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Do Now 8/22/11. What do you think living sustainably means? *Please take out the summary of your notes and your binder with dividers. I need to check these*. Label Dividers. 1.) Do Nows /Learning Logs/Reflections 2.) Notes 3.) Labs/Projects 4.) Assessments 5 .) Readings/Current Events.
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Do Now 8/22/11 • What do you think living sustainably means? *Please take out the summary of your notes and your binder with dividers. I need to check these*
Label Dividers 1.) Do Nows/Learning Logs/Reflections 2.) Notes 3.) Labs/Projects 4.) Assessments 5.) Readings/Current Events
Human Impacts and Sustainability 8/22/11
What is sustainability? • Away of living which balances meeting our own needs, without limiting the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
What are three principles to help us live sustainably? • Solar Energy • Biodiversity • Chemical/Nutrient Cycling
What are the 3 components of sustainability? • Economy • Environment (Natural Capital) • Society
What is Natural Capital? • Natural Capital = Natural resources + Natural Services • Natural resources=materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans • Natural Services= process in nature that benefit us • i.e. purification of air, renewal of topsoil
What are the 3 types of natural resources? • Perpetual • i.e. the sun • Renewable • i.e. forests, grasslands, fish populations, freshwater, fresh air, topsoil • Nonrenewable • i.e. energy- oil, coal, metals- copper, aluminum, non-metals- salt and sand
What is Economic Development? • An effort to use economic growth to improve living standards, measured by average economic income. • More developed countries • 19% of the population, 88% of all resources, 75% of the world’s pollution and waste • Less developed countries • 81% of the population, 12% of all resources, 25% of pollution and waste
What is Environmental Degradation? • Wasting, Depleting and degrading the earth’s natural capital.
What is pollution? • A chemical, noise, heat or other agent in the environment that is harmful to the health, survival or activities of humans or other organisms.
How is pollution categorized? • Point sources= single identifiable sources • i.e. smokestack, coal burning plant • Non-point sources = disperse, difficult to identify • i.e. runoff fertilizers in a river, pesticides blown in the wind
How is pollution categorized? • Biodegradable = pollutants a natural process can break down over time • i.e. Sewage, newspapers • Non-degradable = pollutants a natural process can Not break down over time • i.e. lead, mercury, arsenic
What are the 2 ways we deal with pollution? • Output control= clean up • Input control = prevention
What are the 3 types of property? • Private property = individuals or companies own it. • Common property = large groups own it. • Open-access resources = owned by no one and available for use by anyone • i.e. atmosphere, underground water supplies, open ocean and its marine life
What is the tragedy of the commons? • When people exploit an open-access resource because they think – If I don’t use this resource, someone else will. The little bit that I use or pollute is not enough to matter and it’s renewable anyway.
What is an ecological footprint? • A measure of how much a person consumes resources and produces waste and pollution, expressed in area of land.
How is an ecological footprint a measure of sustainability? • If a country’s total ecological footprint is greater than its biological capacity to replish renewable resources and absorb pollutants and waste = ecological deficit • NOT sustainable Ecological footprint>biological capacity=ecological deificit