Sustainability Future Earth : Humanities, opportunities and challanges

A Green Economy is defined as a low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive economy where growth in employment and income are driven by public and private investments. All this are directed towards such economic activities, infrastructure and assets that allow reduced carbon emissions and pollution, enhanced energy and resource efficiency, and prevention of the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. A green economy is strongly interlinked with SDG 13 i.e. Climate Action, and also emphasizes upon quality of life with people at the center.
The 3Es i.e. Ecology, Economy, and Equity thus are the key elements of a Green Economy. These are the pathways to a wealthy and inclusive nation. A green economy is one "where economic growth and environmental responsibility work together in a mutually reinforcing manner while supporting progress and social development. However, for any developing country, these 3Es need to be ably supported by a fourth ‘E’ i.e. Engineering and to achieve this stress on education and technological advancement holds the key.
A developing country like India, whose economy is natural resource dependent, assessment of its reserve, depletion rate alongside the emission, pollution needs to be calculated with correction factor as an indicator for future sustainability. As per the latest IMF report, India stands 5th among world’s largest economy, since 2010 India has shown a massive jump in terms of its GDP and from 9th position it is now among the top five. However, while achieving these remarkable statistics, we largely ignored the factor of natural resource utilization, forest cover clearance, ground water table depletion, air water soil pollution.
Under this backdrop, the current research conceptualizes the notion of a green economy while stressing on the fact that it does not replace sustainable development, but creates a new focus on the economy, investment, capital and infrastructure, employment and skills and positive social and environmental outcomes. This paper highlights the key operational issues such as investments in renewable energy like solar power, onshore and offshore wind power, hydrogen, electric vehicles, and energy efficient homes all of which can create a robust framework for a green economy.
Another focus of this paper has been ‘Green GDP’ as the concept of Green Economy is incomplete without it being synchronized with Green GDP towards achieving the goals of SDG17. This shall be done by showcasing the balanced hybrid model for green economy in sync with green GDP.
As per the last year UN report, 10% of Indian GDP was spent on the Health care sector to deal with illness caused due to air-water-soil pollution. It is quite evident that with this trend of expenditure, social happiness index will be hardly achieved. It is sincerely hoped that this paper would seek answers relating to adopting the practice of green resource consumption and resource efficiency.

1. SUSTAINABILITY, FUTURE EARTH AND
HUMANITIES: OPPORTUNITIES AND
CHALLENGES
Vision of a Green Future – An Anthropocentric
Restoration of the
Earth System through the Sustainability Approach
Arghadeep Dasgupta

2. Understanding Earth System
❖A combination of
geosphere, hydrosphere,
atmosphere, and the entire
biosphere is our Earth System
❖It also includes our planet’s
interacting physical, chemical
and biological processes
including natural cycles like
the hydrological cycle, all
biogeochemical processes and
all deep earth processes.
❖In short, Earth System
denotes all the natural cycles
of the earth that are crucial in
keeping the earth in
equilibrium.

3. Research Design and Concepts
Methodology
1. Understanding Anthropogenic disturbances to the Earth System
2. Earth System Governance - Sustainable Solutions towards Anthropocentric
Restoration of Earth System
Restoration strategies:
1.Negative carbon emission technology
2.Blue Green Infrastructure
3.Decarbonation
4.Environmental Impact Cost Assessment & Remedial Design

4. Anthropogenic
Disturbances
to the Earth
System

5. Climate
Change
•Climate Change (CC) - Greatest threat of the 21st
century threatening sustainable development.
•Includes Global Warming and extensive changes in
the weather patterns such as changes in precipitation
regimes leading to floods, droughts, desertification
impact on soil and growing seasons of the world
•Primary Cause of Climate Change is unprecedented
Fossil fuel burning leading to ANTHROPOGENIC
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
•The industrial activities that our modern civilization
depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide
levels from 280 parts per million to about 417 parts per
million in the last 151 years.
•The IPCC panel also concluded there's a better than
95 percent probability that human-produced
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and
nitrous oxide have caused much of the observed
increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50-plus
years

6. •Urban areas are the engines of global growth
contributing to 80 percent of global GDP (The World Bank,
2019b).
•Cities are home to 55 percent of the world’s population.
•
•The high density of people, jobs, and assets that make
cities successful also makes them a global industry are
extremely vulnerable to the wide range of natural shocks
and stresses.
•When natural disasters strike, they often affect the most
vulnerable people this is particularly true in the developing
world.
•This approach focuses on designing and building housing
that is resistant to natural disasters common in these
vulnerable communities, in particular urban.

8. Melting Cryosphere
❑The Himalayan glaciers are
retreating at rates ranging from 10
to 60 metres per year and many
small glaciers have already
disappeared.
❑These lakes pose a threat of
glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF),
and GLOFs are often catastrophic
on life and property of the
mountain people living
downstream.
❑ At least, thirty-two GLOF events
recorded in Himalaya that resulted
in heavy loss of human lives and
their property, destruction of
infrastructure besides damages to
agriculture land and forests.
❑The global warming in the
coming decades will amplify the
GLOF events with the accelerating
retreat of glaciers and formation of
many potentially dangerous glacial
lakes.
Recession Gangotri Glacier
Chota Shigri Study Results:
1.Overall deglaciation of 21% with a reduction in glacier area
from 2077 sq. km in 1962 to 1628 sq. km by 2007.
2.Number of glaciers have increased due to fragmentation.
Mean area of glacial extent has reduced from 1.4 to 0.32 sq.
km between the 1962 &2001
1.Small glaciarates and ice fields have shown extensive
deglaciation. For example, 127 glaciarates and ice fields less
than 1 sq. km have shown retreat of 38% from 1962.

9. Impact on Biodiversity
•Forests provide 86 million
green jobs
86
Million
•880 million depend on forests
for fuelwood or coal
880
Million
•90% of people in extreme
poverty depend on forests for
resources and livelihood
90 %
REGION BIODIVERSITY
LOSS (in %)
North America 33
Latin America &
Caribbean
94
Africa 65
Europe & Central
Asia
24
Asia Pacific 45
Agricultural is the primary driving force of deforestation and
forest degradation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity
Large-scale commercial agriculture (primarily cattle ranching
and cultivation of soya bean and oil palm) accounted for 40
percent of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2010, and
local subsistence agriculture for another 33 percent.
About 177,000 square kilometres of forests and shrublands are
cleared annually to make space for farming or in order to
harvest timber for fuel and wood products.
Earth has lost about half of its forests in 8,000 years of human
activity, with much of this occurring in recent decades.
About 3% of forests have been lost since the 1990s alone.
Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was
estimated at 10 million hectares per year

10. Exposure of Mega Cities to Disasters

12. Proposed Sustainable Solutions
towards Anthropocentric Restoration
of the Earth (EARTH SYSTEM
GOVERNANCE)

13. Negative Carbon Emission Technology
Nature based Solutions
Nature Supporting Solution
Technology based Solutions

14. DecarbonationComparative Rise in Per Capita Emmission of CO2
(in Tg)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
Kolkata Mumbai Chennai
Bangalore Hyderabad
Cities
Per Capita Emission
1991
2001
•Decarbonation is the process of reducing or eliminating
the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate
change from a building’s energy sources
•Steps of Building Decarbonation:
•Energy Efficiency: The first step of building
decarbonation is to make the building as energy
efficient as possible.
•Electrification: The next step for decarbonation
strategy is electrification – that’s what we call
replacing the equipment in the building that uses fossil
fuels with the latest electric technology

15. Decarbonation (contd….)
Example of HVAC Technology
▪At present energy consumption on air conditioning accounts for nearly
10% of the total energy budget. In the next three decades, this could rise to
60 to 70%.
▪Without action to address energy efficiency, energy demand for space
cooling will more than triple by 2050 – consuming as much electricity as
all of China and India today.
▪ Efficient Cooling Scenario shows that effective policies can double
average AC efficiency and reduce cooling energy demand by 45%
Smart Tech Measures
1.Variable Speed Blower
2.Adjusting Thermostat
3.Changing Clogged
Filters
4.Use of Polyurethane
fiber filaments as an
insulating material

16. Thermal Insulation of Internal Wall for better Air Conditioning

17. Vertical Solar Panel
•An Innovative Approach towards Urban Energy Crisis

18. Self Sustained Energy Efficient Green
Infrastructure

19. Blue Green Infrastructure (BGI)
•BGI has been defined by the European Commission as a 'strategically planned network of natural
and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide
range of ecosystem service‘.
•BGI represent important enhancements of ecosystem services and biodiversity in urban and rural
environments, but they are also an expression of sustainability centered approaches to urban living
and planning.
•This idea primarily focuses on mitigating heat envelope effect & urban flood resilience and aims to
restore the health of ecosystems.
•We lay importance of BGI by proposing a schematic plan to design urban parks and lagoons in a
specifically engineered manner that can deal with problems concerning urban flooding and drainage
issues

20. Design of Urban Park

21. Essence of BGI Design

22. Environmental Impact Cost Assessment & Remedial Design
Polluter Pay Principle
Non-engineering Solutions
(i) Use of EPD Certified Products
(ii) Life Cycle Cost
(iii) Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA)
(iv) Stakeholders Analysis

23. Conclusion –Summing up
SUSTAINABLE
URBAN
PLANNING &
MANAGEMENT
Ecological Pillar
-Ecological Planning
-Eco-friendly Material Use
-Preservation of damaged
Ecosystems
-Use of Technology
Economic Pillar
-Financing & Budgeting
-Laws & Regulations
-Sectoral Integration
-Use of Technology
Social Pillar
-Inclusive Growth
-Human Resouces Management
-Creation of Social Assets
-Use of Technology
Dynamics of SustainableUrban Planning & Management

24. Conclusion
Source-Pathway-Receptor-Outcome-
Solution (SPROS) Model

25. •Recommendations
•Increased Use of Technology
•Consideration of stakeholder policy
•Economic Incentivisation schemes of conservation
measures by stakeholders. Implementation of PPP
Model
•Consideration of Polluter Pay Principle
•Promote environment friendly land use planning
and integrated and innovative urban designing
•Ensure resilience to climate change, disasters and
environmental risk reduction

26. Urban Re-
Wilding