Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Why Study Environmental Geology?

Similar presentations


Presentation on theme: "Why Study Environmental Geology?"— Presentation transcript:

1 Why Study Environmental Geology?
Poorna Pal, MS MBA Ph.D. Professor of Geology Chair: Geology & Oceanography Program Glendale Community College

2 Disaster mitigation has become
a socioeconomic necessity because of increasing Fatalities damage and destruction an increasingly complex task because of intricate public policy choices in addition to the perennial problems of a seemingly insatiable demand for the natural resources and the attendant problems of environmental degradation and climate change.

3 Fatalities Since the 1970s, natural disasters have produced two-thirds of all disaster-related fatalities worldwide. Fatalities are more common in the economically less developed Third World than in the economically developed world. FOR MORE INFO... FOR MORE INFO...

4 Disasters* High wind: 21% Earthquakes: 8% Flood: 19% Other natural
* International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (The Economist, Sept 6, 1997) High wind: 21% Earthquakes: 8% Flood: 19% Other natural disasters: 21% Volcanoes: 1% Drought & Famine: 6% Landslides: 3% Man-made disasters: 34% Disasters* by type: Total Fatalities worldwide: ( ) 8,219,000 back

5 DISASTER FATALITIES* (1971-96: IN THOUSANDS) 4 8 12 16
4 8 12 16 ETHIOPIA 48.4 MOSTLY FAMINE BANGLADESH 31.9 MOSTLY FLOODS CHINA SUDAN MOSTLY MASS STARVATION INDIA MOSTLY FLOODS MOZAMBIQUE NICARAGUA IRAN PHILIPPINES SOVIET UNION/CIS STATES COLUMBIA GUATEMALA SOMALIA * International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (The Economist, Sept 6, 1997) HONDURAS PERU MEXICO NIGERIA back

6 Deaths Damage Changes, in this century, in the number of deaths and cost of damage, in U.S. hurricanes (cost in billion 1996$) Source: Harvey Blatt: OUR GEOLOGIC ENVIRONMENT (Prentice Hall, 1997) back

7 The Complexities of Disaster Mitigation Strategies
Predictive value of the scaling law and its implications for the public-policy choices. Population Growth, Technology and Environmental Stress FOR MORE INFO... FOR MORE INFO...

8 The U.S. 20th Century Natural Disaster Fatality-Frequency Plots
0.1 1 10 0.01 100 1,000 10,000 Floods Hurricanes Earthquakes Number of events per year Tornadoes The U.S. 20th Century Natural Disaster Fatality-Frequency Plots

9 This exponential scaling gives us three alternative choices
Flatten the curve Steepen the curve Lower the intercept

10 The Malthusian Trap World Stock Market2 Gross World Product1
10 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 5 50 The Malthusian Trap All indexed to 1920 = 1 World Population1 1 J. Bradford DeLong: Gross World Product1 2 P. Jorion & W. Goetzmann: Journal of Finance, 54(3), June 1999 World Stock Market2

11 Years Before the Present
100 1000 10000 1 10 Years Before the Present GDP, per capita, in inflation adjusted 2000 PPP$ World Population (in million)

12 Earthquake fatalities, World population (in billions)
(per million inhabitants) World population (in billions) 100 10 0.1 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 1 2 4 6

13 Energy consumption (in terrajoules)
France U.K. China Sweden Russia USA Brazil Italy Singapore 0.1 1 10 100 0.01 Mexico Germany India Japan Norway Swtizerland Saudi Arabia Netherlands Australia Spain Economic prosperity and energy consumption are closely correlated Energy consumption (in terrajoules) GDP (PPP) in trillion US $

14 (billion tons C equivalent)
… and so are economic prosperity and carbon emmissions 0.03 0.1 1 3 10 0.3 USA China Japan Russia Germany India U.K. Ukraine Poland Canada Italy France Iran Brazil Mexico South Korea Australia Africa North Kazakstan (billion tons C equivalent) Total Emission GDP (PPP) in trillion US $

15 Colorado River United States Mexico 40 30 10 20 2000 1900 1920 1940
1980 1960 Sandra Postel: Forging a Sustainable Water Strategy (STATE OF THE WORLD 1996: Worldwatch Institute , 1996) Colorado River Mexico United States

16 Drying of the Aral Sea Aral Sea 1940 2000 1980 1960 80 20 40 60
Sandra Postel: Forging a Sustainable Water Strategy (STATE OF THE WORLD 1996: Worldwatch Institute , 1996) 1940 2000 1980 1960 80 20 40 60 Aral Sea

17 Thus, the environmental stress attendant to population growth presents a catch-22 situation:
Poverty and deprivation enhance environmental stress. But this stress is only aggravated by the technology that is needed to ameliorate the deprivation.


Download ppt "Why Study Environmental Geology?"

Similar presentations


Ads by Google