Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth. A Report of the Working Group on Decoupling to the International Resource Panel / Fischer-Kowalski, M., Swilling, M., von Weizsacker, E.U., Ren, Y., Moriguchi, Y., Crane, W., Krausmann, F., Eisenmenger, N., Giljum, S., Hennicke, P., Romero Lankao, P., Siriban Manalang, A. UNEP, 2011, 174 p., ISBN: 978-92-807-3167-5 http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/decoupling/files/pdf/Decoupling_Report_English.pdf Voir ci-dessous...

Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth

Many of the key problems in food systems are linked specifically to industrial agriculture: uniform crop monocultures relying on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, industrial feedlots (the infamous "CAFOs") using preventive antibiotics. This form of agriculture is generating negative outcomes on multiple fronts: widespread degradation of land, water and ecosystems; high GHG emissions; biodiversity losses; persistent hunger and micro-nutrient deficiencies alongside the rapid rise of obesity and diet-related diseases; and livelihood stresses for farmers around the world.

From uniformity to diversity: a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems

Current global environmental policy reverberates with talk of a new “Anthropocene epoch” defined by “human domination”, in which a “perfect storm” of catastrophic threats is forcing a singular “great transition” towards “planetary management”. Under growing “environmental authoritarianism”, democracy is increasingly seen as a “failure”, a “luxury”, or even “an enemy of nature”. If charge is to be taken of the “control variables of the Earth”, some say democracy must be “put on hold”. One way of seeing this trend, is that scientific and policy knowledges are becoming increasingly imprinted by the preoccupations of incumbent power with rhetorics of control. Under this growing political mood, it seems there is ‘no alternative’ but compliance – or irrational denial and existential doom. Yet there are alternative ways to address the gravity of current ecological and social imperatives. It can be recognised, for instance, that democratic struggle is the principal means by which knowledges and practices of Sustainability were shaped in the first place. In this view, concentrated power and fallacies of control are more problems than solutions. Here, history can show that the greatest ongoing forms of transformative progress (like release from colonialism, racism or patriarchy), owe more to plural knowledges and values and unruly hope-inspired agonistic contention, than to single orderly technical “transitions” based on formally-integrated science or fear-driven structured control.

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Emancipating transformation: from controlling ‘the transition’ to culturing plural radical progress

Environmental health impacts of unconventional natural gas development: A review of the current strength of evidence

Sugarcane has been used as feedstock for production of ethanol on a large scale basis in Brazil for over three decades, where most of the sugarcane mills produce sugar, ethanol and electricity. In this study the technologies usually employed in sugarcane mills in Brazil are briefly described, along with opportunities for process improvements and suggestions for the future of the sugarcane industry. These technologies and improvements can be improved, adapted and replicated to other countries using new technologies and alternative feedstock throughout the world.

Sugarcane processing for ethanol and sugar in Brazil

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21 issues for the 21st Century: results of the UNEP Foresight Process on Emerging Environmental issues

Hydrological fracturing techniques have made accessible vast unconventional gas reserves. However, observed impacts on the environment and human health raise legitimate public concerns. The potential climate benefits of coal-to-gas substitution are both less clear and more limited than initially claimed. The question of whether to allow or ban gas fracking needs to be carefully assessed by relevant authorities. A review of current related policies and regulations is critically needed.

https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:32185/ATTACHMENT01

Gas fracking: can we safely squeeze the rocks?

Fossil fuels are essential for modern, mechanized agricultural production systems. Petroleum products are used directly to power tractors, machinery and irrigation, and to transport, transform and package agricultural products. They are also used indirectly to manufacture fertilizers and pesticides and prepare seeds. Thus, food production is energy intensive. For example, approximately 2 000 litres per year in oil equivalents are required to supply food for each American, which accounts for about 19 per cent of the total energy used in the United States (Pimentel and others 2008).

https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:78291/ATTACHMENT01

The end to cheap oil: a threat to food security and an incentive to reduce fossil fuels in agriculture

Many of the world's nuclear reactors are aging toward the end of their designed operational lifespan, at a time when the longstanding problem of radioactive nuclear waste disposal is still unsettled. The debate on this issue has intensified since the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.

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Ruth Harding Rohr Reis

Papers

21 issues for the 21st Century: results of the UNEP Foresight Process on Emerging Environmental issues

Gas fracking: can we safely squeeze the rocks?

The end to cheap oil: a threat to food security and an incentive to reduce fossil fuels in agriculture

The Decommissioning of Nuclear Reactors and Related Environmental Consequences