45:211: Environmental Geography ENVIRONMENTAL INTERRELATIONSHIPS Module 1

45:211: Environmental Geography Outline Nature of Environmental Geography –Interrelatedness Humans and The Environment Environmental systems - Ecosystem Approach –Environmental Commons Who “owns” Earth? –Regional Concerns Political versus Natural Boundaries

45:211: Environmental Geography Environmental Geography The role of Environmental Geography is to: – understand the natural interactions within our environment, and –integrate this understanding with the uses that humans make of the natural world and their impacts.

45:211: Environmental Geography The Environment Elements of the physical environment –Water –Air –Soil and Land Physical connections –Hydrologic Cycle –Atmospheric Circulation –Food Chains and Webs

45:211: Environmental Geography Human Activities Human settlement and Land use Resource extraction –Agriculture –Forestry –Energy and Mining Consumption and Waste –Consumption is waste

45:211: Environmental Geography An Environmental Lesson What can we learn from Walkerton? –Things are connected –Bad things happen from neglecting the environment –Tackle the cause not the symptom Humans are a part of nature –Not apart from nature

45:211: Environmental Geography First Law of Ecology You can never do only one thing (Garrett Hardin)

45:211: Environmental Geography Connectedness “When you tug at a single thing in nature, you find it is attached to the rest of the world” John Muir (1876) Founder of the Sierra Club of North America The environment is interconnected, and we are connected to the environment

45:211: Environmental Geography Interrelatedness The “environment” is everything that affects an organism during its lifetime. –biotic - living component –abiotic - non-living component

45:211: Environmental Geography Ecosystem Approach Ecosystem: A region in which organisms and the physical environment form an interacting unit. An ecosystem approach requires looking at the way the natural world is organized and how different components act and interact.

45:211: Environmental Geography Natural versus Political Boundaries Most social and political decisions are made with respect to political boundaries and jurisdictions. –But environmental systems and environmental problems rarely coincide with these boundaries.

45:211: Environmental Geography Rivers and Watersheds

45:211: Environmental Geography Trans-Boundary Water

45:211: Environmental Geography Other Transboundary Issues Quantity of water Quality of water Air pollution –local, regional, global –smog, acid rain, ozone depletion Habitat loss for migratory species Global climate change

45:211: Environmental Geography Global Commons Those natural systems and cycles that underpin the functioning of ecosystems everywhere. –Atmosphere –Oceans –Hydrologic Cycle –Biogeochemical (nutrient) Cycles

45:211: Environmental Geography Global Commons (2) These provide us with –air –water –soil –nutrients –climate stability –natural resources

45:211: Environmental Geography Atmospheric Circulation

45:211: Environmental Geography Ocean Circulation

45:211: Environmental Geography Hydrologic Cycle

45:211: Environmental Geography Rivers and Oceans

45:211: Environmental Geography

Tragedy of the Commons Ecologist Garrett Hardin reiterated Aristotle's wisdom that "... what is common to the greatest number of people gets the least amount of care..." The "tragedy of the commons" emerges whenever the benefits to an individual of (over-)exploiting an open-access (common) resource exceed that individual's share of the resulting damage costs.

45:211: Environmental Geography Regional Environmental Concerns Out of necessity (political and realistic) most countries, and regions within countries, focus on specific, local issues that apply directly to them. –If you live in the middle of Toronto, how “real” is the problem of biodiversity loss in Brazil ??

45:211: Environmental Geography Regional Environmental Issues

45:211: Environmental Geography Geography Matters The physical environment is variable in geographic space Human society and culture are variable over geographic space Environmental interactions are thus rooted in their geographical location –So that geography matters!

45:211: Environmental Geography Great Lakes The Great Lakes Region is dominated by large metropolitan areas. Many of these large industrial centers have declined, leaving behind abandoned sites, and environmental pollution. One of the greatest problems associated with the industrial uses of this area is water contamination from toxic chemicals. –Bioaccumulation - Fish Advisories

45:211: Environmental Geography Forested West The climate of the Coastal and mountainous regions of Western North America supports lush coniferous forests. Government and commercial timber companies own large sections of land. Historically, much of this timber has sold at a loss, especially in environmental terms.

45:211: Environmental Geography Environmental Indicator A selected key statistic that represents or summarizes a significant aspect of the state of the environment, natural resource sustainability or related human activity.

45:211: Environmental Geography Environmental Indicator Environmental indicators focus on –trends in environmental changes, –the stresses that are causing them, –how ecosystems and their components are responding to these changes, and –societal responses to prevent, reduce or ameliorate these stresses. Example: Stratospheric ozone and CFC's

45:211: Environmental Geography A qualitative indicator

45:211: Environmental Geography Atmospheric CO2 Trend is a measure of the rate of change with time

45:211: Environmental Geography Trend and Variation Variation is the oscillation around the trend (or mean)

45:211: Environmental Geography Summary Humans are a part of nature –Not apart from nature Environmental interactions are rooted in their geographical location Most ecosystems do not coincide with political boundaries –This raises issues for the life-support systems of the planet (global commons)