Transcript Chapter 13 Slides

Chapter 13
Industrial
Pollution and
Environmental
Regulation
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Majestic Hudson River
o In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English navigator sailing
for a Dutch corporation, journeyed far up its course,
seeking a new trade route to China
o It was not there, but he explored the river, which took
his name
o Over time, the Hudson River acquired a rich history
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Pollution
o Pollution: The presence of substances in the
environment that inconvenience or endanger humans
o Much of it comes from natural sources
o Human activity adds more contaminants
o Industrial activity both harms human health and
disturbs natural ecology
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Table 13.1 - Percentages of Deaths and DALYs Attributable
to Four Environmental Pollution Risks
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The Biosphere
o It is the slender margin atop the earth’s surface that
supports life
o The biosphere is home to multiple ecosystems
o Ecosystem: An animated, interactive realm of plants,
animals, and microorganisms inhabiting an area of the
nonliving environment
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The Biosphere
o Ecosystems provide services that support human
well-being
o Ecosystem services: The productivity of natural
ecosystems in creating food and fiber and in regulating
climate, water, soil, nutrients, and other forms of
natural capital
o The causes of ecosystem strain center on accelerating
economic activity
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Industrial Activity and Sustainability
o Much interest today is focused on the notion of
sustainable development
o Sustainable development: Nonpolluting economic
growth that raises standards of living without depleting
the net resources of the earth
o There is evidence that environmental quality in
growing economies does not follow a path of longterm deterioration as in the old industrial revolution
model.
o Environmental Kuznets curve
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Industrial Activity and Sustainability
o Much interest today is focused on the notion of
sustainable development
o Sustainable development: Nonpolluting economic
growth that raises standards of living without depleting
the net resources of the earth
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Industrial Activity and Sustainability
o There is evidence that environmental quality in
growing economies does not follow a path of longterm deterioration as in the old industrial revolution
model
o Environmental Kuznets curve: An inverted Ushaped curve illustrating that as gross domestic
product rises in emerging economies pollution goes
through stages of rapid increase, leveling off, and
decline
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Figure 13.1 – The Environmental Kuznets
Curve
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Ideas Shape Attitudes Toward the
Environment
Dualism
Progress
Capitalism
Utilitarianism
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New Ideas Challenge the Old
o Naturalist Aldo Leopold – inspired others to rethink
traditional ideas about the man-nature relationship
o Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess – Deep ecology
o Inspired anti-corporate government groups
o Philosopher Peter Singer – Speciesism
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Environmental Regulation in the United
States
o The dominant approach to industrial pollution control
in the United States has been to pass laws that strictly
regulate:
o Emissions
o Effluents
o Waste
o In the 1970s, Congress passed a remarkable string of
new laws, creating a broad statutory base for
regulating industry
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Environmental Regulation in the United
States
o The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
o It is an executive branch regulatory agency
o Its mission is to protect human health and to preserve
the natural environment
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Principal Areas of Environmental Policy:
Air
o The Clean Air Act
o National air quality – Criteria pollutants
o Carbon monoxide (CO)
o Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
o Sulfur dioxide (SO2)
o Ozone (O3)
o Particulate matter
o Lead (Pb)
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Figure 13.2 – Declining Emissions of Criteria
Pollutants: 1970–2008
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Table 13.2 - Estimated National
Emissions of Criteria Pollutants by Source: 2008
(in thousands of short tons)
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Principal Areas of Environmental Policy:
Air
o Hazardous air pollutants: Chemical emissions that
pose a health risk of serious illness such as cancer or
birth defects with small inhalation exposures
o The clean air act requires the EPA to set emission
standards for 187 air toxics at levels that prevent
disease and requires industry to use the maximum
achievable control technology to comply
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Principal Areas of Environmental Policy:
Air
o Acid rain is caused primarily by releases of two
criteria pollutants:
o Sulfur dioxide
o Nitrogen oxides
o Indoor air pollution
o Ozone-destroying chemicals
o Chlorofluorocarbons
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Figure 13.3 – Emission Trends for Electric PowerGenerating Plants in the Acid Rain Program
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Principal Areas of Environmental Policy:
Air
o Greenhouse gases: Atmospheric gases that absorb
energy radiated from the earth, preventing it from
being released into space
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Figure 13.4 - Atmospheric Concentrations of
Greenhouse Gases: 1750–2010
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Principal Areas of Environmental Policy:
Water
o Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of
1972 (Clean Water Act)
o National Pollution Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) requires each industrial facility to get a
permit specifying the volume of one or more
substances it can pour into a water body
o Runoff is largely uncontrolled
o Agricultural
o Urban
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Principal Areas of Environmental Policy:
Land
o Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
o Firms must label, handle, store, treat, and discard
hazardous waste under strict guidelines, keeping
meticulous records
o Difficult to administer
o Difficult to comply
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Figure 13.5 - RCRA Landfill Groundwater
Monitoring Requirements
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Principal Areas of Environmental Policy:
Land
o Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980
o Better known as Superfund so-named after the large
trust fund it set up to pay for cleanups
o Created to clean up abandoned toxic waste sites
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Principal Areas of Environmental Policy:
Land
o The number of sites is higher than predicted and the
cleaning process more difficult and expensive than
envisioned
o Cleanup work started at 1,030 sites, however, only
325 have been fully restored and deleted from the list
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Figure 13.6 - Typical Rotary Kiln
Incinerator at a Superfund Site
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Concluding Observations
o Industrial processes damage the environment and
cause serious local and global deterioration
o The response has been to adopt a series of fairly rigid
and expensive regulatory programs
o In the U.S. it is now the largest and most expensive
area of regulation
o Uneven progress has been made in the attack on air,
water, and land pollution
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