The Challenge of Sustainable Development H. Hamner Hill Political Science, Philosophy, and Religion Southeast Missouri State University

Factors Generating the Challenge of Sustainable Development Growth and Consumption Carrying Capacity Ecological Footprint Population Dynamics

Development, Growth and Consumption Development raises standards of living, particularly for the world’s poor. Increased standards of living increase consumption and pollution.

Carrying Capacity Carrying capacity is the number of individuals who can be supported in an area within natural resource limits, without degrading those natural resources for present and future generations. No population can live beyond the environment's carrying capacity for very long.

Sustainability Model  We can calculate how much biological productive area we have.  We can calculate how much we are using.  Living sustainable means that we are not living beyond what is available.  Sustainable development means that we are not growing beyond what is available.

SO, what is the earth’s carrying capacity for human beings—what is our largest sustainable population?

Ecological Footprint The amount of productive land and water a given population requires to produce all the resources they consume and take in all the waste they make using prevailing technology (Onisto et al. 1998) Footprint size varies with consumption— the more you consume, the larger your footprint.

Footprint and Carrying Capacity Carrying capacity is not a question of the number of heads, it is a question of the size of the feet.

Resources available to 6 billion humans 2.3 hectares of of biologically productive land and sea per person set aside 12% as recommended by the Bruntland Commission to protect biodiversity = 2.0 hectares per person

Ecological Footprint Comparison United States – 9.7 ha/capita Canada – 8.4 ha/capita France – 5.3 ha/capita Japan – 4.8 ha/capita Zimbabwe – 1.3 ha/capita China – 1.2 ha/capita India – 0.8 ha/capita Bangladesh – 0.5 ha/capita Global Average: 2.3 hectares/capita

Netherlands’ Ecological Footprint Compared to Size

The richest fifth: account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures, the poorest fifth 1.3%. consume 45% of all meat and fish, the poorest fifth 5% consume 58% of total energy, the poorest fifth less than 4% consume 84% of all paper, the poorest fifth 1.1% own 87% of the world’s vehicle fleet, the poorest fifth less than 1% (UNDP, 1998).

 In a world of limited resources and limited waste assimilation capacity, excess consumption by the rich literally requires that others live in poverty if we are not to exceed the Earth’s physical carrying capacity.  Ecological footprint analysis dissolves the illusion that we can improve the living standards of the poor without curbing the excess consumption of the rich.  The rich of the world must accept smaller shoes.

Catch-22 for Sustainable Development Material growth, at least in the poor countries, is essential for socioeconomic sustainability, yet any global increase in material consumption is ecologically unsustainable.