Matt+Breslin

This is the page of Matthew Dae-il Breslin [|This is a fantastic speech about the possible future consequences of global apathy towards environmental issues.] If themes of sustainable development are pulled directly from those stated by the United Nations, then I guess the most relevant to me would be SDGs 4, 6, 7, 13, and 14.

Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

 * Globally, 6 out of every 10 people lack access to safe sanitation services and 3 out of every 10 lack that same access to safe water services. Hygienic lavatories would prevent open defecation from contaminating the nearby water sources and a clean and accessibly supply of water would prevent children in developing countries from abandoning their educations in search of something to drink. Water is the most valuable resource to the human body and thus all societal progress in the future will stem from safe access to something to drink.

Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

 * Technological advancements in thorium reactor technology are promising. This radioactive element is far more abundant than uranium and poses a much lesser health risk to communities if an accident occurs. Extracting the material in a cost-effective manner is currently being research by China with assistance from the United States. However, nuclear power is not the only alternative. Hydroelectric power and wind generating facilities are expected to pop up worldwide. No matter what the method, research and development in this area is critical to reducing the carbon footprint of humanity. To first deal with the Greenhouse effect caused by the burning of fossil fuels, one must find a feasible alternative that lacks that same adverse effect. So, clean energy is important for both ourselves and future generations.
 * As of 2017, only 59% of people around the globe use clean energy primarily. Targets for 2030 include bringing the global share of renewable energy to 95% and ensuring access to clean energy or all (even small islands and developing countries).

Goal 14: Life Below Water
=Week 1: First Post= media type="youtube" key="7gXq1ml6B1E" width="560" height="315" In this TED talk, Andras Forgacs proposes a solution to the soon-to-be unsustainable toll of factory farming that currently provides for the world's meat, dairy products, eggs, and other raw materials. From both the sustainability point of view and the animal rights perspective, he reasons that the current practices threaten public health and the environment. He advocates for tissue engineering, a new field that would allow for the biofabrication of meat and other animal products without the slaughtering and herding of such animals. This way, the massive herd that would be required to provide for the world in 2030 will not need to come into being, its detriments never come to pass, and the same resources can be obtained without the animal cruelty and the threat to public health.

Factory farming is incredibly relevant to any discussion involving sustainability. In more ways than one, the practice currently puts a great strain on the environment. Industrial agriculture relies heavily on synthetic pesticides/fertilizers made with petroleum. This coupled with the energy requirement for the facilities themselves makes the sites a huge contributor to air pollution (specifically fossil fuel use, carbon dioxide emissions, methane emissions). The United States has cleared around 260 million acres of land to support the industry, making it a culprit for deforestation as well. Furthermore, industrial agriculture not only use up 70% of the world's fresh water supplies but also dirties them. Agricultural run-off containing animal waste and pesticides pollutes local waterways with drug-resistant bacteria from the overuse of antibiotics in the facilities and nitrates. This causes euthrophication in nearby lakes and streams. The microbes have caused disease outbreaks in the United States and the high levels of nitrates have been known to cause birth defects in humans. Stopping this practice would be beneficial to the world in multiple ways.

And to continue our time here on the planet, our collective species needs to learn to minimize the negative effects we have on the life-giving Earth. Factory farming may just be a good start to further campaigns for sustainable practice. =Week 3 := media type="youtube" key="vpTHi7O66pI" width="560" height="315" This week's TedTalk is given by a Zimbabwean ecologist named Allan Savory who suggests a very unconventional solution to the issue of desertification worldwide. He starts off be describing the extent of the issue. In climates that are humid all year, it is nearly impossible to desertify the land. However, the majority of the world is not like that, Many are grassland biomes with months of humidity and months of dryness. And from a map of the globe, that issue becomes apparent. Two-thirds of the world's grasslands are turning into desert, enabling and furthering climate change while destroying traditional societies. Allan spent his whole life trying to stop it and was taught the same thing at his alma mater that we are all taught. Desertification is caused by overgrazing of livestock that leaves bare, exposed soil. He insists that this lesson they teach the general public is completely wrong. He describes how he calculated the carrying capacity of land on a nature reserve in Zimbabwe and told the government that there were too many. Hunters found and killed 40,000 elephants as a result of this theory but the situation only got worse. Allan felt guilty as a result and was determined to find out the true cause of desertification and the true solution.

While investigating sites in the United States, he found National Parks here have desertification just as bad as some regions of Africa. Ecologists cannot explain this as cattle have not been on these lands for decades. Plots throughout the Western United States had cattle removed from the 1960s through to 2000 to prove that livestock is the cause but these plots actually worsened in condition. Ecologists could not explain why. This was when Savory concluded that we have never understood what causes desertification.

Massive herds once roamed healthy grasslands across Africa. These herds were prevented from overgrazing by pre-existing predator-prey relationships where pack animals drive them not only to stick together in herds but also to migrate. Their dung and urine fertilizes the soil, the periodic trampling produced mulch to insulate (preventing extremes of temperature like in exposed soil) and no one seems to realize this. The burning of dead grasses in Africa on a large scale have the potential to release more harmful pollutants and a greater concentration of them than several thousand automobiles. Burning grass causes desertification. The removal of herds causes desertification. Allan insists the only solution left is to use what we think the cause is: livestock. Bunched and moving as a proxy for previous herd and predator relationships. This mimics nature. And he hopes that it can bring back the grasslands. =Final Week: Resource Management= Water is the most important element of life. Most major civilizations in history started in great river valleys such as the Indus, Tigris, Euphrates, Yellow, and Nile rivers. Yet roughly 50% of the world will not have access to clean water in 2030 due to a tenuous global climate and a still growing population. The fear of global drought raises concerns that the next large-scale conflict will be fought over water. So what do we do? media type="youtube" key="NSL_xx2Qnyc" width="560" height="315" Dr. Kaveh Madani is a game theorist and policy educator who shares his approach and opinions on the possibility of the impending "water war" and what can be done to improve the relationship of the most complex coupled human-natural system on the planet. He used the economic discipline of game theory to help himself understand people's incentives in cooperation and conflicts. You have to understand the options a person chooses from and their perspectives on moves and countermoves of other "players." It is currently in use in water resources modeling. Out of ten years of modeling, he has come to believe that water tension, especially on lower levels such as agrarian communities and provinces, will rise in the future. But global cooperation and conservation of water can prevent a worldwide conflict. Water cleansing technologies such as solar concentrators with fresnel lenses can desalinate ocean water. Water can be used as a political tool to control the masses in the near future. But these virtual games we play will ultimately only find us at equilibrium if we play cooperatively, not competitively.

For the length of the video, the speech was a little disappointing in the lack of true substance. But I thought the message was a good one.

Water is the most relevant natural resource to date. It has connections to every other natural resource out there and is inextricably linked to national economies. This makes our protection of it the most important of all environmental questions to date. It's been fun, guys. Enjoy your summers.