This is the 8th lesson of the course - Foundation of Environmental Management taught at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

1. Lesson 8 – Environmental degradation
P.B. Dharmasena
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Foundation of Environmental Management
Course code: EMGT 2114

2. Course Content
1. Concepts of Ecology and Environmental Biology
2. Biogeochemical Cycles (C, N, P etc.)
3. Ecosystems and Energy Flow
4. Ecosystem Functions and Ecosystem services
5. History of Environmental Management
6. Biodiversity
7. Environmental Carrying Capacity
8. Environmental degradation

3. THE ENVIRONMENT

4. Environment: the total of our surroundings
• All the things around us
with which we interact:
• Living things
• Animals, plants, forests, fungi,
etc.
• Non-living things
• Continents, oceans, clouds,
soil, rocks
• Our built environment
• Buildings, human-created
living centers
• Social relationships and
institutions

5. Humans exist within the environment
• Humans exist within the
environment and are part
of nature.
– Our survival depends on a
healthy, functioning
planet.
• We are part of the natural
world.
– Our interactions with its
other parts matter a great
deal.
• This idea is fundamental
to environmental science

9. Humans and the world around us
• Humans depend
completely on the
environment for survival.
– Enriched and longer
lives, increased wealth,
health, mobility, leisure
time
• But natural systems have
been degraded
– Pollution, erosion, and
species extinction
– Environmental changes
threaten long-term
health and survival.

10. Causes of Environmental Degradation
Social Factors
Economical Factors
Institutional Factors
10

11. Social Factors are:
Population
Poverty
Urbanization
11

12. Economic Factors are:
Growing transport activities
Expansion of chemical based
industry
The manufacturing technology
adopted by most of the industries
which generally is based on intensive
resource and energy use
Non-existent or poorly functioning
markets for environmental services
Market distortions created by price
controls and subsidies
12

13. Institutional Factors are:
Lack of awareness and infrastructure makes
implementation of most of the laws relating to
environment, extremely difficult and
ineffective.
13

14. Environmental degradation increases poverty
• Environmental degradation
reduces the stock of natural
capital and poor are
disproportionately affected.
• Environmental degradation
increases vulnerability (e.g. soil
erosion….decreased yields,
deforestation…flooding).
• Pollution increases morbidity
(ill health) and mortality (e.g.
exposure to pesticides,
contaminated water, indoor air
pollution)
• Deforestation and over-
pumping increase the cost of
basic goods such as firewood
and drinking water.

16. Natural resources: vital to human survival
• Perpetually available: sunlight, wind, wave energy
• Renewable over short periods of time: timber, water, soil, wildlife?
• These can be destroyed
• Non-renewable resources: Oil, coal, minerals
• These can be depleted
substances and energy sources needed for survival

17. Global human population growth
• More than 6.7 billion humans
• Why so many humans? What made it?

18. Water Resource Limits
• In 1950, people
used half of
accessible water
• Are now dependent
on dams
• Pollution loses
33% of potential
water

19. • Since the 1950s, global
demand for water has
tripled.
• Groundwater quantity and
quality are declining due to
over-pumping, runoff from
fertilizers and pesticides,
and leaking of industrial
waste.
• Half a billion people live in
countries defined as water-
stressed or water-scarce;
– By 2025, that figure is
expected to be between
2.4 billion and 3.4
billion.

20. Disappearing water…
In many parts of India and
China, groundwater is depleting
at the rate of 1.5 meters per year

21. Available Drinking water
Less than 1% of the total
water on the Earth

22. Every Three minutes…
Every three
minutes, a child
in India or
Pakistan dies of
diarrhea arising
out of
contaminated
water

23. Poverty needs not be a source of resource degradation
– The non-poor are the main source of degradation
(big logging companies, livestock operations,
over-consumption).
– Traditional technologies are conservation friendly
(agro-ecology, agro-forestry).
– The poor can adopt win-win technologies that
raise incomes and increase conservation: eco-
agriculture, ecotourism.
– Cooperation/collective action in the management
of Common Property Resources.
– The poor can be environmental activists.
– Markets for environmental services induce
conservation by the poor: through ecotourism.

26. Deforestation
• Deforestation has not
only resulted in
irreversible damage
to the natural habitat
of many wildlife
species, but has also
resulted in loss of
biodiversity and
increase in aridity.

27. Deforestation changes to world geography
• It is a major contributor to:
• Global Warming
• Emission of greenhouse
gases
• Global climate change
• Reduced net oxygen levels
• Biosphere instability
• And others

29. Statistics of Deforestation
• More than 12 million hectares of forest land is lost to
urbanization or allied activities each year. This has
resulted in a rapid global decline in some regions. For
example:
– In Nigeria 81% of its original forest cover is now
permanently lost.
– The forests of Central America are down by two-thirds
lowlands, since 1950.
– Countries like India, Mexico, Philippines, Thailand,
Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Sri Lanka, the
Congo and Ghana have lost much more than 50% of their
rainforest cover.
– United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization or UNFAO

30. Impact of deforestation
• Deforestation affects the
water cycle
• Reduces soil quality and
results in soil erosion and
flooding
• The land's capacity to hold
groundwater shrinks with
the depleting forest cover
• The absence of trees leads
to increase salinity in the
soil cover and thus, affects
the agricultural activity

31. • Deforestation
destroys genetic
variations and
results in a
permanent loss of
various rare plant,
animal and insect
species
• Damage to forests,
believe it or not,
affects every
citizen's living
standard
horned lizard
Slender Loris
maned wolf

32. Biodiversity is in Danger
• Biodiversity is
essential to life on
Earth and holds
untold treasures
for the future
• Recovery times
from the great
extinctions took
10’s of millions of
years

33. • “Accumulation of
greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, including
carbon dioxide, is tied to
rising and extreme change
in temperatures, and more
severe storms.
• The sea level has risen an
estimated 10-20
centimetres, largely as a
result of melting ice
masses and the expansion
of oceans linked to
regional and global
warming.
• Small island nations and
low-lying cities and
farming areas face severe
flooding.”

34. “Over the last half century, land degradation has
reduced cropland by an estimated 13 % and
pasture by 4 %.”

44. Solution to Over-population

45. Avalanche – high snow fall
Natural Causes of Environmental Degradation

50. Preventative measures for
environmental degradation