Chapter 5 – Unique Aspects of Australia

Need for Local Data

• Australia is a unique continent– Climate– Wildlife– Size

• Keep in mind where you are getting your data– North America (US vs Canada)– Europe

• Need an average value with a normal distribution

5.2 Land Use

• Whole range of categories, but overall a dry climate

• Coastal area primary population growth• 62% of land use is agriculture– Sheep and cattle grazing in fragile arid areas– Soil salinity an issue– Only about 15% of forest remaining from

European settler days (what is the US)

5.3 Human Demand for Energy and Water

• Australian downtowns more European (public transport), while suburbs are more North American– Lots of gardens/yards (water demand)– Driving in from the suburbs (energy)– Increase in electricity for AC

• 2/3 of water is for agriculture– Big exporter of food

5.4 Bioproduction and Capacity

• What is capacity of arid land?– Studies on coastal areas– Wetlands in coastal areas– Pressure on birds, frogs, etc.

• Ecological footprint– Rate at which humans are consuming resources

Eco-Footprint

• Two essential elements– Measure of land used per person, according to

different sectors of the economy and the population’s use of those economic services

– Calculation of the energy used per person, based on an equivalent land-area unit based on amount of land need to produce the energy

Current Eco-Footprint

• World Wildlife Fund estimates we are over-consuming by 22% (2006)

• Large variations among countries– Australia is 3x the world average– 12.4 ha of biocapacity are available, but only 6.6

being used• Australia big food and mineral exporter• Adding biomass could interfere with food

5.5 Discussion of LCA Implications in Australia

• Differences in the input (resource) and output (burden) categories

• LCA requires indicators of environmental impact be defined in advance of the assessment– Cant define an overall vision– Can use it to look at overall sustainability– Avoid burden shifting (electric car)

Human Health Aspects

• Used for evaluation of toxins– Cancer, asthma, etc.– Dry climate in Australia seems to reduce toxicity of

chemicals– Indoor air quality

Land Use Changes

• This is a tough one• Biodiesel production– From vegetable oils – canola, rape, soybean, palm– Encourages land to be cleared for oil production,

palm is in rainforests– Loss of wildlife habitat, increase in CO2 emissions

Alternative Transport Fuels

• Some studies have indicated higher particle emissions– PM causes asthma etc. (linked to 2400 deaths/yr

and 17.2 billion $ in Australia)– Mostly rural, some not the impact of urban PM

5.6 Conclusions

• Need local data• Even for us, maybe looking at a small subset of

a field (tractor versus automobile mfg)• Numerous other factors, biodiversity, invasive

species, can be problematic• Land use changes are difficult to evaluate in

Australia (I would argue everywhere)• Water use data is limited for Australia