Environment and Development

Basic Principles, Human Activities, and Environmental Implications

Stavros G. Poulopoulos, Vassilis J. Inglezakis

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780444627339
• eBook ISBN: 9780444627438
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

Environment and Development: Basic Principles, Human Activities, and Environmental Implications focuses on the adverse impact that human activities, developments, and economic growth have on both natural and inhabited environments. The book presents the associated problems, along with solutions that can be used to achieve a harmonic, sustainable development that provides for the co-existence of man and natural life. Chapters provide detailed information on a range of environments including: atmospheric, aquatic, soil, natural, urban, energy, and extraterrestrial, as well as the relationship between the environment and development. In addition, this comprehensive book presents the latest research findings and trends in global environmental policy for each issue. - Offers a discussion of the extraterrestrial environment and waste in earth orbit as one of the distinctive topics of the book - Addresses global environmental policy issues and policies - Presents tabulated data to support the analysis and explain the issues presented - Includes case studies covering many topics of current interest - Analyzes environmental issues and proposes solutions grounded in recent research findings - Discusses the various interpretations of the development concept as well as alternative pathways to sustainable development

Chapter 1

Introduction to Environment and Development

S.G. Poulopoulos Kazakh-British Technical University, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan

Abstract

This chapter serves as an introduction to the reader on the main concepts in relation with environment and development. Specifically, the history of the notion of sustainable development and the variety of the associated interpretations is presented. The main global environmental problems that pose a risk to the life on Earth generally are then discussed: the stratospheric ozone depletion and the global warming. The importance of public participation in the environmental decision-making and in the implementation of environmental legislation is also highlighted. The interaction between poverty and environment is underlined, and three case studies are included to emphasize on the topics discussed. Finally, the main principles of the environmental policy in Europe and worldwide are presented. At the end, a short synopsis of the rest of the book is included.

Keywords

Global change; Human well-being; Precautionary principle; Public participation; Sustainable development

Chapter Outline

1.1 Man and Environment: A Relation of Competition 1

1.2 Global Environmental Problems: Our Common Future 22

1.3 Case Study 1: Easter Island's Human Extinction 28

1.4 Public Participation 30

1.5 Case Study 2: European Commission's Public Consultation on Air Pollution 35

1.6 Case Study 3: Three Cases of Environmental Activism in China 36

1.7 Environmental Legislation 37

1.8 Synopsis of the Book 39

References 41

1.1. Man and Environment: A Relation of Competition

The relationship between the man and the environment has been established in the early periods itself. There is a misconception that humankind used to live in harmony with nature and its other creatures in the—distant—past and that this balanced coexistence was overturned only the last 200 years. However, this is not the truth. What has really changed recently in man history is the ability to destroy natural life at devastating rates and magnitudes. But, generally, our attitude against nature and environment is not that different.

At the dawn of humankind on the face of the earth, man had to struggle against natural elements in order to survive. Man has been characterized by Benjamin Franklin and Karl Marx as a “tool-making animal” [1], because he is the only animal that manufactures various items and produces in general by transforming natural materials and shaping the environment. From the use of stone and fire at the caves of Neanderthal and of Cro-Magnon man, humanity passed in pottery and the use of metals, tamed animals, and cultivated land; built permanent settlements; and created the social and political life as we know it. In this long timeline of existence, humans never hesitated in subjugating or even destroying nature and the other living organisms, if it was considered vital in any way for survival. There is evidence that prehistoric man committed massive slaughter of animals and used extensively fire either to trap and guide wild animals to their final and fatal destination or to transform forests into land for cultivation.

For example, during the Pleistocene, the world saw a dramatic number of extinctions of very large terrestrial species [2]. Although there is an ongoing discussion on the subject, one of the hypotheses regarding the reasons behind the extinction of several megafaunal¹ species around 11000 BC proposes that the global spread of Homo sapiens and hunter-gatherer subsistence practices were responsible for these deaths [3]. Roberts [4] tested this hypothesis by examining extinctions in Australia. According to his measurements, the extinctions occurred around 46,400 years ago across Australia, thus ruling out any climatic impacts from the late Pleistocene as the underlying cause. Since Homo sapiens arrived in Australia at least 40,000 years ago [5], data concur with the human overkill hypothesis of extinction.

Speculating on the causes of this huge extinction event, the great evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace wrote [6]:

Looking at the whole subject again, with the much larger body of facts at our command, I am convinced that the rapidity of … the extinction of so many large Mammalia is actually due to man's agency, acting in co-operation with those general causes which at the culmination of each geological era has led to the extinction of the larger, the most specialized, or the most strangely modified forms.

This huge loss of species is shown in Table 1.1 [8].

As mentioned previously, man used early fire to hunt animals and to achieve deforestation in order to eliminate hostile environment and create land for farming. Small-scale deforestation was practiced by some societies tens of thousands of years before the present, with some of the earliest evidence of deforestation appearing in the Mesolithic period [9]. These initial clearings were likely devised to convert closed forests into more open ecosystems, favorable to game animals. With the advent of agriculture in the mid-Holocene, greater areas were deforested, and fire became an increasingly popular method to clear land for crops. In Europe, by 7000 BC, Mesolithic hunter-gathers employed fire to create openings for red deer and wild boar.

Kaplan et al. [10] point out that mankind has transformed Europe's landscapes since the establishment of the first agricultural societies in the mid-Holocene. The most important impact on the natural environment was the clearing of forests to establish cropland and pasture, and the exploitation of forests for fuelwood and construction materials. The authors present also historical forest cover estimates as forested fractions of the usable land in each population region. The case of central and western Europe is shown in Table 1.2.

Table 1.1

Megafaunal Extinctions (Genera) During the Last 100 ka [8].

Continent	Extinct	Living	Total	Extinct (%)
Africa	7	42	49	14.3
Europe	15	9	24	60.0
North America	33	12	45	73.3
South America	46	12	58	79.6
Australia	19	3	22	86.4

Table 1.2

Estimates of Percent Usable Land (Land Available for Clearing for Agriculture), and Percent of Forest Cover on Usable Land by Years and Each Region for Central and Western Europe [10].

		% Forest Cover on Usable Land
Region	% Usable Land	1000 BC	500 BC	AD 1	AD 500	AD 1000	AD 1350 (Black Death)	AD 1400	AD 1850
Czechoslovakia	23.0	76.0	65.2	37.5	43.6	31.3	12.7	16.3	3.2
France	7.4	78.8	72.1	46.5	50.3	38.6	16.2	23.9	6.3
Germany	14.3	71.8	64.1	35.0	32.9	29.1	9.9	15.0	3.0
England–Wales	20.1	90.0	86.1	59.4	64.1	39.6	12.4	17.1	1.9
Ireland	30.0	64.5	68.4	69.7	50.6	38.0	13.0	19.0	0.9
Italy	10.4	69.0	51.1	30.1	47.9	40.2	22.1	30.0	7.6
Poland	9.9	95.0	91.1	75.1	69.9	46.1	22.2	24.8	4.0
Portugal	0.6	73.5	68.2	51.3	54.4	42.9	21.1	32.9	7.0
Spain	4.4	75.9	68.9	52.1	57.8	56.0	37.7	44.9	18.5
Average	13.3	77.2	70.6	50.7	52.4	40.2	18.6	24.9	5.8

It could be even argued that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions per capita back then were higher than the current ones as a result of deforestation via slash and burn.² However, overpopulation nowadays does not allow any comparison in terms of absolute numbers.

This effort of humans to control and overpower environment continues even today. It has been even mentioned that despite the technological advances, we still behave as Neanderthals some 1000 years ago. But we know now that all beings live in the kingdom of nature and interact with it constantly. We have also a dialectic and continuous interaction with environment. Our actions that affect the environment are ultimately reflected on us. The influence of nature manifests itself in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the flow of energy and information we consume. Despite its beauty, nature inspired fear in man in the early history of mankind and people had to fight it for survival. Today, man has become detached from nature and constitutes also a constant threat to it. At the same time, we have become a threat to our own existence since the environmental problems resulting from our actions evolve even on a planetary scale.

Although these terms have been used interchangeably, we have to make the question: What is nature and what is environment? Nature is the whole of the physical world, existing outside of any human action. Man...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Chapter 1. Introduction to Environment and Development
• Chapter 2. Atmospheric Environment
• Chapter 3. Aquatic Environment
• Chapter 4. Soil Environment
• Chapter 5. Urban Environment
• Chapter 6. Energy and the Environment
• Chapter 7. Extraterrestrial Environment
• Chapter 8. Environment and Development
• Index