Sustainable development, ecosystem services, and the ecological footprint
On the coast of Nayarit, the mangroves of Marismas Nacionales slow the waves of hurricanes, serve as nurseries for shrimp and fish, and store carbon. If they are cut down to build a tourist development, the benefit arrives quickly, but what is lost, and who pays for it afterward?
Sustainable development and environmental impact
A logging company clears an entire forest in a single season and makes record profits. But it leaves the hillside eroded, the streams clogged with silt, and the community without forest income for decades. How can we use resources today without taking the future away from others?
Define sustainable development in your own words and describe a decision that your local municipality could make (regarding transportation, energy, or waste management)…
Define sustainable development in your own words and describe a decision that your local municipality could make (regarding transportation, energy, or waste management) that is consistent with this concept, justifying your answer.
Differentiate between the concepts of environmental impact and ecological footprint, using the construction of a major motorway through a rural area as an example.
Differentiate between the concepts of environmental impact and ecological footprint, using the construction of a major motorway through a rural area as an example.
Ecosystem services and ecological imbalance
Let's go back to the mangroves: nobody pays them to slow a hurricane, but they do it anyway. These benefits that nature provides to people and the planet are called ecosystem (or environmental) services.
| Type | What it provides | Example in Mexico |
|---|---|---|
| Provisioning | Goods we take | Water, corn, timber, shrimp, medicinal plants |
| Regulating | Control of natural processes | Mangroves that cushion hurricanes; forests that capture rainwater and recharge aquifers; bees and bats that pollinate |
| Cultural | Recreational, spiritual, and aesthetic values | Xochimilco's chinampas, tourism in Sian Ka'an, the monarch butterfly |
| Supporting | Basic processes that sustain all the others | Photosynthesis, nutrient cycles, soil formation |
Explain what the ecological footprint measures and what unit it is expressed in. Name two everyday activities that increase it and two that reduce it, giving reasons for…
Explain what the ecological footprint measures and what unit it is expressed in. Name two everyday activities that increase it and two that reduce it, giving reasons for each.
The ecological footprint
Biocapacity and ecological deficit
A municipality has land and water to supply 30,000 inhabitants, but 80,000 live there with growing consumption. Where does the shortfall come from?
The diagram compares the ecological footprint and available biocapacity per inhabitant of a city. Calculate its ecological deficit per inhabitant (the section marked…
The diagram compares the ecological footprint and available biocapacity per inhabitant of a city. Calculate its ecological deficit per inhabitant (the section marked with '?') and explain what this result means.
Comparing footprints and the limits of the indicator
Food also leaves a footprint. Producing food requires land for crops or pasture, water, and energy (machinery, fertilizers, transportation, refrigeration). What varies a lot is how much of each thing each diet needs.
The reason is the loss of energy between trophic levels: to get one calorie of meat, livestock must be fed many calories of grass and grain. The higher up the food web we eat, the more land, water, and energy are used for each serving.
| Diet | Land | Water | Energy and emissions | Footprint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vegetarian (corn, beans, vegetables, eggs, dairy) | Little: the producer level is consumed directly | Low | Low | Lowest |
| Traditional Mexican (corn, beans, chile, squash, vegetables; little red meat) | Intermediate | Intermediate | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| High in beef | A lot: pastures and fodder crops | Very high | High (cattle emit methane, $\text{CH}_4$) | Highest |
Order from lowest to highest footprint: vegetarian, traditional Mexican, high in beef.
To find out how many planets would be needed, we divide the footprint of a consumption pattern by the planet's average biocapacity.
"Earth Overshoot Day" is the date on which humanity has already used up what the planet regenerates in a year. If $N$ planets are needed, that day falls at approximately day $365/N$ of the year: the larger the footprint, the earlier it arrives.
Other indicators: water footprint, GDP, and HDI
With these indicators we can see whether a country achieves good human development with a moderate footprint. Also, GDP can grow even when there is environmental damage: cleaning up a spill costs money and adds to GDP, but it does not improve the quality of the environment or people's lives.
Order these three diets from smallest to largest ecological footprint and justify the order based on the land area, water, and energy each requires: vegetarian diet,…
Order these three diets from smallest to largest ecological footprint and justify the order based on the land area, water, and energy each requires: vegetarian diet, diet rich in beef, and Mediterranean diet.
Earth Overshoot Day (the date on which humanity exhausts the resources that the planet regenerates in one year) has moved from late December in 1970 to late July today.…
Earth Overshoot Day (the date on which humanity exhausts the resources that the planet regenerates in one year) has moved from late December in 1970 to late July today. Interpret what this date indicates, what trend its earlier arrival reflects, and how it relates to humanity's ecological footprint.
A municipality wants to reduce its ecological footprint by $20\ \%$ in ten years. Propose three specific measures (one for transportation, one for energy, and one for…
A municipality wants to reduce its ecological footprint by $20\ \%$ in ten years. Propose three specific measures (one for transportation, one for energy, and one for consumption) and analyze for each which component of the footprint it reduces and what social or economic obstacles it might face.
Analyze the following socio-ecological indicators for three fictitious countries: Country A: GDP per capita = $\$44\,000$; Ecological footprint = $6.5\…
Analyze the following socio-ecological indicators for three fictitious countries:
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Country A: GDP per capita = $\$44\,000$; Ecological footprint = $6.5\ \text{gha/capita}$; Water footprint = $2\,400\ \text{m}^3\text{/capita/year}$; HDI = $0.93$.
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Country B: GDP per capita = $\$17\,000$; Ecological footprint = $2.2\ \text{gha/capita}$; Water footprint = $1\,150\ \text{m}^3\text{/capita/year}$; HDI = $0.82$.
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Country C: Suffered a major industrial disaster with toxic spills that flooded a natural park; during the subsequent two years, its GDP per capita grew by $3.8\ \%$ annually due to decontamination work, compensation payments, and infrastructure reconstruction.
- a) Using the case of Country C, refute the statement that «continuous GDP growth is synonymous with sustainable development». Identify which structural flaw of traditional economic accounting is exposed.
- b) Compare the profiles of countries A and B. Argue which of the two is closer to a model of genuine sustainability when relating quality of life to ecosystem burden.
- c) Select two complementary indicators (for example, the Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index and the Water or Material Footprint) and technically justify what critical information they provide that GDP completely ignores.
The average biocapacity of the planet is approximately $1.6\ \text{gha/capita}$. In a developed country (A), the average ecological footprint reaches…
The average biocapacity of the planet is approximately $1.6\ \text{gha/capita}$. In a developed country (A), the average ecological footprint reaches $4.7\ \text{gha/capita}$, while its own territorial biocapacity is $1.4\ \text{gha/capita}$. In a developing country (B), the footprint is $1.1\ \text{gha/capita}$ and its territorial biocapacity is $2.6\ \text{gha/capita}$.
- a) Calculate how many planet Earths would be needed if the entire world population adopted the consumption pattern of country A. With that data, calculate with justification on which day of the year (Earth Overshoot Day) humanity would exhaust the regenerative resources of the planet under such a pattern.
- b) Calculate the ecological deficit or reserve of both countries (territorial biocapacity minus footprint). Explain, in biogeochemical and trade terms, how country A manages to maintain consumption far exceeding its local biological capacity without immediately collapsing.
- c) Assess the outcome from the perspective of global equity and ecological debt: what long-term biophysical consequences does the consumption pattern of country A have for country B and for the biosphere as a whole?
Back to the beginning: when a mangrove is cut down, regulating services (protection against hurricanes), provisioning services (shrimp and fish), and supporting services are lost. The immediate benefit goes to a company, but the cost is paid by the community and future generations: that is an ecological imbalance and the opposite of sustainability.