Key concepts in political ecology

Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong

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Key concepts in political ecology

Media, Politics and the Environment (CCGL 9012)

Week 3, February 20, 2013


Structure of the presentation

1. Sustainable development

2. The ecological footprint

3. The tragedy of commons

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1. Sustainable development

• SD: Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable -- to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without comprimising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (1987:8).

• Origins: Report by Brundtland Commission (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)

• UN report to concile environmental and development issues (environmental damage, population, peace and security, social justice both within and across generations) that had been competitive or antagonistic


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In essence, SD is a process of change in which exploitation of resources, the direction of investment, the orientation of technological development, and industrial change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations” (1987:46).

Deeper history: resource management concept in maximum sustainable yield (fishery, forest, game animals that can be sustained indefinitely)

Intelligent operation of natural systems and human systems in combination


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What are the needs of future generations? Problems with the concept of SD

Elasticity of concept: different meanings and interpretations

Environmentalists: intrinsic notions of nature are missing Developing countries: stress on global redistribution Western countries: developing countries cannot follow

same path of industrialization Business: sustained economic growth + ”green-painting” Contestation over essence of SD


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Sustainability: summary Central concept in environmental discourses +

bandwagon effect

Actors: many agents at many levels, international (IGO + global civil society) and subnational (NGO)

SD never an accomplished fact, except in small hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies with low level of economic and technological development


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Discourse: no limits to growth, capitalist economy (competition de-emphasized though), anthropocentric, ”think globally, act locally”, self-conscious improvement, open-ended learning of humankind (like lifetime learning), progress in the environmental era

Real life results? Small compared to liberalization of global trade and capital


2. Ecological footprint: the concept EF measures human demand on the Earth's ecosystems Compares human demand with the Earth’s ecological

capacity to regenerate Calculates the amount of biologically productive land and

sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes, and to absorb waste and make it harmless

EF make possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many Earths) it would take to support humanity with a given consumption rate

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For 2006, humanity's total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.4 planet Earths (lag due to availability of statistics)

This means that humanity uses ecological services 1.4 times as fast as Earth can renew them

EF calculated regularly Methods of measurement differ Calculation standards are emerging to make results

more comparable and consistent

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Ecological footprint: origins

Originator of academic concept of EF William Rees (environmental policy/sustainability expert, University of British Columbia, Canada), 1992

Co-developer of EF concept and calculation method Mathis Wackernagel (currently President of Global Footprint Network)

Rees first formulation: "appropriated carrying capacity" Rees: term EF "inspired by a computer technician who

praised his new computer's small footprint on the desk” Wackernagel and Rees book Our Ecological Footprint:

Reducing Human Impact on the Earth.1996

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EF compares human demand on nature with the biosphere's ability to regenerate resources and provide services

New EF: the methods are converging Footprint 2.0 (2003 by a team of researchers) Footprint 2.0 theoretical and methodological improvements to the

standard EF approach Include the entire surface of the Earth in biocapacity estimates,

allocate space for other (non-human) species, change the basis of equivalence factors from agricultural land to net primary productivity (NPP), and change the carbon component of the footprint, based on global carbon models

Well received by teachers, researchers, and advocacy organizations

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Ecological footprint: methods EF assesses biologically productive land and marine area

required to produce the resources a population consumes, and absorb the corresponding waste, using present technology

Biological capacity or biocapacity: capacity of ecosystems to produce useful biological materials and to absorb waste materials generated by humans, using current technologies. Biocapacity is usually expressed in units of global hectares

Global hectare: the average productivity of biologically productive land and water in a given year

A global hectare of cropland, would occupy a smaller physical area than the much less productive marshland

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Biologically productive land and water: the land and water (both marine and inland waters) area that supports photosynthetic activity and biomass accumulation used by humans. Non-productive areas not included. Biomass not of use to humans is also not included.

The total biologically productive area on land and water was approximately 13.4 billion hectares in 2005 on the planet

Biological capacity available per person: Dividing by the number of people alive in that year, 6.5 billion, gives 2.1 global hectares per person . This assumes no land is set aside for other species that consume the same biological material as humans.

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/glossary/ - biologicallyproductivelandandwater

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Ecological footprint: uses Per capita EF is a means of comparing consumption and

lifestyles Checking this against nature's ability to provide for this

consumption Goal: altering personal behavior EF informs the public and policy makers by examining to

what extent a nation uses more or less than is available within its territory

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To what extent the nation's lifestyle could be replicable worldwide?

EF can educate people about carrying capacity and over-consumption

Can also be applied to an activity such as manufacturing a product or driving of a car

EF in Hong Kong, China, US? EF within HKU?

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Global inequalities vs. environmental justice

EF: current lifestyles are not sustainable Global comparison: inequalities of resource use on the

planet In 2006, average biologically productive area per person

worldwide cca. 1.8 global hectares (gha) per capita. US footprint per capita was 9.0 gha Switzerland 5.6 gha per person China 1.8 gha per person WWF claims EF has exceeded the biocapacity (the

available supply of natural resources) of the planet by 20%.

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EF measures and sustainability NGO websites allow estimation of one's EF EF widely used around the globe as an indicator of

environmental sustainability EF to explore the sustainability of individual lifestyles,

goods and services, organizations, industry sectors, neighborhoods, cities, regions and nations

Since 2006, EF standards exist that define details of calculation procedures

Ecological Footprint Standards 2009, Global Footprint Network www.footprintstandards.org

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EF accounting method at the national level is described in the Living Planet Report (WWF and GFN)

Differences in the methodology used by various EF studies

Examples: how sea area should be counted, how to account for fossil fuels, how to account for nuclear power (many studies simply consider it to have the same ecological footprint as fossil fuels), which data sources used, how space for biodiversity should be included, and how imports/exports should be accounted for

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EF criticisms and debates

Complete review commissioned by the Directorate-General for the Environment (European Commission) in June 2008 provides most updated independent assessment of the method

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Criticism 1: Parasitic cities? Calculating EF for densely populated areas, such as a

city or small country with a comparatively large population — e.g. New York and Singapore respectively —perception as "parasitic"

These communities have little intrinsic biocapacity Critics: dubious characterization since mechanized rural

farmers in developed nations may easily consume more resources than urban inhabitants, due to transportation

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Criticism 2: Trade issues

EF an argument for autarchy? EF denies the benefits of trade? EF can only be applied globally?

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Criticism 3: Pro-Monocultures?

Replacing woodlands or tropical forests with monoculture forests or plantations may improve EF

EF rewards the replacement of original ecosystems with high-productivity agricultural monocultures by assigning a higher biocapacity to such regions?

If organic farming yields lower than those with conventional methods larger EF

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Criticism 4: Nuclear power Nuclear power: pre-2008 treated same

manner as coal power Carbon dioxide per KW-Hr of produced

power differs Problems of nuclear vs. fossil fuel waste?

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WHO: “3 million people are killed worldwide by outdoor air pollution annually from vehicles and industrial emissions, and 1.6 million indoors through using solid fuel." (BBC report 2004) Alex Kirby (13 December 2004,). "Pollution: A life and death issue". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4086809.stm.

Coal power plant releases 100 times as much radiation as a nuclear power plant of the same wattage. Alex Gabbard. "Coal Combustion: Nuclear Resource or Danger". Oak Ridge National Laboratory. http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html.

Fossil fuel waste causes global warming, which leads to hurricanes, flooding, and other weather changes

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Counter-arguments Limits of EF Don’t use EF as only metric Complement with other indicators, e.g., on biodiversity Living Planet Report complements the biennial Footprint

calculations with the Living Planet Index of biodiversity Modified EF that takes biodiversity into account in

Australia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_footprint - cite_note-26 (Manfred Lenzen and Shauna Murray)

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EF calculators Personal calculators http://www.earthday.org/footprint-calculator (or the same here:

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators) http://www.ecologicalfootprint.com http://www.myfootprint.org

Personal, school and event calculators http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/ecologicalfootprint/calculators/default.asp

Interactive site with global rankings and listings http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/?840

Calculator for kids http://www.zerofootprintkids.com/kids_home.aspx

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Overuse of resources vs. "rights of future generations" http://www.cousteau.org/about-us/futuregen http://www.intergenerationaljustice.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Human_rights#Future_generations http://gadfly.igc.org/papers/orfg.htm http://www.sehn.org/pdf/

Model_Provisions_Mod1E7275.pdf

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3. The Tragedy of Commons

Concept by Garrett Hardin article in 1968

Many rational individuals want to use available commons

This leads to overuse and tragedy of commons

In the long run, this is no one’s interest

Tension between individual self-interest and community interest

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The Tragedy of Commons: examples Pastureland and herdsmen Herdsmen: raise as many animals as possible Rational individual calculation: personal gain

maximization ALL THINK THIS WAY: profit maximization Community loss: each animal degrades the common

land Result: less grass, no grass, erosion, weed domination National parks: overuse by visitors vs. limitation of entry

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The Tragedy of Commons: applications

Pollution of the commons: sewage, chemicals, radioactive, heat

Individual interests and rationality: let out pollutants as cleaning is expensive

Result: the common land, water, air is polluted In the long run, pollution is no one’s interest Solutions: regulation (law, positive and negative taxes)

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Key concepts in political ecology

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