Human Impact on Earth's Ecosystems

Human Use of Earth's Ecosystems

• Humans have degraded natural systems that support all species, including humans and economies.
• Natural Capital: Natural resources and ecosystem services that sustain life and support human economies.
  • Natural Resources: Materials and energy in nature essential for humans.
    • Inexhaustible Resources: Continuous supply, lasting for a very long time (e.g., solar, wind, geothermal energy).
    • Renewable Resources: Replenished naturally within hours to centuries (e.g., air, trees, topsoil, freshwater) if not used faster than they can renew.
    • Nonrenewable (Depletable) Resources: Exist in a fixed quantity, cannot be replenished within a human lifetime (e.g., fossil fuels - oil, natural gas, coal)
  • Ecosystem Services: Processes provided by healthy ecosystems vital for life and economies, without monetary cost to humans.
    • Supporting Services: Essential for all other ecosystem services, indirect or long-term impacts on people. Examples include: primary production, oxygen production, nutrient and water cycling, pollination.
    • Regulating Services: Benefits obtained from regulation of ecosystem processes. Examples: air quality maintenance, climate regulation, water regulation, erosion control, water purification, waste treatment, disease regulation, storm protection.
    • Provisioning Services: Products obtained from ecosystems. Examples: food, fiber, fuel, freshwater, genetic resources, biochemicals, natural medicine, pharmaceuticals.
    • Cultural Services: Nonmaterial benefits humans gain from ecosystems. Examples: spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, aesthetics.
• Natural Capital Degradation: Waste, depletion, or destruction of Earth's natural capital.
• IPAT Model: Shows the impact of human activities on the environment.
  • I = Impact
  • P = Population
  • A = Affluence (consumption per capita)
  • T = Technology (environmental impact per unit of consumption)
• Causes of Environmental Problems:
  • Population Growth: Increasing population leads to increased resource use and consumption, resulting in greater environmental degradation, waste, and pollution.
  • Unsustainable Resource Use: As affluence increases, so does per capita resource consumption, leading to higher levels of environmental degradation, waste, and pollution.
  • Poverty: About 1 billion people live in extreme poverty with limited access to basic necessities. They often degrade forests, topsoil, grasslands, fisheries, and wildlife for survival.
  • Avoidance of Full-cost Pricing Companies often do not pay the full cost of using resources, including harmful environmental and health costs, leading to unsustainable practices.
  • Increasing Isolation from Nature: Urbanization and technology isolate people from nature, leading to a disconnect with environmental understanding and responsibility.

Human Wellbeing and Environmental Worldviews

• Human Wellbeing: What is ultimately good for a person, encompassing basic needs, sense of purpose, achievement of personal goals, social participation.
• Environmental Worldviews: Assumptions and values about how the world works and our role within it.
  • Human-centered: The natural world serves humans primarily as a support system.
  • Life-centered: All species have equal value as members of the biosphere, regardless of their use to humans.
  • Earth-centered: Humans are part of and dependent on nature, recognizing the earth's life-support system exists for all species.

Principles of Sustainability

• Sustainability: The capacity of Earth's natural and human systems to survive, flourish, and adapt to long-term environmental changes.
• Scientific Principles:
  • Dependence on Solar Energy: Solar energy warms the planet and provides energy for plant life, which forms the base of the food chain.
  • Living on Natural Income: Using only renewable resources like plants, animals, soil, clean air, and water within the rate at which they can replenish.

Our Hope

• 5-10% of a population can enact significant social and environmental change.
• The current generation can decide towards creating a sustainable future or further environmental degradation.

Explore how human activities have influenced natural systems that are crucial for sustaining both human life and the economy. Learn about various types of natural capital, including resources and ecosystem services, and their importance. This quiz covers the classifications of renewable, nonrenewable, and inexhaustible resources.