MILLER/SPOOLMAN

LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT 17TH

CHAPTER 1
Environmental Problems,
Their Causes, and
Sustainability
 Core Case Study: A Vision of a
More Sustainable World in 2060
• A transition in human attitudes toward the
environment, and a shift in behavior, can lead to a
much better future for the planet in 2060

• Sustainability: the capacity of the earth’s natural

systems and human cultural systems to survive,
flourish, and adapt into the very long-term future
Fig. 1-1a, p. 5
 1-1 What Are Three Principles of
Sustainability?
• Concept 1-1A Nature has sustained itself for billions
of years by using solar energy, biodiversity, and
nutrient cycling.

• Concept 1-1B Our lives and economies depend on

energy from the sun and on natural resources and
natural services (natural capital) provided by the
earth.
 Environmental Science Is a Study
of Connections in Nature (1)
• Environment:
• Everything around us
• “The environment is everything that isn’t me.“

• Environmental science: interdisciplinary science

connecting information and ideas from
• Natural sciences: ecology, biology, geology,
chemistry…
• Social sciences: geography, politics, economics
• Humanities: ethics, philosophy
 Environmental Science Is a Study
of Connections in Nature (2)
• How nature works

• How the environment affects us

• How we affect the environment

• How to deal with environmental problems

• How to live more sustainably

Nature’s Survival Strategies Follow
Three Principles of Sustainability
1. Reliance on solar energy
• The sun provides warmth and fuels photosynthesis
2. Biodiversity
• Astounding variety and adaptability of natural
systems and species
3. Chemical cycling
• Circulation of chemicals from the environment to
organisms and then back to the environment
• Also called nutrient cycling
From Simple Cell to Homo Sapiens

Fig. 1-2, p. 7
First simple cells appear (about 3.5 billion years ago)
First multicellular life
appears (about 1 First major land plants
billion years ago) appear (about 475
million years ago)

Dinosaurs disappear
(about 65 million
years ago)
Homo sapiens arrives
(about 200,000 years ago)

Fig. 1-2, p. 7
Three Principles of Sustainability
 Solar Energy

Chemical Cycling Biodiversity Fig. 1-3, p. 8

 Sustainability Has Certain Key
Components
• Natural capital: supported by solar capital
• Natural resources: useful materials and energy in nature
• Natural services: important nature processes such as renewal of
air, water, and soil

• Humans degrade natural capital

• Scientific solutions needed for environmental sustainability

 Natural Capital =
Natural Resources + Natural Services

Fig. 1-4, p. 9
 Natural Capital
Solar
energy Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Natural Services

Air
Renewable
Air purification energy (sun,
wind, water
Climate control flows)
UV protection
(ozone layer) Life
(biodiversity)

Water Population
control
Water purification
Pest
Waste treatment control

Nonrenewable Soil Land

minerals
(iron, sand) Soil renewal Food production
Natural
gas Nutrient
Oil recycling
Nonrenewable Coal seam
energy
(fossil fuels)

Natural resources
Natural services Fig. 1-4, p. 9
Nutrient Cycling

Fig. 1-5, p. 10
 Organic
matter in
animals

Dead
organic
matter
Organic matter
in plants

Decomposition

Inorganic
matter in soil

Fig. 1-5, p. 10
Natural Capital Degradation

Fig. 1-6, p. 10
Some Sources Are Renewable and
Some Are Not (1)
• Resource
• Anything we obtain from the environment to meet
our needs
• Some directly available for use: sunlight
• Some not directly available for use: petroleum

• Perpetual resource
• Solar energy
Some Sources Are Renewable and
Some Are Not (2)
• Renewable resource
• Several days to several hundred years to renew
• E.g., forests, grasslands, fresh air, fertile soil

• Sustainable yield
• Highest rate at which we can use a renewable
resource without reducing available supply
Some Sources Are Renewable and
Some Are Not (3)
• Nonrenewable resources
• Energy resources
• Metallic mineral resources
• Nonmetallic mineral resources

• Reuse

• Recycle
Reuse

Fig. 1-7, p. 11
Recycle

Fig. 1-8, p. 12
 Countries Differ in Levels of
Unsustainability (1)
• Economic growth: increase in output of a nation’s
goods and services

• Gross domestic product (GDP): annual market value

of all goods and services produced by all businesses,
foreign and domestic, operating within a country

• Per capita GDP: one measure of economic

development
 Countries Differ in Levels of
Unsustainability (2)
• Economic development: using economic growth to
raise living standards

• More-developed countries: North America,

Australia, New Zealand, Japan, most of Europe

• Less-developed countries: most countries in Africa,

Asia, Latin America
Countries by Gross National Income per Capita

Supplement 8, Fig 2
 1-2 How Are Our Ecological
Footprints Affecting the Earth?
• Concept 1-2 As our ecological footprints grow, we
are depleting and degrading more of the earth’s
natural capital.
 We Are Living Unsustainably
• Environmental degradation: wasting, depleting, and
degrading the earth’s natural capital
• Happening at an accelerating rate
• Also called natural capital degradation
Natural Capital Degradation

Fig. 1-9, p. 13
 Natural Capital Degradation

Degradation of Normally Renewable Natural Resources

Climate Shrinking
change forests

Decreased
Air pollution wildlife
habitats
Species
Soil erosion extinction

Water
pollution

Declining
Aquifer ocean fisheries
depletion

Fig. 1-9, p. 13
Pollution Comes from a Number of
Sources (1)
• Sources of pollution
• Point sources
• E.g., smokestack
• Nonpoint sources
• E.g., pesticides blown into the air

• Main type of pollutants

• Biodegradable
• Nondegradable

• Unwanted effects of pollution

Pollution Comes from a Number of
Sources (2)
• Pollution cleanup (output pollution control)

• Pollution prevention (input pollution control)

Point-Source Air Pollution

Fig. 1-10, p. 14
Nonpoint Source Water Pollution

Fig. 1-11, p. 14
 Overexploiting Shared Renewable
Resources: Tragedy of the Commons
• Three types of property or resource rights
• Private property
• Common property
• Open access renewable resources

• Tragedy of the commons

• Common property and open-access renewable
resources degraded from overuse
• Solutions
 Ecological Footprints: A Model of
Unsustainable Use of Resources
• Ecological footprint: the amount of biologically
productive land and water needed to provide the
people in a region with indefinite supply of
renewable resources, and to absorb and recycle
wastes and pollution

• Per capita ecological footprint

• Unsustainable: footprint is larger than biological

capacity for replenishment
Patterns of Natural Resource Consumption

Fig. 1-12a, p. 15
Patterns of Natural Resource Consumption

Fig. 1-12b, p. 15
Natural Capital Use and Degradation

Fig. 1-13, p. 16
 Total Ecological Footprint (million Per Capita Ecological
hectares) and Share of Global Footprint (hectares per
Biological Capacity (%) person)

United States United

2,810 (25%) States 9.7
European Union 2,160 (19%) European Union 4.7
China 2,050 (18%) China 1.6
India 780 (7%) India 0.8
Japan 540 (5%) Japan 4.8

2.5
Unsustainable living
Number of Earths

2.0

1.5
Projected footprint
1.0
Ecological
0.5 footprint Sustainable living

0
1961 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

Year

Fig. 1-13, p. 16
Global Human Footprint Map

Supplement 8, Fig 7
 IPAT is Another Environmental
Impact Model
I=PxAxT

• I = Environmental impact
• P = Population
• A = Affluence
• T = Technology
IPAT Illustrated

Fig. 1-14, p. 17
Less-Developed Countries

Consumption Technological Environmental

Population (P) per person impact per unit of impact of
(affluence, A) consumption (T) population (I)

More-Developed Countries

Fig. 1-14, p. 17
 Case Study: China’s New Affluent
Consumers
• Leading consumer of various foods and goods
• Wheat, rice, and meat
• Coal, fertilizers, steel, and cement
• Second largest consumer of oil
• Two-thirds of the most polluted cities are in China
• Projections for next decade
• Largest consumer and producer of cars
 Natural Systems Have Tipping
Points
• Ecological tipping point: an often irreversible shift in
the behavior of a natural system
• Environmental degradation has time delays between
our actions now and the deleterious effects later
• Long-term climate change
• Over-fishing
• Species extinction
Tipping Point

Fig. 1-15, p. 19
Tipping
point

Fig. 1-15, p. 19
 Cultural Changes Have Increased
Our Ecological Footprints
• 12,000 years ago: hunters and gatherers

• Three major cultural events

• Agricultural revolution
• Industrial-medical revolution
• Information-globalization revolution

• Current need for a sustainability revolution

Technology Increases Population

Fig. 1-16, p. 19
 Information-globalization
Human population

revolution

Industrial-medical revolution
Agricultural revolution

12,500 yrs ago 275 yrs ago 50 yrs ago Present

Time (not to scale)

Fig. 1-16, p. 19
 1-3 Why Do We Have
Environmental Problems?
• Concept 1-3 Major causes of environmental problems
are population growth, wasteful and unsustainable
resource use, poverty, and exclusion of
environmental costs of resource use from the market
prices of goods and services.
Experts Have Identified Four Basic
Causes of Environmental Problems
1. Population growth

2. Wasteful and unsustainable resource use

3. Poverty

4. Failure to include the harmful environmental costs

of goods and services in market prices
Causes of Environmental Problems

Fig. 1-17, p. 20
 Causes of Environmental Problems

Population Unsustainable Poverty Excluding

growth resource use environmental costs
from market prices

Fig. 1-17, p. 20
Exponential Growth of Human Population

Fig. 1-18, p. 21
 13
12
11
10
9
?

Billions of people
8
7
6
5
4
3
Industrial revolution
2
Black Death—the Plague
1
0
2–5 million 8000 6000 4000 2000 2000 2100
years Time B. C. A. D.
Hunting and Agricultural revolution Industrial
gathering revolution
Fig. 1-18, p. 21
 Affluence Has Harmful and
Beneficial Environmental Effects
• Harmful environmental impact due to
• High levels of consumption
• High levels of pollution
• Unnecessary waste of resources

• Affluence can provide funding for developing

technologies to reduce
• Pollution
• Environmental degradation
• Resource waste
 Poverty Has Harmful
Environmental and Health Effects
• Population growth affected

• Malnutrition

• Premature death

• Limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and

clean water
Extreme Poverty

Fig. 1-19, p. 22
Harmful Effects of Poverty

Fig. 1-20, p. 22
 Lack of Number of people
access to (% of world's population)
Adequate
2.6 billion (38%)
sanitation facilities

Enough fuel for

2 billion (29%)
heating and cooking

Electricity 2 billion (29%)

Clean
1.1 billion (16%)
drinking water

Adequate
1.1 billion (16%)
health care

Adequate
1 billion (15%)
housing

Enough food for

good health 1 billion (15%)
Fig. 1-20, p. 22
Effects of Malnutrition

Fig. 1-21, p. 23
Prices Do Not Include the Value of
Natural Capital
• Companies do not pay the environmental cost of
resource use

• Goods and services do not include the harmful

environmental costs

• Companies receive tax breaks and subsidies

• Economy may be stimulated but there may be a

degradation of natural capital
Environmentally Unfriendly Hummer

Fig. 1-22, p. 24
 Different Views about Environmental
Problems and Their Solutions
• Environmental ethics: what is right and wrong with how we
treat the environment
• Planetary management worldview
• We are separate from and in charge of nature
• Stewardship worldview
• Manage earth for our benefit with ethical responsibility to be
stewards
• Environmental wisdom worldview
• We are part of nature and must engage in sustainable use
 1-4 What Is an Environmentally
Sustainable Society?
• Concept 1-4 Living sustainably means living off the
earth’s natural income without depleting or
degrading the natural capital that supplies it.
Environmentally Sustainable Societies Protect
Natural Capital and Live Off Its Income
• Environmentally sustainable society: meets current
needs while ensuring that needs of future
generations will be met

• Live on natural income of natural capital without

diminishing the natural capital
 We Can Work Together to Solve
Environmental Problems
• Social capital
• Encourages
• Openness and communication
• Cooperation
• Hope

• Discourages
• Close-mindedness
• Polarization
• Confrontation and fear
 Case Study: The Environmental
Transformation of Chattanooga, TN
• Environmental success story: example of building their social
capital

• 1960: most polluted city in the U.S.

• 1984: Vision 2000

• 1995: most goals met

• 1993: Revision 2000

 Chattanooga, Tennessee

Fig. 1-23, p. 26
 Individuals Matter
• 5–10% of the population can bring about major
social change
• We have only 50-100 years to make the change to
sustainability before it’s too late
• Rely on renewable energy
• Protect biodiversity
• Reduce waste and pollution
Wind Power

Fig. 1-24, p. 27
Planting a Tree

Fig. 1-25, p. 27
 Three Big Ideas
• 1. We could rely more on renewable energy from the
sun, including indirect forms of solar energy such as
wind and flowing water, to meet most of our heating
and electricity needs.
• 2. We can protect biodiversity by preventing the
degradation of the earth’s species, ecosystems, and
natural processes, and by restoring areas we have
degraded.
 Three Big Ideas
3. We can help to sustain the earth’s natural chemical
cycles by reducing our production of wastes and
pollution, not overloading natural systems with
harmful chemicals, and not removing natural
chemicals faster than those chemical cycles can
replace them.