Understanding Our Environment
Chapter 1
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Deformed Frogs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
First noticed in Minnesota by children on a
field trip.
Subsequent studies showed dramatic
increase in deformities.
Synthetic chemicals suspect: hormone
disrupters.
UV radiation, heavy metals, parasites are
suspect as well.
Many have vanished from wetlands.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
What is Environmental Science?
•
Environmental Science: Systematic study
of our environment, and our proper place in
it.

Interdisciplinary

Integrative
Natural Sciences
Social Sciences
Humanities

Mission Oriented
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Plato first complained that after the forests in
Greece were cut all that was left was a
rocky “skeleton of a body wasted by
disease.”
Four Distinct Eras in Modern Time
1.
Pragmatic Resource Conservation
2.
Moral and Aesthetic Nature Preservation
3.
Health and Ecological Damage Concerns
4.
Global Environmental Citizenship
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
1. Pragmatic Resource Conservation
•
George Perkins Marsh
 Early Conservationist who traveled and read
widely, including Plato’s Greece
- Warnings influenced Theodore Roosevelt
(1905 moved Forest Service to Dept of
Agriculture and Gifford Pinchot (managed the
Forest Service scientifically).
 Pragmatic Utilitarian Conservation
 Preserve to provide homes and jobs for
people in the future.
 “Greatest good for the greatest number
for the longest time”
 Multiple Use Policies of USFS.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Moral and Aesthetic Nature Preservation
John Muir – First president, Sierra Club
 Helped Roosevelt and Pinchot established the
national forest, park, and wildlife refuge systems.
 Believed in biocentric preservation: Nature
deserves to exist for its own sake
regardless of usefulness to humans.
 “Why ought man to value himself
as more than an infinitely small
unit of the one great unit of
creation?”
 Fought for the establishment of
Yosemite and King’s Canyon NP.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Modern Environmentalism
Industrial explosion of WWII added new
concerns to the environmental agenda.
 Rachel Carson - Silent Spring (1962)
Environmental Agenda expanded in 1960’s and
70’s to include:
 Atomic Weapons Testing
 Fossil Fuel Issues
 Air and Water Pollution
 Wilderness Protection
 First Earth Day in 1970
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Global Concerns
Increased technology has greatly expanded
international communications.
 Daily events now reported worldwide
instead of locally or regionally.
Increasing industrialization in China and
India highlight our own pollution.
 Ozone depletion
 Global warming
 Loss of biodiversity
 Population growth
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
CURRENT CONDITIONS
•
Human Population > 6.7 Billion.
 Food shortages and famines exist in many
densely populated areas
- High birth rates
- Lack of access to food
 Water Quantity and Quality Issues
- Droughts and contamination
 Fossil Fuel Burning (80% of fuel worldwide)
- Air and Water Pollution
- Climate Change
 Landscape Destruction
- Loss of Biodiversity
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Signs of Hope
Progress had been made on many fronts.
 Pollution decreased in NA and Europe.
 Population has stabilized in many
industrialized countries, avg worldwide
decreased from 6.1-3.4 per woman (2.1 =
zpg)
 Incidence of life-threatening diseases has
been reduced in some countries.
 Average life expectance nearly doubled.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
NORTH / SOUTH DIVISIONS
•
•
Poor countries tend to be located in Southern
Hemisphere.
World Bank estimates more than 1.3 billion people
(1/5 world population) live in acute poverty of < $1
(U.S.) per day.
 70% women and children
- Environmental degradation
- Survival necessitates over-harvesting
- Malnourished and ill can’t work productively.
- Children required to work.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Child Labor in India
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
North/South Divisions
•
•
•
Wealthy countries tend to be located in the Northern
Hemisphere.
Only 1/5 of world population live in countries with
per capita income > $25,000.00 (U.S.).
 Poor people exist here as well.
Gap between rich and poor continues to increase.
 Wealthiest 200 people in the world have combined
wealth of $2.4 trillion – half of the populations lives
on $2.50/day or less.
- Per capita income in US is $37,500 per person
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
North/South Divisions
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Division of Resources
•
Affluent life of rich countries consume
majority of natural resources and produce
high pollutants.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Political Economies
•
•
•
•
First World - Industrialized, market-oriented
democracies of Western Europe, North America.
Second World - Centrally-planned socialist
countries such as former USSR.
Third World - Ex-colonial nations such as India,
Malaysia, Iran, etc.
Fourth World - Poorest nations like Congo, Niger,
and Ethiopia and indigenous communities in
wealthy nations, like Aborigines in Australia and
Native Americans in the US.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
United Nations releases Human Development
Index (HDI). Based on social factors - ranges
from 0-1.0.
 In 2008: Iceland had highest with 0.968
and Sierra Leone had lowest with 0.329.
Aggregate numbers hide many important
inequity issues:
 Gender
 Race
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Sustainable Development
“Meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.”
 Benefits must be available to all humans,
not just sub-set of privileged group.
 Many poor nations live unsustainably.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Sustainable Development
Economists see continual economic growth
as essential to provide more resources.
Ecologists see continual growth as
impossible due to non-renewable
resources and limited waste-disposal
ability.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
20:20 Compact
1995 United Nations Summit for Social
Development called for all nations to ensure
basic needs for everyone.
 20:20 Compact
- Wealthy countries contribute 20% of aid
to humanitarian concerns and social
development.
- Developing countries contribute 20% of
budget to human primary concerns.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Indigenous People
Indigenous (native) people are often least
powerful, most neglected people in the world.
 At least half the world’s 6,000 distinct
languages are dying.
 Indigenous homelands may harbor vast
percentage of world’s biodiversity.
 Recognizing native land rights and political
rights may often be a solid ecological
safeguard.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.
Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.