Environmental Issues Journal

Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

1.In your groups list as many local environmental controversies that you can. At the same time ask if they know of any local environmental problems that have been resolved. Make two lists of all the suggestions on the chalkboard. If you do not have many suggestions, broaden the question to include state, national, and/or international issues.


• What systems (processes) within our society that are sustainable? Why is each suggested system (process) sustainable? What systems within our society are not sustainable? Provide justification for why the suggested system (process) is not sustainable. Summarize the information about sustainable and nonsustainable processes in our society and justify a conclusion about the overall sustainability of our society.


Environmental Issues Journal

• What is sustainability?

• Discuss the correlation, if any, between human population and natural resource consumption.

• Do you believe that the current lifestyle of the US is sustainable? Analyze your lifestyle; how would resources be affected if everyone on Earth lived the way you do?


The Lessons of Easter Island

• Society fails to care for the environment and sustain it

• Population increase beyond carrying capacity

• Disparity between rich and poor widens


How to Prevent a Global Version of the Easter Island Disaster

• Understand how the natural world works

• Understand how human and natural systems interact

• Accurately assess the status and trends of crucial natural ecosystems

• Establish long-term sustainable relationships with the natural world


This lecture will help you understand:

• The meaning of the term environment

• The importance of natural resources

• That environmental science is interdisciplinary

• The scientific method and how science operates

• Some pressures facing the global environment

• Sustainability and sustainable development


The Field of Environmental Science

• Environmental Science is interdisciplinary, and includes applied and theoretical aspects of human impact.

- Incorporates scientific aspects of ecology, conservation, geography, with inputs from social sciences such as economics, sociology and political science.


Interrelated Nature Environmental Problems

• Environment is everything that affects an organism during its lifetime.


An Ecosystem Approach

• Ecology- the study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment.

• Ecosystem: Region in which the organisms and the physical environment form an interacting unit.

- The task of an Environmental Scientist is to recognize and understand natural interactions and integrate these with human uses of the natural world.


Living More Sustainably

• Sustainability- (1) living off the natural income replenished by soils, plants, air and water & (2) not depleting earth’s endowment of natural capital that supplies this income

• Sustainable Society-satisfying the basic needs of the people for food, clean air & water, and shelter indefinitely without (1) depleting or degrading natural resources & (2) preventing future generations from meeting their basic needs


Environment: the total of our surroundings• All the things around us with which we

interact:

• Living things

• Animals, plants, forests, fungi, etc.

• Nonliving things

• Continents, oceans, clouds, soil, rocks

• Our built environment

• Buildings, human-created living centers

• Social relationships and institutions


Humans and the world around us

• Humans change the environment, often in ways not fully understood

• We depend completely on the environment for survival

- Increased wealth, health, mobility, leisure time

- But, natural systems have been degraded

- i.e., pollution, erosion and species extinction

- Environmental changes threaten long-term health and survival

• Environmental science is the study of:

- How the natural world works

- How the environment affects humans and vice versa


Natural resources: vital to human survival

• Renewable resources:- Perpetually available: sunlight, wind, wave energy- Renew themselves over short periods: timber, water, soil

- These can be destroyed• Nonrenewable resources: can be depleted

- Oil, coal, minerals

Natural resources = substances and energy sources needed for survival


Population Growth

ExponentialGrowth- Growth in a species that takes place at a constant rate per time period.

ExponentialGrowth- Growth in a species that takes place at a constant rate per time period.

Doubling Time/Rule of 70- 70 divided by percentage growth rate=doubling time

Doubling Time/Rule of 70- 70 divided by percentage growth rate=doubling time

Fig. 1-2 p. 4Fig. 1-2 p. 4


Fig. 1-1 p. 2

World Population


Global human population growth

• More than 6.7 billion humans

• Why so many humans?

- Agricultural revolution

- Stable food supplies

- Industrial revolution

- Urbanized society powered by fossil fuels

- Sanitation and medicines

- More food


Thomas Malthus and human population

• Thomas Malthus

• Population growth must be restricted, or it will outstrip food production

• Starvation, war, disease

• Neo-Malthusians

• Population growth has disastrous effects

• Paul and Anne Ehrlich, The Population Bomb (1968)


Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons

•Unregulated exploitation leads to resource depletion

• Soil, air, water

•Resource users are tempted to increase use until the resource is gone

•Solution?

• Private ownership?

• Voluntary organization to enforce responsible use?

• Governmental regulations?


The “ecological footprint”

• The environmental impact of a person or population

- Amount of biologically productive land + water

- for raw materials and to dispose/recycle waste

• Overshoot: humans have surpassed the Earth’s capacity

We are using 30% more of the planet’s resources than are available on a sustainable basis!


Environmental science… can help us avoid mistakes made by past civilizations.

The lesson of Easter Island: people annihilated their culture by destroying their environment. Can we act more wisely to conserve our resources?


Environmental science: how does the natural world work?

Environment impacts Humans

• It has an applied goal: developing solutions to environmental problems

• An interdisciplinary field-Natural sciences: information about the world

- Environmental Science programs-Social sciences: values and human behavior

- Environmental Studies programs


What is an “environmental problem”?

- The perception of what constitutes a problem varies between individuals and societies

- Ex.: DDT, a pesticide

- In developing countries: welcome because it kills malaria-carrying mosquitoes

- In developed countries: not welcome, due to health risks


Environmental science is not environmentalism

•Environmental science

• The pursuit of knowledge about the natural world

• Scientists try to remain objective

•Environmentalism

• A social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world


The nature of science

• Science:- A systematic process for learning about the world and

testing our understanding of it- A dynamic process of observation, testing, and

discovery- The accumulated body of knowledge that results from

this process

• Science is essential

- To sort fact from fiction

- Develop solutions to the problems we face


Applications of science

Restoration of forest ecosystems altered by human suppression of fire

Policy decisions and management practices

Energy-efficient methanol-powered fuel cell car from DaimlerChrysler

Technology


The scientific method

• A technique for testing ideas with observations

• Assumptions:- The universe works

according to unchanging natural laws

- Events arise from causes, and cause other events

- We use our senses and reason to understand nature’s laws


The scientific method

• A scientist makes an observation and asks questions of some phenomenon

• The scientist formulates a hypothesis, a statement that attempts to explain the scientific question.

• The hypothesis is used to generate predictions, which are specific statements that can be directly and unequivocally tested.

• The test results either support or reject the hypothesis


Experiments test the validity of a hypothesisManipulative experiments yield the strongest evidence• But, lots of things can’t be

manipulated

Natural or correlational tests show real-world complexity

• Results are not so neat and clean, so answers aren’t simply black and white


The scientific process is part of a larger process

• The scientific process includes peer review, publication, and debate

• A consistently supported hypothesis becomes a theory, a well-tested and widely accepted explanation

• With enough data, a paradigm shift – a change in the dominant view – can occur


Population & consumption

• Human population growth exacerbates all environmental problems

- The growth rate has slowed, but we still add more than 200,000 people to the planet each day

• Our consumption of resources has risen even faster than our population growth.

- Life has become more pleasant for us so far

- However, rising consumption amplifies the demands we make on our environment.


Economic Growth

• Gross National Product (GNP)- the value of all the goods and services produced within and outside of a country during a year plus the net income earned by its citizens

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)-the value in dollars of all goods and services produced within a country

• Gross World Product (GWP)- the value of all the goods and services produce in the world during a year

• Per Capita GNP- GNP divided by the population at mid-year; each persons “slice of the pie”


Economic Development

• Developed countries (MDC)- (pop=1.2b) highly industrialized with high per capita GNP; represent 20% of the worlds pop that control 85% of wealth; 88% of resources and produce 75% of pollution and waste

• Developing countries (LDC)- (pop=5.1 bil) low per capita GNP; represent 95% of the projected increase in the worlds population


The Good of Economic Growth

• Positive

- Increased Life Expectancy

- Infant Mortality Drop

- Increased Food Production

- Safe Drinking Water in Rural Areas

- Increased Production with fewer materials

- Decrease in Major Air and Water Pollution (since 1970s) in MDC


The Bad of Economic Growth

• Negative-

- Life Expectancy Lower in LDCs

- Infant Mortality is 8 times Higher in LDCs

- Less Sustainability in Agricultural Practices

- Air and Water Pollution in LDCs is too High (WHO)

- Increased Demand on Resources (pop)

- Increased Disturbance of Habitable Surface (73% already)

- Climate Change from Burning of Fossil Fuels

- 1 in 4 people in the world make less than $370/year

- Economic Gap Increase (Rich get richer, poor get poorer)


Ecological footprints are not all equal

• The ecological footprints of countries vary greatly

- The U.S. footprint is almost 5 times greater than the world’s average

- Developing countries have much smaller footprints than developed countries


We face challenges in agriculture

• Expanded food production led to increased population and consumption

• It’s one of humanity’s greatest achievements, but at an enormous environmental cost• Nearly half of the planet’s land surface is used

for agriculture• Chemical fertilizers • Pesticides • Erosion• Changed natural systems


We face challenges in pollution

• Waste products and artificial chemicals used in farms, industries, and households

Each year, millions of people die from pollution


We face challenges in climate

• Scientists have firmly concluded that humans are changing the composition of the atmosphere• The Earth’s surface is warming

• Melting glaciers• Rising sea levels• Impacted wildlife and crops• Increasingly destructive weather

Since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have risen by 37%, to the highest level in 650,000 years


We face challenges in biodiversity• Human actions have driven many species extinct, and

biodiversity is declining dramatically• We are at the onset of a mass extinction event

Biodiversity loss may be our biggest environmental problem; once a species is extinct, it is gone forever


The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

• The most comprehensive scientific assessment of the condition of the world’s ecological systems

• Major findings:

• Humans have drastically altered ecosystems

• These changes have contributed to human well-being and economic development, but at a cost

• Environmental degradation could get much worse

• Degradation can be reversed, but it requires work


Our energy choices will affect our future

• The lives we live today are due to fossil fuels• Machines • Chemicals • Transportation • Products

• Fossil fuels are a one-time bonanza; supplies will certainly decline

We have used up ½ of the world’s oil supplies; how will we handle this imminent fossil fuel shortage?


Sustainable solutions exist• We must develop solutions that protect both our quality

of life and the environment

• Organic agriculture

• Technology

- Reduces pollution

• Biodiversity

- Protect species

• Waste disposal

- Recycling

• Alternative fuels


Are things getting better or worse?

• Many people think environmental conditions are better• Cornucopians: Human ingenuity will solve any

problem

• Some think things are much worse in the world• Cassandras: predict doom and disaster

• How can you decide who is correct?• Are the impacts limited to humans, or are other

organisms or systems involved?• Are the proponents thinking in the long or short term?• Are they considering all costs and benefits?


Sustainability: a goal for the future

• How can humans live within the planet’s means?- Humans cannot exist without functioning natural

systems

• Sustainability - Leaves future generations with a rich and full Earth- Conserves the Earth’s natural resources- Maintains fully functioning ecological systems

• Sustainable development: the use of resources to satisfy current needs without compromising future availability of resources


Will we develop in a sustainable way?

• The triple bottom line: sustainable solutions that meet- Environmental goals- Economic goals- Social goals

• Requires that humans apply knowledge from the sciences to- Limit environmental impacts - Maintain functioning

ecological systems


Conclusion

• Environmental science helps us understand our relationship with the environment and informs our attempts to solve and prevent problems.

• Identifying a problem is the first step in solving it

• Solving environmental problems can move us towards health, longevity, peace and prosperity

- Environmental science can help us find balanced solutions to environmental problems


QUESTION: Review

The term “environment” includes

a) Animals and plantsb) Oceans and riversc) Soil and atmosphered) All of the above are included in this term


QUESTION: Review

Which of the following is correct about the term “environmentalism”?

a) It is very science-orientedb) It is a social movement to protect the environmentc) It usually does not include advocacy for the

environmentd) It involves scientists trying to solve environmental

problems


QUESTION: Review

Adding various amounts of fertilizer to plants in a laboratory is a _____ type of experiment

a) Correlativeb) Naturalc) Manipulatived) Rare


QUESTION: Review

What is the definition of “sustainable development”?

a) Using resources to benefit future generations, even if it means lower availability now

b) Letting future generations figure out their own problems

c) Using resources to satisfy current needs without compromising future availability

d) Letting each country decide what is its best interest


QUESTION: Weighing the Issues

Which do you think is the best way to protect commonly owned resources (i.e., air, water, fisheries)?

a) Sell the resource to a private entityb) Voluntary organizations to enforce responsible usec) Governmental regulationsd) Do nothing and see what happens


QUESTION: Weighing the Issues

Do you think the rest of the world can have an ecological footprint as large as the footprint of the United States?

a) Yes, because we will find new technologies and resources

b) Yes, because the footprint of the United States is not really that large

c) Definitely not; the world does not have that many resources

d) It does not matter; it’s not that important


QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and Data

According to this graph, what has happened to the population over the last 500 years?

a) It has grown exponentially

b) It has grown linearly

c) It has decreasedd) It has slowed

down recently


QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and DataWhat happens if test results reject

a hypothesis?

a) The scientist formulates a new hypothesis

b) It shows the test failedc) The hypothesis was supportedd) The predictions may not have

been correct

Environmental Issues Journal

Documents

Transcript of Environmental Issues Journal