On class, everyone made their definition of sustainability. My definition of sustainability was:
The process of maintaining certain things, activities, or situations by themselves (this may include a system), but in a way that it could be preserved for future generations.
Talking about sustainability, on school, we had a congress which was called EPSA (Encuentro por la sustentabilidad ambiental). This one has the task of finding sustainable solutions for the world of today. The main topic was the aiding of a community called "San Gilberto" which was affected by the hurricaine "Alex".
We had to find sustainable and realistic solutions for the problem. We worked in teams and by the end of the congress we had several solutions, and some of them were:
- The education of the community (this also included the education of teachers about sustainability so they could also teach their students)
- Reforestation
- The cleaning of the area
- Between others more
Here are some of the notes taken in class concerning the economic resources topic.
Before passing to the natural capital section, it is important to know what does an economic system and resources mean.
Economic resources is a system tha produces and distributes goods and services by using natural, human, and manufactured resources.
An economic system is a system that produces, distributes, and consumes goods but also services to satisfy the people's needs and wants in an effective and efficient manner.
Resources may be also called as capital. It is important to say that when we refer to capital, we refer to the use or the production of goods and services, which this last one (capital).
There are three types of capital:
- Natural capital
- Human capital
- Manufactured capital
Natural capital and nautral income
Natural Capital
What does natural capital includes? Well, natural capital inclueds resources that have value and those which support life. Some examples of this are:
- Trees, soil, water, living organisms, ores (which are deposits were nuberaks are extracted for materials).
- But also floods and erosion protection by forests.
Furthermore, natural capital can also process photosynthesis and cycles such as water and gas.
Natural capital in economic income
Like we know, a capital yields income. Well, transferring this into ESS, natural capital yields natural income.
Did you know? The World Bank now calculates wealth or countries by including the rate of extraction of natural resources and the ecological damage caused by this.
Important fact: Sustainability often represens sources or conflict within and between political parties and counries.
Natural Income
Natural income, yields or harvests services. For example, water cycle provides fresh water and photosynthesis provides oxygen.
There are three main categories on natural income.
- Renewable: these are the resources that replace or restock themselves. They can include: water and lumber.
- Non-renewable: these are the ones that exist in finite amounts of Earth: These ones can include: minerals and fossil fuels.
- Replenishable: this category is for the resources that can be renewable but take really so long that can also be taken as non-renewable. More specific, is a mixture between both. An example of this can be grounwater.
However, we also have the fourth element, which is RECYCLABLE RESOURCES.
Here are some of the notes taken in class
Measuring changes in an ecosystem. Well first of all, it's necessary to remember some of the biotic and abiotic factors that exist.
- Abiotic: climate, soil, water, light.
- Biotic: biomass, productivity, biodiversity, NPP, GPP.
Now, EIA, stands for Environmental Impact Assesment. The name says it all, is an assesment that measures the impact, it can be beneficial or controversial, of certain project in a certain place. The EIA, may help us:
- Identify the impact
- Estimate or predict an impact
- Asseses and limits the impact
Furthermore, we saw a little bit of history on class. For example, we saw what NEPA was. NEPA stands for National Environmental Policy Act, which was an act that was of United States created in 1969, which later was adopted by others.
