What is your worldview?

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What is your worldview?

• Earths resources can support continued economic
  growth.
• Its not possible to protect the environment
  without having a growing economy.
• Problems created by past technologies will be
  solved by future technologies.
• Perpetual growth is both good and possible.
• Nature is a storehouse of raw materials to be
  used to satisfy increasing human needs.
• Continued material growth is necessary to
  increase human quality of life.
• Technological innovations can sustain an
  ever-increasing human population.
• Progress means the satisfaction of increasing
  levels of human wishes.
• Development means essentially the same thing as
  growth.
• There is always an away to throw things to.

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Expansionist Worldview Material Growth is
necessary for human happiness and is possible
because of an ever-advancing technology and
abundant resources.Ecological Worldview Earth
is a finite system that cannot exhibit endless
growth.

• All ten statements reflect beliefs of the
  Expansionist Worldview.
• If you agreed with seven or more of the
  statements, count yourself among the
  Expansionists.
• If you agreed with three or less, you probably
  hold the Ecological View.
• Scores from four to six suggest your worldview is
  mixed.

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Common aspects of environmental problems

• Overpopulation

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Too many people using too many resources
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exponential
linear
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Common aspects of environmental problems

• Overpopulation
• Resource depletion and habitat destruction

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Soil erosion on farm lands
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North Atlantic bluefin tuna auctioned in a
Japanese fish market
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Deforestation in the United States
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Tropical deforestation
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Fragmentation of a forest ecosystem (Mount Hood
National Forest, Oregon)
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The history of habitat reduction and
fragmentation in a Wisconsin forest(Cadiz
township)
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Ohio farmland
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Science Magazine(August 2006)
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Common aspects of environmental problems

• Overpopulation
• Resource depletion and habitat destruction
• Pollution

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Gulf war of 1991. Oil well fires
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Figure Distribution of acid precipitation in
North America and Europe(acidity compared with
normal rainwater)
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Acid deposition in the United States
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Common aspects of environmental problems

• Overpopulation
• Resource depletion
• Pollution

• Changes in values

All human environmental problems have their roots
in one or more of the fundamental principles of
ecology.
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Fig. 1-9. Sustainable solutions require that the
concerns of sociologists, economists and
ecologists intersect
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The human factor a brief look into the past
(Ch. 2 p 49-52)

• Neolithic Revolution
• The development of agriculture by humans some
  10,000 years ago leading to more permanent
  settlement and population increases.
• Industrial Revolution
• The development of manufacturing processes using
  fossil fuels and based on the application of
  scientific knowledge and technology (19th
  century).
• Environmental Revolution
• A change in the adaptation of humans to the
  rising deterioration of the environment.

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Some U.S. History of environmental problems

• Late 18th- early 19th century - European
  explorers claimed new lands. Deforestation,
  farming, settlement and introduction of new
  plants, animals, and diseases.
• 19th century - frontier moved ever westward, land
  development, growing population
• Mid 19th century - Onset of industrialization ?
  resource depletion, pollution, but also start of
  first environmental movements

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Some U.S. History of environmental problems

• Late 18th- early 19th century - European
  explorers claimed new lands. Deforestation,
  farming, settlement and introduction of new
  plants, animals, and diseases.
• 19th century - frontier moved ever westward, land
  development, growing population
• Mid 19th century - Onset of industrialization ?
  resource depletion, pollution, but also start of
  first environmental movements
• 1930s - Conversion of large tracts of former
  prairie to farmland. Sod busting, dustbowl of
  the 1930, depletion of soil resources ? spurred
  conservation movement

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1930s Dust Bowl
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Some U.S. History of environmental problems

• Late 18th- early 19th century - European
  explorers claimed new lands. Deforestation,
  farming, settlement and introduction of new
  plants, animals, and diseases.
• 19th century - frontier moved ever westward, land
  development, growing population
• Mid 19th century - Onset of industrialization ?
  resource depletion, pollution, but also start of
  first environmental movements
• 1930s - Conversion of large tracts of former
  prairie to farmland. Sod busting, dustbowl of
  the 1930, depletion of soil resources ? spurred
  conservation movement
• Early 1950s - rapid industrialization, fast
  population growth (baby boom), cheap energy
• 1960s, civil activism and environmental activism
  (Cuyahoga River fires, Rachel Carsons book
  Silent Spring 1962), development of
  environmental laws and regulations.

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Rachel Carson (1962) Silent Spring
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Some U.S. History of environmental problems

• Late 18th- early 19th century - European
  explorers claimed new lands. Deforestation,
  farming, settlement and introduction of new
  plants, animals, and diseases.
• 19th century - frontier moved ever westward, land
  development, growing population
• Mid 19th century - Onset of industrialization ?
  resource depletion, pollution, but also start of
  first environmental movements
• 1930s - Conversion of large tracts of former
  prairie to farmland. Sod busting, dustbowl of
  the 1930, depletion of soil resources ? spurred
  conservation movement
• Early 1950s - rapid industrialization, fast
  population growth (baby boom), cheap energy
• 1960s, civil activism and environmental activism
  (Cuyahoga River fires, Rachel Carsons book
  Silent Spring 1962), development of
  environmental laws and regulations.
• 1970s energy shortages, new laws, scientific
  search for alternative energy sources. First
  Earth Day. Environmental movement - first local
  and regional issues, then national and global
  concerns
• 1980s (perception of) too much government
  intervention ? slows meaningful clean-up
  (Superfund).
• 1990 present - Increased recognition for longer
  term, more global concerns.

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The growth and industrialization in the U.S. and
Europe in the early 1950s was in large part due
to

• government intervention.
• environmental activism.
• the first law of thermodynamics.
• the discovery of gold out west.
• cheap energy.