- Environmental philosophies
How do we view our relationship to our earthly environment?
- Stewardship philosophy
1 - We should be responsible and conserving in the
use of the earth's resources. 2 - We should alter nature at nature's rate,
and in nature's way. (This means maintaining a sustainable ecosystem.)
3 - Acknowledge that the earth does not belong to us, we belong to it.
(We are a part of, not apart from the earth and it's limited resources.)
- Consumption philosophy
1 - The earth is viewed as having unlimited resources,
(so don't worry about it.) 2 - The earth is viewed as an entity to be controlled,
changed, and exploited, and any resultant problems will be resolved by
technology. 3 - The use of some people can occur at their expense, and
at the expense of their environment. (Example: More-developed countries
exploiting less-developed countries, stripping them of their resources.)
- Ecological facts of life
- Calculating real costs
The cost of a thing is more than what's on the price
tag; real costs must include the expense to our environment and health.
Real costs are often overlooked, and we are paying the price. Example:
When a section of rainforest is clear-cut for timber and/or cattle land,
it is irreplacable: the nutrients have been removed, and the soil is barren.
(When we destroy an ecosystem, it's not as simple as planting new plants.)
- Keystone species exist in all ecosystems
A keystone species is a species or group of species
upon which the health of an ecosystem depends. (Every ecosystem has keystone
species.) Example: elephants: (to be dicussed shortly hereafter...)
- What goes up must come down--somewhere:
air pollution
(We're breathing that stuff.)
- Interconnectedness: Everything
is connected; people are a part of, not apart from, the biosphere
Often, as humans, we tend to put ourselves above nature, but we're not
supernatural.
- Keystone species
- Definition:
(above)
- Example: The African Elephant
What do they do that makes them a keystone species?
(a lot:) For one, they play a key role in food chains/webs. (Example: dung
beetles feed on elephant dung. The honey badger digs up and feeds on the
dung-beetles' larvae...) Elephants also play a key role in: dispersing
seeds; developing trails that various organisms in the ecosystem use; controlling
succession (They knock over trees, clearing land for new growth of grasslands,
which are important for many organisms (zebras, antelopes, etc..).
Every ecosystem
has keystone species (which can be either plants or animals--or a group
of either). Removing/ disturbing the keystone species of any ecosystem
is catastrophic to that system because, as in all systems of interrelatedness,
what effects one part will effect the others as well.
- Air Pollution
 23.1
Pollutants
(The same principles apply to water and soil pollution.)
- Definition: Any human-caused change
in the physical and chemical characteristics of air that negatively affects
the health, survival, and/or activities of living things.
A primary pollutant is a pollutant that has toxic
activities as soon as it is released. A secondary pollutant is a pollutant
that isn't immediately toxic, but becomes so when it interracts with other
chemicals.
- Examples: PM10, Ozone,
NOx, SOx, VOCs, Acid deposition
PM10s are particulate matter 10 microns
in size or smaller (PM2.5). PM10s interract with
oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and oxides of sulfur (SOx)
and form either nitric and sulfuric acids. (These are not good to breathe.)
These arise from burning fossil fuels.
Review the
pollutants ant their effects: 23.1
Pollutants.
Also: Note under 'ozone' (in the table): photochemical smog: (another air
pollutant): a result of the interaction of hydrocarbons in the presence
of sunlight.
Every year
about 70 people in Utah County die from the effects of air pollution.
- Real costs
What are the costs? Many of the costs associated
with production and consumption are often overlooked or ignored, and at
our own expense. Many costs are not factored into the price of product
(a car, for example), but that doesn't mean we're not paying for them in
other, perhaps more meaningful ways. Note the following:
- Health hazards (to plants and animals)
23.2
Mechanisms of Damage
23.3 Inpatient
Admissions Comparison
23.4 Costs
of Air Pollution
- Environmental costs
How is air pollution is related to the cycling of
matter?
- Tropical deforestation and biodiversity
TROPICAL FORESTS: are found around the equator, and
play a principal role in the earth's climate, (though they only cover a
small % of its surface). Points: 1- As soon as a road is put through an
ecosystem, that's the beginning of that ecosystem's demise. 2- When we
cut down and burn tropical forests we interfere, in a major way, with the
water cycle. (Tropical forests get more than 400 inches of rain/year. When
vegetation is removed, the water can't drain, and transpiration (evaporation
of water from plants) cannot take place. 3- When we cut tropical forests
we destroy the nutrients. 4- Cutting and burning tropical forests destroys
the ecosystem's nutrient cycles. (Most of the nutrients are not found in
the soil, but in the plants, so when you remove or burn them, the nutrients
are lost (destroyed, eroded, etc.) (When tropical forest is cut/burned
to make way for agriculture, the land is only productive for 8-13 years.)
4- Biomagnification becomes more of a problem: pesticides must be used
to fight off the enormous populations of insects that infest crops grown
on cleared land. 5- As habitat is reduced, so is the valuable and irreplacable
resource of biodiversity.
Review
D&C 59
- 34% of the world's area is forested;
7% of this is tropical forest
-
- Causes of tropical deforestation:
Note these:
- Health hazards (to plants and animals)
- Cattle ranches - produce raw and
canned beef for export to MDCs (More Developed Countries)
- Commercial logging - (inefficient)
logs and paper exported to MDCs
- Sugar cane & "cash crop"
plantations - mostly for export to MDCs
- Growing marijuana & coca (cocaine)
- smuggled to MDCs (Example: Peru: 200,000 growers generate $1 billion;
25% of GNP)
- Mining - extracted minerals exported
to MDCs
- Dams - for electric power for mining
and smelting operations
- Timber harvesting - Japan accounts
for 60% of the annual consumption of forests cut
- Tropical forests are:
- The world's "central storehouse"
of biological diversity
- Provide hundreds of food products
(spices, nuts, coffee, chocolate, fruits, rice, wheat, corn)
- The source of 25% of prescription
and nonprescription drugs (for treatment of malaria, cancer, heart disease,
high blood pressure, multiple sclerosis, etc.)
- Supply 50% of the world's annual
harvest of hardwoods
- Home to 250 million people
- Consist of ecosystems that provide
food for 1 billion people in LDCs
- Important factors in the world's
climate
- Ecological consequences of poverty
"Pollution and environmental deterioration are
primarily moral and spiritual problems, rather than problems of technology"
(paraphrasing Elder Morrison).
- Population distribution
23.5
Population distribution
The human species is growing exponentially, which, as resources are
limited, is logically not sustainable. Less-developed countries (LDCs)
generally have a higher growth rate, which tends to compound their problems.
(75% of the earth's population live in less-developed countries.)
- Resource distribution
There is not an equitable distribution of the earth's
limited resources. More developed countries consume an inordinate amount
of the earth's resources. (For example: though only 5% of the earth's human
population lives in the United States, we consume 24% of the energy resources.)
- Ecological concerns
Yes.
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