Introducing Environmental Science and Sustainability 1

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. SWBAT:  Explain how human activities affect global systems.  Distinguish among highly developed countries, moderately developed countries, and less developed countries.  Explain how both population and affluence can lead to unsustainable consumption.  Understand how ecological footprints are defined and how they can be estimated.  Calculate and contemplate your individual ecological footprint.  Define ecological footprint.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Overview of Chapter 1  Human Impacts on The Environment  Population, Resources and the Environment  Sustainability  Environmental Science  Addressing Environmental Problems

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. The Environment (Earth)  Life has existed on earth for 3.8 billion yrs  Earth well suited for life  Water over ¾ of planet  Habitable temperature, moderate sunlight  Atmosphere provides oxygen and carbon dioxide  Soil with essential minerals for plants

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Human Impacts on Environment- Population  Expected to add several billion more people in 21 st century  Earth’s Human Population is at 6.9 billion  Growing exponentially

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Population  1 in 4 people live in extreme poverty  Cannot meet basic need for food, clothing, shelter, health  Difficult to meet population needs without exploiting earth’s resources

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Gap Between Rich and Poor  Highly Developed Countries (HDC)  Complex industrialized bases, low population growth, high per capita incomes  Ex: US, Canada, Japan

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Gap Between Rich and Poor  Less Developed Countries (LDC)  Low level of industrialization, very high fertility rate, high infant mortality rate, low per capita income  Ex: Bangladesh, Mali, Ethiopia

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Types of Natural Resources

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Consumption  Consumption  Human use of materials and energy  People in HDCs are big consumers  Unsustainable Consumption  Occurs when the level of demand on a country’s resources damages or depletes the resource enough to reduce the quality of life for future generations  Caused by overpopulation and/or overconsumption

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Consumption  Overpopulation and/or overconsumption have effects.  Pollution, environmental degradation, resources depletion. 75 percent of the world’s pollution and waste is by highly developed countries.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 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!

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Ecological Footprint  The average amount of land, water and ocean required to provide that person with all the resources they consume. Earth’s Productive Land and Water11.4 billion hectares Amount Each Person is Allotted (divide Productive Land & Water by Human Pop.) 1.8 hectares Current Global Ecological Footprint of each person 2.7 hectares

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Ecological Footprint  Humans have an ecological overshoot

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 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!

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Ecological Footprint  The average amount of land, water and ocean required to provide that person with all the resources they consume. Earth’s Productive Land and Water11.4 billion hectares Amount Each Person is Allotted (divide Productive Land & Water by Human Pop.) 1.8 hectares Current Global Ecological Footprint of each person 2.7 hectares

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Ecological Footprint  Humans have an ecological overshoot

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. SWBAT:  Define environmental science and briefly describe the role of Earth systems in environmental science.  Outline the scientific method.  List and briefly describe the five stages in addressing environmental problems.  Describe the concept of tragedy of the commons.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.  IPAT model was proposed in 1970s by Paul Ehrlich and physicist John Holdren.  It is not fully understand because of the environmental impacts of a particular technology on the system. IPAT Model

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. IPAT Model  Measures 3 factors that affect environmental impact (I) I = P A T Environmental Impact Number of people Affluence per person Environmental effect of technologies

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Sustainability  Sustainability: The ability to meet current human economic and social needs without compromising the ability of the environment to support future generations.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Environmental Sustainability

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Environmental Sustainability  The ability to meet current human need for natural resources without compromising the needs of future generations  Requires understanding :  The effects of our actions on the earth  That earth’s resources are not infinite

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 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 Sustainability: a goal for the future

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.  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

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.  How can humans live within the planet’s means?  Humans cannot exist without functioning natural systems  Sustainable development: the use of resources to satisfy current needs without compromising future availability of resources Sustainability: a goal for the future

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 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

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Environmental Science  An interdisciplinary study of human relationship with other organisms and the earth  Biology  Ecology  Geography  Chemistry  Geology  Physics  Economics  Sociology  Demography  Politics

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Earth System and Environmental Science  System  A set of components that interact and function as a whole  Global Earth Systems  Climate, atmosphere, land, coastal zones, ocean  Ecosystem  A natural system consisting of a community of organisms and its physical environment

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Systems and Feedback System:  A system can be defined as a group of parts that work together to behave as a whole. There are two types:. A. Open System: B. Closed System: Important: Predicts changes. All systems respond to inputs (additions) and outputs (loses).

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Systems and Feedback  All systems respond to inputs (additions) and outputs (loses).  Open systems do not have boundaries, whereas closed systems do. The earth is essentially a closed system because its materials do not leave, however… Example: Energy is an open system because energy is constantly coming in. Furthermore, one could argue we do get some matter coming in because of space rock etc. Lastly, with technology we are also finding ways to remove some matter from the planet.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Feedback  A natural system can respond to change sin inputs and outputs.  Feedback is adjustments in inputs or output rates caused by changes to a system.  Two types: Positive and negative feedback.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Earth Systems and Environmental Science  Negative feedback-A system responds to a change by returning to its original state, or at least by decreasing the rate at which the change is occurring.  For this reason it is often referred to as self- regulating Examples: Negative feedback might occur if the system senses an increase in temperature it would cause the system to react (by sweating for example) thereby causing the temperature to be lowered.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Feedback Positive feedback -A system responds to a change by amplifying the change is occurring. Example: Positive feedback is seen in the example of a fire. The input of a fire causes wood to burn easily. The fire will then increase causing more wood to dry out and to burn… those repeating endlessly.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Scientific Method

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Controls and Variables in Experiment  Variable  A factor that influences a process  The variable may be altered in an experiment to see its effect on the outcome  Control  The variable is not altered  Allows for comparison between the altered variable test and the unaltered variable test

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Theories  Explains laws  A theory is an integrated explanation of numerous hypothesis each supported by data.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Five Steps to Addressing An Environmental Problem  Five steps are idealistic  Case Study: Lake Washington

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Assessing Environmental Problem Case Study: Lake Washington  Large, freshwater pond  Suburban sprawl in 1940’s  10 new sewage treatment plants dumped effluent into lake  Effect = excessive cyanobacteria growth that killed off fish and aquatic life

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.  Scientific Assessment  Aquatic wildlife assessment done in 1933 was compared to the 1950 assessment  Hypothesized treated sewage was introducing high nutrients causing growth of cyanobacteria  Risk Analysis  After analyzing many choices, chose new location (freshwater) and greater treatment for sewage to decrease nutrients in effluent Assessing Environmental Problem Case Study: Lake Washington

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.  Public Education/Involvement  Educated public on why changes were necessary  Political Action  Difficult to organize sewage disposal in so many municipalities  Changes were not made until 1963!  Evaluation  Cyanobacteria slowly decreased until 1975 (gone) Assessing Environmental Problem Case Study: Lake Washington

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.  Results Assessing Environmental Problem Case Study: Lake Washington

43  The Tragedy of the Commons describes the likeliness of a commons area being exploited for short-term economic gain.  Modern examples include the atmosphere and oceans. Norilsk, Russia Source: ecojunk.wordpress.com Zadar, Croatia Source: Agence France-Presse

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Tragedy of the Commons- Garrett Hardin (1915–2003)  An ecologist named Garrett Hardin wrote an essay called “The Tragedy of the Commons”, describing the source of environmental problems as a conflict:  Short-term interests of individuals versus… Long-term interests of civilization and the Earth itself  Garrett used Common Pastureland in medieval Europe to illustrate the struggle.

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?

46  A small village consists mostly of farmers that raise and sell sheep at a nearby city.  The only place for the sheep to graze is a commons in the center of the village.  A commons is an area that belongs to no individual; it is shared by the entire society.  Likely outcome: Villagers obtain as many sheep as possible, allow to graze in the commons.  Maximize short-term financial gain.

47 What if the commons was instead divided into sections that was owned by each villager?