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Grigas D. (2016, May)
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WHY IS BECOMING SELF-SUFFICIENT AND SELF-SUSTAINABLE
INEVITABLE?
Darius Grigas
Student Number: 1311837
Dissertation: Politics
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ABSTRACT
‘The world in a general view seems to be very polluted and misbalanced. After many years of
consistency in terms of our environment there is a need to examine particular changes in more
detail. The project attempts to show that most of our environmental issues are man-made, but
there are ways to reverse the harm done to nature. I will go through the issues that are
important not only for us at the present, but for our future generations as well. I will also suggest
how may we adopt, rather than try to overcome nature and live with one in harmony. My study
also reveals the lack of participation not only on the individual, but on a global scale as well,
arguing that states could do more to secure their resources.’
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Content page
Introduction………………………………………………………………4
Chapter 1: Everything contributes to one big crisis………………….5
1.1 Pollution……………………………………………………………...5
1.2 Deforestation………………………………………………………...6
1.3 Climate change……………………………………………………...7
1.4 Consumerism and the environment……………………………….8
Chapter 2: Methodology………………………………………………...9
Chapter 3: Findings……………………………………………………..11
Chapter 4: How does global governance react to environmental
issues?…………………………………….……….…………………….14
Chapter 5: New technologies and solutions………………………….17
5.1 Aquaponics………………………………………………...………..17
5.2 Free energy and clean water………………………………………19
Conclusion………………………………………………………………..22
Bibliography………………………………………………………………23
Appendix………………………………………….………………………26
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INTRODUCTION
I was born at the end of the 20th century. Environmental issues never came across me
as a devastating problem in our society. Only recently academics have realized how many
issues are approaching us and our future generations. After some research done, I have
realized that many of these issues did not exist prior the industrialization period, which evolved
in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The chapters in this project will help me come to a conclusion step-by-step. At the
beginning of the dissertation I will review the environmental issues that in my opinion are man-
made. The first chapter will include issues such as deforestation, pollution and climate change
in order to show that the planet is degrading. At the end of the chapter I will identify consumers
as a primary cause for our environmental degradation.
In the second chapter I will use normative theory to try and persuade the reader to
rethink his contribution to the safety of the environment on a daily basis. By the help of
quantitive and experimental political methods I will explore and test environmental awareness of
individuals from different backgrounds to see whether environmental education is necessary.
The findings themselves will be explored by evaluating my personal experiment, an
awareness test and normative theory. Each of which is crucially important for the success of this
project. The study itself will review how environmentally aware is a small group of people and
how difficult was using the experimental political science. The chapter will end with an interview
that has provided with a lot of information that is relevant to the study.
The next chapter will discuss environmental policies and governmental actions in terms
of the environment. It seems that global governance is not ready for the shift that is inevitable in
my opinion, but no action has been taken and silence is their only weapon to fight in this battle
for our eco-system. The chapter shows that there is no crucial action taken by our global
governance in order to reverse this man-made harm for the environment.
The following chapter will introduce my proposed solutions to revive our eco-system,
which will include solutions for water, food and energy supplies. The main argument in this
chapter is that there is new technology to implement in our everyday lives and that anyone can
practice it. The chapter will introduce how scholars around the world are discussing the
possibility of becoming self-sufficient.
At the final stage of the paper I will conclude what should we do in relation to Normative
theory and what could the states do to promote self-sufficiency and sustainability, before the
environment made it inevitable.
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CHAPTER 1: EVERYTHING CONTRIBUTES TO ONE BIG CRISIS
In this chapter my goal is to introduce the reader with the harm already done to the
environment. The Issues we are going to be looking at is deforestation, plastic pollution, air
pollution, climate change and the harm that these will bring upon our species.
1.1 Pollution.
According to Eriksen et.al(2014) our seas are contaminated by plastic pieces and other
waste that is getting dumped out in the water. Their study claims that in 2014 there was trillions
of plastic pieces floating at sea: ‘based on our model results we estimate that at least 5.25
trillion plastic particles weighting 268,940 tons are currently floating at sea.’(2014,pp.7) The
numbers are hard to imagine and to think of collecting all the particles would be a task that
would carry on for decades. The authors also explain that this type of pollution has a huge
impact on the biological wellbeing of the sea creatures that are being trapped in the waste and
die due to the toxic level of contaminated water, which is clearly man-made. They also argue
that: ‘this leaves sequestration in sediment the likely resting place for plastic pollution after a
myriad of biological impacts along the way, thus reinforcing the need for pre-consumer and
post-consumer waste stream solutions to reverse this growing environmental problem.’(Eriksen
et.al,2014,pp.11-12) My main fear of this problem is that the seas may become so contaminated
that we will not be able to feed of them anymore. Sea-life might get contaminated to such a level
from our toxic pollution that will be no longer edible, but the authors have a deeper concern
looking at the present, because their expectations were to find a lot more by their statistical
research of this sort of pollution and yet the true issue remains: ‘Where is all the
plastic?’(2014,pp.12)
Despite sea pollution, there are other types of pollution that we need to be concentrated
on, it is growing much faster - air pollution. In urban areas pollution is mostly caused by vehicles
in the city.(Ayed et.al,2015) The CO2 emissions spread by vehicles are the most common toxic
waste in urban areas, where in Europe it contributes to 20% of all emission in the air according
to Ayed et.al, who did a study on urban pollution in Nis, Serbia. The study was in regards to
traffic inspired emissions. The analysis showed that in busier streets the emission levels are
much higher than in other less busy streets: ‘on observed sections, the specific emissions are
11 times higher compared to the rest of the streets in the city.’(Ayed et.al,2015,pp.2743) In spite
of air pollution at such rates, it will harm the public living in the city. Szyszkowicz in 2015
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claimed that there is a great harm coming, in terms of air pollution, where he claims that: ‘to
describe the same reality: risk of public health deterioration due to air pollution.’(2015, pp.829)
In regards the author also says that it is a:’modifiable health risk factor.’(2015,pp.823) In spite,
here is another issue that may be added to the man-made crisis, which is dissolving our
population very slowly. First, we need to consider what does air pollution lead us to? The
answer is greenhouse gasses. CO2 emissions are one of the major contributors for the
greenhouse effect.(Indira et.al,2012) Authors Indira and Srividya in 2012 wrote a paper
analyzing other types of greenhouse emissions. The paper was written in regards to live stock
and that it may produce a huge amount of toxic waste which will contribute to greenhouse
emissions. They named livestock food chains as large contributors to greenhouse emissions.
Livestock, as for example pigs produce 4 times more waste then humans. Livestock producers
grow thousands of pigs in a small area, which may produce waste equivalent to a small country
side town. It is a lot of waste to use environmentally friendly, but the need for meat in the 21st
century is desperate, because people like to eat a lot and the variety of choice inspired by a
consumer society will only increase the number of livestock in such farms. According to Indira
and Srividya, livestock may be related to cause other environmental harms, for instance
deforestation due to farm size increase.
1.2 Deforestation
It is known that tree's clean our air. The issues with deforestation is that we are
destroying our filters from the face of our polluted globe. There are many participants within this
environmental issue scope. Many may say that deforestation is a cause of urbanization or even
development.
T. Tsurumi and S. Managi in 2014 did a research on trade openness effects in relation to
deforestation. According to them there are 4 main causes that relate to deforestation: ‘...the
desire to convert forest to pasture and crop land, increasing fuel wood demand, the harvesting
on logs and urbanization.’(2014,pp.307) Their study showed that an increase of trade openness
will slow down deforestation for developed countries and that it will increase it for developing
countries. In Pakistan’s case deforestation has caused much environmental changes in 'Thak
Valley'.(Batool et.al,2015) The results of an area of a forest destroyed is various climatic
changes that has inspired the lack of rainfall. It must be noted that trees are really long growers
and it must be done in a more sustainable manner. With the current depletion of forest areas
around the world, it is important that we must manage these renewable resources in a
sustainable manner. Deforestation may lead to greater impacts of our eco-system, because it
also has an effect on wildlife.(Eaton et.al,2015) Wildlife has to migrate every time humans
decide to destroy their homes. Eaton et.al (2015), in their research has analyzed the effect of
deforestation for white-lipped peccary, and due to it there are populations destroyed for the
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inability to migrate to new areas. Their work identifies rather similar consequences in terms of
deforestation: ‘deforestation and expansion of large-scale cattle ranching and agriculture on the
plateaus encircling the Pantanal, hydroelectric projects in head water basins, gold and iron
mining, and environmentally disastrous development schemes for increasing barge traffic on the
Rio Paraguay.’(2015,pp.491) Deforestation has a negative impact on people as well. It does
produce other issues as a lack of clean air, soil degradation, wildlife destruction, climate related
effects.
1.3 Climate change
Climate change has been a result of all the issues previously listed above.
Everything has a major impact to our eco-system that is surrounding us. In 2011, the
Population and Development review on climate change was showed as a real concern
for international security. According to the document, the latest increase in temperature
did not occur for several thousands of years, but suddenly everything has changed and
the increase in temperature rise did happen after the start of the 20th century. The total
temperature increase was by 0.76C(Celsius), but most of it happened at the end of the
20th century, when climate change has been finally recognized as a major threat and
more research finally came into place. Even though these numbers do not say a lot, but
it does show a big influence made to our eco-system. There are many ways how this
has grown to be an issue on such scale. Probably the most important issues surrounding
environmental disasters is their outcomes:’...the International Displacement Monitoring
Centre (IDMC) estimated that ‘sudden natural disasters’ displaced 42million people in
2010.’(2014,pp.604) These sudden natural disasters are the cause of all of our impact
done to nature. There are other issues that are surrounding climate change, which is
food insecurity, conflict over resources and growing global insecurity. According to the
World Bank study:‘a one-meter sea-level rise would affect 84 developing countries
alone.’(2014,604), these numbers are frightening just by thinking how many countries
with coasts will have cities built around them. The world as we know it will never be the
same due to the environmental issues, that we humans have created ourselves. All the
issues that I have mentioned above contributes to global warming. Pollution, greenhouse
gasses, deforestation..., does eventually end up in the stage of climate change. It affects
us greatly, but in this paper I will not attempt to discuss the issues in more detail, but
rather evaluate how is this leading us to be more sufficient, sustainable and why is this
issues our responsibility to fix.
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1.4 Consumerism and the environment
Environmental degradation is considered to be caused by consumer behavior. (Popescu
and Iosim,2015) G. Popescu and I. Iosim in 2015 has carried out a study, which acknowledged
that consumer behavior is a huge part of what we see today in our environmental outcomes.
Despite the outcomes, the authors claim that the power to reverse how consumers polluted the
planet is possible. In 1996, Britain had a situation of the so called 'Mad Cow Disease'*, which
left millions of people changing their daily diet in spite of the disease: ‘Such feeding phobias led
to distrust the methods of modern industrial production, especially in the food industry, as a
result of the logic expressed by many consumers, namely ‘when you turn cows into cannibals
only for money obvious that the things do not work properly’. It was suggested that we live in a
risk society…'(Popescu and Iosim,2015,pp.123) such a risk society is responsible for building up
such corporations that bring genetically modified organisms (GMO) on the shelves of the
supermarket. In spite of the power to build-up such organizations there is also power to
demolish them. The power to put such organs in decline is by boycotting them, which requires
massive shifts in opinions: ‘a negative experience can trigger an organized and devastating
reaction, as when a consumer group organize a boycott of the products of the
company.’(Popescu and Iosim,2015,pp.125) In relation to this claim the power of consumer
choices may be very devastating not only for big supply chains, but to their personal health as
well. The case also applies in terms of their casted votes in their local governments: ‘Political
consumer 'votes for his own shopping cart' in attempt to make companies to take into account
the natural environment, but also the human one,…'(Popescu and Iosim,2015,pp.126) There is
a need to realize that consumerism works 'vice versa' - You get for what you vote. The next
chapter will overlook the methodology and practices carried out for the project and also the
practical side of our everyday politics towards our well-being.
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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
The methodology carried out by me for this project is combined of three main tools for
the project in order to succeed in my goal - to show that self-sufficiency and self-sustainability is
inevitable. I will be using Normative theory, which developed in the modern period and has been
concerned with what is truly the best way to live for an individual, or on the social aggregate
level.(Marsh and Stoker,2010) Even though it is closely related to liberalism according to Marsh
and Stoker(2010), which in my opinion is not the best approach for the environment, but by my
understanding it could be transformed in the sense of the environment, which would spread
environmental co-operation and would make strong international relationships between the state
and the individual to help our eco-system recover from the man-made environmental crisis that
we see today and for many more days to come. Another side of normative theory that caught
my attention is that it is very relevant to what Plato was writing in the books of 'the Republic'*. In
book 4 of 'the Republic' Plato has taken upon to answer the question of a city that would seem
to be whole in every sense. According to Bailey et.al(2008) Plato said that: ‘It seems then that
the capacity for each in the city to perform his own task rivals wisdom, moderation and courage
as a source of excellence for the city.’(2008,pp.76) I would strongly agree to this in the sense
that everyone should choose the task that they want to participate in and then when the task is
comforting the individual spiritually it will be done to the fullest and the republic will thrive. This is
the account of the normative theory in constructing my approach for this study. This concept
would allow each one of us to choose our own path within the society and to filter out what is
really necessary for our existence and the pursuit of happiness.
There will also be 2 methods of political science that I will have to use to prove my
argument. First, the quantitive method of political science, which is formed as a test combined of
ten question with multiple choices for the correct answers on particular questions. The purpose
of this test is to check if people are aware of environmental issues that we are encountering and
its consequences towards our future. Marsh and Stoker(2010) has explained that the
quantitative research method is not only graphs and numbers, but actually a very complex
analysis of massive amounts of data that are being collected through various ways including
Questionnaires and even Tests. I chose this method, because it will clearly in my opinion show,
whether the people do know what is happening to the environment and our species. The test
itself is included in the appendix to be evaluated by the reader for its complexity and relevance
of the questions. Second, the experimental method of political science. This method has
recently only entered the world of political science.(Marsh and Stoker,2010) The authors think
that it has an increasing importance for the contribution of political science, because it was
thought before that many political theories could not be examined in the field, but now that we
have expanded our technological advantages and also found different relations between politics
and everything else that is going on in the world. The method is also the cause of the expansion
of political science as a study, because new political ideas may be tested in practice. (Marsh
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and Stoker,2010) In my case the experimental method that I will use is of aquaponics. It is a
soilless ecological food production system, which I will further discuss in the coming chapters.
My experiment will include building one of these systems in my own garden to evaluate how
complicated it would be to be self-sufficient in the 21st century. The idea of the experiment is to
build a closed-loop system, which will grow fish and plants in harmony providing the plants with
nutrients from fish waste and cleaning the water for the fishes as it come back into their tank.
The plant I choose is 'Cos Lettuce', because it is one of the best growing plants in this type of
system. (Love et.al,2014, Elia et.al,2014) The purpose of this field study is to show that an
individual as myself with no greater environmental or practical building knowledge can set up a
system that will provide me with lettuce for an infinitive amount of time in the most ecological
way possible. The success of the study would prove that everyone would be capable of being
self-sufficient and self-sustainable by their own, with their variety of foods, which would save a
lot of money and also would let us check out of supermarkets, which according to Raj
Patel(2012) would be extremely beneficial for us. This approach would lead us to more
ecological foods that may be grown by an individual with some free space to grow at least a part
of his own food without any fertilizers, but if this practice would succeed within the national, or
state level allowing states to be self-sufficient would change the 'game' completely. There is
also an interview included in the appendix of an environmental organization, in order to evaluate
how effective are these type of organizations in the social aggregate level.
Figure 1(cos lettuce)
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CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS
In This Chapter we will discuss the findings that I have concluded by the study I carried
out. I will evaluate the test that I composed to see how aware are people of our environmental
degradation, then I will evaluate my personal experiment to build the aquaponic system, which
will be also included in the solution chapter, Finally I will carry on with an interview of an Non-
governmental organization, which is implementing change in the community of Leytonstone,
London. Finally I will evaluate whether environmental education is required for people to
understand the harm done to nature, and the solutions of how can we reverse what we already
did to it.
The test results described in the methodology chapter and in the appendix, showed
expected results. 28 participants completed the test and out of 280 total points, the total point
summary was 182 that is not that far over half of all possible scores. It shows that social
awareness at the social aggregate level is not enough for awareness to raise questions for
solutions. Rather I would claim that the society need more institutions to co-operate and spread
environmental knowledge and awareness for people to participate better towards helping our
environment recover. People need to participate more and co-operate with organizations and
movements towards helping new solutions to take control of our production system and the best
to for this is spreading awareness, because then societies opinions may shift for the better. The
overall evaluation of the test was a success, even though people were shy of their participation
in such a project. The chart below shows how participants answered the questions and, which
questions were most challenging.
25
18
21 21 20
18
6
13
26
14
0
8
15
23
30
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question
10
Correct answers
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In terms of the environmental organisations acting about change, in my research I have
established to meet with the head coordinator of Transition Leytonstone - Shannon Thaden. He
was very helpful in relation to my study by answering the questions I was concerned about in
terms of operating such an organization. Organization Leytonstone is an organization that is
transitioning away from a global petroleum based economy. The impact done by the
organization is not huge, but has an impact on the local community. The various projects
participated by the organization aims to increase environmental education and awareness of
what a healthier life would look like. The main difficulties by the organization is the lack of
participants, who provide environmental education and participants, who would be attracted to
such practices. The organization chosen gardening, because it appeals to everyone and the
knowledge to produce some food at home may not be just smart, but healthy as well. In
Shannon's opinion there may be a lot of things that could trigger the human mind into being
more environmentally aware, one of those is having children and being concerned for their
future. For Shannon, the environment that he grew up in and his professional education
background has been a big influence on being more aware overall. This particular study showed
that we need to be concerned for our future generations and that the environment surrounding
the child while he is growing up may be the reason for a more prosperous life. Such
organizations are very important, because they are not trying to benefit from their participants,
but rather let participants benefit from the organization itself. The interview is also included in
the appendix in order for the reader to know the whole context of the interview.
The interest for aquaponics accidentally came across my eyes when I was researching
self-sufficiency on the internet. A lot of hobbyists and DYI enthusiasts were building it for
themselves at home and the idea of building one myself was inevitable. I produced a sketch
according to my gardening capabilities and built one myself a box out of OSB boards, then I
purchased an industrial water pump, which was not too expensive, but most importantly has a
long life. The greenhouse was bought for £20, so there was no need to construct one myself,
because the materials for it would have cost a lot more. I also needed 7.5 meters of PVC pipes
in order to use it as my growing bed and allow the water to flow from left to right and back into
the aquarium. The filter was built out of leftovers from the previous actions. The other main
product was the pond liner. I both a peace of 3.5m x 3.5m just to be sure that it is enough for the
filter and the aquarium. Unfortunately 3.5m x 3.5m meters of pond liner is enough to cover my
whole garden with it and there was no need to order so much of this material. When everything
was finally together I purchased 12 gold fishes and filled the aquarium with water. The whole
material list is included in the appendix(4.0). The fishes were active, so it was time to put my
first plant into the system. The water PH level was consistent after a few weeks, which
according to Love et.al(2014) and other aquaponic practitioner’s means that everything is living
in harmony. Monitoring PH levels once a week and inserting new plants into the system
everyday did consume a small amount of time(about 10minutes), which means that there is no
need to be in constant observation to the system. The plants grew instantly and the difference in
their growth could be seen each day. The system has been running for over 40 days now and
the lettuce from the system is amazing.
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My personal evaluation of the system would be that it is easy to operate and it is not time
consuming at all, to maintain it. The only difficulties I faced was not using any special tools apart
from the drill and saw to build the system. There were also complications with piping
connections because it required silicone and insulation tape to hold the water from leaking all
around on almost every corner, which was very devastating. But the final outcome of the system
is that it is fairly easy to build(depends on the model that is being built) and that it is very easy to
maintain it from once everything is set up. The fun part is that it may be included in education,
because it is very easy to observe the plants in growth and it is easy to move them around the
system until the root system is still small. Despite everything being so understandable and easy
on the individual level, it seems that on the state level there are far more complications for
governments to adopt environmental practices, which will be discussed in the following chapter.
Figure 2(piping set-up)
Figure 3(after 1.5weeks of growth)
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CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION: HOW DOES GLOBAL GOVERNANCE REACT TO
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES?
In this chapter I will analyses the global stage in terms of the environment. My main
concern is to show that we cannot: ‘Grow now, clean up later’ (Wills K, 2011, pp.168). In which
case the chapter will be evaluating development in terms of doing harm to the environment, as
we explored in the previous chapters. There are many ways to influence firms for the better,
less pollutive environment. One of those ways would be implementing policies that are very
important in the developing world(Crespi et.al,2015). The Kyoto protocol clean mechanism
development programme(CDM), has been involved in reducing emissions in return for emission
reduction credits.(Crespi et.al.) In spite Crespi et.al claims that: ‘A carbon tax is probably the
most common type of the environmental tax’ (pp.348), but in my opinion this must be heavily
criticized, because the tax will not reduce emissions, but in spite will make the companies pay
for the right to pollute: ‘Regulation sets a price for CO2 (emissions which the polluters are
required to pay for its emissions)…’(pp.348,2015). However the authors claims that: ‘The
harmonization of environmental policies across countries is required.’(2015,348.) Without these
policies the temperature will only increase: ‘by the royal society of the United Kingdom, some
researchers suggest a worst case scenario of a 4 degree C temperature rise by around
2060’(Popular development review,pp.603). The sort of temperature rise would be the
consequence of governments implementing policies on local polluters that produce CO2 and
other emissions. According to L. Chang et.al in 2015 some argue that: ‘Governments are the
most important stakeholders in terms of exerting pressure on firms, thus shaping their
environmental behavior.’(2015,pp.4). The authors examine Governmental impact on the
environmental policy and performance in China, which is the most rapidly growing economy that
comes from producing all sorts of goods for export, also one of the biggest polluters in the world
(Kate Wills, 2011, Chang et. al.,2015,Eriksen et.al;)
Carolyn Deere Birkbech in 2009 wrote an article to international affairs about global
governance in terms of climate change issues: ‘Global governance in the context of climate
change: the challenges of increasingly complex risk parameters', It’s core message was : ‘that
global governance cannot continue as though it faces a ‘business as usual scenario’
(2009,pp.1173) Unfortunately the article explores the outcome that we may have left the climate
action too late to actually change something we have caused. Climate change scientists
claimed that: ‘experts make a compelling case that we have already left climate change action
too late to prevent environmental disaster on a massive scale.’(2009,pp.1176) If we go back to
talk about development in terms of causing more problems than solutions there is a need to see
the model of development from the environmental perspective to make it sustainable and a lot
more beneficial to our wellbeing: ‘While humans have always been subjected to some level of
external risk, such as from natural disasters, Gideus, observed that modern ‘risk societies’
generate ‘manufactured’ risks, such as those associated with pollution, new illnesses and crime,
Grigas D. (2016, May)
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which are the result of the modernization process itself and are marked by a high level of human
urgency.’ (2009, pp.1177,Birkbeck) Such story claims must be taken into account, because
many scholars are arguing that global governance is not being environmentally friendly as I
present throughout the paper.
Sustainable development is the policy orientated goal global governance should be
seeing. L.Kitchen and T.Marsden in 2011 suggested that there is a great need to build
sustainable communities due to and environmental degradation : ‘Given distinctive types
resources that tend to be available in rural areas, with the growing realization of both climate
change and recourse depletion the sustainable development of rural space is assuming
increasing importance for society as a whole.’ (2011,pp.753) The eco-economy is less beneficial
to big companies and corporations, because they need to change their manufacturing
`technology, which is the main polluter. (Kitchen and Marchen,2011; Chang et.al.2015; Crespi
et.al.2015) Shifting to a more environmentally friendly technology may recall to put caps in each
country by global governance lead to implement new policies to reduce pollution and contribute
to climate change and our eco-system. Spoon et.al. in 2014 suggested that politics tend to be
environmentally friendly before elections or when it is beneficial to the government itself. But
overall Spoon et.al evaluates a poor performance towards changing the environment.
The main reason why we need to adopt rather than overcome our harm being done to
the environment, because we need to do it for our wellbeing as well: ‘Highly visible examples of
the effects of the environmental degradation in the country a frequently pointed out, from
particulate- laden. ‘Beijing smog’ to the ‘rivers of blood’(Davidson,2013) which flowed through
Shanghai, in March, 2013 as 16000 pig car-cases infected with porcine micro virus floated past
the gleaming skyscrapers of the Lyazui international financial center, symbol of Chinas
economic rise’(2014, pp.1288) This may be the cause that shifts consumerist opinion into
boycotting certain products to participate in the message to all related manufacturers.
Consumerist choices are very sensitive and cannot be triggered often in the short term, rather it
needs to build-up in order to be strong. New development structures are in need of being
constructed to mimic nature and to be environmentally friendly at the same time. Eco-
economies and sustainable development will prevent crisis like the ‘Beijing smog’ mentioned
above. China is the perfect example of a society that has contributed the most in the 21st
century (Chang et.al,2015) Man contribution may be seen all over the world, as we explored
these issues in chapter 1. The purpose for this project is not to find the biggest polluter, but to
acknowledge the scale of anti-environmental participants in order to realize how big of an issue
we are creating on the global scale.
The environment cannot protect itself without any devastating consequences for the
human population. In spite, we can try to adopt to the environment, but as we know in 2016 still
no greater action or shift has occurred. Humans are responsible for the damage done to the
environment, which is, illustrated by Margaret P. Karns and Karen A. Mingst in 2010 in their
book ‘International organisations’ they evaluate how organizations and global governance work
in relation to the environment. The key goal of this chapter is to show how humans relate to
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environmental issues and that it must be our responsibility to fix it: ‘human activity is very likely
(more than 90 percent likely) to be responsible’(2010,pp.497) Probably the biggest factor that it
might be related to human activity that the environment started to make major shifts after 12000
years of relative consistency’(2010,pp.497). The faster the countries develop against the
environment, the more they will bare the costs in the future to undo the damage done, in my
opinion. There are also implications by global governance: ‘In 2002, Europe established the
European Emissions Trading Scheme. Emissions quotas are given to six key industries; energy,
steel, cement, glass, brick making and paper.’(2010,pp.500) But in this paper we will
concentrate more in the proposed future by scientists and scholars. The main issue with
security relating the state and individual is that we keep draining earth’s resources and convert it
into something toxic that is killing us, we will end up in conflicts over them, because of our
industrial, transportation, and other things in everyday life are closely related to resources that
are not infinitive and will end at some point, but it might be soon or it might be left for our future
generations, but chaos is inevitable: ‘lack of critical resources poses a threat to a state’s security
and unsustainable environmental practices pose a threat to human security potentially leading
to recourse- motivated violence and intrastate and interstate wars.’(2010,pp.502) This sort of
cruelty is not acceptable in the 21st century on any other centuries onwards. The human
species cannot let their morals fall over resources, because there are solution that we are going
to explore in order to bring the change.
Grigas D. (2016, May)
17
CHAPTER 5: NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND SOLUTIONS
In this chapter we will evaluate and discuss my proposed solutions for reviving our environment.
There must be not only fundamental moral changes, but also technological. My main concern in
this chapter is to introduce environmentally friendly solutions in food production, energy and
fresh water industries.
5.1 Aquaponics
Figure 4(the system)
First, let's explore my proposed food production solutions, which is aquaponics. It is an
ecological, soilless food production system that is combined of fishes and plants that live in
harmony. The aquaponics solution came into public around the start of the 80s. (Elia et.al,2014)
After the first appearance in public aquaponics received a huge interest from scholars and non-
scholars around the world, because according to Elia et.al. There is no greater requirements to
practice this food production system at any level of practice, or knowledge around it. The
method of the system is easy to understand, because it mimics nature on a smaller capacity
(depends on the space and variety of plants used). The fish produces ammonia, which runs
through the pipes of the system and converts Nitrites(NO2) into Nitrates(NO3), which is a
Grigas D. (2016, May)
18
fertilizer for any leafy plant that grows in the system. The method of aquaponics seemed so
great that I had to try it myself, which is also explained in the methodology chapter. The main
purpose for aquaponics is that it helps you get off the supermarket grid and shows how
aquaponics really helps you save, or even earn money dependent on the scale of it: ‘making
them food independent, and which will also bring them a steady income on hands.’(Elia et.al,
2014,pp.263) The system itself is easy to operate, which means everyone can participate in
such practices that are long lasting. If the practice of such food production systems would be
adopted by states, it would mean that states could become independent on food resources. If
states would finally decide to become food independent, producing as less pollution as possible,
it would be greatly beneficial for all mankind. Elia et.al, also states that the system may grow
edible fish as well, which is one of the highest protein sources.
Raj Patel(2012) in the book ‘From farm to fork’ has said that the major difficulties that the
future generations face is a change in the food production variety and prices. A certain diet that
is healthy and easy to grow must be adopted by states for the greater good of the people, not
only health vice, but price vice as well. Farmers around the globe needs to see the benefit and
prospects of environmentally friendly technology that according to aquaponics practitioners are
much more beneficial.(Elia et.al,2014; Love et.al,2014) Apparently the methods were used by
much older civilizations. According to Isaac Yuen(2014) the principles were used by Aztecs of
Mesoamerica, there were evidence of such practice in Asia and India. Yet the method does face
difficulties: ‘yet it is precisely the complexity and challenge of aquaponics that appeals to
Mavronicolas, a self-employed new media producer with an interest in living systems and a
background in engineering.’(2014,pp.51) He does face problems as phytonym invaded his
plants roots, too many, or to few fish and other problems that cause disturbance to the system.
There are always a way to experiment and improve the system, which with more attention could
serve on the state level: ‘Constantly tweaking, his goal is to assure his plants and fishes thrive
while attaining a good measure of food self-sufficiency. ‘That act of growing our own food has
moved my wife and I to make so many shifts in our lives.’(Yuen,2014,pp.51) The fishes
themselves, if raised for eating are Tilapia, which grows to a plate size in about 12 months.
(Yuen,2014; Love et.al,2014, Elia et.al,2014) In spite, a larger amount must be grown in order to
produce enough fish for self-sufficiency. Most important is that Yuen(2014) asks not to be afraid
to: ‘Make mistakes and learn from them. Anyone with perseverance and determination will be
able to make a success of this.’(2014,pp.52) Blidariu et.al(2013), presented a paper which
carried out a research on Nitrate(ammonia) levels in natural conditions and in the aquaponics
system. The study showed that in particular lettuce grows faster in the practice of aquaponics in
terms of ecological food production. Love et.al, in 2014 carried out a research of aquaponics
practitioners on the global scale. Authors of this paper claimed that practitioners choose to
practice aquaponics not only for economic, but also for health purposes. The most common
greens are leafy salads, Basil and tomatoes, plants that best adopts to the system. Solar power
comes into practice here as well, because electricity needs to operate water pumps in the
system: ‘the most popular renewable energy source was sunlight: passive solar
Grigas D. (2016, May)
19
designs(22%)..., solar photovoltaic cells(19%), or solar thermal hot water heaters(7%)…’(Love
et.al,2014,pp.5) The purpose for this type of food growing dies not only protect the environment,
but also improves one's health, because of the natural fertilizer sources: ‘Respondents agreed
that improving their health and the health of their communities were priorities.’(Love
et.al,2014,pp.6) The Respondents also identified adaptation to climate change and
environmental education is very important for our future generations.
Aquaponics is a growing community, which is expanding and reaching out on a global
scale to improve environmental sustainability within the scope of healthy food production using
education as their main tool for recruitment.(Love et.al,2014) Jack L. Northrup in a journal article
proposed that university students enjoy practicing with aquaponics, which means that there is
some education carried out, but the students put the article up, because they are trying to bring
their technologies to Kenya and share their knowledge with the locals and spread the ideas of
the right development. Such participation must be funded otherwise it will be without a big
impact on the global society. But we need to carry on, because there is much more to evaluate.
Combining solar power and aquaponics is highly suggested by aquaponics practitioners. Solar
energy must be considered, because it is the ultimate source of energy.
5.2 Free energy and clean water.
Solar energy has also been used in practice only at the end of the 20th
century.(Abramowitz, 2015) The increasing usage of solar power is a stable fact, not popular
enough to make any greater revolution in the global economy runner by other sources of
energy. Yosef I. Abramowitz in his article on energy independence argues that the mid-east
countries could take control of the next generation energy supply chains. According to the
author Germany is a leader: ‘in production of commercial scale solar energy.’(2015,pp.80) It
alone produces around half of all solar energy collected on the planet. Along the Jordanian-
Israeli boarders there is such a place called Rift Valley, which equipped with solar panels would
collect twice more energy than the whole of Germany, because of sunlight consistency in the
region.(Abramowitz,2015) The author suggest that the mid-east may be a leader in sun energy
harvesting, because of many reasons. The sun is a very large undrainable source of energy if
converted through the right method. So there are many reasons to practice solar power
harvesting, because it's everlasting, more environmentally friendly, less pollute, free energy that
may be practiced by anyone. The most important part is that: ‘Solar energy is the energy of
peace, for the sun knows no boarders.’(Abramowitz,2015,pp.87) I strongly agree and claim that
such sources of energy would prevent resource conflicts predicted above in the near future.
There may be some drawbacks in the technology, but it's possible to work around them
Grigas D. (2016, May)
20
according to Phillip Vanning and Jonathan Taggart in 2015, on a study of bad weather effects
on solar power generation and slower homes. According to the author: ‘photovoltaic power may
not be too affected by a couple of cloudy days in a row, but whenever tenebrous systems of low
pressure linger for a while, the comfort of their domestic lives can be seriously
jeopardized.’(2015,pp.638) There must be solutions for storing the electrical power into
generators. Those, who live off the grid learns new lessons every day when practicing
environmentally friendly life-styles. The authors discuss that when people collect their own
energy, they use it a lot more respectively: ‘say, keeping unnecessary lights on.’(2015,pp.652)
A step-by-step the human species are coming to a new enlightenment in terms of
adopting and mimicking the nature surrounding us. Adopting solar energy would mean a great
sustainable rise in the global arena. Countries that have more contact with sunlight may be
gaining very important diplomatic recognition in terms of influencing new policies for the
environment and sustainable development goals according to Sadiq Ali Shah and Rodger
Edwards(2013). In their research they have considered if countries with deserts could harvest
enough solar power for the region, which would lead to energy independence for low costs and
provide developing or poor regions with electricity. In terms of Rainfall, it is the only: ‘source of
fresh water, which occurs during monsoon period from July to September every year (Kahlow,
2004).’(Shah and Edwards,2013,pp.197) It is beneficial for human health, because solar energy
could clean water as well. They would live in a less pollute area and generate their own free
energy. The opportunity for fresh water could be established: 'The major portion of the solar
power produced at these deserts can be utilized for the desalination of underground aquifer
water for fresh water production.'(Shah and Edwards,2013,pp.202) The development method
would suggest that: ‘the dessert could become renewable energy hubs, offering sustainable
employment for the people of the desert communities.’(Shah and Edwards,2013,pp.202)
In terms of water, there are other solutions that may clean any dirty water, including sea
water, to the level where it can be drinkable or used for agriculture. The solution is called the
'Rain maker', it has been built by a group of scientists in a project called 'Billions in change'. The
project itself is financed by a billionaire that has donated 99% of his profits to save the world
with technology and science: ‘Manoj Bhargava, creator of 5-hour Energy, founded Billions in
Change as a way to positively impact humanity.’ (Billionsinchange.com/faq) The rain maker has
not been manufactured in large scale so far, because it lacks recognition, even though it is an
amazing invention and a solution for our future generations: ‘Weíve created a machine called
Rain Maker. It mimics nature, turning seawater or polluted water into fresh water suitable for
Figure 5(rainmaker)
Grigas D. (2016, May)
21
drinking and agriculture. Rain Maker makes more than just a little water. One machine the size
of small car can make a thousand gallons per hour. Unlike other desalination systems, Rain
Maker recycles its heat energy making it incredibly clean and efficient.’
(Billionsinchange.com/solutions/rain-maker)
There is probably no way to change my positives on such solutions that would provide
everyone with food, water and energy. Ecological restoration need to be brought by new
projects that are stimulating sustainable development and ecological filtration towards a better
environment.(Hallett et.al,2013) According to Vassiliki Markakis(2014) for sustainable
development the main option would be to use the education system to educate new generations
to a less polluted healthier life-styles. In terms of environmental education it is most effective
tool to influence human behavior, which would lead to more sustainable resolutions. The
influence of environmental organizations is very important as well. ‘Greenet’ is a network of
teachers that are spread over 6 countries, the teachers themselves participate in seminars that
improve their knowledge up to date.(Markaki,2014) Environmental education also rises
awareness that is concentrated on environmental issues, as well as generate new ideas and
improve with every project.(Markaki,2014; Hallet et.al,2013) Most likely throughout the paper we
have seen the devastating degradation of our environment. There is a need to define the way
this knowledge should be practiced to provide everyone with the basic needs of life, which is
food, water and energy, and it must come free.
Grigas D. (2016, May)
22
CONCLUSION
To summarize the project we need to make a recap of what we have explored. First, we
have looked at our environmental degradation and how the human hand have destroyed the
eco-system and influenced our health and well-being for a number of years to come, because
we are still participating within the society. Second, we explored the methodology and
techniques used to carry out the study. The experiment and the test was conducted reasonably
using political science to test environmental awareness and prove how easy it is to mimic nature
on an individual level. Third, the political governance agenda was explored with relation to the
environment. The discussion had examples of how do global governance deal with such issues
and tries to improve our eco-system. Fourth, I have proposed solutions for environmentally
friendly technology which would provide with the basic needs for human life that everyone is
liable to obtain, which is water, food and energy(in this case electricity). Because in my opinion
this technology is easy to operate and it does not produce pollution, which is devastating to the
environment. To conclude there is still a need to recognize the tools, that must that must be
used in order to succeed in such a goal, because the consequences should be clear by
understanding the previous chapters. There are actors on the global stage who are bringing this
change to place with very little support, but the majority of the people do not realize what we
have to do next. Becoming self-sufficient and self-sustainable is our future, because if we do
not, there will be no future for our children. The complications done to the environment will
become more severe and the final point will be our devastating end as a species that will be
wiped out, as according to the Bible has happened before, when the world was washed away by
a devastating flood in the times of Noah. (Holly Bible: Genesis) It will all start over as we will see
stronger floods, storms and hurricanes that will leave millions homeless and devastated as I
mentioned in the previous chapters. No more 'Business as usual'*, because the consequences
from nature will be too much to bare for the human species. The time to implicate environmental
education and environmental technology has never been so late and required in order to serve
the future of our kind. Only by adopting rather than working around nature will help us revive our
eco-system and let our children evolve more then we could ever imagine. The first step is to
secure our basic needs for existence, which is: water, food and energy.
Grigas D. (2016, May)
23
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Abramowitz I,Y.(2014)'Blair's Missing peace: Solar Power for (Energy) independence’,
‘Natural Resources and the Arab-Israeli Conflict',19(4)& 20(1):79-87
2. Ayed S, Tomic M, Zivkovic P.(2015)'A specific approach for estimating traffic-induced
pollution’, ‘Political Journal of Environmental Studies',24(6):2739-2744
3. Bailey A, Brennan S, Kymlicka W, Levy J, Sager A, Wolf C.(2008)'The Broadview
anthology of social and political thought: From Plato to Nietzsche',' Broadview press’:
Canada
4. Batool S, Khan K, Ghaffar A, Hussain Z.S.(2015)'Forest cover change detection and its
impact on rainfall patterning Thak Valley(Pakistan)','Pakistan journal of science',67(1):1-
8
5. Birkbeck D, C.(2009)'Global governance in the context of climate change: the challenges
of increasingly complex risk parameters’, ‘International Affairs',85(6):1173-1194
6. Bilidariu F, Radulov I, Lalescu D, Drasovean A, Grozea A.(2013)'Evaluation of Nitrate
Level in Green Lettuce Conventional Grown under Natural Conditions and Aquaponics
System’, ‘Animal Science and Biotechnologies',46(1):244-250
7. Borerro C.J, Galgani F, Ryan G.P, Reisser J.(2014)'Plastic pollution in the world's
oceans: More than 5trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea','Plos
one',December:1-15
8. Chang Li, Li W, Lu X.(2015)'Government engagement, environmental policy, and
environmental performance: evidence from the most polluting Chinese firms’, ‘Business
strategy and the environment',24:1-19
9. Crespi F, Ghisetti C, Quatraro F.(2015)'Environmental and innovation policies for the
evolution of green technologies: a survey and a test’, ‘Eurasian Bus Rev',5:343-370
10. Eaton P.D, Keuroghlian A, Santos M.(2015)'The effects of deforestation on white-lipped
peccary(Tayassu peccary) home range in the southern Pantanal’, ‘Mammalia',79(4):491-
497
11. Edwards R, Shah A, S.(2013)'Sustainable energy generation processes in the deserts of
solar-rich countries’, ‘International Journal of Sustainable Energy',32(3):196-203
12. Elia E, Popa C.D, Nicolae G.C.(2014)' Start-up stages of a low-tech aquaponic system','
Animal science',57:263-269
13. Hallett M.L, Diver S, Eitzel V.M, Olson J.J, Ramage S.B, Sardinas H, Statman-Weil Z,
Sunding N.K.(2013)' Do we Practice What we Preach? Goal Setting for Ecological
Restoration’, ‘Restoration ecology',21(3):312-319
Grigas D. (2016, May)
24
14. Karns M, Mingst K.(2010)'International Organizations: the politics and processes of
global governance’, ‘Lynne Rienner Publishers’:London
15. King James version: ‘Holy Bible’, ‘Collins': Glasgow
16. Kitchen L, Marsden T.(2011)'Constructing sustainable communities: a theoretical
exploration of the bio-economy and eco-economy paradigms’, ‘Local
environment',16(8):753-769
17. Love C.D, Fry P.J, Genello L, Hill S.E, Frederick J.A, Li X, Semmens K.(2014)'An
international survey of aquaponics practitioners','Plos one',9(7):1-10
18. Managi S, Tsurumi T.(2014)'The effect of trade openness on deforestation: empirical
analysis for 142 countries’, ‘Environ Econ Policy Stud',16:305-324
19. Markaki V.(2014)'Environmental education through inquiry and technology','Science
education international',25(1):8686-92
20. Marsh D, Stoker G.(2010)'Theory and Methods in Political Science’,‘Palgrave
Macmillan’: Basingstoke
21. Najam, A.(2003)'The case against a new international environmental organization’,
‘Global governance',9(3):367-384
22. Nature Geoscience,(2014)'Air pollution increases river flows’, ‘The science teacher',
81(9):20-21
23. Northrup L, J.(2013)'Learning through aquaponics', 'Educational Horizons',September:
41-42
24. Patel R.(2013)'Stuffed and Starved',' Portobello books’: Great Britain
25. Popescu G, Iosim I.(2015)'The role of consumer behaviour in issues related to the
environment’, ‘Research journal of agricultural science',47(4):121-126
26. Population council(2014)'The UN environment programme on climate change and
international security’, ‘Population and development review',37(3):601-606
27. Spoon J, Hobolt B.S, De vries E, C.(2014)'Going green: Explaining issue competition on
the environment’, ‘European Journal of Political Research',53:363-380
28. Srividya G, Indira D.(2012)'Reducing the livestock related greenhouse gases emission’,
‘Veterinary world',5(4):244-247
29. Szyszkowicz M.(2015)'An approach to represent a combined exposure to air pollution’,
‘International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health', 28(5):823-830
30. Taggart J, Vannini P.(2015)'Solar energy, bad weather days, and the temporalities of
slower homes’, ‘Cultural geographies',22(4):637-657
Grigas D. (2016, May)
25
31. Yuen I.(2014)'Hooked on Ponics: a creative Vancouverite fishes for a home-scaled
solution to putting food on the table','Alternativesjournal.ca',40(4):50-52
32. Eriksen M, Lebreton M.C.L, Carson S.H, Thiel M, Moore J.C, Borerro C.J, Galgani F,
Ryan G.P, Reisser J.(2014)'Plastic pollution in the world's oceans:More than 5trillion
plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea','Plos one', December:1-1
Illustration list:
Figures 1-4: personal archive
Figure 5: ‘The Rainmaker'. Image first published on billionsinchange.com/film
Grigas D. (2016, May)
26
APPENDIX
1.0 Interview Transcript: transition Leytonstone
Me: How could you briefly describe the organization?
Shannon: The main theme of our organization is our garden, is transition Leytonstone its just
are of many transition towns, or transition outlets, that are focused on transitioning away from
global petroleum based economy to a more local and sustainable, that use alternative energy,
promoting products that are locally grown in seasons, and things like that, the garden started
transition Leytonstone.
Me: How big of an impact does the organization do to the community?
Shannon: I think it is various projects at transition Leytonstone has done, especially gardening a
sort of an impact for quite a few hundreds of people, or even thousands. You can see directly its
various events, big gardening events. Hosting hundreds of people at the time and over the
course of the year a couple of hundreds or thousands, keeping in mind the size of Leytonstone,
which is probably only several tens of thousands of people, say about 5% of the population, still
quite a big impact for such a small organization.
Me: Great, thank you. Then, the third question, what difficulties does the organization
encounter?
Shannon: I think with the garden and transition in general it is probably common to get more
people involved, aware of what we are doing, getting on board with the aims of the different
Projects. With the garden, ore people to be involved in to day to day operations, more
volunteers, and more people giving the workshops, more people attending the workshops. It is
all about more people. We are not lacking any funds. We are not looking for another area to
withstand our spaces, so it is all about getting more people involved.
Me: Thank you. And then, why gardening when there are so many ways to improve the
environment it’s knowledge?
Shannon: I think gardening appeals to a lot of people of very diverse political meaning, very
Diverse attitudes towards the environment, let’s say organic growing, let’s say wildlife. It is a
way, it’s a non-threatening way to involve anybody, so somebody is coming here to feel like
their diversity will go to an organization that only accepts a certain type of person. Everybody,
sort of finds a place, find something useful of our garden. Our motivation might be to say get
people to eat more locally, more seasonally, grow some of their own food more away from local
agriculture system. Eating what’s on season than buying vegetables that are being shipped
thousands of miles. Push people towards that, or make people aware of that by being sorts of
non-threatening activity that everybody, sort of has interest in.
Me: Alright, Thank you, and the last but not least. What do you think triggers the human mind to
be more environmentally aware and start improving the issues that are surrounding us? A very
philosophical question.
Grigas D. (2016, May)
27
Shannon: Probably a lot of different answers to the question. For some it may be having
children and worrying for they’re future. Some people might be just becoming aware of various
issues, aware of statistical findings coming out and a bit reluctant to accept the need to serve
the environment. Might be many factors.
Me: Do you remember what triggered you, or were you always environmentally aware?
Shannon: Probably, when I was growing up, my politics were influenced by my parents a lot.
social circle that you grow in and going to university. Learning that social environment, various
sciences that make you think critically of the issues that politicians make as a person that more
motivated by scientific understanding of the world. Political, scientifically understanding of the
world, that are pushing to realize that humans are causing climate change.
2.0
Consent form
Darius Grigas is a student in the University of East London, where he studies International
Politics with Law. It is his final year within the undergraduete programme and he is undertaking
a dissertation project, which is based on self-sufficiency and self-sustanability. The main
purpose of this case study is to include the data within the environmental education and
environmental awereness chapter to see how does the society improve itself using the
environment.
The research is being conducted according to the principles and codes of research conducted in
the Social Sciences. I will use the British Sociological Association’s Guidelines to help me, for
example in interacting with people who have kindly agreed to help me with the research. The
research includes interviews that are going to be record and tests to check the environmental
awerness within the society. The interview will be tape recorded, and a transcript will be
produced. This will be used as data. The interviews will be recorded by the researcher making
notes after the interview, and these notes will also be used as data. Your words may be also be
included as quetes within the dissertation project, or the name of the organisation itself.
Your contribution to this project may be crucial and very important by all means. The case study
is a great experience and source of knowledge from the society directly. Your participation
within this project is very welcomed by its developer.
Name......................................................................
Email.....................................................................(incase the University would like to contact you
for authentication)
Signature................................................................
Authors Signature..................................................
Grigas D. (2016, May)
28
3.0
THE TEST
I am a student in the University of East London. Currently I am working on my dissertation,
which includes checking how aware are people of the environment that surrounds us. The test
is combined of 10 questions, granting 1 point per question answered correctly. The test results
will be purely for education and academic purposes. The participants will be anonymous for the
final project to come, but the university may wish to contact one of the participants for
authentication purposes only. I would be very grateful for your participation within the project in
order to achieve my goals for the study I am carrying out.
Participants information
NAME...................................................................................................................
EMAIL...................................................................................................................
SIGNATURE...........................................................................................................
1)Do developing and developed countries have the same environmental cap’s?(restrictions)
a)Yes
b)No
2)Can livestock(e.g. Pigs) produce greenhouse gasses?
a)Yes
b)No
c)I don’t know
3)Where is deforestation bigger issue?
a)Developing countries
b)Developed countries
4)Who is the biggest polluter in the world?
a)Russia
b)China
c)India
d)USA
5)Is urbanization a cause of deforestation?
a)Yes
b)No
c)I don’t know
Grigas D. (2016, May)
29
6)Mark the answers that you think contribute to climate change
a)Greenhouse gasses
b)Deforestation
c)Soil degradation
d)Pollution
e)All of the above
PLEASE TURN THE PAGE OVER TO COMPLETE THE TEST
7)Which Answers are related to the upcoming events of climate change?
a)Increase in pollution
b)Increase in fruit production
c)Increase in sea-levels
d)Increase in temperature
e)All above
8)Which of these can be recycled?
a)Food waste
b)Plastic
c)Aerosol cans
d)Chemical bottles
e)All answers are correct
9)Which chemical element is the most common in the field of Air Pollution?
a)F
b)O2
c)CO2
d)H2O
10)Is the statement true or false: ‘Natural disasters are stronger not because of the pollution
carried out by massive corporations’.
a)True
b)False
THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING
Grigas D. (2016, May)
30
4.0 Material list(personal experiment):
1. Osb panels
2. Acrylic panel
3. Pond underlay
4. Pond liner
5. Water pump
6. Hose
7. Greenhouse
8. Pvc pipes
9. Silicone
10. Insulation tape
11. Plastic strips
12. Wood impregnator
13. Connection angles
14. Gravel
15. Seeds
16. Seeding trays
17. Soil for seeding tray’s
18. Fishes
19. Sponges
20. Fish food
Grigas D. (2016, May)
31

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DARIUS GRIGAS SELF-SUSTAINABILITY AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY

  • 1. Grigas D. (2016, May) 1 WHY IS BECOMING SELF-SUFFICIENT AND SELF-SUSTAINABLE INEVITABLE? Darius Grigas Student Number: 1311837 Dissertation: Politics
  • 2. Grigas D. (2016, May) 2 ABSTRACT ‘The world in a general view seems to be very polluted and misbalanced. After many years of consistency in terms of our environment there is a need to examine particular changes in more detail. The project attempts to show that most of our environmental issues are man-made, but there are ways to reverse the harm done to nature. I will go through the issues that are important not only for us at the present, but for our future generations as well. I will also suggest how may we adopt, rather than try to overcome nature and live with one in harmony. My study also reveals the lack of participation not only on the individual, but on a global scale as well, arguing that states could do more to secure their resources.’
  • 3. Grigas D. (2016, May) 3 Content page Introduction………………………………………………………………4 Chapter 1: Everything contributes to one big crisis………………….5 1.1 Pollution……………………………………………………………...5 1.2 Deforestation………………………………………………………...6 1.3 Climate change……………………………………………………...7 1.4 Consumerism and the environment……………………………….8 Chapter 2: Methodology………………………………………………...9 Chapter 3: Findings……………………………………………………..11 Chapter 4: How does global governance react to environmental issues?…………………………………….……….…………………….14 Chapter 5: New technologies and solutions………………………….17 5.1 Aquaponics………………………………………………...………..17 5.2 Free energy and clean water………………………………………19 Conclusion………………………………………………………………..22 Bibliography………………………………………………………………23 Appendix………………………………………….………………………26
  • 4. Grigas D. (2016, May) 4 INTRODUCTION I was born at the end of the 20th century. Environmental issues never came across me as a devastating problem in our society. Only recently academics have realized how many issues are approaching us and our future generations. After some research done, I have realized that many of these issues did not exist prior the industrialization period, which evolved in the 19th and 20th centuries. The chapters in this project will help me come to a conclusion step-by-step. At the beginning of the dissertation I will review the environmental issues that in my opinion are man- made. The first chapter will include issues such as deforestation, pollution and climate change in order to show that the planet is degrading. At the end of the chapter I will identify consumers as a primary cause for our environmental degradation. In the second chapter I will use normative theory to try and persuade the reader to rethink his contribution to the safety of the environment on a daily basis. By the help of quantitive and experimental political methods I will explore and test environmental awareness of individuals from different backgrounds to see whether environmental education is necessary. The findings themselves will be explored by evaluating my personal experiment, an awareness test and normative theory. Each of which is crucially important for the success of this project. The study itself will review how environmentally aware is a small group of people and how difficult was using the experimental political science. The chapter will end with an interview that has provided with a lot of information that is relevant to the study. The next chapter will discuss environmental policies and governmental actions in terms of the environment. It seems that global governance is not ready for the shift that is inevitable in my opinion, but no action has been taken and silence is their only weapon to fight in this battle for our eco-system. The chapter shows that there is no crucial action taken by our global governance in order to reverse this man-made harm for the environment. The following chapter will introduce my proposed solutions to revive our eco-system, which will include solutions for water, food and energy supplies. The main argument in this chapter is that there is new technology to implement in our everyday lives and that anyone can practice it. The chapter will introduce how scholars around the world are discussing the possibility of becoming self-sufficient. At the final stage of the paper I will conclude what should we do in relation to Normative theory and what could the states do to promote self-sufficiency and sustainability, before the environment made it inevitable.
  • 5. Grigas D. (2016, May) 5 CHAPTER 1: EVERYTHING CONTRIBUTES TO ONE BIG CRISIS In this chapter my goal is to introduce the reader with the harm already done to the environment. The Issues we are going to be looking at is deforestation, plastic pollution, air pollution, climate change and the harm that these will bring upon our species. 1.1 Pollution. According to Eriksen et.al(2014) our seas are contaminated by plastic pieces and other waste that is getting dumped out in the water. Their study claims that in 2014 there was trillions of plastic pieces floating at sea: ‘based on our model results we estimate that at least 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighting 268,940 tons are currently floating at sea.’(2014,pp.7) The numbers are hard to imagine and to think of collecting all the particles would be a task that would carry on for decades. The authors also explain that this type of pollution has a huge impact on the biological wellbeing of the sea creatures that are being trapped in the waste and die due to the toxic level of contaminated water, which is clearly man-made. They also argue that: ‘this leaves sequestration in sediment the likely resting place for plastic pollution after a myriad of biological impacts along the way, thus reinforcing the need for pre-consumer and post-consumer waste stream solutions to reverse this growing environmental problem.’(Eriksen et.al,2014,pp.11-12) My main fear of this problem is that the seas may become so contaminated that we will not be able to feed of them anymore. Sea-life might get contaminated to such a level from our toxic pollution that will be no longer edible, but the authors have a deeper concern looking at the present, because their expectations were to find a lot more by their statistical research of this sort of pollution and yet the true issue remains: ‘Where is all the plastic?’(2014,pp.12) Despite sea pollution, there are other types of pollution that we need to be concentrated on, it is growing much faster - air pollution. In urban areas pollution is mostly caused by vehicles in the city.(Ayed et.al,2015) The CO2 emissions spread by vehicles are the most common toxic waste in urban areas, where in Europe it contributes to 20% of all emission in the air according to Ayed et.al, who did a study on urban pollution in Nis, Serbia. The study was in regards to traffic inspired emissions. The analysis showed that in busier streets the emission levels are much higher than in other less busy streets: ‘on observed sections, the specific emissions are 11 times higher compared to the rest of the streets in the city.’(Ayed et.al,2015,pp.2743) In spite of air pollution at such rates, it will harm the public living in the city. Szyszkowicz in 2015
  • 6. Grigas D. (2016, May) 6 claimed that there is a great harm coming, in terms of air pollution, where he claims that: ‘to describe the same reality: risk of public health deterioration due to air pollution.’(2015, pp.829) In regards the author also says that it is a:’modifiable health risk factor.’(2015,pp.823) In spite, here is another issue that may be added to the man-made crisis, which is dissolving our population very slowly. First, we need to consider what does air pollution lead us to? The answer is greenhouse gasses. CO2 emissions are one of the major contributors for the greenhouse effect.(Indira et.al,2012) Authors Indira and Srividya in 2012 wrote a paper analyzing other types of greenhouse emissions. The paper was written in regards to live stock and that it may produce a huge amount of toxic waste which will contribute to greenhouse emissions. They named livestock food chains as large contributors to greenhouse emissions. Livestock, as for example pigs produce 4 times more waste then humans. Livestock producers grow thousands of pigs in a small area, which may produce waste equivalent to a small country side town. It is a lot of waste to use environmentally friendly, but the need for meat in the 21st century is desperate, because people like to eat a lot and the variety of choice inspired by a consumer society will only increase the number of livestock in such farms. According to Indira and Srividya, livestock may be related to cause other environmental harms, for instance deforestation due to farm size increase. 1.2 Deforestation It is known that tree's clean our air. The issues with deforestation is that we are destroying our filters from the face of our polluted globe. There are many participants within this environmental issue scope. Many may say that deforestation is a cause of urbanization or even development. T. Tsurumi and S. Managi in 2014 did a research on trade openness effects in relation to deforestation. According to them there are 4 main causes that relate to deforestation: ‘...the desire to convert forest to pasture and crop land, increasing fuel wood demand, the harvesting on logs and urbanization.’(2014,pp.307) Their study showed that an increase of trade openness will slow down deforestation for developed countries and that it will increase it for developing countries. In Pakistan’s case deforestation has caused much environmental changes in 'Thak Valley'.(Batool et.al,2015) The results of an area of a forest destroyed is various climatic changes that has inspired the lack of rainfall. It must be noted that trees are really long growers and it must be done in a more sustainable manner. With the current depletion of forest areas around the world, it is important that we must manage these renewable resources in a sustainable manner. Deforestation may lead to greater impacts of our eco-system, because it also has an effect on wildlife.(Eaton et.al,2015) Wildlife has to migrate every time humans decide to destroy their homes. Eaton et.al (2015), in their research has analyzed the effect of deforestation for white-lipped peccary, and due to it there are populations destroyed for the
  • 7. Grigas D. (2016, May) 7 inability to migrate to new areas. Their work identifies rather similar consequences in terms of deforestation: ‘deforestation and expansion of large-scale cattle ranching and agriculture on the plateaus encircling the Pantanal, hydroelectric projects in head water basins, gold and iron mining, and environmentally disastrous development schemes for increasing barge traffic on the Rio Paraguay.’(2015,pp.491) Deforestation has a negative impact on people as well. It does produce other issues as a lack of clean air, soil degradation, wildlife destruction, climate related effects. 1.3 Climate change Climate change has been a result of all the issues previously listed above. Everything has a major impact to our eco-system that is surrounding us. In 2011, the Population and Development review on climate change was showed as a real concern for international security. According to the document, the latest increase in temperature did not occur for several thousands of years, but suddenly everything has changed and the increase in temperature rise did happen after the start of the 20th century. The total temperature increase was by 0.76C(Celsius), but most of it happened at the end of the 20th century, when climate change has been finally recognized as a major threat and more research finally came into place. Even though these numbers do not say a lot, but it does show a big influence made to our eco-system. There are many ways how this has grown to be an issue on such scale. Probably the most important issues surrounding environmental disasters is their outcomes:’...the International Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) estimated that ‘sudden natural disasters’ displaced 42million people in 2010.’(2014,pp.604) These sudden natural disasters are the cause of all of our impact done to nature. There are other issues that are surrounding climate change, which is food insecurity, conflict over resources and growing global insecurity. According to the World Bank study:‘a one-meter sea-level rise would affect 84 developing countries alone.’(2014,604), these numbers are frightening just by thinking how many countries with coasts will have cities built around them. The world as we know it will never be the same due to the environmental issues, that we humans have created ourselves. All the issues that I have mentioned above contributes to global warming. Pollution, greenhouse gasses, deforestation..., does eventually end up in the stage of climate change. It affects us greatly, but in this paper I will not attempt to discuss the issues in more detail, but rather evaluate how is this leading us to be more sufficient, sustainable and why is this issues our responsibility to fix.
  • 8. Grigas D. (2016, May) 8 1.4 Consumerism and the environment Environmental degradation is considered to be caused by consumer behavior. (Popescu and Iosim,2015) G. Popescu and I. Iosim in 2015 has carried out a study, which acknowledged that consumer behavior is a huge part of what we see today in our environmental outcomes. Despite the outcomes, the authors claim that the power to reverse how consumers polluted the planet is possible. In 1996, Britain had a situation of the so called 'Mad Cow Disease'*, which left millions of people changing their daily diet in spite of the disease: ‘Such feeding phobias led to distrust the methods of modern industrial production, especially in the food industry, as a result of the logic expressed by many consumers, namely ‘when you turn cows into cannibals only for money obvious that the things do not work properly’. It was suggested that we live in a risk society…'(Popescu and Iosim,2015,pp.123) such a risk society is responsible for building up such corporations that bring genetically modified organisms (GMO) on the shelves of the supermarket. In spite of the power to build-up such organizations there is also power to demolish them. The power to put such organs in decline is by boycotting them, which requires massive shifts in opinions: ‘a negative experience can trigger an organized and devastating reaction, as when a consumer group organize a boycott of the products of the company.’(Popescu and Iosim,2015,pp.125) In relation to this claim the power of consumer choices may be very devastating not only for big supply chains, but to their personal health as well. The case also applies in terms of their casted votes in their local governments: ‘Political consumer 'votes for his own shopping cart' in attempt to make companies to take into account the natural environment, but also the human one,…'(Popescu and Iosim,2015,pp.126) There is a need to realize that consumerism works 'vice versa' - You get for what you vote. The next chapter will overlook the methodology and practices carried out for the project and also the practical side of our everyday politics towards our well-being.
  • 9. Grigas D. (2016, May) 9 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY The methodology carried out by me for this project is combined of three main tools for the project in order to succeed in my goal - to show that self-sufficiency and self-sustainability is inevitable. I will be using Normative theory, which developed in the modern period and has been concerned with what is truly the best way to live for an individual, or on the social aggregate level.(Marsh and Stoker,2010) Even though it is closely related to liberalism according to Marsh and Stoker(2010), which in my opinion is not the best approach for the environment, but by my understanding it could be transformed in the sense of the environment, which would spread environmental co-operation and would make strong international relationships between the state and the individual to help our eco-system recover from the man-made environmental crisis that we see today and for many more days to come. Another side of normative theory that caught my attention is that it is very relevant to what Plato was writing in the books of 'the Republic'*. In book 4 of 'the Republic' Plato has taken upon to answer the question of a city that would seem to be whole in every sense. According to Bailey et.al(2008) Plato said that: ‘It seems then that the capacity for each in the city to perform his own task rivals wisdom, moderation and courage as a source of excellence for the city.’(2008,pp.76) I would strongly agree to this in the sense that everyone should choose the task that they want to participate in and then when the task is comforting the individual spiritually it will be done to the fullest and the republic will thrive. This is the account of the normative theory in constructing my approach for this study. This concept would allow each one of us to choose our own path within the society and to filter out what is really necessary for our existence and the pursuit of happiness. There will also be 2 methods of political science that I will have to use to prove my argument. First, the quantitive method of political science, which is formed as a test combined of ten question with multiple choices for the correct answers on particular questions. The purpose of this test is to check if people are aware of environmental issues that we are encountering and its consequences towards our future. Marsh and Stoker(2010) has explained that the quantitative research method is not only graphs and numbers, but actually a very complex analysis of massive amounts of data that are being collected through various ways including Questionnaires and even Tests. I chose this method, because it will clearly in my opinion show, whether the people do know what is happening to the environment and our species. The test itself is included in the appendix to be evaluated by the reader for its complexity and relevance of the questions. Second, the experimental method of political science. This method has recently only entered the world of political science.(Marsh and Stoker,2010) The authors think that it has an increasing importance for the contribution of political science, because it was thought before that many political theories could not be examined in the field, but now that we have expanded our technological advantages and also found different relations between politics and everything else that is going on in the world. The method is also the cause of the expansion of political science as a study, because new political ideas may be tested in practice. (Marsh
  • 10. Grigas D. (2016, May) 10 and Stoker,2010) In my case the experimental method that I will use is of aquaponics. It is a soilless ecological food production system, which I will further discuss in the coming chapters. My experiment will include building one of these systems in my own garden to evaluate how complicated it would be to be self-sufficient in the 21st century. The idea of the experiment is to build a closed-loop system, which will grow fish and plants in harmony providing the plants with nutrients from fish waste and cleaning the water for the fishes as it come back into their tank. The plant I choose is 'Cos Lettuce', because it is one of the best growing plants in this type of system. (Love et.al,2014, Elia et.al,2014) The purpose of this field study is to show that an individual as myself with no greater environmental or practical building knowledge can set up a system that will provide me with lettuce for an infinitive amount of time in the most ecological way possible. The success of the study would prove that everyone would be capable of being self-sufficient and self-sustainable by their own, with their variety of foods, which would save a lot of money and also would let us check out of supermarkets, which according to Raj Patel(2012) would be extremely beneficial for us. This approach would lead us to more ecological foods that may be grown by an individual with some free space to grow at least a part of his own food without any fertilizers, but if this practice would succeed within the national, or state level allowing states to be self-sufficient would change the 'game' completely. There is also an interview included in the appendix of an environmental organization, in order to evaluate how effective are these type of organizations in the social aggregate level. Figure 1(cos lettuce)
  • 11. Grigas D. (2016, May) 11 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS In This Chapter we will discuss the findings that I have concluded by the study I carried out. I will evaluate the test that I composed to see how aware are people of our environmental degradation, then I will evaluate my personal experiment to build the aquaponic system, which will be also included in the solution chapter, Finally I will carry on with an interview of an Non- governmental organization, which is implementing change in the community of Leytonstone, London. Finally I will evaluate whether environmental education is required for people to understand the harm done to nature, and the solutions of how can we reverse what we already did to it. The test results described in the methodology chapter and in the appendix, showed expected results. 28 participants completed the test and out of 280 total points, the total point summary was 182 that is not that far over half of all possible scores. It shows that social awareness at the social aggregate level is not enough for awareness to raise questions for solutions. Rather I would claim that the society need more institutions to co-operate and spread environmental knowledge and awareness for people to participate better towards helping our environment recover. People need to participate more and co-operate with organizations and movements towards helping new solutions to take control of our production system and the best to for this is spreading awareness, because then societies opinions may shift for the better. The overall evaluation of the test was a success, even though people were shy of their participation in such a project. The chart below shows how participants answered the questions and, which questions were most challenging. 25 18 21 21 20 18 6 13 26 14 0 8 15 23 30 Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Correct answers
  • 12. Grigas D. (2016, May) 12 In terms of the environmental organisations acting about change, in my research I have established to meet with the head coordinator of Transition Leytonstone - Shannon Thaden. He was very helpful in relation to my study by answering the questions I was concerned about in terms of operating such an organization. Organization Leytonstone is an organization that is transitioning away from a global petroleum based economy. The impact done by the organization is not huge, but has an impact on the local community. The various projects participated by the organization aims to increase environmental education and awareness of what a healthier life would look like. The main difficulties by the organization is the lack of participants, who provide environmental education and participants, who would be attracted to such practices. The organization chosen gardening, because it appeals to everyone and the knowledge to produce some food at home may not be just smart, but healthy as well. In Shannon's opinion there may be a lot of things that could trigger the human mind into being more environmentally aware, one of those is having children and being concerned for their future. For Shannon, the environment that he grew up in and his professional education background has been a big influence on being more aware overall. This particular study showed that we need to be concerned for our future generations and that the environment surrounding the child while he is growing up may be the reason for a more prosperous life. Such organizations are very important, because they are not trying to benefit from their participants, but rather let participants benefit from the organization itself. The interview is also included in the appendix in order for the reader to know the whole context of the interview. The interest for aquaponics accidentally came across my eyes when I was researching self-sufficiency on the internet. A lot of hobbyists and DYI enthusiasts were building it for themselves at home and the idea of building one myself was inevitable. I produced a sketch according to my gardening capabilities and built one myself a box out of OSB boards, then I purchased an industrial water pump, which was not too expensive, but most importantly has a long life. The greenhouse was bought for £20, so there was no need to construct one myself, because the materials for it would have cost a lot more. I also needed 7.5 meters of PVC pipes in order to use it as my growing bed and allow the water to flow from left to right and back into the aquarium. The filter was built out of leftovers from the previous actions. The other main product was the pond liner. I both a peace of 3.5m x 3.5m just to be sure that it is enough for the filter and the aquarium. Unfortunately 3.5m x 3.5m meters of pond liner is enough to cover my whole garden with it and there was no need to order so much of this material. When everything was finally together I purchased 12 gold fishes and filled the aquarium with water. The whole material list is included in the appendix(4.0). The fishes were active, so it was time to put my first plant into the system. The water PH level was consistent after a few weeks, which according to Love et.al(2014) and other aquaponic practitioner’s means that everything is living in harmony. Monitoring PH levels once a week and inserting new plants into the system everyday did consume a small amount of time(about 10minutes), which means that there is no need to be in constant observation to the system. The plants grew instantly and the difference in their growth could be seen each day. The system has been running for over 40 days now and the lettuce from the system is amazing.
  • 13. Grigas D. (2016, May) 13 My personal evaluation of the system would be that it is easy to operate and it is not time consuming at all, to maintain it. The only difficulties I faced was not using any special tools apart from the drill and saw to build the system. There were also complications with piping connections because it required silicone and insulation tape to hold the water from leaking all around on almost every corner, which was very devastating. But the final outcome of the system is that it is fairly easy to build(depends on the model that is being built) and that it is very easy to maintain it from once everything is set up. The fun part is that it may be included in education, because it is very easy to observe the plants in growth and it is easy to move them around the system until the root system is still small. Despite everything being so understandable and easy on the individual level, it seems that on the state level there are far more complications for governments to adopt environmental practices, which will be discussed in the following chapter. Figure 2(piping set-up) Figure 3(after 1.5weeks of growth)
  • 14. Grigas D. (2016, May) 14 CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION: HOW DOES GLOBAL GOVERNANCE REACT TO ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES? In this chapter I will analyses the global stage in terms of the environment. My main concern is to show that we cannot: ‘Grow now, clean up later’ (Wills K, 2011, pp.168). In which case the chapter will be evaluating development in terms of doing harm to the environment, as we explored in the previous chapters. There are many ways to influence firms for the better, less pollutive environment. One of those ways would be implementing policies that are very important in the developing world(Crespi et.al,2015). The Kyoto protocol clean mechanism development programme(CDM), has been involved in reducing emissions in return for emission reduction credits.(Crespi et.al.) In spite Crespi et.al claims that: ‘A carbon tax is probably the most common type of the environmental tax’ (pp.348), but in my opinion this must be heavily criticized, because the tax will not reduce emissions, but in spite will make the companies pay for the right to pollute: ‘Regulation sets a price for CO2 (emissions which the polluters are required to pay for its emissions)…’(pp.348,2015). However the authors claims that: ‘The harmonization of environmental policies across countries is required.’(2015,348.) Without these policies the temperature will only increase: ‘by the royal society of the United Kingdom, some researchers suggest a worst case scenario of a 4 degree C temperature rise by around 2060’(Popular development review,pp.603). The sort of temperature rise would be the consequence of governments implementing policies on local polluters that produce CO2 and other emissions. According to L. Chang et.al in 2015 some argue that: ‘Governments are the most important stakeholders in terms of exerting pressure on firms, thus shaping their environmental behavior.’(2015,pp.4). The authors examine Governmental impact on the environmental policy and performance in China, which is the most rapidly growing economy that comes from producing all sorts of goods for export, also one of the biggest polluters in the world (Kate Wills, 2011, Chang et. al.,2015,Eriksen et.al;) Carolyn Deere Birkbech in 2009 wrote an article to international affairs about global governance in terms of climate change issues: ‘Global governance in the context of climate change: the challenges of increasingly complex risk parameters', It’s core message was : ‘that global governance cannot continue as though it faces a ‘business as usual scenario’ (2009,pp.1173) Unfortunately the article explores the outcome that we may have left the climate action too late to actually change something we have caused. Climate change scientists claimed that: ‘experts make a compelling case that we have already left climate change action too late to prevent environmental disaster on a massive scale.’(2009,pp.1176) If we go back to talk about development in terms of causing more problems than solutions there is a need to see the model of development from the environmental perspective to make it sustainable and a lot more beneficial to our wellbeing: ‘While humans have always been subjected to some level of external risk, such as from natural disasters, Gideus, observed that modern ‘risk societies’ generate ‘manufactured’ risks, such as those associated with pollution, new illnesses and crime,
  • 15. Grigas D. (2016, May) 15 which are the result of the modernization process itself and are marked by a high level of human urgency.’ (2009, pp.1177,Birkbeck) Such story claims must be taken into account, because many scholars are arguing that global governance is not being environmentally friendly as I present throughout the paper. Sustainable development is the policy orientated goal global governance should be seeing. L.Kitchen and T.Marsden in 2011 suggested that there is a great need to build sustainable communities due to and environmental degradation : ‘Given distinctive types resources that tend to be available in rural areas, with the growing realization of both climate change and recourse depletion the sustainable development of rural space is assuming increasing importance for society as a whole.’ (2011,pp.753) The eco-economy is less beneficial to big companies and corporations, because they need to change their manufacturing `technology, which is the main polluter. (Kitchen and Marchen,2011; Chang et.al.2015; Crespi et.al.2015) Shifting to a more environmentally friendly technology may recall to put caps in each country by global governance lead to implement new policies to reduce pollution and contribute to climate change and our eco-system. Spoon et.al. in 2014 suggested that politics tend to be environmentally friendly before elections or when it is beneficial to the government itself. But overall Spoon et.al evaluates a poor performance towards changing the environment. The main reason why we need to adopt rather than overcome our harm being done to the environment, because we need to do it for our wellbeing as well: ‘Highly visible examples of the effects of the environmental degradation in the country a frequently pointed out, from particulate- laden. ‘Beijing smog’ to the ‘rivers of blood’(Davidson,2013) which flowed through Shanghai, in March, 2013 as 16000 pig car-cases infected with porcine micro virus floated past the gleaming skyscrapers of the Lyazui international financial center, symbol of Chinas economic rise’(2014, pp.1288) This may be the cause that shifts consumerist opinion into boycotting certain products to participate in the message to all related manufacturers. Consumerist choices are very sensitive and cannot be triggered often in the short term, rather it needs to build-up in order to be strong. New development structures are in need of being constructed to mimic nature and to be environmentally friendly at the same time. Eco- economies and sustainable development will prevent crisis like the ‘Beijing smog’ mentioned above. China is the perfect example of a society that has contributed the most in the 21st century (Chang et.al,2015) Man contribution may be seen all over the world, as we explored these issues in chapter 1. The purpose for this project is not to find the biggest polluter, but to acknowledge the scale of anti-environmental participants in order to realize how big of an issue we are creating on the global scale. The environment cannot protect itself without any devastating consequences for the human population. In spite, we can try to adopt to the environment, but as we know in 2016 still no greater action or shift has occurred. Humans are responsible for the damage done to the environment, which is, illustrated by Margaret P. Karns and Karen A. Mingst in 2010 in their book ‘International organisations’ they evaluate how organizations and global governance work in relation to the environment. The key goal of this chapter is to show how humans relate to
  • 16. Grigas D. (2016, May) 16 environmental issues and that it must be our responsibility to fix it: ‘human activity is very likely (more than 90 percent likely) to be responsible’(2010,pp.497) Probably the biggest factor that it might be related to human activity that the environment started to make major shifts after 12000 years of relative consistency’(2010,pp.497). The faster the countries develop against the environment, the more they will bare the costs in the future to undo the damage done, in my opinion. There are also implications by global governance: ‘In 2002, Europe established the European Emissions Trading Scheme. Emissions quotas are given to six key industries; energy, steel, cement, glass, brick making and paper.’(2010,pp.500) But in this paper we will concentrate more in the proposed future by scientists and scholars. The main issue with security relating the state and individual is that we keep draining earth’s resources and convert it into something toxic that is killing us, we will end up in conflicts over them, because of our industrial, transportation, and other things in everyday life are closely related to resources that are not infinitive and will end at some point, but it might be soon or it might be left for our future generations, but chaos is inevitable: ‘lack of critical resources poses a threat to a state’s security and unsustainable environmental practices pose a threat to human security potentially leading to recourse- motivated violence and intrastate and interstate wars.’(2010,pp.502) This sort of cruelty is not acceptable in the 21st century on any other centuries onwards. The human species cannot let their morals fall over resources, because there are solution that we are going to explore in order to bring the change.
  • 17. Grigas D. (2016, May) 17 CHAPTER 5: NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND SOLUTIONS In this chapter we will evaluate and discuss my proposed solutions for reviving our environment. There must be not only fundamental moral changes, but also technological. My main concern in this chapter is to introduce environmentally friendly solutions in food production, energy and fresh water industries. 5.1 Aquaponics Figure 4(the system) First, let's explore my proposed food production solutions, which is aquaponics. It is an ecological, soilless food production system that is combined of fishes and plants that live in harmony. The aquaponics solution came into public around the start of the 80s. (Elia et.al,2014) After the first appearance in public aquaponics received a huge interest from scholars and non- scholars around the world, because according to Elia et.al. There is no greater requirements to practice this food production system at any level of practice, or knowledge around it. The method of the system is easy to understand, because it mimics nature on a smaller capacity (depends on the space and variety of plants used). The fish produces ammonia, which runs through the pipes of the system and converts Nitrites(NO2) into Nitrates(NO3), which is a
  • 18. Grigas D. (2016, May) 18 fertilizer for any leafy plant that grows in the system. The method of aquaponics seemed so great that I had to try it myself, which is also explained in the methodology chapter. The main purpose for aquaponics is that it helps you get off the supermarket grid and shows how aquaponics really helps you save, or even earn money dependent on the scale of it: ‘making them food independent, and which will also bring them a steady income on hands.’(Elia et.al, 2014,pp.263) The system itself is easy to operate, which means everyone can participate in such practices that are long lasting. If the practice of such food production systems would be adopted by states, it would mean that states could become independent on food resources. If states would finally decide to become food independent, producing as less pollution as possible, it would be greatly beneficial for all mankind. Elia et.al, also states that the system may grow edible fish as well, which is one of the highest protein sources. Raj Patel(2012) in the book ‘From farm to fork’ has said that the major difficulties that the future generations face is a change in the food production variety and prices. A certain diet that is healthy and easy to grow must be adopted by states for the greater good of the people, not only health vice, but price vice as well. Farmers around the globe needs to see the benefit and prospects of environmentally friendly technology that according to aquaponics practitioners are much more beneficial.(Elia et.al,2014; Love et.al,2014) Apparently the methods were used by much older civilizations. According to Isaac Yuen(2014) the principles were used by Aztecs of Mesoamerica, there were evidence of such practice in Asia and India. Yet the method does face difficulties: ‘yet it is precisely the complexity and challenge of aquaponics that appeals to Mavronicolas, a self-employed new media producer with an interest in living systems and a background in engineering.’(2014,pp.51) He does face problems as phytonym invaded his plants roots, too many, or to few fish and other problems that cause disturbance to the system. There are always a way to experiment and improve the system, which with more attention could serve on the state level: ‘Constantly tweaking, his goal is to assure his plants and fishes thrive while attaining a good measure of food self-sufficiency. ‘That act of growing our own food has moved my wife and I to make so many shifts in our lives.’(Yuen,2014,pp.51) The fishes themselves, if raised for eating are Tilapia, which grows to a plate size in about 12 months. (Yuen,2014; Love et.al,2014, Elia et.al,2014) In spite, a larger amount must be grown in order to produce enough fish for self-sufficiency. Most important is that Yuen(2014) asks not to be afraid to: ‘Make mistakes and learn from them. Anyone with perseverance and determination will be able to make a success of this.’(2014,pp.52) Blidariu et.al(2013), presented a paper which carried out a research on Nitrate(ammonia) levels in natural conditions and in the aquaponics system. The study showed that in particular lettuce grows faster in the practice of aquaponics in terms of ecological food production. Love et.al, in 2014 carried out a research of aquaponics practitioners on the global scale. Authors of this paper claimed that practitioners choose to practice aquaponics not only for economic, but also for health purposes. The most common greens are leafy salads, Basil and tomatoes, plants that best adopts to the system. Solar power comes into practice here as well, because electricity needs to operate water pumps in the system: ‘the most popular renewable energy source was sunlight: passive solar
  • 19. Grigas D. (2016, May) 19 designs(22%)..., solar photovoltaic cells(19%), or solar thermal hot water heaters(7%)…’(Love et.al,2014,pp.5) The purpose for this type of food growing dies not only protect the environment, but also improves one's health, because of the natural fertilizer sources: ‘Respondents agreed that improving their health and the health of their communities were priorities.’(Love et.al,2014,pp.6) The Respondents also identified adaptation to climate change and environmental education is very important for our future generations. Aquaponics is a growing community, which is expanding and reaching out on a global scale to improve environmental sustainability within the scope of healthy food production using education as their main tool for recruitment.(Love et.al,2014) Jack L. Northrup in a journal article proposed that university students enjoy practicing with aquaponics, which means that there is some education carried out, but the students put the article up, because they are trying to bring their technologies to Kenya and share their knowledge with the locals and spread the ideas of the right development. Such participation must be funded otherwise it will be without a big impact on the global society. But we need to carry on, because there is much more to evaluate. Combining solar power and aquaponics is highly suggested by aquaponics practitioners. Solar energy must be considered, because it is the ultimate source of energy. 5.2 Free energy and clean water. Solar energy has also been used in practice only at the end of the 20th century.(Abramowitz, 2015) The increasing usage of solar power is a stable fact, not popular enough to make any greater revolution in the global economy runner by other sources of energy. Yosef I. Abramowitz in his article on energy independence argues that the mid-east countries could take control of the next generation energy supply chains. According to the author Germany is a leader: ‘in production of commercial scale solar energy.’(2015,pp.80) It alone produces around half of all solar energy collected on the planet. Along the Jordanian- Israeli boarders there is such a place called Rift Valley, which equipped with solar panels would collect twice more energy than the whole of Germany, because of sunlight consistency in the region.(Abramowitz,2015) The author suggest that the mid-east may be a leader in sun energy harvesting, because of many reasons. The sun is a very large undrainable source of energy if converted through the right method. So there are many reasons to practice solar power harvesting, because it's everlasting, more environmentally friendly, less pollute, free energy that may be practiced by anyone. The most important part is that: ‘Solar energy is the energy of peace, for the sun knows no boarders.’(Abramowitz,2015,pp.87) I strongly agree and claim that such sources of energy would prevent resource conflicts predicted above in the near future. There may be some drawbacks in the technology, but it's possible to work around them
  • 20. Grigas D. (2016, May) 20 according to Phillip Vanning and Jonathan Taggart in 2015, on a study of bad weather effects on solar power generation and slower homes. According to the author: ‘photovoltaic power may not be too affected by a couple of cloudy days in a row, but whenever tenebrous systems of low pressure linger for a while, the comfort of their domestic lives can be seriously jeopardized.’(2015,pp.638) There must be solutions for storing the electrical power into generators. Those, who live off the grid learns new lessons every day when practicing environmentally friendly life-styles. The authors discuss that when people collect their own energy, they use it a lot more respectively: ‘say, keeping unnecessary lights on.’(2015,pp.652) A step-by-step the human species are coming to a new enlightenment in terms of adopting and mimicking the nature surrounding us. Adopting solar energy would mean a great sustainable rise in the global arena. Countries that have more contact with sunlight may be gaining very important diplomatic recognition in terms of influencing new policies for the environment and sustainable development goals according to Sadiq Ali Shah and Rodger Edwards(2013). In their research they have considered if countries with deserts could harvest enough solar power for the region, which would lead to energy independence for low costs and provide developing or poor regions with electricity. In terms of Rainfall, it is the only: ‘source of fresh water, which occurs during monsoon period from July to September every year (Kahlow, 2004).’(Shah and Edwards,2013,pp.197) It is beneficial for human health, because solar energy could clean water as well. They would live in a less pollute area and generate their own free energy. The opportunity for fresh water could be established: 'The major portion of the solar power produced at these deserts can be utilized for the desalination of underground aquifer water for fresh water production.'(Shah and Edwards,2013,pp.202) The development method would suggest that: ‘the dessert could become renewable energy hubs, offering sustainable employment for the people of the desert communities.’(Shah and Edwards,2013,pp.202) In terms of water, there are other solutions that may clean any dirty water, including sea water, to the level where it can be drinkable or used for agriculture. The solution is called the 'Rain maker', it has been built by a group of scientists in a project called 'Billions in change'. The project itself is financed by a billionaire that has donated 99% of his profits to save the world with technology and science: ‘Manoj Bhargava, creator of 5-hour Energy, founded Billions in Change as a way to positively impact humanity.’ (Billionsinchange.com/faq) The rain maker has not been manufactured in large scale so far, because it lacks recognition, even though it is an amazing invention and a solution for our future generations: ‘Weíve created a machine called Rain Maker. It mimics nature, turning seawater or polluted water into fresh water suitable for Figure 5(rainmaker)
  • 21. Grigas D. (2016, May) 21 drinking and agriculture. Rain Maker makes more than just a little water. One machine the size of small car can make a thousand gallons per hour. Unlike other desalination systems, Rain Maker recycles its heat energy making it incredibly clean and efficient.’ (Billionsinchange.com/solutions/rain-maker) There is probably no way to change my positives on such solutions that would provide everyone with food, water and energy. Ecological restoration need to be brought by new projects that are stimulating sustainable development and ecological filtration towards a better environment.(Hallett et.al,2013) According to Vassiliki Markakis(2014) for sustainable development the main option would be to use the education system to educate new generations to a less polluted healthier life-styles. In terms of environmental education it is most effective tool to influence human behavior, which would lead to more sustainable resolutions. The influence of environmental organizations is very important as well. ‘Greenet’ is a network of teachers that are spread over 6 countries, the teachers themselves participate in seminars that improve their knowledge up to date.(Markaki,2014) Environmental education also rises awareness that is concentrated on environmental issues, as well as generate new ideas and improve with every project.(Markaki,2014; Hallet et.al,2013) Most likely throughout the paper we have seen the devastating degradation of our environment. There is a need to define the way this knowledge should be practiced to provide everyone with the basic needs of life, which is food, water and energy, and it must come free.
  • 22. Grigas D. (2016, May) 22 CONCLUSION To summarize the project we need to make a recap of what we have explored. First, we have looked at our environmental degradation and how the human hand have destroyed the eco-system and influenced our health and well-being for a number of years to come, because we are still participating within the society. Second, we explored the methodology and techniques used to carry out the study. The experiment and the test was conducted reasonably using political science to test environmental awareness and prove how easy it is to mimic nature on an individual level. Third, the political governance agenda was explored with relation to the environment. The discussion had examples of how do global governance deal with such issues and tries to improve our eco-system. Fourth, I have proposed solutions for environmentally friendly technology which would provide with the basic needs for human life that everyone is liable to obtain, which is water, food and energy(in this case electricity). Because in my opinion this technology is easy to operate and it does not produce pollution, which is devastating to the environment. To conclude there is still a need to recognize the tools, that must that must be used in order to succeed in such a goal, because the consequences should be clear by understanding the previous chapters. There are actors on the global stage who are bringing this change to place with very little support, but the majority of the people do not realize what we have to do next. Becoming self-sufficient and self-sustainable is our future, because if we do not, there will be no future for our children. The complications done to the environment will become more severe and the final point will be our devastating end as a species that will be wiped out, as according to the Bible has happened before, when the world was washed away by a devastating flood in the times of Noah. (Holly Bible: Genesis) It will all start over as we will see stronger floods, storms and hurricanes that will leave millions homeless and devastated as I mentioned in the previous chapters. No more 'Business as usual'*, because the consequences from nature will be too much to bare for the human species. The time to implicate environmental education and environmental technology has never been so late and required in order to serve the future of our kind. Only by adopting rather than working around nature will help us revive our eco-system and let our children evolve more then we could ever imagine. The first step is to secure our basic needs for existence, which is: water, food and energy.
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  • 25. Grigas D. (2016, May) 25 31. Yuen I.(2014)'Hooked on Ponics: a creative Vancouverite fishes for a home-scaled solution to putting food on the table','Alternativesjournal.ca',40(4):50-52 32. Eriksen M, Lebreton M.C.L, Carson S.H, Thiel M, Moore J.C, Borerro C.J, Galgani F, Ryan G.P, Reisser J.(2014)'Plastic pollution in the world's oceans:More than 5trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea','Plos one', December:1-1 Illustration list: Figures 1-4: personal archive Figure 5: ‘The Rainmaker'. Image first published on billionsinchange.com/film
  • 26. Grigas D. (2016, May) 26 APPENDIX 1.0 Interview Transcript: transition Leytonstone Me: How could you briefly describe the organization? Shannon: The main theme of our organization is our garden, is transition Leytonstone its just are of many transition towns, or transition outlets, that are focused on transitioning away from global petroleum based economy to a more local and sustainable, that use alternative energy, promoting products that are locally grown in seasons, and things like that, the garden started transition Leytonstone. Me: How big of an impact does the organization do to the community? Shannon: I think it is various projects at transition Leytonstone has done, especially gardening a sort of an impact for quite a few hundreds of people, or even thousands. You can see directly its various events, big gardening events. Hosting hundreds of people at the time and over the course of the year a couple of hundreds or thousands, keeping in mind the size of Leytonstone, which is probably only several tens of thousands of people, say about 5% of the population, still quite a big impact for such a small organization. Me: Great, thank you. Then, the third question, what difficulties does the organization encounter? Shannon: I think with the garden and transition in general it is probably common to get more people involved, aware of what we are doing, getting on board with the aims of the different Projects. With the garden, ore people to be involved in to day to day operations, more volunteers, and more people giving the workshops, more people attending the workshops. It is all about more people. We are not lacking any funds. We are not looking for another area to withstand our spaces, so it is all about getting more people involved. Me: Thank you. And then, why gardening when there are so many ways to improve the environment it’s knowledge? Shannon: I think gardening appeals to a lot of people of very diverse political meaning, very Diverse attitudes towards the environment, let’s say organic growing, let’s say wildlife. It is a way, it’s a non-threatening way to involve anybody, so somebody is coming here to feel like their diversity will go to an organization that only accepts a certain type of person. Everybody, sort of finds a place, find something useful of our garden. Our motivation might be to say get people to eat more locally, more seasonally, grow some of their own food more away from local agriculture system. Eating what’s on season than buying vegetables that are being shipped thousands of miles. Push people towards that, or make people aware of that by being sorts of non-threatening activity that everybody, sort of has interest in. Me: Alright, Thank you, and the last but not least. What do you think triggers the human mind to be more environmentally aware and start improving the issues that are surrounding us? A very philosophical question.
  • 27. Grigas D. (2016, May) 27 Shannon: Probably a lot of different answers to the question. For some it may be having children and worrying for they’re future. Some people might be just becoming aware of various issues, aware of statistical findings coming out and a bit reluctant to accept the need to serve the environment. Might be many factors. Me: Do you remember what triggered you, or were you always environmentally aware? Shannon: Probably, when I was growing up, my politics were influenced by my parents a lot. social circle that you grow in and going to university. Learning that social environment, various sciences that make you think critically of the issues that politicians make as a person that more motivated by scientific understanding of the world. Political, scientifically understanding of the world, that are pushing to realize that humans are causing climate change. 2.0 Consent form Darius Grigas is a student in the University of East London, where he studies International Politics with Law. It is his final year within the undergraduete programme and he is undertaking a dissertation project, which is based on self-sufficiency and self-sustanability. The main purpose of this case study is to include the data within the environmental education and environmental awereness chapter to see how does the society improve itself using the environment. The research is being conducted according to the principles and codes of research conducted in the Social Sciences. I will use the British Sociological Association’s Guidelines to help me, for example in interacting with people who have kindly agreed to help me with the research. The research includes interviews that are going to be record and tests to check the environmental awerness within the society. The interview will be tape recorded, and a transcript will be produced. This will be used as data. The interviews will be recorded by the researcher making notes after the interview, and these notes will also be used as data. Your words may be also be included as quetes within the dissertation project, or the name of the organisation itself. Your contribution to this project may be crucial and very important by all means. The case study is a great experience and source of knowledge from the society directly. Your participation within this project is very welcomed by its developer. Name...................................................................... Email.....................................................................(incase the University would like to contact you for authentication) Signature................................................................ Authors Signature..................................................
  • 28. Grigas D. (2016, May) 28 3.0 THE TEST I am a student in the University of East London. Currently I am working on my dissertation, which includes checking how aware are people of the environment that surrounds us. The test is combined of 10 questions, granting 1 point per question answered correctly. The test results will be purely for education and academic purposes. The participants will be anonymous for the final project to come, but the university may wish to contact one of the participants for authentication purposes only. I would be very grateful for your participation within the project in order to achieve my goals for the study I am carrying out. Participants information NAME................................................................................................................... EMAIL................................................................................................................... SIGNATURE........................................................................................................... 1)Do developing and developed countries have the same environmental cap’s?(restrictions) a)Yes b)No 2)Can livestock(e.g. Pigs) produce greenhouse gasses? a)Yes b)No c)I don’t know 3)Where is deforestation bigger issue? a)Developing countries b)Developed countries 4)Who is the biggest polluter in the world? a)Russia b)China c)India d)USA 5)Is urbanization a cause of deforestation? a)Yes b)No c)I don’t know
  • 29. Grigas D. (2016, May) 29 6)Mark the answers that you think contribute to climate change a)Greenhouse gasses b)Deforestation c)Soil degradation d)Pollution e)All of the above PLEASE TURN THE PAGE OVER TO COMPLETE THE TEST 7)Which Answers are related to the upcoming events of climate change? a)Increase in pollution b)Increase in fruit production c)Increase in sea-levels d)Increase in temperature e)All above 8)Which of these can be recycled? a)Food waste b)Plastic c)Aerosol cans d)Chemical bottles e)All answers are correct 9)Which chemical element is the most common in the field of Air Pollution? a)F b)O2 c)CO2 d)H2O 10)Is the statement true or false: ‘Natural disasters are stronger not because of the pollution carried out by massive corporations’. a)True b)False THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING
  • 30. Grigas D. (2016, May) 30 4.0 Material list(personal experiment): 1. Osb panels 2. Acrylic panel 3. Pond underlay 4. Pond liner 5. Water pump 6. Hose 7. Greenhouse 8. Pvc pipes 9. Silicone 10. Insulation tape 11. Plastic strips 12. Wood impregnator 13. Connection angles 14. Gravel 15. Seeds 16. Seeding trays 17. Soil for seeding tray’s 18. Fishes 19. Sponges 20. Fish food
  • 31. Grigas D. (2016, May) 31