2. Earth’s Surface Features:
Fig 3.1: Approximately 70 percent of Earth is covered with water.
Of the 30 percent that is land, most is located in the Northern
Hemisphere.
3. Earth’s Surface Features:
Fig 3.2: a)
Continental
shelves of Earth
range in width
from several km
to several
hundred km
and extend to
about 200 m
deep, and b)
Orogenic belts,
shields, and
cratons, with an
average
elevation of 840
m ASL.
4. Earth’s Surface Features:
Fig 3.3: The distribution of
elevation of the world’s
land masses and ocean
basins. While the average
elevation of the continents
is 840 m ASL, most people
live between 0 and 300 m
ASL. Less than 5 percent
of all the continents lies
above 3,700 m. It is
difficult to sustain life
(biosphere) above 5,000 m
ASL.
5. Earth’s Major Tectonic Plates:
Fig 3.4: Major and minor tectonic plates. Note locations of borders and movement.
6. Global Coordinate System: Latitude:
Fig 3.5: The Northern and Southern Hemispheres are divided by the
equator (0°). Latitude (parallels) give location N and S of the
equator and are measured in degrees (angular measurement).
7. Global Coordinate System: Longitude:
Fig 3.6: The Eastern and Western Hemispheres are divided by the
prime meridian (0°) and 180°. Longitude (meridians) give location
E and W of the prime meridian and are measured in degrees
(angular measurement).
8. Global Coordinate System: Low, Middle,
and High Latitude Zones:
Fig 3.7: a) the low latitudes are generally found between the Tropic of Cancer
(23.5° N) and Tropic of Capricorn (23.5° S), b) the middle latitudes are generally
found between the Tropic of Cancer (23.5° N) and Arctic Circle (66.5° N) and
Tropic of Capricorn (23.5° S) and Antarctic Circle (66.5° S), and c) the high
latitudes are generally found between the Arctic Circle (66.5° N) and North Pole
(90° N) and Antarctic Circle (66.5° S) and South Pole (90° S).
9. Our Geographically Integrated Planet:
Four Spheres, Distance, and Scale:
Fig 3.8: Patterns of air pollution (ash aerosols) from the 1991
volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines extended
around the world within weeks. Note the interconnection of systems
(spheres).
10. Distance and Scale: Proximal and Distal:
Fig 3.9: Illustration
of three spatial
scales relative to a
pollution source:
proximal,
intermediate, and
distal. Note the
rapid decline of
pollution
concentration with
distance.
11. Human Use of Earth: Subsistence Farming:
Fig 3.11: Intensive subsistence farming in Asia, with small field size.
12. Human Use of Earth: Commercial Farming:
Fig 3.11: Commercial farming in North America, with large field size.
13. Human Use of Earth: The Urban World:
Fig 3.13: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Like many cities in the
developing world, Rio is
overcrowded, with favelas
sprawling into the surrounding
landscape. While most people
in the developed world (70-80
percent) live in urban areas,
most of the current urban
growth is occurring in the
developing and deprived world.
The 1 billion people who
reside in cities in the developed
world consume nearly 2/3 of
the world annual output of
natural resources!
14. Environmental Policy and Regulation:
Table 3.1: Note the difficulty of regulating decentralized, versus centralized land uses.
17. U.S. Environmental Policy Phases
1: 1600 to 1870: Exploitation and Expansion
2: 1840 to 1910: Early Warnings and a Conservation Ethic
~~ WAR & PROSPERITY ~~
3: 1930 to 1940: Conservation for Economic Recovery
~~ WAR & PROSPERITY ~~
4: 1962 to 1976: The Environmental Movement
5: 1976 to 1988: Pragmatism and Risk Reduction
6: 1988 to 2000: The New Environmental Consciousness
7: 2000 to present: Retrenchment
18. Phase 1: Exploitation and Expansion
Figure 3.1: Phase I: The forests that covered most of the eastern
third of the US were seen as both resource and nuisance.
19. Figure 2.6a
Exploitation and expansion in the US included federal
legislation like the Homestead Act of 1862, Railroad Acts of the
1850s and 1860s, Mining Act of 1872, and Timber Culture Act of
1873.
22. Phase 2: Early Warnings and a
Conservation Ethic
Figure 3.2: Plowing prairie soil with an early tractor, Oregon
1890 exemplifies growing links between agriculture and
industry.
23. Phase 2: Early Warnings and a
Conservation Ethic:
Figure 3.3: The nineteenth century brought us parkland
movements, culminating with the US National Park
System.
28. Phase 4: The
Environmental
Movement:
Rachel Carson published
Silent Spring in 1962. The
book awakened
Americans to the negative
ecological effects of DDT
and other pesticides.
29. Figure 2.8
Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught fire several times in the 1950s
and 60s. The river was so polluted with oil and industrial waste
that it would burn for days at a time.
30. Phase 4: The Environmental
Movement:
Early 1980s protest against a toxic waste dump in
North Carolina (integration of environmental ethics
and justice).
31. Phase 4: The Environmental
Movement:
1970 was a watershed year for US Environmental Policy,
with establishment of: (1) NEPA, (2) EPA, and (3) Earth Day.
32. How Decisions are Made
• Resource Decision Making in the United
States
• International Environmental Decision
Making
34. Resource Decision-Making in the US:
Figure 3.6: Roles in the resource decision-making process include: social
agents, special interests, and managers.
38. International Institutions
(See Table 3.1)
• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
• World Trade Organization (WTO)
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
• International Maritime Organization (IMO)
• UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultrual Organization
(UNESCO)
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
• UN Development Program (UNDP)
• UN Environmental Program (UNEP)
39. International Agreements
1959 Washington: Antarctic
Treaty
1963 Moscow: Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty
1971 Ramsar: Wetlands of
International Importance
1972 London: Ocean Dumping
1972 London: Biological Weapons
1973 Washington: Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES)
1978 London: Pollution from
Ships (MARPOL)
1979 Bonn: Migratory
Species
1982 Montego Bay: Law of
the Sea (UNCLOS)
1985 Vienna: Ozone Layer
1987 Montreal: Ozone Layer
1989 Basel: Transboundary
Hazardous Waste
1992 Rio: Climate Change
1992 Rio: Biodiversity
1997 Kyoto: Climate Change
