Man and the Environment

Environment - everything around us, both living and non-living entities. Managed by man

Environmental Sustainability - is the ability of ecosystems and the human cultural system to survive, flourish and adapt together to constantly changing environments over a long period of time.

Environmentalism - social movement dedicated to sustaining the earth’s life support system. Advocacy of environmental sustainability.

Principles of Environmental Sustainability

1. Solar Dependence - Supplies nutrients, directly and indirectly
2. Biodiversity existence to conserve energy flow - provides ecosystem services and adaptability
3. Nutrient cycling to promote regeneration of biodiversity - In nature, waste = useful resources

Interdependence, not independence, is what sustains life

Pyramid of Energy Flow

Transclude of Pyramid-of-Energy-Flow.excalidraw

3 Major Environmental World View

Human-Centered - concerns on human population

Life-Centered - concerns on all living things

Earth-Centered - concerns on all ecosystems involving global physical environment

Ecosystem

“self sustaining” unit part of the biosphere defined by geographic location, with communities of organisms, interacting with each other, together with their physical environment.

$$NaturalCapital=[NaturalResources]+[EcosystemServices]$$

Ecological Foot Print

Refers to evidences of exploitation of ecological resources/natural capital.

Ecological Deficit

The result of ecological destruction when ecological footprint is larger than the biological capacity to replenish resources and absorb waste/pollution.

$$EcologicalDeficit=[Rateofecologicalfootprint]+[Rateofbiologicalcapacitytorecover]$$

IPAT Model

$$Impact=(HumanPopulation)\times (Affluence)\times (Technology)$$

Affluence is the desire to accumulate wealth.

Results of Affluence

• High level of resource consumption and consequential waste produced

Results of Human Population Explosion

• Rapid growth rate
  • Poorly Educated People
    • Poorly educated people are unaware of:
      • Origin of food, water, and other goods
      • Pollution and waste management
• Poverty due to scarce and uneven distribution of wealth
  • malnutrition
  • Sanitation Problem
• Prices of goods and services rarely include the protection of Environmental Health Cost

Protection of Natural Capital

• Stop depleting natural capital
• Live only on the natural income (net biomass)