The ecological footprint: an exhibit at an intergenerational trial?

This paper aims at assessing the extent to which the ecological footprint indicator (EF) can be regarded as an exhibit allowing an intergenerational trial about the use of natural resources. For that purpose, we examine various criticisms questioning the relevancy of EF measures for the study of environmental justice between generations. We explore the difficulties raised by the physical—and highly aggregated—nature of EF measures, as well as problems related to the number, the possible non-existence, and the tastes of future generations. The extent to which postulates on nature’s regeneration and technological progress affect the significance of EF studies is also discussed. It is concluded that those criticisms, by identifying various weaknesses of EF measures for the study of intergenerational justice, point to several crucial refinements of existing EF-based analyses.

Educational initiative of Osaka University in sustainability science: mobilizing science and technology towards sustainability

One of the most important and yet difficult challenges that modern societies face is how to mobilize science and technology (S&T) to minimize the impact of human activities on the Earth’s life support systems. As the establishment of inter-disciplinary education programs is necessary to design a unified vision towards understanding the complexity of human nature, the Research Institute for Sustainability Science (RISS) launched a new program on sustainability science in April 2008. The program expects to address the issue of how to use knowledge more effectively to understand the dynamic interactions between nature and human society. This paper first offers an overview of international and Japanese initiatives on sustainability education in which we highlight the uniqueness of the attempt by the Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S). The paper then introduces the RISS program for sustainability science, addressing the principles and curriculum design of the program. The paper discusses the main problems and constraints faced when developing the program, such as institutional barriers in building a curriculum and obtaining cooperation from faculty. To challenge these barriers and limitations, the RISS uses the program as a platform to disseminate the idea of sustainability science across the university. This attempt helps us to obtain the continuing cooperation necessary to improve and maintain the program.

Integrating the social and natural sciences in environmental research: a discussion paper

This paper considers the practical and intellectual challenges that attend efforts to integrate the social and natural sciences in environmental research, and the broader political, social and economic context in which this takes place. Based on the experiences of researchers in Australia—but with obvious relevance for researchers in many countries—it is the outcome of an interdisciplinary workshop which brought together social and natural scientists involved in environmental management. This event and the wider discussions that followed were initiated to enable researchers to exchange ideas about the obstacles to interdisciplinary collaboration, and to discuss ways to overcome these. The paper provides a summary of the issues and proposes some guidelines for interdisciplinary collaboration. These may be summarised as follows:

Measuring individuals’ valuation distributions using a stochastic payment card approach: application to solid waste management in Nigeria

The objectives of this study are twofold. First it aims to establish empirical grounds for pricing the services of a new environmental management initiative in Enugu state, Nigeria. A joint initiative of the UK Department for International Development (DfID), Enugu State Environmental Protection Agency (ENSEPA) and the State and Local Government Programme (SLGP). The second is to test the empirical performance of a new approach to the contingent valuation method (CVM) i.e., the Stochastic Payment Card (SPC) design proposed by Wang (Contingent valuation of environmental resources: A stochastic perspective, 1997a, Journal of Environmental Economics & Management, 32:219–232, 1997b). The SPC design unlike many of the conventional CVM elicitation formats, takes into account the stochastic nature of individuals’ valuation decisions. The data for the analysis were obtained from a random sample survey of a district in Enugu metropolis. The results show that, on average, households in this city are willing to pay (WTP) 215 Naira ($1.6) monthly as against 200 Naira ($1.5) currently charged for the service by ENSEPA. Analysis of individual’s valuation distribution function indicates that this amount is positively and significantly related to the gender of the respondent, household income and the respondent’s perception of environmental quality.

Commentary: the challenge of quantifying susceptibility to drought-related crisis

This paper is a response to a recent special issue of Regional Environmental Change, “Quantifying vulnerability to drought from different disciplinary perspectives” (vol. 8, number 4, 2008). In this paper, we examine some of the challenges facing efforts to understand vulnerability to drought through quantification as they are manifest in some of the articles in this special issue.

Rice–wheat cropping cycle in Punjab: a comparative analysis of sustainability status in different irrigation systems

There is a general contention among scholars that first, wheat–paddy cropping pattern is largely responsible for declining ground water table in Punjab and secondly, that the wheat–paddy cropping system is becoming unsustainable over time as the yield levels of these two major crops are stagnating. However, the existing evidences do not throw adequate insight into the stage of groundwater depletion during which the wheat–paddy cycle becomes unsustainable. The paper strengthens the existing empirical base of sustainability status of this cropping cycle in Punjab. A comparison of irrigation systems in terms of both trends in yield and stability for wheat and paddy has been attempted to arrive at a holistic appraisal of sustainability aspects of crop specialization in Punjab. It is observed that the canal dependent irrigation system has performed better as compared to the overexploited groundwater irrigation system in terms of most of the parameters used in the study.

Sustainable engineering education in the United States

Sustainable engineering is a conceptual and practical challenge to all engineering disciplines. Although the profession has experience with environmental dimensions of engineering activities that in some cases are quite deep, extending the existing body of practice to sustainable engineering by including social and cultural domains is a significant and non-trivial challenge. Nonetheless, progress is being made, as a recent study undertaken by the Center for Sustainable Engineering in the United States demonstrates.

Developing and applying a soil erosion model in a data-poor context to an island in the rural Philippines

Soil erosion in many parts of the developing world poses a threat to rural livelihoods, to the sustainbility of the agricultural sector, and to the environment. Most erosion prediction models are mechanistic and unsuited to quantify the severity of soil erosion in a data-limited developing world context. The model developed in this paper for Negros Island, in the central Philippines, is based on the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, but contains important innovations such as the movement of eroded soil over the landscape, simulating deposition on lower slopes and in waterways. It also includes a term describing farmer strategies to reduce soil erosion, which are typically ignored in erosion prediction models. A two-sample t-test found that model-predicted sediment loading values were not significantly different from field-measured sediment loading values when corrected for watershed size (P = 0.857). The model predicts an annual loss of 2.7 million cubic meters of sediment to waterways such that by 2050 more than 416,000 ha of agricultural land will be rendered unproductive due to erosion. Farmer behavior conserves soil, but on the steepest slopes soil conservation practices are not adequate to prevent erosion. Of two proposed strategies to control soil erosion in the rural Philippines, the model suggests that a complete switch to tree crops would conserve more soil than universal terrace adoption. However, even under these conservation scenarios, erosion threatens the areal extent of upland agriculture on Negros, and hence the sustainability of the island’s food supply.

A heuristic for setting effective standards to ensure global environmental sustainability

Most environmental professionals and decision-makers, and certainly the public at large, hold the view that the integrity of earth’s natural environment will be conserved for posterity and sustainable development achieved if all the nations rigorously enforced their environmental and emission standards. It is argued in this paper that this view, sincerely held by many as an “axiomatic truth,” is mistaken and misplaced. This is because as a biogeochemical entity the Earth has limited self-regenerative capacity (SRC) to cope with anthropogenic pollution, and all kinds of environmental problems ensue when that limit is exceeded. Indeed, mounting environmental problems now occurring on all fronts amply testify to the fact that the limit has already been exceeded. They also provide necessary and sufficient proof that environmental and emission standards have been woefully inadequate for protecting earth’s natural environment and life-support systems. It is argued that true global environmental sustainability will be achieved, paving the way to true global sustainable development, if and only if global environmental and emission standards are set so that global anthropogenic pollution does not exceed the limit of earth’s natural SRC to cope with such pollution. These and related issues are discussed in this paper. A simple mathematical model using basic mathematics is also presented to explain how the phenomenon of “positive feedback” works in some of the environmental problems to exacerbate environmental degradation and progressively to erode nature’s SRC.

Impacts of arsenic contamination in groundwater: case study of some villages in Bangladesh

The contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh by arsenic is a widespread and serious environmental problem, affecting mainly the rural population who rely extensively on groundwater for drinking and cooking. The study conducted survey work in a few affected villages of the Northwest region in Bangladesh. The household survey gathered information on the respondents (affected by arsenic) water usage and sources, knowledge of the arsenic problem, changes in the source of water for drinking and cooking, arsenic mitigation technologies and socio-economic information on the households. The survey work shows that percentage of male patient is higher than female patient among the same level of household income in each study villages. Prevalence of arsenicosis is more among poorer sections and it is directly related to the poverty situation of the community. People know more about the health problems caused by arsenicosis but lack knowledge about mitigation aspects. In one of the study areas, every year an extra 4% tubewell is getting contaminated by arsenic. Arsenic contamination in groundwater also affects the environment and the ecology negatively. The NGOs have been found contributing to a knowledge creation process in the village community as the villagers are showing marked behavioral changes in water-use practice.

A stakeholder dialogue on European vulnerability

A stakeholder dialogue was embedded in the ATEAM project to facilitate the development and dissemination of its European-wide vulnerability assessment of global change impacts. Participating stakeholders were primarily ecosystem managers and policy advisers interested in potential impacts on ‘Agriculture’, ‘Forestry’, ‘Water’, ‘Carbon storage’, ‘Biodiversity’ and ‘Mountain environments’ sectors. First, stakeholder dialogue approaches to integrated assessment are introduced. Methodological considerations on stakeholder selection and dialogue implementation and evaluation follow. The dialogue content and process are evaluated from the perspectives of stakeholders and scientists. Its usefulness in the research process and the relevance of outcomes for stakeholders are particularly considered. The challenging compromises required to perform innovative research, which seeks to achieve both peer scientific credibility and societal relevance, are emphasized. Effective stakeholder dialogues play a substantial role in raising the visibility and meaningfulness of vulnerability assessments as critical means to improve awareness on global change and its potential worrying impacts on society. They further provide scientists with critical information on ecosystem management and sectoral adaptive capacity. These processes of mutual learning and knowledge exchange moreover foster a better understanding of the potential and limits of global change modelling and vulnerability assessment for policy and ecosystem management.

Carbon neutral Biggar: calculating the community carbon footprint and renewable energy options for footprint reduction

The objective of this research was to develop a community carbon footprint model that could be used to assess the size and major components of a community’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The town of Biggar aims to become Scotland’s first carbon neutral town. As expected for this rural community, car transport accounted for nearly half of the CO₂ emissions, with natural gas and electricity consumption resulting in a further 24% and 12% of total emissions, respectively, and air travel being the last major component at 10% of emissions. An assessment was also made of the wind and solar resources of the town. One large wind turbine would provide the town’s electricity, while three to four turbines would be needed to offset all CO₂ emissions. In contrast, offsetting by tree planting would require in the region of 2,000 ha of trees.

Governance, institutions and the environment-income relationship: a cross-country study

This paper examines the environment-income relationship in the context of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), and explores the possible role that factors like governance, political institutions, socioeconomic conditions, and education play in influencing this relationship. The results suggest that the EKC exists for carbon dioxide emissions for cross-country data over the period 1984–2002. However, there is nothing automatic about this relationship; policies designed to protect the environment may be responsible for this phenomenon. Two other significant findings are: one, countries with better quality of governance, stronger political institutions, better socioeconomic conditions and greater investment in education have lower emissions; and two, only around 15% of the countries in the dataset have reached income levels high enough to be associated with an unambiguous decline in emissions. The implications of these results are discussed within the context of the international environmental policy arena and the Kyoto Protocol. One of the main objectives of this paper is to bridge the gap between studies conducted on the EKC and developments in the international environmental policy arena. As a final note this paper emphasizes that one needs to connect the body of knowledge on the EKC hypothesis to the international environmental policy arena, despite the apparent difficulty of doing so. One hopes that future studies will further build on this line of thought.

Biodiversity, food consumption and ecological niche dimension: a study case of the riverine populations from the Rio Negro, Amazonia, Brazil

In this study we perform an ecological analysis of the resources use in the diet of the ribeirinho populations of the Barcelos municipality, Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil. Data on food composition, seasonality, and origin took place during three field trips between 1999 and 2000. Data were gathered based on structured interviews and observations from a total of 320 meals of 114 randomly selected families and 164 fishing trips. The staple food of the studied populations is based on fish and manioc, although the food niche amplitude can vary according to the factors such as the access to imported food items, resources seasonality, and socio-economic conditions. The migration to urban centers along with the changes in subsistence activities (reduction of small-scale agriculture and specialization in commercial fishing) may result in changes in the food habits of ribeirinho populations from Rio Negro.

On several issues regarding efforts toward a sustainable society

Environmental issues and the future sustainability of society are among the greatest concerns facing society today. How to formulate a pathway toward a sustainable society is a critical question. Several issues associated with this question are presented and discussed. First, a structuring of the issues is presented. The environment can be said to consist of three systems—the natural, social, and human—and their interactions; environmental problems may therefore be defined in terms of perturbations of the interactions among the three systems. A sustainable society can be realized by restoring these interactions. Next, the characteristics of the issues are discussed. Because environmental issues relate to the future, forecasts of the future are essential. Because it is impossible to predict the future with complete accuracy, however, we should develop a method of using information about the future with allowance for error. It should be noted that error characteristics differ according to their time-scale. Third, the relationship between environmental issues and society is discussed. To take collective action on these issues we need society-wide consensus, which requires a reliable and objective platform. Here, more attention must be paid to the distribution of knowledge across society, because scientific knowledge in a modern society tends to be monopolized by research organizations. The role of the media is therefore important. Another important factor is the commitment of the general public; user-friendly ways of galvanizing such commitment should be developed.

Willingness to pay and demand elasticities for two national parks: empirical evidence from two surveys in Pakistan

Using survey-based data approach for modeling the demand for environmental goods/resources, this study estimates income and price elasticities of demand for improved environmental quality of two National Parks in Northern Pakistan. The study uses data from two studies. The estimates indicate that improved environmental quality effects can be described as a luxury and an ordinary and price elastic service. Confidence intervals show however that the classification as a luxury is not statistically significant. Income elasticities of willingness to pay are estimated for a broad range of environmental services. The study finds that income and willingness to pay vary directly and significantly. The elasticity estimates, in general, are greater than zero, but less than unity. The study concludes that environmental improvements are more beneficial to low-income groups than for high-income groups.

Refining the ecological footprint

Ecological footprint measures how much of the biosphere’s annual regenerative capacity is required to renew the natural resources used by a defined population in a given year. Ecological footprint analysis (EFA) compares the footprint with biocapacity. When a population’s footprint is greater than biocapacity it is reported to be engaging in ecological overshoot. Recent estimates show that humanity’s footprint exceeds Earth’s biocapacity by 23%. Despite increasing popularity of EFA, definitional, theoretical, and methodological issues hinder more widespread scientific acceptance and use in policy settings. Of particular concern is how EFA is defined and what it actually measures, exclusion of open oceans and less productive lands from biocapacity accounts, failure to allocate space for other species, use of agricultural productivity potential as the basis for equivalence factors (EQF), how the global carbon budget is allocated, and failure to capture unsustainable use of aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems. This article clarifies the definition of EFA and proposes several methodological and theoretical refinements. Our new approach includes the entire surface of the Earth in biocapacity, allocates space for other species, changes the basis of EQF to net primary productivity (NPP), reallocates the carbon budget, and reports carbon sequestration biocapacity. We apply the new approach to footprint accounts for 138 countries and compare our results with output from the standard model. We find humanity’s global footprint and ecological overshoot to be substantially greater, and suggest the new approach is an important step toward making EFA a more accurate and meaningful sustainability assessment tool.

Urban hinterlands—the case of an Israeli town ecological footprint

Modern urban life is characterized by the consumption of materials and energy, which are imported from all over the world and discharge waste that in many cases has a negative impact on ecosystems far from the cities in which they consumed. Indeed, cities cannot survive without worldwide hinterlands for resources and emissions sequestration. The ecological footprint (EF) concept provides valuable insights into the human appropriation of resources relative to earth’s carrying capacity, and therefore it enables us to compare human demands with nature’s supply and provides an indicator of human ecological sustainability. An attempt was made to calculate the EF of Ra’anana, Israel as a case study, to compare the EF-value with the expected for ecological sustainability and to emphasize the dependence on overseas ecosystems. Ra’anana, a town of 67,300 inhabitants in the year 2002, is considered a ‘dormitory town’ with a high quality of life. The EF was calculated using mainly the component method. The calculated EF for Ra’anana is 4.0 ha/resident which means that the required hinterland, located all over the world, is nearly 180 times the size of the town. The town’s EF is twice the value expected for sustainability on a global scale. We draw several scenarios in order to reduce the EF. On a national basis as well as with the town case study, electric energy, food and waste can be reduced and in turn would have a dramatic impact on the EF.

Population, environment and poverty in Pakistan: linkages and empirical evidence

This study explores the interlinkages among population, environment and poverty and presents empirical evidence in a developing country like Pakistan. It gives alternative views on population environment linkages. It explains poverty trap, market based harmony, and dual effect of poverty on the basis of a link between population growth and natural resource degradation. In addition, the paper also highlights social and political instability through population-poverty-environment spiral. It also presents empirical evidence on population-environment-poverty nexus in Pakistan. It also compares environmental sustainability index and human development index for selected Asian countries. The paper also gives scores for different components of environmental sustainability index for Pakistan and compares these with India. The paper concludes that the causal relationship between poverty and environment works in both directions, often through changes in GDP and population. Population stress does not have any significant direct effect on all aspects of environmental status in Pakistan.