Important Environmental Issues

Earthrise
Apollo 8 – Christmas Eve 1968
1. Exponential population growth
Growth is exponential b/c . . . .
- increased food supplies
- better healthcare & sanitation

Doubling time  # of years it takes a

population to double

* Rule of 70  70 = doubling time

% growth rate
2. Poverty
• Over 2.1 billion humans
survive on less than $3.10 a day.

* Per capita GNI  avg income

per person
- low income under $1025
- middle income $1026-12475
- high income over $12476

developed developing
countries countries

* Most population growth occurs in

developing countries
Percentage of population
living on less than $2 a day.
3. Global climate change
* Shifts weather patterns
* Alters water supplies
* Shifts where crops can be grown
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/climate-change-global-processes-and-effects
4. Increasing resource use
anything obtained from the environment to
meet human needs & wants

* Renewable  forests, animals, H2O & soil

BUT can be depleted or degraded if used faster
than nature’s replacement rate
 Environmental degradation
(often caused by TOTC)
* Nonrenewable  fixed quantity on Earth when
considering the time it would
take to replace
ex. fossil fuels

Ecological Footprint 
amount of resources that a
person, city or country uses
5. Pollution
 any addition to air, H2O, soil or food that
threatens healthy survival /activity of humans
or other organisms
Can be . . . .
1. natural ex. volcanoes
2. Anthropogenic  caused by humans

* Nonpoint – difficult to identify source

* Point – easy to identify one source

6. Premature extinction of plants &
animals
 results mostly from expanding resource use

Dodo
mid-late 17th
century

Quagga
8/12/1883

Pyrenean
Ibex Passenger
1/6/00 Pigeon
9/1/14
How do we measure Human impact on
the environment?
Less-Developed Countries

Consumption Technological Environmental

Population (P) per person impact per unit of impact of
(affluence, A) consumption (T) population (I)

More-Developed Countries