1. Pollution, Causes of
Environmental Problems, and
Principles of Sustainability
Ch. 1, part 2
Living in the Environment
Miller and Spoolman, 16th ed.

3. Pollution
Main idea: preventing pollution is more
effective and less costly than cleaning
up pollution

4. 2 main types of pollution
1. Point source - comes from a single,
identifiable source

5. 2 main types of pollution
2. Nonpoint source - dispersed, difficult
to identify

6. 2 main types of pollutants
1. Biodegradable - can be broken down
by natural processes
E.g. sewage, paper, green waste

7. 2 main types of pollutants
2. Nondegradable - natural processes
cannot break them down
e.g. toxins like lead, mercury, arsenic

8. Effects of pollutants
1. Degrades life support systems
for humans and other species
2. Damages wildlife, health,
property
3. Create nuisances like noise,
unpleasant smells and sights

9. Quick Think
Have you ever been somewhere and
seen obvious pollution?
Where?
How did it make you feel?

10. Clean-up vs. Prevention
Do we ask: How
can we clean up
this pollution?
Or do we ask:
How can we
prevent pollution
from occurring?

11. Clean up
Aka output pollution
control
It is only a temporary
solution
Pollution keeps happening
It often just shifts the
problem
Trash is burned - land
clean but air is now dirty
Trash is buried - water and
soil pollution
High levels of pollutants
nearly impossible to clean
up cheaply

12. Why do we have environmental
problems?
5 major reasons:
Population growth
Wasteful and unsustainable resource use
Poverty
Failure to include the environmental cost of
products in their prices
Lack of knowledge about how the environment
works

13. Population growth
The human
population is
growing
exponentially
More people
means more
resource use
and pollution

15. Agree or disagree?
a) Stabilizing population size is not
desirable because it would halt
economic growth
b) We will not run out of resources
because our technology and ingenuity
will help us find substitutes

16. Poverty
Definition - when
people are unable to
meet their basic
needs for food, water,
shelter, health, and
education

17. How poverty hurts the
environment
Focus is daily survival
Desperate for resources,
these people will degrade
or deplete whatever is
available
Worrying about the long
term survival of an
ecosystem is a luxury
they cannot afford

18. Slum city in Mexico

19. Poverty hurts children
Often trapped in an
endless loop of
poverty
Parents have many
kids to help with
Gathering food, water
Tending crops,
livestock
Caring for them in their
old age

20. People in Poverty suffer the
affects of pollution more
acutely
Malnutrition - lack of
protein and nutrients in
diet
More likely to die from
things like diarrhea and
measles
Over 12,000 children
under 5 die from
diarrhea every day

21. Food for thought
This is equivalent to 60
fully loaded 200-
passenger airliners
crashing and killing
everyone aboard, every
day
Why haven’t you
heard of this before?

22. How do you feel?
When you read that over 12,000 children die
from diarrhea every day, do you:
a) Doubt that it is true
b) Not want to think about it
c) Feel hopeless
d) Feel sad
e) Feel guilty
f) Want to do something about it?

23. People in poverty suffer the
affects of pollution more
acutely
No sanitation
systems for 38% of
the world’s
population
Water for drinking,
bathing, cooking
contaminated with
human waste

25. Life-Straw - personal
filtration system could
save millions
Poor Man’s Gatorade
Palm full of sugar and a
pinch of salt
We CAN solve these
problems - if we
WANT to

26. Affluence hurts the
environment, too
High levels of consumption
Wasteful use of resources
Fueled by advertising
making us think having
more stuff will make us
happy
It takes 27 trailers of
resources per year for each
American

27. On the other hand…
Affluence means having the luxury of
caring about the environment

28. What is your environmental
worldview
In your notebook, set aside a page
titled:
My environmental worldview - August,
2010
We will revisit it in May

29. People differ in their
viewpoints about the
environment
Environmental worldview -
your values and what you
think your role in the world
should be
Environmental ethics - our
beliefs about what is right
and wrong about how we
treat the environment

30. Planetary Management Worldview
Man is separate
from nature
Nature exists to
meet our needs and
wants
We can use our
ingenuity and
technology to
continue living the
way we do now

31. Stewardship worldview
Can and should manage
planet for our benefit
Have a responsibility to
care for it
Encourage
environmentally friendly
growth and development

32. Environmental Wisdom
Worldview
Man is a part of, and
dependent on, nature
Nature exists for all life,
not just for us
Encourages green
business
Learn how life sustains
itself and work within
nature to sustain
ourselves

34. Agree or disagree?
a) Humans are superior to other forms of life
b) Humans are in charge of the earth
c) All economic growth is good
d) The value of other forms of life depends on whether they are
useful to us
e) Because all forms of life eventually go extinct, we should not
worry if our activities cause premature extinction
f) All forms of life have an inherent right to exist
g) Nature has an almost unlimited store of resources for human
use
h) Technology will help solve our environmental problems
i) I do not believe that I “owe” anything to future generations
j) I do not believe I have an “obligation” to protect other forms of
life

35. What are the basic beliefs of
your environmental
worldview?
Record your ideas in your notebook.

36. 4 scientific principles of
sustainability
Life on earth has
survived and
adapted to
change for
millions of years
We can study
how and learn
how to sustain
ourselves

37. Lessons from nature
1. Rely on solar energy
2. Biodiversity sustains life
3. Population control preserves resources
4. Nutrient cycling - no waste in nature

38. Quick Write:
Choose 1 word to describe what
we have been studying so far
then
Write a short paragraph explaining
why you chose that word