The world is growing; what will we do?

Which is the greater problem; population growth or consumption? I believe the more realistic question is which can problem can be addressed. According to index mundi (http://www.indexmundi.com/world/population_growth_rate.html) our population is growing at a rate as of 2009 is approximately 1.133% and other resources indicate it is reaching 2.0% percent in 2011. All Business (http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-louisiana/1140892-1.html) indicates that the US is growing at a rate of approximately 1.8% while countries such as China are growing at a rate of almost 8%. According to Sustainability lectures provided by Dr. Ling it is estimated that the world population by 2100 will reach 14 billion. That doesn’t sound probable; “something’s gotta give” if you ask me. Population growth directly reflects current population size, education, and cultural within a country. This is evident with individual country growth statistics. Cultural norm within the US and North America shows the standard family model; two parents with two children. With educational opportunities, and increasing prices, families are most comfortable supporting this size. Education in the form of contraception also plays a large role in population growth. Under developing countries growing at high rates are usually less educated on contraception, and/or religious views inhibit the use.  We can all agree that the world cannot sustain 14 billion people, also keep in mind those populations that will be displaced in coming years due to climate change. But how can we limit the population? How can we address over population in all developing countries? We cannot. Who is responsible for limiting the number of children per family, and who is responsible for reinforcing it. So what can we do?

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What we can do is focus on preserving resources, and reducing consumption. We can kill two birds with one stone by addressing over consumption. Over consumption is beginning to be addressed through acts of sustainable development. Slowly, North American individuals and companies are turning their focus from over production and consumption, to reductions and sustainable actions. Not only will a focus on reducing consumption through sustainable development create a greater culture within North America, but it will address the issues of population growth. By reducing our consumption we can focus on conserving resources that this growing population will need to survive.



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We can all agree that the world we live in today will be much different than the world we will see in 50 years. It is actually scary to think about having children, what world will they be presented with? All we can do is our individual part. We can change our everyday actions to mimic the future we wish to see, a future we will be comfortable growing a family in. This starts with sustainable conscience, and conducting ourselves in an environmentally conscious way.

Sustainability at Royal Roads University (RRU)

I’ve heard a number of lectures this past week pertaining to components of sustainability at the Royal Roads University (RRU) campus Colwood, BC where which I am currently a full time student. I have to say I am very impressed at the drive both teaching and janitorial staff exhibit to consistently improve sustainability at RRU. I am coming from a college located in southern Ontario, just to give you some background information on my history in attempting to achieve sustainability measures. This background information will be helpful in explaining why I think RRU is doing an excellent job. At my home college, constant attempts, by only students, were made to improve the sustainability of the school, to no avail however. I began as a very active enthusiast in a college environmental club where we started our new school year jaded by the hopes of making actual change. We brainstormed ideas such as implementing composting stations, integrating biodegradable service wear in the cafeteria, and building green roofs to cover the roof space of our campus. But compost was too expensive, and the cafeteria already had a contract with a food service company that was not willing to make the sacrifice of increased expenses, and who was going to pay for this green roof? We were shot down, left and right. When I left Ontario I had a very defeatist attitude, if no one was willing to spend the money, how were things ever going to change (niagaracollege.ca)?

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Then I arrived at RRU. Every light switch has a sticker kindly reminding us to turn off the lights. The cafeteria is stocked full of biodegradable service wear, as if any other kind exists? As well an entire department devoted to sustainability? Unheard of. Recently, I was even asked my opinion on sustainability at RRU, and where I felt we could improve. Me? You want my opinion? Amazing. This is what sustainability hope looks like. This is what a union of innovative ideas between staff and students looks like. I feel like I have entered into the future, and it feels good. Although RRU hasn’t reached complete sustainability yet, I feel like they are setting a great foundation, and have an excellent game plan. Initiates such as a reduction in GHG’s by 2020, and great attempts to be “off the grid” by 2018. RRU also recognizes that sustainability involves community, and has developed a real and beneficial relationship with the surrounding town of Colwood. Serious initiatives, such as Solar Colwood are in full force to create symbiotic relationships with energy generation. I was especially impressed by the desire of the janitorial staff to join in this sustainability revolution. They have completely eliminated chemical components in their cleaning processes, not only improving our health but the surrounding environment as well. They are also dedicated to zero waste, offering a great recycling and composting program to divert as much for the land fill as possible (www.sustainability.royalroads.ca).

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The only area I feel RRU is lacking is transportation, which is currently representing almost 50% of their greenhouse gas emissions. RRU charges an unbelievably low fee for an annual parking pass, offering little incentive for staff and students to look elsewhere for transportation options. Adding to this problem is the unreasonable charge for a monthly bus fee approximately $70, which almost made me choke on my gum. Other educational institutions include an annual bus pass, what was this all about? I feel this will be the next great change at RRU however. A brainstorming session was held to address this issue, and great ideas were presented such as increasing parking rates, subsidies for those that carpool, and incentives for bike riders, as a large population of our class does our part by cycling to school.

Again I must say how impressed I am. Coming from a school were sustainability was too much work and too expensive, it is refreshing to be told that work and money aside, sustainability is the goal. My kudos go out to RRU, I am proud to be a current student at such a fine educational institute that holds our future and the environment in the highest regards.

What does inaction on Climate Change look like?

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Costs of inaction towards climate change are large, unpredictable, and will be inevitably catastrophic. Last week my focused was on sustainable development; a discussion on what I thought sustainable development really meant. Essentially I concluded that sustainable development was development with environmental conscience. Producing a product, large or small scale, that had the positive intention of reducing its footprint on the environment through creation. The creation of a product of this sort would be considered to be negative feedback loop. Now, don’t get too caught on the word negative. In this case, negative is a good thing. A negative positive feedback loop mimics systems in our natural world. Change in one part of the system effects change in another, however creating a cyclical effect. Energy is recycled within the system. An example of this is the predatory food chain, all energy is recycled through the food chain, with no energy being lost or gained, just cycled around again. The reciprocal of this is the system of a positive feedback loop. A positive feedback loop mimics much of the systems in our industrial world.  The industrial world creates products we can’t buy fast enough. My favourite example of this is computers, and cell phones. These are products the population can’t get enough of, and companies capitalize on this by offering new models on a bi yearly basis. The consumer has barely taken the plastic off their new computer before they are out buying the latest model. As consumer we don’t buy things to last anymore, companies realize this and, in return, don’t produce things that last. What would be the point? The point is computer parts don’t biodegrade. We can’t ship them off to a landfill and wait for five years for them to turn into nutritious top soil. What do we do? We ship them off t a far way land where we don’t ever have to look at them again. But at what cost is this? Who deals with our computer carcasses? China.

This is the price China has to pay for our positive feedback loops. This is Guiya, China. North America exports its e-waste (term coined for technological waste), sometimes illegally, to China as an easy, cost effect method of disposing of its own dirty habit. Although China is capitalizing on the import of e-waste by paying workers a low income to pick through the waste for high priced components, it is a serious issue for individuals living here. It is estimated that 72% of e-waste ends up here. That’s approximately 5 billion metric tons of metal and plastic waste. (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSPEK14823020070611?pageNumber=1). Although thousands of native individuals are employed by e-waste recovering companies, individuals receive no rights and a small wage. Their health, which is in jeopardy due to the mixture of toxic chemicals present, is of no concern to their employer. This is not a sustainable business for China, nor is it sustainable practice for North America. This is a positive feedback loop, and this is just the beginning of what inaction on climate change through sustainable development looks like.

However this is just a small piece of the puzzle. This example of inaction is only a small contributing factor to the much larger picture. What does inaction on the part of climate change look like? In the long run, in my mind, it looks something much like a scene from the movie “The Book of Eli”. It looks much like a drought stricken deserted shell of what civilization once looked like.

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You could argue that is image is pushing it a bit far? You could also argue that it is not. Inaction of climate change will slowly start to creep up on us. This scene doesn’t represent what will happen in the next 20 or even 50 years, but, if we do absolutely nothing, I feel, this is what our world will end up. Inaction will begin slowly, and increasingly escalate if we don’t fight back.

Let’s jump back, far behind this scene of this desolate world. What does inaction on climate change look like tomorrow? It looks like a large scale storm that blows the roof off of our shed. It looks like 20 cm of snow in Victoria. It looks like islands in far away countries that we’ve never heard of, or will ever visit, slowly slip beneath the rising sea. It looks like severe drought in Europe on the front page our daily newspaper. It looks like flooding in northern Australia. Inaction on climate change looks like today, tomorrow, and next week if we don’t start fighting back.

What is "sustainable development"?

With environmentalism on the tip of the public’s tongue today companies are beginning to recognize the need and appeal environmental products have created. Companies have begun capitalizing on this niche market, and have begun tagging their products with terms the public acknowledges to be environmentally friendly. But do we actually know what these terms mean? Biodegradable, green, ethical, sustainable? The truth is we don’t. We buy these products because it makes us feel better about ourselves. We feel we are being environmentally friendly, we feel we are now doing our part and environmentalism is something we can cross off our weekend “to-do” list. We seem to have this unearned faith in companies and the organizations that “certify” these claims to be true.  We believe that what we read must be true. And maybe it’s not even that companies are trying to fool us into thinking the processes they use to support these environmental claims. Perhaps companies truly do believe these processes are friendly to the environment. Some of these terms make sense. Biodegradable means that the product readily breaks down in the natural environment without contamination of unnatural chemicals. Ethical production is related more to the ethical treatment of individuals producing these products overseas but can also encompass ethical practice such as the use of natural pesticides and chemicals. One of the most commonly coined terms in development of products on a small scale such as lip gloss, and on a larger scale including communities and even entire cities is sustainability. So what is sustainability or sustainable development? Does it even exist?

In the last week I have been bombarded with over thirteen different individuals and organizations take or explanation of what sustainable development is. Before delving too deep into the more common explanations and to which ideas I agree with and disagree with, I must first state this: there is no such thing as sustainable development, or more so, absolute sustainable development. To have an absolutely sustainable planet we would need to completely revert to the stone age or living off the land like the early indigenous peoples. Even so, taking one thing, a single flower from a plant, changes the face of the earth, something no restoration can even completely replace. Since this type of sustainability is absolutely impossible to attain I will focus on sustainable development in the twenty first century. Most explanations of sustainability focus on the equal balance between economics, social morality and the environment. However, I feel the balance should be not so equal. I believe the majority of weight should be placed on the environment, and the others will follow. By focusing on the environment economic gain will follow. According to Vault ®career intelligence, “the environment sector is, by all indicators, a strong field that will provide innumerable opportunities to job seekers well into the future.” To date they estimate that approximately two to five million people are currently employed by the environmental sector, and more to follow.  Focusing on the environment may end economic activities in some field but is sure to stimulate the economy with a shift of focus. As far as social morality, how can focusing on the environment be anything but moral? How can a shift from unsustainable growth and ignorance of our natural systems being replaced by a society focusing on becoming more in tune with nature not correlate with societal morals. I personally think a focus on the environment can strength our morals, bring us back to earth, and unite families and friends.

I suppose I still haven’t quite defined what sustainable development is to me. Sustainable development is a focus on the environment. It is creating a product, any product, by means that impact the environment at the smallest cost possible. Everything else will fall into place. There can be no bad consequence for investing in and preserving our environment.  Sustainability, to me, is environmental conscience.