Earth in Balance
Kayla Trieu

Climate Change

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: “Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal” (2018). The average global warming on Earth has increased by a little more than 1 degree celsius since 1880. This increase is not linear, it’s accelerating; ⅔ of the warming has increased since 1975 (Hersher, Aubrey 2019).

This rapid acceleration is anthropogenic, a result of unsustainable human activities, particularly the massive increase of greenhouse gases. Unsustainable land use activities, especially in agricultural expansion and deforestation, generate ⅓ of human greenhouse gas emissions, including more than 40% of methane (Hersher, Aubrey 2019). These greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, thus increasing the global temperature. As more forests are destroyed, trees, Earth’s natural ‘detergent’, are unable to mitigate this damage by capturing atmospheric carbon. As the world’s population continues to explode in the coming years, an increase in greenhouse gas emissions through fossil fuels and other land use will only continue to accelerate global warming.

From these activities, soil erosion increases the global warming threat. Soil contains huge quantities of carbon in the form of organic matter. As deforestation, urbanization, or unsustainable agricultural practices break down soil’s organic matter, this carbon is converted into carbon dioxide and then released into the atmosphere.

A Case Study: Climate Change in Developing Countries

Developing nations are particularly at risk to global weather-driven disasters on part of climate change. The global South is affected by a myriad of socio-economic and environmental factors limiting their fight against climate change, including low institutional capacity, lack of sophisticated technology, and poor finance. In developing countries, where policies are unenforced, uncoordinated and non-implemented, taking action against these factors are especially difficult. As a result of changing climate, the domestic per capita food production in Africa has declined in the last years, and about a million people suffer from malnutrition. Studies suggest that West Africa suffers the greatest
losses due to climate change, with increases ranging between 42 and 60% of agricultural GDP(Akanwa , Joe-Ikechebelu 2019) Moreover, glacier melt increases flooding, rock avalanches and water resources in countries like Bangladesh, further removing these countries’ capabilities to fight climate change.

Solutions:

PLANTING MORE TREES :
By planting more than a half trillion trees, trees could capture about 205 gigatons of carbon, reducing atmospheric carbon by about 25 percent. That’s enough to negate about 20 years of human-produced carbon emissions at the current rate, or about half of all carbon emitted by humans since 1960 (Buis 2019). Source: The Viability of Planting Trees to Help Mitigate Climate Change https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2927/examining-the-viability-of-planting-trees-to-help-mitigate-climate-change/

UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: The greatest change is done on an international level. The Paris Agreement, created in 2015, aims to strengthen the global response to climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This requires the cooperation of several nations to implement sustainable development within their respective countries to reach goals created by the United Nations.
Source: The Paris Agreement https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement

The cumulative impacts of global warming are disastrous to human welfare. Weather extremes in severe storms, rising sea levels, droughts and fires are a cascade of consequences that will continue to impact poverty levels, infant mortality, biodiversity, and the spread of disease.

Overpopulation

Solutions:

POLICIES TO ADDRESS FACTIRS CAUSING POPULATION GROWTH These policies are rooted in the empowerment of women and the improvement of political, social, economic and environmental standards to create meaningful change. The United Nations has been involved in addressing this issue through the work of the UN Population Fund and the UN Population Division. However, these policies are only successful in a politically and economically stable environment. In Afghanistan's case, the NPP (National Population Poliicy) failed to create meaningful change due to constant violence and conflict. Source: Population https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/population/

One Child Legislation: This controversial policy seeks to prevent over population by preventing large families by law. In China, this legislation lasted from 1979-2015. Although this legislation was successful in bring fertility rates down, falling from 6 births per woman in the 1960s to 1.5 in 2014. However, the policy also engendered gender inequalities and disrupted traditional support systems for the eldery. By 2000, the sex ratio in Mainland China reached 117:100, significantly higher than the natural base line ranging from 103:100 and 107:100. Source: Population Growth https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/health-information/3a-populations/population-growth

There are limited resources in the world, and with more people to provide for than ever before, it is becoming incredibly difficult to equitably share the world's resources, especially in developing countries. Humanity's efforts to do so often require a dangerous choice between the environment and social responsibilities. Ultimately, the quality of life decreases with rising unemployment and living costs. With a population of 7.8 billion, there are still millions dying of starvation and close to 46% of the world living off on less than $5.50 a day. With an expected population of 9.8 billion in 2050 (United Nations 2017), how could humanity sustain a 25% increase?

A Case Study: Afghanistan

Afghanistan has been trapped in a vicious cycle of war and trauma in the past 40 years. With a massive growth rate of 2.3% per year, Afghanistan’s population explosion has led to an increase of poverty rates. In 2012, 38.3% of Afghans lived below the poverty line. In 2017, this number has risen to 54.5% (Cordesman 2019).

With many more Afghans to feed and less being able to afford food, this has resulted in cheap unsustainable practices to reach mounting agricultural and social responsibilities. This results in an exhaustion of natural resources and territorial conflicts.

The consequences of environmental degradation causes land degradation and desertification. With a higher usage of fossil fuels and other polluting materials, the most direct consequence are in the forms of massive emissions of greenhouse gases leading to global warming as well as air and water polluition.

In Afghanistan's case, and in many other developing countries, this population growth is attributed to a growing need to build large families in response to conflict and violence, a high infant mortality rate, a lack of sex education and religious pressures. Most importantly, most developing countries, which are growing the most across the world, have a societal misunderstanding of population issues.

Unsustainable Land Use Practices

Implementing sustainable development is economically draining and time consuming. Thus, unsustainable land practices are influenced by economic activities and urban demands of high consumption lifestyles. Coupled with the rising world population, which is driving agricultural expansion and urbanization, unsustainable practices are a short term solution to the growing demands of the twenty-first century. In 2016, the agricultural system generated $111.9 billion of GDP, and has employed 2.3 billion Canadians (Canadian agri-food sector 2017).

The world’s over-exploitation of natural resources is impossible to sustain for future generations. Some of these practices include charcoal and timber production involving improper technique and technology, traditional farming without soil and water conservation techniques, overgrazing, mining in natural forces, hunting using fire and fishing using poison. According to UNEP, around 24 percent of global land has already suffered from declines in health and productivity over the past quarter of a century due to unsustainable land use

Between 1990 and 2016, the world lost 1.3 million square kilometers of forest (Nunez 2019). Important to note, forests play an essential role to climate change mitigation, and destroying them releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while removing its capacity to store carbon dioxide. Tropical tree cover alone can provide 23 percent of the climate mitigation, needed over the next decade to meet goals set in the Paris Agreement in 2015 (Nunez 2019).

Using non-renewable resources play a masssive part in global warming through greenhouse gas emissions. These non-renewable fuels, which include coal, oil, and natural gas, supply about 80 percent of the world’s energy (Nunez 2019).

A Case Study: Deforestation in the Canadian Boreal Forest

More than 90 percent of logging in Canada’s boreal is done by clearcutting (NRDC 2018). This has a disastrous impact on Indigenous peoples’ culture and relationship to the environment Although many Indigenous people are leading land-use initiatives to save the Boreal, many Indigenous perspectives are excluded from decisions considering deforestation practices.

Logging has a massive impact on species endangerment. Although caribou are essential to safeguarding other boreal species, only 14 of Canada’s 51 boreal caribou ranges are currently considered sufficient to support self-sustaining caribou populations (NRDC 2018).

SOLUTIONS:

POLICIES ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: As a part of goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy, the United Nations seeks to avoid the use of unsustainable land use for energy usage by ensuring sustainable energy stays affordable globally. Specifically, by 2030, the United Nations aims to "enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology". https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/energy/

INCENTIVIZING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: Tax incentives make sustainability more rewarding. In 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passed the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Act, or the carbon tax, is a fee placed directly on an industry or individual that contributes to GHG pollution, mainly from burning fossil fuels. The goal is for Canada to reach goals established by the Paris Agreement, meaning cutting Canadian emissions by 30% by 2030 (CanadaDrives 2020). A carbon tax allows individuals to see how greenhouse emissions directly impacts society through a method that is universally understood: money. Thus, people are more likely to switch to a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly option instead of unsustainable land use practices. Through this awareness, a recent poll showed 54% of respondents supported the soon-to-be implemented carbon tax. In addition, a carbon tax raises money. In contrast to other initiatives, a carbon tax generates money to subsidize environmental actions or to be issued as a rebate. Between 2007 and 2015, provincial real GDP in British Columbia grew more than 17%, while net emissions declined by 4.7%. Moreover, the Liberals have stated that 90% of carbon tax will given to Canadians in rebate, while the other 10% will be used towards research (Harrison 2019). Source: Carbon Tax Rebates in Canada Explained https://www.canadadrives.ca/blog/car-expenses/carbon-taxes-and-carbon-tax-rebates-in-canada-explained Source: How the Carbon Tax Works https://globalnews.ca/news/5125670/how-the-carbon-tax-works/

Land Degradation

Land degradation, the deterioration in the quality of soils and land utility as a result of extreme weather conditions and human activities threaten all facets of human welfare. Land becomes degraded as a result of unsustainable land practices such as deforestation or urbanization.

A form of land degradation is desertification, the process in which fertile land becomes a desert as a result of climatic factors and human activities.

Although the world has seen a notable increase in food production in the past 50 years, future generations are vulnerable as food safety drops with land quality. People in developing countries are more vulnerable to food insecurity, which threatens to increase poverty and damage human health. The scarcity of food supplies drives rising global food prices, which has risen in Canada from 1.5% to 3.5% in 2019 (University of Guelph 2019). Land degradation is also incredibly costly, with soil erosion costing Canada $3 billion annually (Morrison 2018).

Because land degradation is a product of unsustainable land use practices, both exacerbate the deleterious effects of global warming and contributes to biodiversity loss. When land is degraded, it reduces the soil's ability to take up carbon, thus exacerbating climate change. The difference between these issues is that land degradation threatens the stability of food systems while unsustainable land use practices seek to solve this.

Solutions:

SUSTAINABLE FARMING PRACTICES: Sustainable farming practices will help address environmental challenges such as land degradation. An example of this practice is soil managament. Using natural fertilizers instead of the chemical fertilizers of the Green Revolution is a good start. Morever, practices such as crop rotation, drip irrigation practices, and production rotation seek to avoid chemical alternatives. Ultimately sustainable agriculture can only be successful if it replicates the efficiency and low cost of unsustainable practices, thus combines three things: environmental health, profitability and economic equity. Source: Soil Management in Sustainable Agriculture https://www.intechopen.com/books/sustainable-crop-production/soil-management-in-sustainable-agriculture

INTERNATIONAL POLICIES SUPPORTING SUSTAINABILITY. Because land degradation is a product of unsustainable land practices, they have the same solution. UNEP is supporting the Decade of Action on the Sustainable Development Goals, in effort to reverse current trends towards a sustainable future. Goal 12 of this plan focuses on responsible consumption and production. By switching to sustainable practices, land degradation will be mitigated or avoided in the future. Source: Sustainable Development Goals https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/

A Case Study: Desertification the The Sahel

Between 1968 and 1974, droughts turned the Sahel into barren deserts, triggering a large-scale famine that led to the creation of the International Fund for Agricultural Development by the United Nations in 1977 (Hugues 2019). However, desertification is not to be solely blamed on climatic variations. The increase of grazing and agriculture brought on by governments and farmers in rainy periods only exacerbated the deleterious effects of desertification by promoting a systematic over-exploitation of land.

SIMPLIFYING CONNECTIONS: Overall the issues facing the environment are entangled in a web of actions. The resulting cascade of consequences are interconnected; all harming human welfare. Fortunately, this means that in solving one issue, you can make large-scale changes against them all.

Unsustainable land-use practices

Cause land degradation by over-exploiting resources before they are naturally replenished.

Ramifications exacerbated by a growing global population as these practices are used to keep up with a massive agricultural and product demand

Causes global warming by emitting greenhouse gases and inhibiting a forests' ability to mitigate climate change

Overpopulation

There is a limited amount of resources in the world, with growing population, these resources will be exhausting more quickly, requiring cheap and fast unsustaianble land practices (deforestation) to keep up with demand

Rapid agricultural expansion causes environmental degradation (land degradation and desertification)

Higher usage of fossil fuels and other polluting materials cause massive amounts of greenhouse emissions, exacerbating global warming

Land Degradation

Deterioration in soil and land utility is a product of unsustainable practices such as deforestation or rapid agricultural expansion

Food safety drops with land quality. With a massively increasing population, this will exacerbate levels of povety and human health

When land is degraded, it reduces the soil's abiility to take up carbon, thus exaerbating the impact of climate change

Global Warming

Unsustainable land use practices generate greenhouse gas emissions which causes global warming

Soil contains carbon in organic matter, when land is degraded, the carbon in soil is released as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas

Overpopulation leads to an overexploitation of resources, exacerbating the impact of global warming

THE COMMON SOLUTION?
Strengthening accountability through international goverance. An international commitment to end these environmental issues must come from a promise from world leaders to bring sustainable development in their respective nations. Without with, change will be impossible. The problem now lies in keeping these countries truly accountable as countries choose to opt out or ignore these enivironmental programs. For example, in 2017, President Donald Trump choose to cease all participation in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change Mitigation.