WEEK 2.pptx

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUC TION TO ENVIRONM ENTAL SCIENCE: BY JYTZIL MAE S. LAURON, LPT  LESSON 1 THE ENVIRONM ENT AND SUSTAINAB BY JYTZIL MAE S. LAURON, LPT ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ENVIRONMENT is everything around you. It includes energy from the sun and all the living things and the non...

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUC TION TO ENVIRONM ENTAL SCIENCE: BY JYTZIL MAE S. LAURON, LPT  LESSON 1 THE ENVIRONM ENT AND SUSTAINAB BY JYTZIL MAE S. LAURON, LPT ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ENVIRONMENT is everything around you. It includes energy from the sun and all the living things and the non living things with which you interact. Our life depends on the environment and other components of the planet’s life-support system. ENVIRONMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE is a study of connections in the natural SCIENCE environment nature. an interdisciplinary study of how the earth works and has survived and thrived how humans interact with the environment, and how humans can live more sustainably WHAT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS DO WE FACE? HOW SERIOUS ARE THEY? WHAT ARE THEIR CAUSES? HOW CAN WE SOLVE SUCH I. KEY PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY 3 SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY 1.SOLAR ENERGY The sun’s energy warms the planet and provides energy that plants and animals need to survive.  3 SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY 2. BIODIVERSIT The variety of gebes, species, ecosystems, and ecosystem proceeses are reffered to as biodiversity (biological diversity). Interactions among species provide vital Y ecosystem services and any population from growing too large. Biodiversity also provides ways for species to adapt to changing environmental conditions and for new species to arise and replace those wiped out by catastrophic environmental changes.  3 SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY 3. CHEMICAL CYCLING The circulation of nutrients from the environment (from soil and water) through various organisms and back to the environment. The earth receives a continuous supply of energy from the sun but it receives no new supplies of life-supporting chemicals. This means that the wastes and decayed bodies of organisms becomes nutrients or raw material for other organisms.  KEY COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 1.NATURAL CAPITAL NATURAL RESOURCES and ECOSYSTEM services that keep humans and other species alive that support human economics. NATURAL RESOURCES - materials and energy provided by nature that are essential or useful to humans. inexhaustible resource - expected to last forever on a human timescale. Ex. solar energy - can last for atleast 5 billion years until the death of the star we call the sun. renewable resources - can be used repeatedly because it is replenished through natural processes. Ex. Forest, grassland, fishes, clean air, and fresh  KEY COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 1.NATURAL CAPITAL NATURAL RESOURCES and ECOSYSTEM services that keep humans and other species alive that support human economics. NATURAL RESOURCES - materials and energy provided by nature that are essential or useful to humans. nonrenewable or exhaustible resources - exist in a fixed amount, or stock, in the earth’s crust. It takes millions to billions of years to form through geological processes. Ex. oil, natural gas, coal, and metallic mineral resources such as copper and alluminum.  KEY COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 1.NATURAL CAPITAL NATURAL RESOURCES and ECOSYSTEM services that keep humans and other species alive that support human economics. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES - natural services provided by healthy ecosystems that support life and human economies at no monetary cost. Ex. forest help purify air and water, reduce soil erosion, regulate climate, and recycle nutrients. Without nutrient cycling in topsoil, there would be no land plants, no pollinators, and no food for us and other animals.  KEY COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 2. HUMAN ACTIVITIES CAN DEGRADE Many human activities add pollutants to the air and dump chemicals and wastes NATURAL CAPITAL into rivers, lakes and oceans faster that they can be cleansed through natural processes. Ex. plastics and either synthetic materials people use can poison wild life and disrupt nutrient cycling because they cannot broken down and used as nutrients by other organisms.  KEY COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 3. FINDING SOLUTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL People can work together to protect the earth’s natural capital and to use it PROBLEMS sustainably. Ex. solution to the loss of forests is to stop burning or cutting down mature forests faster than they can grow back.  KEY COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 4. TRADE-OFFS Conflicts can arise when environmental protection has negative economic effect on groups of people or certain industries. Dealing with such conflicts often involves both sides making compromises or trade- offs. Ex. A timber company might be persuaded to plant and harvest trees in an area that it had already cleared or degraded instead of clearning an undisturbed area of a mature forest. In return, the government may subsidize (pay part of the cost of) planting new trees.  KEY COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY 5. INDIVIDUALS MATTER Each individual - including you - plays an important role in learning how to live more sustainably. THREE ADDITIONAL PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY 1.FULL-COST PRICING From ECONOMICS - some economist urge us to find ways to include in market prices the harmful environmental and health cost of producing and using goods and services. It give consumers information about the harmful environmental impacts of the goods and services they use. THREE ADDITIONAL PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY 2. WIN-WIN SOLUTIONS From POLITICAL SCIENCE - political scientist urge us to look for win-win solutions to environmental problems, based on cooperation and compromise, that will benefit the largest number of people as well as the environment. THREE ADDITIONAL PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY 3. RESPONSIBILI TY TO From ETHICS - ethics is a branch of philophy devoted to studying ideas about what is right and what is wrong. FUTURE According to environmental ethicists, we have a responsibility to leave the planet’s life- support systems in a condition as good as or GENERATION better than what we inherited for the benefit of future generations for other species. ii. WHAT CAUSES ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS?  CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS THE HUMAN POPULATION IS GROWING AT A EXPONENTIAL GROWTH - occurs when a quantity increases at a fixed percentage oer unit of time, such as 0.5% or 2% per year. It grows to RAPID RATE enormous numbers because each rate of growth seems small, it added 89.7 million people to the world’s 7.4 billion people. No one knows how much average resource consumption per person will seriously degrade the planet’s natural capital. To reduce this some wayas includes reducing poverty through economic development, promoting family planning, and elevating the status of women.  CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AFFLUENCE AND UNSUSTAINABLE RESOURCE USE The lifestyles of many of the world’s expanding population of consumers are built on growing affluence, or resource consumption per person, as more people earn higher incomes. As total resource consumtion and average resource consumption per person increase, so do environmental degradation, resource waste, and pollution, unless individuals can live more sustainably.  CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS POVERTY HAS HARMFUL ENVIRONMENTAL & HEALTH Poverty is a condition in which people lack enough money to fulfill their basic needs for EFFECTS food, water, shelter, health care, and education. According to World Bank, about one of every three people, or 2.5 billion people, struggled to live on the equivalent of less than $3.10 a day in 2014. Nearly 900 million people live in extreme poverty on the equivalent of less than $1.90 a day. less than what many people spend for a bottle of water or a cup of coffee.  CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS POVERTY HAS HARMFUL ENVIRONMENTAL & HEALTH Poverty causes a number of harmful environmental and health effects. People are too EFFECTS desperate for short-term survival to worry about long-term environmantal quality or sustainability. Thus, they may degrade forests, topsoil, and grasslands, and deplete fisheries and wildlife population to stay alive.  CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS PRICES OF GOODS & SERVICES RARELY INCLUDE THEIR HARMFUL Companies using resources to provide goods for ENVIRONMENTAL & consumers generally are not required to pay for most of the harmful environmental and health HEALTH COSTS costs of supplying such goods. Ex. Timber companies pay the cost of clear- cutting forests but do not pay for the resulting environmental degradation and loss of wildlife habitat.  CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS PRICES OF GOODS & SERVICES RARELY INCLUDE THEIR HARMFUL Problem arises when governments companies subsidies such as tax breaks and give ENVIRONMENTAL & payments to assist them with using resources to run their businesses. This helps to create jobs HEALTH COSTS and stimulate economies, but environmentally harmful subsidies encourage the depletion and degradation of natural capital. But if the goods people buy and if we place a monetary value on the natural capital that supports all economies. Such full-cost pricing is a powerful economic tool and is one of the 6  CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS PEOPLE ARE INCREASINGLY ISOLATED FROM Urban environments and the increasing use of cellphones, compters, and other electronic NATURE devices are isolating people, especially children, from the natural world. This has led to a phenomenon called nature deficict disorder. People with disorder may suffer from stress, anxiety, depression, and other problems. Research indicates that experiencing nature can reduce stress, improve mental abilities, activate one’s imagination and creativity, and lead to better health.  CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS PEOPLE ARE INCREASINGLY ISOLATED FROM Research shows that when people are isolated from nature, they are less likely to act in ways NATURE that will lessen their harmful environmental impacts because they are not aware of their impacts.  iii. WHAT IS AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE  WHAT IS AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY? PROTECTING NATURAL CAPITAL & LIVING ON ITS An environmentally sustainable society protects natural capital and lives on its income. INCOMES “Protect your capital and live on the income it provides” - deplete or waste and you will move from a sustainable to an unsustainable lifestlyle. Living sustainably means living on natural income, which is renewable resources. By preserving and replenishing the earth’s natural capital that supplies this natural income, people can reduce their ecological footprint and expand their beneficial environmental impact.  ASSIGNMENT!! WRITE YOUR ANSWERS ON YOUR EXLAIN WHY YOUNOTEBOOK AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING PROPOSITIONS: 1.Stabilizing population is not desirable because, without more consumers, economic growth would stop. 2.The world will never run out resources because we can use technology to find substitutes and to help us reduce resource waste. 3.We can shrink our ecological footprints whikle creating beneficial environmental