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Chapter 1
Environmental Problems,
Their Causes, & Sustainability
tutorial by Paul Rich
© Brooks/Cole Publishing Company / ITP
OUTLINE
1 The Scope of Environmental Science
definitions, concepts, wealth gap
2 Resources
ecological vs. economic
renewable vs. non–renewable
3 Pollution
definitions, point vs. non–point sources
chemical nature, concentration, & persistence
4 Environmental Problems
major problems, root causes; overpopulation
5 Sustainability
cultural changes; scientific consensus; worldviews
© Brooks/Cole Publishing Company / ITP
1. Scope of Environmental Science
• What might the world
population reach by
2050?
• 10–11 billion
• What will be the 2
main environmental
consequences?
• resource use
• pollution
Definitions
• Environment
• Ecology
• Environmental
Science
• study of the relationships
between living organisms
& their environment
• interdisciplinary
study of the role of humans
on the Earth
• all external conditions &
factors that affect living
organisms
Key Concepts
• What is Sustainability?
• persistence of a system through time
– Can a desirable human environment be sustainable?
• What is Carrying Capacity?
• number of organisms that can be sustained in a
particular environment
– How many people can the Earth support?
– Is there a trade–off between quantity of people &
quality of life?
Population & Development
• Where is
population is
increasing faster?
• Population is
growing faster in
developing
countries more
than in developed
countries.
Wealth Gap
• What trend do you
notice?
• Since 1960 the gap
between per capita
gross national
product (GNP) of
rich, middle
income, & poor has
widened.
2. Name the Type of Resources
•anything required by an organism for normal maintenance,
growth, & reproduction
•(e.g., habitat, food, water, shelter)
•Ecological resources
•anything obtained from the environment to meet human
needs & wants
(e.g., fresh water, soil, plants & animals, fossil fuels)
•Economic resources
•resources can be replenished relatively rapidly;
•Renewable
•whereas nonrenewable resources can be exhausted & not
renewed in human time scales.
•nonrenewable
© Brooks/Cole Publishing Company / ITP
Renewable vs. Nonrenewable Resources
Why are air, water,
soil, & wildlife
are classified
here as
potentially
renewable, rather
than renewable?
• Because they can
be depleted.
3. Pollution
• single identified sources of pollution
• Pollution:
(e.g., smoke stack or effluent
discharge).
• dispersed & often difficult to identify
• Nonpoint Source:
sources (e.g., agricultural runoff).
• undesirable change in physical,
chemical, or biological
characteristics of air, water, soil, or
• Point Source:
food that can adversely affect
humans or other living organisms.
Determining Severity of Pollutants
• What do call these?
• How active & harmful the pollutant is to living organisms?
(LD50)
• Chemical Nature
• How much of the pollutant is present the environment?
(PPM)
• Concentration
• How long does it take to break down to acceptable levels?
(Freon vs Round Up)
• Persistence
• Which is more effective? Output control or clean up? Why
• Output control is easier to control.
3. Environmental Problems
Some Major Problems
•
Examples:
•
Green River Valley
•
Mississippi Delta
•
Harbor Island
More Major Problems
•
•
Examples:
Midwest – topsoil
erosion
•
Pumping aquifers dry
•
•
Tragedy of the
Commons.
Still More Major Problems
• Examples:
Amazon Rain Forest
•
Creosote & copper
plants on the Puget
Sound
• Sammamish Plateau
developments
Overpopulation
Developing countries have more people, but lower
environmental impact per person than developed
countries.
5. Sustainability
Earth’s
Carrying
Capacity
Has
Expanded
due to
cultural
change.
Information Revolution
• Useful information
allows us to
understand & better
respond to
environmental
problems.
• Information
overload
("infoglut") leads
to confusion,
distraction, & a
sense of
hopelessness.
Working Toward Sustainability
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Some Guidelines
Leave the earth as good or better than we found it.
Take no more than we need.
Try not to harm life, air, water, soil.
Protect biodiversity.
Help maintain Earth's capacity for self repair.
Don't use potentially renewable resources faster than
they are replenished.
Don't waste resources.
Don't release pollutants faster than Earth's natural
processes can dilute or degrade them.
Slow the rate of population growth.
Reduce poverty.