Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

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• Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and
  Sustainability

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Core Case Study A Vision of a More Sustainable
World in 2060

• A transition in human attitudes toward the
  environment, and a shift in behavior, can lead to
  a much better future for the planet in 2060

Is it a story or can it be our future?
sustainability the capacity of the earths
natural systems and human cultural systems to
survive, flourish, and adapt into the very
long-term future
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Sustainability

• Nature has sustained itself for billions of years
  by using solar energy, biodiversity, and nutrient
  cycling.
• Our lives and economies depend on energy from the
  sun and on natural resources provided by the
  earth.

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Environmental Science Is a Study of Connections
in Nature

• Environment
• Everything around us
• The environment is everything that isnt me.
• Environmental science interdisciplinary science
  connecting information and ideas from
• Natural sciences ecology, biology, geology,
  chemistry
• Social sciences geography, politics, economics
• Humanities ethics, philosophy

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What do we learn in Environmental Science?
How the environment affects us
How nature works
How to live more sustainably
How we affect the environment
How to deal with environmental problems
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Natures Survival Strategies Follow Three
Principles of Sustainability

• Reliance on solar energy
• The sun provides warmth and fuels photosynthesis
• Biodiversity
• Astounding variety and adaptability of natural
  systems and species
• Chemical cycling
• Circulation of chemicals from the environment to
  organisms and then back to the environment
• Also called nutrient cycling

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Nutrient Cycling

• This important natural service recycles chemicals
  needed by organisms from the environment (mostly
  from soil and water) through those organisms and
  back to the environment.

Fig. 1-5, p. 10
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From Simple Cell to Homo Sapiens
If the length of this time line were 1 kilometer
(0.6 miles), humanitys time on earth would
occupy roughly the last 3 one-hundredths of a
millimeter. That is less than the diameter of a
hair on your headcompared with 1 kilometer of
time.
Fig. 1-2, p. 7
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Three Principles of Sustainability

1. Solar Energy
2. Chemical Cycling
3. Biodiversity

We derive these three interconnected principles
of sustainability from learning how nature has
sustained a huge variety of life on the earth for
at least 3.5 billion years, despite drastic
changes in environmental conditions
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Sustainability Has Certain Key Components

• Natural capital the worlds stocks of natural
  assets which include geology, soil, air, water
  and all living things.
• Natural resources useful materials and energy in
  nature
• Natural services important nature processes such
  as renewal of air, water, and soil
• Humans degrade natural capital
• Scientific solutions needed for environmental
  sustainability

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Natural Capital Natural Resources Natural
Services

Fig. 1-4, p. 9
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Natural Capital Degradation
This was once a large area of diverse tropical
rain forest in Brazil, but it has now been
cleared to grow soybeans. According to ecologist
Harold Mooney of Stanford University,
conservative estimates suggest that between 1992
and 2008, an area of tropical rain forest larger
than the U.S. state of California was destroyed
in order to graze cattle and plant crops for food
and biofuels.
Do we protect our rainforests or destroy them?
Fig. 1-6, p. 10
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Earths Resources

• Resource
• Anything we obtain from the environment to meet
  our needs
• Some directly available for use sunlight
• Some not directly available for use petroleum

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Some Sources Are Renewable.

• Renewable resource
• Several days to several hundred years to renew
• E.g., forests, grasslands, fresh air, fertile
  soil
• Sustainable yield
• Highest rate at which we can use a renewable
  resource without reducing available supply

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.. and Some Are Not

• Nonrenewable resources
• Energy resources
• Metallic mineral resources
• Nonmetallic mineral resources

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SOLUTIONS Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
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Reuse

Fig. 1-7, p. 11
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Recycle
Fig. 1-8, p. 12
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Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability

• Economic growth increase in output of a nations
  goods and services
• HOW IS IT MEASURED?
• Gross domestic product (GDP) annual market value
  of all goods and services produced by all
  businesses, foreign and domestic, operating
  within a country
• CHANGES IN COUNTRYS GROWTH PER PERSON
• Per capita GDP one measure of economic
  development

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Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability

• Economic development using economic growth to
  raise living standards
• More-developed countries (MDC) North America,
  Australia, New Zealand, Japan, most of Europe
• Less-developed countries (LDC) most countries in
  Africa, Asia, Latin America

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Countries by Gross National Income per Capita
Supplement 8, Fig 2
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GLOBAL OUTLOOKWhat are the worlds trends?
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How Are Our Ecological Footprints Affecting the
Earth?

• As our ecological footprints grow, we are
  depleting and degrading more of the earths
  natural capital.

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We Are Living Unsustainably

• Environmental degradation wasting, depleting,
  and degrading the earths natural capital
• Happening at an accelerating rate
• Also called natural capital degradation

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Natural Capital Degradation
Fig. 1-9, p. 13
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Pollution Sources and Types

• Sources of pollution
• Pesticides, fertilizer, burning fossils fuels,
  etc
• Main type of pollutants
• Biodegradable
• break down over time
• Nondegradable
• cant be broken down
• Unwanted effects of pollution

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Air Pollution
Fig. 1-10, p. 14
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Water Pollution
Fig. 1-11, p. 14
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UNwanted Effects of Pollution

• disrupt/degrade life support system for animals
• damage wildlife, human health and property
• create nuisances, e.g. noise, unpleasant smells,
  tastes, sights

The left photo, taken in 1908, shows a
200-year-old statue at a castle in Germany. There
were few changes during its first 200 years.
After 1908, the amount of acid rain components
emitted from human activities increased. In just
60 years, the statue showed the effects of acid
rain.
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SOLUTIONSHow do we control pollution?

• Pollution cleanup (output pollution control)
• cleaning up or diluting pollutants after we have
  produced them
• Pollution prevention (input pollution control)
• reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants

What is the best solution?
What are the problems?
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Overexploiting Shared Renewable Resources
Tragedy of the Commons

• Three types of property or resource rights
• Private property
• Common property
• Open access renewable resources
• Tragedy of the commons
• Common property and open-access renewable
  resources degraded from overuse
• Solutions

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The Tragedy of the Commons Or the
challenge of common-pool resourcesOr why the
sum total of individual rational choices can
lead to perverse (and socially sub-optimal)
outcomes
Credits cow images from http//www.woodyjackson.
com/
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Imagine a field of grass shared by 6 farmers,
each with one cow
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A few facts Each cow currently produces 20
liters of milk per day The carrying capacity of
the commons is 8 cows. For each cow above 8, the
milk production declines by 2 liters (due to
overgrazing, there is less grass for each cow
less grass, less milk!).
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 120
liters
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Do the farmers sit back and stay at 6 cows? Not
if they are individual profit maximizers (here
simplified as milk production maximizers)
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 120
liters (6 cows)
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Do the farmers sit back and stay at 6 cows? Not
if they are individual profit maximizers (here
simplified as milk production maximizers)
Ill get another cow
40 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 140
liters (7 cows)
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We are now at the carrying capacity -- do they
stop? No.
Then Ill get another cow too
40 liters
40 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 160
liters (8 cows)
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They are now at the maximum total milk
production. But do they stop? No
36 liters
36 liters
Ill get another cow
18 liters
36 liters
18 liters
18 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 162
liters (9 cows)
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32 liters
32 liters
16 liters
32 liters
16 liters
My cow is now less productive, but 2 will
improve my situation
32 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 160
liters (10 cows)
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28 liters
28 liters
14 liters
28 liters
Ill get another cow
28 liters
28 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 154
liters (11 cows)
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Well, everyone else is getting one, so me too!
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 144
liters (12 cows)
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Well, I can still increase milk production if I
get a third cow
30 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons 130
liters (10 cows)
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Ecological Footprints A Model of Unsustainable
Use of Resources

• Ecological footprint the amount of biologically
  productive land and water needed to provide the
  people in a region with indefinite supply of
  renewable resources, and to absorb and recycle
  wastes and pollution
• Per capita ecological footprint per person
• Unsustainable footprint is larger than
  biological capacity for replenishment

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Patterns of Natural Resource Consumption
Fig. 1-12a, p. 15
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Patterns of Natural Resource Consumption
Fig. 1-12b, p. 15
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Natural Capital Use and Degradation
Fig. 1-13, p. 16
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Global Human Footprint Map
Supplement 8, Fig 7
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IPAT is Another Environmental Impact Model

• I P x A x T
• I Environmental impact
• P Population
• A Affluence
• T Technology

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IPAT Illustrated
Fig. 1-14, p. 17
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Case Study Chinas New Affluent Consumers

• Leading consumer of various foods and goods
• Wheat, rice, and meat
• Coal, fertilizers, steel, and cement
• Second largest consumer of oil
• Two-thirds of the most polluted cities are in
  China
• Projections for next decade
• Largest consumer and producer of cars

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Natural Systems Have Tipping Points

• Ecological tipping point an often irreversible
  shift in the behavior of a natural system
• Environmental degradation has time delays between
  our actions now and the deleterious effects later
• Long-term climate change
• Over-fishing
• Species extinction

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Tipping Point
Fig. 1-15, p. 19
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Cultural Changes Have Increased Our Ecological
Footprints

• 12,000 years ago hunters and gatherers
• Three major cultural events
• Agricultural revolution
• Industrial-medical revolution
• Information-globalization revolution
• Current need for a sustainability revolution

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Technology Increases Population
Fig. 1-16, p. 19
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1-3 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?

• Concept 1-3 Major causes of environmental
  problems are population growth, wasteful and
  unsustainable resource use, poverty, and
  exclusion of environmental costs of resource use
  from the market prices of goods and services.

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Experts Have Identified Four Basic Causes of
Environmental Problems

1. Population growth
2. Wasteful and unsustainable resource use
3. Poverty
4. Failure to include the harmful environmental
   costs of goods and services in market prices

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Exponential Growth of Human Population
Fig. 1-18, p. 21
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Affluence Has Harmful and Beneficial
Environmental Effects

• Harmful environmental impact due to
• High levels of consumption
• High levels of pollution
• Unnecessary waste of resources
• Affluence can provide funding for developing
  technologies to reduce
• Pollution
• Environmental degradation
• Resource waste

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Poverty Has Harmful Environmental and Health
Effects

• Population growth affected
• Malnutrition
• Premature death
• Limited access to adequate sanitation facilities
  and clean water

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Extreme Poverty
Fig. 1-19, p. 22
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Harmful Effects of Poverty
Fig. 1-20, p. 22
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Effects of Malnutrition
According to the World Health Organization, each
day at least 16,400 children younger than age 5
die prematurely from malnutrition and from
infectious diseases often caused by drinking
contaminated water.
Fig. 1-21, p. 23
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Prices Do Not Include the Value of Natural Capital

• Companies do not pay the environmental cost of
  resource use
• Goods and services do not include the harmful
  environmental costs
• Companies receive tax breaks and subsidies
• Economy may be stimulated but there may be a
  degradation of natural capital

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Environmentally Unfriendly Hummer
Fig. 1-22, p. 24
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Different Views about Environmental Problems and
Their Solutions

• Environmental ethics what is right and wrong
  with how we treat the environment
• Planetary management worldview
• We are separate from and in charge of nature
• Stewardship worldview
• Manage earth for our benefit with ethical
  responsibility to be stewards
• Environmental wisdom worldview
• We are part of nature and must engage in
  sustainable use

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What Is an Environmentally Sustainable Society?

• Living sustainably means living off the earths
  natural income without depleting or degrading the
  natural capital that supplies it.

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Environmentally Sustainable Societies Protect
Natural Capital and Live Off Its Income

• Environmentally sustainable society meets
  current needs while ensuring that needs of future
  generations will be met
• Live on natural income of natural capital without
  diminishing the natural capital

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We Can Work Together to Solve Environmental
Problems

• Social capital
• Encourages
• Openness and communication
• Cooperation
• Hope
• Discourages
• Close-mindedness
• Polarization
• Confrontation and fear

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Case Study The Environmental Transformation of
Chattanooga, TN

• Environmental success story example of building
  their social capital
• 1960 most polluted city in the U.S.
• 1984 Vision 2000
• 1995 most goals met
• 1993 Revision 2000

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Chattanooga, Tennessee
Since 1984, citizens have worked together to make
the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of the
best and most sustainable places to live in the
United States.

• I

Fig. 1-23, p. 26
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Individuals Matter

• 510 of the population can bring about major
  social change
• We have only 50-100 years to make the change to
  sustainability before its too late
• Rely on renewable energy
• Protect biodiversity
• Reduce waste and pollution

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Three Big Ideas

• We could rely more on renewable energy from the
  sun, including indirect forms of solar energy
  such as wind and flowing water, to meet most of
  our heating and electricity needs.

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Three Big Ideas

• We can protect biodiversity by preventing the
  degradation of the earths species, ecosystems,
  and natural processes, and by restoring areas we
  have degraded.

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Three Big Ideas

1. We can help to sustain the earths natural
   chemical cycles by reducing our production of
   wastes and pollution, not overloading natural
   systems with harmful chemicals, and not removing
   natural chemicals faster than those chemical
   cycles can replace them.