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Sustainable practices are those that can be continued indefinitely without
depleting resources or accumulating wastes. Conservationists promote the
development and widespread use of such practices.
Green businesses are minimizing their energy and resource consumption and their
waste generation. They are shifting to renewable materials. They reuse
materials. Some have abandoned sales of goods for leasing of goods. If initially
well-constructed, leased goods provide years of service. When a flaw develops or
the item fails to perform, the builder from whom it was leased, repairs and
returns it to the customer. The manufacturer has a strong incentive to
build quality goods.
Challenges
1. Assume a farm pond contains 100 mature fish at the beginning of the year and
they experience no mortality within that year. Each of the 50 female fish
produces 2 young that survive to maturity at the end of that year. By fishing
the farmer’s children catch and remove 125 fish at the end of the year. Is this
sustainable?
2. Assume a tree farmer grows 300 acres of pines and pines require 30 years or
more to reach harvest size. To produce a steady income the farmer wants to cut
and replant some pines every year. To be sustainable how many acres should the
farmer cut and replant each year? What should the farmer do with limbs remaining
after the harvest?
3. In much of the US, pumping of ground water exceeds recharge from rain &
snowfall. In the state of Mississippi the water table falls on average one foot
every year. Predict what will happen to wells as the water table continues to
drop. How can water use be made sustainable?
4. Worldwide every day we use fossil fuels that required 10,000 days to develop
in the earth. What can we do to conserve fossil fuels? What alternatives should
we develop?
5. In the central US every year erosion washes away 8.2 tons of topsoil from
every acre of prime agricultural land. Plants grow very poorly, if at all, on
subsoil. How can we save topsoil?
6. Worldwide every year the quantity of carbon dioxide in the air climbs .3%.
Much of this results from combustion of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide contributes
to global warming. How can we reduce carbon dioxide output?
7. For the US every year we harvest a forest the size of the state of
Connecticut. Most is cut into wood for buildings and furniture; some is made
into paper; a little is burned as fuel. What conservation measures would reduce
our timber harvest?
8. Worldwide every year we lose to extinctions about 1000 species of animals &
plants. Sadly, many of these creatures are unknown to science. Many disappear
due to habitat loss. Biodiversity enriches our lives by making food webs more
stable, providing a source of pharmaceuticals and adding to the beauty of the
landscape. How can we save these species?
9. Worldwide between 1938 and 1990 the human sperm count dropped by one half.
Chemicals in some plastics such as nonyl phenol and some pesticides mimic
estrogens in males. Traces of these mimics in the environment have reduced the
human count and produced other problems with the reproductive system. How can we
restore reproductive health?
Some answers
1. At the end of the year the pond contains the 100 original fish plus 100 young
adults giving a total of 200 fish. If 125 are removed, only 75 remain to
reproduce the following year. This is not sustainable.
2. The farmer should cut and replant 10 acres each year.
3. Wells will run dry. Water consumption must be reduced by growing crops that
require less or no irrigation water; collecting water from washing foods in the
kitchen to water flowers & vegetables in the garden; washing only full loads of
dirty clothing, etc.
4. Hybrid cars use less fossil fuels and get more miles per gallon. We need to
work to seriously develop energy from renewable sources. Wind energy has great
potential as a source of electricity. If the health costs of burning coal is
factored in, wind power now costs less than coal generated power.
5. Keeping soil surfaces covered with either living or dead crop plants or mulch
helps hold soil. Strips of trees and shrubs along river & stream margins reduce
erosion. Replacing crop land on sloping fields with permanent pastures reduces
erosion. Restoring wetlands traps eroded soil.
6. Using mass transit reduces carbon dioxide output. Planting trees increases
carbon dioxide removal from the air. But when trees are cut, that carbon bound
within them will ultimately be released back into the air as carbon dioxide.
Although it can be held for years as lumber in buildings and furniture.
7. All used or scrap lumber should be reused, not buried in land fills.
8. We should halt urban sprawl and protect green belts to provide diverse
habitats. We should halt mountain top removal coal mining and its stream
destruction. We must improve water quality to protect aquatic life. We should
restore wetlands as wildlife habitat. We should prevent the entry of invasive
species.
9. We should publicize this threat to virility allowing male-dominated
legislatures to act.
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Philosophy
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