Introduction To Environmental Science

Sustainability

Demography - Population
 Sustainability
• Sustainability – the unstated aim of environmental science.
 How do we define SUSTAINABILITY?
“A system is sustainable if it can be continued indefinitely”(Richard Wright)

“Sustainability is the idea that humans can use and manage natural resources so that those
resources can provide for human needs for as long as possible (potentially forever)” (Alicia Spooner)
The Brundtland Commission was set
up by the UN “to unite countries to
pursue sustainable development
together ….”
Chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland
 Overlapping spheres of sustainability

• Environmentally sustainable
• Socially sustainable
• Economically sustainable
 Business ethics.
Fair trade.
Workers rights
Women’s rights

Energy Policy.
Subsidies / taxes to
encourage responsible Environmental Justice.
use of resources. Needs of poor people
and poor countries.
Stewardship of natural
resources.
"Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development ". (UN 2015)
 "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development ". (UN 2015)

SOCIAL PROGRESS ENVIRONMENTAL

• No poverty RESPONSIBILITY
• Zero hunger • ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT • Clean water
• Good health • Decent work and economic growth • Climate action
• Quality education • Industry, innovation and infrastructure • Life below water
• Gender equality • Responsible production, consumption • Life on land
• Reduced • Clean energy
inequalities • Sustainable cities
• Peace, justice …
https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/
 Sustainable Constant
Population Weather
Conditions

Enough Achieving Sustainable

Food For Sustainability Energy
All

Control of
Measuring Green House
Bio-Diversity Gases
Is there a conflict between Economic,
Environmental and Social Aims?
 Potential conflicts between environmental and social aims?

“The needs of the present” V “The ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
(Bruntland Definition)

1) Land use (farming/food) V Habitat preservation

2) Economic development demands more cheap energy V Reducing energy consumption

3) Intensive farming V Biodiversity

4) Wealthy countries have a much higher ecological footprint but most people want a wealthy
way of life.

5) Travel - Communication V Carbon footprint of air travel

6) Children and families V Reducing population

Understanding population growth

12
 The Human Population
• Thomas Maltus one of the first people recognize that the human population cannot
continue to increase indefinitely.

• He pointed out that human population growth was not always desirable and that
the human population was capable of increasing faster than the food supply.

• He mentioned that: the prevented consequence of population growth were famine,

disease and war.

• The increasing is not due to arise in the birth rate (b), but due to decrease in the
death rate (d), which has occurred primarily because of:
1. Greater food production
2. Better medical care
3. Improved sanitation practices 13
 Potential conflicts between environmental and social aims?

1) Is there a potential conflict?

2) Describe the conflict

3) Is there a potential solution to answer both “the needs of the present and the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs”?
Demography - Population
 More or less – Carbon Footprint of Children (BBC podcast)
• How to affect the environment ?

– Car free 2.4 tons CO2 per person per year

– Each child – 58 tons of CO2 per person per year

• Problems with data? (why “children of children”?)

• Problems with prediction (long term)

• But still children have the biggest carbon footprint

• Halving population estimates does not help much (short term): What would happen if fertility
dropped from 2.4 to 2.0 and population projectory would drop from 13 billion to 7 billion? -> 7%
decline in total emissions till end of century (Corry Bradshaw)

– Most fossil fuels are used in the rich world

– Momentum - birth rate change takes time to affect the total population
 Population - Definitions

• Exponential Growth
• Carrying Capacity
• Growth Rate
• Population Profile
• The Demographic Transition
• Fertility Rate
• Infant Mortality
• Confidence Interval
The King’s Reward

The king wants to give a boy a reward for saving his son
from drowning.
He offers the boy to choose which reward he wants:

Reward 1) $100 on the first day

$200 on the second day
$ 300 on the third day
a hundred more dollars each day for thirty days

Reward 2) 1 cent on the first day

2 cents on the second day
4 cents on the third day
8 cents on the fourth day
doubling each day for thirty days
 Option One Option Two
Day 1 $100.00 $0.01
Day 2 $200.00 $0.02
Day 3 $300.00 $0.04
Day 4 $400.00 $0.08
Day 5 $500.00 $0.16
Day 6 $600.00 $0.32
Day 7 $700.00 $0.64
Day 8 $800.00 $1.28
Day 9 $900.00 $2.56
Day 10 $1,000.00 $5.12
Day 11 $1,100.00 $10.24
Day 12 $1,200.00 $20.48
Day 13 $1,300.00 $40.96
Day 14 $1,400.00 $81.92
Day 15 $1,500.00 $163.84
Day 16 $1,600.00 $327.68
Day 17 $1,700.00 $655.36
Day 18 $1,800.00 $1,310.72
Day 19 $1,900.00 $2,621.44
Day 20 $2,000.00 $5,242.88
Day 21 $2,100.00 $10,485.76
Day 22 $2,200.00 $20,971.52
Day 23 $2,300.00 $41,943.04
Day 24 $2,400.00 $83,886.08
Day 25 $2,500.00 $167,772.16
Day 26 $2,600.00 $335,544.32
Day 27 $2,700.00 $671,088.64
Day 28 $2,800.00 $1,342,177.28
Day 29 $2,900.00 $2,684,354.56
Day 30 $3,000.00 $5,368,709.12
Total $46,500.00 $10,737,418.23
 Growth in Petri Dishes

• Aspargilus
• Saliva
• Skin
• Keep at room temperature
• Take photograph once a day
• Questions:
Growth rate?
Carrying Capacity?
 Exponential Growth
• A population grows exponentially if it is increasing at a constant rate
It takes a constant time to keep doubling
Examples:
Bacteria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5OYmRyfXBY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BSaMH4hINY
Algal blooms
Algae (Algatechnologies)
Nigeria’s population
What limits exponential growth?

A BLUE-GREEN ALGAL BLOOM IN PROVO BAY IN PROVO, UTAH JUNE 12, 2018.