Transcript Introduction Powerpoint Ch 1 and 2

The Course - Content
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Science and environmental issues
Not an environmentalist activist
perspective
Evaluation of environmental issues
Careers in environmental science
The Course - the “process”
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First year college course
Content - The College Board AP Program
Lab and field study based learning
Less lecture - more independent
responsibility
Emphasis on current events
Goals
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Goals:
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Prepare for APES AP test
Critical Thinking: Evaluating issues and “coming to
judgement”
Demonstrate and apply sound science and scientific
method
Understand environmental issues as interdiscinplinary:
Science, Technology, Society (STS)
Environmental Science vs.
Ecology
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Ecology - branch of biology
Environmental science
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Uses natural sciences and social sciences
to:
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assess how earth works
evaluate how were are affecting
earth’s life-support systems
evaluate best ways to to deal with
environmental problems, and
hopefully reach sustainability
Unifying Themes
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Sustainability and Sustainability
Development
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What is sustainability?
Are our current social/economic systems sustainable?
If not, can the global society become sustainable?
Ecological Principle: Everything is connected there is no such thing as a free lunch
Four Dimensions to
Sustainable Development
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Environmental
Social
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Political
Economic
Sustainability – text definition
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“An environmental sustainable society satisfies the basic needs
of it people for food, clean water clean air and shelter in the
indefinite future without depleting or degrading the earth’s natural
resources” (pare 4)
In addition to helping sustain the earth’s life support systems,
sustainable development leads to greater economic security,
healthier life-styles, and worldwide improvement in the human
condition (15)
Sustainability – Protect your
Capital
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Can all of earth’s population live at or near the
consumption levels of the developed countries?
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Can human societies: Living off of interest, thus not
using up capital
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Can technology solve the problems?
What are some examples?
Read and analyze: “Natural Capital” by Paul
Hawken (pate 17)
Ecological Footprint
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Definition: amount of land needed to produce
resources needed for a person(or average
person) in a country
Compare: developed and developing
Compare: Netherlands and U.S.
Calculate your footprint
Can Exponential Growth
Continue?
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Constant Rate but not constant number
“A quantity increases by a fixed percentage of the whole in a given
time”
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Examples:
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Essentially, compound interest
Growth at a given rate
Doubling time is calculated if rate remains same
Number organisms added per unit time increases
Folding paper
Bacteria in a bottle
Read: Current Exponential Growth of the Human Population (5)
DO NOT POST TO INTERNET
16
15
?
14
13
12
?
10
9
8
?
7
6
5
4
Exponential Growth
3
2
Black Death–the Plague
2-5 million 8000
years
Hunting and
gathering
6000
4000
2000
Time
Agricultural revolution
1
2000
B.C.
0
2100
A.D.
Industrial
revolution
Billions of people
11
Human Population Growth
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Doubling time - rule of 70
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Growth rate is decreasing
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70/ % growth rate = doubling time
1963: 2.1%
2002: 1.28%
BUT, demands for resources growing
exponentially
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Pollution growing exponentially
World Population Reached
1 billion in 1804
2 billion in 1927 (123 years later)
3 billion in 1960 (33 years later)
4 billion in 1974 (14 years later)
5 billion in 1987 (13 years later)
6 billion in 1999 (12 years later)
World Population May Reach
7 billion in 2013 (14 years later)
8 billion in 2028 (15 years later)
9 billion in 2050 (22 years later)
12
11
Population (billions)
10
World total
9
8
Developing
countries
7
6
5
4
3
Developed
countries
2
1
1950
2000
Figure 1-4
Page 6
2050
Year
2100
Economic development
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Improvement of living standards by economic
growth
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How to measure “living standards”?
 Probably best measure: Per Capita GNI PPP
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Page 4
Developed countries
Developing countries
World Night Lights
NA night lights
Per capita GNI PPP, 2001
Low income
(Under $2,700)
Middle income
($2,701–$10,750)
High income
(Above $10,750)
Environmental Impact of Human
Population
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Simplified model (13)
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population
consumption (measured by affluence)
technologic impact of unit of consumption
Resources
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Definition
Perpetual resources
Renewable resources
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Sustainable yield
How can renewable resources become nonsustainable?
Nonrenewable resources
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economic depletion vs actual depletion
Extending “life” of non-renewables
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Reduce
Reusing
Recycling
What non-renewables cannot be recycled
or reused?
Pollution
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Definition
Natural or anthropogenic
Point vs. nonpoint
Effects of pollutants (11)
Solutions:
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Elimination of the waste
Prevent from reaching environment
Five R’s: refuse to use, replace, reduce, reuse.
Recycle
Is dilution a solution to pollution?
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Maybe sometimes? Maybe not??
Pollution Cleanup (output control)
(11)
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Cleanup after produced
Problems
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Temporary bandage – as long as population
continues to grow
Removes from one location, but puts pollutant
into another (eg, scrubbers)
Dispersal – low concentrations, almost impossible
to cleanup
Tragedy of the Commons
Global Issues
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Awareness began in 1980’s
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Acid precipitation
Ozone depletion
Global climate change
Ocean pollution and depletion of fish
resources
Global Atmospheric Changes
Globalization
World becoming more integrated
 Economic
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1970-2002: 7,000 to 60,000 transnational
corporations
Communication and information
 Pollutants
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Acid precipitation, climate change, ozone
depletion, depletion of ocean resources
What are the key
environmental problems? (12)
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Diagram page 12
Causes of environmental
problems (12)
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Rapid population growth
Unsustainable resource use
Poverty
Cost of economic goods excludes costs of
pollution
Not enough knowledge about complex
natural systems
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Think of the “Precautionary Principle”
Optimism or pessimism 
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Experts disagree
 Political viewpoint
 Economics
 World views
How serious is an environmental problem?
What can be done?
 What is economic impact of reducing pollution
or resource use?
 Are technologies available?
 Who gains and who losses?
Good news
Global food production outpaced
global population growth since 1970
 Pollution growth rate is reduced
worldwide
 Infant mortality decreased worldwide
 In developed countries: cleaner
water and air
 Much more interest and concern
about environmental issues
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Bad News
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Pollution in developing countries increased –
clean water a big problem
Exponential increase in use of most natural
resources
Population still increasing in developing
countries
Global climate change
Gulf between rich/poor widening
Global decrease in biodiversity
Economic systems do not incorporate pollution
costs
Globalization
Natural Capital – Gary Hardin
(16-17)
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“..cyclic industrial systems work better than linear
ones.”
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Relate to throughput page 60
Contrast to natural ecosystems
Discuss: “Markets are not giving us correct
information about how much our suburbs, cars, and
plastic drinking water bottles truly cost based on the
environmental harm they cause”
You are Gary Hardin. If you were in charge of the
worlds economy, what are the three most important
things you would do?
How can governments reduce
pollution
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Incentives: subsidies and tax write-offs
Regulations, fines, taxes
Research funds
Education
Developed world provide model for
developing
Reduce or eliminate loans for developed
countries
Interactions: nature and humans
Conventional vs. Ecological
Economists
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Conventional
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Economic systems independent of natural systems
Human technology/ingenuity will deal with shortages
and destruction of biodiversity
Ecological economics
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Economic system subsystem of environment
 Natural capital supplies and maintains
economic systems
 Environmentally sustainable economic
development
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Economic system “mimics” natural systems
Recycling
Not depleting earth’s net primary productivity
Living off ecological income
Environmental Accounting
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Subtract from GNI things that lead to a lower
quality of life and resource depletion
Add thing that enhance environmental quality
and human well-being
Problem: how to determine the value of such
environmental indicators
External Costs
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Costs not incorporated in the final consumer
cost of product
Costs passed on to public and maybe future
generations
Some quantifiable, some difficult to quantify
What segments “pay” more of these hidden
costs?
Internalizing External Costs
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Consumer pays FULL cost of production of a
product.
Preventing pollution more profitable than cleaning it
up
Methods
 Taxes for pollution
 Regulations requiring pollution controls and of
mitigation damaged environments
 Eliminate subsidies for resource extraction
Problem: direct cost of many services and products
would rise
Problem: Law of diminishing returns (graph 26.10)
Environmental Worldviews
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Based on person’s beliefs and values
“Facts” interpreted, conclusions reached
based on worldview
Two basic worldviews:
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Planetary management
Environmental wisdom worldview`
Environmentally Sustainable
Economic Development
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Waste disposal
Biodiversity - protecting species
Resource Use (energy use)
Population growth
How Stewardship Is
Demonstrated
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Recognition that a trust has been given.
Responsible care for something not owned.
Desire to pass something on to future
generations.
The next 50 years
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What is each individuals role?
“Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed,it the only thing
that ever has.” Margaret Mead
How To Prevent a Global
Version of the Easter Island
Disaster
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Understand how the natural world works
Understand how human and natural systems
interact
Accurately assess the status and trends of crucial
natural ecosystems
Establish long-term sustainable relationships with
the natural world
The Global Environmental
Picture
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Rapid human population growth and
increasing consumption per person
Decline of vital life-support ecosystems
Global atmospheric changes
Loss of biodiversity
Monitoring progress
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GNI & GDP hide harmful environmental and
social effects
Do not incorporate value that is not received
from money spent (eg, energy inefficiency)
No inclusion loss of natural resources and
natural capital
Chapter 2
Environmental philosophies
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Conservationism
Preservationism
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(Read: “How should …Conservationists” on 32)
Stewardship
“Modern” environmentalism
Globalism
Conservationism
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Pragmatic or utilitarian resource conservation
George Perkins Marsh
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Man and Nature, 1864
Warned of the ecological and economic
consequences of “frontier” mentality
Conservationism and forest
preserves
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Roosevelt and Pinchot
Forests should be saved “not because they are
beautiful or because the shelter wild creatures of the
wilderness, but only to provide homes and jobs for
people”
Turning point: Forest Reserve Act of 1871
National Forest Service and Soil
Conservation Service
(in Dept. of Agr.)
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Multiple use
Sustainable yield
Preservationism
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John Muir
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Fundamental right of other organisms to exist
“The world, we are told, was made for
man…Nature’s object in making animals and
plants might possibly be first of the happiness of
each one of them…Why ought man to value
himself as more than an infinitely small unit of one
great unit of creation?”
Preservationism and National
Parks
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National Park Service 1916 (Dept of Interior)
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Yellowstone National Park – 1872 – American
Forestry Association
Protection of all organisms, with humans
“onlookers” – no multiple use
Soil Conservation
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Dust bowls and Grapes of Wrath
Soil Conservation Service - 1935
Stewardship
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Modern ecology, with philosophical
“underpinning”
“That land is a community is the basic
concept of ecology, but that land is to be
loved and respected is an extension of
ethics.” ..Aldo Leopold
A Sand County Almanac – A
Land Ethic
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The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of
the community to include soils, waters, plants, and
animals, or collectively: the land.
The land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens
from conqueror of the land-community to plain
member and citizen of it.
We abuse land because we regard it as a
commodity belonging to us. When we see land as
a community to which we belong, we may begin to
use with love and respect.
Anything is right when it tends to preserve the
integrity , stability, and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong it tends otherwise
Leopold, Aldo: A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and
There, 1948, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987, pg. 204.
Environmentalism
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Rachel Carson:
Silent Spring 1962
Effect of DDT in the
food chain
Earthday- 1970
Environmentalism (30)
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Relationships between populatin growth,
resource use, and pollution
1969 – photograph from space – “Spaceship
Earth”
Many laws, agencies, environmental
organizations established between ‘68 and
mid-’70s
Global Environmentalism
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Acid precipitation
Nuclear accidents – TMI and Chernobyl
Ozone depletion
“International Convention ofn Biological
Diversity” – 1991
Kyoto agreement – 1997
Today – globalization of world markets – can
countries control their own destinies?
Successes of the
Environmental Movement
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Environmental protection agency
Environmental laws
Pollution abatement
Species saved from extinction
Habitat protection
Environmental education
Assumptions of the Process of
Science
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We perceive reality with our five basic senses
Objective reality functions according to
certain basic principles and laws
What role will science play?
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True or False Concerning the Process of Science
Science is incapable of providing absolute
proof for any theory.
 The process of science can be used to test
value judgments.
 Some observed phenomena may not lend
themselves to controlled experiments.
 Science is capable of predicting
the future.
Does science provide a framework
for understanding complex
ecological systems and potential
impacts on those systems?
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Junk Science
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Presentations of selective results
Public distortions of scientific works
Publication in quasi-scientific journals
Funding of “biased” science