Overview of Chapter 1

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

2. Items in RED • You should definitely know • Do not limit your notes to only items in RED – I might forget to highlight! • Usually key terms so get them from your book LATER rather than copy word for word during our lecture.

3. Words to know • Environment: everything that affects a living organism • Ecology: field of study that explores the relationships between living things and their environments • Environmental science: incorporates physical science, chemistry, ecology, social sciences, and ethical issues.

4. Exponential Growth • “increasing at an increasing rate” • Can only give a snapshot in time: every second 5 babies are born will only be true for a limited amount of time. • Animal example - my cat has 7 kittens, each of them has 7 kittens, in 2 years becomes 49 kittens, in three years becomes 350, in 7 years becomes 1/2 million cats. • Humans also reproduce exponentially - we reproduce faster than we die off!

5. Exponential Growth Curves

6. Work this problem: You are offered a job which pays either $100 dollars a week, or 1 penny the first week, 2 pennies the second week, 4 the third week, 8 the fourth week, etc. You know you will only work at this job for 17 weeks…which would you take? If you would stay at this job for 20 weeks, which pay scale would you choose? Take the $100 a week = $1700 Take the penny option = $1310.71 Take the $100 a week = $2000 Take the penny option = $10,485.75 The penny option is exponential growth!!

7. Exponential Growth Affects 5 Key Areas: • Population Growth • Resource Use and Waste • Poverty • Loss of Biological Biodiversity • Global Climate Change

8. That’s deceiving! • Right now the world’s population is growing exponentially at 1.25% a year • How many people is that? In 2004, the population was 6.4 billion. 6.4 billion x .0125 = 80 million (people added in 2004) • At this rate, it would take 3 days to “replace” all the Americans killed in all wars/conflict with US involvement

9. Concept for May Exam Know the rule of 70!

10. Population Growth Rule of 70:Tells you how many years it will take to double the population. 70/percent population growth = number of years to double Fig. 1-4, p. 8

11. Rule of 70 • How long until the world doubles in population if the population is increasing at a rate of 1.25% a year? 70/1.25 = 56 years Projected to double in the year 2061

12. Is this Econ?? • Capital: wealth used to sustain a business and create more wealth • Solar capital: AKA solar energy and indirect forms of solar energy (wind power, hydropower, biomass energy) • Natural capital: AKA natural resources of the Earth. • Econ lesson: Live off the interest of your resources so you don’t deplete the capital.

13. “INTEREST”ing • You win $1,000,000 in the lottery and you invest it at 10% interest. • Each year you have $100,000 in interest alone to live off of! • If you spend $200,000 a year, all your winnings and interest will be gone in 7 years. • If you spend $110,000 a year, all your winnings and interest will be gone in just over 17 years. • Environmental connection: Don’t use up resources faster than they can be replaced! (trees, cropland, rainforests, etc)

14. Money, money, money • GDP: gross domestic product. This is the market value of all the products, goods, services of all firms and organizations that operate within the country. • Per capita GDP: GDP divided by the total population. Will reflect the standard of living. A higher GDP will show a high standard of living in that country.

15. What’s the difference? • Developed countries: US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and countries of Europe. • Consists of 1.2 billion people • High per capita GDP • Developing countries: mostly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America • Consists of 5.2 billion people • Some are moderately developed (middle-income) • Some are low-income developing Graph on page 8 shows a great comparison

16. Let’s Compare • See page 8 in your text • Population • 19% developed • 81% developing • Population growth • 0.1% growth developed • 1.6% growth developing • Wealth/Income • 85% of wealth in developed • 15% of wealth in developing • Resource Use • 88% resource use in developed • 12% resource use in developing • Pollution and waste • 75% of pollution from developed • 25% of pollution from developing

17. Economic Trade-Offs Good news Bad news Developing countries life expectancy 11 years less than developed countries Global life expectancy doubled since 1950 (today is 67) Infant mortality cut in half since 1955 Infant mortality 8x higher in developing countries Air, water pollution has dropped in developed countries Air, water pollution in most developing countries too high Those living in poverty has dropped by 6% since 1990 Half world’s population still trying to live on less than $3 a day

18. Pollution

19. “Give a hoot, don’t pollute” • Pollution: substances that threaten health, survival, or activities of living organisms. • Natural pollution: volcanoes, sulfur deposits, etc. • Human pollution: industrialized agriculture, technology, power generation, etc.

20. Where’d that come from?? • Point source pollution: source is identifiable as one single area. Examples: drainpipe dumping into river, smokestack of factory, tailpipe of car. • Non-point source pollution: source is difficult/impossible to identify. Examples: Nitrate runoff from fields, pesticides sprayed in air • Obviously, point source pollution is easiest to “fix”

21. If it’s broke, fix it! • Pollution prevention: AKA input pollution control. This reduces or eliminates the amount of pollution produced. • Pollution clean-up: AKA output pollution control. Finding better ways to clean up pollution once it has occurred. • Name some problems with output pollution control Temporary fix, there is no “away”, not usually cost effective

22. The big FIVE • The five main causes of Environmental problems: • Population growth • Wasteful resource use • Poverty • Poor environmental accounting (not including environmental costs in market price of goods) • Ecological ignorance (trying to manage nature with too little knowledge about how it works)

23. Does money grow on trees? • Despite huge gains in economic growth, 1 out of every 2 people today still survives on an income of less than $3 dollars a day. • Poverty affects environment because impoverished may degrade soil, forests, and other resources just to survive. • It’s hard to be concerned with the environment when your survival is on the line. • IT’S ALL ABOUT CHOICES: the life of my child or cutting down more trees for crop land for food?

24. And you thought you had it bad… % of world population with this problem Problem Inadequate sanitation 38% Not enough fuel for heat or cooking 32% 25% No electricity No clean drinking water 17% Inadequate health care 17% Not enough food 17%

25. I think I have ‘affluenza’ • Addiction to over-consumption! • Symptoms: Debt, too many material possessions, increased stress and anxiety, often feel unfulfilled • Scary: between 1998 and 2001, more Americans filled for bankruptcy than graduated from college! • Treatment: Life within your means!

26. Environmental Impact Fig. 1-13 p. 15

27. What’s your view?

28. Planetary Management World View • We are the planet’s most important species, we are in charge of nature • We will not run out of resources because of our ability to develop and find new ones. • The potential for global economic growth is unlimited • Our success depends on how well we manage the earth’s life-support systems for our own benefit.

29. Stewardship Worldview • We are the planet’s most important species, but we have an ethical responsibility to care for the rest of nature • We will probably not run out of resources, but they should not be wasted • We should encourage environmentally benefical forms of economic growth and discourage environmentally harmful growth • Our success depends on how well we manage the earth’s life-support systems for our benefit and for the rest of nature

30. Environmental Wisdom Worldview • Nature exists for all species, not just us and we are not in charge of the earth • Earth’s resources are limited and should not be wasted and are not all for us • We should encourage earth-sustaining forms of economic growth and discourage earth-degrading forms. • Our success depends on learning how the earth sustains itself and integrating such lessons from nature in our own lives.