GEO200_Lecture1

Sustainability & Environmental Science

Environmental Science

• Definition: The study of how humans interact with both the living (plants, animals, bacteria) and nonliving (air, water, energy) environment.

Global Change

• Understanding Global Change involves:

  • What?

    • Combustion of fossil fuels.

    • Destruction of forest resources.

    • Damming of watercourses.

    • Significant changes in land-use patterns.

  • How?

    • Pressures of globalization, with industrialization being a major contributor, lead to severe environmental issues.

Sustainability

Defining Sustainability

• Sustainable Development:

  • Definition: "Development that meets the needs of the present without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

  • Origin: Defined in the Bruntland Commission's 1987 report "Our Common Future" by Gro Harlem Bruntland, former Prime Minister of Norway.

The Concept of Sustainable Development

• Three Pillars (3 E's):

  1. Environment: Decisions must be environmentally sound, not harming or depleting natural resources.

  2. Economy: Economically viable decisions must consider long-term environmental and societal costs.

  3. Equity: Decisions should reflect societal needs and ensure costs and benefits are shared among all groups.

Vision of Sustainable Development

• Sustainable development aims to balance economic growth, environmental impacts, and social equity.

• Examples & initiatives are encouraged to illustrate this balance.

Fair Trade

• Definition: Trade that respects workers' rights and minimizes negative environmental impacts.

Development as a Barrier to Sustainability

• Critics argue:

  • Sustainable development may primarily lead to degradation.

  • Numerical Analysis: High CO2 emissions per capita vs. low emissions and their impact.

  • Notable Quote: R.K. Turner states, "It makes no sense to talk about the sustainable use of a non-renewable resource."

Campus Sustainability Initiatives

• Encourage awareness and identification of sustainability efforts on campus.

Ecosystems & Biomes

• Ecosystem: Totality of interactions among organisms within a specific environment; studies energy flow between living and non-living systems.

Biogeochemical Cycles

• Historically, Earth's atmospheric and hydrospheric composition has remained unchanged, leading to grand cycles:

  • Photosynthesis, Hydrologic Cycle, Carbon Cycle, Oxygen Cycle, Nitrogen Cycle.

• Human impacts negatively affect these cycles.

Photosynthesis

• Process by which plants convert sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water into oxygen and chemical energy.

Energy Flow in the Biosphere

• Involves the flow of solar energy through the ecosystem and how organisms utilize it:

  • Plants trap solar energy through photosynthesis, forming the basis of energy transfer.

Ecosystem Components

• Biotic components: Focuses on living organisms:

  • Producers (plants), Consumers (animals), Decomposers (bacteria, fungi).

• Abiotic components: Refers to non-living factors:

  • Insolation, Precipitation, Soil chemistry, Atmospheric cycles.

Ecosystem Services

• Definition: Benefits wildlife or ecosystems provide to humans.

• Example services:

  • Pollination, Decomposition, Water purification, Erosion control, Carbon storage, Climate regulation.

Types of Ecosystem Services

1. Supporting Services: Food, soil formation, biodiversity.

2. Provisioning Services: Clean water, wood, pollination, habitat.

3. Regulating Services: Climate regulation, flood control, water purification.

4. Cultural Services: Recreation, education, aesthetic benefits.

High-Consumption Economy

• Characterized by:

  • High-quality energy inputs fed into a system resulting in high-waste outputs and pollution.

Strategies to Reduce Environmental Footprint

• Use green products that are non-toxic and recyclable.

• Reduce waste through cleaner production methods and circular economy practices.

• Minimize resource dependency by remanufacturing and collecting waste at the end-of-life.

Ecological Footprint

• Definition: A quantification tool estimating resource consumption and waste production relative to available productive land.

• Average land needed for food, water, housing, transportation, and waste disposal.

Activity

• In-Class Activity: Calculating ecological footprints using the provided footprint calculator.

The Anthropocene

• Discussion point: Are we currently living in the Anthropocene era?

• Context of human impact within geological time spans, including extinction events.