Unit 2 Environmental Problems, Their

Causes, and Sustainability

Exponential Growth

• When the quantity increases at a constant rate per unit time.

• Is deceiving because it starts off slowly, but after a few doublings it

grows to enormous numbers

What will the graph look like?

Human Population Growth• Between 1950 and 2004 the world’s population

increased from 2.5 billion to 6.4 billion.• By 2008 there were 6.7 billion people on the planet.• These people consume vast amounts of food, water,

raw materials, and energy and in the process produce huge amounts of pollution and wastes.

• U.S. & World Population Clocks• 8/23/11 U.S. 312,052,911

World 6,957,415,666

• The exponential rate of global population growth has declined since 1963. (why?)

• No one knows how many people the earth can support.

• Not all hope is lost…. There are several solutions that could be implemented in order to fix the damage done to the planet.

2-1 Living More Sustainably

• Humans are dependent on the environment for: water, food, shelter, energy and everything we need to stay alive and healthy

• Environment = every thing around us. – Includes :• All the living and nonliving things with which we interact• The relationships the connect us with one another

Plants & animals = living parts Water, rocks, atmosphere,

soil etc. = nonliving parts

• Environmental Science = An interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the environment of living and nonliving things.– Integrates ideas from:• Natural sciences (biology, chemistry, geology)• Social Sciences (geography , economics, political

science and demography)• Humanities (philosophy and ethics)

• Ecology = The biological science that studies how organisms interact with their environment and with each other.

• Main focus of Ecology is the study of ecosystems.– Ecosystem = a set of organisms interacting with

one another and with their environment of nonliving matter and energy within a defined area.

• Environmentalism = a social movement dedicated to protecting the earth’s life-support systems for us and all other forms of life.– It is practiced more in the political and ethical arenas

than in the area science.

• Sustainability = the ability of earth’s various natural systems and human cultural systems and economies to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.– How the planet can adapt and survive what we do to

it.

• Natural Capital = The natural resources and natural services that keep organisms alive and support our economies.–Natural resources are materials and energy

in nature that are essential or useful to humans. (renewable = air, water, soil, plants and wind and nonrenewable = copper, oil and coal)– Natural Services are functions of nature,

such as purification of air & water, which support life and human economics.

Air

Air Purification

Climate Control

UV Protection (Ozone Layer)

Water

Waste Treatment

Water Purification

Non-Renewable materials (iron, sand)

Natural oil

Gas

Coal SeamNon-Renewable Energy (Fossil Fuels)

Renewable Energy (Sun, Wind, Water

flows)

Soil

Soil Renewal

Land

Food Production

Nutrient Recycling

Life (Biodiversity)

Population Control

Pest Control

Natural Services

Natural Resources

• Nutrient Cycling – the circulation of chemicals necessary for life. (carbon cycle, water cycle, nitrogen cycle)

• Solar capital is what sustains our natural capital.• Without solar energy there would be no

photosynthesis and our planet’s temperature would be too cold for life as we know it.

• Thus, our lives and economies depend on energy form the sun (solar capital) and natural services (natural capital) provided by the earth.

• Humans need to recognize than many human activities can degrade natural capital by using renewable resources faster than they can be replaced by nature.• Example – clear cutting forests and over fishing oceans

• It is important to find solutions to the environmental problems we are causing.– Government laws & regulations may need to be implemented

• Sometimes solutions may involve conflicts.– Companies or people affected may be upset with the

regulations & laws

• Trade offs and compromises must be made.

• Environmentally sustainable societies protect natural capital and live off its income.• Example: You win $1 million in the lottery.– Choice #1 – live off the interest of $100,000/year) –

you will have enough money to live indefinitely– Choice #2 – spend $200,000/year – you will go

bankrupt in seven years.– Choice #3 – spend $110,000/year – you will go

bankrupt in 18 years.• Lesson learned --- Protect your capital and live

off the income it provides.

• If we deplete our natural capital, we will move from a sustainable to an unsustainable lifestyle.

• Living sustainably means living off natural income and preserving the earth’s natural capital.

• According to scientific evidence, we are living unsustainably by wasting, depleting, and degrading the earth’s natural capital at an exponentially accelerating rate.

*

2-2 Population Growth, Economic Growth Economic Development, & Globalization

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) = annual market value of all the goods and services of a country.

• Per capita GDP = a country’s economic growth per person.

The gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of a country's overall official economic output. It is the market value of all final goods and services officially made within the borders of a country in a year.

• Economic growth provides people with more goods and services, economic development uses economic growth in order to improve living standards.

• UN classifies countries on their degree of industrialization, per capita GDP and the countries purchasing power.– Developed Countries= US, Canada, Japan,

Australia, New Zealand and most European countries

– Developing Countries= Africa, Asia, Latin America

2-3 Resources

• Resource = anything obtained from the environment that we need or want

• Conservation=managing the natural resources in order to waste less and save more.

• Some resources are directly available for our use (solar energy, fresh air, wind, fresh water, fertile soil, plants)

• Other resources we have to put effort into getting (petroleum, natural gas, metals)

• Globalization – The process of social, economic, and environmental global changes that lead to an increasingly interconnected world.

• Factors that accelerate globalization:– Information and communication technologies– Human Mobility– International trade and investments

• Perpetual Resources = renewed continuously (solar energy)

• Renewable Resources = can be replenished fairly quickly (hours to hundred of years). Ex; forests, grasslands, fisheries, freshwater, fresh air, fertile soil).

• Sustainable yield = refers to the highest rate at which we can use a renewable resource without reducing its supply. If we exceed the resource’s sustainable yield, then environmental degradation occurs (we use up the resources faster than it can be replaced by nature).

• Three types of properties exist:1) Private Property – owned by individuals or firms2) Common Property –rights to the land are held by a

large group of individuals (1/3 of the US is owned by all US citizens and held and managed by the government)

3) Open Access Renewable Resources – owned by no one and available for use by anyone – air, underground water supply, open ocean,

“Tragedy of the Commons”• In 1968 Biologist Garrett Harden called the

degradation of the common property and open access resources the “Tragedy of the Commons”.

• It occurs because each person thinks that the small amount of disturbance or use of the resources that he/she does will not cause enough harm to the environment to really matter.

Solution to the “Tragedy of the Commons”

• Use the resources wisely at a rate well below their sustainable yield by reducing their use.

• Regulate the access to the resources • or both

• Ecological Footprint – Our Environmental Impact• Per capita Ecological Footprint – The amount of

biologically productive land and water needed to supply each person with the renewable resources they use and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use.– In other words the measure of how much of earth’s

natural capital and biological income each of us uses.

The Ecological Footprint of each person in developed countries is large compared to that in developing countries.www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators. (estimate your EF)

• Nonrenewable Resources – resources we can deplete.

• See figure 1-6 on page 9• These resources become economically

depleted when it costs more to extract them that what they are worth.

• Once they are depleted we have 6 choices:– Try to find more– Recycle/reuse existing supplies– Waste less– Use less– Try to develop a substitute– Wait millions of years for more to be produced

Resources

Perpetual Nonrenewable

Direct Solar energy

Winds, tides, flowing water

Fossil fuels

Metallic Minerals

Nonmetallic Minerals

Renewable

Fresh Air

Fresh Water

Fertile Soil

Plants & Animals

(biodiversity)

2-4 Pollution• Pollution is the presence of substances at high

enough levels in air, water, soil, or food to threaten health, survival, or activities of humans or other organisms.

• Most of the pollution occurs in urban or industrialized areas.

• Pollutants we produce come from two types of sources; Point Sources and Nonpoint Sources

1. Point Sources of pollution are single, identifiable sources. Ex: a smokestack of a coal burning power plant

2. Nonpoint Source of pollution are dispersed and often difficult to identify. Ex: Pesticides sprayed into the air or blown by the wind into the atmosphere.

• Effects of Pollutants:– They can disrupt or degrade life-support systems for

humans and other species.– They can damage wildlife, human health and property.– They can be nuisances such as noise and unpleasant

smells, tastes and sights

• Two basic approaches to deal with pollution:1. Pollution Prevention (input pollution control)

which reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants

2. Pollution Cleanup (output pollution control) which involves cleaning up or diluting pollutants after they have been produced.

• Three problems of relying on Clean-up:1. A temporary solution as long as

pollution continues2. Removes pollutants from one area but

causes pollution in another area.3. It costs too much to remove enough of

the pollutants• Both prevention and clean up are

important but more emphasis has to be made on prevention

2-5 Environmental and Resource Problems: Causes and Connections

• Major Environmental Problems (figure 1-9 pg12)–Biodiversity depletion–Air pollution–Water pollution–Waste production– Food supply problems

• Major Causes of Environmental Problems (figure 1-10 page 13)–Population growth–wasteful resource use–Poverty–Poor environmental accounting– Ecological ignorance

• Poverty is a major threat to human health and the environment.– In the need for short term survival they deplete and

degrade the resources; forests, soil, water, and fuel– They don’t have the luxury of worrying about long term

environmental quality– Live and work in unhealthy and unsafe working conditions– They have many children to help them grow food and do

work and care for them in their old age– Short life spans- mainly due to (1) malnutrition (2) usually

nonfatal infectious diseases (3) lack of access to clean drinking water (4) severe respiratory disease from poor air quality

• Affluenza unsustainable addiction to overconsumption and materialism exhibited in the lifestyles of affluent consumers in the US and other developed countries.

• “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like,” Will Rogers

• Between 1998 and 2001 more people declared bankruptcy than graduated from college.

• Affluent countries have more money for improving environmental quality.

• In the US air is cleaner, water purer, river/lakes are cleaner and food supply is more abundant since the 1970’s- We also have more efficient technologies and more forests.

• Average US citizen consumes 35 times as much as the average citizen of India and 100 times as much as the average person in the poorest countries.

2-6 Is Our Present Course Sustainable?

• Good and Bad Environmental News– Two Groups/ Point of Views:

1) Technological Optimists – tend to overstate the situation – saying things are not as bad as they seem- our technologies and advances can help us clean up the pollution and fix things.

2) Environmental Pessimists – Overstate the problem making the environmental situation seem hopeless.

• Your environmental worldview is:– How you think the world works– What you think your role in the world should be– What you believe is right or wrong environmental

behavior

• People who have different environmental worldviews can take the same data and come up with different conclusions because they start with different assumptions and values.

• Three Environmental Worldviews:1. Planetary Management Worldview

a. Humans are in charge of natureb. We won’t run out of resources because

we can develop new ones c. potential for economic growth is

unlimitedd. Our success depends on how well we

manage earth’s life-support systems for our benefit

2. Stewardship Worldview1. Humans are the most important species

but we have the ethical responsibility to care for nature

2. We will probably not run out of resources but we should not waste them

3. We should encourage environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth

4. Our success depends on how well we manage the earth’s life-support systems for our benefit AND the rest of nature.

3. Environmental Wisdom Worldviewa. Nature exists for all species not just us- we

are not in charge of Earth.b. Earth’s resources are limited and they are

not only for usc. We should encourage earth sustaining

forms of economic growthd. Our success depends on learning how the

earth sustains itself and following that.

• Most Serious Environmental Problems:–Poverty & Malnutrition–Smoking– Infectious diseases–Water shortages– biodiversity loss–Climate changes

• Economic rewards (government subsidies and tax breaks) are used to ENCOURAGE environmentally beneficial and sustainable forms of economic growth.

• Economic penalties (government taxes and regulations) are used to DISCOURAGE environmentally harmful and unsustainable forms of economic growth.