A question of economic against environmental sustainability Here are the facts. Palm oil is widely regarded as the most versatile oil, with its applications ranging from cooking oil, margarine, cosmetics, detergents, industrial lubricants and even biofuels for cars and power plants. Compared to other oil, palm oil is the highest-yielding vegetable crop, needing less than half the land required by other crops to produce the same amount of oil. This makes palm oil relatively cheap compared to other vegetable oils such as rapeseed and sunflower oil. In addition, palm oil is superior health-wise as it contains more vitamin A and vitamin E compared to any other edible oils and helps reduce the risk of a variety of diseases such as Alzheimer’s or cancer. Bearing all these environmental and economic benefits in mind, no wonder the demand for palm oil, and its level of production have increased significantly in the last few years. Indonesia tops the list by providing more than half (85%) of the world’s supply of palm oil As an edible vegetable oil, palm oil represents the largest share of worldwide edible oil production, at more than 30%, followed by soybean and rapeseed oil at 28% and 15% respectively. And among all other palm oil producers, including Nigeria and Malaysia, Indonesia tops the list by providing more than half of the world’s supply of palm oil. In fact, palm oil is a very crucial part of this G20 member, accounting for 11% of its export earnings of 5.7 billion USD. The industry has also helped Indonesia to relieve its unemployment problem by giving jobs to about 3.2 million people. Not just that, but the worldwide demand for this so called “sacred food” has increased so much that the growth of palm oil production in Indonesia alone averaged up to 8.1% per year from 1987 to 2007. This in turn will bring even more revenue and job employment for Indonesia. So as you can see, it is obvious how important Indonesia’s palm oil production is to the world and to Indonesia’s own economy. The deforestation of Indonesia’s valuable rainforests accounts for the loss of 8 million hectares of forest land in Borneo and Sumatra However it’s not all good news in the palm oil business. There have been a lot of critics and protests on how this particular industry impacts the environment, animals and ultimately the people of Indonesia. The most common criticisms are directed at the weak law enforcement in forestry management, which is causing the deforestation of Indonesia’s valuable rainforests, accounting for the loss of 8 million hectares of forest land in Borneo and Sumatra. This loss of biodiversity and ecosystems is so bad that a third of all mammal species in Indonesia are considered to be “critically endangered”. One species in particular, the orangutan, had become an icon of deforestation in Borneo and Sumatra. Around 2500 orangutans are killed each year and 90% of orangutans’ habitat has been destroyed in the last 20 years due to the development of the palm oil industry. This has alarmed the UN so much that it has started an “emergency conservation” programme in Indonesia’s rainforests. It seems very heartbreaking that such an important part of Indonesia’s economy is stabbing itself in the back by destroying its own very valuable resource. Efforts have been raised to create a sustainable way of developing palm oil production. The “Roundtable on sustainable palm oil” for example has committed to preserving 50% of all the rainforest in Indonesia and utilize the palm oil plantations as a carbon sink. Several NGOs like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth continually protest and raise awareness of the destruction of Indonesia’s rainforests while promoting a sustainable way for palm oil production.
The numbers are there. Indonesia clearly needs all the economic drive the palm oil industry is providing for them. And the numbers are there again. Indonesia cannot afford not to act upon the rate at which their rainforests are being destroyed. And so the questions remain. For how long can Indonesia maintain their current practices? At what cost? Ultimately, to what extent can the importance of economic sustainability surpass the importance of environmental sustainability? Adhitya Prayoga Sources:
When we think about energy production, the cleanest and most environmentally friendly options are generally associated with those generating energy from wind and water: renewable sources (see previous post about hydropower!). However, despite the positive image, hydro plants and dams associated with them do cause a lot of negative impacts on river habitats. In this blog post I will concentrate on those poor fish populations which find a dam wall straight up their fish-faces; and one fresh, splendid innovation to help them break through. For river habitats, the problem with dams is that once it has been built, it effectively blocks fish species from migrating and getting back to their spawning grounds. It has been estimated that some 42,000 large dams, defined as more than 15m high, have existed globally since 1996, not to mention 800,00 smaller ones. Anadromous species – that is, those species that are born in freshwater migrate to the sea and return to their birthplace to spawn – have suffered serious losses in terms of declining populations and even local extinction. Up till now, several options have been developed in order to help our slippery friends to travel upriver: pool-type passes, fish lifts, nature-emulating passes and so on. Problems with the passes are plentiful; they need maintenance; it is difficult to emulate just the right hydraulic conditions, and provide stimuli to guide the fishes to find the pathways provided. A new player in the field, fish cannon, will operate by creating gentle suction in a flexible tube once the traveler has braved itself into entering the passage of its own accord (otherwise known as volitional entry). However, as delightfully absurd as this concept is, it might be worth a shot. The system is currently going through testing to ensure the well-being of cannoned fishes in the long term. Benefits of this type of a fish pass would be considerable according to the company behind it: lower maintenance and building costs, no dam wall height restrictions and volitional entry for fishes just to name few. Despite the rather good start in the innovation field, more options need to be developed and implemented. Relevant biological information on matters such as species travelling down the river for migration and spawning purposes need to be taken into account as well, not forgetting research on each species involved in the river ecosystems. Aside from mating and reproducing intentions these fishes don’t struggle upstream just for fun; as they end up as food for hungry bears and they also graciously donate nutrients for trees and other flora. To conclude: better a fish eaten upriver than ten sitting below dam.
Rena Rusuvuori SOURCES: http://www.esf.edu/efb/limburg/watershedecology/readings/freeman-dams.pdf http://www.internationalrivers.org/environmental-impacts-of-dams http://whooshh.com/economics4.html http://www.fao.org/3/a-y2785e/y2785e03.htm http://thefisheriesblog.com/2013/05/20/can-you-say-anadromous-catadromous-amphidromous-oceanodromous-or-potamodromous/ For the past few years in many countries, bees, specifically honey bees have been disappearing. Honey bees are native to Europe and other parts of the world, and were brought in to the US originally in the 17th century to produce honey. Since then they have been bred especially for agricultural purposes; in Europe alone, honey bees contribute over € 22 billion annually to agriculture by pollinating plants such as broccoli, apples, nuts, blueberries, cucumbers and many other crops important to our diet. Losing honey bees could therefore have catastrophic effects on the human race. Already in 2006, beekeepers and researchers in the US started to notice that worker bees were disappearing from their hives, leaving the queen and the young ones behind. Without the worker bees, the hives cannot sustain themselves and will die out. This event is called Colony Collapse Disorder. Researchers are currently studying what could make the worker bees disappear from the hives. One possibility is that different parasites, pests or diseases are drastically decreasing the bee numbers. Also pesticide poisoning, and habitat and nutrition loss are believed to be partly at fault in this case. Last year, the EU discussed banning a group of insecticides that have been linked to bee disappearance. These pesticides are called neonicotinoids. They are a relatively new type of insecticide and widely used all over the world. Unfortunately, their full effect on bees and other pollinators is still unknown. The problem with these pesticides is that they don’t just stay on the surface of the plant but travel through the tissue of the plant to the roots, leaves and even flowers. From the flower these pesticides could be transferred to the bees. What do the pesticides then do to the bees? It is possible that they could lower their immune level and allow parasites and diseases to spread more easily, but at the moment we don’t quite know the effects. Human actions might carry a bigger weight than that of neonicotinoids. The combined effects of using many pesticides and insecticides, cutting down forests, destroying natural habitats and nesting areas thus removing natural sources of natural food such as flowers for the pollinators, could all be reasons why the bee populations are disappearing. We won’t know the exact problem unless we study all the possible factors carefully. It has also been suggested that we might have bred bee populations that are more vulnerable to change and diseases. Losing honey bees could have catastrophic consequences and we could lose at least, if not more than, half of the food available now. Of course, other pollinators such as native bees in the US, bumble bees, moths and others could eventually take over. The problem is that we currently rely on honey bees to pollinate and hence other pollinators have been more or less forgotten. I do think it would be a challenge, at least in the short term, to sustain the amount of people currently living on this earth if we were to suddenly lose all of our honey bees. Elina Manninen At an ever-increasing rate, we are starting to realize that our rigid and mechanical approaches to everyday issues aren’t sustainable. Fossil fuel reserves are running out, agriculture is depleting the soils and lately we’ve been thinking that incinerating our waste is a good idea instead of reducing our waste output. We’ve become stuck, and the environment suffers from it. People have to see there is a bigger picture and work with it instead of blindly painting over it with fire and bulldozers. I think it is perfectly clear that our current ways of ‘dominating nature’ are what stands between us and a bright future for humanity and the planet. Fortunately, people are becoming more environmentally aware and there are many different fields of study that aim to find sustainable alternatives to our current unsustainable ways. Biomimicry is one of those fields, studying patterns in nature and imitating them in order to design more efficient and sustainable solutions to our problems. The essence of biomimicry is the idea that nature contains everything we need because organisms have, through millions of years of evolution, adapted and optimized themselves to live on this planet. The Romanesco broccoli is a visually striking example that showcases nature’s mathematical brilliance. It’s up to us now to tap into this brilliance and use it in creative ways. So what are some examples of products and technologies that take their inspiration from nature? One product that we undoubtedly all have used at some point in our lives is Velcro. This brilliant material with countless uses, ranging from shoe fasteners to astronaut equipment, was invented by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral. He was walking his dog in the Alps and he kept noticing the burrs of the burdock plant (see image on left) kept sticking to his clothes and dog’s fur. Examining the burrs under the microscope he learned that they have hundreds of small hooks that catch on to any material with some kind of loop structure. Of course, the burdock plant has developed this system because it greatly assists with seed dispersion and therefore reproduction. Sharks have also proven to be a major source of inspiration for technologies. Sharks can alter the texture of their skin to control the amount of friction during swimming, thereby optimizing their hunting prowess. Shark skin also has a specific surface structure (see image below) which makes it almost impossible for bacteria, algae and parasites to settle. Coatings inspired by shark skin have immensely varied applications in for example the naval, automobile and healthcare sectors. The streamlining effect can greatly increase fuel efficiency of crafts, while the antibacterial and organism-repellant property of the surface structure is an answer to the problem of biofouling. This is a phenomenon where bacteria and larger organisms, such as clams and barnacles, attach themselves to a surface and form a film. In the naval sector, biofouling slows moving ships down significantly, causing fuel to be wasted. By utilizing a coating inspired by shark skin, these organisms cannot settle and in turn there is no need to use toxic compounds to remove them from the hull of the ship. This is a great relief for the environment. In the healthcare sector, the coating could assist in the prevention of disease spread. Another positive effect is that this would reduce the need for disinfection methods.
These are just some examples of brilliant solutions that have been inspired by nature. Some further reading will tell you there are many other biomimicked technologies, and fortunately more and more are being developed all the time. New ways of electricity generation, better energy efficiency and materials that can repair or heal themselves are just some of the many developments. I believe there is vast potential in nature that can, and hopefully will play a big role in our journey towards a sustainable future. Is there any pattern or system of nature you can think of that could potentially be of great use for humans? Michael Kloet |
Want to be an author?Write for us and we will publish your writing right here on our blog! It can be about anything related to environmental engineering Archives
May 2019
Categories
All
|