By Ei-Ichiro OCHIAI
Introduction
Humankind is truly at a crossroads. It may either degenerate into oblivion destroying its abode, the Earth, or it may change course and sustain its civilization for the foreseeable future. The material that is available to humankind and all our co-inhabitants of the Earth is physically limited, and the energy that is usable for long is only that from the Sun. All other energy sources are exhaustible, and will not last long at the current rate of exploitation. Materials naturally available (or at least readily usable) are usually present in a relatively low-entropy state. Once such materials are processed, utilized and discarded/dispersed into the environment, their entropy is enormously increased. Then it is hardly possible to recover it in a low-entropy state. Hence, though they never disappear, such materials are non-renewable in practice. This writer has attempted to estimate the resource availability of major elements on the Earth and the anthropogenic exploitation rate (Ochiai, 2004).
We, human beings, are only one of several million species of organisms on this Earth, and we have to share the resources available with other living organisms. Only we, as conscious beings, can change our way of life by our own volition. If we continue our (meaning “wealthy nations”) present way of life, the overexploited planet will eventually retaliate, forcing change upon us.
Spaceship Earth as seen from
Apollo 10
Human history has recorded numerous examples in which civilizations collapsed because of overexploitation of the environment (Ponting, 1993; Diamond, 2005). Such experiences were more or less local. However, what we are now facing is a possible collapse of the spaceship Earth itself, or rather the human civilization on it. This spaceship is closed in terms of material; i.e., no significant amount of material comes in and out. The only significant input is solar energy, the only truly renewable resource available to all living creatures on the Earth.
Therefore, an ultimately sustainable society should use only solar energy and other (virtually) inexhaustible energy sources such as geothermal and tidal, while making judicious use of non-renewable resources. Wind power and hydropower also depend on solar energy.
The present world human population is about 6.2 billion and the terrestrial surface area is 1.49 x 108 km2, which means that the population density is 42/km2. The question is then how to construct a sustainable human civilization with this current population (or perhaps a more appropriate population, likely less than the current one), where the term “sustainable” is used in the sense of the previous paragraph.
The
After Tokugawa Ieyasu won a crucial battle in 1600, the emperor gave him the title of Shogun (Generalissimo) in 1603. The Tokugawa clan established its Shogunate system based in
In a sense,
Nonetheless, many, including farmers, could participate in cultural activities, and hence their lives were far from subsistence level. The domestic culture was developed for the general public (as well as the powerful and the wealthy) in literature, performing arts, paintings, woodblock prints, and even mathematics. Tens of thousands of “sangaku” were produced.
People of all walks of life including farmers participated in solving fairly complex mathematical problems, and the successful results were displayed on a plaque at temple or shrine; this was called “sangaku”, and people did it just for fun (Rothman, 1998; Sugimoto and Swain, 1989). It has been suggested that
Not only did the Japanese collectively sustain themselves and their society, but they also improved (rather than degraded) their environment; i.e, they made their rivers and the surrounding sea cleaner and their soil more fertile, and they increased the forested area (Diamond, 2005).
Once the Shogunal system was established, a peaceful condition persisted for the subsequent two and a half centuries. This was the single most important factor allowing
The Japanese diet consisted of rice, vegetables and occasionally fish, but rarely meat, and the meat consumed was mainly obtained by hunting, such as bird and wild boar, not of domestically raised animals such as pigs and cows. Cows and horses were kept, but mostly for the purpose of transportation. This diet is much more energy efficient than one dependent on meat.
80 per cent of the population were farmers who produced food for themselves and the rest of the population. The rest consisted of “Bushi” (samurai warriors) and townspeople, merchants and artisans. Bushi (about 6 per cent of the total population) was the ruling class and was not involved in economic activities or production processes. Under the Tokugawa system, their original role, that of warrior, lapsed, and high-level Bushi became bureaucrats. Because their salaries (given in terms of rice) were fixed and mostly inherited, they became relatively impoverished as time progressed. Low-level Bushi (i.e., on lower salary) suffered from economic hardship. They therefore turned to various ways to supplement their income: teaching, writing, some special jobs and even farming. Merchants on the other hand gained economic power and became the main movers of popular culture.
Firearms, first introduced by Portuguese in mid 16th century, were used extensively in the internal war period (up to 1615), but once peace prevailed, their use declined and their development was neglected. Bushi adopted the sword as their status symbol. Toward the end of the 16th century, i.e., before the Tokugawa rule started, by decree weapons were confiscated from everybody except for warriors (“Katanagari”). In the beginning of the Meiji era (1870’s), swords were removed from the former Bushi (as depicted in the movie “Last Samurai”), and since that time it became a norm in Japan that nobody was allowed to carry weapons except for regular military personnel and a few special professionals (licensed hunters, etc).
City streets and highways were remarkably safe. The city of
The Tokugawa established a national university in
Except for a very minor use of non-renewable fossil fuel (coal) in certain regions, all the energy used (including human power or labor, plants, water- and wind-mills) was provided by the sun (solar energy). Lighting was provided by plant oil and wax, and some fish oil. Mechanical work including long-distance transportation was mostly conducted by human power or to a small extent by animals. The diet was mostly vegetarian, and little use was made of meat. The energy output efficiency of meat (i.e., the ratio of energy output to the total energy input including direct solar energy and all other energy necessary) is at most one-tenth of that of cereal.
One way to measure the efficiency of energy use is by the ratio of the energy value of material produced to the energy input (excepting solar energy). For example, in rice production the energy input is the total energy used to produce a certain unit amount of rice, or rather its energy value, that is, the energy output. In the
First, in respect of rice production, the basis of the economy, Ishikawa made the following assumptions. On average three persons working full time for about a half year (183 days) produced 2.4 tons of rice on one hectare of land. Assuming the energy required for one day’s work to be about 1,000 kcal/person, the total energy input is 5.5 x 105 kcal, and since the energy value of rice is about 3,400 kcal/kg, the total energy output is 8.2 x 106 kcal. Therefore, the energy efficiency of rice production in the
How about modern rice production? The Science and Technology Agency of the Japanese government estimated that the production of 1 kg of rice requires about 2,300 kcal of energy, indicating that the energy efficiency is about 150 per cent or one tenth of the
The major difference in these two situations is human labor. Farming was very hard work in
The energy efficiency of fishing in the
Until quite recently, Japanese houses had no “space-heating”. Since
A model of a takadono, a high-roofed structure with a
furnace and foot bellows (tatara), on display at Wako
Museum in Shimane Prefecture.
The traditional procedure of iron/steel production, known as “Tatara” used charcoal as the reducing agent. It has been estimated that production of 1 kg of base iron required about 2.3 x 104 kcal, the major portion of which came from charcoal. The modern technology has reduced this energy to about 4 x 103 kcal. That is, the older technique’s energy use was not very efficient. A large amount of wood had to be cut to provide the charcoal for iron production; hence the forest from which the wood was supplied was usually left to re-grow for at least 30 years before it was reused. The property of the iron/steel product from the old technology is known to be far superior to that obtained by the modern technology (Morris-Suzuki, 1994, 45-49; Tatara website).
The long-distance transportation of rice, sake and other relatively heavy items was usually done by wind-driven boats. This very efficient system was made possible by the geographical location of
Only renewable material from plants was used; the exceptions were iron and a few other metals obtained from non-renewable resources. Other than food, plants provided material for cooking, heating (directly and as charcoal), building, furniture and other fixtures, fertilizer (as compost), oil for lighting, and so on. Today,
Let us look at a few examples. The Japanese had an extensive supply of paper in the
Publication was quite extensive in the pre-industrial
Printing in
If only renewable material is used and its rate of production is limited by the natural growth rate, material would never become abundantly available. It appears, however, that significant numbers of people in the
The answer is “recycle”, “recycle” and “recycle” (Ishikawa, 1997a). They recycled almost everything and almost exhaustively. They also repaired almost everything over and over again until no more use could be made of it. Of course, most of the devices and implements were of simple structure and construction, and hence were easy to repair unlike many contemporary gadgets.
Paper, for example, was 100 per cent recycled. It was a business to recycle or rather buy back paper products. It is said that a poor person could live off collecting paper products or just parts of them discarded on the street. In certain regions, even soiled toilet paper was collected and recycled. Being made of longer and stronger fibers (Washi website), Japanese paper could withstand reuse much better than modern paper. Likewise, most clothes recycled, as the production of fiber (mostly cotton) was limited, expensive and time-consuming.
The ash from firewood and charcoal was also collected and bought and sold as fertilizer. Some chemical compounds such as potassium carbonate were also extracted and sold. Even the candle droppings were saved, bought, reshaped and sold by a business.
Human and animal wastes were completely recycled. They were collected, bought and sold to farmers as fertilizer by business establishments. That is, such items were made a salable commodity, though some farmers purchased it directly from the consumers. The straw of rice plants was used extensively for wrapping rice and other substances, and as sandals, etc, and it was composted after all these uses. Likewise food waste was completely composted. Agriculture was truly “organic”. Of course, chemical (or rather synthetic) fertilizer or chemical pesticides were unknown. In some places, ammonia and nitrate were extracted from urine, and were used to make gun powder. This made unnecessary a sewage system, and did not load polluting substances on rivers, lakes and coastal seas.
Naturally any material containing iron and copper, no matter in what shape or condition, was avidly collected and recycled. Given these attitudes and the practice, the recycling business minimized garbage, and made easy the garbage disposal. City streets were clean without much actual “cleaning”, because almost all materials were picked up, sold, and reused.
Foreign visitors during the
“Diseases caused by polluted water and imperfect sewage treatment systems in the
“
Over 300 years,
(1) Geographical location: elaborate heating was unnecessary, and the ecology was relatively robust.
(2) Peace: there was none of the waste of human, energy and material resources associated with war.
(3) Vegetarian diet: such a diet is energy-efficient, and the environment was spared the disturbance due to grazing animals.
(4) High educational levels: the people were informed of many issues.
(5) The political system: was such as to allow a long-term view on the environment.
(6) Cultural factors: a distinctive
Of these, perhaps most contentious and controversial may be the weight to attach to distinctive cultural factors. This author plans to explore these questions in a subsequent essay.
Ei-Ichiro Ochiai was born in Tokyo, educated in Japan to PhD in chemistry (University of Tokyo), did research and teaching in chemistry at University of Tokyo, University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, University of Maryland, University of Umea (Sweden), and Juniata College (Pennsylvania, USA). This article was written for Japan Focus. Posted at
Notes:
[1] In early Meiji, a group of University of Tokyo professors recorded interviews with officials of the old Tokugawa regime in a work entitled Huruki koto Tazuneshi Kiroku (Stories told by officials of the old regime”).
[2] The fact that even some farmers were literate and cultured was indicated by a discovery by a Japanese historian, Irokawa (1985). In a storehouse in a farming village 70 km west of
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