Environmental Review

1. Environmental Review Entire Year

2. SUSTAINABLE • To use resources in such a way as to meet needs now and provide for needs in the future. • Without depleting or degrading the earth’s natural resources • Sustainable society: • Meets basic needs-food, clean water and air (SOIL?), shelter

3. RULE of 70 • (you should KNOW this) • Way to estimate population growth • Doubling time is years for population to double its size • Rule of 70: 70/percentage growth rate = doubling time in years • US: 70/0.92 (2005 est.) = 76 years • India: 70/1.4= 50 years • Sweden: 70/.17 = 412 years

4. What is the current world population? • About 6 billion. You should know this. • If our growth rate is 1.28%, when will the world population double? Is it within your life time? • US population is 300 million

5. Economic growth indices • GNI: gross national income (was GNP: gross national product) • GNI PPP: gross national income in purchasing power parity • GDP: gross domestic product • GWP: gross world product • Per capita GNI (calculated at midyear) • Per capita GNI PPP

6. Developed countries • US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, all countries in Europe • Highly industrialized • Per capita GNI PPP > $10,750/year • 19% of world population • 85% of world’s wealth • Use 88% of world’s resources • Generate 75% of pollution and waste of world

7. Developing countries • Africa, Asia and Latin American countries • Middle income per capita GNI PPP ~$3-11K • Low income per capita GNI PPP <$3K • 81% of population • 15% of world wealth • 12% of world resources • 25% of world pollution and wastes • Increase by 1 million people every 5 days-why?

8. Anthropogenic changes contribute to global change • 73% of habitable land has been disturbed • Gases emitted into atmosphere largely from burning fossil fuels also from other anthropogenic sources have altered climate: global warming at in increased rate • Alterations in climate include shifting arable areas or reduction in arable land • Alteration of precipitation by amount, location, and phase • Alteration of community structure • Sea level rise

9. Resources • 3 categories: perpetual, renewable, nonrenewable • Perpetual: solar energy; on human time scale renewed continuously • Renewable: Replenished within our life time (less than decades, less than 100 years); not sustainable if used more rapidly; forests, grasslands, wild animals, fresh water, fresh air, arable soil • Nonrenewable: Fixed quantity on Earth; coal, oil, natural gas, metallic and nonmetallic mine ores

10. What are alternatives once a nonrenewable resource becomes economically depleted? • Costs of extraction and using what is left exceed its economic value. • Find more • Recycle or reuse existing supplies • Waste less; use less • Try to develop substitute • Wait millions of years for more to be made

11. Recycle versus reuse • Recycling: products collected and reprocessed into new products • Reuse: products are used over and over again-like refilling a water bottle instead of making a new water bottle from recycled products or newly acquired resources

12. 5 R’s • Refuse: do not use • Replace: find a less harmful substitute • Reduce: use less • Reuse • Recycle

13. Ecological footprint • Amount of land needed to produce resources needed by an average person in a country • It is a way to express environmental impact • Hectare metric = 100 acres

14. Relative ecological footprints per person

15. Relative ecological footprints by country

16. pollution • Any addition to air, water, soil, or food that threatens the health, survival or activities of living organisms • Point sources of pollution emanate pollution from a single, identifiable source • Nonpoint pollution emanates from many possible sources and are dispersed over a large area land or in water or air • Most regulations apply to point pollution sources

17. Tragedy of the commons • Degradation of common property or free access resources • Air, water, migratory birds, wildlife species, publicly owned lands, space • Everyone contributes to degradation and no one feels responsible for conservation or restoration

18. Major Environmental Problems • Air pollution • Water pollution • Food supply problems • Waste production • Loss of biodiversity

19. Main Causes of Environmental Problems • Rapid population growth • Unsustainable resource use • Poverty • Not including the environmental costs of economic goods and services in their market prices • Trying to manage and simplify nature with too little knowledge about how it works

20. Shifting the dominant paradigm • From pollution clean up to prevention • From waste disposal to waste prevention • From protecting species to protecting places • From env degradation to env restoration • From increased resource use to more efficient resource use • From population growth to population stabilization by decreasing birth rates

21. Biodiversity Depletion • Habitat destruction • Habitat degradation • Extinction • Air Pollution • Global climate change • Stratospheric ozone depletion • Urban air pollution • Acid deposition • Outdoor pollutants • Indoor pollutants • Noise • Food Supply Problems • Overgrazing • Farmland loss • and degradation • Wetlands loss • and degradation • Overfishing • Coastal pollution • Soil erosion • Soil salinization • Soil waterlogging • Water shortages • Groundwater depletion • Loss of biodiversity • Poor nutrition Major Environmental Problems • Water Pollution • Sediment • Nutrient overload • Toxic chemicals • Infectious agents • Oxygen depletion • Pesticides • Oil spills • Excess heat • Waste Production • Solid waste • Hazardous waste Fig. 1.13, p. 14

22. Greatest Cause of Env Problems is increase in human populations globally • Rapid population growth • Unsustainable resource use • Poverty • Not including the environmental costs of economic goods and services in their market prices • Trying to manage and simplify nature with too little knowledge about how it works

23. Env History: The Early Conservation Era • Period 1832-1960 • Concern over resource use • Preservation of public lands • Public health initiatives • Environmental restoration projects

24. Important figures during the early conservation era • Henry David Thoreau-naturalist and journalist • John Muir-geologist, explorer, and naturalist, CA Yosemite Valley-Yosemite National Park 1890, west, AK, founded Sierra Club, congressional lobbyist • George Marsh-VT, questioned country's resources were inexhaustible, formulated basic resource conservations principles • Theodore Roosevelt-first to bring issues of conservation to the attention of the American public; contributed more than any other president to natural resource conservation in US • Alice Hamilton-expert in industrial medicine, investigated occupational hazards, pollution prevention • Franklin Roosevelt-TVA, CCC (Civilian conservation corps)

25. Aldo Leopold • LAND ETHICS • Forestry and game management • Founder of the wilderness society 1935 • Problems arise when land viewed as a commodity

26. Environmental Era • Period: 1960-2000 • Environmental movement • Science of ecology • Spaceship Earth worldview • 1980s anti-environmental movement • 1990s environmental awareness

27. Important Figures of Environmental Era • Rachel Carson – Silent Spring • Richard Nixon-EPA, ESA • Jimmy Carter-DOE, Superfund • Ronald Reagan-antienvironmentalist • Bill Clinton-environmental concerns a priority

28. Clean Air Act 1970, 1977, 1990 • The Clean Air Act is the comprehensive Federal law that regulates air emissions from area, stationary, and mobile sources. • This law authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and the environment: primary and secondary air quality standards. • States directed to develop state implementation plans (SIPs) appropriate for industrial sources in the state. 1977 amended to set new dates for goals. • 1990 amendments to meet insufficiently addressed problems including acid rain, ground-level ozone, stratospheric ozone depletion, and air toxics. • (Keep in mind that in 1948 in Pennsylvania, 20 people died and 7,000 people were sick in a smog incident. In 1952 in London, 4,000 people died of smog and another 1,000 died from smog in 1956.)

29. The Clean Water Act (CWA); (1977) • Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. As amended in 1977, this law became commonly known as the Clean Water Act. • regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the US • EPA the authority to implement pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. • Clean Water Act also set water quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters. The Act made it unlawful for any person to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained under its provisions. • funded the construction of sewage treatment plants • recognized the need for planning to address the critical problems posed by nonpoint source pollution. • law required EPA to establish water quality criteria for the Great Lakes addressing 29 toxic pollutants with maximum levels that are safe for humans, wildlife, and aquatic life • (The Act does not deal directly with ground water or with water quantity issues.) • Safe Drinking water Act (1974) • Set standards for safety of public drinking water supplies and to safeguard groundwater. Major changes made in 1986 and 1996.

30. Endangered Species Act (ESA). (1973) • Endangered Species Act provides a program for the conservation of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the habitats in which they are found. • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior maintains the list of 632 endangered species (326 are plants) and 190 threatened species (78 are plants)Species include birds, insects, fish, reptiles, mammals, crustaceans, flowers, grasses, and trees. Anyone can petition FWS to include a species on this list. • The law prohibits any action, administrative or real, that results in a "taking" of a listed species, or adversely affects habitat. Likewise, import, export, interstate, and foreign commerce of listed species are all prohibited.Pesticides! Regulated to protect species. • Environmentalists long considered this act to be the only one w “teeth”

31. Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA); (1970) • ensure worker and workplace safety • make sure employers provide their workers a place of employment free from recognized hazards to safety and health, such as exposure to toxic chemicals, excessive noise levels, mechanical dangers, heat or cold stress, or unsanitary conditions.

32. Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) (1990) • focused industry, government, and public attention on reducing the amount of pollution through cost-effective changes in production, operation, and raw materials use • Opportunities for source reduction are often not realized because of existing regulations, and the industrial resources required for compliance, focus on treatment and disposal. • Source reduction is fundamentally different and more desirable than waste management or pollution control. • Pollution prevention also includes other practices that increase efficiency in the use of energy, water, or other natural resources, and protect our resource base through conservation. Practices include recycling, source reduction, and sustainable agriculture.

33. Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) (1986) • SARA reflected EPA's experience in administering the complex Superfund program during its first six years and made several important changes and additions to the program. SARA: • stressed the importance of permanent remedies and innovative treatment technologies in cleaning up hazardous waste sites; • required Superfund actions to consider the standards and requirements found in other State and Federal environmental laws and regulations; • provided new enforcement authorities and settlement tools; • increased State involvement in every phase of the Superfund program; • increased the focus on human health problems posed by hazardous waste sites; • encouraged greater citizen participation in making decisions on how sites should be cleaned up; and • increased the size of the trust fund to $8.5 billion. • SARA also required EPA to revise the Hazard Ranking System (HRS) to ensure that it accurately assessed the relative degree of risk to human health and the environment posed by uncontrolled hazardous waste sites that may be placed on the National Priorities List (NPL).

34. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); (1976) • EPA tracks 75,000 industrial chemicals currently produced or imported into the US • EPA repeatedly screens these chemicals and can require reporting or testing of those that may pose an environmental or human-health hazard • EPA can ban the manufacture and import of those chemicals that pose an unreasonable risk • EPA has mechanisms in place to track the thousands of new chemicals that industry develops each year with either unknown or dangerous characteristics. • EPA then can control these chemicals as necessary to protect human health and the environment. TSCA supplements other Federal statutes, including the Clean Air Act and the Toxic Release Inventory under EPCRA

35. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)(1928) • Food and Drug Administration oversee the safety of food, drugs, and cosmetics. • In 1968, the Electronic Product Radiation Control DESI provisions were added to the FD&C. The act was amended by the FDA Modernization Act of 1997. • The FD&C is perhaps best known by the consumer because of its use in the naming of food coloringadditives, such as "FD&C Yellow No. 6." The Act made the certification of food color additives mandatory. The FD&C lists nine certified color additives for use in the United States. Color additives derived from natural sources, such as vegetables, minerals or animals, and man-made counterparts of natural derivatives, are exempt from certification. Both artificial and natural color additives are subject to rigorous standards of safety prior to their approval for use in foods. • These regulations apply to foods produced by genetic enineering and if the protein added to the food by the genetic engineering process is not "Generally Recognised as Safe" then GM food is regarded as containing a "food additive" and is subject to premarket approval by the FDA . All GM foods sold in the USA have been subject to this FDA premarket approval process.

36. National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) • charter for protection of the environment • It establishes policy, sets goals, and provides means for carrying out the policy. • Requires environmental impact statements. • Created Council on Environmental Quality.

37. MMPA-Marine Mammal Protection Act 1972 • federal responsibility to conserve marine mammals, with management vested in the Department of Commerce for cetaceans and pinnipeds other than walrus. The Department of the Interior is responsible for all other marine mammals, including sea otter, walrus, polar bear, dugong and manatee. • certain species and population stocks of marine mammals are or may be in danger of extinction or depletion due to human activities • these mammals should not be permitted to diminish below their optimum sustainable population • measures should be taken immediately to replenish any of these mammals that have diminished below that level, and efforts should be made to protect essential habitats • there is inadequate knowledge of the ecology and population dynamics of these mammals • negotiations should be undertaken immediately to encourage international arrangements for research and conservation of these mammals.

38. Riparian Rights and Prior Appropriation Act • First user to get the water, has the right to take as much as they did the first year indefinitely. (Riparian means river.) • Riparian Rights-If next to property, may use, but cannot divert the entire source of water.

39. Wilderness Act – 1964 • Government protects undeveloped land. No roads, no mining, no vehicles – not even bicycles. Hiking, canoeing, camping allowed. Congress can take back if needed for national good.

40. CITES- (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) • is an international agreement between governments • international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival • Annually, international wildlife trade is estimated to be worth billions of dollars and to include hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. The trade is diverse, ranging from live animals and plants to a vast array of wildlife products derived from them, including food products, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios and medicines. Levels of exploitation of some animal and plant species are high and the trade in them, together with other factors, such as habitat loss, is capable of heavily depleting their populations and even bringing some species close to extinction. • Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in specimens of these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances. • Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival.

41. Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act 1935 • Secretary of Agriculture conducts soil erosion surveys and prevention measures • Soil Conservation Service to conduct these activities • Emphasis was given to engineering operations, methods of cultivation, growing of vegetation and other land uses as preventative measures. • Subsequent amendments set goals of decreasing soil erosion and maintaining the navigability of rivers. • Amendments authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to develop 10-year agreements with farmers for changes in cropping patterns and land use to conserve soil, water, forest, wildlife and recreational resources, and stipulated related procedures.

42. Ecology • Study of how organisms interact with one another and with their nonliving environment • Sustainable ecosystems have a balance and resilience in these relationships between the organisms and the environment in a way that perpetuates the system without depleting the resources

43. Setting up the hierarchy • Cellorganism (prokaryote, eukaryotic, species, asexual, sexual) • Population- all individuals of a species in an area • genetic diversity: size age distrib density genetic composition • Habitat-location, address • Niche-function or role in ecosystem • community-populations interacting in area • ecosystem-community of diff species interacting w one another & with their nonliving env of matter & energy • biome • biosphere

44. Life Support Systems • biosphere: portion of earth in which living exist and interact and w nonliving environment • most of hydrosphere (water) and parts of the lower atmosphere (air)and upper lithosphere (rock, crust) deepest ocean floor 20 K to tops of highest mountains TTHINTHINTHINTHIN • of this 73% of habitable land has been perturbed by man

45. Sun’s energy • most of what reaches the atmosphere is visible light • IR • UV • 1) warms trophosphere and land • 2) evap water and cycles it through the biosphere • 3) generates winds

46. Solar radiation Energy in = Energy out Reflected by atmosphere (34%) Radiated by atmosphere as heat (66%) UV radiation Lower Stratosphere (ozone layer) Visible light Greenhouse effect Troposphere Absorbed by ozone Heat Absorbed by the earth Heat radiated by the earth Earth Fig. 4.8, p. 75

47. BIOMES regions char by distinct climate and specific life-forms esp veg adapted to climate  • climate: long-term patterns of weather climate drives  • aquatic-freshwater or marine freshwater lotic or lentic no in this book but in most counted as biomes on their own • ecotone: transition • not truly self-contained- that is why violate 3rd law of thermodynamics • 2 sources allochthonous and autochthonous

48. FORCING FUNCTIONS • Factor that determines the structure/function of an ecosystem • light • Hydrology: water • Nutrient cycling or availability

49. Range of tolerance • each pop has range of tolerance in physical and chem env • individuals may have slight differences range is usually average conditions • genetics, age, health • total range and optimum range

50. Niches • producers autotrophs most use light to fix CO2 some are chemoautotrophs • consumers heterotrophs  • Herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, scavengers • detritivores detritus feeders and decomposers • detritus feeders extract nutrients from partly decomposed organic matter in leaf litter, plant debris, and animal dung • decomposers • 1) breaking down biodegrading detritus • 2) releasing the resulting simpler inorganic compounds in to the soil and water then can be taken up by producers