2. Reducing degradation.
a. Reduce use by government regulations.
b. Shift to private ownership.
D. Ecological footprints: our environmental impacts.
1. Ecological footprint is the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a
3. Ecological deficit means the ecological footprint is larger than the biological capacity to replenish
resources and absorb wastes and pollution.
5. Footprints can also be expressed as number of Earths it would take to support consumption.
6. Case study: A vision of a more sustainable world in 2060.
E. IPAT is another environmental impact model
1. In the early 1970s, scientists Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren developed the IPAT model.
2. I (environmental impact) = P (population size) x A (affluence/person) x T (technology’s beneficial
1-3 Why do we have environmental problems?
A. Experts have identified four basic causes of environmental problems:
2. Unsustainable resource use.
4. Excluding environmental costs from market prices.
B. The human population is growing exponentially at a rapid rate.
2. Human population in 2009 was about 6.8 billion.
4. We can slow population growth; see Core Case Study.
C. Affluence has harmful and beneficial environmental effects.
2. Average American consumes 30 times as much as the average consumer in India.
4. Affluence has provided better education, scientific research, and technological solutions, which
result in improvements in environmental quality (e.g., safe drinking water).
D. Poverty has harmful environmental and health effects.
1. Poverty occurs when the basic needs for adequate food, water, shelter, health, and education are
not met.
3. Poverty causes harmful environmental and health effects.
a. Environmental degradation caused by need for short-term survival.
b. Malnutrition.
c. Inadequate sanitation and lack of clean drinking water.
d. Severe respiratory disease (inadequate ventilation of heat sources).
e. High rates of premature death for children under the age of 5 years.
E. Prices of goods and services due not include harmful environmental and health costs.
1. A company’s goal is often to maximize the profit.
3. Government subsidies may increase environmental degradation.
4. There are ways to include harmful costs of goods and services.
a. Shift from environmentally harmful to beneficial government subsidies.
b. Tax pollution and waste heavily while reducing taxes on income and wealth.
F. People have different views about environmental problems and their solutions.