1 / 26

Understanding Environmental Problems for Sustainability

Explore the causes of environmental problems and learn about sustainable practices to ensure the future of our planet. This chapter examines the interconnectedness of nature and the impact of human activities on the environment.

jonnies
Download Presentation

Understanding Environmental Problems for Sustainability

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. CHAPTER 1 ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, THEIR CAUSES, AND SUSTAINABILITY

  2. Environmental Science Is a Study of Connections in Nature • Environment: • Everything around us; biotic and abiotic • “The environment is everything that isn’t me.“ • Environmental science: interdisciplinary science connecting information and ideas from • Natural sciences: ecology, biology, geology, chemistry… • Social sciences: geography, politics, economics • Humanities: ethics, philosophy

  3. Nature’s Survival Strategies Follow Three Principles of Sustainability • Reliance on solar energy • sun provides warmth/fuels photosynthesis • Biodiversity • variety and adaptability of natural systems and species • Chemical cycling • ENVIRONMENT ORGANISMS ENVIRONMENT • Also called nutrient cycling

  4. Three Principles of Sustainability

  5. Sustainability Has Certain Key Components • Natural capital: supported by solar capital; includes: • Natural resources: useful materials and energy in nature • Natural services: important nature processes such as renewal of air, water, and soil • Human activities tend to degrade natural capital • Scientific and social solutions needed for environmental sustainability

  6. Natural Capital Degradation Mongabay, Peru; satellite images

  7. Some Sources Are Renewable and Some Are Not • Resource • Anything we obtain from the environment to meet our needs • Perpetual resource • Solar energy • Renewable resource • Several days to several hundred years to renew • Nonrenewable resources • Not renewable in any reasonable amount of time, if at all

  8. Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability • Economic growth: increase in output of a nation’s goods and services • Gross domestic product (GDP): annual market value of all goods and services produced by all businesses, foreign and domestic, operating within a country • Per capita GDP: individual measurement of the wealth of each person

  9. Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability, cont. • Economic development: using economic growth to raise living standards • More-developed countries: North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, most of Europe • Less-developed countries: most countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America

  10. Countries by Gross National Income per Capita Equator

  11. We Are Living Unsustainably

  12. Pollution Comes from a Number of Sources • Sources of pollution • Point sources • E.g., smokestack • Nonpoint sources • E.g., pesticides blown into the air • Main type of pollutants • Biodegradable • Nondegradable MOST COMMON WAYS TO DEAL WITH POLLUTION • Pollution cleanup (output pollution control) • Pollution prevention (input pollution control)

  13. Point-Source Air Pollution Fig. 1-10, p. 14

  14. Nonpoint Source Water Pollution Fig. 1-11, p. 14

  15. Overexploiting Shared Renewable Resources: Tragedy of the Commons • Three types of property or resource rights • Private property • Common property • Open access renewable resources (COMMONS) • Tragedy of the Commons: Common property and open-access renewable resources degraded from overuse

  16. Ecological Footprints: A Model of Unsustainable Use of Resources • Ecological footprint: the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to provide the people in a region with indefinite supply of renewable resources, and to absorb and recycle wastes and pollution • Unsustainable if footprint is larger than biological capacity for replenishment

  17. Patterns of Natural Resource Consumption

  18. Natural Capital Use and Degradation Fig. 1-13, p. 16

  19. The IPAT Environmental Impact Model I = P × A × T • The mathematical notation of a formula put forward to describe the impact of human activity on the environment. • Equates human impact on the environment to the product of three factors: Population, Affluence, and Technology. • I = Environmental impact • P = Population • A = Affluence • T = Technology

  20. IPAT Illustrated Fig. 1-14, p. 17

  21. Natural Systems Have Tipping Points • Ecological tipping point: 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 • Long-term climate change • Over-fishing • Species extinction

  22. Tipping Point Fig. 1-15, p. 19

  23. Cultural Changes Have Increased Our Ecological Footprints • 12,000 years ago: hunters and gatherers • Three major cultural events • Agricultural revolution • Industrial-medical revolution • Information-globalization revolution

  24. Experts Have Identified Four Basic Causes of Environmental Problems • Population growth • Wasteful and unsustainable resource use • Poverty • Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in market prices

  25. Exponential Growth of Human Population Fig. 1-18, p. 21

  26. Harmful Effects of Poverty Fig. 1-20, p. 22

More Related