Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

■ We should encourage earth-sustaining forms of economicgrowth and discourage earth-degrading forms.■ Our success depends on learning how the earthsustains itself and integrating such lessons from nature(environmental wisdom) into the ways we thinkand act.What Are the Greatest EnvironmentalProblems We Face Now and in the Future?The Big PicturePoverty and malnutrition, smoking, infectiousdiseases, water shortages, biodiversity loss, andclimate changes are the most serious environmentalproblems we face.Figure 1-15 ranks major environmental problems on atime scale in terms of the estimated number of peopleprematurely killed annually today and over the nexthundred years.From this diagram you can see that we should focusour money, minds, and hearts on reducing the environmentalrisks from poverty, malnutrition, unsafedrinking water, smoking, air pollution, infectious diseases(AIDS, TB, malaria, and hepatitis B), water shortages, climatechanges, and loss and degradation of biodiversity. Thepoor in developing countries bear the brunt of most ofthese serious problems.Annual number of premature deaths (millions)109876543210Poverty, malnutrition,water-borne diseaseSmokingTBAIDSAIDS and Air pollutionSmokingMalaria and Hepatitis B2000WatershortagesBiodiversity lossClimate changes2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2100YearFigure 1-15 Priorities: ranking of major environmental risks in terms of the estimatednumber of people prematurely killed annually now (yellow) and over the next hundredyears (red). Some scientists consider biodiversity loss and climate change the twomost serious ecological risks to humans and other species. Estimates of deaths frombiodiversity loss and climate change 50 or more years into the future are difficult tomake and could be higher or lower than those shown here. (Data from UN Food andAgriculture Organization, World Health Organization, United Nations EnvironmentProgram, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Bank)xHOW WOULD YOU VOTE? What do you think is our mostserious environmental problem? Cast your vote online athttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller14.What Is Environmentally SustainableEconomic Development? RewardingEnvironmentally Beneficial ActivitiesEnvironmentally sustainable economic developmentrewards environmentally beneficialand sustainable activities and discouragesenviron-mentally harmful and unsustainableactivities.During this century, many analysts call for us to putmuch greater emphasis on environmentally sustainableeconomic development. Figure 1-16 (p. 18) listssome of the shifts involved in implementing such an environmental,or sustainability, revolution during this centurybased on this concept. Study this figure carefully.This type of development uses economic rewards(government subsidies and tax breaks) to encourage environmentallybeneficial and more sustainable formsof economic growth and economic penalties (governmenttaxes and regulations) to discourage environmentallyharmful and unsustainable forms of economicgrowth.Throughout this book I try to giveyou a balanced view of good and badenvironmental news. Try not to be overwhelmedor immobilized by the bad environmentalnews, because there is alsosome great environmental news. We havemade immense progress in improving thehuman condition and dealing with manyenvironmental problems. We are learninga great deal about how nature works andsustains itself. And we have numerousscientific, technological, and economicsolutions available to deal with the environmentalproblems we face.The challenge is to make creative useof our economic and political systems toimplement such solutions. One key is torecognize that most economic and politicalchange comes about as a result of individualactions and individuals actingtogether to bring about change by grassrootsaction from the bottom up. Goodnews. Social scientists suggest it takes onlyabout 5–10% of the population of a countryor of the world to bring about majorsocial change. Anthropologist MargaretMead summarized our potential forchange: “Never doubt that a small grouphttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller1417