Introduction to Environmental Science

1. Introduction to Environmental Science Chapter 1

2. Environmental Science • Interdisciplinary science –ecology, geology, chemistry • environmental studies focuses on politics, engineering, economics, and ethics • Connections and interactions between humans and the rest of nature • Validity of data questioned – many variables • hard to perform controlled experiments

3. Environmental Science • environment: everything around us including the living and non-living things with which we interact • Goals of environmental science • learn how nature works • understand how we interact with the environment • find ways to deal with environmental problems and live more sustainably

4. Environmental Issues • Population growth • Increasing resource use • Destruction and degradation of habitat • Premature extinction (loss of biodiversity) • Poverty • Pollution • Our top three: Climate Change/Global warming; deforestation and nonrenewable resources

6. Tragedy of the Commons- Garrett Hardin 1968 • Over use of common property (exploiting common resources) “if I don’t use this resource someone else will” “I don’t take enough to matter” “the amount I pollute is not enough to cause a problem” “its a renewable resource...it will come back” • Clean air, open ocean and its fish, wildlife species, publicly owned land, gases of lower atmosphere, space • How do we manage these resources on a global level? Who is responsible for enforcing compliance?

7. Sustainability • Ability of a specified system to survive and function over a period of time • Sustainable living: Meeting present needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs • Sustainable development: balance current human well-being and economic advancement with resource management

8. Sustainability • Components of Sustainability • natural capital, natural resources and natural services work together in ecosystems to provide us with the resources we need to survive • being sustainable and managing our resources allow us to ensure these services for future generations and indefinitely • Sustainable yield: how much we can take without depleting the resource for the future

9. Ecosystem Services • Ecosystems provide services that aren’t easy to quantify • reasons for protecting and preserving our natural resources • Examples? • purifying air and water, pollination, providing oxygen, providing food

11. Ecological footprint Amount of land needed to produce the resources needed by an average person in a country Currently it takes 1.6 planet earth’s to support our lifestyle globally. As of 2010, the US has the 6th largest footprint. (UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Denmark, Belgium)

12. Ecological Footprint • The area of land and ocean required to support your consumption of food, goods, services, housing, and energy and assimilate your wastes. • Your ecological footprint is expressed in "global hectares" (gha) or "global acres" (ga), which are standardized units that take into account the differences in biological productivity of various ecosystems impacted by your consumption activities. • Your footprint is broken down into four consumption categories: carbon (home energy use and transportation), food, housing, and goods and services. www.footprintnetwork.org

13. Global Averages—Ecological Footprint There are only 15.71 acres available per person (renewable basis). We are overshooting the biological capacity by almost 50%!!

14. Overshoot Capacity • Overshoot Day (O-shoot) overshootday.org • Global overshoot occurs when humanity’s annual demand for the goods and services that our land and seas can provide—fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, wood, cotton for clothing, and carbon dioxide absorption—exceeds what Earth’s ecosystems can renew in a year. Overshoot means we are drawing down the planet’s principal rather than living off its annual interest. This overshoot leads to a depletion of Earth’s life-supporting natural capital and a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. • In 2015 the day was August 13. • In 2014 it was August 19. • In 2013 it was August 20. • In 2012 it was August 22. • In 2011 it was September 27.

15. Easter Island

16. The Mystery of Easter Island What happened on Easter Island? What caused the population crash and the extinction of some plant and animal species? How is this an illustration of the Tragedy of the commons and sustainability?

17. Discovered by Admiral Roggeveen in 1722 • Named Easter Island because discovered on Easter Sunday • Very isolated island (over 2000 miles from nearest population center—Chile) • The nearest island is 1400 miles away • Covered in large strange monoliths called Moai • There are over 887 statues on the island

23. Now designated an world heritage site (1995) and protected as Rapa Nui National Park • Current population is about 5700 (2012). • Some controversy over what happened on the island and the explanation of why it looks the way that it does…. • What factors contributed to the extinction of the trees? • How could this have been managed? • What was biodiversity like on the island in the past? What is it like now? • The author says that this is a warning for resource depletion on the planet…is he correct? • Can we prevent a crash of the human population? • What assumptions does the author make? Anything else we need to know?

24. Living in the environment

25. Cultural changes Hunter gatherers – 12,000 years ago Agricultural revolution – 10,000-12,000 years ago Industrial revolution-275 years ago Technological (informational) revolution – 50 years ago

26. Advanced Industrial societies (1914 --- Present) • increase in agricultural products (shipped from all over the world) • lower infant mortality, improved health, increase in longevity (medical advances) • net population increase • Environmental impacts globalize http://www.census.gov/popclock/

27. 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: one measure of economic development (GDP divided by population at midyear) • Economic development: using economic growth to raise living standards

28. Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability • More-developed countries: North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, most of Europe • High income. • 19% of the worlds population (1.2 billion people). • Use 88% of the worlds resources and produce 75% of the worlds pollution and waste. • Less-developed countries: most countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America • Lower income. • 81% of the worlds population. • 15% of the worlds wealth, use 12% of the worlds resources. • Divided into moderately developing (China, India, Brazil, Turkey) and least-developed (Congo, Haiti, Nicaragua, Nigeria)

30. Measuring Our Impact • Ecological Footprints: the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to provide the people in a particular country or area with an indefinite supply of renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use. • IPAT model: shows how population size (P) , Resource consumption per person (A) and the beneficial and harmful environmental effects of technologies (T) help to determine the environmental impact (I) of human activities. • I = P x A x T • Impact= Population x Resource Use x Technology • Reducing one of these areas reduces overall impact. Or implementing technologies that reduce environmental impact (pollution control and prevention, wind turbines, solar cells, fuel-efficient cars)

33. Why do we have environmental problems? • Population growth • Wasteful and unsustainable resource use (affluence) • Poverty • Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in market prices

34. Environmental Awareness • The Sierra Club was the first environmental organization created in the US • It was founded in 1892 by John Muir • He advocated for the preservation of wilderness areas • Theodore Roosevelt established the US Forest Service and the National Park System in 1906 • His efforts led to the protection of 230 million acres of land in the US • The first park designated was Yellowstone (1862) • Washington has 3 National Parks (Olympic, Rainier, North Cascades)

35. Environmental Awareness • In the time period after World War 2 (late 1940s) environmental awareness slowly became part of the national discussion • The 1960s-1970s is when a large majority of legislation was published • Rachel Carson and Silent Spring encouraged the movement • A large majority of legislation was passed in response to environmental disasters, or in response to litigation • Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Gulf Oil Spill • Love Canal • Chernobyl, Three Mile Island (nuclear disasters)

36. We now see a shift from… • “cleanup” to “prevention” • “disposal” to “reduction” • “species protection” to “habitat protection” • “increased use” to “conservation” • The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970 • We now see lots of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) • Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, Rainforest Alliance, and more… • Nationally we have departments to deal with resource management • Individual states have departments to deal with conservation and wildlife management

37. Environmental Law Research • You will be assigned 2 laws to research. You might also be assigned an international conference/treaty/protocol to research. • In your research you need to find the following information: -Name of law (you will be given 2)—include abbreviations of the law as appropriate -Year law was enacted -Summary of law in your own words (these summaries will be given to the class as a study guide) - what happened as a result of this law being enacted? (major accomplishments, improvements, or difficulties) -write on back of card