environmental problems,their causes, and sustainability

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Core Case Study: Exponential Growth (1)

� Slow start, rapid increase

� Human population

� 2007 ~ 6.7 billion people

� Projections

� 225,000 people per day

� Add population of U.S. < 4 years

� 2050 ~ 9.2 billion people

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Core Case Study: Exponential Growth (2)� Resource consumption, degradation, depletion

� Possible results

� Huge amount of pollution and wastes

� Disrupt economies

� Loss of species, farm land, water supplies

� Climate change

� Political fallout

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Living in an Exponential Age

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Fig. 1-1, p. 1

Hunting and gathering

Agricultural revolution

Industrial revolution

Black Death—the Plague

Industrial revolution

Fig. 1-1, p. 5

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Solutions

� Understand our environment

� Practice sustainability

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What Is an Environmentally Sustainable Society?

� Concept A Our lives and economies depend on energy from the sun (solar capital) and natural resources and natural services (natural capital) provided by the earth.

� Concept B Living sustainably means living off earth’s natural income without depleting or degrading the natural capital that supplies it.

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Studying Connections in Nature

� Environment

� Environmental science

� Ecology

� Environmentalism

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Environmental Science

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Philosophy

and

religion Biology

Ethics

Chemistry

Ecology

Physics

Geology

Geography

Anthropology

Demography

Economics

Politicalscience

Fig. 1-2, p. 7

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Living More Sustainably

� Sustainability – central theme

� Natural capital

� Natural resources

� Natural services

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Natural Resources

� Materials

� Renewable

� Nonrenewable

� Energy

� Solar capital

� Photosynthesis

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Natural Services

� Functions of nature

� Purification of air, water

� Nutrient cycling

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Key Natural Resources and Services

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Fig. 1-3, p. 8

Nutrient Cycling

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Dead

organic

matter

Organic

matter in

animals

Organic

matter in

plants

Inorganic

matter in soil

Decomposition

Fig. 1-4, p. 9

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Environmental Sustainability

� Trade-offs (compromises)

� Sound science

� Individuals matter

� Ideas

� Technology

� Political pressure

� Economic pressure

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Sustainable Living from Natural Capital

� Environmentally sustainable society

� Financial capital and financial income

� Natural capital and natural income

� Bad news: signs of natural capital depletion at exponential rates

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2 How Can Environmentally Sustainable Societies Grow Economically?

� Concept 1-2 Societies can become more environmentally sustainable through economic development dedicated to improving the quality of life for everyone without degrading the earth’s life-support systems.

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Economics

� Economic growth

� Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

� Per capita GDP – PPP

� Economic development

� Developed countries

� Developing countries

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Global Outlook

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Percentage of

World's:

Population

Populationgrowth

Wealth andincome

Resourceuse

Pollution

and waste

18%

77 years

0.1%

85%

15%

88%

12%

75%

25%

Life

expectancy

82%

1.5%

66 years

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3 How Are Our Ecological Footprints Affecting the Earth?

� Concept 3 As our ecological footprints grow, we are depleting and degrading more of the earth’s natural capital.

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Natural Resources (1)

� Perpetual – renewed continuously

� Solar energy

� Renewable – hours to decades

� Water, air

� Forest, grasslands

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Natural Resources (2)

� Sustainable yield

� Highest use while maintaining supply

� Environmental degradation

� Exceed natural replacement rate

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Natural Resources (3)

� Nonrenewable – fixed quantities

� Energy (fossil fuels)

� Metallic minerals

� Nonmetallic minerals

� Recycling

� Reuse

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Natural Capital Degradation

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Fig. 1-6, p. 12

Reuse and Recycling

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Fig. 1-7, p. 12

Measuring Environmental Impact

� Ecological footprint

� Biological capacity to replenish resources and adsorb waste and pollution

� Per capita ecological footprint

� Renewable resource use per individual

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Ecological Footprint

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Fig. 1-8, p. 13

Projected footprint

Ecological footprint

Earth’s ecological capacity

Total Ecological Footprint (million hectares) and share of Global Ecological Capacity (%)

Per Capita Ecological Footprint (hectares per person)

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Case Study: China

� Rapidly developing country

� Middle-class affluent lifestyles

� World’s leading consumer in:

� Wheat, rice, meat, coal, fertilizers, steel, cement

� Televisions, cell phones, refrigerators

� Future consumption

� 2/3 world grain harvest

� Twice world’s current paper production

� Exceed current global oil production

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1-4 What Is Pollution and What Can We Do about It?

� Concept 1-4 Preventing pollution is more effective and less costly than cleaning up pollution.

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Pollution

� What is pollution?

� Point sources

� Nonpoint sources

� Unwanted effects of pollution

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Point Source Air Pollution

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Fig. 1-9, p. 15

Solutions to Pollution

� Pollution prevention (input control)

� Front-of-the-pipe

� Pollution cleanup (output control)

� End-of-the-pipe

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Disadvantages of Output Control

� Temporary

� Growth in consumption may offset technology

� Moves pollutant from one place to another

� Burial

� Incineration

� Dispersed pollutants costly to clean up

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5 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?

� Concept 1-5A Major causes of environmental problems are population growth, wasteful and unsustainable resource use, poverty, excluding the environmental costs of resource use from the market prices of goods and services, and trying to manage nature with insufficient knowledge.

� Concept 1-5B People with different environmental worldviews often disagree about the seriousness of environmental problems and what we should do about them.

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Causes of Environmental Problems

� Population growth

� Wasteful and unsustainable resource use

� Poverty

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

� Too little knowledge of how nature works

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Five Basic Causes of Environmental Problems

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Trying to manage nature without knowing enoughabout it

Populationgrowth

Unsustainableresource use

Poverty Excludingenvironmental costs from market prices

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Causes of Environmental Problems

Trying to manage nature without knowing enoughabout it

Excludingenvironmental costs from market prices

PovertyUnsustainableresource use

Populationgrowth

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Some Harmful Results of Poverty

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Number of people(% of world's population)

0.84 billion (13%)

1 billion (15%)

1.1 billion (16%)

1.1 billion (16%)

2 billion (30%)

2 billion (30%)

2.6 billion (39%)

Enough foodfor good health

Adequatehousing

Adequatehealth care

Clean drinkingwater

Electricity

Enough fuel for

heating and cooking

Adequatesanitation facilities

Lack ofaccess to

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Global Connections

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Environmental Effects of Affluence

� Harmful effects

� High consumption and waste of resources

� Advertising – more makes you happy

� Beneficial effects

� Concern for environmental quality

� Provide money for environmental causes

� Reduced population growth

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Evaluating Full Cost of Resources Use

� Examples

� Clear-cutting + habitat loss

� Commercial fishing + depletion of fish stocks

� Tax breaks

� Subsidies

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Environmental Viewpoints

� Environmental worldview

� Environmental ethics

� Planetary management worldview

� Stewardship worldview

� Environmental wisdom worldview

� Social capital

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Case Study: Chattanooga, Tennessee (1)

� 1960s

� Dirtiest air in the United States

� Toxic waste in Tennessee River

� High unemployment, crime

� 1984

� Vision 2000 – grassroots consensus

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Case Study: Chattanooga, Tennessee (2)

� 1995

� Zero emission industries, buses

� Low-income renovations, downtown renewal

� Individuals matter!

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1-6 What Are Four Scientific Principles of Sustainability?

� Concept 1-6 Nature has sustained itself for billions of years by using solar energy, biodiversity, population regulation, and nutrient cycling – lessons from nature that we can apply to our lifestyles and economies.

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Four Scientific Principles of Sustainability

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Population Control

Reliance on

Solar EnergyBiodiversity

Nutrient Cycling Wali Memon 53

Learning to Live More Sustainably

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Increasing resource use

Sustainability EmphasisCurrent Emphasis

Pollution prevention

Waste prevention

Protecting habitat

Environmental restoration

Less resource waste

Population stabilization

Protecting natural capital

Waste disposal

(bury or burn)

Pollution cleanup

Protecting species

Environmentaldegradation

Depleting and degrading natural capital

Population growth

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Animation: Levels of organization

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Animation: Two views of economics

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Animation: Resources depletion and degradation interaction

Animation: Exponential growth

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Animation: Capture-recapture method

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Animation: Life history patterns

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Video: Cahuachi Excavation

PLAY

VIDEO

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Video: Easter Island

PLAY

VIDEO