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Earth System Engineering

Methods to handle the major earth crises

On June 23, 2010, IESP held a conference on “Earth System Engineering – Methods to handle the crises on earth”, in cooperation with IAS and the Carl von Linde Academy. About 350 people from universities, research institutions, the Bavarian ministry for the environment, NGOs, and others attended the conference in the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

The general theme of the conference was the question: How can we effectively solve the earth’s crises to allow a survival of human societies as we know them? This question was discussed by speakers from various disciplines, ranging from climate scientists to philosophers, and is shortly summarized in the following paragraphs:

We all have a responsibility to establish methods that keep our Earth System in a state that allows the survival of human societies worldwide. As “Earth System” we understand the planetary matrix (lithosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere) that interacts with and is influenced by human societies (the anthroposphere). “Earth System Engineering” thus refers to the creative and responsible use of our knowledge about the Earth System to help sustain the system in a way that allows human civilization to thrive.

What’s the problem?

The four major problem fields we are facing today include:

• Energy supply and climate change
• Water and food supply
• Social and economical stability
• Loss of biodiversity

These problem areas are mainly caused by

• our western way of life that extracts and uses large amounts of resources and energy
• the human population explosion
• the migration of people into cities and the corresponding physical and emotional disconnect between people and nature.

These factors increase our need for energy, water, food, and land - all of which are becoming increasingly rare, causing political and economical instability within and among nations. This negative development is further enhanced by human greed and egocentrism, and by a misjudgment of the urgency of action.

Complicating this situation is the fact that we cannot solve any single problem by itself, as each problem area is tightly interrelated with other areas of concern. We therefore need to find holistic solutions that take into account not just single elements of the Earth System, but that consider the entire Earth System as a whole.

What’s the goal?

Economic growth appears to be the main goal for most nations. It could be useful to rephrase this goal, as growth is only a strategy in reaching a goal. And the main goal that all of us can probably agree on is: prosperity, health, and happiness. How can we ensure that not only we but also our children can enjoy a way of life that enhances these goals? That question needs a thorough and honest debate.

What’s the solution?

The interrelatedness of the Earth crises requires that solutions do not focus on solving just one single problem, but that solutions try to integrate all problem fields. To be able to do so effectively, we need to develop a collective understanding for our Earth System across nations, as solutions that are only practiced in one country will not solve the global problems we are facing today. Thus, holistic and global thinking are essential for effective Earth System Engineering.

Solutions will therefore need to be based on

• strong and reliable science that investigates the interconnectedness of various parts of the Earth System. This will help improve our understanding for the Earth System, and thus our ability to find effective solutions
• public discourse about the need for solutions. This will increase public participation and acceptance in the process of finding and applying solutions, and increase the ability of politicians to act.
• a new cosmology in which Earth is understood as a vulnerable system of interrelated subsystems. Such an understanding is essential for effective solutions.

Many politicians have recognized the urgency of the Earth System crises. They know that we cannot keep going in the same direction as before. However, change cannot be based on policy alone, but also needs consensus and acceptance by the public. But how can societies change their cosmological understanding to accept the needed solutions?

Dr. Wackernagel of Global Footprint Network asked an important question: “Why do cities and nations not recognize that effective action is in their own best interest?” What is preventing us to act? He demonstrated that we currently are using 40% more ecological services than what Earth can regenerate. In other words, it takes over one year and four months to regenerate what humanity consumes in one year. Consequently, the mathematical logic of this means shrinking our resource use, and since many people still need more, sharing the resources more equally – but both these requests mean political suicide if a politician were to state it publicly.

Not surprisingly, many industrialized nations have large ecological deficits, i.e., their demand on biocapacity exceeds the availability of biocapacity within their boundaries. Interestingly, those European countries that are fairing worst economically (Greece, Spain, Italy) also have had the largest increases in ecological deficit over the last years. As Earth has accumulated many resources over the years (in nutritious soils, forests, coal, oil, gas and other resources), humanity can use up some resource stock and be in overshoot for a certain amount of time. However, at some point in time the accumulated ecological debt will become too large. Since every nation is exposed to this risk, It is therefore in the best self interest of each nation to manage their ecological deficit actively. In a resource constrained world, ecological deficits are becoming an increasing risk to national economies.

It is important to point out, that we are not only limited in the availability of fossil fuels to sustain our energy consumption, or in the amount of CO₂ that we can safely emit, but we are also extremely limited in the amount of raw materials that are essential for sustaining our western civilization, such as copper, zinc, and other materials. Solutions therefore need to incorporate ways that reuse raw materials by means of “cradle to cradle”.

A complicating factor is that climate change is extremely unjust – it affects those people the most that have contributed the least to climate change, and those that today have no or very little means to influence their fate – the young and the unborn. How can we work on solutions that will ensure that this injustice is not further enhanced? How can developing nations develop further, without worsening various Earth Crises? Until today there has been a close relationship between the amount of fossil fuels being burnt in a country and its economic wealth. So many people believe that it is not possible to develop towards a prosperous country without burning fossil fuels. However, this way of thinking is out of date. It is not only possible, but it is absolutely essential, to combine policies for the reduction of CO₂ emissions with an increase in prosperity in developing nations. This is possible by means of mitigation, introduction of regional or global carbon trade, the development and application of renewable technologies, the use of sustainable forestry and agriculture, and adaptation to inevitable climate change.

Recently, the German Advisory Council on the Environment has published a study that shows how Germany can create 100% of its electricity from renewable energies by 2050. Such studies are essential to set the course towards a sustainable future today, as many large scale investments have a life time of several decades.

In summary, the conference gave a very clear warning sign to politicians and society that we must realize the urgency of action, and that any action will only be an effective part of the solution if it considers the fact that each problem area is closely interrelated to other problem areas in our Earth System. Without a change of our understanding of Earth as a highly complex system and our role and responsibility in it we will have little success in solving the Earth Crises.

Podiums discussion with the speakers. Here, Prof. Hauff, Dr. Wackernagel, and Prof. Lucht.




During the breaks there was ample time for discussion among the participants of the conference...





...or to browse through the books of the oekom Verlag.