Living in the environment. Environmental Science Interdisciplinary science –...

Living in the environmentLiving in the environment

Environmental ScienceEnvironmental Science• Interdisciplinary science –

ecology,geology,chemistry,

• politics,engineering,economics,ethics

• Connections and interactions between humans and the rest of nature

• Validity of data questioned – many variables

Environmental IssuesEnvironmental Issues

• Population growth• Increasing resource use• Destruction and degradation of habitat• Premature extinction• Poverty• Pollution

SustainabilitySustainability

• Ability of a specified system to survive and function over a period of time

Sustainable livingSustainable living

• Meeting present needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs

Carrying capacityCarrying capacity

• Maximum number of organisms an environment can support over a specified period of time

GrowthGrowth

• Linear – quantity increases by constant amount per unit of time

• Exponential – quantity increases by a fixed percentage of the whole in a given time

Doubling timeDoubling time• 70 / percentage of growth rate =

doubling time in years

• Example – human population growth

• 1.28% per year

• 216,000 per day

• 9000 per hour

Economic growth – Gross Economic growth – Gross National Product-GNPNational Product-GNP

• Market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced by a country

• Per Capita GNP – GNP/Total population

Economic growth – Gross Economic growth – Gross Domestic Product-GDPDomestic Product-GDP

• Market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced WITHIN a country for use during a year

Developed nationDeveloped nation

• 1.2 billion (20%) - highly industrialized, 85% of world wealth and income, use 88% of world resources, generate 75% of waste

US,Canada,Japan,Australia,New Zealand ,most of Europe

DevelopingDeveloping

4.9 billion, (80%), low to moderate industrialized, 15% of world wealth and income, use 12% of world resources

Asia, Latin America, Africa

P (population) X A (affluence) X P (population) X A (affluence) X T (technological impact/unit of use) T (technological impact/unit of use)

= I (Environmental impact)= I (Environmental impact)

Ecological footprint or Ecological footprint or environmental impactenvironmental impact

Amount of land needed to produce the resources needed by an average person in a country

ResourcesResourcesEcological –

habitat, food,shelter

Economic-

Renewable

Non renewable

Potentially renewable

Tragedy of the Commons- Garrett Tragedy of the Commons- Garrett HardinHardin

• Over use of common property

• Clean air, open ocean and its fish,wild life species,publicly owned land, gases of lower atmosphere, space

GlobalizationGlobalization

• Social, economic and environmental change that leads to an increasingly integrated world

• economic, information and

communication,environmental effects

PollutionPollution

Threatens human health

Natural – volcanoes

Anthropogenic – human activities

SolutionsSolutions

Prevention – REFUSE, REDUCE,REUSE,RECYCLE

Clean up – temporary fix, removes from one part and adds to another,expensive to reduce to acceptable levels

Root causesRoot causesRapid population

growth

Wasteful use of resources

PovertyFailure to encourage

earth sustaining economic development

Failure to include overall economic cost

PLANETARY MANAGEMENT or ANTHROPOCENTRIC- “we are in charge of nature, always more to use, all economic growth is good” (ANTHROPOCENTRIC)

EARTH WISDOM –”nature for all of earth’s species, not always more to use,make a judgment call about economic growth

Environmental WorldviewEnvironmental Worldview

Information Revolution Information Revolution and globalizationand globalization

International trade of goods increased

Transnational corporations from

7,000 to 53,000Phones –from 89 to

850 millionPassenger kilometers –

from 28 million to 2.6 trillion

Infectious microbes transported

Cultural changesCultural changesHunter gatherers – 12,000 years ago

Agricultural revolution – 10,000-12,000-

Industrial revolution-275 years ago

Technological revolution – 50 years ago

Hunting and Gathering Hunting and Gathering SocietiesSocieties

• nomadic, living in small bands,

• population in balance with food supply

– high infant mortality,life expectancy 30-40 yr.

• 3 energy sources - sun, fire, muscle power

Agricultural SocietiesAgricultural Societies

• settled communities

• slash and burn cultivation to fertilize nutrient poor field by ashes

• shifting cultivation

• subsistence farming

Effects and Environmental Effects and Environmental ImpactImpact

• Urbanization and agricultural expansion, cut down forests, destroyed habitats, soil erosion and desertification

• birth rate faster than death- population increase

Early Industrial Early Industrial societies(mid 1700’ssocieties(mid 1700’s))

• wood used up - coal usage

• steam generation

• fossil fuel powered farm machinery- less farmers needed- moved to cities

Advanced Industrial Advanced Industrial societies (1914 ---)societies (1914 ---)

• increase in agricultural products

• lower infant mortality

• improved health

• increase in longevity

• net population increase

Resource Resource ConservationConservation

• 1903-Theodore Roosevelt, Pelican Island,Florida to save the Brown Pelican

• 1905- Gifford Pinchot - US Forest Service

• “resources should be saved to be used for the greatest good, for the greatest number, for the longest time”

Moral / Aesthetic Nature Moral / Aesthetic Nature ConservationConservation

• John Muir , Sierra Club

• “fundamental right of organisms to exist for it’s own sake”

US Environmental Movement - US Environmental Movement - 1960’s1960’s

• 1962- , Rachel Carson “Silent Spring”, threats of pollution and toxic chemicals

• David Brower and Barry Commoner,Paul Ehrlich,Garret Hardin -relationship between population growth, resource use,pollution

Events - Increased AwarenessEvents - Increased Awareness

• 1963 - air pollution in New York

• Laundry detergent in water

• 1969- Cuyahoga in Ohio

• Love Canal , New York

• pollution of Lake Erie

• Extinction -grizzly,bald eagle,whooping crane,falcon

Environmental events- 1970’sEnvironmental events- 1970’s• 1972-UN- Human development

• 1973 - OPEC oil embargo

• Roland and Molina - CFC’s cause ozone depletion

• Carter creates Superfund to clean hazardous waste sites(Love Canal)

• Three Mile Island

Environmental events - 1980’sEnvironmental events - 1980’s

• 1981 - Ronald Reagan - sagebrush philosophy

• 1986-Chernobyl disaster

• 1987-Montreal Protocol - fade out CFC’s

• Exxon Valdez disaster

Environmental Events - 1990Environmental Events - 1990• 1991-Persian Gulf war - protect oil

• 1992 - UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• 1994 - UN Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, Egypt.

• 1995- US Congress,reduce environmental spending - vetoed by Clinton

• 1997 - Kyoto- global warming

Environmental events - 2000Environmental events - 2000

• Clinton protects large areas in national forests from roads and logging - designated as national monuments

Sagebrush RevolutionSagebrush Revolution

• remove most lands from federal ownership and turn over to States

• great supporter - Ronald Reagan

Environmental Revolution ….shift Environmental Revolution ….shift fromfrom

•

• pollution cleanup to prevention

• waste disposal to waste reduction

• species protection to habitat protection

• increased resource use to conservation