Lecture slides - University of Bristol's 2011 Sustainable Development unit, environmental science component.

1. Sustainable Development
and the Environment
Dr Sarah Cornell
sarah.cornell@bristol.ac.uk
Lecture slides and notes will be on Blackboard

2. Environmental Change
Key concepts:
The Earth System
Socio-Ecological Systems
Causes, consequences, and context
Scales of change (in space and time)
Case studies:
Pollution and over-consumption (L1)
Integrated Environmental Management (L2)
Global environmental change(s) (L3)

3. A systems perspective
General characteristics of a system:
 All systems have structure or organization.
 All systems function in some way.
 All systems show some degree of integration
(components act together to form an integral
whole)
 Change in one component is "sensed"
throughout the system, resulting in regulation.

4. The Earth System
F. Bretherton and colleagues, NASA, 1988

5. Earth system science =
Oceanography, zoology,
atmospheric science, botany,
geology…

6. Earth System science
explores the interactions
between living and non-living
parts of the planet
Life changes its surroundings.
The Gaia Hypothesis –
our planet functions as a
single organism that maintains
the conditions necessary
for its survival.
James Lovelock

7. Processes - Biogeochemical cycles
ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/globe/NFTG/nitrocyc.htm
The water cycle The nitrogen cycle

8. A major area of concern – the carbon cycle
Image from Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

9. Human life also changes its surroundings, and human
activities now have global-scale impacts.
We need to understand
the world as a
socio-ecological system
Image © Gordon Charlton 2004 Image © Shawn Miller 2004
…complex adaptive systems where social and
biophysical agents are interacting at multiple
temporal and spatial scales
(Janssen and Ostrom, 2004)

10. Sustainability relates to:
Society’s ability to cope with natural changes
Society’s consumption of natural resources
Society’s management of ‘collateral’
environmental damage
Human sub- Environmental
‘Three Pillars’ system sub-system
of sustainability ?

11. Securing our Future - UK SD Strategy 2005

12. PSR (or DSR or DPSIR)
Framework -
Many configurations - OECD, EEA, Defra, academic
• Allows for conceptual links in both directions
• Can be applied to multiple scales
• Can deal with processes - not just snapshot
But it doesn’t point society along the right or
‘good’ direction -
It is a framework for tackling problems

13. Pressure-State-Response Framework
D P S I
Driving Forces in State Change in Impacts on
Pressures
Society Environment Society
Agriculture
Land and Environmental
Industry Physical,
Resource Use goods &
Energy chemical and services
Emissions ecological
Transport state Human Society
Technological
Services risks
Households
S e c to r Environmental Statement of Social
P o lic y Policy Objectives Prioritisation
Response

14. Pressure-State-Response Framework
D P S I
Human
Environment
Society
Human
Society
Environment
Response

15. More people, more affluence,
more technology
= much more demanding of resources
• Plots from Steffen et al., 2003. IGBP.
• Read about P-A-T in Ehrlich, P.R. and J.P. Holdren, 1971.
Impact of Population Growth. Science 171: 1212-17.

16. Image from Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
Undesirable consequences…
Perturbed elemental cycles
Image from ORNL

17. Altered air chemistry Land cover change
Growing evidence of
changing temperature
and
Earth System feedbacks

18. Next two lectures –
looking at impacts and responses at
local and global scales
For now –
some unsustainability stories

19. The 1950s Smog Story
Smoke and sulphur dioxide from
industrial sources and domestic coal
fires accumulate in moist, still air
SO2 dissolves to form
concentrated
sulphuric acid
particles
Water vapour
Droplet tends to
condenses onto
absorb more water
the fine soot
 fog thickens

20. 4000 deaths in
5 days
Each day:
• 1,000 tonnes of smoke particles
• 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide
• 140 tonnes of hydrochloric acid
• 370 tonnes of SO2 were converted
into 800 tonnes of sulphuric acid.
Image from Met Office

21. UK Government response:
Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968  “smokeless zones”, controls on
industrial sources of pollution (tall chimneys for waste gas dispersal).
1997 National Air Quality Strategy set targets for 2005.
30% decrease since 1970
Excess deposition of SO2 in Europe (in tons/km2)
European legislation: www.emep.int
• controls pollution from
industry and now transport
• sets health limits for
common air pollutants,
including SO2, particulate
matter, lead and NOx.

22. Controls:
Change fuel - coal and oil desulphurisation
Change combustion - pressurised fluidised bed
chambers - remove S as fuel burns
Change emissions - flue gas desulphurisation
CaCO3 + H2SO4 → CaSO4 + H2O + CO2
limestone gypsum

23. Data from European Environment
Agency, 2000.
x1012 g S yr-1
Netherlands policy
initiatives have sharply
reduced SO2 emissions
to the atmosphere
Reference shows emissions at
1980 rate corrected for electricity
generation

24. The Water Quality story
Nitrogen and phosphorus are
essential nutrients for plants.
Sources of phosphorus - agricultural fertilizers and
pesticides, and wastewater treatment.
Sources of nitrogen - fertilizers, intensive agriculture
(NH3), wastewater, combustion processes (as NOx),
including vehicle engines.

25. What is the fate of N and P applied to land
surface or released into the atmosphere?
Rain washes nutrients into
streams and rivers
Nutrients enhance growth of
aquatic plants
Algal blooms die back when the
nutrients are depleted
Rotting algae consume all the
dissolved oxygen in the water,
causing eutrophication and
ecosystem damage
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Lindloff,
River Alliance of Wisconsin.

26. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/water/quality
Water Quality and the Law
Important legislation affecting water policy (up to 2003)
Safeguarding water supplies and their quality for now and the future is a vital task. It is a legal duty not to cause or allow water
pollution, as well as an environmental and social responsibility.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 established statutory provisions for a range of environment protection
purposes including integrated pollution control for dangerous processes.
The Water Resources Act 1991 consolidated previous water legislation in respect of both the quality and quantity of
water resources.
The Water Industry Act 1991 consolidated legislation relating to the supply of water and the provision of sewerage
services.
The Environment Act 1995 established the Environment Agency, and introduced measures to enhance protection of
the environment, including further powers for the prevention and remediation of water pollution.
The EC Surface Water Abstraction Directives (75/440/EEC) set quality objectives for the surface water
sources from which drinking water is taken.
The EC Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) sets standards aimed at protecting the health of bathers and
maintaining the aesthetic quality of bathing waters.
The EC Freshwater Fish (78/659/EEC) and Shellfish Waters Directives (79/923/EEC) are aimed
at protecting the health of freshwater fish and shellfish populations, by designating waters in need of protection and setting
quality standards for those waters. There is also a directive that aims to protect the health of consumers of shellfish by
enforcing bacterial quality standards.
The EC Dangerous Substances Directives (76/464/EEC), together with the Water Resources Act 1991,
require control over inputs of dangerous substances into water.
The EC Groundwater Directive (80/68/EEC) is related to the Dangerous Substances Directives and applies to
groundwater protection. Groundwater is water held underground in rock formations.
The EC Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (91/271/EEC) sets requirements for the provision of
collecting systems and the treatment of sewage according to the size of the discharge and the nature of the receiving water.
The EC Nitrate Directive (91/676/EEC) requires member states to reduce the nitrate pollution in waters that arises
from agricultural inputs.

27. CSI report, 2005
Key policy question:
Is eutrophication in European surface waters decreasing?
Key message:
There has been no general reduction in
eutrophication (as measured by
chlorophyll-a concentrations) since 1985.
Chlorophyll-a concentrations have
increased in a few coastal areas and
decreased in others.

28. What are the differences between the
smog story and the water story?
• Point source pollution • Diffuse source pollution
• One major source • Multiple sources
• Substitutes for coal • No substitution for N or P
• Technology available at • No technological solution
reasonable cost • Indirect impact on humans,
• Direct and acute impact usually cumulative not
on humans acute
• Local impact • Often displaced impact

29. What hope for Water Quality?
EU Water Framework Directive
It requires all inland and coastal water bodies to reach at
least "good status" by 2015.
It promises joined-up science and joined-up governance:
• integration of surface/groundwater and quality/quantity.
• linking management of water with other policy sectors that
have an impact on the water environment.

30. Stories of Irreversible Changes -
use of non-renewable resources
Nauru
(2,500 miles SW of Honolulu)

31. Nauru’s phosphate mining started before 1900. For a period
after it became a republic, in 1968, its per capita income was
second only to Saudi Arabia’s.
90% of the island surface has been mined.
By 2005, virtually all phosphate reserves were depleted.
• The economy collapsed in the 1990s… notorious for
money-laundering, now largely dependent on aid.
• The island is widely regarded as an environmental
wasteland… (no birds, food and water are imported)
• The community has been struggling with weak governance
and reduced wellbeing – rehabilitation of the island is difficult
e.g., www.economist.com/node/11090649; CIA world factbook

32. Would we be so foolish…?
F o s s il f u e ls a n d
the H ub b e rt P e a k
Non-OPEC, non-FSU production
has already peaked.

33. Carrying capacity = the population level that can be supported,
given the life infrastructure present
(food, habitat, water and other resources)
Carrying
Capacity
Resources }
Population
Sustainable (?)
development
time
A little warning note – this concept needs care in application. Lots of literature explains why…

34. Carrying capacity …
Carrying
Capacity
Resources Population
Too-rapid development
time
Recall earlier reference to Paul Ehrlich (IPAT) - http://dieoff.org/page112.htm
Donella Meadows - http://www.sustainer.org/dhm_archive/
http://www.sustainer.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=vn385npped

35. Carrying Capacity … and Ecological Footprints
Carrying
Capacity Capacity
Resources
} - Footprint
Population
+ve or -ve?
Sustainable (?)
development
time
see pthbb.org/natural

36. Copyright 1993 Watterson (Universal Press Syndicate)