Environmental problems, their causes, and sustainability Chapter 1

Objectives Recognize/explain that common resources need to be shared by all and resources need to be conserved. Examine population and growth patterns. Identify the key environmental problems and their causes. Identify the difference between renewable, nonrenewable and perpetual resources and explain implications for continued use of each. Explain the difference between point and nonpoint pollution and provide examples of each.

Living More Sustainably

Living More Sustainably Keeping Terminology Straight Know the difference between: Environment – everything that affects a living organism Ecology – studies relationships between living organisms and their environment Environmental science – collaboration of physical and social sciences to learn how the earth works, how we interact with the earth, & how to deal with environmental problems Environmentalism – collaborative social movement dedicated to protecting the earth’s life support systems for us & other species

What keeps us alive? Our lifestyle and economies depend on sun (solar capital) & earth (natural capital) Capital – wealth used to sustain a business and generate more wealth Example: You invest $100,000 of your money (capital). You will receive a 10% return on that capital. This equals $10,000 You now have a total of $110,000 You used your own money to generate more money

What keeps us alive? We use solar capital to keep us alive Solar capital – energy from the sun that we use to generate other types of energy Two types: Direct sunlight Indirect sunlight Wind power Hydropower (energy from flowing water) Biomass (solar energy converted to chemical energy that is stored; Example: wood)

What keeps us alive? We also use natural capital to keep us alive Natural capital – goods and services from the natural environment which help sustain life Consists of: Natural resources Examples: Air, water, soil, wildlife, forest, fishery, minerals Ecological Services Examples: Population control, nutrient recycling, pollution control Biological income – Renewable supplies that can renew & sustain people as long as we don’t deplete them Examples: Wood, grassland, underground water

What is an environmentally sustainable society? Preserves natural capital and lives off its income In other words, it will meet basic resource needs of its people indefinitely Does not deplete or degrade natural capital Does not compromise future generations Example: If you win $1 million in the lottery. If you choose to spend the money, it will be gone in a matter of years. If you choose to invest the money, you can live off the interest WITHOUT touching the $1 million. **Protect the capital and live off the income it provides.** (to ensure a sustainable environment)

Population growth, economic growth, economic development and globalization

Population growth Example: In the year 2004… The world’s population growth rate has slowed a bit, but is still increasing pretty rapidly Exponentially at 1.25 % per year Example: In the year 2004… World’s population was 6.4 billion Increase of 80 million people 219,000 people per day 9,100 people per hour!

Economic growth vs. development Economic growth- An increase in the capacity of a country to provide people with goods and services Requires population growth Requires more production and/or consumption per person Measured by the % change in GDP Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - Annual market value of all goods & services produced by all firms & organizations, foreign & domestic, operating within a country Changes in a country’s standard of living is called per capita GDP Per capita GDP = GDP/total population at midyear

Economic growth vs. development Economic development – improvement of living standards by economic growth Countries are classified by the United Nations as being either: Developed country Developing country

Economic growth vs. development Developed vs. Developing Countries Developed Country Developing Country Examples U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, countries of Europe Asia, Africa, South America Degree of industrialization High Low Per Capita GDP Contributing to world’s population 1.2 billion 5.2 billion Population growth Slower Faster

Pros & Cons to Economic Development Life expectancy doubled since 1950 Life expectancy 11 yrs less in developing countries (when compared to developed countries) Infant mortality cut in half since 1955 Infant mortality rate in developing countries 8+ times higher (when compared to developed countries) Food production ahead of population growth since 1978 Harmful environmental effects of agriculture may limit future food production Air and water pollution down in most developed countries since 1970 Air & water pollution levels in most developing countries too high Number of people living in poverty has dropped 6% since 1990 Half of the world’s people are trying to live on less than $3 / day

Globalization Globalization - the process of social, economic, and environmental global changes that lead to an increasingly interconnected world Everyone is becoming interconnected through exchanges of: People Products Services Capital Ideas Rate of globalization is influenced by: International trade / investments Human mobility Information / communication technologies

Resources

Resources Resource – anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants Examples: food, water, shelter, manufactured news, transportation, communication, and recreation Resources are either: Direct resources - resources immediately ready for use Ex: water, air, solar energy Indirect resources– resources not directly available Ex: Petroleum; need to extract / refine petroleum to make gasoline, heating oil, etc.

Resources Types of resources: 1) Perpetual – renewed constantly Ex: solar energy Expected to last at least 6 billion yrs 2) Renewable – can be replenished fairly rapidly (from hours to decades) through natural processes Only works IF resources is not used up faster than its replaced Ex: forests, grasslands, fertile soil 3) Nonrenewable – exist in a fixed quantity in the earth’s crust Can be renewed but it takes a LONG time (millions to billions of yrs) Are depleted faster than they are formed Include: Energy resources (Ex. Coal, oil, natural gas) Metallic mineral resources (Ex. Iron, copper, aluminum) Nonmetallic resources (Ex. Salt, clay, sand, phosphates)

Resources What do we do? 1) Try to find more resources 2) Recycle / reuse existing supplies (Except for nonrenewable energy—cannot be recycle) 3) Waste less 4) Use less 5) Try to develop a substitute (for the resources) 6) Wait millions of years for more to be produced Recycling – collecting waste materials, processing them into new materials, and selling them Reuse – using resources again & again in the same form (Ex. Glass bottles)

Resources Sustainable yield – the highest rate at which we can use a resources indefinitely without reducing its available supply Environmental degradation – exceeding a renewable resource’s natural replacement rate Available supply begins to shrink Ex: urbanization of productive land, excessive topsoil erosion, pollution, overgrazing, reduction of biodiversity Caused by common-property or free-access resources Nobody owns these resources Available to users at little / no charge Ex: air, open ocean & fish, wildlife, publicly owned land (national parks)

Resources Tragedy of the Commons – Garrett Hardin (1968) Overuse of common-property or free access resources “If I do not use this resource, someone else will. The little bit I use or pollute is not enough to matter, and such resources are renewable.” Works IF there are only a few users When many people use the resources, they will exhaust or ruin it No one benefits = TRAGEDY

Resources Solutions: 1) Use the free-access resources at or below their sustainable yield Regulate access to it Reduce the population BOTH 2) Convert free-access resources into private ownership Not practical for global common resources Ex: Atmosphere, open ocean, most wildlife species

Ecological footprint (ECF) Measures how much of the earth’s natural capital & biological income each person uses Our ECF exceeds the earth’s biological capacity to replenish resources & absorb waste by 15% USA – ECF is double what the country’s resources can handle Per person, ECF exceeds what the earth can replenish naturally (by 15%) If the ECF continues to increase, earth will NOT be able to sustain life indefinitely