Sustainability Unpacked

by Vogt, Kristiina A.; Patel-Weynand, Toral; Shelton, Maura; Vogt, Daniel J.; Gordon, John C.

• ISBN13: 9781844079018
• ISBN10: 1844079015
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-08
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines and decodes some of the basic elements of sustainability; food, water and energy. Current resource uses and human development strategies are discussed that can help maintain resilient environments and societies at a country level. It explores how a range of countries make decisions regarding their energy and bio-resource consumption and procurement and how these choices impact not only their societies and environments, but the world in general. Sustainability Unpackedreviews the merits of various sustainability and environmental metrics and applies these to 27 countries that are ranked low, medium or high on the human development index. It assesses their resource capacities and the environmental impacts, both within and outside their country boundaries, from consuming food, water, and energy. It explores how well the available country-level indices enlighten us regarding our ability to accurately measure the continued sustainability of food, water, and energy for future generations. The authors discuss both the commonality and uniqueness of several countries' food, water, and energy stories as a process to identify the links between resource uses and sustainability at a country level. The final section uses the lessons derived from the earlier analyses of resource consumption to explore the importance of geography, climates and sustainable management of forests and other natural resources for building resilient societies in the future.

Author Biography

Kristiina A. Vogt is a professor of ecosystem management and founder (and co-co-ordinator) of the Forest Systems and Bioenergy program at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Toral Patel-Weynand is an Affiliate Associate Faculty at the University of Washington (UW) and an Associate of the Forest Systems and Bioenergy, UW. Maura Shelton is a Research Associate with the Forest Systems and Bioenergy in the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington. Daniel J. Vogt, Associate Professor in Soils and Ecosystem Ecology of the College of Forest Resources, came to the University of Washington in July 2000 from Yale University. John C. Gordon is Chairman of Interforest, LLC, a sustainable forestry consulting firm, and a founder of the Candlewood Timber Group, Inc., a sustainable forestry company with forestland and operations in Argentina. Calvin T. Mukumoto is the President of Renewol LLC, a start-up company producing a mobile methanol generator to use low quality wood and cellulosic wastes, and the Chief financial Officer for TSS Consultants. Asep S. Suntana is a Research Associate in the Forest Systems and Bioenergy program at the University of Washington. Patricia A. Roads is the Communications Director for the Center for Adaptive Policies in Ecosystems International, a non-profit organization originally based in Washington and now in Iceland.

Table of Contents

Authors and Contributors	p. ix
Preface	p. xv
List of Figures and Tables	p. xix
From the Beginning
Sustainability - Clues for Positive Societal and Ecosystem Change	p. 3
Defining Sustainability	p. 3
Why Sustainability Needs to be Unpacked	p. 4
Decoding Our Current Perceptions of Sustainability and Is There a Right Model?	p. 8
Large Datasets and Moving Beyond Irrational Human Choices	p. 10
Using Human Development Ranking to Understand Large Datasets	p. 17
Learning From the PAST: Why Societies Collapsed or Survived	p. 21
Why People Live Where They Do	p. 21
Where is it easier for humans to live within their footprints?	p. 22
Where is it difficult for humans to live within their footprints?	p. 24
Industrialization Fuelled by Carbon	p. 28
A history of how society became dependent on 'artificial' products made from fossil carbon	p. 29
Agrarian societies are dependent on renewable carbon	p. 30
The 'carbonization' of society and the importance of coal	p. 31
Oil made our 'synthetic' world possible	p. 34
The Norm: Transboundary Consumption of Someone Else's Resources	p. 36
Human History: A Search for Food Security	p. 39
Food and social status	p. 42
Food preservation for food security	p. 44
Restaurants and our perceptions of food security	p. 46
A Long Human History of Poor Health	p. 48
Accidental Reductions in Human Resource Uses	p. 50
Scientific Approach to Decoding Sustainability
TODAY: Decoding Country Resource Stories	p. 59
Indices and How they Characterize Sustainable Choices	p. 59
Indices rank environmental/ecological metrics well	p. 59
Human and resource capital disconnect	p. 65
Indices and Advanced-Economy Countries	p. 67
Indices and Emerging-Economy Countries	p. 69
Indices and Growing-Economy Countries	p. 70
Lessons Learnt From Indices	p. 72
The Real Country Stories
Fossil Energy Endowments and Externalities	p. 81
CO2 Emissions Link to Energy	p. 81
CO2 emissions and total fossil fuel consumption	p. 81
CO2 emissions and gasoline consumption	p. 84
Societies and Fossil Energy Options	p. 86
Diverse fossil energy portfolios the norm	p. 86
Energy security after becoming a net importer of oil	p. 88
Energy Production Is Water Demanding	p. 91
Forests - The Backbone and Circulatory System for Human Societies	p. 97
Where do you Find Forests Today?	p. 98
Energy Choices and Satisfying Human Survival Needs	p. 100
Forests and Fossil Energies: Incompatible in a Conservation and Sustainable Development World?	p. 104
CO2 Emissions, Land Use Changes and Forest Sequestration of Carbon	p. 109
Liquid Fuels from Forests to Mitigate CO2 Emissions	p. 114
Environmental challenges to biofuels	p. 116
Forest energy and sustainability from distributed energy production	p. 120
Forest Uses have Negative Environmental Repercussions Elsewhere	p. 123
The Soil and Water Connection to Food: Adapt, Mitigate or Die	p. 129
What Constrains Local Food Production?	p. 129
Soil chemistry - sets the threshold for food production	p. 130
Severely degraded lands and food production	p. 132
Water Security and Soils	p. 134
Climate and Soils: Unavoidable Constraints to Solar Capital
The Future: Climate Change as a Global Driver Impacting Sustainability	p. 143
Why People Migrate: Geography and Climate Influences on Humans	p. 145
Past human responses to changing climates: Become a foreigner	p. 145
Climate Change and Humans	p. 147
Climate change and social dysfunctions	p. 151
Climate change and human health	p. 152
Water and Resources	p. 154
Water supplies and human development	p. 154
Droughts and bio-resource securities	p. 156
Water and electricity production	p. 160
Where the Past and Future Meet: Soils or the Unseen Earth That Nurtures Societies	p. 165
Soil Management Essential for Human Development	p. 168
Soils Are Not Equally Good for Food Production	p. 171
Soils are quite diverse and only some are good for growing crops	p. 171
Good soils, good crops and good food security	p. 174
Soil Degradation and Food Security	p. 176
Soil degradation and global soils	p. 176
Linking soil degradation to societal sustainability	p. 177
Your Health Is Dictated by Where Your Food Is Grown	p. 180
Nutrient deficiencies in food and human health problems	p. 180
Human health, agriculture and nutrient deficiencies: the soil connection	p. 183
Wildlife and nutrient deficiencies: eating soils	p. 185
Forests Buffer Societies Living on Nutrient-Poor Soils	p. 186
Forests grow well on poor soils	p. 186
Trees are better adapted than humans to the environment and climates	p. 188
The Ultimate Constraint to Human Sustainability: Solar Income	p. 197
Productive Capacity Potentials and Human Survival	p. 198
Solar Income Equates to Sustainable Choices	p. 200
Losses From and Unavailable Solar Income: A Forest Lens	p. 203
Is Local Food Production Sustainable? The Solar Income Factor	p. 205
Societies Adapt to a Quagmire of Resource Choices
Debunking Sustainability Myths	p. 213
Temperature and Where You Live Do Matter	p. 215
Do High Population Densities Equate to Unsustainable Choices?	p. 220
Rural Landscapes: Rich in Resources and Rich People?	p. 223
Is it Realistic to Expect a Low Carbon-use World to Reduce CO2 Emissions?	p. 230
Economic development and fossil carbon	p. 230
The carbon backbone of society	p. 232
Food Security Solution: Do We Need Another Green Revolution?	p. 237
Portfolio for Managing Natural and Human Capital	p. 243
Developing Human Capital	p. 245
Communication technologies	p. 245
Make the whole society adaptable: Educate females	p. 246
Being Adaptive Means Being Global and Importing Bio-resources	p. 249
Agriculture and forests: important import products	p. 251
A diverse fossil fuel importation imperative for development	p. 254
Valuing Labour as a Resource	p. 258
Sustainable Ecosystems: Investments in Human and Natural Capital	p. 261
Cell Matrix of Resource Endowments and Human Adaptability	p. 263
Agricultural land endowment and social resilience	p. 264
Oil endowment and social resilience	p. 266
Forest and woodland endowment and social resilience	p. 267
Water endowment and social resilience	p. 268
Climate and soil constraints to natural and social capital	p. 269
The Fulcrum of Sustainability	p. 271
Climate change mitigation	p. 273
Importing resources	p. 276
Final Thoughts on Sustainability Unpacked	p. 278
Index	p. 287
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