Conclusion

We accept that our growing populations current interaction with the environment cannot be sustained.  Our industrial system today is primarily an inefficient linear process.  Not only is this costly, but waste products often contain persistent or toxic materials that negatively impact the environment, when they are incinerated or disposed of in landfills.

We recognise that natural cycles function in a closed system,without producing waste.  The Capitalist system has discovered that this cyclical pattern, modeled by nature, is more efficient, profitable and avoids systematic deterioration of the environment.  Modern societies perception of waste as a“potential resource” has driven a shift to a pervasive acceptance of recycling. 

Since waste is a sign of inefficiency, the reduction of waste usually reduces costs.  Environmental protection is enhanced by reducing hazardous and solid wastes to nature and by reducing the need for energy generation and hydrocarbon extraction.

Reduces demand for resources and energy from nature

Reduces wastes to nature

Opportunities such as reduced costs, increased profits, and reduced environmental impacts are found when returning these “resources” as food to either natural or industrial systems. 

We understand that our society and industrial systems must begin to personify nature and move from being primarily linear to being more cyclical. 

Vostok ice core quote

The fact that the Earth behaves as a single, interlinked, self-regulating system was put into dramatic focus in 1999 with the publication of the 420,000-year record from the Vostok ice core.  These data, arguably among the most important produced by the scientific community in the 20th century, provide a powerful temporal context and dramatic visual evidence for an integrated planetary environmental system.

Global Change and the Earth System:

A Planet Under Pressure

Peter Tyson Pg 5

Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management

The Earth is full of cycles simultaneously occurring and interlaced. Water is cycled through the hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere in relatively predictable movements. 

Quotes for Anthroprocentric effect on Biocentric

The function of the energy subsystem is to power the ecosystem.  The function of the material subsystem is to provide the necessary organic and inorganic building blocks required for both the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of the ecosystem.  Together the two subsystems provide for the continuing functioning of the ecosystem.  If either subsystem is interrupted , degraded or altered (e.g by pollution, or an increase in energy input, such as global warming) then the functioning of the ecosystem is likely to be altered.  In turn this will affect the efficiency with which the ecosystem can perform its functions within the global environment as a whole.

Ecosystems

Gordon Dickinson, Kevin J.Murphy Pg 27

Using energy from sunlight, the photosynthetic autotrophic organism converts CO2, water and minerals into all the constituents of the organism..........The autotrophs are also responsible for providing the heterotrophs with organic nourishment.

The biology problem solver

Max Fogiel Pg 130

The biosynthesis of organic carbon starting from inorganic carbon species by autotrophic organisms is a prerequisite to sustain life.

Desk Encyclopedia of Microbiology

Moselio Schaechter pg 140

The heartbeat of the entire system is a consumption culture that trains citizens to be avid consumers of goods and services by promising prestige, happiness, admiration, success and satisfaction.

Earth Capitalism: Creating a New Civilization through a responsible Market

Partrick U.Petit, Bill Gates Pg 41

Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.

Aristotle

Ecosystem services and human health

Food

In poor countries, especially in rural areas, the health of human populations is highly dependent upon the services of local productive ecosystems for food. Aggregate food production is currently sufficient to meet the needs of all, yet of the present world population of just over 6 billion, about 800 million are underfed with protein and/or energy, while a similar number are overfed. At least an additional billion people experience chronic micronutrient deficiency. In richer urban communities human dependence on ecosystems for nourishment is less apparent, but ultimately no less fundamental.

Fresh water

Over 1 billion people lack access to safe water supplies, while 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation.

This has led to widespread microbial contamination of drinking water. Water-associated infectious diseases claim up to 3.2 million lives each year, approximately 6% of all deaths globally. The burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene totals 1.8 million deaths and the loss of greater than 75 million healthy life years. It is well established that investments in safe drinking water and improved sanitation show a close correspondence with improvement in human health and economic productivity. Each person needs 20 to 50 liters of water free of harmful chemical and microbial contaminants each day for drinking and hygiene. There remain substantial challenges to providing this basic service to large segments of the human population.

Fuel

The generation of power causes a range of health impacts. Outdoor air pollution aggravates heart and lung disease. Indoor air pollution, most typically from the combustion of biofuel in poorly ventilated heating and cooking environments causes a major burden of respiratory diseases amongst adults and children. About 3% of the global burden of disease has been attributed to indoor air pollution from this source. In areas where the demand for wood has surpassed local supply, and where people cannot afford other forms of power, there is increased vulnerability to illness and malnutrition from consuming microbiologically- contaminated water, from exposure to cold, and from a lack of properly cooked food. Poor women and children in rural communities are often the most affected by wood fuel scarcity. Many must walk long distances searching and carrying firewood (and often, water) and therefore have less time and energy for tending crops, cooking meals or attending school. For these reasons, adequate energy supplies are fundamental for sustainable development.

Nutrient and waste management, processing and detoxification

Humans are at risk from inorganic chemicals and from persistent organic pollutants in food and water. This can occur both when attempts to access water resources leads to contamination from natural sources (as occurred with arsenic contamination of water in tubewells in Bangladesh), and where human actions result in release of toxic chemicals into the environment (for example through use of pesticides). Toxic chemicals can cause a variety of adverse health effects in various organ systems. Some chemicals present in industrial effluent or used as pesticides, such as PCBs, dioxins and DDT, may act at low exposure levels as “endocrine disrupters” which interfere with normal human physiology, undermining disease resistance and reproduction.

Cultural, spiritual and recreational services from ecosystems

Cultural services may be less tangible than material services, but are nonetheless highly valued by people in all societies. People obtain diverse non-material benefits from ecosystems. They include recreational facilities and tourism, aesthetic appreciation, inspiration, a sense of place and educational value. There are traditional practices linked to ecosystem services that have an important role in developing social capital and enhancing social well being.

Climate regulation

Each of the ecosystem services referred to in the previous sections is sensitive to climate, and will therefore be affected by anthropogenic climate change. Although climate change will have some beneficial effects on human health, most effects are expected to be negative. Direct effects such as increased mortality from heat waves are most readily predicted, but indirect effects are likely to have a greater overall impact. Human health is likely to be impacted indirectly by climate-induced changes in the distribution of productive ecosystems, and the availability of food, water and energy supplies. These changes will in turn affect the distribution of infectious diseases, nutritional status and patterns of human settlement.

What actions are required to address the consequences of ecosystem change for health?

There are two routes to avoiding disease and injury caused by ecosystem disruption. One is to prevent, limit or manage environmental damage; the other way is to make whatever changes will protect individuals and populations from the consequences of ecosystem change. Two aspects need to be considered to understand the potential negative health impacts of ecosystem change: the current (and likely future) vulnerability of populations and their future capacity for adaptation. These two aspects are closely related. The forces that place populations at risk (such as poverty and high burdens of disease) in many cases also impair the capacity of these populations to prepare for the future.

What are the policy implications of the threats that

ecosystem change present to health?

Measures to ensure ecological sustainability would safeguard ecosystem services and therefore benefit health in the long-term. Where a population is weighed down by disease related to poverty and lack of ‘entitlement’ — culturally or socially determined right of access to essential resources such as shelter, nutritious food or clean water — the provision of these resources should be the first priority for public health policy. Where ill-health is caused, directly or indirectly, by excessive consumption of ecosystem services (such as food and energy) substantial reductions in consumption would have major health benefits while simultaneously reducing pressure on life-support systems.

The ongoing degradation of ecosystem services is a significant barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Ecologically unsustainable use of ecosystem services raises the potential for serious and irreversible ecological change. Ecosystem changes may occur on such a large scale as to have a catastrophic effect upon the economic, social and political processes upon which social stability, human wellbeing and good health are dependent. This suggests that a precautionary approach to environmental protection is most likely to protect and enhance health. Unavoidable uncertainties about the impacts of global environmental changes on public health should not be an excuse for delaying policy decisions.

Ice cores unlock climate secrets By Julianna Kettlewell

Global climate patterns stretching back 740,000 years have been confirmed by a three-kilometre-long ice core drilled from the Antarctic, Nature reports. Analysis of the ice proves our planet has had eight ice ages during that period, punctuated by rather brief warm spells - one of which we enjoy today.
If past patterns are followed in the future, we can expect our "mild snap" to last another 15,000 years.
The data may also help predict how greenhouse gases will affect climate.

Initial tests on gas trapped in the ice core show that current carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are higher than they have been in 440,000 years.
Nobody quite knows how this will alter our climate, but researchers hope a detailed picture of past fluctuations will give them a better idea.

Distant worlds
A large team of scientists, from 10 different countries, has spent most of the last decade extracting the mammoth column of ice from a location called Dome C, on east Antarctica's plateau.
The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (Epica) aims to unlock the climatic secrets of our past - and in doing so gain a better understanding of what we can expect in the future.

This is not the first ice core project - but it ventures much further back in time. Dome C contains 800,000 years worth of snowfall, allowing Epica to obtain a climate record two times longer than its nearest ice core rival.
"We think this project will really change the way we look at climate," said co-author Eric W. Wolff, of the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK.
Each slice of the ice core tells tales about the distant world it came from.
For instance, scientists can work out climate by looking at the ratio of different types, or isotopes, of hydrogen atoms.
Different colds
Deuterium is a heavy isotope of hydrogen. If a sample of ice has a lot of it, that means the temperature was warmer - and vice versa.
"At very cold temperatures a great deal of the heavy isotopes have rained out," explained Jerry F. McManus, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, US. "So all that is left is what we would call isotopically depleted or lighter. That is how we know how cold it was."

“ We think this project will really change the way we look at climate ”
Eric W. Wolff, the British Antarctic Survey, UK

He added: "You might say Antarctica is always cold - and you'd be right. But there is great variation in the degree of cold." Another important thing that scientists can 'read' in the ice is the relative concentration of atmospheric gases.
That is because minute bubbles pock mark the core, within which tiny pockets of preserved air lie.
"That is the wonderful thing about ice cores," said Professor McManus. "There is air from three-quarters of a million years ago and it is still locked in these bubbles - it's incredible."
Epica is still busy analysing the ice core's atmospheric gases, but preliminary results suggest that present CO2 levels are remarkably high.
"We have never seen greenhouse gases anything like what we have seen today," said Dr Wolff.
Predicting the future
Over the last 800,000 years the Earth has, on the whole, been a pretty chilly place. Interglacials - or warm spells - have come every 100,000 years and have generally been short-lived.
Over the last 400,000 years, interglacials have lasted about 10,000 years, with climates similar to this one. Before that they were less warm, but lasted slightly longer.
We have already been in an interglacial for about 10,000 years, so we should - according to the pattern - be heading for an ice age. But we are not.
The Epica team has noticed the interglacial period of 400,000 years ago closely matches our own - because the shape of the Earth's orbit was the same then as it is now.
That warm spell lasted a whopping 28,000 years - so ours probably will, too.
"The next ice age is not imminent," said Dr Wolff, "and greenhouse warming makes it even less likely - despite what The Day After Tomorrow says."

Epica scientists hope that after they have fully analysed the ice core's atmospheric gases, they will gain a deeper knowledge of how climate relates to them. "We will double the timescale over which we can study greenhouse gases," said co-author Thomas F Stocker, of the University of Bern, Switzerland. "We will be able to show what the natural variability is in relation to gases like CO2."
By understanding what greenhouse gases did to global temperature in the past, scientists might be able to predict the effect of humankind's enthusiastic CO2 belching.
"There is great controversy as to whether human beings have changed the climate," said Professor McManus. "But there is no doubt about the fact that human beings have changed the Earth's atmosphere. The increased levels of greenhouse gases are geologically incredible."
He added: "It is something of grave concern to someone like me, who sees the strong connection between greenhouse gases and climate in the past."

Biocentric stability: Temporal Dynamics

Ecosystems are always recovering from past changes. Ecosystems are, always responding to past changes that have occurred over all time scales (Holling 1973, Wu and Loucks 1995). These changes include relatively predictable daily and seasonal variations, less predictable changes in weather (e.g., passage of weather fronts, El Niño events, and glacial cycles), and occurrence of disturbances (e.g., tree falls, herbivore outbreaks, fires, and volc anic eruptions). Consequently, the behaviour of an ecosystem is always influenced by both the current environment and many previous environmental fluctuations and disturbances.

The global environment is changing more rapidly than it has for millions of years. These changes result from an exponentially rising human population that shows an every- increasing technological capacity to alter Earth’s environment and ecosystems. Perhaps the most urgent need in ecosystem ecology is to improve our understanding of factors governing the stability and change in ecological systems This understanding is critical to managing ecosystems so they sustain their diversity and other important ecological attributes and so ecosystems continue to produce the goods and services required by society.