DANICA YAMBAO 1OMT

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

Milrose Lleñas

HUMAN FLOURISHING IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Enframing
o Way of revealing in modern technology.
o Nature is put in a box or in a frame so that it can be better understood and controlled according to
people’s desires.
o Examples:
§ IVF
§ Plastic Surgery
• Poeisis
o Concealed in enframing as nature is viewed an orderable and calculated system of information.
o Examples:
§ Pollution
§ Use of Pesticides
• Technology as a Mode of Revealing
o Martin Heidegger
§ Urges us to question technology and see beyond people’s understanding of it.
§ Revealing never comes to an end in modern technology.
• Three Manifestations of Technology Revealing Itself on Humanity:
o Our own terms as everything is on demand.
§ Throwaway culture.
o We no longer need to work with the rhythms of nature for we have learned to control nature.
§ Examples: IVF and GMOs.
o Mechanization and digitization of many aspects of our life.
§ Example: Communication.
• Calculative Thinking
o One orders and puts a system for better understanding and control.
o Calculative thinking is used in Science and Technology because its goal is to lessen and minimize errors.
• Meditative Thinking
o One lets nature reveals itself without forcing it.
o Reflective thinking.
• Enframing is done because people want security.
• According to Martin Heidegger:
o Human person swallowed by technology.
§ Constantly plugged online.
§ No capacity for authentic personal encounters.
§ Cannot let go of the conveniences and profits.
o We lose the essence of who we are as beings.
• According to CNN:
o 50% of teens feel they are addicted to their mobile devices.
o 72% of teens feel the need to immediately respond to texts, social networking messages and other
notifications.
o The majority of parents (66%) feel their teens spend too much time on their mobile devices.
o 69% of parents and 78% of teens check their devices at least hourly.
• Albert Einstein “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a
generation of idiots.”
• Negative Enframing Examples:
o Advancements of Weaponry
o Advancement in Smart Technology
o Television
o Advancements in Medicine
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o Social Networking
o The Knowledge of Technology
o Robotics
• Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics)
o We aim for the good life.
o “All human activities aim at some good. Every art and human inquiry and similarity every action and
pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason, the good has been rightly declared as that at
which all things aim”.
o Happiness is the ultimate end of human actions. It is that which people pursue or its own sake.
o The onwards progress of science and technology is also the movement towards the good life.
o Science and Technology may also corrupt a person.
• When Technology and Humanity Cross
o The good life entails living in a just and progressive society whose citizens have the freedom to flourish.
o Human dignity is the core value of our existence.
o We become more rational when we are able to value and apply the principles of logic and science in our
lives.
o We become more loving when we ensure that human dignity lies at the foundation of our endeavors,
whether scientific or not.
• What are Human Rights?
o Characteristics:
§ Universal and Inalienable
§ Interdependent and Indivisible
§ Equal and Non-Discriminatory
§ Entail Both Rights and Obligations
o Article I
§ All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason
and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
o Article 2
§ Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction
of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or
social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the
basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a
person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self- governing or under any other
limitation of sovereignty.
o Article 3
§ Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
o Articles 4-21 Civil and Political Rights
§ Freedom from slavery and servitude.
§ Freedom from torture and cruelty, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
§ Right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
§ Right to an effective judicial remedy.
§ Freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
§ Right to a fair trial and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.
§ Right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty.
§ Freedom from arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence.
§ Freedom of movement or residence.
§ Right of asylum.
§ Right to a nationality.
§ Right to marry and to found a family.
§ Right to own property.
§ Freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
§ Freedom of opinion and expression.
§ Right to peaceful assembly or association.
§ Right to take part in the government of one’s country.

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§ Right to equal access to public service in one’s country
o Article 22
§ Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization,
through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and
resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity
and the free development of his personality.
o Article 23-27 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
§ Right to social security.
§ Right to work.
§ Right to equal pay for equal work.
§ Right to rest and leisure.
§ Right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being.
§ Right to education.
§ Right to participate in the cultural life of the community
o Article 28
§ Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth
in this Declaration can be fully realized.
o Article 29
§ Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his
personality is possible.
§ In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as
are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights
and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the
general welfare in a democratic society.
§ These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of
the United Nations.
o Article 30
§ Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any
right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights
and freedoms set forth herein.

CLIMATE CHANGE
• Climate
o Refers to the long-term weather patterns prevailing over a given area of the planet.
o Greek word “klinein” meaning “to slope”
o “Klima” zone or region of the Earth as characterized by its atmospheric conditions.
• Earth’s Movement Around the Sun

The Earth’s Orbital Motion Around the Sun

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o Elements:
§ Aphelion
• Point in the orbit of the Earth farthest from the sun.
§ Perihelion
• Point in the orbit of the Earth closest to the sun.
§ Earth’s Axial Tilt
• Inclination angle of the Earth’s rotational axis in relation to a line perpendicular to its
orbital plane.
§ Precession
• Change of the orientation of the rotational axis of the Earth.
§ Equinox
• Time the sun at noon is directly over the equator.
• Happens twice a year.
• Causes an almost equal length of day and night.
§ Solstice
• Happens when the sun at noon sits above the Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn.
• Summer Solstice
o Longest period of daylight in the year.
• Winter Solstice
o Shortest period.
§ Precession of the Equinoxes
• Motion of the equinoxes relative to the precession of the Earth’s axis of rotation.
• Happens over thousands of years.

Precession of the Equinoxes

• Milankovitch Parameters
o Milutin Milankovitch
§ Slovak scientist and meteorologist.
§ Addressed the question as to what causes dramatic changes in the day-to-day weather and
climate.
§ Studied whether or not the direct amount of sunlight falling on Earth was the cause of Ice Age.
o It could not be proven that one caused the other.
o Not qualified as a scientific fact or genuine theory.
o Laws of Nature by Isaac Newton in 17th century have some subtle features that might help explain its role
in changing climate.
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o Henri Poincare
§ French mathematical physicist.
§ Showed that mathematically, the simple cumulative and summing process of the Laws of Nature
need not be as straightforward as it might seem.
o Chaos Theory
§ “New Science”
§ Changing the Milankovitch Parameters over long periods of time can have a cumulative effect far
greater than it appears at first glance.
• Global Warming
o Earth’s atmosphere has been increasing by over 90% in the latter part of the 20th century.
o Two Arguments:
§ States the nature, simply acting according to its laws with no reference to human beings and their
actions, is the main reason.
§ Global warming is caused or greatly abutted by the actions of human beings.
o Amount of CO2 in the years before 1950 remains fairly constant but begins to climb afterwards.

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration and Mean Global Temperature During the Past Millennium.

• Greenhouse Gases
o How certain gases in the atmosphere trap the heat of the sun.
o John Tyndall
§ British engineer.
§ 1950.
• “As a dam built across a river causes a local deepening of the stream, so our atmosphere,
thrown across the terrestrial (infrared) rays, produces a local heightening of the
temperature at the Earth’s surface.”
§ 19th Century
• Noted the most prevalent of the greenhouse gases is water vapor.
o Industrialization
§ Conversion of an agrarian economy into an industrialized one on a large scale.
o Charles David Keeling
§ American scientist in the mid-20th century.
§ Found out that if the increased burning fossil fuel and the consequent release of CO2 in the
atmosphere were changing to the global temperature of the atmosphere.
§ Began to measure the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere of a place far away from the
industrialized nations.
• Extinct volcano on the island of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.
§ Keeling Curve
• Graph that plots the continuous measurements of data taken at the Mauna Loa
Observatory in Hawaii.
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• Shows that the carbon dioxide concentration has gone up and the temperature has also
rise.
• Solid proofs of global warming.

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentrations from 1958 to 2017

• Future Actions
o The challenge is to assemble sufficient and well-established data from all over the world to make the
predictions as accurate as possible.
o “Tipping Points”
§ Specifying values of meteorological parameters in which irreversible changes will take place.
§ A new state would replace the old one.
o Chaos Theory
§ Earth-atmosphere relationship would become a chaotic region where uncertainty would exist.
o A balanced plan must be created.

FOOD SECURITY
• Photosynthesis
o Feed us.
o Clothe us (Cotton).
o House us (Wood).
o Provide energy for warmth, light, transport, and manufacturing.

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• What is Food Security and Why is it Difficult to Attain?
o Many people suffer from chronic health and malnutrition.
§ Food security- having daily access to enough nutritious food to live an active and healthy life.
§ One of every six people in less-developed countries is not getting enough to eat, facing food
insecurity.
§ People who cannot grow or buy enough food to meet their basic energy needs suffer from chronic
undernutrition, or hunger.
§ Can you explain the recent issue affecting the rice supply in the country? What could be the
possible causes of skyrocketing prices of rice and vegetables?
§ Starving children collecting ants in Sudan, Africa.
o Many people do not get enough vitamins and minerals.
§ Deficiency of one or more vitamins and minerals, usually vitamin A, iron, and iodine.
§ Some 250,000–500,000 children younger than age 6 go blind each year
§ Lack of iron causes anemia which causes fatigue, makes infection more likely, and increases a
woman’s chances of dying from hemorrhage in childbirth.
§ 1/5 people in the world suffers from iron deficiency.
o Many people do not get enough vitamins and minerals.
§ Chronic lack of iodine can cause stunted growth, mental retardation, and goiter.
§ Almost one-third of the world’s people do not get enough iodine in their food and water.
o Chronic lack of iodine can cause stunted growth, mental retardation, and goiter.
o Almost one-third of the world’s people do not get enough iodine in their food and water.
o Many people have health problems from eating too much
§ Overnutrition occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy use, causing excess body fat.
§ Face similar health problems as those under: lower life expectancy, greater susceptibility to
disease and illness, and lower productivity and life quality.
§ Globally about 925 million people have health problems because they do not get enough to eat,
and about 1.1 billion people face health problems from eating too much.
• How is Food Produced?
o Food production has increased dramatically.
§ About 10,000 years ago, humans began to shift from hunting for and gathering their food to
growing it and raising animals for food and labor.
§ Today, three systems supply most of our food.
§ Croplands produce mostly grains.
§ Rangelands, pastures, and feedlots produce meat.
§ Fisheries and aquaculture provide us with seafood.
§ About 66% of the world’s people survive primarily by eating rice, wheat, and corn.
§ Since 1960, there has been an increase in global food production from all three of the major food
production systems because of technological advances.
o Industrialized crop production relies on high-input monocultures.
§ Agriculture used to grow crops can be divided roughly into two types:
§ Industrialized agriculture, or high-input agriculture,
§ Plantation agriculture is a form of industrialized agriculture used primarily in tropical less-
developed countries.
§ Grows cash crops such as bananas, soybeans, sugarcane, coffee, palm oil, and vegetables.
§ Crops are grown on large monoculture plantations, mostly for export to more-developed
countries.
§ Modern industrialized agriculture violates the three principles of sustainability by relying heavily
on fossil fuels, reducing natural and crop biodiversity, and neglecting the conservation and
recycling of nutrients in topsoil.
§ Oil Palm Plantation – once covered with tropical rain forest.
o Traditional agriculture often relies on low-input polycultures.
§ Traditional agriculture provides about 20% of the world’s food crops on about 75% of its
cultivated land, mostly in less-developed countries.
§ There are two main types of traditional agriculture.

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§ Traditional subsistence agriculture supplements energy from the sun with the labor of humans
and draft animals to produce enough crops for a farm family’s survival, with little left over to sell
or store as a reserve for hard times.
§ In traditional intensive agriculture, farmers increase their inputs of human and draft-animal labor,
animal manure for fertilizer, and water to obtain higher crop yields, some of which can be sold
for income.
§ Many traditional farmers grow several crops on the same plot simultaneously, a practice known
as polyculture.
• Crop diversity reduces the chance of losing most or all of the year’s food supply to pests,
bad weather, and other misfortunes.
• Crops mature at different times, provide food throughout the year, reduce the input of
human labor, and keep the soil covered to reduce erosion from wind and water.
§ Lessens need for fertilizer and water, because root systems at different depths in the soil capture
nutrients and moisture efficiently.
§ Insecticides and herbicides are rarely needed because multiple habitats are created for natural
predators of crop-eating insects, and weeds have trouble competing with the multitude of crop
plants.
§ On average, such low-input polyculture produces higher yields than does high-input monoculture.
o A Closer Look at Industrialized Crop Production
§ Farmers can produce more food by increasing their land or their yields per acre.
§ Since 1950, about 88% of the increase in global food production has come from using high-input
industrialized agriculture to increase yields in a process called the green revolution.
§ Three steps of the green revolution:
• First, develop and plant monocultures of selectively bred or genetically engineered high-
yield varieties of key crops such as rice, wheat, and corn.
• Second, produce high yields by using large inputs of water and synthetic inorganic
fertilizers, and pesticides.
• Third, increase the number of crops grown per year on a plot of land through multiple
cropping.
§ The first green revolution used high-input agriculture to dramatically increase crop yields in most
of the world’s more-developed countries, between 1950 and 1970.
§ A second green revolution has been taking place since 1967. Fast-growing varieties of rice and
wheat, specially bred for tropical and subtropical climates, have been introduced into middle-
income, less-developed countries such as India, China, and Brazil.
• Producing more food on less land has helped to protect some biodiversity by preserving
large areas of forests, grasslands, wetlands, and easily eroded mountain terrain that might
otherwise be used for farming.
§ Largely because of the two green revolutions, world grain production tripled between 1961 and
2009.
§ People directly consume about 48% of the world’s grain production. About 35% is used to feed
livestock and indirectly consumed by people who eat meat and meat products. The remaining
17% (mostly corn) is used to make biofuels such as ethanol for cars and other vehicles.
§ Growth in Global Grain Production of Wheat, Corn, and Rice between 1961-2010

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o Crossbreeding and Genetic Engineering Produce Varieties of Crops and Livestock
§ Crossbreeding through artificial selection has been used for centuries by farmers and scientists to
develop genetically improved varieties of crops and livestock animals.
• Such selective breeding in this first gene revolution has yielded amazing results; ancient
ears of corn were about the size of your little finger, and wild tomatoes were once the size
of grapes.
• Typically takes 15 years or more to produce a commercially valuable new crop variety,
and it can combine traits only from genetically similar species.
• Typically, resulting varieties remain useful for only 5–10 years before pests and diseases
reduce their efficacy.
§ Modern scientists are creating a second gene revolution by using genetic engineering to develop
genetically improved strains of crops and livestock.
• Alters an organism’s genetic material through adding, deleting, or changing segments of
its DNA to produce desirable traits or to eliminate undesirable ones (gene splicing);
resulting organisms are called genetically modified organisms.
• Developing a new crop variety through gene splicing is faster selective breeding, usually
costs less, and allows for the insertion of genes from almost any other organism into crop
cells.
• Currently, at least 70% of the food products on U.S. supermarket shelves contain some
form of genetically engineered food or ingredients, but no law requires the labeling of
GM products.
• Certified organic food, which is labeled as makes no use of genetically modified seeds or
ingredients.
• Bioengineers plan to develop new GM varieties of crops that are resistant to heat, cold,
herbicides, insect pests, parasites, viral diseases, drought, and salty or acidic soil. They
also hope to develop crop plants that can grow faster and survive with little or no
irrigation and with less fertilizer and pesticides.
o Meat production has grown steadily.
§ Meat and animal products such as eggs and milk are good sources of high-quality protein and
represent the world’s second major food-producing system.
§ Between 1961 and 2010, world meat production—mostly beef, pork, and poultry—increased
more than fourfold and average meat consumption per person more than doubled.
§ Global meat production is likely to more than double again by 2050 as affluence rises and more
middle-income people begin consuming more meat and animal products in rapidly developing
countries such as China and India.
§ About half of the world’s meat comes from livestock grazing on grass in unfenced rangelands and
enclosed pastures.
§ The other half is produced through an industrialized system in which animals are raised mostly in
densely packed feedlots and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where they are fed
grain, fish meal, or fish oil, which are usually doctored with growth hormones and antibiotics.
§ Feedlots and CAFOs, and the animal wastes and runoff associated with them, create serious
environmental impacts on the air and water.
o Fish and shellfish production have increased dramatically.
§ The world’s third major food-producing system consists of fisheries and aquaculture.
§ A fishery is a concentration of particular aquatic species suitable for commercial harvesting in a
given ocean area or inland body of water.
§ Industrial fishing fleets harvest most of the world’s marine catch of wild fish.
§ Fish and shellfish are also produced through aquaculture—the practice of raising marine and
freshwater fish in freshwater ponds and rice paddies or in underwater cages in coastal waters or in
deeper ocean waters.
§ Some fishery scientists warn that unless we reduce overfishing and ocean pollution, and slow
projected climate change, most of the world’s major commercial ocean fisheries could collapse
by 2050.
o In the Philippine Setting
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§ Is it justifiable for the government to dismantle the fish pens in Laguna Lake in order for common
fisher folks to have equal access to the lake’s aquatic resources?
o Global Seafood Production (1950-2008)

o Industrialized Food Production Requires Huge Inputs of Energy

§ The industrialization of food production has been made possible by the availability of energy,
mostly from nonrenewable oil and natural gas.
§ Energy is needed to run farm machinery, irrigate crops, and produce synthetic pesticides and
synthetic inorganic fertilizers, as well as to process food and transport it long distances within and
between countries.
§ As a result, producing, processing, transporting, and consuming industrialized food result in a
large net energy loss.
• What Environmental Problems Arise from Industrialized Food Production?
o Food Production’s Harmful Environmental Effects

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o Producing food has major environmental impacts.
§ Spectacular increases in the world’s food production since 1950. The bad news is the harmful
environmental effects associated with such production increases.
§ According to many analysts, agriculture has a greater total harmful environmental impact than
any human activity.
§ These environmental effects may limit future food production and make it unsustainable.
o Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in parts of the world.
§ Soil erosion is the movement of soil components, especially surface litter and topsoil from one
place to another by the actions of wind and water.
§ Erosion of topsoil has two major harmful effects.
• Loss of soil fertility through depletion of plant nutrients in topsoil.
• Water pollution in nearby surface waters, where eroded topsoil ends up as sediment. This
can kill fish and shellfish and clog irrigation ditches, boat channels, reservoirs, and lakes.
§ By removing vital plant nutrients from topsoil and adding excess plant nutrients to aquatic
systems, we degrade the topsoil and pollute the water, and thus alter the carbon, nitrogen, and
phosphorus cycles.
§ Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in some parts of the world.

o Drought and human activities are degrading drylands.

§ Desertification in arid and semiarid parts of the world threatens livestock and crop contributions
to the world’s food supply.
§ Desertification occurs when the productive potential of topsoil falls by 10% or more because of a
combination of prolonged drought and human activities that expose topsoil to erosion.
§ The FAO’s 2007 report on the Status of the World’s Forests estimated that some 70% of world’s
arid and semiarid lands used for agriculture are degraded and threatened by desertification.
§ Sand dunes threaten to take over an oasis in West Africa:

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§ Variation in Desertification in Arid and Semiarid Lands (2007)

o Excessive irrigation has serious consequences.

§ Irrigation boosts productivity of farms; roughly 20% of the world’s cropland that is irrigated
produces about 45% of the world’s food.
§ Most irrigation water is a dilute solution of various salts that are picked up as the water flows
over or through soil and rocks.
§ Repeated annual applications of irrigation water in dry climates lead to the gradual accumulation
of salts in the upper soil layers—a soil degradation process called salinization that stunts crop
growth, lowers crop yields, and can eventually kill plants and ruin the land.
§ Severe salinization has reduced yields on at least 10% of the world’s irrigated cropland, and
almost 25% of irrigated cropland in the United States, especially in western states
§ Irrigation can cause waterlogging, in which water accumulates underground and gradually raises
the water table; at least one-tenth of the world’s irrigated land suffers from waterlogging, and the
problem is getting worse.
§ Excessive irrigation contributes to depletion of groundwater and surface water supplies.
o Agriculture contributes to air pollution and projected climate change.
§ Agricultural activities create a lot of air pollution.
§ Account for more than 25% of the human-generated emissions of carbon dioxide, other
greenhouse gases.
§ Industrialized livestock production alone generates about 18% of the world’s greenhouse gases;
cattle and dairy cows release the greenhouse gas methane and methane is generated by liquid
animal manure stored in waste lagoons.
§ Nitrous oxide, with about 300 times the warming capacity of CO2 per molecule, is released in
huge quantities by synthetic inorganic fertilizers as well as by livestock manure.
o Genetically modified crops and foods have advantages and disadvantages.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS AND FOODS

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Need less fertilizer. Unpredictable genetic and ecological
effects.
Need less water. Harmful toxins and new allergens in food.
More resistant to insects, disease, frost, No increase in yields.
and drought.
Grow faster. More pesticide-resistant insects and
herbicide-resistant weeds.
May need less pesticides or tolerate Could disrupt seed market.
higher levels of herbicides.
May reduce energy needs. Lower genetic diversity.

o Food and biofuel production systems have caused major losses of biodiversity.
§ Natural biodiversity and some ecological services are threatened when forests are cleared and
grasslands are plowed up and replaced with croplands used to produce food or biofuels, such as
ethanol.
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§ There is increasing loss of agrobiodiversity, the world’s genetic variety of animal and plant
species.
§ The world’s genetic “library,” which is critical for increasing food yields, is rapidly shrinking.
o There is controversy over genetically engineered foods.
§ Controversy has arisen over the use of genetically modified (GM) food and other products of
genetic engineering.
§ Its producers and investors see GM food as a potentially sustainable way to solve world hunger
problems and improve human health.
§ Some critics consider it potentially dangerous “Frankenfood.”
• Recognize the potential benefits of GM crops.
• Warn that we know too little about the long-term potential harm to human health and
ecosystems from the widespread use of such crops.
• Warn that GM organisms released into the environment may cause some unintended
harmful genetic and ecological effects.
• Genes in plant pollen from GM crops can spread among nonengineered species. The new
strains can then form hybrids with wild crop varieties, which could reduce the natural
genetic biodiversity of wild strains.
• Most scientists and economists who have evaluated the genetic engineering of crops
believe that its potential benefits will eventually outweigh its risks.
• Others have serious doubts about the ability of GM crops to increase food security
compared to other more effective and sustainable alternative solutions.
o There are limits to expansion of the green revolution.
§ Factors that have limited the current and future success of the green revolution:
• Without huge inputs of inorganic fertilizer, pesticides, and water, most green revolution
and genetically engineered crop varieties produce yields that are no higher (and are
sometimes lower) than those from traditional strains.
• High inputs cost too much for most subsistence farmers in less-developed countries.
• Scientists point out that continuing to increase these inputs eventually produces no
additional increase in crop yields.
• Since 1978, the amount of irrigated land per person has been declining, due to population
growth, wasteful use of irrigation water, soil salinization, and depletion of both aquifers
and surface water, and the fact that most of the world’s farmers do not have enough
money to irrigate their crops.
• We can get more crops per drop of irrigation water by using known methods and
technologies to greatly improve the efficiency of irrigation.
• Clearing tropical forests and irrigating arid land could more than double the world’s
cropland, but much of this land has poor soil fertility, steep slopes, or both.
• Cultivating such land usually is expensive, is unlikely to be sustainable, and reduces
biodiversity by degrading and destroying wildlife habitats
• During this century, fertile croplands in coastal areas are likely to be flooded by rising sea
levels resulting from projected climate change.
• Food production could drop sharply in some major food-producing areas because of
increased drought and longer and more intense heat waves, also resulting from projected
climate change.
o Industrialized meat production has harmful environmental consequences.
§ Producing meat by using feedlots and other confined animal production facilities increases meat
production, reduces overgrazing, and yields higher profits.
§ Such systems use large amounts of energy (mostly fossil fuels) and water and produce huge
amounts of animal waste that sometimes pollute surface water and groundwater and saturate the
air with their odors and emitting large quantities of climate-changing greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere.
§ Meat produced by industrialized agriculture is artificially cheap – harmful environmental and
health costs are not included in the prices.

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§ Overgrazing and soil compaction and erosion by livestock have degraded about 20% of the
world’s grasslands and pastures.
§ Rangeland grazing and industrialized livestock production cause about 55% of all topsoil erosion
and sediment pollution, and 33% of the water pollution that results from runoff from excessive
inputs of synthetic fertilizers.
§ The use of fossil fuels energy pollutes the air and water, and emits greenhouse gases.
§ Use of antibiotics is widespread in industrialized livestock production facilities.
• 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are added to animal feed to prevent the
spread of diseases in crowded feedlots and CAFOs and to make the livestock animals
grow faster.
• Widespread antibiotic use in livestock is an important factor in the rise of genetic
resistance among many disease-causing microbes.
o Reduces the effectiveness of some antibiotics used to treat infectious diseases in
humans.
o Promotes the development of new and aggressive disease organisms that are
resistant to all but a very few antibiotics currently available.
§ Animal waste produced by U.S. meat is roughly 130 times that of its human population.
o Animal feedlots and confined animal feeding operations have advantages and disadvantages.

ANIMAL FEEDLOTS
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Increased meat production. Large inputs of grain, fish meal, water, and fossil fuels.
Higher profits. Greenhouse gas (CO2 and CH4) emissions.
Less land use. Concentration of animal wastes that can pollute water.
Reduced overgrazing. Use of antibiotics can increase genetic resistance to
Reduced soil erosion. microbes in humans.
Protection of biodiversity.

o Aquaculture has advantages and disadvantages.

AQUACULTURE
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
High efficiency. Large inputs of land, feed, and water.
High yield. Large waste output.
Reduced over-harvesting of fisheries. Loss of mangrove forests and estuaries.
Low fuel use. Some species fed with grain, fish meal, or fish oil.
High profits. Dense populations vulnerable to disease.

• How Can We Protect Crops from Pests More Sustainably?

o Nature controls the populations of most pests.
§ A pest is any species that interferes with human welfare by competing with us for food, invading
homes, lawns and gardens, destroying building materials, spreading disease, invading
ecosystems, or simply being a nuisance.
§ Worldwide, only about 100 species of plants (“weeds”), animals (mostly insects), fungi, and
microbes cause most of the damage to the crops we grow.
§ In natural ecosystems and many polyculture agroecosystems, natural enemies (predators,
parasites, and disease organisms) control the populations of most potential pest species.
• Spiders kill far more crop-eating insects every year than humans do by using chemicals.
§ When we clear forests and grasslands, plant monoculture crops, and douse fields with chemicals
that kill pests, we upset many of these natural population checks and balances that help to
maintain biodiversity.
o We use pesticides to help control pest populations.
§ Development of a variety of synthetic pesticides—chemicals used to kill/control populations of
organisms that we consider undesirable such as insects, weeds, and mice.
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§ Common types of pesticides include insecticides (insect killers), herbicides (weed killers),
fungicides (fungus killers), and rodenticides (rat and mouse killers).
§ Plants produce chemicals called biopesticides to ward off, deceive, or poison the insects and
herbivores that feed on them.
§ Since 1950, pesticide use has increased more than 50-fold, and most of today’s pesticides are 10–
100 times more toxic than those used in the 1950s.
§ Use of biopesticides is on the rise.
§ Broad-spectrum agents are toxic to many pests, but also to beneficial species. Examples are
chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds, such as DDT, and organophosphate compounds, such as
malathion and parathion.
§ Selective, or narrow spectrum, agents are effective against a narrowly defined group of
organisms. Examples are algaecides for algae and fungicides for fungi.
§ Pesticides vary in their persistence, the length of time they remain deadly in the environment.
• DDT and related compounds remain in the environment for years and can be biologically
magnified in food chains and webs.
• Organophosphates are active for days or weeks and are not biologically magnified but
can be highly toxic to humans.
• What is biomagnification?
§ In the United States, about 25% of pesticide use is on houses, gardens, lawns, parks, playing
fields, swimming pools, and golf courses, with the average lawn receiving ten times more
synthetic pesticides per unit of land area than an equivalent amount of cropland.
§ In 1962, biologist Rachel Carson warned against relying primarily on synthetic organic chemicals
to kill insects and other species we regard as pests.
§ Synthetic Pesticides: Advantages and Disadvantages

CONVENTIONAL CHEMICAL PESTICIDES

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Save lives. Promote genetic resistance.
Increase food supplies. Kill natural pest enemies.
Profitable. Pollute the environment.
Work fast. Can harm wildlife and people.
Safe if used properly. Are expensive for farmers.

o You can reduce your exposure to pesticides.

§ Reducing Exposure to Pesticides
• Grow some of your food using organic methods.
• Buy certified organic food.
• Wash and scrub all fresh fruits, vegetables, and wild foods you pick.
• Eat less meat, no meat, or certified organically produced meat.
• Trim the fat from meat.
o Case Study: Ecological Surprises: The Law of Unintended Consequences
§ In the 1950s, dieldrin (a DDT relative) was used to eliminate malaria in North Borneo. This
started an unexpected chain of negative effects.
§ Small insect-eating lizards that lived in the houses died after eating dieldrin-contaminated insects.
Cats died after feeding on the lizards. Rats flourished and villagers became threatened by plague
carried by rat fleas.
§ The WHO successfully parachuted healthy cats onto the island to help control the rats.
§ The villagers’ roofs fell in. The dieldrin had killed wasps and other insects that fed on a type of
caterpillar that was not affected by the insecticide. The caterpillar population exploded, and ate
the leaves used to thatch roofs.
§ Ultimately, both malaria and the unexpected effects of the spraying program were brought under
control.
o There are alternatives to synthetic pesticides.

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§ Many scientists believe we should greatly increase the use of biological, ecological, and other
alternative methods for controlling pests and diseases that affect crops and human health. Here
are some of these alternatives:
• Fool the pest. A variety of cultivation practices can be used to fake out pests.
• Provide homes for pest enemies.
• Implant genetic resistance.
• Bring in natural enemies. Use biological control by importing natural predators, parasites,
and disease-causing bacteria and viruses.
• Use insect perfumes.
• Bring in the hormones.
• Reduce use of synthetic herbicides to control weeds.
o Integrated pest management is a component of more sustainable agriculture.
§ Many pest control experts and farmers believe the best way to control crop pests is a carefully
designed integrated pest management (IPM) program.
§ Farmers develop a carefully designed control program that uses a combination of cultivation,
biological, and chemical tools and techniques.
§ The overall aim of IPM is to reduce crop damage to an economically tolerable level.
§ Farmers first use biological methods (natural predators, parasites, and disease organisms) and
cultivation controls (such as rotating crops, altering planting time, and using large machines to
vacuum up harmful bugs).
§ They apply small amounts of insecticides—mostly based on those naturally produced by plants—
only when insect or weed populations reach a threshold where the potential cost of pest damage
to crops outweighs the cost of applying the pesticide.
§ Broad-spectrum, long-lived pesticides are not used, and different chemicals are used alternately to
slow the development of genetic resistance and to avoid killing predators of pest species.
§ A well-designed IPM program can reduce synthetic pesticide use and pest control costs by 50–
65%, without reducing crop yields and food quality.
§ IPM can also reduce inputs of fertilizer and irrigation water, and slow the development of genetic
resistance, because pests are attacked less often and with lower doses of pesticides.
§ Disadvantages of IPM:
• It requires expert knowledge about each pest situation and takes more time than does
using conventional pesticides.
• Methods developed for a crop in one area might not apply to areas with even slightly
different growing conditions.
• Initial costs may be higher, although long-term costs typically are lower than those of
using conventional pesticides.
• Widespread use of IPM is hindered in the United States and a number of other countries
by government subsidies for using synthetic chemical pesticides, as well as by opposition
from pesticide manufacturers, and a shortage of IPM experts.
• Second, set up a federally supported IPM demonstration project on at least one farm in
every county in the United States.
• Third, train USDA field personnel and county farm agents in IPM so they can help
farmers use this alternative.
• Because these measures would reduce its profits, the pesticide industry has vigorously,
and successfully, opposed them.
• How Can We Improve Food Security?
o Use government policies to improve food production and security.
§ Agriculture is a financially risky business because farmers have a good or bad year depending on
factors over which they have little control: weather, crop prices, crop pests and diseases, loan
interest rates, and global markets.
§ Governments use two main approaches to influence food production:
• Control prices.
• Provide subsidies.

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§To improve food security, some analysts urge governments to establish special programs focused
on saving children from the harmful health effects of poverty.
• Immunizing more children against childhood diseases.
• Preventing dehydration from diarrhea by giving infants a mixture of sugar and salt in
water.
• Preventing blindness by giving children an inexpensive vitamin A capsule twice a year.
• How Can We Produce Food More Sustainably?
o Reduce soil erosion.
§ Soil conservation involves using a variety of ways to reduce soil erosion and restore soil fertility,
mostly by keeping the soil covered with vegetation.
§ Some of the methods farmers can use to reduce soil erosion:
• Terracing and contour planting are ways to grow food on steep slopes without depleting
topsoil.
• Strip cropping involves planting alternating strips of a row crop and another crop that
completely covers the soil, called a cover crop.
• Alley cropping, or agroforestry involves one or more crops planted together in strips or
alleys between trees and shrubs, which provide shade.
• Farmers can establish windbreaks, or shelterbelts, of trees around crop fields to reduce
wind erosion.
• Conservation tillage farming by using special tillers and planting machines that drill
seeds directly through crop residues into the undisturbed soil.
• Retire the estimated one-tenth of the world’s marginal cropland that is highly erodible
and accounts for the majority of the world’s topsoil erosion.
§ Soil Conservation Methods

o Restore soil fertility.

§ Topsoil conservation is the best way to maintain soil fertility, with restoring some of the lost plant
nutrients being the next option.
§ Organic fertilizer from plant and animal materials.
• Animal manure: the waste of cattle, horses, poultry, and other farm animals adding
organic nitrogen, stimulating the growth of beneficial soil bacteria and fungi.
• Green manure: consists of freshly cut or growing green vegetation that is plowed into the
topsoil to increase the organic matter and humus available to the next crop.

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• Compost is produced when microorganisms in soil break down organic matter in the
presence of oxygen.
§ Organic agriculture uses only organic fertilizers and crop rotation to replenish the nutrients.
§ Synthetic inorganic fertilizers are usually inorganic compounds that contain nitrogen, phosphorus,
and potassium.
• Inorganic fertilizer use has grown more than 900% since 1950; now about one-fourth of
the world’s crops.
• Fertilizer runoff can pollute nearby bodies of water and coastal estuaries where rivers
empty into the sea.
• They do not replace organic matter. To completely restore nutrients to topsoil, both
inorganic and organic fertilizers should be used.
o Reduce soil salinization and desertification.
§ One way to prevent and deal with soil salinization is to reduce the amount of water that is put
onto crop fields through use of modern efficient irrigation.
• Drip, or trickle irrigation, also called microirrigation, is the most efficient way to deliver
small amounts of freshwater to crops precisely.
• These systems drastically reduce freshwater waste because 90–95% of the water input
reaches the crops.
• By using less freshwater, they also reduce the amount of harmful salt that irrigation water
leaves in the soil.
§ Reducing desertification is not easy because we can’t control the timing and location of
prolonged droughts caused by changes in weather patterns.
§ We can reduce population growth, overgrazing, deforestation, and destructive forms of planting,
irrigation, and mining, which have left much land vulnerable to soil erosion and thus
desertification.
§ Work to decrease the human contribution to projected climate change, which is expected to
increase severe and prolonged droughts in larger areas of the world during this century.
§ Restoration via planting trees.
§ Three Types of Systems Commonly Used to Irrigate Crops

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§ Ways to Prevent Soil Salinization and Ways to Clean It Up

SOIL SALINIZATION
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Reduce irrigation. Flush soil (expensive and wastes water).
Use more efficient irrigation methods. Stop growing crops for 2-5 years.
Switch to salt-tolerant crops. Install underground drainage systems (expensive).

o Practice more sustainable aquaculture.

§ Solutions to more sustainable Aquaculture:
• Protect mangrove forests and estuaries.
• Improve management of wastes.
• Reduce escape of aquaculture species into the wild.
• Raise some species in deeply submerged cages.
• Set up self-sustaining aquaculture systems that combine aquatic plants, fish, and shellfish.
• Certify and label sustainable forms of aquaculture.
o Produce meat more efficiently and eat less meat.
§ Meat production and consumption account for the largest contribution to the ecological footprints
of most individuals in affluent nations.
§ If everyone in the world today was on the average U.S. meat-based diet, the current annual global
grain harvest could sustainably feed only about one-third of the world’s current population.
§ More sustainable meat production and consumption involves shifting from less grain-efficient
forms of animal protein, (beef, carnivorous fish), to more grain-efficient forms (poultry,
herbivorous farmed fish).
§ Eating less meat by having one meatless day per week.
§ Healthier to eat less meat.
§ Replace meat with a balanced vegetarian diet.
§ The efficiency of converting grain into animal protein varies.

o Shift to more sustainable food production.

§ Industrialized agriculture produces large amounts of food at reasonable prices, but is
unsustainable because it:
• Relies heavily on fossil fuels.
• Reduces biodiversity and agrobiodiversity.
• Reduces the recycling of plant nutrients back to topsoil.
§ More sustainable, low-input food production has a number of major components.

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MORE SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

MORE LESS
High-yield polyculture. Soil erosion.
Organic fertilizers. Soil salinization.
Biological pest control. Water pollution.
Integrated pest management. Aquifer depletion.
Efficient irrigation. Overgrazing.
Perennial crops. Overfishing.
Crop rotation. Loss of biodiversity and agrobiodiversity.
Water-efficient crops. Fossil fuel use.
Soil conservation. Greenhouse gas emissions.
Subsides for sustainable farming. Subsides for unsustainable farming.

• Organic farming.
o Sharply reduces the harmful environmental effects of industrialized farming and
our exposure to pesticides.
o Encourages more humane treatment of animals used for food and is a more
economically just system for farm workers and farmers.
o Requires more human labor than industrial farming.
o Yields can be lower but farmers do not have to pay for expensive synthetic
pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers; typically get higher prices for their crops.
• Major Advantages of Organic Farming Over Conventional
o Improves soil fertility.
o Reduces soil erosion.
o Retains more water in soil during drought years.
o Uses about 30% less energy per unit of yield.
o Lowers CO2 emissions.
o Reduces water pollution by recycling livestock wastes.
o Eliminates pollution from pesticides.
o Increases biodiversity above and below ground.
o Benefits wildlife such as birds and bats.
• Organic polyculture.
o A diversity of organic crops is grown on the same plot.
o Use polyculture to grow perennial crops—crops that grow back year after year on
their own.
o Helps to conserve and replenish topsoil, requires and wastes less water, and
reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides.
o Reduces the air and water pollution associated with conventional industrialized
agriculture.
• Shift from using imported fossil fuel to relying more on solar energy for food production.
§ Five major strategies to help farmers and consumers make the transition to more sustainable
agriculture:
• Greatly increase research on more sustainable organic farming and perennial polyculture,
and on improving human nutrition.
• Establish education and training programs in more sustainable agriculture for students,
farmers, and government agricultural officials.
• Set up an international fund to give farmers in poor countries access to various types of
more sustainable agriculture.
• Replace government subsidies for environmentally harmful forms of industrialized
agriculture with subsidies that encourage more sustainable agriculture.
• Mount a massive program to educate consumers about the true environmental and health
costs of the food they buy. This would help them understand why the current system is

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unsustainable, and it would help build political support for including the harmful costs of
food production in the market prices of food.
o Ways You Can Eat More Sustainably
§ Eat less meat, no meat, or organically certified meat.
§ Use organic farming to grow some of your food.
§ Buy certified organic food.
§ Eat locally grown food.
§ Compost food wastes.
§ Cut food wastes.
o Three Big Ideas
§ About 925 million people have health problems because they do not get enough to eat and 1.1
billion people face health problems from eating too much.
§ Modern industrialized agriculture has a greater harmful impact on the environment than any other
human activity.
§ More sustainable forms of food production will greatly reduce the harmful environmental impacts
of industrialized food production systems while likely increasing food security.

WATER RESOURCES AND WATER POLLUTION

• Water’s Life-Supporting Properties
o Water Molecule
§ Hydrogen bonds are weak bonds important in the chemistry of life.
• The hydrogen atoms of a water molecule are attached to oxygen by polar covalent bonds.
• Because of these polar bonds and the wide V shape of the molecule, water is a polar
molecule—that is, it has an unequal distribution of charges.
• This partial positive charge allows each hydrogen to be attracted to a nearby atom that
has a partial negative charge.
• Weak hydrogen bonds form between water molecules.
o Each hydrogen atom of a water molecule can form a hydrogen bond with a
nearby partially negative oxygen atom of another water molecule.
o The negative (oxygen) pole of a water molecule can form hydrogen bonds to two
hydrogen atoms.
o Thus, each H2O molecule can hydrogen-bond to as many as four partners.
o Water Structure
§ Hydrogen bonds make liquid water cohesive.
• The tendency of molecules of the same kind to stick together is cohesion.
o Cohesion is much stronger for water than for other liquids.
o Most plants depend upon cohesion to help transport water and nutrients from
their roots to their leaves.
• The tendency of two kinds of molecules to stick together is adhesion.
• Cohesion is related to surface tension—a measure of how difficult it is to break the
surface of a liquid.
o Hydrogen bonds give water high surface tension, making it behave as if it were
coated with an invisible film.
o Water striders stand on water without breaking the water surface.
o Water’s hydrogen bonds moderate temperature.
§ Thermal energy is the energy associated with the random movement of atoms and molecules.
• Thermal energy in transfer from a warmer to a cooler body of matter is defined as heat.
• Temperature measures the intensity of heat—that is, the average speed of molecules in a
body of matter.
§ Heat must be absorbed to break hydrogen bonds.
§ Heat is released when hydrogen bonds form.
§ To raise the temperature of water, hydrogen bonds between water molecules must be broken
before the molecules can move faster.
• When warming up, water absorbs a large amount of heat.
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• When water cools, water molecules slow down, more hydrogen bonds form, and a
considerable amount of heat is released.
§ Earth’s giant water supply moderates temperatures, helping to keep temperatures within limits
that permit life.
§ Water’s resistance to temperature change also stabilizes ocean temperatures, creating a favorable
environment for marine life.
§ When a substance evaporates, the surface of the liquid that remains behind cools down; this is the
process of evaporative cooling.
§ This cooling occurs because the molecules with the greatest energy leave the surface.
o Ice floats because it is less dense than liquid water.
§ Water can exist as a gas, liquid, or solid.
§ Water is less dense as a solid than a liquid because of hydrogen bonding.
§ When water freezes, each molecule forms a stable hydrogen bond with its neighbors.
• As ice crystals form, the molecules are less densely packed than in liquid water.
• Because ice is less dense than water, it floats.
o Water is the solvent of life.
§ A solution is a liquid consisting of a uniform mixture of two or more substances.
• The dissolving agent is the solvent.
• The substance that is dissolved is the solute.
• An aqueous solution is one in which water is the solvent.
§ Water’s versatility as a solvent results from the polarity of its molecules.
§ Polar or charged solutes dissolve when water molecules surround them, forming aqueous
solutions.
§ Table salt is an example of a solute that will go into solution in water.
o The chemistry of life is sensitive to acidic and basic conditions.
§ In liquid water, a small percentage of water molecules break apart into ions.
• Some are hydrogen ions (H+).
• Some are hydroxide ions (OH–).
• Both types are very reactive.
§ A substance that donates hydrogen ions to solutions is called an acid.
§ A base is a substance that reduces the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution.
§ The pH scale describes how acidic or basic a solution is.
• The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with 0 the most acidic and 14 the most basic.
• Each pH unit represents a 10-fold change in the concentration of H+ in a solution.
§ A buffer is a substance that minimizes changes in pH.
• Accept H+ when it is in excess.
• Donate H+ when it is depleted.

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WILL WE HAVE ENOUGH USABLE WATER?
• Freshwater is an irreplaceable resource that we are managing poorly.
o Freshwater is relatively pure and contains few dissolved salts.
o Earth has a precious layer of water—most of it saltwater—covering about 71% of the earth’s surface.
o Water is an irreplaceable chemical with unique properties that keep us and other forms of life alive. A
person could survive for several weeks without food, but for only a few days without water.
o Huge amounts of water are needed to supply us with food, shelter, and meet our other daily needs and
wants.
o Water helps to sculpt the earth’s surface, moderate climate, and remove and dilute wastes and pollutants.
o Water is one of our most poorly managed resources.
§ People waste and pollute it.
§ We charge too little for making it available.
o Concerns regarding water include:
§ Access to freshwater is a global health issue. Every day an average of 3,900 children younger
than age 5 die from waterborne infectious diseases.
§ An economic issue – vital for reducing poverty and producing food and energy.
§ A women’s and children’s issue in developing countries because poor women and girls often are
responsible for finding and carrying daily supplies of water.
§ A national and global security issue because of increasing tensions within and between nations
over access to limited water resources that they share.
§ An environmental issue because excessive withdrawal of water from rivers and aquifers results in
dropping water tables, lower river flows, shrinking lakes, and losses of wetlands.
• Most of the earth’s freshwater is not available to us.
o About 0.024% is readily available to us as liquid freshwater in accessible groundwater deposits and in
lakes, rivers, and streams.
o The rest is in the salty oceans, in frozen polar ice caps and glaciers, or in deep underground and
inaccessible locations.
o The world’s freshwater supply is continually collected, purified, recycled, and distributed in the earth’s
hydrologic cycle, except when:
§ Overloaded with pollutants.
§ We withdraw water from underground and surface water supplies faster than it is replenished.
§ We alter long-term precipitation rates and distribution patterns of freshwater through our
influence on projected climate change.
o Freshwater is not distributed evenly.
§ Differences in average annual precipitation and economic resources divide the world’s continents,
countries, and people into water haves and have-nots.
§ Canada, with only 0.5% of the world’s population, has 20% of the world’s liquid freshwater,
while China, with 19% of the world’s people, has only 7% of the supply.
• Groundwater and surface water are critical resources.
o Some precipitation infiltrates the ground and percolates downward through spaces in soil, gravel, and
rock until an impenetrable layer of rock stops this groundwater—one of our most important sources of
freshwater.
§ The zone of saturation is where the spaces are completely filled with water.
§ The top of this groundwater zone is the water table.
§ Aquifers: underground caverns and porous layers of sand, gravel, or bedrock through which
groundwater flows—typically moving only a meter or so (about 3 feet) per year and rarely more
than 0.3 meter (1 foot) per day.
§ Watertight layers of rock or clay below such aquifers keep the water from escaping deeper into
the earth.
§ Surface water is the freshwater from precipitation and snowmelt that flows across the earth’s land
surface and into lakes, wetlands, streams, rivers, estuaries, and ultimately to the oceans.
• Precipitation that does not infiltrate the ground or return to the atmosphere by
evaporation is called surface runoff.

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• The land from which surface water drains into a particular river, lake, wetland, or other
body of water is called its watershed, or drainage basin.
• We use a large and growing portion of the world’s reliable runoff.
o Two-thirds of the annual surface runoff in rivers and streams is lost by seasonal floods and is not
available for human use.
§ The remaining one third is reliable surface runoff, which we can generally count on as a source of
freshwater from year to year.
o During the last century, the human population tripled, global water withdrawals increased sevenfold, and
per capita withdrawals quadrupled. We now withdraw about 34% of the world’s reliable runoff of
freshwater.
o Worldwide, about 70% of the water we withdraw each year comes from rivers, lakes, and aquifers to
irrigate cropland, industry uses another 20%, and residences 10%.
o Affluent lifestyles require large amounts of water.
• Freshwater shortages will grow.
o The main factors that cause water scarcity in any particular area are a dry climate, drought, too many
people using a water supply more quickly than it can be replenished, and wasteful use of water.
o More than 30 countries—mainly in the Middle East and Africa—now face water scarcity.
o By 2050, 60 countries, many of them in Asia, with three-fourths of the world’s population, are likely to
be suffering from water stress.
o The world’s major river basins differ in their degree of freshwater-scarcity stress.
o In 2009, about 1 billion people in the world currently lack regular access to enough clean water for
drinking, cooking, and washing.
o By 2025, at least 3 billion people are likely to lack access to clean water.

o We can increase freshwater supplies by:

§ Withdrawing groundwater; building dams and reservoirs to store runoff in rivers for release as
needed.
§ Transporting surface water from one area to another; and converting saltwater to freshwater
(desalination).
§ Reducing unnecessary waste of freshwater.

HOW CAN WE INCREASE WATER SUPPLIES?

• Groundwater is being withdrawn faster than it is replenished in some areas.
o Aquifers provide drinking water for nearly half of the world’s people.
o Most aquifers are renewable resources unless their water becomes contaminated or is removed faster than
it is replenished by rainfall.

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o Water tables are falling in many areas of the world because the rate of pumping water from aquifers
(mostly to irrigate crops) exceeds the rate of natural recharge from rainfall and snowmelt.
o The world’s three largest grain producers—China, India, and the United States—as well as Mexico, Saudi
Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Israel, and Pakistan are overpumping many of their aquifers.
o Withdrawing groundwater has advantages and disadvantages.

WITHDRAWING GROUNDWATER
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Useful for drinking and irrigation. Aquifer depletion from overpumping.
Exists almost everywhere. Striking of land (subsidence) from overpumping.
Renewable if not overpumped or contaminated. Pollution of aquifers lasts decades or centuries.
Cheaper to extract than most surface water. Deeper wells are nonrenewable.

o Irrigation in Saudi Arabia between 1986 (left) and 2004 (right).

o Groundwater overdrafts in the United States.

• Overpumping of aquifers has several harmful effects.

o As water tables drop, farmers must drill deeper wells, buy larger pumps, and use more electricity to run
those pumps. Poor farmers cannot afford to do this and end up losing their land.
o Withdrawing large amounts of groundwater causes the sand and rock in aquifers to collapse.
§ This causes the land above the aquifer to subside or sink (land subsidence), referred to as a
sinkhole.
§ Once an aquifer becomes compressed by subsidence, recharge is impossible.
§ In addition, land subsidence can damage roadways, water and sewer lines, and building
foundations.
o Groundwater overdrafts near coastal areas can pull saltwater into freshwater aquifers. The resulting
contaminated groundwater is undrinkable and unusable for irrigation.
o Deep water aquifers hold enough freshwater to support billions of people for centuries.
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o Concerns about tapping these ancient deposits of freshwater:
§ They are nonrenewable and cannot be replenished on a human timescale.
§ Little is known about the geological and ecological impacts of pumping large amounts of
freshwater from deep aquifers.
§ Some deep aquifers flow beneath more than one country and there are no international treaties
that govern rights to them. Without such treaties, water wars could break out.
§ The costs of tapping deep aquifers are unknown and could be high.
o Solutions for groundwater depletion.

GROUNDWATER DEPLETION
PREVENTION CONTROL
Waste less water. Raise price of water to discourage waste.
Subsidize water conservation. Tax water pumped from wells near surface waters.
Limit number of wells. Set and enforce minimum stream flow levels.
Do not grow water-intensive crops in dry areas. Divert surface water in wet years to recharge aquifers.

• Large dams and reservoirs have advantages and disadvantages.

o Dams are structures built across rivers to block some of the flow of water.
o Dammed water usually creates a reservoir, a store of water collected behind the dam.
o A dam and reservoir:
§ Capture and store runoff and release it as needed to control floods.
§ Generate electricity (hydroelectricity).
§ Supply water for irrigation and for towns and cities.
§ Provide recreational activities such as swimming, fishing, and boating.
o The world’s 45,000 large dams have increased the annual reliable runoff available for human use by
nearly 33%.
o Negative effects of dams include:
§ Displaced 40–80 million people from their homes.
§ Flooded an area of mostly productive land totaling roughly the area of California.
§ Impaired some of the important ecological services that rivers provide.
o Reservoirs eventually fill up with sediment, typically within 50 years, eventually making them useless for
storing water or producing electricity.
o Around 500 small dams have been removed in the U.S. but removal of large dams is controversial and
expensive.

ADVANTAGES
Provides irrigation water above and below dam.
Provides water for drinking.
Reservoir useful for recreation and fishing.
Can produce cheap electricity (hydropower).
Reduces downstream flooding of cities and farms.
DISADVANTAGES
Flooded land destroys forests or cropland and
displaces people.
Large losses of water through evaporation.
Deprives downstream cropland and estuaries of
nutrient-rich salt.
Risk of failure and devastating downstream
flooding.
Disrupts migration and spawning of some fish.

• A closer look at the overtapped Colorado River basin.

o The amount of water flowing to the mouth of the heavily dammed Colorado River has dropped
dramatically.
o In most years since 1960, the river has dwindled to a small, sluggish stream by the time it reaches the
Gulf of California.
o Negative effects include that:
§ As the flow of the rivers slows in reservoirs, it drops much of its load of suspended silt, depriving
the river’s coastal delta of much-needed sediment and causing flooding and loss of ecologically
important coastal wetlands.
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§ These reservoirs will probably become too full of silt to control floods and store enough water for
generating hydroelectric power, or to provide freshwater for irrigation and drinking water for
urban areas.
§ Agricultural production would drop sharply and many people in the region’s cities likely would
have to migrate to other areas.
§ Withdrawing more groundwater from aquifers is not a solution, because water tables are already
low and withdrawals threaten the survival of aquatic species that spawn in the river, and destroy
estuaries that serve as breeding grounds for numerous other aquatic species.
o Since 1905, the amount of water flowing to the mouth of the Colorado River has dropped dramatically.

• Water transfers can be wasteful and environmentally harmful.

o In many cases, water has been transferred into various dry regions of the world for growing crops and for
other uses.
o Such water transfers have benefited many people, but they have also wasted a lot of water and they have
degraded ecosystems from which the water was taken.
o Such water waste is part of the reason why many products include large amounts of virtual water.
• Removing salt from seawater is costly, kills marine organisms, and produces briny wastewater.
o Desalination involves removing dissolved salts from ocean water or from brackish water in aquifers or
lakes for domestic use.
§ Distillation involves heating saltwater until it evaporates (leaving behind salts in solid form) and
condenses as freshwater.
§ Reverse osmosis (or microfiltration) uses high pressure to force saltwater through a membrane
filter with pores small enough to remove the salt.
o Today, about 13,000 desalination plants operate in more than 125 countries, especially in the arid nations
of the Middle East, North Africa, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean.
o There are three major problems with the widespread use of desalination
§ The high cost, because it takes a lot of increasingly expensive energy to desalinate water.
§ Pumping large volumes of seawater through pipes and using chemicals to sterilize the water and
keep down algae growth kills many marine organisms and also requires large inputs of energy to
run the pumps.
§ Desalination produces huge quantities of salty wastewater that must go somewhere.
o Some scientists have hopes for using solar energy as the primary power source for desalination.

HOW CAN WE USE FRESHWATER MORE SUSTAINABLY?

• Reducing freshwater waste has many benefits.
o An estimated 66% of the freshwater used in the world is unnecessarily wasted.
o In the United States—the world’s largest user of water—about half of the water drawn from surface and
groundwater supplies is wasted.

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o It is economically and technically feasible to reduce such water losses to 15%, thereby meeting most of
the world’s water needs for the foreseeable future.
o Reasons so much freshwater is wasted:
§ Government subsidies that keep the cost of freshwater low.
§ Lack of government subsidies for improving the efficiency of freshwater use.
• We can cut freshwater waste in irrigation.
o About 60% of the irrigation water worldwide does not reach the targeted crops.
o In most irrigation systems, water is pumped from a groundwater or surface water source through unlined
ditches and about 40% is lost through evaporation, seepage, and runoff.
o Flood irrigation delivers far more water than needed for crop growth and typically loses 40% of water
through evaporation, seepage, and runoff.
o With existing irrigation, could be reduced to 5–10%.
o Ways to reduce freshwater waste in irrigation.
§ Line canals bringing water to irrigation ditches.
§ Irrigate at night to reduce evaporation.
§ Monitor soil moisture to add water only when necessary.
§ Grow several crops on each plot of land (polyculture).
§ Encourage organic farming.
§ Avoid growing water-thirsty crops in dry areas.
§ Irrigate with treated waste water.
§ Import water-intensive crops and meat.
• We can cut freshwater waste in industry and homes.
o Producers of chemicals, paper, oil, coal, primary metals, and processed food consume almost 90% of the
water used by industry in the United States.
o Some of these industries recapture, purify, and recycle water to reduce their water use and water treatment
costs.
o Most industrial processes could be redesigned to use much less freshwater.
o Flushing toilets with freshwater is the largest use of domestic water in the US.
§ Standards have required that new toilets use no more than 6.1 liters (1.6 gallons) of water per
flush.
o Studies show that 30–60% of the freshwater supplied in nearly all of the world’s major cities in less-
developed countries is lost, primarily through leakage in water mains, pipes, pumps, and valves.
o Fixing leaks should be a high government priority, would cost less than building dams or importing
water.
o Homeowners and businesses in water-short areas are using drip irrigation and replacing lawns with native
plants that need little freshwater.
o About 50–75% of the slightly dirtied water from bathtubs, showers, sinks, dishwashers, and clothes
washers in a typical house could be stored in a holding tank and then reused as gray water to irrigate
lawns and nonedible plants, to flush toilets, and to wash cars.
o The relatively low cost of water in most communities causes excessive water use and waste.
§ Many water utility and irrigation authorities charge a flat fee for water use, and some charge less
for the largest users of water.
§ About one-fifth of all U.S. public water systems do not have water meters and charge a single low
rate for almost unlimited use of high-quality water.
§ Many apartment dwellers have little incentive to conserve water, because water use charges are
included in their rent.
o Reducing water waste:
§ Redesign manufacturing processes to use less water.
§ Recycle water in industry.
§ Landscape yards with plants that require little water.
§ Use drip irrigation.
§ Fix water leaks.
§ Use water meters.
§ Raise water prices.
§ Use waterless composting toilets.
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§ Require water conservation in water-short cities.
§ Use starving-saving toilets, showerheads, and front-loading clothes washers.
§ Collect and reuse household water to irrigate lawns and nonedible plants.
§ Purify and reuse water for houses, apartments, and office buildings.
• We can use less water to remove wastes.
o Large amounts of freshwater good enough to drink are being flushed away as industrial, animal, and
household wastes.
o Within 40 years we may need the world’s entire reliable flow of river water just to dilute and transport the
wastes we produce each year.
o Save water by using systems that mimic the way nature deals with wastes by recycling them.
o Rely more on waterless composting toilets.
• We need to use water more sustainably.
o Each of us can help bring about such a “blue revolution” by using and wasting less water to reduce our
water footprints.
o Sustainable water use:
§ Waste less water and subsidize water conservation.
§ Do not deplete aquifers.
§ Preserve water quality.
§ Protect forests, wetlands, mountain glaciers, watersheds, and other natural systems that store and
release water.
§ Get agreements among regions and countries sharing surface water resources.
§ Raise water prices.
§ Slow population growth.
o Water use and waste:
§ Use water-saving toilets, showerheads, and faucet aerators.
§ Shower instead of taking baths, and take short showers.
§ Repair water leaks.
§ Turn off sink faucets while brushing teeth, shaving, or washing.
§ Wash only full loads of clothes or use the lowest possible water-level setting for smaller loads.
§ Use recycled (gray) water for watering lawns and houseplants and for washing cars.
§ Wash a car from a bucket of soapy water, and use the hose for rinsing only.
§ If you use a commercial car wash, try to find one that recycles its water.
§ Replace your lawn with native plants that need little if any watering.
§ Water lawns and yards only in the early morning or evening.
§ Use drip irrigation and mulch for gardens and flowerbeds.

HOW CAN WE REDUCE THE THREAT OF FLOODING?

• Some areas get too much water from flooding.
o Some areas sometimes have too much water because of natural flooding by streams, caused mostly by
heavy rain or rapidly melting snow.
o A flood happens when water in a stream overflows its normal channel and spills into the adjacent area,
called a floodplain.
o Floodplains, which usually include highly productive wetlands, help to provide natural flood and erosion
control, maintain high water quality, and recharge groundwater.
o People settle on floodplains to take advantage of their many assets, such as fertile soil, ample freshwater
and proximity to rivers for transportation and recreation.
o To reduce the threat of flooding for people who live on floodplains:
§ Rivers have been narrowed and straightened (channelized), equipped with protective levees and
walls, and dammed to create reservoirs that store and release water as needed.
§ Greatly increased flood damage may occur when prolonged rains overwhelm them.
o Floods provide several benefits.
§ Create the world’s most productive farmland by depositing nutrient-rich silt on floodplains.
§ Recharge groundwater and help to refill wetlands, thereby supporting biodiversity and aquatic
ecological services.

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o Since the 1960s, human activities have contributed to a sharp rise in flood deaths and damages, meaning
that such disasters are partly human-made.
§ Removal of water-absorbing vegetation, especially on hillsides, which can increase flooding and
pollution in local streams, as well as landslides and mudflows.
§ Draining and building on wetlands, which naturally absorb floodwaters.
• Hurricane Katrina struck the US Gulf Coast in August 2005 and contributed to the
flooding of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Damage was intensified because of the
degradation or removal of coastal wetlands that had historically helped to buffer the land
from storm surges.
o A hillside before and after deforestation.

• We can reduce flood risks.

o To improve flood control, we can rely less on engineering devices such as dams and levees and more on
nature’s systems such as wetlands and natural vegetation in watersheds.
o Channelization reduces upstream flooding, but:
§ It eliminates aquatic habitats, reduces groundwater discharge, and results in a faster flow, which
can increase downstream flooding and sediment deposition.
§ Channelization encourages human settlement in floodplains, which increases the risk of damages
and deaths from major floods.
o Levees or floodwalls along the sides of streams contain and speed up stream flow, but they increase the
water’s capacity for doing damage downstream.
§ No protection against unusually high and powerful floodwaters.
§ In 1993, two-thirds of the levees built along the Mississippi River were damaged or destroyed.
o Dams can reduce the threat of flooding by storing water in a reservoir and releasing it gradually, but they
also have a number of disadvantages.
o An important way to reduce flooding is to preserve existing wetlands and restore degraded wetlands to
take advantage of the natural flood control they provide in floodplains.
o We can sharply reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to projected climate change, which
will likely raise sea levels and flood many coastal areas of the world during this century.
o We can think carefully about where we choose to live.
§ Many poor people live in flood-prone areas because they have nowhere else to go. Most people,
however, can choose not to live in areas especially subject to flooding or to water shortages.
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o Ways to reduce flood risk.

REDUCING FLOOD DAMAGE

PREVENTION
Preserve forests on watersheds.
Preserve and restore wetlands in floodpains.
Tax development on floodplains.
Use floodplains primarily for recharging
aquifers, sustainable agriculture and forestry.
CONTROL
Straighten and deepen streams (channelization).
Build levees or floodwalls along streams.
Build dams.

HOW CAN WE DEAL WITH WATER POLLUTION?

• Water pollution comes from point and nonpoint sources.
o Water pollution is any change in water quality that harms humans or other living organisms or makes
water unsuitable for human uses such as drinking, irrigation, and recreation.
§ Point sources discharge pollutants at specific locations through drain pipes, ditches, or sewer lines
into bodies of surface water.
• Because point sources are located at specific places, they are fairly easy to identify,
monitor, and regulate.
§ Nonpoint sources are broad, diffuse areas, rather than points, from which pollutants enter bodies
of surface water or air.
• Difficult and expensive to identify and control discharges from many diffuse sources.
§ Agricultural activities are the leading cause of water pollution, including sediment from erosion,
fertilizers and pesticides, bacteria from livestock and food-processing wastes, and excess salts
from soils of irrigated cropland.
§ Industrial facilities, which emit a variety of harmful inorganic and organic chemicals, are a
second major source of water pollution.
§ Mining is the third biggest source of water pollution. Surface mining disturbs the land by creating
major erosion of sediments and runoff of toxic chemicals.
• Major water pollutants have harmful effects.
o According to the WHO, an estimated 4,400 people die each day from preventable infectious diseases that
they get from drinking contaminated water.
o Major Water Pollutants and Their Sources

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• Streams can cleanse themselves, if we do not overload them.
o Flowing rivers and streams can recover rapidly from moderate levels of degradable, oxygen-demanding
wastes through a combination of dilution and biodegradation of such wastes by bacteria.
o This natural recovery process does not work when streams become overloaded with such pollutants or
when drought, damming, or water diversion reduces their flows.
o Laws enacted in the 1970s to control water pollution have greatly increased the number and quality of
plants that treat wastewater—water that contains sewage and other wastes from homes and industries—in
the United States and in most other more-developed countries.
o Laws also require industries to reduce or eliminate their point-source discharges of harmful chemicals
into surface waters.
o In most less-developed countries, stream pollution from discharges of untreated sewage, industrial wastes,
and discarded trash is a serious and growing problem.
o According to the World Commission on Water in the 21st Century, half of the world’s 500 major rivers
are heavily polluted, and most of these polluted waterways run through less-developed countries.
o The oxygen sag curve (blue) and demand curve (red).

• Too little mixing and low water flow make lakes vulnerable to water pollution.
o Lakes and reservoirs are generally less effective at diluting pollutants than streams.
§ Deep lakes and reservoirs often contain stratified layers that undergo little vertical mixing.
§ Little or no flow.
o Lakes and reservoirs are more vulnerable than streams to contamination by runoff or discharge of plant
nutrients, oil, pesticides, and nondegradable toxic substances such as lead, mercury, and arsenic.
o Many toxic chemicals and acids also enter lakes and reservoirs from the atmosphere.
o Eutrophication refers to the natural nutrient enrichment of a shallow lake, estuary, or slow-moving stream
usually caused by runoff of plant nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates from surrounding land.
o An oligotrophic lake is low in nutrients and its water is clear.
o Near urban or agricultural areas, human activities can greatly accelerate the input of plant nutrients to a
lake (cultural eutrophication).
§ During hot weather or drought, this nutrient overload produces dense growths or “blooms” of
organisms, such as algae and cyanobacteria, and thick growths of aquatic plants.
• This dense plant life can reduce lake productivity and fish growth by decreasing the input
of solar energy needed for photosynthesis by phytoplankton that support fish.
• The algae die and decompose, providing food for aerobic bacteria, which deplete
dissolved oxygen. Low oxygen then can kill fish and other aerobic aquatic animals.

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• Anaerobic bacteria can take over and produce gaseous products such as smelly, highly
toxic hydrogen sulfide and flammable methane.
§ About one-third of the 100,000 medium to large lakes and 85% of the large lakes near major U.S.
population centers have some degree of cultural eutrophication.
§ Ways to prevent or reduce cultural eutrophication:
• Advanced (but expensive) waste treatment to remove nitrates and phosphates before
wastewater enters lakes.
• Banning or limiting the use of phosphates in household detergents and other cleaning
agents.
• Employ soil conservation and land-use control to reduce nutrient runoff.
§ Ways to clean up lakes suffering from cultural eutrophication:
• Mechanically remove excess weeds.
• Control undesirable plant growth with herbicides and algaecides.
• Pump air through lakes and reservoirs to prevent oxygen depletion.
o Severe cultural eutrophication has covered a lake in China with algae.
• Groundwater cannot cleanse itself very well.
o Groundwater pollution is a serious threat to human health.
o Common pollutants such as fertilizers, pesticides, gasoline, and organic solvents can seep into
groundwater from numerous sources.
o When groundwater becomes contaminated, it cannot cleanse itself of degradable wastes as quickly as
flowing surface water does.
§ Flows so slowly that contaminants are not diluted and dispersed effectively.
§ Low concentrations of dissolved oxygen and smaller populations of decomposing bacteria.
§ Usually colder so chemical reactions are slower.
o It can take decades to thousands of years for contaminated groundwater to cleanse itself of slowly
degradable wastes.
o On a human time scale, nondegradable wastes remain in the water permanently.
• Groundwater pollution is a serious hidden threat in some areas.
o Little is known about groundwater pollution because it is expensive to locate, track, and test aquifers.
o Groundwater provides about 70% of China’s drinking water.
o In 2006, the Chinese government reported that aquifers in about nine of every ten Chinese cities are
polluted or overexploited, and could take hundreds of years to recover.
o In the US, an EPA survey of 26,000 industrial waste ponds and lagoons found that one-third of them had
no liners to prevent toxic liquid wastes from seeping into aquifers.
o Almost two-thirds of America’s liquid hazardous wastes are injected into the ground in disposal wells,
some of which leak water into aquifers used as sources of drinking water.
o By 2008, the EPA had completed the cleanup of about 357,000 of 479,000+ underground tanks in the US
that were leaking gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, or toxic solvents into groundwater.
o During this century, scientists expect many of the millions of such tanks around the world to become
corroded and leaky, possibly contaminating groundwater and becoming a major global health problem.
o Principal sources of groundwater contamination in the U.S.

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• Pollution prevention is the only effective way to protect groundwater.
o Find substitutes for toxic chemicals.
o Keep toxic chemicals out of the environment.
o Install monitoring wells near landfills and underground tanks.
o Require leak detectors on underground tanks.
o Ban hazardous waste disposal in landfills and injection wells.
o Store harmful liquids in aboveground tanks with leak detection and collection systems.
o Ways to prevent and clean up contamination of groundwater:

GROUNDWATER POLLLUTION
PREVENTION CLEANUP
Find substitutes for toxic chemicals. Pump to surface, clean, and return to aquifer
(very expensive).
Keep toxic chemicals out of the environment. Inject microorganisms to clean up
contamination (less expensive but still costly).
Install monitoring wells near landfills and Pump nanoparticles of inorganic compounds
underground tanks. to remove pollutants (still being developed).
Require leak detectors on underground tanks.
Ban hazardous waste disposal in landfills and
injection wells.
Store harmful liquids in aboveground tanks
with leaks detection and collection systems.

• There are many ways to purify drinking water.

o Most of the more-developed countries have laws establishing drinking water standards. But most of the
less-developed countries do not have such laws or, if they do have them, they do not enforce them.
o More-developed countries usually store surface water in a reservoir to increasing dissolved oxygen content
and allow suspended matter to settle, then pumped water to a purification plant and treat it to meet
government drinking water standards.
o Very pure groundwater or surface water sources need little treatment.
o Protecting a water supply is usually a lot cheaper than building water purification plants.
o We have the technology to convert sewer water into pure drinking water. But reclaiming wastewater is
expensive and it faces opposition from citizens and from some health officials who are unaware of the
advances in this technology.
o Simple measures can be used to purify drinking water:
§ Exposing a clear plastic bottle filled with contaminated water to intense sunlight can kill infectious
microbes in as little as three hours.
§ The Life Straw is an inexpensive portable water filter that eliminates many viruses and parasites
from water drawn into it.
• Ocean pollution is a growing and poorly understood problem.
o The oceans hold 97% of the earth’s water, make up 97% of the biosphere where life is found, and contain
the planet’s greatest diversity and abundance of life.
o Oceans help to provide and recycle the planet’s freshwater through the water cycle. They also strongly
affect weather and climate, help to regulate the earth’s temperature, and absorb some of the massive
amounts of carbon dioxide that we emit into the atmosphere
o Coastal areas—especially wetlands, estuaries, coral reefs, and mangrove swamps—bear the brunt of our
enormous inputs of pollutants and wastes into the ocean.
§ 80-90% of municipal sewage from most coastal areas of less-developed countries, and in some
coastal areas of more-developed countries, is dumped into oceans without treatment.
§ Some U.S. coastal waters have found vast colonies of viruses thriving in raw sewage and in
effluents from sewage treatment plants and leaking septic tanks.
§ Scientists also point to the underreported problem of pollution from cruise ships.
§ Harmful algal blooms can result from the runoff of sewage and agricultural water.

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§ Every year, because of harmful algal blooms, at least 400 oxygen-depleted zones form in coastal
waters around the world.
o The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

• Residential areas, factories, and farms all contribute to the pollution of coastal waters.

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• Ocean Pollution from Oil.
o Crude and refined petroleum reach the ocean from a number of sources and become highly disruptive
pollutants.
§ Visible sources are tanker accidents and blowouts at offshore oil drilling rigs.
§ The largest source of ocean oil pollution is urban and industrial runoff from land, much of it from
leaks in pipelines and oil-handling facilities. At least 37% of the oil reaching the oceans is waste
oil, dumped, spilled, or leaked onto the land or into sewers by cities and industries, as well as by
people changing their own motor oil.
o Different components of petroleum are harmful to wildlife.
§ Volatile organic hydrocarbons in oil and other petroleum products kill many aquatic organisms
immediately upon contact.
§ Other chemicals in oil form tar-like globs that float on the surface and coat the feathers of
seabirds and the fur of marine mammals. This oil coating destroys their natural heat insulation
and buoyancy, causing many of them to drown or die of exposure from loss of body heat.
§ Heavy oil components that sink to the ocean floor or wash into estuaries and coastal wetlands can
smother bottom-dwelling organisms such as crabs, oysters, mussels, and clams, or make them
unfit for human consumption.
§ Some oil spills have killed coral reefs.
o Populations of many forms of marine life can recover from exposure to large amounts of crude oil in
warm waters with fairly rapid currents within about 3 years. But in cold and calm waters, full recovery
can take decades.
o Recovery from exposure to refined oil can take 10–20 years or longer.
o Oil slicks that wash onto beaches can have a serious economic impact on coastal residents, who lose
income normally gained from fishing and tourist activities.
o Scientists estimate that current cleanup methods can recover no more than 15% of the oil from a major
spill.
o Preventing oil pollution:
§ Use oil tankers with double hulls.
§ More stringent safety standards and inspections could help to reduce oil well blowouts at sea.
§ Businesses, institutions, and citizens in coastal areas should prevent leaks and spillage of even the
smallest amounts of oil.
• Reducing ocean water pollution.
o The key to protecting the oceans is to reduce the flow of pollution from land and air and from streams
emptying into these waters.
• Reducing surface water pollution from nonpoint sources.
o There are a number of ways to reduce nonpoint-source water pollution, most of which comes from
agriculture.
§ Reduce soil erosion by keeping cropland covered with vegetation.
§ Reduce the amount of fertilizer that runs off into surface waters and leaches into aquifers by using
slow-release fertilizer, using no fertilizer on steeply sloped land, and planting buffer zones of
vegetation between cultivated fields and nearby surface waters.
§ Organic farming can also help prevent water pollution caused by nutrient overload.
§ Control runoff and infiltration of manure from animal feedlots by planting buffers and locating
feedlots and animal waste sites away from steeply sloped land, surface water, and flood zones.
• Sewage treatment reduces water pollution.
o About one-fourth of all homes in the U.S. are served by septic tanks.
§ Household sewage and wastewater is pumped into a settling tank.
§ Discharged into a large drainage (absorption) field through small holes in perforated pipes
embedded in porous gravel or crushed stone.
§ Drain from the pipes and percolate downward, the soil filters out some potential pollutants and
soil bacteria decompose biodegradable materials.
§ Work well, as long as they are not overloaded and their solid wastes are regularly pumped out.
o In urban areas most waterborne wastes flow through a network of sewer pipes to wastewater or sewage
treatment plants.

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o The first is primary sewage treatment: a physical process that uses screens and a grit tank, then a primary
settling tank where suspended solids settle out as sludge.
o A second level is secondary sewage treatment where a biological process takes place in which aerobic
bacteria remove as much as 90% of dissolved and biodegradable, oxygen-demanding, organic wastes.
o A combination of primary and secondary treatment removes 95–97% of the suspended solids and oxygen-
demanding organic wastes, 70% of most toxic metal compounds and nonpersistent synthetic organic
chemicals, 70% of the phosphorus, and 50% of the nitrogen, but removes only a tiny fraction of persistent
and potentially toxic organic substances found in some pesticides and in discarded medicines that people
put into sewage systems, and it does not kill pathogens.
o Before discharge, water from sewage treatment plants usually undergoes bleaching, to remove water
coloration, and disinfection to kill disease-carrying bacteria and some viruses. The usual method for
accomplishing this is chlorination.
§ Chemicals formed from the chlorination process cause cancers in test animals, can increase the
risk of miscarriages, and may damage the human nervous, immune, and endocrine systems.
§ Use of other disinfectants such as ozone and ultraviolet light is increasing, but they cost more and
their effects do not last as long as those of chlorination.
• We can improve conventional sewage treatment.
o Prevent toxic and hazardous chemicals from reaching sewage treatment plants and thus from getting into
sludge and water discharged from such plants.
§ Require industries and businesses to remove toxic and hazardous wastes from water sent to
municipal sewage treatment plants.
§ Encourage industries to reduce or eliminate use and waste of toxic chemicals.
o Eliminate sewage outputs by switching to waterless, odorless composting toilet systems, to be installed,
maintained, and managed by professionals.
§ Returns plant nutrients in human waste to the soil and thus mimics the natural chemical cycling
principle of sustainability.
§ Reduces the need for commercial fertilizers.
§ Cheaper to install and maintain than current sewage systems because don’t require vast systems
of underground pipes connected to centralized sewage treatment plants.
§ Save large amounts of water, reduce water bills, and decrease the amount of energy used to pump
and purify water.
o Primary and secondary sewage treatment systems help to reduce water pollution.

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• There are sustainable ways to reduce and prevent water pollution.
o Most developed countries have enacted laws and regulations that have significantly reduced point-source
water pollution as a result of bottom-up political pressure on elected officials by individuals and groups.
o To environmental and health scientists, the next step is to increase efforts to reduce and prevent water
pollution in both more- and less-developed countries, beginning with the question: How can we avoid
producing water pollutants in the first place?
o This shift will require that citizens put political pressure on elected officials and also take actions to
reduce their own daily contributions to water pollution.
• Ways to help reduce or prevent water pollution.
o Solutions:
§ Prevent groundwater contamination.
§ Reduce nonpoint runoff.
§ Reuse treated wastewater for drinking and irrigation.
§ Find substitutes for toxic pollutants.
§ Work with nature to treat sewage.
§ Practice the three R’s of resource use (reduce, reuse, recycle).
§ Reduce air pollution.
§ Reduce poverty.
§ Slow population growth.
o Reducing Water Pollution:
§ Fertilize garden and yard plants with manure or compost instead of commercial inorganic
fertilizer.
§ Minimize your use of pesticides, especially near bodies of water.
§ Prevent yard wastes from entering storm drains.
§ Do not use water fresheners in toilets.
§ Do not flush unwanted medicines down the toilet.
§ Do not pour pesticides, paints, solvents, oil, antifreeze, or other products containing harmful
chemicals down the drain or onto the ground.

THREE BIG IDEAS

• One of the major global environmental problems is the growing shortage of freshwater in many parts of the world.
• We can use water more sustainably by cutting water waste, raising water prices, and protecting aquifers, forests
and other ecosystems that store and release water.
• Reducing water pollution requires preventing it, working with nature to treat sewage, cutting resource use and
waste, reducing poverty, and slowing population growth.

BIOPROSPECTING FOR PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS AND INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

• Bioprospecting
o Biodiversity prospecting or bioprospecting is the systematic search for biochemical and genetic
information in nature in order to develop commercially-valuable products for:
§ Pharmaceutical
§ Agricultural
§ Cosmetic
§ Other applications
o Bioprospecting is possible both in terrestrial and marine environments.
o Many molecules, such as trabecetidin (an antitumor agent) and eribulin (used to treat breast cancer), were
discovered from marine organisms.
• Phases of Bioprospecting
o Sample collection
o Isolation
o Characterization
o Product development
o Commercialization

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Microbial Sources of Antibiotics

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Summary of the general approaches in extraction, isolation and characterization of

bioactive compound from plants extract.

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• Bioprospecting and Nagoya Protocol
o Bioprospecting activities must comply with the definition of utilization of genetic resources of the
Nagoya Protocol.
o Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising
from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity, also known as the Nagoya Protocol on
Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) is a 2010 supplementary agreement to the 1992 Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD).
o The protocol was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan, and entered into force on 12 October
2014.
o It has been ratified by 107 parties, which includes 106 UN member states and the European Union
o Nagoya Protocol aim is the implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD:
§ The fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources,
thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
§ Extract the maximum commercial value from genetic resources and indigenous knowledge
§ Creating a fair compensation system that can benefit all
• Biopiracy
o Biopiracy is a practice in which indigenous knowledge of nature, originating with indigenous peoples, is
used by others for profit, without authorization or compensation to the indigenous people themselves.
o Biopiracy practices contribute to inequality between developing countries rich in biodiversity, and
developed countries hosting biotech firms.
o Famous Case of Biopiracy
§ The Maya ICBG bioprospecting controversy took place in 1999–2000.
§ The International Cooperative Biodiversity Group led by ethnobiologist Brent Berlin was accused
of being engaged in unethical forms of bioprospecting by several NGOs and indigenous
organizations.
§ The ICBG aimed to document the biodiversity of Chiapas, Mexico and the ethnobotanical
knowledge of the indigenous Maya.
§ The possibilities of developing medical products based on any of the plants used by the
indigenous groups.
• Advantages of Bioprospecting
o It creates an incentive to monitor and preserve biodiversity in order to avoid the risk of losing economic
opportunities from competitors or extinction.
o It promotes technology and knowledge transfer among countries (North-South and South-South) along
with foreign direct investment.
o Local populations will become increasingly aware of the potential economic value of natural habitats,
providing incentives to the domestic population for biodiversity conservation.
o It promotes innovation, helping countries to develop new pharmaceutical products.
o It also favors employment opportunities related to natural products;
o It helps to preserve traditional culture and habits by rediscovering ancient native practices.
• Disadvantages of Bioprospecting
o Bioprospecting is time-consuming and high risk in terms of expected returns.
o Even the most advanced legal frameworks often fail to offer sufficient protection to traditional
knowledge.
o The Nagoya Protocol coverage is still limited, increasing the risks of biopiracy from non-signature
countries.
• The Risks of Bioprospecting
o The returns from bioprospecting are uncertain; bioprospecting success rates have been low.
o Unequal capacities of host country stakeholders lead to unfair negotiation outcomes over benefit sharing.
o The negotiation of bioprospecting contracts can be difficult, including the determination of a fair price for
exploration and commercialization.
o The enforcement of the legal framework, including biopiracy and intellectual property theft linked to low
capacity in enforcing laws and international treaties.
o Legal risks, including of litigation in multiple jurisdictions; conflicts of jurisdiction (e.g. Antarctica) are
more frequent in marine environments;

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o Unsustainable harvesting of resources and other negative environmental impacts;
o Social tension in local communities that might perceive being unfairly treated.
• Positive Impact of Bioprospecting can be Maximized by:
o Stronger (national/international) legal and enforcement measures against biopiracy.
o More environmental friendly bioprospecting operations.
o More effective use of resources and stronger negotiation capacities in the source country (to increase
revenues).
o Greater investment in research and productive capacities in the source country to allow local companies
and universities to participate in the whole value chain.
• Bioprospecting in the Philippines
o Executive Order No. 247
§ Prescribing guidelines and establishing a regulatory framework for the prospecting of biological
and genetic resources, they're by product and derivatives, for scientific and commercial purposes;
and for other purposes.
§ Issued on May 18 1995.
o Administrative Order No. 96-20
§ Implementing Rules and Regulations on the Prospecting of Biological and Genetic Resources in
the Philippines.
• Who are the Stakeholders?
o Government agencies as policy makers.
§ State
• DENR, DOH, DA (agriculture), or DOST, DTI, DFA (for international linkage); PAWB
(Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau) and other agencies.
§ Indigenous Communities
§ Local Communities
§ Academic Institutions for Research Purposes
• Universities
• Research Institutes
• Commercial/Academic Collector
§ NGO Representative
§ People’s Organization
• What is at Stake?
o National sources abuse, misuse and depletion.
o Food sources.
o Income/Profits.
o Beneficiaries.
• Case in Focus
o Hoodia is a plant used by the San people of South Africa as an appetite suppressant when hunting or
travelling on long journeys.
o There were long negotiations between the San and pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which was interested
in developing products based on hoodia.
o The San eventually won the right to royalties from any products based on hoodia.
o Cactus plant believed to curb the appetite.
• For Further Reading
o Scientist at Work: Bioprospecting for Better Enzymes
§ April 24, 2017.
§ Jeffrey Gardner.
§ University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
§ Bio-prospecting is the search for useful materials from natural sources. A biologist explains what
we can learn from bacteria about breaking down plant material, and how we can use that
knowledge.
o Justice is Still Not Being Done in the Exploitation of Indigenous Products
§ April 5, 2016.
§ Rachel Wynberg.
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§ University of Cape Town.
§ Good models have been developed to ensure benefit sharing in the biodiversity business. But
major challenges prevent developing countries from translating this into social justice.

ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS AND HUMAN HEALTH

WHAT MAJOR HEALTH HAZARDS DO WE FACE?
• Risks are usually expressed as probabilities.
o A risk is the probability of suffering harm from a hazard that can cause injury, disease, death, economic
loss, or damage.
§ Probability
• A mathematical statement about the likelihood that harm will be suffered from a hazard.
• “The lifetime probability of developing lung cancer from smoking one pack of cigarettes
per day is 1 in 250.” This means that 1 of every 250 people who smoke a pack of
cigarettes every day will likely develop lung cancer over a typical lifetime.
§ Risk assessment is the process of using statistical methods to estimate how much harm a
particular hazard can cause to human health or to the environment. It helps us to establish
priorities for avoiding or managing risks.
§ Risk management involves deciding whether or how to reduce a particular risk to a certain
degree.
§ Risk Assessment and Risk Management

• We face many types of hazards.

o Biological hazards from more than 1,400 pathogens that can infect humans.
§ A pathogen is an organism that can cause disease in another organism.
• Bacteria.
• Viruses.
• Parasites.
• Protozoa.
• Fungi.
o Chemical hazards from harmful chemicals in air, water, soil, food, and human-made products.
o Natural hazards such as fire, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and storms.
o Cultural hazards such as unsafe working conditions, unsafe highways, criminal assault, and poverty.
o Lifestyle choices such as smoking, making poor food choices, drinking too much alcohol, and having
unsafe sex.

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WHAT TYPES OF BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS DO WE FACE?
• Some diseases can spread from one person to another.
o An infectious disease is caused when a pathogen such as a bacterium, virus, or parasite invades the body
and multiplies in its cells and tissues.
§ Tuberculosis, flu, malaria, and measles.
o Bacteria are singe-cell organisms that are found everywhere. Most are harmless or beneficial. A bacterial
disease results from an infection as the bacteria multiply and spread throughout the body.
o Viruses are smaller than bacteria and work by invading a cell and taking over its genetic machinery to
copy themselves. They then multiply and spread throughout one’s body, causing a viral disease such as
flu or AIDS
o A transmissible disease is an infectious bacterial or viral disease that can be transmitted from one person
to another.
o A nontransmissible disease is caused by something other than a living organism and does not spread from
one person to another.
§ Examples include cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) diseases, most cancers, asthma, and
diabetes.
o In 1900, infectious disease was the leading cause of death in the world.
o Greatly reduced by a combination of better health care, the use of antibiotics to treat infectious diseases
caused by bacteria, and the development of vaccines.
o Ways infectious disease organisms can enter the human body:

• Infectious diseases are still major health threats.

o Infectious diseases remain as serious health threats, especially in less-developed countries.
o Spread through air, water, food, and body fluids.
o A large-scale outbreak of an infectious disease in an area is called an epidemic.
o A global epidemic such as tuberculosis or AIDS is called a pandemic.
o Many disease-carrying bacteria have developed genetic immunity to widely used antibiotics and many
disease-transmitting species of insects such as mosquitoes have become immune to widely used pesticides
that once helped to control their populations.
o Deaths per year by the 7 deadliest infectious diseases:

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• Viral diseases and parasites kill large numbers of people.

o Viruses evolve quickly, are not affected by antibiotics, and can kill large numbers of people.
o The biggest killer is the influenza, or flu, virus, which is transmitted by the body fluids or airborne
emissions of an infected person.
o The second biggest viral killer is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
§ HIV infects about 1.8 million people each year, and the complications resulting from AIDS kill
about 1.8 million people annually.
o The third largest viral killer is the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which damages the liver and kills about a
million people each year.
§ Transmitted by unsafe sex, sharing of needles by drug users, infected mothers who pass the virus
to their offspring before or during birth, and exposure to infected blood.
o Emergent diseases are illnesses that were previously unknown or were absent in human populations for at
least 20 years.
§ One is the West Nile virus, which is transmitted to humans by the bite of a common mosquito that
is infected when it feeds on birds that carry the virus.
o Greatly reduce your chances of getting infectious diseases by practicing good, old-fashioned hygiene.
§ Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently.
§ Avoid touching your face.
§ Stay away from people who have flu or other viral diseases.
o The percentage of global death rate from infectious diseases decreased from 35% to 17% between 1970
and 2006, and is projected to drop to 16% by 2015.
o From 1971-2006, immunizations of children in developing countries to prevent tetanus, measles,
diphtheria, typhoid fever, and polio increased from 10% to 90%—saving about 10 million lives each year.
o An important breakthrough has been the development of simple oral rehydration therapy— administering
a simple solution of boiled water, salt, and sugar or rice.
o Philanthropists have donated billions of dollars toward improving global health, with special emphasis on
infectious diseases in less-developed countries.
o About 47% of the population live in areas where malaria is prevalent.
o Ways to prevent or reduce the incidence of infectious diseases:
§ Increase research on tropical diseases and vaccines.
§ Reduce poverty.
§ Decrease malnutrition.
§ Improve drinking water quality.
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§ Reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics.
§ Educate people to take all of an antibiotic prescription.
§ Reduce antibiotic use to promote livestock growth.
§ Require careful hand washing by all medical personnel.
§ Immunize children against major viral diseases.
§ Provide oral rehydration for diarrhea victims.
§ Conduct global campaign to reduce HIV/AIDS.

WHAT TYPES OF CHEMICAL HAZARDS DO WE FACE?

• Some chemicals can cause cancers, mutations, and birth defects.
o A toxic chemical is one that can cause temporary or permanent harm or death to humans and animals.
o In 2004, the EPA listed arsenic, lead, mercury, vinyl chloride (used to make PVC plastics), and
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as the top five toxic substances in terms of human and environmental
health.
o There are three major types of potentially toxic agents.
§ Carcinogens are chemicals, types of radiation, or certain viruses that can cause or promote cancer.
§ Mutagens are chemicals or forms of radiation that cause mutations, or changes, in the DNA
molecules found in cells, or that increase the frequency of such changes.
§ Teratogens are chemicals that cause harm or birth defects to a fetus or embryo.
o PCBs and other persistent toxic chemicals can move via many pathways:

• Some chemicals may affect our immune and nervous systems.

o Our body’s immune system protects us against disease and harmful substances by forming antibodies that
render invading agents harmless, but some chemicals interfere with this process.
§ Arsenic.
§ Methylmercury.
§ Dioxins.
o Some natural and synthetic chemicals in the environment, called neurotoxins, can harm the human
nervous system, causing the following effects.
§ Behavioral changes.
§ Learning disabilities.
§ Retardation.
§ Attention deficit disorder.

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§ Paralysis.
§ Death.
o Examples of neurotoxins.
§ PCBs.
§ Methylmercury.
§ Arsenic.
§ Lead.
§ Certain pesticides.
o The EPA estimates that about 1 in 12 women of childbearing age in the US has enough mercury in her
blood to harm a developing fetus.
§ The greatest risk from exposure to low levels of methylmercury is brain damage in fetuses and
young children.
§ Methylmercury may also harm the heart, kidneys, and immune system of adults.
§ EPA advised nursing mothers, pregnant women, and women who may become pregnant not to eat
shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish and to limit their consumption of albacore tuna.
§ In 2003, the UN Environment Programme recommended phasing out coal-burning power plants
and waste incinerators throughout the world as rapidly as possible.
§ Other recommendations are to reduce or eliminate mercury in the production of batteries, paints,
and chlorine by no later than 2020.
o Ways to prevent or control inputs of mercury pollution.

MERCURY POLLLUTION
PREVENTION CONTROL
Phase out waste incineration. Sharply reduce mercury emissions from coal-
burning plants and incinerators.
Remove mercury from coal before it is burned. Label all products containing mercury.
Switch from coal to natural gas and renewable Collect and recycle batteries and other products
energy resources. containing mercury.

• Some chemicals affect the human endocrine system.

o The endocrine system is a complex network of glands that release tiny amounts of hormones that regulate
human:
§ Reproduction.
§ Growth.
§ Development.
§ Learning ability.
§ Behavior.
o Hormonally active agents (HAA) are synthetic chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system in humans and
some other animals.
§ Examples include aluminum, Atrazine™ and several other herbicides, DDT, PCBs, mercury ,
phthalates, and bisphenol A (BPA).
§ Some disrupt the endocrine system by attaching to estrogen receptor molecules.
§ Thyroid disrupters cause growth, weight, brain, and behavioral disorders.
§ BPA is found in plastic water bottles, baby bottles and the plastic resins line food containers.
• Studies found that low levels of BPA cause numerous problems such as brain damage,
early puberty, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and heart disease.
• Studies funded by the chemical industry found no evidence or only weak evidence, for
adverse effects from low-level exposure to BPA in test animals.
• In 2008, the FDA concluded that BPA in food and drink containers does not pose a health
hazard.
• In 2010, Canada classified BPA as a toxic chemical and banned its use in baby bottles,
and the EU voted to ban the sale of plastic baby bottles that contain BPA.
§ Phthalates are found in detergents, perfumes, cosmetics, deodorants, soaps, and shampoo, and in
PVC products such as toys, teething rings, and medical tubing used in hospitals.
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• Phthalates cause cancer and other health problems in laboratory animals.

HOW CAN WE EVALUATE CHEMICAL HAZARDS?

• Many factors determine the harmful health effects of chemicals.
o Toxicology is the study of the harmful effects of chemicals on humans and other organisms.
§ Toxicity is a measure of the harmfulness of a substance.
§ Any synthetic or natural chemical can be harmful if ingested in a large enough quantity.
§ The dose is the amount of a harmful chemical that a person has ingested, inhaled, or absorbed
through the skin.
§ Many variables can affect the level of harm caused by a chemical.
• Toxic chemicals usually have a greater effect on fetuses, infants, and children than on
adults.
• Toxicity also depends on genetic makeup, which determines an individual’s sensitivity to
a particular toxin.
• Some individuals are sensitive to a number of toxins—a condition known as multiple
chemical sensitivity (MCS).
• How well the body’s detoxification systems (such as the liver, lungs, and kidneys) work.
• Solubility: water-soluble toxins and oil- or fat-soluble toxins.
• Persistence, or resistance to breakdown such as DDT and PCBs.
• Biological magnification, in which the concentrations of some potential toxins in the
environment increase as they pass through the successive trophic levels of food chains
and webs.
o The damage to health resulting from exposure to a chemical is called the response.
§ Acute effect is an immediate or rapid harmful reaction ranging from dizziness and nausea to
death.
§ Chronic effect is a permanent or long-lasting consequence (kidney or liver damage, for example)
of exposure to a single dose or to repeated lower doses of a harmful substance.
• Scientists use live laboratory animals and non-animal tests to estimate toxicity.
o The most widely used method for determining toxicity is to expose a population of live laboratory
animals to measured doses of a specific substance under controlled conditions.
o Lab mice and rats are widely used because their systems function somewhat like human systems.
§ Results plotted in a dose-response curve.
§ Determine the lethal dose.
§ Median lethal dose (LD50) is the dose that can kill 50% of the animals (usually rats and mice) in
a test population within an 18-day period.
o Hypothetical dose-response curve for LD50.

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o Toxicity ratings and average lethal doses for humans.

• There are other ways to estimate the harmful effects of chemicals.

o Case reports provide information about people suffering some adverse health effect or death after
exposure to a chemical.
o Epidemiological studies, which compare the health of people exposed to a particular chemical (the
experimental group) with the health of a similar group of people not exposed to the agent (the control
group), but limited by:
§ Too few people have been exposed to high enough levels of a toxic agent to detect statistically
significant differences.
§ Usually takes a long time.
§ Closely linking an observed effect with exposure to a particular chemical is difficult because
people are exposed to many different toxic agents throughout their lives and can vary in their
sensitivity to such chemicals.
§ Cannot evaluate hazards from new technologies or chemicals to which people have not yet been
exposed.
• Are trace levels of toxic chemicals harmful?
o Almost everyone is now exposed to potentially harmful chemicals that have built up to trace levels in
their blood and in other parts of their bodies.
o In most cases, we do not know if we should be concerned about trace amounts of various synthetic
chemicals because there is too little data and because of the difficulty of determining the effects of
exposures to low levels of these chemicals.
o Possible potential long-term effects on the human immune, nervous, and endocrine systems.
o The risks from trace levels may be minor.
o Potentially harmful chemicals found in many homes.

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• Why do we know so little about the harmful effects of chemicals?

o All methods for estimating toxicity levels and risks have serious limitations.
o Only 10% of the 80,000+ registered synthetic chemicals in commercial use have been thoroughly
screened for toxicity, and only 2% have been adequately tested to determine whether they are
carcinogens, mutagens, or teratogens.
o Because of insufficient data and the high costs of regulation, federal and state governments do not
supervise the use of nearly 99.5% of the commercially available chemicals in the US.
• How far should we go in using pollution prevention and the precautionary principle?
o Some are pushing for much greater emphasis on pollution prevention.
o Do not release into the environment chemicals that we know or suspect can cause significant harm.
§ Look for harmless or less harmful substitutes for toxic and hazardous chemicals.
§ Recycle them within production processes to keep them from reaching the environment.
o The precautionary principle advocates when there is reasonable but incomplete scientific evidence of
significant or irreversible harm to humans or the environment from a proposed or existing chemical or
technology, we should take action to prevent or reduce the risk instead of waiting for more conclusive
scientific evidence.
§ New chemicals/technologies would be assumed to be harmful until scientific studies could show
otherwise.
§ Existing chemicals/technologies that appear to have a strong chance of causing significant harm
would be removed from the market until their safety could be established.
o In 2000, a global treaty banned or phased out the use of 12 of the most notorious persistent organic
pollutants (POPs), also called the dirty dozen. The list includes DDT and eight other pesticides, PCBs,
and dioxins.
o In 2007, the European Union enacted regulations known as REACH (for registration, evaluation, and
authorization of chemicals) that put more of the burden on industry to show that chemicals are safe.
§ REACH requires the registration of 30,000 untested, unregulated, and potentially harmful
chemicals.
§ The most hazardous substances are not approved for use if safer alternatives exist.
§ When there is no alternative, producers must present a research plan aimed at finding one.

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HOW DO WE PERCEIVE RISKS AND HOW CAN WE AVOID THE WORST OF THEM?
• The greatest health risks come from poverty, gender, and lifestyle choices.
o Risk analysis involves identifying hazards and evaluating their associated risks.
§ Risk assessment.
§ Ranking risks (comparative risk analysis).
§ Determining options and making decisions about reducing or eliminating risks (risk
management).
§ Informing decision makers and the public about risks (risk communication).
o The greatest risk by far is poverty.
§ The high death toll ultimately resulting from poverty is caused by malnutrition, increased
susceptibility to normally nonfatal infectious diseases, and often-fatal infectious diseases
transmitted by unsafe drinking water.
o The second greatest risk is gender.
o Estimated deaths per year in the world from various causes:

o The best ways to reduce one’s risk of premature death and serious health problems are to:
§ Avoid smoking and exposure to smoke.
§ Lose excess weight.
§ Reduce consumption of foods containing cholesterol and saturated fats.
§ Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables.
§ Exercise regularly.
§ Drink little or no alcohol.
§ Avoid excess sunlight.
§ Practice safe sex.
o How key risks can shorten an average life span:

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• Estimating risks from technologies is not easy.

o The more complex a technological system, and the more people needed to design and run it, the more
difficult it is to estimate the risks of using the system.
o The overall reliability or the probability that a person, device, or complex technological system will
complete a task without failing is the product of:
§ Technology reliability.
§ Human reliability.
• Most people do a poor job of evaluating risks.
o Many people deny or shrug off the high-risk chances of death (or injury) from voluntary activities they
enjoy, such as:
§ Motorcycling (1 death in 50 participants).
§ Smoking (1 in 250 by age 70 for a pack-a-day smoker)
§ Hang gliding (1 in 1,250).
§ Driving (1 in 3,300 without a seatbelt and 1 in 6,070 with a seatbelt).
o Some of these same people may be terrified about their chances of being killed by:
§ A gun (1 in 28,000 in the United States).
§ Flu (1 in 130,000).
§ Nuclear power plant accident (1 in 200,000).
• West Nile virus (1 in 1 million).
§ Lightning (1 in 3 million).
§ Commercial airplane crash (1 in 9 million).
§ Snakebite (1 in 36 million).
§ Shark attack (1 in 281 million).
o Five factors can cause people to be being more or less risky than experts judge.
§ Fear.
§ Degree of control we have.
§ Whether a risk is catastrophic instead of chronic.
§ Some people suffer from optimism bias, the belief that risks that apply to other people do not
apply to them.

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§ Many risky things are highly pleasurable and give instant gratification.
• Several principles can help us evaluate and reduce risk.
o Compare risks.
o Determine how much risk you are willing to accept.
o Evaluate the actual risk involved.
o Concentrate on evaluating and carefully making important lifestyle choices.
• Three Big Ideas.
o We face significant hazards from infectious diseases such as flu, AIDS, diarrheal diseases, malaria, and
tuberculosis, and from exposure to chemicals that can cause cancers and birth defects, and disrupt the
human immune, nervous, and endocrine systems.
o Because of the difficulty in evaluating the harm caused by exposure to chemicals, many health scientists
call for much greater emphasis on pollution prevention.
o Becoming informed, thinking critically about risks, and making careful choices can reduce the major risks
we face.
• Therapeutic cloning can produce stem cells with great medical potential.
o A blastocyst can provide embryonic stem cells (ES cells).
§ differentiate in an embryo to give rise to all the specialized cell types of the body or
§ divide indefinitely when grown in laboratory culture.
o When the goal is to produce embryonic stem cells to use in therapeutic treatments, this process is called
therapeutic cloning.

• Reproductive technologies increase our reproductive options.

o New techniques can help many infertile couples.
§ About 15% of couples wanting children experience infertility, the inability to conceive.
§ Drug therapies can help address problems of impotence (erectile dysfunction) and induce
ovulation.
§ Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) require eggs to be harvested from the ovaries,
fertilized, and returned to a woman’s body.
§ In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the most common assisted reproductive technology. Fertilization
occurs in a culture dish, and an early embryo is implanted in the uterus.

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HUMAN HEALTH AND REPRODUCTION

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• WHO: Human Rights and Health
o The WHO Constitution (1946) envisages “…the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental
right of every human being.”
o Understanding health as a human right creates a legal obligation on states to ensure access to timely,
acceptable, and affordable health care of appropriate quality as well as to providing for the underlying
determinants of health, such as safe and potable water, sanitation, food, housing, health-related
information and education, and gender equality.
o A States’ obligation to support the right to health – including through the allocation of “maximum
available resources” to progressively realise this goal - is reviewed through various international human
rights mechanisms, such as the Universal Periodic Review, or the Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights. In many cases, the right to health has been adopted into domestic law or Constitutional
law.
o A rights-based approach to health requires that health policy and programs must prioritize the needs of
those furthest behind first towards greater equity, a principle that has been echoed in the recently adopted
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Universal Health Coverage.
o The right to health must be enjoyed without discrimination on the grounds of race, age, ethnicity or any
other status. Non-discrimination and equality requires states to take steps to redress any discriminatory
law, practice or policy.
o Another feature of rights-based approaches is meaningful participation. Participation means ensuring that
national stakeholders – including non-state actors such as non-governmental organizations – are
meaningfully involved in all phases of programming: assessment, analysis, planning, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation.
• Health Programs in the Philippines
o Outcome 1: Improved Financial Risk Protection.

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o Outcome 2: Greater Access to Health Care Services

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o Outcome 3: Public Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Achieved

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o Outcome 4: Improved Health Governance
§ ISO Certification Of Government Hospitals
§ National Health Summit
§ Local Government Unit Awards
§ National Barangay Health Workers Convention
§ Representation In WHO And APEC
§ Issuance Of Health Policies
• Discussion: The Right to Health in the Philippines
o “The well-being of a country depends on the health of its citizens”
o The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), clearly articulates the
right to health in Article 12. Article 12 (1) provides that State Parties to the ICESCR recognize “the right
of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”
o The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) elaborated on the right to health
as:
§ Access to safe and potable water.
§ Adequate sanitation.
§ Adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing.
§ Healthy occupational and environmental conditions.
§ Access to health-related education and information including on sexual and reproductive health.
o The World Health Organization (WHO) described the “right to health as “closely related to and
dependent upon the realization of other human rights:
§ Right to food, housing, work, education, participation.
§ The enjoyment of the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, life, non-discrimination,
equality.
§ The prohibition against torture, privacy, access to information.
§ The freedoms of association, assembly and movement.
o Issues
§ Measly Health Budget.
§ Inaccessible and Expensive Medicines.
§ Combating TB, HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases.
§ Safe drinking water and sanitation.
§ Setback in women’s health.
§ So much food, but nothing to eat.
§ Bagong bayani (modern day heroes) in distress.
§ Imminent collapse of the health system.
§ Other gaps in government actions on health include the following:
• The needs of the older persons have not been given special attention.
• Differently abled persons continue to be disregarded in many health programs.
• Environmental and occupational health hazards remain on the sidelines.
• Special needs of women, particularly those pregnant and lactating.
• Discussion: Republic Act 10354 - Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012
o The State recognizes and guarantees the human rights of all persons, including their right to equality and
nondiscrimination of these rights, the right to sustainable human development, the right to health which
includes reproductive health, the right to education and information, and the right to choose and make
decisions for themselves in accordance with their religious convictions, ethics, cultural beliefs and the
demands of responsible parenthood. . .
o It is the duty of the State to protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution and
equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.
o The State recognizes marriage as an inviolable social institution and the foundation of the family which in
turn is the foundation of the nation.
o The State likewise guarantees universal access to medically-safe, non-abortifacient, effective, legal
affordable and quality reproductive health care services, methods, devices, supplies which do not prevent
the implantation of a fertilized ovum

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o The State shall also promote openness to life: Provided, That parents bring forth to the world only those
children whom they can raise in a truly humane way.
o Reproductive Health Care
§ Refers to the access to a full range of methods, facilities, services and supplies that contribute to
reproductive health and well-being by addressing reproductive health related problems. It also
includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations.
o Reproductive Health Rights
§ Refers to the rights of individuals and couples to decided freely and responsibly whether or not to
have children; the number, spacing and timing of their children, to make other decisions
concerning reproduction, free of discrimination, coercion and violence; to have the information
and means to do so, and to attain the highest standard of sexual health and reproductive
health; Provided, however That reproductive health rights do not include abortion, and access to
abortifacients.
o All accredited public health facilities shall provide a full range of modern family planning methods,
which shall also include medical consultations, supplies and necessary and reasonable procedures for poor
and marginalized couples having infertility issues who desire to have children.
o No person shall be denied information and access to family planning services, whether natural or
artificial: Provided, That minors will not be allowed access to modern methods of family planning
without written consent from their parents or guardians, except when the minor is already a parent or has
had a miscarriage.
• 13 Sexual Reproductive Health Rights
o The Right to Life
§ This means, among other things, that no woman’s life should be put at risk by reason of
pregnancy, gender or lack of access to health information and services. This also includes the
right to be safe and satisfying sex life.
o The Right to Liberty and Security of the Person
§ This recognizes that no woman should be subjected to forced pregnancy, forced sterilization or
forced abortion.
o The Right to Equality, and to be free from all Forms of Discrimination
§ This includes, among other things, freedom from discrimination because of one’s sexuality and
reproductive life choices.
o The Right to Privacy
§ This means that all sexual and reproductive health care services should be confidential in terms of
physical set-up, information given or shared by the clients, and access to records or reports.
o The Right to Freedom of Thought
§ This means that all sexual and reproductive health care services should be confidential in terms of
physical set-up, information given or shared by the clients, and access to records or reports.
o The Right to Information and Education
§ This includes access to full information on the benefits, risks and effectiveness of all methods of
fertility regulation, in order that all decisions taken are made on the basis of full, free and
informed consent.
o The Right to Choose Whether or Not to Marry and to Found and Plan a Family
§ This includes the right of persons to protection against a requirement to marry without his/her
consent. It also includes the right of individuals to choose to remain single without discrimination
and coercion.
o The Right to Decide Whether or When to Have Children
§ This includes the right of persons to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of
their children and to have access to related information and education.
o The Right to Health Care and Health Protection
§ This includes the right of clients to the highest possible quality of health care, and the right to be
free from harmful traditional health practices.
o The Right to the Benefits of Scientific Progress
§ This includes the right of sexual and reproductive health service of clients to avail of the new
reproductive health technologies that are safe, effective, and acceptable.
o The Right to Freedom of Assembly and Political Participation
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§ This includes the right of all persons to seek to influence communities and governments to
prioritize sexual and reproductive health and rights.
o The Right to be Free From Torture and Ill-Treatment
§ This includes the rights of all women, men and young people to protection from violence, sexual
exploitation and abuse.
o The Right to Development
§ This includes the right of all individuals to access development opportunities and benefits,
especially in decision-making processes that affect his/her life.

NANOTECHNOLOGY
• Nanotechnology is a part of science and technology about the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale.
• Things that are about 100 nanometres across.
• Nanotechnologies and Society
o Nanotechnologies may contribute to major changes to the US and global economy, workforce, and way of
living. Applications range from new electronic devices and the means to fabricate them to materials for
health and environmental uses.
o Some nanotech products are already on the market while others are decades away from realization outside
the lab. These new nanotechnologies pose many uncertainties for society. The risks that may accompany
their use are largely unknown and their potential social and economic effects raise questions regarding
equity and fairness, many of which are difficult to anticipate.
• Everyday Applications of Nanotechnology
o Nanotechnology has numerous applications in everyday life, ranging from consumer goods to medicine to
improving the environment.
o Medicine
§ One application of nanotechnology in medicine currently being developed involves employing
nanoparticles to deliver drugs, heat, light or other substances to specific types of cells, such as
cancer cells. Particles are engineered so that they are attracted to diseased cells, which allow
direct treatment of those cells. This technique reduces damage to healthy cells in the body and
allows for earlier detection of disease.
o Electronics
§ Nanoelectronics holds some answers on expanding the capabilities of electronics devices can be
expanded while reducing their weight and power consumption. These include improving display
screens on electronics devices and increasing the density of memory chips. Nanotechnology can
also reduce the size of transistors used in integrated circuits. One researcher believes it may be
possible to put the power of all of today’s present computers in the palm of your hand.
o Environment
§ Nanotechnology is being used in several applications to improve the environment. This includes
cleaning up existing pollution, improving manufacturing methods to reduce the generation of new
pollution, and making alternative energy sources more cost effective. Potential applications
include:
• Cleaning up organic chemicals polluting groundwater. Researchers have shown that iron
nanoparticles can be effective in cleaning up organic solvents that are polluting
groundwater. The iron nanoparticles disperse throughout the body of water and
decompose the organic solvent in place. This method can be more effective and cost
significantly less than treatment methods that require the water to be pumped out of the
ground.
• Generating less pollution during the manufacture of materials. Researchers have
demonstrated that the use of silver nanoclusters as catalysts can significantly reduce the
polluting byproducts generated in the process used to manufacture propylene oxide.
Propylene oxide is used to produce common materials such as plastics, paint, detergents
and brake fluid.
• Increasing the electricity generated by windmills. Epoxy containing carbon nanotubes is
being used to make windmill blades. The resulting blades are stronger and lower weight
and therefore the amount of electricity generated by each windmill is greater.
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• Producing solar cells that generate electricity at a competitive cost. Researchers have
demonstrated that an array silicon nanowires embedded in a polymer results in low-cost
but high-efficiency solar cells. This may result in solar cells that generate electricity as
cost effectively as coal or oil.
o Consumer Products
§ Nanotechnology has already found its way into numerous consumer products you use every day,
from clothing to skin lotion. They include:
§ Silver nanoparticles in fabric that kill bacteria making clothing odor-resistant.
§ Skin care products that use nanoparticles to deliver vitamins deeper into the skin
§ Lithium ion batteries that use nanoparticle-based electrodes powering plug-in electric cars.
§ Flame retardant formed by coating the foam used in furniture with carbon nanofibers.
o Sporting Goods
§ Current nanotechnology applications in the sports arena include:
• Increasing the strength of tennis racquets by adding nanotubes to the frames which
increases control and power when you hit the ball.
• Filling any imperfections in golf club shaft materials with nanoparticles; this improves
the uniformity of the material that makes up the shaft and thereby improving your swing.
• Reducing the rate at which air leaks from tennis balls so they keep their bounce longer.
• Nanotechnology Jobs
o Applications Engineer.
o Director of Product Marketing.
o Director of Research.
o Holography and Optics Technician.
o Manufacturing Engineer.
o Market Development Manager.
o Mechanical Engineer.
o Optical Assembly Technician.
• Impacts of Nanotechnology
o Faster, smaller, and more powerful computers that consume far less power, with longer-lasting batteries.
Circuits made from carbon nanotubes could be vital in maintaining the growth of computer power,
allowing Moore's Law to continue.
o Faster, more functional, and more accurate medical diagnostic equipment. Lab-on-a-chip technology
enables point-of-care testing in real time, which speeds up delivery of medical care. Nanomaterial
surfaces on implants improve wear and resist infection.
o Nanoparticles in pharmaceutical products improve their absorption within the body and make them easier
to deliver, often through combination medical devices. Nanoparticles can also be used to deliver
chemotherapy drugs to specific cells, such as cancer cells.
o Improved vehicle fuel efficiency and corrosion resistance by building vehicle parts
from nanocomposite materials that are lighter, stronger, and more chemically resistant than metal.
Nanofilters remove nearly all airborne particles from the air before it reaches the combustion chamber,
further improving gas mileage.
o Nanoparticles or nanofibers in fabrics can enhance stain resistance, water resistance, and flame resistance,
without a significant increase in weight, thickness, or stiffness of the fabric. For example, “nano-
whiskers” on pants make them resistant to water and stains.
• Social Implications of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
o Values shape how technologies are both developed and adopted.
§ Every time we make a decision about technology or science, we are making a values decision.
When we choose what to study, what to buy, or how to use a technology we are deciding what is
most important to our families, in our jobs, and for our communities. In this process—whether we
are conscious of it or not—we look at the possibilities, reflect on our values, and then change the
world—even if it is in a very small way.
§ This is perhaps most easily seen in the decisions we make as consumers. When we buy
technologies we are often motivated by our goals, hopes, and dreams. We buy a hammer because

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we want to fix our house without having to pay an expensive contractor. We buy a computer so
that our children can be better prepared for school.
§ Values also shape what scientists and engineers do. A combination of different values can
motivate people to become scientists and engineers. They may do it because they find it fun. They
may do it because they think they can make a lot of money at it. And they may do it because they
hope to make the world a better place through innovation. Their work, in turn, has an impact on
values— sometimes well beyond their knowledge.
o Technologies affect social relationships.
o Technologies work because they are part larger systems.
o Nanosilver Socks
§ Nanosilver socks are one of the most widespread nanotechnology products available. They are
just like normal socks except that they have silver nanoparticles embedded in their threads. The
nanoparticles act as an antibiotic agent, killing bacteria and fungus on the wearer’s feet. This can
help keep foot odor from occurring as well as provide protection against infection for people with
circulation issues or compromised immune systems. Researchers have shown that the silver
nanoparticles can wash out of the socks over time, allowing the particles to enter the wastewater
stream. Scientists are still trying to determine the impact of nanoparticles on the wastewater
treatment system and what happens after they leave the wastewater system.
§ Relationships
• It is generally agreed that a decrease in foot odor improves relationships between
individuals who are around each other. But nanosilver socks may have a different impacts
on different groups of people in a community. If disposal of the socks has a negative
impact on the environment, then those who live near or downstream of waste facilities
may suffer more negative health outcomes than those who live in more affluent areas.
§ Systems
• We tend to only think of socks when they are on our feet, but they have to be made,
washed, and disposed. With nanosilver socks in particular, the introduction of new
materials into the wastewater treatment system can be risky because many municipal
wastewater facilities rely on bacteria to break down waste. We don’t completely
understand how these particles will affect the system. What level of precaution should we
take with the disposal of nanosilver products.
o Lab-on-a-chip
§ A number of researchers are currently working to develop what they call a “lab-on-a-chip.” These
small devices will be able to take one of your body fluids (like blood or saliva) and analyze it to
determine whether you are likely to develop specific diseases or health conditions, without ever
visiting a doctor. One way this might work is that every day at breakfast you would breathe into a
straw and the chip would see if your susceptibility for any problems or exposures to dangerous
chemicals has increased. Such daily monitoring might help to find future conditions very early
and perhaps make treatments more successful. Some of these devices are currently available, but
scientists are working to make even smaller designs that can screen for many more diseases with
a faster response time.
§ Relationships
• At-home diagnostic technologies would likely reduce our need to interact with human
doctors and nurses. These professionals are specially trained to tell when a diagnosis
causes someone stress, offer them emotional support, and help them to deal with the
problem. How can we balance new technologies and emotional support to best deal with
disease?
§ Systems
• The chip won’t work by itself—it will have to be patched into a computer that can
process the data. Someone, most likely a corporation in this case, will have to build a
database that can translate the data into a usable form. And ultimately the lab-on-a-chip
doesn’t do much good unless there is a medical system that can cure the disease, alleviate
the symptoms, or address the problem. How do we want this data to be used and
distributed?

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o Mini-drones
§ There is currently a major push in nanotechnology to create electronic devices that are even
smaller and more powerful than those we have today. One of the proposed benefits of such
scaling down is the possibility of building incredibly tiny drones that could fly almost undetected
through the air and collect data (including images) of people and places without their knowledge.
This research is motivated by a desire to decrease the chances and impacts of terrorist attacks, but
surveillance technologies are currently being employed by many people outside of the military as
well.
§ Values
• These devices will inevitably reduce people’s privacy. What is the balance between
personal privacy and public safety that we are happiest with?
§ Relationships
• Very likely, drones will primarily be used by police forces and the military. But many
technologies originally designed for government use, have also been developed for
civilian use.

Coverage:
• Climate Change
• Food Safety and Security
• GMOs
• Bioprospecting
• Bioterrorism
• Exobiology
• Nanotechnology
• Neuroscience
• Solid Waste Management
• Biodiversity
• Water Resources Management

Include the Following:

• RA 247
• AO 9620
• EO 247
• EO 2008
• RA 7942
• RA 10354
• Mutagenesis
• Transgenetics
• Colony Collapse Disorder
• Calgene Inc. and GMO
• RNA Interference
• Year GMO started in the Philippines.

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