Transcript Environmental Problems, their causes, and Sustainability

Chapter 1
Environmental Problems,
Their Causes, and
Sustainability
Chapter Overview Questions
• What are the main themes of this book?
• What keeps us alive? What is an
environmentally sustainable society?
• How fast is the human population
growing?
• What is the difference between economic
growth, economic development, and
environmentally sustainable economic
development?
Chapter Overview Questions
(cont’d)
• What are the harmful environmental
effects of poverty and affluence?
• What three major human cultural changes
have taken place since humans arrived?
• What are the four scientific principles of
sustainability and how can we use them
and shared visions to build more
environmentally sustainable and just
societies during this century?
OBJ 1.1
?
Black Death—the Plague
Time
Hunting and
Gathering
Agricultural revolution
Industrial
Revolution
CHECKPOINT
1. What is exponential growth?
2. Why is living in an exponential
age a concern for everyone
living on the planet?
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Earth's Life-Support System
Air
(atmosphere)
Water
(hydrosphere)
Soil and
rocks
(lithosphere)
Life
(biosphere)
Human Culturesphere
Population
Size
Worldviews
and ethics
Economics
Politics
OBJ 1.2
What Keeps Us Alive?
Solar
Natural
Fig. 1-2, p. 7
Natural capital degradation
• The exponential increasing flow of material
resources through the world’s economic
systems depletes, degrades and pollutes the
environment.
Figure 1-11
CHECKPOINT
1. Explain the terms natural
capital, natural resources,
natural services, solar capital
and natural capital
degradation.
OBJ 1.3
Sustainability:
The Integrative Theme
• Sustainability, is the ability of earth’s various
systems to survive and adapt to
environmental conditions indefinitely.
• The steps to sustainability must be
supported by sound science.
Environmentally Sustainable
Societies
… meets basic needs of its people in a just and
equitable manner without degrading the natural
capital that supplies these resources.
CHECKPOINT
1. Describe an environmentally
sustainable society.
2. List three ways in which you
could make your lifestyle
more environmentally
sustainable.
OBJ 1.4
GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
• Economic growth provides people with more
goods and services.
– Measured in gross domestic product (GDP) and
purchasing power parity (PPP).
• Economic development uses economic growth
to improve living standards.
– The world’s countries economic status (developed
vs. developing) are based on their degree of
industrialization and GDP-PPP.
Global Outlook
• Comparison of
developed and
developing countries.
Figures 1-5 and 1-6
Fig. 1-6, p. 11
CHECKPOINT
1. Summarize the advantages
and disadvantages of
globalization.
OBJ 1.5
RESOURCES
• Perpetual: On a human time scale
are continuous.
• Renewable: On a human time
scale can be replenished rapidly
(e.g. hours to several decades).
• Nonrenewable: On a human time
scale are in fixed supply.
LINK: http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/11891-conservation-of-natural-resources-introduction-video.htm
CHECKPOINT
1. Create a concept map
showing a connection
between the following terms:
perpetual, renewable and
nonrenewable energy.
2. Give examples of each type of
resource.
Our Ecological Footprint
• Humanity’s ecological
footprint has exceeded
earths ecological
capacity.
Figure 1-7
OBJ 1.6
The Tragedy of the Commons
Or: the challenge of common-pool resources
Or: why the sum total of individual “rational”
choices can lead to perverse (and socially suboptimal) outcomes
Credits: cow images from http://www.woodyjackson.com/
Imagine a field of grass shared by 6 farmers, each with one cow…
A few facts: Each cow currently produces 20 liters of milk per day The carrying
capacity of the commons is 8 cows. For each cow above 8, the milk production
declines by 2 liters (due to overgrazing, there is less grass for each cow: less
grass, less milk!).
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 120 liters
Do the farmers sit back and stay at 6 cows? Not if they are individual profit
maximizers (here simplified as milk production maximizers)
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 120 liters (6 cows)
Do the farmers sit back and stay at 6 cows? Not if they are individual profit
maximizers (here simplified as milk production maximizers)
“I’ll get another cow”
40 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 140 liters (7 cows)
We are now at the carrying capacity -- do they stop? No.
“Then I’ll get another cow too”
40 liters
20 liters
20 liters
40 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 160 liters (8 cows)
They are now at the maximum total milk production. But do they stop? No…
36 liters
36 liters
“I’ll get another cow”
18 liters
18 liters
36 liters
18 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 162 liters (9 cows)
32 liters
16 liters
16 liters
32 liters
32 liters
32 liters
“My cow is now less productive,
but 2 will improve my situation”
Total daily milk production for the commons: 160 liters (10 cows)
28 liters
14 liters
“I’ll get another cow”
28 liters
28 liters
28 liters
28 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 154 liters (11 cows)
“Well, everyone else is getting
one, so me too!”
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 144 liters (12 cows)
“Well, I can still increase milk
production if I get a third cow”
30 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 130 liters (10 cows)
CHECKPOINT
1. How can environmentalists
solve the issue of tragedy of
the commons?
1-4: Pollution
 What is pollution?
- Presence of substances at high level in air, water,
food that can threaten the health, survival, activities
of organisms
 Effects of Pollution
- disrupt/degrade life-support systems
- Damage wildlife, human health, property
- Nuisances such as noise, unpleasant smells
Sources
 Point: single, identifiable sources
- EX: Smokestack of a coal-burning power plant
 Nonpoint: dispersed, difficult to identify
- EX: pesticides sprayed in air
• Pollutants can have three types of unwanted
effects:
– Can disrupt / degrade life-support systems.
– Can damage health and property.
– Can create nuisances such as noise and
unpleasant smells, tastes, and sights.
CHECKPOINT
1. How is the production of pollution
and waste related to exponential
growth of the world’s population
and economies?
2. List three things you would do to
reduce the amount of pollution
and waste that we produce.
3. List three changes in your lifestyle
that would reduce the amount of
pollution and wastes you produce.
OBJ 1.7
Dealing With Pollution
 Prevention (Input Control)
- Reduce or eliminate production of pollutant
 Cleanup (Output Control)
- Cleaning up or diluting pollutants after they
have been produced
Problems
1. temporary bandage
2. removes pollutant from 1 part to cause
pollution in another
3. costs too much to reduce pollutants to
acceptable levels
OBJ 1.7
Solutions:
Prevention vs. Cleanup
• Problems with relying on cleanup:
– Temporary bandage without improvements in
control technology.
– Often removes a pollutant from one part of the
environment to cause problems in another.
– Pollutants at harmful levels can cost too much
to reduce them to acceptable levels.
CHECKPOINT
1. Distinguish between pollution
prevention and pollution cleanup.
2. Evaluate the effectiveness of
these two approaches in
decreasing pollution.
3. Explain how placing much greater
emphasis on pollution prevention
would help reduce the exponential
growth of the human ecological
footprint and your own ecological
footprint.
OBJ 1.8
ENVIRONMENTAL
PROBLEMS: CAUSES
AND CONNECTIONS
• The major causes of environmental
problems are:
– Population growth
– Wasteful resource use
– Poverty
– Poor environmental accounting
– Ecological ignorance
SOLAR
CAPITAL
EARTH
Goods and services
Heat
Human Capital
Natural Capital
Human
Economic
and
Cultural
Systems
Depletion of
nonrenewable resources
Degradation of
renewable resources
Pollution and waste
Fig. 1-10, p. 17
CHECKPOINT
1. Identify five basic causes of the
environmental problems we face
today.
Poverty & Environmental Problems
• 1 of 3 children
under 5, suffer
from severe
malnutrition.
Figure 1-12 and 1-13
Resource Consumption and
Environmental Problems
• Underconsumption
• Overconsumption
– Affluenza: unsustainable addiction to
overconsumption and materialism.
Connections between Environmental
Problems and Their Causes
Figure 1-14
CHECKPOINT
1. What is poverty?
2. In what ways do poverty and
affluence affect the environment?
3. Explain the problems we face by
not including the harmful
environmental costs in the prices
of goods and services.
OBJ 1.9
Implications of the Four
Scientific Principles of
Sustainability
Reliance on
Solar Energy
Nutrient Recycling
Biodiversity
Population Control
Fig. 1-16, p. 24
CHECKPOINT
1. For each of the following actions, state
one or more of the four scientific
principles of sustainability that are
involved:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
recycling soda cans
using a rake instead of leaf blower
choosing to have no more than one child
walking to class instead of driving
taking your own reusable bags to the
grocery store to carry things home in
f) volunteering to restore a pine rockland
STUDY RESOURCES