Lecture 2: Limits to Growth and Sustainable Construction Flashcards
What are the limits to growth?
Limits to growth;
Materials - exceeding worlds resources faster than they can be restored Population - Exponentially increasing Environment Water Energy
Define Ecological Footprint
Ecological footprint is the impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources.
Define Living Planet Index - LPI
LPI - Measure of the state of the worlds biological diversity, based on population trends of vertebrate species from terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats.
What can cause rapid population increase?
Rapid growth can occur when Feedback loops are not balanced.
Poverty is a strong driver for fertility, causing unsustainable overshoots.
Balancing the feedback loops needs to occur to change the imbalance.
Summarise the limits to growth
Limits to the natural environment.
Rapid growth can lead to world overshooting its limits.
If there is a delay in the response, there is a risk of collapse and irreversible change to the environment
How to avoid collapse due to overshooting limits?
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Extend the planning horizon Improve signals Speed up response times Minimise use of non-renewable resources Use resources with maximum efficiency Slow and eventually stop the exponential population growth Sort out imbalances; Poverty etc
How can we secure a sustainable future?
Understand and respect LIMITS
Sustainable economy with consequences for unsustainable behaviour (polluter pays)
Policies based on evidence and using precautionary principle (act before detrimental irreversible effects occur)
What are the shared priorities for the UK’s action as defined in ‘Securing the Future’?
(elaborate how a civil engineer could contribute to their implementation)
Sustainable consumption and production
Climate change and energy
Natural resource protection and environmental enhancement
Sustainable communities
