1. SOCI 220 DEVELOPMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT

2. UN Millennium Development Goal 7:
Ensure environmental sustainability

3. Impacts of economic growth on the natural environment - 1
Capital-intensive agriculture strains natural resources
Deforestation
Depletion and pollution of water resources
Desertification
Disruption of ecosystems
Disruption of subsistence economies of indigenous people

4. Impacts of economic growth on the natural environment - 2
Industrial growth strains the natural environment
Carbon emissions
Air pollution
Water pollution
Deforestation
 Global warming

5. Environmentalist movements
Draw attention to the limitedness of natural resources
Draw attention to negative impacts of industrial lifestyle on the environment
Call for “sustainable development”
Call for preservation of ecosystems

6. Sustainable development
Intersection of
environmentalist groups’ demands
international development agencies’ concerns
Sustainable development
“Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
(from the Brundtland Commission Report, 1987)

7. International concern about the environment
1987: Brundtland Commissions’ Report
1992: UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro)
1992: World Development Report: Sustainable Development (World Bank)
1997: Kyoto Protocol on limiting CO2 emissions
2002: World Summit on Sustainability (Johannesburg)
2007: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
2009: Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change

8. Emergence of international concern
Brundtland Report (Our Common Future, 1987, UN World Commission on Environment and Development)
Rich industrial nations make greater pressure on natural resources
But poverty in the developing world also strains natural resources
(What’s the relation between environmental degradation and wealth and poverty?)

9. Brundtland Report (cont’d)
Economic growth should continue
Emphasis on conservation of natural resources
Encouraging grassroots involvement in development
Energy-saving technologies
How would you criticize the Brundtland report?

10. International concern shifts emphasis
Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg summits:
“Global management of the environment”
Emphasis on operation of global markets while protecting the environment
Phil McMichael: this is a consequence of the “Globalization Project”

11. Global environmental management
Four priorities
reducing greenhouse gas emissions
protecting biodiversity
reducing pollution in international waters
curbing ozone-layer depletion

12. Global environmental management
What were the goals of the Copenhagen climate change summit?
decide on greenhouse gas emission rates
decide on who should cut greenhouse gas emissions
decide on how much the North should financially help the South for cutting emissions

13. What does the agreement signed at Copenhagen say?
Wants to limit global temparature rises to 2 degrees Celcius
Promises to help poor countries cope with the consequences of global warming, and with environmentally safe technologies
But no commitments!
Brokers of the agreement: US, China, Brazil, South Africa, India

14. Aspects of Global Environmental Management
International agreements
Kyoto Protocol (ratified in 2005)
New role for the World Bank
Global Environmental Facility (GEF)
Emphasis on “sustainable development”
“Environmental assessment” reports
Emphasis on “markets” as a regulator of natural resources
Concern about “population” as a strain on the environment

15. Environmental resistance movements
“Southern environmentalism”
resistance to the invasion of natural habitats by states or companies
adaptation: renewing habitats that are environmentally degraded
finding non-capital-intensive and environmentally safe ways for producing their subsistence
(examples: indigeneous movements for land rights, against commercial logging, commercial plantations, mining, etc.)

16. How does the documentary “Sumatra’s Troubles” address the issues of
sustainable development,
environmental degradation?