Environmental Crisis Midterm

All the undesirable consequences of the way humans impact this earth and its other living inhabitants.

The largest animals, weighing over ten kilograms; these include wolves, deer, bear, the big cats, and elephants that people like.

• 1.1 Billion
• Live in shanties made with local material
• earn < $700/pp/family/year
• diet is insufficient grains/dirty water
• Use things made from local biomass
• use walking for transporatation
• Countries: Africa, S. America, India, China

• 3.3 Billion
• Live in modern buildings
• earn $700-7500/pp/family/year
• eat grains/clean water
• Use Durables materials
• Use Bicycles, train, buses and other public transportation
• Countries: India, Middle East, S. E. Asia

• 1.1 Billion
• Live in climate controlled buildings
• Earn > $7500/pp/family/year
• Eat processed frozen meats, foods and soft drinks, heavily packaged
• Use disposable/throwaway materials
• Use private automobile for transportation
• Countries: N. America, Japan, Australia, Europe

The possession and use of an increasing number and variety of goods and services is the principal cultural aspiration and the surest perceived route to personal happiness, social status and national success.

Author: Alan Durning

• born in the U.S. in the twenties when brand names became household words,
• when packaged, processed foods made their widespread debut,
• when the automobile assumed its place at the center of the American culture.

The consumer society has been quite effective in harming the environment, but not in providing people with a fulfilling life.

1. Often seems to start slowly and finish fast

2. a long history of exponential growth in no way implies a long future of exponential growth. What begins in slow motion may eventually overwhelm is in a flash.

Author: Paul/Anne Ehrlich

• Year 1650: 500 Million People
• Year 1850: Over a Billion
• Jan 2010: 6.8 Billion

• 1. China 1.3 Billion poor/middle class
• 2. India poor/middle class
• 3. U.S. consumer
• 4. Indonesia poor
• 5. Brazil poor/middle class
• 6. Pakistan poor
• 7. Bangladesh poor
• 8. Nigeria poor
• 9. Russia consumer
• 10. Japan 172 Million consumer

1.3%

• Europe
• N. America
• Japan
• Italy has the lowest at 1.2/woman

God has impelled man to take over and to dominate the land. circa 1840's

Using nature to replenish your spirit

One of the many natural divisions of the planet, defined by flora, fauna, water, climate, soil, and land formations, as well as by human additions such as farms, buildings, and even golf courses. Boundaries of bioregions are determined by natural phenomena rather than political dominance.

Process by which a living community or biosphere is altered through time. For example, a pine forest that is destroyed by a storm might be replaced by a mixed hardwoord forest if the seedlings are in place, or by briers and brambles if not.

"The key, I think, is to become vulnerable to a place. If you open yourself up, you can build intimacy. Out of this intimacy can come a sense of belonging--of not being isolated in the universe.

• Father of the Nature Essay
• wrote a book called "Walden"
• wrote an essay called "Walking"

• inspired National Park System via Theodore Roosevelt
• Yellowstone becomes 1st national park 1890
• founded Sierra Club which preserves nature
• Believes that God is in nature
• Yosemite Valley settled here
• Disciple of Transcendentalism

The full array of living things, ranging from the smallest single celled organism to large mammals and giant trees and including the genectically dictated variations within single species as well as ecosystems made up of many independent species.

Author: E.O. Wilson

A word that E.O. Wilson defines in his book Biophilia as "the innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes."

or

Love of nature and creatures

Fear of certain animals and/or biological plants or organisms.

Genetics play a role in human behavior

The practice, increasingly used in world agriculture, of growing a single crop over a vast area to increase productivity. Monoculture has been shown to reduce biodiversity.

The practice of growing many different crops in the same area.

Plants that persist year after year. In areas where plants die with cold weather, perennials grow back from root stock that survives the winter or dormant period.

A community of species interacting with each other and with the physical environment.

Human self-interest, agriculture, morally right, deep ecology (save nature for nature itself) (has a right to exist), religious, decay, unknown, beauty, human re-creation

• The law requires federal agencies, in consultation with the U.S. Fish
• and Wildlife Service and/or the NOAA Fisheries Service, to ensure that
• actions they authorize, fund, or carry out are not likely to jeopardize
• the continued existence of any listed species or result in the
• destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat of
• such species. The law also prohibits any action that causes a "taking"
• of any listed species of endangered fish or wildlife. Likewise, import,
• export, interstate, and foreign commerce of listed species are all
• generally prohibited.

Animal and plant species whose survival is jeopardized by human activities such as logging, hunting, trapping, and mining. Equally threatening are practices such as high-tech whaling, driftnet fishing, burning or clear-cutting of forests, and spraying with certain pesticides.

A wild species that is declining and likely to become endangered.

Extinction, which is irreparable, occuring when the last member of the species dies. It is inevitable when members of the species lose their power to reproduce.

Place where an organism or a community of organisms lives.

The evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson is one of America's most dinstinguished and influential scientists.

Postulates that genes determine behavior

Authority on social insects (ants)

Biophilia (affinity for life) must be ethical basis for human efforts to preserve diversity.

The smallest grub has the same right to exist as the biggest whale; so does every species of cockroach, every species of stinging nettle (all plants are included in these arguments), and even the microorganisms that cause malaria and syphilis. Anthropologists refuse to categorize cultures as "higher" and "lower" civilizations, because all have intrinsic worth.Biologists believe that there is no inherent difference in value between "higher" and "lower" organisms. All are precious, and human beings have a moral responsibility to each and every one. "It's a matter of stewardship" says E.O.Wilson.

Ecology . the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals.

Ecology . the maximum, equilibrium number of organisms of a particular species that can be supported indefinitely in a given environment.

Botany . living only one growing season, as beans or corn.

Killed 1 milion people

• Endangered Species
• 1782: 100,000 nesting pairs
• 1963: 417
• 2010: 6,000

In 1782, bald eagle was chosen as national symbol. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey because eagles are scavengers

1940: Bald Eagle Protection Act was passed

April 1970

Was used for everything initially, but was banned in 1972.

• Spotted Owl
• Florida Red Wolf
• Florida Panther

• Florida's endangered 40
• threatened 26
• species of special concern 50 (Barbour's Map Turtle)
• Total 116

Everything that God made was good. Man was made in God's image and likeness. Man is to take dominion over the earth.

wrote "The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis"

wrote "The Cultural Basis for Our Environmental Crisis"

• A conservationist.
• devoted to wilderness conservation and wildlife management.
• Was responsible for establishing the 1st designated wilderness area in the US which is the Gila National Forest in New Mexico.
• Helped found the Wildernes Society in 1934
• wrote "A Sand County Almanac"