Introduction to Global Change: Human Impacts

1. Introduction to Global Change: Human Impacts MWF 12-1 + lab sections Environ111 • Global environmental change encompasses the rapid changes now occurring in the Earth as a system – its climate, human population, natural resources, and ecosystems. • Global Change II –Human Impacts guides students in learning about the natural world and the role of human activities in shaping and changing the environment.

2. The Earth is Transformed by Human Actions • World population reached its first billion in 1850, 2.5 billion by 1950, and passed 6 billion in October 1999 • From 1700 to 1985, world forests declined by 19% and grasslands by 8%, while agriculture increased by 466% • As much as one-fourth of earth’s biodiversity is expected to be extinct by 2100 • Significant climate warming is now under way, and likely will continue throughout the 21st Century • Humans appropriate an ever-increasing fraction of earth’s primary production, freshwater, and other critical resources

3. Drivers “drivers” or “forcing functions” refer to the forces that result in system response. Examples include: human population growth new technologies, such as obtaining energy from the burning of fossil fuels advances in social organization, allowing more effective exploitation of natural resources Responses detectable changes in the global environment, such as: rising atmospheric CO2 rising temperatures declining biodiversity urban crowding and smog environmental pollution Human Transformation of the Global Environment Solutions attempt to control drivers and mitigate responses

4. Future Projections How confident are we in the science that underlies future scenarios? What level of risk is acceptable? How can we mitigate or adapt to change?

5. Global Economic Disparities • There exists considerable disparity among regions in the types and amounts of capital (wealth) they possess • the greatest portion of total capital in the high-income countries is attributable to human resources

6. Towards Sustainability • "There is something fundamentally wrong in treating the earth as if it was a business in liquidation." -- Economist Herman Daly • sustainable development meets the "needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Brundtland Report (Our Common Future), 1987 • more of a journey than a destination

7. Lectures MWF 12-1, 1520 CC Little Section Information

10. It is recommended that students print out and read the lecture notes before class.