environmental problems,their causes, and sustainability
TRANSCRIPT
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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