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AP ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE - APES
Environmental Science is the study of how the earth
works, how we interact with and affect the
environment, and how to deal with environmental
problems.
Environmental Problems, Their
Causes, and Sustainability
Chapter 1
Environmental Science Is a Study of
Connections in Nature
 Interdisciplinary science connecting information
and ideas from
• Natural sciences, with an emphasis on ecology,
but also earth science, chemistry, physics,
astronomy
• Social sciences such as economics, politics,
ethics
• Humanities such as history, law, philosophy
A main theme in this class is
Sustainability
 How the earth’s systems and humans adapt and
survive the ever changing environment.
 A report released in 2005 reported that human
activities are putting a strain on the sustainability
of our planet. Earth’s population reaches 7
billion this year. How many people can our
planet support? And at what quality?
5 Subthemes
1. Natural capital – supported by solar capital (Fig
1-3)
• Natural resources- materials and energy needed
to sustain life
• Air, water, soil, renewable/nonrenewable
• Natural services – functions of nature
• Recycling of nutrients
2. Human activities can degrade natural capital
3. Finding solutions
4. Trade-offs
5. Individuals matter
What Is an Environmentally Sustainable
(durable) Society?
 Our lives and economies depend on energy
from the sun (solar capital) and on natural
resources and natural services (natural capital)
provided by the earth.
 Living sustainability means living off the earth’s
natural income without depleting or degrading
the natural capital that supplies it.
Living Off Earth’s Capital
 Do Not eat the goose that lays the golden egg
 If you have one million in the bank at 10% interest,
you earn $100,000 year. If you spend just $110,000
per year you will be bankrupt in 18 years
 Natural cycles will provide for us if we do not destroy
our natural capital
Don’t
Eat me
Do all Societies Use Natural Capital
Equally?
 Who do you think uses natural capital wisely?
 Who tends to degrade natural capital?
 What are some contributing factors?
There is a Wide Economic Gap Between
Rich and Poor Countries
 Country’s economic growth: measured by gross
domestic product (GDP)- annual market value of
all goods and services produced within a country
 Changes in economic growth: measured by per
capita GDP- GDP divided by total population at
midyear (US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, China)
 Purchasing power parity (PPP) plus GDP are
combined for per capita GDP PPP- (US, China,
Japan, India, Germany, France)
 Compare developed with developing countries
The Gap Between These is Widening
Economically and Socially
 Developed Countries
• 1.2 billion people
• Us, Canada, Japan,
Australia, New
Zealand, most
European countries
 Developing Countries
• 5.4 billion people
• Most in Africa, Asia
and Latin America
• China, India, Brazil,
Mexico
The Wealth Gap
 The gap between per
capita GNP or the rich
and poor has greatly
widened since 1980.
 20% high income, 25%
moderate income, 30%
low income $2-3 / day,
25% very low income of
less than $1.00/day.
 1 in 5 is hungry,
malnourished, lacks
access to clean water,
decent housing and
health care.
Resources
 Resource- anything obtained from the
environment to meet our needs.
• Directly available for use like air, wind, water and
wild edible plants
• Not directly available for use would be petroleum,
copper, groundwater and modern crops.
 Perpetual resource
• Solar energy
Some Sources Are Renewable
Renewable resource- resources that can be
renewed through natural processes. Examples are
forests, grasslands, fresh air, fertile soil.
Sustainable yield -the highest rate at which a
renewable resource can be used indefinitely
without reducing its available supply
Environmental degradation – when the supply
of a resource is reduced because we have
exceeded the replacement rate.
Some Resources Are Not Renewable
 Nonrenewable resources – exist in fixed
quantities
• Energy resources – oil, coal
• Metallic mineral resources – Al, Cu
• Nonmetallic mineral resources- sand, salt
 Reduce
 Reuse
 Recycle
Resources
Perpetual
Direct
solar
energy
Nonrenewable
Winds,
tides,
flowing
water
Fossil
fuels
Metallic
minerals
Nonmetallic
minerals
(iron,
copper,
aluminum)
(clay,
sand,
phosphates)
Renewable
Fresh
air
Fresh
water
Fertile
soil
Plants and
animals
(biodiversity)
Common Resources- think about it!
 What are some common resources that must be
shared?
 Are resources distributed equally around the
world?
 Are resources shared equally?
 Do resource-rich countries
have an obligation to share
with resource-poor countries?
Overexploiting Shared Renewable
Resources: Tragedy of the Commons
 Three types of property or resource rights
• Private property
• Common property (1/3 of all land in US is
owned by the people and managed by the
government)
• Open access renewable resources- use is
regulated by government (open oceans /fish
and clean air)
Garrett Hardin and the Tragedy of the
Commons
 Overuse of common property resources, which are
owned by no one but available to everyone free of
charge.
 Examples are clean air, oceans, fish, Antarctica.
 This leads to exploitation and then no one can use
the resource.
 “ If I don’t use this resource then someone else will,
the little bit I pollute is not enough to matter”
Footprints
 What is an ecological footprint?
 Is the world’s footprint growing or shrinking?
 What happens to the resources as the footprint
changes?
What is an ecological footprint?
 Amount of productive land and water needed to
supply the people in an area with resources to
live and the community’s ability to absorb and
recycle the wastes and pollution they produce by
using resources.
 Per capita ecological footprint - the average
ecological footprint of an individual in a given
area.
How Are Our Ecological Footprints
Affecting the Earth?
As our ecological footprints grow, we are depleting
and degrading more of the earth’s natural capital.
How is the planet’s ecological footprint?
 In 2003, the World Wildlife Fund and Global
Footprint Network estimated that the global
ecological footprint exceeded the earth’s
biological capacity by about 25% but it was
88% in the world’s high-income countries.
 American’s are the second largest consumers of
resources, and if everyone could use resources
the way we do, the Earth could only support 1.3
billion people.
Case Study: China’s New Affluent Consumers
 Affluence- the rapid unsustainable consumption of
resources associated with lifestyles of citizens in
developed countries.
 Leading consumer of various foods
and goods
• Wheat, rice, and meat
• Coal, fertilizers, steel, and cement
 Second largest consumer of oil (after the US)
As of June, 2011, the current population of China was
1,336,391,137 and they are adding 44,000 people every
day!
(In 1950, the population in China was 562,579,779)
(population #s found at geohive.com)
Case Study: China’s New Affluent
Consumers- what happens?
 Two-thirds of the most polluted cities are in China
 Projections, by 2020
• Largest consumer and producer
of cars
• World’s leading economy in terms
of GDP PPP
China’s population is expected to reach 1.5 billion by
2033. If it reaches this number, then China will need
two-thirds of the world’s current grain harvest, twice the
world’s current paper consumption, and more than the
current global production of oil. Could these needs be
met?
Cultural Changes Have Increased Our
Ecological Footprints
 12,000 years ago: hunters and gatherers
 Three major cultural events
• Agricultural revolution- 10-12,000 ya
• Industrial-medical revolution- 275 ya – fossil fuels
• Information-globalization
revolution- 50 ya
Homework for tonight
 Calculate your ecological footprint!
 Do you think you have a large or small footprint?
If everyone lived your lifestyle, how many earths
would we need?
 Find out by going to the following website:
 http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GF
N/page/personal_footprint/ complete the quiz,
and print out the last page where you learn how
many earths you would need, and then answer
the questions under assignments on my website.
What Is Pollution and What Can We Do
about It?
 Anything harmful in the environment
 Can be created naturally or by humans
 Preventing pollution is more effective and less
costly than cleaning up pollution.
Pollution Comes from a Number of
Sources
 Sources of pollution
• Point
• E.g., smokestack
• Nonpoint
• E.g., pesticides blown into
the air
 Main type of pollutants
• Biodegradable -harmful substances that can
be broken down naturally like sewage
• Nondegradable – cannot be broken down
naturally
 What are some effects of unwanted pollution?
Experts Have Identified Five Basic
Causes of Environmental Problems
1. Population growth
2. Wasteful and unsustainable resource use
3. Poverty
4. Failure to include the harmful environmental
costs of goods and services in their market
prices
5. Insufficient knowledge of how nature works
In 2008, there were 6.7 billion people. It is projected
that in 2050, there will be 9.3 billion and possibly 10
billion by the year 2100. The population increases by
about 225,000 people every day. Exponential growthincreasing at a fixed rate.
Poverty Has Harmful Environmental and
Health Effects
 Population growth affected – have more children
to support the family
 Malnutrition – lack of protein and other nutrients
 Premature death – 7 million die each day, with
2/3 being children under the age of 5
 Limited access to adequate sanitation facilities
and clean water (38% lack access)
Affluence Has Harmful and Beneficial
Environmental Effects
 Harmful environmental impact due to
• High levels of consumption
• Unnecessary waste of resources
 Affluence can provide funding for
• Developing technologies to reduce
• Pollution
• Environmental degradation
• Resource waste
Affluence plays a larger part in the degradation of
the environment than poverty
Prices Do Not Include the Value of
Natural Capital
 Companies do not pay the environmental cost of
resource use
 Goods and services do not include the harmful
environmental costs
 Companies receive tax breaks and subsidies
 Economy may be stimulated but there may be a
degradation of natural capital
I=PxAxT
 Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology
 Environmental impact is an estimate of how people are
degrading natural capital.
 Remember that some technologies increase impact
(coal burning) while other technologies decrease the
impact (fuel-efficient cars, wind turbines, pollution
control)
 In less developed countries, population size and
degradation of renewable resources is a large influence
while in developed countries, it is the high rate of per
capita resource and pollution and resources
depletion/degradation that has a larger effect on the
impact.
Why Do We Have Environmental
Problems?
 People with different environmental worldviews
often disagree about the seriousness of
environmental problems and what we should do
about them.
Different Views about Environmental
Problems and Their Solutions
 Environmental Worldview including
environmental ethics
• Planetary management worldview – nature
exists for our use and benefit. We are
separate from nature.
• Stewardship worldview –we use nature for our
benefit, but we must make wise decisions
concerning the sustainability of the planet
• Environmental wisdom worldview - we are a
part of nature and no more important than any
other part. We must learn to integrate into the
Earth systems.
Case Study: The Environmental
Transformation of Chattanooga, TN
 Environmental success story: example of
building their social capital
 1960: most polluted city in the U.S.
 1984: Vision 2000 Involved community
meetings and input from all
 1995: most goals met – set up recycling
program, reduced air pollutants to below
standards and used electric buses, park and
aquarium
 1993: Revision 2000 – revitalize Southern
Chattanooga for mixed use
Individuals Matter: Margaret Mead
 Anthropologist (1901-1978)the study of the biological,
cultural, social and origin of
humanity.
 5–10% of the population can
bring about major social change
“A small group of thoughtful people could change
the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever
has.”
Individuals Matter: Aldo Leopold
 Aldo Leopold: (1887-1948) environmental ethics
• A leader of the conservation and environmental
movements of the 20th century
• Land ethic
• Father of wildlife management
• Wrote: A Sand County Almanac
• "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging
to us. When we see land as a community to which
we belong, we may begin to use it with love and
respect. ~Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac"
What Are Four Scientific Principles of
Sustainability?
 Nature has sustained itself for billions of years
by using solar energy, biodiversity,
population control, and nutrient cycling—
lessons from nature that we can apply to our
lifestyles and economies.
 It is estimated that we have 50-100 years to
make changes in our lifestyles and economies in
order to maintain sustainability. What changes
do you think are necessary? Are we obligated to
make these changes?
What’s the use of a house if you don’t have a
decent planet to put it on?
-HENRY DAVID THOREAU
-
 Power point adapted by Wendy Barber from
Mrs. Sealy, J. Root and Miller power points.