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Teachers Resource

Teachers Resource. Learning from the past. The Mayans Easter Island Mesopotamia Biosphere 2. 1.3. WHY IS SUSTAINABILITY AN ISSUE?. 1.4. State of the world - social. In 2000: Global population 6.1 billion, up from 2.5 billion in 1950 95% of population growth in developing countries

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Teachers Resource

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  1. Teachers Resource

  2. Learning from the past • The Mayans • Easter Island • Mesopotamia • Biosphere 2 1.3

  3. WHY IS SUSTAINABILITY AN ISSUE? 1.4

  4. State of the world - social • In 2000: • Global population 6.1 billion, up from 2.5 billion in 1950 • 95% of population growth in developing countries • 1.2 billion in severe poverty (<$1/day) • More than 1 billion people overweight (in the US, 61% adults overweight, 27% obese) • 1.1 billion without access to safe water • 3 million people died of AIDS (cumulative total now almost 22 million) and 58 million had HIV • On average a person was infected with HIV every six seconds • In Botswana, one in three adults was infected with HIV 1.5

  5. State of the world - social United States: • Fordham University ‘index of social health’ 44% lower in 1996 than in 1973, despite stock market highs • Now the world’s largest penal colony (nearly five million men in the US awaiting trial, in prison, on probation or on parole) • There is no cost difference between incarceration and an Ivy League education Australia: • In 1996, 2 million lived below the poverty line • Top 20 percent of households had 44 percent of private income while the bottom 20 percent had just 3 percent • Now one of the most unequal of all developed countries (having slipped from 7th to 15th on the UN Index of Human Development) (continued) 1.6

  6. State of the world - environment • 12% of 9,900 bird species in the world threatened with extinction • Over the last 200 years, 103 bird extinctions have been already documented – rate more than 50 times “background” rates of extinction • 27% of the world’s coral reefs were severely damaged by 2000, compared to only 10% in 1992 • In the last 100 years, Earth has lost over half its wetlands – in South-east Australia this figure is 89% • Aquifers are being depleted worldwide, with water tables in many parts falling by as much as a metre a year 1.7

  7. State of the world - environment • Atmospheric carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) is 30% higher than pre-industrial times and highest in at least 420,000 years • Strong scientific consensus that most warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities • 10% decrease in snow cover since the 1960s • Global average sea level has risen 10-20 cm • IPCC projections - by the year 2100: • globally averaged surface temperature will warm by 1.4 to 5.8ºC (relative to 1990) • global mean sea level will rise by 9 to 88cm (relative to 1990) (continued) 1.8

  8. State of the world - economic • In 2000, foreign debt of developing and former Eastern bloc nations stood at US$2.57 trillion ($2,570,000,000,000) (1999 dollars) • During the 1990’s the economic toll of natural disasters topped US$608 billion, more than the previous four decades combined • Of the US$9 trillion spent every year in the United States, US$2 trillion is wasted 1.9

  9. State of the environment - Australia Between 1996 and 2001: • Additional 500,000 hectares of land became salt affected (bringing total to at least 2.5 million hectares or 5% of our cultivated land • Further 5.7 million hectares identified as having a high potential for developing dryland salinity • Common cause of dryland salinity has been changes to water tables from inappropriate land use 1.10

  10. State of the environment - Australia • Predicted that without significant action, within 20 years Adelaide’s drinking water would fail World Health Organisation standards in two days out of five • Predicted if nothing is done, salinity will cost $1 billion a year by 2100 • Many coastal areas have poor water quality from sediment, resulting from soil erosion. 11.7 million tonnes/sediment/year enter Great Barrier Reef alone. In North Queensland, grazing lands product about 66% of estimated annual sediment to rivers (continued) 1.11

  11. State of the environment - Australia • Air quality generally improved or remained constant • Threatening processes to biodiversity include salinisation, land clearing, fragmentation of ecosystems, exotic organisms and changing hydrological conditions • Australia has 10% of world’s endangered species, second only to the US • Net loss in vegetative cover since 1996 • In 1999, 469,000 hectares of woody vegetation cleared nationally (425,000 ha in Queensland) • Many heritage buildings damaged through inappropriate development • Decline in Indigenous languages (continued) 1.12

  12. Valuing the environment • Wealth is: “something that that has real value in terms of meeting our needs and fulfilling our wants: the natural productive systems of the planet and physical things like factories, homes, farms, stores, actual transportation and communications facilities, as well as the people who work to produce the goods and services that sustain us. Modern money is only a number on a piece of paper or an electronic trace in a computer, that by a social convention gives its holder a claim on that real wealth. In our confusion, we’ve concentrated on the money, to the neglect of those things that actually sustain a good life.” David Korten 1.13

  13. Valuing the environment • ‘Ecosystem services’ include: • photosynthesis • pollination • nurseries for commercial fish species (in mangroves and coral reefs in particular) • regulation of climate • soil production and protection • storage and cycling of essential nutrients • absorption, breakdown and dispersal of organic wastes and pollutants • control of crop and livestock pests through predation • Services provided globally by the environment estimated at least US$36 trillion annually. In Australia, services estimated at $1.3 billion annually 1.14

  14. Measurement of the amount of raw materials consumed in the United States (WW I – World War I, WW II – World War II) Source: Matos and Wagner 1.15

  15. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”. - Margaret Mead 1.16

  16. One can of cola ... 1.17

  17. KEY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES – A SUMMARY

  18. Enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming • Atmosphere surrounding the earth a mixture of gases • Greenhouse gases (eg water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane) so called because they trap heat, leading to warming lower atmosphere. This process occurs naturally and is essential to sustaining life on earth • Human activities in last 200 years (e.g. burning fossil fuels) have increased concentration of greenhouse gases, resulting in increased warming of the lower atmosphere - the enhanced greenhouse effect 1.19

  19. Enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming • Some gases, e.g. those used in air conditioning, have strong global warming potential • Other sources of emissions include agriculture (methane from animals and rice paddies), and waste in landfills (methane) • Plants convert carbon dioxide to oxygen so land clearing diminishes this potential (continued) 1.20

  20. Enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming (continued) 1.21

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