Geography 210: Physical Geography

1
Geography 210 Physical Geography Environmental
Issues

• Lecture 20 Summary

http//geog-www.sbs.ohio-state.edu/courses/G210/
2
Game is almost over

• Lab Friday 01 Dec Review for final
• Itll pay to be there ?
• Remember, final lab grade is best 7 of 8
• FINAL EXAM Tues 05 Dec 930-1118 am
• SEIs

3
Challenge

• Solving our environmental problems will help
  build a more secure sustainable future
• As university graduates you will take on
  responsibility of transferring environmental
  knowledge taking responsible leadership

4
Motivation

• present practices of energy and resource
  consumption are non-sustainable
• What on Earth will we leave for future
  generations?

5
Non-sustainability

• An estimated 80 percent of global fish stocks are
  now fished at or beyond their sustainable limit.
• Despite the existence of alternative sources,
  more than 90 percent of paper still comes from
  trees - eating up about one fifth of the total
  wood harvest worldwide.
• Around 1.7 billion people worldwide - more than a
  quarter of humanity are entering the "consumer
  class,"
• adopting the diets, transportation systems, and
  lifestyles that were limited to the rich nations
  of Europe, North America, and Japan during most
  of the last century.
• In China alone, 240 million people have joined
  the ranks of consumers - a number that will soon
  surpass that in the United States.

http//www.worldwatch.org/press/news/2004/01/08
6
Sustainability

• We could have a sustainable world of 8 billion
  with the average standard of living now found in
  Europe for all people by
• controlling population growth
• increasing fuel efficiency
• increasing reliance on renewable energies
• controlling pollution
• Scrubbers
• Reforestation
• Carbon sequestration
• promoting environmental protection

7
Less is more

• Consumption
• "You don't own your possessions, your possessions
  own you.
• Urban redevelopment
• Less land consumed
• Driving Less
• Increased cash-flow
• More time
• Better health
• auto-related injuries In 2002
• 2.9 million nationally
• 42,815 deaths
• 800 / week
• 1,400 in Ohio.
• Less stress
• decreased freedom?

8
Books on SimplyLiving.net
9
more consumption ? more happiness

• About a third of Americans report being "very
  happy," the same share as in 1957, when Americans
  were only half as wealthy.
• Today, Americans are among the most worked people
  in the industrial world
• nine more weeks on the job each year than the
  average European.

http//www.worldwatch.org/press/news/2004/01/08
10
Annual Conference of The Club of Rome in
co-operation with The Arab Thought Forum "In
Search for Common Ground for Peace and
Development8-10 October, 2003Amman, Jordan
11
Final Statements from Annual Conference of The
Club of Rome

• Although there was hope that the process of
  globalizing markets would lead to more equity and
  the socio-economic inclusion of the poor, this
  has not come true. On the contrary, we are facing
  the crucial fact that the rich have become
  richer, the poor poorer.
• In the US, the top 5 percent has more wealth than
  the remaining 95 percent of the population put
  together.

12
Special ReportThe 400 Richest Americans09.21.06,
1000 AM ET
http//www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_
The-400-Richest-Americans_Rank.html
13
Some Thoughts

• Optimistic view
• as the human population approaches the actual
  carrying capacity, there will be sufficient
  signals and we will collectively act on those
  signals in such a way as to prevent an overshoot
  and collapse from occurring.
• Evidence suggests we may have reached carrying
  capacity not just through population growth, but
  by increased consumption

14

• signals of overshoot
• increasing prices for natural resources, which
  encourage a reduction in use through
  conservation, recycling, and increased
  efficiency.
• fossil fuels we rely on for most of our energy
  are produced too slowly
• we cannot achieve a steady state condition for
  these energy resources.
• Thus, we will ultimately have to get all of our
  energy from sustainable sources such as solar,
  wind, and nuclear sources (nuclear fusion rather
  than fission, whose waste products are too
  problematic).
• Solar is the most attractive resource

15

• example of how this adaptation can work
• the case of the 1970s energy crisis
• rapid changes occurred in response to the
  decrease in availability of petroleum.
• Unfortunately, most of these changes were
  reversed shortly after, once the flow of oil from
  the OPEC countries continued.
• we can change if we are convinced that we must
• especially if it is economically favorable to
  change.

16
So now what do I do?
lean onsciencebut buyer beware!
17
Summary

• Overview synthesis
• (Final exam review in lab)

18
Scope of course a weekly outline

• Lecture reading Lab
• Fundamental Earth geography Mapping global
  environment
• Water in Earth System OSU wetlands field trip
• Global energy balance temperature Ice albedo
• Energy environment Clean Fuels Ohio
• Demography Africa (Dr. Hull) ltltnonegtgt
• Biogeography forests Ohio forests
• Food production environment Ohio agroecoystem
• Global warming air pollution Critically
  engaging issues
• Paleoclimatology methods ltltnonegtgt
• Costs benefits of sustainability Review for
  final exam

19
RECALL General Objectives

• Environmental issues through geography
• The study of people and their relationship to
  their environment
• Understand processes properties of Earths
  physical environment - atmosphere, hydrosphere,
  and biosphere
• Evaluate the use of Earths resources
• THUS assess the implications of our choices,
  focusing on a range of critical concerns that are
  the most global in nature affect us all
• Global warming, or enhanced greenhouse effect
• Water resources
• Population food production

20
Six main themes through text

• the urgency of the population issue
• the importance of urban environments
• the need for sustainability of resources
• the importance of a global perspective
• the interaction of people and nature
• the role of science and values in the decisions
  we face

21
Earth System Science

• Defining characteristics
• Interconnected spheres
• Hydrosphere
• Atmosphere
• Biosphere
• Lithosphere
• Dynamic (changes)
• Our space ship

• Research priorities
• Understand the whole Earth System
• Global scale measurements of all spheres
• Document global changes (present and past)
• Quantify dynamics to predict future changes
• Inform policy makers
• Major methods
• Evaluate geologic record (paleoclimatology)
• Monitoring (measuring processes changes)
• Mathematical models (simulation prediction)

22
(No Transcript)
23
Now, using our new insights, how can we
conceptualize our environment?
24

• The ultimate commons we all inhabit, relying on
  natures intangibles
• Doomed to a tragedy or sustainable?
• Policy, environmental economics law
• Where
• Cycling of matter through biogeochemical cycles,
  adheres to thermodynamic principles
• Pollutants vs. nutrients
• Efficiency, waste risk
• A cascading flow of energy comes ultimately from
  the sun and is mediated by critical fluid media
  (air, water)
• Global energy balance, temperature circulation
• Water resources atmospheric pollution
• Energy supply fossil fuels, nuclear
  alternatives
• Life is sustained by ecosystem processes
  established in patterns
• Biogeography
• Population, development (Africa), urbanization
• Agriculture food production
• The boundary conditions change over time
• Plate tectonics
• Evolution
• Global climate change

25
Biogeochemical Cycles A critical reflection

• In our closed Earth System, material
  (chemicals) must be (re) cycled.
• Life demands the right nutrients at the right
  time and in the right proportion.
• The study of chemical availability and
  biogeochemical cycles is important to solutions
  of environmental problems.
• Environmental problems have been identified in
  shifts of biogeochemical cycles.
• Applications of technology can reduce such
  problems and get us closer to sustainable
  development.

26
Biogeography patterns processes

• a branch of geography that focuses on the
  distribution of plants animals the biota
  over earth.
• Comprises both ecological and historical themes
• Ecological how distribution of biota affected
  by environment (physical biological)
• Historical how spatial distribution patterns of
  biota arise (and change) over time and space
• Sustained life on Earth is a characteristic of
  ECOSYSTEMS, not of individual organisms or
  populations.

27
Ecological efficiency Rule of Thumb

• More than 90 (usually much more) of all energy
  transferred between trophic levels is lost as
  HEAT.
• Less than 10 (1 in natural ecosystems) is
  fixed as new tissue.

28
Eat lower on the Food Chain??
Critical Thinking Issue
29
Land, people agriculture
Agriculture comprises a large human-induced
biome is the lack of arable land the cause of
hunger?
30
How do we value of environment?

• Four categories of justification
• Utilitarian
• Provides individual an economic benefit or is
  necessary for survival
• Ecological
• Some factor is essential to larger life-support
  functions, without direct benefit to individual
  (e.g. mangrove trees provide habitat for fish)
• Aesthetic
• The beauty of nature has inherent value
• Moral
• Various aspects of environment (e.g. animals)
  have the right to exist environmental ethics

31
Addressing issues demands cost benefit analyses

• True costs (benefits) are very difficult to
  quantify and hence policy is inherently
  contentious, litigious, and temporary
• Analyses need to extend over time, both
  considering the future impacts and also
  discerning past patterns
• Decisions must be made with incomplete
  understanding

32
Consider the case study issues

• What is the environmental issue? Why is it a
  problem?
• What are the causes?
• What physical processes are involved?
• What social/human processes are involved?
• What is needed to solve the problem?
• How can scientific understanding help?

33
Fundamentally, there are no easy answers to these
complex issues
34
A final case study carbon trading

• Enthusiasm is spreading for cap-and-trade
  systems to regulate CO2 emissions
• E.g. SO2 emissions reduced by 1990 EPA limits
  trade option
• But, fundamental differences in the
  biogeochemistry of SO2 and CO2 suggest that
  establishing a comprehensive, market based
  cap-and-trade system for CO2 will be difficult

35
Carbon cycle

• Anthropogenic fluxes are small
• Many distributed sources
• Impossible to control all potential sources
• Fossil fuel sources unbalanced by sinks

36
Sulfur cycle

• Natural sources small
• Anthropogenic sources dominate
• Point-sources easy to locate and control
• Short residence time in atmosphere

37
Instituting caps on CO2 emissions

• Market-based incentives for net C storage in
  biomass attractive but relatively small gains are
  often dispersed
• How to net these gains against natural
  reforestation?
• Should Canada Russia bear costs of CO2 release
  from warming boreal soils due to global fossil
  fuel burning?
• If credit is given to not cutting forests in one
  region, global markets will result in
  deforestation in other (poorer) regions
• Frequent audits will be needed costly
• Insurance needed to protect past credits
  (wildfires, storms) payments for subsequent
  logging
• Would a tax on emissions be better?

38
These issues are not going away

• Global warming and business
• A number of large corporations are turning
  green not because of the reality of global
  warming, but in anticipation of federal
  regulations. Physics Today, December 2006
• CO2 emissions and the Supreme Court
• Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency,
  05-1120
• Should EPA regulate CO2 as pollutant under Clean
  Air Act?
• When a decision comes sometime before July, it
  could have a significant ripple effect that could
  extend to power plants as well as states' efforts
  to impose more stringent regulations on car
  tailpipe emissions. Forbes, AP by MARK SHERMAN
  29 Nov 2006

39
Pulling it all together

• How can I come to grips with all this material?
• Review sheet
• Study partners/groups
• Discuss topics using vocabulary
• Use full sentences and correct syntax
• Think of exam questions, and ask one another
• Teach one another
• Link concepts together
• Concept maps diagrams
• Analyze issues thematically what, why, which
  themes does it fit how?

40
Good luck!!

• Value your education, and embrace your vocation