1-3: why do we have environmental problems?

Living Planet Report (WWF, 2012)

estimated that the U.S. is responsible for almost half of the global ecological footprint, the average American consumes about 30x as much as the average Indian and 100x as much as the average person in the worlds poorest countries

full cost price of gas

$3.18 per liter or $12 per gallon

major causes of environmental problems

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 5. increasing isolation from nature

ethical questions about the environment

1. why should we care about the environment? 2. are we the most important beings on the planet or are we just one of the earth's millions of different forms of life? 3. do we have an obligation to see that our activities do not cause the extinction of other species? should we try to protect all species or only some? how do we decide which to protect? 4. do we have an ethical obligation to pass on to future generations the extraordinary natural world in a condition that is at least as good as what we inherited? 5. 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? this is the central ethical and political issue for what is known as the environmental issue movement 6. how do we promote sustainability?

how many people in more-developed countries and the world live in urban areas?

3/4 people, 1/2 people

how many people live in extreme poverty?

900 million people

planetary management worldview

We are separate from and in charge of 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, into the distant future

poverty

a condition in which people cannot fulfill their basic needs for adequate food, water, shelter, health care, and education

environmental worldview

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

quality of resources in U.S., and why

air is clearer, drinking water is purer, food supply is safer, because of affluence

nature deficit disorder

by not having enough contacts with the natural world w 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; this disorder helps explain why we are rapidly degrading the environment

how could we live more sustainably?

full-cost pricing- shift from environmentally harmful subsidies to environmentally beneficial subsidies (subsidy shifts) and tax pollution or waste heavily while reducing taxes on income and wealth (tax shifts)

harmful environmental and health effects caused by poverty

impoverished individuals degrade forests, topsoil, grasslands, fisheries, and wildlife because they don't have the luxury of worrying about long-term environmental quality or sustainability

how to slow population growth

leveling off population at around 8 billion by 2050; reduce poverty through economic development, promote family planning, and elevating the status of women

how does environmental degradation affect the poor?

malnutrition, pollution, limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and clean drinking water, respiratory disease caused by inhaling smoke outdoors, indoor air pollution World Health Organization estimated that one or more of these favors causes premature death for about 7 million children under the age of 5 each year

projected human population

now: 7.1 billion, 84 million added each year 2050: 9.6 billion

exponential growth

occurs when a quantity such as the human population increases at a fixed percentage per unit of time, such as 1% or 2% per year

pros and cons of affluence

pros: allows for better education; provides money for developing technologies to reduce pollution, environmental degradation, and resource waste cons: it takes 27 large tractor trailer loads of resources per year to support the average American, providing each of these loads represents environmental degradation; wealth allows customers to obtain their resources from anywhere in the world without seeing the harmful environmental and health impacts of their high-consumption lifestyles

environmental ethics

the study of our various beliefs about what is right and wrong with how we treat our environment

what do people typically not realize about their ecological footprint and how life on earth has been sustained?

they don't realize how much waste or how many pollutants they produce, and that life on earth has been sustained largely by the recycling of wastes

companies using resources to provide goods generally don't pay for most of the harmful environmental and health costs of supplying such goods

timber companies pay the costs of clear-cutting forests but don't pay for the resulting environmental degradation and loss of wildlife habitat

environmental wisdom worldview

we are part of, and 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 degradation wisdom into the ways we think and act

stewardship worldview

we can and should manage the earth for our benefit, but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers of the earth; we should encourage environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and development and discourage environmentally harmful forms