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Threats to sustainability through waste by Yannis Phillis

 

Yannis Phillis made the point that the greater the economic growth due to increase in productivity, it follows naturally that much more waste is being produced as well. He showed through charts how the exponential growth curve of waste outdistances very rapidly everything that society can consume what is being produced. Waste is, therefore, a crucial term to question conventional assumptions about attaining sustainable development.

Note: Since the paper by Yannis Phillis is not available at this time of posting on this website, reference is given to two publications of his about this very subject matter.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: A DEFINITION AND
ASSESSMENT
Yannis A. Phillis∗, Vassilis S. Kouikoglou,
Luc A. Andriantiatsaholiniaina
Department of Production Engineering and Management
Technical University of Crete, Chania 73100, Greece

published in: Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, December 2003, Vol.2, No.4, 345-355 http://omicron.ch.tuiasi.ro/EEMJ/

Abstract
The average Greek produces daily 0.8 kg of solid waste and 22.7 kg of CO2. If he eats a
250 g beefsteak produced in Brazil, he has destroyed 5m2 of tropical forest. This amount
of meat requires 750 L of water and 1.7 kg of grain. The list may go on almost ad
infinitum. Is this behavior sustainable?
To answer this question a new model that defines and measures sustainability is
introduced. It uses fuzzy logic to combine data about a host of indicators related to two
basic components, Ecosystem and Human System. The former is the logical resultant of
four elements, Air, Land, Water, and Biodiversity, whereas the latter results from the
logical combination of Policies, Wealth, Health, and Knowledge. Each of the eight
components results from the combination of any number of primitives (basic indicators).
Sustainability is assessed on a 0 to 1 scale. Examples show that no country is sustainable
in the sense of this model.
Keywords: sustainable development, indicators of sustainability, fuzzy logic

Publication:

Fuzzy Measurement of Sustainability

By (author) Yannis A. Phillis Vassilis S. Kouikoglou

Description
People from many disciplines talk about sustainable development (SD) without having a concrete definition or idea of what it is. Politicians and decision-makers, biologists and environmentalists, engineers and scientists, philosophers and sociologists often mean different things when they mention SD. To take an extreme example, a neoclassical economist might define SD as continual economic growth without regard to the environmental situation, whereas at the other end of the spectrum, a deep ecologist might define it as the preservation and restoration of the ecosystem, ignoring the effect on the economy completely.It has become clear throughout the last few decades leading up to the time this book was written that our society is facing environmental problems of global magnitude such as species extinction, population explosion, global warming, water shortages, exhaustion of fisheries, and deforestation, among others, which have economic and social repercussions. Many people doubt that the world we shall bequeath to our descendants will be all healthy, supportive, and beautiful as the one we inherited from our parents.The fundamental questions then of the SD discussion are: Can we continue our present course without destroying part or most of our environment and society? And if we have to change course (which is currently the consensus opinion) how we do it? This book addresses one of the most fundamental questions of SD: How do we define and measure in the mathematical sense sustainability? In effect it summarizes our research in this field for the last 15 years. The mathematical model which we use to evaluate sustainability serves both as a definition and as a measuring scheme.This is done with the help of fuzzy logic, which is well suited to perform reasoning in fields where concrete mathematical models do not exist and concepts such as sustainability are multifaceted and often subjective. Fuzzy reasoning, in some respects, emulates human thinking and relies on expert opinion and knowledge as well as subjective evaluations. This multistage model is developed step-by-step, in the end providing sustainability assessments of various aspects of a society on a scale from zero to one, such as the environmental or societal situation of a country. All nations of the world for which reliable data exist are then ranked according to their sustainability as measured by the model.A sensitivity analysis reveals the most important components of sustainability for each country. The book is intended for undergraduate students, graduate students, and practitioners working in the field of sustainability. It is based on a course Yannis Phillis has taught at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Technical University of Crete (TUC) at the senior/graduate level. The mathematical knowledge needed to follow the book is minimal and is all contained in the text. Computational guidance is provided for those who would like to write their own model.

ISBN: 9781606920527
Classification: Sustainability
Format: Hardback
Pages: 183
Publish Date: 1-Apr-2009
Country of Publication: United States

Yannis PHILLIS. Technical University of Crete. Chania 73100 Greece.
Tel.: 821-37321 Fax: 821-69410
phillis dpem.tuc.gr
http://www.dpem.tuc.gr/staff/DEP/phillis/default_en.htm

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