Environmental Science:
A Global Concern
11th Edition
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
Understanding Our Environment
Chapter 1
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Outline:
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Environmental Science
Science As a Way of Knowing
 Scientific Design
 Reasoning
 Scientific Theory
Approaches to Thinking
History of Environmentalism
Human Dimensions
 Rich and Poor Countries
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Environmental Science
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Environment
 Circumstances and conditions that
surround an organism or group of
organisms.
 Social and cultural conditions that affect an
individual or community.
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Environmental Science
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Environmental Science is the systematic
study of our environment and our place in it.
 Highly Interdisciplinary (integrates natural
science, social science, humanities)
 Holistic study of the world around us
 Mission-Oriented (how do we impact our
natural world and what can we do about it)
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Figure 01_02
Environmental Science
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What is the real problem???
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“For an increasing number of environmental
issues the difficulty is not to identify
remedies. Remedies are well understood;
the problem is to make these remedies
socially, economically and politically
acceptable.”
Barbara Ward Economist
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Current Serious Environmental Problems
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7 billion people on Oct 31st,2011; adding 75 million more every year
1.1 billion people lack safe drinking water
15 million children are dying per year due to unsanitized/polluted water
2/3 of all agricultural lands show environmental degradation due to
excessive food production
80% of energy in industrialized countries comes from burning fossil
fuels, causing water and air pollution problems
CO2 concentration has increased by 35% due to burning of fossil fuels,
clearing forests, making cement; this traps heat in atmosphere causing
global warming and climate change
drought, flooding, melting
glaciers and threatened water supplies
3 million people die each year from diseases triggered by air pollution
More than 800 species have dissapeared over the last century and at
least 10,000 are threatened
At least half of the forests have been cleared since introduction of
agriculture
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Environmental Literacy Criteria
One must gain:
• Awareness and appreciation of natural and
built environments.
• Knowledge of natural systems and ecological
concepts.
• Understanding of current environmental
issues.
• The ability to use analytical and problemsolving skills on environmental issues.
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History of Conservation and Environmentalism
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First one to recognize human misuse of nature was
Plato in the 4th century B.C., in Greece:
Greece became a “skeleton of a body wasted by
disease” after the trees were cut and heavy rains
washed the soil into the sea
Four Distinct Stages:
 Pragmatic Resource Conservation
 Moral and Aesthetic Nature Preservation
 Modern Environmentalism
 Global Environmental Citizenship
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Pragmatic (practical, logical) reasons for
Resource Conservation
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President Theodore Roosevelt (1905, leader of
progressive movement) and his chief conservation
advisor, Gifford Pinchot, believed in UTILITARIAN
CONSERVATION.
 Forests should be saved “not because they are
beautiful or because they shelter wild creatures,
but only to provide homes and jobs for the people”.
 Resources should be used for “the greatest good
for the greatest number, for the longest time.”
 Conservation of resources means also developing
and using the natural resources now existing
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Spiritual and Aesthetic Reasons for Nature
Preservation
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John Muir, first president of the Sierra Club, opposed
Pinchot’s utilitarian policies.
 Biocentric Preservation
 Nature deserves to exist for its own sake, regardless of
its usefulness to us
 Established the Yosemite and Kings Canyon National
Parks (1916)
 Emphasizes the fundamental right of all organisms to
pursue their own interests.
- “Why ought man to value himself as more than an
infinitely small unit of the one great unit of creation?
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Modern Environmentalism
1. Rachel Carson, book Silent Spring (1962).
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Awakened the public to threats of pollution and toxic
chemicals to humans as well as other species.
Modern environmentalism triggered by the industrial
expansion during and after the Second World War
First environmental view to include both natural
resources and environmental pollution
2. Barry Commoner: molecular biologist activist
who spoke about public hazards of pesticides
3. David Brower: executive director of Sierra
Club introduced litigation and mass media for
publicity pro-environment campaigns
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Global Concerns
Social technological progress, increased
travel and communication enable people
everywhere to know about daily events
 Global Environmentalism: the common
environment is shared on a global scale.
Sustainable development: economic
improvement for the world’s poorest
populations is possible without devastating
the environment
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1977: Dr. Maathai from Kenya founded the Green Belt
Movement as a way to restore environment and reduce
poverty
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She mobilized communities to plant 30 million trees and
stand up for justice, poverty reduction, and environmental
conservation
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2004: Dr. Maathai received Noble Prize for her work
 “Working together we have proven that sustainable
development is possible; that reforestation of
environment is possible when ordinary citizens are
informed, sensitized, mobilized, and involved in direct
action for their environment”
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CURRENT ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS
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Causes of Environmental Degradation
 More than 7 billion people now occupy the
Earth, and we add about 75 million more
each year.
- Most growth will be in poorer countries
where present populations already strain
resources and services.
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World Population
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Billions of people
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Black Death–the Plague
2-5 million 8000
years
Hunting and
gathering
6000
4000
Time
2000
Agricultural revolution
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2000
B.C.
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2100
A.D.
Industrial
revolution
Fig. 1.1, p. 2
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Population Milestones
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Human Dimensions of Environmental Science
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A small fraction of the world’s population lives in
increasing luxury, while a more than 1.4 billion
people live in extreme poverty, with an income of
less than $1.25 per day
 Those in extreme poverty lack adequate food,
housing, sanitation, clean water, education
 Seventy percent are women and children.
 They often meet short-term survival needs at the
cost of long-term sustainability (over harvesting,
overfishing, cut forests to plant crops to get food)
 Poverty, illness and limited opportunities become
cyclic, passed from generation to generation
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Rich and Poor Countries Finances
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About 20% of the worlds population lives in the
twenty richest countries.
 Average per capita income above $35,000
per year.
Other 80% live in middle or low-income
countries.
 Ten poorest countries each have average per
capita income of less than $200.00.
Richest 200 people in the world have have a
combined wealth of $1 trillion.
 More than the total owned by the 3 billion
people who make up the poorest half of the
world population
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Table 1.5
GDP= total monetary value of goods produced in a country in 1 year;
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used as an indicator of the health of a country’s economy
Sustainability
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Can we improve the lives of the poor without
destroying our environment?
Sustainable Development
 “Meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.”
• We are dependent on nature for food,
water, energy, fiber, waste disposal
• We can’t deplete resources and/or create
waste faster than nature can recycle them
and replenish the supplies we depend on
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Ecological Footprint: a way to compute the demand
placed on nature by individuals and/or nations
Per Capita Ecological Footprint
(Hectares of land resources per person)
Country
10.9
United States
5.9
The Netherlands
India
Country
1.0
Total Ecological Footprint
(Hectares)
3 billion
hectares
United States
The Netherlands
India
94 million hectares
1 billion
hectares
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Ecological footprint by region
gha= global hectares
According to Redefining Progress, the ave world citizen has an
Ecological footprint of 2.3 gha, while the biologically productive
land available is only 1.9 gha per person. Is this SUSTAINABLE???
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Carbon Footprint = The amount of carbon (usually in
tonnes) being emitted by an activity or organization. The
carbon component of the Ecological Footprint translates the
amount of carbon dioxide resulting from burning fossil fuels
into the amount of productive land and sea area required to
sequester these carbon dioxide emissions.
Ecological Footprint= value which shows how carbon
emissions compare with other elements of human demand,
such as our pressure on food sources, the quantity of living
resources required to make the goods we consume, and the
amount of land we take out of production when we pave it
over to build cities and roads.
The Carbon Footprint is 54 percent of humanity’s
overall Ecological Footprint and its most rapidly-growing
component. Humanity’s carbon footprint has increased 11fold since 1961. Reducing humanity’s carbon Footprint is
the most essential step we can take to end overshoot
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Calculate your ecological footprint:
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculat
ors/
Calculate your carbon footprint:
http://www.greenprogress.com/carbon_footprint_calculator.php
Do your results prompt you to make any changes, or does
sustainability seem to be an impossible goal????
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Fig. 1.20
“And may we continue to be worthy of consuming a
Disproportionate share of this planet’s resources.”
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Environmental indicators
• Indicators that describe the current state of an
environmental system not what is causing the change
observed in the system
• Examples: human population, ecological footprint, total
food production, per capita food production, carbon dioxide,
ave. global surface temperature, greenhouse gas emission, air
pollution, sea level change, annual precipitation, species
diversity, water quality, fish catch , extinction rate, habitat loss
rate, household sanitation, infant mortality rate, life
expectancy
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5 Key Global Indicators
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Biological diversity: current extinction rate is increasing
Food production: per capita production seems to be leveling off
Ave. global surface temp. and CO2 concentration: increasing
Human population: still increasing, but growth rate slowing
Resource depletion: many resources are being depleted fast, but
humans develop new resources
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Figure 1.16
Environmental
indicators show
different patters
as income/wealth
rises.
1. Why do the
trends differ?
2. How does the
environmental
burden shift?
• Fracking: hydraulic fracturing; a method of oil and
gas extraction that uses high- pressure fluids to force
open cracks in rocks deep underground
• To Frack or Not To Frack?????
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LBjSXWQRV8
• Anthropogenic: derived from human activities;
manmade ( Ex: the increase in atmospheric CO2 due
to combustion of fossil fuels and the deforestation; the
presence of methane/ biogas in water due to fracking;
the destruction of ozone layer due to
chlorofluorocarbons CFCs)
Indigenous Peoples
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Indigenous people were/are generally among
the least powerful, most neglected groups.
 In many countries, traditional caste
systems, discriminatory laws, economics,
or prejudices repress indigenous peoples.
 In many places, indigenous people in
traditional homelands guard undisturbed
habitats and rare species.
- Recognizing native land rights may
safeguard ecological processes.
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• It would take about $135 billion per year to abolish extreme
poverty and the worst infectious diseases over the next 20 years.
• Annual global military spending is over $1 trillion.
• If we were to shift 1/10 of the military spending towards
abolishing poverty, we’d not only reduce suffering, but we would
also benefit both economically and from the safety point of view
in the long run. WHY?????
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Figure 1.20: Cultural diversity and biodiversity go hand in hand:
countries with highest cultural diversity also are the ones with
the “megadiversity” of biological organisms
Figure 1.21: Moral Extensionism describes an
increasing consideration of moral value in other living
things or even nonliving things
Do people, animals, earth
have an intrinsic or an
instrumental right to exist???
Intrinsic value = value
independent of any
benefit to humans
Instrumental value =
value worth as an
instrument that can be used
to accomplish a goal
• Environmental ethics: Do you have a basic moral
assumption to be kind to your family and neighbors, and to
contribute in a positive way to the community? Why not
extend that to having similar responsibilities of care towards
the environment???
• Aldo Leopold:
- “the land ethic” ; stated that humans are only one member of
a complex community and should not abuse nature as if it
belongs to them
- Ecosystems have too many complex interactions to be fully
understood and they should be preserved because no one
knows how eliminating one seemingly insignificant piece of
nature will affect the entirety of life on earth
Faith and Environmental Conservation
• For many people,
religious believes provide
the best justification for
environmental protection:
 God commanded Adam
and Eve to care for the
garden they were given.
 Noah was commanded to
preserve individuals of all
living species so they
don’t perish during the
Flood
(1995)
• Environmental Justice: combines civil rights with
environmental protection to demand a safe, healthy
environment for everyone
1. Minorities tend to work in the dirtiest jobs where they
are exposed to toxic chemicals and other hazards
2. Minorities tend to live in ghettos, barrios,
reservations, and rural areas that are very high in
pollution and are the sites of industrial facilities, toxic
waste dumps, landfills, refineries, and incinerators
LULUs= locally unwanted land uses; include
landfills, power plants, dumps, prisons, roads,
factories, hospitals
• Environmental Racism: inequitable distribution of
environmental hazards based on race
oMost Native American reservations are exempt from
hazardous waste disposal and storage regulations
received offers from waste disposal companies for
onsite waste dumps, incinerators, and landfills
• Toxic colonialism: the practice of targeting poor minority
communities of developing nations for dumping of waste
oDiscarded electrical equipment (computers, cell phones)
containing lead and copper are dumped in developing
countries such as China
1992: The U.S. Environmental Justice Act: allows
individuals to identify areas with high levels of toxic
chemicals in U.S.
The Love Canal tragedy
We need a similar Environmental Justice Act worldwide!!!
Additional vocabulary :
• Per capita= per person, “by head”
• GDP= gross domestic product= The monetary value of all the finished
goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific
time period, though GDP is usually calculated on an annual basis.
• GNP= gross national product= An economic statistic that includes
GDP, plus any income earned by residents from overseas investments,
minus income earned within the domestic economy by overseas residents.
• Hectare: land area representing100 meter by 100 meter in metric
system; in U.S. the land area is represented in “acres”
1 ha= 2.47 acres= 2.5 acres= 100m x 100m
1 acre= 0.4047ha
#ha x 2.47= #acres
SUMMARY
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Environmental Science: an interdisciplinary science
History of Environmentalism
Human Dimensions: Rich vs. Poor Countries
Sustainability
Ecological Footprint
Indigenous people as guardians of nature
Environmental ethics
Faith and environmental conservation
Minorities and toxic exposure
Dumping of waste in reservations
International toxic colonialism
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WHAT SHOULD WE DO
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Help maintain the Earth’s capacity for self repair
and adaptation.
Do not use potentially renewable resources
faster than they are replenished
Do not release pollutants faster than the Earth’s
natural processes can dilute or recycle them.
Emphasize pollution reduction and waste
reduction
Slow the rate of population growth.
Have the market price of all goods and services
include ALL of their harmful environmental costs.
Reduce poverty.
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QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT
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1. What are 3 important environmental
issues in California? What actions can you
take to improve our local environment?
2. What is our role in our environment’s
future?
3. Can we obtain and use the energy we
need without further environmental
degradation?
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Analyse data
Ch 1 Vocabulary
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Environment
Environmental science
Environmental indicators
Intrinsic value
Instrumental value
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Aldo Leopold
Anthropogenic
Ecological footprint
Carbon footprint
Hectare
GDP
GNP
Fracking
Per capita