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Prof. W.M. Conradie

Environmental and carbon footprints have recently come to the fore of the media’s, governmental and general public’s attention. They offer an excellent indication of humanity’s demands upon Nature and allow evaluation of ecological deficit by contrasting supply and demand. The ecological debt many nations find themselves in is unsustainable, globally inequitable and adds to the growing effects of climate change. These footprints need to be further investigated, looking at historic and future trends in order to better understand, not only the global overuse of natural capital, but also the imbalance between nation states of the world. The value and limitations of the footprint must be recognised; the footprint alone cannot represent the full anthropogenic impacts upon the Earth. This thesis focuses on developing the definitions of the ecological and carbon footprints, analysing the significant factors that affect their composition. The selected parameters are diverse, ranging from a host of economic, geographic and climatic factors. It is shown that both the carbon and ecological footprints are primarily driven by economic welfare, a result that reflects the consumptive nature and fundamental basis of the footprint. Analysis of the resultant correlating equations, for both the environmental and carbon footprints, highlights the differences between the developing and industrialised world in terms of their profligate or frugal use of Nature’s resources. This concludes the stark contrast between these regions of the globe in terms of their per capita and total footprint values. The disparity between the populous South and the prosperous North is further investigated to the year 2100, with the use of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s scenarios and adaptation of the correlating ecological footprint equation. Four separate scenarios are adopted, each having different underlying assumptions regarding economic development, demographic transition and environmental awareness for various regions of the world. For all scenarios the Southern regions rapidly increase their levels of total ecological footprint; in contrast the industrialised world maintains a relatively conservative evolution. Although different scenarios suggest contrasting future pathways, the hope of contraction and convergence among global footprint levels is not completely lost. The intensification of carbon emissions from both the affluent North and the majority South are considered with respect to population, economic and energy use trends from 1900 to the end of the twenty-first century. It is overwhelmingly shown that affluence will drive growth in carbon emissions across the world by the end of the century. Global inequality must be reduced; the footprint is utilised to demonstrate the trends in resource misuse and contrast between the ecological debtors and ecological creditors of the world.

A growing knowledge of the human impact on the environment has led to widespread dissatisfaction with the current relationship between industrial societies and the nature that sustains them. From within this milieu, sustainable development has emerged as a term that describes an appropriate relationship in the context of the present time and culture. Although it has been widely adopted by many individuals and organisations, there is little agreement as to what it means and entails. Business has been attributed a significant role in achieving sustainable development. Many have joined the sustainable development debate and received both accolades and critique for their endeavours to interpret and implement the concept within the business sector. Consideration of the prominent and influential role of business in industrial societies, and the lack of definition, elicits the question: what do those people who have taken up the challenge of applying the principles of sustainable development to the business sector think the term means? In response, I have explored participants� subjective knowledge of the meaning of sustainable development within the broad context of humanity�s relationship with nature. In this context, sustainable development is just one of many views of the �proper� relationship incumbent within environmentalism, and which variously critique industrial society�s relationship with nature. A cognitive approach was adopted that suggests how a society views and uses nature arises from its culture; and that an individual�s vision of nature is influenced by their personal environmental worldview, encompassing fundamental beliefs regarding the underlying nature of reality and guidelines for living. The views of forty-eight individuals active in New Zealand�s �sustainable business arena� were investigated. Participants were drawn from businesses purported to be adopting the principles of sustainable development and organisations assisting in this endeavour. Their knowledge was explored by means of cognitive mapping, semi structured questioning, and Q Methodology. Not surprisingly, participants held a variety of normative and subjective understandings of sustainable development that appear to have arisen from �life in general� rather than any external source. Although humanity, the environment, and change were considered central to sustainable development, beyond this were contested notions and priorities as each participant described their vision for the future, each challenging various aspects of our industrial society, to varying degrees. Five ideal-type views were characterised and termed the Societalist, Individualist, Ecologist, Realist, and Futurist views. The five ideal-type views are presented as a typology, constructed from relevant and prioritised worldview beliefs, that highlights the major contradictions. Considered in this way, consensus on the meaning of sustainable development seems unlikely. And perhaps sustainable development is not one thing but instead a reflexive culture of change such that we question how we live. Hitherto, extant sustainable development literature has highlighted the power of business over society. In contrast, in this research, participants reported their attempts to implement sustainable development within business were constrained by society�s requirements and institutions. Further, understanding of sustainable development was observed to be learnt from our culture, highlighting at a more fundamental level, the sway of society on sustainable business.

The question of what comprises sustainable development is, essentially, a moral one: what should constitute the web of interactions between ourselves, and between ourselves and the non-human world. But questions this large invite fragmentation into even smaller, manageable parts and in turn a predilection for specialisation. Such reductionism is now recognised as an important factor in our current lack of success in ‘living more sustainably’. Thus, this research takes the alternate approach: a look at sustainable development from the perspective of the whole. The research reveals that even the complexity of sustainable development can be described, via patterns, in manageable ‘chunks’ that can both retain the nature of the whole and advise of the necessary changes individuals need to adopt to close the gap between concern and action. Opportunities for further research include the extended use of patterns by practitioners from any field seeking to maintain the whole; and an exploration of the (currently hidden) attribute of time as a key determinate of action related to sustainable development / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xvi, 432 p. : ill. (some col.)., map. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 316-332).

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 73-74) Also available in print.

<p>Despite some gains in economic reforms and international commitments, Ethiopia still maintains the position of one of the poorest countries in the world in the 21st century with very little power to influence the allocation of reources in the world market. The development problems in many of the sub-saharan regions are confined within the countyry including the difficulty to keep up with rapid increase in the number of primary school enrollments, which has led to a situation of compromised quality / high child mortality and HIV/AIDS, which poses additional challenges to the poor health facilities, gender and regional inequalities and sustainable debt burden. Making matters worse, Ethiopia's political instability, civil war, recurring of drought, and economic mismanagement ties the country to a severe poverty cycle.. Ethiopia has made important economic, social and political reforms with the support of the World bank and other multilateral institutions, to pave the way for the country to face the challenges posed by globalization. However, these reforms have not been sustained by effective implementation. The response to overcome the problemshas also been slow to see rapid growth. In this research paper, the writer explores the challenges regarding Ethiopia's poverty from perspective of the World Bank. The research examines the theoretical and conceptual underpinning of the World Bank's general mandate and objectives on poverty reduction, using Ethiopia as acase study.</p>

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