The Environmental

Challenges We Face
Chapter 1
 A World in Crisis
– Earth provides raw materials and energy for Life
– Earth is approx 4.5 Billion years old
• Modern humans appeared in Africa 195,000 yrs ago
• Human populations have grown and expanded in range
• Technology has allowed humans to live better (at least in
developed nations)

– Humans are the most significant agent of environmental

change
• Overpopulation
• Overconsumption of natural resources: topsoil, water, air
• Transforming and destroying natural environments
• Eradicating unique species
• Human-induced climate change
A World in Crisis
 Human Impacts on the Environment
• Learning Objectives:
1. Distinguish among highly developed countries,
moderately developed countries, and less
developed countries.
2. Relate human population size to natural
resources and resource consumption.
3. Distinguish between people overpopulation and
consumption overpopulation.
4. Describe the three factors that are most important
in determining human impact on the
environment.
 Human Impacts on the Environment
• Overpopulation
– Earth’s central environmental problem
– Links all other environmental problems together
– World’s population continues to grow and has grown very fast
– 1960: 3 billion people
– 1975: 4 billion
– 1987: 5 billion
– 2009: 6.8 billion
• People consume food and water, use energy and raw
materials and produce waste
• Several more billion people will be added in the 21st
century, even if we are proactive about population growth
 Linear vs. Exponential
• Linear growth - a quantity increases by a
constant amount per unit of time: 2, 4, 6, 8
or 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 & so on.
• Exponential growth - a quantity increases
by a fixed percentage of the whole in a given
time: 1, 2, 4, 16
Environmental InSight
Environmental InSight
 Human Impacts on the Environment
• Poverty
– A condition in which people are unable to meet
their basic needs for food, clothing, shelter,
education, or health.
– One in four people lives in extreme poverty (less
than $2/day): 3.3 billion people
– Poverty is associated with short life expectancy,
illiteracy, inadequate access to health services, safe
water, balanced nutrition
 Human Impacts on the Environment
Gap between Rich and Poor
• Highly Developed Countries (Rich, HDCs)
– Complex industrialized bases, low rates of
population growth, and high per person incomes
– 18 % of the world’s population
– US, Canada, Japan, most of Europe
 Human Impacts on the Environment
Gap between Rich and Poor
– Poor Countries: 82% of world’s population
– Moderately Developed (MDCs)
• Medium levels of industrialization, lower per person incomes
than highly developed countries, few opportunities for
education and health care
• Mexico, Turkey, South Africa, Thailand
– Less Developed (LDCs)
• Low levels of industrialization, high population growth, very
high infant death rates, very low incomes, mostly agriculture
based, cheap unskilled labor
• Bangladesh, Mali, Ethiopia, Laos
 Human Impacts on the Environment

Gap between Rich and Poor

 Human Impacts on the Environment
Population, Resources, and the Environment
• Developing countries
– Rapid population growth is overwhelming
– Natural resource depletion for survival (soils, forests,
water)
• Developed countries
– Slower population growth
– Higher rate of consumption beyond what’s necessary
for survival (TV, computers, jet skis)
 Human Impacts on the Environment
Types of Resources
• Nonrenewable
– Limited Supply: minerals, fossil fuels
– Once they are gone, they are gone
• Renewable/Potentially Renewable
– Virtually unlimited: solar power, water, soil, forests
– Replenished over short periods (days to decades)
– Easy to overexploit nonrenewable
• Soil, fresh water, clean air
 3 Types of Resources
1. energy resources:
coal, oil, natural gas, uranium,
2. metallic mineral resources
iron, copper, aluminum, &
3. nonmetallic mineral resources
salt, clay, sand, & phosphates
• We convert these raw materials into many
everyday items we use, & then we discard,
reuse, or recycle them.
 Human Impacts on the Environment
Resources and Population
• Rapid population growth can cause resources to
be overexploited
– Critical in developing countries
– Economic growth tied to natural resource exploitation
– Choice between short term and long term
• Poverty drives natural resource exploitation
– Must use resources to survive, which degrades them
and shuts down future opportunities for development
 Human Impacts on the Environment
Population Size and Resource Consumption
• A country is overpopulated if the demand on its
resources results in damage to the environment.
Can be overpopulated in 2 ways:
• People Overpopulation
– Consumption is high because there are too many
people, even if individual consumption is low
• Consumption Overpopulation
– Consumption is high because each individual consumes
too much, even if total population is low
 Human Impacts on the Environment
Population Size and Resource Consumption
• Highly developed countries have less than
20% of the world’s population, but consume:
– 86% of aluminum
– 76% of timber
– 68% of energy
– 61% of meat
– 42% of fresh water
• Also, produce 75% of waste and pollution
Human Impacts on the Environment
 Human Impacts on the Environment
Population Size and Resource Consumption
• Ecological Footprints
– The amount of land, fresh water, and ocean required on a
continuous basis to supply a person with food, wood, energy,
water, housing, clothing, transportation, and waste disposal.
– Earth has 11.4 billion ha = 28.2 billion acres of productive
land and water
– 11.4/6.8 billion people = 1.8 ha (4.3 acres)
– Currently, average ecological footprint is 2.7 ha (6.7 acres)
– US footprint is 9.4 ha (23.3 acres) if everyone in the world
had the same, we would need 4 Earths!!!
Human Impacts on the Environment
 Human Impacts on the Environment
Population, Consumption, and Environmental
Impact
• I=PxAxT
• I: Environmental impact
• P: Population (number of people)
• A: Affluence per person (amt of resources)
• T: Technology used to get resources
• Interpret results with care!
• Ultimate goal: make consumption sustainable
Human Impacts on the Environment
 Global Climate Change

1. How do highly developed countries, moderately

developed countries, and less developed
countries differ regarding population growth and
per person incomes?
2. How is human population growth related to
natural resource depletion and environmental
degradation?
Sustainability and Earth’s Capacity to
Support Humans
• Learning Objectives:
1. Define environmental sustainability.
2. Identify human behaviors that threaten
environmental sustainability
Sustainability and Earth’s Capacity
to Support Humans
• Sustainability:
– Ability to meet current needs without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their needs
– Environment will function indefinitely
– Based on:
• Effects of our actions on the environment
• Earth’s resources are finite
• Understanding impacts of consumption
• Shared responsibility for environmental sustainability
Sustainability and Earth’s Capacity
to Support Humans
• We are not currently living sustainably:
– Using nonrenewable resources as if they were
renewable (e.g., fossil fuels)
– Using renewable resources faster than nature can
replenish them
– Polluting the environment beyond capacity
– Unchecked population growth, without regard to
Earth’s finite resources and ability to deal with
waste
Environmental InSight
 The Tragedy of the Commons

• One cause of environmental degradation is

overuse of common-property resources, which are
owned by none & available to all users free of
charge.
• Most are potentially renewable.
• It happens because each user reasons, "If I don't
use this resource, someone else will. The little bit I
use or pollute is not enough to matter"
 Global Environmental Issues
Global warming Deforestation
 Global Environmental Issues
Threatened Oceans Desertification
 Global Environmental Issues
Polar Ice caps Ozone Depletion
 Global Environmental Issues
Environmental stress factor
 Sustainability and Earth’s Capacity to
Support Humans
• If we continue to live unsustainably, Earth
may not recover
• What changes are we willing to make?
Focus on Sustainability
 Global Climate Change

1. What is environmental sustainability?

2. Which human behaviors threaten environmental
sustainability?
 Environmental Science
• Learning Objectives:
1. Define environmental science.
2. Outline the steps of the scientific method.
 Environmental Science
• Interdisciplinary study of humanity’s
relationship with other organisms and the
physical environment
– combines information from many fields:
• biology, geology, geography, chemistry, economics,
agriculture, law, politics, ethics, etc.
– Ecology is a basic tool
– Atmospheric Science
– Environmental Chemistry
– Geosciences
 Environmental Science
• Goals
– Establish general principles about how the natural
world functions
– Identifying, understanding, and solving problems
that we have created
– Not just ‘doom and gloom’ list of problems
– Focus on solving problems
 Environmental Science
• Science as a Process
– Not just a collection of facts
– Systematic way of studying the natural world
– Requires collection of data through
• Observation and experimentation
– Data must be analyzed and interpreted
– Not based on faith, emotion, intuition
– Requires repeatability and scrutiny
– No absolute certainty
– Requires reevaluation
– Ongoing process
 How We Handle Environmental
Problems
• Learning Objectives:
1. List and briefly describe the five stages of
solving environmental problems.
How We Handle Environmental Problems
 Global Climate Change

1. What are the five steps used to solve an

environmental problem?
 Case Study
The New Orleans Disaster: Hurricane Katrina
– Storm damage was increased because of human
alteration of the natural landscape:
– Canals were built for navigationallowed salt
water to intrude and kill marsh vegetation
– Levees were built to stop floodingsediments did
not build up to replenish the land
– Settlements were built on drained wetlands
– City was subsiding due to lack of bedrock
Case Study