• Describe how geography and geographic analysis helps us understand environmental issues.
• Define and apply environmental and geographic terminology to environmental issues.
• Explain the state of nonrewable and renewable energy sources.
• Evaluate the various areas of environmental degradation.

• Uneven environmental impacts, consumption and distribution of resources
▫ Energy
 ½ of the world’s energy consumption occurs in
MDCs
 Per capita consumption in MDCs is 3x higher
 North America uses ¼ of the energy supply
• Human-environment relations
• Connections

• Environment – includes the living and nonliving surroundings in which we coexist with other organisms.
• Scale – ecosystems (includes organisms, their surroundings, and the processes that connect them)
▫ Interconnected ecosystems comprise the biosphere

Nature and society are interconnected
• Natural capital – goods and services provided by nature: renewable and nonrenewable resources, biodiversity, and ecosystems
• Goes back to integrated systems approach

• Do not replenish or take extremely long amounts of time.
▫ Economic depletion – more expensive to extract the resource than its value. 80% of resource extracted
 Finite resources
 Uneven distribution
 Uneven economic gains
 Political problems / power

US Energy Information Administration

Oil Reserves – Figure 12.6 2008 & 2009 data
At the current reserves-toproduction ratio, we have enough oil to last 41.6 years.
If Canada’s oil sands were included, they would move to 2 nd place.

• The location of most of the reserves is also where consumption tends to be lowest.
• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) created in 1960
▫ Coordinates oil production & influences price through supply.
▫ Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
United Arab Emirates, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Nigeria, and Venezuela
• Political power
▫ 1973 OPEC states limited sale of oil to states that supported Israel in their 1973 war w/ Egypt, Jordan, and Syria

2008 & 2009 Data
Figure 12.8a
Between 1997 and 2007 oil consumption in China increased by 88% and 50% in India.
Current rankings from the US Energy Information Administration

• Partially decomposed and compressed plant and tree materials from swampy areas.
• Largest source of energy, most widespread, 2 nd in rate of consumption
▫ US, Russia, and China
▫ Reserves-to-production ratio – 133 years
▫ China is largest producer and consumer

• NASA Earth Observatory – West Virginia
Mountain-top Removal
• 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation
Act – requires restoration of mined land.
• Coal combustion adds mercury to the environment

Holt, Reinhart, and Winston

• Nuclear Energy – Reserves-to-production 100 years
• Concentrated in industrial regions – knowledge, costs, infrastructure
• Easily stored and efficient, minimal air pollution
▫ Risk of nuclear accidents
▫ Problem of waste disposal – Not In My Backyard!
▫ Material for bombs
▫ Limited uranium
▫ Expensive (building, safety, transport of uranium)
North Anna Power Station
Dom.com

Replenished through natural or human activities.
--Sustainable yield vs. ecologically sustainable yield –how much can be harvested without impacting resource renewal? Remember impacts on the ecosystem.
• Biomass burning
▫ Direct and Indirect (create a gas or fuel)
▫ Very important for cooking in developing regions
▫ Efficiency?
 Forest depletion
 Gendered division of labor – impacts opportunities
 Indoor air pollution
 Changes to agricultural production

• Wind power
▫ Site specific
▫ Minimal environmental impact
▫ Can be loud and hurt animals
• Geothermal energy
▫ Using energy from heated groundwater
▫ Site specific – plates meet
• Solar energy
▫ Passive- energy for heat captured by building design
▫ Active-panels, mirrors or photovoltaic cells generate electricity from energy
 Expensive and need to ^ efficiency

Occurs when:
1.
A resource is used faster than it can replenish itself
2.
Long-term productivity / biodiversity of an area is impacted
3.
Pollutant concentrations exceed maximum allowable levels

• Air pollution can be analyzed at different scales
 Globally
 Greenhouse Effect – natural process that warms the Earth
 Carbon dioxide pollution from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation
▫ Leads to global warming through the greenhouse effect
▫ Increased temps from trapped radiation
▫ Seeing glacial melt
▫ Changes in climate zones
▫ March 2013: 396.52 ppm
March 2012: 393.57 ppm at Mauna Loa
▫ Atmospheric CO2 concentrations
▫ Atmospheric Methane
Concentrations http://www.cbc.ca

NASA

NASA Earth Observatory
Arctic Sea Ice
But the emissions are geographically uneven

EPA.gov

▫ Globally, cont’d
 Stratospheric ozone depletion
Shipping Lane Clouds,
NASA
 Result of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
 Ozone is supposed to absorb UV rays, but they are getting through
 NASA
▫ Regionally
 Acid deposition
 The acidification of precipitation by nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides
 Not restricted to geographic borders!

▫ Locally
 Impacts of pollution worse in urban areas
 Largest impact from fossil fuel use
 Smog closed the
Beijing Airport in
China 12/5/11.
https://confluence.furman.edu
NASA

• An interdisciplinary approach to studying human-environment relations based on the linkages between ecosystem processes and social conditions.
• Amazon Deforestation

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwhere water.html

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwhere water.html
Shrinking Aral Sea

• Pollution from point and non-point sources
• Greater in LDCs than in MDC despite higher levels of waste in
MDCs
• Non-point agricultural runoff impacts aquatic life
▫ Increased nitrogen in water increases # of algae and phytoplankton
▫ Increased competition for oxygen (decomposition of biotic materials)
▫ Impacts temperature of water
▫ Dead zones can result
TED talk: Sailing the Great Pacific Garage Patch

http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/44000/44677/dead_zones_lrg.jp
g

• Deforestation, erosion, agriculture all impact topsoil

• Solid wastes can accumulate
▫ US concentrates solid wastes into sanitary landfills
▫ Wastes can leach into the soils
▫ Incineration becoming more popular
▫ Recycling programs do help
• EPA Superfund sites
Tar Creek In OK, Sierra Club

• Why did we discuss environmental issues in a geography course? How does geography help us analyze environmental problems? Be specific.
• Differences between renewable and nonrenewable energy sources.
• Describe the state of nonrenewable energy sources, and the geography of reserves, consumption, and production where appropriate.
• Describe renewable energy options and the challenges associated with them. Difference between sustainable yield and ecologically sustainability yield?
• What are three different ways of looking at environmental degradation?
• How can we use scale to examine the consequences of air pollution?
• What is the greenhouse effect?
• What is a Land-Use and Land-Cover Change analysis?
• What are some of the issues facing our water and land resources?
• Terms: Environment, ecosystems, biosphere, natural capital, biodiversity, carbon footprint, Kyoto Protocol, open-access resources