Page 63 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

46 A. Moltesen and A. Bjørn

5.3 Sustainability and the Environmental Concern

Except from the fourth dimension of sustainability, which is typically not consid-
ered, there is no explicit consideration of environmental conservation in most
definitions of sustainability. It may therefore seem odd that environmental pro-
tection is often seen as being more or less synonymous with sustainability. The
reason should primarily be found in the concern for inter-generational equity. The
rationale behind protecting the environment from a concern for inter-generational
equity is that the natural resources and the services that nature provides are seen as
the foundation for society. Without a functioning environment we will not be able
to cultivate crops, secure clean air, be protected from ultraviolet radiation from the
sun, etc. The idea is thus that protecting the environment is necessary to give future
generations the same possibilities for achieving the levels of welfare that current
generations are experiencing.
Thus, besides the concern for intra-generational equity, which is not ensured
simply by protecting the environment, but which calls for initiatives related to
combating poverty, sustainability includes a concern for environmental protection.
The extent to which the environment should be protected as a condition for the
inter-generational equity dimension of sustainability is, however, not clear-cut.
Clearly, human needs cannot be met if humans cannot breathe due to air pollution
or lack of oxygen. But the more detailed dependency of human needs on specific
functions or qualities of the environment is disputed. For example, will the potential
for meeting human needs be violated if the panda bear becomes extinct? And to
what extent can technology replace the services and functions provided by
ecosystems?
While keeping this discussion in mind, researchers have attempted to quantify
carrying capacities of ecosystemsthat must not be exceeded to maintain functions
and other ecosystem aspects of interest. For example, the carrying capacities of
different terrestrial ecosystems in Europeand elsewhere towards deposition of
acidifying compounds (sometimes termed critical loads) have been calculated
(Hettelingh et al. 2007). At the global scale planetary boundaries have been pro-
posed and tentatively quantified. Planetary boundaries can be interpreted as car-
rying capacities for the entire Earth System towards various anthropogenic
pressures, such as greenhouse gases and interference with nutrient cycles. If
exceeded there is a substantial risk that the Earth System will change from its
well-known and relatively stable state that has characterized the Holocene geo-
logical epoch in the past 12,000 years to an unknown state (Rockström 2009;
Steffen et al. 2015a). According to estimates, this exceedance has already happened
for four of the nine proposed planetary boundaries, as shown in Fig. 5.1.
As this chapter is about the role of LCA in the environmental protection needed
to achieve sustainability we will only address the part of the sustainability definition
pertaining to the environment. Chapter 16 addresses the development of what has
been termed Social LCA, addressing the social dimension of sustainability.