Environmental Challenges and Solutions: Towards Sustainable Living

1. Living in the environment

2. Environmental Science Interdisciplinary science –ecology,geology,chemistry, politics,engineering,economics,ethics Connections and interactions between humans and the rest of nature Validity of data questioned – many variables

4. Environmental Issues • Population growth • Increasing resource use • Destruction and degradation of habitat • Premature extinction • Poverty • Pollution

6. Sustainability • Ability of a specified system to survive and function over a period of time

7. Sustainable living • Meeting present needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs

8. Carrying capacity • Maximum number of organisms an environment can support over a specified period of time

9. Growth • Linear – quantity increases by constant amount per unit of time • Exponential – quantity increases by a fixed percentage of the whole in a given time

10. Doubling time • 70 / percentage of growth rate = doubling time in years • Example – human population growth • 1.28% per year • 216,000 per day • 9000 per hour

11. Economic growth – Gross National Product-GNP • Market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced by a country • Per Capita GNP – GNP/Total population

12. Economic growth – Gross Domestic Product-GDP • Market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced WITHIN a country for use during a year

13. Developed nation • 1.2 billion (20%) - highly industrialized, 85% of world wealth and income, use 88% of world resources, generate 75% of waste US,Canada,Japan,Australia,New Zealand ,most of Europe

14. Developing 4.9 billion, (80%), low to moderate industrialized, 15% of world wealth and income, use 12% of world resources Asia, Latin America, Africa

16. P (population) X A (affluence) X T (technological impact/unit of use) = I (Environmental impact)

18. Ecological footprint or environmental impact Amount of land needed to produce the resources needed by an average person in a country

19. Resources Ecological – habitat, food,shelter Economic- Renewable Non renewable Potentially renewable

20. Tragedy of the Commons- Garrett Hardin • Over use of common property • Clean air, open ocean and its fish,wild life species,publicly owned land, gases of lower atmosphere, space

21. Globalization • Social, economic and environmental change that leads to an increasingly integrated world • economic, information andcommunication,environmental effects

22. Pollution Threatens human health Natural – volcanoes Anthropogenic –human activities

23. Solutions Prevention – REFUSE, REDUCE,REUSE,RECYCLE Clean up – temporary fix, removes from one part and adds to another,expensive to reduce to acceptable levels

24. Root causes Rapid population growth Wasteful use of resources Poverty Failure to encourage earth sustaining economic development Failure to include overall economic cost

25. PLANETARY MANAGEMENT or ANTHROPOCENTRIC- “we are in charge of nature, always more to use, all economic growth is good” (ANTHROPOCENTRIC) EARTH WISDOM –”nature for all of earth’s species, not always more to use,make a judgment call about economic growth Environmental Worldview

26. Information Revolution and globalization International trade of goods increased Transnational corporations from 7,000 to 53,000 Phones –from 89 to 850 million Passenger kilometers – from 28 million to 2.6 trillion Infectious microbes transported

28. Cultural changes Hunter gatherers – 12,000 years ago Agricultural revolution – 10,000-12,000- Industrial revolution-275 years ago Technological revolution – 50 years ago

29. Hunting and Gathering Societies • nomadic, living in small bands, • population in balance with food supply • high infant mortality,life expectancy 30-40 yr. • 3 energy sources - sun, fire, muscle power

30. Agricultural Societies • settled communities • slash and burn cultivation to fertilize nutrient poor field by ashes • shifting cultivation • subsistence farming

31. Effects and Environmental Impact • Urbanization and agricultural expansion, cut down forests, destroyed habitats, soil erosion and desertification • birth rate faster than death- population increase

32. Early Industrial societies(mid 1700’s) • wood used up - coal usage • steam generation • fossil fuel powered farm machinery- less farmers needed- moved to cities

33. Advanced Industrial societies (1914 ---) • increase in agricultural products • lower infant mortality • improved health • increase in longevity • net population increase

34. Resource Conservation • 1903-Theodore Roosevelt, Pelican Island,Florida to save the Brown Pelican • 1905- Gifford Pinchot - US Forest Service • “resources should be saved to be used for the greatest good, for the greatest number, for the longest time”

35. Moral / Aesthetic Nature Conservation • John Muir , Sierra Club • “fundamental right of organisms to exist for it’s own sake”

36. US Environmental Movement - 1960’s • 1962- , Rachel Carson “Silent Spring”, threats of pollution and toxic chemicals • David Brower and Barry Commoner,Paul Ehrlich,Garret Hardin -relationship between population growth, resource use,pollution

37. Events - Increased Awareness • 1963 - air pollution in New York • Laundry detergent in water • 1969- Cuyahoga in Ohio • Love Canal , New York • pollution of Lake Erie • Extinction -grizzly,bald eagle,whooping crane,falcon

38. Environmental events- 1970’s • 1972-UN- Human development • 1973 - OPEC oil embargo • Roland and Molina - CFC’s cause ozone depletion • Carter creates Superfund to clean hazardous waste sites(Love Canal) • Three Mile Island

39. Environmental events - 1980’s • 1981 - Ronald Reagan - sagebrush philosophy • 1986-Chernobyl disaster • 1987-Montreal Protocol - fade out CFC’s • Exxon Valdez disaster

40. Environmental Events - 1990 • 1991-Persian Gulf war - protect oil • 1992 - UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil • 1994 - UN Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, Egypt. • 1995- US Congress,reduce environmental spending - vetoed by Clinton • 1997 - Kyoto- global warming

41. Environmental events - 2000 • Clinton protects large areas in national forests from roads and logging - designated as national monuments

42. Sagebrush Revolution • remove most lands from federal ownership and turn over to States • great supporter - Ronald Reagan

43. Environmental Revolution ….shift from • pollution cleanup to prevention • waste disposal to waste reduction • species protection to habitat protection • increased resource use to conservation