Resources Renewable and Nonrenewable DO NOW 1.What processes add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere? 2.What processes remove it from the atmosphere? 3.How does burning fossil fuels affect the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? What is an environmentally sustainable society? An environmentally sustainable society meets the basic resources of its people without degrading or depleting the natural capital that supplies these resources. Imagine you win $1 million dollars in the lottery. Is it possible to live in an environmentally sustainable society? The worlds population is growing at a rate of about 1.25% a year. 219,000 people a day 9,100 people every hour 9 billion people by 2050 36 billion people by 2300 Is it a necessity to live in an environmentally sustainable society? Humans use the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. By 2030 well need two Earths to support us. We are turning resources into waste faster than waste can be turned back into resources. Puts us in global ecological overshoot, depleting the very resources on which human life and biodiversity depend. What are the types of resources? A resource is anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants. Renewable: Resources that can be replenished through natural processes (water cycle, trees, and others) Nonrenewable: Exist in a fixed quantity (fossil fuels, minerals) Resources renew by natural processes are sustainable if we do not use them faster than they are replenished. Sustainable yield is the highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely. Environmental degradation occurs when we exceed a renewable resources natural replacement rate Think About It Over an average lifetime, each American will burn 31,350 gallons of gasoline. read 5,054 newspapers equaling 43 trees. discard 64 tons of garbage use 1.8 million gallons of water Through technology, humans now have the power to change the local and global systems on which all living things depend. What effect are humans having on the global climate? What can you do to reduce your environmental impact? Where do pollutants come from and what are their effect? Pollutants are chemicals that cause harm to people or other organisms. Natural (volcanic eruptions) Anthropogenic (burning fossil fuels) Pollutant have three types of unwanted effects Disrupt or degrade life-support systems Damage wildlife, human health, and property Nuisance Pollution does not respect boundaries. Point sources of pollution are single, identifiable sources. Nonpoint sources of pollution are dispersed and difficult to identify. What are the key environmental problems? Major Environmental Problems Air Pollution Biodiversity Depletion Water Pollution Waste Production Food Supply Problems What are some causes of environmental problems? Rapid population growth Unsustainable resource use Poverty Not including the environmental costs of economic goods and services in their market prices Trying to manage and simplify nature with too little knowledge about how it works Air Pollution Global climate change Stratospheric ozone depletion Urban air pollution Acid deposition Outdoor and indoor pollutants Noise Biodiversity Depletion Habitat destruction 42% of the planet's entire terrestrial net primary productivity 50% of all freshwater Habitat degradation Extinction Extinction rate is up to 30,000 species per year. That's three per hour!!! Water Pollution Sediment Nutrient overload Toxic chemicals Infectious agents Oxygen depletion Pesticides Oil spills Excess heat Eutrophication Waste Production Solid waste Hazardous waste Landfills The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Food Supply Problems Overgrazing Wetland loss and degradation Overfishing Coastal pollution Soil erosion Soil salinization Water shortages Groundwater depletion Poor nutrition Biomagnification and Pollutants Biomagnification! 2:04 min Bioaccumilation and Biomagnification 1:22 min 10 Crash Course Ecology 5 Human Impacts on the Environment 10:37min Hank gives the run down on the top five ways humans are negatively impacting the environment and having detrimental effects on the valuable ecosystem services which a healthy biosphere provides. 11 Crash Course - Ecology Pollution 9:21 Hank talks about the last major way humans are impacting the environment in this penultimate episode of Crash Course Ecology. Pollution takes many forms - from the simplest piece of litter to the more complex endocrine disruptors - and ultimately, humans are responsible for it all.
