Resource scarcity has been a frequent topic at the World Economic Forum in recent years, and for good reason.
Between now and 2050, the world's population will grow by an additional 2 billion people. Over the same period, millions of people will be lifted out of poverty. By 2030, nearly two-thirds of the global population -- as opposed to today's one quarter -- could be middle class.
Rising incomes, of course, are a good thing. But a rapidly growing and more affluent population are straining the natural systems on which natural diversity, human health and prosperity depend.
The good news is that corporations and governments increasingly recognize the need to balance development with sound ecological standards and are seeking advice on how to effectively achieve these twin goals. I am seeing strong evidence of that trend in Davos, where I led a panel that included CEOs of multinational beverage, food and mining companies; senior government environmental ministers; and leaders of international aid organizations.
Despite the diverse range of perspectives, the panelists all agreed on one thing: Nature conservation isn't just an aesthetic "luxury" -- it's an essential investment in human well-being and economic growth.
Take water, for example -- a resource already in short supply. More than 1 billion people worldwide currently lack access to clean water, with rising temperatures only further compounding the problem.
And water challenges affect more than basic human and ecological health. Water is essential to economic productivity and virtually every aspect of our quality of life, including growing the food we eat, manufacturing the products we buy and supplying electricity to our homes. As global water scarcity intensifies, corporations are increasingly concerned about their water-related business risks. Companies risk running out of clean water for their operations, and their water use can impact other water users and ecosystems.
Until recently, diverse stakeholders -- governments, businesses, development organizations and conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy -- have tended to address these challenges in a one-off "silo-ed" manner. That doesn't work. As one panelist noted, companies can save enormous amounts of water by using more energy, or save energy by using more water. The key, however, is figuring out how to do both. Likewise, reducing carbon emissions can unintentionally hurt the food industry's ability to feed hungry people, as more and more lands are converted for biofuel production.
Balancing such tradeoffs isn't easy. But it's clear that we need more integrated approaches to resource management. And integration must go both up and down the supply chain. Panelists agreed that reducing resource use should continue to be a top priority for their companies -- and they are making great progress -- but their suppliers are also key players. Companies must tackle resources challenges on an integrated basis with suppliers and customers.
Fortunately, tackling these challenges doesn't always require high-tech, expensive intervention. For example, wasteful water leakage in agriculture can be addressed most quickly and effectively by better valves and pipes rather than genetically-modified crop varieties that require less water.
What's also clear is the need to move quickly. As one panelist noted, for example, it's time to stop debating the future impacts of climate change. We are already seeing those impacts. From rising sea levels to rivers running dry, rising temperatures pose urgent and serious threats to natural systems and to the people, plants and animals and economies that they sustain.
I've been encouraged by the sense of urgency, coupled with cautious optimism, that I've seen in Davos this week. Key players in government, business and civil society understand that integrated approaches to resource management need to be accelerated and prioritized. Positive impacts are already being achieved. If we can enhance and improve collaboration, focus on holistic approaches, scale up programs and recruit more participants, there is reason to be encouraged.
Of course markets won't solve resource scarcity on their own. We need to press our leaders for stronger public policies that account for the full value of nature's benefits. We need to better enable local communities to manage their resources sustainably. And we need to change our own consumption habits to help put our society on a more sustainable path.
But the good programs we're hearing about this week in Davos really do work. Now they need to be taken to scale, urgently.
This blog was originally posted on the World Economic Forum blog.
Motohisa Furukawa: The Search for a New Growth Model
Bill Chameides: The State of the Union's Climate Education
Perry Yeatman: "Sustainable Consumption" Is Not an Oxymoron. It's Not Optional, Either
Decrease NOX and unburned hydrocarbons.70%!
Fuel Vitalizer
Sonic Spark Plugs (Piezo) or Halo or Pulstar
Tornado Vortex Generator
Even More Mpgs Torque & HP.
http://www.hydrogenboostnow.com/HHO-Dry-Cell.htm
Biofuels: Thinking Outside the Barrel
Why a positive energy future could be closer than you think
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/energy/biofuels-thinking-outside-the-barrel.html
You've managed to show that The Nature Conservancy agrees that the 1% are our salvation, and suck up to these governments and corporations. You note our enormous challenges while saying nothing specific about what we should do and making no TNC or personal committment.
What is really so "urgent" - fundraising?
The Nature Conservancy needs a real leader, not a panel moderator.
Jay
Wondering how you could be so out of touch, I read your bio - Williams/Harvard and Goldman Sachs.
I get it now - you travel around the world attending important meetings. You want us peasants to do the hard work of saving the planet over which you and your buds rule.
I will re-route my donations to local conservation efforts.
TNC has some great projects and many of their field staff are wonderful - it's just their leadership rite now that's rotten... and thanks for agreeing with me!
Unfortunately we have set up a business model that does not consider "Smart Resource Management". It's called "Unrestricted Free Trade", which gives a competitive advantage to the Corporation that gets away with treating our environment and its workers worse than its competitors!
How can you have smart resource management under this system? Any corporation in a unrestricted free trade world that manufactures in a nation that practices SMART RESOURCE MANAGEMENT will be by definition uncompetitive.
How do we reconcile these systems becomes the question?
By adding an environmental tax or tariff based on manufacturing, transportation, sustainability on products sold is how we can reconcile these systems.
Many think the U.S. lost 30+% of our manufacturing jobs since 2000 because of cheap labor in fast developing nations. That's only a small part of the problem. Energy cost and pollution control is the major reason we lost industries as diverse as steel making to solar cell manufacturing both low labor cost high energy cost industries.
I was reading where California had decided to buy steel from China for Cal Trans bridges, I wonder how much Smog in L.A. & S.F. originates in Asia?
This "you first" approach will separate the posers from those who demonstrate that these polocies actually work.
Ecologists recognize, ecosystems are the eco-nomy of all life. Take for instance, our terrestrial ecosystems and forested ecosystems like grassland, hardwoods and chaparral. What do they provide for man and the Earth?
English scientists maintain, they should be preserved, alone, for their water production and their sequestration of the heat trapping gases. Many scientists maintain, Earth is losing the ability to take care of the heat trapping gases. Ecosystems' soil, plants and trees naturally sequester C02 and methane. Each tree stores many pounds of these gases in their oxygen releasing and cooling evapotranspiring, living bodies that cools the leaves, the soil and the surrounding area. Upon deforestation, the sequestered gases are released back into the atmosphere. When the soil is disturbed, more gases are released. When they plowed the Great Plains ecosystems for agriculture, that climate heated up.
Ecosystems are also the Earth's water factories. Deforestation inherently heats up and dries out the climate. Plato witnessed a dying, forested ecosystem upon deforestation. All the springs and waterways dried up, and gone was the shade that sheltered the earth from the heat of the sun. Today, science refers to cities as heat islands as their climates are hotter.
Climate regulation and moderation are listed as a natural ecological supporting service as what sits on the surface of the Earth impacts climate.