Sue Brooks' Blog

Sue Brooks October 15th, 2009

 For those of us that still question the issue of climate change and our human impact on our home planet I found this description about carrying capacity a simple but useful explanation. It is part of the Sunshine Coast Regional Councils new Climate Change Strategy and I recommend it to you.

http://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/sitePage.cfm?code=cc-strategy#overview

I am very pleased to say that our Fraser Coast Regional Council has now appointed our Sustainability Officer and I expect that he will commence working towards a similar strategy for our region. Luckily in this day and age of easy communication we don’t need to reinvent the wheel and can share and learn from our regional neighbouring Councils.

 I still find it hard to believe that some of our most senior pollies question the need for Australia to address the issues of climate change. While I am confident that in my lifetime I won’t witness any very obvious impacts of climate change I worry that my children will. An even worse worry is what type of planet are we leaving for our grand children? When will we start to seriously examine the way in which we are greedily gulping up the worlds natural resources including coal? I hope that the community continues to ask our leaders to plan for the long term and not simply plan for continual economic growth. A sustainable world economy must be developed and the sooner we all realise this the happier I will be.

From the Sunny Coast strategy….

‘Carrying Capacity:the population that can be supported indefinitely by its supporting systems. In ecological terms, the carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the size of the population that can be supported indefinitely upon the available resources and services of that ecosystem. Living within the limits of an ecosystem depends on three factors: 

• the amount of resources available in the ecosystem,

• the size of the population, and

• the amount of resources each individual is consuming.

A simple example of carrying capacity is the number of people who could survive in a lifeboat after a shipwreck. Their survival depends on how much food and water they have, how much each person eats and drinks each day, and how many days they are afloat. If the lifeboat made it to an island, how long the people survived would depend upon the food and water supply on the island and how wisely they used it. A small desert island will support far fewer people than a large continent with abundant water and good soil for growing crops.

In this example, food and water are the natural capital of the island. Living within the carrying capacity means using those supplies no faster than they are replenished by the island’s environment: using the ‘interest’ income of the natural capital. A community that is living off the interest of its community capital is living within the carrying capacity. A community that is degrading or destroying the ecosystem on which it depends is using up its community capital and is living unsustainably.

Equally important to community sustainability is living within the carrying capacity of the community’s human, social and built capital. Carrying capacity is much harder to measure for these types of capital, but the basic concept is the same — are the different types of capital being used up faster than they are being replenished? For example:

• A community that allows its children to be poorly educated, undernourished, and poorly housed is eroding its human capital.
• A community that allows the quality of its social interactions to decline through lack of trust, respect, and tolerance is eroding its social capital.
• A community that allows its buildings, roads, parks, power facilities, water facilities, and waste processing capability to decay is eroding its built capital.

Additionally, a community that is creating built capital without considering the future maintenance of that capital is setting itself up for eventual decay.

So, in the context of sustainability, carrying capacity is the size of the population that can be supported indefinitely upon the available resources and services of supporting natural, social, human, and built capital’.

http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/Sustainability/KeyTermCarryingCap.html

 

And lastly look what we found on the beach yesterday……… So what does the US defense force do with its litter?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Environment & Sustainability
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