Why study the environment lecture 1
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Transcript of Why study the environment lecture 1
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
Enger & Smith
Environmental ScienceA Study of Interrelationships
Thirteenth Edition
Chapter 1
The nature of Environmental Science
1.1 The Nature of Environmental Science
Environmental science is interdisciplinary, and includes scientific and social aspects of human impact on the world.
• It is a mixture of traditional science, individual and societal values, and political awareness.
1.1 The Nature of Environmental Science
Environment is everything that affects an organism during its lifetime.
Environmental science
Interrelatedness Is a Core Concept
Interrelatedness among seeming unrelated factors.
Tug on anything at all and you’ll find it connected to everything else in the universe.
John Muir
Interrelatedness Is a Core Concept
The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park has resulted in many changes.
Interrelatedness Is a Core Concept
The Yellowstone wolves are connected to social, economic, and political realms of human activity.
Wolves caused • water flow changes in the park• increases in willow and aspen trees, songbirds, foxes,
rodents, hawks, and owls. • Coyote and elk have declined
Ranchers could lose money if wolves killed livestock.
Decision Making in Ecology
Interrelatedness also exists in environmental problems
Many factors impact decisions to handle these problems• These factors are interrelated
Political Economic Ethics
Emerging Global Issues
Air pollution Political
• China air pollution
affects U.S.
Economic • Companies move
to regions with less
restrictive policies
Ethical• People in these countries (regions) suffer from diseases due to air
pollution
Regional Issues Extensive flooding of Mississippi or drought in California Political
• Impacts on one body of water
can affects multiple states
Economic• Developmental strategies ignore
Ecosystem needs• Hurricane Katrina and destruction
of coastal wetlands
Ethical• Endangering animal and human
life
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
Enger & Smith
Environmental ScienceA Study of Interrelationships
Thirteenth Edition
Chapter 2
Environmental Ethics
2.2 Environmental Ethics
Ethics is one branch of philosophy; it seeks to define what is right and what is wrong.• can help us understand what actions are wrong and
why they are wrong.
Not all cultures share the same ethical commitments.
Despite the presence of some differences, there are many cases in which ethical commitments can and should be globally agreed upon.
Ethics and Laws
In the case of environmental issues, • when it is appropriate to legislate something ?
• when action should be left to the individual’s sense of right and wrong?
Recycling?
Conflicting Ethical Positions
Sometimes an individual’s ethical commitments can conflict with each other.• A mayor might have an ethical commitment to
preserving land in a city but • Also have an ethical commitment to bringing in jobs
associated with construction of a new factory.
In many cases, what is good for the environment is also good for people.• While forest protection may reduce logging jobs, a
healthier forest might lead to new jobs in recreation, fisheries, and tourism.
Three Philosophical Approaches to Environmental Ethics
Anthropocentrism (human-centered)• This view holds that all environmental responsibility is
derived from human interests.– Assumes that only humans are morally significant.– Assumes nature is an instrument for human manipulation.
Three Philosophical Approaches to Environmental Ethics
Biocentrism (life-centered) • All life forms have an inherent right to exist.
Three Philosophical Approaches to Environmental Ethics
Ecocentrism • This view maintains that the environment deserves
direct moral consideration, • not consideration derived from human or animal
interests.
Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development is a middle ground
Seeks to promote development
while still preserving the ecological health of the landscape.
2.4 Environmental Justice
Environmental justice as fair treatment, meaning:
• “No group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences
• industrial, municipal, and commercial operations – (landfills, toxic waste facilities, chemical plants)
• Environmental justice is closely related to civil rights.
2.4 Environmental Justice
The direct action in Warren County, NC, marked the birth of the environmental justice movement in the U.S.
2.4 Environmental Justice
Cases in our own backyard
North Omaha• Coal power plant• 16th worst environmental justice offender
• http://www.naacp.org/pages/coal-blooded1
• https://www.facebook.com/OmahaBeyondCoal
2.4 Environmental Justice
Environmental justice encompasses a wide range of issues, including:• Where to place hazardous and polluting facilities• Transportation• Safe housing, lead poisoning, and water quality• Access to recreation and environmental info• Exposure to noise pollution• Exposure to natural disasters (e.g., Hurricane Katrina)
• Jobs are created…but how to compare benefit w/loss?
Discussion
Split into groups
Environmental ethics• Handout
Aldo Leopold Land ethic
• Sand county almanac• “We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green
fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.”- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4edMwhmRvzo
2.5 Societal Environmental Ethics
Environmental ethic product of individuals, businesses, and national leaders
Western societies have long acted as if the earth has:• Unlimited reserves of natural resources.• An unlimited ability to assimilate wastes.• “growth mania”
When will it be ‘enough’?
2. 6 Corporate Environmental Ethics
Economic growth and resource exploitation were the dominant orientations
Change through Corporate environmental ethics• Primary purpose is to generate a financial return
(profit) for its shareholders, • Shareholders, employees or executives can demand
an environmental ethic
Is There a Corporate Environmental Ethic?
If corporation follow unethical environmental practices• Release industrial wastes into river• Public is the one that suffers
Corporations can be encouraged into adopting more environmentally friendly practices
http://www.ceres.org/company-network/company-directory
Is There a Corporate Environmental Ethic?
In 1997, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was established.
At least 2000 companies around the world voluntarily report information on their economic, environmental, and social policies.
https://www.globalreporting.org/reporting/report-services/featured-reports/Pages/default.aspx
2.7 Individual Environmental Ethics
Ethical changes in society and business must start with individuals.
Our individual actions have a bearing on environmental quality • Each of us bears some responsibility for the quality of
the environment in which we live.
Individual choices can make a difference
2.8 The Ethics of Consumption
North Americans represent 5% of the world’s population.• North Americans consume one-fourth of the world’s
oil.• They use more water and own more cars than
anybody else.• They waste more food than most people in sub-
Saharan Africa eat.
2.9 Personal Choices
Lifestyle changes that significantly reduce their personal impact on the planet.• Eating food produced locally• Eating food that is low on the food chain
(fruits/vegies)• Buying durable consumer products • And reusing or repairing products with usable life
reduces the raw materials that must be extracted from the ground.
2.9 Personal Choices
• Conserving energy at home and on the road can lessen the amount of fossil fuels used to support your lifestyle.
• Lobbying for protection of wild areas • Voting for officials who take environmental issues
seriously– https://www.facebook.com/pages/League-of-Women-
Voters-of-Greater-Omahas-Douglas-County-Voters-Guide/109817185721956
Ecological footprint
Help individuals measure their environmental impact
www.earthday.org/footprint/info.asp
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
Enger & Smith
Environmental ScienceA Study of Interrelationships
Thirteenth Edition
Chapter 3
Environmental Risk:
Economics, Assessment, and Management
3.3 Environmental Economics
Economics • study of how people choose to use resources to
produce goods and services, • and how those goods and services are distributed to
the public.
• How are resources distributed?
• Businesses must know the economics of the environment!
Resources
Economists look at resources as the available supply of something that can be used.
There are three categories of resources:• Labor (human resources)• Capital (technology and knowledge)• Land (natural resources)
Resources
Natural resources • structures and processes humans can use for their
own purposes but cannot create.– Wind, sunlight, rainfall
• Renewable resources – can be formed or regenerated by natural processes.
• Nonrenewable resources – are not replaced by natural processes, or the rate of
replacement is so slow as to be ineffective.
Assigning Value to Natural Resources
We assign value to natural resources based on our perception of their relative scarcity.
• If a natural resource has always been rare, it is expensive (gold)
• If the supply is very large and the demand is low, the resource is often perceived to be free (sunlight)
• Even renewable resources can be overexploited– (fish, wildlife, forests)
Ecosystem Services
Ecosystems are a tangible source of economic wealth
The challenge lies in disentangling complex natural systems into more discrete commodity units• Translate ecosystem value into something tangible?
– Ask questions
– Use people’s behavior?
Ecosystem Services
But under uncertainties….• Different value sets
It is possible to weight the benefits from an activity such as dam construction against its negative impacts • on fishing• livelihoods of nearby communities• and changes to aesthetic values
Environmental Costs How do you weight the costs?
Environmental costs of resource exploitation• Pollution• Species extinction • Resource depletion • and loss of scenic quality
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost-benefit analysis • method of assessing costs and benefits of competing
uses of a resource • and deciding which is most effective.
• Reduce Lead in drinking water– Costs = $125 million
– Benefits = 1 billion
Incentives for Environmental Stewardship
Subsidy• Consumer rebates environmental friendly products• Renewable energy home Loans • Tax credits
Economic tools to address Environmental problems
High degree of protection at low cost
Give entrepreneurs choice of most economical
•Tradable emissions permits give companies the right to emit specified amounts of pollutants.
– Permits can be sold or banked for future use.
– Used frequently by carb carbon emissions in Europe
– Cap and Trade http://www.edf.org/climate/how-cap-and-trade-works
Market-Based Instruments
• Emission fees and taxes provide incentives for environmental improvement by making damaging activities and products more expensive.
• Performance bonds are fees collected to ensure proper care is taken to protect environmental resources.
3.5 Economics and Sustainable Development
So many humans!• So much pollution• Earth is one big ecosystem
– Air pollution from U.S. can affect people in Asia
– The decisions our ancestors made, affect us today
How do we sustain human life and not destroy all the resources for us and our children?
Sustainable development Sustainable development
• meets present needs without compromising the needs of future generations
• Keep natural resources• Maintain human living standards
• Example: Solar Energy
3.5 Economics and Sustainable Development
Schools of thought:
• Economic growth finances the investments necessary to prevent pollution
• Science and technological advances can solve many environmental problems (wind, solar, geothermal)
• Economic and environmental well-being are mutually reinforcing
3.5 Economics and Sustainable Development
High-income developed nations with high education levels are in a position to promote sustainable development
• http://www.mccneb.edu/cps/green/
Transfer of modern, environmentally sound technology to developing nations
Introduction to Homework:Case Study
Regional Studies
Forest and mineral exploitationAlaska
Political
Economic• Oil• Native Americans
Ethical• Contamination• Conservation
Caribou migration to coastal plain for calf birthing
Fertilization useMidwest
Political
Economic• Doubled food production in last 40 years
Ethical• Prices of fertilizer entwined with prices of oil• Some farmers cannot avoid fertilizers
Water useWestern U.S.
Politics• Pumped from Colorado River to Salt Lake City, Denver,
Los Angeles
• 30 million people rely on its water
Economics
Ethics• Reduced water table
• Reduction Colorado river basin– Plant and animal life
Forest PolicyWestern U.S.
Value of old growth forests• Political
• Economic
• Ethical
Climate change?
Great Lakes example
Political:
8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, Native American tribes
Economic:
Ethical:
pollution, exotic species, over fishing
10 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Environment
1. Reduce driving 2. Save electricity 3. Recycle 4. Conserve water 5. Safely dispose of hazardous waste
10 Things You Can Do to Protect Your Environment
6. Eat locally 7. Donate reusable items 8. Buy in bulk 9. Learn how to avoid the use of insect
repellants 10. Be an informed and active citizen
Environmental Problem SolvingAssignment
See Handout