Chapter one“Toward A Sustainable Future”

“Be a student as long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life”. – Henry L. Doherty

Chapter one

Sustainability of the world's natural resources must occur to prevent repetitions of what happened

on Easter Island......................

Chapter one Easter Island is a lonely island on Earth, much like Earth is isolated in the universe. Environmental practices on Easter Island can, therefore, provide useful lessons for environmental stewardship on planet Earth..... . What went wrong? While numerous explanations have been proposed, the most plausible is the non-sustainable use of a crucial renewable resource. Wood was obtained from a slow-growing, subtropical palm and was the pervasive eco-resource supporting the islanders' food (nuts, birds, boats for fish), economy (cooking, heating, housing materials) and culture (moving statues). Documented deforestation, attributable to overuse, resulted in the rapid collapse of the society. This historical example of non-sustainable environmental behaviour by a sophisticated society has many advantages as a case study for the current teaching of relevant lessons in sustainability.

Chapter one

A global environmental picture:The ecological footprint1. is a measure of human demand on the

Earth's ecosystems.2. It is a standardized measure of demand for natural

capital that may be contrasted with the planet'secological capacity to regenerate.

3. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, and to assimilate associated waste.

4. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody followed a given lifestyle.

Chapter one

The Global Environmental Picture:

Four global trends are particularly concerning:

1) population growth and economic development

2) a decline of vital life-support ecosystems,

(Millennium Ecosystem Assessment)

3) global atmospheric changes, and

(The Kyoto Protocol)

4) a loss of biodiversity.

Chapter one

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is presented

as a new effort to understand the links between human well-being and the goods and services provided by ecosystems.

assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being.

assess the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contribution to human well-being.

Conceptual Framework for MillenniumEcosystem Project

Chapter one

Strategic themes: deal with how we should conceptualize

our task of forging a sustainable future.

Sustainability

Stewardship

Science

Chapter one

Three Integrative Themes

Integrative themes describe some of the dimensions of what we are dealing with as humans draw their sustenance from the natural world and inevitably affect it.

Ecosystem capital(Good and Services)

(Exploitation)

(Protecting Ecosystem Capital)

Politics and policy (Local level, broader level)

globalization (economic and environment changes)

Chapter one

Four Dimensions to SustainableSolutions

• Environmental

• Social

• Economic

• Political

How will our world be in the 21st

century?