Living in the environment: Chapter 1: environmental problems, their causes and
sustainability
1.1 What are three principles of sustainability?
Environmental science is a study of connections in nature
Environment: everything around us, living and non living things
Environmental science: study of connections in nature. How humans
interact with living and non living parts of the environment. Three goals:
1. How nature works
2. How we interact with the environment
3. Deal with environmental problems and live more sustainable
Environment: everything around us, living and non living things
The key component of environmental science is Ecology: Biological science
that studies how
organisms interact with each other and the environment.
Species: group of organisms (separated by there characteristics)
Ecosystem: certain volume of organisms in a defined area that interact with
living and non living
Natures survival strategies follow three principles of sustainability
1. Solar energy
2. Biodiversity
3. Chemical cycling
Key components of sustainability:
- Natural capital = natural resources + natural services
Natural capital: The natural resources and natural services that keep us
and other forms of live alive and support our human economies.
Natural resources: Materials and energy in nature that are essential or
useful to humans.
1. Renewable resources
2. Nonrenewable resources
Natural services: Processes in nature that support life and human
economies.
- Many human activities can degrade natural capital by using normally
renewable sources fasten than nature can restore them, and by
overloading natural systems with pollution and wastes.
- Solutions: 2 types, both go together with conflicts and trade-offs or
compromises
1. Scientific solutions: first idea
2. Political solutions: to implement the scientific solutions we need laws
and regulations
- Individual matters: sustainability depends on everyday choices. It begins at
personal and local level.
Some resources are renewable and some are not
Resource: anything that we can obtain from the environment to meet our needs
and wants. They vary in how quickly we can use them and how fast they renew
itsef after use.’
- Perpetual resource: supply is continuous and last forever (in human
terms) like the sun’
- Renewable resource: takes several days till several hundred years to
renew it self. Only possible if we do not use it faster than nature can
, restore it. Sustainable yield: highest rate at which we can use a renewable
resource indefinitely without reducing its available supply.
- Non-renewable resource: exist in a fixed quantity or stock in the earth’s
crust. (it can not renew itself in human life time). We can extend (some of
those resources) their supplies by reuse or recycling.
Countries differ in levels of unsustainability
Economic growth: increase in a nation’s output of goods and services.
Measured by the percentage of change in a country’s gross domestic product.
Gross domestic product (GDP): the annual market value of all goods and
services produced by all businesses operating within a country.
Per capita GDP: Changes in a country’s economic growth per person
Economic development: effort to use economic growth to improve living
standards
UN classifies countries in two categories based on their average income per
person.
- More developed countries: high average income p.p. 19% of the world’s
population.
- Less developed countries: 81% of the world’s population.
1. Moderately developed countries: middle income
2. Least developed countries: low income
1.2 How are our ecological footprints affecting the earth?
We are living unsustainably
Environmental degradation/natural capital degradation: process of wasting,
depleting and degrading the earth’s natural capital at an accelerating rate.
Pollution comes from a number of sources
Pollution: Any presence within the environment of a chemical or other agent at
a level that is harmful to the health, survival or activities of humans other
organisms.
- Point sources: single, identifiable sources
- Non point sources: dispersed, difficult to identify
Two types of pollution:
1. Biodegradable pollutants: harmful materials that natural processes can
break down over time.
2. Non degradable pollutants: harmful chemicals that natural processes
cannot break down.
Three types of unwanted effects:
1. Disrupt or degrade life-support systems for humans and other species
2. Damage wildlife, human health and property
3. Create nuisances such as noise and unpleasant smells, tastes and sights
Two ways to deal with pollution (we need both):
1. Pollution clean-up or output pollution control: cleaning up or diluting
pollutants after we have produced them. Three problems:
o Temporary solution (as long as the population grows we will produce
more pollutants as long we don’t improve the pollution control
technology)
o Removes a pollutant from one part to another
o When pollutants become dispersed into the environment at harmful
levels, it costs too much to reduce them to an acceptable level
, 2. Pollution prevention or input pollution control: Reducing or
eliminating the production of pollutants.
The tragedy of the commons: Overexploiting commonly shared
renewable resources
Three types of property or resource rights:
1. Private property: owned by individual or company
2. Common property: owned by large groups of individuals
3. Open-access renewable sources: Owned by no one and available for use by
anyone at little or no charge. Degradation of those common-property is
called tragedy of the commons. Two ways to deal with this problem is
o Use the common resource at a rate below its estimated sustainable
yield by using less of it or regulating access to the resource.
o Convert open-access renewable resources to private ownership. If
you own it you protect it.
Ecological footprints: A model of unsustainable use of resources
More developed countries have affluence/wealth: they consume larger amounts
of resources than they need.
Ecological footprint: The waste and pollution of the renewable resource
products that people use in a certain area. Per capita ecological footprint:
average footprint of an individual in an area. If the ecological footprint is larger
than its biological capacity to replenish its renewable resources and to absorb the
resulting wastes and pollution, is has an ecological deficit. Its unsustainable
IPAT is another environmental impact model
I=PxAxT
Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology
How population size, resource consumption per person and the beneficial and
harmful environmental effect of technology help to determine the environmental
impact of human activity.
Instead of the ecological footprint this model uses both renewable as non-
renewable resources.
Impact in less developed countries: population size and degradation of renewable
resources.
Impact in more developed countries: overconsumption
Natural systems have tipping points
Ecological tipping point: an environmental problem can stretch until it
collapse. 3 collapses:
1. Certain populations of fish by overfishing
2. Premature extinction of species by overhunting
3. Long term climate change by burning oil and coal
Cultural changes have increased our ecological footprints
Culture is the whole of a society knowledge, believes, technology and practices
and human cultural changes have had profound effects on earth. Three major
cultural changes:
1. Agricultural revolution
2. Industrial medical revolution
3. Information globalization revolution
1.3 Why do we have environmental problems?
Experts have identified four basic causes of environmental problems
1. Population growth
sustainability
1.1 What are three principles of sustainability?
Environmental science is a study of connections in nature
Environment: everything around us, living and non living things
Environmental science: study of connections in nature. How humans
interact with living and non living parts of the environment. Three goals:
1. How nature works
2. How we interact with the environment
3. Deal with environmental problems and live more sustainable
Environment: everything around us, living and non living things
The key component of environmental science is Ecology: Biological science
that studies how
organisms interact with each other and the environment.
Species: group of organisms (separated by there characteristics)
Ecosystem: certain volume of organisms in a defined area that interact with
living and non living
Natures survival strategies follow three principles of sustainability
1. Solar energy
2. Biodiversity
3. Chemical cycling
Key components of sustainability:
- Natural capital = natural resources + natural services
Natural capital: The natural resources and natural services that keep us
and other forms of live alive and support our human economies.
Natural resources: Materials and energy in nature that are essential or
useful to humans.
1. Renewable resources
2. Nonrenewable resources
Natural services: Processes in nature that support life and human
economies.
- Many human activities can degrade natural capital by using normally
renewable sources fasten than nature can restore them, and by
overloading natural systems with pollution and wastes.
- Solutions: 2 types, both go together with conflicts and trade-offs or
compromises
1. Scientific solutions: first idea
2. Political solutions: to implement the scientific solutions we need laws
and regulations
- Individual matters: sustainability depends on everyday choices. It begins at
personal and local level.
Some resources are renewable and some are not
Resource: anything that we can obtain from the environment to meet our needs
and wants. They vary in how quickly we can use them and how fast they renew
itsef after use.’
- Perpetual resource: supply is continuous and last forever (in human
terms) like the sun’
- Renewable resource: takes several days till several hundred years to
renew it self. Only possible if we do not use it faster than nature can
, restore it. Sustainable yield: highest rate at which we can use a renewable
resource indefinitely without reducing its available supply.
- Non-renewable resource: exist in a fixed quantity or stock in the earth’s
crust. (it can not renew itself in human life time). We can extend (some of
those resources) their supplies by reuse or recycling.
Countries differ in levels of unsustainability
Economic growth: increase in a nation’s output of goods and services.
Measured by the percentage of change in a country’s gross domestic product.
Gross domestic product (GDP): the annual market value of all goods and
services produced by all businesses operating within a country.
Per capita GDP: Changes in a country’s economic growth per person
Economic development: effort to use economic growth to improve living
standards
UN classifies countries in two categories based on their average income per
person.
- More developed countries: high average income p.p. 19% of the world’s
population.
- Less developed countries: 81% of the world’s population.
1. Moderately developed countries: middle income
2. Least developed countries: low income
1.2 How are our ecological footprints affecting the earth?
We are living unsustainably
Environmental degradation/natural capital degradation: process of wasting,
depleting and degrading the earth’s natural capital at an accelerating rate.
Pollution comes from a number of sources
Pollution: Any presence within the environment of a chemical or other agent at
a level that is harmful to the health, survival or activities of humans other
organisms.
- Point sources: single, identifiable sources
- Non point sources: dispersed, difficult to identify
Two types of pollution:
1. Biodegradable pollutants: harmful materials that natural processes can
break down over time.
2. Non degradable pollutants: harmful chemicals that natural processes
cannot break down.
Three types of unwanted effects:
1. Disrupt or degrade life-support systems for humans and other species
2. Damage wildlife, human health and property
3. Create nuisances such as noise and unpleasant smells, tastes and sights
Two ways to deal with pollution (we need both):
1. Pollution clean-up or output pollution control: cleaning up or diluting
pollutants after we have produced them. Three problems:
o Temporary solution (as long as the population grows we will produce
more pollutants as long we don’t improve the pollution control
technology)
o Removes a pollutant from one part to another
o When pollutants become dispersed into the environment at harmful
levels, it costs too much to reduce them to an acceptable level
, 2. Pollution prevention or input pollution control: Reducing or
eliminating the production of pollutants.
The tragedy of the commons: Overexploiting commonly shared
renewable resources
Three types of property or resource rights:
1. Private property: owned by individual or company
2. Common property: owned by large groups of individuals
3. Open-access renewable sources: Owned by no one and available for use by
anyone at little or no charge. Degradation of those common-property is
called tragedy of the commons. Two ways to deal with this problem is
o Use the common resource at a rate below its estimated sustainable
yield by using less of it or regulating access to the resource.
o Convert open-access renewable resources to private ownership. If
you own it you protect it.
Ecological footprints: A model of unsustainable use of resources
More developed countries have affluence/wealth: they consume larger amounts
of resources than they need.
Ecological footprint: The waste and pollution of the renewable resource
products that people use in a certain area. Per capita ecological footprint:
average footprint of an individual in an area. If the ecological footprint is larger
than its biological capacity to replenish its renewable resources and to absorb the
resulting wastes and pollution, is has an ecological deficit. Its unsustainable
IPAT is another environmental impact model
I=PxAxT
Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology
How population size, resource consumption per person and the beneficial and
harmful environmental effect of technology help to determine the environmental
impact of human activity.
Instead of the ecological footprint this model uses both renewable as non-
renewable resources.
Impact in less developed countries: population size and degradation of renewable
resources.
Impact in more developed countries: overconsumption
Natural systems have tipping points
Ecological tipping point: an environmental problem can stretch until it
collapse. 3 collapses:
1. Certain populations of fish by overfishing
2. Premature extinction of species by overhunting
3. Long term climate change by burning oil and coal
Cultural changes have increased our ecological footprints
Culture is the whole of a society knowledge, believes, technology and practices
and human cultural changes have had profound effects on earth. Three major
cultural changes:
1. Agricultural revolution
2. Industrial medical revolution
3. Information globalization revolution
1.3 Why do we have environmental problems?
Experts have identified four basic causes of environmental problems
1. Population growth
