Lesson One
Topic: Environmental Issues, Their Causes, and Sustainability
Text: Chapter 1, pages 2-20
Each society’s goal should be: "to maintain an environmentally sustainable society."
An environmentally sustainable society satisfies the basic needs of its people, without depleting or degrading its natural resources, and thereby preventing current and future generations from meeting their basic needs.
Basic needs are often thought of as: food, clothing, clean water, shelter, and space. Economists often add: "Enough income to meet the basic needs plus:"
A respectable and safe work environment
Can you think of others?
There is a cost associated with meeting our basic needs in terms of natural resource consumption. This cost is even greater when a society maintains or provides a standard of living for its inhabitants that goes beyond the level of "basic needs."
Sustainable is defined as: "to support, to bear, to endure without giving way or yielding." It infers that our use of natural resources does not, or should not, exceed or is at least no greater than their rate of replenishment or renewal.
Natural resources can be broken into three groups such as perpetual, renewable, and non-renewable (see Section 1-3 Resources, of the text). Figure 1-6 in your textbook illustrates the groups with examples. See if you can think of other examples for each type of natural resources.
As you read through the text on Section 1-3, Resources, how would you respond to the following questions?
What are some of the environmental problems associated with our using renewable resources faster than their rate of replenishment?
Of the six choices given for remedying exhausted nonrenewable resources, which one, or combination of the six choices, do you think makes the most sense to practice today? Why?
There are 6 environmental issues mankind must face in this century. As you review these issues (page 2, Living in an Exponential Age), think about how each one, beginning with the first, actually compounds the effects of the next one but don’t lose sight that they are all interconnected.
The human population is growing at an exponential rate. Review the Figures given on page 2 of the text that illustrate exponential increases. And then review Figure 1-1 (page 2 in the text). Notice how human population numbers remained fairly steady until about 150 years ago, but then began an exponential increase. We will discuss later the reasons for this increase in the human population, but for now study the figure and mark its location in your textbook.
Where most of the human population resides and where exponential growth is occurring can be visualized by reviewing Figure 1-5 of the text. Areas of the globe that are experiencing the greatest disturbance can be equated with higher human population numbers.
There are reasons why the human population has exponentially increased over the last 150 years, and we will look at those in a future lesson. What you need to understand is that this exponential growth is expected to occur during this next century. Review the Spotlight discussion on current exponential growth found on page 5 of the text to get an idea on how rapidly the human population is growing.
As you read through Sections 1-2 and 1-3 (pages 4 – 10), note the following:
Section 1-4 of the text discusses pollution, and defines pollution as any addition to air, water, soil, or food that threatens the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms. Sources of pollution are from point sources (from single, identifiable sources, such as smoke stacks and drain pipes), or from non-point sources (from dispersed sources, such as agriculture fields, golf courses, etc). Can you identify some sources of pollution (both point and non-point sources) in your community?
Lastly, Chapter 1 of the text discusses the causes and connections of environmental and resource problems (Sections 1-5 and 1-6, beginning on page 12), and asks the question: "Is our present course sustainable?" Read these two sections carefully, including the guest essay by Paul Hawken, page 16 and 17 of the text.
Assignment
In section 1-6, the author provides a comparison between two widely separated views on the state of humanity and the earth, and prospects for our future. Write a paragraph of your thoughts on whether you think our society’s (United States) present course of natural resource use is sustainable. Be sure to support your point of view, and discuss your reasons why your believe our use of resources is sustainable or unsustainable. Post your paragraph on the Discussion Board. Be sure to interact with other students and their postings. Remember, the discussion board serves in lieu of classroom debate, and is graded on the content of your posting and your interaction or participation with other students in the discussion board.
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