1. Chapters 1 HUMANS AND SUSTAINABILITY: AN OVERVIEW

2. Chapter Overview Questions What keeps us alive? What is an environmentally sustainable society? How fast is the human population increasing? What are economic growth, economic development, and globalization? What are the earth’s main types of resources? How can they be depleted or degraded?

3. Chapter Overview Questions (cont’d) What are the principal types of pollution? What can we do about pollution? What are the basic causes of today’s environmental problems? How are these causes connected? Is our current course sustainable? What is environmentally sustainable development?

4. Chapter Overview Questions (cont’d) What major beneficial and harmful effects have hunter-gatherer societies, agricultural societies, and industrialized societies had on the environment? What might be the environmental impact of the current information and globalization revolution?

5. Chapter Overview Questions (cont’d) What are the major phases in the history of land and wildlife conservation, public health, and environmental protection in the United States? What is Aldo Leopold’s land ethic? What has happened to the Aral Sea? What is the population Doubling Rate for India?

6. What is Environmental Science? The goals of environmental science are to learn: –how nature works. –how the environment effects us. –how we effect the environment. –how we can live more sustainably without degrading our life-support system. –what keeps us alive.

7. What does keep us alive? The sun and earth’s resources !

8. Societies wants and needs: An environmental sustainable society meets the current needs of its people for food, clean water, clean air, and other basic resources without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

9. Like a bank of capital funds All life and economies depend on energy from the sun ( solar capital) and earth’s resources and ecological capital (natural capital. Solar capital – direct sunlight, wind power, hydropower, biomass Natural capital- air, water, soil, wildlife, forests, fisheries, minerals, etc.

10. Solar Capital Solar capital – energy directly from the sun. Solar energy generates: sunlight, wind power, hydropower and biomass.

11. Natural Capital Consist of resources and ecological services that support and sustain life and economies.

12. Natural resources and the many services that make them useful give us our natural capital.

13. We should protect our natural capital and life off the income it provides!

14. We should LIVE SUSTAINABLY … study of how the earth works, how we interact with the earth and how to deal with environmental problems.

15. Sustainability: The Integrative Theme Sustainability, is the ability of earth’s various systems to survive and adapt to environmental conditions indefinitely. The steps to sustainability must be supported by sound science.

16. Population Growth- Can the planet sustain a growth in population?

17. Developed Countries have approx. 1.2 billion people: US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and countries of Europe.

18. Developing Countries have approx. 5.2 billion people: Most of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. (Some are middle-income, moderately developed countries and others low-income.)

19. DEVELOPED vs. DEVELOPING DEVELOPED NATIONS High GNP High Quality of Life Low Growth Rate 20% of world pop 85% of Global Wealth 88% of natural resources 75% of Global Pollution and Waste DEVELOPING NATIONS  LOW GNP  Poor Quality of Life  Low to High Growth Rate  Agriculturally Based Society  80% of world pop  15% of Global Wealth  12 of natural resources USA, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Europe, Australia Africa, Asia (china, india), Latin America (haiti,mexico)

20. 97% of the projected increase in population is expected to take place in the developing countries !

21. Sunday, August 30, 2015 Current World Population 7,363,667,214 World Population LinkWorld Population Births today 365,205 Deaths today 152,938 Population Growth today 212,267

22. We are Living in an Exponential Age Human population growth: J-shaped curve Figure 1-1

23. Population -Doubling Time Follow the RULE OF 70!! Calculate the doubling time of any population divide 70 by the % growth rate 70/1.35 = 52 years

24. Calculate Doubling Time (2007 Stats) KENYA growth rate = 2.8% (70/2.8= 25 years) USA growth rate = 0.9% China growth rate = 0.6% ANSWERS: KENYA = 25 years USA = 78 years CHINA = 117 years

25. POPULATION GROWTH, ECONOMIC GROWTH, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Economic growth provides people with more goods and services. –Measured in gross domestic product (GDP). Economic development uses economic growth to improve living standards. –The world’s countries economic status (developed vs. developing) are based on their degree of industrialization and GDP.

26. Economic Growth Economic growth closes the gap between the haves and the have nots. Economic Growth is Measured in GDP ( Gross Domestic Product) Per Capita GDP – the GDP divided by the total population

27. Standard of Living Changes in a country’s standard of living is measured by per capita GDP. (The GDP divided by Population) The US has a high standard of living – we are an affluent country.

28. Some say we suffer from Affuenza ! A term used to describe the unsustainable addition to overconsumption and materialism.

30. Global Outlook Comparison of developed and developing countries. The countries greatest growth in population in population – have the least resources and wealth.

31. Levels of Poverty ( darker areas are the most impoverished)

32. Globalization- Technology, trade and mobility are changing the world.

34. Globalization

35. Our needs and wants: Depending on where we live and the resources available – humans look to perpetual, renewable and nonrenewable resources to provide what we need to survive.

36. RESOURCES On a human time scale- Perpetual: are continuous. Renewable: can be replenished rapidly (e.g. hours to several decades). Nonrenewable: are in fixed supply.

37. Perpetual Resource Direct Solar energy and Winds, tides and flowing water

38. Renewable Resources Fresh Air, Fresh water, Fertile Soil and Plants and animals (biodiversity)

39. Nonrenewable Resources Exist as fixed quantity –Becomes economically depleted. Recycling and reusing extends supply –Recycling processes waste material into new material. –Reuse is using a resource over again in the same form.

40. Our Ecological Footprint Humanity’s ecological footprint has exceeded earths ecological capacity.

41. How big is your Carbon Footprint

42. Recycling – Closing the loop Collecting waste materials, processing them into new materials. Close the loop- buy recycled goods

43. POLLUTION Found at high enough levels in the environment to cause harm to organisms. –Point source –Nonpoint source

44. Excess One of the byproducts of human consumption is pollution

45. Environmental Crisis Love Canal

46. Effects of pollution

47. Pollution Pollutants can have three types of unwanted effects: –Can disrupt / degrade life-support systems. –Can damage health and property. –Can create nuisances such as noise and unpleasant smells, tastes, and sights.

48. Solutions: Can we do anything about it? Pollution prevention (input control) AND Pollution cleanup (output control)

49. Solutions: Prevention vs. Cleanup Problems with relying on cleanup: –Temporary bandage without improvements in control technology. –Often removes a pollutant from one part of the environment to cause problems in another. –Pollutants at harmful levels can cost too much to reduce them to acceptable levels.

50. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS: CAUSES AND CONNECTIONS The major causes of environmental problems are: The BIG 5 –Population growth –Wasteful resource use –Poverty –Poor environmental accounting –Ecological ignorance

51. Depletion of nonrenewable resources SOLAR CAPITAL Human Capital Human Economic and Cultural Systems Pollution and waste Degradation of renewable resources Heat Goods and services Natural Capital EARTH

52. Natural capital degradation The exponential increasing flow of material resources through the world’s economic systems depletes, degrades and pollutes the environment.

53. Poverty and Environmental Problems 1 of 3 children under 5, suffer from severe malnutrition.

54. Resource Consumption and Environmental Problems Underconsumption- consuming less than is produced. Rich are richer/poor are poorer Overconsumption –Affluenza: unsustainable addiction to overconsumption and materialism.

55. Connections between Environmental Problems and Their Causes

56. CULTURAL CHANGES AND THE ENVIRONMENT Agricultural revolution –Allowed people to stay in one place. Industrial-medical revolution –Led shift from rural villages to urban society. –Science improved sanitation and disease control. Information-globalization revolution –Rapid access to information.

57. Which single advantage and disadvantage are the most important?

58. SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL WORLDVIEWS Technological optimists: –suggest that human ingenuity will keep the environment sustainable. Environmental pessimists: –overstate the problems where our environmental situation seems hopeless.

59. How Would You Vote? Is the society you live in on an unsustainable path? –a. Yes: Without readily available green products and services, converting to a sustainable society is unrealistic. –b. Not entirely: I'm doing what I can to improve sustainability, including recycling and using less energy.

60. Four Scientific Principles of Sustainability: Copy Nature Reliance on Solar Energy Biodiversity Population Control Nutrient Recycling

61. Aldo Leopold’s Environmental Ethics Individuals matter. … land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity…

62. Implications of the Four Scientific Principles of Sustainability

63. Case Study: The Aral Sea

64. Aral Sea Irrigation Disaster The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth- largest lake. Now much of it is a vast toxic desert straddling the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet states in central Asia. In 1960- The Soviet Union diverted the headwaters to irrigate the arid soil to grow cotton. Now the sea bed is dry and ships dot the salty desert.

65. Case Study: India’s Population Over 1.2 billion people live in India today. (2013 stats) Calculate the doubling time (time it will take to double their population) India’s growth rate is 1.2%