This document discusses the fragility and importance of Earth as humanity's home. It describes Earth as alone in space, sustaining life through delicate systems powered by immense energies. Though wayward and unpredictable, Earth nourishes, enlivens and enriches us greatly. The authors argue that given Earth's precious role in supporting all life, it is worth protecting with love and care.

1. "Alone in space, alone in its life-supporting systems,
powered by inconceivable energies, mediating them to us
through the most delicate adjustments, wayward, unlikely,
unpredictable, but nourishing, enlivening, and enriching in
the largest degree -- is this not a precious home for all of
us? Is it not worth our love?”
Barbara Ward and Rene Dubos

2. Class Business
Absent students
Popsicle stick
File folder tab
Please get ready for first
lecture

3. Environmental Problems,
Their Causes, and
Sustainability
Ch. 1
Miller and Spoolman 16th ed.

4. Earth, our island in
space, as seen
from Apollo 17 in
1972. This image
portrayed Earth as
a small, fragile,
lonely rock in
space and helped
galvanize many
people to care for
Earth's
environment.

5. E is for the
environment

6. To aid in your note taking
1. Your notebook should be interesting
to look at
Feel free to paste in and color the picture,
if you so choose :)
Vocabulary is in red
Super-important-don’t-miss-this
concepts are underlined

7. General
Overview
There are four major themes of your book:
Sustainability
Human impact
Solutions
Trade offs
The questions we will ask are:
How can we maintain or improve the environment and
our society?
What are we doing to damage these two?
What are some ways we can repair and prevent
problems?
What will we have to sacrifice for the greatest good?

8. Sustainability
This is the central theme of the book
and of this course
Definition: the ability of the earth’s
systems and of human society to
survive and adapt to the changing
world indefinitely.

9. Human Impact
Many human activities, from farming to
fossil fuel use to over-fishing are
negatively impacting the planet and are
not sustainable at current levels of
practice

10. Solutions
Environmental scientists
look for solutions to
these issues, but it is
politicians who put them
into practice (or not)
Complex decisions
involving social,
economic, moral, ethical,
and philosophical views

11. Trade-offs
Scientists might say halt all fishing of tuna or
else it will go extinct
Economics and culture may demand
continued fishing
Every decision involves compromises
It is important to understand the PROS and
CONS of every issue

12. The Ultimate
Goal
Environmental
scientists strive to find
ways to achieve an
environmentally
sustainable society
Meets the current and
future needs of its
people
Distributes resources
in a just manner
Does not compromise
the ability of future
generations to do the
same

13. Like a bank account
I have $1 million
I invest it in a bank that gives me 10%
interest
I can live off the interest only -
$100,000
I can do this indefinitely
If I spend more than this, I will
eventually go broke

14. The interest is like renewable
resources in the environment
Carefully manage our resources to live
off the renewable resources like plants,
water, soil without overspending

15. What is the environment?
Environment - everything that
surrounds us
Both biotic and abiotic
What are the biotic and
abiotic components of this
environment?

16. We are totally
dependent on the
environment for:
Air
Water
Food
Shelter
Energy
Nutrient cycling
We are a part of the
environment, not
separate from it

17. What are
we trying to
sustain?
Natural capital
The resources and
services that nature
provides to all living
things
Capital includes:
Resources such as
water, plants, soil
Services such as
water purification
and nutrient cycling

18. It all comes back to the source
The ultimate source of
all our planet’s
resources and the
driving force of natural
services is
THE SUN
Provides the energy for
water cycle
Allows plants to make
food
Drive wind and ocean
currents

19. Examples of natural capital
Resources provided by nature are
classified in three ways:
Perpetual
Renewable
Nonrenewable

20. Resources
A resource is anything we get from the
environment to satisfy our needs and
desires

22. Perpetual resources
Renewed continuously
Not affected by human use of them
Examples:
Sun
Wind

23. Renewable resources
Replenished fairly quickly through natural
processes
We must be careful not to use it faster than it
can renew itself
Examples:
Forests (wood)
Grasslands (food production)
Fisheries (food)
Freshwater
Fresh air
Fertile soil

24. Renewable
resources
Using a resource
while still giving it
enough time to
naturally renew itself
= sustainable yield
When we take too
much too quickly,
we cause a
degradation of the
environment
Switchgrass grown for
biodiesel fuel

25. Nonrenewable resources
Exist in a limited amount in the Earth
Cannot be replenished on a human
time scale
Examples:
Coal, oil, natural gas (energy)
Copper, aluminum (metals)
Salt, sand

26. Think-Pair-Share
Think about your day so far…
What resources have you used…
What category are they in
Perpetual
Renewable
Nonrenewable

27. Reduce, reuse, recycle
People have come up with ways to
extend our use of renewable and
nonrenewable resources

28. Reduce
Limit, by law or
societal shift,
the amount of
resource used
Limiting
freshwater use
Fisheries
management

29. Reuse
Using the same resource over and over
in the same form
Glass bottles cleaned and reused
Grocery bags good for more than one use

30. Recycle
Processing waste materials
into new materials
Aluminum cans melted and
reformed into new products
Wetting paper back to pulp
and making new products
Recycling metals uses
much less energy and much
less environmental damage
than harvesting virgin
metals

32. Ecological Footprints
This is the amount of productive land
and water needed to support your
lifestyle and deal with your waste

33. If a country’s average
ecological footprint (or
the world’s) is greater
than the ability of the
environment to
replenish natural
resources, then we
move into ecological
debt (ecological deficit)

34. If all humans
lived an
average
American
lifestyle…

35. China & India are…a concern
Over 1.5 billion people in China
Over 1.1 billion people in India
Together they have over 700 million middle
class - 2x the size of the entire US population

36. The middle class goal - to live better (more
like an average American)
China is the leading consumer of:
Wheat
Rice
Meat
Coal
Fertilizer
Steel
Cement
TVs
Cell phones
Refrigerators
Personal computers
Oil (2nd after US)

37. China is also leading in…
World’s most polluted cities (66% of
them in China)

38. Food for Thought…
Should China and India be forced
(through UN sanctions) to reduce their
environmental impact?
USA developed…lives the richest
lifestyle…was not hampered by any
restrictions…
USA doesn’t want to restrict itself if
China and India won’t…

39. Balancing Economic Growth with
Environmental Sustainability
Economic growth = an increase in the
output of goods and services of a
country

41. Some vocab
Gross domestic
product (GDP) - a
measurement of
economic growth -
the market value of
all the goods and
services produced in
a country
Per capita GDP = the
GDP divided by the
population size
US GDP by major
societal function, 2000

42. Money (currency) values are different
in different countries
A certain amount of money in one
country may buy more of something
than a similar amount of money in
another country
This is the purchasing power of that
currency

43. Economic Development
Using economic
growth to
improve the
standard of
living

44. Developed vs. Developing
Nations
Developed
US
Canada
Japan
Australia
Italy
England
France
Highly industrialized
High GDP
Developing
Most of Africa
Most of Asia
Most of Latin America
China
India
Brazil
Turkey
Thailand
Mexico
Highly agricultural
Low GDP
What is the
difference
between these
two groups?

45. Developing nations
97% of the population growth from now
to 2050 will occur in these countries
More than 1/2 the people in the world
live in extreme poverty (less than
$2/day; 17% of those on less than
$1/day)