Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

1
Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and
Sustainability

• Chapter 1

2
Key Concepts

• Population growth and sustainability
• Economic growth and development
• Resources and resource use
• Pollution
• Causes of environmental problems

3
World Population

• Exponential growth
• Poverty
• Extinction and biodiversity
• Climate changes
• Good news possible solutions

Worlds Population Growth 1.2 (78 million
people added per year 8,900 / day)
Fig. 1-1, p. 1
4
World Population
?
Billions of people
Black Deaththe Plague
Time
Hunting and gathering
Agricultural revolution
Industrial revolution
Fig. 1-1, p. 1
5
Path to Sustainability (meeting resource needs
of people w/out compromising future generations)
A Pa t h t o S u s t a i n a b i l i t y
Natural Capital
Natural Capital Degradation
Solutions
Trade-Offs
Individuals Matter
S o u n d S c i e n c e
Fig. 1-2, p. 7
6
Natural Capital

• Earths natural capital
• Capital
• Financial income
• Biological income
• Degrading capital

Fig. 1-3, p. 7
7
Natural Capital
Stepped Art
Fig. 1-3, p. 7
8
Solutions to Environmental Problems

• Trade-offs (compromises)
• Individuals matter
• Sound science
• Environmentally sustainable societies

9
Economics

• Economic growth increase in capacity of country
  to provide goods and services
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annual market
  value of goods and services produced in a country
• Per capita GDP GDP/Population
• Economic development improvement of living
  standards via economic growth
• Developed and developing countries

10
Global Outlook
Percentage of World's
19
Population
81
0.1
Population growth
1.5
Wealth and income
85
15
88
Resource use
12
75
Pollution and waste
25
Developed countries
Developing countries
Fig. 1-4, p. 9
11
Human Population Growth
World total
Developing countries
Population (billions)
Developed countries
Year
Fig. 1-5, p. 9
12
Economic Development
Trade-Offs
Economic Development
Good News
Bad News
Global life expectancy doubled since
1950 Infant mortality cut in half since
1955 Food production ahead of population growth
since 1978 Air and water pollution down in most
developed countries since 1970 Number of people
living in poverty dropped 6 since 1990
Life expectancy 13 years less in developing
countries than in developed Countries Infant
mortality rate in developing countries over
9 times higher than in developed countries Harmfu
l environmental effects of agriculture may limit
future food production Air and water pollution
levels in most developing countries too
high Half of world's workers trying to live on
less than 2 (U.S.) per day
Fig. 1-6, p. 10
13
Resources

• Perpetual - sun, wind, flowing water
• Renewable - fresh air, water, soils, forests,
  food
• Nonrenewable - fossil fuels, metals, economic
  depletion

14
Renewable Resources

• Sustainable yield highest rate renewable
  resource can be used indefinitely w/out reducing
  supply
• Environmental degradation depletion of renewable
  resource is faster than renewal
• Tragedy of the Commons overuse of free-access
  resources If I dont use this resource, someone
  else will.

15
Ecological Footprint
1.0 hectare 2.47 acres
current global footprint requires 1.2 planets 21
higher than carrying capacity Sustainable???
Fig. 1-7, p. 11
16
Ecological Footprint
Per Capita Ecological Footprint (Hectares per
person)
Country
United States The Netherlands India
9.6
3.8
0.8
Total Ecological Footprint (Hectares)
Country
3 billion hectares
United States The Netherlands India
62 million hectares
880 million hectares
Fig. 1-7a, p. 11
17
Ecological Footprint
1.5
Earth's Ecological Capacity
1.2
0.9
Humanity's Ecological Footprint
Number of Earths
0.6
0.3
0
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Year
Fig. 1-7, p. 11
18
Nonrenewable Resources

• Energy resources
• Metallic mineral resources
• Nonmetallic mineral resources
• Economic depletion
• Recycling and reuse

19
Tragedy of the Commons

• Overuse of free-access resources (clean air,
  fish, open ocean, birds, wildlife, gases of lower
  atmosphere, forests, grazing lands, )
• Solutions Use free-access resources below
  sustainable yieldHow? Reduce Population,
  regulate access taxes, laws, quotas,
  subsidies, convert to private ownership

20
Pollution

• Definition any addition to air, water, soil or
  food that threatens health, survival or
  activities of humans or other organisms
• Point sources- single identifiable
  sources(smokestack, drainpipe, exhaust pipe)
• Nonpoint Sources - dispersed and difficult to
  identify and control (fertilizer / pesticide
  runoff, wind-blown pesticides, )
• Unwanted effects of pollution1. Disrupt life
  support systems2. Damage wildlife, human health
  and property3. Create nuisances (noise, smell,
  taste, sight)

21
Point-source Air Pollution
Fig. 1-8, p. 13
22
Solutions to Pollution

• Pollution prevention (input control)
• Pollution cleanup (output control)
• Disadvantages of output control- temporary
  bandage, can transfer to other areas, costly

23
Environmental Problems Causes and Connections

• First step Understanding the causes
• Poverty and population growth
• Premature death among the poor

24
Causes of Environmental Problems
Causes of Environmental Problems
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
?Poor Environmental Accounting
?Ecological Ignorance
Fig. 1-10, p. 14
25
Some Harmful Results of Poverty
Lack of access to
Number of people ( of world's population)
Adequate sanitation
2.4 billion (37)
Enough fuel for heating and cooking
2 billion (31)
Electricity
1.6 billion (25)
Clean drinkingwater
1.1 billion (17)
Adequate health care
1.1 billion (17)
Enough food for good health
1.1 billion (17)
Fig. 1-11, p. 14
26
Malnutrition
Fig. 1-12, p. 15
27
Economics and Ethics

• Affluenza unsustainable addiction to
  over-consumption and materialism
• Globalization and global advertising it takes 27
  tractor trailer loads of resources to support one
  American
• Law of Progressive Simplification-shift from
  material to non-material
• Positive environmental effects of affluenza- In
  many developed countries, environ quality is
  improving

28
Environmental Problems and Their Causes
Developing Countries
X
X

Consumption per person (affluence, A)
Technological impact per unit of consumption (T)
Environmental impact of population (I)
X
X

Population (P)
X
X

Developed Countries
Fig. 1-13, p. 16
29
Affluenza Diagnosis
To many people spend money they havent earned
to buy things they dont want to impress people
they dont like. - W. Rogers

1. I am willing to work at a job I despise so I can
   buy lots of stuff
2. When I am feeling down, I like to go shopping to
   make myself feel better.
3. I would rather be shopping right now.
4. I owe more than 1,000 on my credit cards.
5. I usually make only the minimum monthly payments
   on my credit card bills.
6. I am running out of room to store my stuff.

If you agree with 2 or more of the statements
above, you could be suffering from Affluenza
30
Historical Changes in Human Culture

• Hunter-gatherers - 60,000 years ago - 12,000 yrs
  ago
• Agricultural revolution- began between 10k 12k
  years ago
• Industrial-medical revolution- began 275 years
  ago
• Information-globalization revolution- 50 years ago

31
Eras of US Environmental History

• Tribal era (10K yrs before Euro Settlement) -
  respect for land
• Frontier era (1607-1890)- Euro Colonists-
  Conquer Nature
• Early conservation era- (1832-1870) Alarm form
  resource depletion- Urged protection of
  Wilderness
• Environmentalism (1870-present)- Resource
  conservation, public health and environmental
  protection

32
Is Our Present Course Sustainable?

• Different views
• Technological optimists
• Environmental pessimists
• How Would You Vote? Exercise

33
Sustainability Revolution
Current Emphasis
Sustainability Emphasis
Pollution cleanup Waste disposal(bury or
burn) Protecting species Environmentaldegrada
tion Increased resourceuse Population
growth Depleting anddegrading naturalcapital)
Pollution prevention(cleaner production) Waste
prevention reduction Protecting wherespecies
live (habitat protection) Environmentalrestorati
on Less wasteful (more efficient)resource
use Population stabilization bydecreasing birth
rates Protecting natural capitaland living off
the biological interest it provides
Fig. 1-14, p. 18