Introduction to Environmental Sciences
EES 102
Dr. Shubhi Agrawal
Assistant Professor
Earth and Environmental Sciences
IISER Bhopal
20/1/2025, L5
Core concepts in sustainable development
How do we describe resource use?
• Ecological footprint
• Throughput – A term widely used for describing resource use.
Throughput is the amount of material or resources that flow through a
system.
Example of a household.
• A household that consumes abundant consumer goods, foods, and energy
brings in a great deal of natural resource–based materials; that
household also disposes of a great deal of materials. Conversely, a
household that consumes very little also tends to produce little waste.
Core concepts in sustainable development
Ecosystem services – It refers to services or
resources provided by environmental systems. Often
these are invisible. Nature doesn’t put a price tag on
them.
Provisioning – fuel we burn
Supporting services – less obvious to notice, water
purification, production of food and oxygen by plants,
etc.
Regulating services – maintenance of temperature by
the earth’s atmosphere, carbon capture by green
plants, etc.
Cultural services – recreational, aesthetic, etc.
Core concepts in sustainable development
How can we protect these services
over the long term?
“Tragedy of the Commons,” published in
1968 in the journal Science by
ecologist Garret Hardin.
Hardin argued that population growth
leads inevitably to overuse and then
destruction of common resources—such
as shared pastures, unregulated
fisheries, fresh water, land, and clean
air.
https://sustainable-environment.org.uk/Earth/Commons.php
Core concepts in sustainable development
Hardin proposed that there are only
two ways to avoid this destruction:
(a)a system of private property, in
which owners protect resources
because of self-interest, or
(b) coercive regulation by the state.
An alternative perspective to Hardin’s
framework is strategies for managing
the commons; that is, for collectively
safeguarding commonly used resources
– common forests, common grazing
lands etc.
The importance of common property
management was publicized by Elinor
Ostrom, who won the 2009 Nobel Prize https://sustainable-environment.org.uk/Earth/Commons.php
in Economic Sciences.
Core concepts in sustainable development
What conditions can help communities manage
What type of institution is best for managing a global
their commons over the long term?
commons, such as climate or biodiversity?
(1) effective and inexpensive monitoring of
Garret Hardin argued that local solutions to climate
resource use;
change are irrelevant as long as countries and
(2) an ability to exclude outsiders, who don’t
international institutions fail to make policy changes.
understand rules of use; and
So preferably policy changes should happen at the
(3) frequent face-to-face communications and
country and international level.
strong social networks among users, which
reduce distrust and promote
Ostrom suggests investing in smaller, local, even
communication about the state of the
individual policy changes.
resource.
What can you do?
https://www.globalgoals.org/take-action/?id=1
Planetary boundaries define broad limits
• Another way to think about environmental services is planetary boundaries or thresholds of
abrupt or irreversible environmental change
• Johan Rockström and colleagues at the Stockholm Resilience Centre have identified nine major
systems with these critical thresholds:
➢ Climate change,
➢ biodiversity,
➢ land system change,
➢ freshwater use,
➢ biogeochemical flows (nitrogen and phosphorus),
➢ ocean acidification,
➢ atmospheric aerosols,
➢ stratospheric ozone loss, and
➢ “novel entities,” including chemical pollution and Other factors
Planetary boundaries define broad limits
• Studies show that we have already passed the
planetary boundaries for some of these systems, and
that we are approaching limits for others.
• These overshoots are expected to cause rapid declines
in ecosystem function and ecosystem services in many
areas.
• Ecosystem services are tightly coupled.
• For example- destruction of tropical forests in
Southeast Asia can influence heat and drought in
North America. Drought and fires in North America
enhance climate warming and sea ice loss in the Arctic.
• A planetary perspective helps us see interconnections
in global systems and their effects on human well-
being.
https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html
Planetary boundaries define broad limits
• https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.1259855
• https://planetaryboundaries.kcvs.ca/#:~:text=Planetary%20Boundari
es%20is%20a%20framework,harmful%20to%20humans%20and%20s
ociety.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIXxfLQuhsE
Indigenous peoples often protect biodiversity
500 million indigenous people who remain in traditional homelands still
possess valuable ecological wisdom and are the guardians of little-
disturbed habitats that are refuges for rare and endangered species
and undamaged ecosystems.
As we seek strategies for sustainable development and biodiversity
conservation, this knowledge may be an essential resource.
A few countries, such as Fiji, Ecuador, Canada, and Australia,
acknowledge indigenous title to extensive land areas.
As the Kuna Indians of Panama say, “Where there are forests, there
are native people, and where there are native people, there are
forests.”
Environmental justice
• Environmental justice combines civil rights with environmental protection to demand a safe,
healthy, life-giving environment for everyone.
• Among the evidence of environmental injustice is the fact that three out of five African
Americans and Latino/as, and nearly half of all Native Americans, Asians, and Pacific
Islanders, live in communities with one or more uncontrolled toxic waste sites, incinerators, or
major landfills, while fewer than 10 percent of all whites live in these areas.
• Environmental racism is inequitable distribution of environmental hazards based on race.
Evidence of environmental racism can be seen in lead poisoning in children. Some 4 million
children—many of whom are African American, Latino, Native American, or Asian, and most of
whom live in inner-city areas—have dangerously high lead levels in their bodies.
• Toxic colonialism is the practice of targeting poor communities of color in the developing
nations for waste disposal or experimentation with risky technologies.
• Although a treaty regulating international shipping of toxics was signed by 105 nations in
1989, millions of tons of toxic and hazardous materials continue to move—legally or illegally—
from the richer countries to the poorer ones every year.
