Environmental Sustainability in a Time of Change

Robert Brinkmann

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9783030282035
• Topic: Biowissenschaften
• Subtopic: Umweltwissenschaft

Environmental Sustainability in a Time of Change is the first book in a new Palgrave series on Environmental Sustainability. It takes a fresh look at the dynamic field of environmental sustainability by exploring the interconnections between climate change, water, energy, waste, land use, ecosystems, food, and transportation. It also provides an extensive summary on sustainability management, data analysis, mapping, and data sources. Brinkmann highlights how environmental sustainability challenges are distinctly different in the developed world, where sustainability is largely a choice, versus the developing world, where many struggle with basic existence due to war, migration, and water or food scarcity. He takes a broad systems and historic approach to contextualize environmental sustainability prior to the 1987 Brundtland Report and utilizes many contemporary examples throughout the text, analyzing numerous case studies from many areas of the world including China, Yemen, Malaysia, Egypt, and Florida.
This book questions traditional approaches to sustainability that highlight the need for an equal balance of economic development, environmental protection, and social equality to achieve sustainability. This book focuses on a new line of thinking that places environmental sustainability as the key foundation in how to manage sustainability in a time of change. Our planet is quickly becoming environmentally unsustainable due to global consumption and unsustainable economic development and it is high time for a fresh approach. This book will be of great value to academics, practitioners, and students interested in environmental sustainability from a myriad of fields including geology, geography, biology, ecology, economics, business, sociology, anthropology, and other areas that intersect the interdisciplinary field of sustainability.

© The Author(s) 2020

R. BrinkmannEnvironmental Sustainability in a Time of ChangePalgrave Studies in Environmental Sustainabilityhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28203-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Connections in Environmental Sustainability: Living in a Time of Rapid Environmental Change

Robert Brinkmann¹

(1)

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, USA

Robert Brinkmann

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

SustainabilityEnvironmental sustainabilityAnthropoceneDisastersData

End Abstract

Sustainability is a challenging term to approach. It has come to mean so many things to so many different people. For some, it is about trying to live green. For others, it is about finding ways to measurably reduce the impact of human activity on our planet. For the last several decades, professionals in the field have used a definition based on the work of the UN’s Brundtland Commission which noted that sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without harming the needs of future generations (Brundtland 1987). Built into this definition is the idea that the long-term sustainability of the planet is mainly dependent on the ability to allow ideas around economic development, environmental protection, and social equity to coalesce so that the world centers around sustainable activities.

These three pillars of environment, economics, and social equity have been the center of sustainability thought since the Brundtland Report was published. Many governments, businesses, schools, non-profit organizations, and individuals have worked hard to try to create sustainability within their organizations or homes using the three pillars.

How has this gone?

By many measures, not so well.

Many of the world’s natural systems are at a breaking point. While the economy in many parts of the world is doing rather well, environmental systems are failing. Some would also argue that many of the world’s social systems are undergoing stress as well, particularly in poorer regions. The idea of three equal pillars is increasingly called into question as we see increased problems with the environment. As our populations have increased, and as the standards of living are enhanced around the world, we are seeing major planetary changes unseen throughout human history (Fig. 1.1).

Fig. 1.1

An area near Diamond Head, Hawaii. What type of changes to the landscape as a result of human activity do you think you can see in this photo?

Environmental sustainability is the idea that the environment can maintain its ability to support human life and maintain all existing ecosystems and life into the future despite resource depletion through human activity. How are we doing with maintaining environmental sustainability?

In the last decade, geologists have coined the term Anthropocene for the time period we are living in because we have fundamentally altered the planet’s natural systems. As we will see in upcoming chapters, we have changed most of the major earth systems, including the carbon cycle and water cycle, to the point that we are already seeing major problems, from evacuation of low-lying areas due to increased sea levels to whole cities running out of water due to overconsumption and climate change. We live in a time of environmental unsustainability.

The Human Element

Part of the problem with sustainability as defined in the Brundtland Report is that it suggested that the world would work cooperatively together to solve the world’s sustainability problems. It implied that through economic cooperation and the desire to create a more equitable world, we would solve many of the environmental ills that plague the planet. Certainly, there are many examples that provide hope. We have made big progress on a number of big issues like chlorofluorocarbon pollution and reducing air pollution due to technological improvement in power plants and the combustion engine. Yet, even with these solutions, big problems remain due to our high planetary population and its consumption of resources. We consume tremendous amounts of food, energy, and stuff that stress the environment to the point that it is failing in many parts of the world and losing its ability to support human life as it had in the past.

This book, therefore, takes a more holistic approach to environmental sustainability than others, in that it looks at the linkages among major earth systems and how humans have interacted with them. It also focuses heavily on local, regional, national, and global case studies to demonstrate how people are impacted in the real world by the alterations of environmental systems. The book also recognizes that we humans have always altered our environment. Modern natural ecosystems developed with humans. However, the accelerated rate of human activity and our growing need for resources created a modern world that is far different from the world that existed when the Brundtland Report was published in the 1980s. This book also tries to present some of the key ways that our environment has changed in the last 40 years (Fig. 1.2).

Fig. 1.2

While we alter the natural environment due to our unsustainable activities, we often try to incorporate natural elements into our built environment. What natural elements can you find in the exterior of this building in Hainan, China?

Organization

After this introduction, the book is divided into two parts. Part I provides several chapters that provide contextualization for understanding environmental sustainability. Chapter 2 looks at historical considerations within the context of sustainability. We tend to look at the field of sustainability as starting in the 1980s. However, humans have had to find ways to blend economic, social, and environmental needs forever. By looking at the past, we can better understand our present. We can see that while our sustainability problems may be different from those in the past, they were no less existential to our survival. The book moves out of historical considerations in Chap. 3 to look more at how environmental sustainability is informed by the field of systems science. The connections that are made between human activity and environmental degradation are greatly informed by systems thinking.

Natural and human-made disasters can quickly change natural systems. Chapter 4 delves into the topic of disasters and how human and environmental systems are impacted by not only natural disasters like earthquakes, but also technological disasters like war and conflict. Our ability to do great damage to ourselves and our environment has never been greater as was evidenced by the Chernobyl disaster. These disasters help us understand the challenges of environmental sustainability in a time of rapid change.

Chapter 5 steps away from disasters to examine how environmental sustainability is done. The chapter looks at data collection and management, big data, the Internet of things, and mapping and remote sensing. These fields have helped us put together information that allows us to understand environmental systems and their connections with human ones. Chapter 6 also focuses on the “how” of sustainability by looking at sustainability management at different scales. A big focus of this chapter is the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. However, the chapter also highlights how nations, states, businesses, and individuals manage sustainability to try to enhance the environment and overall environmental sustainability.

Part II includes several chapters that look at the connections among natural and human systems. It focuses heavily on the different ways that people look at sustainability within different contexts. In many wealthier parts of the world, sustainability concepts are used to limit the impacts of overconsumption, while in poorer parts of the world, sustainability concepts are used to try to enhance the human experience for those with limited resources. Chapter 7 looks at how sustainability is done in wealthy areas. It uses the term “surfing sustainability” as a metaphor for how sustainability is done here. While many individuals or organizations do great things to try to limit their overall environmental footprint, it is these wealthy areas that are responsible for creating environmental unsustainability. Thus, there is a bit of a schizophrenic approach to sustainability in the west. Chapter 8, in contrast, focuses on sustainability in poorer areas of the world. It uses the term “suffering sustainability” to denote the type of sustainability that is done in these areas which are confronted with poverty, conflict, and disasters. Here, many of the problems with environmental unsustainability are imposed upon people who have limited capacity to make ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Connections in Environmental Sustainability: Living in a Time of Rapid Environmental Change
• Part I
• Part II
• Back Matter