Greenwashing Debunkers Club

Julio F. Campos This article provides a list of four of the most important books on sustainability that one need to read to both understand the causes of our problems and the ways to solve them The Coal Question; An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines; William Stanley Jevons; 1865. Concerned with the fast rates in which the coal was being consumed due to high demand by industries, Jevons approached the issue analyzing how the technological development of equipment efficiency and its consequent reduction in coal use could prevent it exhaustion or scarcity. Over a century before the definition of the eco-efficiency term in 1992, in what become known as "The Jevons' Paradox", Jevons observed that the constant increase in efficiency could if fact leads to increase in recourses use, resulting in a fast decline of resource stocks. While still trying to be disproved by the efficiency advocates, the number of

Worldpress.com / Foodtank.com Hugo Penteado Julio F. Campos The list of the ten most sustainable countries on the planet varies depending on the source researched but is basically made up of European countries, with the Nordic countries usually at the top of the list, traditionally headed by Sweden. Variations of the countries that make up the list also include Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Recently, the University of Leeds study " A good life for all within planetary boundaries ", analyzing our ability to live with adequate quality of life within the limits defined by the planet pointed out that, based on the current models of growth,  of the 150 countries, only Vietnam would be close to achieving the ideal results, with levels of resource consumption within the planet's carrying capacity, although it still needs to develop its social issues. (The reader can review the status of each of these countries here ). The study concludes that the search f

Julio F. Campos Throughout human history, the careless use of natural resources has proven to result in catastrophic shifts to many civilizations. Overuse of natural resources is known to have played the major role in the collapse of ancient civilizations. Easter Island, being the most famous of them, presents the ultimate example of how the mindless use of local, limited, resources could drive the end of an entire civilization. The Mayans overpopulation and deforesting and overexploitation of local land, with a resulting drought, are another example of how the belief in the resources infinitude can lead a pungent civilization to disaster. Angkor Wat, one of the most advanced Asian ancient civilizations, with is marvelous water control systems, upon which the entire civilization relied, collapsed due to external climate events leading to floods and droughts, resulting in the end of this entire civilization. Even the great Roman empire was at the end subject to its soil

Julio F. Campos Corporations are based on three pillars when presenting their solutions aiming at achieving sustainability: Increase efficiency and use of new technologies; Recycling of waste for reuse and; Change in the production process for the use of renewable and clean sources. Although corporations depend on these approaches to maintain their financial health in the face of an increasing demand for sustainability, we will see that from the environmental and social point of view, these solutions can often be mere palliatives and can not be sustainable if there is, in fact, no reduction in exploitation resources. Increase Efficiency Paradox William Stanley Jevons, in 1865, as postulated in "The Question of Coal," observed that as less coal was used to produce a single product, due to the increase in the efficiency of its use, the surplus coal allowed the expansion the production of that particular product, or other products, with lower prod