Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Causes of Environmental Problems
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
Figure 1-10
Natural capital depletion and degradation:
five basic causes of the environmental problems we
face.
Critical thinking: can you think of any other basic causes?
wood and dung), haul drinking water, tend crops and
livestock, work, and beg in the streets. The children
also help their parents survive in their old age before
they die, typically in their fifties in the poorest coun-
tries. The poor do not have retirement plans, social se-
curity, or government-sponsored health plans.
Many of the world's desperately poor die prema-
turely from four preventable health problems. The first
problem is
malnutrition,
caused by a lack of protein and
other nutrients needed for good health (Figure 1-12).
The second problem is increased susceptibility to nor-
mally nonfatal infectious diseases, such as diarrhea
and measles, caused by their weakened condition from
malnutrition. A third factor is lack of access to clean
drinking water. A fourth factor is severe respiratory
disease and premature death from inhaling indoor air
pollutants produced by burning wood or coal for heat
and cooking in open fires or in poorly vented stoves.
According to the World Health Organization, these
four factors cause premature death for at least 7 million
poor people each year or about 800 people per hour.
This premature death of about 19,200 humans per day
is equivalent to 48 fully loaded 400-passenger jumbo jet
planes crashing every day with no survivors!
Two-thirds
of those dying are children younger than age 5. The
daily news rarely covers this ongoing human tragedy.
Economics: Poverty and
Environmental Problems
Poverty is a major threat to human health and the
environment.
Many of the world's poor do not have access to the basic
necessities for a healthy, productive, and decent life (see
Figure 1-11). Their daily lives are focused on getting
enough food, water, and fuel to survive. Desperate for
land to grow enough food, many of the world's poor
people deplete and degrade forests, soil, grasslands,
and wildlife for short-term survival. They do not have
the luxury of worrying about long-term environmental
quality or sustainability.
Poverty also affects population growth. Poor peo-
ple often have many children as a form of economic se-
curity. Their children help them gather fuel (mostly
Lack of
access to
Number of people
(% of world's population)
Adequate
sanitation
2.4 billion (37%)
Enough fuel for
heating and
cooking
2 billion (31%)
Electricity
1.6 billion (25%)
Clean drinking
water
Economics and Ethics: Resource Consumption
and Environmental Problems
Many consumers in developed countries
have become addicted to buying more and
more stuff in their search for fulfillment and
happiness.
Affluenza
(“af-loo-EN-zuh”) is a term used to describe
the unsustainable addiction to overconsumption and
materialism exhibited in the lifestyles of affluent con-
sumers in the United States and other developed coun-
1.1 billion (17%)
Adequate
health care
1.1 billion (17%)
Enough food
for good health
1.1 billion (17%)
Figure 1-11
Natural capital degradation:
some harmful results
of poverty.
Critical thinking: which two of these effects do you
believe are the most harmful?
(Data from United Nations, World
Bank, and World Health Organization)
