Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

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Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and
Sustainability
G. Tyler Millers Living in the Environment 14th
Edition Chapter 1 An Environmental Science
Overview
Spruce and Fir forest affected by pests, disease,
and acid rain, near Clingman's Dome (6643 feet),
Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee.
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Essential Questions (Objectives)
What is exponential growth? Describe the
connection between exponential growth and
environmental problems. Distinguish between
solar capital and natural capital. Evaluate the
significance of these forms of capital in the
development of human societies. Distinguish
between living on principal and living on
interest. Analyze which of these behaviors humans
are currently illustrating. Evaluate the
possibility of continuing to live in our current
style. Distinguish between developed countries
and developing countries. Describe changes in the
wealth gap between these groups of
countries. What is globalization? What factors
affect globalization? Summarize the advantages
and disadvantages of globalization.
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Define sustainable yield. Describe the
relationship between sustainable yield and
environmental degradation. Describe the tragedy
of the commons. Summarize how most
environmentalists alleviate this type of
tragedy. Distinguish between the following
terms (1)physically depleted and (2)economically
depleted resources (3)nonrenewable,
(4)renewable, and (5)potentially renewable
resources (6)reuse and recycle. Draw a depletion
curve. Explain how recycling and reuse affect
depletion time.   Distinguish between the
following terms point source of pollution and
nonpoint source of pollution nonpersistent,
persistent, and nondegradable pollutants.
Distinguish between pollution prevention and
pollution cleanup. Evaluate the effectiveness of
these two approaches in decreasing pollution.
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Summarize underlying causes of environmental
problems. Describe a simple model of
relationships among population, resource use,
technology, environmental degradation, and
pollution. Evaluate which model is most useful to
you. Assess which model would be most useful in
explaining these relationships to young children
and which more closely resembles
reality.   Summarize strategies humans can use to
work closely with the earth.
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World Population and Exponential Growth
Rule of 70 Doubling Time

• As the human population grows what might be the
  impact on
• resources use and waste
• poverty
• loss of biodiversity
• Global Climate Change

2008
Fig. 1-1 p. 5
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What Keeps Us Alive?
Natural Capital Solar Energy Resources Service
s
Fig. 1-2, p. 7
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Living on interest vs. Living on principal

• Living on Interest (Sustainably)
• Imagine you win 1,000,000 in the lottery
• Invest the capital (1 million) at 10 interest.
• You will have a sustainable income of 100,000
  per year. Without depleting your capital (1
  million)

• Living on Principal
• If you spent 200,000 per year, your 1million
  would be gone early in the 7th year
• If you spent 110,000 per year, you would be
  bankrupt early in the 18th year.

How would you prefer to live? How do we live now?
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Population Growth
Who is Overpopulated?
Are we living Sustainably?
Is the problem we face population size or
resource use?
Fig. 1-4, p. 8
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Developed Countries vs. Developing Countries
Gross domestic product (GDP), also called gross
national income (GNI), is the market value for
goods and services produced within a country
Economic development is improving living
standards through growth. Most developed
countries have high industrialization and high
per capita income. Developing countries have
moderate to low income they represent about 97
of the projected increase in world population
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Developed Countries vs. Developing Countries

• Developed Countries
• Developed countries enjoy a higher standard of
  living, including
• a longer life expectancy
• a decrease in infant mortality
• greater food production than food needs
• decreased air and water pollution
• a decrease in poverty overall
• Developing Countries
• Poverty produces harmful environmental effects
• Soil, water, and forests are depleted
• Pollution levels are high.
• Infant mortality rate is 8 times higher than in
  developed countries
• Wages are very low with poor working conditions
  as the norm

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Ecological Footprint
What is an ecological footprint? Age of
Consumption Examples of over consumption
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Globalization
Globalization leads to a world socially,
economically, and environmentally more
interconnected Technology, international trade,
and human mobility allow people to interact with
others Environmentally sustainable development
rewards sustainable activities and discourages
harmful activities
Where are your shoes made? Why? Where is your
computer made? Where does your food come from? If
we stopped buying Chinese products what would
happen to Chinas economy? How would that impact
the United States? How does a global economy
impact cultural diversity?
Back to Essential Questions
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ResourcesNatural capital/natural resources are
those in the environment or those obtained from
the environment food, water, air, shelter,
petroleum, etc
Perpetual resources are renewed continuously,
like solar energy
Renewable resources must not be used up faster
than they are able to be replaced, like
grasslands, fresh water and air, fertile soil,
etc
Non-renewable resources are those that exist in
fixed quantity or stock in the earths crust.
Environmental degradation occurs when the use of
resources exceeds the rate of replacement.
sustainable yield is the highest rate of use on
an indefinite scale without degradation or
depletion
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• Tragedy of the Commons describes the overuse or
  degradation of freely available resources such as
  ocean pollution, abuse of national parks, air
  pollution, etc. No one individual owns these
  free-access resources
• Limiting access to these resources is one
  possible way to protect them
• Reducing the population might also allow these
  resources to be used below estimated sustainable
  yields
• Converting free-access resources to private
  ownership is another possible means to protect
  them
• Private owners may not actually protect the
  resources
• Global resources such as oceans, air, and
  migratory birds cannot be divided up and made
  private property
• Access to the resources is eliminated/reduced for
  many people
• Governments have laws and treaties that regulate
  access to commonly owned resources

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Non-Renewable Resources
Energy Resources (oil, coal, natural gas, etc.)
Metallic Resources (copper, iron, aluminum, etc.)
Non-Metallic Resources (salt, clay, sand,
phosphates, etc.)
Physically Depleted - when a resources
completely exhausted Economically Depleted when
the resource costs too much to obtain what is
left
Solutions To prevent economic depletion
include recycle, reuse, and conserve
Back to Essential Questions
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What is pollution? Pollutants are chemicals at
high enough levels in the environment to harm
people or other living organisms Where do
pollutants come from, and what are their harmful
effects? Pollutants may enter the environment
naturally (for example, volcanic eruptions) or
through human activities such as burning coal
pollution tends to occur in or near urban and
industrial areas Sources Point sources of
pollutants are single, identifiable sources, such
as automobiles or industrial plants. They are
easier to identify and control than non-point
sources Non-point sources are dispersed, such
as pesticides in the air and water runoff. They
are difficult to identify. Pesticides sprayed
into the air may be carried from their source.
Fertilizer runoff enters streams away from the
source.

• Effects of Pollution
• They can disrupt or degrade life-support systems
  of any organism
• They damage human health, wildlife, and property
• They can produce nuisances in noise, smells,
  tastes, and sights

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Dealing With Pollution

• Cleanup (Output Control) cleans up or dilutes
  pollutants after they have been produced
• It is a temporary bandage without long-term
  pollution control technology (like the catalytic
  converter)
• The pollutant is removed but may cause pollution
  in another place (for example, burning
  garbage/burying it)
• It is expensive to reduce pollution to an
  acceptable level. Prevention is less expensive in
  the long run

• Prevention (Input Control) reduces or eliminates
  the production of pollutants

Three factors determine the severity of a
pollutants harmful effects chemical nature,
concentration, and persistence. Pollutants are
classified into four categories based on
persistence degradable, biodegradable, slowly
degradable, and non-degradable Persistent is how
long a pollutant stays in the air , water or
soil. Nonpersistent (degradable) Nondegradable
does not breakdown in the environment
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What is Our Greatest Environmental Problem?

• Disease
• Overpopulation
• Water Shortages
• Climate Changes
• Biodiversity Loss
• Poverty
• Malnutrition

The Big Five
State of the Planet
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Environmental Interactions
Ideas must make environmental sense and economic
sense in order to be successful
Fig. 1-14 p. 15
IPAT
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Some of the Harmful Effects of Poverty
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Solutions

• Current Emphasis (Reactive)
• Sustainability Emphasis (Proactive)

Back to Essential Questions
Fig. 1-16, p. 18