GEE 001 - General Education Elective 1

TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES
QUEZON CITY
DEPARTMENT STUDENT COUNCIL
CIVIL ENGINEERING
GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

• To understand how we interact with the
environment
CHAPTER 1: ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, THEIR
CAUSES, AND SUSTAINABILITY • To find ways to deal with environmental problems
and live more sustainably
Sustainability
• The ability of ecosystems and human cultural
systems to survive, flourish, and adapt together to Three Scientific Principles of Sustainability
constantly changing environments over long
periods of time • Dependence on solar energy
Environmental Science Is a Study of Our Interactions – Supplies nutrients, directly and indirectly
With the World
• Biodiversity
Environment
– Provides ecosystem services and
– Everything around us, living and nonliving adaptability
Ecosystem • Chemical/nutrient cycling
– Group of organisms in a defined – In nature, waste = useful resources

geographic area (terrestrial or marine)
*Interdependence, not independence, is what sustains
that interact with each other and their
life*
environment
Key Components of Sustainability
• Natural capital
Environmentalism
– Natural resources
– A social movement dedicated to
sustaining the earth’s life-support system – Ecosystem services
Ecology How do humans degrade natural capital?
– Most of ecology focuses on the study of - By using renewable resources faster than nature
ecosystems can restore them
- By overloading natural resources with pollution
What Are the Goals of Environmental Science? and waste
• To learn how life on the earth has survived and Sustainability Solutions
thrived
Disclaimer:
*The ideas and information in this review material were taken from other sources written by different authors.
*This material may not also contain all the information needed, but as far as reviewed, all relevant details were written as
much as possible.
*The text may contain grammatical and typographical errors and does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the
material or reliability of any information written.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Solutions cross disciplines Resources Are Inexhaustible, Renewable, and
Nonrenewable
– Scientific versus economic and political
solutions • Inexhaustible resources
• There are trade-offs and compromises – Perpetually available and expected to last
– Corporate subsidies can encourage – solar energy, wind and flowing water
sustainability
• Renewable resources
– Daily individual and local contributions
matter – Replenished by natural processes within
their sustainable yield
Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Ecosystem
Services – forests, grasslands, fish, topsoil, clean air,
fresh water
Other Principles of Sustainability
from the Social Sciences • Nonrenewable/exhaustible resources
• Full-cost pricing (economics) – Available in fixed quantities that can be

renewed, but only through long-term
• Win-win situations (political science) geologic processes
• A responsibility to future generations (ethics) – fossil fuels, metallic minerals (cooper and
aluminum) and non-metallic minerals (salt
Resource
and sand)
• A resource is anything we obtain from the
environment Sustainable yield: highest rate we can use a renewable
resource indefinitely without impacting its perpetual
– Can be readily available for use
availability
– Or – can require technology to acquire
Countries Differ in Resource Use and Environmental
• Sustainable solutions for resource use Impact
– Reduce • Industrialized countries
– Reuse – 17% of world’s population (United States,

Canada, Western Europe)
– Recycle
• Developing countries
– 83% of world’s population
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Middle income, moderately • Pollution cleanup (post-production)
developed countries (China,
India, Brazil) – Cleanup: dilution/reduction of pollutants
• Low income, least developed • Pollution prevention (before pollution occurs)

countries (Nigeria, Bangladesh,
Haiti) – Reduces or eliminates the production of
pollutants
Ecological Footprints
Ecological Footprint
– depletes and degrades earth’s natural
capital (natural resources and ecosystem – The amount of land and water needed to
services)
supply a population or geographic area
*The UN’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report with renewable resources, as well as the
concluded that we have scientific, economic, and political ability to absorb/recycle wastes and
solutions to these problems that we could implement within pollution produced by resource usage
a few decades.
• The growth of ecological footprints
Pollution: contamination of the environment by polluting
– Leads to degradation of natural capital
substances (pollutants) such as chemicals, noise, and
heat – Results in the creation of pollution and
waste
– Naturally occurring (volcanoes)
– Contributed by humans (burning of fossil

fuels)
Ecological Deficit
Point Sources – Occurs when the ecological footprint is
larger than the biological capacity to
– Single, identifiable origins (e.g., smokestacks)
replenish resources and absorb
Nonpoint Sources wastes/pollution
– Dispersed and difficult to identify sources (e.g., *In an ecological deficit, people are living unsustainably*
pesticides, trash in streams)
How Are We Dealing With Pollution?

Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– This creates adverse environmental • Acquisition of resources without regard for the
impacts, which can be mitigated by environmental effects of their consumption
upcycling
Affluence Has Beneficial Environmental Effects
Per capita ecological footprint: The average ecological
footprint of an individual in a given country or area • Better education
Upcycling: improving aspects of the environment while • Scientific research

serving humanity’s needs and wants • Technological solutions resulting in improvements
IPAT Is Another Environmental Impact Model in environmental quality (e.g., safe drinking water)
• In the early 1970s, a new environmental model Harmful effects of Poverty

called the IPAT model was developed to – Short term requirements for survival can
determine the environmental impact of human lead to degraded forests, topsoil,
activities grasslands, fisheries, and wildlife
populations
Impact (𝐼) =
Health effects of Poverty
Population (𝑃) × Affluence (𝐴) × Technology (𝑇)
– Malnutrition, limited access to
Why Do We Have Environmental Problems?
sanitation/clean drinking water, outdoor
1. Population Growth and indoor air pollution
2. Unsustainable resource use
Prices of Goods/Services Rarely Include Their Harmful
3. Poverty
Environmental/Health Costs
4. Excluding environmental costs from market prices
5. Increasing isolation from nature • Consumers are unaware of the damage caused
by their consumption
Affluence Has Harmful Environmental Effects
• Current government subsidies often increase
• High levels of consumption and waste of
environmental degradation
resources
– To live sustainably, government subsidies
• More air pollution, water pollution, and land
must become beneficial to the
degradation
environment by:
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Taxing pollution and waste • The conservationist school (Theodore
Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot)
• Shifting from environmentally
harmful to environmentally – Manage all public lands wisely and
scientifically, primarily to provide
beneficial subsidies
resources for people
Technological isolation: cell phones, computers, tablets,
games, etc. – virtual reality, not physical reality
Sustainable Society
Environmental Worldview
• In order to live sustainably, one must live off the
– A set of assumptions and values natural resources without depleting or degrading
reflecting how one thinks the world works the natural capital that supplies these natural
and what one’s role in it should be resources
Natural capital
Three Major Types of World Views
– provides natural income
1. Human-centered
– Renewable resources such as plants,
– Planetary management world
animals, soil, and clean water and air
view
Additional Case Study:
– Stewardship world view
An Eco-City – Tianjin, China
2. Life-centered
• Tianjin, China is a real-life entirely sustainable
3. Earth-centered community developed on non-arable land located
in an area facing a water shortage in one of the
Stewardship Worldview - holds that we can and should fastest growing regions of China
manage the earth for our benefit, but that we have an
Tiajin and the Three Big Ideas
ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible
managers. 1. Create a more sustainable future
The Rise of Environmental Conservation and – Use natural capital and natural resources
Protection in the United States
– Reduce, reuse, and recycle
• The preservationist school (John Muir)
2. Utilize full-cost pricing
– Leave wilderness areas on some public
lands untouched – Be aware of ecological footprints – and
address cleanup and prevention
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

3. Find win-win solutions Troposphere: The innermost atmospheric layer directly
above the earth’s surface and is made up of nitrogen and
– Apply these solutions to other societies
oxygen.
"Three Harmonies" refers to:
Stratosphere: found directly above the troposphere, it
1. People living in harmony with other people, i.e., contains significant ozone gas – this gas filters out almost
social harmony 95% of the sun’s harmful UV-ultraviolet radiation.
2. People living in harmony with economic activities,
i.e., economic vibrancy “Ice”: includes polar ice, icebergs, glaciers, and frozen ice
3. People living in harmony with the environment, i.e. in soils (permafrost).
environmental sustainability
97% of earth’s water is found in the oceans.
"Three Abilities” refers to the eco-city being: The portion of the crust: is a source of chemical nutrients
1. Practical - the technologies adopted in the Eco- used by organisms during their life cycle and is also a
city must be affordable and commercially viable source of non-renewable resources like fossil fuels.
2. Replicable - the principles and models of the eco-
city could be applied to other cities in China and
even in other countries
3. Scalable - the principles and models could be
adapted for another project or development of a Three Factors Sustain the Earth’s Life
different scale
1. The one-way flow of high-quality energy
CHAPTER 3: ECOSYSTEMS: WHAT ARE THEY AND
– Solar energy principle of sustainability
HOW THEY DO WORK?
– Greenhouse effect
Earth’s Life-Support System Has Four Major
Components 2. The cycling of nutrients
1. Atmosphere – composed of the troposphere and – Chemical cycling principle of
the stratosphere sustainability
2. Hydrosphere – water at or near the earth’s surface 3. Gravity
(ice, water, and water vapor)
3. Geosphere – composed of a hot core, a thick,
mostly rocky mantle and a thin outer crust Major Components of an Ecosystem
4. Biosphere – wherever life is found within the other • Organisms that:

three spheres
– Produce their own nutrition
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Satisfy nutritional requirements by • Organisms belong to feeding/tropic levels
consuming other organisms depending on their source of nutrients
– Decompose waste and remains of
organisms thereby recycling nutrients
Levels of the Organization of Matter in Nature
Producers (autotrophs – plants) use photosynthesis to
make nutrients
Consumers (heterotrophs) feed on other organisms or
their remains
– Can be herbivores (plant eaters),
carnivores (meat eaters) or omnivores
(eat both plants and meat)
Decomposers (heterotrophs) - obtain their nutrients by
consuming the remains of organisms and their wastes –
thereby recycling nutrients back to soils, water, and air for
reuse by producers.
The life processes of producers, consumers, and

decomposers are supported by aerobic respiration, which
makes chemical energy stored in sugars (glucose) and
other organic compounds available for use.
Food chains
– A sequence of organisms, each of which
serves as a nutritional source for the next
(big fish eat little fish)
Food webs
Animated Figure 3.4 Some of the levels of the organization
of matter in nature. Ecology focuses on the top five of these – A complex network of interconnected food
levels. chains
Producers and Consumers Pyramid of energy flow
– Energy flow through various trophic levels
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

GPP (gross primary productivity) – Surface runoff
– The rate that an ecosystem’s producers – Aquifers and ground water
convert energy into biomass
• Only a very small portion of earth’s water is fresh
NPP (net primary productivity) water
– The rate that producers use – The rest is in oceans, stored as ice or is
photosynthesis to produce and store too deep to access
chemical energy minus the rate at which
they use energy for aerobic respiration How Do Humans Alter the Water Cycle?
Nutrients Cycle Within and Among Ecosystems • By withdrawing fresh water resources faster than
natural processes replenish it
• Biogeochemical cycling, driven by incoming solar
radiation and earth’s gravity continually, moves • By replacing forests/vegetation with urban
nutrients and energy through air, water, soils, development – reducing transpiration and
rocks, and living organisms increasing runoff
– Supports the chemical cycling principle of • By draining and filling in wetlands, which disturbs
sustainability the renewal abilities of the hydrologic cycle
The Water Cycle – Evaporation and Transpiration *If these activities continue over a large enough
geographic area for long enough, they contribute to climate
• The hydrologic cycle or water cycle collects, change.
purifies, and distributes the earth’s fixed supply of
water The Carbon Cycle
– The cycle of natural water quality renewal • Atmospheric carbon dioxide, a key component of
the carbon cycle, has a significant temperature
• Incoming solar radiation moves water at the
effect (greenhouse effect)
surface into the atmosphere through evaporation
• How does carbon cycle through the biosphere?
– Mainly via transpiration (evaporation from
the surface of plants) – Photosynthesis by producers
The Water Cycle – Precipitation and Surface Runoff – Aerobic respiration by producers,
consumers and decomposers
• Condensation in the atmosphere and effects of
gravity create precipitation which returns water to How Do Humans Alter the Carbon Cycle?
the earth’s surface
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• By extracting and burning fossil fuels at a much • By removing atmospheric nitrogen to make
higher rate than they are naturally formed fertilizer
– This adds carbon dioxide to the – Agricultural runoff from fields into the
atmosphere water supply leads to algal overgrowth
that disrupts the oxygen balance in
• By clear cutting forests faster than they re-grow aquatic systems
– This destroys carbon-absorbing The Phosphorus Cycle
vegetation
• How does phosphorus cycle through the
The Nitrogen Cycle: Bacteria in Action biosphere?
• How does nitrogen cycle through the biosphere? – Cycles through soils, rocks, water and
plants, but not through the atmosphere
– Atmospheric nitrogen cannot be absorbed
or used directly by most organisms – Can be temporarily removed from natural
cycling when washed into oceans and
– Bacteria convert the nitrogen into a
trapped in marine sediments
usable form so it becomes a useful plant
nutrient – As with nitrogen, contributes to
agricultural runoff
– Consumers (herbivores) and
decomposers convert the nitrogen back How Do Humans Alter the Phosphorus Cycle?
into nitrogen gas which is then released
into the atmosphere • By mining phosphorus deposits to make fertilizer
• Through clearing of tropical forests, which reduces
phosphorus in the topsoil
*N2 (atmospheric nitrogen) through bacterial action
becomes part of compounds like ammonia (NH3) and • Through agricultural runoff and topsoil erosion,
which disturbs biogeochemical cycling
ammonium ions (NH4+). These are significant plant
nutrients. The Sulfur Cycle
How Do Humans Alter the Nitrogen Cycle? • How does sulfur cycle through the biosphere?
• By burning fossil fuels that adds nitric oxide to the – Via mining of ore deposits/ocean
atmosphere sediments
– Nitrogen dioxide gas/nitric acid vapor – From active volcanoes – as poisonous
causes acid rain hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide gases
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Through decomposition of organic matter • Sustaining life on the earth depends on the
in wetlands biodiversity found in genes, species, ecosystems,
and ecosystem processes
– From sea spray, dust storms, and forest
fires Biodiversity Is a Crucial Part of the Earth’s Natural
Capital
– Absorption by plant roots
• Biodiversity is the variety in:
How Do Humans Alter the Sulfur Cycle?
– Species (species diversity)
• By releasing sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere
– The genes they contain (genetic diversity)
– Burning sulfur containing coal and oil in
power plants to generate electricity – Ecosystems (ecological diversity)
– Refining sulfur containing oil to make – Ecosystem processes, such as energy
gasoline flow and nutrient cycling (functional
diversity)
– Mining and smelting metals from sulfur
deposits Species diversity
• The key components of acid rain are nitrogen – the number and variety of species in a
dioxide and sulfuric acid biological community
Ecosystems and Three Big Ideas Genetic diversity
• Life is sustained by the flow of energy and – is the variety of genes in a population or
nutrients through ecosystems which are species
continually recycled
Species
• Ecosystems are characterized by producers,
consumers, and decomposers – All aid in the – Set of individuals that can mate and
cycling process produce fertile offspring – every organism
is a member of a certain species
• Human activities impact ecosystem cycling,
sometimes negatively, sometimes positively (e.g., Ecosystem diversity
Yellowstone) – Deserts, grasslands, forests, mountains,
CHAPTER 4: BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION oceans, lakes, rivers, and wetlands
– Biomes are major habitations/large
What Is Biodiversity and Why Is It Important?
ecosystems with distinct climates and
species
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

A Variety of Biomes
Generalist species (broad niches)
– Can live in a wide range of environments;
less prone to extinction
Specialist species (narrow niches)
– Live in only a few types of habitats; more
prone to extinction because of
their inability to tolerate environmental

There are four important roles that a species can play
change
in a particular ecosystem
Native species
– Native
– Live and thrive in a specific ecosystem
– Nonnative
Nonnative species
– Indicator
– Immigrate into, or are deliberately or
– Keystone accidentally introduced, into an
Each Species Plays a Role in Its Ecosystem ecosystem
Niche – Can threaten native species through

competition for resources, reducing the
– The role the species plays in an number native species
ecosystem and everything that affects its
survival and reproduction – Can spread rapidly if they find a favorable
niche
Habitat
*Nonnative species can be invasive, alien and exotic
– The geographic location of the species species.
Species Indicator Species
– May be generalists with broad niches, or – Serve as an Biological Smoke Alarm
specialists with narrow niches – Sensitive to changes in an ecosystem
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Provide early warnings of community and – Develops in bacteria and insect species
ecosystem change because they rapidly produce large
numbers of offspring (antibiotic-resistant
Keystone Species bacteria)
– Play Critical Roles in Their Ecosystems Speciation occurs when one species splits into two or
– affect the type and abundance of other species in more different species
an ecosystem and can be responsible for:
– Species are considered different when
– Pollination of flowering species individuals can no longer breed and
(butterflies, honeybees) reproduce fertile offspring
– Regulation of populations of other species Geographic isolation
(wolves, alligators)
– Occurs when groups of the same
– May cause population crashes and population become physically isolated (by
extinction of dependent species if drawn mountains, rivers, roads or distance) from
to extinction itself one another over time
The theory of evolution Reproductive isolation
– Explains how life on the earth changes – Occurs when mutation and change by
over time due to changes in the genes of natural selection operate independently in
populations the gene pool of geographically isolated
populations
Gene Mutation
Background extinction
– Gives individuals genetic traits that
enhance their ability to survive and – slower rate that existed before human
produce offspring population became significant
Biological evolution Mass extinction
– The expression of genetic variation over – significant rise in extinction over
time by succeeding generations (natural background extinction rate
selection)
A Short History of Mass Extinctions
Genetic resistance
• Fossil and geological evidence indicate that there
– The ability of one or more organisms in a have probably been five mass extinctions during
population to tolerate chemicals designed the past 500 million years
to kill the population
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• These mass extinctions have been followed by an – The most common type of interaction
increase in species diversity
– When two species compete for the same
– New species arise to fill unoccupied resource, their niches overlap
niches or to exploit newly available ones
Resource partitioning
CHAPTER 5: SPECIES INTERACTIONS, ECOLOGICAL
– Occurs when competing species evolve
SUCCESSION, AND POPULATION CONTROL
specialized traits that allow them to use
• At one time, 13,000-20,000 sea otters lived in the shared resources at different times, in
waters off the coast of California different ways, or in different places
– By 1938, only about 50 were left Predation
– In 1977, they were declared an – When an individual of one species

endangered species (predator) feeds directly on another plant
or animal species
– In 2013, numbers are about 2,900
How Do Predators Capture Their Prey?
• How would the loss of the seal otter affect the
biodiversity of these coastal waters? • Herbivores can walk up to their prey (plants)
Five ways in which species interact • Carnivores have a variety of methods to capture
to prey:
– Interspecific competition
– Running and flying
– Predation
– Working together to hunt
– Parasitism
– Ambush
– Mutualism
– Camouflage
– Commensalism
– Attack with chemical warfare
Species share limited resources
How Do Prey Species Avoid Predators?
– Food
• Run, swim, or fly fast
– Shelter
• Highly developed senses of sight, hearing or smell
– Space
• Physical protection – shells, thick bark, spines
Interspecific Competition
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Camouflage – shapes and colors another organism (host) – usually by
living on or in the host
• Chemical warfare – poisons, irritating (stinging),
foul-smelling or bad tasting (can be poisonous) – A parasite is usually much smaller than its
host and rarely kills it
How do prey species avoid predators?
– Parasites can live inside the host
Mimicry (tapeworms)
– when a non-poisonous species looks like – Others are attach themselves to the
(mimics) a species that is poisonous outside of host (mistletoe, sea lampreys)
Behavior strategies In Some Interactions, Both Species Benefit
– such as scaring off, puffing up, spreading Mutualism
wings, mimicking a predator, living in
large groups (schools), or exhibiting – occurs when two species behave in ways
warning coloration (indicating “eating me that benefit both
is risky”)
– Providing each with food, shelter,
Coevolution protection, or some other resources
– when populations of two different species – Examples:
interact over a long period of time,
changes in the gene pool of one species • Birds that ride on the backs of
can lead to changes in the gene pool of large animals and remove pests
the other (African buffalo)
Complex predator-prey relationships • Bacteria that live in our intestines

and help us digest food
– play an important role in controlling
population growth and providing In Some Interactions, One Species Benefits and the
ecosystem services Other is Not Harmed
Some Species Feed Off Other Species by Living On or Commensalism

Inside Them
– occurs when one species benefits from
Parasitism species interaction, and the other is not
affected or harmed at all
– occurs when one species (parasite) feeds
on the body of, or the energy used by
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Example: air plants known as epiphytes 1. Inertia (persistence)
attach themselves to the trunks or
branches of large trees to access sunlight 2. Resilience
Ecological succession Populations cannot grow indefinitely due to:
– The normal, gradual change in species – Limitations on resources

composition in a given geographic area
– Competition among species for these
– The species composition of an ecosystem resources
or community can change in response to
Population
changing environmental conditions
– a group of interbreeding individuals of the same
– Primary and secondary succession are
species, living together in the same geographic
examples of natural ecological restoration
area
Primary Ecological Succession
Population size can change based on:
– The gradual establishment of biotic communities
– Births/deaths
in lifeless areas where there is no soil in a
terrestrial ecosystem or no bottom sediment in an – Immigration (arrival of individuals from
aquatic system outside the population)
– Takes hundreds to thousands of years – Emigration (departure of individuals from
the population)
Secondary Ecological Succession
Population change = (births + immigration) – (deaths
– Occurs where communities or ecosystems have
been disturbed, removed or destroyed, but retain + emigration)
some soil or bottom sediments
Secondary Succession Also Enhances Sustainability
Density-Dependent and Density-Independent Factors
• Promotes population control
Population density
– Increases the complexity of food webs
– the number of individuals in a given
– Enhances energy flow geographic area
– Increases nutrient cycling – Density-dependent factors become more

important as a population size increases
Two aspects of stability/sustainability:
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Parasites and diseases spread r-selected species
more easily
– have a capacity for a high rate of
• Sexually reproducing individuals population increase
can find mates more easily
– Have short life spans
– Density-independent factors
– Have many, usually small offspring
• Drought and climate
– Do not provide much parental
No Population Can Grow Indefinitely: care/protection
J-Curves
• Offspring loss is overcome by
• Some species reproduce and grow exponentially massive offspring production, so
that at least a few will survive
• Plotting this data generates a J-curve showing
exponential growth Opportunists
– Members reproduce at an early age; – reproduce rapidly under favorable
many offspring in each generation; time environmental conditions
between generations is short
– Often occurs after a fire or clearing an
• All species have population growth limits area that opens up a new habitats or
niches for invasion of a new species
– Sunlight, water, temperature, space,
nutrients – May crash after growth or when yet
another species invades the area
No Population Can Grow Indefinitely:
S-Curves – Go through irregular and unstable boom-
and-bust cycles
Environmental resistance
k-selected species
– The sum of all factors that limit the growth
of a population – do well in competitive conditions when
population size nears carrying capacity
Carrying capacity
– Reproduce later in life
– The maximum population of a given
species that a habitat can sustain – Have smaller numbers of offspring with
indefinitely longer life spans
Species Have Different Reproductive Patterns – Typically develop inside their mothers and
are born fairly large
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– After birth, they mature slowly and are What Factors Influence the Size of the Human
protected by one or both parents Population?
Three kinds of survivorship curves: • Births and immigration increase population size,
while deaths and emigration decrease population
– Late loss size
– Early loss • Fertility rate
– Constant loss – The average number of children born to
women is the key factor in determining
CHAPTER 6: THE HUMAN POPULATION AND
population size
URBANIZATION
*Births (fertility), deaths (mortality), and migration are the
Human Population Growth Shows Certain Trends
factors the control human population change in a
• The human population grew slowly for most of geographic area
human history, but in the last 200 years, rapid
growth has taken place The Population Can Grow, Decline, or Remain Fairly
Stable
• Factors contributing to exponential growth
• Women are having fewer babies but the world’s
– More people are fed with modern population is still growing
agriculture
Total fertility rate (TFR): the average number of children
– Technology has helped humans migrate born to women in a population during their reproductive
to and live in almost all of the planet’s years
climate zones and habitats
Several Factors Affect Birth/Fertility Rates
There Are Three Current Trends in the Size and Impact
of Human Population • Children as part of the labor force
• Since 1960, the human population growth rate has • Cost of raising and educating children
slowed, but the population is still growing
• Fewer children needed to support seniors
• Human population is unevenly distributed
• More family planning in urban areas
– Growing 14 times faster in undeveloped
countries than in developed countries • Access to education/employment outside the
home
• Increasingly people are moving to urban areas –
by 2050, 2/3 will live in cities • Age: women over 25 have fewer children
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Abortion and reliable birth control A Population’s Age Structure Helps Us to Make
Projections about Growth
Several Factors Affect Death Rates
Age structure is the number and percentages of people
• Over the last 100 years, the human population in the young, middle and old age categories
grew because of reduced death rates
– Demographers create age-structure
– Nutrition, medicine, and sanitation diagrams for populations to determine
improved whether the population is increasing or
decreasing
– Life expectancy increased (the average
number of years a person may expect to Aging Populations Can Decline Rapidly
live)
• As the percentage of people age 65 or older
– Infant mortality rates dropped (the increases in a population, that population will
number of babies out of every 1,000 that decline
die before their first birthday)
– Japan: highest percentage of people over
The Population Size Can Be Affected by Immigration 65
and Emigration
• With declining population, few
• Immigration (people in) and emigration (people adults are working and paying
out) taxes
– Seeking jobs and economic improvement • Younger people have to support
the increasing population of
– Fleeing religious persecution, ethnic
those over 65
conflicts, and war
• Japan could experience
– Environmental refugees – those who
economic difficulties in the future
emigrate because of famine, drought, soil
erosion or other environmental Rapid Population Decline Can Cause Several
degradation Problems
How Does a Population’s Age Structure Affect Its 1. Can threaten economic growth
Growth or Decline? 2. Labor shortages
3. Less government revenues with fewer workers
• The growth or decline of a population is
4. Less entrepreneurship and new business
determined by the number of males and females
formation
in specific age categories (youth, middle, older
5. Less likelihood for new technology developments
age)
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

6. Increasing public deficits to fund higher pension Question: At what stage is the country where you live?
and health-care costs.
7. Pensions may be out and retirement age
increased
What Are the Major Urban Resource and
What Are Some Ways To Slow Human Population Environmental Problems?
Growth?
• Cities use high levels of resources resulting in
– Reduce poverty waste, pollution and poverty
– Elevate the status of women • Most cities are unsustainable
– Make family planning available Urban sprawl
Promoting Economic Development Can Stabilize a – Is the product of ample affordable land,
Population automobile use, federal and state funding
of highways, and inadequate urban
• Demographic transition planning
– As countries industrialize and develop – Contributes to environmental problems
economically, per capita income rises, and natural capital degradation
poverty declines, and populations grow
more slowly Urbanization Has Advantages
• This happens in four stages: • Cities are centers of economic development,

innovation, education, technological advance,
– Preindustrial social and cultural diversity, and job markets
– Transitional • People who live in urban areas live longer, have
better health care and education
– Industrial
Urbanization Has Disadvantages
– Postindustrial
 Unsustainable
 Cities lack vegetation, have water problems,
concentrate pollution and health problems,
produce noise pollution, and affect local climate
Animated Figure 6.10 The demographic transition, which
a country can experience as it becomes industrialized and How Does Transportation Affect Urban Environmental
more economically developed, can take place in four Impacts?
stages.
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Widely disbursed urban areas in some countries • Phase in full-cost pricing – charging a tax on
create larger ecological footprints because the gasoline that could:
population depends on motor vehicles for
transportation – Offset harmful effects of driving
Cities Can Grow Outward or Upward – Fund programs to educate people
• Many people live in compact cities – like Hong – Finance mass transit, bike lanes, and
Kong or Tokyo sidewalks
– Move around the cities by walking, biking • Raise parking fees in cities
or using mass transit
• Increase/charge tolls on roads, tunnels, and
• Some people live in dispersed cities bridges
– Depend on cars for transportation How Can Cities Become More Sustainable and
Livable?
– Cities with urban sprawl have adverse
environmental effects • Give people the ability to choose alternate modes
of transportation – walking, biking, or taking mass
Motor Vehicle Usage Has Advantages and transit
Disadvantages
• Provide ways to recycle or reuse waste
• Advantages:
• Provide ways to grow much of your own food
– Cars are comfortable and convenient
• Protect biodiversity by preserving the surrounding
– Much of the world’s economy is tied to the land
production/maintenance of cars, roads,
etc. Smart Growth Can Promote Environmental
Sustainability
• Disadvantages
• Smart growth
– Accidents, killing or severely injuring
people – Policies and tools that encourage more
environmentally sustainable urban
– Auto exhaust, the largest source of development
outdoor air pollution
– Includes zoning laws and other
– Congestion and traffic jams regulations to direct growth and reduce
ecological footprints
Reducing Automobile Use Is Not Easy, But It Can Be
Done Eco-Cities: Cities for People, Not Cars
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Retrofit existing cities by: • Coral reefs are an example of mutualism
– Composed of tiny polyps and single-
– Developing low-polluting mass transit celled algae (zooxanthellae)
• Reefs grow slowly and are susceptible to:
– Meeting high energy-efficiency standards
– Damage due to soil runoff that blocks
for electricity and appliances
sunlight needed by the algae for
– Planting trees and plants throughout the photosynthesis
city – Fluctuations in water temperatures
– Acidic water that can dissolve the shells
– Reducing air and noise pollution, as well of the corals
as soil erosion
Why Should We Care About Coral Reefs?
– Efficient use of ecological land-use
planning • Climate change can stimulate all three problems
Smart Growth Tools and kill coral reefs
• What are the two major long-term threats to coral
reefs?
• Why are reefs important centers of biodiversity?
What Factors Influence Climate?
• Incoming solar energy

• The earth’s rotation
• Global patterns of air and water circulation
• Gases in the atmosphere
The Role of Eco-Cities • The earth’s surface features (topography)
• Eco-cities can:
The Earth Has Many Different Climates
– Clean up industrial sites and preserve
nearby forests • Weather and climate are not the same
– Weather: short range (daily) changes in
– Source food locally from nearby farms, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, cloud
solar greenhouses, and rooftop gardens cover
– Climate: long term pattern of atmospheric
CHAPTER 7: CLIMATE AND BIODIVERSITY conditions over hundreds or thousands of
years
Core Case Study: Coral Reefs • The earth has many climatic regions, often
determined by ocean currents
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

Air Circulation Patterns and Ocean Currents • The formation of specific ecosystems (deserts,
grasslands, and forests) is due to:
• Both distribute heat and precipitation unevenly – Differences in average annual
over the earth, causing climatic variation precipitation and temperature
– Air circulation patterns and ocean
What factors affect air circulation in the lower currents
atmosphere? • Climate and vegetation vary both in latitude and
elevation
– Uneven solar heating of the earth’s
surface Ecotones are transition zones between two different
– Rotation of the earth on its axis – the biomes with characteristics of each. These zones have an
Coriolis effect edge effect – the biodiversity in these edges is greater than
– Properties of air, water, and land that of either biome.
The Oceans and the Atmosphere are Strongly Linked
Deserts and Grasslands
• Prevailing winds and the Coriolis effect drive
The three major types of deserts
ocean currents in circular patterns
• El Nino-Southern Oscillation or ENSO
– When prevailing winds in the tropical 1. Tropical
Pacific Ocean weaken and change 2. Temperate
direction, altering large scale weather 3. Cold
patterns for one or two years over at least
two-thirds of the planet The three major types of grasslands
What Are the World’s Terrestrial Ecosystems? How Do 1. Tropic

We Affect Them? 2. Temperate
3. Cold
• Biome and ecosystem formation is driven by
long term differences in precipitation and Forests
temperature over time
• Human activities interfere with ecosystem and The three major types of forests:
economic services provided by these biomes
1. Tropical (near the equator)
Climate Helps To Determine Where Terrestrial 2. Temperate (deciduous and coastal
Organisms Can Live coniferous forests)
3. Cold forests (northern coniferous forests
in the higher latitudes
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

What Are the World’s Marine Aquatic Ecosystems?
How Do We Affect Them?
• Humans are disrupting the vital ecosystem and

economic services provided by oceans
*Oceans are about 71% of the earth’s surface. Oceans

hold 98% of the earth’s water.
Water Covers Most of the Planet
• Marine biomes, called aquatic life zones, are Figure 7.18 Marine systems provide a number of
either salt or fresh water in nature important ecosystem and economic services (Concept
• Biodiversity in aquatic biomes is determined 7.3).
largely by salinity
– Marine life zones (oceans, estuaries, What Services Do Coastal Aquatic Ecosystem and
coastal wetlands, and coral reefs) Economic Provide?
– Freshwater life zones (lakes, rivers,
streams and wetlands) • Filter out toxic pollutants, excess plant nutrients,
and sediments, and absorbs other pollutants
Oceans Provide Vital Ecosystem and Economic • Provide food habitats, and nursery sites
Services • Reduce storm damage and coastal erosion by:
– Absorbing waves
• Water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and the – Storing excess water produce by storms
availability of food, light and nutrients determine and tsunamis
the abundance and location (water depth) marine
organisms The Open Sea and the Ocean Floor Host a Variety of
Species
The three major marine life zones
• Open sea, beyond the continental shelves, is
1. Coastal zones (estuary and coastal divided into three vertical zones
wetlands)
– Euphotic zone (brightly lit with
2. The open ocean
3. The ocean bottom photoplankton that carry out
photosynthesis, large fish)
Marine Systems – Bathyal zone (dimly lit, no
photosynthesis producers, smaller
animals)
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Abyssal zone (dark and very cold) – Cutting valleys, creating sand, gravel, and
soil
Water Stands in Some Freshwater Systems and Flows • Deltas
in Others – Form at the mouth of the river from
sediment the river has carried from
• Freshwater aquatic zones have both upstream, from which wetlands form
– Standing bodies of water (lakes, ponds,
and inland wetlands) and flowing systems Freshwater Inland Wetlands
(streams and rivers)
• Runoff: water that flows into • Vital sponges that provide free ecosystem and
surface waters economic services
– Surface water: freshwater that flows on – Filter/degrade waste and pollution
or is stored in bodies of water on the
– Limit flooding and erosion
surface
• Watersheds: geographic areas – Sustain stream flow during droughts
that supply runoff, sediments, – Help to recharge ground water aquifers
and dissolved substances to – Maintain biodiversity
freshwater systems – Provide recreation for humans
• Lakes: Human Activities are Disrupting and Degrading

– Oligotrophic lakes: typically deep and Freshwater Systems
steep sided with a small nutrient supply
– Eutrophic lakes: typically shallow and
• Water flow is restricted by dams and canals
murky with a large supply of nutrients
• Cultural eutrophication • Water flow is disrupted by flood control levies and
– Process that adds human generated dikes
pollution and agricultural runoff (excess • Agricultural and urban pollution is added to
nutrients and sediments) to these water freshwater systems
systems • Wetlands have been drained or filled in to grow
crops or for construction of buildings
Freshwater Streams and Rivers Carry Large Volumes
of Water
CHAPTER 8: SUSTAINING BIODIVERSITY: SAVING
• Streams flow through source, transition, and SPECIES AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
floodplain zones
• Streams that flow downhill shape the land by Extinctions Are Natural but Sometimes They Increase
erosion Sharply
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Species that can no longer be found on earth have • Species heading towards biological extinction are
suffered biological extinction classified as either:
• Mass extinction: the extinction of many species – Endangered: so few individual survivors
in a relatively short period of geologic time that it could soon become extinct
– Geological history and fossils show that – Threatened: enough individuals to
the earth has had five mass extinctions survive in the short term, but not long term
– After each mass extinction, biodiversity
returned and often was higher than before Why Should We Try To Sustain Wild Species and Their
• Recovery took millions of years Ecosystem Services?
*During each mass extinction 50-90% of all species appear • Recovering from large-scale extinctions can take
to have become extinct. millions of years
• Many people think species have a right to exist,
Endangered Natural Capital: Four Critically even if they are harmful or not useful to humans
Endangered Species
Why Should We Work To Prevent Extinction
Possibilities?
• We depend on ecosystem services for food, fuel,

and lumber
• Many species contribute to economic services
(discovery of medicinal drugs)
• Sharp reductions in biodiversity result in the
reduction of speciation
Figure 8.2 Endangered natural capital: These four Loss of Habitat Is the Single Greatest Threat to
critically endangered species are threatened with Species: Remember HIPPCO
extinction, largely because of human activities. The
• HIPPCO:
number below each photo indicates the estimated total
– Habitat destruction, degradation, and
number of individuals of that species remaining in the wild.
fragmentation (greatest threat to species)
Endangered and Threatened Species Are Ecological – Invasive (nonnative species)
Smoke Alarms – Population growth and increasing use of
resources
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Pollution
– Climate change
– Overexploitation
Habitat Fragmentation
• With no where else to go, island species (often

endemic) are vulnerable to extinction and
ecosystem degradation
• Habitat islands: formed by habitat fragmentation
– occur when intact habitats are divided into Figure 8.6 These are some of the estimated 7,100 harmful
smaller patches by roads, logging, crop fields, and invasive species that have been deliberately or
urbanization accidentally introduced to the United States.
– Species migration routes can be affected,
making them vulnerable to predators, How Can We Limit the Harmful Impacts of Nonnative
storms and fires Species?
Harmful Effects of Nonnative Species • Establish international treaties banning transfer of

species from country to country
• At present, about 40% of U.S. species are listed • Increase inspection on imported goods
as endangered – 95% of which are endangered • Educate the public about the harmful effects of
because of nonnative species releasing nonnative species into environments
• Examples of troublesome bioinvaders: near where they live
– Argentinean fire ants (accidental)
– Burmese and African pythons (both Contributions to Species Extinction
intentional and accidental)
– Kudzu plant (intentional) • Population growth, overuse of resources, and
– Zebra mussels (accidental) climate change
• Exponential growth of the human footprint
Deliberately and Accidentally Introduced Species • Pesticide pollution (DDT)
– Washing into hydrologic systems has a
damaging effect on terrestrial and aquatic
species
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Pesticides kill more than 67 million birds – Focuses on ecosystems, not individual
and 6-14 million fish each year – and species
threaten 20% of endangered species
Wildlife Refuges Can Help Protect Species
How Can We Sustain Wild Species and the Ecosystem
Services They Provide? • We can establish wildlife refuges and other
protected areas
• Enact and enforce national environmental laws – The National Wildlife Refuge System
and international treatises was established by President Theodore
• Create wildlife sanctuaries Roosevelt and by 2013 there were more
than 560 refuges in the system
International Treaties and National Laws Can Help
Protect Species Zoos and Aquariums Protect Some Species
• 1975 Convention on International Trade in • Some endangered species are being preserved in
Endangered Species (CITES) – treaty signed by zoos and aquariums using:
178 countries bans hunting, capturing, and selling – Egg pulling (removing eggs from the wild
of threatened and endangered species to be hatched in the zoo)
– Enforcement varies from country to – Captive breeding (some wild species are
country collected and breed in zoos)
– Countries can exempt themselves from a – Other techniques: artificial
particular species insemination, embryo transfer, use of
– Much of the hunting takes place in incubators and cross fostering
More International Treaties and National Laws Captive Breeding and Genetic Variation
• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) • The major issue is genetic variation

Treaty was signed by 193 countries – Scientists estimate that 10,000 or more
– As of 2012, the U.S. had not signed it endangered individuals of a species are
• CBD commits to reducing biodiversity loss and needed to maintain the species’ capacity
sharing the world’s genetic resources for biological evolution
– Including efforts to control/prevent the • Zoos do not have the space or
spread of invader species money to maintain these kinds of
populations
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Aquariums are display places for education, but Forests Provide Important Economic and Ecosystem
cannot serve as gene banks Services
The Asian Carp and the Three Big Ideas • Reduce atmospheric CO2 through photosynthesis
• Provide habitat for about 2/3 of the earth’s
• The Asian carp is degrading native fish habitats terrestrial species and are home to more than
and nutritional sources in Mississippi River more than 300 million people
waterways • Provide sustenance for many people who live in
• We should avoid contributing to wild species extreme poverty
extinction by preventing the invasion of nonnative • Provide health benefits – drugs are derived from
species forest plant species
• In spite of the many laws, treaties, and
establishment of wildlife sanctuaries, accidental There Are Several Ways To Harvest Trees
invasions still occur
• Selective cutting: intermediate aged or mature
CHAPTER 9: SUSTAINING BIODIVERSITY: SAVING trees are cut singly or in small groups
• Clear cutting: all trees are removed from a
SPECIES AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
geographic area
– Most efficient and least costly, but harms
What Are the Major Threats To Forest Ecosystems? ecosystems
• Strip cutting: trees are removed in sections
– Unsustainable cutting and burning of parallel to a feature, such as a road
vegetation
– The effects of climate change Causes of Tropical Deforestation
Forests Vary in Age and Composition • Pressures from population growth
• Government subsidies for large scale logging and
• Categorized based on their age and structure ranching
– Old growth forests: uncut or • Direct causes vary according to geography
regenerated forests not seriously – South America: cattle grazing and crop
disturbed by human activity or natural land
disasters for over 200 years – Indonesia/Southeast Asia: oil palm
– Second growth forests: result from plantations
secondary ecological succession – after – Africa forests: firewood and farming
the primary forests have been destroyed
• Tree plantations: managed farms growing only How Should We Manage and Sustain Forests?
one or two species
• Best accomplished by:
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Emphasizing the economic value of • 60% of the wood consumed in the U.S. is wasted.
ecosystem services How can this be reduced?
– Removing government subsidies that – Use other non-tree fibers such as kenaf
favor deforestation and hemp to yield more pulp per acre and
– Protecting old growth forests by require less pesticide use
harvesting trees no faster than they can – Limit the use of throwaway paper
be re-grown products made from trees and use
– Planting new forests reusable products
– Stop cutting fuel wood from forests and
We Can Manage Forests More Sustainably replace with production of biomass
bricketts
• By certifying lumber/wood products as
sustainable, full cost pricing for consumers There Are Several Ways To Reduce Tropical
• Use more selective cutting in forests Deforestation
• Phase out government subsidies and tax breaks
that favor deforestation • Provide foreign aid or debt relief for sustainable
• Create economic rewards for sustainable forestry forestry (developed countries)
• Encourage tree planting programs and protect • Crack down on illegal logging and create
diverse forest areas conservation reserves
• Subsidize tree planting (government)
We Can Improve the Management of Forest Fires • Buy only wood and wood products certified
sustainable (consumers)
• Strategies for reducing fire-related harm • Reduce poverty and slow population growth
– Use controlled, prescribed burns to
remove small trees and underbrush in How Should We Manage and Sustain Grasslands?
high risk areas
– Allow fires on public land to burn as long – Controlling the abundance and
as they do not threaten human life or distribution of grazing livestock
structures – Restoring degraded rangeland
– Have thin trees/vegetation around
buildings Some Rangelands Are Overgrazed
– Eliminate the use of wood shingles and
siding in construction • After forests, grasslands are the most widely used
– Use solar powered micro-drones for early ecosystem
forest fire detection • Rangelands: unfenced, tropical/temperate
grasslands that supply forage for grazing
We Can Reduce the Demand for Harvested Trees – Overgrazing harms grass roots, reduces
grass cover, exposes top soil to erosion,
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

compacts the soil, lowers its capacity to How Can Biodiversity Be Sustained in Terrestrial
hold water, and encourages the invasion Ecosystems?
of rangeland species that cattle will not
eat • By identifying and protecting biodiversity hotspots,
employing restoration ecology and reconciliation
How Can We Manage Rangelands More Sustainably? ecology, we can help sustain terrestrial
biodiversity and protect ecosystem services
• Control the number of grazing animals in an area
and limit grazing time The Ecosystem Approach: Strategies For Sustaining
– Use rotational grazing Terrestrial Biodiversity
– Fence off damaged, degraded areas
– Use herbicides, mechanical removal, or • Inventory all of the species found in terrestrial
controlled burning to suppress invader ecosystems along with the ecosystem services
species they provide
– Permit short-term trampling by livestock • Identify threatened terrestrial ecosystems with
that destroy the root systems of potential for recovery
bioinvaders • Restore degraded ecosystems
• Make development biodiversity friendly – provide
How Should We Manage and Sustain Parks and financial incentives and tax breaks to protect
Natural Reserves? endangered ecosystems
• More effective protection measures are needed Protecting Global Biodiversity Hotspots Is an Urgent
for existing parks and natural reserves (and much Priority
of the earth’s undisturbed land areas) to sustain
their biodiversity • Take emergency measures to rapidly protect
terrestrial biodiversity hotspots
National Parks Face Many Environmental Threats – These areas cover little more than 2% of
the earth’s surface, but are estimated to
• Many are too small to maintain large animal contain most of the world’s flowering
species plants and terrestrial vertebrates
• Many suffer from bioinvaders – Only about 5% of hotspot areas are
• Some are so popular that the number of visitors currently protected with government
degrades the very features that made them funding and law enforcement
attractive in the first place
• Internationally, many are used illegally for Ecological restoration – returning degraded habitats and
firewood, hunting (poaching), logging, and mining ecosystems as close as possible to their natural state
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

Scientific Strategies For Ecological Restoration and – Responsible for almost 2/3 of U.S. fish
Rehabilitation extinctions
– Where invasive species are dominating
• Identify the causes of degradation (pollution, coral reefs (Bahamas), unchecked algal
overgrazing, mining, invasive species, etc.) growth is overwhelming and destroys
• Stop degradation by eliminating or reducing the reefs
factors above
• Reintroduce keystone species to restore natural Overfishing: Gone Fishing, Fish Gone
ecological processes
• Protect degraded areas to encourage natural • Industrial fishing fleets supply the growing global
recovery demand for seafood by using GPS equipment,
fish-finding devices, huge nets, long fishing lines,
How Can We Help To Sustain Aquatic Biodiversity? spotter planes, and refrigerated factory ships that
process and freeze their enormous catch
• Establishing protected sanctuaries, managing – Severely reduces marine biodiversity
coastal development, reducing water pollution, – Degrades important marine ecosystem
and preventing overfishing can help sustain services
aquatic biodiversity and increase beneficial
human environmental impacts Fish Prints - the area of the ocean needed to sustain the
fish consumption of an average person, the nation, or the
Human Activities Are Destroying and Degrading world
Aquatic Biodiversity
Fisheries - concentrations of a particular wild aquatic
• Coastal habitats are disappearing 2-10 times species suitable for commercial harvesting in a given
faster than those being lost from tropical forests ocean area or inland body of water.
– Bottom trawling may be the largest
human-caused disturbance to the entire
Can We Protect and Help Sustain Marine Biodiversity?
biosphere
– Coral reefs absorb heat from the warming
• Protection is possible but difficult because:
atmosphere, are subject to pollution, and
– Fish prints and ecological footprints are
are susceptible to ocean acidification
expanding exponentially
– Ocean damage is not highly visible to
Problems That Threaten Aquatic Biodiversity
humans
– People incorrectly view the ocean as an
• Dam building and overuse for irrigation damage inexhaustible resource
freshwater aquatic zones – Most of the world’s ocean area lies
• Deliberate/accidental introduction of troublesome outside the legal jurisdiction of any
invasive species country, leading to overexploitation – a
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

classic example of the tragedy of the 1. poverty,
commons 2. war,
3. bad weather,
Taking an Ecosystem Approach to Sustaining Aquatic 4. climate change, and
Biodiversity 5. effects of industrialized food production
• Some proposals: Food security - conditions where people have daily

– Complete the mapping of the world’s access to enough nutritious food to live active and healthy
aquatic biodiversity lives
– Identify and preserve the world’s aquatic
biodiversity hotspots
Food insecurity - conditions under which people face
– Create large/fully protected marine
chronic hunger, poor nutrition, and health problems (due
reserves to promote marine ecosystem
to poverty)
recovery
– Initiate global ecological restoration
Macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats
projects
– Reduce poverty in areas near protected
Micronutrients: vitamins and minerals
lands and waters
Malnutrition
CHAPTER 10: FOOD PRODUCTION AND THE
ENVIRONMENT • Low income, less developed countries: diets
center on high carbohydrate grains and very little
• Growing Power Inc. protein
– An ecologically based farm powered by • Food deserts (no access to fresh food) in
solar electricity and hot water systems developed countries: diets high in fat, sugar, salt,
that grows organic vegetables and herbs and little protein
– and organically raised chickens, • Almost 2 billion people suffer from a deficiency of
turkeys, goats, fish, and honeybees micronutrients (vitamin A, iron, and iodine)
What Is Food Security and Why Is It Difficult To Attain? Industrialized and Traditional Crop Production
• In less developed countries, people suffer from • Industrialized/high input agriculture: heavy
health problems associated with not getting equipment, fossil fuel, commercial
enough to eat fertilizer/pesticides, and money (monoculture:
• In more developed countries, others suffer health growing one to two crops)
problems from having too much to eat – Food supply vulnerable to disease
• Factors influencing food supply: • Traditional/low input agriculture: solar energy
and human labor to grow a crop that will feed a
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

family with no surplus (polyculture: growing – New and hardier crop varieties are being
several crops) developed by second gene revolution
methodology (gene splicing)
Differences Between Industrialized and Organic – Meat production now uses feedlots as
Agriculture well as rangelands and pastures
– Aquaculture produces more fish and is
the world’s fastest growing type of food
production
Feedlots: industrialized factory farming where animals are

fattened for the market
What Environmental Problems Arise from

Industrialized Food Production?
• Soil erosion, desertification, irrigation, water

shortages, air and water pollution, climate change
Organic Agriculture and the Green Revolution and loss of biodiversity may limit future food
production
• Organic agriculture: crops grown without the use
of synthetic pesticides and inorganic fertilizers, or Producing Food Has Major Environmental Impacts
genetic engineering
• Green revolution: higher yields from existing • While industrialized agriculture has allowed
cropland farmers to use less land to produce more food, it
– Plant monocultures of selectively bred is environmentally and economically
crops unsustainable
– Large amounts of water; synthetic – Industrialized agriculture:
fertilizers and pesticides • Removes 70% of fresh water
– Multiple cropping from surface sources and
aquifers
Multiple cropping: increasing crop yield by increasing the • Uses 38% of the world’s ice-free
number of crops grown per year per field. land
• Emits 25% of all greenhouse gas
Food Demands, Consumption, and Rising emissions
Industrialized Productivity • Produces 60% of all water
pollution
• The increasing demand for food is being met by
increases in production
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

Topsoil Erosion Is a Serious Problem in Parts of the Agricultural Activities Have Serious Environmental
World Consequences
• Topsoil (the fertile top layer of many soils), is a • Irrigation boosts/lowers farm productivity
significant natural capital component because it – 20% of the world’s irrigated crop land
stores water and nutrients needed by plants produces about 40% of the world’s food
• Topsoil renewal is one of the earth’s most – Irrigation water has a variety of salts,
important ecosystem services which leads to soil salinization
• Livestock production generates 18% of all
Soil Erosion greenhouse gas
• Fertilizer use releases nitrous oxide, increasing
• The movement of soil from one place to another atmospheric temperatures
by nature and by human activity
– Flowing water (the largest cause of soil Soil salinization: especially in dry climates with a gradual
erosion) carries away soil loosened by accumulation of salt in the upper soil layers can stunt crop
rainfall growth, lower crop yields, eventually kill plants, and ruin
– Wind loosens and blows away topsoil the soil. Current estimates are that 10% of the world’s
particles – from flat land in dry climates irrigated crop land has undergone salinization.
– Farming, deforestation, and overgrazing
exposes land and hastens soil erosion Are There Limits To the Expansion of the Green
Revolutions?
Desertification: the process by which the productive
potential of topsoil falls by at least 10% because of a • Genetically modified (GM) food production is
combination of prolonged drought and human activities controversial, with benefits/drawbacks
• Genetically engineered crop yields seem to be no
that expose topsoil to erosion – the dust bowl of the 1930s.
higher than for traditional strains
• Population growth, water availability, and climate
Harmful Affects of Soil Erosion change limit irrigation’s potential
• Deforestation speeds up climate change,
• Loss of soil fertility through the depletion of plant increases topsoil erosion, and lowers biodiversity
nutrients in topsoil
• Topsoil pollution of surface waters can kill fish and Tradeoffs: Animal Feedlots and Aquaculture
clog reservoirs and lakes
– Increased if it contains pesticide residues
– biomagnified through food webs
• Erosion releases the soil’s carbon content, which
alters the carbon cycle, adding to atmospheric
levels of CO2
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING
Nature Controls the Populations of Most Pests
• Natural enemies control the populations of most

pest species
– This free ecosystem service is an
important part of earth’s natural capital
• Humans upset the checks and balances of natural
pest control when we clear forests and
grasslands, plant monoculture crops, and use
synthetic chemicals to kill pests
Common types of pesticides:
1. insecticides (for insects),

2. herbicides (for weeds),
3. fungicides (for fungus) and
4. rodenticides (for rats and mice).
5. Biopesticides derived from chemicals made by
plants to ward off pests.
Advantages of Synthetic Pesticide Use
• Human lives have been saved from insect

transmitted disease (especially malaria)
• Food supplies are increased by reducing food loss
due to pests
• Crop yields and farming profits increase
How Can We Protect Crops from Pests More
• Newer pesticides are safer, more effective, and
Sustainably?
work faster – and when properly used, keep health
risks very low relative to benefits
• Using a mix of cultivation techniques, biological
pest controls, and selective chemical pesticides
Disadvantages of Synthetic Pesticide Use
(as a last resort) will enable farmers to sharply
decrease pesticide use without decreasing crop
• The genetic development of pesticide resistance
yields
in pest organisms
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Long term usage diminishes effectiveness – • Can attracted natural enemies
costing farmers more for less return into crop fields
• Insecticides kill the pest’s natural enemies
• Inefficient application causes pollution More Alternatives to Synthetic Pesticide Usage
• Both wildlife and human health are affected
• Disrupt the life cycles of insects by altering their
Tradeoffs of Conventional Chemical Pesticides hormones
– Using insect perfume and hormone
alteration are both time consuming and
costly
• Reduce synthetic herbicide usage to control
weeds
• Integrated pest management (IPM) – use of a
coordinated combination of cultivation, biological
and chemical tools
Protective Laws and Treaties Drawbacks: Is highly individualized – each situation is

unique and what works in one case may not work in
• Pesticide usage is regulated by: another. It also takes time.
– Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA), and the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) under the Federal How Can We Improve Food Security?
Insecticide, Fungicide and
Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) • Reducing poverty and malnutrition, producing
• Unfortunately adequate funding has not been food more sustainably, and relying on locally
provided for effective management and sourced food will improve food security
enforcement of FIFRA
The Government’s Role in Improving Food
Alternatives to Synthetic Pesticide Use Production and Security
• Crop rotation/adjusting planting time starves • Controlling food prices vs. food subsides
pests/allows enemies to eat them • Implementing health measures
• Polyculture provides homes for pest’s enemies • Aid local, sustainable, organic food production and
• Implant genetic resistance distribution
• Biological control: use natural enemies • Educate farmers
– Natural pheromones (insect perfume) • Encourage Community Supported Agriculture
• Can lure pests into traps (CSA) programs and vertical farming
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

How Can We Produce Food More Sustainably? • Globally, we have plenty of fresh water (recycled
and purified by the hydrologic cycle), but pollute
• Efficient resource use, reducing the harmful and overuse it faster than natural processes can
effects of Industrialized food production, and replenish it
eliminating government subsidies will help us
produce food more sustainably – A global economic and health issue
– A security issue due to terrorism
Reducing Soil Erosion and Salinization, and – An environmental issue as it determines
Increasing Soil Fertility and moderates the climate, and dilutes
and removes pollutants and waste
• Soil conservation (terracing, contour planting,
strip-cropping, planting cover crops, and setting Crucial Freshwater Resources
up windbreaks)
• Alley cropping, agroforestry (planting crops in
• Groundwater infiltrates downward through spaces
orchards) and tillage farming
• Organic fertilizer use (animal/green manure, in soil and rocks
compost) to restore soil fertility – Zone of saturation: underground areas
• Reducing irrigation dependence; rotating of soil/rock where freshwater fills spaces
crops/switching to salt tolerant varieties between particles
• Sustainable Food Production Solutions – Water table: the top of the groundwater
zone; fluctuates up and down depending
• Open-ocean/polyaquaculture
on weather, and removal/replenishment
• Re-circulating aquaculture systems
• Eat more chicken and eat less grain-efficient rates
species (beef, pork and lamb) • Aquifer: underground body of rock that absorbs
• Eat more locally sourced, organic food, and have and holds flowing water
two meatless meals per week
• Switch to organic farming, perennial polyculture, 2/3 of the annual surface runoff gets lots to seasonal
renewable energy usage, and subsidies for flooding. The remaining 1/3 is called reliable surface
sustainable food production runoff.
Water footprint: concept is analogous to an ecological

footprint.
CHAPTER 11: WATER RESOURCES AND WATER
POLLUTION
Additional Freshwater Resources
Fresh Water is Available But It Is Not Distributed
Evenly or Managed Properly
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Surface water: the fresh water from rain and Advantages of Large Dams and Water Transfer
melted snow stored at the surface Projects
– Annually, 34% of the world’s reliable
surface runoff is used • Dams/reservoir systems capture and store
• 70% goes to irrigate crops and surface runoff from a river’s watershed
raise livestock, 20% is used by – Water is released as needed to control
industry, and 10% is used by upstream flooding, generate electricity
cities for drinking, cooking, etc. (hydropower), supply fresh/irrigation
• Indirect and virtual water: water used to produce water and provide recreational
food and other products – this is a large part of our opportunities
water footprint • Water transfer projects use dams, pumps, and
aqueducts to transfer water from water rich to
Fresh Water Shortages water poor regions
• Water scarcity is caused by dry climate, drought, Disadvantages of Large Dams and Water Transfer
overuse/inefficient use, and using water faster Projects
than it can be replenished
• Freshwater scarcity stress: a calculation that • Dam/reservoirs displace millions of people, flood
compares fresh water availability with the amount productive lands, impair the ecosystem services of
used by humans rivers, and have a useful life expectancy of only 50
• In 263 of the world’s water basins, two or more years
countries share the available freshwater supplies • Water transfer projects reduce a river’s flow and
– not always amicably flushing action (leading to pollution), and threaten
fisheries and artificially cheapen costs – leading to
How Can We Increase Freshwater Supplies? inefficient and wasteful water use
• Groundwater for food production and use by cities 11.3 How Can We Use Fresh Water More Sustainably?
is being pumped from aquifers faster than it can
be replenished by nature • By reducing wastage, raising prices, slowing
population growth and protecting ecosystems that
• Although dam-and-reservoir systems and water
store water naturally, we can use available
transfer projects expand water distribution, they freshwater more sustainably
also disrupt ecosystems and displace people
• Freshwater supplies can be augmented by Reducing Freshwater Losses and Improving Efficient
Usage
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• More than half the world’s freshwater supply is lost – Use gray water/drip/smart sprinkler
annually due to evaporation, and inefficient use systems on landscaping, or replace lawns
(irrigation) – Why? with drought tolerant plants
– Government subsidies and underpricing
– Lack of subsidies for efficient water use Ways To Reduce Freshwater Losses in Industries
• Switching to modern irrigation methods (drip,
central pivot etc.) will help reduce irrigation water
usage by 10% – enough to supply everyone
through 2025
Ways To Further Reduce Irrigation Water Loss
Figure 11.18 Ways to reduce freshwater losses in

industries, homes, and businesses (Concept 11.4).
Flushing Away Industrial, Animal and Household

Wastes
Figure 11.16 Ways to reduce freshwater losses in • Flushing away industrial/household waste with
irrigation. freshwater causes pollution and is unsustainable
• Gray water and industrial waste water from
Reducing Freshwater Losses and Improving Use in sewage treatment plants can be used to clean
Industries and Homes equipment, flush away waste, water lawns, and
irrigate non-food crops
• Industries need to intensify efforts to
recapture/purify/recycle the water they use You Can Reduce Your Use and Waste of Freshwater
• In U.S. homes, toilet flushing is the single largest
use of domestic freshwater
– Install low-flow
toilets/showerheads/faucets
– Fix water leaks/use front-loading washers
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

Types of water pollution:
1. Agricultural pollution: eroded sediment,

fertilizers and pesticides, bacteria from livestock,
and food-processing wastes, and excessive salt
from soil of irrigated crop land.
2. Industrial pollution: harmful chemicals and
toxins
3. Mining pollution: erosion of sediments and
topsoil, and runoff toxic chemicals.
4. Man-made pollution: much of which is plastic,
Figure 11.21 Individuals matter: You can reduce your use biodegrades slowly or not at all, and ends up in the
and waste of freshwater. oceans.
The most serious pollutants are:
How Can We Deal with Water Pollution? 1. mercury,

2. pathogens from leaking sewer pipes,
• Humans can use natural methods to treat sewage, 3. sediment from land disturbance and stream
cut resource use and waste, reduce poverty, and erosion,
slow population growth to reduce water pollution – 4. metals other than mercury, and
but the best way to reduce water pollution is to 5. nutrients that cause water depletion.
prevent it
Major Pollutants and Their Sources
Point/Non-Point Sources of Water Pollution
• In streams/lakes/reservoirs/groundwater
– Water pollution: water quality changes
that harm living organisms or make water
unfit for drinking/ irrigation/recreation
– Point sources: specific identifiable
locations
– Non-point sources: diffuse areas
• Difficult to identify/control,
expensive to manage
– The leading causes of water pollution are
agriculture activity/industrial
facilities/mining Groundwater Pollution
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Groundwater cannot cleanse itself of degradable Ocean Pollution
wastes as quickly as flowing surface water
– Can take up to thousands of years for • Many humans treat the ocean as a dumping site
polluted groundwater to cleanse itself of – 80% of marine pollution originates on land
slowly degradable waste because: – 80-90% of municipal sewage from the
• Groundwater has lower coastal areas of less developed countries
concentrations of dissolved is dumped into the ocean without any
oxygen/smaller populations of treatment
decomposing bacteria – May be safer to dump wastes and
• Cold temperatures reduce degradable pollutants into the deep
chemical reaction rates ocean, where it can be
diluted/dispersed/degraded
Groundwater Pollution Solutions
Contaminants in the Ocean
• Viruses in raw sewage and from sewage

treatment plants
• Toxic chemicals, garbage, sewage, and waste oil
from cruise ships
• Nitrates/phosphates and sewage from agricultural
waste
• Crude and refined petroleum
– Biomagnified into sea birds
• Urban and industrial runoff
Figure 11.27 There are ways to prevent and ways to clean
up contaminated groundwater, but prevention is the only Reducing Water Pollution
effective approach.
• Ways to reduce non-point sources of surface
Purifying Drinking Water
water pollution
• Temporarily store water in reservoirs – Reduce soil erosion by keeping crop land
• Protect forests/wetlands in watersheds that flow covered with vegetation, and by using
into reservoirs conservation tillage
• Convert sewer water to drinking water – Use slow release fertilizer – and no
– Microfiltration fertilizer on steeply sloped land
– Reverse osmosis
– Hydrogen peroxide/ultraviolet light
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Plant vegetative buffer zones between • Reduce non-point runoff
cultivated fields and nearby surface • Slow population growth/reduce poverty
waters • Eliminate air pollution
– Encourage organic farming • Encourage recycling/reuse of resources
Household Sewage Treatment CHAPTER 14: ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS AND

HUMAN HEALTH
• Rural and suburban areas in the U.S. usually
discharge household sewage to a septic tank Risk: probability of one’s health being harmed by a hazard
where bacteria help to decompose waste – that can cause injury, disease, or death
partially treated waste water ends up in gravel or
– Risk can also cause economic
crushed stone deposits below the soil surface
loss/damage
– Water percolates down through the gravel
and the soil filters out potential pollutants Risk assessment: use of statistics to estimate harm from
and decomposes biodegradable a hazard
materials
Risk management: decisions whether and how to reduce
Sewage Treatment Plants hazards – and at what cost
Types of Hazards
• Waterborne wastes in urban areas from homes,
businesses, and storm runoff flow through pipes to 1. Biological hazards (pathogens or organisms
sewage treatment plants causing disease)
– Primary sewage treatment: a
physical/mechanical process 2. Chemical hazards (in air, water, soil, food, and
– Secondary sewage treatment: a manufactured products)
biological process
3. Natural hazards (fire, earthquakes)
Sustainable Ways To Reduce and Prevent Water 4. Cultural hazards (poor working conditions,
Pollution: Solutions poverty)
• Find substitutes for toxic pollutants 5. Lifestyle choices (smoking, poor food choices)
• Remove hazardous waste before it reaches
What Types of Biological Hazards Do We Face?
sewage treatment facilities
• Use natural sewage treatment methods
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Infectious diseases (bacteria, viruses, parasites) – Industrialized meat production (E. coli)
that invade the body
• Between 1970 and 2010, deaths from infectious
– Transmissible – passed from one person diseases dropped world-wide from 35% to 15%
to another
Toxic chemical: substance that causes
– Nontransmissible – cause is not from temporary/permanent harm or death
passage between living organisms
– Carcinogens: certain viruses, some
• Epidemic: outbreak of infectious disease types of radiation, and chemicals that
cause cancer
– Pandemic: global outbreak of infectious
disease – Mutagens: chemicals or forms of
radiation that cause or increase genetic
Antibiotics are not effective against viruses, so viruses can mutations
be deadly
– Teratogens: chemicals that harm or
– Transmitted by airborne particles cause birth defects – genetic changes
Examples: passed on to the next generation
– HIV and hepatitis B virus – transmitted by Immune system: produces antibodies to protect from
unsafe sex; sharing needles disease and harmful substances
– Avian flu – transmitted to humans from Neurotoxins: substances that harm the nervous system,
animals, especially from birds which can cause:
Ecological medicine: studies the infectious disease • Behavioral changes, learning

connections between animals and humans disabilities, attention-deficit
disorder, paralysis, and death
Humans spread these diseases by:
Endocrine system: hormones released through a
– Clearing and fragmenting forests for cities complex network of glands
– Hunting wild game for food (bushmeat— – Regulates/controls, growth, sexual

may contain HIV) reproduction, learning ability, and
behavior
– Illegal international trade in wild species
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Hormones have a molecular shape and can attach – Compares the health of people exposed
to cell walls – called receptors to a particular chemical with a control
group
– Some pesticides and synthetic chemicals
(called hormone activation agents) Factors Limiting Use of Epidemiological Studies
have similar shapes and can replace
hormones (hormone mimics, hormone • Too few people have been exposed to high
blockers) enough dosages to see differences
Thyroid disrupters: cause growth, weight, brain and • Studies are done over many years
behavioral disorders • Isolating the effects of a single chemical is difficult
because people are exposed to many chemicals
– Plastics with phthalates cause cancer,
sexual irregularities, kidney/liver during their lifetime
Toxicity: a measure of the ability of a substance to cause • Studies cannot be used on new hazards from
injury, illness or death technologies or chemicals not yet experienced
Dose: the quantity of a harmful chemical that has been Pollution prevention: do not use or release chemicals
ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin into the environment that we know or suspect can cause
harm
Solubility: water-soluble toxins get into water supplies, as
well as the aqueous solutions that surround our body cells Precautionary principle: take action now to reduce
suspected consequences, rather than wait for scientific
– In the body, these dissolved chemicals can results to show conclusive effects
penetrate the cell membranes
How Do We Perceive Risks and How Can We Avoid the
Persistence: the chemical’s ability to resist being broken Worst of Them?
down into other substances
• Perceiving risks requires:
– PCBs and DDTs break down slowly and remain in
the body longer – Becoming informed
A dose-response curve: a plot that shows the lethal dose – Thinking critically
of the chemical – Making careful choices
Epidemiological studies
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

Risk analysis: risk assessment, comparative risk – The gradual rise in the average
analysis, and risk management temperature of the surface atmosphere
(over both land and sea)
Poverty is the greatest health risk – malnutrition and
increased susceptibility to non-fatal/fatal infectious The atmosphere is composed of several spherical
diseases layers
Four greatest risks: Troposphere
1. living in poverty, – layer of air directly above the surface which

2. being born male, supports life
3. smoking, and – is composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen – but
4. being obese also contains greenhouse gasses (H20, CO2, CH4,
N2O)
Reliability of a system is the probability that the system – extends roughly 11 miles above earth’s surface at
will complete a task without failing: sea level and 4miles over the poles
a. System reliability (%) = Technology Stratosphere
Reliability (%) x Human Reliability (%)
– layer above troposphere, which contains the
b. High technology reliability can be earth’s protective ozone layer
achieved, but human reliability is – has much less water vapor and contains the
impossible to predict ozone layer
Factors that cause people to see technology as risky: – Extends from 11 to 30 miles up
1. Fear and degree of control we have in a situation Ozone

2. Whether a risk is catastrophic – produced when oxygen molecules interact with
3. Optimism bias (optimistic no matter what) UV radiation from the sun. This protective layer
4. Instant gratification keeps 95% of the sun’s harmful UV radiation from
CHAPTER 15: AIR POLLUTION, CLIMATE CHANGE, reaching the surface. It also keeps oxygen in the
AND OZONE DEPLETION troposphere from becoming ozone, a pollutant
when found at the surface.
Atmospheric warming
What Are the Major Air Pollution Problems?
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Outdoor pollution includes industrial smog • Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
(burning coal), photochemical smog (industrial
emissions and cars), and acid deposition (coal- – Hydrocarbons, methane, benzene, and
burning power/industrial plant and cars) liquid solvents
• Indoor pollution includes smoke/soot from – organic compounds that exist as gasses
wood/coal fires, cigarette smoke, and chemicals in in the atmosphere or that evaporate from
building materials and cleaning products sources on the surface: especially from
rice paddies, landfills, natural gas wells
Sources of Air Pollution and pipelines, cows, industrial solvents,
dry-cleaning fluids and various
Air pollution: atmospheric chemicals in high enough components of gasoline, plastics and
concentrations to harm organisms, ecosystems, and alter other human made products.
climate
Smog
– Natural: dust, wildfires, volcanoes, and
plants • Industrial smog: a mix of sulfur dioxide, sulfuric
acid, and particulates
– Human activities: burning fossil fuels;
car use – China, India, Ukarine, Czech Republic,
Bulgaria and Poland
• Outdoor air pollutants:
• Photochemical smog: a mix of
– Primary: emitted directly into air primary/secondary pollutants/chemicals formed in
– Secondary: chemicals formed from light activated reactions
primary pollutants – Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Sydney, Sao
Major Outdoor Air Pollutants Palo, Bangkok and Mexico City
• Carbon oxides Factors Influencing Outdoor Air Pollution
• Nitrogen oxides and nitric acid • Reduced by:
• Sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid – Settling of particles heavier than air,
cleansing by rain/snow, salty sea spray
• Particulates: suspended particulate matter from the oceans, wind dilution and
• Ozone
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

removal, chemical reactions in the – Hair-like cilia in the upper respiratory tract
atmosphere oscillate and transport mucus/pollutants
to your throat (swallowed or expelled)
• Increased by:
– Prolonged or acute exposure to air
– Urban structures that block winds, hills pollutants can break down these natural
and mountains that block valley defenses
ventilation, high temperatures, emission
of VOCs, grasshopper effect, temperature Weather: short-term changes in atmospheric variables
inversions over hours or days
Acid Deposition Climate: average weather conditions and patterns over

the earth, or a specific region, for a minimum of three
• Acidic compounds (H2SO4, HNO3, SO2-4 and NO- decades
3) formed during wind dispersal of outdoor
pollutants can on descent result in far flung acid Greenhouse effect: lower atmospheric warming caused
deposition (a mix of wet/dry deposition) by the reflection and interaction of some of the earth’s
incoming solar radiation with molecules in the air
– Wet deposition: acid rain/snow/cloud
vapor; happens slowly in distant Aerosols: suspended microscopic droplets
downwind areas
CHAPTER 16: SOLID AND HAZARDOUS WASTE
– Dry deposition: acidic particles; happens
E-waste: discarded electronics, televisions, cell phones,
quickly close to industrial sources
laptops, etc.
Respiratory system pollution protection:
– Exposes workers to lead, mercury, acids,
– Hairs in your nose filter out large particles and toxic metals
– Mucus in upper respiratory tract traps Solid waste contributes to pollution when valuable
smaller particles/dissolves some gaseous materials are not recycled/reused
pollutants
Hazardous waste not only contributes to pollution – it also
– Sneezing/coughing expel contaminated causes natural capital degradation, health problems, and
air premature deaths
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

Toxic: discarded materials or substances that are Six Industrial/Community Strategies To Reduce
poisonous, chemically reactive, corrosive, or flammable Resource Use/Waste/Pollution
Radioactive: from nuclear power plants 1. Change industrial processes to eliminate/reduce

use of harmful chemicals
– Must be stored for 10,000 – 240,000
years 2. Redesign manufacturing processes and products
to use less material and energy
– Currently no known way to safely store
them 3. Develop products that are easy to repair, reuse,
remanufacture, compost or recycle
Waste management: controlling wastes in ways that
reduce environmental harm without trying to reduce the 4. Eliminate/reduce unnecessary packaging
amount of waste produced
5. Use fee-per-bag waste collection systems
– Burying/burning/shipping to another
location 6. Pass laws
Waste reduction: producing less/reusing, recycling, and The life cycle of new items:
composting existing waste • Primary/closed loop recycling – existing
Integrated waste management: strategies for waste aluminum cans become new aluminum
disposal and reduction cans
Input, or waste prevention: • Secondary recycling – waste materials

are converted to new and different
– Refuse: Don’t use it products
– Reduce: Use less • Three steps: material collection,

conversion to new products, and new
– Reuse: Use it over and over commercial sales
– Recycle: Convert used resources to Two types of landfills:
useful items/buy products made from
recycled materials 1. Sanitary landfills: solid wastes are spread out in
thin layers, compacted, and covered daily with a
• Composting: using bacteria to fresh layer of clay or plastic foam
treat biodegradable waste
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

2. Open dump: a large field or pit where garbage is We Can Store Some Forms of Hazardous Waste
deposited and sometimes burned
• Last resort: burial on land/long-term storage in
Three management levels for dealing with the secure vaults
problem:
– Deep-well disposal – liquid waste
1. Produce less pumped under high pressure through
pipes into dry, porous formations beneath
2. Convert as much of it as possible to less aquifers
hazardous substances
• Pros and cons: leakage from
3. Put the rest in long-term safe storage below into aquifers used for
We Can Detoxify Hazardous Waste drinking water – inexpensive and
waste can be retrieved if
• Physical methods: use charcoal/resin to filter; problems develop
distill liquid waste; encapsulate and store deadly
waste safely and securely • Limited number of such sites and
limited space within each
• Chemical methods: convert to less
harmful/harmless chemicals • Surface impoundment – storage in lined ponds,
pits or lagoons
• Bioremediation: use bacteria/enzymes to
destroy/convert toxic/hazardous substances – Some have no liner, liners can leak or
overflow during storms, and both can
• Phytoremedication: natural and genetically cause waste to percolate into
engineered plants absorb/ filter/remove groundwater
contaminants from soil/water
• Secure hazardous waste landfills: containment
• “Pollution sponges” of both liquid/solid hazardous waste in
drums/other containers and buried in landfills
• Plasma gasification: electrically produced high
(expensive)
temperatures vaporize trash in the absence of
oxygen Factors That Hinder Reuse and Recycling
• Produces synthetic gaseous fuel and • Artificially low prices – most products do not
encapsulates toxics in glassy lumps of include harmful environmental/health costs
rock associated with production/disposal
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Uneven economic playing fields – reuse and CHAPTER 17: ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS,
recycling industries do not receive the tax POLITICS, AND WORLDVIEWS
breaks/subsidies given to extraction industries
Human economic systems are regarded as subsystems
• The demand and pricing for recycled materials of the biosphere by ecological economists
fluctuates
Market-based economies: buyers and sellers interact
Reduction of Hazardous Waste Through Government competitively for goods and services
Channels
Free-market economies: decisions are based on supply,
• Basel Convention Treaty (179 countries) (1992) demand, and price
– bans participating countries from shipping
hazardous waste to or through countries without – When demand exceeds supply, prices rise
their permission – When supply exceeds demand, prices fall
• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Types of Capital

Pollutants (POPs) – regulates 12 most widely 1. Natural capital: resources and ecosystem
used organic pollutants (dirty dozen); services produced by the earth’s natural
strengthened in 2014 to ban or phase out these processes
chemicals 2. Human capital: labor, organizational, and
management skills of people
Stena Innovative Recycling and the Three Big Ideas
3. Manufactured capital: machinery, materials, and
• Stena is following sustainability priorities by factories created to process natural resources
collecting/reusing and recycling as much waste as
possible Economic growth: increase in capacity of nation, city, or
company to provide goods and services
– Working with all major treatment facilities
in northern Europe, Stena offers secure a. High throughput economy boosts
recyclable/non-recyclable hazardous economic growth by increasing the flow of
waste services resources, goods, and services
b. This high throughput converts large

• Stena, approved by the European Union, is a good
example of a company viewing solid waste as an quantities of high quality matter/energy
into waste, pollutants, and low-quality
economic resource
heat
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

Neoclassical economies: unlimited growth • The United Nations has developed a set of
environmental indicators measuring CO2
– Natural capital is important, but not indispensable emissions, forest cover, and water supplies
– substitutes can be found
Green taxes can be applied to those who produce large
Ecological economies: amounts of pollution and hazardous waste
– Human economies are subsystems of the – Increases applied over time – 10-20 years
biosphere, and dependent on its resources
– Reduces other taxes to equal increase in
Environmental economies green taxes, resulting in no net tax
– Favor adjusting economic policy and tools to be increase
environmentally beneficial – Provides a safety net for lower-income
Historic Economic Indicators populations
• Gross domestic product (GDP) – annual value of Environmental regulation: government intervention to
all goods and services produced or operating reduce environmental degradation
within a country – Command-and-control approach:
– Economic growth is the percentage of regulations that focus on cleanup rather
change per year in the GDP than prevention
– A country’s economic growth per person – Incentive-based environmental

– GDP / country’s total midyear regulations: incentives for companies to
population innovatively reduce pollution and waste –
motivates companies to develop green
• These indicators are used for measuring and products and industrial processes that
comparing national economic outputs create jobs
• Genuine progress indicator (GPI) Cap-and-trade approach
– GDP + the estimated value of beneficial – Government gives/sells companies

transactions – harmful costs of all tradable pollution or resource-use permits
transactions (unused credits can be saved for future
expansion)
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

– Reduces pollution and resource waste by • Digital technology, social media, and
selling services instead of things global action networks can work to affect
change
– Reduces the harmful health effects of
pollution by reducing poverty • Inspire change at
regional/national/global level
Why Developing Environmental Policies Can Be
Difficult? Individual environmental leadership
• Special-interest groups pressure governments for • Lead by example, work within existing
subsidies/tax breaks, and the passage of economic and political systems, run for
laws/regulations favorable to their cause local office, propose and work for better
solutions
• Discord among regulatory agencies and the
creation of policies (often at cross purposes) Historical Timeline of Environmental Law Enactment
• Politicians may be more concerned with re-

election than environmental policies
Environmental policies should be governed by seven

principles:
• Reversibility
• Net energy principle
• Precautionary principle
• Prevention principle
• Polluter-pays principle
• Environmental justice principle
• Holistic principle
Environmental worldviews: human-centered, life-
Individuals matter – joining together brings about change centered or earth-centered
(grassroots approach)
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

Environmental ethics play a role in environmental dealing with air and surface water quality and
decision-making hazardous waste
Human centered focuses primarily on human needs and Why are Environmental Laws Passed?
wants.
-to protect human health and environment.
Life-centered focuses on the value of all life forms as
members of the biosphere, regardless of their use to Who governs environmental laws and policies?
humans.
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the
Earth-centered also takes a life-centered focus, but primary agency responsible for protecting the
expands it to include the entire biosphere, especially environment, although several other agencies are
ecosystems. also involved in particular areas.
Foundations of environmental literacy The Philippine Environmental Laws

(1987 Philippine Constitution)
– Natural capital matters
• Executive Order No. 192 designated the
– Our ecological footprints are immense Department of Environment and Natural
and expanding rapidly Resources (DENR)
– We should not exceed estimated • Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) is
planetary boundaries or ecological tipping specifically tasked to implement, recommend, and
points provide technical assistance for their
implementation and monitoring
The bottom line: minimize the impacts of food production,
transportation, and home energy use/overall resource use Environmental Impact Statement System P.D. 1586
“Environmental Laws and Regulations”  No projects shall be implemented without an
Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC)
Historical Background:
Pollution Control Law P.D. 984
• Environmental regulations have existed for
centuries.  Provides permitting requirements
• In about 1300 A.D., King Edward II of England  Provides penalty provisions
reportedly ordered any person burning coal to be
hanged because of poor quality of air  Provides Air and Water Standard
• The first significant laws were federal statutes Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) System
passed in the United States in the 1970’s DAO 2003-30
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Clarification on the Scope of the Philippine EIS
System.
• Simplification of Requirements for Securing ECC.
• Streamlining of Procedures.
• Strengthening the Implementation of the
Philippine EIS System
Scope of the EIS System
“Covered –ECC”
Category A -– Environmental Critical Projects (ECP)
Category B – Projects located in Environmentally Critical Areas Amending an ECC

(ECA)
• Major Amendment
“Not Covered CNC”
 Expansion of land/project area
Category C - Projects enhancing environmental quality or
address existing environmental problems  Increase in production capacity
Category D – Projects not falling under other categories or  Major change/s in process flow or technology
unlikely to cause adverse environmental impacts
 Minor Amendment
Documentary Requirements & Processing Time:
 Typographical error
 Extension of deadlines for submission of

post-ECC requirement/s
 Extension of ECC validity
 Change in company name/ownership
 Decrease in land/project area or production

capacity
Monitoring of Projects with ECCs
• Multipartite Monitoring Team (MMT)

Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

 Environmental Monitoring Fund
• Self-monitoring and Third Party Audit
• Environmental Guarantee Fund
 Mandatory Environmental Insurance

Coverage (AO 2005-06)
• Abandonment
Fees, Fines and Penalties
• Upon submission of the application shall pay filing fees

and other fees in accordance with prescribed standard
cost and fees.
• Penalty of suspension or cancellation of ECC and/or Pollution Control Law P.D. 984
fine of not more than P50,000/violation
 Clean Air Act of 1999 R.A. 8749 DAO 2000-81
 Projects established and/or operating without  Clean Water Act of 2004 R.A. 9275 DAO 2005-10
ECC  Toxic Substances & Hazardous and Nuclear Waste
Act of 1990 R.A. 6969
 Projects violating ECC conditions, EMP,
 Ecological Waste Management Act of 2000 R.A. 9003
Rules and Regulation
DAO 2001-34
 Misrepresentation in the EIS/IEE or any other
Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1999
Documents submitted
• A comprehensive policy and program for air quality
Summary of EIA process and Rough Timelines
management in the country.
• DENR Administrative Order No. 2000-81 is the

Implementing Rules and Regulations of this Act.
Pollution sources can be classified into:
• Mobile sources
 vehicles like cars, trucks, vans, buses,

jeepneys, tricycles and motorcycles.
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Point/Stationary sources • The owner or the Pollution Control Officer shall keep
a record of the operation of the sources and shall
 industrial firms and the smoke stacks of furnish a copy to the DENR-EMB in a quarterly basis.
power plants, hotels and other
establishments • Right of Entry, Inspection and Testing by the
authorized representative of DENR-EMB.
• Area sources
Fines & Penalties
 Refer to sources other than above, this
include smoking, buring of garbage, and • A fine of < P 100,000.00 for everyday of violation of
dust from construction, unpaved ground and standards until such time that standards have been
the like. complied with
Stationary Sources • For violations of all other provisions a fine of not less
than P 10,000 but nor more than P100,000 or six (6)
• All sources of air pollution must have a valid Permit- months to six (6) years or both. If the offender is a
to-Operate. juridical person, the president, manager, directors,
• All proposed or planned construction or modification trustees, the pollution control officer of the officials
of sources that has the potential to emit 100 tons per directly in charge of the operations suffer the penalty.
year or more of any of the regulated pollutants are Clean Water Act (CWA) of 2004
required to have an approved Authority to
Construct before implementation. • General Application - Water Quality Management in
all water bodies
• For purposes of sampling, planning, research and
other similar purposes, the DENR-EMB, may issue a • Primary Application - abatement & control of pollution
Temporary Permit-to-Operate not to exceed ninety from land based sources
(90) days, provided that the applicant has pending
application for Permit-to-Operate. • Enforcement of WQ standards, regulations and
penalties – irrespective of source of pollution
• Permit-to-Operate is valid for one (1) year from the
date of issuance unless sooner suspended or • DENR Administrative Order No. 2005-10 is set as the
revoked and must be renewed thirty (30) days before Implementing Rules and Regulation of this ACT
the expiration date and upon payment or the required
•
fees and compliance with requirements.
Discharge Permit
• In case of sale or legal transfer of a facility covered by
a permit, the permittee shall notify the DENR-EMB • The legal authorization to discharge wastewater.
within thirty (30) days from the date of sale or transfer
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• For industries without any discharge permit is given a • The DENR Administrative Order No-2001-34 issued
period of twelve (12) months after the effectivity of the on December 21, 2001 is set as the Implementing
IRR, DAO 2005-10 dated May 16, 2005, to secure a Rules and Regulations for R.A. 9003.
discharge permit.
• Pollution sources currently discharging to existing

sewerage system with operational wastewater INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISM
treatment facilities shall be exempt from the permit (National Level)
requirement. • National Solid Waste Management Commission
• The discharge permit is valid for a maximum period of
• DENR (Chairman)
five (5) years from the date of its issuance and must
be renewed 30 days before expiration. • PIA
• The self-monitoring report shall be submitted to the • DILG

Regional Offices within fifteen (15) calendar days
after the end of each quarter. • MMDA
Fines, Damages and Penalties • DOST
• A fine of not less than P 10,000 not more than P • League of Provinces
200,000 for every day of violation
• DPWH
• Gross Violation has a fine of not less than P 500,000
• League of Cities
but not more than P3M per day or imprisonment of
not less than six (6) years but not more than ten (10) • DOH
years or both.
• League of Municipalities
Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000
• DTI
• RA 9003 institute measures to promote a more
acceptable system which corresponds to the vision • Liga ng mga Barangay
of sustainable development. Generally, it aims to
• DA
merge environmental protection with economic
pursuits, recognizing the re-orientation of the • TESDA
community’s view on solid waste, thereby providing
schemes for waste minimization, volume reduction, SWM Hierarchy
resource recovery utilization and disposal.
• Source reduction & minimization of wastes
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

• Resource recovery, recycling & reuse at the • Minimum requirements in siting, designing and
community/barangay level operation of disposal sites
• Collection, proper transfer & transport of wastes by • Sec. 48 (3) Open burning is not allowed
city/municipality
Fines and Penalties
• Management/ destruction or reuse of residuals / final
disposal • Depending on the Prohibited Acts that is committed
penalty ranges from P300.00 to P1,000,000.00 and/or
Mandatory Segregation at Source imprisonment of 1 day to 6 years.
• Segregation shall be primarily conducted at source to • If the offense is committed by a corporation,

include: partnership, or other juridical entity the chief executive
officer, president, general manager, managing partner
– Household or such other officer-in-charge shall be liable for the
– Institutional commission of the offense penalized under this Act.
– Industrial facility
– Commercial/business establishment
– Agricultural area
Mandatory Solid Waste Diversion
• LGUs to divert 25% of solid waste from waste

disposal facilities through resource recovery activities
within 5 years
• baseline to be derived from waste characterization

results
• goal to be increased every 3 years

Business and Industry Role
Management of Residuals & Final Disposal Sites
• To initiate, participate and invest in integrated
• Closure of all open dumpsites ecological solid waste management projects
• Conversion of all open dumpsites to controlled dumps • To manufacture environmental-friendly products, to

within 3 years to operate only within five (5) years. introduce, develop and adopt innovative processes
that shall recycle and re-use materials, conserve raw
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

materials and energy, reduce waste and prevent  Hazardous Waste Management (Title III)
pollution
“waste materials”
• To undertake community activities to promote and
propagate effective solid waste management PROVISIONS OF TITLE II
practices (TOXIC CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES)
Toxic Substances & Hazardous and Nuclear Waste • Compile, maintain and update and inventory of
chemical substances that are stored, imported,
• The Act directs the Department of Environment and exported, used, processed, manufacture , transported
Natural Resources (DENR) to establish rules, in the country. The inventory is known as the
regulations, and programs for controlling chemical Philippine inventory of chemicals and chemical
substances and hazardous wastes in the substances (PICCS).
Philippines.
• Require manufacturers and importers to submit
• The “Implementing Rules and Regulations of pertinent data and information on the existing
Republic Act 6969” Department Administrative Order chemical substances that they manufacture or import.
29 (DAO 29) was signed in June of 1992. It provides
a general regulatory framework that industry must • Establish the Philippine Priority Chemicals list( PCL).
meet to reach compliance with RA 6969. • Require screening of new chemical substances by
POLICY seeking all available information to asses the risk
posed by new chemical substances to public health
• Regulate, limit, and prohibit importation, manufacture, and to the environment (PMPIN).
processing, sale, distribution, and use, and disposal
of chemical substances and mixtures that present • Regulate, limit, gradually phase-out, and ban those
unreasonable risk to public health and environment chemical substances that are determined to pose
unreasonable risk to public health and environment
• Prohibit the entry and disposal of hazardous wastes through the issuance of CCOs.
into the Philippines territorial limits
Chemicals management
• Advance and facilitate research on toxic chemicals
and hazardous wastes Philippine Inventory of Chemical and
Coverage of RA 6969  Chemical Substances (PICCS)

 Pre-manufacture, Pre-Importation
 Chemical Management (Title II) o Notification scheme (PMPIN)
 Priority Chemical List (PCL) - DAO
“virgin materials”
o 98-29
 Chemical Control Orders (CCOs)
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

 Participation in international treaties, agreements, DAO 2000-02: CCO for asbestos
etc.
 ban, regulated/selected/limited use
PRIORITY CHEMICAL LIST (PCL)
DAO 2000-18: CCO for Ozone Depleting
• PCL includes selected chemicals for the PICCS and
new chemical substances notification that pose Substances (ODSs)
unreasonable risk to health and environment.
 ban and/or phase out
• Specific criteria for inclusion of chemical substances
DAO 2004-01: for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
into PCL and reporting requirements for chemical
substances in the PCL shall be established and  ban and/or phase out
published by DENR.
POLICY ON HAZARDOUS WASTE
CHEMICAL CONTROL ORDERS (CCO)
• Prohibit the entry, even in the transit, or hazardous
• CCOs are DENR orders that: wastes and their disposal into the Philippines
territorial limits.
• Prohibit
• Management of hazardous waste in a manner not to
• Limit
cause pollution of the environment and harm harm to
• Regulate public health and natural resources.
• the use, manufacture, import, export, transport, • Make the waste generators responsible for
process, storage, possession, sale of those priority management and disposal of hazardous wastes and
chemicals that DENR determines pose hazard to financially responsible for the cost of proper storage,
public health and environment. treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes they
generate.
• DENR establishes and publishes the specific criteria
and reporting requirements for CCOs KEY ACTORS
Chemical Control Order (CCOs) • Waste Generators: a person who generates or

produces, through any commercial, industrial or trade
DAO 97-38: CCO for Mercury and its compounds activities, hazardous wastes.
ban, regulated and /or limited use • Waste Transporters: a person who is licensed to
transport hazardous wastes.
DAO 97-39: CCO for Cyanide and its compounds
• Waste Treater: a person who is licensed to treat,
 ban, regulated and/or limited use store, recycle, or dispose of hazardous wastes.
Disclaimer:
much as possible.
QUEZON CITY
CIVIL ENGINEERING

Schedule of Fees (Title II)
• Registration of hazardous waste generators: PhP

600.00
• Annual Registration of Transporters: PhP

500.00/vehicle
• Issuance of Manifest Form: P100.00/manifest and P

500.00/hazardous
• Application fee for Notification of the Export of

Hazardous Wastes: P 500.00/notification
• Registration Fee: P 15,000.00/facility
• TSD Facility Permit: P 5,000.00/facility
• Issuance of an Export or Importation Clearance:

P2,000/clearance
• Registration of Importer of HW: P 5,000.00
Disclaimer:
much as possible.

GEE 001 - General Education Elective 1

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Descrizione originale:

Titolo originale

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

GEE 001 - General Education Elective 1

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

Ecosystem • Chemical/nutrient cycling

– Group of organisms in a defined – In nature, waste = useful resources

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

• Full-cost pricing (economics) – Available in fixed quantities that can be

– Reduce • Industrialized countries

– Reuse – 17% of world’s population (United States,

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

• Low income, least developed • Pollution prevention (before pollution occurs)

– Contributed by humans (burning of fossil

How Are We Dealing With Pollution?

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

Upcycling: improving aspects of the environment while • Scientific research

• In the early 1970s, a new environmental model Harmful effects of Poverty

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

4. Biosphere – wherever life is found within the other • Organisms that:

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

The life processes of producers, consumers, and

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

their inability to tolerate environmental

Niche – Can threaten native species through

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

– By 1938, only about 50 were left Predation

– In 1977, they were declared an – When an individual of one species

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

Complex predator-prey relationships • Bacteria that live in our intestines

Some Species Feed Off Other Species by Living On or Commensalism

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

Ecological succession Populations cannot grow indefinitely due to:

– The normal, gradual change in species – Limitations on resources

– Increases nutrient cycling – Density-dependent factors become more

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

– Elevate the status of women • Most cities are unsustainable

– Make family planning available Urban sprawl

• This happens in four stages: • Cities are centers of economic development,

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

Cities Can Grow Outward or Upward – Fund programs to educate people

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

What Factors Influence Climate?

• Incoming solar energy

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

What Are the World’s Terrestrial Ecosystems? How Do 1. Tropic

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

• Humans are disrupting the vital ecosystem and

*Oceans are about 71% of the earth’s surface. Oceans

Water Covers Most of the Planet

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

• Lakes: Human Activities are Disrupting and Degrading

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

• We depend on ecosystem services for food, fuel,

GEE 001- GENERAL EDUCATION ELECATIVE 1

• With no where else to go, island species (often

Harmful Effects of Nonnative Species • Establish international treaties banning transfer of