3.1 TIFFANYS, KARENS AND HENRY

Environmental issues  Three general categories: resource use, Population growth, and pollution

Resource Use  Natural resource include these two kinds of things:  Natural resource: anything in the environment that is used by people  Renewable resources: resources that are either always available in the nature or can be replace in a reasonably short time.  Example: sunlight, wind, fresh water, trees.

Resource use  Unrenewable resources: resource that are not replaced in a reasonable time frame.  Example: coal, oil.

Population growth  Improvements in medicine, agriculture, waste disposal  When population grows, the demand for resources also grows.

Pollution  The contamination of Earth’s environment  Factors: Chemicals, wastes, noise, heat, and light  Relate to resource use  Harm the natural ecosystem as well as the human health

Making Environmental Decision  Making decisions to solve environmental issues  Can be at personal, local, national, or global levels.  Many personal decisions (riding a bike instead of driving your car) combined can be a huge impact on environment.

Balancing different needs  Environmental science: the study of natural processes in the environment and how humans can affect them  Environmental decision requires the balance between the needs of the environment and human need.  Decision makers will have to consider the costs and benefits of a proposal.

Types of costs and benefits  Often economic benefit  Ecological cost  Jobs created  Sometimes short terms cost can be outweighed by its long-term benefit

Weighing costs and benefits  After identifying the costs and benefits of a decision, then you study the pros and cons of a decision.

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