Ecological Footprint and Sustainability:

Unit 1: Environmental Problems, Their Causes and Sustainability

Monday, August 10th, 2015

3 Goals of Environmental Science

• Learn how nature works• Understand how we interact with the

environment• Find ways to deal with environmental issues

to live more sustainably

Air(atmosphere)

Water(hydrosphere)

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Soil and rocks

(lithosphere)Life

(biosphere)

Earth's Life-Support System Human Culture Sphere

PopulationSize

Worldviewsand Ethics

Economics Politics

To Review…

Ecology- study of interaction of organisms with each other and their environment

Species- organisms capable of reproducing and producing viable young

Ecosystem- defined area within which organisms interact with each other and their environment

(smaller piece of a biome – biotic + abiotic)Environmentalism- social movementdedicated to protecting life supportsystems for all species

Overview Questions

• What keeps us alive? What is an environmentally sustainable society?

• What is the difference between economic growth, economic development, and environmentally sustainable economic development?

• What are the four scientific principles of sustainability and how can we use them and shared visions to build more environmentally sustainable and just societies during this century?

Key Concepts

• Nature has sustained itself for billions of years by relying on solar energy, biodiversity, and nutrients cycling

• Lives and economies depend on energy from the sun, natural resources and natural services

(natural capital)

What is sustainability?

• Living sustainably means acting in a way such that activities that are crucial to human society can continue.

• Sustainable development is the balance of current human well-being and economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations (think about the “tragedy of the commons”)

3 Principles of Sustainability

Long-term sustainability rests on:• Solar energy• Biodiversity• Nutrient (chemical) cycling

Solar Energy

• Warms planet, necessary for photosynthesis (essential for most life on planet)• Powers indirect forms of solar energy- wind,

flowing water (hydroelectric power)

Biodiversity

• (Astounding) variety of life• Natural systems that support life (biomes)• Natural services such as:

topsoil renewalpest controlair and water purification

Chemical Cycling

• Indefinite recycling of chemicals from environment through organisms and back again

• AKA nutrient recycling

CHECKPOINT

1. What is sustainability and whyshould we care about it?

2. What are 3 principles nature hasused to sustain itself for billions of years?

3 Components of Sustainability

• Natural capital • Natural resources• Natural services

Natural Capital

• Natural resources and natural services • Supports Earth’s diversity• Provided by solar energy ex: ozone layer (resource) + UV protection(service)

Natural Resource• Material from environment that meet needs/wants• Vary in renewal time after use: nonrenewable- exist in fixed stock in terms of

human time (energy, metallic minerals, nonmetallic minerals)

perpetual- continuous supply (sunlight) renewable- days to years for renewal (some fish

species) potentially renewable- continuous supply as long as

we don’t consume them more quickly than they can be replenished.

Natural Resource

• Material from environment that meet needs/wants• Vary in renewal time after use:

*sustainable yield- highest rate renewable resource can be used without reducing it

The Tragedy of the Commons Review(overexploiting shared renewable resources)

described by biologist, Garrett Hardin• Open-access renewable resources: owned by no

one, used by anyone (air, open ocean, marine life)• Leads to: “If I don’t use the resource, someone

else will and any damage I do to the resource will be too small to matter”

• Results in: exploitation and possibly complete degradation of common resource (no one can use it anymore)

Natural Services

• Natural consequence of energy flow• Provide ecological services• Purify, recycle and detoxify ex: bee pollination of crops rocks, sand purifying stream water marshes controlling flood waters soil formation from eroding rock, decaying organisms

Sustainability - Altogether Now

CHECKPOINT

1. Create a concept map showing a connection between the following terms: perpetual, renewable and nonrenewable energy.

2. Give examples of each type of resource.

Humans and Sustainability

• Economic growth- increase in nation’s output of goods, sevices

• Gross domestic product (GDP)- annual market value of goods, services produced within nation (measure of economic growth)

• Per capita GPD- GPD ÷ total population at midyear (measures economic growth/person)

Sustainability and Economic Development

Nations are classified as:• More-developed- high average income *19% of population use ≈88% of planet’s resources;

produce ≈75% of planet’s waste (US, Canada, Japan, Australia)• Moderately-developed (China, India, Brazil)• Less-developed- middle-low income (poverty) *81% of world’s population (Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia)

Developed vs Less-Developed Countries

Economics: Global View

CHECKPOINT

1. What is the difference between GDP and per capita GDP?

2. Distinguish between more-developed and less-developed countries?

Ecological Footprint

• Ecological footprint- amount of biologically productive land and water required to support an individual and absorb his/her pollution

• Per capita ecological footprint- average eco footprint of an individual in an area

Ecological Footprint

Natural Capital Degradation

• unsustainable resource use by wasting, depleting and degrading natural capital

• accelerating exponentially• includes: air pollution, aquifer depletion, declining

ocean fisheries, species extinction desertification

Natural Capital Degradation

Ecological Tipping Point

• threshold level at which natural capital degradation is irreversible

• current tipping points: 1. collapse of some fish populations due to overfishing 2. premature extinction of species due to overhunting, habitat destruction

3. long-term climate change due to burning fossil fuels