1. 1-3 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?
Concept 1-3 Major causes of environmental problems are population growth, wasteful and unsustainable resource use, poverty, and exclusion of environmental costs of resource use from the market prices of goods and services.

2. Experts Have Identified Four Basic Causes of Environmental Problems
According to a number of environmental and social scientists, the major causes of environmental problems are…
Excluding environmental costs from market prices
Unsustainable resource use
Population growth
Poverty

3. Experts Have Identified Four Basic Causes of Environmental Problems
What environmental problems do you think are related to these main causes?
Excluding environmental costs from market prices
Population growth
Unsustainable resource use
Poverty
Increased
resource use
Environmental
degradation
Focus on short
term survival
Promotes the use of
environmentally
unfriendly products
and methods

4. Exponential Growth of Human Population
Exponential growth occurs when a quantity increases at a
___________ percentage per unit of time
Exponential growth starts off ____________
Quickly grows to enormous numbers because each doubling
is twice the total of earlier growth
fixed
slowly
Figure 1.18: Exponential growth: The J-shaped curve represents past exponential world population growth, with projections to 2100 showing possible population stabilization as the J-shaped curve of growth changes to an S-shaped curve. (This figure is not to scale.) (Data from the World Bank and United Nations, 2008; photo L. Yong/UNEP/Peter Arnold, Inc.)
Exponential
Growth
____ growth
Logistic
Growth
____ growth S J
Fig. 1-18, p. 21

5. Industrial revolution13 12 11 10 9 ? 8 7
Billions of people 6 5
Figure 1.18: Exponential growth: The J-shaped curve represents past exponential world population growth, with projections to 2100 showing possible population stabilization as the J-shaped curve of growth changes to an S-shaped curve. (This figure is not to scale.) (Data from the World Bank and United Nations, 2008; photo L. Yong/UNEP/Peter Arnold, Inc.) 4 3
Industrial revolution 2
Black Death—the Plague 1
2–5 million years
8000
6000
4000
2000
2000
2100
Time
B. C.
A. D.
Hunting and gathering
Agricultural revolution
Industrial revolution
Fig. 1-18, p. 21

6. 2010 world population - ______ billion
Currently adding more than ______ million people per year
Unless death rates rise sharply, there will be around 9.5 billion people by the year _______
This projected addition of people is equivalent to…
_____ the current US population
_____ that of China
6.9 80
over 7 billion now
2050
8 x
2 x

7. Goal: Having world population level-off at around ___ billion by 2040 (Core Case Study)
How?
Reducing
poverty
Promoting
family planning
Elevating the
status of
women 8

8. Affluence Has Harmful and Beneficial Environmental Effects
Reducing poverty through economic development may lead to growing ________________…
Unnecessary consumption and waste of resources
Fueled by the assumption that buying more and more material goods will bring fulfillment and happiness
Affluenza – eventually unsustainable _______________ to buying more and more stuff
affluence
addiction

9. Affluence Has Harmful and Beneficial Environmental Effects
Affluence can have POSITIVE environmental effects as well…
Better _______________ can lead people to become more concerned about environmental quality
Money for developing __________________ to reduce pollution and waste
As a result, affluent countries have…
Cleaner air and water
Safer and more abundant food supply
education
technologies
Good
News!

10. Poverty Has Harmful Environmental and Health Effects
Poverty occurs when people are unable to fulfill their _________ _________ for adequate food, water, shelter, health, and education
According to a 2008 study by the
World Bank, 1.4 billion people, or
_____ in every ______ people live
in extreme poverty
basic
needs 1 5

11. Poverty Has Harmful Environmental and Health Effects
The daily lives of the world’s poorest people are focused on _________ term survival
Leads to degradation of potentially renewable resources
Even though poor people use very _______ resources individually, their ___________ population size leads to a high overall environmental impact
short
few
large
LDC P A T I

12. Poverty Has Harmful Environmental and Health Effects
Health problems caused by poverty…
Malnutrition – caused by a lack of __________ and other ____________ needed for good health
Limited access to adequate _______________ facilities and _____________ water
More than 2.6 billion people have no decent bathroom facilities…leads to using contaminated water
Severe respiratory disease – from breathing the smoke of open fires and poorly vented ___________
Premature death – for 6 million young children each year
protein
nutrients
sanitation
clean
stoves

13. (% of world's population)
Lack of access to
Number of people
(% of world's population)
Adequate sanitation facilities
2.6 billion (38%)
Enough fuel for heating and cooking
2 billion (29%)
Electricity
2 billion (29%)
Figure 1.20: These are some of the harmful effects of poverty. Questions: Which two of these effects do you think are the most harmful? Why? (Data from United Nations, World Bank, and World Health Organization)
Clean
drinking water
1.1 billion (16%)
Adequate health care
1.1 billion (16%)
Adequate housing
1 billion (15%)
Enough food for good health
1 billion (15%)
Fig. 1-20, p. 22

14. Which factor do you think causes more environmental problems?
Rapid population growth in LDCs or affluence in MDCs?
Malnourished child

15. Prices Do Not Include the Value of Natural Capital
Companies do not pay the environmental cost for the use of resources to provide goods/products
Companies receive _______________ such as tax breaks and payments to assist them with using resources
Helps provide jobs but promotes natural capital degradation
Future trade-offs?
Provide subsidies for ______________________ practices
Tax ________________ and _____________ heavily while reducing taxes on income and wealth
subsidies
earth-sustaining
pollution
waste

16. Environmentally Unfriendly Hummer
Uses more fuel
Adds more pollutants to the atmosphere
Does more damage to roads
Requires more material and energy to build (larger footprint)
Figure 1.22: This Hummer H3 sport utility vehicle burns a great deal of fuel compared to other, more efficient vehicles. It therefore adds more pollutants to the atmosphere and, being a very heavy vehicle, does more damage to the roads and land on which it is driven. It also requires more material and energy to build and maintain than most other vehicles on the road. These harmful costs are not included in the price of the vehicle.
These harmful costs are not included in the price of the vehicle
Fig. 1-22, p. 24

17. Different Views about Environmental Problems and Their Solutions
Differing opinions about environmental problems arise mostly from our different environmental ____________________
Your environmental worldview is your set of assumptions and values reflecting….
how you think the world __________
what you think your _________ in the world should be
Environmental ethics: what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment
Environmental _____________________________ - Every person should be entitled to equal protection from environmental hazards
worldviews
works
role
Justice Movement

18. Different Views about Environmental Problems and Their Solutions
Three Different Environmental World Views
Planetary management worldview
We are separate from and in _______________ of nature
Stewardship worldview
Manage earth for our benefit but with an ethical responsibility to be responsible managers, or _______________ of the earth
Environmental wisdom worldview
We are ____________ of nature and must engage in sustainable use
charge
stewards
part

19. 1-4 What Is an Environmentally Sustainable Society?
Concept 1-4 Living sustainably means living off the earth’s natural income without depleting or degrading the natural capital that supplies it.

20. Environmentally Sustainable Societies Protect Natural Capital and Live Off Its Income
Environmentally sustainable society: meets ______________ needs while ensuring that needs of ______________ generations will be met
Best Practice? Live on natural income of natural capital (our ________________ resources) without diminishing the natural capital
Banking example: Imagine you win $1 million in a lottery
Invest so that you earn 10% interest per year ($100,000)
If you overspend by even just $10,000 a year, you will be bankrupt in 18 years
current
future
renewable

21. We Can Work Together to Solve Environmental Problems
Making the shift towards more sustainable societies and economies includes building what sociologists call _______________ ________________
Involves getting people with different views and values to communicate
Promotes collaboration and hope
Requires people to find and implement trade-off solutions
social
capital

22. Case Study: The Environmental Transformation of Chattanooga, TN
Environmental success story: Social capital was built in Chattanooga, TN
1960: rated as one of the most polluted city in the U.S.
Its air was so polluted that people sometimes had to turn on their vehicle headlights during the day
Tennessee river bubbled with toxic waste
Eventually people and industries fled the downtown area, leaving…
Abandoned ____________________
High __________________ and _________________
buildings
unemployment
crime

23. Case Study: The Environmental Transformation of Chattanooga, TN
________: Vision 2000 meetings where citizens gathered to discuss improvements for the city
1995: most goals met
Encouraged ____________________ industries to locate there
Replaced diesel buses with ________________ buses
Launched a ____________________ program
Renovated ___________________ housing
Developed a _________________ park
Result? People and businesses have moved back downtown
1984
zero-emission
electric
recycling
low-income
riverfront

24. Chattanooga, TennesseeI
Figure 1.23: Since 1984, citizens have worked together to make the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of the best and most sustainable places to live in the United States.
Fig. 1-23, p. 26

25. Individuals Matter
Most social change results from individuals and collaboration from __________________ grassroots action
It only takes _____________ of a population
to bring about major social change
Significant social change can occur in a __________ period of time (Chattanooga Ex: 10 years)
We have perhaps only ___________ years to make the change to sustainability before it’s too
bottom-up
5-10%
Good
News!
short
50-100

26. Three Big Ideas
We could rely more on renewable energy from the ____________, including indirect forms of solar energy such as ___________ and ___________ water, to meet most of our heating and electricity needs.
2. We can protect biodiversity by ______________ the
degradation of the earth’s species, ecosystems, and
natural processes, and by _________________
areas we have degraded.
sun
wind
flowing
preventing
restoring

27. Three Big Ideas
We can help to sustain the earth’s natural chemical cycles by…
reducing our production of ___________ and _____________
not ____________________ natural systems with harmful chemicals
not _________________ natural chemicals faster than those chemical cycles can replace them.
pollution
waste
overloading
removing

28. Review Questions
What are the four main causes of our environmental problems?
Excluding environmental
costs from
market prices
population
growth
Unsustainable
resource use
poverty

29. Review Questions
Which worldview holds that we are a part of and dependent on nature?
What is considered our planet’s natural income?
Having citizens collaborate to find trade-off solutions is called ______________ _______________
How long do scientists think that we have to make a shift towards sustainable living?
Environmental wisdom worldview
our renewable resources
social
capital
years