Ecological Contradictions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in Malaysia

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promote a broad set of socio-economic and environmental goals. Through a case study on Malaysia, this paper investigates how economic Goal 8 (economic growth), Goal 9 (industry), and Goal 17(increased partnerships) are likely to conflict with environmental Goal 13 (climate action), Goal 14 (life below water), and Goal 15 (life on land). We analyze data from Economy-Wide Material Flows Analysis (EW-MFA) that captures Malaysia’s aggregate resource use over time and also assess the likely economic and environmental contradictions for Malaysia’s future trajectory by looking at major drivers of Malaysia’s economic growth. Using policy-scoring, we provide a detailed analysis of how the various sectors of growth are likely to result in synergies or trade-offs with the environmental SDGs. We find substantial contradictions between the economic and environmental SDGs for Malaysia. Our paper questions whether or not, when examining a concrete case study, economic and environmental SDGs are compatible.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Ontario’s 2005 Greenbelt Plan at Preserving the Protected Countryside from Urbanization and Non-Renewable Resource Mining

Conservation has been widely discussed as the best way to combat climate change and environmental degradation. A cornerstone of conservation is Sustainable Development, which involves mitigating the damage of urbanization and urban sprawl, and the resulting loss of agricultural resources. In response, Ontario developed the Greenbelt Act in 2005 to ensure that Ontario’s Agricultural Land base was protected from urbanization and development. This study analyzed land use change within the Greenbelt’s Protected Countryside, to determine if the lands were protected during the implementation of the Greenbelt Plan (2005 -2017), and the ten years prior without Greenbelt policy in effect. Using remote sensing change detection applications, it was determined that residential expansion within settlement areas, and aggregate mining operations within the Protected Countryside contribute to urban expansion and loss of prime agricultural land. Changes in aggregate resource extraction policy are recommended to reduce the use and reliance of virgin aggregate in Ontario.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Ontario’s 2005 Greenbelt Plan at Preserving the Protected Countryside from Urbanization and Non-Renewable Resource Mining

Conservation has been widely discussed as the best way to combat climate change and environmental degradation. A cornerstone of conservation is Sustainable Development, which involves mitigating the damage of urbanization and urban sprawl, and the resulting loss of agricultural resources. In response, Ontario developed the Greenbelt Act in 2005 to ensure that Ontario’s Agricultural Land base was protected from urbanization and development. This study analyzed land use change within the Greenbelt’s Protected Countryside, to determine if the lands were protected during the implementation of the Greenbelt Plan (2005 -2017), and the ten years prior without Greenbelt policy in effect. Using remote sensing change detection applications, it was determined that residential expansion within settlement areas, and aggregate mining operations within the Protected Countryside contribute to urban expansion and loss of prime agricultural land. Changes in aggregate resource extraction policy are recommended to reduce the use and reliance of virgin aggregate in Ontario.

Nonlinear sociodynamics of competitive sociotypes of molecular and cosmic human

As one of the most important factors determining the nature of the dynamic behavior of a social system, the article considers the competitive relationship of two alternative sociotypes, conventionally designated as molecular human and cosmic human. The molecular sociotype is understood as the personality of the average consumer, whose behavioral determinants are largely determined by the selfish gene. The cosmic human is a person who has realized the dependence on the selfish gene. Representatives of the cosmic sociotype consider the products of their own mind, their contribution to culture, as a more significant function than gene replication. This explains the different values ​​of the coefficients of reproduction of the total resource of the system by molecular human and cosmic human. Three possible scenarios for the evolution of a social system have been identified for different values ​​of the coefficients of reproduction of the total resource of the system by both sociotypes with a constant share of the population. In this case, the aggregate resource is understood as the entire intellectual, cultural and economic product produced by the social system during a certain conditional cycle of reproduction. The dynamics of a social system with a variable value of the share of a productive comic sociotype is considered in the work on the basis of a nonlinear two-dimensional model. The mathematical model demonstrates complex nonlinear quasicyclic behavior.

Model of functioning of the aggregate resource potential of the region

In modern socio-economic and regulatory conditions, when the regions of the Russian Federation are given relative independence in decision-making, it becomes important to consider the issues of effective use of the resource potential of the region. The article proposes a structural classification and a model for the functioning of the aggregate resource potential of the region, which contributes to the adoption of effective managerial decisions in replenishing the revenue side of the budget and developing regions both at the level of state bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and the federal center.