Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
only really taken off, in the media at least, since around 1990. Before then, environmental
concerns were more limited, and were mainly concerned with the use of resources and local
pollutants. Conservation and environmental groups, however, have been active for more than
100 years, including the setting up of the Sierra Club in the USA and the campaigning by
John Muir and others for the National Parks. The early town planning luminaries, such as
Ebenezer Howard, Patrick Geddes and Frederick Law Olmsted, commentated on the social
ills of the early twentieth-century urban life, and sought to build 'garden cities', as self-sufficient
new towns surrounded by the countryside. Later, other figures such as Jacobs (1961) reminded
urban planners of the potential problems inherent with comprehensive redevelopment and
urban renewal. The early environmentalists actively campaigned on single issues, including
population growth and food supply (Malthus, 1798); the detrimental effects of pesticides, such
(Illich, 1974); and the exploitation of resources more generally (Meadows et al., 1972). Many
were questioning the (overly) consumptive lifestyles of humans and the limits to the planet's
carrying capacity. Hence, the perspective was quite different to the current mainstream
understanding, provided largely by the dominant economic paradigm, which marginalises
ecological and social objectives, and in the main doesn't question economic growth as the
overriding political objective. An alternative view is that economic development (and traffic
growth) relies upon the exploitation of natural resources, and is not focused on wealth
distribution, hence by its nature doesn't foster the goals of sustainable development (Castro,
2004).
The first concerted international governmental action on climate change was the UN
Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972, where it was agreed that
extended international cooperation was required to reduce the impact of humans on the
environment. As many of the challenges were global in nature, the UN Environment Programme
(UNEP) was set up to help integrate environmental measures into the full range of UN
programmes. The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), chaired by
Gro Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway, gave the most well used definition for
sustainable development: '. . . that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet theirs' (WCED, 1987, p. 8). Hence inter-generational
equity became an important dimension.
In 1988, the UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) set up the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assess the levels of existing knowledge
about the climate system and climate change, together with the environmental, economic and
social impacts of climate change and the possible response alternatives. In its First Assessment
Report (1990), the IPCC confirmed the scientific basis for climate change:
•
Human emissions of GHG are likely to cause rapid climate change;
•
Climate models predict that the global temperature will rise by between 1.0°C and 3.5°C
by 2100;
•
Climate change has powerful effects on the global environment;
•
Human society will face new risks and pressures;
•
People and ecosystems will need to adapt to the future climate regime;
•
Stabilising atmospheric concentrations of GHG will require a major effort.
