1. CHAPTER 1 Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

2. Core Case Study: A Vision of a More Sustainable World in 2060
A transition in human attitudes toward the environment, and a shift in behavior, can lead to a much better future for the planet in 2060
Is it a story or can it be our future?
Figure 1.1: These parents—like Emily and Michael in our fictional vision of a possible world in 2060—are teaching their children about some of the world’s environmental problems (left) and helping them to enjoy the wonders of nature (right). Their goal is to teach their children to care for the earth in hopes of passing on a better world to future generations.
sustainability: the capacity of the earth’s natural systems and human cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt into the very long-term future

3. 1-1 What Are Three Principles of Sustainability?
Concept 1-1A Nature has sustained itself for billions of years by using solar energy, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling.
Concept 1-1B Our lives and economies depend on energy from the sun and on natural resources and natural services (natural capital) provided by the earth.

4. Environmental Science Is a Study of Connections in Nature
Everything around us
“The environment is everything that isn’t me.“
Environmental science: interdisciplinary science connecting information and ideas from
Natural sciences: ecology, biology, geology, chemistry…
Social sciences: geography, politics, economics
Humanities: ethics, philosophy

5. What do we learn in Environmental Science?
How the environment affects us
How nature works
How to live more sustainably
How we affect the environment
How to deal with environmental problems

6. Nature’s Survival Strategies Follow Three Principles of Sustainability
Reliance on solar energy
The sun provides warmth and fuels photosynthesis
Biodiversity
Astounding variety and adaptability of natural systems and species
Chemical cycling
Circulation of chemicals from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment
Also called nutrient cycling

7. From Simple Cell to Homo Sapiens
Figure 1.2: Here, the span of Homo sapiens sapiens’ time on earth is compared with that of all life beginning about 3.5 billion years ago. If the length of this time line were 1 kilometer (0.6 miles), humanity’s time on earth would occupy roughly the last 3 one-hundredths of a millimeter. That is less than the diameter of a hair on your head—compared with 1 kilometer of time.
Fig. 1-2, p. 7

8. Three Principles of Sustainability
Figure 1.3: Three principles of sustainability.
We derive these three interconnected principles of sustainability from learning how nature has sustained a huge variety of life on the earth for at least 3.5 billion years, despite drastic changes in environmental conditions (Concept 1-1a).

9. Sustainability Has Certain Key Components
Natural capital: supported by solar capital
Natural resources: useful materials and energy in nature
Natural services: important nature processes such as renewal of air, water, and soil
Humans degrade natural capital
Scientific solutions needed for environmental sustainability

10. Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Natural Services
Figure 1.4: These key natural resources (blue) and natural services (orange) support and sustain the earth’s life and human economies (Concept 1-1a).
Fig. 1-4, p. 9 10

11. Nutrient Cycling
Figure 1.5: Nutrient cycling: This important natural service recycles chemicals needed by organisms from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through those organisms and back to the environment.
Fig. 1-5, p. 10

12. Natural Capital Degradation
Figure 1.6: Natural capital degradation.
This was once a large area of diverse tropical rain forest in Brazil, but it has now been cleared to grow soybeans. According to ecologist Harold Mooney of Stanford University, conservative estimates suggest that between 1992 and 2008, an area of tropical rain forest larger than the U.S. state of California was destroyed in order to graze cattle and plant crops for food and biofuels.
Do we protect our rainforests or destroy them?
Fig. 1-6, p. 10

14. Earth’s Resources Resource Perpetual resource
Anything we obtain from the environment to meet our needs
Some directly available for use: sunlight
Some not directly available for use: petroleum
Perpetual resource
Solar energy

15. Some Sources Are Renewable….
Renewable resource
Several days to several hundred years to renew
E.g., forests, grasslands, fresh air, fertile soil
Sustainable yield
Highest rate at which we can use a renewable resource without reducing available supply 15

16. ….. and Some Are Not Nonrenewable resources Energy resources
Metallic mineral resources
Nonmetallic mineral resources

18. SOLUTIONS:
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

19. Reuse
Figure 1.7: Reuse: This child and his family in Katmandu, Nepal, collect beer bottles and sell them for cash to a brewery that will reuse them.
Fig. 1-7, p. 11

20. Recycle
Figure 1.8: Recycling: This family is carrying out items for recycling. Scientists estimate that we could recycle and reuse 80–90% of the resources that we now use and thus come closer to mimicking the way nature recycles essentially everything. Recycling is important but it involves dealing with wastes we have produced. Ideally, we should focus more on using less, reusing items, and reducing our unnecessary waste of resources.
Fig. 1-8, p. 12

21. Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability
Economic growth: increase in output of a nation’s goods and services
HOW IS IT MEASURED?
Gross domestic product (GDP): annual market value of all goods and services produced by all businesses, foreign and domestic, operating within a country
CHANGES IN COUNTRY’S GROWTH PER PERSON
Per capita GDP: one measure of economic development

22. Countries Differ in Levels of Unsustainability (2)
Economic development: using economic growth to raise living standards
More-developed countries (MDC): North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, most of Europe
Less-developed countries (LDC): most countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America

23. Countries by Gross National Income per Capita
Figure 2 This map shows high-income, upper-middle income, lower-middle-income, and low-income countries in terms of gross national income (GNI) PPP per capita (U.S. dollars) in (Data from World Bank and International Monetary Fund)
Supplement 8, Fig 2

24. GLOBAL OUTLOOK: What are the world’s trends?

25. 1-2 How Are Our Ecological Footprints Affecting the Earth?
Concept 1-2 As our ecological footprints grow, we are depleting and degrading more of the earth’s natural capital.

26. We Are Living Unsustainably
Environmental degradation: wasting, depleting, and degrading the earth’s natural capital
Happening at an accelerating rate
Also called natural capital degradation

27. Natural Capital Degradation
Figure 1.9: These are examples of the degradation of normally renewable natural resources and services in parts of the world, mostly as a result of rising populations and resource use per person.
Fig. 1-9, p. 13

28. Pollution: Sources and Types
Sources of pollution
Point sources
E.g., smokestack
Nonpoint sources
E.g., pesticides blown into the air
Main type of pollutants
Biodegradable
break down over time
Nondegradable
can’t be broken down
Unwanted effects of pollution

29. Point-Source Air Pollution
Figure 1.10: This point-source air pollution rises from a pulp mill in New York State (USA).
Fig. 1-10, p. 14

30. Nonpoint Source Water Pollution
Figure 1.11: The trash in this river came from a large area of land and is an example of nonpoint water pollution.
Fig. 1-11, p. 14

31. UNwanted Effects of Pollution
disrupt/degrade life support system for animals
damage wildlife, human health and property
create nuisances, e.g. noise, unpleasant smells, tastes, sights
The first photo, taken in 1908, shows a 200-year-old statue at a castle in Germany. There were few changes during its first 200 years. After 1908, the amount of acid rain components emitted from human activities increased. In just 60 years, the statue showed the effects of acid rain. What changes do you notice?

32. SOLUTIONS: How do we control pollution?
Pollution cleanup (output pollution control)
cleaning up or diluting pollutants after we have produced them
Pollution prevention (input pollution control)
reduces or eliminates the production of pollutants
What is the best solution?
What are the problems?

33. Overexploiting Shared Renewable Resources: Tragedy of the Commons
Three types of property or resource rights
Private property
Common property
Open access renewable resources
Tragedy of the commons
Common property and open-access renewable resources degraded from overuse
Solutions

34. The Tragedy of the Commons Or: the challenge of common-pool resources Or: why the sum total of individual “rational” choices can lead to perverse (and socially sub-optimal) outcomes
Credits: cow images from

35. Imagine a field of grass shared by 6 farmers, each with one cow…

36. A few facts: Each cow currently produces 20 liters of milk per day The carrying capacity of the commons is 8 cows. For each cow above 8, the milk production declines by 2 liters (due to overgrazing, there is less grass for each cow: less grass, less milk!).
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 120 liters

37. Do the farmers sit back and stay at 6 cows
Do the farmers sit back and stay at 6 cows? Not if they are individual profit maximizers (here simplified as milk production maximizers)
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 120 liters (6 cows)

38. Total daily milk production for the commons: 140 liters (7 cows)
Do the farmers sit back and stay at 6 cows? Not if they are individual profit maximizers (here simplified as milk production maximizers)
“I’ll get another cow”
40 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 140 liters (7 cows)

39. We are now at the carrying capacity -- do they stop? No.
“Then I’ll get another cow too”
40 liters
40 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 160 liters (8 cows)

40. Total daily milk production for the commons: 162 liters (9 cows)
They are now at the maximum total milk production. But do they stop? No…
36 liters
36 liters
“I’ll get another cow”
18 liters
36 liters
18 liters
18 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 162 liters (9 cows)

41. Total daily milk production for the commons: 160 liters (10 cows)
“My cow is now less productive, but 2 will improve my situation”
32 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 160 liters (10 cows)

42. Total daily milk production for the commons: 154 liters (11 cows)
“I’ll get another cow”
28 liters
28 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 154 liters (11 cows)

43. Total daily milk production for the commons: 144 liters (12 cows)
“Well, everyone else is getting one, so me too!”
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
24 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 144 liters (12 cows)

44. Total daily milk production for the commons: 130 liters (10 cows)
“Well, I can still increase milk production if I get a third cow”
30 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
20 liters
Total daily milk production for the commons: 130 liters (10 cows)

45. Ecological Footprints: A Model of Unsustainable Use of Resources
Ecological footprint: the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to provide the people in a region with indefinite supply of renewable resources, and to absorb and recycle wastes and pollution
Per capita ecological footprint: per person
Unsustainable: footprint is larger than biological capacity for replenishment

47. Patterns of Natural Resource Consumption
Figure 1.12: Patterns of natural resource consumption: The top photo shows a family of five subsistence farmers with all their possessions. They live in the village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, in the Himalaya Mountains, which are sandwiched between China and India in South Asia. The bottom photo shows a typical U.S. family of four living in Pearland, Texas, with their possessions.
Fig. 1-12a, p. 15

48. Patterns of Natural Resource Consumption
Figure 1.12: Patterns of natural resource consumption: The top photo shows a family of five subsistence farmers with all their possessions. They live in the village of Shingkhey, Bhutan, in the Himalaya Mountains, which are sandwiched between China and India in South Asia. The bottom photo shows a typical U.S. family of four living in Pearland, Texas, with their possessions.
Fig. 1-12b, p. 15 48

49. Natural Capital Use and Degradation
Figure 1.13: Natural capital use and degradation.
These graphs show the total and per capita ecological footprints of selected countries (top). In 2008, humanity’s total, or global, ecological footprint was at least 30% higher than the earth’s biological capacity (bottom) and is projected to be twice the planet’s biological capacity by around Question: If we are living beyond the earth’s renewable biological capacity, why do you think the human population and per capita resource consumption are still growing rapidly? (Data from Worldwide Fund for Nature, Global Footprint Network, Living Planet Report See
Fig. 1-13, p. 16

50. Global Human Footprint Map
Figure 7 This map shows the relative risk of tornados across the continental United States. (Data from NOAA)
Supplement 8, Fig 7

51. IPAT is Another Environmental Impact Model
I = P x A x T
I = Environmental impact
P = Population
A = Affluence
T = Technology

52. IPAT Illustrated
Figure 1.14: Connections: This simple model demonstrates how three factors—number of people, affluence (resource use per person), and technology—affect the environmental impact of populations in less-developed countries (top) and more-developed countries (bottom).
Fig. 1-14, p. 17

53. Case Study: China’s New Affluent Consumers
Leading consumer of various foods and goods
Wheat, rice, and meat
Coal, fertilizers, steel, and cement
Second largest consumer of oil
Two-thirds of the most polluted cities are in China
Projections for next decade
Largest consumer and producer of cars
Figure 18 shows the components of IPAT and PxA for China from , each normalized to 1950 levels. Chinese output increased by a factor of 27 since 1950, while CO2 emissions increased by more than twice as much (a factor of 63), reflecting its rapid transition from a rural agrarian society to the world’s manufactory. From 1950 to 2004, improvements in carbon intensity failed to keep pace with the cumulative output increase. Since 1979, the first year of China’s economic reforms, carbon intensity has dropped at an annual rate of 1.3 percent, in part because of the reforms. Nevertheless, this drop has not been large enough to compensate for the tremendous increase in consumption.    Since improvements in technology mostly preceded general recognition of CO2 as an environmental issue, they can mainly be attributed to “business as usual” where all economic participants seek to maximize private welfare (including profits) via minimization of costs (including energy costs). Deaths due to Extreme Events To the extent that extreme weather events are exacerbated by global warming, deaths due to such events could be an indicator of the impacts of global warming. Globally, both cumulative mortality and cumulative mortality rate9 for all extreme weather events (namely, drought, extreme temperatures, floods, slides, waves and surges, wildfires, and wind storms) have been declining since the 1920s [Goklany (2007c), based on data from EM-DAT (2007)]). While older data are necessarily suspect, between to , mortality apparently dropped by 80 percent and mortality rate by 95 percent, the latter at an annual rate of 4.6 percent (see Table 1). The drops after the 1920s (not shown below) are even steeper (Goklany 2007c).

55. Natural Systems Have Tipping Points
Ecological tipping point: an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system
Environmental degradation has time delays between our actions now and the deleterious effects later
Long-term climate change
Over-fishing
Species extinction

56. Tipping Point
Figure 1.15: In this example of a tipping point, you can control the ball as you push it up to the tipping point. Beyond that point, you lose control. Ecological tipping points can threaten all or parts of the earth’s life-support system.
Fig. 1-15, p. 19

57. Cultural Changes Have Increased Our Ecological Footprints
12,000 years ago: hunters and gatherers
Three major cultural events
Agricultural revolution
Industrial-medical revolution
Information-globalization revolution
Current need for a sustainability revolution

58. Technology Increases Population
Figure 1.16: Technological innovations have led to greater human control over the rest of nature and to an expanding human population.
Fig. 1-16, p. 19

59. 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.

60. Experts Have Identified Four Basic Causes of Environmental Problems
Population growth
Wasteful and unsustainable resource use
Poverty
Failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in market prices
Figure 1.17: Environmental and social scientists have identified four basic causes of the environmental problems we face (Concept 1-3). Question: For each of these causes, what are two environmental problems that result?

61. Exponential Growth of Human Population
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.)
Fig. 1-18, p. 21

62. Affluence Has Harmful and Beneficial Environmental Effects
Harmful environmental impact due to
High levels of consumption
High levels of pollution
Unnecessary waste of resources
Affluence can provide funding for developing technologies to reduce
Pollution
Environmental degradation
Resource waste

63. Poverty Has Harmful Environmental and Health Effects
Population growth affected
Malnutrition
Premature death
Limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and clean water

64. Extreme Poverty
Figure 1.19: Extreme poverty: This boy is searching through an open dump in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for items to sell. Many children of poor families who live in makeshift shantytowns in or near such dumps often scavenge most of the day for food and other items to help their families survive.
Fig. 1-19, p. 22

65. Harmful Effects of Poverty
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)
Fig. 1-20, p. 22

66. Effects of Malnutrition
Figure 1.21: Global Outlook: One of every three children younger than age 5, such as this child in Lunda, Angola, suffers from severe malnutrition caused by a lack of calories and protein. According to the World Health Organization, each day at least 16,400 children younger than age 5 die prematurely from malnutrition and from infectious diseases often caused by drinking contaminated water.
Fig. 1-21, p. 23

67. Prices Do Not Include the Value of Natural Capital
Companies do not pay the environmental cost of resource use
Goods and services do not include the harmful environmental costs
Companies receive tax breaks and subsidies
Economy may be stimulated but there may be a degradation of natural capital

68. Environmentally Unfriendly Hummer
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.
Fig. 1-22, p. 24

69. Different Views about Environmental Problems and Their Solutions
Environmental ethics: what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment
Planetary management worldview
We are separate from and in charge of nature
Stewardship worldview
Manage earth for our benefit with ethical responsibility to be stewards
Environmental wisdom worldview
We are part of nature and must engage in sustainable use

70. 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.

71. Environmentally Sustainable Societies Protect Natural Capital and Live Off Its Income
Environmentally sustainable society: meets current needs while ensuring that needs of future generations will be met
Live on natural income of natural capital without diminishing the natural capital

72. We Can Work Together to Solve Environmental Problems
Social capital
Encourages
Openness and communication
Cooperation
Hope
Discourages
Close-mindedness
Polarization
Confrontation and fear

73. Case Study: The Environmental Transformation of Chattanooga, TN
Environmental success story: example of building their social capital
1960: most polluted city in the U.S.
1984: Vision 2000
1995: most goals met
1993: Revision 2000

74. 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

75. Individuals Matter
5–10% of the population can bring about major social change
We have only years to make the change to sustainability before it’s too late
Rely on renewable energy
Protect biodiversity
Reduce waste and pollution

76. Three Big Ideas
We could rely more on renewable energy from the sun, including indirect forms of solar energy such as wind and flowing water, to meet most of our heating and electricity needs.
Figure 1.24: Capturing wind power is one of the world’s most rapidly growing and least environmentally harmful ways to produce electricity.

77. Three Big Ideas
We can protect biodiversity by preventing the degradation of the earth’s species, ecosystems, and natural processes, and by restoring areas we have degraded.
Figure 1.25: This young child—like the grandchild of Emily and Michael in our fictional scenario of a possible future (Core Case study)—is promoting sustainability by preparing to plant a tree. A global program to plant and tend billions of trees each year will help to restore degraded lands, promote biodiversity, and reduce the threat of climate change from atmospheric warming.

78. Three Big Ideas
We can help to sustain the earth’s natural chemical cycles by reducing our production of wastes and pollution, not overloading natural systems with harmful chemicals, and not removing natural chemicals faster than those chemical cycles can replace them.