Chapter 1 the environment and sustainability

Biodiversity

the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem and how they adapt to changing environments.

Indoor air polution

when the air inside a house or building contains pollutants, such as fine particles and carbon monoxide. It is often caused by inefficient cooking and heating practices.

Rachel Carson

"Silent Spring", sparked a real environmentalist movement: which introduced the adverse environmental effects of DDT and the fact that it would kill the environment and there would be no birds to sing.- a silent spring

6 principles of sustainability

conservation, recycling, renewable resource use, restoration, preservation, adaptability

scientific principles of sustainability

dependence on solar energy, biodiversity, chemical cycling

malnutrition

lack of proper nutrition

Nature Deficit Disorder

not having enough contact with nature

scientific principle of sustainability

nutrient cycling

natural capital degradation

occurs when human activities use renewable resources faster than they can be replenished

life-centered environmental worldview

all species have value as participating members of the biosphere, regardless of their potential or actual use to humans

John Muir

(1838-1914) Naturalist who believed the wilderness should be preserved in its natural state. He was largely responsible for the creation of Yosemite National Park in California.

Teddy Roosevelt

(1858-1919) Twenty-sixth president of the United States; he focused his efforts on trust busting, environment conservation, and strong foreign policy.

Aldo Leopold

(1887-1949) American scientist, scholar, philosopher, and author. His book The land Ethic argued that humans should view themselves and the land itself as member s of the same community and that humans are obligated to treat the land ethically.

Paul Ehrlich

-developed concept of selective toxicity -identified dyes that effectively treated African sleeping sickness

Ecosystem

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

More Developed Country

A country that has progressed relatively far along a continuum of development. United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, Germany, and most other European Countries. The makeup of 17% of the population but use about 70% of the world's resources. The U.S with 4.4% of the population uses about 30% of the world's resources.

Principle of Sustainability

A sustainable society does not use natural resources or produce wastes faster than they are regenerated or assimilated by the environment. By full cost pricing on products, win-win solutions in which compromise is done both parties to benefit people as well as the environment, and responsibility to future generations and a health better world. learning from the earth how to live sustainably.

George Perkins Marsh 1864

An inventor, diplomat, politician, and scholar, his classic work, "Man and Nature, or Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action," provided the first description of the extent to which natural systems had been impacted by human actions. Rise and fall of the past civilization.

John Holdren

Co-authored a book with Paul Ehrlich about population growth and limited resources

exponential growth

Growth pattern in which the individuals in a population reproduce at a constant rate/percent per unit of time. Ex: bacteria starts slow but can grow significantly.

sustainable yield

Highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply

Enviromental Worldview

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 (environmental ethics).

1980 environmental backlash

In the 1980s, there was a backlash against environmental laws and regulations led by some corporate leaders, landowners, and state and local government officials who resented having to implement environmental laws and regulations with little or no federal funding. They contended that environmental laws were hindering economic growth and threatening private property rights and jobs.

hunter-gatherers 10,000-12,000 y ago

Nomadic groups whose food supply depends on hunting animals and collecting plant foods

Environment

It includes energy from the sun and all the living things (such as plants, animals, and bacteria) and the nonliving things (such as air, water, and sunlight) with which you interact.

sustainability revolution

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 resources

Materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile land occur in nature and can be used for economic gain. They fall into three categories: inexhaustible resources, renewable resources, and nonrenewable (exhaustible) resources

natural capital

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

Economists propose two ways to implement full-cost pricing over the next two decades.

One is to shift from environmentally harmful government subsidies to environmentally beneficial subsidies that sustain or restore natural capital. Examples of environmentally beneficial subsidies are those that reward sustainable forest management, replanting degraded lands, sustainable agriculture, and increased use of wind and solar power to produce electricity. A second way to implement full-cost pricing is to increase taxes on pollution and wastes and reduce taxes on income and wealth

biomimicry

Process of observing certain changes in nature, studying how natural systems have responded to such changing conditions over many millions of years, and applying what is learned to dealing with some environmental challenge.

natural income

Renewable resources such as plants, animals, and soil provided by natural capital. By preserving and replenishing the earth's natural capital that supplies this natural income, people can reduce their ecological footprints and expand their beneficial environmental impact.

nonrenewable resource

Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans

chemical cycling (nutrient cycling)

The circulation of chemicals necessary for life, from the environment (mostly from soil and water) through organisms and back to the environment. waste= useful resources.

Environmental Science

The field of study that looks at interactions among human systems and those found in nature how the earth (nature) works and has survived and thrived, (2) how humans interact with the environment, and (3) how humans can live more sustainably.

biomimicry examples

The first involves mimicking the characteristics of species, such as bumps on a whale's fins or the wing and feather designs of birds, which are believed to have enhanced the long-term survival of such species. The second and deeper level involves mimicking the processes that species use to make shells, feathers, and other parts that benefit their long-term survival without using or producing toxins and without using the high-temperature or high-pressure processes we use in manufacturing. The third and deepest level involves mimicking the long-term survival strategies and beneficial environmental effects of natural ecosystems such as forests and coral reefs. Since 1997, scientists, engineers, and others working in the field of biomimicry have identified several principles that have sustained life on the earth for billions of years. They have found that life runs on sunlight; does not waste energy; adapts to changing environmental conditions; depends on biodiversity for population control and adaptation; creates no waste because the matter outputs of one organism are resources for other organisms; does not pollute its own environment; and does not produce chemicals that cannot be recycled by the earth's chemical cycles. By learning from nature and using such principles, innovative scientists, engineers, and business people are leading a biomimicry revolution by creating life-friendly goods and services and profitable businesses that could enrich and sustain humanity and its economies far into the future.

ecosystem services

The process by which natural environments provide life-supporting resources at no monetary cost. Purify air and water, regulate climate, recycle nutrients.

Agricultural Revolution 10,000 y ago

The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering

The environmental impact model was developed in the early 1970s by scientists Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren.

This IPAT model shows that the environmental impact (I) of human activities is the product of three factors: population size (P), affluence (A) or resource consumption per person, and the beneficial and harmful environmental effects of technologies (T). The following equation summarizes the IPAT model: Impact (I) = Population (P) x Affluence (A) x Technology (T). The T factor can either be positive or negative.

industrial-medical revolution 300 y ago

Use of new sources of energy from fossil fuels and later from nuclear fuels, and use of new technologies, to grow food and manufacture products.

information and globalization revolution 50 y ago

Use of new technologies such as the telephone, radio, television, computers, the Internet, automated databases, and remote sensing satellites to enable people to have increasingly rapid access to much more information on a global scale.

Decade of the Environment (1970-1980)

a. EPA (A.K.A Environmental Protection Agency) 1970 b. NRDC (A.K.A Natural Resources Defense Council) 1970 c. NOAA (A.K.A National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration) 1970 d. DOE (A.K.A Department of Energy) 1977

less developed countries

a developing country with a low level of industrialization very high fertility rate, very high infant mortality rate and a very low per capital income. Africa, Asia, and most Latin American countries. With middle income countries such as China, India, Brazil, Thailand and Mexico and the low income countries including Nigeria, Congo, Haiti, Bangladesh. The less developed countries are 83% of the world's population but have access of 30% the world's natural resources.

Biocapacity

a measure of the area and quality of land available to supply a population with resources. If the footprint is bigger than its biocapacity is said to have ecological deficiencit.

inexhaustible resource

a natural resource that will not run out, no matter how much of it people use

Tragedy of the Commons - Garret Hardin 1915-2003

a parable that illustrates why common resources are used more than is desirable from the standpoint of society as a whole

renewable energy

a resource that can be used repeatedly because it is replenished through natural processes as long as it is not used up faster than nature can renew it. Examples are forests, grasslands, fertile topsoil, fishes, clean air, and freshwater.

solar energy

energy that comes from the sun

earth-centered environmental worldview

holds that we are part of, and dependent on, nature and that the earth's life-support system exists for all species, not just for us

There are three major categories of environmental worldviews:

human-centered, life-centered, and earth-centered.

proverty

is a condition in which people lack enough money to fulfill their basic needs for food, water, shelter, health care, and education. According to the World Bank, about one of every three people, or 2.5 billion people, struggled to live on the equivalent of less than $3.10 a day in 2014. In addition, nearly 900 million people—almost three times the U.S. population—live in extreme poverty on the equivalent of less than $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank.

enviromentally sustainable society

protects natural capital and lives on its income. Such a society would meet the current and future basic resource needs of its people without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their basic resource needs. This is in keeping with the ethical principle of sustainability.

Global Footprint Network

represents the amount of land and sea area needed to provide the resources a person needs and absorb their carbon dioxide emissions. The U.S with 4.4% of pop takes over 23% of the global ecological footprint.

human-centered environmental worldview

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

Environmentalism or environmental Activism

social movement dedicated to protecting the earth's life support for humans and other species.

enviromental ethics

the application of ethical standards to the relationship between people and nonhuman entities. Why should we care about the environment? Are humans the most important species on the planet or are they just another one of the earth's millions of life forms? Do people have an obligation to see that their activities do not cause the extinction of other species? If so, should people try to protect all species or only some? How does society decide which ones to protect? Does the current human generation have an ethical obligation to pass the natural world on to future generations in a condition as good as or better than what they inherited? Should every person be entitled to equal protection from environmental hazards regardless of race, gender, age, national origin, income, social class, or any other factor? Should individuals and society as a whole seek to live more sustainably, and, if so, how?

per capita ecological footprint

the average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area. Human ecological footprint according to International Earth Science Network at Columbia University, humans have impacted 83% of the earth's land surface.

Ecology

the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

Sustainabiliy

the capacity of the earth's natural systems that support life and human economic systems to survive or adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.

nutrients

the chemicals that plants and animals need to survive

Human population

the current population of 7.4 billion people. In 2016, the rate of growth was 1.21%. Although this rate of growth seems small, it added 89.7 million people to the world's 7.4 billion people. By 2050, the population could reach 9.9 billion—an addition of 2.5 billion people within your lifetime. the world's population is growing at 1.21% per year.No one knows how many people the earth can support indefinitely. No one knows how much average resource consumption per person will seriously degrade the planet's natural capital. However, humanity's large and expanding ecological footprints and the resulting widespread natural capital degradation are disturbing warning signs

ecological footprint

the impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources.