Chapter 1: Environmental Problems, Causes and Sustainability.
Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability · PDF fileEnvironmental Problems,...
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Environmental Problems,Their Causes, and Sustainability
Chapter 1
Core Case Study: Exponential Growth (1)
� Slow start, rapid increase
� Human population
• 2007 ~ 6.7 billion people
� Projections
• 225,000 people per day
• Add population of U.S. < 4 years
• 2050 ~ 9.2 billion people
Core Case Study: Exponential Growth (2)
� Resource consumption, degradation, depletion
� Possible results
• Huge amount of pollution and wastes
• Disrupt economies
• Loss of species, farm land, water supplies
• Climate change
• Political fallout
Living in an Exponential Age
Fig. 1-1, p. 1
Hunting and gathering
Agricultural revolution
Industrial revolution
Black Death—the Plague
Industrial revolution
Fig. 1-1, p. 5
Solutions
� Understand our environment
� Practice sustainability
1-1 What Is an Environmentally Sustainable Society?
� Concept 1-1A Our lives and economies
depend on energy from the sun (solar capital)
and natural resources and natural services
(natural capital) provided by the earth.
� Concept 1-1B Living sustainably means living
off earth’s natural income without depleting or
degrading the natural capital that supplies it.
Studying Connections in Nature
� Environment
� Environmental science
� Ecology
� Environmentalism
Environmental Science
Philosophyand
religion Biology
Ethics
Chemistry
Ecology
Economics
Politicalscience
Physics
Geology
Geography
Anthropology
Demography
Fig. 1-2, p. 7
Living More Sustainably
� Sustainability – central theme
� Natural capital
• Natural resources
• Natural services
Natural Resources
� Materials
• Perpetual
• Renewable
• Nonrenewable
� Energy
• Solar capital
• Photosynthesis
Natural Services
� Functions of nature
• Purification of air, water
• Nutrient cycling
Key Natural Resources and Services
Fig. 1-3, p. 8
Nutrient Cycling
Deadorganic
Organicmatter inanimals
organicmatter
Organicmatter in
plants
Inorganicmatter in soil
Decomposition
Fig. 1-4, p. 9
Environmental Sustainability
� Trade-offs (compromises)
� Sound science
� Individuals matter
• Ideas
• Technology
• Political pressure
• Economic pressure
Sustainable Living from Natural Capital
� Environmentally sustainable society
� Financial capital and financial income
� Natural capital and natural income
� Bad news: signs of natural capital depletion at
exponential rates
1-2 How Can Environmentally Sustainable Societies Grow Economically?
� Concept 1-2 Societies can become more
environmentally sustainable through economic
development dedicated to improving the quality
of life for everyone without degrading the earth’s
life-support systems.life-support systems.
Economics
� Economic growth
� Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
� Per capita GDP – PPP� Per capita GDP – PPP
� Economic development
� Developed countries
� Developing countries
Global Outlook
Percentage of
World's:
Population
Populationgrowth
18%
77 years
0.1%
Life expectancy
82%
1.5%
66 years
Fig. 1-5, p. 10
Wealth andincome
Resourceuse
Pollutionand waste
85%
15%
88%
12%
75%
25%
1-3 How Are Our Ecological Footprints Affecting the Earth?
� Concept 1-3 As our ecological footprints grow,
we are depleting and degrading more of the
earth’s natural capital.
Natural Resources (1)
� Perpetual – renewed continuously
• Solar energy
� Renewable – hours to decades
• Water, air
• Forest, grasslands
Natural Resources (2)
� Sustainable yield
• Highest use while maintaining supply
� Environmental degradation
• Exceed natural replacement rate
Natural Resources (3)
� Nonrenewable – fixed quantities
• Energy (fossil fuels)
• Metallic minerals
• Nonmetallic minerals
� Recycling
� Reuse
Natural Capital Degradation
Fig. 1-6, p. 12
Reuse and Recycling
Fig. 1-7, p. 12
Measuring Environmental Impact
� Ecological footprint
• Biological capacity to replenish resources and adsorb waste and pollution
� Per capita ecological footprint� Per capita ecological footprint
• Renewable resource use per individual
Ecological Footprint
Fig. 1-8, p. 13
Projected footprint
Total Ecological Footprint (million hectares) and share of Global Ecological Capacity (%)
Per Capita Ecological Footprint (hectares per person)
Fig. 1-8, p. 13
Stepped Art
Projected footprint
Ecological footprint
Earth’s ecological capacity
Case Study: China
� Rapidly developing country
• Middle-class affluent lifestyles
� World’s leading consumer in:
• Wheat, rice, meat, coal, fertilizers, steel, cement• Wheat, rice, meat, coal, fertilizers, steel, cement
• Televisions, cell phones, refrigerators
� Future consumption
• 2/3 world grain harvest
• Twice world’s current paper production
• Exceed current global oil production
1-4 What Is Pollution and What Can We Do about It?
� Concept 1-4 Preventing pollution is more
effective and less costly than cleaning up
pollution.
Pollution
� What is pollution?
� Point sources
� Nonpoint sources
� Unwanted effects of pollution
Point Source Air Pollution
Fig. 1-9, p. 15
Solutions to Pollution
� Pollution prevention (input control)
• Front-of-the-pipe
� Pollution cleanup (output control)
• End-of-the-pipe
Disadvantages of Output Control
� Temporary
• Growth in consumption may offset technology
� Moves pollutant from one place to another
• Burial
• Incineration
� Dispersed pollutants costly to clean up
1-5 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?
� Concept 1-5A Major causes of environmental problems are population growth, wasteful and unsustainable resource use, poverty, excluding the environmental costs of resource use from the market prices of goods and services, and trying to manage nature with insufficient trying to manage nature with insufficient knowledge.
� Concept 1-5B People with different environmental worldviews often disagree about the seriousness of environmental problems and what we should do about them.
Causes of Environmental Problems
� Population growth
� Wasteful and unsustainable resource use
� Poverty
� Failure to include environmental costs of goods
and services in market prices
� Too little knowledge of how nature works
Five Basic Causes of Environmental Problems
Fig. 1-10, p. 16
Fig. 1-10, p. 16
Trying to manage nature without knowing enoughabout it
Populationgrowth
Unsustainableresource use
Poverty Excludingenvironmental costs from market prices
Causes of Environmental Problems
Fig. 1-10, p. 16
Stepped Art
Trying to manage nature without knowing enoughabout it
Excludingenvironmental costs from market prices
PovertyUnsustainableresource use
Populationgrowth
Some Harmful Results of Poverty
Number of people(% of world's population)
2 billion (30%)
2 billion (30%)
2.6 billion (39%)
Clean drinking
Electricity
Enough fuel forheating and cooking
Adequatesanitation facilities
Lack ofaccess to
Fig. 1-11, p. 16
0.84 billion (13%)
1 billion (15%)
1.1 billion (16%)
1.1 billion (16%)
Enough foodfor good health
Adequatehousing
Adequatehealth care
Clean drinkingwater
Global Connections
Fig. 1-12, p. 16
Environmental Effects of Affluence
� Harmful effects
• High consumption and waste of resources
• Advertising – more makes you happy
� Beneficial effects
• Concern for environmental quality
• Provide money for environmental causes
• Reduced population growth
Evaluating Full Cost of Resources Use
� Examples
• Clear-cutting + habitat loss
• Commercial fishing + depletion of fish stocks
� Tax breaks
� Subsidies
Environmental Viewpoints
� Environmental worldview
� Environmental ethics
� Planetary management worldview� Planetary management worldview
� Stewardship worldview
� Environmental wisdom worldview
� Social capital
Case Study: Chattanooga, Tennessee (1)
� 1960s
• Dirtiest air in the United States
• Toxic waste in Tennessee River
• High unemployment, crime
� 1984
• Vision 2000 – grassroots consensus
Case Study: Chattanooga, Tennessee (2)
� 1995
• Zero emission industries, buses
• Low-income renovations, downtown renewal
� Individuals matter!
1-6 What Are Four Scientific Principles of Sustainability?
� Concept 1-6 Nature has sustained itself for
billions of years by using solar energy,
biodiversity, population regulation, and nutrient
cycling – lessons from nature that we can apply
to our lifestyles and economies.to our lifestyles and economies.
Four Scientific Principles of Sustainability
Reliance onSolar Energy
Biodiversity
Fig. 1-13, p. 20
Population ControlNutrient Cycling
Learning to Live More Sustainably
Sustainability EmphasisCurrent Emphasis
Pollution prevention
Waste prevention
Protecting habitat
Environmental
Waste disposal(bury or burn)
Pollution cleanup
Protecting species
Environmental
Fig. 1-14, p. 20
Increasing resource use
Environmental restoration
Less resource waste
Population stabilization
Protecting natural capital
Environmentaldegradation
Depleting and degrading natural capital
Population growth
Animation: Levels of organization
Animation: Two views of economics
Animation: Resources depletion and degradation interaction
Animation: Exponential growth
Animation: Capture-recapture method
Animation: Life history patterns
Video: Cahuachi Excavation
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VIDEO
Video: Easter Island
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VIDEO