Chp' 1: Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

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Chp. 1 Environmental Problems, Their Causes,
and Sustainability

• orWhats With These Tree Huggers Anyway?

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A few basic terms

• Environment everything that affects an organism
• Ecology study of relationships between living
  organisms their environment
• Environmental science interdisciplinary science
  incorporating natural social sciences

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Exponential Growth

• Increasing by a fixed percentage of the whole
• Much faster than linear growth
• J-shaped curve
• Environmental problems

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Exponential Growth
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• 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

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Bad Environmental News
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Good Environmental News!
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Learning From The Past

• Cuyahoga River

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Learning From The Past

• Bald eagle

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Learning From The Past

• Ozone depletion

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Environmentally Sustainable Society

• Satisfies basic needs of people
• Does not deplete or degrade natural resources
• 1997 Americans think environmental problems can
  be given a quick fix
• People want a better environment, but dont want
  to change how they live

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Resources

• Perpetual continuously renewed
• Renewable can be replenished fairly rapidly
• Sustainable yield no loss of supply
• Can become nonrenewable or unusable
• Tragedy of the Commons
• Nonrenewable resources fixed quantity
• Use until too expensive then what?

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Types of Resources
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Pollution

• Any addition to air, water, soil or food that
  threatens health, survival or activities of any
  living thing

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Point Source Pollution

• Know exact source

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Nonpoint Source Pollution

• Cant pinpoint exact source

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Important Pollutant Factors

• Chemical nature
• Concentration
• Persistence
• Nonpersistent
• Persistent
• Nondegradable

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Pollution, What Can We Do?

• Clean up
• Prevention is cheaper!

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Impact of a Population

• Number of people
• Average resource use per person
• Technological impact

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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
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Developed vs. Developing Countries

• Developed growthmania

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Developed vs.Developing Countries

• Developing trying to catch up

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Environmental ProblemsCross Borders

• Air pollution drifts

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Environmental ProblemsCross Borders

• U.S. drains Colorado River

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A Few Questions

• Is our present course sustainable?
• Are things getting better or worse?
• How can we live more sustainably?