topic 3

• Biocapacity

  Land and water to provide resources for humanity
• Ecological footprint

  Hypothetical area of land required by a society, a group or individual to fulfil all their resources needs & assimilate all their waste. It is measured in global hectares.
• Energy security


  Access to clean, reliable and affordable energy sources for cooking, heating, lighting, communications and productive use
• Food security


  The availability & access to sufficient, safe & nutritious food to meet the dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life
• Nexus


  The interrelationship, interdependence and interactions between water, food & energy
• Virtual (embedded) water


  The way in which water is transferred from one country to another through its exports
• Water security


  Continuing access to safe drinking water and sanitation
• Success of the millennium development goals, reduced extreme poverty between 2000-2015 → fell from 1.9 billion to 836 million
• Middle class


  People that is living on at least 4$/day → this group tripled between 1900-2015 → the result of the increase in average incomes and the fall in the number of people living in absolute poverty → important economic feature, since it helps to increase sales of non-essential goods and services.
• Not all middle class has economic security → many people remain vulnerable to unemployment and underemployment, often working in informal activities, no economic or social security
• Population increase, particularly of wealthy people, consumption of resources increase → world's resources are in danger of being used up.
• Ecological footprint


  The hypothetical area of land required by a society, group or individual to fulfil all their resource needs and assimilate all their wastes, measured in global hectares (gha)
• Ecological footprint


  • Can act as a model for monitoring environmental impacts
  • Allow for direct comparisons between groups and individuals
  • Can highlight sustainable and unsustainable lifestyles
• UN estimates that by 2030 2 earths will be needed to fulfil the supply of the world's population
• Ways a country can increase its ecological footprint

  • Relying heavily on fossil fuels
  • High levels of imported resources
  • Having meat-rich diet
  • Large per capital carbon production
• Ways a country can reduce its ecological footprint

  • Recycling
  • Reducing
  • Improving efficiency
  • Reusing
  • Improving transport technology
  • Import resources from other countries
  • Intensifying land use
  • Reduce population
• Humanity is increasing the amount of resources needed → innovations being introduced to reduce footprints, but in the future this could have an impact
• Components of ecological footprint calculation

  • Bio productive land – farmland, gardens, and pasture
  • Bio productive sea – area for human consumption
  • Energy land – area where energy is generated
  • Built land – roads, buildings
  • Biodiversity land – land used to support non-human species
  • Non-productive land – deserts
• HIC's


  • More disposable income → consumption and demand for energy resources are high
  • Often wasteful → more pollution as by-products of production
  • Often have meat eating diets → 30% of the diet based on meat protein
  • Due to their land use being mainly infrastructure → low rate of CO2 absorption from plant
• LIC's


  • Less to spend on consumption
  • Informal economy is responsible for recycling many resources
  • As they develop → their footprint size increases
  • Low meat diet → 12% of the diet
  • Often have great extensae's of farmland/ forest → absorb CO2 from atmosphere
• Water is unevenly distributed over the world → 780 million people don't have access to clean water
• Stress on water is predicted to increase → changes in diet & increased demand for hydroelectric power
• Water availability is likely to decrease in many regions → climate change
• HIC's → tending to increase their consumption of resources (water) → although this water is embedded in products (food & clothing) → USA consumption 2 m3/ day – Africa 1.1 m3
• More water required to produce food for the growing population → dietary changes
• Trends that increase the pressure to manage water more efficiently

  • Population growth
  • Growing middle class
  • Growth of tourism and recreation
  • Urbanisation
  • Climate change
• Virtual/embedded water

  The way in which water is transferred from one country to another through its exports → foods, flowers or manufactured goods.
• Food intake measured in calories has steadily increased on a global scale
• Change in diet → away from cereals towards more varied diet including meat, vegetables and dairy products
• Food is price-dependent: following a decline in meat prices, consumption increased
• Food demand is inelastic: consumption will increase up to a certain point
• Increasing urbanisation is a factor influencing the demand for meat → fast-food & mass-produced products
• Fish supply have increased → production from fisheries has stabilised, aquaculture has filled the gaps left
• Growth rate of food production& crop yields r falling → natural hazards, climate change, biofuel production
• Methods to increase crop production

  • Expanding area farmed
  • Multicropping, using irrigation
  • High-yield varieties/ genetically modified
• Growth in food demand is likely to fall from 2.2 %/ year → 1.5 % / year in the next 30 years
• Periods in availability and consumption of energy

  • 1985-2003: era of energy security
  • Since 2004: era of energy insecurity
  • 1973: period of low oil prices & energy security
• Reasons why energy insecurity has risen

  • Increased demand from NICs
  • Decreased reserves as supplies are used up
  • Geopolitical development
  • Global warming & natural disasters
  • Terrorist activity
  • Conflict between rich oil countries
• Diversified energy mix

  Offers security by not depending on a single supplier
• Middle East's role in energy

  • Controls 50% of the world's remaining oil reserves
  • Economical advantage - countries need to be on friendly terms to be supplied
  • Countries depend upon middle east - need to be involved in trade and economic cooperation