ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Earth Lights from Space Earth s

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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Earth Lights from Space
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Earths Systems and Changes

• Earth A dynamic system
• Four interconnected subsystems Lithosphere,
  atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere
• Four subsystems mutually adjust

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What is Environmental Science?

• Environmental Science IS NOT Environmentalism
• Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary
  study of connections and is based on SCIENTIFIC
  principles
• Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated
  to protecting the environment (air, water, fauna,
  flora, etc)

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Easter Island

• A small volcanic island with a subtropical
  climate
• By the 16th century, a thriving society with
  15,00030,000 people
• Europeans reached there in 17th century, only
  2000 people struggling in a degraded environment
• Reasons for collapsed society overpopulated,
  deforestation, soil erosion, loss of agricultural
  base, further conflicts and wars, geographic
  isolation, and geologic limitations

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Earth

• Earth geospatially isolated in the universe
• Population explosion exponential growth
• Facing limited resources energy, soil, fresh
  water, forests, ocean fisheries, rangelands
• Global environment conflicts and integrated
  resolutions
• Lessons from Easter Island aware of limited
  resources and needs for sustainable global economy

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Environmental Sciences

• Environment A complex system with physical,
  biological, geological, ecological, and
  geopolitical aspects.
• Requires multidisciplinary research
  Environmental geology, environmental chemistry,
  global climate change, biological diversity and
  ecosystems, environmental economics,
  environmental ethics, environmental law, etc.
• Environmental crisis Population, environmental
  hazards, resource limitations and contaminations,
  environment ownership (both in space and over
  time)

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World Views

• Utilitarian (Planetary Management)
• Economic value (short term)
• Ecological (Stewardship)
• Life-supporting value
• Aesthetic (Environmental Wisdom)
• Beauty and enjoyment value
• Moral (Environmental Wisdom)
• Species rights

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Fundamental Concepts

• Population growth
• Sustainability
• System and change
• Hazardous Earth processes
• Scientific knowledge and values

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Human Population Growth

• 1 Environmental problem
• Population time bomb Exponential growth
• Earths carrying capacity limited More
  resources, more land space, more waste
• Exponential growth
• Uneven growth in space and over time
• Good news the rate of increase in population is
  decreasing

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Human Population Growth
Uneven growing pace and uneven global
distribution Little access to, or use of, modern
family planning methods in less developed
countries Africa Home to a larger share of
world population over next half century Asia
Many nations overpopulated India, over one-third
of its population under 15 years old Likely the
largest population by mid-century
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Human Population Growth
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Sustainability

• Ability of natural systems (human cultural
  systems and economies) to adapt and survive to
  changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
• Interplay between Natural Resources
  (Materials-renewable, such as soil, water, air/
  nonrenewable, such as oil, minerals) and Natural
  Services (Fnc of nature-nutrient cycling, pest
  control, ozone protection) to establish
  equilibrium in Natural Capital

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Plant and Animal Biodiversity
SEPM Photo CD-10, Environmental Science 1, 1997
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Sustainability

• An evolving concept
• Expectation and reality
• Criteria variations in space and over time
• Long-term implications
• Requiring careful resources allocation,
  large-scale development of new tech for resource
  use, recycling, and waste disposal

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Sustainability

• Measuring sustainability
• Use and consumption of resources
• Replenishment and renewable rates
• Development and improvement of human environment
  vs. viable environment
• Humans are living unsustainably by wasting,
  depleting and degrading the Earths Natural
  Capital at an exponentially accelerated rate.
  (e.g. overgrazing, overfishing)

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The Economic Gap

• Economic growth increase in output of goods and
  services-GDP (gross domestic product), usually
  measure as per capita (divided by population)
• Economist use the purchasing power parity (PPP)
  to measure across country boundaries (US dollars)
  and divide countries into Industrialized Nations
  (Developed) and Developing Countries
• Most wealth is in the developed world (US, Japan,
  Western Europe) and most population in the
  developing world (Africa, Latin America, SE Asia).

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Rich Countries
Middle Income Countries
Poor Countries
Poorer Countries
SEPM Photo CD-10, Environmental Science 1, 1997
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Global Outlook
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Consumption Comparisons

• 18 of the global population living in developed
  countries consumes 88 of the worlds total
  resources.
• USA alone accounts for 6 of the global
  population , but consumes 25 of its energy
  resources.
• The Developed world produces 75 of all pollution
  and wastes.

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Ecological Footprints

• Resources vs. Reserves
• Renewable vs. Nonrenewable
• Conservation vs. Preservation
• Recycling
• Reuse

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Ecological Footprints

• Amount of biological productive land and water
  needed to supply the people living in a
  particular area
• In 2006 WWF estimated that humanitys global
  ecological footprint exceeded the Earths
  biological capacity by 25
• The US has the largest ecological footprint
• By 2050, humanity will be trying to use twice as
  many renewable resources as the Earth can supply

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SEPM Photo CD-10, Environmental Science 1, 1997
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China India-A Case History

• Rapidly developing countries
• 600 million middle-class affluent lifestyles
• China worlds leading consumer in
• Wheat, rice, meat, coal, fertilizers, steel,
  cement
• Televisions, cell phones, refrigerators
• By 2020 leading economy in GDP-PPP
• Future consumption-by 2031 China 1.47 billion pop
• 2/3 world grain harvest
• Twice worlds current paper production
• Exceed current global oil production
• India will have an even larger population

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Pollution

• What is pollution?
• Point sources
• Nonpoint sources
• Unwanted effects of pollution

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Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?

• Major causes of environmental problems are
  population growth, wasteful and unsustainable
  resource use, poverty, excluding the
  environmental costs of resource use from the
  market prices of goods and services, and trying
  to manage nature with insufficient knowledge.
• People with different environmental worldviews
  often disagree about the seriousness of
  environmental problems and what we should do
  about them.

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Trying to manage nature without knowing
enough about it
Population growth
Unsustainable resource use
Poverty
Excluding environmental costs from market prices
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SEPM Photo CD-10, Environmental Science 1, 1997
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Some Harmful Results of Poverty
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Environmental Effects of Affluence

• Harmful effects
• High consumption and waste of resources
• Advertising more makes you happy
• Beneficial effects
• Concern for environmental quality
• Provide money for environmental causes
• Reduced population growth

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Hazardous Earth Processes

• Hazardous Earth processes and risk statistics for
  the past two decades
• Annual loss of life About 150,000
• Financial loss gt20 billion
• More loss of life from a major natural disaster
  in a developing country (2003 Iran quake, 30,000
  people)
• More property damage occurs in a more developed
  country

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SEPM Photo CD-10, Environmental Science 1, 1997
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Scientific Principles of Sustainabilities

• Relience on Solar Energy
• Biodiversity
• Population Control
• Nutrient Cycling

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Reliance on Solar Energy
Biodiversity
Population Control
Nutrient Cycling
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Sustainability Emphasis
Current Emphasis
Pollution prevention
Pollution cleanup
Waste disposal (bury or burn)
Waste prevention
Protecting habitat
Protecting species
Environmental restoration
Environmental degradation
Increasing resource use
Less resource waste
Population stabilization
Population growth
Depleting and degrading natural capital
Protecting natural capital