Lecture 16 - the challenges

Question 1

what is the millennium ecosystem assessment?

Answer 1

-Evaluates the human impacts on the ecosystem services that sustain us

Question 2

how much topsoil have we lost in the last 40 years?

Answer 2

33%

Question 3

what is the tragedy of the commons?

Answer 3

Short-term financial goals can erode the sustainability of production
If our economic system does not value sustainability over short-term profit, It will destroy itself

Question 4

what is suggested to help stop human population growth?

Answer 4

Empirical evidence suggests that people provided with access to contraception and having good education and a reasonable quality of life tend to choose to have fewer children. The technical solution may be greater equality of wealth and access to healthcare and education if global population growth is to stabilize.

Question 5

what does the tragedy of the commons require to achieve optimum solutions?

Answer 5

both technical and behavioural changes

- behaviour-change including changing human values and ideas of morality

Question 6

what is an example of how Agricultural economics is based on profit without consideration of environmental or human costs or benefits

Answer 6

BSE – “mad cow disease” and human Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease- has killed 177 people in the UK and cost the farming industry up to £980,000,000. The most recent case was in a cow in Scotland in October 2018 - the first reported case in Scotland for 10 years.
- this was originally a system to cut costs that then backfired - Similarly, soil degradation leading to flooding and biodiversity loss have had serious environmental and economic consequences

Question 7

what are the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agreed by 193 countries in 2015- seeking to achieve the majority of these goals by 2030 - 17 things?

Answer 7

• no poverty
• zero hunger
• good health and well being
• quality education
• gender equality
• clean water and sanitation
• affordable and clean energy
• decent work and economic growth
• industry innovation and infrastructure
• reduced inequalities
• sustainable cities and communities
• responsible consumption and production
• climate action
• life below water
• life on land
• peace, justice and strong institutions
• partnerships for the goals

Question 8

what is positive about the changes that need to be made to achieve sustainability?

Answer 8

we have the technical means to care for the soil, produce food sustainably and look after the rest of the living world. People increasingly understand the problems and want to change the system that has treated people and the planet unfairly and irresponsibly.
“The problems are solvable. What is stopping us is ourselves- our economics and values. It is a values debate”.

Question 9

describe sustainable food production

Answer 9

producing abundant food without depleting the earths resources or polluting its environment whilst providing dependable incomes to growers

Question 10

what 4 things are involved in sustainable food production

Answer 10

energy
water
soil
nutrients

Question 11

describe doughnut economics

Answer 11

• Regenerative by design. Distributive by design
• Planetary boundaries are set on the outside ring of the donut - represent the extent to which we can change the biosphere without it becoming effectively much less functional for us
• On the inside of the donut we need to be producing wealth and distributing resources to people to give them quality of life
• Shortfall = underperformance in terms of people’s quality of life
• Overshoot = for some parameters we are changing the system more than we should
• Reign in overshoot and redistribute shortfall to produce a sustainable ring

Question 12

what is a precondition for moving towards sustainability?

Answer 12

greater equality
- Moving towards sustainability requires that we improve the real quality of modern life in ways that higher incomes and consumerism cannot

Question 13

describe the UK net zero emissions law

Answer 13

The uk became first major economy to pass net zero emissions law = aim to have zero net emission by 2050 -

Question 14

what is the issue with the zero net emissions law

Answer 14

• a lot of our household footprint is from goods and services often from abroad and therefore not counted in the zero net emissions
• The emissions are still happening just overseas - doesn’t remove the problem

Question 15

describe the responsibility of our generation

Answer 15

We are the first generation to grow up in a world in which we recognize that our actions, choices, consumption and waste have global and persistent effects that impact on our neighbours, other countries, and will affect future generations.
We are the first generation to be able to quantify our ‘ecological footprint’ and to realise that our use of natural resources is unsustainable

Question 16

Human impacts on the environment and consumption of non-renewable resources raise profound moral questions- what are they?

Answer 16

What gives us the right to squander the Earth’s resources?
What gives us the right to pollute the Earth and pass on to future generations a damaged, degraded, devastated planet?
Now we increasingly know what we are doing does that knowledge carry some moral obligations?

Question 17

what is it important to consider when coming to conclusions about the planet as scientists?

Answer 17

As scientists it is important that we don’t let our concerns lead to us drawing conclusions that are factually wrong.
Conservation of biodiversity – particularly of rare species is unlikely to be justifiable on the basis lost ecosystem services- but can be justified on ethical, moral and religious grounds- that scientists often want to distance themselves from.
- Biodiversity loss isn’t about safe space for humans its about the quality of the world

Question 18

what are key concepts for sustainability?

Answer 18

Agro-ecology - eco-’systems’ thinking and approaches - Ecosystem services essential support systems and other benefits we recieve from nature including intangible benefits.

Lifecycle analysis wholistic understanding of inputs, outputs, costs, resources, waste and knock-on environmental impacts.

‘Footprinting’ (as in carbon footprinting, and ecological footprints)

P/R ratios- Production to Reserves ratios for finite non-renewable resources such as phosphate-rich rock or oil – how long until we run out?

Closed-loop nutrient cycles - Not entirely feasible but need progress in this direction

Question 19

what is permaculture?

Answer 19

to build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements to create permenant high-yielding agircultural ecosystems, so that humans can thrive on as little land as possible, thus leaving as much land as possible as wilderness, if necessary helping the wildnerness re-establish itself

Question 20

what are the 3 ethical basis for permaculture?

Answer 20

1. care for earth
2. care for people
3. fair share

Question 21

describe the economic benefits of farmers markets

Answer 21

Cutting out the middle-man (supermarkets) who has squeezed farmer’s incomes and marketed “junk food” to the world.

• 8% of retail price selling to supermarkets
• 21% of retail price selling to local shops
• 53% of retail price selling to farmers market

Question 22

some ways farms can play a significant role in sustainable energy supplies?

Answer 22

• wind turbines
• anaerobic digestion and biogasification of slurry and wastes
• solar panels on livestock sheds

Question 23

what is one of the issue with farmers converting their land to solar farms in the uk?

Answer 23

• weather in England isn’t that reliable - might just be wasting agricultural space
• also potentially damages soil underneath - less c inputs soil organic carbon is controlled by C inputs- and delivers multiple ecosystem services related to water storage, flood mitigation and soil fertility. If we don’t feed the soil it will structurally and functionally degrade

Question 24

what can we do to have sustainable and efficient food production?

Answer 24

alter dietary choices, low meat consumption, low waste, local produce, short supply chains

Question 25

How do we market and develop sustainable food systems?

Answer 25

• Consumers buy In on brands that are marketed under some sort of sustainable certification e.g. Fairtrade, rainforest alliance etc
• Central to informed consumer choice is the increasing opportunity to be aware of the environmental costs of products, conviction that the environment is important to protect, and belief that choices and actions by individuals can transform the world for the better. There are many examples where this has been successful as a philosophy building ‘ethical’ consumer choice- organic agriculture, fair trade, green electricity etc.
• We need a valid ‘sustainable’ food brand