Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
2.5.4 Weak and strong sustainability
The different existing approaches for natural resource accounting can be classified
into two basic categories, namely weak sustainability and strong sustainability.
Weak sustainability is based on adjusting income to take into account the loss
of mineral capital as in the particular case of the “El-Serafy method” (Sec. 2.5.2).
Money replaces environmental loss and is partially kept aside as a kind of forwarded
rent payment to future generations. It allows for the substitution of one type of
capital for another.
In contrast, strong sustainability advocates that each form of natural capital
should be sub-categorised and preserved separately with no possibility of exchange.
An intermediate case is referred to as “sensible sustainability”, which preserves total
capital but permits a minimum level of substitution.
Adopting either a weak or a strong sustainability strategy is not a matter of a
simple “yes” or “no”. On the contrary, any decision can take into consideration a wide
range of options and actions. In the weak/strong spectrum, measures range from
putting aside money for the use of future generations (the weakest form of economic
sustainability) to investing in large or small environmental defense expenditures -
planting trees, partially substituting conventional oil for biofuels, carbon capture
and storage (CCS) technologies or investment in cleaner alternative energies.
Any decision will inherently entail natural capital expenditure. For instance,
alternative energies need new raw materials that could be less available than fossil
fuels themselves such as the huge amounts of phosphates for intensive bioenergy,
the mass use of rare earths for permanent magnets used in wind energy or gal-
lium and lithium in photovoltaics and batteries, respectively, as was discussed in
Chap. 1. Such examples are indicative of how additional mineral capital demand
is interconnected. Therefore “keeping intact each natural subcategory” a position
held by strong sustainability is one which is extremely di
cult to uphold. This is
especially the case for minerals, which, as opposed to fossil fuels, are not lost when
they are used.
Furthermore, what mainstream accountants like to conserve, i.e. monetary or
resource capital, regardless of whether one adopts either weak or strong sustainabil-
ity, is by no means physically possible for the simple fact that this notion conflicts
with the Second Law, as will be seen in Chap. 3. This is because whilst it is certain
that product manufacture increases the entropy of the planet, it is equally certain
that the process of restoring increases entropy as well! Recycling, for instance, still
requires great inputs of energy even if it saves some when compared to extraction as
an alternative. Physics thus states that repairing Nature leads to a greater sacrifice
of energy and materials than if nothing was done at all. This is an empirical fact,
not an opinion. Yet many environmentally responsible communities actively choose
to reduce the loss of natural stocks by for instance recycling materials. They may
also try to avoid impending catastrophes, keep forests in order to avert soil erosion,
inhibit aquifer pollution and conserve ecosystems, even if it is done at an additional
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