APES

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Unit 1

• APES
• Fall 2008

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Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and
Sustainability

• Chapter 1
• Whats the use of a house if you dont have a
  decent planet to put it on?
• -Henry David Thoreau

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Introduction to Environment, Ecology, and
Environmental Science

• Environment external conditions that affect
  living organisms
• Ecology study of relationships between living
  organisms and their environment
• Environmental Science interdisciplinary study
  that examines the role of humans on the earth

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Solar Capital and Earth Capital

• Solar Capital energy from the sun
• - provides 99 of the energy used on earth
• Earth Capital life-support and economic services
• -Environment describes planets air, water,
  soil, wildlife, minerals, natural purification,
  recycling and pest control

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Carrying Capacity

• The maximum numbers of organisms of a local,
  regional, or global environment can support over
  a specified period
• Varies with
• -location
• -time (short term seasonal changes and
  long-term global changes in factors such as
  climate)
• -types of technology

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Threatened
Endangered
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Sustainability

• The ability of a specified system to survive and
  function over time

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Sustainable resource harvest

• Certain quantity of that resource can be
  harvested each year over a specified period
• Sustainable supply of fish or timber

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Sustainable earth

• Earths supplies of resources and the processes
  that make up earth capital are used and
  maintained over a specified period

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Sustainable society

• Manages its economy and population size without
  exceeding all or part of the planets ability to
• -absorb environmental insults
• -replenish its resources
• -sustain human and other forms of life over a
  specified period (100s-1000s of years)

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Linear Growth

• Quantity increases by a constant amount per unit
  of time
• 1,2,3,4,5
• 1,3,5,7,9
• When plotted on a graph, growth of money yields a
  straight line sloping upward

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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
• If plotted on a graph, the growth yields a J
  shape curve
• Used to describe the population problem, which
  disturbs the environment today

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Rule of 70

• How long does it take to double resource use,
  population size, or money in a savings account
  that is growing exponentially?
• Use Rule of 70 to calculate this doubling time
• Doubling time is the approximate number of years
  required to double a population

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How to calculate rule of 70

• Doubling time 70 / annual growth rate
• Annual growth rate 70 / number of years to
  double population
• For example, at a 10 annual growth rate,
  doubling time is 70 / 10 7 years.
• Similarly, to get the annual growth rate, divide
  70 by the doubling time. For example, 70 / 14
  years doubling time 5, or a 5 annual growth
  rate.

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Does doubling time affect ecosystem?
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Sustainable Development

• Assumes that we have a right to use the earths
  resources and earth capital to meet our needs but
  that we have an obligation to pass on the earths
  resources and services to future generations in
  as good or better shape than these condition were
  passed on to us.
• Intergenerational equity or fairness

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Developed Countries

• Average GNP is about 4,000
• 20 of the earths total population
• 85 of the worlds total wealth
• 75 of pollution and wastes
• 88 of the natural resources
• USA, Japan, Germany account for more than 1/2 of
  the worlds economic output

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• Diversified workforce
• Low fertility rates
• Low illiteracy rates
• Low infant mortality
• Higher average lifespan
• Greater social support systems

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Developing Countries

• Low GNPs
• mostly Africa, Asia, Latin America
• 80 of total population (4.7 billion)
• 15 wealth and income
• 12 natural resources

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• Low diversity in workforce
• High fertility rates
• High illiteracy rates
• High infant mortality
• low average lifespan
• low social support systems

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Facts

• 1 in 5 live in luxury
• 3 in 5 have enough to get by
• 1 in 5 struggles to get by on less than 1 a day
• 1 in 6 are malnourished
• 1 in 3 lack enough fuel to keep warm and cook

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Types of Resources
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The Tragedy of the Commons

• Common property resources available to all users
  free of charge
• 1 cause of environmental degradation
• The cumulative effects of many people trying to
  exploit a common property eventually exhausts it

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Nonrenewable (Exhaustible) Resources

• Resources that exist in a fixed quantity
• energy resources (coal, gas, petroleum)
• metallic mineral resources (iron, copper,
  aluminum)
• nonmetallic mineral resources (salt, clay, sand,
  phosphates)

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How to preserve non-renewable resources

• Recycling involves collecting and reprocessing a
  resource into new products.
• Reuse using a resource over and over in the same
  form.

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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
• People x affluence x technology impact

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What is your impact on Earth?

• www.ecologicalfootprint.com
• How many earths are needed to maintain the
  worlds current population to your standard of
  living?

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Environmental Degradation
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Environmental Degradation

• Common property resources owned by no one but
  are available to all users free of charge
• Tragedy of the commons
• Can convert potentially renewable resources into
  nonrenewable resources

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Solution

• Four Rs of resource
• Refuse (dont use)
• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle

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Solutions

• input pollution control throughput solution.
• Slows or eliminates the production of pollutants,
  often by switching to less harmful chemicals or
  processes

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Solution

• Pollution cleanup/ output pollution
• cleanup involves cleaning up pollutants after
  they have been produced.

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Environmental Worldviews

• How people think the world works, what they think
  their role in the world should be, and what they
  see as right and wrong environmental behavior
  (environmental ethics)

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Planetary management worldview

• Has become increasingly common during the past 50
  years.
• We are the planets most important species, and
  we are in charge of the rest of nature
• There is always more
• All economic growth is good. Potential for
  economic growth is limitless
• Our success depends on how well we manage earths
  system for our benefit

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Earth-wisdom worldview

• Nature exists for all of the earths species, not
  just for us
• There is not always more
• Not all forms of economic growth is beneficial to
  the environment
• Our success depends on learning to cooperate with
  one another and with the earth

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Working with the Earth

• Earth wisdom learning as much as we can about
  how the earth sustains itself and adapt to
  ever-changing environmental conditions and
  integrating such lessons from nature into the
  ways we think and act