Do Now 8/22/11

• What do you think living sustainably means?

*Please take out the summary of your notes and your binder with dividers. I need to check these*

Label Dividers

1.) Do Nows/Learning Logs/Reflections2.) Notes3.) Labs/Projects4.) Assessments5.) Readings/Current Events

Human Impacts and Sustainability

8/22/11

What is sustainability?

• A way of living which balances meeting our own needs, without limiting the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

What are three principles to help us live sustainably?

• Solar Energy• Biodiversity• Chemical/Nutrient Cycling

What are the 3 components of sustainability?

• Economy• Environment (Natural Capital)• Society

What is Natural Capital?

• Natural Capital = Natural resources + Natural Services– Natural resources=materials and energy in nature

that are essential or useful to humans– Natural Services= process in nature that benefit us• i.e. purification of air, renewal of topsoil

What are the 3 types of natural resources?

• Perpetual– i.e. the sun

• Renewable– i.e. forests, grasslands, fish populations,

freshwater, fresh air, topsoil• Nonrenewable– i.e. energy- oil, coal, metals- copper, aluminum,

non-metals- salt and sand

What is Economic Development?

• An effort to use economic growth to improve living standards, measured by average economic income. – More developed countries• 19% of the population, 88% of all resources, 75% of the

world’s pollution and waste– Less developed countries• 81% of the population, 12% of all resources, 25% of

pollution and waste

What is Environmental Degradation?

• Wasting, Depleting and degrading the earth’s natural capital.

What is pollution?

• A chemical, noise, heat or other agent in the environment that is harmful to the health, survival or activities of humans or other organisms.

How is pollution categorized?

• Point sources= single identifiable sources– i.e. smokestack, coal burning plant

• Non-point sources = disperse, difficult to identify– i.e. runoff fertilizers in a river, pesticides blown in

the wind

How is pollution categorized?

• Biodegradable = pollutants a natural process can break down over time– i.e. Sewage, newspapers

• Non-degradable = pollutants a natural process can Not break down over time– i.e. lead, mercury, arsenic

What are the 2 ways we deal with pollution?

• Output control= clean up• Input control = prevention

What are the 3 types of property?

• Private property = individuals or companies own it.

• Common property = large groups own it.• Open-access resources = owned by no

one and available for use by anyone– i.e. atmosphere, underground water

supplies, open ocean and its marine life

What is the tragedy of the commons?

• When people exploit an open-access resource because they think – If I don’t use this resource, someone else will. The little bit that I use or pollute is not enough to matter and it’s renewable anyway.

What is an ecological footprint?

• A measure of how much a person consumes resources and produces waste and pollution, expressed in area of land.

How is an ecological footprint a measure of sustainability?

• If a country’s total ecological footprint is greater than its biological capacity to replish renewable resources and absorb pollutants and waste = ecological deficit – NOT sustainable

Ecological footprint>biological capacity=ecological deificit

Summary