ESS topic 1

Environmental Value Systems (EVS)

• An EVS is a worldview or paradigm shaping how individuals or groups perceive and evaluate environmental issues.
• Influenced by cultural, religious, economic, and socio-political contexts.
• EVS can be considered a system with inputs (family, peers, media, religion, education, politics, and science) and outputs (course of action, perspectives, and decisions).

The EVS Spectrum

• Ecocentric: Integrates social, spiritual, and environmental dimensions into a holistic ideal.
  • Places ecology and nature as central to humanity.
  • Emphasizes less materialistic approach to life and greater self-sufficiency.
  • Beliefs include: environmental conservation as central to decision-making, humans are part of nature, individual responsibility/accountability, inherent value of all life, protection of habitats/ecosystems, and against extinction of other species.
• Anthropocentric: Humans are the managers of the Earth.
  • Humans must sustainably manage the global system through taxes, environmental regulation, and legislation.
  • Encourages debate for a consensual and pragmatic approach to solving environmental problems.
  • Beliefs include: the environment as a human resource, human health/well-being as central to decision-making, people are environmental managers, population control important as resource use, and humans are the most important species.
• Technocentric: Technology can solve environmental problems.
  • Optimistic view of humans' role in improving humanity.
  • Encourages scientific research for policy-formation and understanding resource depletion/system control.
  • Beliefs include: nature as a model that can be replaced by technology when needed, human health/well-being are central to decision-making, technology can keep pace with and provide solutions to environmental problems, and humans need to manage and control resources.

Important Environmental Events

• Silent Spring (Rachel Carson): Catalyzed the modern environmental movement.
  • Warned of pesticide effects on insects, other animals, and humans.
  • Highlighted pesticide accumulation in food chains and potential health risks.
• An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore): Increased awareness of climate change.
  • Highlighted the effects of greenhouse gases on the global climate.
  • Stressed human activity's role in climate change.
• Bhopal Disaster: Worst industrial disaster.
  • Release of methyl isocyanate gas in Bhopal, India, 1984.
  • Resulted in thousands of deaths and long-term health problems.
• Chernobyl Disaster: Worst nuclear disaster.
  • 1986 explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear facility, Ukraine.
  • Released significant radioactive material into the environment.
• Minamata Disaster: Mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan.
  • Chisso Corporation's release of methylmercury into the environment.
  • Caused widespread health problems in the local community.
  • Led to legal battles and compensation.
• Fukushima Daiichi Disaster: Nuclear accident.
  • Earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdown at the Fukushima plant in Japan, 2011.
  • Radioactive material release; significant evacuations.

Systems and Models

• A system is a collection of interdependent parts that perform a function and interact through energy/matter transfer.
• Systems are made of storages and flows.
• Models are simplified versions of reality used to understand how systems work and predict responses to change.
• Types of systems include:
  • Open systems: exchange energy and matter with surroundings (e.g., ecosystem).
  • Closed systems: exchange energy but not matter (e.g., nutrient cycles).
  • Isolated systems: exchange neither energy nor matter.

Energy and Equilibria

• Energy is subject to the laws of thermodynamics.
• First Law: Energy is neither created nor destroyed.
• Second Law: Entropy (disorder) in an isolated system increases over time.
• Equilibrium is a state of balance among system components, often returning to an original state after disturbance.
• Types of equilibria:
  • Steady-state: continuous input/output of energy and matter, constant state.
  • Static: no change over time.
  • Stable: return to same equilibrium after disturbance.
  • Unstable: attains a new equilibrium after disturbance.

Resilience

• Resilience is a system's ability to return to its initial state after a disturbance.
• Factors affecting ecosystem resilience: diversity, complexity, genetic diversity, size, and rate of reproduction.
• Tipping points: thresholds where systems shift to new states.

Sustainability

• Sustainability is the use and management of resources that allows for full natural replacement and ecosystem recovery.
• Natural capital refers to natural resources and their services.
• Types of natural capital:
  • Renewable: living things;
  • Replenishable: non-living resources replenished naturally;
  • Non-renewable: resources take long to replenish.
• Natural income is the yield obtained from natural resources.
• Values of natural capital: intrinsic, economic, and ecological.

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA)

• EIA assess the environmental, social, and economic effects of a project on the environment.
• Purpose: guide decision-making, promote sustainable development, and provide documented evidence for decision-making.
• Steps:
  • Screening: determine if an EIA is needed.
  • Scoping: identify project impacts and stakeholders.
  • Impact analysis: assess project effects.
  • Mitigation and impact management: strategies for limiting negative impacts.
  • Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): detailed report on potential impacts and mitigation.
  • Public review and decision-making.

Ecological Footprint (EF)

• An EF is the area of land/water needed to sustainably support a given population at the rate resources are consumed.
• If EF is larger than available land/water, it indicates unsustainability.
• Factors increasing EF include reliance on fossil fuels, high technology/energy use, imported resources/goods, high per capita consumption, and meat-rich diets.
• Factors reducing EF include resource use reductions, recycling, renewable energy use, and technological improvements.

Pollution

• Pollution is the addition of an agent to an environment above its absorption rate, with negative effects on organisms.
• Types of pollutants: primary (released directly) and secondary (formed from chemical changes).
• Pollution effects may be acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term).
• Types of pollution - point source and non-point source.
• Important pollution management strategies:
  • Altering human activity:
  • Regulating pollutant release:
  • Clean-up and restoration: