introduction: education and sustainable development

Introduction:

Education and Sustainable Development

The Earth is the bank upon which we draw all

our cheques

It is a 3.8 billion-year investment that created

our natural capital

Lets not spend it all at once….

The earth provides…………

1. Life support systems

2. Recreation, Leisure and Tourism

3. Providing waste decomposition - the place called ‘away’ - but in the future the earth will no longer be our

dustbin!

4. Providing Commodities - Raw Materials & Resources

Commodities - Raw Materials & Resources

• Timber

• Metals

• Chemicals

• Crops

• Wind & Waves

• Genes

• Everything in fact!!!!!

See the earth/environment as “nature”

and

for business it contains, provides for and sustains

the entire economy.

Commodity valuesretail price/Kg or litre in US $

• Human growth hormone: 20 million

• Cocaine: 150,000• Lear’s Macaw: 24,000• Gold 10,000• Bear Gall Bladders:

7,000• Saffron: 6,500

• Tiger bones: 3,000• Italian truffles: 650• Sharks fin: 550• Coffee:10• Cotton: 1.5• Petrol: 1.0

Roughly one fifth of all our products purchased at our local chemist’s shop owe their manufacture, in one way or another to start point materials from tropical rainforest organisms….these products range from antibiotics and antivirals, to diuretics and tranquillisers, to analgesics to contraceptives; and from skin creams to shampoos, among many other toiletry and cosmetic items…….

We sometimes forget that the environment is the place where we go to play!

When you see the next slide Read the words slowly and imagine each one of of the

sensations….

Outdoor environment

Moonlit meadows, crickets chirping, birds singing, snow crunching under foot, the smell of the spring thaw, summer sweetness, autumn decay, a salty breeze, burning leaves, the squish of mud, the sting of hot sand and the cold of snow are just a few among the plethora of sensory images we experience while outdoors. These sensations often tap emotionally and spiritually uplifting memories. (Consalvo, 1995)

The tourism industry is the biggest industry in the world….ecotourism and adventure tourism are also growing

rapidly

The animal business?

Not all business takes place in factories

Popular and unpopular animals

What if they became extinct………or extremely rare…….?

The ironic attraction of rarity

If the Mahogany trees are harvested for short term gain by one business then other

long term businesses loses out (e.g. tourism) – is this the right way to do

business?

This was the place where I lived in a hammock 30 years ago – it no longer exists

The Amazon Rainforests

• Water levels vary some 80 feet….• The region contains 2000+ species of

birds…there are only 8,600+ in the world• In the UK there are some 2,000 species of

flowering plants - in some rainforests there are over 80,000 species….

• 1,600 tropical plants have great potential as vegetable crops….

Gene Hunters……

One teaspoon of soil may contain 5 billion bacteria, 20 million fungi, and

1 million protocists………in one square metre…..there may be perhaps 100 of each of ants, spiders, wood lice,

beetles and their larva, 2000 earthworms, 8,000 slugs and snails,

20,000 pot worms, 40,000 springtails, 120,000 mites and 12 million

nematodes……

The $200 million Biosphere 2 Experiment

• 8 scientists entered a glass-enclosed 3.15 acre structure in Arizona….included a desert, a rainforest, a savannah, wetland and a field for farming…the ‘bionauts’ were accompanied by insects fish, reptiles and mammals especially selected to maintain the ecosystem functions…

The result

• Cockroaches multiplied rapidly, of the original 25 small vertebrate species 19 became extinct….and at the end of 17 months the drop in quality of the air was equivalent to the humans inside living at 17,500 altitude…..

• It cost $200 million to sustain 8 people for 24 months….!

African plant drug starves cancer

• Nigel Hawkins reports that the first trial of a cancer drug designed to starve tumours into submission has shown that it might work….

• Seventeen cancer patients …..

• The Times, October 5 1999….

Ecology and economy?

How do you stimulate and promote consumption whilst

promoting the conservation of natural resources?

Consider this statement

Patagonia wants to contribute to the formation

of an economy which restores the ecological health of the planet….

The square and the circleAll industries are experiencing regulatory forces that create

movement away from the circle.

take dump

E - E -

E +

Business will eventually produce more products and services that actually

produce environmental benefit….in order to do this we need to go beyond design for

recycling recovery and repair….here lie exciting opportunities to significantly rethink product design principles……