Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

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Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and
Sustainability
Chapter 1 G. Tyler Millers Living in the
Environment 14th Edition
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Key Concepts

• Growth and Sustainability

• Resources and Resource Use

• Pollution

• Causes of Environmental Problems

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Environment the total of our surroundings

• All the things around us with which we interact
• Living things
• Animals, plants, forests, fungi, etc.
• Nonliving things
• Continents, oceans, clouds, soil, rocks
• Our built environment
• Buildings, human-created living centers
• Social relationships and institutions

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Humans and the world around us

• Whats the situation?
• We depend completely on the environment for
  survival
• We are experiencing increased wealth, health,
  mobility, leisure time
• Humans change the environment, often in ways not
  fully understood unintended consequences
• Natural systems have been degraded i.e.,
  pollution, erosion and species extinction
• Environmental changes threaten long-term health
  and survival

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Key Terms

• Ecology biological science that studies
• the relationships between living things
• and their environment

• Environmental Science
• the interdisciplinary study of how the earth
• works, how we interact with the earth, and
• how to deal with environmental problems

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Key Terms

• What Keeps Us Alive?
• Solar energy all life and economies depend on
  energy provided by the sun
• Natural capital the earths resources and
  ecological services

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SOLAR ENERGY
RESOURCES
Water
Energy
Air
Soil
Minerals
NATURAL CAPITAL
PollutionControl
Biodiversity
NutrientRecycling
Pest DiseaseControl
ClimateControl
WasteTreatment
PopulationControl
SERVICES
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• See handout from Miller and Spoolman on Natural
  Capital
• Note two categories
• natural resources (matter)
• natural services (processes) -
• also called ecological or ecosystem services
• very important!!!

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Key Terms
Natural resources substances and energy sources
needed for survival

• Renewable resources
• Perpetually available sunlight, wind, wave
  energy
• Renew themselves over short periods timber,
  water, soil
• These can be destroyed
• Nonrenewable resources fixed quantity renewable
  only by geological processes that take millions
  of year
• Oil, coal, minerals

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Resources

• Perpetual

• Renewable

• Non-renewable

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Key Terms Renewable Resources

• Sustainable Yield the highest rate at which a
  renewable resource can be used indefinitely
  without reducing its available supply

• Environmental Degradation occurs
• when the use of resources exceeds the rate
• of replacement

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Environmental degradation of Madagascar
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Key Terms Non-Renewable Resources

• Energy Resources coal, oil, natural gas

• Metallic Resources
• copper, iron, nickel, aluminum

• Non-MetallicResources-
• salt, clay, sand, phosphates

• Important to reuse and recycle these resources

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Key Terms

• Sustainability meeting the basic resource needs
• of people indefinitely without depleting or
  degrading
• the natural capital that supplies these resources
• What is the difference between living off the
  capital
• and living off the income provided by this
  capital?
• Example 1 million dollar lottery How could
  you
• live off of it without depleting the original 1
  million?
• Relate this back to natural capital.

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Key Terms

• What is pollution? Chemicals at high
• enough levels in the environment to harm people
  or other
• living things

• Effects of Pollution
• 1. disrupt/degrade life support systems for
  humans
• and other species
• 2. damage wildlife, human health and property
• 3. nuisance noise, unpleasnt sight, smells
  and tastes

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Sources of Pollution

• Point
• Nonpoint
• Which one is the bigger problem?

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Dealing With Pollution

• Prevention (Input Control)
• works better and is cheaper

• Cleanup (Output Control)
• Need to do both

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World Population A GROWING Issue
Fig. 1-1 p. 5
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Population Growth Since 1950
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Population Growth Rates in Different Countries

• Population growth rate estimates (by United
  Nations) for the period 2005-2010 using the
  medium variant.

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_
population_growth_rate
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Key Terms Economic Growth vs Economic
Development
Economic development improvement of living standards by economic growth Measured by per capita GDP per capita GDP the GDP divided by the total population

• Economic Growth increase in the capacity of a
  country to provide people with goods and services
• Measured by increase in GDP
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) the annual market
  value of all goods and services produced by all
  firms and organizations, foreign and domestic,
  operating within a country (increase in GDP
  indicates economic growth)

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Economic Development

• Two categories
• Developed countries
• Developing countries
• Can you give examples of each?

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Population
81
0.1
Populationgrowth
1.6
85
Wealth andincome
Percent of Worlds
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88
Resourceuse
12
75
Pollutionand waste
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Developingcountries
Developedcountries
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Key Terms

• Globalization the process of social, economic
  and environmental global changes that lead to an
  increasingly interconnected world
• Has led to the democratization of learning and
  communication
• Miller A sustainable community or country
  recognizes that it is part of a larger global
  economic and ecological system and that it cannot
  be sustainable unless these larger systems are
  also sustainable.

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Key Terms

• Ecological footprint - the environmental impact
  of a person or population
• Amount of biologically productive land water
  for raw materials and to dispose/recycle waste
• Overshoot humans have surpassed the Earths
  capacity

We are using 30 more of the planets resources
than are available on a sustainable basis!
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Ecological Footprint
Fig. 1-7 p. 10
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Environmental Impact Equation developed in the
1970s by Paul Ehrlich, Barry Commoner, John
Holdren IPAT
Fig. 1-13 p. 15
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Interactions between natural capital and human
systems a summary diagram
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What is Our Greatest Environmental
Problem?Millers List

• Disease
• Overpopulation
• Water Shortages
• Climate Changes
• Biodiversity Loss
• Poverty
• Malnutrition

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Environmental and Resource Problems

• Major Problems(See Fig. 1-9 p. 12)

• Five Root Causes

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Solutions to Environmental Problems

• Current Emphasis Reactive
• Sustainability Emphasis Proactive

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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