Lecture

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Dr. NGUYEN Ngoc Vinh

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General information

Ø Course Code: IS084IU

Ø Number of Credits: 03
Ø Level: Undergraduate
Ø Course structure: Lecture: 45 hours
Ø Prerequisites: None
Ø Previous course: None
Ø Email: nnvinh@hcmiu.edu.vn
Ø Phone number: 0913 603333
Ø Office hours: Thursday (9h00 – 11h00)

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 Course description

Ø This course provides the basic knowledge of environmental

science that includes general issues and the impact of
human activities to natural resources and environment and
sustainable development.
Ø The course topics will include the basics of environmental
science; population growth and utilization of natural
resources and the environment; especially pollution and its
impacts.
Ø It also aims at increasing general awareness of the students
about possible impacts of human activities on the
environment and natural resources towards sustainable
development.
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Learning outcome
After this course
students are able to…

Ø Understand environmental science terminology and concepts;

Integration of environment and development; Population growth,
natural resources utilization and exploitation; Environmental
implications and mitigation measures; Climate change: causes,
impacts and adaptation measures; Sustainable development.
Ø Explain natural phenomenon and environmental problems caused
by human activities
Ø Convince people to protect environment by simple activities
Ø Suggest simple sustainable strategies to mitigate the impact of
human activities on the environment and natural resource
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 Class policy

Ø Students should spend time to read documents and do

homework, exercise, group assignment.
Ø Students are encouraged to discuss, ask questions and give
comments to lecturers.
Ø Plagiarism in reports is forbidden.
Ø According to the International University’s regulation,
attending the class less than 80% of periods is not allowed to
take the final examinations.
Ø Grading: Midterm exam: 30% - Final exam: 50% - others: 20%

Content

1. Environmental problems, their causes, and

sustainability
2. Science, matter, energy and systems
3. Ecosystem: what are they and how do they work
4. Biodiversity and evolution
5. The human population and urbanization
6. Climate and biodiversity
7. Sustaining biodiversity: saving species and ecosystem
services
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 Content

8. Food production and the environment

9. Water resources and water pollution
10. Geology and nonrenewable meniral resources
11. Energy resources
12. Environmental hazards and human health
13. Air pollution, climate change and ozone depletion
14. Solid and hazardous waste
15. Environmental economics, politics, and world views

References

1. Lecture note – IU2019 by Nguyen Ngoc Vinh

2. Environmental Science: working with the earth by G. Tyler
Miller, Jr.

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 1. Environmental problems, their
causes, and sustainability ?

1. What are some principles of sustainability?

2. How are our ecological footprints affecting the earth?
3. Why do we have environmental problems?
4. What is an environmentally sustainable society?

Environment

Ø The environment is everything

around us.
- “Environment is everything that
is not me” – Albert Einstein
Ø Environment includes all living &
nonliving thing (air, water &
energy) with which an organism
interacts
Ø We are dependent on the
environment for clean air & water,
food, shelter, energy & everything
else we need to stay alive &
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healthy.
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 Environmental Science Is a Study of Our
Interactions With the World

Ø Ecosystem? (Group
of organisms in a
defined geographic
area (terrestrial or
marine) that interact
with each other and
their environment)
Ø Environmentalism?
(A social movement
dedicated to
sustaining the
earth’s life-support
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system)

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Environmental Science Is a Study of Our

Interactions With the World

Ø Ecology – a key component/subfield of environmental

science
Ø Ecology is the biological sience that studies how organisms,
or living thing interact with one another and with their
environment.
Ø Every organism is a member of certain species: a group of
organisms that have distinctive traits (or characteristics)
and, for sexually reproducing organism, can mate and
produce fertile offspring.

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 Environmental Science Is a Study of Our
Interactions With the World

Environmental science
is the field of science
that studies the
interactions of the
physical, chemical and
bilogical components
of the environment and
the relationships and
effects of these
components with the
organisms in the
environment
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Interdisciplinary field

Ø Incorporates information and ideas from multiple

disciplines

Biology

Chemistry

Geology

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 Interdisciplinary field

Ø Incorporates information and ideas from multiple

disciplines
Geography

Social sciences Economics

Political science

Humanities Philosophy

Ethics

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What Are the Goals of

Environmental Science?

The three goals of environmental science:

Ø To learn how life on the earth has survived and thrived
Ø To understand how we interact with the environment
Ø To find ways to deal with environmental problems and
live more sustainably

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 1.1. What are some principles of sustainability?

Ø Sustainability is the ability of ecosystems and human

cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt together to
constantly changing environments over long periods of
time
Ø Life on the earth:
– Has been sustained for billions of years by solar energy,
biodiversity, and chemical cycling
– Depends on energy from the sun and natural capital
provided by the earth
– Can been preserved by shifting towards full-cost pricing
and win-win solutions
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Four principles of sustainability

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 Four principles of sustainability
Ø Solar energy warms the earth and provides energy for
plants to produce nutrients, or the chemicals necessary for
life. All life on earth depends upon solar energy.
Ø Biodiversity is the variety of organisms, the natural systems
in which they live and the natural services that they
provide.
Ø Population Control: competition for limited resources
among different species places a limit on how much their
populations can grow.
Ø Nutrient cycling is the circulation of nutrients, or chemicals
from the environment (mostly from soil and water)
through organisms and back the to environment is
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necessary for life.

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Sustainability – Key Components

Ø Natural capital – the

natural resources and
natural services that
keep us and other forms
of life alive and support
our economies.
Ø Our lives and economies
depend on energy from
the sun (solar capital),
natural resources and
natural services (natural
capital) provided by the
earth. 20

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 Natural capital
= Natural resources + Natural services

Ø Natural resources are materials and energy in nature that

are essential or useful to humans.
Ø These resources are often classified as renewable (such as
air, water, soil, plants, and wind) or nonrenewable (such as
copper, oil, and coal).
Ø Natural services are processes in nature such as purification
of air and water, which support life and human economies.

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Natural capital = Natural resources + Natural services

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 Natural services (nutrient cycling)

Ø One vital natural

service is nutrient
cycling.
Ø An important
component of
nutrient cycling is
topsoil – a vital
natural resource that
provides food.
Ø Without nutrient
cycling in topsoil, life
could not exist on the
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earth’s land
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Natural capital degradation

Ø Many human activities can degrade natural capital by using

normally renewable resources faster than nature can
restore them, and by overloading natural systems with
pollution and wastes.
Ø Natural capital degradation occurs when the natural
resources and services are hurt.
Ø Solutions are being found and implemented

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 Natural capital degradation

Ø Solutions to natural degradation, such as:

- Reducing energy consumption
- Reducing resource use
- Advocating a reduction in population growth
Ø May require economic changes and life – style
modifications
Ø Sustainability begins at personal and local levels

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What is resource?

Ø A resource is anything we obtain from the environment to

meet our needs and wants
- Solar energy, fresh air, fertile topsoil, wild edible plants
are directly available for use
- Other resources such as petroleum, iron, underground
water, and cultivated crops become useful to us only
with some effort and technological ingenuity
Ø A perpetual resources (inexhaustible resources) is
continuously renewed and expected to last

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 Renewable resource

Ø A renewable resource is replenished in days to several

hundred years through natural processes as long as it is not
used up faster than it is renewed
- Examples include forests, grassland, fish populations,
fresh water, fresh air, and fertile soil.
Ø Sustainable yield of
renewable
resource is the
highest rate at
which it can be
used indefinitely
without reducing
its available supply 27

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Nonrenewable resource
Ø Nonrenewable/exhaustible resource, such as coal and oil,
exist in a fixed quantity, or stock, in the earth’s crust and
take millions to billions of years to renew.
Ø We can deplete these resources much faster than nature
can form them
Ø Exhaustible energy (coal and oil)
Ø Metallic minerals (copper and alluminum)
Ø Nonmetallic minerals (salt and sand)

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 Sustainable solutions

Ø Sustainable solutions: Reduce,

reuse, recycle
Ø Reuse means using a resource
over and over in the same form,
for ex. glass bottles that are
collected, washed and refilled
many times.
Ø Recycling involves collecting
waste materials and processing
them into new materials, For
example, discarded aluminum
cans can be crushed and melted to
make new. 29

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Sustainable solutions

Ø Recycling nonrenewable metallic resource uses much less

energy, water and other resources and produces much less
pollution and environmental degradation than exploiting
virgin metallic resources
Ø Reusing such resources has a lower environmental impact
than recycling

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 Rich and poor countries have different
environmental impact

Ø The UN classifies the world’s countries as economically

more developed or less developed based primarily on their
average income per person
Ø High – income countries include the US, Canada, Japan, AU,
New Zealand, and coutries in Western Europe (17% of
world’s population – Industrialized countries).
Ø Middle – income countries includes China, India, Brazil,
Thailand and Mexico.
Ø Low – income countries include Congo, Haiti, Nigeria,
Nicaragua.

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Comparison of developed and

developing countries, 2008

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 1.2. How are our ecological footprints
affecting the earth?

Ø Over time, growth of ecological footprints depletes and

degrades earth’s natural capital. It is uccurring at an
accelerating rate
Ø Environmental degradation is when the use of a renewable
resource exceeds its natural replacement rate, causing the
available supply to shrink
Ø How do humans degrade natural capital?

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Environmental degradation

STEPS ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

Mining Disturbed land, mining accidents,
health hazards, mine waste dumping,
Exploitation, extraction oil spills and blowouts, noise,
ugliness, heat.
Processing
Transportation, Solid wastes, radioactive material ,
purification, air-water and soil pollution, noise,
manufacturing safety and health hazards , ugliness,
heat

Use
Noise, ugliness, thermal water
Transportation or pollution, pollution of air-water-soil,
transmission to solid and radioactive wastes, safety
individual user, eventual and health hazards, heat.
use and discarding 34

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 Natural capital degradation

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We are living unsustainably

Ø According to the 2005 UN Millenium Ecosystem

Assessment, about 60% of the earth’s natural or ecosystem
services have been degraded.
Ø “Human activities is putting such a strain on the natural
functions of Earth that the ability of the Planet’s ecosystem
to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for
granted"

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 Pollution

Ø Pollution is contamination of the environment by chemicals

(pollutants) or other agent, such as noise and heat, that is
harmful to health, survival, or activities of humans or other
organisms

Natural occurring Contributed by humans 37

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Pollution types

Point source are single, identifiable sources

Ø The smokestack of a coal burning power or industrial plant
Ø A factory drainpipe, or
Ø The exhaust pipe of an automobile

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 Pollution types

Nonpoint source are dispersed and difficult to identify sources

Ø Pesticides blown from the land into the air
Ø The runoff fertilizers, pesticides, and trash from the land
into streams and lakes

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How we are dealing with pollution?

We can cleanup pollution or prevent it

Ø Pollution cleanup (post - production) involves cleaning up or
diluting pollutants after they have been produced. Pollution
cleanup is usually more expensive and less effective (e.g. Oil
spill).
Ø Cleanup often removes a pollutant from one part of the
environment only to cause pollution in another.
Ø Once pollutants become dispersed into the environment at
harmful levels, it usually costs too much to reduce them to
acceptable levels.

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 How we are dealing with pollution?

Ø Pollution prevention (before pollution occurs) reduces or

eliminates the production of pollutants
- E.g. Air purifying technologies used on smokestacks for
cleaner exhaust.
Ø But we need both pollution prevention (front of the pipe)
and pollution cleanup (end of the pipe) solutions.
Ø Pollution prevention is another key to a more sustainable
future.

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The tragedy of the commons

overexploiting shared renewable resources

Ø Many open – access renewable resources have been

environmentally degraded (atmosphere, open ocean and its
fish population).
Ø In 1968, the biologist Garrett Hardin called the degradation of
openly shared resources the tragedy of the commons.
Ø Possible solutions:
Ø Use a shared renewable source at a rate well below its
estimated sustainable yield (by using less of the resource,
regulating access to the resource, or both).
Ø To convert open – access renewable resources to private
ownership (this is not pratical for global resources such as
the atmosphere and the oceans). 42

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 Ecological footprints
our environmental impacts

Ø Ecological footprint is the amount of biologically productive

land and water needed to supply a population or geographic
area with renewable resources, as well as the ability to
absorb/recycle wastes and pollution produced by resource
usage.
Ø The growth of ecological footprints
– Leads to degradation of natural capital
– Results in the creation of pollution and waste

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Ecological footprints
our environmental impacts

Ø Per capita ecological footprint is the average ecological

footprin of an individual in a given country or area.

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 Our ecological footprints are growing

•An ecological deficit:

– Occurs when the ecological footprint is larger than the
biological capacity to replenish its renewable resources
and absorb the resulting wastes/pollution
•In an ecological deficit, people are living unsustainably
– By depleting their natural capital instead of living off the
renewable supply or income provided by it.
– This creates adverse environmental impacts, which can be
mitigated by upcycling
• Footprints can also be expressed as number of Earths it would
take to support consumption 45

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Ecological footprints
our environmental impacts

•Ecological deficit - Geman

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 Ecological footprints
our environmental impacts

•Ecological deficit - China

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Ecological footprints
our environmental impacts

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 Ecological footprints
our environmental impacts

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IPAT Is Another Environmental

Impact Model

Ø In the early 1970s, a new environmental model called the IPAT

model was developed by Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren to
determine the environmental impact of human activities

𝐈=𝐏×𝐀×𝐓

Ø It is simple model showing how population size (P),

affluence or resource consumption per person (A), and the
beneficial and harmful environmental effects of
technologies (T) help to determine the environmental
impact (I) of human activities

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 IPAT Is Another Environmental
Impact Model

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IPAT Is Another Environmental

Impact Model

Ø Some forms of technology increase environmental impact

by raising the T factor
Ø Polluting factories, coal-burning power plants, and gas-
guzzling motor vehicles.
Ø Some other technologies reduce environmental impact by
decreasing T factor.
Ø Pollution control and prevention technologies, wind
turbines and solar cells that generate electricity without
polluting, and fuel-efficient cars

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 IPAT Is Another Environmental
Impact Model
Ø While the ecological footprint model emphasizes the use of
renewable resources, this model includes the per capita use
of both renewable and nonrenewable resources.
Ø In most developing countries, the key factor in total
environmental impact are population size and the
degradation of renewable resources as a growing number
of poor people struggle to stay alive
Ø In more-developed countries, high rates of per capita
resource use and the resulting high per capita levels of
pollution and resource depletion and degradation usually
are the key factors determining overall envronmental
impact.
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Cultural changes have increased

our ecological footprints

Ø 12.000 years ago: hunters and gatherers

Ø Three major cultural events
- Agricultural revolution
- Industrial – medical revolution
- Information – globalization revolution
Ø Current need for a sustainable revolution

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 1.3. Why do we have
environmental problems?

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Our Environmental Worldview

Ø For each of these causes, what are two environmental

problems that result?
Ø Our own worldview determines whether we live sustainably
or unsustainably
The Human Population Is Growing at a Rapid Rate
Ø Unchecked population/ecological footprint growth results
in natural capital degradation
Ø Can we slow down this degradation by reducing the rate of
population growth?

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 Technology increases population

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Technology increases population

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 Affluence has harmful & beneficial
environmental effects

Harmful environmental impact due to:

Ø High levels of consumption and unnecessary waste of
resources
Ø More air pollution, water pollution, and land degradation
Ø Acquisition of resources without regard for the
environmental effects of their consumption
Affluence can provide funding for developing technologies to
Ø Reduce pollution, reduce environmental degradation,
reduce resource waste.
Ø better education, scientific research
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Poverty Can Have Harmful

Environmental and Health Effects

Ø Harmful effects
– Short term requirements for survival can lead to
degraded forests, topsoil, grasslands, fisheries, and
wildlife populations
Ø Health effects
– Malnutrition, limited access to sanitation/clean drinking
water, outdoor and indoor air pollution

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 Prices of Goods/Services Rarely Include
Their Harmful Environmental/Health Costs

Ø Consumers are unaware of the damage caused by their

consumption
Ø Current government subsidies often increase
environmental degradation
– To live sustainably, government subsidies must become
beneficial to the environment by:
•Taxing pollution and waste
•Shifting from environmentally harmful to
environmentally beneficial subsidies

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We Are Increasingly Isolated

From Nature

Ø More than half the world’s population lives in urban

environments technological isolated from nature
Ø We are unaware of:
– The origins of our food, water and other goods
– The pollution and waste generated by the production of
these goods and services

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 What is Your Environmental Worldview?

Each individual has his or her own environmental worldview

Ø A set of assumptions and values reflecting how one thinks
the world works and what one’s role in it should be
People have different views about environmental
problems/solutions
Ø Three major types of world views:
– Human-centered
• Planetary management world view
• Stewardship world view
– Life-centered
– Earth-centered
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The Rise of Environmental Conservation and

Protection in the United States

Ø The preservationist school (John Muir)

– Leave wilderness areas on some public lands untouched
Ø The conservationist school (Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford
Pinchot)
– Manage all public lands wisely and scientifically,
primarily to provide resources for people

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 1.4 What Is an Environmentally
Sustainable Society?

Ø In order to live sustainably, one must live off the natural

resources without depleting or degrading the natural
capital that supplies these natural resources

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We Must Protect Our Natural Capital

and Live Off of Its Income

Ø Earth’s natural capital provides natural income

– Renewable resources such as plants, animals, soil, and
clean water and air
Ø By living only on the natural income and not depleting
the natural capital, society moves from an unsustainable
lifestyle to a sustainable one

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 A More Sustainable Future Is Possible

Ø Given enough time, most degraded environments can

recover – but many will take hundreds and even
thousands of years to recover.
– Time is our most scarce resource
– However, 5-10% of a population that changes can
make a difference
– Changes can occur in a shorter time than
previously thought

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Key concepts

Ø Concept 1-1A. Our lives and economies depend on energy

from the sun and natural resources and natural services
provied by the earth.
Ø Concept 1-1B. Living sustainably means living off the earth’s
natural income without depleting or degrading the natural
capital that supplies it.
Ø Concept 1-2. As our ecological footprints grow, we are
depleting and degrading more of the earth’s natural capital.
Ø Concept 1-3. Preventing pollution is mor effective and less
costly than cleaning up pollution.

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 Key concepts

Ø Concept 1-4. Major causes of environmental problems are

population growth, wasteful and unsustainable resource use,
poverty and exclusion environmental costs of resource use
from the market prices of goods and services
Ø Concept 1-5. We can live more sustainably by relying more on
solar energy, preserving biodiversity, and not disrupting the
earth’s natural chemical recycling processes.

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Thank you for your attention

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