Title: Environmental%20Problems,%20Their%20Causes,%20
1Environmental Problems, Their Causes,
Sustainabiltiy
- An Introduction to Environmental Science
2What is environmental science?
- Interdisciplinary science
- Natural sciences social sciences
3- Study Env. Sci. to understand
- How Earth works
- How we affect the environment
- How to deal with env. probs. we face
- We are conducting an experiment with no chance to
start the experiment over.
46 Important Environmental Issues
- Population growth
- Increasing resource use
- Global climate change ? political issuewhy?
even if its just cyclical, it seems to be
worse - Premature extinction of plants animals
- Pollution
- Poverty
- ALL ARE INTERCONNECTED and are growing
exponentially
5Environmentally Sustainable Society
- Satisfies basic needs (food, clean water, clean
air, shelter) without depleting or degrading
natural resourcesfor now or later! - Protect Your Capital
- Again, we are experimenting with only 1 chance to
get it right!
6Problems with sustainability?
- Are environmentalists exaggerating?
- Can technology fix it?
- Will human ingenuity fix it?
7Rule of 70
- 70 / growth rate doubling time
8- GNP Gross National Product
- GDP Gross Domestic Product
- GWP Gross World Product
- Per capita GNP GNP / Pop.
9Developed Countries
- Have 85 of worlds wealth
- Use 88 of natural resources
- Generate 75 of pollution wastes
- Are 20 of worlds total population
- (about 1.4 billion)
-
- U.S., Canada, Japan, Europe, Australia, New
Zealand
10Developing Countries
- Have 15 of worlds wealth
- Use 12 of natural resources
- Are 80 of worlds total population
- (about 5.6 billion)
- Africa, Asia, Latin America
11Where do developed countries send their wastes?
- U.S. sends metals, plastics, paper to China
- China cant get natural resources fast enough
- Old computers dumped in India
- U.S. companies go to countries with little env.
laws. to get or give
12Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development
- Economic rewards for env. Beneficial
sustainable forms of economic growth ? i.e. do it
the right way increases - Economic penalties?
13Environmental Effects of Poverty?
- Nearly 1.5 billion are hungry or malnourished and
lack access to clean drinking water, decent
housing, and adequate health care - 1 in 3 lack fuel to keep warm, cook food (no
access to electricity) - 2/3 lack sanitary toilets (still some
straightpipes in Appalachia) - 1 in 4 adults cannot read or write
- 1 in 2 survive on 1-3 a day!
14Poor Parents have many children. Why?
- Help grow food
- Help gather fuel
- Help haul drinking water
- Help tend livestock
- Work
- Beg in streets
- Take care of parents (no strong social support
systems) - Culture Religion
15- So, how are poverty env. problems related?
- Cant worry about long-term effects of
actions.survive!
16- Globalization process of global social,
economic, and environmental change that leads to
an increasingly integrated world - Communication, travel
17- Resources anything obtained from env. to meet
needs and wants - Perpetual renewed continuously and not really
affected by humans (sun, wind) - Renewable renewed fairly rapidly
- Nonrenewable not renewed on a reasonable time
scale
18Review
- Whats Environmental Science?
- Interdisciplinary, how Earth works, how we affect
it - Major Issues
- Population growth, resource use, global climate,
change, mass extinction, pollution, poverty - Sustainability- meet basic needs without
degrading for future generations - Problems
- Are environmentalists exaggerating?
- Population Growth (rule of 70)
- Developing vs. Developed countries- both have
problems, just diffent - Environmental effects of poverty
- Globalization Resource use
19Environmental Degradation
- Urbanization of productive land
- Waterlogging and salt buildup in soil
- Excessive topsoil erosion
- Deforestation
- Groundwater depletion
- Overgrazing of grasslands by livestock
- Reduction in earths biodiversity (largely due to
habitat loss/human expansion) - Pollution
- Why all the worry with soil/land?
20Pollution
- Natural
- Human Activities (Anthropogenic)
- Burning fossil fuels ? increase in CO2, acid
precipitation - Chemical runoff ? biomagnification/eutrophication
- Point Source vs. Nonpoint Source
21What to do?
- Prevention
- Focus efforts here
- Cleanup
- Not AS good of a solution because
- Temporary bandage, must be repeated
- Removes pollution from one place to another
-
- Case study BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, 2010
- Lasted 87 days, may even still be leaking
- 4.9 million barrels of oil (210 million gallons)
- Oil/dispersant mixture still affecting gulf
wildlife and coastal ecosystems
22The Government can help!
- Discourages pollution by
- Offering Incentives for sustainable practices
- subsidies tax write-offs
- Enforcing regulations on degrading practices
coupled with taxes/fines.
23Estimating Environmental Impact
- P x A x T I
- Ppopulation size
- Aaffluence (consumption per person)
- Ttechnology (impact per unit of consumption)
- Ienvironmental impact
- Developing vs. Developed Impact, p. 13
24Human History in the Environment
- Up until 10-12,000 ya Hunter-gatherers
- 10-12,000 ya Agricultural Revolution
- Slash-and-Burn Cultivation
- Shifting Cultivation (Sand Co. Commons)
- 1700-1800s Industrial Revolution
- Rapid expansion in the production, trade, and
distribution of material goods - Coal
- Sharp increase in human population (continues
today) - Since 1950 Information Globalization
Revolution (positive and negative affects)
25BIG questions
- Better or worse? p. 17
- 1992 Warning from scientists around the world p.
18 - Call for Sustainability Revolution
- Goals/Priorities must shift!
- The rest of the course will present a more
detailed analysis of these problems, the
controversies they have created, and solutions
proposed by analysts. - Try NOT to be overwhelmed by bad news
- There is also some great news
- Learning a great deal about how nature works
- Have numerous solutions available
- Make creative use of our economic and political
systems to implement - Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead
26To prepare for test
- Review Qs p. 19-21, 1-25
- Choose 6 (of 8) Critical Thinking Qs p. 21-22
- Due day of test, beginning of class
- Study