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Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and

Sustainability

Chapter 1 WHAT ARE THREE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY?

Section 1-1

Environmental science is a study of connections in nature

•  Environment includes all living and nonliving things with which an organism interacts.

•  Environmental science studies how the earth works, our interaction with the earth, and ways to deal with environment problems and live more sustainably.

•  Ecology studies relationships between living organisms, and their interaction with the environment.

•  Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to protecting life support systems for all species.

Nature’s survival strategies follow three principles of sustainability

1. Life depends on solar energy. 2. Biodiversity provides natural

services. 3. Chemical/nutrient cycling means that

there is little waste in nature.

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Three principles of sustainability Sustainability has certain key components

•  Life depends on natural capital, natural resources and natural services.

•  Many human activities can degrade natural capital.

•  Solutions are being found and implemented.

•  Sustainability begins at personal and local levels.

Key natural resources and services

Fig. 1-3, p. 9

Natural Capital Solar

energy

Air Air purification Climate control

UV protection (ozone layer) Life

(biodiversity)

Water Population control Pest

control Waste treatment

Nonrenewable minerals

(iron, sand)

Soil Land

Soil renewal Food production Natural gas Nutrient

recycling Nonrenewable

energy (fossil fuels)

Coal seam

Natural resources Natural services

Oil

Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Natural Services

Renewable energy (sun, wind, water

flows)

Water purification

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Nutrient cycling

Fig. 1-4, p. 10

Organic matter in animals

Dead organic matter

Organic matter

in plants Decomposition

Inorganic matter in soil

Some resources are renewable and some are not

•  Humans depend on resources to meet our needs. •  A perpetual resource is continuously renewed and

expected to last (e.g. solar energy). •  A renewable resource is replenished in days to

several hundred years through natural processes. •  Sustainable yield is the highest rate at which a

renewable and non-renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply.

Some resources are renewable and some are not

•  Some resources are not renewable. – Nonrenewable resources exist in fixed

quantities. – Exhaustible energy (e.g. coal and oil). – Metallic minerals (e.g. copper and aluminum). – Nonmetallic minerals (e.g. salt and sand).

•  Sustainable solutions: Reduce, reuse, recycle.

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Rich and poor countries have different environmental impacts

•  Developed countries include the high income ones – e.g. United States, Canada.

•  Developing countries include the low income ones – e.g. China, India. HOW ARE OUR ECOLOGICAL

FOOTPRINTS AFFECTING THE EARTH?

Section 1-2

We are living unsustainably

•  Environmental, or natural capital, degradation is occurring.

•  We have solutions to these problems that can be implemented.

Degradation of normally renewable natural resources

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Fig. 1-5, p. 11

Natural Capital Degradation

Degradation of Normally Renewable Natural Resources

Climate change

Shrinking forests

Air pollution Decreased wildlife habitats

Species extinction Soil erosion

Water pollution

Declining ocean fisheries Aquifer

depletion

Pollution comes from a number of sources

•  Point sources are single, identifiable sources (e.g., smokestack).

•  Nonpoint sources are dispersed and often difficult to identify (e.g., lawn runoff).

•  We can clean up pollution or prevent it. •  Pollution cleanup is usually more

expensive and less effective. •  Pollution prevention reduces or eliminates

the production of pollutants.

The tragedy of the commons: overexploiting shared renewable resources

•  In 1968, the biologist Garrett Hardin called the degradation of openly shared resources the tragedy of the commons.

•  Reducing degradation. – Reduce use by government regulations. – Shift to private ownership.

Ecological footprints: our environmental impacts

•  Ecological footprint is the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a person or country with renewable resources and to recycle the waste and pollution produced by such resource use.

•  Per capita ecological footprint is the average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area.

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Ecological footprints: our environmental impacts

•  Ecological deficit means the ecological footprint is larger than the biological capacity to replenish resources and absorb wastes and pollution.

•  Humanity is living unsustainably. •  Footprints can also be expressed as

number of Earths it would take to support consumption.

Total and per capita ecological footprint of selected countries

Fig. 1-8, p. 14

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

Per Capita Ecological Footprint (hectares per person)

United States 2,810 (25%) United States 9.7

European Union 2,160 (19%) European Union 4.7 China 2,050 (18%) China 1.6 India 780 (7%) India 0.8

Japan 540 (5%) Japan 4.8

2.5 Unsustainable living

2.0

1.5 Projected footprint

1.0

Num

ber o

f Ear

ths

0.5 Ecological footprint Sustainable living

1961 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

Year

0

IPAT is another environmental impact model

•  In the early 1970s, scientists Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren developed the IPAT model.

•  I (environmental impact) = P (population size) x A (affluence/person) x T (technology’s beneficial and harmful effects).

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I = P x A x T

Fig. 1-9, p. 15

Less-Developed Countries

Consumption per person

(affluence, A) Population (P)

Technological impact per unit of consumption (T)

Environmental impact of

population (I)

More-Developed Countries

WHY DO WE HAVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS?

Section 1-3

Experts have identified four basic causes of environmental problems

1.  Population growth. 2.  Unsustainable resource use. 3.  Poverty. 4.  Excluding environmental costs from

market prices.

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Fig. 1-10, p. 16

Causes of Environmental Problems

Population growth

Unsustainable resource use

Poverty Excluding environmental costs from market prices

The human population is growing exponentially at a rapid rate

•  Human population is increasing at a fixed percentage so that we are experiencing doubling of larger and larger populations.

•  Human population in 2009 was about 6.8 billion.

•  Based on the current increase rate there will be 9.6 billion people by 2050.

•  We can slow population growth.

Exponential growth ?

Industrial revolution

Black Death—the Plague

2–5 million years

4000 B. C. A. D.

8000 6000 2000 2000 2100

Hunting and gathering

Agricultural revolution Industrial revolution

Time

Billions of people

0

13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Fig. 1-11, p. 16

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Affluence has harmful and beneficial environmental effects

•  Wealth results in high levels of consumption and waste of resources.

•  Average American consumes 30 times as much as the average consumer in India.

•  “Shop-until-you-drop” affluent consumers are afflicted with a disorder called affluenza.

•  Affluence has provided better education, scientific research, and technological solutions, which result in improvements in environmental quality (e.g., safe drinking water).

Poverty has harmful environmental and health effects

•  Poverty occurs when the basic needs for adequate food, water, shelter, health, and education are not met.

•  One in every five people live in extreme poverty (<$1.25/day), and more are susceptible.

Poverty has harmful environmental and health effects

•  Poverty causes harmful environmental and health effects. – Environmental degradation caused by need

for short-term survival. – Malnutrition. –  Inadequate sanitation and lack of clean

drinking water. – Severe respiratory disease. – High rates of premature death for children

under the age of 5 years.

Harmful effects of poverty

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Fig. 1-13, p. 18

Lack of access to

Number of people (% of world's population)

Adequate sanitation facilities 2.6 billion (37%)

Enough fuel for heating and cooking 2 billion (29%)

Electricity 2 billion (29%)

Clean drinking water

1.1 billion (16%) Adequate health care

1 billion (14%) Adequate housing

Enough food for good health

900 million (13%)

1 billion (14%)

Malnutrition

Prices of goods and services due not include harmful environmental and health costs

•  A company’s goal is often to maximize the profit.

•  Often consumers do not know the damage caused by their consumption.

•  Government subsidies may increase environmental degradation.

•  There are ways to include harmful costs of goods and services. –  Shift from environmentally harmful to beneficial

government subsidies. –  Tax pollution and waste heavily while reducing taxes

on income and wealth.

People have different views about environmental problems and their solutions

•  Each individual has their own environmental worldview—a set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what your role should be.

•  Environmental ethics are beliefs about what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment.

•  Planetary management worldview holds that we are separate from and in charge of nature.

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People have different views about environmental problems and their solutions

•  Stewardship worldview holds that we can and should manage the earth for our benefit, but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers.

•  Environmental wisdom worldview holds that we are part of, and dependent on, nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for us.

WHAT IS AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY?

Section 1-4

What is an environmentally sustainable society?

•  Environmentally sustainable societies protect natural capital and live off its income. –  Increase reliance on renewable resources. – Protect earth’s natural capital.

•  We can work together to solve environmental problems. – Trade-off solutions provide a balance between

the benefits and the costs. –  Individuals matter especially in success of

bottom-up grassroots action.

Three Big Ideas

1.  Rely more on renewable energy from the sun. 2.  Protect biodiversity by preventing the

degradation of the earth’s species, ecosystems, and natural processes, and by restoring areas we have degraded.

3.  Help sustain earth’s natural chemical cycles by reducing waste and pollution, not overloading natural systems with chemicals, and don’t remove natural chemicals faster than the cycles can replace them.