ENVS 102.2 Environmental Problems - World Views PDF

Chapter 1: The Environment and Sustainability Chapter 25: Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainability Module 1.2: Environmental Problems and World Views ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Measures of Sustainability Quantifying sustainability: Ecological footprint, ht...

Chapter 1: The Environment and Sustainability Chapter 25: Environmental Worldviews, Ethics, and Sustainability Module 1.2: Environmental Problems and World Views ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Measures of Sustainability Quantifying sustainability: Ecological footprint, https://www.footprintcalculator.org/en/quiz/ 0/food/category Energy footprint, and CO2 footprint. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Ecological Footprint  We would need 1.5 planet Earths to sustain the world’s 2012 rate of resource use far into the future.  In 2012, the ecological footprint was 50% higher than the planet’s estimated long-term biocapacity  Ecological footprint > biocapacity ⇒, ecological deficit:  People are living unsustainably  Depleting natural capital (instead of living off the renewable resources and ecosystem services)  The ecological deficit (overdraft of the earth’s natural resources and ecosystem services) is being passed on to future generations. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Ecological Footprint  Biocapacity is measure of sustainability; it relates to the ability of its productive ecosystems to regenerate the renewable resources used by a population, city, region, country, or the world, and to absorb the resulting wastes and pollution indefinitely.  The largest component of our ecological footprint is the air pollution, climate change, and ocean acidification caused by the burning of fossil fuels—oil, coal, and natural gas—to provide 90% of the commercial energy used in the world and in the United States ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi  Figure 13.20 The Ecological Footprint ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Ecological Footprint Biocapacity and Ecological Footprint Analysis Exercise: Calculate Deficit or Credits ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Ecological Footprint ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems Population growth Wasteful and unsustainable resource use Poverty Omission of the harmful environmental and health costs of goods and services in market prices Increasing isolation from nature Competing environmental worldviews. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 1. Population Growth Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 1. Population Growth From the previous figure, by what percentage did the world’s population increase between 1960 and 2015? ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems Poverty ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems Poverty Does poverty always lead to environmental degradation?  Recycling; less wasteful Consume less Less dependent on machines (less energy consumption and emissions) ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 3. Affluence and Unsustainable Resource Use Discuss the effect of affluence on sustainability Affluent people spend more; consume more and generate more waste and pollutants (American rate of consumption: five planets) Affluence: education and more concern about the environment; ability to spend on pollution control and conservation; developing technologies to Affluence: ability to develop technologies to reduce pollution, environmental degradation, and resource waste ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 4. Prices of Goods and Services Rarely Include Their Harmful Environmental and Health Costs Companies providing goods for consumers generally are not required to pay for most of the harmful environmental and health costs of supplying such goods.  For example, timber companies pay the cost of clear- cutting forests but do not pay for the resulting environmental degradation and loss of wildlife habitat. Externalities ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 4. Prices of Goods and Services Rarely Include Their Harmful Environmental and Health Costs  Another Example?  Consumers do pay for the price of producing gasoline but not the environmental damage caused by its production and use.  It is estimated that the price of gasoline to U.S. consumers would rise by $3.18 per liter ($12 per gallon) if the estimated short- and long-term harmful environmental and health costs were included in its pump price.  Note that consumers eventually pay these hidden costs, but not at the gas pump.  Full-cost pricing is the basis for one of the six principles of sustainability. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 4. Prices of Goods and Services Rarely Include Their Harmful Environmental and Health Costs How to implement the full cost pricing? Subsidy Shift: shift from environmentally harmful government subsidies to environmentally beneficial subsidies that sustain or enhance natural capital. Tax Shift: increase taxes on pollution and wastes that we want less of and reduce taxes on income and wealth that we want more of. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 5. People are increasing isolated from nature  Shift from rural to urban living  More than half of the world’s people live in urban environment 75% of in more-developed countries live in urban areas. Nature-deficit disorder.  Connect with nature and outside activities: Better health, reduced stress, improved mental abilities, and increased imagination and creativity.  A sense of wonder and connection to the earth’s life- support system that keeps us alive and supports our economies. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 6. Competing environmental worldviews. People differ over the nature and seriousness of the world’s environmental problems, as well as how to solve them:  Human-centered,  Life-centered, and  Earth-centered. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 6. Competing environmental worldviews.  Environmental ethics: the study of what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment  Some environmental ethics questions: Why should we care about the environment? Are we the most important species on the planet or Are we just another one of the earth’s millions of life forms? Do we have an obligation to see that our activities do not cause the extinction of other species? If so, should we try to protect all species or only some? ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 6. Competing environmental worldviews.  Environmental ethics: the study of what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment  How do we decide which to protect?  Do we have an ethical obligation to pass the natural world on to future generations in a condition that is as good as or better than what we inherited?  Should every person be entitled to equal protection from environmental hazards regardless of race, gender, age, national origin, income, social class, or any other factor? (environmental justice).  Should we seek to live more sustainably, and  If so, how? ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi  Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 6. Competing environmental worldviews. Human-centered  Sees natural world as a support system for human life.  Humans are separate from and in charge of nature;  We should manage the earth for our benefit;  If we degrade or deplete a natural resource or ecosystem service, we can use our technological ingenuity to find a substitute.  Be caring or stewards, of the earth for current and future human generations. r. Issam Miqdadi  Encourages environmentally beneficial forms of economic NVS 102.2 growth and development and discourage environmentally harmful forms.  Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 6. Competing environmental worldviews. Human-centered  Some people believe that any human-centered worldview will eventually fail:  because it wrongly assumes we now have or can gain enough knowledge and wisdom to become effective managers or stewards of the earth.  We are already living unsustainably by taking over most of the earth’s land and water, changing the earth’s climate, acidifying theglobal ocean, and greatly increasing species extinction. r. Issam Miqdadi NVS 102.2  Some argue that we have exceeded four of the earth’s planetary boundaries, or ecological tipping points (see Science Focus 3.3, p. 69  Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 6. Competing environmental worldviews. Human-centered  The exceeded four planetary boundaries, or ecological tipping points: 1. Disruption of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; greatly increased use of fertilizers to produce food; 2. Biodiversity loss from replacing biologically diverse forests and grasslands with simplified fields of single crops; 3. Land system change from agriculture and urban r. Issam Miqdadi development; and NVS 102.2 4. Climate change from disrupting the carbon cycle, mostly by overloading it with carbon dioxide (burning of fossil fuels) Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 6. Competing environmental worldviews. Life-centered All species have value in fulfilling their particular role within the biosphere, regardless of their potential or actual use to humans. Mostly believe in an ethical responsibility to avoid hastening the extinction of species through our activities. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Basic Causes of Environmental Problems 6. Competing environmental worldviews. Earth-centered We are part of, and dependent on nature, Earth’s natural capital exists for all species, not just for humans. Our economic success and the long-term survival of our cultures, our species, and many other species depend on learning how life on the earth has sustained itself for billions of years and integrating such lessons from nature into the ways we think and act (biomimicry). ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Biomimicry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHb_XNgIHFY Environmental World Views FIGURE 25.4 (Textbook)- Levels of ethical concern. People disagree about how far we should extend our ethical concerns on this scale. Life- Earth- Centered Centered Human- Centered Global Threats to People and Poverty and Inequality Limit Men and Women Worldwide from Achieving Life’s Potential Source: Douglass Farr-Sustainable nation _ urban design patterns for the future-2018, Wiley ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Global Threats to People and Poverty and Inequality Limit Men and Women Worldwide from Achieving Life’s Potential Source: Douglass Farr-Sustainable nation _ urban design patterns for the future-2018, Wiley ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Planet Merit our Empathy: Human-induced Climate Change Threatens Vulnerable Populations and Drives Extinctions Source: Douglass Farr-Sustainable nation _ urban design patterns for the future-2018, Wiley ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Ineffective Governments and Closed or Fragile Governments, Corruption and Underdevelopment Retard Global Growth Source: Fragile State Index Report (2023) https://fragilestatesindex.org/wp- content/uploads/2023/06/FSI-2023-Report_final.pdf ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi  Ineffective Governments and Closed or Fragile Governments, Corruption and Underdevelopment Retard Global Growth Dr. Issam Miqdadi ENVS 102.2 Source: Douglass Farr-Sustainable nation _ urban design patterns for the future-2018, Wiley  Ineffective Governments and Closed or Fragile Governments, Corruption and Underdevelopment Retard Global Growth Dr. Issam Miqdadi ENVS 102.2 Source: Douglass Farr-Sustainable nation _ urban design patterns for the future-2018, Wiley  Culture are Barriers to the U.S.A Progress-Material Consumption Makes U.S. People Less Happy than those with Less Stuff Dr. Issam Miqdadi ENVS 102.2 Source: Douglass Farr-Sustainable nation _ urban design patterns for the future-2018, Wiley  Culture are Barriers to the U.S.A Progress-Material Consumption Makes U.S. People Less Happy than those with Less Stuff Dr. Issam Miqdadi ENVS 102.2 Source: Douglass Farr-Sustainable nation _ urban design patterns for the future-2018, Wiley  Culture are Barriers to the U.S.A Progress-Material Consumption Makes U.S. People Less Happy than those with Less Stuff Dr. Issam Miqdadi ENVS 102.2 Source: Douglass Farr-Sustainable nation _ urban design patterns for the future-2018, Wiley Figure 13.10 Historical Energy Use in the World, U.S., and China. Figure 13.12 Annual Energy Use Per Capita for the World and Several Nations. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Figure 13.17 Domestic Per Capita Water Use as a Function of Per Capita GDP For Several Nations. Figure 13.18 Worldwide Water Extraction for Agricultural, Industrial, and Municipal Use. Overview  What is sustainability?  What is biomimicry?  What are the three scientific sustainability principles (key concepts to live sustainably)  Define environment.  Distinguish among environmental science, ecology, and environmentalism.  What is an ecosystem?  Define solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling (or nutrient cycling) ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Overview  Explain why solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling, are important to life on the earth.  Define natural capital.  Define natural resources and ecosystem services, and give two examples of each.  Give three examples of how we are degrading natural capital.  Explain how finding solutions to environmental problems involves making trade-offs.  Explain why individuals matter in dealing with the environmental problems we face. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Overview  What are three economic, political, and ethical principles of sustainability?  What is biomimicry.  What is a resource?  Distinguish between an inexhaustible resource and a renewable resource and give an example of each.  What is the sustainable yield of a renewable resource?  Define and give an example of a nonrenewable or exhaustible resource. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Overview  How are humans living unsustainably?  Define and give three examples of environmental degradation (or natural capital degradation).  What is an ecological footprint?  Define biocapacity.  Use the ecological footprint concept to explain how we are living unsustainably.  Explain what poverty is and what are three of its harmful environmental and health effects. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Overview  How are poverty and population growth connected?  List three major health problems faced by many of the poor.  Explain how excluding the harmful environmental and health costs of production from the prices of goods and services affects the environmental problems we face.  What is the connection between government subsidies, resource use, and environmental and degradation ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Overview  What are two ways to include the harmful environmental and health costs of the goods and services in their market prices.  Explain how a lack of knowledge about nature and the importance of natural capital, along with our increasing isolation from nature, can intensify the environmental problems we face.  What is an environmental worldview?  What is environmental ethics? ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi Overview  What are five important ethical questions relating to the environment?  Distinguish among the human-centered, life- centered, and earth-centered environmental worldviews. ENVS 102.2 Dr. Issam Miqdadi