Download APES Chapter 1 Book Notes

1
APES Ch. 1 Book Notes
Required Textbook
Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions. 16th ed.
What’s the use of a house if you don’t have a decent planet to put it on? ~ Henry David
Thoreau
Case Study
(Page 5; Fig. 1-1) Exponential growth is the rate at which a quantity increases at a fixed
percentage per unit of time such as 2% per year. Exponential growth is deceptive because it
starts off slowly then doubles rapidly into an enormous number. In Biology you learned
about the “J” shaped curve which illustrates exponential growth. This type of growth is most
often seen in smaller organisms such as bacteria, houseflies, and mice. However, exponential
growth can occur in the human population. In 2008 there were 6.7 billion people on the
planet. Collectively, these people consume vast amounts of resources and produce huge
amounts of waste. Unless death rates rise sharply, there will be 9.3 billion human beings by
2050 and most likely 10 billion by the end of this century. This is exponential growth.
Growing at this rate would be as if we added a new United States to the earth every 4 years.
The impending exponential growth of the human species endangers plants and other animals.
There is, however, a solution to these issues that can be implemented within the next few
decades. Environmental Science is the study and implementation of these solutions.
Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
Ch. 1.1 What Is an Environmentally Sustainable Society?
The environment is everything around us. Including all living and nonliving things with
which we interact. We are connected. Being connected means we are dependant on the
environment for air, water, food, shelter, energy and everything else we need to stay alive
and healthy. We depend on abiotic factors such as water and air as much as we depend on
biotic factors such as trees and animals. We ourselves are part of nature.
Environmental Science is the interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the biotic
and abiotic factors within our world. It integrates Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, & Geology
which are called natural sciences, along with social sciences such as politics, geography,
economics and demography. There is also a little of the humanities such as ethics and
philosophy. (Page 7; Fig. 1-2)
A major subfield of Environmental Science is Ecology.
I. Ecology:
1. Organism - a member of a certain species
A. species – A group of organisms with distinctive traits that can mate and produce
fertile offspring.
2. Ecosystem – a set of organisms interacting with one another and their environment of
nonliving matter and energy within a defined area or volume.
Page 1 of 10
1
2
It is important not to confuse environmental science with environmentalism.
Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to protecting the earth and is practiced in the ethical
and political arena more than in science.
II. Sustainability:
1. The ability of the earth’s various natural systems, cultural systems, and economies to survive
and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
2. Sustainability is the central theme of this book and Environmental Science
A. Natural Capital - The natural resources and natural services that keep other forms alive and
support our economies. (Page 8; Fig. 1-3)
a. Natural Resources – materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to an
organism. These resources can be renewable such as air water, soil, & plants, or they
can be nonrenewable such as coal, oil, or copper.
b. Natural Services – functions of nature such as natural purification of water or air,
which support life and human economics at no cost.
A vital natural service is nutrient cycling. As you learned in Biology, nutrients
circulate chemicals through the environment. Examples are the water cycle, nitrogen
cycle, phosphorus cycle, carbon cycle, and energy cycle. A cycle you may not have
covered before is the topsoil cycle. Topsoil is the outermost layer of the earths crust
and is the life giving layer for all living organisms. Living things die, decay and
resupply the topsoil with the necessary chemicals to support life. It is the ultimate
sustainable cycle.
c. Solar capital – C. As a direct energy source, solar energy warms the planet and
supports photosynthesis. As an indirect energy source it produces wind, flowing water
and aids in the production of biofuels made from plant and animal residuals (leftovers
). Life and economies depend on energy from the sun.
d. Degradation of natural capital – many human activities can negatively affect natural
capital. Using nonrenewable resources or overusing renewable resources at a rate faster
than they can be renewed by nature. Ex: harvesting desirable species from the oceans
or clear cutting mature forests.
e. Solutions for sustaining natural capital – science can supply solutions but is limited
by a willingness to implement them. Therefore politics must play a part. Regulations
and laws must be made to enforce solutions. This leads to conflict between individuals
and scientific concepts of sustainability. Conflict involves making a trade-off or
compromise.
III. Environmentally sustainable societies:
The ultimate goal is an environmentally sustainable society – one that meets the current and future
basic resource needs of its people without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
needs. Basically we need to live off the interest of our investment. You cannot waste the capital it
leads to an unsustainable future.
1. Living sustainably means living off natural income such a renewable resources like plants,
animals, and soil. It means preserving and saving resources and living within our means.
Page 2 of 10
2
3
2. The bad news is we are currently living unsustainably and scientist predict the we are
overusing the earth’s natural resources by 62% (Page 8; Fig. 1-3) Can we continue at this
rate? We must start implementing the solutions provided by science.
Visit www.academic.cengage.com/biology/miller and cast your vote 
Ch. 1.1 Central Themes Re-Cap
 Sustainability
 Degradation of Natural Capital
 Solutions
 Trade-offs
Ch. 1.2 How Can an Environmentally Sustainable Society Grow Economically?
I. The Rich & The Poor (not a new soap-opera ) - Economic growth is an increase in a nations
output of goods and services. It is usually measured by the percent change in the GDP (gross
domestic product). This can even be measure on a per person basis and that is called the per
capita GDP. This is calculated by dividing the GDP by the midyear population of people.
The gross domestic product (GDP) or gross domestic income (GDI) is one of the
measures of national income and output for a given country's economy. GDP is defined as
the total market value of all final goods and services produced within the country in a given
period of time (usually a calendar year). It is also considered the sum of a value added at
every stage of production (the intermediate stages) of all final goods and services produced
within a country in a given period of time, and it is given a money value.
The most common approach to measuring and understanding GDP is the expenditure
method:
GDP = consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports)
GDP = C + I + G + (X-M).
1. Purchasing Power: The value of any countries currency changes when it is used in other
countries. Therefore you can buy more in some countries than in other using the same amount of
currency. This is called purchasing power.
A. Economist use a tool to help them compare a country’s purchasing power called (PPP) or
purchasing power parity. A measure of a country’s individual citizen’s purchasing power is
calculated by combining the per capita GDP and the PPP to produce a number called the per
capita GDP PPP. This number tells economists what any given country’s individual citizen
could buy in the United States. (Now don’t all of you rush out and become economist because
of this exhilarating part of our lesson today )
2. Economic Development – Differs from economic growth because it has the goal of using
economic growth to improve overall living standards. The UN classifies countries as developed
or developing based on their degree of industrialization and their per capita GDP PPP.
Page 3 of 10
3
4
A. Developed countries include: USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and
most European countries. They are characterized by having a high per capita GDP PPP and
being highly industrialized. (Meaning the make stuff to export and they have a low enough
population that they can support everyone)
B. Developing countries include: China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Thailand & Mexico. (Most
countries in Africa, Asia & Latin America) They are characterized by having a growing per
capita GDP PPP and being moderately industrialized. (Meaning the make some stuff to export
and they have a low enough population that they can moderately support everyone)
C. Least developed countries include: Low income countries such as Angola, Nigeria, Congo,
Jordan, Nicaragua, & Belarus. There are 49 countries on this list that make up 11% of the
world’s population. They are characterized by having a declining per capita GDP PPP and
being unindustrialized. (Meaning they make nothing to export and they have a high population
and cannot support everyone)
3. About 97% of the world’s population increase from 2008 – 2050 is projected to occur in
developing countries. These countries are ill-equipped to handle such an increase.
More than half the world lives in extreme poverty and is uneducated – it is a world of HAVES
and HAVE NOTS….
A. BRIC is an acronym that refers to the fast growing developing economies of Brazil,
Russia, India, and China. Economists predict that by 2050 the combined economies of the
BRIC could eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries of the world.
(Page 8; Fig. 1-3) What would this mean for the environment according to the figure in your
book?
II. Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development – using political and economic systems to
discourage environmentally harmful and unsustainable forms of economic growth that degrade natural
capital and to encourage environmentally sustainable forms of economic growth that help sustain
natural capital.
1. What are 3 types of goods whose exponential growth would promote environmental
sustainability and why?
1.
2.
3.
Ch. 1.2 How are Our Ecological Footprints Affecting the Earth?
I. Resource – anything obtained from the environment that meets our needs or wants.
1. Conservation – the management of natural resources with the goal of minimizing
waste in mind and sustaining the resource supply for current and future generations.
2. Resources availability
A. Directly available resources include solar energy, fresh surface water,
wind, fresh air, wild edible plants. In other words we can walk outside and
use them.
Page 4 of 10
4
5
B. Indirectly available resources include under ground water, cultivated
crops, iron ore, petroleum. These substances have to be obtained through
effort.
C. Perpetual Resources can be renewed continuously and last indefinitely.
Ex: the sun we expect will last 6 billion years
D. Renewable Resources – these resources can be replenished fairly quickly
(on a human time scale hours or hundreds of years) through natural processes.
a. The highest rate at which a resource can be used indefinitely without
reducing its available supply is its sustainable yield.
b. Exceeding a renewable resources replacement rate causes
environmental degradation. (Page 12; fig. 1-7)
II. Overexploitation of shared renewable resources – The Tragedy of the Commons
1. Three types of property rights: private, commons, & open access
A. Many common and open access properties have had their renewable
resources degraded.
B. In 1968 biologist Garrett Hardin called this degradation The Tragedy of the
Commons. This stems from the belief of each user of the commons that “if I
do not use this resource, someone else will. The little bit that I use or pollute,
will not matter anyway because it is a renewable resource.”
a. When small a number of people use this logic it works, but as we
learned, exponential use of this ideology causes resource degradation.
b. This ideology threatens long term economic and environmental
sustainability of open access resources such as clean air and open
ocean fishing.
c. Solutions:
i. Share resources at rates well below their estimated
sustainable yields. Reduce and regulate. Hunting & fishing
licenses and limits. Open seasons Ex: Deadliest Catch and
Alaskan King Crabs.
ii. Convert open access resources to private ownership.
Reasons that if people own it they will take better care of it. It
is not a good plan for resources that can’t be divided up such as
air, species of wildlife, and the open ocean.
2. Nonrenewable resources – resources that exist in a fixed quantity.
A. Renewable over million or billions of years. Ex. Coal, oil, mineral &
metallic resources.
a. Reuse – copper and aluminum can be reused over and over again in
the same form and never wear out. The best approach reuse takes the
least amount of energy and produces the least amount of pollution.
Page 5 of 10
5
6
b. Recycling – collecting waste materials and processing them into
new materials. Ex. Collecting class bottles washing tem and reusing
them.
i. Oil and coal cannot be recycled effectively because they are
used up or wear out.
ii. Recycling nonrenewable metallic resources takes less
energy, produces less pollution, and causes less environmental
degradation than exploiting virgin resources.
3. Our Ecological Footprints are growing – The amount of biologically productive
land and water required to supply the people in a particular area with the
resources they need and the ability to absorb and recycle the waste and pollution
produced by such resource use is our ecological footprint.
A. Per capita ecological footprint – the average ecological of a person in a given
country or area.
B. Biological capacity – the ability of an ecosystem to sustain and support life
C. If total ecological footprint is larger than biological capacity we have what is
called an ecological deficit. The WWF calculated the latest data since 2003
and found that the earth is currently exceeding its biological capacity by 25%
(Page 15; Fig. 1-10) The USA has the largest Ecological Footprint. The largest
per capita ecological footprint belongs to the oil rich United Arab Emirates with
the USA in second place.
D. Some countries are ecological debtors while some are creditors.
See your own ecological footprint at www.myfootprint.org
What are 3 things you could do to reduce the size of your ecological
footprint?
1.
2.
3.
4. Culture – the whole of a society’s beliefs, knowledge, technology and practices,
changes in which have a profound effect on the earth.
A. Homo sapiens sapiens has walked the earth for about 90-195 thousand years
a tiny blink of time in comparison to the estimated 3.56 billion years of life on
earth.
a. We were hunter gatherers until about 10,000 years ago when
cultivation began
b. The industrial-medical revolution began about 275 years ago
c. The information-globalization revolution began about 50 years ago
B. each cultural change has allowed humans to expand their population as well
as their ecological footprint and ultimately to dominate the planet.
Page 6 of 10
6
7
C. Many environmentalists are calling for a new revolution called the
sustainability revolution. Thus all the advertisement for “Green living” This
revolution would seek to educate people on how to reduce their ecological
footprints.
Ch. 1.4 What is Pollution and What Can We Do About It?
I. pollution – anything in the environment that is harmful to the health, survival, or
activities of humans or other organisms. They can occur naturally such as from
volcanoes or through human activities such as burning fossil fuels or discharging
chemicals into streams.
1. Pollutants come from either one of two sources: point or nonpoint
A. Point Sources are single identifiable sources. Ex. Smokestacks of a power
plant or the exhaust pipe of a car
B. Nonpoint Sources are dispersed and difficult to identify. Ex. Pesticides
blown from the land into the air or run off from fertilizer or pesticides from
farmland, lawns, gardens or golf courses.
2. There are 2 main types of pollutants
A. Biodegradable – harmful materials that can be broken down by natural
processes. Ex. Human sewage or newspaper
B. Nondegradable – harmful materials that natural processes cannot break
down. Ex. Toxic chemical element such as arsenic, lead, mercury
3. 3 types of unwanted pollution effects
A. Disrupt or degrade life support systems
B. Damage wildlife and human health or property
C. Create nuisances such as noise pollution, smells, tastes or sights
4. Clean up and prevention
A. Output Pollution Control (end of the pipe solution) – cleaning up or
diluting pollutants after they’ve been produced
a. Problems: it is only a temporary fix, removes the pollutant from
one area only to cause a problem in another, and it is expensive or
impossible.
B. Input Pollution Control (front of the pipe solution)– reduce or eliminates
the production of pollutants
a. Works better and is cheaper and easier in the long run.
Page 7 of 10
7
8
Ch. 1.5 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?
I. There are 5 identified causes for environmental problems (Page 18; Fig. 1-12)
1. Population Growth
2. Wasteful/Unsustainable Resource Use
3. Poverty
4. Low Market Prices
5. Ignorance
What are 3 ways in which your lifestyle contributes to these causes?
1.
2.
3.
II. Poverty – occurs when people cannot meet their basic needs of food, water,
health and education.
1. 50 % of the world’s population lives on less than $2 per day. Their focus
is on getting food, water, and heat to survive. Short term need outweighs the
long term concerns they might otherwise have for the environment.
A. Poverty leads to exponential population growth. Lack of birth control
and education cause a high birth rate as well as a need for extra hands to
work in fields.
B. Lack of retirement, health care, and social security encourage people to
have more children so they can be caretakers of the elderly.
C. Lack of sanitation – decreases drinkable fresh water; decreases
breathable air from firewood
D. Malnutrition – lack of essential protein and minerals found in foods
2. Affluence – Wealth; characterized by high levels of consumption and
waste. An assumption that buying and possessing more will bring happiness.
A. It takes 27 tractor trailer loads of stuff per year to support 1 American.
B. Provides the luxury of being able to see beyond tomorrow and become
more concerned with environmental issues.
C. Provides money for developing technologies to reduce pollution,
resource waste and environment degradation.
D. Finances cleaner air, better health, better food supply, pure drinking
water, protection of endangered species, reduced population growth
E. Unfortunately, it exploits resources from poorer countries
III. Low Market Prices – Costs associated with resource conservation are not
required of companies producing goods for consumers. Consumers like low
prices and companies like to maximize their prices, so most don’t pay
unrequired costs to conserve resources.
Page 8 of 10
8
9
IV. Ignorance - people have different views about environmental problems and
solutions. Mostly this arrives from having different environmental worldviews.
Worldviews are a set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the
world works and what your role in the world should be. Some people are not
educated and do not have broad horizons. They know only what they have
experienced and have not traveled or learned about the world.
1. An Environmental Worldview involves Environmental Ethics – these are
an individuals beliefs about what is right and wrong in how we treat the
environment. Turn to page 20 in your book to read some ethical questions
relating to the environment.
2. 3 Types of Environmental Worldviews
(Derived from the writings of Aldo Leopold father of Modern Ecology)
A. Planetary Management – we are separate from nature and nature
exists to meet our needs.
B. Stewardship Worldview – we can and should manage the earth for
our benefit and that we have an ethical responsibility to do so.
C. Environmental Wisdom Worldview – we are part of it, totally
dependant on it, and nature exists for all species.
D. Social Capital – Getting people with different worldviews to talk
and listen to one another to solve environmental problems. Solutions
are never black and white but we much reach a shared vision to effect
change.
3. Becoming Informed & Making Decisions – A decision making model
(Page 21; Fig. 1-15)
A. Identify the problem
B. Good science and scientific research & data
C. Propose 1 or more solutions
D. Project long & short term advantages & disadvantages
E. Decide on an implement a solution
F. Evaluate the consequences
G. Revise the decision as needed
Case Study – Environmental Transformation of Chattanooga, TN
(Page 21; Fig 1-16)
1. In 1960 Chattanooga was rated as having the worst air pollution in the U.S.
Polluted by smoke from coke ovens (where iron is smelted) and steel mills.
The Tennessee River bubbled with toxic waste. In 1984 the city got serious
about improving its environmental quality and set out a process called Vision
2000 to build a consensus of what the city could be like by the year 2000. The
citizens identified the main problems, set goals, and most were met by 1995.
Electric busses run the routes, a healthy recycling program exists, and
Page 9 of 10
9
10
renovations occur regularly. In short people working together for a
common goal of better living in a sustainable environment made this happen.
2. Individuals Matter
A. Most changes result from individuals acting together - social capital.
Also known as grassroots action.
a. It only takes 5-10% of a community working together to make a
noticeable change.
b. It also happens more quickly than you think.
c. Anthropologist Margaret Mead stated, “Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever has.”
Ch. 1.6 What Are the 4 Scientific Principles of Sustainability?
I. Nature holds the key – studying how life on the earth has survived and adapted
to major environmental changes may hold the key to our sustainability.
(Page 23; Fig. 1-17) 4 scientific principles of sustainability
1. Reliance on Solar Energy – solar capital warms the earth, supports
photosynthesis providing food for the plant and other animals
2. Biodiversity – Different species provide natural services and yield
countless ways for life to adapt to changes
3. Population Control – Competition for resources among different species
limits the size a population can grow
4. Nutrient Cycling – Natural processes recycle chemicals organisms need to
stay alive and reproduce – NOTHING IS WASTED.
II. Cultural Changes Required (Page 24; Fig. 1-18)
1. Science suggests we have about 50 and no more than 100 years to make
these changes.
2. A sustainability revolution must occur in your life time, we are in a fork in
the road.
3. Everything you do or don’t do plays a role, remember INDIVIDUALS are
important.
4. Don’t be immobilized with fear, gloom and doom – Be energized with
HOPE and ACTION
Page 10 of 10
10