Main authors

Lars Rydén	(main responsibilities: text)
Christian Andersson	(main responsibilities: website, illustrations)
Magnus Lehman	(main responsibilities: links and films)

Reference group of researches and teachers

Paula Lindroos, PhD, Director Baltic University Programme, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Martin Hauptvogl, Sustainable agriculture, Energy forest, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia
Magnus Andersson, PhD, Environmental policy, Traffic management, Energy management, Cajoma consulting, Sweden
Leena Lahti, PhD, Environmental education, University of Eastern Finland
Kristina Abolina, PhD. University of Latvia, Riga.
Tatjana Tambovceva, Prof. Economics and management, Riga Technical University, Latvia
Per-Arne Lindström, Sweden
Oleksandra Kovbasko, Freshwater Officer at WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme, Austria.
Linas Kliucininkas, Prof. Environmental management, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania
Tiina Elvisto, Prof. Plant ecology, Tallinn University, Estonia
Jan – Otto Anderson, Prof. Environmental economics, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Marie Thynell, PhD. Sustainable development, Sustainable transport. University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Ciegis Remigijus, Prof. Development economics, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Michael Goodsite, PhD. Atmospheric chemistry, climate and global processes. Aarhus University, Denmark
Irek Zbicinski, Prof. Environmental management, Life-cycle assessment, Łódź University of Technology, Poland
Alexander Feher, Prof. Sustainable agriculture, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia
Jakub Kronenberg, PhD. Economy – environment interactions. University of Łódź, Poland
Kalev Sepp, Prof. Landscape management, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia
Daniel Bergquist, PhD, Urban agriculture, Uppsala University, Sweden
Siarhei Darozhka, Prof. Environmental management. Belarusian State University, Belarus
Lars Emmelin, Prof. Sustainability planning, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden
Henrik Knudsen, Prof. Innovation, entrepreneurship. Aarhus University, Denmark
Artur Pawłowski, PhD. Lublin University of Technology, Poland

BUP Sustainable Development Course

1a.
Stories of societies which succeeded or collapsed

Easter Island Ahu Tongariki. Photo: Nicolas de Camaret, CC BY 2.0

Sustainable development deals with the long-term prosperity or collapse of societies. Why is this a concern for us? The societies and countries we live in have a long history, thousands of years. Should we expect a collapse in the near future? Nevertheless, it is a threat that many are concerned with when it comes to the global society, all countries in the world. Collapse then does not mean eradication, but rather that there will be fundamental changes in the way things work. The reasons are that basic resources for us are coming to an end. Thus, fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas, become more difficult to find and prices are mounting. The so called “peak-oil”, the time of maximum production, has already passed for conventional oil and the peak approaches rapidly for other kind of fossil resources. At the same time the climate change caused mostly by the human combustion of fossil carbon and its consequences – disasters, such as storms, floods, and draughts and a melting arctic ice – aggravate. We also see declining or collapsing fish stocks, biodiversity decline and deforestation, and an increasing population on the planet. Will there be enough food for everyone? A basic requirement for today’s agriculture – production of phosphorous – is also rapidly emptied.

The concern for sustainable development is thus caused by questioning the continued successful development. Will we succeed or collapse? It is not difficult to find examples of societies which collapsed. The best known may be Easter Island. Easter Island is a small island in the vast expense of the Pacific outside the coast of Chile. It is known for its enormously large statues of human heads made of stone. When western seafarers “discovered” the island (on Easter day) in the 18th century, there was only a small group of people living in terrible conditions in a barren landscape. The stone heads witnessed about a once flowering society, which now had collapsed. An important reason of the collapse of the society was apparently the loss of the forest. The absence of trees made it impossible to build boats or canoes to fish, or to build decent houses.

The American geographer and physiologist Jared Diamond in his book “Collapse – how societies choose to fail or succeed” analyses a dozen societies, including the Easter Island, which failed, most of them ancient but some contemporary. He does not blame individuals, for example the person who cut down the last tree on Easter Island, but looks for developments in the societies. It is clear that they have a few things in common. On top of the list of causes of collapse are environmental impacts, in particular deforestation and destruction of soil.

In today’s discussion on sustainable development, deforestation is still a concern. Deforestation is driving climate change and is a main cause of biodiversity loss. It is included in the global negotiations on climate change under the title REDD, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. It is today mostly a question for the Southern Hemisphere, the tropical forests, but also in our societies we had a deforestation crisis, but in the 18th century. The forests were becoming clear-cut due to the large consumption of wood. It is interesting to note how the “crisis” was managed and avoided then; it is relevant for how we do today. The dealing with the European forest crisis led to the introduction of the term “Sustainability” for the very first time.

Perspectives on REDD Our development has lead to societies in which most people have better, longer and healthier lives than earlier generations, but it had a price. Today’s concern for sustainable development is not in the first place concerned with a specific country. Again, it is as a global society we over-use the resources of our planet. We cut down forest, we over-fish the oceans, we use more energy than the Earth can provide in the longer term; and the end products from human activities pollute the environment too much. If this continues at some point it will lead to collapse, just as was the case in many societies, which already collapsed. Understanding and knowing sustainable development is needed to avoid this and instead create a prosperous future for this and coming generations.

Material for session 1a

Basic level

Read the story of the Easter Island by Sverker Sörlin
Sverker Sörlin: Easter Island
Watch the film with Sverker Sörlin on Easter Island (YouTube film)
Read the European Forest Crisis and the origin of the sustainability concept
Lars Rydén: The European Forest Crisis
See Jared Diamond introduce his book Collapse on collapsing societies (YouTube film)

Medium level (widening)

View a presentation by Lars Rydén on: Climate existence seminar on resources
Lars Rydén: Climate Existence Seminar
Read chapter 25, pages 767-771 in Environmental Science: The Prospect of Sustainable Development
The Prospect of Sustainable Development

The Prospect of Sustainable Development (in Russian)
Study the Mayan deforestation and the consequent collapse of the Mayan society. Also study Mayan and modern farming in Central America.

Advanced level (deepening)

Study in some detail an example of change from collapse to prosperity:

Paolo Lugari, founder of Las Gaviotas (YouTube film)

Additional material

The film Home or Дом (in Russian) was made in 2009 to inspire all of us to be careful about our home planet Earth now in danger and avert the depletion of natural resources. It is a remarkable film., 1 hr and 33 min.

References

Diamond, J. 2005. Collapse – how societies choose to fail or succeed. Viking Books.

Rydén, L., Migula, P. and M. Andersson (eds). 2003. Environmental Science – understanding, protecting and managing the environment in the Baltic Sea region. Baltic University Press. Uppsala, Sweden.

Sörlin, S. 1997. The Story of Easter Island. In: A Sustainable Baltic Region 1. The road towards sustainability – a historical perspective. Baltic University Press. Uppsala, Sweden.

BUP Sustainable Development Course

1b.
The UN process – from Stockholm to Johannesburg

The global society has been concerned about the development and how it relates to the state of the environment since the Stockholm United Nations Conference on The Human Environment in June 1972. At the Stockholm conference, environmental concerns were for the first time established on the world agenda. It had been present in several national policies before that, but at the Stockholm meeting it was clear that environment was an international concern for the simple reason that pollution and resource depletion does not respect national borders. Pollutants travel with water or air long distances. Not the least, the Baltic Sea Region countries had experienced that from the acid rain, mostly coming from continental Europe and the British Islands.

The Stockholm conference led to a major strengthening of the environmental agenda in many countries, with the establishment of ministries of environment, environmental protection agencies and the United Nations Environmental Protection Agency, UNEP. The 1970s also saw a remarkable strengthening of environmental science, environmental law, and the banning of the most destructive chemicals in many countries. Since the Stockholm conference, June 5 is celebrated as the World Environment Day (see also Chapter 9a: Governance and Democracy).

If the early 1970s had been a time favourable for international cooperation and a “fairly mild” Cold War, the global atmosphere in the early 1980s was one of distrust and confrontation. The introduction of medium distance nuclear missiles on both sides of the iron curtain and the development of a new arms race, now in the space, made a 10-year follow-up of the Stockholm conference impossible. Instead, the United Nations established a so-called World Commission on Environment and Development, often called the Brundtland Commission after its chairperson, the Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. This published its report Our Common Future in 1987. This is where the concept of Sustainable Development is introduced as a key concept on the global agenda.

An event at the Rio conference

The 1990s were again a period of many possibilities, after the 1989-91 dramatic events had led to the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In 1992 the United Nations called the nations of the world to a new summit, the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). It took place in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, and became the largest conference ever organized. 179 governments were represented and 120 heads of state took part. Five documents were issued from the conference, a most important one being the Agenda 21, a 40-chapter document for the 21st century on how to achieve sustainable development, every bit of it carefully negotiated and agreed on. Now, sustainable development became mainstream policy in most countries in the world.

After the Rio Conference, a Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) was established at the United Nations to lead the international work. A number of important developments followed, among them the Climate Convention, the establishment of the Global Environmental Facility to finance sustainability projects, and support of green business.

World Summit on SD 2002 The next big meeting was the World Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002, ten years after Rio. It was the first UN conference where the phrase ‘sustainable development’ was in the name of the meeting. It did not become quite the same main event as the Rio conference. The most important document was its Plan of Implementation. The discussion was now about concrete details on how to work. Science and business were given main roles, the sustainable production and consumption patterns important, and education for sustainable development, ESD, another important point on the agenda. Just months later, the UN General Assembly decided on the decade for education for sustainable development to be 2005-2014 (see also: Chapter 5a: Sustainable Production and Consumption and Chapter 12a: Education for Sustainable Development.)

un rio20 In June 2012 the global society met in Rio again for the UN Rio+20 conference on sustainable development (UNCSD2012). This time the focus of the conference was green economy, reflecting that the economy is a top priority in most countries today and environmental concerns need to be included in economic development. The final document from Rio+20 is called The Future We Want, A main component is the agreement to develop as set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are intended to follow the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and be a main focus in the UN work from 2015 when the MDG process ends.