Environmental Problems,

Their Causes, and

Sustainability

Chapter 1
Section 1-1

WHAT ARE THREE PRINCIPLES

OF SUSTAINABILITY?
 Environmental science is a
study of connections in nature
• Environment includes all living and nonliving
things with which an organism interacts.
• Environmental science studies how the earth
works, our interaction with the earth, and ways to
deal with environment problems and live more
sustainably.
• Ecology studies relationships between living
organisms, and their interaction with the
environment.
• Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated
to protecting life support systems for all species.
 Nature’s survival strategies follow
three principles of sustainability
1. Life depends on solar energy.
2. Biodiversity provides natural
services.
3. Chemical/nutrient cycling means that
there is little waste in nature.
Three principles of sustainability
 Sustainability has certain key
components
• Life depends on natural capital, natural
resources and natural services.
• Many human activities can degrade
natural capital.
• Solutions are being found and
implemented.
• Sustainability begins at personal and local
levels.
Key natural resources and services
 Natural Capital
Solar energy Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Natural Services

Key natural
resources
Air
Renewable
and services
Air purification
energy (sun,
wind, water
Climate control flows)
UV protection
(ozone layer)
Life
(biodiversity)

Water Population
control
Water purification
Pest
Waste treatment control

Nonrenewable Soil Land

minerals
(iron, sand) Food production
Soil renewal

Nutrient
recycling
Nonrenewable
energy
(fossil fuels)

Natural resources
Natural services Fig. 1-3, p. 9
Nutrient cycling
Organic
matter in
animals

Dead
organic
matter
Organic
matter
in plants
Decomposition

Inorganic
matter in soil

Fig. 1-4, p.
Some resources are renewable
and some are not
• Humans depend on resources to meet our needs.
• A perpetual resource is continuously renewed and
expected to last (e.g. solar energy).
• A renewable resource is replenished in days to
several hundred years through natural processes.
• Sustainable yield is the highest rate at which a
renewable and non-renewable resource can be
used indefinitely without reducing its available
supply.
Some resources are renewable
and some are not
• Some resources are not renewable.
– Nonrenewable resources exist in fixed
quantities.
– Exhaustible energy (e.g. coal and oil).
– Metallic minerals (e.g. copper and aluminum).
– Nonmetallic minerals (e.g. salt and sand).
• Sustainable solutions: Reduce, reuse,
recycle.
 Rich and poor countries have
different environmental impacts
• Developed countries include the high
income ones
– e.g. United States, Canada.
• Developing countries include the low
income ones
– e.g. China, India.
Section 1-2

HOW ARE OUR ECOLOGICAL

FOOTPRINTS AFFECTING THE
EARTH?
 We are living unsustainably
• Environmental, or natural capital,
degradation is occurring.
• We have solutions to these problems that
can be implemented.
 Degradation of normally
renewable natural resources
 Natural Capital Degradation

Degradation of Normally Renewable Natural Resources

Climate Shrinking
change forests

Decreased
Air pollution wildlife
habitats
Species
Soil erosion extinction

Water
pollution

Declining
Aquifer ocean fisheries
depletion

Fig. 1-5, p.
Pollution comes from a number
of sources
• Point sources are single, identifiable
sources
• Nonpoint sources are dispersed and often
difficult to identify .
• We can clean up pollution or prevent it.
• Pollution cleanup is usually more
expensive and less effective.
• Pollution prevention reduces or eliminates
the production of pollutants.
The tragedy of the commons: overexploiting
shared renewable resources
• In 1968, the biologist Garrett Hardin called
the degradation of openly shared
resources the tragedy of the commons.
• Reducing degradation.
– Reduce use by government regulations.
– Shift to private ownership.
 Ecological footprints: our
environmental impacts
• Ecological footprint is the amount of
biologically productive land and water
needed to supply a person or country with
renewable resources and to recycle the
waste and pollution produced by such
resource use.
• Per capita ecological footprint is the
average ecological footprint of an
individual in a given country or area.
 Ecological footprints: our
environmental impacts
• Ecological deficit means the ecological
footprint is larger than the biological
capacity to replenish resources and
absorb wastes and pollution.
• Humanity is living unsustainably.
• Footprints can also be expressed as
number of Earths it would take to support
consumption.
Total and per capita ecological
footprint of selected countries
 Total Ecological Footprint (million Per Capita Ecological
hectares) and Share of Global Footprint (hectares per
Biological Capacity (%) person)

United States United

2,810 (25%) States 9.7
European Union 2,160 (19%) European Union 4.7
China 2,050 (18%) China 1.6
India 780 (7%) India 0.8
Japan 540 (5%) Japan 4.8

2.5
Number of Earths

Unsustainable living
2.0

1.5
Projected footprint
1.0
Ecological
0.5 footprint Sustainable living

0
1961 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

Year

Fig. 1-8, p.
 IPAT is another environmental
impact model
• In the early 1970s, scientists Paul Ehrlich
and John Holdren developed the IPAT
model.
• I (environmental impact) =
P (population size) x
A (affluence/person) x
T (technology’s beneficial and harmful effects).
I=PxAxT
Less-Developed Countries

Consumption Technological Environmental

Population (P) per person impact per unit of impact of
(affluence, A) consumption (T) population (I)

More-Developed Countries

Fig. 1-9, p.
Section 1-3

WHY DO WE HAVE
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS?
Experts have identified four basic
causes of environmental problems
1. Population growth.
2. Unsustainable resource use.
3. Poverty.
4. Excluding environmental costs from
market prices.
 Causes of Environmental Problems

Population Unsustainable Poverty Excluding

growth resource use environmental costs
from market prices

Fig. 1-10, p.
 The human population is growing
exponentially at a rapid rate
• Human population is increasing at a fixed
percentage so that we are experiencing
doubling of larger and larger populations.
• Human population in 2009 was about 6.8
billion.
• Based on the current increase rate there
will be 9.6 billion people by 2050.
• We can slow population growth.
Exponential growth
 13
12
11
10
9
?

Billions of people
8
7
6
5
4
3
Industrial revolution
2
Black Death—the Plague
1
0
2–5 million 8000 6000 4000 2000 2000 2100
years Time B. C. A. D.
Hunting and Agricultural revolution Industrial
gathering revolution
Fig. 1-11, p.
 Affluence has harmful and
beneficial environmental effects
• Wealth results in high levels of consumption and
waste of resources.
• Average American consumes 30 times as much
as the average consumer in India.
• “Shop-until-you-drop” affluent consumers are
afflicted with a disorder called affluenza.
• Affluence has provided better education, scientific
research, and technological solutions, which
result in improvements in environmental quality
(e.g., safe drinking water).
Poverty has harmful environmental
and health effects
• Poverty occurs when the basic needs for
adequate food, water, shelter, health, and
education are not met.
• One in every five people live in extreme
poverty (<$1.25/day), and more are
susceptible.
Poverty has harmful environmental
and health effects
• Poverty causes harmful environmental and
health effects.
– Environmental degradation caused by need
for short-term survival.
– Malnutrition.
– Inadequate sanitation and lack of clean
drinking water.
– Severe respiratory disease.
– High rates of premature death for children
under the age of 5 years.
Harmful effects of poverty
 Lack of Number of people
access to (% of world's population)
Adequate
2.6 billion (37%)
sanitation facilities

Enough fuel for

2 billion (29%)
heating and cooking

Electricity 2 billion (29%)

Adequate 1.1 billion (16%)

health care

Adequate 1 billion (14%)

housing

Enough food for 1 billion (14%)

good health

Clean
drinking water 900 million (13%)
Fig. 1-13, p.
Malnutrition
Prices of goods and services due not include
harmful environmental and health costs
• A company’s goal is often to maximize the profit.
• Often consumers do not know the damage
caused by their consumption.
• Government subsidies may increase
environmental degradation.
• There are ways to include harmful costs of
goods and services.
– Shift from environmentally harmful to beneficial
government subsidies.
– Tax pollution and waste heavily while reducing taxes
on income and wealth.
 People have different views about
environmental problems and their solutions
• Each individual has their own environmental
worldview—a set of assumptions and values
reflecting how you think the world works and
what your role should be.
• Environmental ethics are beliefs about what is
right and wrong with how we treat the
environment.
• Planetary management worldview holds that
we are separate from and in charge of nature.
 People have different views about
environmental problems and their solutions
• Stewardship worldview holds that we can
and should manage the earth for our
benefit, but that we have an ethical
responsibility to be caring and responsible
managers.
• Environmental wisdom worldview holds
that we are part of, and dependent on,
nature and that nature exists for all
species, not just for us.
Section 1-4

WHAT IS AN ENVIRONMENTALLY
SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY?
 What is an environmentally
sustainable society?
• Environmentally sustainable societies protect
natural capital and live off its income.
– Increase reliance on renewable resources.
– Protect earth’s natural capital.
• We can work together to solve environmental
problems.
– Trade-off solutions provide a balance between
the benefits and the costs.
– Individuals matter especially in success of
bottom-up grassroots action.
 Three Big Ideas
1. Rely more on renewable energy from the sun.
2. Protect biodiversity by preventing the
degradation of the earth’s species, ecosystems,
and natural processes, and by restoring areas
we have degraded.
3. Help sustain earth’s natural chemical cycles by
reducing waste and pollution, not overloading
natural systems with chemicals, and don’t
remove natural chemicals faster than the cycles
can replace them.