Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

AirSOLAR ENERGYRESOURCESWaterEnergySoilMineralsFigure 1-2 The earth’s natural capital.Energy from the sun (solar capital)and the earth’s natural capital provideresources (orange) and ecological services(green) that support and sustainthe earth’s life and economies. Wedgesfrom this diagram will be used near thetitles of various chapters to indicate thecomponents of natural capital that arethe primary focus of such chapters.This diagram also appears on the backcover of this book.PopulationControlNutrientRecyclingNATURAL CAPITALClimateControlPollutionControlSERVICESWasteTreatmentsustainable annual income of $100,000 without depletingyour capital. If you spend $200,000 a year, your$1 million will be gone early in the 7th year and even ifyou spend only $110,000 a year, you will be bankruptearly in the 18th year.The lesson here is an old one: Protect your capitaland live off the income it provides. Deplete, waste, orsquander your capital, and you move from a sustainableto an unsustainable lifestyle.The same lesson applies to the earth’s natural capital.According to many environmentalists and leadingscientists, we are living unsustainably by wasting, depleting,and degrading the earth’s natural capital at anaccelerating rate.Some people disagree. They contend that environmentalistshave exaggerated the seriousness of population,resource, and environmental problems. They alsobelieve we can overcome these problems by human ingenuity,economic growth, and technological advances.1-2 POPULATION GROWTH,ECONOMIC GROWTH, ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT, AND GLOBALIZATIONHow Rapidly Is the Human PopulationGrowing? Pretty FastThe rate at which the world’s population is growinghas slowed but is still growing pretty rapidly.Currently the world’s population is growing exponentiallyat a rate of about 1.25% a year. This does not seemBiodiversityPest &DiseaseControllike a very fast rate. But it addedabout 80 million people (6.4 billion 0.0125 80 million) to theworld’s population in 2004, anaverage increase of 219,000 people a day, or 9,100 anhour. At this rate it takes only about 3 days to add the651,000 Americans killed in battle in all U.S. wars andonly 1.6 years to add the 129 million people killed inall wars fought in the past 200 years!How much is 80 million? Suppose you spend1 second saying hello to each of the 80 million new peopleadded this year for 24 hours a day—no sleeping,eating or anything else allowed. How long would thishandshaking marathon take? Answer: 2.5 years. Bythen there would be about 192 million more people toshake hands with. Exponential growth is astonishing!What Is the Difference between EconomicGrowth and Economic Development? MoreStuff and Better Living StandardsEconomic growth provides people with moregoods and services and economic developmentuses economic growth to improve livingstandards.Economic growth is an increase in the capacity of acountry to provide people with goods and services. Accomplishingthis increase requires population growth(more producers and consumers), more productionand consumption per person, or both.Economic growth is usually measured by the percentagechange in a country’s gross domestic product(GDP): the annual market value of all goods and servicesproduced by all firms and organizations, foreignand domestic, operating within a country. Changes ina country’s standard of living is measured by percapita GDP: the GDP divided by the total populationat midyear.Economic development is the improvement of livingstandards by economic growth. The United Nationshttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller147