Environmental Issues, Their Causes, and Sustainability

1
Environmental Issues, Their Causes, and
Sustainability
G. Tyler Millers Living in the Environment 13th
Edition Chapter 1
2
Key Concepts

• Growth and Sustainability

• Resources and Resource Use

• Pollution

• Causes of Environmental Problems

3
Living More Sustainably

• Ecology scientific study of the relationship
  between living organisms and their environment.

4
Living More Sustainably

• Environmental Science
• interdisciplinary science that uses natural and
  social sciences to help us understand
• how the earth works
• how we are affecting the earths systems
• how to deal with environmental problems

5
Living More Sustainably

• Groups involved
• Ecologists
• Environmental Scientists
• Conservation biologists
• Environmentalists
• Preservationists
• Conservationists
• Restorationists

Which are you?
6
What keeps us alive?

• solar capital
• natural capital/resources
• solar energy

7
Objectives

• Differentiate between ecology and environmental
  science.
• Define the term ecological footprint and
  calculate it based on varying scenarios.
• Discuss sustainability and how factors associated
  with ecological footprints may impact it.

8
Environmentally Sustainable Society?

• An Environmentally Sustainable Society does not
• deplete or degrade the earths natural resources
• prevent current and future generations of humans
  and other species from meeting their basic needs.

9
Living Sustainably?

• Living sustainably means
• living off the natural income replenished by
  soils, plants, air, and water.
• NOT depleting the earths endowment of natural
  capital that supplies this income.

10
Activity Cats in Borneo

• Work with a partner to try and put the order of
  events of the story of why cats were parachuted
  into Borneo.

Early finishers work on signs and safety cartoon.
11
Exponential growth
12
Bell Ringer
Based on your general knowledge, explain how the
economic growth of a country can both help and
hurt the environment.
13
Objectives

• Use the Rule of 70 to calculate the doubling time
  of a population.
• Describe the use of Integrated Biosystems (IBS)
  to achieve sustainability.
• Identify the six economic indicators
• Compare developed and developing countries based
  on their indicators and use of resources.

14
Agenda

• Bell Ringer
• Rule of 70
• Calculations
• Case Study IBS as a zero emission strategy to
  achieve sustainability (video clip 13 min)

15
Population Growth

• ExponentialGrowth

• Doubling Time/Rule of 70

16
Rule of 70

• 70 / percentage of growth rate doubling time in
  years
• Example in 1963 the world population grew by
  2.1
• 70 / 2.1 33.3 years
• What would be the doubling time at a rate of
  1.28? 0.1? 1.6?

17
World Population
Fig. 1-1 p. 2
18
Current Exponential Growth

• At the current rate of 1.28
• 4 days number of Americans killed in all US
  wars
• 2 months population of the LA basin
• 1.6 years 129 million killed in all the wars
  of the past 200 years
• 3.6 years 288 million (US pop. 2002)
• 16 years 1.28 billion (China pop. 2002)

19
Case Study in Sustainability

• Zero Emissions
• Integrated Biosystems
• Video Case Study
• Identify the steps in this IBS
• What kind of IBS strategy might be used by our
  school?

20
Economic Growth

• Gross National Income (GNI)
• Formerly called GNP
• GNI PPP is better for comparisons

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

• Gross World Product (GWP)

• Per Capita GNI (formerly GNP)
• Per Capita GNI PPP

21
Economic Development

• Economic development improvement of living
  standards by economic growth.
• Countries are classified based mostly on their
  degree of industrialization and per Capita GNI.

22
Economic Development

• Developed Countries most highly industrialized
  with high per capita GNI PPPs (above 10,750
  usually).
• Examples? -

23
Economic Development

• Developing Countries middle income, moderately
  developed (10, 750 - 2,701 and low income
  countries (less than 2,701).
• Examples? -

24
Comparison

• Developed
• 1.2 billion people
• 19 of world pop.
• 85 of worlds wealth
• use 88 of resources
• produce 75 of the pollution.

• Developing
• 5 billion people
• 81 of world pop.
• 15 of worlds wealth
• use 12 of resources
• produce 25 of the pollution.

25
Economic Development

• Positive Aspects
• Life expectancy doubled (36 72) from 1900
  2002 (76 developed, 65 developing)
• Infant mortality dropped (60 developed 40
  developing) from 1955 2002.
• Global food production has outpaced population
  growth since 1978
• Rural families with access to safe drinking water
  increased from 10 in 1955 to 75 now in
  developing countries.

26
Economic Development

• Positive Aspects
• Weve learned to produce more goods with less raw
  materials.
• Levels of most major air and water pollutants
  have been reduced in most developed countries.

27
Economic Development

• Negative Aspects
• Avg. life expectancy is 11 yrs. less in
  developing countries
• Infant mortality 8 times higher in developing
  countries
• Industrialized food production harming the
  environment and may limit future production.
• Air water pollution too high in developing
  countries.

28
Economic Development

• Negative Aspects
• Natural resources are being used unsustainably
  including
• extinction of species 100 1000 times faster
  than pre-human times.
• destruction/degradation of wetlands, coral reefs,
  and forests.
• gradual depletion of ground water.

29
Economic Development

• Negative Aspects
• Studies by Conservation International
• 73 of habitable land is partially or heavily
  disturbed by human use.
• Global warming may cause
• shifting of agricultural land
• alteration of water supplies
• shifting of plants and animals
• rising average sea levels

30
Economic Development

• Negative Aspects
• 1.4 billion avg. income of less than 370 per
  year. (1/day acute poverty)
• Half of the worlds population suffer from
  poverty and are living on 1 - 3 per day. (70
  are women children)
• The gap between the richest and poorest countries
  is growing.

31
Globalization
Globalization the process of social, economic,
and environmental global changes lead to an
increasingly interconnected world.
32
Globalization
Economic
Information and Communication
Environmental Effects
33
Resources
Resources Anything we obtain from the
environment to meet our needs and wants.
34
Resources

• Perpetual

• Renewable

• Non-renewable

Fig. 1-6 p. 9
35
Renewable Resources

• Sustainable Yield

• Environmental Degradation

• Tragedy of the Commons

Refer to Connections, p. 12
36
Non-Renewable Resources

• Energy Resources

• Metallic Resources

• Non-MetallicResources

• Reuse

• Recycle

37
Ecological Footprint
Fig. 1-8 p. 10
38
Calculate your footprint

• www.earthday.net/footprint

39
(No Transcript)
40
(No Transcript)
41
(No Transcript)
42
Pollution

• What is pollution?

• Effects of Pollution

Sources

• Point

• Nonpoint

43
Dealing With Pollution

• Prevention (Input Control)

• Cleanup (Output Control)

44
Environmental and Resource Problems

• Major Problems(See Fig. 1-9 p. 12)

• Five Root Causes

45

• 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

(See Fig. 1-9 p. 12)
46
Poverty Environmental Problems

• Poverty is a major threat to human health and the
  environment.
• Deplete degrade forests, grasslands, soils and
  wildlife for short-term survival.

47
Poverty Environmental Problems

• Live in areas with high levels of pollution and
  risks of natural disasters.
• Unhealthy and unsafe working conditions for low
  pay when they are even available.

48
Poverty Environmental Problems

• Have many children for economic security.
• No retirement plans, social security, or
  government sponsored health plans.

49
Poverty Environmental Problems

• One in every three children under age 5 suffer
  from malnutrition.
• 13,700 children die prematurely every day from
  malnutrition and infectious diseases.

50
Resource Consumption and Environmental Problems

• Affluenza the unsustainable addiction to over
  consumption and materialism. (Shop til you drop
  virus)
• 1 American 27 tractor-trailer loads/year
• All Americans 7.9 billion truckloads/year

51
Solving the Problem

• Admit theres a problem
• Ask
• Do I really need this?
• Can I buy it used?
• Can I borrow one?
• Avoid other shopaholics and malls.

52
Law of Progressive Simplicity

• Historian Arnold Toynbees true measure of a
  civilizations growth
• True growth occurs as civilizations transfer an
  increasing proportion of energy and attention
  from the material side of life to the nonmaterial
  side and thereby develop their culture, capacity
  for compassion, sense of community, and strength
  of democracy.

53
Can Affluenza help the problem?

• Affluent countries have more money for improving
  environmental quality.

54
Environmental Impact
Fig. 1-11 p. 13
55
Environmental Interactions
Fig. 1-12 p. 14
56
Better or Worse?

• Two extremes
• Technological optimists
• Environmental pessimists
• I have no hope for a conservation based on fear
  Aldo Leopold, Conservationist

57
Environmental Worldviews

• Planetary Management
• We are in charge of nature
• We will find new resources as old ones run out.
• Global economic growth is unlimited
• Success depends on how we manage the earths
  systems, mostly for our benefit.

58
Environmental Worldviews

• Stewardship View
• We have a ethical responsibility to care for
  nature.
• We probably wont run out of resources but they
  should not be wasted.
• Encourage environmentally beneficial economic
  growth and discourage that which is harmful.
• Success depends on we manage the earths systems
  for our benefit AND the rest of nature.

59
Environmental Worldviews

• Environmental Wisdom View
• Nature exists for all species, not just us and we
  are not in charge of the earth.
• Resources ARE limited, and should not be wasted.
• Encourage earth-sustaining economic growth and
  discourage earth-degrading growth.
• Success depends on learning how the earth
  sustains itself and using these lessons to
  determine how we think and act.

60
Environmentally-Sustainable Economic Development
Fig. 1-13 p. 17