Environmental Science and Theology in Dialogue, Chapter 8, Subsection, “Steps to Sustainability,” pp. 180-191, lists twelve (12) “personal, public, and global steps we need to take to achieve a sustainable society.” Please choose the three (3) steps that you judge to be most important, listed in order of priority, [number 1 first, number 2 second, etc.], giving the reasons for the three steps that you have selected and why they would help achieve a sustainable society. In these cases, food miles were not a good proxy for a commodity's environmental footprint, but in other instances food miles will prove to be a useful metric. Food miles are especially reliable if two sources utilizing thesame form of transportation are being compared. Additionally, the issue of exporting virtual water in the form of commodities must always be considered. There are times when a tradeoff exists between the export of waterembodied in food from more arid regions to more temperate regions and the reduction of carbon emissions due to transportation. In this case, as with other tradeoffs, careful thought must be given to the two scenarios, since nometric presently exists that allows us to produce a decision that takes all of the different environmental concerns into account.Fifth, recycling needs to be strongly encouraged, both on a household and an industrial scale. We do not live on an infinite planet and ever-increasing resource utilization is not possible. However, if recycling issignificantly increased, economic development can be separated from the need for ever-increasing resource use. The human economy should more closely resemble the natural biogeochemical cycles in which materials cycleendlessly and are therefore never depleted. Some industries have been able to dramatically increase their profitability by increasing their recycling and diminishing their use of natural resources, and many more could do so.²⁹Recycling needs to include the promotion of animal and human wastes as sources of biofuel production (such as using bacterial fermentation to produce methane), which would remove a large amount of potentially toxicmaterial from the waste stream and turn it into one of the needed future fuels.Sixth, freshwater resources must be protected, and prevented from becoming a petroleum-like commodity available globally to the highest bidder, rather than belonging to communities that have always had access to thatwater. Fresh water is needed for drinking, bathing, agriculture, and industrial processes of many types. Water supplies are limited and becoming highly contaminated in many areas of the world. While we can imaginealternative futures with energy sources other than fossil fuels, there is no alternative to water consumption for either humans or our crop plants and animals. Water and air are equally vital, and we must view the prospect ofwater becoming a privately held commodity exactly as we would view the prospect of that happening to the air we breathe.As the twenty-first century progresses, freshwater availability is threatened by the actions of multinational corporations working continually to obtain ownership of what they correctly perceive to be an increasingly limitedresource. It is also threatened by the release of industrial effluents and municipal sewage, in some places by excessive water withdrawals for irrigation associated with aquifer depletions that turn agriculture into a form of"water mining," and the loss of glaciers and ice fields that have served as important sources of drinking water and summer river flows.The sustainability-related aspects of this topic are too complex to deal with here at length but a U.N. thematic report titled Coping with Water Scarcity gives a brief account of some of the major issues involved,30 andvarious organizations, including Food and Water Watch,³¹ maintain substantial online libraries addressing various aspects of freshwater supply, contamination, scarcity, and privatization. Suffice it to say, we must begin torecognize that fresh water is a limited and precious public good and treat it as such.The issue of a virtual water trade alluded to above is a significant concern for the future of freshwater supplies in some locations. Whenever irrigation-intensive crops are grown in one region and shipped in vast quantitiesto another region, an unrecognized trade in virtual water is taking place. Such trade can have significant environmental costs for the exporting nation if it begins to ship overseas the freshwater resources needed to maintain thestability of its ecosystem. Comprehensive coverage of this topic, which embodies environmental science, economics, and social justice issues, merits an entire book, and an excellent resource is Maude Barlow's BlueCovenant 32Closely associated with the issue of protecting freshwater supplies is the vital concern of reducing soil erosion and the loss of fertile agricultural lands to desertification or urban sprawl. We have paved over or abusedbeyond use large areas of fertile soil, and we must recognize the irreplaceable nature of that component of the biosphere. Planning for community growth, giving preferential treatment to farmland preservation, and growingcrops in a way that does not deplete freshwater resources are all important attributes for any serious effort to preserve agricultural soils and the surface or subsurface waters on which they depend.Seventh, we need to use all of the components of our educational institutions to develop a vocabulary, manner of analysis, and thought that is consistent with processes that can lead us to a sustainable future. From K-12,to higher education, to MBA courses and in-service educational opportunities, we need to make space in curricula and content for systems of thought that can elevate the frequency and quality of discussions about ways toobtain a sustainable future. One such system of thought originated by Karl-Henrik Robèrt and developed by the Natural Step Network has articulated four system conditions that can be used to guide decision making. Thismethod of attaining sustainability is a good example of an applied strategy that has been successfully used by a number of corporations and organizations.33 The system conditions are related to pollution caused by naturalmaterials as they become concentrated, pollution caused by materials that have been synthesized, loss of biologically productive areas, and equity in resource distribution. They are based upon an understanding that all life issupported by natural processes such as photosynthesis and the biogeochemical cycles, processes essential to maintaining the ecosystem. The four "Natural Step System Conditions" are: Steps to SustainabilityFirst, on the international level, we need a climate treaty that will prevent atmospheric carbon dioxide from tripling beyond its preindustrial level. A good case that this is feasible has been made by a partnership between21members of the academic community, the oil industry, and the automobile industry that proposes that existing technologies implemented with sufficient seriousness of purpose and vigor can already achieve this goal.The future for carbon mitigation could be even more positive, given the international emphasis on and funding for research into alternative energy technologies including tidal and wave power, ocean thermal energyconversion (which produces electricity from the temperature difference between warm surface waters and cold deep waters in tropical seas), photovoltaic energy, reverse electrodialysis and pressure-retarded osmosis power(which are two ways to harvest power from the difference in salt concentration between ocean water and river water at a river's mouth), enhanced geothermal systems that harvest the heat beneath the Earth's surface for power,and fusion power (the power inherent in our own sun). The perfection of cellulosic ethanol production that makes ethanol by fermenting plants such as corn stalks or grasses into alcohol might eventually make the term"agricultural waste" an oxymoron. These approaches are already being worked on, but an acceleration of the research could pay huge dividends both literally and conceptually.Second, the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) need to be changed. Although the language establishing the WTO actually contains a provision that could lead to environmental sensitivity, in fact it has not doneso. The WTO charter says:Relations in the field of trade and economic endeavor should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effectivedemand, and expanding the production of and trade in goods and services, while allowing for the optimal use of the world's resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development, seeking both toprotect and preserve the environment and to enhance the means for doing so in a manner consistent with their respective needs and concerns at different levels of economic development.2²2In practice, the WTO has consistently ruled against environmentally oriented trade options. Most Americans have not known that the WTO has the power to rule against provisions of the U.S. Clean Air Act, whichspecifies how clean gasoline must be made, because it discriminates against foreign refiners. Also generally unknown is the fact that the WTO ruled to forbid member states to link trade issues with environmental issues or eventhose of human rights and child labor. Similarly, the WTO has the power to override the sovereignty of member states when environmental regulations are judged to impede free trade.23Recently there have been some initial signs of movement in a positive direction to protect the environment on the part of the WTO; while they should be applauded, they should also be interpreted as only early steps.Recognizing economic pressure being exerted by consumers who want to be able to choose between environmentally friendly products so that they can spend their resources in ways that reflect their values, the WTO conveneda session in 2010 to explore carbon-intensity labeling. 24In a broader sense, corporations need to adopt transparent labeling practices that specify the intensity of carbon release, water consumption, release of various toxins, and so on so that consumers have the neededinformation to make purchasing decisions and corporate visions for environmental and social responsibility can be carried out. Purchasing decisions based on a combination of price, quality, and environmental impact will bepossible only if corporations become widely engaged and if the WTO becomes at least a neutral force in the global environmental arena.At present there has also been minor WTO movement in terms of controlling the environmental impact of agricultural exports, but in general the WTO has historically served as the "police" of free trade, promotingunimpeded trade regardless of its environmental impact or the desires of importing nations that want to assure that imported goods have been manufactured as sustainably as possible. Note that the WTO is not part of the UnitedNations, that it therefore need not comply with U.N. mandates, and that it acts with great influence although it is neither an elected body nor a congress of nationally elected officials. This type of structure embodies a sort ofnonrepresentative power that our own nation has a history of rejecting.Third, the public policy-making power of corporations needs to be reduced to a reasonable level. Corporations were invented and operate to increase shareholder value, and their vision of the common good, therefore, isoften limited to their shareholders (or their executives, ignoring their shareholders). Corporations have all too frequently been happy to externalize costs in the form of pollution and resource depletion. For sustainability, policydecisions must look further ahead than the next quarterly report or executive bonus toward decisions that are more appropriate from the perspective of future generations. Corporations fulfill an important and appropriate rolewhen they allow shareholders to invest with a limited risk in commercial ventures that provide the goods, services, and jobs necessary for and beneficial to our society. However, the short-sighted scale of corporate visions andtheir limited goals make them a poor choice for having enormous influence over public policy decisions that affect generations of future populations in all corners of the world. Even a rudimentary view of the history ofcorporate behavior indicates that corporations need to live within the rules of human societies and not shape them, if both the corporations and societies are to prosper over time.Fourth, we need to consume less energy and water-intensive foods and beverages (for example, avoiding large portions of grain-fed beef) and cultivate the enjoyment of appropriate local and seasonal foods in our diet.Eating a less meat-heavy diet could increase our potential for biofuel production, without adding to agricultural water demands or reducing the grains and legumes available for human consumption. With the average item onan American plate now traveling anywhere from twelve hundred miles to fifteen hundred miles to reach our tables, the fossil fuel cost of agriculture has become ever higher. We need to develop a preference for local food that iswell informed and reasonable.In prioritizing dietary decisions, however, it is important to realize that the production phase of the modern agricultural system accounts for on average 83 percent of techniques that gas emissions by the agriculturalsystem, 26 while long-distance transportation of food accounts for only 11 percent of emissions, and retail delivery only 4 percent. Transporting food in ships over longer distances sometimes has a lower environmental impactthan shorter transport distances by trucks. In addition, foods of various types are more suitable to certain climates than others, and no benefit can be derived by insisting on local food production that requires energy-intensivetechniques that replace simpler agricultural practices elsewhere. For example, producing cheese, lamb, or apples in New Zealand and shipping them to Great Britain for consumption actually has a lower carbon footprint thanproducing and storing the food domestically.27 While these facts are not a reason to abandon agriculture in Great Britain, they constitute a valuable warning about oversimplification in complex decision making. Similarly, thehigher carbon emission cost of trucking as compared to shipping means that for American oenophiles on the East Coast, it is actually more environmentally sensitive to drink wine from Bordeaux that arrived by ship than winetrucked from the Nana Valley 28

Ecotheology is a type of constructive theology, which seeks to emphasize the role of the environment…

Answered: Environmental Science and Theology in…

Social Psychology (10th Edition)

10th Edition

ISBN:9780134641287

Author:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers

Publisher:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers

Chapter1: Introducing Social Psychology

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1RQ1

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