Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
IV. Introduction to Sustainability:
Resource Planning
and Global Change
INTRODUCTION
"Our enfire
society rests upon—and is depen-
dent upon—our water, our land, our forests, and
our minerals. How we use these resources influ-
ences our health, security, economy and well
being."
works in order to minimize surprises. Significant
long-term climate change produces major differences
in weather, water resources, the biosphere, and land-
scapes. With those changes, some cultures are no
longer sustainable and they abandon their communi-
ties, as in the American Southwest, Peru, and Green-
land. Some climate change in the Earth system over
the last 15,000 years has been very rapid. In the past,
where possible, cultures migrated to the resources
(favorable climate, water, etc.). Today, the migration
option has been reduced by human population
growth. Most niches are filled.
Future rapid climate change could also occur by
asteroid impact (it also might produce a huge tsunami).
In some impact events the human colony would be
sustainable, but much reduced. In other cases ... well
you know the story of the dinosaurs. There is a limit to
planning for sustainability in the face of natural
events.
—J. F. KENNEDY, 1961.
"It is difficult for people living now, who have
become accustomed to the steady exponential
growth in the consumption of energy from fossil
fuels, to realize how transitory the fossil-fuel
epoch will eventually prove to be when it is
viewed over a longer span of human history."
—M. K. HUBBERT, 1971.
"If we don't grow or harvest it, we must mine it."
—ANONYMOUS
REGIONAL PLANNING: POPULATION
GROWTH, FINITE RESOURCES,
AND GEOLOGIC HAZARDS
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability for the human colony on Earth may be
described as balancing natural resources against
human resources and the rights of the present genera-
tion against the rights of future generations. This bal-
ance must attempt to account for expected natural and
human-induced changes in the Earth system—the
lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.
This is achieved partly by not fully using a variable
renewable resource such as water. Thus, when a
drought occurs, hardship in the region is minimized.
Energy, in addition to water, is a major factor in the
sustainability of a species. Humans have been intelli-
gent enough to exploit buried sunlight—those fossil
fuels that produced the industrial revolution, power
the technological age, and make it possible to accom-
modate >6.6 billion people on Earth (at least for a
while). For long-term sustainability, replacements must
be found for fossil fuels, which are finite.
Population increase also provides a challenge to
resource use and sustainability; without it we would
not need most regional planning. As population cen-
ters grow, converting surrounding rural and suburban
land use, they run the risk of inappropriate land use.
In the simplest terms, we need to find building materi-
als, water, energy, stable nonflooding building sites,
p
•
CLIMATE CHANGE, RESOURCES,
AND GEOLOGIC HAZARDS
As for the unexpected changes in the Earth system, we
seek improved understanding of how the Earth system
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