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8/22/18
1
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE &
SUSTAINABLE YIELD
What is Environmental Science?
� The goals of environmental science are to learn:� how nature works.� how the environment effects us.� how we effect the environment.� how we can live more sustainably without
degrading our life-support system.
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Tragedy of the Commons: Environmental Lesson from Easter Island
� Thriving society15,000 people by 1400.
� Used resources faster than could be renewed
� By 1600 only a few trees remained.
� Civilization collapsedBy 1722 only several hundred people left.
Human population growth: J-shaped curve
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Four Scientific Principles of Sustainability: Copy Nature
Air(atmosphere)
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Human CulturesphereEarth's Life-Support System
Politics
PopulationSize
Worldviewsand ethics
EconomicsLife
(biosphere)
Soil and rocks
(lithosphere)
Water(hydrosphere)
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Our Ecological Footprint
Humanity’s ecological footprint has exceeded Earth’s ecological capacity.
Resource Consumption and Environmental Problems
• Underconsumption• Overconsumption
– Affluenza: unsustainable addiction to overconsumption and materialism.
Population X Affluence X Technology
= Impact
Connections between Environmental Problems and Their Causes
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Population (P)Affluence (A)Consumption
per person
Technological (T) impact per unit of
consumption
EnvironmentalImpact (I) of population
POPULATION GROWTH, ECONOMIC GROWTH, AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT� Economic growth provides people with more goods
and services.� Measured in gross domestic product (GDP) and
purchasing power parity (PPP).
� Economic development uses economic growth to improve living standards.� The world’s countries economic status
(developed vs. developing) are based on their degree of industrialization and GDP-PPP.
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� Comparison of developed and developing countries.
Poverty and Environmental Problems
33% of children under 5, suffer from severe malnutrition.
Developed vs Developing Countries
Some countries have areas of both!
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS: CAUSES AND CONNECTIONS� The major causes of environmental
problems are:
� Population growth� Wasteful resource use� Poverty� Poor environmental accounting� Ecological ignorance