1. Bell Work Define what you think an indicator is.
What are some key indicators you think we should be looking at when focusing on global Environmental conditions?
List as many indicators as possible.

2. Environmental Indicators and Sustainability
What Environmental Scientists Investigate:
Is the planets natural life-support system being degraded by human induced changes?
Ecosystem Services – processes by which life supporting resources such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agricultural crops are produced
Do we take a healthy Ecosystem for granted?
When? We only notice a degraded ecosystem when it no longer produces the goods and services we need.
Goal? Be able to measure the health of an Ecosystem prior to degradation.

3. Environmental Indicators
Describe the current state of an environmental system.
Five Global Scale Environmental Indicators:
Biological Diversity
Food Production
Average Global Surface temperatures and Carbon Dioxide concentrations in Atmosphere
Human Population
Resource Depletion

4. Biological Diversity
Diversity of life forms in an environment. Genetic Diversity – measure of genetic variation among individuals in a population. Why is Genetic Diversity important? Populations are better able to respond to environmental change

5. Species Diversity
Species – group of organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring
2 million cataloged; estimate million exist (common estimate 10million)
Species diversity – number of species in a region or in a particular type of habitat

6. Species Diversity cont…
Ecosystems with higher species diversity are:
More productive and resilient and better able to recover from disturbance

7. Species diversity cont…
Environmental Scientists often focus on species diversity as a critical environmental indicator.
Example: number of frog species
Indicator of environmental health bc frogs are exposed to both water and air in their ecosystem
Can species go extinct naturally?

8. Species Diversity cont…
Background Extinction –
The average rate at which species become extinct over the long term
Under conditions of environmental change/ biological stress…. Estimate about 1000 species are going extinct a year.
500 times the background rate of extinction

9. What are common causes of species extinction?
Habitat destruction/ degradation
Climate change
overharvesting,
Pressure from introduced species
Which do you think is major cause?

10. Ecosystem Diversity
Measure of the diversity of ecosystems or habitats that exist in a given region Healthy and Productive Ecosystems = Health Environment Measures of Biodiversity are given in terms of “Land Area”

11. Converting Between Hectares and Acres
Land area is expressed in hectares
1 Hectare (ha) is 100 meters x 100 meters.
United States land area is usually expressed in acres
1 ha = 2.47 acres
Problem: 1) If a nature preserve is 100ha, what is it size in acres?
2) A particular forest is 10,000 acres. Determine its size in hectares

12. Food Production Ability to grow food to support human population
Wheat, corn, rice provide more than half the calories and protein humans consume
Human population is straining ability to grow and distribute adequate food.

13. Food production cont…
What factors influence the amount of grain produced in the world?
1. climatic conditions
2. quality land/ soil/ irrigation
3. human labor/ energy to plant, harvest, and bring grain to market

14. Food Production cont…
Because production is not keeping up with population growth we have other issues:
1. soil degradation
2. crop diseases
3. unfavorable weather (drought/ floods)
4. demand out paces supply.

15. Average Global Surface Temperatures and Carbon Dioxide Concentrations
Stable climate is needed for biodiversity and food production for human life.
Atmosphere keeps temps constant
Greenhouse gases – gases in earth’s atmosphere that trap heat near the surface
Most important CO2

16. Average Global Surface Temperatures and Carbon Dioxide Concentrations
CO2 is greater than 400 parts per million (ppm)
This situation is what is considered Anthropogenic:
What is Anthropogenic?
Human activities duh!

17. Human Population
Another factor to indicate health of our global environment
Current population 7.2Billion
387,000 infants are born in 24 hours while 155,000 people die
How many additional people every 5 days?

18. Resource Depletion
As population continues to increase demands for natural resources increases
Affects our environment in many ways:
land degradation from mining, waste, air pollution
Renewable and Non- renewable resources

19. Resource Depletion cont…
Development – improvement in human well-being through economic advancement.
Only 20% of worlds population lives in developed countries
Black = developed
Red = non developed
Automobiles
87%/13%
Meat and fish
45%/55%
Energy
58%/42%
Paper
84%/16%

20. Human well-being depends on sustainable practice
Five Key Environmental indicators help analyze the health of the plane.
This guides us toward Sustainability
Sustainability?
Living on Earth in a way that allows humans to use its resources without depriving future generations of those resources.

21. Impact of Consumption on the Environment
Developed nations consume far greater share of the world’s resources
Large populations degrade environment
How can we continue our current level of resource consumption without jeopardizing the well being of future generations?

22. Easter Island
Read Easter Island Scenario

23. Impact of Consumption on the Environment
What most environmental scientists believe:
1. limits to supply of clean air and water
2. limit nutritious foods
3. no longer able to maintain a stable climate

24. Impact of Consumption on the Environment
To live Sustainably:
Requirements:
Environmental systems must not be damaged beyond their ability to recover
Renewable resources must not be depleted
Nonrenewable resources must be used sparingly.
Sustainable Development:
balances current human wellbeing and economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations.
Living Sustainably means acting in a way such that activities that are crucial to human society can continue.
Ex. Not eating chicken six times a week.

25. Defining Human Needs
Biophilia – connections that humans subconsciously seek with the rest of life
Natural areas, for beauty, and for social connections are considered as vital to our well being and long-term goal of sustainability.
Wants vs. Needs
Essentials that sustain human life are needs: air, water, food, shelter
And…. Biophilia?
Love of Life

26. Ecological Footprint
Ecological Footprint is a measure of how much an individual consumes, expressed in area of land.
Method used to assess whether we are living sustainably is to measure the impact of a person or country on world resources.

27. Lorax Activity