Transcript Environmental Issues

Faculty of Engineering Technology
Building and Construction Sciences
Environmental Issues Overview
The Big Picture
Image courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.
(http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov)
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Summary Slide
• Structural Analogy
• Topology of Env'l Issues
 Environmental Media
• Environmental Impact
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Equation
Ten Principles … + 1
Related Disciplines
Ecological Footprint
Useful Distinctions
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Food
Other Key Factors
How Bad IS the Environment?
Stabilising Population
Industrial vs Developing
Environmental Technology –
Global Perspective
The Blue
Planet?
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Structural Analogy
• Factor of Safety = Resistance / Load
• Environmental Load …?
• Environmental Resistance …?
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50
60
low impact
adverse impact
collapse
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Structural Analogy
• Environmental Load …?
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how many people? Population (P)
how much waste? Consumption (C)
• Environmental Resistance …?
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what steps do we take to control emissions? …
environmental technology (ET)
how much waste can the natural environment safely
handle?… assimilation capacity (AC)
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Environmental Impact Equation
Environmen tal Impact 

Environmen tal Load
Environmen tal Resistance
Population  Consumptio n
Env' l Tech' y  Assimilation Capacity
P C
EI 

ET  AC
x
x
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Ten Principles … plus one
1.
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9.
10.
Everything is connected to everything else.
You can never do only one thing.
There is no away.
Wants  Needs.
Think globally, act locally.
A gram of prevention is worth a kilo of cure.
1st rule of intelligent tinkering: Keep all the parts.
Market price  full env'l and social cost
Population · affluence · technology = env'l impact
Seek simplicity and distrust it.
11. Sustainable development meets the needs of the
present without sacrificing the ability of future
generations to meet their needs.
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Related Disciplines
• Understanding chemistry is essential to
•
understanding environmental issues. The same
for economics, ecology, and ethics. Likewise
biology, psychology, sociology, history,
architecture, geography, politics, physics,
epidemiology, planning, agriculture,
engineering, and at least another 10 disciplines.
An environmental professional must not only
learn the basics of these disciplines, but also
understand how they relate to one
another.
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Ecological Footprint
• very useful measure of cumulative
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environmental impact
EF = land required to sustain your lifestyle
indefinitely using current technology
e.g. potato footprint
I need to know…
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how many potatoes I eat in a year
how much land is required to grow them
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Footprint
• say I eat 1 potato twice a week
• in a year, that's 2x52=104 potatoes
• if each potato weighs about 250 g,
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that's 26 kg/yr
Consumption = 26 kg/yr
if 1 ha yields an average of 50 T/yr
Productivity = 50,000 kg/ha·yr
I'm using 26 kg ÷ 50 000 kg/ha
= 0.00052 ha = 5.2 m²
Footprint = 5.2 m²
Footprint = Consumption / Productivity
now repeat for all goods & services consumed!
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Ecological Footprint
• visit www.earthday.net and click on "Measure
Your Ecological Footprint"
– 16 questions
email the results
 first to yourself
 second forward to me with your name & student
number
• [email protected]

• Volunteer ?
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Ecological Footprint
land area needed to sustain
your lifestyle indefinitely
at current population levels!
ME !
www.earthday.net
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Useful Distinctions
• Local / Global
• Short-term / Long-term / Forever
• North (Industrial) / South (Developing)
• Physical / Socio-economic
• Land / Water / Air / Bio
• Human Health / Ecosystem Health
• Conservative / Liberal / Green Politics
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Topology of Environmental Issues
- Media
• AIR
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noise, odour
smoke, dust
smog
acid rain
greenhouse gases
• LAND
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haz waste
municipal solid waste
RRR
brownfield / greenfield
• WATER
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supply
quality
quantity
wastewater
• BIO
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habitat destruction
biodiversity
persistent toxics
carcinogens
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Topology of Environmental Issues
– Including Food
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Topology of Environmental Issues
- Other Key Factors
• Energy
• Population Growth
• Over-Consumption
• Technology
• Economics
• Planning
• Ethics
• Conservation
• Sustainability
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This topic is Risk Assessment.
0.5 a
0.4 a
0.4 a
0.38 a
0.36 a
0.33 a
0.25 a
Driving car
Alcohol
Suicide
Murder
Air pollution
Drugs
AIDS
Data from Dr. Bernard Cohen
Peanut butter 0.003 a
Natural disasters 0.003 a
Flying 0.003 a
Toxic waste 0.01 a
Bicycles 0.015 a
Natural radiation 0.02 a
Fire 0.08 a
Drinking water 0.08 a
Drowning 0.08 a
Pesticides 0.1 a
1a
Spouse smoking
2a
2.5 a
DNF Grade 8
15% Overweight
3a
4.5 a
Heart disease
Cancer
5a
6a
35% Overweight
Unmarried
6a
Smoking
Being male
Poverty
7.5 a
8.5 a
How Bad IS the Environment?
Shortens average life span in the U.S. by (years)
Comparison of risks that people face
expressed in terms of shorter average life
span. After poverty and being male, the
greatest risks are mostly from voluntary
choices we make about our lifestyles.
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Population (billions)
Stabilising Population
Over 95% of the projected addition of 3.6 billion people between 1990 and
2030 is projected to occur in developing countries (United Nations Data) 17
A World of Difference
Data from United Nations, 1996
1.2 billion
Population
Annual Population Growth Rate
0.1% (slow)
1.9% (very rapid)
20%
Population < 15 years
Population > 65 years
5%
35%
Industrial Countries
Developing Countries
14%
Urban Population
Infant Deaths per 1000 Live Births
4.6 billion
75%
35%
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68
Average Life Expectancy
64
Adult Literacy
48%
DrinkingWater
Water
Safe Safe
Drinking
Average Income per Person
45%
74
97%
96%
US$18,130
US$1,090
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source: ceenve.ceng.calpoly.edu/ pal/global_warming/Introduction.PPT
Env'l Tech – Global Perspective
System Inputs
(from env't)
Information
Resources
Energy
Resources
Matter
Resources
Preventive
Strategy
System
Throughputs
Reactive
Strategy

Economy

Pollution
Prevention &
Resource
Conservation
Accumulation
and flow of
info, energy,
and matter
Reduce
throughput of
energy and
matter
Recycle &
Reuse
System Outputs
(to env't)
Useless
Information
Waste
Heat
Pollution
Cleanup /
Remediation
Pollution &
Waste Matter
Our focus
in EA204
Inputs, throughputs, and outputs for an economy with two strategies for reducing pollution. Pollution
prevention (input control) is based on reducing pollution and conserving resources by reducing throughputs
(flows) of matter and energy. This can also be done by recycling or reusing the output of waste matter.
Pollution cleanup or output control involves trying to reduce pollutants to acceptable levels after they have
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been produced. Both approaches are needed, but greater emphasis should be placed on prevention.
Is Mother Earth Blue
What
of Earth
is this ?
Africa part
& Arabian
peninsula
Image courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image
Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
?
World Scientists' Warning
to Humanity (1992)
" We the undersigned, senior
members of the world's
scientific community, hereby
warn all humanity of what lies
ahead. A great change in our
stewardship of the earth and
the life on it is required, if
vast human misery is to be
avoided and our global home
on this planet is not to be
irretrievably mutilated. "
Source: www.ucsusa.org
So… Let's roll!
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Spaceship Earth
photo from Apollo 17
astronauts on the last
journey of humans to
the Moon, Dec 1972
Images courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory,
NASA Johnson Space Center. http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
Carl Sagan's
"Pale Blue Dot"
14 Feb 1990, from a
distance of 6.4 Tm,
Voyager 1 captured
this image of Earth.
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