Chapter 1 Environmental Problems Their Causes and Sustainability

Chapter 1 Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability AP Environmental Science

CORE CASE STUDY “A Vision of a More Sustainable World in 2060” ● ● ● It is discussed that a transition in human attitudes and activities towards the environment, a shift in behavior, can lead to a much better future for the whole plant in 2060. By 2050, significant atmospheric warming and the resulting climate change will occur as many climate scientists had projected back in the 1990's.

CORE CASE STUDY “A Vision of a More Sustainable World in 2060” ● ● Sustainability is the capacity of the earth's natural systems and human cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt into the very long term future. The goal of future generations is to teach their children to care for the earth in hopes of passing on a better world to the future ahead.

Section 1: What are 3 Principles of Sustainability? ● Main Ideas: – Nature has been sustained for billions of years by using solar energy, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling. – Our lives and economies depend on many natural sources provided by the earth.

Environmental Science is a Study of Connections in Nature ● Environment is practically everything around us. “The environment is everything that isn't me”- Albert Einstein ● Environmental Science is interdisciplinary science connecting information and ideas from – Natural Sciences= ecology, biology, geology, chemistry – Social Sciences= geography, politics, economics – Humanities= ethics, philosophy

Environmental Science is a Study of Connections in Nature ● ● Every organism is a member of a certain species, a group of organisms that have a unique set of characteristics that distinguish them from all other organisms. An ecosystem is a set of organisms within a defined area or volume that interact with one another and with and their environment of nonliving matter and energy.

Nature's Survival Strategies Follow 3 Principles of Sustainability 1) Reliance on solar energy - The sun provides warmth and fuels photosynthesis. 2) Biodiversity - Astounding variety and adaptability of natural systems and species. 3) Chemical Cycling - Circulation of chemicals from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment= nutrient cycling for short.

Nature's Survival Strategies Follow 3 Principles of Sustainability

Sustainability has Certain Key Components ● Natural Capital is supported by solar capital – Natural Resources is useful materials and energy in nature. – Natural Services is important nature processes such as renewal of air, water, and soil. ● All humans degrade natural capital. ● Search for solutions often involves conflicts.

Sustainability has Certain Key Components Nutrient Cycling

Some Resources are Renewable and Some are Not ● ● Resource is anything we obtain from the environment to meet our needs. – Some of it is directly available for use, like sunlight. – Some not directly available for use, like petroleum Perpetual Resource is solar energy for example.

Some Resources are Renewable and Some are Not ● Renewable Resources may take several days to several hundred years to renew. – ● ● ● Examples are forests, grasslands, fresh air, fertile soil. Sustainable yield is the highest rate at which we can use a renewable resource without reducing available supply. Nonrenewable resources are such as energy resources, metallic mineral resources, and nonmetallic mineral resources. Remember to Reuse and Recycle:

Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability! ● ● ● Economic growth is an increase in output of a nation's goods and services Gross Domestic product (GDP) is the annual market value of all goods and services produced by all businesses, foreign and domestic, operating within a country. Per Capita GDP, is one measure of economic development.

Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability! ● ● ● Economic development is using economic growth to raise living standards. More Developed countries are North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and most of Europe. Less Developed Countries are most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability! ● Countries by Gross National Income per Capita

Section 2: How are our Ecological Footprints Affecting the Earth? ● Main Ideas: – As our ecological footprints grow, we are depleting and degrading more of the Earth's natural capital.

We are living Unsustainably ● ● Environmental degradation means wasting, depleting, and degrading the earth's natural capital. It is happening at a FAST RATE and it can also be called natural capital degradation.

We are living Unsustainably ● DEPLETION =

Pollution Comes from a Number of Sources ● Pollution is any presence within the environment of a chemical or other agents such as noise or heat at a level that is harmful to the health, survival, or activities of humans or other organisms. ● There's 2 sources of pollution: ● Point Sources are for example like a smokestack. ● Non point Sources are for example pesticides blown into the air.

Pollution Comes from a Number of Sources ● ● Main types of pollutants are Biodegradable or Non degradable. The two methods to deal with pollution are: 1) Pollution Cleanup/ Output Pollution Control, which involves cleaning up or diluting pollutants after having produced them. 2) Pollution Prevention/ Input Pollution Control, which reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants.

Tragedy of the Commons: Overexploiting Commonly Shared Renewable Resources ● There are 3 types of property or resource rights. (1) Private property is where individuals or companies own the rights to land, minerals, or other resources. (2) Common property is where the rights to certain resources are held by large groups of individuals. (3) Open access renewable resources are owned by none and are available for use by anyone at little or no charge.

Tragedy of the Commons: Overexploiting Commonly Shared Renewable Resources ● Okay now, the Tragedy of the commons is that common property and open-access renewable resources are being degraded from overuse. – One solution is to use a shared renewable resource at a rate in which we use less of the resource, regulating access. – Second Solution is to convert open access renewable resources to private ownership.

Ecological Footprints: A Model of Unsustainable Use of Resources ● ● ● Ecological Footprint is the amount of biologically productive land water needed to provide the people in a region with definite supply of renewable resources, and to absorb and recycle wastes and pollution. Per capita ecological footprint is the average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area. It is unsustainable because the footprint is larger than biological capacity for replenishment.

IPAT Is Another Environmental Impact Model ➢ ➢ I=Px. Ax. T ➢ I= Environmental Impact ➢ P= Population ➢ A= Affluence ➢ T= Technology Developed by Scientists to show population size, affluence, or resource consumption person, and the beneficial and harmful environmental effects of technologies help to determine the environmental impact of human activities.

CASE STUDY “China's New Affluent Consumers” ● China is the leading consumer of various foods and goods: – Ex: Wheat, Rice, and Meat – Ex: Coal, Fertilizers, Steel, and Cement ● China is the 2 nd largest consumer of oil ● Two-thirds of the most pollutes cities are in China ● It is a projection for the next decades that China will be the largest consumer and producer of cars.

Natural Systems Have Tipping Points ● ● Ecological tipping point is an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system. Environmental degradation has time delays between our actions now and the deleterious effects later on are such as long-term climate change, over-fishing, and species extinction.

Cultural Changes Have Increased Our Ecological Footprints ● ● Culture is the whole of a society's knowledge, beliefs, technology, and practices, and human cultural changes have had profound effects on the earth. 12, 000 years ago we were mostly hunters and gatherers. The 3 major cultural events are the Agricultural Revolution, Industrial- Medical Revolution, and Information-Globalization Revolution. The earth is in current need for a sustainability revolution.

Cultural Changes Have Increased Our Ecological Footprints ● Technological Innovations have led to greater human control over the rest of nature and to an expanding human population.

Section 3: Why Do We Have Environmental Problems? ● Main Ideas: – Major causes of environmental problems are population growth, wasteful and unsustainable resource use, poverty, and exclusion of environmental consts of resource use from the market prices of goods and services.

Experts Have Identified Four Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 1) Population Growth 2) Wasteful and unsustainable resource use 3) Poverty 4) Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in market prices or poor environmental accounting.

The Human Population is Growing Exponentially at a Rapid Rate ● ● Exponential growth occurs when a quanity such as the human population increases at a fixed percentage per unit of time. No one knows how many people the earth can support indefinitely. We can slow population growth with the goal of having it level off at around 8 billion by 2040. All we need is economic development, promoting family planning, and elevating the status of women.

The Human Population is Growing Exponentially at a Rapid Rate

Affluence Has Harmful and Beneficial Environmental Effects ● Harmful environmental impact is due to high levels of consumption, high levels of pollution, and unnecessary waste of resources. – ● ● Affluenza is an eventually unsustainable addiction to buying more and more stuff. Affluence can provide funding for developing technologies to reduce pollution, environmental degradation, and resource waste. Affluence can also lead to better education, which can lead people to become more concerned about environmental quality.

Poverty has Harmful Environmental and Health Effects ● ● Poverty occurs when people are unable to fulfill their basic needs for adequate food, water, shelter, health, and education. Effects of poverty are population growth being affected, malnutrition, premature death and limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and clean water.

Prices Do Not Include the Value of Natural Capital ● ● Companies do not pay the environmentak cost of resource use. Goods and services do not include the harmful environmental costs. Companies are the ones receiving tax breaks and subsidies The economy may be stimulated but there may be a degradation of natural capital.

People Have Different Views about Environmental Problems and their Solutions ● ● ● Your environmental worldview is your set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be. Environmental ethics is what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment. Planetary management worldview is that we are separate from and in charge of nature. Stewardship worldview is that we must manage earth for out benefit with ethical responsibility to be stewards. Environmental wisdom worldview is that we are part of nature and must engage in sustainable use.

Section 4: What is an Environmentally Sustainable Society? ● Main Ideas: – Living sustainably means living off the earth's natural income without depleting or degrading the natural capital that supplies it.

Environmentally Sustainable Societies Protect Natural Capital and Live off its Income ● An environmentally sustainable society meets current needs while ensuring that needs of future generations will be met. – ● Living on natural income of natural cpital without diminishing the natural capital. * Protect your capital and live on the income it provides.

We Can Work Together to Solve Environmental Problems ● ● ● Social Capital encourages openness and communication, cooperation, and hopw. Social Capital discourages close mindednedd, polarization, and confrontation and fear. Citizens need to work together to find trade off solutions to environmental problems!

CASE STUDY “The Environmental Transformation of Chattanooga, Tennessee” ● Chattanooga was once a highly pollutes city, but with the help of many , it is now one of the most sustainable and livable cities in the U. S. – In 1960 it was regarded the most polluted city in the U. S – In 1984, civic leeaders started a Vision 2000 process. – In 1995 most goals are met. – In 1993, the community began Revision 200, making it a goal to transform abandoned areas.

INDIVIDUALS MATTER ● ● ● Research by social scientists suggests that it takes only 5 -10% of the population to bring out major social change. We have only 50 -100 years to make the change to sustainability before its too late. We must rely on renewable energy, protect biodiversity, and reduce waste and pollution.

3 Big Ideas from Ch. 1. . . ● ● ● We could rely more on renewable energy from the sun, including indirect forms of solar energy such as wind and flowing water, to meet most of outr heating and electricity needs. We can protect biodiversity by preventing the degradation of the earth's species, ecosystems, and natural processes, and by restoring areas we have degraded. We can help sustain the earth's natural chemical cycles by reducing our production of wastes and pollution, not overloading natural systems with harmful chemicals, and not removing natural chemicals faster than those chemical cycles can replace them.