Environmental Issues, Their Causes, and Sustainability

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Environmental Issues, Their Causes, and
Sustainability
Sustainability Growth Development Resources
Pollution Problems in the Environment
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Environmental Issues Journal

• What is sustainability?
• Discuss the correlation, if any, between human
  population and natural resource consumption.
• Do you believe that the current lifestyle of the
  US is sustainable? Analyze your lifestyle how
  would resources be affected if everyone on Earth
  lived the way you do?

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Key Concepts

• Growth and Sustainability

• Resources and Resource Use

• Pollution

• Causes of Environmental Problems

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The Field of Environmental Science

• Environmental Science is interdisciplinary, and
  includes applied and theoretical aspects of human
  impact.
• Incorporates scientific aspects of ecology,
  conservation, geography, with inputs from social
  sciences such as economics, sociology and
  political science.

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Interrelated Nature Environmental Problems

• Environment is everything that affects an
  organism during its lifetime.

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An Ecosystem Approach

• Ecology- the study of the relationships between
  living organisms and their environment.
• Ecosystem Region in which the organisms and the
  physical environment form an interacting unit.
• The task of an Environmental Scientist is to
  recognize and understand natural interactions and
  integrate these with human uses of the natural
  world.

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Living More Sustainably

• Sustainability-
• (1) living off the natural income replenished by
  soils, plants, air and water
• (2) not depleting earths endowment of natural
  capital that supplies this income
• Sustainable Society-satisfying the basic needs of
  the people for food, clean air water, and
  shelter indefinitely without
• (1) depleting or degrading natural resources
• (2) preventing future generations from meeting
  their basic needs

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Population Growth

• ExponentialGrowth- Growth in a species that
  takes place at a constant rate per time period.

• Doubling Time/Rule of 70- 70 divided by
  percentage growth ratedoubling time

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Rule of 70

• How long does it take to double?
• Resource use
• Population size
• Money in a savings account
• Rule of 70
• 70 divided by the percentage growth rate
  doubling time in years
• 70 / 7 means it takes ten years to double

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Exponential Growth

• Starts off slowly, doubles a few times, then
  grows to enormous numbers
• Quantity increases by a fixed percentage of the
  whole in a given time as each increase is applied
  to the base for further growth

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Exponential Growth

• Growth yields a J-shaped curve
• Describes the human population problem that
  disturbs the environment today

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World Population
Fig. 1-1 p. 2
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Economic Growth

• Gross National Product (GNP)- the value of all
  the goods and services produced within and
  outside of a country during a year plus the net
  income earned by its citizens
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)-the value in dollars
  of all goods and services produced within a
  country
• Gross World Product (GWP)- the value of all the
  goods and services produce in the world during a
  year
• Per Capita GNP- GNP divided by the population at
  mid-year each persons slice of the pie

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Economic Development

• Developed countries (MDC)- (pop1.2b) highly
  industrialized with high per capita GNP
  represent 20 of the worlds pop that control 85
  of wealth 88 of resources and produce 75 of
  pollution and waste

• Developing countries (LDC)- (pop5.1 bil) low per
  capita GNP represent 95 of the projected
  increase in the worlds population

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The Good of Economic Growth

• Positive
• Increased Life Expectancy
• Infant Mortality Drop
• Increased Food Production
• Safe Drinking Water in Rural Areas
• Increased Production with fewer materials
• Decrease in Major Air and Water Pollution (since
  1970s) in MDC

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The Bad of Economic Growth

• Negative-
• Life Expectancy Lower in LDCs
• Infant Mortality is 8 times Higher in LDCs
• Less Sustainability in Agricultural Practices
• Air and Water Pollution in LDCs is too High (WHO)
• Increased Demand on Resources (pop)
• Increased Disturbance of Habitable Surface (73
  already)
• Climate Change from Burning of Fossil Fuels
• 1 in 4 people in the world make less than
  370/year
• Economic Gap Increase (Rich get richer, poor get
  poorer)

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Wealth Gap

• The gap between the per capita GNP of the rich,
  middle-income and poor has widened
• More than 1 billion people survive on less than
  one dollar per day
• Situation has worsened since 1980

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Globalization

• Globalization-the process of global, social
  environmental and political change that leads to
  an increased integrated world Three major
  indicators
• Economic Effects
• Information and Communication
• Environmental Effects

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Environmental Degradation

• Common Property Resources
• Tragedy of the Commons- PLEASE READ ARTICLE AND
  ANSWER QUESTIONS (see teacherweb.com)
• Resources owned by none, but available to all
  users free of charge
• May convert potentially renewable resources into
  nonrenewable resources

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The Tragedy of the Commons
Garrett Hardin, 1968 In a commons open to
all, unregulated use will deplete limited
resources.
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Resources

• Perpetual

• Renewable

• Non-renewable

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Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)

• Population growth will lead to starvation, war,
  disease.
• Death rates check population unless birth rates
  are lowered.
• Today, Paul Ehrlich (The Population Bomb, 1968)
  is called neo-Malthusian.

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Renewable Resources

• Sustainable Yield- the highest rate of use of a
  resource in which it can be used indefinitely
  without reducing its available supply

• Environmental Degradation- exceeding a resources
  natural replacement rate causing the resource to
  decrease
• Urbanization of productive land
• Excessive erosion/soil compaction
• Deforestation/overgrazing
• Decreased biodiversity

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Non-Renewable Resources

• Energy- coal, oil, natural gas

• Metallic- iron, copper, aluminum (recycleable)

• Non-Metallic- salt, sand, clay, phosphate

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Ecological Footprint
Fig. 1-8 p. 10
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Pollution

• Pollution- any addition of a material into the
  environment that negatively affects organisms
  can either be natural or man-made (anthropogenic)
• Volcanic activity
• Burning of fossil fuels

• Effects of Pollution-
• Disrupt life-support systems for species
• Damage to species and property
• Unwanted noise, smells, tastes, and sights

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Pollution Sources

• Point Source- pollution that comes from a readily
  identifiable source
• Smokestack
• Drainpipes
• Exhaust pipes (cars)

• Nonpoint Source- pollution that comes into an
  area from another, difficult to locate, region
• Farm runoff (pesticides)
• Sprayed pesticides materials carried by wind

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Dealing With Pollution

• Prevention (Input Control)- the reduction or
  elimination of pollutants
• Refuse, replace, reduce, reuse recycle

• Cleanup (Output Control)- occurs after pollutants
  have been released issues
• Temporary as long as consumption of product
  continues
• Transient-moves pollution from one area to
  another
• Costly- generally passed to the consumer

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Air Pollution

• Global climate change
• Stratospheric ozone depletion
• Urban air pollution
• Acid deposition
• Outdoor pollutants
• Indoor pollutants
• Noise

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Water Pollution

• Sediment
• Nutrient overload
• Toxic chemicals
• Infectious agents
• Oxygen depletion
• Pesticides
• Oil spills
• Excess heat

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Food Supply Problems

• Overgrazing
• Farmland loss and degradation
• Wetlands loss and degradation
• Overfishing
• Coastal pollution
• Soil erosion

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Food Supply Problems

• Soil salinization
• Soil waterlogging
• Water shortages
• Groundwater depletion
• Loss of biodiversity
• Poor nutrition

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Model of Environmental
Impact

• Number of People x Number of units of resources
  used per person x Environmental degradation and
  pollution per unit of resource used
  Environmental impact of population
• P x A x T I

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Environmental Problems
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Hunter-Gatherers

• Had only three energy sources
• Sunlight in captured plants
• Fire
• Their own muscle power
• Very little impact on environment
• See Jared Diamond

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Environmental and Resource Problems

• Five Root Causes

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Agricultural Revolution

• Agricultural Revolution
• Cultural shift that began in several regions of
  the world
• Involved a gradual move from a lifestyle based on
  nomadic hunting
• Agroforestry
• Planting a mixture of food crops and tree crops

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Agricultural Revolution

• Slash-and-burn
• Cutting down trees and other vegetation and then
  burning the underbrush to clear small patches of
  land
• Subsistence Farming
• Family grew only enough food to feed itself.

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Environmental Impact
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Environmental Interactions
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Environmental Worldviews

• Planetary Management-humans are dominate and
  decide how to best manage the planet
• Humans are in charge
• There will always be more (unlimited supply)
• Economic growth is goodalways
• Success depends on our ability to dominate,
  understand and control nature
• Technology will inevitably save mankind

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Environmental Worldviews

• Environmental Wisdom- human beings are like other
  species and rely on the earth to survive
• Nature does not exist just for us we need the
  earth but the earth does not need us
• Limited Resources should not be wasted
• Some economic growth is good, other types are
  not encourage the good
• Understand the earth to learn to live in harmony
  with it the more informed, the better our
  decisions

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Environmentally-Sustainable Economic Development
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Environmental science
can help us avoid mistakes made by past
civilizations. On Easter Island,
people annihilated their culture by destroying
their environment.
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QUESTION Review

• Which statement is FALSE?
• a. Our environment includes living and
  nonliving
• elements.
• b. Thomas Malthus favored population growth.
• c. Environmental science includes multiple
• disciplines.
• d. Theories are better supported by evidence than
  are hypotheses.

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QUESTION Review

• Which is NOT an application of science?
• a. Policy decisions
• b. Technologies
• c. Experimental results
• d. Management practices

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QUESTION Review

• Why has biodiversity loss been called our biggest
  environmental problem?
• a. It exacerbates all other environmental
  problems.
• b. Problems like pollution can be reversed, but
  once extinctions happen, they are
  irreversible.
• c. It is proceeding more quickly than all other
  problems.
• d. No one has claimed this pollution is the
  biggest problem.

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QUESTION Weighing the Issues

• What do you think is the best way to combat the
  tragedy of the commons?
• a. Sell the commons into private hands, so
  owners have incentive to manage resources.
• b. Have government regulate the amount of
  resources individuals take from the commons.
• c. Have users work out cooperative systems among
  themselves to police resource use.

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QUESTION Weighing the Issues

• Increasing world agricultural production could
  allow us to feed more people. Should this be a
  goal for the world?
• a. Yes, because it could alleviate hunger and
  poverty.
• b. No, because it could speed population
  growth, causing more poverty
• and environmental degradation.

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QUESTION Interpreting Graphs and Data

• Population increase over the last 500 years has
  been?

a. Equal to that of the previous 500 years b.
More than that between 10,000 and 500 years ago
c. Less than that between 10,000 and 500 years
ago d. Equal to that of the previous 5,000 years
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QUESTION Interpreting Graphs and Data

• What happens if results fail to reject a
  hypothesis?
• a. The hypothesis is proven to be true.
• b. The hypothesis is supported, but not
  confirmed.
• c. The hypothesis may be retested in a
  different way, with new predictions.
• d. Both b and c are true.