Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

1
Environmental Problems,Their Causes, and
Sustainability

• Chapter 1

2
Core Case Study Exponential Growth (1)

• Slow start, rapid increase
• Human population
• 2007 6.7 billion people
• Projections
• 225,000 people per day
• Add population of U.S. lt 4 years
• 2050 9.2 billion people

3
Core Case Study Exponential Growth (2)

• Resource consumption, degradation, depletion
• Possible results
• Huge amount of pollution and wastes
• Disrupt economies
• Loss of species, farm land, water supplies
• Climate change
• Political fallout

4
Living in an Exponential Age
5
Industrial revolution
Black Deaththe Plague
Hunting and gathering
Agricultural revolution
Industrial revolution
Fig. 1-1, p. 1
Fig. 1-1, p. 5
6
Solutions

• Understand our environment
• Practice sustainability

7
1-1 What Is an Environmentally Sustainable
Society?

• Concept 1-1A Our lives and economies depend on
  energy from the sun (solar capital) and natural
  resources and natural services (natural capital)
  provided by the earth.
• Concept 1-1B Living sustainably means living off
  earths natural income without depleting or
  degrading the natural capital that supplies it.

8
Studying Connections in Nature

• Environment
• Environmental science
• Ecology
• Environmentalism

9
Environmental Science
10
Philosophy and religion
Ethics
Biology
Political science
Ecology
Chemistry
Economics
Demography
Physics
Anthropology
Geology
Geography
Fig. 1-2, p. 7
11
Living More Sustainably

• Sustainability central theme
• Natural capital
• Natural resources
• Natural services

12
Natural Resources

• Materials
• Renewable
• Nonrenewable
• Energy
• Solar capital
• Photosynthesis

13
Natural Services

• Functions of nature
• Purification of air, water
• Nutrient cycling

14
Key Natural Resources and Services
Fig. 1-3, p. 8
15
Nutrient Cycling
16
Organic matter in animals
Dead organic matter
Organic matter in plants
Decomposition
Inorganic matter in soil
Fig. 1-4, p. 9
17
Environmental Sustainability

• Trade-offs (compromises)
• Sound science
• Individuals matter
• Ideas
• Technology
• Political pressure
• Economic pressure

18
Sustainable Living from Natural Capital

• Environmentally sustainable society
• Financial capital and financial income
• Natural capital and natural income
• Bad news signs of natural capital depletion at
  exponential rates

19
1-2 How Can Environmentally Sustainable Societies
Grow Economically?

• Concept 1-2 Societies can become more
  environmentally sustainable through economic
  development dedicated to improving the quality of
  life for everyone without degrading the earths
  life-support systems.

20
Economics

• Economic growth
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• Per capita GDP PPP
• Economic development
• Developed countries
• Developing countries

21
Global Outlook
22
Percentage of World's
18
Population
82
Population growth
0.1
1.5
Life expectancy
77 years
66 years
85
Wealth and income
15
Resource use
88
12
75
Pollution and waste
25
Fig. 1-5, p. 10
23
1-3 How Are Our Ecological Footprints Affecting
the Earth?

• Concept 1-3 As our ecological footprints grow,
  we are depleting and degrading more of the
  earths natural capital.

24
Natural Resources (1)

• Perpetual renewed continuously
• Solar energy
• Renewable hours to decades
• Water, air
• Forest, grasslands

25
Natural Resources (2)

• Sustainable yield
• Highest use while maintaining supply
• Environmental degradation
• Exceed natural replacement rate

26
Natural Resources (3)

• Nonrenewable fixed quantities
• Energy (fossil fuels)
• Metallic minerals
• Nonmetallic minerals
• Recycling
• Reuse

27
Natural Capital Degradation
Fig. 1-6, p. 12
28
Reuse and Recycling
Fig. 1-7, p. 12
29
Measuring Environmental Impact

• Ecological footprint
• Biological capacity to replenish resources and
  adsorb waste and pollution
• Per capita ecological footprint
• Renewable resource use per individual

30
Ecological Footprint
Fig. 1-8, p. 13
31
Stepped Art
Fig. 1-8, p. 13
32
Case Study China

• Rapidly developing country
• Middle-class affluent lifestyles
• Worlds leading consumer in
• Wheat, rice, meat, coal, fertilizers, steel,
  cement
• Televisions, cell phones, refrigerators
• Future consumption
• 2/3 world grain harvest
• Twice worlds current paper production
• Exceed current global oil production

33
1-4 What Is Pollution and What Can We Do about
It?

• Concept 1-4 Preventing pollution is more
  effective and less costly than cleaning up
  pollution.

34
Pollution

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

35
Point Source Air Pollution
Fig. 1-9, p. 15
36
Solutions to Pollution

• Pollution prevention (input control)
• Front-of-the-pipe
• Pollution cleanup (output control)
• End-of-the-pipe

37
Disadvantages of Output Control

• Temporary
• Growth in consumption may offset technology
• Moves pollutant from one place to another
• Burial
• Incineration
• Dispersed pollutants costly to clean up

38
1-5 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?

• Concept 1-5A 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.
• Concept 1-5B People with different environmental
  worldviews often disagree about the seriousness
  of environmental problems and what we should do
  about them.

39
Causes of Environmental Problems

• Population growth
• Wasteful and unsustainable resource use
• Poverty
• Failure to include environmental costs of goods
  and services in market prices
• Too little knowledge of how nature works

40
Five Basic Causes of Environmental Problems
Fig. 1-10, p. 16
41
Trying to manage nature without knowing
enough about it
Population growth
Unsustainable resource use
Poverty
Excluding environmental costs from market prices
Fig. 1-10, p. 16
42
Stepped Art
Fig. 1-10, p. 16
43
Some Harmful Results of Poverty
44
Number of people ( of world's population)
Lack of access to
Adequate sanitation facilities
2.6 billion (39)
Enough fuel for heating and cooking
2 billion (30)
2 billion (30)
Electricity
Clean drinking water
1.1 billion (16)
Adequate health care
1.1 billion (16)
Adequate housing
1 billion (15)
Enough food for good health
0.84 billion (13)
Fig. 1-11, p. 16
45
Global Connections
Fig. 1-12, p. 16
46
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

47
Evaluating Full Cost of Resources Use

• Examples
• Clear-cutting habitat loss
• Commercial fishing depletion of fish stocks
• Tax breaks
• Subsidies

48
Environmental Viewpoints

• Environmental worldview
• Environmental ethics
• Planetary management worldview
• Stewardship worldview
• Environmental wisdom worldview
• Social capital

49
Case Study Chattanooga, Tennessee (1)

• 1960s
• Dirtiest air in the United States
• Toxic waste in Tennessee River
• High unemployment, crime
• 1984
• Vision 2000 grassroots consensus

50
Case Study Chattanooga, Tennessee (2)

• 1995
• Zero emission industries, buses
• Low-income renovations, downtown renewal
• Individuals matter!

51
1-6 What Are Four Scientific Principles of
Sustainability?

• Concept 1-6 Nature has sustained itself for
  billions of years by using solar energy,
  biodiversity, population regulation, and nutrient
  cycling lessons from nature that we can apply
  to our lifestyles and economies.

52
Four Scientific Principles of Sustainability
53
Reliance on Solar Energy
Biodiversity
Population Control
Nutrient Cycling
Fig. 1-13, p. 20
54
Learning to Live More Sustainably
55
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
Fig. 1-14, p. 20
56
Animation Levels of organization
57
Animation Two views of economics
58
Animation Resources depletion and degradation
interaction
59
Animation Exponential growth
60
Animation Capture-recapture method
61
Animation Life history patterns
62
Video Cahuachi Excavation
PLAY VIDEO
63
Video Easter Island
PLAY VIDEO