CHAPTER 1

 Population Growth
The Environmental Challenges We Face -Projected 7.7–10.6 billion people depending
on fertility rate
A World in Crisis -Current fertility rate is 2.6 children/woman
-Family planning efforts
-Earth provides raw materials and energy for -World’s population may stabilize by end of
Life 21st century
-Earth is approx 4.5 Billion years old
 Modern humans appeared in Africa  Can Earth support so many people?
195,000 yrs ago -We don’t know
 Human populations have grown and  Quality of life depends on being able to
expanded in range produce enough food in a sustainable
 Technology has allowed humans to live manner
better (at least in developed nations) -Without destroying the biological communities
that support life on our planet
-Humans are the most significant agent of
environmental change  Population Size
 Overpopulation -Number of people
 Overconsumption of natural resources:
topsoil, water, air  Population Consumption
 Transforming and destroying natural -Use of materials and energy
environments
 Eradicating unique species  Economic Growth
 Human-induced climate change -Expansion of the output of a nation’s goods
and services
Human Impacts on the Environment
 Overpopulation  Intimately related
-Earth’s central environmental problem
-Links all other environmental problems Gap between Rich and Poor
together  Highly Developed Countries (Rich, HDCs)
-World’s population continues to grow and has -Complex industrialized bases, low rates of
grown very fast population growth, and high per person
-1960: 3 billion people incomes
-1975: 4 billion -18 % of the world’s population
-1987: 5 billion -US, Canada, Japan, most of Europe
-2009: 6.8 billion
 People consume food and water, use Gap between Rich and Poor
energy and raw materials and produce  Poor Countries: 82% of world’s population
waste
 Several more billion people will be added  Moderately Developed (MDCs)
in the 21st century, even if we are -Medium levels of industrialization, lower per
proactive about population growth person incomes than highly developed
countries, few opportunities for education and
Linear vs. Exponential health care
 Linear growth - a quantity increases by a -Mexico, Turkey, South Africa, Thailand
constant amount per unit of time: 2, 4, 6, 8  Less Developed (LDCs)
or 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 & so on. -Low levels of industrialization, high population
 Exponential growth - a quantity increases growth, very -high infant death rates, very low
by a fixed percentage of the whole in a incomes, mostly agriculture based, cheap
given time: 1, 2, 4, 16 unskilled labor
-Bangladesh, Mali, Ethiopia, Laos
Human Impacts on the Environment
 Poverty Population, Resources, and the
-A condition in which people are unable to Environment
meet their basic needs for food, clothing,  Developing countries
shelter, education, or health. -Rapid population growth is overwhelming
-One in four people lives in extreme poverty -Natural resource depletion for survival (soils,
(less than $2/day): 3.3 billion people forests, water)
-Poverty is associated with short life  Developed countries
expectancy, illiteracy, inadequate access to -Slower population growth
health services, safe water, balanced nutrition
-Higher rate of consumption beyond what’s -76% of timber
necessary for survival (TV, computers, jet skis) -68% of energy
-61% of meat
Types of Resources -42% of fresh water
 Nonrenewable  Also, produce 75% of waste and pollution
-Limited Supply: minerals, fossil fuels
-Once they are gone, they are gone Population Size and Resource
Consumption
 Renewable/Potentially Renewable  Ecological Footprints
-Virtually unlimited: solar power, water, soil, -The amount of land, fresh water, and ocean
forests required on a continuous basis to supply a
-Replenished over short periods (days to person with food, wood, energy, water,
decades) housing, clothing, transportation, and waste
-Easy to overexploit nonrenewable disposal.
 Soil, fresh water, clean air -Earth has 11.4 billion ha = 28.2 billion acres of
productive land and water
3 Types of Resources -11.4/6.8 billion people = 1.8 ha (4.3 acres)
1. energy resources: -Currently, average ecological footprint is 2.7
 coal, oil, natural gas, uranium, ha (6.7 acres)
2. metallic mineral resources -US footprint is 9.4 ha (23.3 acres) if everyone
 iron, copper, aluminum, & nonmetallic in the world had the same, we would need 4
mineral resources Earths!!!
3. salt, clay, sand, & phosphates
 We convert these raw materials into many Population, Consumption, and
everyday items we use, & then we discard, Environmental Impact
reuse, or recycle them.  I=PxAxT
 I: Environmental impact
Resources and Population  P: Population (number of people)
 Rapid population growth can cause  A: Affluence per person (amt of resources)
resources to be overexploited  T: Technology used to get resources
-Critical in developing countries  Interpret results with care!
-Economic growth tied to natural resource  Ultimate goal: make consumption
exploitation sustainable
-Choice between short term and long term

 Poverty drives natural resource

exploitation
-Must use resources to survive, which degrades
them and shuts down future opportunities for
development

Population Size and Resource

Consumption
 A country is overpopulated if the demand
on its resources results in damage to the
environment.
Can be overpopulated in 2 ways: Sustainability and Earth’s Capacity to Support
 People Overpopulation Humans
-Consumption is high because there are too
many people, even if individual consumption is  Sustainability:
low -Ability to meet current needs without
 Consumption Overpopulation compromising the ability of future generations
-Consumption is high because each individual to meet their needs
consumes too much, even if total population is -Environment will function indefinitely
low -Based on:
 Effects of our actions on the environment
Population Size and Resource  Earth’s resources are finite
Consumption  Understanding impacts of consumption
 Highly developed countries have less than  Shared responsibility for environmental
20% of the world’s population, but sustainability
consume:
-86% of aluminum We are not currently living sustainably:
 Using nonrenewable resources as if they -Identifying, understanding, and solving
were renewable (e.g., fossil fuels) problems that we have created
 Using renewable resources faster than -Not just ‘doom and gloom’ list of problems
nature can replenish them -Focus on solving problems
 Polluting the environment beyond capacity
 Unchecked population growth, without  Science as a Process
regard to Earth’s finite resources and -Not just a collection of facts
ability to deal with waste Systematic way of studying the natural world
-Requires collection of data through
The Tragedy of the Commons Observation and experimentation
 One cause of environmental degradation is -Data must be analyzed and interpreted
overuse of common-property resources, -Not based on faith, emotion, intuition
which are owned by none & available to all -Requires repeatability and scrutiny
users free of charge. -No absolute certainty
 Most are potentially renewable. Requires reevaluation
 It happens because each user reasons, "If I -Ongoing process
don't use this resource, someone else will.
The little bit I use or pollute is not enough  The Scientific Method
to matter" -Process that scientists use to answer
questions or solve problems
Global Environmental Issues -Recognize a question/problem
 Global warming -Develop a hypothesis (educated guess) to
 Deforestation explain the problem
 Threatened Oceans -Design and perform an experiment to test the
 Desertification hypothesis
 Polar Ice caps -Analyze and interpret the data to reach a
 Ozone Depletion conclusion
 Environmental stress factor -Share knowledge with scientific community

 If we continue to live unsustainably, Earth The Scientific Method

may not recover
 What changes are we willing to make?

Focus on Sustainability

Environmental Science
 Interdisciplinary study of humanity’s
relationship with other organisms and the
physical environment-
- combines information from many fields:
 biology, geology, geography, chemistry,
economics, agriculture, law, politics,  The best hypotheses make predictions
ethics, etc.  Predictions provide a way to test
-Ecology is a basic tool hypotheses
-Atmospheric Science -If experiment refutes hypothesis, hypothesis is
-Environmental Chemistry rejected
-Geosciences -If hypothesis is verified repeatedly, hypothesis
 Goals is strong
-Establish general principles about how the  Science progresses from uncertainty to
natural world functions less uncertainty
 Science is self-correcting even though it
never ‘proves’ anything
CHAPTER 2
 Experiments test hypotheses Environmental Sustainability and Human
-Variable: factor that influences a process Values
-To test a hypothesis, two experiments are
carried out: The Global Commons
 Experimental Group: the chosen variable
is altered in a known way The Tragedy of the Commons (1968
 Control Group: the chosen variable is not essay)
altered -Garrett Hardin
-We can ask: What is the difference (if any)  Our inability to solve environmental
between the two groups? problems stems from the conflict between
-Any differences would be due to the short-term individual welfare and long-
experimental variable term environmental sustainability
 Used Medieval shared pastureland (the
 Scientific Theory commons) as example.
-An integrated explanation of many
hypotheses, each supported by many Human Use of the Earth
observations and experiments.  Sustainability
-Simplifies and clarifies our understanding of -The ability to meet humanity’s current needs
the natural world. without compromising the ability of future
-Solid ground of science generations to meet their needs
-Generally accepted as ‘true’, even though
there is no absolute truth in science  Sustainable Development
-Contrast with general public’s use of theory, -Economic growth that meets the needs of the
as a guess, or hypithesis present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their needs
 Science is constantly evolving -Must meet the needs of the poor
-As new evidence comes to light, conclusions -Can only occur within the limits of the
may change environment
-Therefore, scientific conclusions are -Cannot sustain everyone at the levels of
provisional, which doesn’t mean they are consumption of the US, Europe, and Japan.
invalid.
-E.g., smoking and cancer

How We Handle Environmental Problems

  Consumption overpopulation:
-People use more than their share of
resources
Affluent lifestyle
EnviroDiscovery -Leads to pollution and degradation
 NIMBY = not in my backyard
 NIMTOO = not in my term of office  Sustainable Consumption:
 Examples: -People use their share of resources to meets
-People don’t want power plants, landfills, their needs
incinerators nearby -Must improve the quality of life for the poor
-Politicians want to be reelected, so they don’t -Minimizes the use of resources
support those decisions in their districts -Voluntary Simplicity
 Voluntary Simplicity
-Requires behavioral change: purchasing less
-Accumulation of goods does not equal
happiness
-Values and character define a person, not
what they own
-E.g., car-sharing, using public transportation,
etc.
-Not popular with politicians and consumers

Human Values and Environmental

Problems

 Ethics: branch of philosophy that deals

with human values
Environmental Justice
 Environmental Ethics: considers the
moral basis of environmental responsibility  Every citizen has the right to adequate
-Considers the rights of people living today protection from environmental hazards
AND of future generations -Low-income communities/minorities are more
-Critical because our actions today affect the likely to be in polluted areas, and near landfills,
environment in the future toxic waste facilities, etc.
-Tend to have lower access to health care
 Worldviews: -Rights of the poor and disenfranchised vs. the
-personal perspectives, based on values rights of rich and powerful
-Help us make sense of the world
-What is right and wrong An Overall Plan for Sustainable Living
-Lead to behaviors and lifestyles
-May or may not be compatible with  Lester R. Brown, 2006. Plan B 2.0
environmental sustainability 5 recommendations:
1. Eliminate poverty and stabilize human
 Environmental Worldview: population
-How the environment works 2. Protect and restore Earth’s resources
-Our place in the environment 3. Provide adequate food for all people
-Right and wrong environmental behaviors 4. Mitigate climate change
5. Design sustainable cities
 Two extremes;
Western Worldview  Eliminate Poverty and Stabilize
Deep Ecology Worldview Human Population
 Global distribution of resources is uneven
 Western Worldview: -US 5% of world’s pop controls 25% of
Expansionist, human-centered resources
-Frontier attitude; conquer and exploit nature -29,000 infants and children die each day
-Human superiority over nature -Lack of food and basic medicine
-Unrestricted use of natural resources -Raising the standard of living of the world’s
-Unrestricted economic growth poor
-Anthropocentric perspective  Universal education of children
 Elimination of illiteracy
 Deep Ecology:  Improving the status of women
-1970s: Arne Naess, Bill Devall, George
Sessions  Carrying Capacity
-Based on harmony with nature -The maximum population that can be
-Spiritual respect for life sustained by a given environment/world
-Humans and other species have equal worth
-Requires radical shift in modern thinking  Population Growth rates are highest
-Appreciating quality of life, rather than a high where poverty is highest
standard of living -Family planning
-Biocentric perspective -Education
-Women’s status

“The test of our progress is not whether we

add more to the abundance of those who have
much; it is whether we provide enough for -Less congestion, pollution, space for parking
those who have too little.” -Franklin Delano  Water Resources
Roosevelt, 1937 -Recycle waste-water for other uses (watering)
-Water purification of sewage before release
2) Protect and Restore Earth’s Resources
 Forests
-Unsustainable logging and burning, are CHAPTER 3
making them a non-renewable resource
 Biodiversity Environmental History, Politics, and
-Number and variety of organisms Economics
-Economic Services: food, medicine, energy,
building, clothing materials Renewable Energy Policy Challenges
-Ecosystem Services: protection of watersheds,  Governments struggle to develop climate
agricultural lands, climate, habitats change policies
 Biggest issue is how to shift from fossil
3)Provide Adequate Food for All People fuels to alternative energy
 Food insecurity  Alternative sources, such as large solar
-People lack access to food needed to live panels, require space
healthy, productive lives  May interfere with wildlife, general
-People live in chronic hunger and malnutrition aesthetics, and contribute to noise
-800 million people worldwide, many children pollution
-Mostly rural areas, developing countries
 Improve Agriculture Conservation and Preservation of
-Highest priority for global sustainability Resources
 Resources
 Improved Agriculture -Any part of the natural environment used to
-Last 50 yrs. Production kept up with promote the welfare of people or other species
population growth  Conservation
-High environmental cost -Sensible and careful management of natural
-Need to increase productivity in same amount resources Ex: Terracing farmland to prevent
of land erosion
 Multi-cropping - use land in all seasons -Can be technological or behavioral
 Conservation tillage - keep topsoil in place  Preservation
-Setting aside undisturbed areas
4) Mitigate Climate Change -Maintaining them in a pristine state
 Enhanced Greenhouse Effect: additional -Protecting them from human activities that
warming produced by increased levels of might alter their natural state
gases that absorb infrared radiation  Preservation vs. conservation
controversy
 Stabilizing climate requires: -Resources in undisturbed places have high
-Comprehensive energy plan economic value
phasing out fossil fuels
-Increasing energy conservation ANWR
-Improving energy efficiency
FOR AGAINST
 Growing foreign  U.S. dependence
5) dependence on oil on foreign oil is
threatens inevitable and
American security that drilling in
and drilling in ANWR would not
ANWR would help significantly
reduce that reduce
dependence dependence
 Drilling and  It would damage a
extraction of oil sensitive ecology
would not and undermining
meaningfully the principle of
Design Sustainable Cities harm the national
50% of world’s people live in cities (3% in environment environmental
1800) In US, 80% live in cities  Drilling would protection
 Urban transportation promote the  Drilling is
-Build city around people, not cars economy and supported by
 create new jobs many politicians, -Protecting nature from human interference
and critics charge -All forms of life have equal rights to natural
that they are resources
doing favors for
their friends in National Parks and Monuments
“Big Oil”
 Antiquities Act, 1906
Environmental History -First law to establish that archeological sites
on public lands are important public resources
 First 200 years of U.S. history were a time -Federal agencies that manage the public
of environmental destruction (1600s– lands preserve the historic, scientific,
1800s) commemorative, and cultural values of
 Frontier attitude: conquer and profit from archaeological and historic sites
nature -The President is authorized to protect
 High unsustainable resource use landmarks, structures, and objects of historic
 Preservation, such as this reserve in or scientific interest by designating them as
Bolivia, became early 20th century concern National Monuments

Protecting Forests: U.S. Naturalists  National Parks were under the loose
Spark Public Interest management of the U.S. Army
 Parks were to be used “without
 John James Audubon (1785–1851) impairment”
-Painted portraits of birds and other animals in -Hetch Hetchy Valley conflict
North America -Dinosaur National Monument conflict

 Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) Hetch Hetchy Valley Conflict

-Writer, advocate of lifestyle simplicity  Between 1908 and 1913, America
witnessed its first national debate over
 George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882) environmental preservation
-Wrote Man and Nature about humans as  The Hetch Hetchy Valley was within
agents of environmental change in 1864 Yosemite National Park and protected by
the federal government
 American Forestry Association (1875)
-Citizens against the destruction of America’s  At the heart of the debate was the conflict
forests between:
----conservationists, who held that the
 Forest Reserve Act (1891) environment should be used in a conscientious
-Presidential authority to establish forest manner to benefit society
reserves on federal land ----preservationists, who believed that nature
-Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, T. Roosevelt should be protected and saved from human
preserved 43 million acres of forest interference

 Modified in 1907  In the end, Congress passed legislation

-Creating national forests requires act of that enabled the creation of a dam in the
Congress Hetch Hetchy Valley
-Roosevelt signed bill into law  Although preservationists lost this battle,
-Appointed Gifford Pinchot head of the U.S. the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley
Forest Service raised public awareness about the
-Unlike national parks and other federal lands, importance of preserving nature, and
extraction of natural resources (like timber) helped justify the creation of the National
from national forests is permitted Park Service in 1916

Establishing National Parks

 Utilitarian conservationist
-Value natural resources because of their
usefulness, but use them (sustainably)
-Yellowstone National Park, 1872 Dinosaur National Monument Conflict
 John Muir (1838–1914)
-Yosemite National Park Bill  The dam at Echo Park (within Dinosaur
-Founded Sierra Club National Monument) was proposed in the
-Biocentric preservationist 1940s to provide electricity, water storage,
 and river control to the growing population “We simply need that wild country available to
out West us, even if we never do more than drive to its
 The dam threatened the very idea of edge and look in. For it can be a means of
National Parks reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures,
 The dam at Hetch Hetchy had set a a part of the geography of hope.”
dangerous precedent and demonstrated  1964, Stegner influenced the creation of
that National Parks were vulnerable to the Wilderness Act
development [Link]
 Opponents of the dam believed that (video)
federally protected lands should be off-
limits for development The Wilderness Act
 They believed Dinosaur National  “Wilderness areas" represent the nation's
Monument was worth preserving for its highest form of land protection – no roads,
intrinsic value alone vehicles or permanent structures are
 After much debate, in 1955 the proposed allowed in designated wilderness
dam was finally defeated in Congress  Today, the wilderness system contains
nearly 110 million acres of land
Conservation in Mid-20th Century  Upon signing the Wilderness Act, President
Johnson said: "If future generations are to
 President Roosevelt remember us with gratitude rather than
-Civilian Conservation Corps contempt, we must leave them something
-Provided 500,000 conservation-based jobs more than the miracles of technology. We
during the Great Depression must leave them a glimpse of the world as
-1935, the Soil Conservation Service was it was in the beginning, not just after we
created in response to the Dust Bowl got through with it."
 Aldo Leopold, 1886-1948
-1933, Game Management Rachel Carson (1907–1964)
-1949, A Sand County Almanac
-“Land Ethic” defined a new relationship  1962, Silent Spring
between people and nature -Awareness about DDT and other pesticides
 Systems perspective
“The land ethic simply enlarges the -Changes or activities in one place can impact
boundaries of the community to include soils, environmental conditions in distant places or in
waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the the future
land. -Ex: Inuit people living in the remote Arctic
This sounds simple: do we not already have some of the highest levels of PCB, DDT,
sing our love for and obligation to the land of and mercury contamination in the world
the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but -These toxic chemicals were produced
just what and whom do we love? Certainly not thousands of miles away and often decades
the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter ago
downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we -Inuit people eat a diet high in sea mammal
assume have no function except to turn fat, which accumulates many of these toxins
turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage.
Certainly not the plants, of which we Paul Ehrlich (1932 – present)
exterminate whole communities without  1968, Paul Ehrlich wrote The Population
batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of Bomb
which we have already extirpated many of the -“Hundreds of millions of people are going to
largest and most beautiful species. A land starve to death,” and it was too late to do
ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, anything about it. “The cancer of population
management, and use of these ‘resources,’ but growth … must be cut out, by compulsion if
it does affirm their right to continued voluntary methods fail.”
existence, and, at least in spots, their
continued existence in a natural state.
In short, a land ethic changes the role of
Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land- Julian Simon, 1932–1998
community to plain member and citizen of it.  Criticized Ehrlich as a doomsayer
It implies respect for his fellow-members, and  Argued that mankind would rise to any
also respect for the community as such.” challenges and problems by devising new
technologies to not only cope, but thrive
 Wallace Stegner, 1909-1993
-1962, “Wilderness Essay” The Environmental Movement
 Environmentalists are people who are  Office of Management and Budget
concerned about the environment assesses anticipated environmental impact
 Environmental movement of new regulations
-1970, First Earth Day Implementation and enforcement of
-Nelson and Hayes organized it regulations are at the state level
1990, “Think globally, act locally”  States report back to EPA
-2000, Clean Energy Now
Environmental Legislation
 Wangari Maathai Accomplishments Since 1970
-Greenbelt Movement in Kenya  40 major environmental laws
-Awarded the Noble Peace Prize  Endangered species, clean water, energy
conservation, pesticides
EnviroDiscovery: Environmental Literacy  15 national parks (109 million acres)
 Soil erosion reduced by 60%
 Environmental education  Many endangered species are recovering
---Critical to appropriate decision making
-Required in most states during elementary EPA’s Report on the Environment
education  Pollution control efforts through legislation
-American College and University President’s -- have been particularly successful
Climate Commitment  Between 1980-2014, total emissions of the
-Climate Adaptation and Mitigation e-Learning six principle air pollutants (CO, NOx, Pb,
portal VOC, PM, SO2) dropped by 63%
-Roots and Shoots program
Environmental Economics
Environmental Legislation
 1970, Environmental Protection Agency  Economics
 1970, National Environmental Policy Act -Study of how people use limited resources to
-NEPA requires the federal government to satisfy unlimited wants
consider the environmental impact of proposed -Supply and demand determine prices
actions -Hibernia oil platform on the Grand Banks
-Must develop environmental impact  Economies depend on natural
statements (EISs) environment
-Established the Council on Environmental -Sources for raw materials
Quality -Sinks for waste products
-An EIS must answer a number of critical  Natural capital
questions -Resources and processes that sustain living
organisms
 Resource degradation
-Overuse of sources
 Pollution
-Overuse of sinks

Environmental InSight: Economics and the

Environment
 National income accounts
-Total income of goods and services for a given
year
 Genuine progress indicator
-Human development and natural capital
depletion

Major projects go through extensive review

processes
 Environmental regulations
-Clean Air Act
-Clean Water Act
-Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA)
 EPA part of the executive branch
Natural Resource Depletion Economic Strategies for Pollution Control
 GDP = NDP + depreciation  Command and control regulations
-NDP is a measure of net production of an -Pollution control laws that work by setting
economy, after a deduction for used-up capital limits on levels of pollution
 Costs and benefits of pollution control -Require a specific method of pollution control
-Incorporate resource depletion and pollution Or, setting a quantitative goal
into national income accounting  Incentive-based regulation
 Support for replacing GDP and NDP -Pollution control laws that establish emission
with accounting that includes targets and provide incentives to reduce
environmental cost of economic emissions
activities
Incentive-Based Regulations
An Economist’s View of Pollution  Environmental taxes
 One cause of pollution is the failure to -Polluter gets taxed for polluting but amount
include external costs in the prices of difficult to set
goods  Tradable permits (cap and trade)
-Resources removed from the Great Smoky -Sets limit for allowable amount of pollution
Mountain National Park, for example, would not -Companies who pollute less can sell their
be reflected in final cost pollution rights to others
-Encourages pollution
-A common external cost is air pollution
released from burning fossil fuels

Environmental Economics
 An economist’s view of pollution
=>External costs
-Harmful environmental cost, borne by people
not directly involved in selling or buying the
product
-For example, the pollution released when
fossil fuels are burned and pollution released
to transport a product
-Encourages pollution - If full cost were added,
people might not purchase such products

How Much Pollution is Acceptable?

 Trade-off between protecting
environmental quality and producing more
goods
--Involves balancing marginal cost (added cost
per unit) of pollution and the marginal cost of
pollution abatement
 As pollution levels rise, the cost of damage
increases sharply

 Marginal Cost of Pollution Abatement

The added cost of reducing one unit of a given
type of pollution
--Cost rises as the level of pollution declines
--Why is there a downward slope associated
with marginal cost abatement?
 When does marginal cost of pollution equal
marginal cost of abatement?

Cost-Benefit Diagram
 Marginal cost of pollution and abatement
plotted together on one graph
 Point of intersection represents optimum
amount of pollution
 Used to determine costs of implementing
beneficial actions