Chapter 14

Preserving the Planet:Human Impact on Environmental Systems

Activity 1: Environmental Impacts (IPAT) by Development Category:

A Global Warming Case Study

Activity 2: Human-Environment Systems Analysis of Environmental Change

Activity 3: Conflicting Viewpoints on Environmental Problems

Learning OutcomesAfter completing the chapter, you will be able to:

Calculate total carbon dioxide emission from population, affluence, and technology data for different country groups.

Decipher different units of measurement. Relate levels of development and geographic location of countries to

environmental impacts. Break down environmental problems into five components: human driving

forces, human activities, environmental change, adverse consequences, and solutions.

Describe the causes and effects of the disappearing Aral Sea and cattle ranching in tropical Latin America.

Understand different stakeholder groups’ perspectives on environmental problems.

Advocate a position on an environmental problem, and search for solutions that may be amenable to several groups.

Figure 14.1

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Table 14.1 World’s Most Endangered Species

Animal Species Geographic Range Estimated Wild Population

AMPHIBIANSPuerto Rican Crested Toad Puerto Rico, British Virgin Islands < 300REPTILESChinese AlligatorWestern Swamp Turtle

ChinaAustralia

800 - 1,00055

BIRDSSt. Vincent AmazonCalifornia CondorRegent HoneyeaterBlue-throated MacawRed-fronted MacawBlackiston’s Fish OwlOrange-bellied ParrotEdwards PheasantBali Starling (Bali Mynah)

St. VincentUnited States [re-int.]AustraliaArgentina (?), Bolivia, Paraguay (?)BoliviaChina, Japan, RussiaAustraliaVietnamIndonesia

700 – 80027

< 1,000<1,0001,000

680 – 900150

Extinct (?)30 - 35

MAMMALSAddaxSomali Wild AssBlack-footed FerretRodrigues Flying FoxSilvery GibbonAmur LeopardAsiatic LionPygmy LorisSumatran RhinocerosGolden Lion TamarinAmur TigerSumatran TigerRed Wolf

North Africa and the SahelEthiopia, SomaliaUnited StatesMauritius (Rodrigues)IndonesiaChina, North and South Korea, RussiaIndiaCambodia (?), China, Laos, VietnamSoutheast AsiaBrazilChina [ex?], North Korea [ex?], RussiaIndonesiaUnited States

< 250100 – 250

60350

1,00028 – 31

300300 – 500250 – 400

< 650330 – 371400 – 500

92Source: World Resources Institute, Table 14.4 “Endangered Species Management Programs, 1996” (www.wri.org/facts/data-tables-biodiversity.html).

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Figure 14.11

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1 26 51 76 101Year

Global Temperature

Deviation from 1960-91 "Normal" Period

(degrees C)

290

300

310

320

330

340

350

360

370

CO2 Concentration

(ppm)

Temperature CO2 Concentration

1900 1925 1950 1975 2000

Figure 14.12

GDP$

CO.kg*

person

GDP$*personsmillionCO.kgmillion 2

2

T* A* P I

Definitions of Key Terms• Adverse Consequences: Negative impacts of environmental change on humans and/or

nature (plants and animals).

• Biosphere: The regions of the earth’s crust and atmosphere occupied by living matter. The biosphere includes the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (surface and subsurface waters), and the lithosphere (upper reaches of the earth’s crust).

• Cycle: A circular flow of energy, materials, or organisms that replenishes the elements of a system, enabling the system to continue to function.

• Direct Biological Interference: Human-caused alteration of species through removal, redistribution, or modification of living creatures.

• Energy/Material Redistribution: Human-caused alteration of energy or material flows through impoundment, redistribution, or transformation.

• Environmental Change: Changes in an environmental system caused by an alteration or disruption of the natural cycles.

• Flow: Movement or transformation of energy, materials, or organisms from one stock to another.

• Human Activities: The actual activities by humans that directly affect the environment.

• Human Driving Forces: Social and cultural conditions that influence human use and perception of the natural environment.

• Human-Environment Interactions: The ways in which human society and the natural environment affect each other.

• IPAT: Shorthand for a multiplicative model of human impacts on the environment which holds that impacts (I) are proportional to population (P) x Affluence (A) x Technology (T).

• Negative Feedback Loop: A cause-and-effect chain that begins with a change to a stock and ends up reversing the original change and bringing the system back toward equilibrium.

• Pollution: Human introduction of materials into the biosphere that have a negative environmental impact.

• Population Pressure: Strain on the natural and economic resources that occurs when the needs of a large or rapidly growing population cannot be met by the resources available.

• Positive Feedback Loop: A cause-and-effect chain that begins with a change to a stock and ends up amplifying the original change and pushing the system further from equilibrium.

• Renewable Resources: Resources that can be used and restored after use, or that have an unlimited supply.

• Solutions: Efforts to solve environmental problems.

• Stakeholder: An individual or group with a strong interest or stake in how an issue is decided.

• Stock: Amounts of energy, materials, or organisms that exist in a system.

• Sustainable Development: Providing for the needs of the present without diminishing the options of future generations.

• System: A set of elements along with the connections between them that form a whole unit and work together.