Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
jeopardy. Rockstrom et al.'s paper in Nature in 2009 starts to quantify this and iden-
tifies essential limits which together provide a “Safe operating space for Human-
ity”. Sustainability basically signifies that we have to keep and maintain a safe and
satisfactory life for our descendants, and thus
balance
is becoming an important
key word. For example, the balance between the earth's capacity and human activ-
ity, the balance between nature and human, between living creatures and humans,
between the environment and the economy, between hope and desire. It may be nec-
essary to suppress our own numbers or activities to maintain these critical balances.
Indeed, I believe that it is increasingly necessary to establish a balance between the
earth and human activity in order to maintain the sustainability of both nature and
humanity. This in turn requires us to be better in our selection of which technology
to use, to limit the appetite (greed) in our mind and to also care about other people.
It is necessary to ask a number of key questions if we are to consider true happiness
in a sustainable world. “What is our happiness and satisfaction?” “Which is more
important, philosophical satisfaction and family especially children and grandchil-
dren, or materials/money/power?” “What is our true purpose?”
2.2.5
Biodiversity
In this short introduction, we also need to point to the drastic reduction in planetary
biodiversity which is underway. This is not necessarily a pollution issue but really
a symptom of how the increasing population of the planet needs yet more and more
land to provide the resources needed for food, timber, fish and other biological re-
sources. I can just point to the explosive growth in the coverage of Southeast Asia
(Malaysian and Indonesia in particular) in producing Palm oil (see Fig.
2.8
). The
destruction of the forest to replace with palm oil plantation is one of the biggest
causes of biodiversity loss, and also periodically leads to extremely poor air quality
in the region, as well as destroying the hitherto sustainable forest-based life styles of
Fig. 2.8
Palm oil production trends. (USDA data). (Unit: 1000 tons)(Source:USDA “World Mar-
kets and Trade”August-July)
