Download Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

Chapter One: Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
What is “Environmental Science?”
• The study of how humans interact with
the environment of living and nonliving things.
• Our Goals: (To Learn….)
1. How nature works
2. How the environment affects us
3. How we affect the environment
4. How to deal with environmental problems and live more sustainably
• How is “environmentalism” different than Environmental Science?
• Environmentalism – is a social movement dedicated to
protecting the earth’s life support systems for us and all other
forms of life.
Environmental Science Is an
Interdisciplinary Study
Sustainability: the ability of the earth’s various natural systems and human
cultural systems and economies to survive and adapt to changing
environmental conditions indefinitely.
“Living off the earth’s natural income without depleting or
degrading the natural capital that supplies it”
Natural Capital
• The natural resources and natural services that keep us and
other forms of life alive and support our economies.
• Natural resources:
•
Renewable – solar, wind, plant and animal life; things
replaced by natural processes faster than they are
consumed.
•
Non-Renewable – fossil fuels, copper, oil, … found in
limited amounts, and are replaced naturally at a slow
rate, not keeping up with consumption.
Natural Services: functions of nature (What does nature do for
us?)
- Purification of air and water
- Nutrient cycling Ex. Nitrogen Cycle
- Solar capital (energy from the sun)
Environmentally Sustainable Societies Protect Natural
Capital and Live Off Their Income!
• Natural Income = renewable resources
• Example: If you invested $1 million dollars and earned
10% interest per year, you would have a sustainable
income of $100,000. That you could live off of indefinitely,
but if you spend $110,000 a year you will be bankrupt in
18 years.
• We are currently degrading or overusing 62% of the
earth’s natural services. “Living an unsustainable life that
will effect the lives of future generations!
NATURAL
CAPITAL
Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Natural Services
Solar
capital
Air
Air purification
Renewable
energy
(sun, wind,
water flows)
Climate control
UV protection
(ozone layer)
Life
(biodiversity)
Water
Population
control
Water purification
Waste treatment
Nonrenewable
minerals
iron, sand)
Pest
control
Soil
Soil renewal
Land
Food production
Nutrient
recycling
Oil
Nonrenewable
energy
(fossil fuels)
Natural resources
Natural services
Fig. 1-3, p. 8
1-2 How Can Environmentally Sustainable Societies Grow Economically?
I.
The Gap between Rich & Poor Countries is Wide:
•
Economic Growth = an increase in a nation’s output of goods and services.
•
Measured by % change in a country’s (GDP) Gross Domestic Product.
•
Annual market value of all goods and services within a country.
•
Per Capita GDP = a country’s economic growth per person
•
GDP divided by the total population at midyear.
•
Per Capita GDP PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) = measure of the
amount of goods and services that a country’s average citizen could
buy in the U.S.
• Economic Development = using economic growth to improve
living standards.
• Classified as economically developed or developing based
on their degree of industrialization and their GDP PPP.
Developed
Developing
U.S.
Most in Africa
Canada
Most in Asia
Japan
Most in Latin America
Comparison of Percentage of
Developed and World's:
Developing
Population
Countries, 2008
Population
growth
18%
82%
0.12%
1.46%
77 years
Life
expectancy
Wealth and
income
Resource
use
Pollution
and waste
67 years
85%
15%
88%
12%
75%
25%
Developed
countries
Developing
countries
Fig. 1-5, p. 11
Current Human population growth is exponential.
•
We are predicted to reach 9 billion people by
2050!
•
97% of that growth comes from developing
countries that are least equipped to handle that
growth.
•
Despite a 40 fold increase in economic growth
since 1990: More than half the people in the
world live in extreme poverty and try to
survive on a daily income of $2.
We need to focus on Environmentally Sustainable
Economic Development.
•
Discouraging harmful and unsustainable
economic growth while Encouraging beneficial
and sustainable forms of economic development
that help sustain natural capital.
1-3 How are our Ecological Footprints Affecting the Earth?
• Sustainable Yield = the highest rate at which a renewable
resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available
supply.
• Environmental Degradation = when the renewable resources
available supply begins to shrink.
• We can Overexploit Commonly Shared Renewable Resources:
*“Tragedy of the Commons,” 1968 Garrett Hardin
* Mentality = If I don’t use it, someone else will. The
little bit that I use or pollute is not enough to matter,
and anyway, it’s renewable.
* Reality, many end up using/polluting it and eventually
it is used up or ruined!
‰ Nonrenewable Resources:
• Can be used up, but also some can be reused or recycled!
• Ex. Copper, Aluminum, and Glass
• Glass can be Reused, cleaned and refilled over and over.
‰ Our Ecological Footprints are Growing:
• Ecological Footprint = the amount of biologically productive
land and water needed to supply the people in a particular
country or area with resources and to absorb and recycle the
wastes and pollution produced by the use of the resources.
• If everyone in the world consumed as much as
the average American does today, the Earth would
only be able to support 1.3 billion people, not the
6.7 billion we have today!
• We are living unsustainably by depleting and
degrading some of the Earth’s irreplaceable
resources.
Natural Capital Use and Degradation
Total Ecological Footprint (million hectares)
and Share of Global Ecological Capacity (%)
2,810 (25%)
United States
2,160 (19%)
European Union
China
2,050 (18%)
China
Japan
780 (7%)
540 (5%)
Earth's
ecological
capacity
9.7
United States
European Union
India
Number of Earths
Per Capita Ecological Footprint
(hectares per person)
India
4.7
1.6
0.8
Japan
4.8
Projected footprint
Ecological
footprint
Stepped Art
Fig. 1-10, p. 15
• Cultural Changes Have Increased Our Ecological Footprints:
• 3 Major Cultural Changes have Occurred:
1. Agricultural Revolution – 10,000 – 12,000 yrs ago; learning to
grow and breed plants & animals.
2. Industrial-Medical Revolution - 275 years ago; learning large
scale production and how to get energy from fossil fuels.
3. Information-Globalization Revolution – started 50 years ago;
we developed new technology for gaining access to more
information and resources on a global scale.
• Each caused:
• An increase in population, greater
resource use, pollution, and
environmental degradation; all allowing
us to control the fate of the Earth.
• Our new hopes would be to
transition into the Environmental or
Sustainability Revolution = learning
how to better serve us and the
Earth!
1-4 What is Pollution and What Can We Do About It?
Pollution Comes from a Number of Sources:
• Pollution = anything in the environment that is harmful to the
health, survival, or activities of humans or other organisms.
•Two Sources of Pollutants:
1. Point Sources
•
Single, identifiable sources.
•
Ex: Smokestack of coal-burning plant
2. Nonpoint Sources
•
Dispersed, difficult to identify the source.
• Ex: Runoff fertilizers from farms, gardens, and soil.
• Two Main Types of Pollutants:
1. Biodegradable – harmful but can be broken
down. Ex: Human Sewage
2. Nondegradable - natural processes cannot
break down. Ex: Toxic chemical elements like
lead, mercury or arsenic.
Ways to help:
1. Pollution Cleanup or Output Control
• Cleaning up or diluting pollutants after they have been
produced.
• Problems:
• Temporary Bandage
Ex: Catalytic converters
• Removes one pollutant only to cause another.
Ex: Collecting then burning garbage.
• Cost too high or impossible to reduce to acceptable
levels.
2. Pollution Prevention or Input Control
•
Reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants.
*Best case scenario is to focus on # 2 - Prevention!
1-5 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?
• Experts Have Identified Five Basic Causes of Environmental Problems:
Causes of Environmental Problems
Population
growth
Unsustainable
resource use
Poverty
Excluding
environmental costs
from market prices
Trying to manage
nature without
knowing enough
about it
• Poverty has Harmful Environmental & Health Effects:
• Desperate for short-term survival some will deplete and degrade resources.
• It affects population growth; they have more children to help with costs,
work and care needs.
Stepped Art
Fig. 1-12, p. 18
•Affluence Has Harmful & Beneficial Environmental Effects
• Bad because
• Lifestyles of many affluent consumers in developed countries like China or
India are built on high levels of consumption and unnecessary waste of
resources.
• Belief that “Buying more and more things brings happiness!”
• Good because
• Can lead people to become more concerned about environmental quality.
• Provides money for developing technologies to reduce problems
• Cleaner air, drinking water cleaner rivers & lakes, etc…; more abundant
food supplies, safer products, better medicine, etc….
Some Important Ethical Questions:
1. Should we care about the Environment?
2. Are we the most important species on the
planet or equal to other organisms?
3. Do we have an obligation to not cause
premature extinctions and to protect all
species?
4. Do we have an obligation to pass on to
future generations the extraordinary natural
world in good condition?
5. Should every person be entitled to equal
protection from hazards regardless of: race,
gender, origin, income, etc…?
Identify an environmental problem
Gather scientific information
Steps
Involved in
Making an
Environment
al Decision
Propose one or more solutions
Project the short- and long-term
environmental and economic advantages
and disadvantages of each solution
Decide on and implement a solution
Evaluate the consequences
Revise decision as needed
Fig. 1-15, p. 21
1-6 What Are Four Scientific Principles of Sustainability?
1. Reliance on
Solar
Energy
2. Biodiversity
3. Nutrient
Cycling
4. Population
Control
Pollution cleanup
Pollution prevention
Waste disposal
(bury or burn)
Waste prevention
Protecting species
Protecting habitat
Environmental
degradation
Environmental
restoration
Increasing resource
use
Less resource waste
Population growth
Population stabilization
Depleting and
degrading
natural capital
Protecting natural
capital
Fig. 1-18, p. 24