Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

1
Chapter 1

• Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and
  Sustainability

2
Chapter Overview Questions

• What are the main themes of this book?
• What keeps us alive? What is an environmentally
  sustainable society?
• How fast is the human population growing?
• What is the difference between economic growth,
  economic development, and environmentally
  sustainable economic development?

3
Chapter Overview Questions (contd)

• What are the harmful environmental effects of
  poverty and affluence?
• What three major human cultural changes have
  taken place since humans arrived?
• What are the four scientific principles of
  sustainability and how can we use them and shared
  visions to build more environmentally sustainable
  and just societies during this century?

4
OBJ 1.1
?
Billions of people
Black Deaththe Plague
Time
Industrial Revolution
Hunting and Gathering
Agricultural revolution
5
CHECKPOINT

• What is exponential growth?
• Why is living in an exponential age a concern for
  everyone living on the planet?

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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Human Culturesphere
Earth's Life-Support System
Water (hydrosphere)
Air (atmosphere)
Population Size
Worldviews and ethics
Soil and rocks (lithosphere)
Life (biosphere)
Politics
Economics
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What Keeps Us Alive?
OBJ 1.2

• Solar
• Natural

Fig. 1-2, p. 7
8
Natural capital degradation

• The exponential increasing flow of material
  resources through the worlds economic systems
  depletes, degrades and pollutes the environment.

Figure 1-11
9
CHECKPOINT

• Explain the terms natural capital, natural
  resources, natural services, solar capital and
  natural capital degradation.

10
Sustainability The Integrative Theme
OBJ 1.3

• Sustainability, is the ability of earths various
  systems to survive and adapt to environmental
  conditions indefinitely.
• The steps to sustainability must be supported by
  sound science.

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Environmentally Sustainable Societies

• meets basic needs of its people in a just
  and equitable manner without degrading the
  natural capital that supplies these resources.

12
CHECKPOINT

• Describe an environmentally sustainable society.
• List three ways in which you could make your
  lifestyle more environmentally sustainable.

13
GROWTH DEVELOPMENT
OBJ 1.4

• Economic growth provides people with more goods
  and services.
• Measured in gross domestic product (GDP) and
  purchasing power parity (PPP).
• Economic development uses economic growth to
  improve living standards.
• The worlds countries economic status (developed
  vs. developing) are based on their degree of
  industrialization and GDP-PPP.

14
Global Outlook

• Comparison of developed and developing countries.

Figures 1-5 and 1-6
15
Fig. 1-6, p. 11
16
CHECKPOINT

• Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of
  globalization.

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RESOURCES
OBJ 1.5

• Perpetual On a human time scale are continuous.
• Renewable On a human time scale can be
  replenished rapidly (e.g. hours to several
  decades).
• Nonrenewable On a human time scale are in fixed
  supply.
• LINK http//videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/11891-co
  nservation-of-natural-resources-introduction-video
  .htm

18
CHECKPOINT

• Create a concept map showing a connection between
  the following terms perpetual, renewable and
  nonrenewable energy.
• Give examples of each type of resource.

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Our Ecological Footprint

• Humanitys ecological footprint has exceeded
  earths ecological capacity.

Figure 1-7
21
The Tragedy of the Commons Or the
challenge of common-pool resourcesOr why the
sum total of individual rational choices can
lead to perverse (and socially sub-optimal)
outcomes
OBJ 1.6
Credits cow images from http//www.woodyjackson.
com/
22
Imagine a field of grass shared by 6 farmers,
each with one cow
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A few facts Each cow currently produces 20
liters of milk per day The carrying capacity of
the commons is 8 cows. For each cow above 8, the
milk production declines by 2 liters (due to
overgrazing, there is less grass for each cow
less grass, less milk!).
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 120
liters
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Do the farmers sit back and stay at 6 cows? Not
if they are individual profit maximizers (here
simplified as milk production maximizers)
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 120
liters (6 cows)
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Do the farmers sit back and stay at 6 cows? Not
if they are individual profit maximizers (here
simplified as milk production maximizers)
Ill get another cow
40 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 140
liters (7 cows)
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We are now at the carrying capacity -- do they
stop? No.
Then Ill get another cow too
40 liters
40 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 160
liters (8 cows)
27
They are now at the maximum total milk
production. But do they stop? No
36 liters
36 liters
Ill get another cow
18 liters
36 liters
18 liters
18 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 162
liters (9 cows)
28
32 liters
32 liters
16 liters
32 liters
16 liters
My cow is now less productive, but 2 will
improve my situation
32 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 160
liters (10 cows)
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28 liters
28 liters
14 liters
28 liters
Ill get another cow
28 liters
28 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 154
liters (11 cows)
30
Well, everyone else is getting one, so me too!
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 144
liters (12 cows)
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Well, I can still increase milk production if I
get a third cow
30 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 130
liters (10 cows)
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CHECKPOINT

• How can environmentalists solve the issue of
  tragedy of the commons?

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34
1-4 Pollution

• What is pollution?
• - Presence of substances at high level in air,
  water, food that can threaten the health,
  survival, activities of organisms

• Effects of Pollution
• disrupt/degrade life-support systems
• Damage wildlife, human health, property
• Nuisances such as noise, unpleasant smells

Sources

• Point single, identifiable sources
• - EX Smokestack of a coal-burning power plant

• Nonpoint dispersed, difficult to identify
• - EX pesticides sprayed in air

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• Pollutants can have three types of unwanted
  effects
• Can disrupt / degrade life-support systems.
• Can damage health and property.
• Can create nuisances such as noise and unpleasant
  smells, tastes, and sights.

36
CHECKPOINT

• How is the production of pollution and waste
  related to exponential growth of the worlds
  population and economies?
• List three things you would do to reduce the
  amount of pollution and waste that we produce.
• List three changes in your lifestyle that would
  reduce the amount of pollution and wastes you
  produce.

37
Dealing With Pollution
OBJ 1.7

• Prevention (Input Control)
• - Reduce or eliminate production of pollutant

• Cleanup (Output Control)
• - Cleaning up or diluting pollutants after
  they
• have been produced
• Problems
• 1. temporary bandage
• 2. removes pollutant from 1 part to cause
• pollution in another
• 3. costs too much to reduce pollutants to
• acceptable levels

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Solutions Prevention vs. Cleanup
OBJ 1.7

• Problems with relying on cleanup
• Temporary bandage without improvements in control
  technology.
• Often removes a pollutant from one part of the
  environment to cause problems in another.
• Pollutants at harmful levels can cost too much to
  reduce them to acceptable levels.

39
CHECKPOINT

• Distinguish between pollution prevention and
  pollution cleanup.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of these two
  approaches in decreasing pollution.
• Explain how placing much greater emphasis on
  pollution prevention would help reduce the
  exponential growth of the human ecological
  footprint and your own ecological footprint.

40
OBJ 1.8
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS CAUSES AND CONNECTIONS

• The major causes of environmental problems are
• Population growth
• Wasteful resource use
• Poverty
• Poor environmental accounting
• Ecological ignorance

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SOLAR CAPITAL
EARTH
Goods and services
Heat
Human Economic and Cultural Systems
Human Capital
Depletion of nonrenewable resources
Degradation of renewable resources
Natural Capital
Pollution and waste
Recycling and reuse
Fig. 1-10, p. 17
43
CHECKPOINT

• Identify five basic causes of the environmental
  problems we face today.

44
Poverty Environmental Problems

• 1 of 3 children under 5, suffer from severe
  malnutrition.

Figure 1-12 and 1-13
45
Resource Consumption and Environmental Problems

• Underconsumption
• Overconsumption
• Affluenza unsustainable addiction to
  overconsumption and materialism.

46
Connections between Environmental Problems and
Their Causes
Figure 1-14
47
CHECKPOINT

• What is poverty?
• In what ways do poverty and affluence affect the
  environment?
• Explain the problems we face by not including the
  harmful environmental costs in the prices of
  goods and services.

48
Implications of the Four Scientific Principles of
Sustainability
OBJ 1.9
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Reliance on Solar Energy
Biodiversity
Population Control
Nutrient Recycling
Fig. 1-16, p. 24
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CHECKPOINT

• For each of the following actions, state one or
  more of the four scientific principles of
  sustainability that are involved
• recycling soda cans
• using a rake instead of leaf blower
• choosing to have no more than one child
• walking to class instead of driving
• taking your own reusable bags to the grocery
  store to carry things home in
• volunteering to restore a pine rockland

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STUDY RESOURCES
Vocabulary Flashcards http//www.brookscole.com
/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fidM20bprod
uct_isbn_issn0534997295discipline_number22 Web
Quiz http//webquiz.ilrn.com/ilrn/bca/user/quiz-
public/run?session77E7CDDBB8ECCAB0B072C2689E92404
Bquestion1