Environmental Science Geology 1401402

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Environmental ScienceGeology 1401-402
404Instructor Don Thieme

• 19th Lecture Georgia Environment, Environmental
  Economics,
• Current Legislation

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Physiography and Geology

• Physiography - relief and physical appearance of
  landforms at the Earths surface.
• Physiographic Provinces in Georgia and other
  southeastern states are distinct enough that
  their boundaries can be identified using
  satellite images.

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The Fall Line divides the Coastal Plain from the
Piedmont
The Brevard Fault divides the Piedmont from the
Blue Ridge
The Cartersville Fault divides the Blue Ridge
from the Ridge and Valley
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Geology determines Physiography

• Along the Cartersville Fault, igneous and
  metamorphic crystalline rocks have been thrust
  over the folded sedimentary rocks of the Ridge
  and Valley.
• The Brevard Fault is a suture where volcanic
  island arc terranes of the Piedmont were accreted
  to the continental crust during the Paleozoic era

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Geology determines Physiography

• The Fall Line occurs where marine sediments of
  Cretaceous (late Mesozoic) age and younger onlap
  the crystalline rocks of the Piedmont
• Marine Terraces mark former shorelines during the
  Cenozoic era
• During sea level lowstands the shoreline was
  actually offshore on the Continental Shelf

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• The Appalachian Plateau
• is an area of relatively
• flat-lying and undeformed
• sedimentary rocks.
• It only occurs in the
• far northwestern corner
• of Georgia.
• The remaining provinces are
• Ridge and Valley
• Blue Ridge
• Piedmont
• Coastal Plain

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For a digital tour of Georgias physiographic prov
inces go here.
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Tybee
Wassaw
Ossabaw
St. Catherine's
Blackbeard
Sapelo
St. Simon's
Jekyll
Cumberland
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• In the Lower Coastal Plain, five marine terraces
  parallel the active shoreline at elevations of
• gt 100 feet Wicomico
• gt 60 feet Penholoway
• gt 40 feet Talbot
• gt 20 feet Pamlico
• gt 5 feet Silver Bluff/Princess Anne

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GIS Databases

• Geographical Information Systems
• a database in which the fields are
  "geo-referenced"
• "flat file" data
• digital map coded as either
• vector (ARCGIS)
• raster (GRASS)
• You can explore a GIS for Georgia here

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Environmental Economics Which sphere encloses
which? The Economy cycles materials within
Earth's natural environmental systems, i.e. it is
"embedded" The Environment is transformed and
resources are depleted by human industry
operating within a "free" market Economy
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Environmental Economics

• Human Impacts on the Environment (I) can be
  estimated from three (3) general factors
• The number of people (P)
• Resources consumed per person (A for "affluence")
• Effects of the Technologies used to obtain those
  resources (T)

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IPAT equation

• I P A T
• (Environmental Economic model of Paul Ehrlich and
  John Holdren)
• Example Multiply the population (P) times the
  number of cars per person (A) times the average
  CO2 emissions per user (T)

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Cost of abatement increases as we approach a
"clean" environment
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Harm caused by pollution exceeds the cost of
pollution abatement - - gt "Cost-efficient"
environmental cleanup
Cost of pollution abatement exceeds the harm that
is caused - - gt "Cost-prohibitive" cleanup
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Pareto improvement

• named for Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923)
• mathematical treatment of "optimal" social policy
  in which
• some people are helped
• noone is harmed
• not very realistic for either social or
  environmental policy
• revised such that those helped gain more than the
  harm inflicted on others

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"Unfunded Mandates"

• 1995 Unfunded Mandates Review Act
• targets federal requirements imposed upon state
  and local governments without funding costs of
  implementation and enforcement
• only mandates that exceed 50 million
• does not apply to existing environmental laws,
  only future (post-1995) laws

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OMB Oversight

• The Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
  specifically its Office of Information and
  Regulatory Affairs
• now directed by John Graham, formerly of Harvard
  University's Center for Risk Analysis
• reviews all environmental actions valued at 100
  million or more

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Snail Darter

• Percina tanasi
• small fish species only found prior to 1978 in
  waters to be impounded by TVA's Tellico Dam.
• TVA was able to introduce it to other small
  mountain streams

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Northern Spotted Owl

• small (lt2 lb)
• breeds late (gt3 yr)
• dies young
• native to old growth rainforests of the Pacific
  Northwest
• spruce, fir, hemlock (Washington, Oregon)
• sequoia and pine (California)
• indicator species?

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Preble's Meadow Jumping Mouse

• tiny mouse with a body only three inches long
  anchored by a six-inch tail
• listed as "endangered" although it is a putative
  subspecies of Zapus hudsonius
• other subspecies of Zapus hudsonius are not
  endangered

Zapus hudsonius preblei
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Klamath Basin

• U.S. Bureau of Reclamation drained marshes in
  1905
• Some 1400 farmers now grow potatoes, alfalfa,
  beets, and onions there
• reduced discharge has eliminated habitat for
• migratory waterfowl
• Coho salmon downstream
• Lost River and shortnose suckers upstream
• farmers now demand compensation for "taking" of
  water