cunningham - cunningham - saigo: environmental science 7 th ed. understanding our environment...

Cunningham - Cunningham - Saigo: Environmental Science 7th Ed.

Understanding Our Environment

Chapter 1


Deformed Frogs

1. First noticed in Minnesota by children on a field trip.

2. Subsequent studies showed dramatic increase in deformities.

3. Synthetic chemicals suspect: hormone disrupters.

4. UV radiation, heavy metals, parasites are suspect as well.

5. Many have vanished from wetlands.


What is Environmental Science?

• Environmental Science: Systematic study of our environment, and our proper place in it.

Interdisciplinary Integrative

- Natural Sciences- Social Sciences- Humanities

Mission Oriented


HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Plato first complained that after the forests in Greece were cut all that was left was a rocky “skeleton of a body wasted by disease.”

Four Distinct Eras in Modern Time 1. Pragmatic Resource Conservation2. Moral and Aesthetic Nature Preservation3. Health and Ecological Damage Concerns4. Global Environmental Citizenship


1. Pragmatic Resource Conservation

• George Perkins Marsh Early Conservationist who traveled and read

widely, including Plato’s Greece - Warnings influenced Theodore Roosevelt

(1905 moved Forest Service to Dept of Agriculture and Gifford Pinchot (managed the Forest Service scientifically).

Pragmatic Utilitarian Conservation Preserve to provide homes and jobs for

people in the future. “Greatest good for the greatest number

for the longest time” Multiple Use Policies of USFS.


Moral and Aesthetic Nature PreservationJohn Muir – First president, Sierra Club

Helped Roosevelt and Pinchot established the national forest, park, and wildlife refuge systems.

Believed in biocentric preservation: Nature deserves to exist for its own sake regardless of usefulness to humans.

“Why ought man to value himself as more than an infinitely small unit of the one great unit of creation?”

Fought for the establishment of

Yosemite and King’s Canyon NP.


Modern EnvironmentalismIndustrial explosion of WWII added new

concerns to the environmental agenda. Rachel Carson - Silent Spring (1962)

Environmental Agenda expanded in 1960’s and 70’s to include: Atomic Weapons Testing Fossil Fuel Issues Air and Water Pollution Wilderness Protection First Earth Day in 1970


Global Concerns

Increased technology has greatly expanded international communications. Daily events now reported worldwide

instead of locally or regionally.Increasing industrialization in China and

India highlight our own pollution. Ozone depletion Global warming Loss of biodiversity Population growth


CURRENT CONDITIONS

• Human Population > 6.7 Billion. Food shortages and famines exist in many

densely populated areas - High birth rates- Lack of access to food

Water Quantity and Quality Issues- Droughts and contamination

Fossil Fuel Burning (80% of fuel worldwide)- Air and Water Pollution- Climate Change

Landscape Destruction- Loss of Biodiversity


Signs of Hope

Progress had been made on many fronts. Pollution decreased in NA and Europe. Population has stabilized in many

industrialized countries, avg worldwide decreased from 6.1-3.4 per woman (2.1 = zpg)

Incidence of life-threatening diseases has been reduced in some countries.

Average life expectance nearly doubled.


NORTH / SOUTH DIVISIONS

• Poor countries tend to be located in Southern Hemisphere.

• World Bank estimates more than 1.3 billion people (1/5 world population) live in acute poverty of < $1 (U.S.) per day. 70% women and children

- Environmental degradation- Survival necessitates over-harvesting- Malnourished and ill can’t work productively.- Children required to work.


Child Labor in India


North/South Divisions

• Wealthy countries tend to be located in the Northern Hemisphere.

• Only 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 $2.4 trillion – half of the populations lives on $2.50/day or less.

- Per capita income in US is $37,500 per person


North/South Divisions


Division of Resources

• Affluent life of rich countries consume majority of natural resources and produce high pollutants.


Political Economies

• First World - Industrialized, market-oriented democracies of Western Europe, North America.

• Second World - Centrally-planned socialist countries such as former USSR.

• Third World - Ex-colonial nations such as India, Malaysia, Iran, etc.

• Fourth World - Poorest nations like Congo, Niger, and Ethiopia and indigenous communities in wealthy nations, like Aborigines in Australia and Native Americans in the US.


HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

United Nations releases Human Development Index (HDI). Based on social factors - ranges from 0-1.0. In 2008: Iceland had highest with 0.968

and Sierra Leone had lowest with 0.329.

Aggregate numbers hide many important inequity issues: Gender Race


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. Many poor nations live unsustainably.


Sustainable Development

Economists see continual economic growth as essential to provide more resources.

Ecologists see continual growth as impossible due to non-renewable resources and limited waste-disposal ability.


20:20 Compact

1995 United Nations Summit for Social Development called for all nations to ensure basic needs for everyone. 20:20 Compact

- Wealthy countries contribute 20% of aid to humanitarian concerns and social development.

- Developing countries contribute 20% of budget to human primary concerns.


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. Recognizing native land rights and political

rights may often be a solid ecological safeguard.

cunningham - cunningham - saigo: environmental science 7 th ed. understanding our environment...

Documents

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environmental agenda

forest service

national forest

theodore roosevelt

greatest number

gifford pinchot

small unit