SustainabilityThe Example of Dubai

What is Sustainability?Sustainability or Sustainable

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

However, who determines what a need is? One person’s need may seem an unnecessary luxury to someone else.

A Desert Oasis?Dubai enjoys water-

intensive activities, such as water parks and golf courses.

It has built 114 reservoirs to store winter runoff for later use and has a desalination plant.

But … The problem is that Dubai is located on the

edge of the Rub Al Khali desert and receives a very low annual rainfall amount.

Also, the UAE is one of the highest users of water in the world.

The reservoirs provide only 12% of the water used for the year and the desalination plant is an electricity “pig”.

Energy “Pig”!The second problem for the sustainability of

Dubai is energy.The city uses large amounts of energy for

desalination, air conditioning and even snow-making!

In 2006 its electricity usage was 14 723 kilowatt hours per person (very high). It has been growing between 12-14% per year since then.

Where Does Their Electricity Come From?Almost all of Dubai’s

energy comes from modern thermal plants powered by locally drilled oil and natural gas.

So What’s the Problem?The problem is the mass amounts of

greenhouse gasses produced to allow people to enjoy outrageous luxuries.

In a recent 10 year span, Dubai has increased Carbon Dioxide emissions by 75%. Compare this with China’s 32% and India’s 41% and you soon realize Dubai’s environmental sustainability is in jeopardy.

Historical Perspective on SustainabilityPre-Industrial Revolution (mid 18th

century) people generally viewed the land and its resources as unlimited.

Colonization brought large scale agriculture to much of the world. Soil erosion and the gradual destruction of vegetation and wildlife was the result.

Expansionist World ViewThe Industrial

Revolution began in England in the middle of the 18th century and gave rise to mechanization, factories, railways and steamships.

Products were made more cheaply and much faster.

Many jobs were created as workers were needed in factories to run the new machines.

Rural inhabitants left the country to find work in the new industrial cities.

People lost their direct contact with the land, and as a result their knowledge and respect for nature diminished.

They believed science and technology could control nature for the benefit of humankind.

Merchants and businessmen believed they were justified in exploiting the earth for an accumulation of wealth.

Ecological World ViewA reaction to the

destruction of the environment caused by the Industrial Revolution and Colonization.

The emphasis was on the emotional and spiritual relationships that bind humans and the environment together.

National Parks were first introduced in the US in 1872. Yellowstone was the first.

Growth of Modern EnvironmentalismSince WWII, population growth and

industrialization have put increased pressure on land and resources and created new forms of pollution.

The 1st Earth Day took place in the US in 1970.

The Canadian government responded by creating the Department of the Environment in 1971.

By the 1990’s developed countries were environmentally aware and companies were eager to link their image to environmentally friendly behavior – as long as it didn’t cost too much.

By the mid 2000’s climate change has become the most significant environmental concern.

Different Views of Our World TodaySpaceship Earth ConceptRegards the earth as a

fragile, finite, self-contained sphere with limited resources and a rapidly growing population whose life-support system is in jeopardy.

We must change the way we live before we consume all our resources or contaminate our planet with pollution.

Gaia HypothesisJames Lovelock created this theory and

named it after the Greek goddess of Earth.His theory suggested that the Earth’s living

organisms have regulated its climate.However, Lovelock now believes human

activities are overwhelming these regulating mechanisms to the point that human survival on Earth is seriously threatened.

Limits-to-Growth Thesis Cornucopian Thesis

In ‘72 the Club of Rome’s report stated that there are limits to population growth.

Using computer models they predicted what might happen if current growth trends continued.

The result was that world pop. would exceed Earth’s carrying capacity (max pop. that can be sustained by Earth’s resources).

An expansionist model based on the belief that scientific and technological advances will develop new resources to take the place of depleted ones.

Resources and Resource UseAll material components of the environment

taken together are called the total stock. (energy, living organisms, non-living material)

Any part of the total stock that becomes useful to humans is called a resource.Natural resources (water, air)Human-made items (labor, technology)Others (landscapes, ecosystems)

3 Conditions must exist for a total stock to become a resource.1. Technology must exist to develop the item

for human use.

2. The return on investment must be greater than the cost of developing the resource.

3. It must be culturally acceptable to develop the resource.

Renewable resources are infinite; they should exist for as long as humans need them because nature replenishes them. (air, forests, solar energy, etc…)

Nonrenewable resources are finite; once we have used up our current reserves, they are gone.

The Need for Sustainable DevelopmentThroughout history, societies have collapsed

because of imbalances they created in the environment on which they depended.

In 1980 the World Conservation Strategy introduced the idea of sustainable development. It said in order for development to be sustainable there must be…1. Maintenance of essential ecological processes2. Sustainable use of resources3. Preservation of genetic diversity