Transcript Presentation

Environmental Issues, Their Causes,
and Sustainability
G. Tyler Miller’s
Living in the Environment
13th Edition
Chapter 1
Key Concepts
Growth and Sustainability
Resources and Resource Use
Pollution
Causes of Environmental Problems
Living More Sustainably
Ecology – scientific study of the
relationship between living
organisms and their
environment.
Living More Sustainably
 Environmental Science
 interdisciplinary science that uses
natural and social sciences to help us
understand:
1. how the earth works
2. how we are affecting the earth’s
systems
3. how to deal with environmental
problems
Living More Sustainably
Groups involved:
Ecologists
Environmental Scientists
Conservation biologists
Environmentalists
Which
Preservationists
are
you?
Conservationists
Restorationists
What keeps us alive?
• solar capital
• natural capital/resources
• solar energy
Objectives
Differentiate between ecology and
environmental science.
Define the term “ecological footprint”
and calculate it based on varying
scenarios.
Discuss sustainability and how
factors associated with ecological
footprints may impact it.
Environmentally Sustainable
Society?
• An Environmentally Sustainable
Society does not:
1. deplete or degrade the earth’s
natural resources
2. prevent current and future
generations of humans and other
species from meeting their basic
needs.
Living Sustainably?
• Living sustainably means:
1. living off the natural income
replenished by soils, plants, air,
and water.
2. NOT depleting the earth’s
endowment of natural capital that
supplies this income.
Activity – Cats in Borneo
 Work
with a partner to try and put
the order of events of the story of
why cats were parachuted into
Borneo.
Early finishers work
on signs and safety
cartoon.
Exponential growth
Bell Ringer
Based on your general knowledge,
explain how the economic growth of a
country can both help and hurt the
environment.
Objectives
 Use the Rule of 70 to calculate the
doubling time of a population.
 Describe the use of Integrated Biosystems
(IBS) to achieve sustainability.
 Identify the six economic indicators
 Compare developed and developing
countries based on their indicators and
use of resources.
Agenda
 Bell Ringer
 Rule of 70
Calculations
 Case Study – IBS as a zero emission
strategy to achieve sustainability (video
clip – 13 min)
Population Growth
Exponential
Growth
Doubling Time/
Rule of 70
Fig. 1-2 p. 4
Rule of 70
• 70 / percentage of growth rate = doubling
time in years
• Example in 1963 the world population
grew by 2.1%:
70 / 2.1 = 33.3 years
• What would be the doubling time at a rate
of 1.28%? 0.1%?
1.6%?
World Population
Fig. 1-1 p. 2
Current Exponential Growth
• At the current rate of 1.28%:
–4 days = + number of Americans killed
in all US wars
–2 months = + population of the LA basin
–1.6 years = + 129 million killed in all the
wars of the past 200 years
–3.6 years = + 288 million (US pop. 2002)
–16 years = + 1.28 billion (China pop.
2002)
Case Study in Sustainability
• Zero Emissions –
• Integrated Biosystems –
• Video Case Study
– Identify the steps in this IBS
– What kind of IBS strategy might be used by our
school?
Economic Growth
Gross National Income (GNI)
Formerly called GNP
GNI PPP is better for comparisons
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Gross World Product (GWP)
Per Capita GNI (formerly GNP)
Per Capita GNI PPP
Economic Development
 Economic development –
improvement of living standards by
economic growth.
 Countries are classified based
mostly on their degree of
industrialization and per Capita GNI.
Economic Development
 Developed Countries – most highly
industrialized with high per capita GNI
PPPs (above $10,750 usually).
Examples? -
Economic Development
 Developing Countries – middle income,
moderately developed ($10, 750 $2,701; and low income countries (less
than $2,701).
 Examples? -
Comparison
• Developed:
– 1.2 billion people
– 19% of world pop.
– 85% of world’s
wealth
– use 88% of
resources
– produce 75% of
the pollution.
• Developing
– 5 billion people
– 81% of world pop.
– 15% of world’s
wealth
– use 12% of
resources
– produce 25% of
the pollution.
Economic Development
Positive Aspects
Life expectancy doubled (36 – 72) from
1900 – 2002 (76 developed, 65 developing)
Infant mortality dropped (60% developed;
40% developing) from 1955 – 2002.
Global food production has outpaced
population growth since 1978
Rural families with access to safe
drinking water increased from 10% in 1955
to 75% now in developing countries.
Economic Development
Positive Aspects
We’ve learned to produce more goods
with less raw materials.
Levels of most major air and water
pollutants have been reduced in most
developed countries.
Economic Development
Negative Aspects
Avg. life expectancy is 11 yrs. less in
developing countries
Infant mortality 8 times higher in
developing countries
Industrialized food production harming
the environment and may limit future
production.
Air & water pollution too high in
developing countries.
Economic Development
Negative Aspects
Natural resources are being used
unsustainably including:
extinction of species 100 – 1000
times faster than pre-human times.
destruction/degradation of wetlands,
coral reefs, and forests.
gradual depletion of ground water.
Economic Development
Negative Aspects
Studies by Conservation International:
73% of habitable land is partially or
heavily disturbed by human use.
Global warming may cause:
shifting of agricultural land
alteration of water supplies
shifting of plants and animals
rising average sea levels
Economic Development
Negative Aspects
1.4 billion – avg. income of less than
$370 per year. ($1/day = acute poverty)
Half of the world’s population suffer
from poverty and are living on $1 - $3 per
day. (70% are women & children)
The gap between the richest and
poorest countries is growing.
Globalization
Globalization – the process of
social, economic, and environmental
global changes lead to an
increasingly interconnected world.
Globalization
Economic
Information and Communication
Environmental Effects
Resources
Resources – Anything we obtain
from the environment to meet our
needs and wants.
Resources
Perpetual
Renewable
Non-renewable
Fig. 1-6 p. 9
Renewable Resources
Sustainable Yield
Environmental Degradation
Tragedy of the Commons
Refer to Connections, p. 12
Non-Renewable Resources
Energy Resources
Metallic Resources
Non-Metallic
Resources
Reuse
Recycle
Economic Depletion
Fig. 1-7 p. 10
Ecological Footprint
Fig. 1-8 p. 10
Calculate your footprint
www.earthday.net/footprint
Pollution
What is pollution?
Effects of Pollution
Sources
Point
Nonpoint
Dealing With Pollution
Prevention (Input Control)
Cleanup (Output Control)
Environmental and Resource
Problems
Major Problems
(See Fig. 1-9 p. 12)
Five Root Causes
Fig. 1-10 p. 12
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Air Pollution
Global climate change
Stratospheric ozone
depletion
Urban air pollution
Acid deposition
Outdoor pollutants
Indoor pollutants
Noise
Biodiversity Depletion
• Habitat destruction
• Habitat degradation
• Extinction
Major
Environmental
Problems
•
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Water Pollution
Sediment
Nutrient overload
Toxic chemicals
Infectious agents
Oxygen depletion
Pesticides
Oil spills
Excess heat
Waste Production
• Solid waste
• Hazardous waste
Food Supply Problems
• Overgrazing
• Farmland loss
and degradation
• Wetlands loss
and degradation
• Overfishing
• Coastal pollution
• Soil erosion
• Soil salinization
• Soil waterlogging
• Water shortages
• Groundwater depletion
• Loss of biodiversity
• Poor nutrition
(See Fig. 1-9 p. 12)
Poverty & Environmental
Problems
• Poverty is a major threat to human health and
the environment.
• Deplete & degrade forests, grasslands, soils
and wildlife for short-term survival.
Poverty & Environmental
Problems
• Live in areas with high levels of pollution and
risks of natural disasters.
• Unhealthy and unsafe working conditions for
low pay… when they are even available.
Poverty & Environmental
Problems
• Have many children for economic security.
• No retirement plans, social security, or
government sponsored health plans.
Poverty & Environmental
Problems
• One in every three children under age 5 suffer
from malnutrition.
• 13,700 children die prematurely every day
from malnutrition and infectious diseases.
Resource Consumption and
Environmental Problems
• Affluenza – the unsustainable addiction to
over consumption and materialism. (Shop
til you drop virus)
• 1 American = 27 tractor-trailer loads/year
• All Americans = 7.9 billion truckloads/year
Solving the Problem
• Admit there’s a
problem
• Ask:
– Do I really need this?
– Can I buy it used?
– Can I borrow one?
– Avoid other
shopaholics and
malls.
Law of Progressive Simplicity
• Historian Arnold Toynbee’s true measure of a
civilization’s growth –
– True growth occurs as civilizations transfer
an increasing proportion of energy and
attention from the material side of life to the
nonmaterial side and thereby develop their
culture, capacity for compassion, sense of
community, and strength of democracy.
Can Affluenza help the problem?
• Affluent countries have more money for
improving environmental quality.
Environmental Impact
Fig. 1-11 p. 13
Environmental Interactions
Fig. 1-12 p. 14
Better or Worse?
• Two extremes:
– Technological optimists
– Environmental pessimists
• “I have no hope for a conservation
based on fear” ~ Aldo Leopold,
Conservationist
Environmental Worldviews
Planetary Management
We are in charge of nature
We will find new resources as old ones
run out.
Global economic growth is unlimited
Success depends on how we manage the
earth’s systems, mostly for our benefit.
Environmental Worldviews
 Stewardship View
We have a ethical responsibility to care for
nature.
We probably wont run out of resources but
they should not be wasted.
Encourage environmentally beneficial
economic growth and discourage that which is
harmful.
Success depends on we manage the earth’s
systems for our benefit AND the rest of nature.
Environmental Worldviews
 Environmental Wisdom View
Nature exists for all species, not just us and
we are not in charge of the earth.
Resources ARE limited, and should not be
wasted.
Encourage earth-sustaining economic growth
and discourage earth-degrading growth.
Success depends on learning how the earth
sustains itself and using these lessons to
determine how we think and act.
Environmentally-Sustainable
Economic Development
Social
Economic
Social
Economic
Sustainable
Solutions
Environmental
Environmental
Fig. 1-13 p. 17
Traditional
decision making
Decision making in a
sustainable society