Archive for August, 2011

Das Europa der Ressourcen

Donnerstag, August 25th, 2011

Schmidt-Bleek sorgt sich um die zukunftsfähige Wohlfahrt Europas und seiner Industrie

Am Freitag, den 5. August hatte der Dax alle Jahresgewinne des Jahres 2011 abgegeben. Sarkozy und Merkel im Urlaub wollten sich der neuesten finanziellen Krise schnellstens widmen, zusammen mit dem Noch- Regierungschef Sabatero. Ganze zwei Wochen also hatten die milliardenschweren Gipfelbeschlüsse vom 21 Juli Geltung. Die Finanzwelt gerät offenbar weiter aus den Fugen. Und leider auch die Umwelt, wenngleich mit sehr viel weniger Medieninteresse als die globale Finanzaffäre.

Vor etwa 60 Jahren begann der Umweltschutz in (West) Deutschland. Damals ging es noch hauptsächlich um die menschliche Gesundheit. Sie war durch giftige Umweltchemikalien bedroht, wie etwa Blei und Dioxine. Das war die Zeit der “Chemikalie der Woche“ und das Buch „Seveso ist überall“ hatte Hochkonjunktur. Die Bundesregierung reagierte gezielt und ziemlich erfolgreich in Übereinstimmung mit der Kommission in Brüssel und der OECD. Der Umweltschutz sorgte für hundert Tausende von Arbeitsplätzen in Deutschland. Natürlich war er teuer, sehr teuer sogar, weil „aufgepflanzt“ auf die traditionellen Gestehungs- und Entsorgungskosten.

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VIGIL – RECHT AUF ZUKUNFT – RECHT DER ZUKUNFT

Donnerstag, August 25th, 2011

Wirtschafts-, Finanz- und Umweltpolitik haben es bisher nicht vermocht,

uns der Zukunftsfähigkeit näher zu bringen.

Um in unserer Wirtschaft erfolgreich zu sein, sind wir mehr oder weniger gezwungen,

unsere natürlichen Lebensgrundlagen zu zerstören.

Wir sollten eine umfassende Politik der Vorsorge vereinbaren bevor es zu spät ist,

unseren und deren Kinder eine Zukunft mit Zukunft zu ermöglichen.

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Warum heutige Politik Nachhaltigkeit nicht Erreichen kann Und wie sie Zukunft mit Zukunft schaffen könnte

Donnerstag, August 25th, 2011

Nachhaltiger Umweltschutz bedeutet, die für Menschen lebensnotwendigen Leistungen und Funktionen der Ökosphäre zu erhalten 1. Hergebrachte Umwelt-, Wirtschafts-, Sozial-, und Finanzpolitik haben dies nicht vermocht, und können dies auch in Zukunft nicht leisten. Die bisher übliche Strategie, auf Symptome von Umweltveränderungen erst dann zu reagieren, wenn Schäden und die Folgekosten bereits entstanden sind, hat mit Blick auf Nachhaltigkeit komplett versagt.

Physikalische Schlüsselursache für den Zerfall unserer Lebensgrundlage ist der weltweit hemmungslose Umgang mit den natürlichen Ressourcen Material, Wasser und Land. Das gilt auch und besonders für Energie, ist doch ihr ökologisches „Wirkungsprinzip“ die Menge der Ressource Material, die von der Wiege bis zu ihrer Anwendung aufgewendet wird. Und so lange die Naturnutzung einen Preis von Null hat, wird sich an unserem suizidalen Umgang mit der Ökosphäre kaum etwas ändern. Das westliche Wirtschaftsmodell macht Menschen zu Gefangenen einer Zivilisation, die mehr oder weniger dazu zwingt, die Umwelt zu zerstören, um zu leben.

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PRODUKTEIGENSCHAFTEN FÜR DIE NACHHALTIGKEIT / PROPERTIES OF PRODUCTS THAT NEED BE CONSIDERED FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Donnerstag, August 25th, 2011

HERSTELLUNG (ökologischer Rucksack)

* “ Material Intensität (Prozesse, Produkt)

* “ Wasser Intensität Prozesse, Produkt

* “ Energie Intensität (Prozesse, Produkt)

* “ Flächenintensität (Prozesse, Produkt)

* “ % Input an nachhaltig erneuerbaren natürlichen Ressourcen

* “ Produktgewicht (-masse)

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JUDGING CHEMICALS FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Donnerstag, August 25th, 2011

We must dematerialize our western economies

an average factor of 10 or more,

as well as de-energize them,

if they are to be sustainable

F. Schmidt-Bleek, 1993

 

In the early 70ies of last century it became apparent hat all products of chemical industry should be examined for their potential dangers to humans and the environment. Early legislation was put in place in Japan, the USA and in the EU. The OECD undertook a considerable effort to develop harmonized testing guidelines and Good Laboratory Practice procedures in order to avoid non-tariff barriers to trade. Jim McNeill, Margarita Idman, Peter Mencke-Gückert, Rune Longren, and Bio F. Schmidt-Bleek were among the first to put this work in motion. The Chemicals “Part Two Program” was established within the OECD Environment Directorate and Peter Crawford became its first leader.

In its work, the OECD focused on the toxicity of chemicals to humans and the biosphere, as well as on chemical and physical effects and the behavior of chemicals during production (worker’s safety) and after release into the environment. During the past 30 years, the OECD chemical’s testing procedures have become world standard.

The concepts for judging the relative environmental burden of material insults to the environment were only at their beginning in the 70ies and 80ies: the analyses generally remained on the level of the examined case study. It is scientifically impossible to derive a complete picture of the ecological consequences of placing even a single chemical compound onto the market. Future surprises can never be ruled out as we learned from cases like the use of CFC’s. Generalizations of testing results were rarely possible, in part because of the tremendous complexity of ecological linkages and effects. And even if this complexity was ever completely understood for a particular case, it is by no means certain that the resulting discoveries would be transferable to other materials, procedures, facilities or services. In addition, something even more basic from an ecological point of view was missing from judging the dangers inherent in marketing chemicals in the 70ies and 80ies: although members of both industry and politics had endorsed it as essential for analyzing the ecological quality of goods, the „cradle to cradle“ principle was not applied.

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Factor X: Policy, Strategies and Instruments Towards a Sustainable Resource Use – TOWARD A 6 TON SOCIETY

Donnerstag, August 25th, 2011

F. Schmidt-Bleek1 and Harry Lehmann

 

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The

occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.

As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must

disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Lincoln’s Second Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862

 

A. Where we stand

Ecological disruption is still increasing at a fast pace, as are global natural resource use, and population. Current environmental and economic policies have not been able to stop this trend. Traditional environmental protection and economic policies were not designed to lead to ecologically sustainable conditions. They tend to focus on correcting specific dangerous developments in the environment after these were discovered and politically acknowledged as a thread. Obviously, these policies cannot be precautious.

Planet earth is a closed system. Materials, fresh water and space are limited. Only solar radiation and geothermal energy are available without limits. Within one hour, the sun radiates to earth as much energy as the entire yearly energy need of the world economy. To date, neither solar energy nor the inexhaustible storage of geothermal energy have as yet been utilized to the possible extent. This is not because technology could not have been developed for transforming this ecologically “neutral” energy into technically useful forms. This failure is a consequence of “saving money” at the expense of ecological stability. Massive material flows in form of fossil energy carriers are set in motion in order to drive the industrial metabolism.

As a consequence, we are losing natural capital and in particular eco-systemic services at increasing speed, services that are pre-requisite to human life on earth. Increasingly, the world experiences such costly consequences as water shortages, desertification, climatic change, extinction of species, spread of old and new diseases, floods and hurricanes. In order to approach sustainable conditions, a systemic risk reduction policy has to be applied that focuses on the basic reasons for the present disharmony between the human economy and nature.

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20 Years Factor10/MIPS Conzept Essential Terms and Concepts

Donnerstag, August 25th, 2011

RESOURCES

• Natural resources are understood to mean materials – including fossils -, water, and land, as they are available on planet earth.

• Eco-systemic services and functions are vital for the survival of humans on planet earth.

• In a system sense, environment protection means: the best possible maintenance of eco-systemic services and functions.

• The physical root cause of the continuing destabilization of eco-systemic services and functions is the gigantic mobilization and excessive consumption of natural resources for the production and consumption of technical energy, shelter, food, material wealth and security.

• The ecological quality of goods, services and technical energy depends essentially upon their life-cycle-wide resource intensity (“ecological rucksack”, MIPS).

• Eco-systemic services and functions cannot be created by technology to any noteworthy extent.

• The limitation of physical resources on planet earth, population growth, and the need to protect the eco-systemic services and functions call for an average tenfold increase in resource productivity of western goods and services as well as for providing technical energy.

• The minimization of mobilization, extraction, and use of natural resources should preferably take place at the front end of economic activities.

• The economic root cause for the growing loss of eco-systemic services and functions is the near zero price for using nature.

• The human economy must be constrained to function within the limits of the environment and its resources and in such a way that it works with the grain of, rather than against, natural laws and processes. Sustainability cannot be reached otherwise.

• To measure welfare with GNP is counterproductive from a systems point of view.

• Traditional policies have not been able to prevent the life-threatening deterioration of eco-system services or other serious developments like financial or nuclear meltdowns. Rather than continuing to seek successive solutions for individual problems, system policies must be developed that aim to improve welfare and wellbeing of people by optimizing the efficiency and precautionary nature of measures. This can be achieved by eliminating root causes of (potentially) harmful developments first, rather than separately repairing their symptoms. System policies reduce the risks associated with taking actions. System policies are essential for approaching sustainability. They do not exclude that certain mayor existing problems are treated with priority (e. g. climatic change). However, all solutions must aim at minimizing the use of natural resources. 

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