ES101 Chapter : ES101 Notes.docx
Save the polar bears Welcome to ES101 notes
Week 1 Material:
• Exponential Growth: a quantity increases at a constant rate/ per unit of time (ex.
2% a year).
•Exponential growth is deceptive because at first it starts off slow, but quickly
increases (usually doubling).
•There is concern that an exponential growth in human population, which increases
the amount of impact on the environment, is beginning to create irreversible
damage to farming, water supply, biodiversity, and economies all around the
world.
•5 Key Environmental Issues (affected by exponential growth):
- population growth
- resource use and waste
- poverty
- loss of biological diversity
- global climate change
•Environment: is everything that affects a living organism.
•Ecology: a biological science of study that looks at the relationship b/w living
organisms and their environment.
•Environmental Science: a type of study that uses both physical and social
sciences to figure out how the Earth works, how we interact with the Earth, and
how to deal with environmental problems. Environmental science integrates the
natural world (biosphere) and the cultural world (culturesphere).
•Environmentalism: a social movement where the goal is to protect Earth’s life
support systems for humans and other species.
•Solar Capital: is similar to capital in the economy, it is an investment.
•Solar Energy: refers to direct sunlight as well as renewable solar energy such as
wind power, hydropower, and biomass (chemical energy).
•Natural Resources (or capital): air, water, soil, forests, etc.
•Biological income: refers to renewable supplies such as wood, fish, grassland etc.
•Carrying Capacity: is the maximum number of organisms that can occupy an
area or habitat without degrading the surrounding environment.
•Cultural Carrying Capacity: is a term used to refer to human impact on the
environment if their presence includes luxuries and technologies.
•Sustainability: refers to the ability of a system to survive for an extended period
of time. For example, is we manage natural resources such as fishing, then they
should be available to us for as long as we need them.
•A sustainable population of wildlife or humans should not overwhelm the
carrying capacity of the environment that supports it.
•Environmentally Sustainable Society: is one that provides people with food,
clean water, clean air, shelter, etc, and does not put future occupancies at risk.
•Economic Growth: is the increase in the capacity of a country to provide people
with goods and services. For this to occur, population growth is necessary.
Economic growth can be measured by the % change in a country’s GDP.
•Gross Domestic Product (GDP): the annual market value of all goods and
services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating
within a country.
•Per capita GDP: refers to the changes in a country’s standard of living and
measured by taking the GDP and dividing it by the total population at midyear.
•Economic Development: if positive, the improvement of living standards by
economic growth. UN (United Nations) describes the world’s countries as
economically developed or developing.
•Developed Countries: includes Canada, USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand,
and the counties of Europe. They are considered industrialized and have a high
average per capita GDP.
•Developing Countries: most countries located in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America.
•Globalization: a process where social, economic, and environmental global
changes lead to an increasing interconnected world. This involves increasing the
exchange of people, products, services, capital, and ideas across borders. There
are factors that are even accelerating globalization faster, that is: information and
communication technologies, human mobility, and international trade and
investment.
•Resource: is something we need or want. Anything obtained from the
environment to meet our needs and wants. There are 3 types of resources:
-Perpetual (ever-lasting): such as solar energy, winds, and flowing water.
-Renewable (replenish-able*): Air, fresh water, soil, and biodiversity.
-Non-Renewable: fossil fuels, metallic minerals, and non-metallic minerals.
*renewable resources can become non-renewable if SUSTAINABLE YIELD is
not met (means: use less than is replaced). If more is used than replaced
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION occurs and the supply begins to shrink
until gone forever.
•Common Property (free-access resources): are resources that are available for
free or at very low cost such as air, oceans, fish, wildlife species, public parks,
other gasses in atmosphere and space. Overuse of this common property aid with
environmental degradation.
•Tragedy of the commons: a theory (Garrett Hardin) where “If I do not use this
resource, someone else will. The little bit of pollution I produce is not enough to
matter.” A solution is to convert common property into private property but, this is
very difficult to do (how do you propertize migrating birds or the atmosphere).
•Per capita ecological footprint: is the amount of biological production that is
needed to support a person (or population) with renewable resources they use and
the amount that can in return be absorbed as waste from the resource use.
*the world’s ecological footprint exceeds biological capacity therefore, we are
“borrowing” from the future.
•Pollution: is the presence of a substance at high enough concentrations in the air,
water, soil, or food to threaten health, survival, or activities of humans and/or
other organisms.
•Point Source (pollution): an exact identifiable source of pollution such as smoke
from a power plant.
•Nonpoint Source (pollution): is a polluting source that is not easily traced it
starting point. For example, pesticides blown into the air can be transported to
neighboring countries or left over gas on a road leaks into a lake.
•Pollutants have 3 possible effects (separate or in combination):
- Disrupt or degrade life-support systems
- Damage wildlife, human health, and/or property.
- Nuisances such as noise or unpleasant smells, tastes, or sights.
•2 Basic Approaches to Deal with Pollution:
•Pollution Prevention (input pollution control): reduces or eliminates the
production of pollutants.
•Pollution Cleanup (output pollution control): involves cleaning up or diluting
pollutants after they have been produced.
•3 Problems with Pollution Cleanup:
- Only temporary: adding device to car exhaust reduces pollution but increase
distance car has to travel.
- Cleanup removes pollutant from one part of the environment only to cause
pollution in another.
- $$$ costs too much.
•Major causes of environmental problems: pop. growth, poverty, wasteful resource
use, poor environmental accounting, ecological ignorance.
•Affluenza: a term used to describe the overconsumption exhibited in the lifestyles
of consumers in Canada, USA and other developed countries.
•Environmental Impact (I) = consumption per person (A) x technological impact
per unit of consumption (T) x population (P)
•T can be beneficial or harmful.
•Technological optimists: state that everything is under control and to be happy
don’t worry.
•Environmental pessimists: state that every environmental situation seems
hopeless.
•Environmental Worldview: is how you think the world works, what you think
your role in the world should be, and what you believe is right and wrong for
environmental behavior (Environmental ethics).
•Planetary Management Worldview: we are in charge of nature, we will not run
out of resources b/c of our ability to find new ones, the potential for global
economic growth is unlimited.
•Stewardship Worldview: we have ethical responsibility to take care of the rest of
nature, we probably wont run out of resources but they should not be wasted, we
should encourage environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and
Document Summary
2% a year): exponential growth is deceptive because at first it starts off slow, but quickly increases (usually doubling), there is concern that an exponential growth in human population, which increases the amount of impact on the environment, is beginning to create irreversible damage to farming, water supply, biodiversity, and economies all around the world. 5 key environmental issues (affected by exponential growth): population growth resource use and waste poverty loss of biological diversity global climate change: environment: is everything that affects a living organism, ecology: a biological science of study that looks at the relationship b/w living, environmental science: a type of study that uses both physical and social organisms and their environment. support systems for humans and other species. wind power, hydropower, and biomass (chemical energy). sciences to figure out how the earth works, how we interact with the earth, and how to deal with environmental problems.
