Environmental science: past and present
Historical perspective
• Four distinct stages:
– Pragmatic resource conservation
– Moral and aesthetic nature preservation
– Modern environmentalism
– Global environmentalism
Nature protection is not new!
• Habitat destruction noted by Aristotle and Plato in classical Greek period
• Conservation management practiced by agrarian societies
• Private game management, royal preserves and private manor lands
– commons not considered
• One quarter of Mauritius set aside for protection in 1769 by French governor
History of American resource management
•
•
American Indians
American colonists
– nature as economic resource
– nature as “evil”
Pragmatic resource conservation
• George Perkins Marsh - Man and Nature
• Influenced Theodore Roosevelt and his chief conservation advisor
Gifford Pinchot
– Pragmatic Utilitarian Conservation
» “Greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time”
» For people that live here now, not in the future
» Multiple Use Policies of USFS came out of this ethic
– Roosevelt, Pinchot and others are responsible for creating framework
of national park, wildlife refuges and forests
Moral and aesthetic nature preservation
• John Muir - President of Sierra Club
– Nature deserves to exist for its own sake - regardless of degree of
usefulness to humans (Biocentric Preservation)
– Disagreed with Pinchot about damming of river
Modern environmentalism
• Industrial explosion of WW II added new concerns to the environmental
agenda
– Rachel Carson - Silent Spring (1962)
Modern environmentalism
• Environmental agenda expanded in 1960’s and 70’s to include:
– Human population growth
– Atomic weapons testing
– Fossil fuel issues
– Air pollution
– Wilderness protection
Global environmentalism
• Increased technology has greatly expanded international awareness
• Recognizes that we are a global village
• Includes social justice
Environmental issues are complex
– Chemical contamination
– UV radiation
– Solar radiation
– Parasite infection
Current conditions
• Human Population > 6 Billion
• 85 million added per year
– Food shortages and famines
– Water quantity and quality issues
– Fossil fuel burning
• Air and water pollution
• Global climate change
– Landscape destruction
• Loss of biodiversity
Signs of hope
• Progress has been made on many fronts
– Many cities are cleaner and more livable
– Population has stabilized in many industrialized countries
– Incidence of life-threatening diseases has been reduced in some countries
– Chronic hunger has declined
– Deforestation has slowed in some areas
– Promising shift towards renewable energy
A divided world
• Poor countries tend to be located in Southern Hemisphere
•
World Bank estimates1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty of < $1 per day
– Daily survival necessitates over-harvesting resources thus degrading
chances of long-term sustainability
• Poor are often victims and agents of environmental degradation
A divided world
• Wealthy countries tend to be located in the Northern Hemisphere
• About 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 $1 trillion more than total wealth of poorest half of the world’s population
A fair share of resources
• Affluent lifestyles of richer countries consume inordinate share of natural
resources and produces high proportion of pollutants
– Takes approximately 450 kg of raw materials to get an average American
through the day
– US annually throws away 160 million tons of garbage
– “Ecological Footprint” is one way to measure resource consumption
Economic progress
• Over the past 50 years, the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased
from $2 trillion to $22 trillion
• Since WW II, average real income in developing countries has doubled
BUT
• GDP does not include environmental costs
• Worldwide gap between rich and poor has widened
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
Sustainable development
– Many economists see continual economic growth as essential in providing
more resources to more people
– Most ecologists view continual growth as impossible in the long-run due to
non-renewable resources and limited ecological waste-disposal capabilities
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
– Indigenous people possess valuable ecological knowledge and remain
caretakers of little-disturbed habitats
Your homework – Living in Pakistan