Introduction to Environmental Science Chapter 1

Environmental Science  Interdisciplinary science –ecology, geology, chemistry,  environmental studies focuses on politics, engineering, economics, and ethics  Connections and interactions between humans and the rest of nature  Validity of data questioned – many variables (hard to perform controlled experiments)

Environmental Science  environment: everything around us including the living and non-living things with which we interact  Goals of environmental science  learn how nature works  understand how we interact with the environment  find ways to deal with environmental problems and live more sustainably

Environmental Issues       Population growth Increasing resource use Destruction and degradation of habitat Premature extinction (loss of biodiversity) Poverty Pollution  Our top three: Climate Change/Global warming; Radioactive wastes; and increase in human population

Tragedy of the Commons- Garrett Hardin   “if I don’t use this resource someone else will” “I don’t take enough to matter” “the amount I pollute is not enough to cause a “its a renewable resource...it will come back” 

Sustainability 

Ability of a specified system to survive and function over a period of time

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Sustainable living: Meeting present needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs

Sustainability  Three principles of sustainability..how can we live more wisely and understand how the earth has sustained itself?

 Reliance on solar energy  drives energy cycling in ecosystems (photosynthesis and cell respiration)  Biodiversity  ability to adapt to changes and provide natural services  Chemical (nutrient cycling)  movement and renewal of chemicals in an ecosystem

Ecosystem Services

 Ecosystems provide services that aren’t easy to quantify  reasons for protecting and preserving our natural resources  purifying air and water, pollination, providing oxygen, providing food

Sustainability  Components of Sustainability  natural capital, natural resources and natural services work together in ecosystems to provide us with the resources we need to survive  being sustainable and managing our resources allow us to ensure these services for future generations and indefinitely  Sustainable yield: how much we can take without depleting the resource for the future

Ecological footprint or environmental impact

Amount of land needed to produce the resources needed by an average person in a country

Ecological Footprint

 The area of land and ocean required to support your consumption of food, goods, services, housing, and energy and assimilate your wastes.  Your ecological footprint is expressed in "global hectares" (gha) or "global acres" (ga), which are standardized units that take into account the differences in biological productivity of various ecosystems impacted by your consumption activities.  Your footprint is broken down into four consumption categories: carbon (home energy use and transportation), food, housing, and goods and services.  Your footprint is also broken down into four ecosystem types or biomes: cropland, pastureland, forestland, and marine fisheries.  www.myfootprint.org

Global Averages —Ecological Footprint There are only 15.71 acres available per person (renewable basis). We are overshooting the biological capacity by almost 50%!!

myfootprint.org

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When finished..let me know and we’ll print results.

Complete “Pledge Card” (see example)

Living in the environment

Hunter gatherers – 12,000 years ago Agricultural revolution – 10,000-12,000 Industrial revolution-275 years ago Technological revolution – 50 years ago

Cultural changes

Advanced Industrial societies (1914 --- Present)

 increase in agricultural products  lower infant mortality  improved health  increase in longevity  net population increase  Environmental impacts globalize

Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability

Economic growth:

increase in output of a nation’s  goods and services 

Gross domestic product (GDP)

a country : annual market value of all goods and services produced by all businesses, foreign and domestic, operating within 

Per capita GDP

midyear) : one measure of economic development (GDP divided by population at 

Economic development

: using economic growth to raise living standards

Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability

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More-developed countries

: North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, most of Europe  High income. 19% of the worlds population (1.2 billion people). Use 88% of the worlds resources and produce 75% of the worlds pollution and waste.

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Less-developed countries

: most countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America   Lower income. 81% of the worlds population. 15% of the worlds wealth, use 12% of the worlds resources.

Divided into moderately developing (China, India, Brazil, Turkey) and least-developed (Congo, Haiti, Nicaragua, Nigeria)

Measuring Our Impact

 Ecological Footprints: the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to provide the people in a particular country or area with an indefinite supply of renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use.

 IPAT model: shows how population size (P) , Resource consumption per person (A) and the beneficial and harmful environmental effects of technologies (T) help to determine the environmental impact (I)) of human activities.

 I = P x A x T  Impact= Population x Resource Use x Technology  Reducing one of these areas reduces overall impact. Or implementing technologies that reduce environmental impact (pollution control and prevention, wind turbines, solar cells, fuel-efficient cars)

Less-Developed Countries Population (P) Consumption per person (affluence, A) Technological impact per unit of consumption (T) Environmental impact of population (I) More-Developed Countries Fig. 1-14, p. 17

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Why do we have

1.

environmental problems?

Population growth 2.

Wasteful and unsustainable resource use (affluence) 3.

Poverty 4.

Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in market prices