Environmental geography

1. Chapter 2: Search for an Enduring Balance
GEOG 106

2. Chapter 2 Overview:
• UN (global) conferences on sustainable
development,
• Human impact on the environment
since the Industrial Revolution,
• Environmental trends in wealthy
(developed) and poor (developing and
deprived) states,

3. Chapter 2 Overview:
• Introduction to sustainable
development,
• Mechanistic and organic views of
nature,
• Environmental accounting: tragedy of
the commons and external costs,
• Sustainable reduction of poverty,

4. Chapter 2 Overview:
• Reforming agriculture,
• Reforming energy use,
• Sustainable economic systems versus
traditional economic growth,
• Four geographic factors to consider for
sustainable development,

5. Chapter 2 Overview:
• Grass-roots (bottom-up) effort to
implement sustainable land use, and
• How do we measure sustainability?

6. Selected UN Conferences on
Sustainable Development:
• UNCED “Earth Summit” in Rio de
Janeiro (climate change, biodiversity,
and desertification) in 1992,
• UN Conference on Population and
Development in 1994, and
• UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change Conference, held annually
since 1995.

7. Brief Timeline of UN Climate
Change Conferences:
• 1995: Berlin, Germany,
• 1996: Geneva, Switzerland,
• 1997: Tokyo, Japan (Kyoto Protocol),
• 1998: Buenos Aires, Argentina,
• 1999: Bonn, Germany,
• 2000: The Hague, Netherlands,

8. Brief Timeline of UN Climate
Change Conferences:
• 2001: Bonn, Germany and Marrakech,
Morocco,
• 2002: New Delhi, India,
• 2003: Milan, Italy,
• 2004: Buenos Aires, Argentina,
• 2005: Montreal, Canada,
• 2006: Nairobi, Kenya,

9. Brief Timeline of UN Climate
Change Conferences:
• 2007: Bali, Indonesia,
• 2008: Poznan, Poland, and
• 2009: Copenhagen, Denmark, 7-18
December.

10. Where do we stand on the
UNFCCC?
• To date, 192 states (countries) have
ratified the Convention since 1994.
• While the Convention encourages
industrialized (developed) states to
stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, the
Kyoto Protocol - adopted in 1997 and
entered into force in 2005 - commits
them to do so.

11. Where do we stand on the
UNFCCC?
• As of January 2009, 183 parties have
ratified the Kyoto Protocol,
• Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized
(developed) states agreed to reduce
their collective greenhouse gas
emissions by 5.2 percent below 1990
levels,

12. Where do we stand on the
UNFCCC?
• Individual greenhouse gas reductions
include:
– 8 percent for EU member states,
– 7 percent for the US,
– 6 percent for Japan,
– 0 percent for Russia,
– 8 percent increase for Australia, and
– 10 percent increase for Iceland.

13. Where do we stand on the
UNFCCC?
• Emissions trading, also known as
“carbon credits” and sustainable
development are key components of
the Kyoto Protocol.
• Although the US has signed the
Protocol, it has neither ratified nor
withdrawn from the Protocol.

14. Where do we stand on the
UNFCCC?
• As of April 2009, US President Barack
Obama has not yet encouraged
ratification of the Kyoto Protocol,
explaining that it was about to expire (it
is set to expire in 2012).

15. What else should we know about
the US?
• The US is the second-largest emitter of
carbon dioxide from power (mainly electrical
and heat) generation, trailing only China.
• The US the is largest per capita emitter of
carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil
fuels.
• The US is the second-largest per capita
emitter of carbon dioxide from power, trailing
only Australia.

16. Other geographies of support
within the US:
• Although the US - as a national state - has
not yet officially ratified the Kyoto Protocol,
there is large local and regional support.
• As of November 2008:
– Eight northeastern states created the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a “cap and
trade” program.
• In September 2006:
– California Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB
32 - the Global Warming Solutions Act - into law.

17. Other geographies of support
within the US:
• As of June 2009:
– 944 cities in 50 states, DC, and PR support the
Kyoto Protocol,
– This represents roughly 80 million Americans, and
– Kyoto Now! student action group.

18. Change in greenhouse gas
emissions: 1992-2007:
Country
Change in greenhouse gas
Emissions (1992-2007)
India + 103%
China + 150%
United States + 20%
Russian Federation - 20%
Japan + 11%
Worldwide Total + 38%

19. Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Today

20. Section 2.2: Growing Environmental
Impact of Human Activity:
• Since the beginning of the 19th century
(actually, since the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution):
– Exponential human population growth,
– Increased urbanization, and
– Increased use of resources, especially
non-renewable natural resources.

21. Section 2.2: Growing Environmental
Impact of Human Activity:
• Globally, 9 million km2
(2.5 million mi2
) and
new cropland have been developed,
• This has resulted in:
– Loss of forest and forest habitat,
– Loss of grassland and grassland habitat,
– Increased soil erosion,
– Increased pollution of soil, air, and water, and
expansion of deserts (the process of
desertification).

22. ENVIRONMENTAL GEOGRAPHY
Fig 2.1: Examples of global environmental problems.

23. Rocinha, Brazil

24. Brazil

25. Mumbai, India

26. Lima, Peru

27. Outside Mexico City

28. Tropical Deforestation - Ecuador

29. Tropical Deforestation - Brazil

30. Who is cutting down all the
trees?

32. Tropical
Deforestation
- Indonesia
Island of Borneo

33. Cropland Erosion

34. Cropland Erosion

35. Acid Rain
Canada
Poland

36. Focus on the Fuel Wood Crisis:
Fig 2.2: Overuse of land has created a fuel wood crisis in Afghanistan.

37. The Global Fuel Wood Crisis:
• Although wood (biomass) is considered
a renewable resource, it is nonetheless
being depleted.
• Especially acute shortages of fuel wood
have occurred in the developing and
deprived states since the 1970s.

38. Deforestation Ethiopia

39. The Global Fuel Wood Crisis:
• In some cases and
location, the fuel wood
crisis has been mitigated
by use of kerosene,
natural gas, and solar
ovens.
• However, large portions
of sub-Saharan Africa
remain in the grip of the
fuel wood crisis.

40. The Global Fuel Wood Crisis:
• An estimated 2 to 3 billion people use
wood in some form every day, primarily
for home heating and cooking.
• Deprived states like Ethiopia, Nepal,
and Bangladesh use wood and
charcoal for more than 90 percent of
their energy needs.

41. The Global Fuel Wood Crisis:
• Not only does the fuel wood crisis result in
deforestation and related environmental
problems, but also it:
– Further binds deprived states into a cycle of
poverty,
– Reduces economic productivity,
– Disproportionally impacts women (30 percent of
their time spent in search of fuel wood), and
– Households may spend more than one-third of
their annual income on purchasing fuel wood.

42. Fuel Wood Crisis in Africa:

43. Fuel Wood Crisis in Africa:

44. Haiti

45. Section 2.2: Growing Environmental
Impact of Human Activity:
• Resource degradation in developing and
deprived states:
– Continued large family size and rapid population
growth,
– Although more than 80 percent of the world’s
population, they use less than 25 percent of the
world’s resources,
– Access to food, clean water, education, and
medical clinics remains limited, and
– Natural resource depletion continues.

46. Section 2.3: Sustainable Land Use:
Key to Environmental Management:
• Sustainable development:
– Maintain basic natural resources on which
humankind depends,
– Drawing upon “interest” from an “environmental
bank” instead of drawing down the “principle,”
– Economic development strategies designed to
reduce environmental impacts, maintain the
resource base, and allow economic development
to continue, and
– A set of development strategies that meet current
needs without compromising future generations.

47. Section 2.2: Growing Environmental
Impact of Human Activity:
• Rapid, unsustainable economic growth in the
developed states:
– Small family size and low population growth,
– Although only 20 percent of the world’s population,
they use 70 to 80 percent of the world’s resources,
– Good access to food, clean water, education, and
medical clinics, and
– Natural resource depletion continues and pollution
of the air, water, and soil continues.

48. Is this the best development model?
Fig 2.4: Promotion of Western-style consumerism in India.

49. How do we create sustainable development?
Fig 2.4: Promotion of Western-style consumerism in China.

50. Section 2.2: Growing Environmental
Impact of Human Activity:
• Environmental accounting:
– “Tragedy of the Commons,”
– Consideration of traditional economic costs as well
as external costs, and
– Emissions trading (cap-and-trade), as proposed
within the UNFCCCC and Kyoto Protocol.

51. Reducing poverty and creating sustainable agriculture:
Fig 2.5: Four sustainable requirements for breaking the poverty cycle.

52. Promoting efficient raw material and energy use:
Fig 2.6: Mineral and
fuel extraction trends
during the past 30
years.

53. Rare Earth Elements

54. Rare Earth Elements Mine – Mojave Desert California

55. Rare earth mining near Longyan, Fujian Province, China

56. Geography matters in creating
sustainable development:
Fig 2.7: Water resource issues in three poor (developing and
deprived) states: a) Oman is a desert with only scattered oases, b)
Egypt is also a desert but with the Nile River (exotic river), and c)
Madagascar is influenced by the orographic effect.

57. Section 2.6: Some Geographic
Requisites for Sustainability:
• IMF, World Bank, and other NGOs must
participate and cooperate,
• Developed, developing, and deprived
states must participate and cooperate,
and
• Geography matters!

58. Section 2.6: Some Geographic
Requisites for Sustainability:
• Four geographic considerations:
– First: Sustainable development must be built upon
geographically available, sustainable resources,
– Second: Development must be geographically
focused to do the most good,
– Third: Sustainable development must incorporate
a state’s educational system, and
– Fourth: Development programs must fit with
culture, folk customs, governance, religion, land
use, and other practices.

59. Section 2.7: A Grass-Roots Effort at
Sustainable Land Use:
• Textbook example of the Rishi Valley in India.

60. Samso Island, Denmark – Good
Example of Sustainability

61. Section 2.8: Measuring
Sustainability:
• How do we know when we have achieved
“sustainability?”
• Is it merely a balance between input and
output (e.g. wood cut, versus wood grown)?
• What else do we need to include?
• Inclusion of key natural and human systems.