Transcript Living in the environment

Introduction to
Environmental
Science
Chapter 1
Environmental Science
Interdisciplinary
science –ecology, geology,
chemistry,
environmental studies focuses on politics,
engineering, economics, and ethics
Connections
and interactions between
humans and the rest of nature
Validity of data questioned
– many
variables (hard to perform controlled
experiments)
Environmental Science
environment: everything around us
including the living and non-living
things with which we interact
Goals of environmental science
learn how nature works
understand how we interact with the
environment
find ways to deal with environmental
problems and live more sustainably
Environmental Issues
 Population growth
 Increasing resource use
 Destruction and degradation of habitat
 Premature extinction (loss of biodiversity)
 Poverty
 Pollution
 Our top three:
Climate Change/Global
warming; Radioactive wastes; and increase in
human population
Tragedy of the Commons- Garrett
Hardin

Over use of common property (exploiting common
resources)
“if I don’t use this resource someone else will”
“I don’t take enough to matter”
“the amount I pollute is not enough to cause a
problem”
“its a renewable resource...it will come back”

Clean air, open ocean and its fish, wildlife species,
publicly owned land, gases of lower atmosphere,
space

How do we manage these resources on a global
level? Who is responsible for enforcing
compliance?
Sustainability
Ability of a specified system
to survive and function over
a period of time
Sustainable living: Meeting
present needs without
preventing future
generations from meeting
theirs
Sustainability
 Three principles of sustainability..how can we live more
wisely and understand how the earth has sustained
itself?
Reliance on solar energy
drives energy cycling in ecosystems (photosynthesis
and cell respiration)
Biodiversity
ability to adapt to changes and provide natural
services
Chemical (nutrient cycling)
movement and renewal of chemicals in an
ecosystem
Ecosystem Services
Ecosystems provide services that
aren’t easy to quantify
reasons for protecting and
preserving our natural resources
purifying air and water,
pollination, providing oxygen,
providing food
Sustainability
 Components of Sustainability
 natural capital, natural resources
and
natural services work together in
ecosystems to provide us with the resources
we need to survive
 being
sustainable and managing our
resources allow us to ensure these services
for future generations and indefinitely
 Sustainable
yield: how much we can take
without depleting the resource for the
future
Ecological footprint or
environmental impact
Amount of land needed to produce the
resources needed by an average
person in a country
Ecological Footprint

The area of land and ocean required to support your
consumption of food, goods, services, housing, and
energy and assimilate your wastes.

Your ecological footprint is expressed in "global hectares"
(gha) or "global acres" (ga), which are standardized units
that take into account the differences in biological
productivity of various ecosystems impacted by your
consumption activities.

Your footprint is broken down into four consumption
categories: carbon (home energy use and transportation),
food, housing, and goods and services.

Your footprint is also broken down into four ecosystem
types or biomes: cropland, pastureland, forestland, and
marine fisheries.

www.myfootprint.org
Global Averages—Ecological
Footprint
There are only 15.71
acres available per
person (renewable
basis). We are
overshooting the
biological capacity by
almost 50%!!
myfootprint.org
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Complete “Pledge Card” (see example)
Living in the environment
Hunter gatherers –
12,000 years ago
Agricultural
revolution –
10,000-12,000Industrial
revolution-275
years ago
Technological
revolution – 50
years ago
Cultural changes
Advanced Industrial
societies (1914 --- Present)
 increase
 lower
in agricultural products
infant mortality
 improved
 increase
 net
health
in longevity
population increase
 Environmental
impacts globalize
Countries Differ in Levels
of Unsustainability

Economic growth: increase in output of a nation’s
goods and services

Gross domestic product (GDP): annual market
value of all goods and services produced by all
businesses, foreign and domestic, operating within
a country

Per capita GDP: one measure of economic
development (GDP divided by population at
midyear)

Economic development: using economic growth
to raise living standards
Countries Differ in Levels of
Unsustainability

More-developed countries: North America,
Australia, New Zealand, Japan, most of Europe


High income. 19% of the worlds population (1.2 billion
people). Use 88% of the worlds resources and
produce 75% of the worlds pollution and waste.
Less-developed countries: most countries in
Africa, Asia, Latin America


Lower income. 81% of the worlds population. 15% of
the worlds wealth, use 12% of the worlds resources.
Divided into moderately developing (China, India,
Brazil, Turkey) and least-developed (Congo, Haiti,
Nicaragua, Nigeria)
Measuring Our Impact

Ecological Footprints: the amount of biologically productive
land and water needed to provide the people in a particular
country or area with an indefinite supply of renewable
resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution
produced by such resource use.

IPAT model: shows how population size (P) , Resource
consumption per person (A) and the beneficial and harmful
environmental effects of technologies (T) help to determine
the environmental impact (I)) of human activities.
 I=PxAxT


Impact= Population x Resource Use x Technology
Reducing one of these areas reduces overall impact. Or
implementing technologies that reduce environmental
impact (pollution control and prevention, wind turbines,
solar cells, fuel-efficient cars)
Less-Developed
Countries
Population
(P)
Consumption
per person
(affluence, A)
Technological
impact per unit
of consumption
(T)
Environmental
impact of
population (I)
More-Developed
Countries
Fig. 1-14, p. 17
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Why do we have
environmental problems?
1.
Population growth
2.
Wasteful and unsustainable resource use (affluence)
3.
Poverty
4.
Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of
goods and services in market prices