Overarching Themes

Chapter 21. Basic outline of U.S. environmental history2. Historical figures of the environmental movement3. NEPA and EIS’s and other environmental laws4. The environment & economics5. Pollution control6. Ethics

Chapter 11. What is environmental science?2. What is sustainability?3. An organisms footprint4. Tragedy of Commons

Chapter 31. Biomes (biotic & abiotic distinguishers)2. Aquatic Ecosystems

Introducing Environmental Science

and Sustainability

Chapter 1

Sustainability

• What does it mean to be sustainable?

Sustainability1. Perpetuated indefinitely2. Improved or continued well being3. Economics & Growth

Web Definitions:

A strategy by which communities seek economic development approaches that also benefit the local environment and quality of life. ...

Could We All Live In…1. Could we all live in Georgia?

- 43,560 Square feet in an acre or 91% of a football field minus the end zones- 640 acres in a square mile- 57,906 square miles in Georgia

Georgia = 37,059,840 AcresTexas = 172 Million and changeUS Population = 304 Million

2. 11,000,000 acres of land devoted to farms in Georgia

3. 23,631,000 acres devoted to timber in Georgia

Increasing Human Numbers

What is the world’s (USA Vs Ethiopia) carrying capacity for people?

The World At Night

The Middle ClassPeople who have a degree of economic independence, but not a great deal of social influence or power. The term often encompasses merchants and professionals, bureaucrats, and some farmers and skilled workers.

Why is a middle class significant?

Resources

Renewable, but only when managed in a sustainable way

Environmental Impact

• IPAT Model

I = P A T

Environmental Impact

Number of people

Affluence per person

Environmental effect of technologies

New Model IPAT

I = P x A x T1

I = P x A T2

How to move T to the denominator• Emulate Nature•Linear becomes cyclical•Resource extraction Vs renewable

Ray C. Anderson

Environmental Laws, Economics,

and Ethics

Chapter 2

Land Ethic

What is a land ethic?

Aldo Leopold 1887-1948

The Shack - In 1935, he and his family initiated their own ecological restoration experiment on a worn-out farm along the Wisconsin River outside of Baraboo, Wisconsin.

Land Ethic

“When the private landowner is asked to perform some unprofitable act for the good of the community, he today assents only with outstretched palm. If the act costs him cash this is fair and proper, but when it costs only forethought, open-mindedness, or time, the issue is at least debatable.”

Aldo Leopold Continued

Land Ethic Continued

“To sum up: a system of conservation based solely on economic self-interest is hopelessly lopsided. It tends to ignore, and thus eventually to eliminate, many elements in the land community that lack commercial value, but that are (as far as we know) essential to its healthy functioning.

It assumes, falsely, I think, that the economic parts of the biotic clock will function without the uneconomic parts. It tends to relegate to government many functions eventually too large, too complex, or too widely dispersed to be performed by government.”

Aldo Leopold ContinuedLand Ethic Continued

Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

The land Ethic

All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. His instincts prompt him to compete for his place in the community, but his ethics prompt him also to co-operate. The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in. The case for a land ethic would appear hopeless but for the minority which is in obvious revolt against these “modern” trends. Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient.

Environmental Laws

Why do we have environmental laws or laws period?

Environmental History of U.S.

General Revisions Act

The General Revision Act of 1891 authorizes the President to create forest preserves "wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not....” and prevent them from being acquired through the various public land laws.

Environmental History of U.S.

1850 1900 1950

Several presidents, particularly Theodore Roosevelt, used this Act to establish 43 million acres of forest reserves. Republican

General Revision Act1st National Park: Yellowstone

(Est.1872)

Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks

Antiquities Act 1906The Antiquities Act of 1906 resulted from concerns about protecting mostly prehistoric Indian ruins and artifacts-collectively termed "antiquities ” Authorized presidents to proclaim historic landmarks as national monuments

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/hisnps/NPSHistory/antiq.htm

Use of the Antiquities Act

Wilderness

What makes wilderness - wilderness?

Cohutta Wilderness

Wilderness Act 1964The Wilderness Act describes a wilderness as - "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Requires act of congress

List of wilderness Areas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._Wilderness_Areas#Georgia

An area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.

Spotted Owl Controversy

& The ESA

Endangered Species Act (1973)

• Authorizes listing of species as endangered and threatened

• Prohibits unauthorized taking, possession, sale, and transport of endangered species

• Provides authority to acquire land for the conservation of the listed species

• Establishes a recovery plan

Economics and the Environment

Source

Raw Materials

Economy

Production Consumption

Products

Money

Sinks

Waste

How does our economic system compare to natural systems ?Why compare them?

Making a CanWhat does it cost to make a can?

What does it cost to lose a species or to save one from endangerment?

Full Cost Accounting

What are internal and external costs?

Making the aluminum can:http://www.cancentral.com/canc/text/history.htm

Case-in-Point: The Chesapeake BayEcosystem Service

Case-in-Point: The Everglades

Mangrove SwampsLosing approximately 2% a year40% overall current loss

69 endemic terrestrial species

Reasons for loss?Reasons for protection?

Found 30 Latitude - fringe habitat

Economics and the Environment

• Cost-Benefit Analysis

A. First graph - harm caused by pollution exceeds cost of reducing it - so it makes sense to control the pollution

B. Second Graph - Cost of reducing pollution exceeds the harm of the pollution - so it makes sense to pollute

Green line = cost $$$ Brown line = harm done

Regulation1) Command and control regulations

2) Incentive-based regulation

A set of standards that all must meet - auto emissions - catalytic converters

Pollution tax - uses economic forces

3) Cap & Trade systemIn effect, the buyer is being fined for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions. Over time the cap can be lowered. Uses market forces.

Subsidy

What is a subsidy?

Types of Subsidies• Labor: pays for employees• Tax: income tax deductions• Regulatory: fewer regulations• Infrastructure: roads, scientific development• Trade protection: tariffs• Procurement: government buys the goods?• Consumption: government produces and sells at lower price - bread• Tax Breaks: “Corporate welfare” land, pollution, property

• Examples:• Oil subsidies• 1. http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/05/22/208130/why-oil-companies-dont-need-tax-subsidies/ Time 2:04

• Farm Subsidies• 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w27OzQDX7Q Time 1:56

• 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8G1HIlRppoTime 7:32

Major Ecosystems of the World

Chapter 6

Primary Forest

Fire

Impacts of Fire?Which biomes burn regularly?

Human Fire History

Earth’s Major Biomes• Type of biome controlled by temperature and

precipitation

Arizona Biomes

Aquatic Ecosystems• Freshwater Ecosystems• Lakes and Ponds

Highly productive, high species richness - sunlight penetration / rooted plants

Photosynthetically productive - upper surface with light penetration

Aquatic Ecosystems• Freshwater Ecosystems• Lakes and Ponds

Not always present; anaerobic, dominated by decomposers - below light penetration

Thermocline - lakes• Freshwater Ecosystems• Thermal stratification in temperate lakes

Point of change between warm surface & cold depths

Turnover - Lakes• Turnover in• temperate lakes

Spring Turnover - Melting Ice (40C) & warming surface waters + wind

Fall Turnover - cooling surface water = > density(40C) + wind

Littoral-Limnetic-Profundal Zones

Aquatic Ecosystems• Freshwater Ecosystems• Rivers and Streams

•Tend to be narrow, swift, clear, cold, nutrient poor, and highly oxygenated•Tend to be wide, slow, cloudy, warm, nutrient rich, and less oxygenated

Oxbow Lakes

Rivers & DeltasHeadwaters-Waterfall-Tributaries-Basin-Flood Plain-Meanders-Oxbow lakes-Salt Marsh-Delta-Barrier Islands - detritus

Photo BenthicPhoto Benthic Environment

1) Sea grasses

2) Kelp forests

3) Coral reefs

Neritic Zone

Pelagic Zone