2. 1.1 The Nature of Environmental
Science
Environmental science is interdisciplinary, and
includes scientific and social aspects of human
impact on the world.
• It is a mixture of traditional science, individual and
societal values, and political awareness.
3. 1.1 The Nature of Environmental
Science
Environment is
everything that affects
an organism during its
lifetime.
Environmental science
4. Interrelatedness Is a Core Concept
Interrelatedness among seeming unrelated
factors.
Tug on anything at all and you’ll find it
connected to everything else in the universe.
John Muir
5. Interrelatedness Is a Core Concept
The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone
National Park has resulted in many changes.
6. Interrelatedness Is a Core Concept
The Yellowstone wolves are connected to social,
economic, and political realms of human activity.
Wolves caused
• water flow changes in the park
• increases in willow and aspen trees, songbirds, foxes,
rodents, hawks, and owls.
• Coyote and elk have declined
Ranchers could lose money if wolves killed
livestock.
7. Decision Making in Ecology
Interrelatedness also exists in environmental
problems
Many factors impact decisions to handle these
problems
• These factors are interrelated
Political
Economic
Ethics
8. Emerging Global Issues
Air pollution
Political
• China air pollution
affects U.S.
Economic
• Companies move
to regions with less
restrictive policies
Ethical
• People in these countries (regions) suffer from
diseases due to air pollution
9. Regional Issues
Extensive flooding of Mississippi or drought in
California
Political
• Impacts on one body of water
can affects multiple states
Economic
• Developmental strategies ignore
Ecosystem needs
• Hurricane Katrina and destruction
of coastal wetlands
Ethical
• Endangering animal and human
life
11. 2.2 Environmental Ethics
Ethics is one branch of philosophy; it seeks to
define what is right and what is wrong.
• can help us understand what actions are wrong and
why they are wrong.
Not all cultures share the same ethical
commitments.
Despite the presence of some differences, there
are many cases in which ethical commitments
can and should be globally agreed upon.
12. Ethics and Laws
In the case of environmental issues,
• when it is appropriate to legislate something ?
• when action should be left to the individual‟s sense of
right and wrong?
Recycling?
13. Conflicting Ethical Positions
Sometimes an individual‟s ethical commitments
can conflict with each other.
• A mayor might have an ethical commitment to
preserving land in a city but
• Also have an ethical commitment to bringing in jobs
associated with construction of a new factory.
In many cases, what is good for the environment
is also good for people.
• While forest protection may reduce logging jobs, a
healthier forest might lead to new jobs in recreation,
fisheries, and tourism.
14. Three Philosophical Approaches to
Environmental Ethics
Anthropocentrism (human-centered)
• This view holds that all environmental responsibility is
derived from human interests.
– Assumes that only humans are morally significant.
– Assumes nature is an instrument for human manipulation.
15. Three Philosophical Approaches to
Environmental Ethics
Biocentrism (life-centered)
• All life forms have an inherent right to exist.
16. Three Philosophical Approaches to
Environmental Ethics
Ecocentrism
• This view maintains that the environment deserves
direct moral consideration,
• not consideration derived from human or animal
interests.
18. 2.4 Environmental Justice
Environmental justice as fair treatment,
meaning:
• “No group of people, including racial, ethnic, or
socioeconomic groups, should bear a
disproportionate share of the negative environmental
consequences
• industrial, municipal, and commercial operations
– (landfills, toxic waste facilities, chemical plants)
• Environmental justice is closely related to civil rights.
19. 2.4 Environmental Justice
The direct action in Warren County, NC, marked the birth of the environmental
justice movement in the U.S.
20. 2.4 Environmental Justice
Cases in our own backyard
North Omaha
• Coal power plant
• 16th worst environmental justice offender
• http://www.naacp.org/pages/coal-blooded1
• https://www.facebook.com/OmahaBeyondCoal
21. 2.4 Environmental Justice
Environmental justice encompasses a wide
range of issues, including:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Where to place hazardous and polluting facilities
Transportation
Safe housing, lead poisoning, and water quality
Access to recreation and environmental info
Exposure to noise pollution
Exposure to natural disasters (e.g., Hurricane Katrina)
• Jobs are created…but how to compare benefit
w/loss?
23. Aldo Leopold
Land ethic
• Sand county almanac
• “We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce
green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have
known ever since, that there was something new to
me in those eyes—something known only to her and
to the mountain. I was young then, and full of triggeritch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more
deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise.
But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that
neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a
view.”
- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4edMwhmRvz
24. 2.5 Societal Environmental Ethics
Environmental ethic product of individuals,
businesses, and national leaders
Western societies have long acted as if the earth
has:
• Unlimited reserves of natural resources.
• An unlimited ability to assimilate wastes.
• “growth mania”
When will it be „enough‟?
25. 2. 6 Corporate Environmental Ethics
Economic growth and resource exploitation were
the dominant orientations
Change through Corporate environmental
ethics
• Primary purpose is to generate a financial return
(profit) for its shareholders,
• Shareholders, employees or executives can demand
an environmental ethic
26.
27. Is There a Corporate
Environmental Ethic?
If corporation follow unethical environmental
practices
• Release industrial wastes into river
• Public is the one that suffers
Corporations can be encouraged into adopting
more environmentally friendly practices
http://www.ceres.org/companynetwork/company-directory
28. Is There a Corporate
Environmental Ethic?
In 1997, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
was established.
At least 2000 companies around the world
voluntarily report information on their economic,
environmental, and social policies.
https://www.globalreporting.org/reporting/reportservices/featured-reports/Pages/default.aspx
29. 2.7 Individual Environmental Ethics
Ethical changes in society and business must
start with individuals.
Our individual actions have a bearing on
environmental quality
• Each of us bears some responsibility for the quality of
the environment in which we live.
Individual choices can make a difference
30. 2.8 The Ethics of Consumption
North Americans represent 5% of the world‟s
population.
• North Americans consume one-fourth of the world‟s
oil.
• They use more water and own more cars than
anybody else.
• They waste more food than most people in subSaharan Africa eat.
31. 2.9 Personal Choices
Lifestyle changes that significantly reduce their
personal impact on the planet.
• Eating food produced locally
• Eating food that is low on the food chain
(fruits/vegies)
• Buying durable consumer products
• And reusing or repairing products with usable life
reduces the raw materials that must be extracted from
the ground.
32. 2.9 Personal Choices
• Conserving energy at home and on the road can
lessen the amount of fossil fuels used to support your
lifestyle.
• Lobbying for protection of wild areas
• Voting for officials who take environmental issues
seriously
– https://www.facebook.com/pages/League-of-WomenVoters-of-Greater-Omahas-Douglas-County-VotersGuide/109817185721956
33. Ecological footprint
Help individuals measure their environmental
impact
www.earthday.org/footprint/info.asp
35. 3.3 Environmental Economics
Economics
• study of how people choose to use resources to
produce goods and services,
• and how those goods and services are distributed to
the public.
• How are resources distributed?
• Businesses must know the economics of the
environment!
36. Resources
Economists look at resources as the available
supply of something that can be used.
There are three categories of resources:
• Labor (human resources)
• Capital (technology and knowledge)
• Land (natural resources)
37. Resources
Natural resources
• structures and processes humans can use for their
own purposes but cannot create.
– Wind, sunlight, rainfall
• Renewable resources
– can be formed or regenerated by natural processes.
• Nonrenewable resources
– are not replaced by natural processes, or the rate of
replacement is so slow as to be ineffective.
38.
39. Assigning Value to Natural Resources
We assign value to natural resources based on
our perception of their relative scarcity.
• If a natural resource has always been rare, it is
expensive (gold)
• If the supply is very large and the demand is low, the
resource is often perceived to be free (sunlight)
• Even renewable resources can be overexploited
– (fish, wildlife, forests)
40. Ecosystem Services
Ecosystems are a tangible source of economic
wealth
The challenge lies in disentangling complex
natural systems into more discrete commodity
units
• Translate ecosystem value into something tangible?
– Ask questions
– Use people’s behavior?
41. Ecosystem Services
But under uncertainties….
• Different value sets
It is possible to weight the benefits from an
activity such as dam construction
against its negative impacts
• on fishing
• livelihoods of nearby communities
• and changes to aesthetic values
42. Environmental Costs
How do you weight the costs?
Environmental costs of resource exploitation
•
•
•
•
Pollution
Species extinction
Resource depletion
and loss of scenic quality
43. Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost-benefit analysis
• method of assessing costs and benefits of competing
uses of a resource
• and deciding which is most effective.
• Reduce Lead in drinking water
– Costs = $125 million
– Benefits = 1 billion
46. Economic tools to address
Environmental problems
High degree of protection at low cost
Give entrepreneurs choice of most economical
• Tradable emissions permits give companies the
right to emit specified amounts of pollutants.
– Permits can be sold or banked for future use.
– Used frequently by carb carbon emissions in Europe
– Cap and Trade http://www.edf.org/climate/how-capand-trade-works
47. Market-Based Instruments
• Emission fees and taxes provide incentives for
environmental improvement by making damaging
activities and products more expensive.
• Performance bonds are fees collected to ensure
proper care is taken to protect environmental
resources.
48. 3.5 Economics and Sustainable
Development
So many humans!
• So much pollution
• Earth is one big ecosystem
– Air pollution from U.S. can affect people in Asia
– The decisions our ancestors made, affect us today
How do we sustain human life and not destroy
all the resources for us and our children?
49. Sustainable development
Sustainable development
• meets present needs without compromising the
needs of future generations
• Keep natural resources
• Maintain human living standards
• Example: Solar Energy
50. 3.5 Economics and Sustainable
Development
Schools of thought:
• Economic growth finances the investments necessary
to prevent pollution
• Science and technological advances can solve many
environmental problems (wind, solar, geothermal)
• Economic and environmental well-being are mutually
reinforcing
51. 3.5 Economics and Sustainable
Development
High-income developed nations with high
education levels are in a position to promote
sustainable development
• http://www.mccneb.edu/cps/green/
Transfer of modern, environmentally sound
technology to developing nations
55. Fertilization use
Midwest
Political
Economic
• Doubled food production in last 40 years
Ethical
• Prices of fertilizer entwined with prices of oil
• Some farmers cannot avoid fertilizers
56. Water use
Western U.S.
Politics
• Pumped from Colorado River to Salt Lake City,
Denver, Los Angeles
• 30 million people rely on its water
Economics
Ethics
• Reduced water table
• Reduction Colorado river basin
– Plant and animal life
58. Great Lakes example
Political:
8 U.S. states, 2
Canadian provinces,
Native American tribes
Economic:
Ethical:
pollution, exotic
species, over fishing
59. 10 Things You Can Do to Protect Your
Environment
1. Reduce driving
2. Save electricity
3. Recycle
4. Conserve water
5. Safely dispose of hazardous waste
60. 10 Things You Can Do to Protect Your
Environment
6. Eat locally
7. Donate reusable items
8. Buy in bulk
9. Learn how to avoid the use of insect
repellants
10. Be an informed and active citizen