1. Topic 3:Human population, carrying capacity and resource use
Part 1: Energy, Soil, Food and Water Resources

2. Rank the following in terms of their value:
Journal:
Rank the following in terms of their value:
Oil
Timber
Forest
Uranium
Coral Reef
Mangrove Swamp
Tropical Beach
Food Crops

3. Resources – Natural Capital
What is natural capital?
A term for natural resources that, if appropriately managed, can produce a “natural income” indefinitely in the form of goods and services
Ex: A forest along a river
Timber (goods)
Protection from flooding and soil erosion (service)

4. Resources – Natural Capital
Another Example: Tropical Seas
Catching fish provides a crop for locals (goods)
Tropical sea may be more valuable as an aesthetic service for tourism (service)

5. Resources – Natural Capital
Traditionally, man made products and human services have been given an economic value while little or no economic value has been placed “natural resources and services
Ex: Forests = free resource to be exploited
Cost = Loss of carbon uptake, disruption of water and nutrient cycles and loss of the aesthetic value

6. Resources – What is the value?
During the 2004 Asian tsunami, coastal areas fringed with mangrove swamps were affected less dramatically than neighboring areas which had lost this protective shield (value measured by economic costs elsewhere)
Found that mangroves lowered damage by tsunami by as much as 90%
Harder to determine the value that the same mangrove areas have as wildlife habitat which preserves biodiversity (harder to turn into a cost value)
The loss of mangrove swamp does not just remove a flood buffer but also extinguishes the niche of Orangutans and Gorillas

7. Renewable Natural Capital
Self-producing and self-maintaining using solar energy and photosynthesis
Living species, ecosystems
Can yield marketable goods (wood fiber) and services (climate regulation)
Sustainable yield or harvest equal to or less than their natural productivity
Food crops, timber

8. Replenishable Natural Capital
Non-living but also dependent on solar energy for renewal
Groundwater, ozone layer

9. Non-renewable Natural Capital
Cannot be replenished within a timescale of the same order at which they are take from the environment and used
Fossil fuels, minerals

10. Dynamic Nature of Resources
The resources we use change over time
For centuries wood was main source of energy, during the last century, oil is most important energy resource
Uranium, due to the development of nuclear technology, has only recently become a valuable resource
However, concerns about the environmental consequences of burning fossil fuels and disposal of radioactive waste has led to an increased use of renewable energy resources

11. Dynamic Nature of Resources
The choice of which resources we use are often ties to questions of economic costs and available supply

12. Does the Environment have value for its own sake?

13. How do you put value on….

14. How do you put value on….

15. How do you put value on….

16. Intrinsic Value
Organisms or ecosystems that are valued on aesthetic or intrinsic grounds may not provide commodities identifiable as goods or services
These remain undervalued from an economic viewpoint
Organisms or ecosystems that have intrinsic value (regarded from an ethical, spiritual or philosophical perspective) are valued regardless of their potential use to humans