1. Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
Chapter 1

2. Question #1: What are the 6 major themes of this book?

3. Answer Central Theme: Sustainability Subthemes: Natural Capital
Natural Capital Degradation
Solutions
Trade-Offs
Individuals Matter
…. Sound Science

4. Question #2: What is an environmentally stable society?

5. Living More Sustainability
Environment
Ecology
Environmental science
Environmentalism
Sustainability

6. Path to Sustainability
A Pa t h t o S u s t a i n a b i l i t y
Natural Capital
Natural Capital
Degradation
Solutions
Trade-Offs
Individuals
Matter
S o u n d S c i e n c e
Fig. 1-2, p. 7

7. Example
Imagine you win $1 million in a lottery. If you invest this money and earn 10% interest a year, you will have sustainable income of $100,000. if you spend $200,000 per year, your $1 million will be gone early in the 7th year.
Even if you spent $110,000 a year you would be bankrupt in the 18th year.

8. Natural Capital Earth’s natural capital Capital Financial income
Biological income
Degrading capital
Fig. 1-3, p. 7

9. Natural Capital Stepped Art Fig. 1-3, p. 7 NATURAL CAPITAL =
NATURAL RESOURCES
Air
Water
Soil
Land
Life (biodiversity)
Nonrenewable minerals (iron, sand)
Renewable energy
(sun, wind, water flows)
Nonrenewable energy (fossil fuels, nuclear power) +
NATURAL SERVICES
NATURAL CAPITAL
Air purification
Water purification
Soil renewal
Nutrient recycling
Food production
Pollination
Grassland renewal
Forest renewal
Waste treatment
Climate Control
Population control (species interactions)
Pest control

10. Solutions to Environmental Problems
Trade-offs (compromises)
Individuals matter
Sound science
Environmentally sustainable societies

11. Question #3: How fast is the human population increasing?

12. World Population Exponential growth Poverty
Extinction and biodiversity
Climate changes
Good news: possible solutions
Fig. 1-1, p. 1

13. Black Death—the Plague Agricultural revolution
World Population ?
Billions of people
Black Death—the Plague
Time
Hunting and
gathering
Agricultural revolution
Industrial
revolution
Fig. 1-1, p. 1

14. Human Population Growth
World total
Developing
countries
Population (billions)
Developed
countries
Year
Fig. 1-5, p. 9

15. Global Outlook Percentage 19 Population 81 0.1 Population growth 1.5
of World's 19
Population 81
0.1
Population
growth
1.5
Wealth and
income 85 15
Resource
use 88 12 75
Pollution
and waste 25
Developed countries
Developing countries
Fig. 1-4, p. 9

16. Question #4: What is the difference between economic growth and economic development?

17. Economics
Economic growth – increase in the capacity of a country to provide people with goods and services.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – the annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations in a country.
Per capita GDP – the GDP divided by the total population midyear.

18. Economics
Economic development – the improvement of human living standards by econoic growth
Developed and developing countries
What is the difference?

19. Economic Development Fig. 1-6, p. 10
Trade-Offs
Economic Development
Good News
Bad News
Global life expectancy doubled since 1950
Infant mortality cut in half since 1955
Food production ahead of population growth since 1978
Air and water pollution down in most developed countries since 1970
Number of people living in poverty
dropped 6% since 1990
Life expectancy 13 years less in
developing countries than in
developed Countries
Infant mortality rate in developing countries over 9
times higher than in developed
countries
Harmful environmental effects of
agriculture may limit future food
production
Air and water pollution levels in
most developing countries too high
Half of world's workers trying to
live on less than $2 (U.S.) per day
Fig. 1-6, p. 10

20. Question #5: What are the main types of pollution, and what can you do about pollution?

21. Resources Perpetual – renewed continuously
SOLAR Energy
Renewable – replenished fairly rapidly
Forests, grasslands, wild animals, fresh water, and fresh air
Nonrenewable – exist in a fixed quantity on Earth
Coal, oil, natural gas, salt, clay, sand, etc

22. Nonrenewable Resources
Energy resources
Metallic mineral resources
Nonmetallic mineral resources
Economic depletion
Recycling and reuse

23. Perpetual and Renewable Resources
Sustainable yield – a renewable resource can be reused but never lose its available supply.
Environmental degradation – exceeding the natural replacement rate of resources.
Tragedy of the Commons – “If I don’t use it someone else will…” mentality

24. Ecological Footprint
Fig. 1-7, p. 11

25. Per Capita Ecological Footprint Total Ecological Footprint
(Hectares per person)
Country
United States
The Netherlands
India
9.6
3.8
0.8
Total Ecological Footprint
(Hectares)
Country
United States
The Netherlands
India
3 billion
hectares
62 million hectares
880 million
hectares
Fig. 1-7a, p. 11

26. Ecological Footprint Fig. 1-7, p. 11 1.5 Earth's Ecological Capacity
1.2
0.9
Humanity's Ecological Footprint
Number of Earths
0.6
0.3
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Year
Fig. 1-7, p. 11

27. Pollution What is pollution? Point Source – single identifiable source
Any addition to air, water soil or food that threatens health, survival, or activities, of humans or other organisms.
Point Source – single identifiable source
Nonpoint sources – dispersed and hard to identify
What are some unwanted effects of pollution?

28. Point-source Air Pollution
Fig. 1-8, p. 13

29. Solutions to Pollution
Pollution prevention (input control)
Pollution cleanup (output control)
Disadvantages of output control

30. Environmental Problems: Causes and Connections
First step: Understanding the causes
Poverty and population growth
Premature death among the poor

31. Natural Capital Use, Depletion and Degradation
SOLAR
CAPITAL
EARTH
Goods and services
Human
Economic
and
Cultural
Systems
Heat
Human Capital
Depletion of nonrenewable resources
Degradation of renewable resources
Natural Capital
Pollution and waste
Recycling and reuse
Fig. 1-9, p. 13

32. Question #6: What are the harmful environmental effects of poverty and affluence?

33. Causes of Environmental Problems
Population
growth
Unsustainable
resource use
Poverty
Not including the
environmental costs
of economic goods
and services in their
market prices
Trying to manage and
simplify nature with too
little knowledge about
how it works
Fig. 1-10, p. 14

34. Some Harmful Results of Poverty
Lack of
access to
Number of people
(% of world's population)
Adequate
sanitation
2.4 billion (37%)
Enough fuel for
heating and
cooking
2 billion (31%)
Electricity
1.6 billion (25%)
Clean drinking water
1.1 billion (17%)
Adequate
health care
1.1 billion (17%)
Enough food
for good health
1.1 billion (17%)
Fig. 1-11, p. 14

35. Malnutrition
Fig. 1-12, p. 15

36. Economics and Ethics Affluenza – addiction to consumption
How does globalization and global advertising impact affluenza?
Law of Progressive Simplification – transfer of energy from material to nonmaterial things.
What are the positive environmental effects of affluenza?

37. Question #7: What are the basic causes of today’s environmental problems, and how are these causes connected?

38. Environmental Problems and Their Causes
Developing Countries X X =
Consumption per person (affluence, A)
Technological impact per unit of consumption (T)
Environmental impact of population (I)
Population (P) X X = X X =
Developed Countries
Fig. 1-13, p. 16

39. Historical Changes in Human Culture
Hunter-gatherers
Agricultural revolution
Industrial-medical revolution
Information-globalization revolution

40. Eras of US Environmental History
Tribal era
Frontier era
Early conservation era
Environmentalism

41. Is Our Present Course Sustainable?
Different views
Technological optimists – overstate the situation by reminding us that technological advances will save us all.
Environmental pessimists – overstate the problem by stating that our environmental situation is hopeless.
How Would You Vote? Exercise

42. Sustainability Revolution
Current
Emphasis
Sustainability
Emphasis
Pollution cleanup
Waste disposal (bury or burn)
Protecting species
Environmental degradation
Increased resource use
Population growth
Depleting and degrading natural capital)
Pollution prevention (cleaner production)
Waste prevention & reduction
Protecting where species live
(habitat protection)
Environmental restoration
Less wasteful (more efficient) resource use
Population stabilization by decreasing birth rates
Protecting natural capital and living off the biological interest it provides
Fig. 1-14, p. 18

43. Global Ecological Footprints