Rachel Carson

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Rachel Carson
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When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in
1962, she was viciously attacked. Huge sums of
money were spent to discredit her. She was
called an ignorant and hysterical woman who
wanted to turn the earth over to the insects.
While her scientific methods were problematic,
her message about the environment as an
interrelated organic system struck a popular
nerve. The smear campaign backfired. Silent
Spring sparked a revolution in government
environmental policy and became instrumental in
creating a new ecological consciousness.
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H
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane DDT
DDT was banned for use in the US on January 1,
1973.
DDT was a suspected carcinogen
DDT was known to be accumulating in the lipids of
Bald Eagles interfering with reproduction
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Silent Spring The Video
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Sustainability

• Development that meets the needs of the present
  without compromising the ability of future
  generations to meet their own needs. Brundtland
  Commission 1987 Our Common Future

Stewardship of the worlds natural resources in a
manner that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their needs.
Websters Ninth Collegiate Dictionary defines
needs as of necessity vs. wants something
wanted or desired
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Three legged stool
Consumption the rate of use of
natural resources.
Population the growth of the human population
Resources air, land, water, biota
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Ecological Footprint

• One way to measure consumption is to calculate
  how much land/sea area is required to support the
  consumption of an individual in a country
  (ecological footprint).
• If a countrys per person footprint is multiplied
  by its population, and that result is larger than
  the resources of that country, then the country
  is living beyond its means and must take
  resources from another country.

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• The footprint of an individual in the U.S is 23.2
  acres (an acre is slightly smaller than a
  football field).
• World average ecological footprint is 6.7 acres
  per person, a sustainable footprint is 5.2 acres
  per person.

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Footprint Measures

• The ecological footprints given here are based on
  six main categories.
• Arable land for cultivation of food, animal feed,
  fiber, oil crops, and rubber
• Pasture- Grazing land for producing meat, hides,
  wool, and milk
• Forest for harvesting timber, fuelwood, and wood
  fiber for paper
• Sea space for catching fish (93 million tons)
• Built-up land for accommodating infrastructure
  for housing, transportation, and industrial
  production
• Direct CO2 emissions from fossil fuels indirect
  emissions for products manufactured abroad gas
  flaring cement production and tropical fires

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density dependent regulation
Maximum Sustained Yield
Yield
Fecundity
93 million tons
Population Density Females
Catch per Unit Effort
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The ecological footprint of a person in India
is 2.2 acres, for the US it is 23.2 acres. The
per person footprint of someone living in the US
is 10.5 times larger than that of a person living
in India.
The impact of a country on the Earths
resources can be measured by multiplying the per
person ecological footprint times the countries
population density.
The ecological footprint of a person in India
is 2.2, its population is 1,147,995,900 billion.
2.2 xs 1,147,995,900 is 2,525,590,980. The
ecological footprint of a person living in the US
is 23.2 acres times 303,824,650 is 7,048,731,880.
The impact of the people in the US on the worlds
resources is 2.79 times greater than that of a
person living in India. The US is deficit in
resources and must take from someone else.
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Population Density (2008)

1. China 1,330,044,600
2. India 1,147,995,900
3. USA 303,824,650
4. Indonesia 237,512,36
5. Brazil 191,908,600

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2007 Global Footprint Network, Mathis
Wackernagle The United States has one of the
largest footprints per person world wide and it
would take about 6 planets like Planet Earth to
support the world population if everybody assumed
current American consumption patterns.
We have met the enemy and he is us! Pogo Used
by Walt Kelly on a 1970 poster for the first
earth day
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Spiro T. Agnew VP Forced to resign for
accepting bribes.
Nixon administration 1969-1974
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Population

• World population increases
• Those countries with the highest fertility rates
  (the number of children born per woman in her
  lifetime) are
• Mali 7.34 Somalia 6.6
• Niger 7.29 Afghanistan 6.58
• Uganda 6.81
• U.S. 2.1, Hong Kong 1.0, Taiwan 1.13, South Korea
  1.2, Japan 1.22, Spain 1.3, Italy 1.3, European
  Union 1.5
• Note the only recognized and independent country
  that is missing from this list is Vatican City.
• A total fertility rate of 2.1 is known as the
  replacement fertility since in the long run if
  the population will stabilize at this rate.
• http//www.nationmaster.com/index.php accessed
  1/2009

when births gt deaths
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• A total fertility rate of 2.1 will not
  immediately result in a stable population with
  zero growth
• Death rate may fall
• If a population has many young people in it that
  are or will be having young the population will
  continue to increase even if the families limit
  themselves to 2.1 children.
• Depending on the number of young in a population
  it may take 20 years to a century to stabilize so
  that there is no net growth.
• Currently there is a net increase of
  approximately 2.44 people per second in the
  world! (Based on 2008 data)
• The thing that is grossly wrong with this is that
  it seems to think that the only important specie
  on Earth is Homo sapiens

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Resources

• Land, air, water, biota
• Water
• Quantity
• Surface waters including the oceans
• Freshwater
• Fossil aquifers
• Alluvial aquifers
• Rivers, streams
• Lakes, Reservoirs, Ponds

The percent of the Earth that is covered by water
is _______ 97 is salt water, lt3 is freshwater.
70
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Water Resources

• Quality
• Aquatic life
• Human consumption

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As more and more water is withdrawn from rivers,
streams, lakes, and aquifers to feed thirsty
fields, and the voracious needs of industry and
escalating urban demands, there is often little
left over for aquatic ecosystems and the wealth
of plants and animals they support. Currently
humans expropriate 54 of all available
freshwater from rivers, lakes, streams, and
shallow aquifers. Projected levels of population
growth in the next 25 years alone are expected to
increase the human take of available freshwater
to 70. As a global average, most freshwater
withdrawals-69- are used for agriculture, while
industry accounts for 23 and municipal use
(drinking water, bathing and cleaning, and water
plants and grass) just 8.
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The competition for water is intense. According
to Sandra Postel, Director of the Global Water
Policy Project, it takes about 1000 tons of water
to grow 1 ton of grain, which has a market value
of 200, or if used for industrial products a
value of 10,000 - 20,000. Water used in
industry creates more jobs than in farming,
increasing pressures to shift scarce supplies
away from agriculture.
It is cheaper to import grain and use water for
industrial purposes.
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As the number of people in water stressed
countries climbs towards 3 billion, competition
for water will spread across borders through the
global grain trade as more countries try to
import enough grain to fill their food gaps.
Whether the U.S., Western Europe, and other food
exporters will be able to satisfy these demands
is only half the issue.
Equally important is whether importersprimarily
poor nations of South Asia and sub-Saharan
Africacan afford to buy the grain they need.
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Destruction of habitat is the largest cause of
biodiversty loss in almost every ecosystem, from
wetlands and estuaries to prairies and forests.
But biologists have found that the brunt of
current plant and animal extinctions has fallen
disproportionately on those species dependent on
freshwater and related habitats. One fifth of
the worlds freshwater fish 2,000 of the 10,000
species identified so far are endangered,
vulnerable, or extinct. In North America, the
continent most studied, 67 percent of all
mussels, 51 percent of crayfish, 40 percent of
amphibians, 37 percent of fish, and 75 percent of
all mollusks are rare, imperiled, or already
gone. The global decline in amphibian populations
may be the aquatic equivalent to the canary in
the coal mine.
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Pollution is also exacting a significant toll on
freshwater and marine organisms. For instance,
scientists studying beluga whales swimming in the
contaminated St.
Lawrence Seaway that connects the Atlantic Ocean
to Americas Great Lakes found that the cetaceans
have dangerously high levels of PCBs in their
blubber. In fact, the contamination is so severe
that under Canadian law the whales actually
qualify as a toxic waste.
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Orca facts Adult weight 3,000 to 12,000
lbs Adult length 16 to 32 feet Lifespan about
50 yrs females, 30 years males male orcas carry
their contaminant body burden their entire
lives. Females pass a lifetime dose of the
contaminants to their first born calves. Speed
up to 30 mph Habitat all oceans Calving every 3
to 5 years, but intervals sometimes to 10
years. Social structure Killer whales live in
pods.
Orcinus orca
In the Pacific Northwest, they are divided into
transients and residents that do not interact and
have different lifestyles. Diet About 200 lbs of
meat a day, residents eat fish, transients eat
marine mammals mostly seals. Population off of
British Columbia 84 residents and about 220
transients. Declining populations? Nature
lovers, declining salmon populations,
contamination.
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PCBs polychlorinated biphenyls block the
formation of vitamin A. Calves are hit with a
large dose in their mothers milk just at the
time they need vitamin A to develop
normally. PCBs do not cause outright death. But
extensive laboratory animal experiments and
captive feeding studies of seals show
contamination can weaken immune systems, hamper
reproduction, and cause skin disorders and subtle
changes in physiology. The study showed that
PCB levels in the fat of transient males averaged
251 ppm. In southern pods, levels were 146 ppm.
Humans average less than 1 ppm. This means that
these animals are 400 to 500 times more
contaminated than humans. PCBs were banned
from use in the US in 1977.
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On March 20, 2000 a group of monkeys, driven mad
with thirst, clashed with desperate villagers
over drinking water in a small outpost in
northern Kenya near the border with Sudan. The
Pan African News Agency reported that eight
monkeys were killed and 10 villagers were injured
in what was described as a fierce two-hour melee.
The fight erupted when
relief workers began dispensing water from a
tanker truck. Locals claimed that a prolonged
drought had forced animals to roam out of their
natural habitats to seek life-giving water in
human settlements. The monkeys were identified as
generally harmless vervets.
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The most striking example of human water demands
destroying an ecosystem is the nearly complete
annihilation of the 64,500 square kilometer Aral
Sea, located in Central Asia between Kazakhstan
and Uzbekistan. Once the fourth largest inland
sea in the world, it has contracted to half its
size and lost three quarters of its volume since
the 1960s when its two feeder riversthe Amu
Darya and the Syr Darya-were diverted to irrigate
cotton fields and rice patties. For a long time
the, the ecological impact of the sea and
surrounding area were largely hidden from public
view. The once-thriving fishing industry that
depended on the water is all but gone. Some 20
of the 24 fish species there have disappeared.
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The fish catch which totaled 44,000 tons per year
in the 1950s and supported 60,000 jobs dropped to
zero. Another apparent consequence of the
dried-up sea is a host of human illnesses. A
high rate of throat cancer is attributed to dust
from the drying sea. Each year winds pick up 40
million to 150 million tons of a toxic dust-salt
mixture from the dry sea bed and deposit them on
the surrounding farm land, harming or killing
crops. The low river flows have concentrated the
salts and toxic chemicals, making water supplies
hazardous to drink and contributing to disease.
In the northwest Republic of Uzbekistan, the
infant mortality rate is the highest in the
former in the former Soviet Union. The former
fishing center, Muynak is now landlocked some 30
km (18 miles) from the water. Less than 25 years
ago Muynak was a seaport.
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Lake Chad, too, has shrunkto one-tenth its
former size. In 1960, with a surface area of
25,000 square kilometers, it was the
second-largest lake in Africa. When last
surveyed, it was down to only 2,000 square
kilometers. And here, too, massive water
withdrawals from the watershed to feed irrigated
agriculture have reduced the amount of water
flowing into the lake to a trickle, especially
during the dry season. Although water has been
flowing into the lake from its rivers over the
past decade, the lake is still in serious
ecological trouble. The lakes fisheries have
more or less collapsed from over-exploitation and
loss of aquatic habitats as its waters have been
drained away. Though some 40 commercially
valuable species remain, their populations are
too small to be harvested commercially.
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Lake Chad, once the sixth largest lake in the
world.
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Its not just over there where there are
problems.. The two key treaties that divide the
Colorado River water among seven states and
Mexico allocate more water than the river
actually carries in an average yeara mistake
that occurred because the rivers annual flow was
determined in an unusually rainy period. As a
result virtually no fresh water flows through the
Colorado delta and into the Sea of Cortez in an
average year. The Colorado delta in northern
Mexico, and the native Indian communities that
live there, have been decimated. Had the treaty
designers set aside fresh water to maintain this
critical downstream ecosystem, they might have
prevented substantial ecological and social
harm. You know the price of water when the well
runs dry. Poor Richards Almanac Whiskeys for
drinking, waters for fighting about. Mark Twain

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The Ogallala is being pumped down at a rate of 1
meter per year and being recharged at a rate of 1
cm per year. Lets see ground water pumped to
produce corn, to feed to cattle in feed lots to
make burgers for? What was that figure the
percent of loss in energy at each transfer in the
food chain is ?
90
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The Rio Grande no longer consistently flows to
the Gulf of Mexico. The River dried up in Big
Bend in 2002.
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How Does a City Earn The Right To Display This
Sign?
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How many of you drink bottled water? How many of
you drive? How many of you think the price of
gasoline is too high? If a 20 ounce bottle of
Dasani costs a 1.00 how much does a gallon of
Dasani cost? There are 128 oz in a gallon, how
about 6.40 per gallon. Where does Dasani come
from?
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Published on Thursday, March 4, 2004 by Reuters
Coca - Cola Admits That Dasani is Nothing But Tap Water
by Trevor Datson
 
LONDON - It made for great headlines, but the fact that the UK version of Coca-Cola's Dasani brand bottled water comes out of the London public supply should hardly have come as a surprise.
Is the drinking water in Denton safe to drink?
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Principle 1
Toxicologists are guided by principles

• In terms of measuring chemicals - you only find
  what you are looking for, and only if it is
  present in sufficient quantity to be detected by
  the method used to measure it.

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Do you remember in the Silent Spring what the
biochemist who was doing the work that the mouth
piece was basing his statements on?
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Water Facts

• Percent share of all water on Earth that is
  freshwater
  2.5
• Percent share of all freshwater that is frozen in
  glaciers and polar ice caps 70
• Percent share of all freshwater that is available
  for human use lt1
• Average annual per-capita freshwater consumption,
  North America 1,851,170 Liters
• Average annual per-capita consumption, Africa
  254,944 Liters
• Population world-wide without access to secure
  water supplies 1.1 billion
• Population without access to adequate sanitation
  2.6 billion
• Annual deaths attributed to dirty water and poor
  sanitation 1.6 million
• Annual global consumption of bottled water,
  liters 154
  billion
• Percent share of bottled water that is actually
  tap water 40
• Annual global spending on bottled water
  US 100 billion
• Annual global spending on clean water and
  sanitation US 15 billion
• Number of people that are living in countries
  that are over pumping
• groundwater
  
  3.3 billion
  

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Principle 2

• The dose makes the poison! Paracelsus (1493-1541)
  is credited with this dictum when he wrote, All
  substances are poisons, there is none which is
  not a poison. The right dose differentiates a
  poison and a remedy.

Exposure is the magnitude, duration, and
frequency with which organisms interact with
biologically available toxicants.
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On average, a penny minted from1983 on contains
approximately 59,500 ug of copper and 2,420,000
ug of zinc (both of which are essential
elements). Needless to say that much copper and
zinc is sufficient to cause significant damage to
fish living in most fountains and backyard coy
pools.
Yet, when we toss these pennies into this
aquarium the fish seems to be perfectly okay How
can this be?
This particular penny is estimated to be worth
500,000.
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• Exposure is the magnitude, duration and frequency
  with which and organism interacts with
  biologically available toxicants.
• So, just because you measure something in the
  environment it does not mean it is toxic.

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It is always wise to keep up with the current
literature!
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Principle 3

• No instrument has yet been devised that can
  measure toxicity. Chemical concentrations can be
  measured with an instrument but only living
  material can be used to measure toxicity.
• John Cairns, Jr. and D.I. Mount, 1990
• Environmental Science and Technology

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The point is living material i.e., biological
monitors (biomonitors) need to be used to measure
toxicity. Biomonitors are the only things that
integrate the totality of their environment.
However, the biomonitors do not, for the most
part, tell you directly what is causing the
toxicity. Biominitors tell you only that
toxicity is occurring or has occurred. Physical
and chemical measures ultimately tells us what is
causing the toxicity. Therefore, both biological
and physical/chemical measures need to be used in
ambient biomonitoring.
Tasters
Canary in the Coal Mine
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Principle 4
Wherever you go you need to know
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Duck Tape or Duct Tape
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Research Requires Funding