Chapter 1: ENV Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

Human population growing exponentially: in 2013 the growth rate was __%and now there ___ people wth about __ addd each years. There can be ___ of us by 2050.

1.2, 7.1 billion, 85 million, 9.7 billion

Isolation from nature: More than ___ of people live in ___ areas.

1/2, urban

About ___of worlds population get water from polluted sources by animal and human feces

1/8

Species are becoming extinct at least ___ x faster than the were in pre-___ times

100, human

More-developed countries have ___% of the worlds population

17

The latest version of our species has been around for bout ____ years. As we have dominated the earth and especially since ___, we have seriously degraded these natural systems including our own and our __.

200,000, 1900, economies

Life of on earth has been sustained for __ of years by __ energy, __, and __ cycling.

Billions, solar, biodiversity, chemical

Natural resources are materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to __. Thy are often classified as ___ resources, ___ resources, o ___ sources

Humans, inexhaustible, renewable, un renewable

Natural recovery can take __ to __ of years, while human impacts are expanding exponentially within a time period of ___ to __ years.

Hundreds, thousands, 10, 100

"Never doubt that a small group od thoughtful committed citizens can change th world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Margaret mead

Also known as a developing country, a country that is at a relatively early stage in the process of economic developement. Some are ___ income, like China. Some are ____developed countries, like Haiti.

Middle, least

Industrialized nations with high average income per person

More-developed countries

Life has been sustained to ___ processes.

Natural

Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies.

Natural capital

The global trust fund of free natural resources and eco stem services that nature has provided for us, future generations, and their species

Natural capital

Environmental degradation aka

Natural capital degradation

By working to preserve and replenish earths ___, we can find the best ways to reduce our ___ while expanding our ___.

Natural capital, footprint, impact

environmentally sustainable societies protect ___ and live off its ___

Natural capital, income

Many human activities can degrade ____ by using normally ___ sources such as trees and topsoil faster than nature can restore them and polluting the air.

Natural capital, renewable

Living sustainably means living on ____

Natural income

The renewable resources such as plants, animals, soil, clean air, and clean water provided by the artes natural capital

Natural income

Materials and energy in nature that are essential or usefu to humans

Natural resources

Natural capital= ___ + ___

Natural resources, ecosystem services

Sustainability: The capacity of the earth's_____ systems and _____ cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt to ____ environmental conditions into the very-long term ____

Natural, human, changing, future

Pollutants can eter the environment ___ or through ___ activities. Come from two types of sources: ___ or __

Naturally, human, point, nonpoint

not having enough contact with nature with urban environment and technology

Nature deficit disorder

Does an ecosystem service cost money?

No

Does anyone know how many people the earth can support indefinitely

No

Dispersed and often difficult to identify source of pollution

Nonpoint source

Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans, cannot be replaced. Example?

Nonrenewable, copper, oil, coal

Chemical cycling aka ?

Nutrient cycling

The chemicals necessary for plants life processes and those of most other animals

Nutrients

Resources that are not owned by anyone and can be used by almost anyone. Example?

Open-access renewable resources, atmosphere, ocean

Any form of life

Organism

IPAT model by __ and ___

Paul Elchrich, John Holden

Lifestyle of consumers of expanding world population results in higher levels of total and ___ resource consumption along with more waste.

Per capita

The average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area

Per capita ecological footprint

Humans are separate from and in charge of nature and that we can amanage the earth mostly for our benefit

Planetary management worldview

Examples of human-centered worldviews: ____ worldview and ___ worldview

Planetary management, stewardship

Single, identifiable sources and origin of pollution

Point source

A group of organisms that has a unique set of characteristics that distinguishes it from other groups of organisms

Species

We can and should have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers of the earth

Stewardship worldview

Nonrenwable resources exist in a fixed quantity, or _____, in the earth's

Stock

Two ways to full cost: shift from environmentally harmful gov __ to ___. And to tax ___ and waste heavily while reducing taxes on ___ and ___.

Subsides, beneficial, pollution, wealth, income

When governments give companies ___ such as tax breaks and patients to assist them with using __ to run their business: this helps create __ and stimulate the ___ but encourages _.

Subsides, resources, jobs, economy, degradation

Our lives and economies depend on energy from the __ and on __ services and ___ services (____) provided by the earth

Sun, natural, ecosystem, natural capital

Collectively people in poverty are more focused on __ rather than sustainability, so they __ forests topsoil, and rasslands in order to stay alive. Some people have planted __ and that is part of their long term survival

Survival, degrade, trees

3 goals of environmental science: 1) Learn how life on earth has __ and ___ 2) Understand how we ___ with the environment 3) find ways to deal with environmental __ and live more ___

Survived, thrived, interact, problems, sustainably

The capacity of the earth's natural systems and human cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt to changing environmental conditions into the very-long term future

Sustainability

Highest rate at which we can use a renewable resource indefinitely without reducing its available supply

Sustainable yield

True or false? ENV includes living and nonliving things

T

Where do plants get nutrients from?

Solar energy

Air pollution causes __ deaths in china every years and worldwide __ are killed from indoor air pollution

1 million, 4.3 million

UN released Millenium Ecosystem Assessment: __ year study by ___ experts from __ countries. According to the study, human activities have degraded or overused about __% of the earths ecosystem services. It also concluded we have ___ to the problems that we can implement within a few ___.

4, 1360, 95, 60, solutions, decades

Sustainable future: research by social scientists suggest it takes only __-__% of the population of a community, country ir world to bring about major social and environmental change. Research shows that such change can occur in a time __ than most people think

5,10, shorter

How many principles of sustainability?

6

Some scientists argue we can sustain the population and level it off to __ by 2050

8 billion

Less-developed countries have ___ of population

83

According to the US world bank, about ____ people live in __ poverty, struggling to live on the equivalent of less than ___ a day..

900 million, extreme, 1.25

The variety of genes, organisms, species, and ecosystems in which organisms exist and interact

Biodiversity

If an ecological footprint is larger than its _____ to replenish its ___ sources and absorb the resulting wastes and pollution, it is said to have an ____

Biological capacity, renewable, ecological deficit

Protect your ___ and live on the ___ it provides. Deplete or waste your capital and you will move into a___ lifesytle.

Capital, income , unsustainable

The circulation of chemicals necessary for life from the environment through organisms and back to the environment

Chemical cycling

What helps turns waste into resources? Important component of nutrient cycling?

Chemical cycling. Topsoil

It is much easier and less costly to identify and ___ or ___ pollution from ___ sources than from widely dispersed nonpoint sources

Control, prevent, point, nonpoint

The goals of sustainability will be served by our working to ___ and ___ our beneficial environmental ___.

Create, expand, impact

environmentally sustainable society- Society that meets the ____ and ___ basic resource needs of its people in a just and ____ manner without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their basic resource needs

Current, future, equitable

The suns input of energy warms the planet and provides energy that plants use to produce nutrients. Powers direct and indirect forms of solar energy

Dependence on solar energy

scientific principles of sustainability: (3)

Dependence on solar energy, biodiversity, chemical cycling

UN classifies world countries as economically more ___ or less __

Developed

An interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with living and nonliving parts of their environment

Environmental science

Worldview holding that we are part of and dependent on nature and that life's support system exists for all species not just us and that our economic success and long term survival of cultures and our species depends on learning how the earth has sustained itself for billions of years and integrating such lessons from nature into the ways we think and act.

Earth-centered worldview

footprint is larger than biological capacity for replenishment

Ecological deficit

The amount of land and water needed to supply a population or an area with renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use

Ecological footprint

As our ___ grow, we are depleting and defrauding more of the earths natural capital

Ecological footprints

The biological science that studies how living things interact with one another and their environment

Ecology

Full cost pricing (____): Products we buy must include the _____ costs behind their production, giving consumers better information about the environmental impacts of their lifestyles and make better choices

Economics, environmental

Set of organisms within a defined area interacting with one another and with their environment of living and non-living matter

Ecosystem

group of organisms in a defined geographic area (terrestrial or marine) that interact with each other and the env

Ecosystem

Processes provided by healthy ecosystems that support life and human economies at no monetary cost to us

Ecosystem services

A major focus of ecology is the study of...

Ecosystems

Affluence has negative affects but can also allow for more widespread and better ___- which lead more people to become concerned. Make money ready for technologies to reduce ___, Environmental degradation, and resource ___.

Education, pollution waste

Dependence on solar energy : The suns input of ____ warms the planet and provides energy that plants use to produce ____. Powers direct and indirect forms of solar energy

Energy, nutrients

Everything around us. Includes the living and non living things in which we interact with and affects any livin organism or other specified system

Environment

everything around us, living and non living

Environment

Chemical cycling: The circulation of chemicals necessary for life from the ____ through __ and back to the ___. Earth receives a continuous supply of energy from the __, but receives no new supplies of life-supporting ___. Through organisms complex interaction with living and nonliving organisms, they must continually ___ the chemicals they need in order to survive. There is little __ in nature other than the __ world.

Environment, organisms, environment, sun, chemicals, recycle, waste, human

Depletion of destruction of a potentially renewable resource such as soil, grassland, forest or wildlife that is used faster than it is naturally replenished. If it continues the resource will become nonrenwable (extinct)

Environmental degradation

What causes malnutrition?

Environmental degradation

The study of varying beliefs about what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment-

Environmental ethics

Useful tool for studying worldviews

Environmental ethics

Your set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be

Environmental worldview

Do not confuse environmental science and ecology with ___.

Environmentalism

Social movement dedicated to trying to sustain the earth's life support state for all forms of life

Environmentalism

Society that meets the current and future basic resource needs of its people in a just and equitable manner without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their basic resource needs

Environmentally sustainable society

Biodiversity: The variety of genes, organisms, species, and ecosystems in which organisms ____ and ____. The interactions among species, especially the ___ relationships, provide ecosystem is vital and keeps any population from growing too __. Also provides countless ways for them to adapt to __ environmental conditions.

Exist, interact, feeding, large, changing

When a quantity such as the human pollution increases at a fixed percentage per unit of time

Exponential growth

True or false? Companies using resources to provide goods for consumers generally are required to pay for most of the harmful environmental and health costs of supplying such goods

F- NOT

Example of indirect forms of solar energy:

Flowing water, wind

Products we buy must include the environmental costs behind their production, giving consumers better information about the environmental impacts of their lifestyles and make better choices

Full-cost pricing

Social science principles of sustainability : ___ pricing, ___ solutions, responsibility to ____

Full-cost, win-win, future

We could shift toward living more sustainably bu applying ___ pricing, searching for ___ solutions, and vomiting to pressing the earth's life support system for ___.

Full-cost, win-win, future

Who called the degradation of renewable sources "tragedy of the commons"

Garret Hardin

Example of less open but shared resources

Grassland, resource, stream

The WWF estimated that the US is responsible for almost ___ of the global ecological footprint.the average American consumes about __ time the amount of resources that the average ___ consumes and ___ ties consumed by the average person in the wordlds poorest countries. We would need __ planet earth to sustain the rate of resource use of the average American.

Half, 30, Indian, 100, 5

Pollution: Contamination of the environment by any chemical or other agent such as ___ or ___ to a level that is harmful to the health, survival, or activities of huans or other organisms.

Heat, noise

3 major categories of environmental worldviews: ___-centered, ___- centered, ___-centered

Human, life, earth

Worldview that sees the natural world primarily as a support system for human life

Human-centered worldview

Source of energy that cannot be used up by humans. Example?

Inexhaustible , sun and win energy

Solar energy is an ___ source because its supply is expected to last at least ___ years until the sun dies.

Inexhaustible, 6 billion

Ecology: The biological science that studies how living things ___ with one another and their___

Interact, environment

____ is what sustains life

Interdependence

the dependence of two or more people or things on each other.

Interdependence

Ecology and environmental science reveal that ____, not __, is what sustains ___ and allows it to adapt to a continually changing set of env conditions.

Interdependence, Independence

One of more areas of study

Interdisciplinary

What type of study is environmental science? It integrates ideas of from te ___ sciences. Also integrates ___ sciences

Interdisciplinary, natural, social

scientific principles of sustainability aka

Lessons from nature

Despite our many scientific and technological advances we are utterly dependent on the earth for clean air and water, food, shelter, energy, fertile, soil, and all other components of the planet's _____

Life support system

Worldview holding that all species have value has participating members of the biosphere regardless of their potential or actual use to humans- belief that we have the ethical responsibility to avoid hastening the extinction of species through our activites

Life-centered worldview

Lack of protein and other nutrients needed for good health

Malnutrition

Win-win solutions (_____): Learning to work together in dealing with our environmental problems by recognizing our ____ connections with others and our life support system. Shifting from ___ situation based on ____of other humans to this that is based on ___.

Political science, interdependent, win-lose, dominance, compromise

Polluting substances

Pollutants

Contamination of the environment by any chemical or other agent such as noise or heat to a level that is harmful to the health, survival, or activities of huans or other organisms

Pollution

Cleaning up or diluting pollutants after we have produced them

Pollution cleanup

2 different ways we've tried to deal with pollution?

Pollution cleanup, pollution prevention

Efforts focused on greatly reducing or eliminating the production of pollutants

Pollution prevention

Environmental Impact=

Population x affluence x technology

Major causes of environmental problems are __ growth, unsustainable __ use, __, avoidance of ___ pricing, and increasing ___ from nature.

Population, resource, poverty, full-cost, isolation

Condition in which people are unable to fulfill their basic needs for adequate food, water, shelter, health care, and education

Poverty

A natural resource that can be replaced at the same rate at which the resource is consumed. Example?

Renewable, air, water,topsoil, plants, animals

IPAT model includes use of __ and __ sources

Renewable, nonrenwable

Anything that we can obtain from the environment to meet our needs and wants

Resource

Principles by which nature has sustained itself for billions of years by relying on solar energy, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling

Scientific principles of sustainability

Derived from studies of economics, political science, and ethics. Full cost pricing, win-win solutions, and a responsibility to future generations

Social science principles of sustainability

The sun's input of energy

Solar energy

In learning to live more sustains, what is our most scarce resource?

Time

A vital natural resource that provides us and most other land-dwelling species with food. Without nutrient cycling in this life as we know it. Would not exist

Topsoil

Dealing with conflicts often involving making __, or compromises. If the timber company is persuaded to plant Rees that it already cleared or degraded instead of clearing the undisturbed forest the government give the company a ___, financial support, to meet some of the costs for planting trees.

Trade-offs subsidy

Who released Millenium Ecosystem Assesment?

UN

Acknowledges our growing ecological footprints and the need to reduce them, but it stresses that in pursuing our activities and creating products and services, we need to consider how we can improve some aspec of he environment while we serve our needs and want

Upcycling

In nature, waste=___

Useful resources

Affluence=

Wealth

Learning to work together in dealing with our environmental problems by recognizing our interdependent connections with others and our life support system

Win-win solutions

Our environmental ___ play a ey role in determining whether we live unsustainable or more sustainability

Worldviews

A key component of environmental science is

ecology