Progress towards sustainability.docx

Progress towards sustainability.docx

《Progress towards sustainability.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《Progress towards sustainability.docx（16页珍藏版）》请在冰豆网上搜索。

Progresstowardssustainability

Progresstowardssustainability?

Whattheconceptualframeworkof

materialandenergyflowaccounting（MEFA）canoffer

HelmutHaberl,MarinaFischer-Kowalski,FridolinKrausmann,HelgaWeisz,VerenaWiniwarter

Introduction

Howcouldonepossiblyknowwhetheracity,aregion,acountry,asupra-nationalentitysuchastheEUorhumanityasawholebecomesmoreorlesssustainableinagivenperiod?

Thisquestionisofparamountpracticalrelevance,givencurrentpoliticalcommitmentstosustainability（CEC,2001;UNEP,2002）.Yetgenerallyagreed-uponanswerstothisquestionarehard,ifnotimpossibletocomeby,andtheanswersofferedsofardiffernotonlyindegree,butevenintheirfundamentalassertions.WhereassomeresearchersregardrichcountriessuchasJapanortheNetherlandsasmostandpoorAfricancountriesasleastsustainable,basedona‘‘weaksustainability’’concept（PearceandAtkinson,1993）,othersarguethattheenormousresourceconsumptionofrich,industrializedcountriescontributesmosttounsustainability（Chambersetal.,2001;WackernagelandRees,1996）.

Attemptstodefinesustainabilityemphasizedifferentaspectsoftheproblem,mostlydependingondiscipline,professionalbackgroundandpersonalinterests（e.g.Brandt,1997;ClarkandMunn,1986;Holling,1986;Pearceetal.,1990;WCED,1987）.Inrecentyearsaconsensusseemstobeunderwaytoregardsustainabilityasaproblemoftheinteractionbetweensocietyandnature.Ithasbeenarguedthata‘‘newfieldofsustainabilityscienceisemergingthatseekstounderstandthefundamentalcharacterofinteractionsbetweennatureandsociety’’（Katesetal.,2001,p.641）.

Suchaconceptposesaformidablechallenge,becauseitrequirestheco-operationofscientistsfromdisciplinesasdifferentasbiology,geology,biogeochemistry,climatemodelling,economy,history,sociology,anthropology,geography,tonamebutafew.Butconceptualizingsustainabilityasaproblemofsociety–natureinteractionoffersanewperspectivebeyondthesimplisticideathatsustainabilitycanbeachievedbyaddingathird,‘‘environmental’’dimensiontotheclassicalpolicygoalsofimprovingeconomicperformanceandsocialwell-being（or,evenworse,economicperformancealone,because—assomebelieve—socialwell-beingcanmostefficientlybeimprovedbyincreasingeconomicactivity;seePaehlke,2001）.

Acceptingthepremisethatsustainabilityisaproblemofsociety–natureinteractionmeansthatwemustobservesocieties,naturalsystems,andtheirinteractionovertimeandanswerthefollowing:

（1）Whichchangesdosocio-economicactivitiescauseinnaturalsystems?

（2）Whichsocio-economicforcesdrivethesechanges,andhowcantheybeinfluenced?

（3）Howdochangesinnaturalsystemsimpactonsociety?

（4）How,ifatall,cansocietycopewiththechangesithassetinmotion?

Inthispaper,wearguethatthematerialandenergyflowaccounting（MEFAframework）cancontributetoansweringthesequestions.MEFAstandsfor‘‘materialandenergyflowaccounting,’’andisbasedonthenotionofsocio-economicmetabolism（e.g.AyresandSimonis,1994;Fischer-Kowalski,1998;Fischer-KowalskiandH.uttler,1998;Matthewsetal.,2000）.TheMEFAframeworkanalysesimportantaspectsofsociety–natureinteractionbytracingsocio-economicmaterialsandenergyflowsandbyassessingchangesinrelevantpatternsandprocessesinecosystemsrelatedtotheseflows—inotherwords,the‘‘colonization’’ofterrestrialecosystems（Haberletal.,2001b）.Theconceptof‘colonization’referstosocio-economicinterventionsintonaturalsystemsthatactivelyseektoincreasetheutilityofthesesystemsforsocio-economicpurposes（Weiszetal.,2001）.

Knowinghowmaterialandenergyflowsarerelatedtoeconomicactivityortosocialwell-beingwouldgreatlyenhanceourunderstandingofsocio-economicdrivingforcesofenvironmentalchangeaswellasourabilitytochangeourbehaviour.A‘‘physicaleconomy’’conceptcouldmakeiteasiertoevaluatethesocio-economicsignificanceofchangesintheenvironment.Moreover,understandingdeliberatechangesinnaturalsystemsnotas‘‘disturbance,’’butascolonizationemphasizestheirsocialandeconomicsignificance.

Conceptualizingsustainability

Sustainability,stability,andchange

Biogeochemical,paleoecologicalandgeophysicalresearchintotheEarth’shistoryprovidesampleevidencethatnaturalsystemsundergopervasivechangesnaturally.Globalaveragetemperature,precipitationpatterns,sealevel,atmosphericchemistryandbiodiversityhavefluctuateddrastically,drivenbybothendogenous（e.g.geologicalorbioticprocesses）andexogenous（e.g.

meteoriteimpacts）phenomena（Schellnhuber,1999;Schlesinger,1997）.Naturalsystemsare,therefore,bestconceivedofasself-organizingdynamicsystemswhichmayreachequilibriumstatesforlimitedperiods,butmayaswellundergorapidtransitionsbetweendifferentmoreorlessstableequilibriumstates（Holling,1986;Schefferetal.,2001）.Therefore,itseemshardlyarguablethatsustainabilityshouldimplythemaintenanceoflong-termequilibriuminnaturalsystems—suchanequilibriumhasneverexisted,norwillitexistinthefuture.

Sustainabilityisaboutmeetingtheneedsofthepresentwithoutcompromisingtheabilityoffuturegenerationstomeettheirneeds（WCED,1987）;itstressestheneedforamoreequitabledistributionofresourcesbetweenregionsandwithinnations（UNEP,2002）,anditrefersto‘‘creatingandmaintainingouroptionsforprosperoussocialandeconomicdevelopment’’（Folkeetal.,2002,p.3）.Sustainability,therefore,isananthropocentricnotion:

itmeansthathumaninducedchangesinecosystemsmustnotthreatentheexchangeprocessesbetweensocietyanditsnaturalenvironmentinwaysthataffectsociety’ssurvivalorwell-being.Observingsustainability,therefore,mustincludetheanalysisofsociety’sbehaviourtowardsitsnaturalenvironmentonmanyspatialandtemporalscales.

If,however,equilibriumisanunattainablegoal,whatcouldsustainabilitymean?

Somestresstheneedto‘‘expecttheunexpected’’（Holling,1986）andimprovesociety’sabilitytocopewithuncertaintyandsurprise,efinedasasituationinwhichperceivedrealitydepartsqualitativelyfromexpectation（BerkesandFolke,1998,p.6）.Thishasledtoadefinitionofsustainabilityas‘‘thecapacitytocreate,test,andmaintainadaptivecapability’’（Holling,2001,p.390）or,inotherwords,astheresilienceofsocial-ecologicalsystems（Carpenteretal.,2001）.However,compellingproposalsfortransformingtheseideasintomeasurableindicatorsthatwouldbeusefulforpolicy-makinghavenotyetbeenbroughtforward.

Othersarguethatsustainabilityimplies‘‘livingwithintheregenerativecapacityofthebiosphere’’（Wackernageletal.,2002,p.9266）,ormaintainingnaturalcapital（WackernagelandRees,1996）.Butneithertheregenerativecapacityofthebiospherenornaturalcapitalcan,atpresent,bemeasuredappropriately.Monetaryvaluationoftheworld’secosystemservicesandnatural

capital（Costanzaetal.,1997）,howeverusefultheymaybetodemonstratetheeconomicvalueoftheseassets,isinsufficienttocapturethefullsignificanceofnaturalcapitalforlifesupport.Measuringthelivingpartofnaturalcapitalas‘‘globalhectares’’withstandardizedbioproductivity（Wackernageletal.,2002;Monfredaetal.,2004）isusefulinordertoconceptualisesomeaspectsofnaturalcapital,mainlybiomassproductionandcarbonsequestration,butinevitablyneglectsotheraspectssuchaswatersupplyornutrientcycling.Social-ecologicalsystemsandsustainability

Sustainability（orunsustainability）isanattributeofa‘‘social-ecologicalsystem.’’Asocial-ecologicalsystememergesthroughtheinteractionofasocietywithitsnaturalenvironment.Somehavedefinedsocial-ecologicalsystemasanecosystem‘‘thatdoesexplicitlyincludehumansor,morespecifically,thesocialsystem’’（BerkesandFolke,1998,p.9;emphasisbytheauthors）.Thisformulation,however,couldbemisleadingbecauseitimpliesthatsocietycanbeseensimplyasasubsystemoftheecosystem.Suchaviewisinappropriatebecause

societycannotbereducedtoitsbiophysicalaspects.

Althoughsocietiesareessentiallydependentonmaterialandenergy,theyhaveemergentpropertiesthatcannotbefullyunderstoodbyanalysingthebiophysicalstructuressustainingthem.Thus,societyinitsentiretycannotberegardedasasubsystemofanecosystem.Thisisexpressedinthesociologicalprincipletoregardthesocialasareality‘‘suigeneris.’’Ontheotherhandhumanitiesandthesocialsciencestendtoconceptualisesocietyandunderestimatetherelevanceofbiophysicalaspects,orevenneglectthemaltogether（e.g.Luhmann,1995）.Forsustainabilityresearch,however,neitherthenaturalisticviewofecologynortheculturalistic

perspectiveofthesocialsciencesandhumanitieswillsuffice.

Inanattempttoforgeanotionofsocietythatismoreusefulforsustainabilityresearch,Weiszetal.（2001,p.121）haveproposedto‘‘lookuponsocietyasahybridoftherealmofculture,ofmeaning,ofcommunication,andofthenaturalworld.Inourunderstanding,society

comprisesaculturalsystem,asasystemofrecurrentself-referentialcommunication,andmaterialcomponents,namely,acertainhumanpopulationaswellasaphysicalinfrastructuresuchasbuildings,machines,artefactsinuse,andanimallivestock’’,whichintheirentiretycanbedenotedas‘‘biophysicalstructuresofsociety.’’

Basedonsuchanotionofsociety,social-ecologicalsystemscanbedefined,asshowninFig.1,ascomprisinga‘‘natural’’or‘‘biophysical’’sphereofcausationgovernedbynaturalla