Chapter 1-Environmental Science, Earth Capital, Sustainability, & Worldviews
“What’s the use of a house if you don’t have a decent planet to put it on?”
The Environment
- Henry David Thoreau
Environment: The external conditions and factors that affect living organisms
Ecology: The study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment
Environmental Science: The role humans have on the earth
Exponential Growth
Exponential Growth: a quantity increases by a fixed percentage of the whole in a given time.
Can
be deceiving because it starts off slowly and grows to be enormous. Each doubling is more than the total of earlier
growth.
Capitals
Solar Capital
energy from the sun
Earth Capital
air, water, soil, wildlife, minerals, recycling, and pest control processes
Sustainability
Sustainable Resource Harvest: certain quantity of that resource can be harvested each year over a specified period
Sustainable Earth: The earth’s supplies of resources and the processes that make up earth capital.
Sustainable Society: Manages its economy and population size without exceeding all of the planet’s supplies
Carrying Capacity

The maximum number of organisms an environment can support
Varies with
location
time
(seasonal changes and long term global changes such as climate)
of technology used to extract and process resources
Rule of 70
types
A formula derived from the basic mathematics of exponential growth
70/percentage growth rate = the doubling time in years
Percentages
48% of the earth’s total land area has been partially modified by human activities
73% including areas that have rock or ice
Economic Indicators:
Gross National Product: market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced in and outside of a country
by the country’s business for final use during a year
Gross Domestic Product: The market value in current dollars of all goods produced in a country during a year
Per Capita: GNP/total population
Developed Countries
20% of the earth’s total population
85% of the world’s total wealth 75% of pollution and wastes 88% of the natural
resources USA, Japan, Germany account for more than 1/2 of the world’s economic output
Developing Countries
Low GNPs
mostly Africa, Asia, Latin America 80% of total population (4.7 billion) 15% wealth and income 12%
natural resources
Facts
1 in 5 live in luxury 3 in 5 have enough to get by 1 in 5 struggles to get by on less than $1 a day
1 in 6 are malnourished 1 in 3 lack enough fuel to keep warm and cook
Renewable Resources
Potentially inexhaustible
Potentially renewable resource: can be replenished fairly rapidly through natural processes, (forest trees, grasslands
grasses, and wild animals.)
Biological Diversity: different life forms that can best survive the variety of conditions currently found of earth
Different Kinds Include Genetic diversity Species diversity Ecological diversity
The Tragedy of the Commons
Common property resources: available to all users free of charge
#1 cause of environmental degradation
The cumulative effects of many people trying to exploit a common property eventually exhausts it
Nonrenewable Resources
Resources that exist in a fixed quantity
energy resources metallic mineral resources (iron, copper, aluminum)
nonmetallic mineral resources (salt, clay, sand, phosphates)
Pollution
Non degradable pollutants: cannot be broken down by natural process
Point sources
Non point sources
chemical
nature (how harmful it is to living organisms) concentration persistence (how long it stays in a place)
Solutions to Pollution
Input pollution control: eliminates production of pollutants by switching to a less harmful chemical process
Output pollution control: cleaning up pollutants after they have been produced
Key Environmental Problems
1. Rapid Population growth
2. Rapid & Wasteful use of resources
3. Simplification & degradation of earth’s life-support systems
4. Poverty
5. Failure of the government to encourage economic & political systems that prevent degradation
6. Failure to include environmental costs
7. Ignorance of nature
Environmental Impacts of Populations
Population x Affluence x Technology= Environmental Impact
P x A x T= I
Human Cultural Changes
Hunter Gatherers Agricultural RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
Hunting-and-Gathering Societies
For 60,000 yr. Humans survived as hunter-gatherers.
Survived by having “earth-wisdom”
knew
how to use their sources sparingly, but beneficially
3 Energy Sources for Hunter-Gatherers
1. Sunlight captured by plants 2. Fire 3. Their own muscle power
Advanced Hunter-Gatherers
Created more environmental harm
improved tools used fire to hunt hunted in huge groups
extinction of some animals relied on potentially renewable resources
Agricultural Revolution
caused
10,000 to 12, 000 years ago
used agroforestry, slash-and-burn cultivation, shifting cultivation, and subsistence farming
Agricultural Revolution Effects
Used domesticated animals to plow Birth rates rose larger area of land was cleared
Conflict between societies Urbanization Accumulation of material goods
Excess food
Industrial Revolution
Began in England in the mid 1700’s and moved to the United States in the 1800’s
Commerce, trade, and distribution expanded rapidly
Dependence on nonrenewable resources
Information Revolution
New technologies are enabling people to deal with information rapidly
1. Automated information collection 2. Databases store information 3. Instantaneous transmission of data
4. Information processing
Are we living sustainably?
Opinions vary on whether or not things are getting better or worse.
Economists
and analysts basically say we are fine
Environmentalists say we are degrading and depleting resources too quickly
November 18, 1992
1,680 scientists signed and sent an urgent warning to government leaders of all nations
The letter basically stated that if nothing was done to save the environment, then there could be serious consequences
1992
The United States National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London issued a report saying that science and
technology may not be able to prevent the degradation of poverty in the world
Who Should We Side With?
Depends mostly on each individual’s opinion
There is no clear answer
Environmental Worldviews
Planetary Management Worldview
1. We are the planet’s most important species.
2. There is always more.
3. All economic growth is good.
4. Success is a directly related to how we understand, control, and manage the earth.
Earth Wisdom Worldview
1. Nature exists for all species
2. There are limited supplies.
3. Economic growth is not always beneficial.
4. Success depends on cooperation with one another.
Living More Sustainably
1. Leave the earth as good or better than we found it.
2. Take no more than what we need.
3. Try not to harm life, air, water or soil.
4. Sustain biodiversity.
5. Maintain earth’s capacity to self repair.
6. Don’t use potentially renewable resources faster than they are replenished.