Biodiversity: How Many Species on the Planet?

1. Biodiversity: How Many Species on the Planet? • E.O. Wilson-1.4 million species-4 million species • But some scientists say it may be 4-40 million. • Why such a large difference?

2. Insects and Biodiversity • Terry Erwin-possibly as many as 40 million INSECTS • Studies in Amazon-sites only 50 meters apart shared only 8.7% of the species. Sites 1500 km apart shared 2.6%. • Tremendous degree of host specificity? • How do you study insects? Why do we care?

3. Mineral Resources: Scarce or Abundant? • Copper- average grade of copper ore declined from 5% to 0.4%. • But technology improved so much price of copper fell (1900-1950). • Demand for copper fell because of substitution (fiber optics-made from glass). • So copper reserves increased between1950-1980 by 500%.

4. Mineral Resources and “Sink” Problems: the case of aluminum • Discovered in the 1820s, aluminum is the most abundant metal on earth. • one million tons of aluminum containers and packaging (soda cans, TV dinner trays, aluminum foil) are thrown away each year. • Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.

5. Aluminum: A “Sink” and “Energy” Problem, not a Resource Problem • Recycling aluminum produces 95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution than making aluminum in the first place. • 20 recycled cans can be made with the energy needed to produce one can using virgin ore. Aluminum has been called “congealed electricity”. • Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours.

6. Aluminum Recycling: A relative success story • aluminum lying in our landfills will still be around in 200 or more years. • Every minute of every day, an average of 123,097 aluminum cans are recycled. Today, the national average of aluminum can recycling is two out of every three cans. • an aluminum can recycled today will be back on the grocery shelf in about 90 days.

7. The Throwaway Society • Our dominant social paradigm (DSP)..we are still a throwaway society: between 30-40% of all municipal waste is packaging materials..we like the convenience of individual packaging, disposable razors, disposable everything. • Only a generation ago, its was common for people to carry their own containers to the supermarket, to recycle milk and soft drink bottles and to compost vegetable waste.

8. Sources of Solid Wastes 75% mining and oil and gas refining 13% from agriculture 9.5% from industry 1.5% municipal garbage 1% sewage sludge Mining, oil, gas and refining-highly localized

9. We throw away • Enough vehicle tires to encircle the planet almost three times. • About 2.5 million nonreturnable plastic bottles an hour. • Enough disposable diapers per year which, if lined up end to end, would reach the moon and back seven times. For more, see Harper p. 64

10. In 2002, the US produced 369 million tons of solid waste of all types. 98.7 million tons (26%) were recycled or composted, 28.5 million tona (8%) were burned in waste-to-energy (WTE) plants, and 242 million tons (66%) went to landfill

11. Recycling Basics • "source separation" -separate the bottles and cans from the newspapers here in Miami. Other places- general paper. • Recycling creates three-six times more jobs per unit of material than landfilling or incineration. • Seattle and economic incentives: "pay as you throw" . Curbside recycling of plastic beverage bottles, glass, cans newspapers, newspapers is free. Pay $10.70 a month for 19 gallon can but $31.75 for three 32 gallon cans. • Four out of five households in the city recycle trash and 90% put out one can or less of non-recyclable trash a week.

12. Paper or Plastic? Is paper better than plastic? more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag from non-recycled material as it does to manufacture a plastic bag. most paper comes from tree pulp, forest have to be cut down Paper bags generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags. It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper nothing completely degrades in modern landfills because of the lack of water, light, oxygen and other important elements that are necessary for the degradation process to be completed Source: www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=7

13. Is plastic better? • Plastic bags kill thousands of whales, dolphins, sea turtles, and other marine mammals that mistake them for food every year • Plastic bag production requires millions of gallons of oil, very fossil fuel dependent • Experts estimate that 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed and discarded annually worldwide—more than a million per minute. • Plastic bags aren’t biodegradable. They actually go through photodegradation—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic particles that contaminating both soil and water, and end up entering the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them. • Plastic bags can actually be found all over Antartica, the oceans are filled with them with tiny plastic particles.

14. Banning plastic bags? • MD is proposing a bill that would ban plastic bags from major supermarkets • Similar law in San Francisco is already in place • Boston, Oakland, Santa Monica, and cities in Colorado may follow • Proponents argue that it takes more than 1,000 years for plastic bags to degrade. • “Every piece of plastic ever created is still around” • The bill is trying to protect Chesapeake Bay, where fish and birds often die after ingesting discarded plastic bags

15. PROS To make 100 billion plastic bags (the amount we use in the US in 1 year) it takes 12 million barrels of oil No oil is used to produce recycled paper bags The bills requires the use of recycled paper bags, meaning no trees are cut down. Only 1% of all plastic bags are recycled in the US—not energy efficient CONS It costs 2 cents to produce a plastic bag and 5 cents to produce a paper bag Some stores already offer a 3-cent credit for every bag customers return Less energy to recycle plastic than paper Costs to the stores would triple if law is adopted Pros and Cons…

16. A better option? • Reuse plastic and paper bags • Bring excess paper and plastic bags back to the store for recycling • Bring your own bag • some stores actually charge their customers for the use of either paper or plastic to encourage them to bring their own. • My solution: don’t use a bag at all, pile up the stuff in your cart, put it into boxes in your trunk, carry it in in the boxes