CH-12-14 Air Pollution, Climate Change, and Ozone Depletion – Sustaining the Earth : Chapter Notes

This Document Contains Chapters 12 to 14 Chapter 12 Air Pollution, Climate Change, and Ozone Depletion Summary and Objectives 12-1 What is the nature of the atmosphere? The atmosphere is made up of the several layers of air that surround the planet and contribute to the earth’s climate. Climate is influenced by solar radiation, seasonal temperature and precipitation, rotation of the earth, and air/water properties that generate convection to circulate air, heat, and moisture. CONCEPT 12-1 The two innermost layers of the atmosphere are the troposphere, which supports life, and the stratosphere, which contains the protective ozone layer. 1. Distinguish between the earth's troposphere and stratosphere. 2. Distinguish between weather and climate. List seven factors that influence climate. 3. Describe the greenhouse effect and what the earth would be like without a greenhouse effect. 12-2 What are the major outdoor air pollution problems? Most outdoor air pollutants occur in industrialized and urban areas where people, cars, and factories are found. Primary pollutants emitted by cars and factories can react in the atmosphere to form secondary pollutants. CONCEPT 12-2 Pollutants mix in the air to form industrial smog, primarily as a result of burning coal, and photochemical smog, caused by emissions from motor vehicle, industrial facilities, and power plants. 4. Define air pollution. Distinguish between a primary pollutant and a secondary pollutant. 5. Distinguish between photochemical smog and industrial smog. Describe a thermal inversion. 12-3 What is acid deposition and why is it a problem? Acid deposition/acid rain is composed of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulates, and can be transmitted downwind over long distances. CONCEPT 12-3 Acid deposition is mainly caused by coal-burning power plants and motor vehicle emissions, and in some regions it threatens human health, aquatic life and ecosystems, forests, and man-built structures. 6. Define acid deposition. Briefly describe how acid deposition can affect buildings, vegetation, soil, aquatic organisms, and humans. 12-4 What are the major indoor air pollution problems? Indoor air pollution can compromise your health and is a greater threat than outdoor pollution. CONCEPT 12-4 The most threatening indoor air pollutants are smoke and soot from wood and coal fires (mostly in less-developed countries), cigarette smoke, and chemicals used in building materials and products. 7. List the four most dangerous indoor air pollutants. Briefly describe how the body tries to protect itself from damage caused by air pollution. What are some of the consequences of prolonged or acute exposure to air pollution? 12-5 How should we deal with air pollution? CONCEPT 12-5 We can use legal, economic, and technological tools to try to clean up air pollution, but the best solution is to prevent it. 8. Briefly describe the EPA’s outdoor air pollution control strategies. Describe in detail the 1990 strategy to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. List five policies that would strengthen the Clean Air Act. 9. List five ways to reduce indoor air pollution. Describe strategies to implement an integrated approach to protecting the atmosphere. 12-6 How might the earth’s temperature and climate change in the future? Temperature and climate change have always affected the earth; but human activities are now affecting climate more intensely. Climate change may be accelerated by additional factors: carbon dioxide absorption in the world’s oceans; rising sea levels; and increasing cloud cover, air pollution, and production of methane gas. CONCEPT 12-6A Evidence indicates that the earth’s atmosphere is warming because of a combination of natural effects and human activities, and that this warming is likely to lead to significant climate change during this century. CONCEPT 12-6B The projected rapid change in the atmosphere’s temperature could have severe and long-lasting consequences, including increased drought and flooding, rising sea levels, and shifts in the locations of croplands and wildlife habitats. 10. Describe the pattern of Earth’s average surface temperature fluctuation of geologic time. 11. Summarize scientific consensus about future global warming. What evidence supports the role of human activity in contributing to climate change? 12. Summarize current signs and projected effects of climate change: drought, melting ice and snow, melting permafrost, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, threats to biodiversity, threats to agriculture, and threats to human health. 12-7 What can we do to slow projected climate change? Climate change affects the entire planet; it will be long-term; impacts vary from region to region; economic realities affect responses to the expected change. A growing number of countries and cities are seeking to offset or adapt to climate change, but the degradation of natural capital will have long-term effects. CONCEPT 12-7 We can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the threat of climate disruption while saving money and improving human health if we cut energy waste and rely more on cleaner renewable energy resources. 13. Name and briefly describe two basic approaches to potential global warming. Describe three ways to slow global warming. List three ways to adapt to global warming. 14. What could the role of governments be in responding to climate change? 12-8 How have we depleted ozone in the stratosphere and what can we do about it? CONCEPT 12-8A Our widespread use of certain chemicals has reduced ozone levels in the stratosphere, which allows more harmful ultraviolet radiation to reach the earth’s surface. CONCEPT 12-8B To reverse ozone depletion, we must stop producing ozone-depleting chemicals and adhere to the international treaties that ban such chemicals. 15. Summarize and assess the controversy over formation of the ozone hole. Explain the causes and potential effects of stratospheric ozone changes. Propose three ways for slowing these changes. Key Terms atmosphere troposphere stratosphere ozone layer weather climate ocean currents greenhouse gases air pollution primary pollutants secondary pollutants industrial smog photochemical smog temperature inversion acid deposition ocean acidification Outline 12-1What is the Nature of the Atmosphere? The atmosphere, weather, and climate influence all of life. A. The atmosphere is the sea of air that surrounds the earth. 1. This life-sustaining gas has several spherical layers. 2. Because each layer absorbs incoming solar energy in different ways, each layer has abrupt changes in temperature. a. The average temperature varies with altitude. b. Most of the UV radiation from the sun is absorbed in the ozone layer. B. The troposphere is the atmosphere’s innermost layer and is composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen. Its thin and turbulent layers of rising and falling air currents and winds are earth’s weather breeder. C. The stratosphere is the atmosphere’s second layer and contains ozone, which filters out the sun’s UV radiation. 1. It has considerably less water vapor and a much higher concentration of ozone than does the troposphere. a. The ozone layer keeps about 95% of the sun’s UV radiation from the earth’s surface. b. This filter allows humans and other living things to exist on the earth. D. Weather is an area’s short-term atmospheric conditions, including temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloud cover, and wind direction and speed measured over a time period of hours or days. E. Climate describes a region’s long-term atmospheric conditions over decades to thousands of years. 1. Climate is usually determined by average temperature and average precipitation. 2. Climate is determined by the following: a. The amount of solar radiation an area receives affects climate. b. Seasonal changes in temperature and precipitation influence climate. c. The earth’s rotation on its axis affects climate. d. Air, water, and land properties affect global air circulation and, hence, climate. 3. Air circulating over the earth’s surface effects temperature and precipitation patterns and leads to different climates. 4. These global air circulation patterns are determined by: a. The uneven heating of the earth’s surface. b. Temperature and precipitation vary with seasonal changes. c. The earth’s rotation produces six huge convection cells of swirling air masses. They transfer heat and water from one area to another and create different climates. 1) The direction of airflow helps determine the general climatic zones. 2) The ascent and descent of air masses in these cells helps determine general climatic zones. 3) Uneven distribution of heat and moisture over the planet’s surface leads to forests, grasslands, and deserts. d. Ocean water evaporates and transfers heat from the oceans to the atmosphere. As the air rises, cooler, drier air becomes denser, sinks, and creates a high pressure area. 1) The air masses flow over the earth’s surface, pick up heat and moisture, and begin rising again, producing convection cells. 2) The cells circulate air, heat, and moisture vertically. 3) The cells circulate air, heat, and moisture from place to place. 5. Ocean currents redistribute heat received from the sun from one place to another. a. This heat and differences in water density create warm and cold ocean currents. b. These currents redistribute heat from the sun and influence climate and vegetation. c. These current help mix ocean waters and distribute nutrients and dissolved oxygen. 6. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases warm the lower troposphere. a. The greenhouse gases, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, allow visible light and some infrared radiation and ultraviolet radiation to pass through the troposphere. b. The earth’s surface absorbs much of this solar energy, transforming it to longer wavelength, infrared radiation, which rises into the troposphere. c. Infrared radiation escapes into space, some eventually warms the air, and some warms the earth’s surface; this is called the greenhouse effect. 12-2 What Are the Major Outdoor Air Pollution Problems? A. Air pollution comes from natural and human sources. 1. Air pollution is the presence of one or more chemicals in the atmosphere in sufficient quantities and duration to harm life, materials, and to alter climate. a. The major classes and sources of air pollutants are listed in Table 12-1. b. Most natural sources of air pollution are spread out and rarely reach harmful levels. c. Most human inputs of outdoor air pollutants come from burning fossil fuels in motor vehicles and power/industrial plants. d. Primary pollutants are emitted directly into the troposphere in a potentially harmful form. e. Secondary pollutants are formed with the interaction of primary pollutants with each other or with basic components of air. 2. Both indoor and outdoor air pollution are high-risk human health problems. 3. Air pollution is a global problem because of the large volume of pollutants produced and the prevailing winds. B. Pollutants mix in the air to form industrial and photochemical smog. 1. Industrial smog is composed of a mixture of sulfur dioxide, droplets of sulfuric acid, and suspended solid particles coming from burning oil and coal. a. Developed countries have pollution control or tall smokestacks. b. Burning coal with inadequate pollution controls produces industrial smog in parts of China, India, Ukraine, and some eastern European countries. 2. Photochemical smog is a mixture of air pollutants formed by the reaction of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic hydrocarbons under the influence of sunlight. This is more common in cities with sunny, warm, dry climates and lots of vehicles. a. The result of this mixture is primarily photochemical ozone, a gas that harms most living organisms. b. Atmospheric concentrations of ozone at ground level generally are associated with smog’s severity. 3. What causes photochemical and industrial smog to form? a. Precipitation and winds can help these types of smog develop. b. Urban buildings, mountains, and high temperatures can increase air pollution. C. Natural factors reduce air pollution. They are: 1. Particles heavier than air settle out. 2. Air and snow, which clean the air. 3. Salty sea spray from the oceans washes out particulates and other pollutants. 4. Winds, which sweep pollutants away, dilute them by mixing in cleaner air and bring in fresh air. D. The six factors that increase air pollution are: 1. Urban buildings, which slow wind speed and reduce dilution and removal of pollutants. 2. Hills and mountains, which reduce air flow in valleys and allow pollutant levels to build up at ground level. 3. High temperatures, which promote chemical reactions in photochemical smog formation. 4. Volatile organic emissions for certain trees and plants assist the formation of photochemical smog. 5. Pollutants can be are transported at high altitudes to the earth's polar areas. This so-called “grasshopper effect” happens mostly during winter, creating a reddish-brown haze over the Arctic. 6. Temperature inversions can trap pollutants and last several days, allowing pollutants to build up to dangerous concentrations and allowing their concentration to increase. 12-3 What is Acid Deposition and Why Is It a Problem? A. Primary pollutants—sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide—go into the atmosphere above the inversion layer and are moved by winds, sometimes as much as 600 miles away. On the way, they form secondary pollutants such as nitric acid vapor, droplets of sulfuric acid, and particles of acid-forming sulfate and nitrate salts. 1. Wet deposition in the form of acidic rain, snow, fog, and cloud vapor carries the acidic substances to the ground. It tends to fall downwind of the area where it was formed. 2. The toxins also fall to the ground as dry deposition in particulate form. 3. Areas most affected by acid deposition are downwind of coal-burning facilities and also downwind from urban areas with many cars. 4. Some soils can buffer/neutralize this acid rain. 5. Some of the effects of acid rain are lung disease, corrosion, and haze. a. Acidic deposition kills fish, releases toxic elements from the soil into nearly bodies of water, and weakens plants. b. It can harm forests and crops, especially if it is destructive to mountaintop forests that are hardest hit by acid deposition. B. Controlling acid deposition is a difficult political problem. 1. The people and ecosystems affected are distant from where the acid rain was produced. 2. Coal-burning utilities say installing pollution controls would increase electricity prices. 12-4 What Are the Major Indoor Air Pollution Problems? A. Indoor air pollution can compromise your health and is a greater threat than outdoor pollution. 1. Levels of pollutants are higher in homes and commercial buildings than outside. 2. Pollution in cars is far higher than outside of them. 4. Pollution exposure is magnified indoors where people (in developed, urban areas) spend more time. 5. Air pollution is the leading cause of cancer risk. 6. Sick-building syndrome causes health problems such as dizziness, headaches, coughing, sneezing, shortness of breath, nausea, burning eyes, chronic fatigue, irritability, and skin dryness and irritation. 7. The four most dangerous indoor air pollutants are: cigarette smoke, formaldehyde, radioactive radon-222 gas, and very small fine and ultra-fine particulate matter. a. Formaldehyde is used to manufacture common household materials. b. In developing countries, there is a high level of particulate air pollution because of open fires, unvented/poorly vented stoves, and indoor burning of wood, dung, crop residues, and coal. 8. Radon-222 is a radioactive gas naturally found in large concentrations of soil and rocks. See Case Study: Radioactive Radon Gas. a. It quickly decays into solid particles of other radioactive elements that can damage lung tissue and lead to lung cancer. b. Homes should be tested for the presence of radon gas, none of which is acceptable. B. Various methods of your respiratory system are used to protect you from air pollution: hairs in your nose, sticky mucus, sneezing and coughing, and cilia that line your respiratory track. C. Natural defenses can be overloaded or broken down by air pollutants. 1. Lung cancer and chronic bronchitis, a persistent inflammation that damages cells lining the bronchi and bronchioles, may be caused by smoking and breathing air pollutants. 2. Emphysema is deeper damage in the lung, damages air sacs or alveoli, and leads to abnormal dilation of air spaces, loss of lung elasticity, and acute shortness of breath. D. Air pollution kills about 3.2 million people prematurely each year. E. The World Health Organization and the World Bank consider indoor air pollution one of the world’s most crucial environmental problems. 12-5 How Should We Deal with Air Pollution? A. The Clean Air Acts in 1970, 1977, and 1990 in the United States have helped decrease air pollutants by 63% between 1980 and 2010. B. Outdoor air pollution has decreased in the United States because (See Case Study: U.S. Air Pollution Laws Can Be Improved): 1. Citizens insisted that laws be passed and enforced to improve air quality. 2. The country could afford the controls and improvements. 3. The U.S. must do more about air pollution. a. We need to prevent air pollution, not just clean it up. b. Fuel-efficient standards for cars, SUVs, and light trucks must be increased and required. c. Emissions from inefficient motorcycles and two-cycle gasoline engines have been inadequately regulated. 1) Using a typical riding gas-powered lawn mower for one hour creates as much air pollution as driving 34 cars for an hour. d. There is little or no regulation from oceangoing ships in American ports. These ships usually burn low-grade diesel fuel, which produces health concerns for people nearby. e. Airports need to be included in regulations, as they are among the top air polluters in some metropolitan areas. f. Ultra-fine particles are not regulated. g. Urban ozone levels are still too high in many areas. h. There should be better enforcement of the Clean Air Act. C. Implementing air pollution control standards in the United States has done several things. 1. It has increased economic growth and created jobs. 2. Companies have been stimulated to develop new technologies. D. Emissions trading policy allows producers of air pollutants to buy and sell their government air pollution allotments to other parties. 1. A company that emits less SO2 than its limit receives pollution credit. 2. Anyone can participate in the emissions trading policy: environmental groups or individuals. E. This emissions trading policy also creates problems. 1. Older utilities with dirtier power plants can buy their way out and keep emitting unacceptable levels of SO2. 2. This is an incentive to cheat because the air quality regulations are based on self-reporting of emissions and pollution monitoring. 3. The policy should annually reduce the initial cap for emission; if it does not, the programs mostly move air pollutants from one area to another without any overall reduction in air pollution. F. Preventing and controlling air pollution can be achieved in several ways. 1. Older coal-burning plants, industrial plants, and oil refineries must be required to meet the air pollution standards currently in effect. 2. Reduce emissions from motor vehicles as enumerated in Figure 12-12. 3. Reduce indoor air pollution as suggested in Figure 12-13. a. Circulate building air through rooftop greenhouses. b. In poor countries, governments must give people inexpensive clay/metal stoves, which burn biofuels and are vented outside. c. Give people stoves that use solar energy for cooking. 4. Individuals and groups will need to apply pressure for a shift to preventing air pollution. 5. Energy, transportation, and industrial structures will have to be reoriented to prevention. 12-6 In the Future, How Might the Earth's Temperature and Climate Change, and with What Effects? A. Over geologic time, the earth has experienced several cycles of warming and cooling. For the last 1000 years, the average temperature of the atmosphere has been relatively stable, but has been rising since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. 1. Measurements show that changes in past greenhouse gas concentrations in the lower atmosphere correspond with changes in the average global atmospheric temperatures and with changes in global sea levels. a. Scientist measure historic levels of CO2 and CH4 in glacial ice cores to determine past average global atmospheric temperature. b. Researchers have determined the carbon content of ancient sea shells on the ocean floor and hypothesize that CO2 released from the ocean floor explains the sharp rise in atmospheric temperature near the end of the last ice age. c. Emissions of CO2, CH4, and NO2 began to increase as agricultural activity, deforestation, and burning fossil fuels increased. B. Scientists have identified a number of natural and human-induced factors that might amplify or dampen climate change. See Science Focus: How Valid are IPCC Conclusions. C. There is uncertainty about how much carbon dioxide and heat the oceans can remove from the troposphere. 1. The oceans absorb nearly half of the carbon dioxide we pump into the atmosphere. 2. The solubility of carbon dioxide in ocean water decreases with increasing temperature, so as the ocean heats, carbon dioxide may be released. D. Warmer temperatures could create more clouds; but we don’t know what that will do. There may be a warming effect or a cooling effect from the increased cloud cover. 1. An increase of cloud thickness at low altitudes can decrease surface warming by reflecting and blocking more sunlight. 2. An increase in thin discontinuous cirrus clouds at high altitude can warm the lower troposphere and increase surface warming. 3. Jet contrails turn into cirrus clouds and release heat to the upper troposphere. E. Aerosol pollutants and soot can warm or cool the atmosphere, but this effect decreases with decline in outdoor air pollution. 1. Sulfate aerosols are very small and cool the troposphere. 2. Black carbon aerosols can however significantly increase warming effects. 3. The effect of aerosols and soot may not be very great, as they are washed out of the atmosphere with precipitation and their concentrations are being reduced, especially in developed countries. F. Potentially severe consequences of rapid climate change: 1. Drought: increasing in some areas, less surface water, net primary productivity decreases, all leading to severe shortages of water for 1-3 billion people. 2. Melting ice and snow: snow/ice reflect sun's rays; as these decrease, the earth will absorb more solar energy, warming the polar regions even faster. Loss of sea ice could reduce rainfall and snowfall, thereby affecting food production. As glaciers shrink, less drinking water will be available. 3. Melting permafrost results in release of methane thereby increasing greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. 4. Rising sea levels: due primarily to expansion of warming ocean water and melting of land-based ice. This will have severe impact on estuaries, wetlands, and coral reefs, it could disrupt many fisheries, cause flooding of many barrier islands, and saltwater contamination of freshwater aquifers. 5. Extreme weather events: increase severe drought, heat waves, reduce crop production. Other areas will experience increased flooding from prolonged precipitation. 6. Threats to biodiversity: approximately 30% of land-based plant and animal species could disappear of the average global temperature increases 1.5-2.5 degrees Centigrade. Especially vulnerable areas: coral reefs, polar seas, coastal wetlands, and forests. 7. Disruptions in agriculture: while moderately warmer temperatures could increase crop productivity, this effect could be limited due to lack of soil nutrients in more northern regions. 8. Threats to human health: more frequent and prolonged heat waves can increase numbers of deaths and illnesses. Warmer areas also promote the growth and reproduction of insects, microbes, molds, and fungi that can make us sick. People may also migrate due to illness, hunger, flooding, or drought, placing significant stresses on infrastructure to support large numbers of people moving to new areas. 12-7 What Can We Do to Slow Projected Climate Disruption? A. There are two basic ways to deal with global warming. 1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow down the rate of temperature increase and buy time to learn more about how the earth’s climate system works, and shift to non-carbon energy options. 2. Recognize that some warming is unavoidable and adopt strategies to adapt to harmful effects. B. How do we change human activities to reduce the threat of climate change? 1. Improve energy efficiency to reduce fossil fuel use. 2. Shift from fossil fuels to a mix of low-carbon renewable energy resources. 3. Stop cutting down tropical forest. 4. Plant more trees to help remove CO2 from the atmosphere. C. We can remove and store carbon dioxide, but it is expensive and we don’t know the effectiveness of different methods. 1. Planting trees to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere would provide temporary results. 2. In soil sequestration, plants (switchgrass) are used to remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the soil. Warmer temperatures, though, can increase decomposition in soil and return some of the carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. 3. Reduce the release of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide from soil by no-till cultivation and retire depleted crop fields as conservation reserves. 4. Remove carbon dioxide from smokestacks and either pump it deep underground or inject it into the deep ocean. D. Governments can use five methods to promote solutions to slow global warming. 1. Strictly regulate carbon dioxide and methane as air pollutants. 2. Phase in carbon taxes or energy taxes on CO2 or CH4 emitted by fossil fuel use. 3. Place a cap on total human-generated greenhouse gas emissions, issue permits to allow some emission and gradually lower the cap (cap and trade approach). 4. Level the economic playing field by increasing subsidies for energy-efficient technologies while phasing out (or sharply reducing) subsidies for fossil fuels and unsustainable practices. 5. Promote technology transfer from more-developed countries to less-developed countries. E It is difficult to obtain international cooperation to deal with atmospheric warming possibilities. 1. Greenhouse gas emissions come from the actions of hundreds of different politically powerful industries and billions of consumers. 2. Far-reaching and politically controversial changes are needed for industry and lifestyle changes. F. What is being done to reduce greenhouse emissions? 1. The Kyoto protocol requires that countries cut emissions of CO2, CH4, and N20. 2. It allows participants to trade emissions. a. Countries that reduce their carbon dioxide emissions or who plant trees would receive a number of credits. b. These credits can be sold to other countries, to avoid reducing emissions in other areas, or can be banked for future use. c. This system has not worked well: caps were set too high and greenhouse gas emissions have actually increased. G. Many countries, U.S. states, companies, and college campuses are making progress against global warming. Costa Rica aims to cut its net carbon emissions to zero by 2030. China has the most intensive energy efficiency program in the world. 12-8 How Have We Depleted Ozone in the Stratosphere and What Can We Do About It? A. Ozone thinning is definitely occurring in the stratosphere everywhere over the earth except over the tropics. 1. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) were developed in 1930 and used in all kinds of cooling devices, propellants, cleaners, fumigants, and foam bubble for insulation and packaging. 2. CFCs began lowering the ozone level. a. CFCs are insoluble in water and are chemically reactive so they remain in the troposphere. b. Over time, these chemical rise into the stratosphere. c. Once in the stratosphere, the CFC molecules break down and release high-reactive chlorine atoms, which speed up the breakdown of reactive ozone. d. The molecules are an army of global ozone destroyers. e. There is even more depletion of the ozone over four months of the year in Antarctica. B. Ozone depletion allows more increased UV radiation to reach the earth’s surface. 1. Harmful effects of this radiation influence crops, forest, wildlife, and materials. 2. Humans are hurt by this increased radiation in contracting more cataracts, sunburns, and skin cancers. C. The Montreal protocol (treaty), developed in 1987, and had as its goal to cut emissions of CFCs into the atmosphere by 35% by 2000. D. The Copenhagen protocol of 1992 accelerated the phase out of key ozone-depleting chemicals. E. Nations and committees agreed to work together to solve the ozone problem for three reasons. 1. There was scientific evidence of a serious problem. 2. CFCs were made by a small number of international companies. 3. It was certain that CFCs sales would decline so that more profitable substitute chemicals were developed. Teaching Tips 1. Develop students’ awareness of the effect of temperature by working out some of the following: • Heating degree days or cooling degree days (variation of daily mean in your locale from 65 F) • Growing degree days for several crops (taking the base temperature for a given crop and comparing it to the daily mean in your locale) • Temperature and humidity index using the formula: THI = T – 0.53 (1 – RH) (T – 14) where: THI = temperature and humidity index T = temperature RH = relative humidity • Weather stress index (mean apparent temperatures averaged over 40 years compared to mean apparent temperature for a particular day) Term Paper and Discussion Topics Conceptual Topics 1. Outdoor air pollution. The geographic distribution of air quality problems; air pollution and major ecosystem disruption; fine particulates as a health hazard; air pollution disaster in Donora, Pennsylvania; reducing urban heat island effects. 2. Acid deposition. Tall smokestacks and acid deposition; acid deposition in the northeastern United States; Germany’s Waldsterben; liming lakes; acid deposition and freshwater ecosystems. 3. Indoor air pollution. Radon gas; sources, health effects, and control measures for indoor air pollution. 4. Variables that affect global warming. Greenhouse gases and substitutes for them; influences of climate and forests, volcanic eruptions, oceans, air pollution. 5. Potential effects of global warming. Global warming and our coastlines; global warming and the incidence of severe storms; deforestation and global warming; climate and biodiversity; rates of global climate change and adaptation; global warming and agriculture. 6. Ozone depletion. Varying patterns of ozone depletion in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; health effects of increased ultraviolet radiation (skin cancer, cataracts); distinguishing tropospheric and stratospheric ozone; CFCs: uses and control of production. Attitudes & Values 1. Have you ever breathed pristine air? How did it feel? 2. Have you ever breathed highly polluted air? How did it feel? 3. How much air pollution should we tolerate? Do humans have a right to breathe clean air? 4. How much responsibility for clean air should areas upwind carry for areas downwind? 5. How much do Americans value clean air in their homes? Do you take steps to improve the indoor air quality of your living space? 6. Do you support strong emissions standards on automobiles and power plants? 7. Are you willing to drive your car less to create less air pollution? 8. What are you willing to do to prevent acid rain from defacing statues and historical monuments? 9. How do you feel when you consider the possibility of global climate change? 10. Do you feel that the environment will be able to continue absorbing any of the changes that human cultures bring about? 11. Do you feel that new technologies will be able to modify any harmful effects that humans bring about in the environment? 12. How much are humans willing to spend for energy efficiency in the short term to receive long-term economic payoffs and help slow potential global warming? 13. Would humans rather prevent global warming or adapt to global warming as it happens? 14. Should dikes be built in coastal areas to combat rising oceans? 15. What happens to landowners when their land becomes inundated by rising ocean levels? 16. Have you ever experienced severe sunburn? How would you feel carrying a protective umbrella for life? 17. Do you feel that humans have a responsibility to ameliorate the causes of ozone depletion? If so, what steps are you willing to take to slow the rate of global climate change? 18. Do humans have a commitment to future generations? If so, how much? 19. How can developed countries prevent developing countries from making the same environmental mistakes the developed countries made during their industrial transition? Action-Oriented Topics 1. Individual. Improving energy efficiency; recycling of CFCs from refrigerators and air conditioners. Methods of assessing and cleaning up air pollution. Scientific methods for measuring indoor and outdoor air pollutants; methods for measuring automobile emissions; stack scrubber technology; catalytic converters and their problems; electric automobiles. 2. Cities. The Pittsburgh air pollution cleanup; air pollution cleanup in Los Angeles. 3. State. Vermont’s ban on cars using CFCs in air conditioners. 4. National. The Clean Air Act amendments; the EPA’s record on enforcement of the Clean Air Acts. 5. Global. Montreal Protocol; the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992; International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The London air pollution cleanup; air pollution in Eastern Europe; joint responsibility of Canada and the United States for acid deposition in the Great Lakes region. Activities and Projects 1. Visit a first-class weather station or have a meteorologist visit your class to discuss the weather and climate patterns of your locale. Find out if there are any atmospheric patterns in your area that aid or hinder air pollution effects. 2. Visit the chemistry department or invite a chemistry professor to visit your class to discuss measurement of air pollution. Have the professor show you instruments for measuring air pollutants in the parts per million or lower range, and explain the difficulty of making accurate and reproducible measurements of such low concentrations. 3. As a class exercise, interview farmers, foresters, and wildlife experts in your area to determine whether they know of any plant, fish, or animal damage from air pollution. Is acid deposition a problem in your locale? If so, what is the extent of the damage? Is anything being done about it? 4. Have your class make a community-wide survey of particulate fallout and plot the results on a map of your area. Obtain some small, open-top boxes—all the same size. Use masking tape to stick a clean piece of white typing paper in the bottom of each box. Place the boxes at various locations for a period of 24 hours and compare the relative darkness on the paper. Does the particulate fallout vary with height? (Try some rooftops.) Compare your map with any official air pollution monitor locations or test spots. Do the official monitors give a realistic picture? See if you can trace the major causes in heavy fallout areas. You can vary the experiment by using a strip of exposed masking tape to collect the solids and then observe or count them under a microscope. 5. Ask your students to conduct a class or school survey to see what percentage of the respondents: (a) can identify the major pollutants from automobiles, (b) know what air pollution devices are on their cars, (c) have their engines tuned on a regular basis, and (d) would be willing to pay extra for more effective air pollution control devices. 6. Have someone knowledgeable about automobile engine design visit your class and discuss some of the problems associated with designing engines that pollute less and deliver better fuel economy. 7. As a class project, test each student for the vital capacity of the lungs (the total volume of air exhaled in one breath). Low vital capacity indicates that only a small fraction of the volume of a person’s lungs is being used for breathing and obtaining oxygen. It can lead to an enlarged heart because the heart must work harder to pump blood through the lungs. Test lung capacity as a function of age and sex, and on track team members, smokers and nonsmokers, urban and rural dwellers, and people with asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema. A portable vital-capacity tester can easily be made by inserting a two-hole stopper in a gallon jug. Put a short glass tube with a six-inch piece of rubber tubing attached through one hole and a long glass tube that almost reaches the bottom of the jug through the other hole. Attach a 15- to 24-inch rubber tube to this glass tube. Fill the jug half to two-thirds full of water. Fix the stopper tightly, take a deep breath, blow into the short rubber tube to force the water out of the jug and into another jug or container, and measure the water in the second jug. Run several trials and get an average for each person tested. 8. Have a doctor or health official visit your class to explain and illustrate the various types of lung disease and damage that can result from air pollution. If possible, have the expert show you specimens (or photographs) of lung tissue from a young child, an urban dweller, a rural dweller, a smoker, a nonsmoker, and from patients suffering from lung cancer, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. 9. Have an epidemiologist visit the class to present available evidence on relationships between air pollution and human health. 10. As a class project, carefully prepare a questionnaire to investigate what people know about global warming (causes and potential effects), attitudes toward potential global warming, and actions (if any) they are willing to take to ameliorate rapid global climate change. Administer the questionnaire to a variety of citizens, deciding upon a sampling strategy in advance. Summarize your results in appropriate tables, graphs, charts, and written descriptions. What conclusions can be drawn from your results? Who might be interested in receiving a copy of your work? 11. Play with a computer program to model global climate change and its consequences. What assumptions does the program make? What patterns emerge? Do some factors appear more significant than others? What implications do the research findings have for policy-making? 12. Invite an atmospheric scientist (preferably a climatologist) to address your class on the subject of regional and global climatic change and why it is so difficult to forecast climate several years or decades into the future. What progress has been made in the development and testing of very large computerized models of global climate? Speakers from The Climate Project specialize in speaking to university and public groups on climate change (http://www.theclimateproject.org/). 13. Have experts in various fields present their views on the impact that global warming will have on their arenas: for example, how will it affect farming, forestry, coastal zone management, and town planning? 14. Try to develop projections of what the world’s climate and environment would be like if the temperature of the earth dropped 10 degrees, 5 degrees, or was raised by equal amounts. Catalog all the changes you think might happen with continued global warming. 15. Have local emergency officials explain to your class the precautions that have to be taken in adverse weather conditions. BBC News Videos The Brooks/Cole Environmental Science Video Library with Workbook, Featuring BBC Motion Gallery Video Clips, 2011. DVD ISBN: 978-0-538-73355-7 (Prepared by David Perault) Kalahari Desert Could Double in Size New Ideas for Dealing with Climate Change China's Deadly Pollution Carbon Dioxide's Impact on our Oceans Suggested Answers for the Critical Thinking Questions 1. Answers may vary but may include: Yes, China is justified in developing their resources as other countries have done – every country should be allowed the opportunity for economic development. No, China is not justified because of the negative impact their coal burning has on their country and others. Alternatives may include stricter regulations on emissions, using the latest pollution control equipment, using low-sulfur coal, and using alternative sources of energy. 2. Answers may vary but may include: carpool, buy fuel efficient/electric cars, equip your car with the latest emission control equipment, find alternative ways of transportation (e.g., mass transit, walk, bike), avoid individual automobile travel on “spare the air days” when photochemical smog is expected to be high in your area. 3. Today: Answers may vary but may include: negative health effects due to higher air pollution levels (respiratory disease, lung ailments, heart attack, stroke, premature death, etc), higher ozone levels, and continued use of leaded gasoline. Future: negative effects due to higher air pollution levels, higher incidence of ozone and other air pollutants, fewer jobs and economic stimulation brought about by companies aiming to develop new technology in order to decrease air pollution. Answers may vary but may include: Yes, the Clean Air Act should be strengthened, with an explanation such as continued reduction of outdoor air pollution, improved health to the general population and improved indoor air quality. No, the Clean Air Act should not be strengthened, with an explanation such as a discussion of the negative economical effects implementing the new acts could have. 4. The flaw in the presidential economic adviser's speech lies in the confusion of global temperature and local temperature. Though he felt a local change of temperature during his travels, the fact remains that the global average surface temperature has increased in recent years. Evidence to support the argument includes arctic temperatures rising twice as fast as average temperatures in the rest of the world, melting glaciers and sea ice, changing rainfall patterns, increasing occurrences of drought, and a rise in the world's average sea level. 5. (a) Answers may include: Rainfall patterns change, resulting in droughts and increased desert area, flooding, forest fires, conflicts over water supplies. (b) Answers may include: increased carbon dioxide release as a result of increasing forest fires, changed rates of weathering as a result of altered rainfall patterns. 6. Answers may vary but may include: Yes, the poorer countries would benefit from the added income, while the rate of carbon dioxide emissions will slow. No, money used to pay poorer countries would be better spent elsewhere, closer to home. Answers should focus on relevant arguments from either side of the issue, ultimately addressing how more developed nations should support less-developed nations in preserving the forests 7. (a) Answers may include: cut fossil fuel use, find alternative energy sources, reduce deforestation, and implement capture and storage of carbon dioxide. (b) Answers may include: Use efficient venting system for wood-burning stoves, use exhaust stoves, increase intake of outdoor air, reduce or ban indoor smoking. (c) Answers may include: Cut fossil fuel use, stricter emission restrictions, alternative fuel sources, aim to decrease pollutants rather than just sustaining current levels. (Figure 12-19) (d) Answers may include: Stop producing ozone depleting chemicals, substitute ozone depleting chemicals. 8. Student answers will vary. Chapter 13 Urbanization and Solid and Hazardous Waste Summary and Objectives 13-1 What are the major population trends and problems in urban areas? Thirty-three percent of the world’s waste is produced by one country, the United States—which represents no more than 5% of the world’s population. CONCEPT 13-1 Urbanization continues to increase steadily, and most cities are unsustainable because of high levels of resource use and waste, as well as pollution and poverty. 1. Define urbanization and urban growth. Describe the four major trends in the problems and challenges of urban growth. List the advantages and disadvantages of urbanization. 13-2 How does transportation affect urban environmental impacts? In compact cities, people can get around easily by walking, biking, or mass transit. In dispersed cities, people depend on motor vehicles for transportation. CONCEPT 13-2 In some countries, many people live in dispersed urban areas and depend mostly on motor vehicles for their transportation, which greatly expands their ecological footprints. 2. Discuss how automobiles encourage urban sprawl and the pollution effects. Weigh the trade-offs in reducing automobile use in favor of alternative transportation methods. 13-3 How can cities become more sustainable and livable? Urban development with proper planning can create sustainable cities with minimal environmental impacts. CONCEPT 13-3A Urban land-use planning can help to reduce uncontrolled sprawl and slow the resulting degradation of air, water, land, biodiversity, and other natural resources. CONCEPT 13-3B An ecocity allows people to choose walking, biking, or mass transit for most transportation needs; to recycle or reuse most of their wastes; to grow much of their food; and to protect biodiversity by preserving surrounding land. 3. Discuss strategies for developing urban areas with minimal ecological impact. Give an example of an ecocity and describe how they work. 13-4 What are solid waste and hazardous waste and why are they problems? In the natural world, waste outputs of one organism become nutrient inputs for another organism in an endless cycle. Current methods of disposing/discarding of both solid waste and hazardous waste compromise the environment and must be improved/changed. CONCEPT 13-4 Solid waste contributes to pollution and represents the unnecessary consumption of resources; hazardous waste contributes to pollution, natural capital degradation, a human health problems. 4. Distinguish between solid waste and municipal solid waste. Indicate how much of the solid waste in the U.S. comes from municipal solid waste. What are the challenges related to e-waste? 13-5 How should we deal with solid waste? CONCEPT 13-5A A sustainable approach to solid waste is first to reduce it, then to reuse or recycle it, and finally to safely dispose of what is left. Various recycling methods: closed-loop recycling, secondary recycling, composting, solid waste recycling, and source separation recycling are all effective in reducing waste. CONCEPT 13-5B Technologies for burning and burying solid wastes are well developed, but burning contributes to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and buried wastes eventually contribute to the pollution and degradation of land and water resources. 5. List six ways to reduce waste and pollution. Describe the most ecological approaches to dealing with refillable containers and grocery bags. 6. Define sanitary landfill. Describe three problems associated with landfills. Evaluate sanitary landfills as an approach to dealing with solid waste. 7. Distinguish between closed-loop recycling and open-loop recycling. Compare centralized recycling with source separation. Briefly describe recycling of aluminum, wastepaper, and plastics in the United States. List three obstacles to recycling in the United States and suggest ways to overcome them. 8. Compare the priorities of high-waste, recycling, and low-waste approaches to solid waste management. List priorities for a low-waste approach as established by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Evaluate which approach makes the most sense to you. Give reasons for your choice. 9. Evaluate incineration as an approach to dealing with solid waste. 13-6 How should we deal with hazardous waste? Waste management, waste reduction, and less usage of materials/energy are all needed to produce less waste and less pollution. CONCEPT 13-6 A sustainable approach to hazardous waste is first to produce less of it, then to reuse or recycle it, then to convert it to less hazardous materials, and finally, to safely store what is left. 10. Summarize difficulties with land disposal of hazardous wastes. Name and briefly describe two U.S. hazardous-waste laws. Describe how the Superfund could be improved. 11. Describe bioremediation and its potential for dealing with hazardous waste in the future. 13-7 How can we make the transition to a more sustainable low-waste society? In moving toward a sustainable future, achieving a low-waste society and reducing hazardous waste, the issue of environmental injustice in deciding on the locations of hazardous treatment plants, incinerators, and landfills should be addressed from a local, national, and global perspective. CONCEPT 13-7 Shifting to a low-waste society will require individuals and businesses to reduce resource use and to reuse and recycle wastes at local, national, and global levels. 12. Describe environmental injustice and cite examples of such practices. 13. List the key principles that environmental scientists believe can be used to make the transition to a low-waste society. List three things individuals can do to reduce wastes. Key Terms urbanization urban growth urban sprawl smart growth solid waste industrial solid waste municipal solid waste (MSW) hazardous waste toxic waste waste management waste reduction integrated waste management primary or closed-loop recycling secondary recycling open dumps sanitary landfill Outline 13-1 What Are the Major Population Trends and Problems in Urban Areas? Urbanization is measured as the percentage of people living in urban areas. Urban growth is the rate of increase of these populations. These figures are increasing steadily and unsustainably. A. Urban areas grow in two ways: 1. Natural increase – birth rates exceed death rates in an area. 2. People immigrate to the area—either pulled by the hope of a better life or pushed from rural to urban areas by poverty, famine, or war. B. In order to understand the problems and challenges of urban growth, we must consider that: 1. The proportion of people living in urban areas is increasing, especially in developing countries. 2. The size of urban areas are expanding rapidly to include megacities (>10 million people) such as Cairo, Los Angles, and Mexico City, and hypercities (>20 million people) such as Tokyo. 3. Urban growth is much slower in developed countries that developing countries. Fifteen of the 18 megacities are in developing countries. 4. The number of urban poor is increasing, especially in less-developed countries. C. Urban sprawl (low-density development on the outskirts of cities and towns) is infringing on agricultural and wild lands. 1. More infrastructure is needed to provide services to these widely spaced settlements. 2. Urban sprawl is the result of affordable land, artificially cheap gas, and poor urban planning. 3. People may prefer to live in these suburban areas because of access to more living space, newer facilities and lower crime rates. 4. These areas may continue to expand until they eventually merge to form megacities. D. Urbanization has its advantages and disadvantages. 1. Urbanization has advantages. a. Cities are centers of economic development, innovation, education, and transport. b. They provide accessible health care and social services. c. they take up less land space and make recycling more feasible because they cover a more concentrated area. d. Urban areas also help reduce stress on wildlife habitats by concentrating people in cities. 2. Urbanization has its disadvantages and as more and more people move to urban areas the world’s cities become more environmentally unsustainable, thus increasing the ecological footprint. a. Cities have high resource inputs and high waste outputs (huge ecological footprints) i) Urban populations occupy only 3% of the earth’s land area but consume 75% or its resources. ii) Although urban areas take up a more concentrated land area, these lands are disturbed and degraded to provide resources to urban dwellers. b. Urban areas usually have little vegetation (green space) c Urban areas often have water problems. i) Cities put great pressure on water supplies, which can reduce the quantity and quality of supplies. ii) Flooding can be a problem in coastal or low-lying areas or from reduced land permeability by asphalt and concrete covering. d. Pollution and health problems become concentrated because of high population density. e. Noise may be excessive. f. Local climates are affected as heat islands are created from industries, cars, lights, dark roads, and roofs, etc. g. Excessive artificial light affects plants and animals as well as people who want to enjoy the night sky. E. As population pressure increases in urban areas, poor people live in areas without water, electricity, or sanitation in squatter settlements or shanty towns. See Case Study: Mexico City. 13.2 How Does Transportation Affect Urban Environmental Impacts? Cities that cover a small land area, such as Tokyo and Hong Kong, grow upward and/or downward. In these compact cities, people can get around by walking, biking, or mass transit. Where ample land is available, for example in the U.S., Australia, and Canada, cities tend to sprawl outward and transportation is centered on motor vehicles. This sprawl affects resource use, pollution, and waste. A. Motor vehicles have advantages. 1. Motor vehicles offer convenience and comfort in getting around; much of the world's economy is built on producing motor vehicles, supplying fuel, and servicing them. 2. Cars are used by some people to show their social status, power, sex appeal, and success. B. The disadvantages of motor vehicles include: 1. Accidents that kill or injure of tens of thousands of people each year. 2. Greenhouse gases emissions and contribution to outdoor air pollution. 3. Huge consumption of fossil fuels 4. Contribution to urban sprawl: large areas have to be reserved for roads, parking lots, fuel stations, and other automobile-related services. 5. Congestion is a significant problem in both developed and less-developed countries. C. Automobile use can be reduced by making drivers pay directly for automobile use. 1. Taxing gasoline to account for the harmful effects of driving will encourage energy-efficient motor vehicles and mass transit as well as reduce pollution from fossil fuel burning a. Taxing gasoline is opposed by private citizens and transport-related industries. b. Reliable mass transit options are not available everywhere. 2. Introduce parking fees and tolls on roads, tunnels, and bridges to reduce urban congestion and reduce pollution, especially during peak congestion times D. Alternatives to using motor vehicle, each with advantages and disadvantages, include walking, biking (Figure 13-6), mass transit rail (Figure 13-7), buses (Figure 13-8), and rapid-rail (Figure 13-9). 13-3 How Can Cities Become More Sustainable and Livable? A. Smart growth goes beyond land-use planning to incorporate laws and other tools to encourage urban development with minimal social and environmental consequences. 1. It promotes less dependence on cars. 2. It controls urban sprawl. 3. Less wasteful resource use. B. New urbanization goes further than smart-growth to develop mixed-use neighborhoods within existing cities. 1. Services are located within walking distance. 2. The area provides a mixture of pedestrian-friendly shops, offices, and homes to attract a variety of age groups, cultures, race, and classes to move in. 3. Emphasis is placed on architectural beauty and diversity to attract more dwellers to the neighborhoods. 4. Only developmental strategies with minimal environmental impact are used. 5. Well designed mass transportation connects neighborhoods and towns. C. Ecocity is another concept that goes further than new urbanization and strives to make new and existing urban areas more self-reliant, sustainable, and enjoyable places to live through good ecological design. 1. Ecocities have people-centered designs incorporating alternatives to automobile transport, energy-efficiency, and other environmentally conscious solutions. See Case Study: Curitiba Strives to be an Eco-City. a. Utilize solar and locally available renewable energy resources. b. Conserves energy and matter resources. c. Prevents pollution and reduce wastes by recycling, reusing, and composting at least 60 percent of municipal solid wastes. d. Protects, supports, and/or restores biodiversity, land resources, wetland, and other natural systems. e. Uses zoning and other tools to control human population pressure. 13-4 What Are Solid and Hazardous Waste and Why Are They Problems? There are no waste products in nature, as what is discarded by one organism provides nutrients for another. Humans produce vast amount of solid and hazardous wastes. See Case Study: Solid Waste in the United States. A. Solid waste is unwanted/discarded material that is not liquid/gaseous. 1. For the most part, goods and services produce this waste indirectly. 2. Municipal solid waste (garbage/trash) comes mostly from homes and workplaces. 3. Industrial solid waste is produced by mines, agriculture, and industries that provide goods and services. B. Hazardous wastes are harmful to humans and the environment because they may be toxic, chemically reactive, corrosive, or flammable. 1. The largest categories of hazardous waste are organic compounds (e.g., pesticides, solvents, and dioxins) and toxic heavy metals (e.g., lead, mercury, and arsenic). C. Electronic waste (e-waste) is a growing problem. Most e-waste ends up in landfills or incinerators, or is shipped to China, India, and poor African nations where workers dismantle and process the waste, exposing them to highly toxic materials. 13-5 How Should We Deal with Solid Waste? A. One method to reduce waste and pollution is to implement waste management. This approach accepts waste production as a result of economic growth. 1. It attempts to reduce environmental harm. 2. It transfers the waste from one part of the environment to another. B. Another method is waste reduction. This low-waste approach sees solid waste as a potential resource, which should be reused, recycled, or composted. 1. It discourages waste production in the first place. 2. It encourages waste reduction and prevention. 3. Waste reduction saves matter and energy resources, reduces pollution, helps protect biodiversity, and saves money. C. Integrated waste management incorporates both waste reduction and waste management strategies that should be considered in the following order of priority in order to be ecologically sound: 1. Primary pollution and waste prevention 2. Secondary pollution and waste prevention 3. Waste management D. To cut waste production and promote sustainability, we must reduce consumption and redesign our products. Here are six strategies: 1. Use less materials and energy by redesigning manufacturing processes and products. 2. Develop products that are easily repaired, reused, remanufactured, composted, or recycled. 3. Eliminate or reduce unnecessary packaging. Advocate no packaging, minimal packaging, or reusable packaging. 4. Use fee-per-bag waste collection systems. 5. Establish cradle-to-grave responsibility laws. 6. Restructure urban systems to rely on mass transit and bicycle transportation instead of cars. E. Reusing products helps reduce resource use, waste, and pollution; it also saves money. See Case Study: We Can Use Refillable Containers and Other Items. 1. Refillable containers create jobs, cost less for the product, and lessen waste. 2. Shopping bags, food containers, pallets, and tools can be reused/ borrowed. 3. Developing countries reuse their products; but there is a health hazard for the poor. 4. Large city dumps expose scavengers to toxins and infectious diseases. F. Recycling collects waste materials, turns them into useful products, and sells the new products. 1. Five types of materials can be recycled: paper products, glass, aluminum, steel, and some plastics. 2. Recycling processing consists of two methods; primary recycling is preferred. a. Primary/closed-loop recycling is when new products of the same type are created from the waste: new newspaper from old newspaper. b. Secondary/downcycling converts waste materials into different products. 3. There are two types of wastes that can be recycled: a. Pre-consumer/internal waste is generated from a manufacturing process that is recycled. b. Post-consumer/external waste is generated by consumer use of products. 4. Solid waste recycling can be done in a materials-recovery facility (MRF). Machines shred and separate the mixed waste and sell raw materials to manufacturers. The wastes are recycled and/or burned to produce energy; but such plants are expensive. They also must process a large input of garbage. 5. Source separation recycling relies on households and businesses to separate their trash; these are collected and sold to other dealers. See Case Study: Recycling Plastics. a. This produces less air and water pollution. b. This method has less startup costs and operating costs. c. It saves more energy and provides more jobs than MRFs. d. Pay-as-you-throw (PAUT) waste collection systems charge for the mixed waste that is picked up but not for the recycled, separated materials. G. Composting biodegradable organic wastes is a great way to mimic nature. H. Recycling has its advantages and disadvantages. 1. The economics of recycling depends on the cost one counts. a. The economic, environmental, and health benefits far outweigh the costs of recycling. b. But some materials cost more than it is worth. 2. Factors that hinder reuse and recycling are: a. The cost of a product does not include harmful environmental health costs in its life cycle. b. Resource-extracting industries receive government tax breaks and subsidies, while recycle and reuse industries do not. c. The demand and price for recycled materials fluctuates so there is less interest in committing to this method. 3. Progress is being made in developing degradable bioplastics; however, plastic recycling is not feasible because of these problems. See Science Focus: Bioplastics. a. Plastics are difficult to isolate in different materials. b. Not much individual plastic resin is recoverable per product. c. Recycled resin is much more expensive than virgin plastic resin. I. Municipal solid waste is burned in waste-to-energy incinerators, which produces steam for heating or producing electricity. The advantages and disadvantages of burning solid waste are: 1. Reduced trash volume 2. Low water pollution 3. High operating costs 4. Air pollution concerns 5. Discourages recycling and waste reduction J. Most solid waste is buried in landfills, which can leak toxic liquids into the soil and water. 1. Open dumps in the ground hold garbage; sometimes it is covered with dirt. 2. Sanitary landfills spread the solid waste out in thin layers, compact it, and cover it daily with clay/plastic foam. Modern landfills line the bottom with an impermeable liner, which collects leachate; rainwater is contaminated as it percolates through the solid waste. The leachate is collected, stored in tanks, and then sent to a sewage treatment plant. There are advantages and disadvantages of sanitary landfills. 13-6 How Should We Deal with Hazardous Waste? A. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences established these three priorities for dealing with hazardous waste: produce less, convert as much as possible to less hazardous substances, and put the rest in long-term, safe storage. B. Chemical and biological methods can be used to reduce the toxicity of hazardous wastes or to remove them. 1. Treatment facilities can detoxify hazardous and toxic wastes using physical or chemical methods. 2. One biological treatment, bioremediation, uses bacteria and enzymes to help destroy hazardous or toxic substances. They are converted to harmless compounds in the process. 3. Phytoremediation uses natural or genetically engineered plants to absorb, filter, and remove contaminants from polluted water and soil. C What is the best method to dispose of hazardous waste? The best solution is to produce as little as possible! See Case Study: Hazardous Waste Regulation in the U.S. 1. Deep-well disposal pumps liquid hazardous waste into dry, porous geologic formations far beneath water sources. Many scientists believe current regulations for deep-well disposal are inadequate. 2. Surface impoundments are depressions excavated into the earth—like ponds, pits, or lagoons—which are used to store liquid hazardous wastes. With evaporation, the wastes settle and become more concentrated. EPA studies have found that eventually these impoundments are likely to leak and contaminate groundwater. 3. In secure hazardous waste landfills, liquid and solid hazardous waste are stored in drums or other containers and buried. Carefully designed aboveground buildings can be used to store hazardous waste; the waste is contained in the upper floor; on the lower floor, leaks can then be easily identified. 13-7 How Can We Make the Transition to a More Sustainable Low-Waste Society? Environmental injustice has been practiced by placing hazardous treatment plants, incinerators, and landfills in communities populated by minority populations in the United States. A. Opposition to such has grown so that local, grass-root groups have successfully opposed the construction of such facilities. Health risks for people living near these facilities are much higher than for the general population. B. NIMBY (not in my backyard) philosophy has been replaced, by most of citizens, to the NOPE principle—not on planet EARTH—or NIABY (not in anyone’s backyard). 1. Environmental justice also applies at the international level. C. In 2000, a global treaty to control 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) was developed. 1. POPs are toxic chemicals stored in the fatty tissue of humans and other organisms. 2. Twelve chemicals, the dirty dozen, need to be phased out, detoxified, and/or isolated. D. There are key principles for transitioning to a low-waste society. 1. Everything is connected. 2. There is no place to send wastes “away.” 3. Polluters and producers should pay for the wastes they produce. 5. The best and cheapest ways to deal with solid and hazardous wastes are waste reduction and pollution prevention. 6. We should mimic nature by reusing, recycling, or composting most of the municipal solid wastes we produce. See Case Study: Industrial Ecosystems: Copying Nature. Teaching Tips 1. Begin the class with a poll of how many students would prefer to live in the city or the suburbs. After the lesson, do the poll again and see if any students changed their opinions about where they want to live. 2. Discuss with your students how their school and community dispose of wastes to see how much they know about their surroundings and also to make the information available for other students in the class. Are recycling centers available? Are they conveniently located? What materials do they accept? Term Paper and Discussion Topics Conceptual Topics 1. Urban population trends. 2. Solid waste. Sanitary landfill space shortages; Virginia Beach’s Mt. Trashmore; Moro, the garbage barge; plastics in the environment. 3. Epidemiology studies of different hazardous substances, such as lead and dioxins. 4. Alternatives to hazardous chemicals. 5. The history of synthetic organic chemicals. 6. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Attitudes & Values 1. Would you prefer to live in an urban or suburban area? Why? 2. Do you feel that governments in developing countries should recognize slums? Do you think that this solves some of the problems of the urban poor? 3. If you own a car, are you willing to trade in the convenience of owing a car to reduce urban congestion and pollution? 4. How do you feel when you visit the city versus a rural area? Do you think that people have a right to live where they choose even if it contributes to urban sprawl? 5. Do you feel that the city you live in is, or can be, sustainable and livable? Do you think that the ecocity concept can be realistically applied to all cities? 6. Have you visited a landfill? How did you feel during your visit? 7. Have you visited an incinerator? How did you feel during your visit? 8. Have you visited a recycling center? How did you feel during your visit? 9. Do you feel that natural ecosystems will be able to continue to absorb the wastes from human activities? 10. Do you feel that new technologies will be able to eliminate our current solid waste problems? 11. Do you feel that solid waste issues are one of the top three environmental concerns? 12. Should urban incinerators be encouraged as an alternative to sanitary landfills? 13. Should more substances be regulated as hazardous wastes? 14. Should the precautionary principle prevail? 15. Are you willing to separate your trash, carry reusable shopping bags, and purchase products with reduced packaging? 16. Would you favor a nationwide law requiring a 25-cent refundable deposit on all bottles and cans to encourage their recycling or reuse? 17. Would you support a law requiring everyone to separate their trash into paper, bottles, aluminum cans, steel cans, and glass for recycling and to separate all food and yard wastes for composting? 18. Would you support a law that bans all throwaway bottles, cans, and plastic containers and requires that all beverage and food containers be reusable (refillable)? 19. Would you support a law requiring that at least 60% of all municipal solid waste be recycled, reused, or composted? 20. Would you support a law banning the construction of any incinerators or landfills for disposal of hazardous or solid waste until at least 60% of all municipal solid waste is recycled, reused, or composted and the production of industrial hazardous waste has been reduced by 60? 21. Have you ever visited a landfill or incinerator that handles hazardous waste? How did you feel? 22. Should industries and other producers of hazardous waste be allowed to inject such waste into deep underground wells? 23. Would you support a law banning the emission of any hazardous chemicals into the environment, with the understanding that many products you use now would cost more and some would no longer be made? 24. Would you support a law banning the export of any hazardous wastes and pesticides, medicines, or other chemicals banned in your country to any other country? Would you also support a law banning export of such wastes from one part of a country to another so that each community is responsible for the waste it produces? Action-Oriented Topics 1. Individual. Recycle, reuse, reduce, rethink: garage sales; source separation of household wastes; appliances built to last; what consumers can do about excessive packaging; recycling centers; resource recovery plants: the Saugus model. Reduction of lead exposure; reduction of dioxins in the environment; businesses that have invested in pollution prevention; the environmental justice movement; Not on Planet Earth. 2. City/County. Municipal resource recovery plants; recycling industrial wastes; scrap yards; antilitter campaigns. Hazardous waste landfills; incineration; deep-well disposal; plastic bag bans/regulations. 3. State. Pollution monitoring, hazardous waste regulations. 4. National. The 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; EPA’s Superfund program. Strategies for treating hazardous chemicals; strategies for recycling hazardous chemicals; strategies for preventing hazardous chemicals. 5. Global. Recycling programs in Sweden and Switzerland; Germany’s tough packaging law. The international hazardous-waste trade. Activities and Projects 1. Come up with the design for your own ecocity. 2. If possible, take a class field trip to an open dump, a sanitary landfill, a secured landfill, and an incinerator. Observe problems associated with each approach to waste management. 3. Have students who live at home maintain a record of solid wastes discarded by their families in the course of one week. What percentage of this material could actually be recycled? 4. As a class, survey excess packaging in various products at local supermarkets. (Ask permission first; many supermarket managers are cooperative, but some are not.) Make up ecological ratings for each category based on the concept that packages inside of packages are very undesirable. Write manufacturers about the results of your findings. See if store managers would make your results available to customers at an environmental education stand or bulletin board. 5. As a class, investigate disposal of household hazardous wastes in your community. Is there a program to pick up household hazardous wastes yearly? 6. As a class, investigate any particular hazardous-waste problems in your area. Have there been leaks from underground tanks? Have there been highway accidents involving hazardous wastes? Have spills accidentally gone into waterways? Have buried wastes leached into water supplies? What efforts have been made to treat these problems? What efforts have been made to prevent these problems? What further actions, if any, would your class recommend? 7. As a class project, evaluate community awareness of alternative substances that can be used as substitutes for hazardous chemicals. 8. As a class, investigate the recycling practices of businesses in your area: dry cleaners, businesses that maintain air conditioning systems and refrigeration equipment, businesses that change oil. 9. Visit a community recycling center and observe its operations. If no recycling program for household waste is available in your vicinity, why not lobby for one or set one up as a class project? 10. Does your state require refundable deposits on all beer and soft-drink containers? If so, investigate the extent to which the program is living up to expectations. If not, invite spokespersons for both sides of the issue to debate the matter for the benefit of your class. 11. Invite a city or county official responsible for solid waste disposal to discuss related economic, political, and logistical problems. Ask about possible plans for future improvements in collection and resource recovery plants. 12. Invite public health officials to address your class on the subject of hazardous waste risks to public health in your community. 13. Invite a toxicologist to visit your class and discuss the problem of metal toxicity. 14. Invite a manager of a hazardous site to describe to your class the type of hazardous wastes that are being dumped, the origin of the wastes, the transportation routes to the dump, the emergency measures ready to go into effect along the transportation route, and the precautions that are taken at the site in handling the waste. 15. Invite a chemistry professor to talk to your class about the history of the development of synthetic organic chemicals and to describe the chemical nature of many of these hazardous chemicals. BBC News Videos The Brooks/Cole Environmental Science Video Library with Workbook, Featuring BBC Motion Gallery Video Clips, 2011. DVD ISBN: 978-0-538-73355-7 (Prepared by David Perault) Who Pays the Price for Technology? Jeans Suppliers Pollution China's Deadly Pollution Plastic Bag Charge Debated Suggested Answers for the Critical Thinking Questions 1. Answers will vary but should discuss how urban sprawl is unsustainable and promotes high levels of resource use, waste, pollution and poverty, and loss of cropland, forests, grasslands, etc, while decreasing biodiversity. Some students may point out a few benefits of urban life, but many of those are reduced as urban sprawl takes over. 2. Student answers will vary, but they should bring to light pros and cons of urban life. 3. Answers will vary but may include: less production of pollution, cheaper overall, requires less parking space, gas prices, incentives offered by work or school. Alternative options of travel would be a good first step toward transitioning to a sustainable low-waste society. Various community conditions can make this difficult – location of mass transit (proximity to home, school, work, etc.), transit schedules, cost, etc. 4. Answers will vary depending on item chosen. One example may include store-bought water bottles, which can easily be replaced by reusable water bottles and water purifying systems. In the long run, the cost of purchasing the water purification system and reusable bottle would be beneficial as well as reducing resource use and waste production. 5. Students answers will vary but should weigh pros and cons of each scenario while making a decision of support or opposition and in the case of opposition should provide a logical alternative waste management plan. One example may include weighing advantages of waste incineration such as reduced trash volumes, less need for landfill space, potential jobs, and the concentration of hazardous wastes into ash for burial to outweigh the disadvantages of an incineration plant, such as potential air pollution release. 6. Answers will vary depending on school programs. 7. Student answers will vary. Chapter 14 Economics, Politics, Worldviews, and Sustainability Summary and Objectives 14-1 How are economic systems related to the biosphere? Economic resources and systems have a direct impact on the creation of environmental problems and their eventual solutions. Natural capital, human capital, and manufactured capital all comprise economic resources, which must be managed to sustain the world’s environmental health. CONCEPT 14-1 Ecological economists and most sustainability experts regard human economic systems as subsystems of the biosphere. 1. Distinguish between the following: natural capital, manufactured capital, and human capital. Distinguish between the neoclassical economist view and the ecological economists view on the importance of natural capital. 14-2 How can we use economic tools to deal with environmental problems? Economic methods—such as full-cost pricing and green taxes—must be implemented in order to improve and maintain appropriate environmental quality. CONCEPT 14-2 We can using resources more sustainably by including their harmful environmental and health costs in the market prices of goods and services (full-cost pricing); by subsidizing environmentally beneficial goods and services; and by taxing pollution and waste instead of wages and profits. 2. Define gross domestic product (GDP). Evaluate the commonly held belief that GDP is an indicator of a country’s wellbeing. Describe alternative indicators that take social and environmental factors into account. Evaluate the accuracy of these indicators. 3. Define external costs. Give examples of external costs and external benefits that might be involved in purchasing a car. Define full-cost pricing. 4. List six political tools that can be used to improve environmental quality and reduce resource waste. List advantages and disadvantages of each tool. Evaluate which tool you think is best. Be prepared to defend your choice. 5. Predict likely consequences for a society whose goal is zero pollution. 14-3 How can reducing poverty help us to deal with environmental problems? CONCEPT 14-3 Reducing poverty can help us to reduce population growth, resource use, and environmental degradation. 6. Define poverty. Describe the trickle-down theory. Evaluate its effectiveness in decreasing poverty levels. Describe several strategies that can help to reduce poverty. 14-4 How can we make the transition to more environmentally sustainable economies? The environmental revolution is an economic revolution, which must develop a sustainable society for the earth’s people in long-term ways. CONCEPT 14-4 We can use the three principles of sustainability and various economic and environmental strategies to develop more environmentally sustainable economies. 7. List five ways to move toward a more ecologically sustainable economy 14-5 What is environmental policy and how is it made? Environmental policies can be slow to create and enact in a democratic society. CONCEPT 14-5 Through its policies, a government can help to protect environmental and public interests, and to encourage more environmentally sustainable economic development. Individuals play an important role in the environmental movement. 8. List three types of environmental leadership. Compare mainstream and grassroots environmental groups. 9. Summarize the goals and tactics of the anti-environmental movement. 14-6 How can we improve global environmental security? National and global securities are intrinsically bound with the earth’s environmental security. CONCEPT 14-6 Environmental security is necessary for economic security and is at least as important as national security. 10. Discuss how environmental security is linked to military and environmental security. 11. List three problems with and solutions for dealing with international environmental treaties. 14-7 What are some major environmental worldviews? Today’s environmental compromise and degradation have been directly influenced by major human-centered environmental worldviews, all of which posit that earth exists for man. The environmental wisdom worldview believes that man is not in charge, should not waste the earth’s resources, and should live sustainably by mimicking the ways the earth has sustained itself. To accomplish this, each person must be environmentally literate. CONCEPT 14-7 Major environmental worldviews differ over which is more important—human needs and wants, or the overall health of ecosystems and the biosphere. 12. List four basic beliefs common to planetary management worldviews. List and contrast four schools of thought within the planetary management worldview. 13. Distinguish human-centered worldviews and earth-centered worldviews. List the beliefs of one earth-centered worldview. Summarize environmental ethical guidelines regarding the relationship of humans to ecosystems, species, human cultures, and individual responsibility. 14-8 How can we live more sustainably? The fundamentals of environmental literacy include: natural capital matters, our ecological footprints are immense and expanding, ecological and climate-change tipping points are irreversible. Learning to live more simply and renewing our connection with nature are important components to changing our destructive habits. CONCEPT 14-8 We can live more sustainably by becoming environmentally literate, learning from nature, living more simply and lightly on the earth, and becoming active environmental citizens. 14. Summarize the goals of environmental literacy. Discuss strategies for bring about a sustainable revolution during your lifetime. Key Terms economics economic system natural capital human capital or resources manufactured capital or resources high-throughput economies poverty matter recycling reuse economy low-throughput (low-waste) economy democracy environmental policy environmental worldviews environmental ethics planetary management worldview stewardship worldview Outline 14-1 How Are Economic Systems Related to the Biosphere? A. Different kinds of capital support and drive economies. 1. People’s wants/needs are supported by a system (an economy), which produces, distributes, and consumes goods or services. 2. Economic resources are divided into three groups: natural resources or natural capital, human resources or human capital, and manufactured resources/manufactured capital. B. Neoclassical economists believe that it is possible to sustain continuing economic growth while ecological economists believe that such growth is not sustainable. They believe that sustainable economic growth must be based on environmentally sustainable growth. 1. Conventional economists do not believe Earth’s natural resources are vital to sustainability; they believe we can develop/create substitutes. They also believe that human ingenuity will overcome the problems of depleting and degrading natural resources. 2. Environmentally sustainable economic development increases the quality of goods and services; natural resources will not be degraded or deleted. C. The three major assumptions of the ecological economist model are: 1. Resources are limited and should not be wasted. 2. Environmental beneficial and sustainable forms of economic development should be favored over unsustainable forms of environmental growth. 3. Goods and services should reflect their true market price; which includes the harmful environmental and health effects of production. D. Strategies to implement the ecological and environmental economist view toward more sustainable economies include: 1. Use indicators to monitor economic and environmental health. 2. Inform consumers about the products they buy with eco-labeling. 3. Introduce tax breaks and subsidies for environmentally beneficial goods and services and phase out subsidies and tax breaks for harmful ones (subsidy shifting). 4. Decrease taxes on wages, income, and wealth and increase taxes on pollution and resource depletion and degradation (tax shifting). 5. Use laws and regulations to encourage pollution prevention and prevent resource depletion and degradation. 6. Use tradable permits or other suitable resources to limit overall pollution and resource use (cap-and-trade). 7. Sell services instead of things. 8. Reduce poverty. 14-2 How Can We Use Economic Tools to Deal with Environmental Problems? A. Direct Cost of a product or service does not include environmental, health, or other harmful costs that result from its use. Internal/direct costs include labor, raw materials, shipping, etc. B. Indirect/External Costs include processing of raw materials, for instance, the cost of polluting to obtain these materials, waste material as a result of the production, climate changes, etc. These costs are paid in poor health, insurance costs, taxes for pollution control, etc. C. New indicators are needed to monitor environmental quality and human well-being. The GPI (genuine progress indicator) is the GDP plus beneficial transactions where no money changes hands, minus the harmful environmental, health, and social costs of all transactions. D. A more environmentally honest market system would include the estimated harmful environmental and health costs in market prices. 1. Full-cost pricing would reduce waste, pollution, and encourage more efficient and less polluting production methods. 2. Challenges to this system of pricing: producers of harmful products would have to raise prices and some might go out of business; it is difficult to estimate the environmental costs; many subsidies and tax breaks keep prices artificially low and profits high. E. Governments can encourage full-cost pricing by: 1. Phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies and tax breaks 2. Implementing ecotaxes based on amount of pollution/waste produced and on the use of natural resources in production. This would shift taxes away from labor, income, and wealth, and toward activities that harm the environment. 3. Use environmental regulation to set pollution standards, regulate harmful activities, and protect irreplaceable resources. 4. Establish a cap-and-trade approach to reduce pollution and resource waste. 5. Shift from a material-flow economy where goods are purchased outright, to a service-flow economy, where customers rent the services those goods provide. 14-3 How Can Reducing Poverty Help Us to Deal with Environmental Problems? We need to reduce poverty by improving economic growth, environmental quality, and human well-being. A. According to the United Nations, one-fifth of the world’s people struggle to survive on less than $1.25 per day. 1. The wealth gap has grown significantly since 1980. 2. Reducing poverty will take significant efforts in the areas of debt forgiveness, combating malnutrition and infections diseases, providing universal primary school education, stabilizing population growth, investing in sustainable agricultural and power projects, and encouraging microfinance. 3. For more on microfinance, see Case Study: Muhammad Yunus and Microloans for the Poor. 4. The Millennium Development Goals were set to address many of the issues contributing to poverty: reducing hunger and poverty, improving health care, and moving toward environmental sustainability by 2015. 14-4 How Can We Make the Transition to More Environmentally Sustainable Economies? A. To shift to more sustainable economies we need to mimic nature by wasting less matter and energy, recycling matter resources, and controlling human population growth. 1. A short-term solution involves changing from a linear high-throughput society into circular matter recycling and reuse economies. a. This solution is short-term because, based on the laws of thermodynamics, high-throughput economies require high energy inputs (which cannot be recycled) and will add pollutants to the environment. 2. The best solution is to reduce the consumption of resources and change to a low-throughput (low-waste) economy. B. Solutions for shifting to environmentally sustainable economies are shown in Figure 14-7. 1. “Leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you need, try not to harm life or the environment, and make amends if you do.” Paul Hawken. C. Eco-economies can make money and create jobs. 1. In an eco-economy, some new industries and businesses will be created; others will reinvent themselves; and some will disappear. This is a normal process in a dynamic capitalist economy. 2. Making this shift to an eco-economy could provide great investment opportunities, but the politics of making this change are difficult. 14-5 What is Environmental Policy and How Is It Made? The environmental revolution is an economic revolution. A. In a constitutional democracy like the U.S., a constitution identifies the government’s authority, limits its power, and guarantees free speech. These institutions are designed to allow gradual change, ensuring economic and political stability, but this hinders democratic government's ability to respond in meaningful ways to environmental problems. B. The short-term outlook of democracies harms solving long-term environmental problems. 1. Reaction to environmental problems are isolated from one another. 2. Tendency to identify short-term, immediate solutions, which are not appropriate for long-term problems. 3. Short-term attention span of politicians prevents long-term views. 4. Environmental problems take decades to develop. 5. Lack of ecological literacy and unconcern for the future limit the vision of politicians and everyone else. C. Environmental principles of value in making environmental policy: 1. Humility principle – Our understanding of nature and the consequences of our actions are limited. 2. Reversibility principle – Try to be able to reverse decisions and actions. 3. Net energy principle – do not encourage use of energy sources with a low net-energy yield, especially those that cannot compete in the marketplace without subsidies. 4. Precautionary principle – When an action threatens environmental harm, take measures to decrease/control the action, even if cause/effect relationships are not well-established. 5. Prevention principle – Prevent a problem, rather than trying to fix its negative results. 6. Polluter-pays principle – Use regulations and taxes to ensure polluters bear cost of dealing with pollution and wastes. 7. Environmental justice principle – Supporting the environmental justice principle means that no group bears an unfair burden of harmful environmental risks. D. Environmental policy in the United States is complex and lengthy. 1. Policy produces laws, regulations, and hopefully funding. 2. Figure 14-9 shows a simplified view of how individuals, corporations, and environmental organizations interact with each other and the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the U.S. government. E. Managing public-owned land in the United States has been a controversial subject since the 1800s. See Case Study: Managing Public Land sin the United States – Politics in Action. Environmental economists believe that four principles should be used to manage public lands. 1. They should be used primarily for protecting biodiversity, wildlife habitats, and ecosystems. 2. No one should receive government subsidies or tax breaks for using or extracting resources on public lands. 3. The American people deserve fair compensation for the use of their property. 4. All users or extractors of resources on public lands should be fully responsible for any environmental damage they cause. F. There is strong opposition to the ideas of environmentally sustainable management of public lands by developers and resource extractors who want public lands open for development. They propose: 1. Sell public lands and their resources to corporations or individuals, or turn over their management to state and local officials. 2. Slash federal funding for administration of regulations over public lands. 3. Cut old-growth forests in the national forests and replace them with tree plantations. 4. Open national parks, national wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas to oil drilling, mining, off-road vehicles, and commercial development. 5. Eliminate or take power away from the National Park Service and launch a 20-year construction program of new concessions and theme parks run by private firms in the national parks. G. Anti-environmental movement has tried to discredit, weaken, and destroy the U.S. environmental movement. See Case Study: U.S. Environmental Laws and Regulations Have Been Under Attack. 1. Environmental concern is seen as a threat to power and wealth. 2. Environmental concern threatens private property rights and jobs. 3. Rules must be implemented without federal money for the job. 4. There are problems working against strong environmental regulations. a. The focus of environmental regulation has shifted from easy-to-see pollution sources to invisible problems such as climate changes and groundwater pollution. b. People are more motivated to change by inspiring and hopeful visions of the environment instead of persistent bad news foretold by many environmentalists. c. Environmental law and regulation agencies are staffed with officials in favor of weakening environmental policies and stifling dissent. H. Individual responsibility for environmental policy. See Individuals Matter: Anjali Appadurai: A College Student Who Electrified a United Nations Conference. 1. Individuals and groups must pressure officials to solve problems. 2. Pressure must come from grassroots organizations. 3. Be involved in developing environmentally sustainable communities. 4. Each person can: lead by example, work within existing systems to improve the environment; run for local office; and work for better environmental solutions. I. Mainline and grassroots environmental groups monitor environmental activities, work to pass/strengthen environmental laws, and work to find solutions to environmental problems. J. Students can play an important role by encouraging green campuses and communities, and by participating in environmental activities and research studies. 14-6 How Can We Improve Global Environmental Security? A. The earth’s natural capital, its environmental security, is as important as military and economic security. They are interrelated. B. International governmental organizations have been responsible for: 1. Expanding understanding of environmental issues. 2. Gathering and evaluating environmental data. 3. Developing and monitoring international environmental treaties. 4. Providing grants and loans for sustaining economic development and reducing poverty. 5. Helping more than 100 nations to develop environmental laws and institutions. C. International environmental cooperation has produced treaties; but the treaties are not effectively enforced. Figures 14-13 and 14-14 summarize the good and bad news about the international efforts and global outlook of dealing with environmental issues respectively. 14-7 What Are Some Major Environmental Worldviews? A. An environmental worldview includes: 1. How you think the world works. 2. What your role in the world should be. 3. What you believe are the right and wrong environmental behavior/environmental ethics. B. There are different environmental worldviews (Figure 14-15). 1. Human centered (anthropocentric) or life centered (biocentric) 2. Biodiversity view or biosphere view C. The major human-centered environmental worldviews have brought us to the present situation. 1. Planetary management worldview is that the earth exists for man. 2. Stewardship view is that we are borrowing the earth from future generations and we have a responsibility to manage it conscientiously. 3. Is it possible to manage this planet with these human-centered worldviews? a. We can never know enough. D. Earth-centered worldviews have different defining characteristics. 1. The environmental wisdom worldview believes we are not in charge, should not waste the earth’s resources, and should live sustainably by mimicking the ways the earth has sustained itself. The earth does not need us to survive—we need it. 14-8 How Can We Live More Sustainably? Many of our environmental problems stem from our ignorance about how nature works, what we are doing to threaten the systems that sustain life, and how we can change our behavior. A. Foundations of environmental literacy 1. Natural capital matters because it supports life and human economies. 2. Our ecological footprints are immense and expanding rapidly 3. Ecological and climate-change tipping points are irreversible and should never be crossed. B. Beyond environmental education 1. To value the environment, people need to see beyond the economic value – they need to see its ecological, aesthetic, and spiritual value. People need an intimate connection with nature. 2. Establishing a “sense of place” in nature would give many people a deeper connection with nature. C. Learn to live more simply and sustainably 1. Seeking happiness through material goods is considered folly in philosophy and many religions, yet mass-marketing promotes exactly the opposite lifestyle. 2. Food production, transportation, home energy use, and overall resource use are the human activities that have the greatest impact on the earth. These are the ones we need to change. 3. See Figure 14-7 for the “sustainability eight” - ways which people can live more lightly on the earth. D. Environmental or Sustainability Revolution 1. See Figure 14-18 for cultural shifts in emphasis that are needed for this revolution. 2. Some see this shift as idealistic and unrealistic. Others see it as unrealistic to continue our present habits. Teaching Tips 1. Will people refrain from polluting excessively if they understand that such behavior is socially and ecologically irresponsible? Discuss this question with your class and make a list of the various reasons people might have for ignoring moral persuasion and preaching. Check for understanding of the connections between individual decisions and environmental sustainability. Term Paper and Discussion Topics Conceptual Topics 1. Traditional versus sustainable-earth economics. 2. Economics and poverty. The sharing ethic and enlightened self-interest; land reform; the World Bank and development projects; debt-for-nature swaps; technology transfer. 3. Sustainable economics. Describe one vision of a sustainable economy. 4. The federal government. Creating environmental policy; reforming election procedures and bureaucracies; leveling the playing field. 5. Green groups. Germany’s Green Party; Earth First!; Greenpeace; the Environmental Defense Fund; the Natural Resources Defense Council; Earth Day; public interest research groups (PIRGs); Sierra Club; the Nature Conservancy; the National Wildlife Association. 6. The wise-use movement. 7. Beliefs of human-centered worldviews. Technological optimism; substitution for scarce resources; no limits; superiority of the human species. 8. Alternatives to planetary management worldviews. Ecocentrism; ecofeminism; social ecology. Attitudes & Values 1. What is the good life? 2. Do you feel a part of or apart from nature? 3. What priorities should guide the design of a measure of sustainable economic welfare? 4. Which of the political tools for controlling economic systems is best? 5. Are the best things in life not things? What are the basic material requirements for survival with dignity and security? 6. Do you feel global environmental security is necessary for national security? 7. Global environmental security: What does it mean to us? 8. Do you believe that individuals and countries should have the right to consume as many resources as they can afford? 9. Do you believe that the most important nation is the one that can command and use the largest fraction of the world’s resources to promote its own economic growth? 10. Do you believe that the more we produce and consume, the better off we are? 11. Do you believe that humans have a duty to subdue wild nature to provide food, shelter, and other resources for people and to provide jobs and income through increased economic growth? 12. Do you believe that resources are essentially unlimited because of our ability to develop technologies to make them available or to find substitutes? 13. Do you believe that environmental improvement will result in a net loss, a net gain, or no change in the total number of jobs in your country? In your community? 14. Do you believe that environmental improvement will result in a net loss, a net gain, or no change in the total number of jobs in your country? In your community? 15. Would you be in favor of improving the air or water quality in your community if this meant a net loss of local jobs? 16. Would you be in favor of improving the air or water quality in your community if this meant that you lost your job? 17. Would you favor requiring that the market cost of any product or service include all estimated present and future environmental costs? 18. Do you favor debt-for-nature swaps in which poor countries would be forgiven most of their debts to rich countries in exchange for protecting specified wild areas of their country from harmful and unsustainable forms of development? 19. Have you ever had an opportunity to be a leader? What leadership style do you find most comfortable? 20. Have you met a legislator who worked on environmental policy? How did you feel about the experience? 21. Have you met a grassroots environmental activist? How did you feel about the experience? 22. Grassroots activities: working for environmental justice? 23. Nonviolent civil disobedience: a necessary tactic for change? 24. Do you feel the government can play a responsible role in establishing a sustainable relationship between humans and their environment? 25. Would you support a 10% increase in income taxes if you knew this revenue would be used to improve environmental quality? 26. Do you believe that we have an obligation to leave the earth for future generations of humans and other species in as good a shape as we found it, if not better? Did past generations do this for you? 27. Do you think your environment will be more livable, about the same or less livable 10 years from now? 28. Do you think that humans can bring about a major change within your lifetime that involves helping sustain rather than degrade the earth? 29. Do you believe that most environmental issues are overblown by environmentalists and the media? Action-Oriented Topics 1. Individual. Exercising environmental ethics as a consumer; co-op America; green businesses and green marketing strategies; socially responsible investing; boycotting harmful products. Exercising environmental ethics as a voter; strategies for being an agent of change; Mahatma Gandhi; Martin Luther King, Jr. Integration of beliefs, attitudes, and actions. 2. Groups. Environmental group strategies: active interference with environmentally damaging activities; lobbying; letters campaigning; buying land for conservation; the ecojustice movement. 3. National. Political strategies for controlling economic systems: regulation, subsidies, withdrawing harmful subsidies, tradable rights, green taxes, user fees; National Environmental Policy Act of 1969; Clean Air Act; Clean Water Act; the Environmental Protection Agency. 4. Global. International responsibilities for addressing poverty. International environmental movement. The UN Environment Program (UNEP); the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Activities and Projects 1. Find and share with the class songs, folklore, literary passages, and artworks that reflect U.S. land-use values and ethics as they have evolved from the frontier era to the present. Be sure to include Native American works. What can be discerned about the relationship of humans to nature in different cultures through their expressions of art? 2. Invite a utility regulator to your class to discuss the problem of full-cost pricing. Ask if any efforts have been made to internalize external costs at the state level. 3. Ask industrial and environmental lobbyists to visit the class and discuss their goals, methods, and problems. 4. Ask a policy maker who has been involved in writing environmental legislation to come to your class and describe the process. 5. For the benefit of your class, arrange a panel discussion among spokespersons for the religious community in your locale. Ask the panel to address the subject of religion as a driving force for sustainable-earth behavior, and to respond to critics who argue that Judeo-Christian beliefs are at the root of the environmental crisis. 6. Have your class survey the economic growth that has taken place recently in your state or community. Make lists of the positive and negative consequences associated with this growth; then discuss the implications for human wellbeing and future life quality. Should growth in your state or community be redirected? If so, specifically how? Invite a professional planner to discuss this issue with your class. 7. As a class exercise, explore the agencies in your community or state that are responsible for recruiting new industries. What are their goals and methods? Compare these values and methods with sustainable-earth values and methods. 8. Have your class design an indicator of sustainable economic welfare that can be applied to individual communities to monitor change. 9. Have your students make a list of the employers whose payrolls are very important to the economic health of your community. How would a transition to a sustainable-earth economy affect the employment structure of your community? 10. As a class exercise, conduct a school or community poll to find out if people are willing to pay for pollution control. Have the entire class participate in the design of a brief opinion poll. The questions should be designed to find out what kinds of environmental qualities people want to see preserved and what they are willing to give up (in monetary or other terms) to ensure that these qualities are protected. Try to standardize the procedure and get as many respondents as practical. Analyze the results and discuss them in class. 11. As a class exercise, develop the basic elements of a federal budget for next year that includes realistic levels of spending for environmental quality management. Have students decide on a list of priorities for pollution control. 12. As a class exercise, use the Congressional Record (or equivalent state documents) to follow the progress of various pollution, land-use, energy, population, or other environmentally related bills. If possible, have your institution join an environmental network, such as Econet, that will allow students to access information about environmental legislation, the members of relevant congressional committees, and background material to understand different environmental issues. 13. Does the United States have a sustainable-earth president? Have students evaluate the current administration’s performance from the point of view of sustainability. They should use specific references and examples. Have students locate resources (such as documents prepared by the League of Conservation Voters) that report the voting records of members of Congress on environmental legislation. Using those resources, have students evaluate representatives from the locations where they live. Have them evaluate how important their findings are in forming an opinion about their elected officials. 14. As a class project, identify a local environmental issue early in the semester or term and follow the actions of environmental groups addressing that issue. What strategies and tactics are used, and with what effects? What leadership qualities seem most effective? 15. As a class project, poll the students at your school on the subject of environmental protection and its importance. Investigate their beliefs and opinions regarding a variety of environmental quality management issues and alternatives. 16. Have your students write scenarios describing what everyday life would be like in the United States after a transition is made to a sustainable-earth society. Identify areas of consensus and disagreement. 17. As a class exercise, have each student write out and hand in anonymously a list of the essential components of the good life. Read some or all of the lists aloud to the class. Write a composite list on the blackboard and discuss each component in terms of sustainable-earth values and guidelines. 18. As a class project, analyze use of resources at your college. Consider all of the things that must be done to place the management of the institution and its physical plant on a sustainable-earth footing—such as energy conservation, water conservation, frugal consumption of materials, reuse of materials and recycling, solid waste management, noise control, provision of wildlife habitat, integrated pest management, designing for people, toxic waste disposal, and environmental education. Study the decision-making structure of your institution. Try to convince the administration to implement your plan. Evaluate your success. Develop alternative strategies as needed. BBC News Videos The Brooks/Cole Environmental Science Video Library with Workbook, Featuring BBC Motion Gallery Video Clips, 2011. DVD ISBN: 978-0-538-73355-7 (Prepared by David Perault) What Is the Environmental Cost for Your Food? Who Pays the Price for Technology? Plastic Bag Charge Debated Finding Alternatives to Oil Suggested Answers to Critical Thinking Questions 1. No. Environmental, health, and other harmful costs should keep us from maximizing economic growth through excessive producing and consuming. Alternatives include implementing an environmentally honest marketing system, rewarding environmentally sustainable businesses, and taxing pollution and wastes. 2. Student answers will vary but may include resources such as water, coal, and non-renewables. The characteristics of more environmentally sustainable economies described in Figure 14-7 would allow us to achieve sustainable development. 3. Harmful effects may include the downfall of businesses that produce harmful and wasteful products, difficulties estimating environmental and health costs, and the need for consumer education. Benefits of full-cost pricing may include reduced wastes, pollution, and environmental degradation as well as leading to improved human health, as producers would be encouraged to develop more resource-efficient and less polluting methods of production while jobs and profits would be created in environmentally friendly businesses. 4. Student answers will vary depending on the environmental policy chosen by student. The policy-making process that would be best for the environment would be the policy that is best able to create a sustainable low-waste society. 5. Student answers will vary but may include examples such as: (a) Agreeing that all users or extractors of resources on public lands should be fully responsible for any environmental damage they cause. With this principle in place, individuals would use more care to avoid damaging land in the first place, rather than facing the consequences after the damage has been done. (b) Disagreeing that national parks, national wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas should be open to oil drilling, mining, off-road vehicles, and commercial development. With this principle in place, several negative impacts could be predicted such as a decrease in biodiversity as well as an increase in pollution and waste production. 6. Student answers will vary but should reflect an in-depth understanding of the impact that comes from their decisions. 7. Student answers will vary. Look for examples where students' understanding of the issues grew to include the many social, economic, and political complexities inherent in any of the environmental issues covered in this textbook. Instructor Manual for Sustaining the Earth G. Tyler Miller, Scott E. Spoolman 9781285769493