1. Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability1
Environmental Problems,
Their Causes, and Sustainability

2. Core Case Study: The Greening of American Campuses
Colleges across the United States are taking sustainability seriously
Green building designs and reuse
Environmental science curriculums
What does the term sustainability mean to you?
How does your campus community approach sustainability?

3. Sustainability Defined
The ability of ecosystems and human cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt together to constantly changing environments over long periods of time

4. 1.1 What Are Some Principles of Sustainability?
Life on the earth:
Has been sustained for billions of years by solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling
Depends on energy from the sun and natural capital provided by the earth
Can been preserved by shifting towards full- cost pricing and win-win solutions

5. Environmental Science Is a Study of Our Interactions With the World
What is the environment?
Everything around us, living and nonliving
Ecosystem:
Group of organisms in a defined geographic area (terrestrial or marine) that interact with each other and their environment
Environmentalism:
A social movement dedicated to sustaining the earth’s life-support system

6. What Are the Goals of Environmental Science?
To learn how life on the earth has survived and thrived
To understand how we interact with the environment
To find ways to deal with environmental problems and live more sustainably
Ecology: most of ecology focuses on the study of ecosystems
Ecosystem: group of organisms in a defined geographic area (terrestrial or marine) that interact with each other, as well as the environment in which they live
Enviromentalism: a social movement dedicated to trying to sustain the earth’s life-support system for all forms of life

7. Three Scientific Principles of Sustainability
Dependence on solar energy
Supplies nutrients, directly and indirectly
Biodiversity
Provides ecosystem services and adaptability
Chemical/nutrient cycling
In nature, waste = useful resources
Interdependence, not independence, is what sustains life

8. Lessons From Nature
FIGURE 1.2 Three scientific principles of sustainability, based on how nature has sustained a huge variety of life on the earth for 3.8 billion years, despite drastic changes in environmental conditions (Concept 1.1A).

9. Sustainability Has Certain Key Components
Natural capital
Natural resources
Ecosystem services
How do humans degrade natural capital?
By using renewable resources faster than nature can restore them
By overloading natural resources with pollution and waste

10. Sustainability Solutions
Solutions cross disciplines
Scientific versus economic and political solutions
There are trade-offs and compromises
Corporate subsidies can encourage sustainability
Daily individual and local contributions matter

11. Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Ecosystem Services
FIGURE 1.3 Natural capital consists of natural resources (blue) and ecosystem services (orange) that support and sustain the earth’s life and human economies (Concept 1.1A).

12. Other Principles of Sustainability from the Social Sciences
Full-cost pricing (economics)
Win-win situations (political science)
A responsibility to future generations (ethics)

13. What is a Resource?
A resource is anything we obtain from the environment
Can be readily available for use
Or – can require technology to acquire
Sustainable solutions for resource use
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

14. Resources Are Inexhaustible, Renewable, and Nonrenewable
Inexhaustible resources
Perpetually available and expected to last
Renewable resources
Replenished by natural processes within their sustainable yield
Nonrenewable/exhaustible resources
Available in fixed quantities that can be renewed, but only through long-term geologic processes
Sustainable yield: highest rate we can use a renewable resource indefinitely without impacting its perpetual availability
Inexhaustible resource examples: solar energy, wind and flowing water
Renewable resource examples: forests, grasslands, fish, topsoil, clean air, fresh water
Nonrenewable resource examples: fossil fuels, metallic minerals (cooper and aluminum) and non-metallic minerals (salt and sand)

15. Countries Differ in Resource Use and Environmental Impact
Industrialized countries
17% of world’s population (United States, Canada, Western Europe)
Developing countries
83% of world’s population
Middle income, moderately developed countries (China, India, Brazil)
Low income, least developed countries (Nigeria, Bangladesh, Haiti)

16. 1.2 How Are Our Ecological Footprints Affecting the Earth?
Over time, growth of ecological footprints depletes and degrades earth’s natural capital (natural resources and ecosystem services)
Environmental degradation
Is there any good news?
The UN’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report concluded that we have scientific, economic, and political solutions to these problems that we could implement within a few decades.

17. Natural Capital Degradation
Degradation of Normally Renewable Natural Resources
Climate change
Shrinking
forests
Decreased wildlife
habitats
Air pollution
Species extinction
Soil erosion
Water pollution
Declining ocean fisheries
Aquifer depletion
FIGURE 1.5 Natural capital consists of natural resources (blue) and ecosystem services (orange) that support and sustain the earth’s life and human economies (Concept 1.1A).
Fig. 1-5

18. We Are Living Unsustainably
FIGURE 1.5 Natural capital consists of natural resources (blue) and ecosystem services (orange) that support and sustain the earth’s life and human economies (Concept 1.1A).

19. Pollution Comes From a Number of Sources
Pollution: contamination of the environment by polluting substances (pollutants) such as chemicals, noise, and heat
Naturally occurring (volcanoes)
Contributed by humans (burning of fossil fuels)

20. Point Sources Single, identifiable origins (e.g., smokestacks)
FIGURE 1.8 Point-source air pollution from smokestacks in a coal-burning industrial plant.

21. Nonpoint Sources
Dispersed and difficult to identify sources (e.g., pesticides, trash in streams)
FIGURE 1.9 The trash in this river came from a large area of land and is an example of nonpoint-source water pollution.

22. How Are We Dealing With Pollution?
Pollution cleanup (post-production)
Cleanup: dilution/reduction of pollutants
Pollution prevention (before pollution occurs)
Reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants
See examples of pollution prevention plans in Texas: l

23. We Are Degrading Commonly Shared Renewable Resources
The tragedy of the commons
Cumulative degradation due to the overuse of:
Open access, renewable resources (atmosphere, open ocean, fish)
Shared resources (grasslands, forests, streams)
The individual (incorrectly) believes that:
“The little bit that I use or pollute is not enough to matter, and anyway, it’s a renewable resource”

24. What is an Ecological Footprint?
The amount of land and water needed to supply a population or geographic area with renewable resources, as well as the ability to absorb/recycle wastes and pollution produced by resource usage
The growth of ecological footprints
Leads to degradation of natural capital
Results in the creation of pollution and waste

25. Our Ecological Footprints Are Growing
An ecological deficit:
Occurs when the ecological footprint is larger than the biological capacity to replenish resources and absorb wastes/pollution
In an ecological deficit, people are living unsustainably
This creates adverse environmental impacts, which can be mitigated by upcycling
Per capita ecological footprint: The average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area
Upcycling: improving aspects of the environment while serving humanity’s needs and wants

26. IPAT Is Another Environmental Impact Model
In the early 1970s, a new environmental model called the IPAT model was developed to determine the environmental impact of human activities
Impact I =
Population P × Affluence A × Technology (T)

27. 1.3 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?
FIGURE 1.11 Environmental and social scientists have identified five basic causes of the environmental problems we face (Concept 1.3A).

28. Our Environmental Worldview
For each of these causes, what are two environmental problems that result?
Our own worldview determines whether we live sustainably or unsustainably

29. The Human Population Is Growing at a Rapid Rate
Unchecked population/ecological footprint growth results in natural capital degradation
Can we slow down this degradation by reducing the rate of population growth?
Share this article for greater insight into this issue:

30. Exponential Growth
FIGURE 1.12 Exponential growth: The J-shaped curve represents past exponential world population growth, with projections to 2100 showing possible population stabilization as the J-shaped curve of growth changes to an S-shaped curve. (This figure is not to scale.)

31. Affluence Has Harmful Environmental Effects
High levels of consumption and waste of resources
More air pollution, water pollution, and land degradation
Acquisition of resources without regard for the environmental effects of their consumption

32. Affluence Has Beneficial Environmental Effects
Better education
Scientific research
Technological solutions resulting in improvements in environmental quality (e.g., safe drinking water)

33. Poverty Can Have Harmful Environmental and Health Effects
Harmful effects
Short term requirements for survival can lead to degraded forests, topsoil, grasslands, fisheries, and wildlife populations
Health effects
Malnutrition, limited access to sanitation/clean drinking water, outdoor and indoor air pollution
Poverty occurs when the basic needs for adequate food, water, shelter, health, and education are not met.
One in every five people live in extreme poverty (<$1.25/day), and more are susceptible.
Poverty does not always cause environmental degradation. Some poor populations have learned to plant and nurture trees and conserve soils, which are beneficial to their environments.

34. Prices of Goods/Services Rarely Include Their Harmful Environmental/Health Costs
Consumers are unaware of the damage caused by their consumption
Current government subsidies often increase environmental degradation
To live sustainably, government subsidies must become beneficial to the environment by:
Taxing pollution and waste
Shifting from environmentally harmful to environmentally beneficial subsidies

35. We Are Increasingly Isolated From Nature
More than half the world’s population lives in urban environments technological isolated from nature
We are unaware of:
The origins of our food, water and other goods
The pollution and waste generated by the production of these goods and services
Technological isolation: cell phones, computers, tablets, games, etc. – virtual reality, not physical reality

36. What is Your Environmental Worldview?
Each individual has his or her own environmental worldview
A set of assumptions and values reflecting how one thinks the world works and what one’s role in it should be

37. People Have Different Views About Environmental Problems/Solutions
Three major types of world views:
Human-centered
Planetary management world view
Stewardship world view
Life-centered
Earth-centered
The stewardship worldview holds that we can and should manage the earth for our benefit, but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers.
The environmental wisdom worldview holds that we are part of, and dependent on, nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for us.

38. The Rise of Environmental Conservation and Protection in the United States
The preservationist school (John Muir)
Leave wilderness areas on some public lands untouched
The conservationist school (Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot)
Manage all public lands wisely and scientifically, primarily to provide resources for people

39. 1.4 What Is an Environmentally Sustainable Society?
In order to live sustainably, one must live off the natural resources without depleting or degrading the natural capital that supplies these natural resources

40. We Must Protect Our Natural Capital and Live Off of Its Income
Earth’s natural capital provides natural income
Renewable resources such as plants, animals, soil, and clean water and air
By living only on the natural income and not depleting the natural capital, society moves from an unsustainable lifestyle to a sustainable one

41. A More Sustainable Future Is Possible
Given enough time, most degraded environments can recover – but many will take hundreds and even thousands of years to recover
Time is our most scarce resource
However, 5-10% of a population that changes can make a difference
Changes can occur in a shorter time than previously thought

42. Additional Case Study: An Eco-City – Tianjin, China
Tianjin, China is a real-life entirely sustainable community developed on non- arable land located in an area facing a water shortage in one of the fastest growing regions of China
How does Tianjin reduce, reuse, and recycle its resources?
Do you think you could live in this city? Why or why not?
Tianjin city government link:
Tianjin-eco city link:

43. Tiajin and the Three Big Ideas
Create a more sustainable future
Use natural capital and natural resources
Reduce, reuse, and recycle
Utilize full-cost pricing
Be aware of ecological footprints – and address cleanup and prevention
Find win-win solutions
Apply these solutions to other societies
From the city website:
"Three Harmonies" refers to:
People living in harmony with other people, i.e., social harmony
People living in harmony with economic activities, i.e., economic vibrancy
People living in harmony with the environment, i.e. environmental sustainability
"Three Abilities” refers to the eco-city being:
Practical - the technologies adopted in the Eco-city must be affordable and commercially viable
Replicable - the principles and models of the eco-city could be applied to other cities in China and even in other countries
Scalable - the principles and models could be adapted for another project or development of a different scale