Engineering Within Ecological Constraints (1996) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Determining the Balance Between Technological and Ecosystem Services
Determining the Balance Between Technological and Ecosystem Services
Pages 13-30
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From page 13... ...
They include delivering diverse foods independent of season or local climate; delivering potable water directly into homes; heating, cooling, and humidifying or dehumidifying the climate in buildings; delivering communications such as telephone calls and television and radio signals; and removing noxious wastes such as sewage and trash from homes. Civilization, especially in wealthy countries, has developed an extensive infrastructure for the delivery of technological services, including electrical transmission lines, roads, airports, telephone lines, satellites, and sewer systems.
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From page 14... ...
Of all the processes or functions carried on by ecosystems, only those contributing to the well-being of human society are considered services. On those rare occasions when the societal value of minimally managed functions of ecosystems is evaluated, different people reach different conclusions.
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From page 15... ...
4. Decline of ecosystem services important to human society can be predicted accurately from measures of ecosystem health.
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From page 16... ...
It has been suggested that some of these hypotheses are too broad to test, while others are truisms. However, because these ecosystem services play a role in contributing to the life-support system of human society, they are matters of vital importance.
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From page 17... ...
There is good documentation of the increase in human population as well as the marked increase in technological and industrial activity, particularly energy consumption from fossil fuels. Since human population numbers, levels of affluence, and use of technology have increased dramatically in the past 10,000 years, and ecosystem services still appear adequate to support life (although regionally impaired here and there)
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From page 18... ...
Of course, one would not expect to extrapolate ecosystem services from the Kalahari Desert to the California redwood forests with any substantive degree of correspondence. However, one might reasonably expect to be able to extrapolate from one East Coast temperate zone wetland to another.
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From page 19... ...
At present, environmental literacy is rudimentary for most members of human society, including college graduates in many disciplines (e.g., Wallace et al., 1993~. There is a widespread belief that there are technological solutions to every problem and that stabilizing the size of human population will lead to economic stagnation.
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From page 20... ...
Throughout history, ecosystems provided all the services necessary for the continuation of the human species: breathable air, potable water, food, and a consistent climate over the short term. Now human society has a codependence on both a technological life-support system and an ecological life-support system.
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From page 21... ...
Since the beginning of the agricultural revolution, society has attempted to alter natural systems so that more and more of the energy captured by photosynthesis is converted to foodstuffs and other products of interest to human society (Nlitousek et al., 1986~. Not only has there been a substantial loss of space devoted to unmanaged production of diverse ecosystem services as a result of agricultural activities, but relatively natural ecosystems, particularly those adjacent to agroecosystems, have often been affected by runoff and airborne contaminants such as pesticides and dust, fragmentation, and, finally, changes in microclimate.
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From page 22... ...
Consequently, the convolution of the deer herd and human society became more and more expensive with no socially acceptable alternative in view. In this example, the natural control measures regulating the deer population were removed and resulted in densities unlikely to have been achieved previously in natural systems.
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From page 23... ...
If the assumption is that humans are incapable of driving all species to extinction, those left will be highly adapted to exploit the new environmental conditions resulting from overemphasis on the maintenance of technological services. Pest species will be difficult to eradicate those capable of invading habitats unsuitable for most other species; those selected for resistance to pesticides and other control measures; and, in many instances, those so intimately associated with human society (such as the Norway rat, the housefly, and the cockroach)
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From page 24... ...
Besides, the reasoning goes, there is no "scientific proof" of any failure in ecosystem services, and most predictions of the consequences of loss of biodiversity, global warming, ozone holes in the atmosphere, and the like seem much less threatening than job loss, reduction in gross national product, or loss of present amenities resulting from high per capita energy consumption and lowered product costs because environmental externalities are not included in economic analyses. Substantial literature exists on social traps, but some illustrative materials are Brockner and Rubin (1985)
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From page 25... ...
Multistory buildings, elevators, fossil fuel transportation, and the like made it possible for enormous numbers of people to live in a relatively small areapeople who, for the most part, have infrequent interactions with natural systems and therefore are unfamiliar with how they work. This is particularly true of policymakers, elected officials, captains of industry, and others who may have high technological literacy but relatively low environmental literacy.
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From page 26... ...
A stable human population coupled with a no-net-loss of environmental services would mean that, if there were equitable distribution of both, the ecosystem services per capita would not diminish from the time that stabilization and no-net-loss were simultaneously achieved and maintained. Ehrlich and Ehrlich (1991)
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From page 27... ...
Of particular concern are migratory species, such as birds, which may provide a variety of ecosystem services, many of which are not yet recognized. The crucial issue for migratory species is the fact that a loss of habitat anywhere in their migratory cycle could result in their extinction or cause a dramatic reduction in population size and, thus, affect ecosystem services at points distant from the area of lost habitat.
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From page 28... ...
1995. The relationship between ecosystem health and delivery of ecosystem services.
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From page 29... ...
1994. Public Involvement in Scoping for Environmental Impact Assessment: A Case Study at Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site.
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From page 30... ...
1990. The restoration of Nonsuch Island as a living museum of Bermuda's precolonial terrestrial biome.
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