Chapter 1

Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

Janice PadulaClinton Community College

What is Environmental Science?

def. Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary study of how the earth works, how we are affected by and influencing our environments changes, how we deal with the results of change, and what are overall responsibilities are to incorporate science to help solve the environmental problems we face.

Seven Basic Issues

We will be studying:

1. Population Growth

2. Economic Growth & Development

3. Resource Use

4. Extinction & Biodiversity

5. Global Climate Changes

6. Pollution

7. Poverty

Population Growth

World Vital Events Per Time Unit: 2008

 Time Births Deaths Increase

Year 133,398,951 55,503,922 77,895,029

Month 11,116,579 4,625,327 6,491,252

Day 364,478 151,650 212,828

Hour 15,187 6,319 8,868

Minute 253 105 148

Second 4.2 1.8 2.5

Economic Growth & Development

def. Economic growth is the increase in ability to provide people with goods & services.

def. Economic development is the improvement of living standards by economic growth.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

def. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total market value in dollars of goods & services produced within that country or territory per year.

GDP = consumption + investment + government spending + exports - imports

Gross National Product (GNP)

def. Gross National Product (GNP) = Gross National Income (GNI) is the total market value in dollars of goods & services produced both inside and outside of the country + the net income of citizens earnings abroad per year.

Resources

def. Resources are anything living or non-living that people required to serve their needs or desires.

• Perpetual resources - inexhaustible• Renewable resources - can regenerate• Non-renewable resources - can’t replenish• Common-property resources (free access

resources) – free to all & can be destroyed

Sustainable Yield

def. Sustainable yield is the highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used and kept sustained.

ex. The use of a resource is at a dynamic equilibrium or balance.

Environmental Degradation

def. The destruction or depletion of a renewable resource past the point of being sustained.

ex. The rate of use is far greater than the rate of replacement (out of balance).

Tragedy of the Commons

def. Destruction of

resources that people

have free or

unmanaged access.

Extinction & Biodiversity

• Extinction is the cessation of existence of a species thus reducing biodiversity. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species (although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point).

• Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome or for the entire Earth.

WikipediaThe Dodo, shown here in a 1651 illustration by Jan Savery, is an often-cited example of modern extinction.

Extinction

Biodiversity

www.bhutanabbot.com/aboutbhutan.php

Global Climate Change

• Discussion 1 - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/science/earth/22conv.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

• The Roadmap - http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_13/application/pdf/cp_bali_action.pdf

• An Inconvenient Truth

Pollution

def. Undesirable change in chemical, biological, or physical characteristics of a wide variety of resources such as water, air, and food that can adversely affect our health and reproduction as well as that of other species on earth.

Major Environmental Problems

• Air Pollution

• Water Pollution

• Waste Production

• Biodiversity Depletion

• Food Supply Problems

Fig 1-9 on page 10

Pollution

Point Source = single identifiable source that releases pollutants into the environment

ex. Identifying pollution in Cumberland Bay as pitch from Georgia Pacific

Non-point Source = large dispersed areas that release pollutants into the environment

ex. Damage to trees in the Adirondacks

Pollution Prevention

Pollution prevention allows input controls

• Prevents pollutants from forming or being released into the environment

• Prevents wide scale pollution or improves it’s sustainability

Pollution Clean-up

Pollution clean-up provides output controls

• Abatement plan – a plan to improve the quality of a site or area by implementing a variety of procedures or processes

• Removes or reduces the overall level of pollution

Poverty

def. Poverty is the inability to meet the basic needs for food, adequate water, clothing and shelter.– One out of every 5 children suffer from

malnutrition– 13,700 children daily die prematurely from

starvation and infectious diseases– Half the worlds population is struggling to

survive on less than $3US/day– Rich countries could eliminate poverty within 10

years if they shared their wealth

US Poverty Line Figures 2006

% Population Living on Less Than $1/Day

Poverty As a Result of War