56
It seems apparent that basic social activities
cause all those problems that are generally
referred to as environmental problems. These are
accompanied by the harmful effects of increasing
human population and increasing space demand
of the built environment associated with it causing the reduction of the living space of wildlife
and thus the perish of species, the reduction of
biological diversity, gene erosion and also the
destruction of many abiotic natural values. These
effects are visualized in Fig. 2.25 by arrows
pointing from the built environment towards the
biosphere.
The environmental basic problem can be
defined as follows on the basis of the above. Will
humanity be able to regulate the growth of population, the production, transportation and consumption activities, to organise the society so
that their operation would be harmonized with
the unified Earth system developed over billions
of years?
The authors stated above that the basic activities of the society (production, consumption,
transportation, construction) naturally cause
environmental damage and risk to human health.
If this is an inevitable process how would it be
possible to protect our natural environment and
ourselves as well from these harmful effects? The
key for solution can be found in the quantities
and in the grade of effects. Natural systems and
the human organism (in fact every living organism) have tolerance to some extent and are capable of regeneration. The grade of the effects on
them is therefore vital. This applies to the global
Earth system as well as will be seen, for example,
in the case of climate change (Sect. 4.5). In the
case of humans, health limits are set by authorities for the bearable pollution of air, water and
food. Setting ecological limits is a more difficult
task due to the species richness of the biosphere.
Scientists know that such limits exist. It is also
known that production and consumption could be
carried out with several magnitudes smaller
grades of pollution and other degradation effects
than they are done today. For example, sulphur
removing equipment installed in coal power
plants could reduce sulphur emission to one
twentieth of the emission of the currently widespread technology. Almost all human activities
could be done in much more environmentally
friendly ways than done currently and individuals
have their own task in this (Box 2.2). There are
solutions then as will be seen in the following
chapters.
Let’s analyse after the above that how this
most general view of environmental protection is
related to the realisation of sustainable development, how the situation typical for today shall be
changed on the basis of systems thinking.
Since Brundtland’s report (UN 1987) several
international forums have discussed sustainable
development and many countries have established their national sustainable development
programmes.
Based on these documents and reports the
authors can state that for the realisation of sustainable development at least four factors have to
be harmonized including: economic activities,
environmental protection, social measures and
effective institutional systems. Frequently these
are referred to as the basic pillars of sustainable
development, each forming on their own rather
complex systems.
Environmental protection out of the four factors has to be mentioned separately. Several interpretations of this term can be found. The most
general definition used by the authors says that
environmental protection is a system of actions
organised to solve the basic problem of environmental protection. In order to achieve this, the
society as a whole have to act and cooperate: at
the level of state institutions, economic organisations, civil organisations and individuals. (The
narrower interpretation of environmental protection will be discussed later.)
Figure 2.25 illustrates well that the basic problem of environmental protection roots in the most
fundamental operation mechanism of the society:
human needs and demands encourage economic
organisations to produce more, and people consume more to feed their needs and demands. As a
result, increasing amount of waste and pollutants
are produced degrading the natural environment
in increasing grade and extent. The amount of
waste and pollutants and the degree of environmental destruction are ignored by the producers,
2 Structure and Operation of Systems, Models of the Global Earth System
It seems apparent that basic social activities
cause all those problems that are generally
referred to as environmental problems. These are
accompanied by the harmful effects of increasing
human population and increasing space demand
of the built environment associated with it causing the reduction of the living space of wildlife
and thus the perish of species, the reduction of
biological diversity, gene erosion and also the
destruction of many abiotic natural values. These
effects are visualized in Fig. 2.25 by arrows
pointing from the built environment towards the
biosphere.
The environmental basic problem can be
defined as follows on the basis of the above. Will
humanity be able to regulate the growth of population, the production, transportation and consumption activities, to organise the society so
that their operation would be harmonized with
the unified Earth system developed over billions
of years?
The authors stated above that the basic activities of the society (production, consumption,
transportation, construction) naturally cause
environmental damage and risk to human health.
If this is an inevitable process how would it be
possible to protect our natural environment and
ourselves as well from these harmful effects? The
key for solution can be found in the quantities
and in the grade of effects. Natural systems and
the human organism (in fact every living organism) have tolerance to some extent and are capable of regeneration. The grade of the effects on
them is therefore vital. This applies to the global
Earth system as well as will be seen, for example,
in the case of climate change (Sect. 4.5). In the
case of humans, health limits are set by authorities for the bearable pollution of air, water and
food. Setting ecological limits is a more difficult
task due to the species richness of the biosphere.
Scientists know that such limits exist. It is also
known that production and consumption could be
carried out with several magnitudes smaller
grades of pollution and other degradation effects
than they are done today. For example, sulphur
removing equipment installed in coal power
plants could reduce sulphur emission to one
twentieth of the emission of the currently widespread technology. Almost all human activities
could be done in much more environmentally
friendly ways than done currently and individuals
have their own task in this (Box 2.2). There are
solutions then as will be seen in the following
chapters.
Let’s analyse after the above that how this
most general view of environmental protection is
related to the realisation of sustainable development, how the situation typical for today shall be
changed on the basis of systems thinking.
Since Brundtland’s report (UN 1987) several
international forums have discussed sustainable
development and many countries have established their national sustainable development
programmes.
Based on these documents and reports the
authors can state that for the realisation of sustainable development at least four factors have to
be harmonized including: economic activities,
environmental protection, social measures and
effective institutional systems. Frequently these
are referred to as the basic pillars of sustainable
development, each forming on their own rather
complex systems.
Environmental protection out of the four factors has to be mentioned separately. Several interpretations of this term can be found. The most
general definition used by the authors says that
environmental protection is a system of actions
organised to solve the basic problem of environmental protection. In order to achieve this, the
society as a whole have to act and cooperate: at
the level of state institutions, economic organisations, civil organisations and individuals. (The
narrower interpretation of environmental protection will be discussed later.)
Figure 2.25 illustrates well that the basic problem of environmental protection roots in the most
fundamental operation mechanism of the society:
human needs and demands encourage economic
organisations to produce more, and people consume more to feed their needs and demands. As a
result, increasing amount of waste and pollutants
are produced degrading the natural environment
in increasing grade and extent. The amount of
waste and pollutants and the degree of environmental destruction are ignored by the producers,
2 Structure and Operation of Systems, Models of the Global Earth System