Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Alone in space, alone in its life-supporting systems, powered
by inconceivable energies, mediating them to us through the
most delicate adjustments, wayward, unlikely, unpredictable,
but nourishing, enlivening, and enriching in the largest de-
gree—is this not a precious home for all of us? Is it not worth
our love?
B ARBARA W ARD AND R ENÉ D UBOS
1-1
LIVING MORE SUSTAINABLY
Environmental Science and
Environmentalism
Environmental science is a study of how the earth
works, how we interact with the earth, and how to
deal with environmental problems.
Environment is everything that affects a living organ-
ism (any unique form of life). Ecology is a biological
science that studies the relationships between living
organisms and their environment.
This textbook is an introduction to environmental
science, an interdisciplinary study that uses informa-
tion from the physical sciences (such as biology, chem-
istry, and geology) and social sciences (such as eco-
nomics, politics, and ethics) to learn how the earth
works, how humans interact with the earth, and how
to deal with the environmental problems we face. En-
vironmentalism is a social movement dedicated to
protecting the earth's life support systems for us and
other species.
This chapter presents an overview of environmental
problems, their causes, and ways we can live more
sustainably. It discusses these questions:
What are the six major themes of this topic?
What keeps us alive? What is an environmentally
sustainable society?
How fast is the human population increasing?
What is the difference between economic growth
and economic development?
What are the earth's main types of resources? How
can they be depleted or degraded?
What are the principal types of pollution, and
what can we do about pollution?
A Path to Sustainability: Major Themes
of This Topic
The central theme of this topic is sustainability.
It is built on the subthemes of natural capital,
natural capital degradation, solutions, trade-offs,
and individuals matter and is supported by sound
science.
Sustainability is the ability of the earth's various sys-
tems, including human cultural systems and econo-
mies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental
conditions. Figure 1-2 shows the steps along a path to
sustainability, based on the subthemes for this topic.
The first step is to sustain the earth's natural capi-
tal —the natural resources and natural services that
keep us and other species alive and support our
economies (Figure 1-3).
The first step toward sustainability is to under-
stand the components and importance of natural capi-
tal and the natural or biological income it provides
(Figure 1-2, Step 1). To economists, capital is wealth
used to sustain a business and to generate more
wealth. Invested financial capital can provide us with
financial income. For example, suppose you invest
$100,000 of capital and get a 10% return on your
money. In one year you will get $10,000 in income
from interest and increase your wealth to $110,000.
By analogy, the renewable resources that make up
part of the earth's natural capital (Figure 1-3, left) can
provide us with renewable biological income indefi-
nitely as long as we do not use these resources faster
than they are renewed by nature. For example, natural
What are the basic causes of today's environ-
mental problems, and how are these causes
connected?
What are the harmful environmental effects of
poverty and affluence?
What major cultural changes have taken place
since humans arrived?
Is our current course sustainable? What is environ-
mentally sustainable development?
KEY IDEAS
Our lives and economies depend on energy from
the sun and the earth's natural resources and natural
services (natural capital) that nature provides for us at
no cost.
Today we are living unsustainably by depleting and
degrading the earth's natural capital that supports us
and our economies.
The major causes of our environmental problems
are population growth, wasteful resource use, pov-
erty, failure to appreciate the value of the earth's
natural capital, and ignorance about how the earth
works.
We have 50-100 years to make a transition to
more sustainable human societies that mimic how
the earth has sustained itself for billions of years.
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