Chapter 1: Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

1. Chapter 1:Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability Maisy Fallon LombeMundende

2. Afflueza—unsustainable addiction to over consumption and materialism exhibited in the lifestyles of affluent consumers in the US and other developed countries Common property—resource that people normally are free to use Developed countries—countries that are highly industrialized and have a high per capita GDP Developing countries—countries that have low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate per capita GDP Ecological footprints—amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such recourses

3. Ecology—biological science that studies the relationship between living organisms and their environment Economic development—improvement of human living standards by economic growth Economic growth—increase in the capacity to provide people with goods and services Environment—all external conditions and factors, living and nonliving, that affect any living organism or other specified systems Environmental degradation—depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replenished

4. Environmental ethics—Human beliefs about what is right or wrong with how we treat the environment Environmental science—interdisciplinary study that uses information from physical and social science to understand how the earth works, learn how humans interact with the earth and develop solutions to environmental problems Environmentalism—Social movement dedicated to protecting the earth’s life-supporting systems for us and other species Environmentally sustainable economic development—development that encourages forms of economic growth that meet the basic needs of the current generation of humans and other species without preventing future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs and discourages environmentally harmful and unsustainable forms of economic growth Environmentally sustainable society—society that meets the current and future basic needs of its people for basic resources in a just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs

5. Environmental wisdom worldview—we are part of and totally dependent on nature and nature exists for all species, not just us, and we should encourage earth-sustaining forms of economic growth and development and discourage earth-degrading forms. Exponential growth—growth in which some quantity, such as population size or economic output, increases at a constant rate per unit of time Free access resources—resources people are normally free to use Frontier environmental worldview—view by European colonists settling North America in the 1600s that the continent had vast resources and was a wilderness to be conquered by settlers clearing and planting land Globalization—broad process of global social, economic, and environmental change that leads to an increasingly integrated world Gross domestic product (GDP)—annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating within a country

6. Natural capital—natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies Non-point sources—large or dispersed land areas such as crop fields, streets, and lawns that discharge pollutants into the environment over a large area Nonrenewable resources—resources that exist in a fixed amount in the earth’s crust and has the potential for renewal by geological, physical and chemical processes that take place over hundreds of millions to billions of years Per Capita GDP—annual gross domestic product of a country divided by its total population at mid year Per capita ecological footprint—amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply each person or population with renewable resources they use and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resources

7. Perpetual resource—essentially inexhaustible resources on a human time scale because it is renewed continuously Planetary management worldview—we are separate from nature, nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants, and we can use our ingenuity and technology to manage the earth’s life-supporting systems, mostly for our benefits Point sources—single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment Pollution—an undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, water, soil or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activity of humans or other living organisms Pollution cleanup (output pollution control)—device or process that removes or reduces the level of a pollutant after it has been produced or has entered the environment Pollution prevention (input pollution control)—device or process that prevents a potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or sharply reduces the amount entering the environment

8. Poverty—inability to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter Recycling –collecting and reprocessing a resource so that it can be made into a new product Renewable resource—resource that can be replenished rapidly through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is replaced Resource—Anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants Reuse—using a product over and over again in the same form Social capital—positive force created when people with different views and values find common ground and work together to build understanding, trust, and informed shared visions of what their communities, states, nations, and the world could and should be Solar capital—solar energy that warms the planet and supports photosynthesis

9. Sound science—concepts and ideas that are widely accepted by experts in a particular field of the natural or social sciences Stewardship worldview—We can manage the earth for our benefit but we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers of the earth Sustainability—ability of earth’s various systems, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely Sustainable yield—highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply Tragedy of the commons—depletion or degradation of a potentially renewable resource to which people have free and unmanaged access

10. AP Environmental Science Chapter 1 Objectives LombeMundende Maisy Fallon

11. What is the major theme of this book?? • Sustainabilityor Durabilitywhich is the ability of earth’s various system, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions idefinitely.

12. What keeps us alive? What is an environmentally sustainable society?? • Our lives and economies depend on energy from the sun and the earth’s natural resources and natural services(natural capital) that nature provides for us at no cost. • An Environmentally Sustainable Societymeets the current needs of it’s people for food, clean water, clean air, shelter and other basic resources without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

13. How fast is the human population growing?? • Currently the world’s population is growing exponentially at a rate of about 1.2% per year. This rate added about 78million people(6.5billion X .012=78million) to the world’s population in 2005, an average increase of 214,100 people per day, or 8900 per hour.

14. What is the difference between economic growth, economic development, and environmentally sustainable economic development?? • Economic growth is an increase in the capacity of a country to provide people with goods and services, which is usually measured by the percentage change in a country’s gross domestic product(GDP): the annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating with in a country.

15. What is the difference between economic growth, economic development, and environmentally sustainable economic development?? • Economic Developmentis the improvement of human living standards by economic growth. The UN(United Nations) classifies the world’s countries as economically developed or developing based primarily on their degree of industrialization and their per capita GDP.

16. What is the difference between economic growth, economic development, and environmentally sustainable economic development?? • Environmentally Sustainable Economic Developmentis the goal to use political and economic systems to encourage environmentally beneficial and more sustainable forms of economic development and discourage environmentally harmful and unsustainable forms of economic growth.

17. What are the earth’s main types of resources?? How can they be depleted or degraded?? • Perpetual Resources- Resources that are renewed continuously • Renewable Resources- Resources that can be replenished fairly rapidly (hours to several decades) through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is replaced • Nonrenewable Resources- Resources that can be environmentally depleted to the point where it costs to much to obtain what is left. The sources can be degraded economically when the cost of extracting and using what is left exceeds its economic value.

18. What are the principal types of pollution and what can we do about pollution?? • Point Sources- single identifiable sources (ex: smoke stack of coal burning power or industrial plant.) • Nonpoint Sources- larger, dispersed and often difficult to identify. (ex: pesticides sprayed into the air or blown by the wind into the atmosphere.) • We can reduce or eliminate the production of pollutants after they have been produced(pollution prevention or input pollution control) or clean up or dilute pollutants after they have been produced (pollution cleanup or output pollution control).

19. What are the basic causes of today’s environmental problems? • The major causes of environmental problems are population growth, wasteful resource use, poverty, poor environmental accounting and environmental ignorance.

20. What are the harmful environmental effects of poverty and affluence?? • Poverty- People living in poverty are mainly homeless and their daily lives are focused or getting enough food, water and fuel for cooking and heating to survive. Desperate for land to grow enough food, many of the world’s poor people deplete and degrade forests, soil, grass lands and wild life for short term survival. They do not have the luxury of worrying about long term environmental quality or sustainability.

21. What are the harmful environmental effects of poverty and affluence?? • Affluence-allows the affluent to clean up the immediate environment of their homes, cities and countries by transferring some of their wastes and pollution to more distant locations. Affluence also allows them to obtain the resources they need from almost anywhere in the world without seeing the harmful environmental impacts of their high consumption life styles. In other words, many affluent countries are living beyond their ecological means by running up eventually unsustainable global ecological debts.

22. What three major human cultural changes have taken place since humans arrived?? • The Agricultural Revolution- began 10,000-12,000 years ago allowed people to settle in villages and raise crops and domesticated animals • The Industrial-Medical Revolution- began 275 years ago, led to a shift from rural villages and animal powered agriculture to an urban society using fossil fuels for manufacturing material items, agriculture and transportation. • The Information-Globalization Revolution- began 50years ago. It’s based on using new technologies for gaining rapid access to much more information on a global scale.

23. What are four Scientific principle’s of sustainability and how can they help us build more environmentally sustainable and just societies?? • Reliance on solar energy- the sun warms the planet and supports photosynthesis used by plants to provide food for us and other animals. • Biodiversity- a great variety of genes, species, ecosystems, and ecological processes have provided many ways to adapt to changing environmental conditions throughout 3.7billion year history of life on earth.

24. What are four Scientific principle’s of sustainability and how can they help us build more environmentally sustainable and just societies?? • Population Control- competition for limited resources among species places a limit on how much any one population can grow. If a population grows beyond those limits, its size decrease from changes in birth rates and death rates. • Nutrient Recycling- Natural processes recycle all chemicals or nutrients that plants and animals need to stay alive. In this recycling process, the wastes or dead bodies of all organisms become food or resources for other organisms.

25. What are four Scientific principle’s of sustainability and how can they help us build more environmentally sustainable and just societies?? • Using the four scientific principles to guide our life styles and our economy could result in an environmental revolution.