Exercises: Sustainable development

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.

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.

Differentiate between the concepts of environmental impact and ecological footprint, using the construction of a major motorway through a rural area as an example.

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.

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. 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 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 = $6.5\ \text{gha/capita}$; Water footprint = $2\,400\ \text{m}^3\text{/capita/year}$; HDI = $0.93$.

• 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 = $0.82$.

• 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 $4.7\ \text{gha/capita}$, 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 $2.6\ \text{gha/capita}$.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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?