Urgency to Act

Urgency to Act

  “Spaceship earth carrying capacity to sustain life will be soon exceeded”

—  The worlds population exceeds 6 billion, and 80 million people are added each year. Resource consumption per capita also is in the rise. For example, over 25 percent of the possible terrestrial and aquatic solar energy captured in photosynthesis by primary producers (plants and cyanobacteria) in now appropriated by humans. Just two more doublings of the human impact on the worlds natural resources – through a combination of population increase and consumption-fueled economic growth – would result in 100 percent of the net primary production being utilized by humans.

Carrying Capacity

—  Refers to the upper limit to population or community size imposed through environmental resistance (availability of renewable land non-renewable resources)

—  Renewable resources are those that can be  produced for consumption

—  Non-renewable resources are resources that are finite such as space and could not be produced- once used, it could not be recreated

—  In the past, society evolved with the principle of “fighting against limits rather than learning to live with them.” ( The Limits to Growth, Meadows, et.al, 1972)

IPAT equation

                                I = P * A * T

(Environmental Economic model of Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren Ehrlich Identity )

Human Impacts on the Environment (I) can be estimated from three (3) general factors:

—  The number of people (P)

—  Resources consumed per person (A for "affluence")

—  Effects of the Technologies used to obtain those resources (T)

—  The impact of any group or nation on the environment is represented qualitatively by P*A*T

—  “I = P * A * T” where ‘I=environmental impact’  ‘P=population,’  ‘A=affluence’  ‘T=technology’ expresses that growth in population, affluence, and technology are jointly responsible for environmental problems

Example: Multiply the population (P) times the number of cars per person (A) times the average CO₂ emissions per user (T)

Existing and Emerging Environmental Issues

—  Globalization, Trade, and Development

—  Coping with climate change and viability

—  Growth of megacities

—  Human vulnerability to climate change

—  Freshwater depletion and degradation

—  Marine and Coastal degradation

—  Population growth

—  Rising consumption in developing countries

—  Bio-diversity depletion

—  Bio-security

Source: United Nations Environment Programme, 2002

We have to act urgently

—  As population and per capita consumption increase, so does the urgency for architects/ professionals/ ordinary persons to protect and enhance the environments and communities where people reside

—  Role of Engineers

—  It has a unique role to play, because they have a direct effect to on the design and development of products, processes, and systems, as well as on natural ecosystems through material selection, project siting, and the end-of-life handling of products.

(adopted from Environmental Engineering by James R. Milhelc and Julie Beth Zimmerman)

By Vanessa Valencia with No comments