats to human health are numerous. For ease of discussion and priority-setting, they can be divided into "traditional hazards" associated with lack of development, and "modern hazards" associated with unsustainable development.

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Traditional hazards related to poverty and "insufficient" development

Modern hazards are related to development that lacks health-and-environment safeguards, and to unsustainable consumption of natural resources

Environmental Threats to Human Health

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Intersect oral actions for a healthy environment

Along the same lines, an intersect oral approach is the most effective means of formulating environmental health policy, since it can help to ensure that priorities are coherent and do not conflict with those of individual sectors.

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Ministries of health and environment have key roles to play in such activity. Joint programmers involving these and other ministries would enable much more to be achieved in environment and health. International agencies can also contribute much to environmental health policy development.

Intersect oral actions for a healthy environment

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Driving Forces Behind Current Health-and-Environment Trends

Driving forces create the conditions in which environmental health threats can develop or be averted, as indicated in the health-and-environment cause-effect framework .

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Question 2 What are the main driving forces behind environmental and health trends?

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Driving forces considered in our analysis are: 1. Population dynamics; 2. Urbanization;3. Poverty and inequity;4. Technical and scientific developments; 5. Consumption and production patterns, 6. Economic development.

Driving Forces Behind Current Health-and-Environment Trends

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Question 2 What are the basic population driving forces?

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Population Dynamics

Population driving forces have three basic components:

1.The total number and the rate of growth;

2.Geographical distribution of people, age- distribution;

3.Changes to these distributions caused by population movement.

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Urbanization

Cities generate a large part of a nation's economic activity, and create potential efficiencies not found elsewhere, as well as advantages in the delivery of education, health and other social services.

Cities generate considerable waste and pollution.

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Urban growth also means greater dependence on transport systems, generating yet further pollution.

The resulting public health challenges are daunting, but with appropriate policies and action programmers, health in cities can be improved.

Urbanization

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Poverty and inequity

Poverty and inequity are two of the most important contributory factors to poor environmental conditions and poor health .

Poverty as reflected in global income inequity is actually increasing. The net worth of the world's 358 richest people is larger than the combined annual income of the poorest 45% of the world's population (2300 thousand million people).

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Poor local environmental conditions probably affect women more than any other group -- primarily by creating additional pressures and increasing women's workload.

Poverty and inequity

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Science and Technology

In the past three decades science and technology have been two of the most decisive driving forces for economic development. They have played, and will continue to play, a significant role in the search for new knowledge and more efficient means of agricultural and industrial production.

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Science and Technology

Technological developments can be polluting and wasteful, however, and may create serious risks to environment and health. The prevention and reduction of such risks are thus key issues for sustainable development.

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Question 2 What are the main consumption issues that controls environmental and health trends?

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Consumption and production patterns

But increased consumption and production depletes natural resources and produces waste, which can have severe effects on the environment and human health. Three of the most important consumption issues in terms of sustainability are: diet (particularly the consumption of meat), consumption of certain raw materials and persistent chemicals, and the consumption of fossil fuels and associated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

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Economic Development

Overall life expectancy and other health indicators have improved for those benefiting from economic development. Economic growth in itself is not sufficient, however, to reduce poverty.

Furthermore, if economic development is misguided, poorly planned or inadequately regulated, people's vulnerability to environmental health hazards is increased.