🥰APES QUEST 1

Sources of Point

Point source
- smoke stack
Non-point source
- pesticides blown into the air

Main types of pollutants

Based on persistence and degradability
- Biodegradable
- Non-degradable

5.1: The Tragedy of the Commons

Garrett Hardin wrote “The Tragedy of the Commons” in 1968.
- The essay parallels what is happening worldwide in regards to resource depletion and pollution.
serves as a foundation for modern $**conservation**$
- the management or regulation of a resource so that its use does not exceed the capacity of the resource to regenerate itself
PRESERVATION
- maintenance of a species or ecosystem to ensure their perpetuation, with no concern as to their potential monetary value
THREE TYPES OF PROPERTY OR RESOURCE RIGHTS
- private property
- owned by individuals or businesses
- common property
- public parks
- open access renewable resources
- oceans

^^common property and open access resources can be degraded from over use^^

The seas, air, water, animals, and minerals are all “the commons” and are for humans to use, but those who exploit them become rich.
- natural resources are described in terms of their value as ecosystem capital or natural capital.
The following environmental issues echo "The Tragedy of the Commons" sustainability issues:
- Air pollution
- Burning of fossil fuels and consequential global warming
- Frontier logging of old-growth forests and the practice of “slash and burn”
- Habitat destruction and poaching
- Over-extraction of groundwater and wastewater due to excessive irrigation
- Overfishing
- Overpopulation
Limits to “The Tragedy of the Commons” include the following:
- Dividing a "commons" into privately owned parcels fragments its policies.
- Different standards and practices on one parcel may or may not affect all parcels. Environmental decisions are long-term, while economic decisions are short-term.
- Investors would be encouraged to pay a short-term price for a long-term gain by including discount rates in resource valuation.
- Market pressure affects privately owned land.
- Controlling some "commons" is easier than others. Air and the open oceans are harder to control than land, lakes, rangeland, deserts, and forests.

RENEWABLE RESOURCES

resources that can be regenerated quickly, such as plants and animals
- Water is an abiotic substance that’s renewable because it can be used over and over again because sources of water are replenished naturally through the water cycle.
- NATURAL resources of energy
- unwind. and the tides
  - their occurrence in nature is perpetual and not depleted with use
reliance on solar energy
- the sun provides warmth and fuels photosynthesis

NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES

resources that do not regenerate quickly, such as minerals and fossil fuels.
- typically formed by very slow geologic processes, so we consider them incapable of being regenerated within the realm of human existence

Consumption

of natural resources refers to the day-to-day use of environmental resources such as food, clothing, and housing.

Production

refers to the use of environmental resources for profit

]]Earth is an open system with regard to energy bc of the sun]]

}}Earth is a closed system with regard to matter bc matter is never created nor destroyed}}

Biodiversity

astounding variety and adaptability of natural systems and species

Chemical cycling (also called nutrient cycle)

circulation of chemicals from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment

5 R’s

Refuse
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Repurpose

5.11: Ecological Footprints

Ecological Footprint: A measure of human demand on Earth’s ecosystems and is a standardized measure of demand for natural capital that may be contrasted with the planet’s ecological capacity to regenerate.
- It represent the amount of biologically productive land and sea area that is necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, and to assimilate associated waste.

5.12: Sustainability

Sustainability: It refers to the capacity for the biosphere and human civilization to coexist through the balance of resources within their environment.
- To ensure that available resources are never depleted faster than those resources can be replaced.
$Humans degrade natural capital$
- natural capital : supported by solar capital
IPAT formula
- I = P × A × T
Sustainable agricultural practices, reducing consumption and waste, universal fishing quotas, and collaborative water management is needed to solve environmental issues caused by unsustainable resource use and pollution.
Sustainable yield - the amount of a renewable resource that can be taken without reducing the available supply
Economic growth: increase in output of a nation’s goods and services
Unsustainable: footprint is larger than biological capacity for replenishment
Per Capital
- per person
Per Capita GPD: one measure of economic development

Less-Developed Countries

increase in the population size of major cities has many very negative effects
- deficiency of housing or habitable areas for the burgeoning population
- poverty affects of environmental quality b/c to survive many will deplete and degrade forests, grasslands, soils, and wildlife
53% of world survives on less $1/day
GDP
- annual market of all goods and services produced by all businesses, foreign, and domestic operating within a country

Affluence

developed countries where the people that live in it privileged
19% of pop uses 88% of its resources

Natural resources: useful materials and energy in nature

Nature services: important natural processes such as renewal of air, water, and soil

6.1: Introduction to Energy

Energy: Defined as the fundamental entity of nature that is transferred between parts of a system in the production of physical change within the system and is usually regarded as the capacity for doing work.
Sun: The source of energy for most of life on Earth.
- It is heated to high temperatures by the conversion of nuclear energy to heat in its core by the process of nuclear fusion.
Human civilization requires energy to function. Humans obtain energy from resources such as fossil fuels, nuclear fuel, or renewable energy.
Energy efficiency: measure of how much work results from each unit of energy put into a system

Forms of Energy

Chemical energy: It is stored in bonds between atoms in a molecule.
Electrical energy: It results from the motion of electrons.
Electromagnetic energy: This energy travels by waves.
Mechanical energy: Consists of potential and kinetic energies.
- Potential Energy: Stored energy in any object.
- Kinetic energy: Energy in motion.
Nuclear energy: It is stored in the nuclei of atoms, and it is released by either splitting or joining atoms.
Thermal Energy: the energy an object has because of the movement of its molecules.

Units of Energy/Power

British thermal unit (Btu): It is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1°F.
- Btu/hr: A ton in many air conditioning applications.
Horsepower (HP): Used in automobile industries.
- 1 HP = 746 watts
Kilowatt hour (kWh): A unit of power; a measure of energy used at a give moment.
- A billing unit of energy delivered to consumers by electric utilities.

Law of Thermodynamics

First Law of Thermodynamics: The law of conservation of energy; energy can't be created nor destroyed.
Second Law of Thermodynamics: The total system work is always less than the heat supplied into the system.
- heat is lost in energy-- within transfers
- entropy is measure of this disorder
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics: If a body A is in thermal equilibrium with another body B, and body A is also in thermal equilibrium with a body C, then this implies that the bodies B and C are also in equilibrium with each other.

6.2: Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources

Renewable energy: Defined as energy that is collected from resources that are naturally replenished on a human time scale.
- %%Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas%%, in contrast to other energy sources that are concentrated in a limited number of countries.
Nonrenewable Energy Sources: Their use is not sustainable because their formation takes billions of years like fossil fuels.
Arguments used to defend the continued use of fossil fuels include the following:
- Abundant supply, resulting in relatively low prices for consumers
- Concentrated fuel with a high net-energy yield
- Infrastructure already in place for extraction, processing, and delivery
- Politics
- Technology already exists for their use.
Natural gas: A fossil fuel formed when layers of buried plants and gases are exposed to intense heat and pressure over thousands of years.

Four basic causes of Environmental Problems

population growth
waste and unsustainable resource use
poverty
failure to include the harmful environmental costs of goods and services in market prices

Harmful effects of poverty:

lack of access to electricity, clean drinking water, adequate health care, enough fuel for heating and cooking

Affluence: harmful and beneficial environmental effects

Harmful

high levels of consumption
high levels of pollution
unnecessary waste of resources

Positive

can provide funding for developing technologies to reduce
- pollution
- environmental degradation
- resource waste

Prices do not include the value of natural capital

$Natural capital is any natural resource (including plants, animals, minerals, and ecosystems) that provides functions that produce ecosystem goods and services.$

companies do not pay the environmental cost of resource use
goods and services do not include the harmful environmental costs
companies receive tax breaks and subsidies
economy may be stimulated but there may be a degradation of natural capital

Two ways to solve the environmental problem

taxes and fines; subsidies and tax breaks
education