Chapter 1
Chapter 1
CHAPTER
PROBLEMS, THEIR
CAUSES, AND
SUSTAINABILITY
WHAT ARE SOME PRINCIPLES OF
SUSTAINABILITY?
• CONCEPT 1.1A Life on the earth has been sustained for billions
of years by solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling.
• CONCEPT 1.1B Our lives and economies depend on energy from
the sun and on natural resources and ecosystem services (natural
capital) provided by the earth.
• CONCEPT 1.1C We could shift toward living more sustainably
by applying full-cost pricing, searching for win-win solutions, and
committing to preserving the earth’s life-support system for future
generations.
Sustainability
• Thecirculation of chemicals
necessary for life from the
environment (mostly from soil
and water) through organisms and
back to the environment is called
chemical cycling, or nutrient
cycling.
Ecology and environmental science reveal
that interdependence, NOT independence, is what
sustains life and allows it to adapt to a continually
changing set of environmental conditions. Many
environmental scientists argue that understanding
this interdependence is the key to learning how to
live more sustainably.
Key Components of Sustainability
Nonpoint source
Pollution Control
There are two different ways of dealing with pollution:
According to a number of environmental and social scientists, the major causes of the
environmental problems we face are (1) population growth, (2) wasteful and unsustainable resource
use, (3) poverty, (4) failure to include the harmful environmental and health costs of goods and
services in their market prices, and (5) increasing isolation from nature.
Different views about Environmental Problems
and their Solutions
• Environmental ethics: what is right and wrong with how
we treat the environment
• Planetarymanagement worldview: We are separate
from and in charge of nature
• Stewardship worldview: Manage earth for our benefit
with ethical responsibility to be stewards
• Environmentalwisdom worldview: We are part of nature
and must engage in sustainable use
According to most environmental scientists,
our ultimate goal should be to achieve an
environmentally sustainable society—one that
meets the current and future basic resource needs of
its people in a just and equitable manner without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their basic resource needs. This is in keeping
with the future generations principle of
sustainability.
Three Big IDEAS
• A more sustainable future will
require that we rely more on
energy from the sun and other
renewable energy sources, protect
biodiversity through the
preservation of natural capital, and
avoid disrupting the earth’s vitally
important chemical cycles.
Three Big IDEAS
• A major goal for becoming
more sustainable is full-cost
pricing—the inclusion of
harmful environmental and
health costs in the market
prices of goods and services.
Three Big IDEAS
• We will benefit ourselves and
future generations if we
commit ourselves to finding
win-win solutions to our
problems and to leaving the
planet’s life-support system in
a condition as good as or
better than what we now
enjoy.
John Edward R. Gerondio
TED Faculty
General Education, Philippine Women's College of Davao, Inc.
Facebook: John Edward Gerondio Contact #: 09489719032/ 09061548422
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