Chapter 1 - Notes
Understanding Our Environment 1.1
- Three categorgies that all environmenetal problems fall into are; Resource depletion, pollution and extinction.
Examples -
Resource Depletion - the rapid consumption of fossil fuels
Pollution - contamination of wayerways by pesticides
Extinction - The death of all passenger pigeons
- The population crisis is the result of human opulation growing larger than the Earth can support.
- Consumption crisis is the result of people using, wasting or polluting natural resources faster tha they can be renewed, replaced or cleaned up.
- Developing nations are most affected byconsumption crisis
- Developing nations are most affected by population crisis
- Three ways to maintain a sustainable environment; preserving habitats, converting garbage into harmless substances, using nonrenewable resources no faster than they can be replaced
- Nonrenewable resources are things like fossil fuels, iron, and precious metals
- renewable resources are things like, wind, sun and trees
Section 1.3 Making Environmental Decisions
- A decison making model is a good tool to use when making an environmental decisions. The components of the model include; personal values, short and long term postivie consequences, and short and long term negative consequences.
- Some values that could be considered when making an environmental decision are economic, environmental, aesthetic, educational, scientific, ethical/moral, health, social/cultural.
- These values often come into conflict with each other when making a decision