Transcript Lecture 1
A Story . . . According to this story, King Shihram was a tyrant who oppressed his subjects. One of his subjects, a wise man named Sissa ibn Dahir, invented the game of chess for the king to play, to show him that a king needed all his subjects and should take good care of them. King Shihram was so pleased that he ordered that the game of chess should be preserved in the temples, and said that it was the best thing he knew of to train generals in the art of war, a glory to religion and the world, and the foundation of all justice. Then King Shihram asked Sissa ben Dahir what reward he wanted. Sissa answered that he didn't want any reward, but the king insisted. Finally Sissa said that he would take this reward: the king should put one grain of wheat on the first square of a chessboard, two grains of wheat on the second square, four grains on the third square, eight grains on the fourth square, and so on, doubling the number of grains of wheat with each square (an exponential rate of growth). "What a dummy!" thought the king. "That's a tiny reward; I would have given him much more." He ordered his slaves to bring out the chessboard and they started putting on the wheat. Everything went well for a while, but the king was surprised to see that by the time they got halfway through the chessboard the 32nd square required more than four billion grains of wheat, or about 100,000 kilos of wheat. Now Sissa didn't seem so stupid anymore. Even so, King Shihram was willing to pay up. But as the slaves began on the second half of the chessboard, King Shihram gradually realized that he couldn't pay that much wheat - in fact, to finish the chessboard you would need as much wheat as six times the weight of all the living things on Earth. (London, 1843-1871, Biographical dictionary of Ibn Khallikan, vol. III, p. 71). http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/literature/chesswheat.htm Exponential Growth Defn: quantity increases by a fixed percentage per unit of time – it’s deceptive!!! Lecture 1 Introduction Environment: “environner” – to surround consider biotic & abiotic factors Environmental Science: interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with other living organisms and the nonliving environment Major Fields of Study Related to Environmental Science A Brief Historical Perspective Environmental Science: • Discovery of carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere, 1957 - Roger Revelle and Charles Keeling • Publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, Sept. 27, 1962 – • Discovery of atmospheric ozone depleting chemicals, 1974 -- F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario J. Molina Man-made Disasters: • Fukushima Daiichi, March 11, 2011 • Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform, Gulf of Mexico, April 20, 2010 • Coal ash disaster, Tennessee, United States, Dec. 22, 2008 • Exxon Valdez oil spill, Alaska, United States, March 24, 1989 • Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Ukraine, April 26, 1986 • Love Canal, 1976 • Three Mile Island, 1979 • Minimata "disease," Japan, May 1, 1956 • Leaded gasoline, Oct. 29, 1924 Leadership • John Snow (1813 - 1858) • Alice Hamilton (1869 - 1970) - Radium Girls • John Muir (1838 - 1913) • George Washington Carver (1865 - 1943) • Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941 - 1995) Sustainability The Central Theme • Natural capital: supported by solar capital – Natural resources – Natural services • E.g., nutrient cycling • Degradation of natural capital through human activities • Scientific solutions • Trade-offs/compromise Environmentally Sustainable Societies Protect Natural Capital and Live off Its Income • Live off natural income (HW exercise) • Human activity and its affect on the earth’s natural capital Think of natural capital as money. You inherit $1,000,000 (natural capital). You earn 10% annual interest at the bank ~ $100,000 your income. However . . . You use $200,000 each year. How long before you run out of natural capital? 1,000,000 + 100,000 = 1,100,000 - 200,000 900,000 + 90,000 = 990,000 - 200,000 790,000 + 79,000 = 869,000 - 200,000 669,000 + 66,900 = 735,000 - 200,000 535,000 + 53,500 = 588,000 - 200,000 388,000 + 38,000 = 426,800 - 200,000 226,800 + 22,680 = 249,480 - 200,000 49,480 + 4,948 = 54,428 Terms: (add to notes) • Renewable Resources • Sustainable yield • Environmental Degradation Overexploiting Shared Renewable Resources: Tragedy of the Commons • Three types of property or resource rights – Private property – Common property – Open access renewable resources • Tragedy of the commons – Solutions Tragedy of the Commons • Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his [input] without limit – in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons (Hardin, 1968, p. 1244). Terms • Nonrenewable resources • Reuse • Recycle Consumption of Natural Resources Our Ecological Footprints Are Growing • Ecological footprint concept – Biological capacity – Ecological footprint Natural Capital Use and Degradation For everyone to live as Americans? Case Study: China’s New Affluent Consumers •Leading consumer of various foods and goods Wheat, rice, and meat Coal, fertilizers, steel, and cement •Second largest consumer of oil • Two-thirds of the most polluted cities are in China • Projections, by 2020 – Largest consumer and producer of cars – World’s leading economy in terms of GDP PPP Pollution Comes from a Number of Sources • Sources of pollution – Point • E.g., smokestack – Nonpoint • E.g., pesticides blown into the air • Main type of pollutants – Biodegradable – Nondegradable • Unwanted effects of pollution Experts Have Identified Five Basic Causes of Environmental Problems • Population growth • Wasteful and unsustainable resource use • Poverty • Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in their market prices • Insufficient knowledge of how nature works Poverty Has Harmful Environmental and Health Effects • Population growth affected • Malnutrition • Premature death • Limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and clean water Prices Do Not Include the Value of Natural Capital • Companies do not pay the environmental cost of resource use • Goods and services do not include the harmful environmental costs • Companies receive tax breaks and subsidies • Economy may be stimulated but there may be a degradation of natural capital We Can Learn to Make Informed Environmental Decisions • Scientific research • Identify problem and multiple solutions • Consider human values Steps Involved in Making an Environmental Decision Individuals Matter: Aldo Leopold • 5–10% of the population can bring about major social change • Aldo Leopold: environmental ethics – A leader of the conservation and environmental movements of the 20th century • Land ethic – Wrote: A Sand County Almanac Solutions For Environmental or Sustainability Revolution Nature has sustained itself for billions of years by using solar energy, biodiversity, population control, and nutrient cycling— lessons from nature that we can apply to our lifestyles and economies.