Sustainable Management
Geography: AQA GCSE, topic 2.4.7
Why Should We Protect Cold Environments?
Cold, wilderness areas are undisturbed by humans. They are very fragile ecosystems.
What is the value of wilderness areas?
- Cold environments are quite low in biodiversity. So protecting wilderness areas to protect biodiversity is not a great argument.
- The moral view that humans should not damage ecosystems unnecessarily supports not damaging cold, tundra environments.
- For humans, wilderness can be vital for scientific research. Leaving ice cores preserved allows us to measure things like climate change.
What is the significance of their ecosystems being fragile?
- An ecosystem that is fragile is vulnerable to small shocks.
- Humans doing damage, like the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 can stop an ecosystem ever recovering, or if it does recover, it could take a very long time.
Strategies to Manage Cold Environments Sustainably
Economic development and human welfare should be balanced with conservation and sustainability.
Use of technology
- Building the Trans-Alaska pipeline on concrete stilts to stop permafrost melting is one way of using technology to minimise humans' environmental impact.
- The Trans-Alaska pipeline is another example of technology. It may reduce the number of oil tankers leaving Prudhoe Bay, reducing the number of oil spills like Exxon Valdez.
Conservation groups
- Greenpeace is currently campaigning against the American military using Alaska for testing sonar and explosives.
- Pressure from conservation groups like Greenpeace was a factor in the oil company Shell abandoning its plans to drill in Alaska (according to their website rather than Shell...).
- The Alaska Conservation Fund was founded in 1980 to help preserve Alaska.
Regulation by governments
- The Wilderness Act of 1964 was passed by Congress (the US government) to protect Alaska as a special 'wilderness area'.
International agreements
- The Antarctic Treaty (ATS) (1959) banned all forms of military activity and made it a zone free of nuclear tests and disposal of radioactive waste.
- It promoted international scientific research, guaranteeing the rights of all states to establish research stations there.
- It also set aside any disputes over land on the continent.
- The Madrid Protocol (1998) is an extension of the ATS and has banned all mining activities (except for scientific research).
- The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) prepares a regular report (every 3 years) for the UN Secretary-General (UNSG) on Antarctica.
Test yourself on Sustainable Management
Why should we conserve cold environments?
Which of the following describes cold environments?
Which of the following does not describe cold environments?
Strategies for the sustainable management of cold environments
How does raising a pipeline in cold environments reduce environmental impacts?