UNDERSTANDING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

"We have it in our power to begin the world again"

Thomas Paine

Objectives

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:

1. appreciate the extent and scope of the global environmental situation,

2. acquaint with the principles pertinent to the ethic of sustainability,

3. familiarize with the global and Philippine environmental education framework.

1.1 The Challenge of Environmental Sustainability

The deterioration of the global environment is such that it has reached a scale that
encompasses the vital life support systems of the biosphere. Scientists, educators and policy
makers who have studied the environmental problems facing the world today believe that the
threat to the environment is extremely serious, and majority agree that immediate action is
needed. Fortunately for our society,and probably because of man's natural instinct for self-
preservation, the environmental crisis has awakened global responses aimed precisely to reverse
this negative trend.

This pathetic environmental impasse mainly came as people viewed the earth as an
unlimited supply of resources for exclusive human use. This feeling of entitlement has fostered a
frontier ethic and a tendency to exploit the earth’s resources. It is extremely naive to assume that
the earth's resources are infinite and inexhaustible. The hard fact is that the world's resources are
finite and that limits are real. Secondly, man must realize that he is interconnected and
interwoven into nature's web; he cannot act apart from it. For example, the symbiotic
relationship among man, animals and plants maintains the carbon-oxygen balance responsible for
the growth and survival of all living things. The food that sustains human beings primarily comes
from plants, soil, water and air going through a food chain. Interdependence and interaction
between the biotic and abiotic components of the environment is a reality being affirmed
everyday.

Man's complacency and lack of understanding of this delicate balance in nature

invariably leads to major catastrophes such as denudation of forests that results to disastrous
flash floods, erosion of hillsides that results to sedimentation of lakes and rivers thus severely
affecting aquatic life, and excessive pollution that contributes to global warming and climate
change. These are among what we term as ecological backslashes, when nature gives a negative
feedback to man's misuse and abuse of nature's bounty. A good example of ecological backslash
is from the intensive use of chemicals in farms to kill plant pests. Excessive spraying of these
chemicals has resulted to development of resistant by pests to these chemicals, thereby
necessitating increase of dosage with each consecutive spraying to achieve a similar rate of
control.

Major global, potentially disastrous environmental trends continue to confront us, many
with dire consequences. Another situation favoring environmental degradation is the use of
common-property resources. These are resources that are difficult to exclude people from using
and of which each user depletes or degrades the available supply. Most are potentially
renewable. Examples are clean air, fish in parts of the ocean not under the control of a coastal
country, migratory birds, gases of the lower atmosphere, the ozone content of the upper
atmosphere and outer space.

Because excluding people from using the resources that make up the global commons is
difficult, they can be polluted or overharvested and converted from renewable to slowly
renewable, non-renewable or unusable resources. Abuse or depletion of common property has
been called the tragedy of the commons. It occurs because each user reasons, "If I don't use this
resource, someone else will. The little bit I use or the little bit of pollution I create is not enough
to matter.

When the number of users is small, there is no problem. But eventually the cumulative of
many people trying to maximize their use of a common-property resource depletes or degrades
the usable supply. Then no one can make a profit or otherwise benefit from the resource. One
way to solve the dilemma is for users of a common-property resource to agree voluntarily to
limit their use to help sustain the resource. This has been successful at the local level where peer
group pressure among neighbors and friends can play an important role. An example for this is
the use of irrigation water in a farming community. Each user must ensure that water can and
should flow from irrigation source even up to the farthest farm through judicious use and through
participatory group dynamics. Another approach is for various local, regional or national
governments to agree to cooperate in regulating access to common-property resources.

Self Learning Activity:

1. Watch the video about the Tragedy of the Commons at https://m.youtube.com/watch?

v=CxC161GvMPc&t=188s and write a short essay on what you understand by management of
common-property resource.
1.2 Valuing Our Environment: Building a Sustainable Society

Understanding environmental problems and finding solutions fall in the domain of

Environmental Science. Environmental Science calls on insight from a number of disciplines
including biology, chemistry, climatology, anthropology, forestry and agriculture. Yet solving
the highly complex problems of overpopulation, resource depletion and pollution requires more
than a knowledge of science. Because solutions fall into the political and economic arenas; they
require a working knowledge of sociology, law, ethics, economics and, occasionally,
psychology. Environmental science thus attempts to piece together an integrated view of the
world- a systems view- and our part of it. As such, it is one of our greatest hopes for charting a
sustainable future.

The changes required to shift massive industrial and agricultural societies onto a
sustainable course are already underway. These changes, which will take generations to
complete, will involve arduous work in many fields at all levels of society. The kinds of changes
needed will require not only materials shifts but also changes on the level of moral values, ethics
and new modes of thinking and analysis.

In many cases, solutions to environmental problems are mere palliatives without

analyzing the root cause. Recognizing that the systems approach is not enough, many
environmental scientists have begun to search for ways to provide systematic solutions. An
essential component to systematic and integrated approaches is critical thinking skills and
strategies needed to improve our chances of finding appropriate answers to the problemsproblem
that lie ahead.

Creating a high-synergy sustainable society that lives within the earth's means is possible
but requires the adoption of a new, sustainable ethic- one that respects limits and seeks to ensure
for future generations and other species the resources they need to survive. The sustainability
ethic has given rise to a whole new paradigm of sustainable development.

Sustainability can be defined in many ways. The simplest definition is: A sustainable
society is one that can persist over generations, one that is far-seeing enough, flexible enough,
and wise enough not to undermine either its physical or its social system of support. The World
Commission on Environment and Development put that definition into memorable words: A
sustainable society is the one that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

In order to be socially sustainable the combination of population, capital and technology

in the society would have to be configured so that the material living standard is adequate and
secure for everyone. In order to be physically sustainable the society's material and energy
throughputs would have to meet the following conditions: a. Its rates of use of renewable
resources do not exceed their rates of regeneration. b. Its rates of pollution emission do not
exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment.
 From the above context, sustainable development connotes a process by which human
potential (standard of well-being) is improved and the environment ( the resource base ) is used
and managed to supply humanity for a long-term basis. It implies social justice as well as long-
term environmental sustainability. The definition suggests that mankind has degraded the planet
and must make amends for future generations.

A new value system recognizes our place in the natural order as one of many millions of
species. It is one that favors cooperation over domination and provides broad guidelines for
human behavior. However, this new ethic must be articulated into actions; otherwise, it is
reduced to a useless philosophy.

1.3 The Biological Principles of Sustainability

The operating principles for this sustainability ethic are gleaned largely from the realm of
biology and natural science. Having evolved through 4 billion years, natural ecosystems are
characterized by at least six biological principles that serve as strategies for achieving
sustainability as follows: a. Conservation b. Recycling c. Renewable resource use d. Restoration
e. Population control, and f. Adaptability. Adoption of these principles as sustainability strategies
could be useful in reshaping human society.

Conservation. Natural ecosystems persist because organisms in them use only the
resources they need, and they generally use them efficiently. In this text, the term conservtion is
used to describe these two related activities.

Waste of the magnitude witnessed in human society is almost unheard of in nature. In

fact, the evolutions of life in many regions of the earth hinged on the emergence of structural and
functional characteristics that permit organisms to use resources with efficiency. Without them,
there would be little, if any, desert life. In the absence of efficiency, life would probably have
restricted to a rather narrow region on earth where conditions are mild and food abundant.

Recycling. Efficiency is not enough to ensure sustainability. Nature persist because it

reuses materials over and over, that is, it recycles them. The earth is a closed system- one that
receives no input from the outside except sunlight. Like a terrarium, all the materials necessary
for life, such oxygen, are contained within and are used over and over. The best visual example
is the hydrological or the water cycle. Without recycling, natural ecosystems will quickly
collapse, and life will come to an abrupt halt as the earth's resources are extinguished.

Regeneration of Renewable Resources. Natural systems also persist because they rely
principally on renewable resources- resources such as air, water, plants and animals that
regenerate via biological or geological processes. Virtually all life on earth, including our own, is
nourished by plants. Plants, in return, depend on three renewable resources: air, water and soil.
The energy of life comes from the sun, a vast of nonrenewable resource. Without plants to
capture sun's energy, most life forms cannot survive. Despite the belief that humans are apart
from nature, our lives are intimately tied to natural systems.

Restoration. Natural ecosystems also endure because they are capable of repairing
damage, or restoration. This refers to mechanisms that permit the self-repair of ecosystems in the
biosphere, the thin skin of life on the planet, including the system of blood clotting or skib repair
on our own bodies and the regeneration of life after natural calamities and disasters such as
volcanic eruptions, floods and forest fires.

Population Control. Natural ecosystems also persist because they possess mechanisms
that control populations within the carrying capacity of the environment. Carrying Capacity is
defined as the number of organisms an ecosystem can support indefinitely. Through a variety of
mechanisms, populations living in undisturbed ecosystems are held within the limits imposed by
food supply and the availability of other resources. If their demand exceeds resource supplies,
numbers are usually quickly adjusted downward to reset the balance.

Adaptability. Finally, natural systems persist because of the capacity of organisms within
them to change through time, that is, to evolve. Evolution is a process that leads to structural,
functional and behavioral changes in species, known as adaptations. Favorable adaptations
increase an organism’s chances of survival and reproduction.

The biological principles of sustainability explain why natural systems persist. They offer
a set of practical guidelines that help us put the sustainable ethic into effect. Ultimately, they
could help us to reshape systems of waste management, energy supply, housing, transportation
and others, all of which are grossly unsustainable in their current forms. By applying biological
principles of sustainability, human society can build an enduring human presence.

Numerous factors lie at the root of today's crisis of unsustainability. Among the most
important one's are: 1. frontier ethic 2. inefficiency 3. overconsumption 4. linearity (linear
thinking and linear systems) 5. fossil fuel dependence 6. overpopulation. These overtly
unsustainable human tendencies are evidently responsible for a number of symptoms
characterizing our current global environmental crisis such as food shortage and starvation,
species extinction, depletion of groundwater, depletion of minerals and fossil fuel, air pollution,
water pollution, unregulated disposal of hazardous and solid wastes, destruction of rangeland and
farmland, among others.

For many years, humans have been treating the symptoms of Environmental crisis, while
ignoring the root causes. That is our approach is symptomatic not systematic. The ethic of
sustainability requires and appreciation of new values. Essentially, it recognizes that the earth
has a limited supply of resources for all species and that all life depends on a healthy, well-
functioning ecosystem. In this context, human beings needs to realise that they are part of nature
and subject to its laws. To succeed in creating human presence on Earth would require a
rebuilding of society according to the pattern laid down by nature.

1.4 Education for Sustainability

The increasing degradation of the quality of our environment, currently reaching

alarming rates, has prompted concerned agencies to respond by adopting policies and action
geared along the line of environmental education and awareness.

Education for sustainability, like sustainable development itself, is a process rather than a
fixed goal. It may precede- and it will always accompany- the building of relationships among
individuals, groups and their environment.

1. It enables people to understand the interdependence of all life in this planet and the
repercussions that their actions and decisions may have both now and in the future on resources,
on the global community as well as their local one, and on the total environment.

2. It increases people's awareness of economic, political, social, cultural, technological

and environmental forces which foster or impede sustainable development.

3. It develops people's awareness, competence, attitude, and values, enabling them to be

effectively involved in sustainable development at local, national and international levels, and
helping them to work towards a more equitable and sustainable future. In particular, it enables
people to integrate environmental and economic decision making.

1.5 The Philippine Environmental Education Program

Environmental Education is considered as among the more strategies for sustainable

development for it plays a crucial role in bringing about greater understanding and appreciation
of the multifaceted character of environmental issues.

It is envisioned that environmental education will fulfill certain functions in certain

niches. In elementary and high school levels, environmental education aims to orient young
citizens to develop their perceptions and actions toward environmental protection and
conservation; in higher education, it aims to develop a critical mass of specialists capable of
managing natural resources in a manner which sustains its productivity and maintains ecological
integrity; while in non-formal sector, environmental education inculcates awareness,
understanding, skills, commitments and actions among individuals and social groups for the
protection and improvement of environmental quality for the benefit of present and future
generations.
Learning Activities

1. Define "sustainable society". What new forms of thinking are necessary to achieve it?

2. Does the ethic of sustainability mean no economic growth? In a world fixated on material
growth and accumulation of material goods, envision how sustainability can be practiced as a
workable and necessary ethic for a society that is slow approaching its natural physical and
resource limits.

References

1. Tragedy of the Commons. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CxC161GvMPc&t=188s

2. Chiras, Daniel D. 1994. Environmental Science: Action for a Sustainable Future. 4th
Edition. The Benjamin Cummings Publishing Company, Inc., California. 608pp.

3. Ruth S. Guzman, Ph.D., Roger Z. Guzman, Ph.D. Environmental Education for Sustainable
Development.

Prepared by:

Reymart M. Bontia
Subject Lecturer