CHAPTER 1: ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, THEIR CAUSES, AND SUSTAINABILITY
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Objectives
1.
Define earth capital. Distinguish between living off of principal and living off of interest. Analyze which of these
behaviors humans are currently illustrating. Evaluate the possibility of continuing to live in our current style. Define
sustainable society.
2.
Draw an exponential growth curve. Distinguish between exponential growth and linear growth. Describe what has
happened to the length of the doubling time over the course of human history.
3.
Describe economic growth and the wealth gap over the course of time. Distinguish between developed countries and
developing countries.
4.
Distinguish between the following terms: nonrenewable, renewable, and potentially renewable resources; reuse and
recycle; point-source pollution and nonpoint-source pollution; degradable, slowly degradable, and nondegradable
pollutants.
5.
Define biological diversity. Briefly describe its three components. Analyze the relationship between biodiversity and
human life. Describe the “tragedy of the commons.”
6.
Define sustainable yield. Describe the relationship between sustainable yield and environmental degradation.
7.
Distinguish between pollution prevention and pollution cleanup. Evaluate the effectiveness of these two approaches in
decreasing pollution. List seven root causes of environmental problems.
8.
Describe a simple model and a more complex model of relationships among population, resource use, technology,
environmental degradation, and pollution. Evaluate which model is most useful to you. Assess which model would be
most useful in explaining relationships to young children and which model more closely resembles reality.
9.
Briefly describe hunter-gatherer societies, focusing on division of labor and power, the relationship of humans to nature,
and the impact of their societies on the environment.
10. Describe early forms of agriculture. Describe changes that occurred in human population distribution, employment, and
relationships between societies as the Agricultural Revolution unfolded.
11. Briefly describe the Industrial Revolution, focusing on changes in energy consumption. Describe relationships between
energy consumption and the production and consumption of material goods. List the benefits that are distributed to most
citizens of industrial societies.
12. Compare hunter-gatherer societies, agricultural societies, and industrial societies, focusing on division of labor and power,
the relationship of population to food supply, the relationship of humans to nature, the use of resources (energy and
materials) per person, and the environmental impacts. Project how a sustainable-Earth society would fit into this analysis.
13. Analyze the amount of time it has taken to bring about cultural changes over the course of history. Include a comparison
of the length of time it took to bring about the Agricultural Revolution and the length of time it took to bring about the
Industrial Revolution. Project an amount of time it will take to bring about a cultural change to an Earth-wise society.
Suggest modern capabilities that might enable this change to occur.
Key Terms {(Terms are listed in the same font style as they appear in the text.)}
agricultural revolution (p. 14)
ecological footprint (p. 12)
conservation (p. 11)
ecology (p. 7)
developed countries (p. 10)
economic development (p. 10)
developing countries (p. 10)
economic growth (p. 10)
Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
ecosystem (p. 7)
energy resources (p. 11)
environment (p. 6)
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environmental degradation
(p. 11)
environmental ethics (p. 18)
environmental science (p. 6)
environmental wisdom
worldview (p. 18)
environmental worldview (p. 18)
environmentalism (p. 7)
environmentally sustainable
society (p. 9)
exponential growth (p. 5)
gross domestic product (GDP)
(p. 10)
industrial-medical revolution
(p. 14)
information and globalization
revolution (p. 14)
input pollution control (p. 15)
metallic mineral resources (p. 11)
natural capital (p. 7)
natural income (p. 9)
natural resources (p. 7)
natural services (p. 7)
nonmetallic mineral resources
(p. 11)
nonpoint sources (p. 14)
nonrenewable resource (p. 11)
nutrient cycling (p. 7)
output pollution control (p.15)
per capita ecological footprint
(p. 11)
per capita GDP (p. 10)
per capita GDP-PPP (p. 10)
perpetual resource (p. 11)
planetary management
worldview (p. 18)
point sources (p. 14)
pollution (p. 14)
renewable resource (p. 11)
resource (p. 11)
social capital (p. 18)
solar capital (p. 7)
stewardship worldview (p. 18)
sustainability (p. 7)
sustainable yield (p. 11)
Outline
1-1
Environmentally Sustainable Society
A Environment includes all living and nonliving things with which an organism interacts.
B Environmental science studies how the Earth works, our interaction with the Earth, and the methods/procedures we
use to deal with environmental problems.
C Ecology studies relationships between living organisms and their environment.
D Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to protecting life support systems for all species.
E Life and economies depend on solar capital (energy from the sun) and natural capital (Earth’s resources and
ecological services).
1. Capital is wealth; solar capital/energy creates renewable energy such as wind power, hydropower from flowing
water, and biomass, that is, solar energy that has been changed to chemical energy and stored in biological
form, such as wood.
2. Natural capital includes natural resources such as air, water, soil, wildlife, minerals, etc., and ecological
services.
F Man must protect our solar and natural capital and live off the resources they provide.
1. To maintain an environmentally sustainable society we must not compromise the needs of future generations.
2. One view contends that man must live sustainably by eliminating waste and discontinuing our depletion and
degradation of resources.
3. A different view contends that man can overcome these problems with ingenuity, economic growth, and
technology.
1-2
How Can Environmentally Sustainable Societies Grow Economically?
A Human population growth continues to be more rapid than the Earth can support—about 211,000 people per day.
B Economic growth provides people with the goods and services needed to sustain human population growth.
1. Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value for goods and services produced within the country.
2. Per capital GDP is the GDP divided by total population at midyear and represents the change in a country’s
economic growth.
C Economic Development works to improve living standards through growth. Most developed countries have high
industrialization and high per capita income. Developing countries have moderate to low income; they represent
about 97% of projected increase in world population.
1. Although developed countries enjoy a higher standard of living, there are environmental and social trade-offs.
1-3
Ecological Footprints and Resources
A A resource is anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs.
B Natural capital/natural resources are those resources in the environment or those obtained from the environment:
food, water, air, shelter petroleum, etc.
C Natural resources are classified as perpetual, renewable, or nonrenewable.
Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
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1.
2.
D
E
A perpetual resource is renewed continuously, like solar energy.
Renewable resources must not be used-up faster than they can be replaced, like grasslands, fresh water, air,
fertile soil, etc.
3. Nonrenewable resources are those that exist in fixed quantity or stock in the Earth’s crust. The resource is
economically depleted when it costs too much to obtain what is left.
a. Solutions to depleted resources include lessen use or waste, recycle or reuse resource, find a replacement,
or wait many years for resource to replenish.
4. Sustainable yield is the highest rate of use on an indefinite scale.
What is our ecological footprint, our impact on the environment?
1. The per capita ecological footprint is the biologically productive land and water needed to supply renewable
resources and absorb waste for each individual.
2. Currently, each person’s ecological footprint is 20% greater than can be sustained indefinitely. As a result, we
have polluted air and water, and we have caused waste overload, poorer health, less biodiversity, etc.
3. We need four more planet Earths to meet the consumption levels of the U.S.
Cultural changes and ecological footprints.
1. Homo sapiens have walked the earth for approximately 90,000–195,000 years.
2. Culture is a society’s knowledge, beliefs, technology, and practices.
3. Three major cultural changes occurred that gave us more energy and technologies:
a. Agricultural revolution (began 10,000–12,000 years ago)
b. Medical revolution (began 275 years ago)
c. Information-globalization revolution (began 50 years ago)
1-4
Pollution
A Pollution is any chemical or physical change in the environment that is harmful to humans or to other living
organisms.
1. Point sources of pollution emanate from single, identifiable source, while nonpoint sources are dispersed and
often difficult to identify.
a. Pollutants may enter the environment naturally (e.g., volcanic eruptions) or through human activities such
as burning coal, which tends to occur in or near urban and industrial areas.
b. Three unwanted effects of pollutants are the following:
1) They can disrupt or degrade life-support systems of any organism.
2) They damage human health, wildlife, and property.
3) They can produce nuisances in noise, smells, tastes, and sights.
B Solutions: What can we do about pollution?
1. We use two basic approaches to deal with pollution.
a. Pollution prevention/input pollution control reduces or eliminates production of pollutants.
b. Pollution cleanup/output pollution control cleans up or dilutes pollutants after they have been produced.
c. Problems with pollution cleanup include the following:
1) It causes a temporary bandage without long-term pollution control technology, like the catalytic
converter.
2) The pollutant is removed but causes pollution elsewhere, such as in the process of burning and
burying garbage.
3) It is expensive to reduce pollution to an acceptable level. Prevention is less expensive in the long run.
1-5
Environmental and Resource Problems: Causes and Connections
A Six major causes of environmental problems are the following:
1. Population growth.
2. Wasteful resource use.
3. Poverty occurs when people are unable to meet their basics needs for existence, and impoverished societies
often:
a. Focus on survival at the expense of forests, soil, grasslands, and wildlife.
b. Live in areas with a greater risk of natural disasters occurring.
c. Work in unsafe and unhealthy conditions for low wages.
d. Have reduced life expectancy.
e. Have no government-sponsored health plans or retirement plans.
Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
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f.
B
C
Die from preventable causes (malnutrition, normally nonfatal infectious diseases, lack of clean drinking
water, and respiratory problems).
4. Bad environmental accounting.
5. Ecological ignorance.
6. An inadequate understanding of how the nature works.
Affluence is the addiction to over-consumption of material goods.
1. Affluent societies can have a great negative impact on the environment by way of consumption.
2. Affluence can also lead societies to become more environmentally concerned.
a. Education spurs citizens to insist that businesses and governments elect officials interested in improving
environmental quality.
b. Money is available for technological improvements to reduce pollution, environmental degradation, and
resource waste.
c. Population is often reduced.
There are many views regarding the severity of current environmental problems and what we should do about
them.
1. An individual’s environmental worldview, which includes environmental ethics, is the set of assumptions and
values reflecting how he/she thinks the world works and what his/her role in the world should be.
a. Planetary management worldview holds that nature exists in order to provide for the human race.
b. Stewardship worldview holds that the Earth should be managed for our benefit, but we have an ethical
responsibility to be stewards of the Earth.
c. Environmental wisdom worldview holds that we are part-in-parcel with the environment, therefore calls
for sustainable development.
1-6 Scientific Principles of Sustainability
A According to environmental scientists, we make the transition to a more sustainable society by following four
lessons from nature.
1. Reliance of solar energy
2. Biodiversity
3. Population control
4. Nutrient cycling
Websites
http://www.esa.org/science_resources/sustainability.php
http://www.esa.org/science_resources/issues.php
http://www.epa.gov/
http://www.endangeredearth.org/climateneutral/carboncalcc/carboncalcc.htm
http://www.enn.com/
http://www.enn.com/topics/green_building
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/
Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
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