Transcript Natural capital

Welcome to B102
Environmental Science
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Caroline Young, M.S.
Office: Fisher 105
Phone 252-1116
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.twcnet.edu/cyoung
About Me
• Master’s Degree in Physiology from Univ. of Louisville
(So please call me Mrs. rather than Dr.)
• Also worked at Univ. of Louisville doing research for
Dept of Neurology
• In addition to Environmental Science I teach Anatomy
and Physiology 1 and 2, Fundamentals of Biology,
Microbiology, and various other Biology and Chemistry
labs
• Before coming to TWC I taught at Brown Mackie College
• I am married with 2 children
About You
• On top left of index card write Last name, first
name
• Cell #; email address
• Year in school
• Major
• Sports played at TWC (if applicable)
• Interests/hobbies
• Do you work while in school/where/how much?
• Do you have children/ what are their ages?
What is the Lifestyle Project?
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• Challenges students to learn about
environmental alternatives by modifying
their own lifestyles
• The idea of the project is to make
changes in your lifestyle that will have a
beneficial effect on the environment
• The changes aren’t difficult but will require
planning and thinking about your actions
Lifestyle Project continued…
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• Week 1/Baseline: You will collect and
analyze baseline data relating to your
residential energy consumption, water
consumption, food consumption, and/or
garbage production
• Weeks 2 and 3: The project will involve 2
weeks of lifestyle changes for you
How it works
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• You will pick 2 categories from the choices
given (garbage, electricity, water, or food)
• Week 2: 2 project days (example: if you
chose garbage and electricity you would
have 2 days where you produced no
garbage and reduced your electricity
usage; can be the same or different days)
• Week 3: same but 3 project days
Journals
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• Week 2 and Week 3 journals should
include what you did each day that you
worked on the project
• Write what you did, what worked, what
didn’t, what surprised you, how this
affected your roommates, and so on
• Be aware of the Honor Code and avoid
Plagiarism!
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Project Assignments and
Grading
• Baseline Data (20 pts) + Baseline Data
Calculation (20 pts) = 40 pts
• Week 2 journals (20pts) + Week 3 Journal
(20pts) + Project Summary (20 pts) = 60
pts
• 100 pts for total project
Community Service Project
• Will partner either with YMCA or City of
Athens for Fall 2011 project
• Combined with Lifestyle Project will
complete 10 hours of service
• Will write a reflection on the service
• 100 points
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 13e
CHAPTER 1:
Environmental Problems,
Their Causes, and
Sustainability
• I will post power points to my website as
soon as that is set up
• For exams you are responsible to know
the material in the power points as well as
all material we go over in class (even if it
was not in the ppt) as well as material I
assign as homework or in class
assignments.
• I do expect you to buy and read your
textbook
Core Case Study:
It’s All About Sustainability (1)
• Sustainability= “The ability of the earth’s various
natural systems and human cultural systems and
economies to survive and adapt to changing
environmental conditions indefinitely.”
Sustainability explained through
animation
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5NiTN
0chj0
Why should we care about
sustainability?
• Wall E
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzkmgu
vs0Wc&feature=related
Core Case Study:
It’s All About Sustainability (1)
• United Nations Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment:
– Human actions of put long-term sustainability in doubt
• Life on earth for 3.5 billion years
– Survived many catastrophes
– Humans have caused major changes in the last 500
years
– Humans are smart, but are they wise?
Core Case Study:
It’s All About Sustainability (2)
• Sustainability depends on three key
principles
• 1. Solar energy
– Warms earth
– Provides energy for plants to make food for
other organisms
– Powers winds
– Powers the hydrologic cycle – which
includes flowing water
– Provides energy: wind and moving water can
be turned into electricity
Core Case Study:
It’s All About Sustainability (3)
• 2. Biodiversity (biological diversity)
– Large variety of species
– Many ecosystems
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Deserts
Forests
Oceans
Grasslands
– Species and systems renew soil and
purify air and water.
Core Case Study:
It’s All About Sustainability (4)
• 3. Chemical Cycling
– Natural processes recycle nutrients
– Recycling is necessary because there is
a fixed supply of these nutrients on
earth
– Nutrients cycle from living organisms to
the nonliving environment and back
– Chemical cycles are necessary to
sustain life
Solar Energy
Chemical Cycling
Biodiversity
Fig. 1-1, p. 5
Solutions
• Understand our environment
• Practice sustainability
1-1 What Is an Environmentally
Sustainable Society?
• Concept 1-1A Our lives and economies
depend on energy from the sun and
natural resources and natural services
(natural capital) provided by the earth.
• Concept 1-1B Living sustainably means
living off earth’s natural income without
depleting or degrading the natural capital
that supplies it.
Studying Connections in Nature
Be sure to know these terms
• Environment- everything around us, includes living and non-living
things that affect living organisms or other specified systems
• Environmental Science: interdisciplinary study of how humans
interact with living and non-living parts of their environment
• Ecology: the biological science that studies how organisms interact
with one another and with their environment
• Organism- any form of life
• Species- a group of organisms that have distinctive traits and for
sexually reproducing organisms, can mate and produce fertile
offspring
• Ecosystem- a set of organisms within a defined area or volume
interacting with one another and with their environment and
nonliving matter and energy
• Environmentalism- a social movement dedicated to protecting the
earth’s life support systems for all form of life
Living More Sustainably
• Sustainability – central theme of book
• Natural capital: Natural resources and natural
services that keep us and other forms of life alive and
support our economies
– Natural resources: Materials and energy in nature
that are essential or useful to humans
Capital: any form of wealth employed
or capable of being employed in the
production of more wealth
Resources: the collective wealth of a
country or its means of producing
wealth
Money, or any property that can be
converted into money
– Natural capital is supported by power from the
sun
• Photosynthesis- complex
chemical process that
plants use to provide food for themselves and for us
and most other animals
• Second component of sustainability, many human
activities degrade natural capital
Natural Resources
• Materials
– Renewable:
Air, water, soil, plants
– Nonrenewable:
• Minerals, oil, coal
Natural Services
• Functions of nature
–Purification of air, water
–Nutrient cycling
• From the environment to organisms
and back to the environment
Fig. 1-2, p. 7
Organic
matter in
animals
Nutrient Cycling
Dead
organic
matter
Organic
matter in
plants
Decomposition
Inorganic
matter in soil
Fig. 1-3, p. 8
Environmental Sustainability
• 3rd component sustainability: Solutions
• Search for solutions often leads to
conflicts
• Dealing with conflicts leads to
– Trade-offs (compromises)
• Sustainability should be based on sound science
• Individuals matter
Sustainable Living from Natural
Capital
• Ultimate goal: environmentally
sustainable society
• Living sustainably: living on natural
income only
Know definitions
• Environmentally sustainable society- one that meets the
current and future basic resource needs of its people in a
just a basic equitable manner without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their basic needs
• Natural capital= Natural resources + Natural services
• Natural income- the renewable resources such as plants, animals,
and soil provided by the earth’s natural capital
1-2 How Are Our Ecological
Footprints Affecting the Earth?
• Concept 1-2 As our ecological
footprints grow, we deplete and
degrade more of the earth’s natural
capital.
Natural Resources (1)
• Perpetual resource – renewed continuously
– Solar energy
• Renewable resource – replenished in days to
several hundred years as long as not used up
faster than renewed
-Water
-Soils
– Air
– Grasslands
– Forest
-Fish populations
Natural Resources (2)
• Sustainable yield
– Highest rate at which a renewable resource
can be used indefinitely without reducing its
available supply
• Environmental degradation
– Use of a renewable resource exceeds
natural replacement rate (available
supply begins to shrink)
Fig. 1-4, p. 10
Tragedy of the Commons
1968 Biologist Garrett Hardin
• Environmental degradation of openly
shared renewable resources
• Users focus on their own selfish, shortterm gain
• Works when only a small number of users
• Big part of why humans now live
unsustainably
Ecological Footprint (1)
• Ecological footprint
– The amount of biologically productive land
and water needed to indefinitely supply the
people in a given area with renewable
resources
– Also includes the land and water necessary to
absorb and recycle wastes and pollution
• Per capita ecological footprint
– Average ecological footprint of an individual in
a given area
Ecological Footprint (2)
• Ecological deficit
– Total ecological footprint greater than
biological capacity for resource renewal
and absorption of wastes and pollution
– 2008 study: at least 30% global excess
– 88% for high-income countries
– Humans currently need 1.3 earths
Stepped Art
Fig. 1-5, p. 11
Nonrenewable Resources
• Nonrenewable – exist in fixed quantities
– Energy (fossil fuels)
– Metallic minerals
– Nonmetallic minerals
• Recycling- extends supply of some
nonrenewables
• Reuse-using resource over and over in same
form
3 R’s of more sustainable use of
nonrenewable resources
Listed in Priority Order
• Reduce (Use less)
• Reuse
• Recycle
Developed Countries Have
Higher Impacts
• Developed countries
–United States, Japan, New
Zealand, most of Europe, some
others
–19% world population
–Use 88% of world’s resources
–Create 75% of world’s pollution
IPAT Environmental Impact
Model
Determines impact of a country or
region
• I=PxAxT
• I = environmental impact
• P = population size
• A = affluence of population
• T = technology influence
Developing Countries
Population (P)
Consumption
per person
(affluence, A)
Technological impact
per unit of
consumption (T)
Environmental
impact of population
(I)
Developed Countries
Fig. 1-7, p. 13
Developing Countries
• 81% world population
• Middle income: Brazil, China, India
• Least developed: Haiti, Nigeria,
Nicaragua
• Use far fewer resources per capita
than developed countries
• Smaller per capita ecological footprint
1-3 What Is Pollution and What
Can We Do about It?
• Concept 1-3 Preventing pollution is
more effective and less costly than
cleaning up pollution.
Pollution p. 14
Pollution: Contamination of the environment
by a chemical or other agent such as noise or heat
that is harmful to health, survival, or activities of
humans or other organisms
• Point sources- single, identifiable sources of
pollutants
• Nonpoint sources- dispersed and often
difficult to identify
• Which is harder to control?
Fig. 1-8, p. 14
Solutions to Pollution
• Pollution prevention
– Prevent pollutants from entering the
environment
• Pollution cleanup
– After pollutants released into environment
– Temporary fix only
– Often results in different pollution: ex. burning
garbage
– Dispersed pollutants usually too costly to clean up
effectively
1-4 Why Do We Have
Environmental Problems?
• 4 major causes of environmental
problems
Causes of Environmental
Problems
• Exponential population growth
• Wasteful and unsustainable resource
use
• Poverty
• Failure to include environmental costs
of goods and services in market
prices
Causes of Environmental Problems
Population
growth
Unsustainable
resource use
Poverty
Excluding
environmental
costs from
market prices
Fig. 1-9, p. 15
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Industrial revolution
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Black Death—the Plague
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2-5 million 8000
years
Hunting
and gathering
6000
4000
2000
2000 2100
B.C. A.D.
Agricultural revolution Industrial
revolution
Fig.
1-1,
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Fig.
1-10,p.
p. 16
Fig. 1-11, p. 16
Lack of
access to
Number of people
(% of world's population)
Adequate
sanitation facilities
2.5 billion (37%)
Enough fuel for
heating and cooking
2 billion (29%)
Electricity
2 billion (29%)
Clean drinking
water
Adequate
health care
Adequate
housing
Enough food
for good health
1.1 billion (16%)
1 billion (15%)
1 billion (15%)
0.93 billion (14%)
Fig. 1-12, p. 17
Fig. 1-13, p. 17
Environmental Effects of
Affluence
• Harmful effects
– High per-capita consumption and waste of
resources – large ecological footprints
– Advertising – more makes you happy
– Affluenza
• Beneficial effects
– Concern for environmental quality
– Provide money for environmental causes
– Reduced population growth
Different Environmental Views p18
• Environmental worldview- set of assumptions
and values reflecting how you think the world works
• Environmental ethics- beliefs about what is right
and wrong
• Planetary management worldview- we are
separate from and in charge of nature
• Stewardship worldview- we can and should
manage the earth for our benefit
• Environmental wisdom worldview- we are
part or, and dependent on, nature and that nature exists
for all species, not just for us
1-5 How Can we Live More
Sustainably? Three Big Ideas
• We can live more sustainably by
relying more on solar energy,
preserving biodiversity, and not
disrupting the earth’s natural chemical
recycling processes.
Thinking About: The Poor, the Affluent, and
Exponentially Increasing Population Growth
In Class Assignment
Students may work in small groups: take
about 5 minutes to come up with an
answer to the question in the Thinking
About box on p. 18
If your group does not all agree on one
answer, why not?