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Sustainable Development Update Issue 5, Volume 5, 2005 The Sustainable Development Update (SDU) focuses on the links between ecology, society and the economy. It is produced by Albaeco, an independent non-profit organisation. SDU is produced with support from Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Environment Policy Division. Dr. Fredrik Moberg, Editor Click the miniature below to download in pdf-format: 
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| Editorial | |
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I recently read a book about synchronicity, the meaningful coincidences. In one of the chapters the author, the founder of a famous Swedish advertising agency, writes about Al Gore and the coincidences that seem to have been responsible for his loss in the election in 2000. A Supervisor of Elections, Theresa Lepore, decided to put the presidential candidates on two pages to keep the print size big enough for the county’s many elderly voters. This seems to have confused many Palm Beach County residents that invalidated their ballots by marking more than one name and Gore lost thousands of votes. If these votes had been counted Gore would have become president instead of Bush. A little coincidence that resulted in a quite large influence on history, concludes the author. Being a natural scientist by training I do have problems believing in synchronicities, even though I find them appealing. It is not a testable theory according to the classical scientific method, and can barely be regarded as scientific at all. Notwithstanding, I read the chapter about synchronicity in bed the day before I was going to listen to Al Gore live for the first time ever, during his visit to Sweden recently. And no matter what you believe it became quite clear that the small (but perhaps less meaningful) coincidences behind his loss in the election must have changed the world radically. In his one-hour lecture in Stockholm he painted a vivid picture of the consequences of global warming: melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and increasing numbers of floods and droughts. The former vice-president of the United States and the author of “Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit” was even criticised by some for being too radical when giving his speech at the seminar arranged by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Carl Jung believed that synchronicity was a glimpse into the underlying order of the universe, and some people consciously use them to make decisions in life. Recent scientific findings show that the intensity – not the number – of tropical cyclones and hurricanes has increased over the last 35 years, as a result of the rise in average sea surface temperatures. The intensity of a single storm, or storms in a single season, can on the other hand not be directly attributed to global warming. Hence, most climate scientists argue it would be premature to blame the recent hurricanes of the US Gulf Coast on climate change. But I do hope the present US administration sees Katrina, Rita and Wilma as meaningful coincidences and warning examples of what might happen more often in the future. /Dr. Fredrik Moberg, Editor | |
| SDU - Feature | |
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The Chagas disease – a neglected poverty disease Some 18 million people are currently infected and thousands die each year of Mal de Chaga, or the Chagas disease. It is caused by a parasite transmitted to humans by “kissing beetles”, which are usually found in poor areas with unsanitary housing conditions. Now the disease seems to be increasing in occurrence due to climate change and tropical deforestation. Mal de Chaga is, however, still largely neglected outside South America, writes Andreas Severinsson who recently lived in Bolivia for a couple of months.  The beetles spreading the Chagas disease thrive in poor rural houses made of mud and branches. The Vinchuca (Triatoma infestans) is a beetle living in huts and houses made of mud and branches in the less developed regions in South America. It is the main vector for the tissue-eating parasite “Tripanosoma Cruzi” that causes the Chagas diseaase, also called Mal de Chaga or American trypanosomiasis. Communities in the most affected areas in South America are not only suffering from low average life expectancy, but the people carrying the parasite sometimes linger for years, implying small opportunities contributing to family survival as well as community development. In Bolivia, one of the most affected countries, Mal de Chaga is responsible for 13 percent of all deaths; over 300,000 children less than twelve years of age are infected and 3.5 million people out of a population of 8 million run a risk of being infected. A poverty disease I lived in Izozo, one of the less developed regions in Bolivia, where this disease called Mal de Chaga (or Chagas disease) is common. The communities in this region lack economical resources to re-construct their Vinchuca-inhabited mud houses and unfortunately the people already infected have small chances to survive the disease. The difficult economical situation is the primary reason why Mal de Chaga is not being sufficiently combated on the South-American continent. The Bolivian government, like other poor governments in South America, do not have the capacity to construct modern houses, just as little as they have the capacity of producing a prominent remedy. 
Environmental links Like other vector-borne diseases, Chagas disease is strongly influenced by a number of environmental factors such as temperature, rainfall, vegetation, host species and predators. Along this line the increased spread of the Chagas disease has been linked to climate change and deforestation. Higher temperatures could extend the geographical distribution of the insect vectors and deforestation seems to have forced the beetle that transmits the disease to move from its wild natural hosts to humans and domestic animals. Eventually the disease turned into an urban disease that is now also spread by blood transfusion.  Acute Chagas Disease in a young child. The swollen eye is often seen in acute cases. Photo: WHO/TDR No international interest The lack of international interest in Mal de Chaga is heavily debated in South-American media. A number of factors and reasons behind this neglect have been suggested.. “The physical concentration of Mal de Chaga to the South-American continent eliminating the risk of spread to western territories” – is the most radical one. “Lack of information” – is the one most frequently used, (at least beyond South-American borders). Whatever the reasons, information about and interest in Mal de Chaga outside of South America is sparse. Setting an example The Brazilian government set a perfect example of how Mal de Chaga quite easily can be combated. The government started a support program in the 1990s, giving communities funds and/or building material to re-construct their mud houses. “Chagas- free-houses” were easily constructed with modern building materials and the number of infected people was reduced in the supported regions within a short period of time. Presenting similar measures in other countries will evidently reduce the number of infected. However, for Mal de Chaga to become undisruptive to social and economical development, foreign governments and pharmaceutical enterprises must realize and face the immediate need of research and development to find a remedy for Mal de Chaga. Furthermore, for a poverty disease like Mal de Chaga to be thoroughly combated, an effective and just co-operation between South-American governments and international actors is an absolute necessity. /Andreas Severinsson More at: http://www.paho.org/english/ad/dpc/cd/chagas.htm Sources: Opinión, February, Newspaper in Cochabamba, Bolivia Interview with personel on the Ministry of Health in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Interviews with various people in Izozo. http://www.who.int/tdr/index.html | |
| Sustainability School | |
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Teleconnections are unexpected remote linkages, sometimes across continents. They have been defined as “the correlation between specific planetary processes in one region of the world to distant and seemingly unconnected regions elsewhere”. The so-called Butterfly Effect is a popular notion. It suggests that a butterfly flapping its wings in China can set off a chain of events that eventually sparks a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The weather phenomenon El Niño, caused by major temperature fluctuations in surface waters of the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean, is a more scientific example of a teleconnection. During El Niño the trade winds reverse direction, blowing from west to east. This means warm waters from Asia are transported across the Pacific towards Peru, and the waters cool off Asia. El Niño normally starts in early summer and the warmest waters reach Peru right around Christmas. These changes of water currents typically bring heavy rain to South America, while Indonesia experiences drought conditions.  African dust cloud seen from space on its way to the Caribbean where it chokes coral reefs. Photo: NOAA and NASA African dust chokes Caribbean reefs A less well-known teleconnection is that the droughts in northern Africa have been suggested to be a major factor behind the decline of coral reefs in the Caribbean. This theory was suggested as coral reef declines followed the same pattern as increasing desertification in northern Africa that began in the mid-1960s, was exacerbated in the 1970s and 1980s, and then began to decline in the 1990s. The dust seems to affect reefs through direct fertilisation of algae that overgrow reef-building corals and by transporting bacteria, viruses and fungi. Moreover, the drought in northern Africa might in turn be caused by another teleconnection. That is, particles of sulphur dioxide emitted from factories and power plants in North America and Europe tend to alter the formation of clouds so that they reflect more sunlight back into space than natural clouds. This might have resulted in a cooling of the land below that reduced the effects of the African monsoon and lead to the droughts. Much research into the climate has focused on regional events, now many scientists are starting to realise that seemingly improbable teleconnections are common features of the planet’s climate system and that these must be included in scenarios of future climate change. /Fredrik Moberg More at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/ NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16480 | |
| Enviro-myths | |
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“Species extinctions are no faster now than in the past” Species have always gone extinct – in fact, most species that have existed are now extinct. But there is evidence that species are going extinct 50 to 1000 times faster now than throughout Earth’s geological history.  “There is no evidence that species are going extinct faster now than in the geological history prior to man”. This is a popular myth. There is of course no doubt that species go extinct naturally – most of the species that have existed are in fact now extinct. What is interesting is the change in the rate and scale of extinction, and the cause of this change. Mass extinctions have taken place on at least five occasions since life on Earth began. About 245 million years ago, up to 90 % of all species in the oceans went extinct, and 65 million years ago the dinosaurs, as well as many other species, went extinct (this event paved the way for the rise of mammals and eventually humans as well). These events can, however, only be considered as “sudden” from a geological time perspective. It probably took several 100,000s of years for the dinosaurs to go extinct, maybe even millions of years. Today’s extinctions, with rates of decades and centuries, are also unique as they are almost exclusively caused by one species: humans. At least 784 documented extinctions have occurred since year 1500, but this almost certainly represents a very small proportion of the total number. During the 20th century, mammal extinction rates were about 40 times faster than what is considered natural, while for birds they were about 1000 times faster. On top of this, there are many species that are in danger of extinction even though there are individuals left. Globally, 24 % of all mammal species and 12 % of all bird species are threatened. A study of forest plant and animal species in the USA found that only 7 of 667 threatened species were close to extinction due to natural causes. The most common cause was loss of habitat, though hunting and introduction of alien species were also common causes. Without biodiversity no human well-being So, does it matter if species go extinct, other than from an ethical point of view? This has been a recurrent theme of this newsletter and also in the recent global study Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). The MA-study concludes that human actions have during the last 50 years changed the diversity of life on the planet more than at any other time in history. Many people have been lifted out of poverty during the same period, but at the price of a loss of biodiversity. “If we continue down this road, we will reduce biological diversity and put the well-being of future generations at risk”, says the MA-study. /Fredrik Moberg More at: http://www.redlist.org/ http://www.MAweb.org | |
| In Brief | |
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Environmental investments a cost-effective way to fight poverty Environmental investment is one of the most cost-effective tools to stimulate human development and fight poverty, says a new UN-backed report.  The new economic study released at the recent UN World Summit in New York offers compelling evidence that investing in the health of the environment, from coral reefs to forests, can help make poverty history: 1. Every dollar spent on clean water and sanitation in poor countries could bring $14 in benefits such as lower health care costs and higher work productivity and school attendance. 2. Every dollar invested in fighting land degradation and desertification, could generate at least $3 in benefits. 3. A dollar invested in the protection of coral reefs could generate $5, ranging from scubadiving tourism to renewable fish stocks. 4. In Ecuador, the economic output of ranching was compared to conservation, which proved to be 25 times more profitable. 5. In Haiti, income will be doubled if investments are made in conservation rather than logging. 6. In Botswana, conservation that allows safaris with hunting provides a rate of return of up to 38%, compared to 2% for cattle ranching. Timely presented to world leaders According to report estimates annual environmental investments of $60-$90 billion over 10- 15 years would be needed to halve the number of people living on less than a dollar a day, currently more than a billion people. The new publication, entitled ”Investing in Environmental Wealth for Poverty Reduction” was timely presented in New York, 14 - 16 September. Here world leaders met to set priorities for fighting poverty and agree on the broader international development agenda over the next ten years. /Fredrik Moberg More at: http://www.povertyenvironment.net/pep “Water towers of the world” increasingly at risk The mountain areas of Asia are facing accelerating threats from rapid road development, settlements, overgrazing, erosion and deforestation, experts warn in the new report “The Fall of the Water”. The report, launched by UNEP and IUCN before the 2005 World Summit in New York in September, presents some major threats to the water resources and biodiversity in the Greater Asian Mountain region in the context of infrastructure development, population growth, water shortages and climate change. There is now concern that the region’s water supplies, fed by glaciers and the monsoons and vital to almost half the world’s population, may be severely harmed alongside the area’s rich wildlife. Unsustainable land use practices, such as logging of watersheds and agricultural expansion into wetlands, still remain among the most significant threats to biodiversity and human security from floods, the report reveals. The study is based on a new way of assessing the direct and cumulative impacts of infrastructure development, called Global methodology for mapping human impacts on the Biosphere or GLOBIO.  Mountains with rainforests at Kinabalus' nationalpark, Saba, Malaysia. Photo: Jerker Lokrantz/azote.se Important ecosystem services – The Millennium Development Goals covering poverty eradication and the better supply of sufficient, safe, drinking water up to reversing the spread of disease cannot be met without economic growth. But this needs to be carried out in a way that conserves the life support systems and the ecosystem services they provide, says Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP. Mountain areas are especially important and particularly vulnerable. These are the water towers of the world and home to unique wildlife species upon which local people depend for food, medicines and other important materials. These areas have often been saved from uncontrolled development by their remoteness. But modern engineering methods mean this is no longer the case, he adds. Conservation of watersheds is urgently needed to reduce increasing floods and human and biodiversity losses. Hopefully this report will provide help to the involved governments, authorities and local people in the region to better understand the importance of conservation and better management of watersheds. /John Swensson More at: http://www.globio.info/press/2005-09-05.cfm “New paradigms for humans and nature can save the seas” Marine ecosystems worldwide are in serious decline. A number of studies and reports are pointing the fingers of blame at overfishing, pollution and human induced climate change. But a new report identifies humans as part of a solution and not merely as a root to the problem. The first step toward ensuring the sustainable use of living marine resources, claim the authors, is to set up new research and management paradigms that recognize humans as part of ecosystems. This is urgently needed as marine and coastal ecosystems provide food and livelihood opportunities for a large part of the world’s population. It is only through the marriage of natural and social sciences that the true complexity of such intertwined systems of humans and nature, called socioecological systems (SES’s) by the group of scientists, can be captured. For example, ecological models must begin to incorporate how social and economic drivers shape the exploitation of living marine resources. 
Global market demands behind ecosystem decline The report identifies global market demands as influential drivers of ecosystem change. They are one of the primary reasons for the worldwide decline of large, commercially desirable marine species. In many coastal seas, these imbalances in the foodwebs have led to unprecedented algal and plankton blooms. Thus, restoring ecosystems and reducing fishing pressure to enable the rebuilding of stocks will depend crucially on the creation of institutonal frameworks that can align the marketplace and economic self-interest with environmental stewardship and conservation. Another key issue is to expand our knowledge of how ecosystems behave over different spatial and temporal scales. Due to logistical limitations, most ecological studies are small in scale; e.g. concentrated to small patches of coral reef over a few weeks time. This has trickled out and influenced management practices causing them to be mismatched to the size of ongoing damage. For example, small, isolated protected areas, will give little insurance against pervasive environmental pollution or global climate change. The nascent fusion between ecology, fisheries science and social science can allow for a better understanding of the linkages between the marine environment and the people, and how the sustainable use of such resources can be maintained. /Albert Norström Source: Hughes TP, and others. 2005. “New paradigms for supporting the resilience of marine ecosystems. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20 (7). Where are the Rachel Carsons of climate change? “Where are the novels, the plays, the poems, the songs, the libretti, of this massive contemporary anxiety?” In a recent The Guardian article, Robert Macfarlane asks this pressing question, when reflecting on the phenomenon of climate change.  Literature and art have been shown to be important tools in highlighting emerging environmental issues. For example, take Rachel Carson’s seminal book “Silent Spring”, which in 1962 exposed the hazards of DDT and other pesticides, eloquently questioned humanity’s faith in technological progress and helped set the stage for the environmental movement. Such cultural outpourings can assist in visualizing alternative futures helping us to make better decisions today. However, as Robert Macfarlane points out, there appears to be a huge gap in the literature dealing with climate change. This is shown to be in great contrast to the large abundance of literature produced in response to some of the other great crises of the past halfcentury, e.g. the nuclear threat. That collection of literature not only annotated the politics of the nuclear debate, but also helped shape it. How to dramatise slow change? Climate change simply seems to occur (at least up to now) too subtly and step-wise. How do you dramatise such slow change? The cumulative impacts may, however, lead to very abrupt changes in the world’s climate, scientists say. Notably, this thread was picked up in the apocalyptic vision of the 2004 Hollywood blockbuster “Day after tomorrow”. While the movie was more about cutting-edge special effects than scientific facts, the film got people talking and thinking about climate change. The questions Macfarlane asks are pressing. Climate change literary engagement must move beyond specialist journals, professional reports and the occasional Hollywood disaster flick. An imaginative repository of art and literature is urgently needed by which the causes and consequences of climate change can be debated and sensed by a broader public. /Albert Norström Source: http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/scienceandnature/ story/0,6000,1577093,00.html More people displaced by environmental degradation than war In five years’ time environmental refugees, people migrating because of pollution and/or scarcity of resources, will be as many as 50 million in the world, say experts from United Nations University. No one could have missed the victims of catastrophes like the Asian tsunami or the recent hurricanes of the US Gulf Coast. There is, however, a tendency of private and public sector generosity and humanitarian relief to neglect the millions who are forced to move because of gradual environmental change. While such migration has been most acute in Sub-Saharan Africa, it also affects millions of people in Asia and India. Another consequence is that Europe and the United States are witnessing increasing pressure from victims of often mismanaged and deteriorating soil and water conditions in North Africa and Latin America. Today, environmental degradation – e.g. sea level rise, land degradation, desertification and flooding – forces as many people away from their homes as political and social conflicts. ”Environmental refugees are not yet recognized in world conventions”, say experts at the United Nations University, who issued a statement to mark the UN Day for Disaster Reduction (October 12). http://www.edcnews.se/Research/EnvRefugeesUNU.html
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