Happy Wednesday  Take out a sheet of paper or if you have your spiral turn to the 3 rd page.

1. Happy Wednesday Take out a sheet of paper or if you have your spiral turn to the 3rd page.

2. Our State of the Union Address… Our Ideal world, where we are, what will we do about it.

3. 1. Environmental Science A. Studies the environment • Everything around us (biotic and abiotic factors and how it all interacts. • Interdisciplinary study (encompasses biology, chemistry, geology, geography, economics, politics, humanities, philosophy and ethics. B. Our goals: • How nature works • How nature affects us • How we affect nature • Solutions to remedy the effects we have on nature.

4. To get to the point We alter our world… and usually its not for the better.

5. 2. Sustainability (Our Ideal) • The ability to change/adapt to changing environmental conditions INDEFINITELY. B. Components: What has to be in place for it to happen. • Natural capital: natural resources, natural services (nutrient cycling) • Human activities degrade natural capital by using normally renewable resources faster than nature renews them. • Environmental Scientists search for solutions. • Trade-Offs/ Compromise: Cost efficiency Examples: Solar power, electric cars 5. Individuals make the difference: We all have to work together. ENVIROMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY= Living off of our natural income

6. How does this work? $1 million Invest and earn 10% interest Sustainable income = $100,000 a year (INDEFINATELY!!!) ***remember that is what sustainable means*** What if… $200,000? Gone by the early 7th year. $110,000? Gone by the early 18th year. Lesson: PROTECT YOUR CAPITAL AND LIVE OFF THE INCOME IT PRODVIDES.

7. So, where are we? On a scale of 1-5 ( 5being awesome)… Where do you think we are? Are we sustainable? 5 OR Are we headed to bankrupt? 1 In other words: Are we sinking or are we surviving?

8. 3. Environmental Indicators • Biodiversity • Food production • Average global surface temp and CO2 concentrations • Human Populations • Resource Degradation (air, soil, forests, aquifers, water, fish, habitats and species)

9. Rhyming poem (5 lines) • Limerick: (5 lines with a strict sound pattern as follows: da DUM da da DUM da da DUM. • The last words of the first, second and fifth lines rhyme. • The first, second and fifth lines are longer. • The third and fourth lines rhyme with each other. • Cinquain • Consists of two syllables? one word (THE TITLE) • 4 syllables/ 2 words that describe the title • Six syllables/ 3 words (action) • Eight syllables/ 4 words (feeling) • Two syllables/ one word (another word for the title)

10. Happy Thursday!!! • Make sure that you have completed your assignment (poem) from yesterday. • We will meet in the computer lab in the library tomorrow. Just go straight there

11. 4. What are the causes? A. Population Growth: Would you rather get 1 million dollars or $0.1 that day and then each additional day get that amount added to itself? Lets put it another way… lets take a piece of paper for example. At seventeen folds = average house. 20 folds = a quarter way up the Sears tower. 30 folds = it has crossed the outer limits of the atmosphere. 50 folds = it has reached the sun. 60 folds = it has the diameter of the solar system. 100 folds = radius of the universe. This is called exponential growth. Even though our growth rate has declined since 1963, each day we add an average of 225, 000 people to the earth.

12. B. Wasteful unsustainable resource use. Some things to think about: • What shall we maximize? Bentham, states “The greatest good for the greatest number”. Is this achievable? • Maximize population= can only use just enough energy to survive. Means no vacations, work, swimming, shopping, talking on the phone, anything enjoyable. • Optimum point can’t be maximum for everyone to be “good”. • This creates TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS. • So what is our optimum point then? Optimum point must = growth rate reaches zero and states stable (Sustainability) • Malthius states that population tends to grow “geometrically “, or what we call exponentially. So is our world finite? If so then, “a finite world can support only a finite population, therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero”. “The Tragedy of the Commons” By: Garrett Hardin, 1968 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZFkUeleHPY

13. C. Poverty Lets get perspective: Charts from poverty Truth about poverty: -Desperate for short term survival -Affects population growth

14. D. Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in their market prices. E. Insufficient knowledge of how nature works. What nature tells us… 1. Reliance on solar energy 2. Biodiversity 3. Nutrient recycling 4. Population control

15. Reality… ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT: The amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply the people of a particular country or area with resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use. (In other words how much land it takes to support our life styles) It is measured in hectares (2.47 acres)

16. What can we do? In his essay “ From Carrying Capacity to Footprint and Back” Michael Cain gives 4 solutions. • Our global population size stabilizes and slowly decreases. • People in wealthy nations engage in smart consumption (Recycle, Reduce, Reuse) • Societies invest heavily in sustainable forms of energy. 4. Earth’s lands and waters are protected.

17. Lets review • The ability to change and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely is tragedy of the commons. • When looking at sustainability it is important to look at cost efficiency. • Sustainability is the amount of land and water that is needed to support a person’s lifestyle. • Tragedy of the Commons discusses the importance of monitoring and controlling the use of natural resources. Sustainability Ecological footprint