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Chapter 1

Chapter 1. Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability. What is Environmental Science?. Environment “the sum total of all living and nonliving things that affect any living organism.” Environmental Science

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Chapter 1

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  1. Chapter 1 Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

  2. What is Environmental Science? • Environment • “the sum total of all living and nonliving things that affect any living organism.” • Environmental Science • “An interdisciplinary study that integrates information and ideas from the natural sciences… and the social sciences…” • Environmentalism • Socio-political movement dedicated to passing environmental legislation, promoting solutions to environmental problems, and protesting harmful environmental activities. From Miller, G.Tyler. (2007) Living in the Environment, Belmont, CA: Thompson Learning, Inc.

  3. Goals of Environmental Science • “The goals of environmental science are to learn: • how nature works. • how the environment affects us. • how we affect the environment • how we can live more sustainably without degrading our life supporting system.” From Miller, G.Tyler. (2007) Living in the Environment, Belmont, CA: Thompson Learning, Inc.

  4. Ecological Footprint • Go to www.myfootprint.org • Consider the four consumption categories: • In which category(s) did your group do better than the national average? • In which category(s) did your group do worse than the national average? • What personal practices might you change to reduce your ecological footprint?

  5. Sustainability • A few definitions… • “ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes and functions, biological diversity, and productivity over time.” • “ability of a natural system to maintain essential processes and remain productive indefinitely.” • A particular practice is sustainable if it produces a yield of a natural resource that can be produced continually from generation to generation without depleting the resource.

  6. What is natural capital? From Miller, G.Tyler. (2007) Living in the Environment, Belmont, CA: Thompson Learning, Inc.

  7. Causes of Environmental Problems

  8. The Story of Stuff

  9. World Population Growth • "World population development." UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library. 1997?. UNEP/GRID-Arendal. 4 Sep 2008 <http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/world_population_development>.

  10. Population Growth Projections Learn More! • "World Population Trends." International Data Base (IDB). 08 June 2008. U.S. Census Bureau. 4 Sep 2008 <http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.html>. ACTUAL HUMAN POPULATION Thomas Malthus Essay

  11. Renewable Resources • Perpetual resource: solar energy • Renewable resource: can be replenished fairly rapidly (hours to decades) • wind • forests • grasslands • crops • wild and domesticated animals • fresh air • fresh water – depends on type of degradation • fertile soil – takes 100 years to make 1”

  12. Nonrenewable Resources • Nonrenewable resources: exist in “fixed” quantities (renewal time is in millions to billions of years) • energy resources • metallic mineral resources • non-metallic mineral resources

  13. Pollution • Undesirable natural or human release of substances or energy into ecosystems that harms living resources, or life, poses a hazard to human health, hinders human activities, or impairs the quality of the ecological resources.* * From The Green Lane, Environment Canada – based on Wells and Rolston, 1991, and Miller, 2008

  14. Pollution Types point source – traceable to a single, identifiable source non-point source –cannot be traced to a single point • comes from many sources • comes from a widespread area

  15. Prevention vs. Cleanup

  16. The Gap • Tony Auth/Philadelphia Inquirer

  17. Affluenza • Coined by de Graff, Wann, and Naylor • “painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.” • Syn: Overconsumption • Enormous environmental impact. Why? FILM RESOURCES • http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/ • http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/affl.html

  18. Poverty’s Role • Environmental Effects of Poverty • The poor deplete and degrade land and water resources. • Often have many children as a form of economic security • Participate in transient or short-sighted economic ventures • Lack economic capital to either prevent or cleanup pollution • The poor are not able to mitigate the effects of natural disasters that damage infrastructure or add natural pollutants to ecosystems. • And?.... What is poverty? A person is considered poor if his or her consumption or income level falls below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. This minimum level is usually called the "poverty line".

  19. Environmental Impact in theory

  20. I=PAT Equation - Another View

  21. I=PAT Comparison

  22. I=PAT Equation & GDP

  23. I=PAT Equation Practice Use the I=PAT equation to calculate the environmental impact of driving in terms of CO2 emissions per year at the beginning of the 21st Century, when there were 6 billion people, an average of 0.1 motor vehicles per person, and 5.4 tons of CO2 emitted by each car per year. A. 3.24 trillion tons of CO2 emitted B. 6.48 billion tons of CO2 emitted C. 3.24 billion tons of CO2 emitted D. 16.1 billion tons of CO2 emitted Source: Raven, Berg: Environment, 5th edition.

  24. Human Cultural Changes Increase Impact • Homo sapiens (“knowing man”) • 90,000 to 195,000 ya • Agricultural revolution • (12,000 ya) • Industrial-medical revolution • (275 ya) • Information-globalization revolution • (50 ya) • Despite poverty indices, global living conditions have improved for majority

  25. Environmental World Views • “set of assumptions and values about how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be.” • Frontier • Planetary management • Stewardship • Environmental wisdom • Deep-ecology • Ecofeminism

  26. Four Components of Sustainability

  27. References • "Glossary of Water Terms." 2008. Water Environment Federation. 10 Sep 2008 <http://www.wef.org/AboutWater/ForThePublic/WaterTerms/>. • Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment. 15th. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc., 2007. • Polgreen. Lydia. "World Bank Ends Effort to Help Chad Ease Poverty," The New York Times 11 Sep 2008. 10 Sep 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/world/africa/11chad.html?ref=world> • "Stormwater Program." The City of Patterson. 10 Sep 2008 <http://www.ci.patterson.ca.us/Default.aspx?pi=89&ni=110>. • "Understanding Poverty." PovertyNet. 2008. The World Bank. 10 Sep 2008 <http://go.worldbank.org/RQBDCTUXW0>. • Wells, P.G. and S.J. Rolston (eds.). 1991. Health of our oceans: a status report on Canadian marine environmental quality. Ottawa: Environment Canada, Conservation and Protection.

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