NSCI - Chapter 1
affluence
wealth that results in high levels of consumption and unnecessary waste of resources, based mostly on the assumption that buying more and more material goods will bring fulfillment and happiness.
environmental ethics
Human beliefs about what is right or wrong with how we treat the environment.
natural resources
Materials such as air, water, and soil and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans.
environmental worldview
Set of assumptions and beliefs about how people think the world works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what they believe is right and wrong environmental behavior
point sources
Single identifiable source that discharges pollutants into the environment. Examples include the smokestack of a power plant or an industrial plant, drainpipe of a meatpacking plant, chimney of a house, or exhaust pipe of an automobile
environmentalism
Social movement dedicated to protecting the earth's life-support systems for us and other species.
pollution
Undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, water, soil, or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms.
resource
Anything obtained from the environment to meet human needs and wants. It can also be applied to other species.
How many people might be here by 2050?
to 9.6 billion or more.
Give three examples of how we are degrading natural capital
by using normally renewable resources such as trees and topsoil faster than nature can restore them and by overloading the earth's normally renewable air and water systems with pollution and wastes.
Describe Tuy Sereivathana's efforts to prevent elephants from becoming extinct in Cambodia and to reduce the country's poverty.
devoted to reducing poaching and helping farmers work together to use low-cost and innovative ways to protect their crops without having to kill elephants
inexhaustible resource
its continuous supply is expected to last for at least 6 billion years, until the sun dies ex. solar energy
organism
living things, a group of organisms that has a unique set of characteristics that distinguish it from other groups of organisms.is a set of organisms within a defined area or volume that interact with one another and with their environment of nonliving matter and energy.
What is the IPAT model for estimating our environmental impact?
model showing how population size (P), affluence, or resource consumption per person (A), and the beneficial and harmful environmental effects of technologies (T) help to determine the environmental impact (I) of human activities. Impact (I)=population(p) x affuence (A) x technology (T)
What is the current size of the human population?
now about 7.1 billion people on the earth
Identify five basic causes of the environmental problems that we face.
(1) population growth, (2) wasteful and unsustainable resource use, (3) poverty, (4) failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in their market prices, and (5) increasing isolation from nature
List three major health problems suffered by many of the world's poor
* malnutrition * limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and clean drinking water *severe respiratory disease that people get from breathing the smoke of open fires or poorly vented stoves used for heating and cooking inside their dwellings
What are two ways to deal with tragedy of the commons ?Explain why they don't work for some systems.
* use resource at a rate well below its estimated sustainable yield by using less of the resource, regulating access to the resource, or doing both. *private ownership. The reasoning is that if you own something, you are more likely to protect your investment. Wont work because? *Privately owned=degraded quickly some areas are hard to divide up
About how many of the world's people struggle to live on the equivalent of $1.25 a day? How many try to live on $2.25 a day?
*900 million people *2.6 billion
Based on the three scientific principles of sustainability and the three social science principles of sustainability, what are three important ways to make a transition to sustainability as summarized in this chapter's three big ideas?
*A more sustainable future will require that we rely more on energy from the sun and other renewable energy sources, protect biodiversity through the preservation of natural capital, and avoid disrupting the earth's vitally important chemical cycles. *A major goal for becoming more sustainable is full-cost pricing—the inclusion of harmful environmental and health costs in the market prices of goods and services. *We will benefit ourselves and future generations if we commit ourselves to finding win-win-win solutions to our problems and to leaving the planet's life-support system in at least as good a shape as what we now enjoy.
Describe three major cultural changes that have occurred since humans were hunter-gatherers and how they have increased our overall environmental impact.
*First was the agricultural revolution, which began 10,000-12,000 years ago when humans learned how to grow and breed plants and animals for food, clothing, and other purposes. *Second was the industrial-medical revolution, beginning about 275 years ago when people invented machines for the large-scale production of goods in factories. *the information-globalization revolution began about 50 years ago, when we developed new technologies for gaining rapid access to all kinds of information and resources on a global scale.
Explain how we can use the IPAT model to estimate the impacts of the human populations in less-developed and more-developed countries.
*In most less-developed countries, the key factor in total environmental impact is usually population size (P) as a growing number of poor people struggle to stay alive *In more-developed countries, the key factor in overall environmental impact is affluence (A), which can result in high rates of per capita resource use, pollution, and resource depletion
What are two types of environmental damage resulting from growing affluence?
*air pollution and water pollution from factories and motor vehicles and land degradation from the mining of raw materials used to make the products we consume * to obtain their resources from almost anywhere in the world without seeing the harmful environmental and health impacts of their high-consumption lifestyles.
How can affluence help us to solve environmental problems?
*better education, which can lead people to become more concerned about environmental quality *It also provides money for developing technologies to reduce pollution, environmental degradation, and resource waste.
What are two pieces of good news about making the transition to a more sustainable society?
*it takes only 5-10% of the population of a community, a country, or the world to bring about major social change *significant social change can occur in a much shorter time than most people think.
What are three social science principles of sustainability?
1. full-cost pricing (economics) 2. win-win a (good for environment and people)(politics) 3. responsibility for future generations. (ethics)
environmental science
an interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment.
About what percentage of the earth's natural or ecosystem services has been degraded by human activities?
60%
sustainability
Ability of earth's various systems, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.
What percentage of the metals and other nonrenewable materials that we use could be reused or recycled?
According to a number of environmental scientists, we already know how to reuse or recycle at least 80% of the metal, glass, and other nonrenewable resources that we use.
ecological footprint
Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use. It is a measure of the average environmental impact of populations in different countries and areas.
per capita ecological
Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply each person or population with the renewable resources they use and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use. It measures the average environmental impact of individuals or populations in different countries and areas.
Explain how excluding the harmful environmental and health costs of production from the prices of goods and services affects the environmental problems we face.
Consumers have no effective way to evaluate the harmful effects, on their own health and on the earth's life-support systems, of producing and using these goods and services.
nutrients
Any chemical an organism must take in to live, grow, or reproduce
ecology
Biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment; study of the structure and functions of nature.
nonpoint sources
Broad and diffuse areas, rather than points, from which pollutants enter bodies of surface water or air. Examples include runoff of chemicals and sediments from cropland, livestock feedlots, logged forests, urban streets, parking lots, lawns, and golf courses
What is the tragedy of the commons?
Degradation of a shared or open-access resource occurs because each user of the resource reasons.
environmental degradation (natural capital degradation)
Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replenished.
pollution cleanup
Device or process that removes or reduces the level of a pollutant after it has been produced or has entered the environment. Examples include automobile emission control devices and sewage treatment plants
pollution prevention
Device, process, or strategy used to prevent a potential pollutant from forming or entering the environment or to sharply reduce the amount entering the environment
solar energy: Why is it important to life on the earth?
Direct radiant energy from the sun and a number of indirect forms of energy produced by the direct input of such radiant energy. Principal indirect forms of solar energy include wind, falling and flowing water (hydropower), and biomass (solar energy converted into chemical energy stored in the chemical bonds of organic compounds in trees and other plants)—none of which would exist without direct solar energy.
Explain why the suggested priorities for more sustainable use of nonrenewable resources are, in order: R efuse, R educe, R euse, and R ecycle.
Each of these steps helps to extend supplies and to reduce the environmental impacts of using these resources
nonrenewable or exhaustible resource
Energy from resources that can be depleted and are not replenished by natural processes within a human time scale ex. the burning of coal, and oil
What is the connection between government subsidies, resource use, and environmental degradation?
Environmentally harmful subsidies encourage the depletion and degradation of natural capital.
species
Group of similar organisms, and for sexually reproducing organisms, they are a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring. Every organism is a member of a certain species
exponential growth
Growth in which some quantity, such as population size or economic output, increases at a constant rate per unit of time
What is the sustainable yield of a renewable resource?
Highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply.
Explain why individuals matter in dealing with the environmental problems we face.
History shows that almost all of the significant changes in human systems have come from the bottom up, through the collective actions of individuals and from individuals inventing more sustainable ways of doing things. Thus, sustainability begins with actions at personal and local levels.
Use the ecological footprint concept to explain how we are living unsustainably in terms of the estimated number of planet Earths that we need to sustain ourselves now and in the future.
In other words, its people are living unsustainably by depleting their natural capital instead of living off the renewable supply of resources provided by such capital. Globally we are running up a huge ecological deficit
What is poverty What are three of its harmful environmental and health effects?
Inability of people to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter
What are three scientific principles of sustainability derived from how the natural world works?
Lessons from nature: To live more sustainably we need to rely on solar energy, preserve biodiversity, and recycle the chemicals that we use. These three principles of sustainability are scientific lessons from nature based on observing how life on the earth has survived and thrived for 3.5 billion years
What would a sustainability revolution involve?
Major cultural change in which people learn how to reduce their ecological footprints and live more sustainably, largely by copying nature and using the six principles of sustainability to guide their lifestyles and economies.
natural capital
Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies. *Land=food production *Renewable Energy = sun, wind, flows Natural Capital=Natural resourses + ecostysem services
ecosystem services
Natural services or natural capital that support life on the earth and are essential to the quality of human life and the functioning of the world's economies. Examples are the chemical cycles, natural pest control, and natural purification of air and water.
ecosystem
One or more communities of different species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving environment.
natural services
Processes of nature, such as purification of air and water and pest control, which support life and human economies.
What is natural income and what does it mean to live off of natural income
Renewable resources such as plants, animals, and soil provided by natural capital.
renewable resource
Resource that can be replenished rapidly (hours to several decades) through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than it is replaced ex. grass, forest, fresh air
environmentally sustainable society
Society that meets the current and future needs of its people for basic resources in a just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations of humans and other species from meeting their basic needs
How do Americans, Indians, and the average people in the poorest countries compare in terms of average consumption per person?
The average American consumes about 30 times as much as the average Indian and 100 times as much as the average person in the world's poorest countries.
chemical or nutrient cycling: Explain why it is important to life on the earth
The circulation of chemicals necessary for life, from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through organisms and back to the environment. *Because the earth receives no new supplies of these chemicals, organisms must recycle them continuously in order to survive
What is the rule of 70?
The doubling time of the human population or any factor can be calculated by using the rule of 70:
Explain how lack of knowledge of the nature and importance of natural capital and our increasing isolation from nature can intensify the environmental problems that we face.
They suggest that by not having enough contacts with the natural world a person can be more likely to suffer from stress, have health problems, show unwarranted irritability or aggression, and be less adaptable to changes in life.
Distinguish between more-developed countries and less-developed countries and give an example of a high-income, middle-income, and low-income country
They distinguish between countries in terms of their economic activity (GDP). High - U.S., Japan Canada Middle - China, Mexico Low - Hatit, Nigeria
What is full-cost pricing and why is it important?
This would give consumers better information about the environmental impacts of their lifestyles, and it would allow them to make more informed choices about the goods and services they use.
Explain the connection between poverty and population growth
To many poor people, having more children is a matter of survival. Their children help them gather fuel (mostly wood and animal dung), haul drinking water, and tend crops and livestock. The children also help to care for their parents in their old age
What are two ways to include the harmful environmental and health costs of the goods and services that we use in their market prices?
Two ways to do this over the next two decades would be to shift from environmentally harmful government subsidies to environmentally beneficial subsidies, and to tax pollution and waste heavily while reducing taxes on income and wealth
biodiversity: Why is it important to life on the earth?
Variety of different species , genetic variability among individuals within each species, variety of ecosystems , and functions such as energy flow and matter cycling needed for the survival of species and biological communities . Ex. Life (biodiversity=populatin control, pest control
Explain how we can use the six principles of sustainability to move us closer to the vision of a more sustainable world described in the Core Case Study that opens this chapter.
We can use such strategies to try to slow the rapidly increasing losses of biodiversity, to sharply reduce production of wastes and pollution, to switch to more sustainable sources of energy, and to promote more sustainable forms of agriculture and other uses of land and water
How many people are added each year?
about 84 million more people added each year.
environmental wisdom
Worldview holding that humans are part of and totally dependent on nature and that nature exists for all species, not just for us. Our success depends on learning how the earth sustains itself and integrating such environmental wisdom into the ways we think and act.
planetary management
Worldview holding that humans are separate from nature, that nature exists mainly to meet our needs and increasing wants, and that we can use our ingenuity and technology to manage the earth's life-support systems, mostly for our benefit. It assumes that economic growth is unlimited.
stewardship
Worldview holding that we can manage the earth for our benefit but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers, or stewards, of the earth. It calls for encouraging environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and discouraging environmentally harmful forms
environment
is everything around us. It includes the living and the nonliving things (air, water, and energy) with which we interact in a complex web of relationships that connect us to one another and to the world we live in
