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CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
AND PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAGEMENT
by Sergey Spitskiy
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Principal aims:To study origins of the concept and history of its
development
To understand the principal ideology of
environmental management
Tooutline the role ofengineers in modernisation
of industry, economy and society towards moresustainable patterns
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Section IPre-history and origin of the concept
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What are the core ideas?
a) The Earth is not infinite (physically)
(understood well enough since rather early times)b) Whatever people have, they could get it from
the Earths resources only(also quite a straightforward idea)
c) People like to reproduce and tend tomultiply(a tendency which could be seen in every society)
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Question:
How many people can live on
Earth to enjoy having all their
needs satisfied?
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Some figures: Earth population
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
-2000 -1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000 1500 2000
Year
opulation,mi
ll.
Population figurespresent are
estimates, showingonly the generaltrend
(2000 BC 1900 AD)
What we can seehere is an
exponentialgrowth curve
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Reasons for growth:Philosophy of the Enlightenment:
Development and expansion ofscience
New understanding ofhuman rights
Rethinking ofeconomy
caused development ofmany things, e.g.: New technologies
Newopportunities
New needs
New society
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And the result:
1) Agricultural
2) Industrial
3) Political4) Cultural
REVOLUTIONS
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Positive results of growth
6
8
6 6
Ye r
Global GDP(here: calculated in billions of
international dollars, rescaled interms ofpurchasing power
parity)
Growing economiescan deliver more
products and services
to same people orthe same amounts tomore people.
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BUT:There is no such thing
as a free lunch(B. Commoner)
There are always some
adverse effects comingalongside with thepositive results
Overuse of the land
Desertification
Migration
Urbanisati
on
Pollution
Health problems
Poverty
Epidemies
Social disparity
Adoption ofagricultural technologies was The worst mistake in the historyof the human race (J. Diamond, Discover-May 1987, pp. 64-66)
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Rethinking of the progress
Thomas Robert Malthus(17661834)
An Essay on the
Principle ofPopulation
Six editions published between 1798 and 1826.
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Malthus Iron Law of Population
1) Population growth2) Increasing labour power supply
3) Decreasing wages
4) Increasing powerty
(economical theory ofpopulation growth consequences)
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Environmental perspective: Population is growing in geometrical
(exponential) progression;
Natural subsistence (produced by peoplethrough interactions with nature) is growing
in arithmetical (linear) progression;
There should be a limit to the populationgrowth, when the two progressions cross.
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Criticism
...the crudest, most barbarous theory that everexisted, a system of despair (F. Engels)
The theory and forecasts were not approved by thereal life
Had not accounted for progress (in science,technics, economy, etc.)
Had overvalued some factors (e.g. as famine) onthe human populations
etc.
Immorality of the concept itself:
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BUT
Was Malthus reallywrong?
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We shall see later
End of Section I
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Reading list: Malthus, T. (1798) An Essay on the Principle of Population
Neo-Malthusians:
Ehrlich, P.R. (1968) The Population Bomb
Meadows, D. (2004) Limits to Growth: The 30-year Update
Opponents:
Simon, J. (1996) The Ultimate Resource 2 Lomborg, B. (2001) The Skeptical Environmentalist:
Measuring the Real State of the World