ENVS 101

1. ENVS 101 http://faculty.winthrop.edu/bollingerm

2. Environmental science Environmental studies Interdisciplinary!

3. Population changes over time • Hunter gatherers • Agricultural revolution (~10,000 years ago) • Industrial revolution (mid-1700s)

4. Limited Resources • Garrett Hardin – “Tragedy of the Commons” (1968) • Ecological footprints • Renewable vs. nonrenewable resources

5. Ecological footprint

6. Environmental ethics • Values • Anthropocentrism, biocentrism, ecocentrism • Preservation vs. conservation • Environmental justice • Sustainability

7. Preservation Conservation Put natural resources to use Manage resources wisely Greatest good for greatest number of people for longest time Gifford Pinchot, Aldo Leopold • Fundamental right of all organisms to exist • Protect environment in a pristine, unaltered state • John Muir

8. Economics • Subsistence vs. capitalism • Supply and demand • Cost-benefit analyses should Include ecosystem services and other externalities • Is economic growth sustainable?

9. Environmental policies • Problem solving • Examples from the United States • Federal vs. state level • International policies depend on customs and conventions

10. Policy development in US • Identify problem and its cause • Identify a solution and organize • Get access to policymakers • Laws established by Congress and President • Administrative agency establishes regulations and monitors compliance

11. US balance of power • Legislative branch • Executive branch • Judicial branch • Power of states?

12. United States examples • Westward expansion and exploitation • Preservation vs. conservation • Responses to pollution problems

13. Early Phase in US (1) • Driven by desire for westward expansion • From 1780s until late 1800s • Western lands are infinite and uninhabited?

14. Second phase in US: Preservation and Conservation • Late 1800s until now • Correct some problems caused by westward expansion • Mitigation of exploitation

15. Preservation and conservation (2) • First national park (1872) • Forest reserve system (1891) • First national wildlife refuge (1903) • Soil conservation laws during Dust Bowl (1930s) • Wilderness Act of 1964: “untrammeled by man”

16. Third phase in US: Response to pollution problems • Silent Spring and burning of Cuyahoga River • National Environmental Policy Act (1970) Creation of environmental agency Requirement of Environmental Impact Statements for federal projects • Environmental Protection Agency established in 1970 – subsumed many agencies

17. Third phase or modern environmentalism • Fight pollution and its effects • Human health • Environmental justice movement • Many famous environmentalists • Intervention in regulatory hearings, books, mass media campaigns, law suits and litigation

18. Enforcing a policy • Command and control • Economic incentives • Tax breaks or subsidies • Green taxes (polluter pays) • Cap and trade (tradable pollution permits) • Local incentives (tax breaks for water efficient appliances, waste disposal penalties, for instance)

19. International environmental policies • System of conventions or treaties • Pay attention to customs • Powerful organizations UN, World Bank, European Union, World Trade Organization, Non-governmental organizations (Nature Conservancy, Greenpeace, for example)

20. Global environmentalism • Famous photo of Earth from space • Activities primarily through United Nations • Links between poverty, oppression, exploitation of humans, exploitation of environment

21. Earth Rise