environmen

ESSENTIAL

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORIES 6th Edition

Jay Withgott
MatthewLaposat
 environment
ESSENTIAL

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORIES 6thEdition

Jay Withgott
MatthewLaposata

330 Hudson Street, NY NY 1001

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Essential Environment
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Control Number: 2017035269

1 18

ISBN 10: 0-13-471488-1; ISBN 13: 978-0-13-471488-2 (Student Edition)

ISBN 10: 0-13-481873-3; ISBN 13: 978-0-13-481873-3 (Books a la Carte)

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 About
the Authors
Jay Withgott has authored Essential Environment as well as its par-ent
volume, Environment: The Science behind the Stories, since their
inception. In dedicating himself to these books, he works to keep
abreast of a diverse and rapidly changing field and continually seeks
to develop new and better ways to help today’s students learn environ-mental
science.
As a researcher, Jay has published scientific papers in ecology,
evolution, animal behavior, and conservation biology in journals rang-ing
from Evolution to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci-ences.
As an instructor, he has taught university lab courses in ecology
and other disciplines. As a science writer, he has authored articles for
numerous journals and magazines including Science, New Scientist, BioScience, Smithsonian,
and Natural History. By combining his scientific training with prior experience as a newspaper
reporter and editor, he strives to make science accessible and engaging for general audiences. Jay
holds degrees from Yale University, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Arizona.
Jay lives with his wife, biologist Susan Masta,in Portland, Oregon.

Matthew Laposata is a professor of environmental science at Kenne-saw

State University (KSU). He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology
education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree
in biology from Bowling Green State University, and a doctorate in
ecology from The Pennsylvania State University.
Matt is the coordinator of KSU’s two-semester general educa-tion
science sequence titled Science, Society, and the Environment,
which enrolls over 5000 students per year. He focuses exclusively on
introductory environmental science courses and has enjoyed teaching
and interacting with thousands of nonscience majors during his career.
He is an active scholar in environmental science education and has
received grants from state, federal, and private sources to develop and evaluate innovative curric-ular
materials. His scholarly work has received numerous awards, including the Georgia Board
of Regents’ highest award for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Mattresides in suburban Atlanta with his wife, Lisa, and children, Lauren, Cameron, and Saffron.

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ii
 Contents
1Science
and
Sustainability:
ofCThe
ommunities4
Ecology
AnIntroductionto 68
Environmental
Science 2 central CASE STUDY Leaping Fish,
Backwards River: Asian Carp Threaten
OurIsland, Earth 3 69
the Great Lakes
The Nature of Environmental Science 6 Species Interactions 70
The Nature of Science 7 Ecological Communities 73
THE SCIENCE behindthe story WhatArethe THE SCIENCE behindthe story How Do
Lessons of Easter Island? 8 Communities Recover after Disturbance? 80

Environmental Ethics 14 Earth’s Biomes 83

Sustainability and Our Future 17

5Economics,
Policy,
and
2Environmental
Systems:SustainableDevelopment 92 central CASE STUDY Costa Rica Values
Matter,Energy,and Its Ecosystem Services 93
Ecosystems 22 Economics and the Environment 94
Environmental Policy: An Overview 101
central CASE STUDY The Vanishing Oystersof the
Chesapeake Bay 23 THE SCIENCE behindthe story Do Payments Help
Preserve Forest? 102
Earth’s Environmental Systems 24
U.S. Environmental Law and Policy 105
THE SCIENCE behindthe story Are We
International Environmental Policy 109
“Turning the Tide” for Native Oysters in
Chesapeake Bay? 26 Approaches to Environmental Policy 111
Sustainable Development 114

6Human
Population
Matter, Chemistry, and the Environment 30

Energy: AnIntroduction 33
Ecosystems 36 118

Biogeochemical Cycles 39 central CASE STUDY WillChina’s New

3Evolution,
Biodiversity,
“Two-Child Policy” Defuse Its
Population “Time Bomb”? 119
Our World at Seven Billion 121
Demography 123
and PopulationEcology 48
Population and Society 129
central CASE STUDY Saving Hawaii’s THE SCIENCE behindthe story Did Soap Operas
Native Forest Birds 49 Help Reduce Fertility in Brazil? 130
Evolution: The Source of Earth’s Biodiversity 50
THE SCIENCE behindthe story How Do Species
Form in Hawaii’s “Natural
of Evolution?
Laboratory”
56
F7
and
Soil,
the
Agriculture,
utureof Food 138

Ecology and the Organism 59 central CASE STUDY Farmto Table—And Back
Population Ecology 61 Again: The Commons at Kennesaw State University 139

Conserving Biodiversity 65 The Raceto Feedthe World 14

iv
The Changing Face of Agriculture 142 Toxic Substances and Their Effects on
Soils 143 Ecosystems 219

Watering and Fertilizing Crops 146

THE SCIENCE behindthe story Are Endocrine
Disruptors Lurking in Your Fast Food? 220
Conserving Agricultural Resources 148
Studying Effects of Hazards 222
Controlling Pests, Preserving Pollinators 151
Risk Assessment and Risk Management 225
THE SCIENCE behindthe story What Role Do

11Geology,
Minerals,
Pesticides Play in the Collapse of Bee Colonies? 154

Raising Animals for Food 156

Genetically Modified Food 158

The Growth of Sustainable Agriculture 162 and Mining 230

central CASE STUDY Miningfor . . .

8Biodiversity
and Cell Phones?

Geology: The Physical

Science
Basis for Environmental
231

232
ConservationBiology 166
Geologic and Natural Hazards 235
central CASE STUDY Will WeSlicethrough THE SCIENCE behindthe story Arethe Earthquakes
the Serengeti? 167 Rattling Oklahoma Caused by Human Activity? 238
Life’s Diversity on Earth 169
Earth’s Mineral Resources 241
Benefits of Biodiversity 171 Mining Methods and Their Impacts 244
Biodiversity Loss and Extinction 174
Toward Sustainable Mineral Use 249
Conservation Biology: The Search for Solutions 181
THE SCIENCE behindthe story Can Forensic
DNA Analysis Help Save Elephants? 186 12Fresh
Water,
Oceans,
and Coasts
9Forests,
254

central CASE STUDY Starvingthe

Louisiana Coast 255
Forest Management, Freshwater Systems 257
andProtectedAreas 190 The Oceans 260
central CASE STUDY Savingthe World’s Greatest Marine and Coastal Ecosystems 263
Rainforest 191 THE SCIENCE behindthe story Are WeDestined
Forest Ecosystems and Forest Resources 193 for a Future of “Megadroughts” in the
United States? 264
Forest Loss 195
Forest Management 198 Effects of Human Activities on Waterways 268

Parks and Protected Areas 203 Solutions to Depletion of Fresh Water 273

THE SCIENCE behindthe story Forest Water Pollution and Its Control 275
Fragmentation in the Amazon 206 Emptying the Oceans 281

10Environmental13The
Atmospher
HealthandToxicology 210 Air Quality,andPollution
central CASE STUDY Are WeBeing Control 286
Poisoned by Our Food Packaging? 211 central CASE STUDY Clearingthe Airin L.A. and
Environmental Health 213 in Mexico City 287

Toxic Substances and Their Effects on Organisms 216 The Atmosphere 288

CONTENTS
 Outdoor Air Quality 291 Geothermal Energy 387
THE SCIENCE behindthe story Does Air Pollution Ocean Energy Sources 389
Affect the Brain, as Well as the Lungs and Heart? 298 Hydroelectric Power 390
Ozone Depletion and Recovery 301 Bioenergy 391
Addressing Acid Deposition 303 Hydrogen and Fuel Cells 395
Indoor Air Quality 306

14Global
Climate 17Managing
Our
Waste 398
Change 310
central CASE STUDY A Maniafor
central CASE STUDY Rising Seas Recycling on Campus 399
Threaten South Florida 311 Approaches to Waste Management 400
Our Dynamic Climate 312 Municipal Solid Waste 401
Studying Climate Change 317 THE SCIENCE behindthe story Can Campus
THE SCIENCE behindthe story How Do Climate Research Help Reduce Waste? 408
Models Work? 318
Industrial Solid Waste 410
Impacts of Climate Change 320 Hazardous Waste 412
Responding to Climate Change 328

15Nonrenewable
Energy 18The
Urban
Environment: Creating
Sources, TheirImpacts, Sustainable Cities 418
and Energy Conservation 340
central CASE STUDY Managing Growth
central CASE STUDY Fracking the Marcellus Shale 341 in Portland, Oregon 419

Sources of Energy 343 Our Urbanizing World 420

Fossil Fuels: Their Formation, Extraction, and Use 345 Sprawl 422

Reaching Further for Fossil Fuels . . . and Coping Creating Livable Cities 423
with the Impacts 352 Urban Sustainability 429
THE SCIENCE behindthe story Discovering THE SCIENCE behindthe story Do Baltimore and
Impacts of the Gulf Oil Spill 358 Phoenix Act as Ecosystems? 430
Energy Efficiency and Conservation 363
Nuclear Power 366
Epilogue Sustainable
Solutions
434
16Renewable APPENDIXA Answersto Data Analysis
Energy Alternatives 374 Questions A-1
APPENDIX
B Howto Interpret Graphs B-1
central CASE STUDY Germany Reaches
APPENDIX
C MetricSystem C-1
for the Sun 375
APPENDIX
D Periodic Table ofthe Elements D-1
Renewable Energy Sources 377
APPENDIX
E GeologicTime Scale E-1
THE SCIENCE behindthe story Can WePower
the World with Renewable Energy? 380 Glossary G-1

Solar Energy 382 Photo Credits CR-1

WindPower 385 Index I-

vi CONTENTS
 Preface
DearStudent, In Essential Environment: The Science behind the Stories,
westriveto showstudentshowscienceinforms our effortsto
You are coming of age at a unique and momentous time in bring about a sustainable society. Weaim to encourage criti-cal
history. Within your lifetime, our global society must chart a thinking and to maintain a balanced approach as weflesh
promising course for a sustainable future. The stakes could out the vibrant social debatethat accompaniesenvironmen-tal
not be higher. issues. As we assessthe challenges facing our civilization
Today welive long lives enriched with astonishing and our planet,
tech-nologies, wefocus on providing realistic, forward-looking
in societies more free, just, and equal than ever solutions,for wetruly feel there are manyreasonsfor
before. Weenjoy wealth on a scale our ancestors could hardly optimism.
have dreamed of. However, we have purchased these wonder-ful As environmental science has grown, so hasthe length
things at a steep price. By exploiting Earth’s resources and of textbooks that coverit. Withthis volume, weaim to meet
ecological services, we are depleting our planet’s ecological the needs of instructors who favor a more succinct and
bank account. We are altering our planet’s land, air, water, affordable book. Wehave distilled the mostessential content
nutrient cycles, biodiversity, and climate at dizzying speeds. from ourfull-length book, Environment:The Sciencebehind
More than ever before, the future of our society rests with the Stories, now in its sixth edition. Wehave streamlined our
how wetreat the world around us. material, updated our coverage, and carefully crafted our
Your future is being shaped by the phenomena you will writingto makeEssential Environmentevery bit asreadable,
learn about in your environmental science course. Environ-mental informative, and engaging asits parent volume.
science gives us a big-picture understanding of the

Newto ThisEdition
world and our place within it. Environmental science also
offers hope and solutions, revealing ways to address the prob-lems
we confront. Environmental science is more than just a
subject you study in college. It provides you basic literacy in
This sixth edition includes an array of revisions that enhance
the foremost issues of the 21st century, and it relates to every-thing our content and presentation while strengthening our com-mitment
around you throughout your lifetime.
to teach science in an engaging and accessible
We have written this book because today’s students will
manner.
shape tomorrow’s world. At this unique moment in history, • SUCCESSSTORY Thisbrand-newfeature highlights
the decisions and actions of your generation are key to achiev-ing one discretestory per chapterof successfuleffortsto
a sustainable future for our civilization. The many envi-ronmental address environmental problems, ranging from local
challenges we face can seem overwhelming, but examples (such as prairie restoration in Chicago) to
you should feel encouraged and motivated. Remember that nationaland globalsuccesses(such as halting ozone
each dilemma is also an opportunity. For every problem that depletion by treaty, or removing lead from gasoline).
human carelessness has created, human ingenuity can devise Our book has always focused on positive solutions,
a solution. Now is the time for innovation, creativity, and the butthe newemphasisthe SuccessStoryfeature brings
fresh perspectives that a new generation can offer. Your own should help encourage students by showing them that
ideas and energy can, and will, make a difference. sustainablesolutions are withinreach. Studentscan
—Jay Withgott and Matthew Laposata
explore the data behind these solutions with new Success
Story Coaching Activities in Mastering Environmental
Science.

DearInstructor, • central CASE STUDY ThreeCentralCaseStud-ies

are completely newto this edition, complementing
You perform one of our society’s most vital functions by edu-cating the seven new Central Case Studies addedin the fifth
today’sstudents—thecitizensandleadersoftomorrow—on edition. All other Central CaseStudieshavebeenupdated
the processesthat shape the world around them, the nature as neededto reflect recent developments. These updates
of scientific inquiry, and the pressing environmental chal-lenges provide fresh stories and new waysto frame emerging
weface. Wehave writtenthis bookto assistyouin this issuesin environmentalscience.In our new Central Case
endeavor because wefeel that the crucial role of environmen-tal Studies, students will learn of the changesthat Asian carp
science in today’s world makesit imperative to engage, and other invasive species are having on North American
educate,andinspire a broadaudienceof students. waterways,wrestlewiththe challengesof conservingthe

vi
 Amazonrainforest, andexaminehow Miami-arearesi-dents
are coping with sealevel rise.
• Chapter 4: LeapingFish, BackwardsRiver: Asian
Carp Threatenthe Great Lakes
• Chapter 9: Savingthe World’s GreatestRainforest
• Chapter 14: Rising SeasThreaten South Florida
• closing THE LOOP Alsonewto this edition, each
chapter now concludes with a brief section that “closes
theloop” byrevisiting the Central CaseStudy while
reviewing key principles from the chapter. This new
Closing the Loop section enhances ourlong-standing and
well-receivedapproachofintegrating each Central Case
Studythroughout its chapter. Afurther stepin this direc-tion
is the new CASESTUDY CONNECTION question fea-ture.
Thesequestions,in the SeekingSolutionssectionat
the end of each chapter, place students in a scenario and
empower them to craft solutions to issues raised in the
Central CaseStudy.
• THE SCIENCE behind the story Nineof our 18
Science behind the Story features are new to this edition,
giving you a current and exciting selection of scientific
studiesto highlight. Students willfollow along as
researchers discover how Hawaiian birds evolved, trace
ecological recovery at Mt. St. Helens,sleuth out the
mysteryof honeybeedeclines,use DNAfingerprinting
to combat poaching, reveal synthetic chemicals in fast
food, determine whether fracking is causing earthquakes,
predictthe future of droughtin the American West,ask
whether renewable energy alone can power civilization,
and seekto enhancerecycling efforts on campus.
• Chapter 3: How DoSpeciesFormin Hawaii’s
“Natural Laboratory” of Evolution?
• Chapter 4: How Do Communities Recoverafter
Disturbance?
• Chapter7: WhatRole Do PesticidesPlayin the
Collapse of Bee Colonies?
• Chapter 8: Can Forensic DNA Analysis Help Save
Elephants?
• Chapter10: Are EndocrineDisruptorsLurkingin
Your Fast Food?
• Chapter 11: Arethe Earthquakes Rattling Oklahoma
Causedby HumanActivity?
• Chapter 12: Are We Destinedfor a Future of “Mega-droughts”
in the United States?
• Chapter 16: Can WePowerthe World with Renewable
Energy?
• Chapter 17: Can Campus Research Help Reduce
Waste?
• Newand revised DATA Q, FAQ, and Weighingthe
Issues features Incorporating feedback from instructors
across North America, wehaveexaminedeachexample
ofthese three features that boost student engagement, and
haverevised them and added new examples asappropriate.
viii PrEfACE
• Currency and coverageof topical issues Tolive upto
our book’s hard-won reputation for currency, wehave
incorporated the mostrecent data possible and have
enhancedcoverageof emergingissues. Asclimatechange
and energy concerns play ever-larger roles in today’s
world, our coverage has evolved to keep pace. This edi-tion
highlightsthe tremendousgrowth and potentialof
renewable energy, yet also makesclear how wecontinue
reaching further for fossil fuels, using ever morepower-ful
technologies. Thetext tacklesthe complexissue of
climate changein depth, while connections to this issue
proliferate among topics in every chapter. Andin a world
newlyshakenby dynamic politicalforces amid concerns
relating to globalization, trade, immigration, health care,
jobs, national security, and wealthinequality, our intro-duction
of ethics,economics,andpolicy earlyin the book
serves as aframework to help students relate the scientific
findings they learn about to the complex cultural aspects
ofthe society aroundthem.
• Enhanced style and design Wehavesignificantly
refreshed andimproved the look and clarity of our pres-entation
throughoutthe text. A moreappealinglayout,
striking visuals, additional depth in the Central Case
Studies, and aninviting new style all makethe book
moreengagingfor students. Morethan 40% ofthe pho-tographs,
graphs, and illustrations in this edition are new
or have been revised to reflect current data or to enhance
clarity or pedagogy.
ExistingFeatures
Wehave also retained the major features that madethe first
five editions of our book unique andthat are proving so suc-cessful
in classrooms across North America:
• Afocus on science and data analysis Wehave main-tained
and strengthened our commitment to a rigorous
presentationof modernscientific research whilesimulta-neously
making science clear, accessible, and engaging
to students.Explainingandillustrating the processof
science remains a foundational goal of this endeavor. We
also continue to provide an abundance of clearly cited
data-richgraphs, withaccompanyingtools for dataanaly-sis.
In ourtext, ourfigures, and our online features, we
aim to challenge students andto assistthem withthe vital
skills of dataanalysisandinterpretation.
• Anemphasis on solutions For manystudents,today’s
deluge of environmental dilemmas can lead them to feel
that there is little hope or that they cannot personally make
a difference. Wehaveconsistentlyaimedto counterthis
impression by highlighting innovative solutions being
developed on campuses and around the world—a long-standing
approachnowenhancedby our newSuccess
Story feature. Whiletaking care not to paint too rosy a
pictureof the challengesthatlie ahead, wedemonstrate
that there is ample reason for optimism, and weencourage
action and engagement
 • central CASE STUDY integratedthroughoutthe featuresin the textbook, thus strengtheningthe connection
chapter Weintegrate each chapter’s Central Case Study between online and print resources. This approach encourages
into the maintext, weavinginformation and elaboration students to practice their science literacy skills in an interac-tive
throughout the chapter. In this way, compelling stories about environment with a diverseset of automatically graded
real people and real places help to teach foundational con-cepts exercises. Students benefit from self-paced activities that fea-ture
by giving students atangible framework with whichto immediate wrong-answer feedback, whileinstructors can
incorporate novel ideas. Students can explore the locations gaugestudent performance withinformative diagnostics. By
featured in each Central Case Study with new Case Study enabling assessment of student learning outsidethe classroom,
Video Tours in Mastering Environmental Science. Mastering Environmental Science helpsthe instructor to maxi-mize
theimpact of classroomtime. Asaresult, botheducators
• THE SCIENCE behind the story Becausewe
andlearners benefit from anintegrated text and online solution.
strive to engage students in the scientific process of test-ing
and discovery, wefeature The Science behind the New to this edition MasteringEnvironmentalScience
Story in each chapter. By guiding students through key for this edition of Essential Environment: The Science
research efforts, this feature shows not merely what scien-tists behind the Stories offers new resources that are designed
discovered, but how they discovered it. to grab student interest and help them develop quantitative
• These data analysis questions help students to
reasoning skills.
actively engage with graphs and other data-driven • NEW GraphIt! activities help students put data
figures, and challenge them to practice quantitative analysis and sciencereasoning skills into practice
skills of interpretation and analysis. To encourage stu-dents in a highly interactive and engaging format. Each
to test their understanding as they progress through of the 10 GraphIt! activities prompts students to
the material, answers are provided in Appendix A. manipulatea variety of graphsandchartsto develop
Students can practice data analysis skills further with an understanding of how data can be usedin decision
Interpreting Graphs and Data: DataQs in Mastering making about environmental issues. Topics range
Environmental Science. from agriculture to fresh waterto air pollution. These
• fAQ The
FAQ
feature
highlights
questions
fre-quently mobile-friendly activities are accompanied by assess-ment
posed by students, thereby helping to address
in Mastering Environmental Science.
widely held misconceptions andto fill in common con-ceptual • NEW CaseStudyVideoToursuse GoogleEarthto take
gaps in knowledge. By also including questions students on a virtual tour of the locations featured in each
students sometimes hesitate to ask, the FAQs show stu-dents Central CaseStudy.
that they are not alone in having these questions, • NEW Success Story Coaching Activities pair with the
thereby fostering a spirit of open inquiry in the classroom. newin-text SuccessStoryfeaturesandgivestudentsthe
• weighing the ISSUES Thesequestionsaimto help opportunity to explore the data behind each solution.
develop the critical-thinking skills students need to navi-gate • NEW Everyday Environmental Science videos highlight
multifaceted issues at the juncture of science, policy, current environmentalissuesin short(5 minutesorless)
and ethics. They serve as stopping points for students video clips and are produced in partnership with BBC
to reflect on what they have read, wrestle with complex News. These videos will pique student interest, and can
dilemmas, and engage in spirited classroom discussion. be usedin classor assignedasa high-interestout-of-class
• Diverse end-of-chapter features Testing Your Com-prehension
activity.
provides concise study questions on main
topics, while Seeking Solutions encourages broader Existing features MasteringEnvironmentalSciencealso
creative thinking aimed at finding solutions. “Think It
retains its popular existing features:
Through” questions place students in a scenario and • Process of Science activities help students navigate the
empower them to make decisions to resolve problems. scientific method,guiding them through explorations of
Calculating Ecological Footprints enables students to experimentaldesignusingSciencebehindthe Storyfea-tures
quantify the impacts of their choices and measure how from the current and former editions. These activi-ties
individual impacts scale up to the societal level. encourage students to think like a scientist andto
practicebasicskills in experimentaldesign.

MasteringEnvironmental • Interpreting Graphs and Data: Data Qactivities pair

withthe in-text Data Q questions, coaching students to

Science further developskills relatedto presenting,interpreting,

and thinking critically about environmental science data.
With this edition we continue to offer expanded opportunities • First Impressions Pre-Quizzes helpinstructors determine
through Mastering Environmental Science, our powerful yet their students’existing knowledgeof corecontentareasin
easy-to-use online learning and assessment platform. Wehave environmental science atthe outset of the academicterm,
developed new content and activities specifically to support providing class-specific datathat canthen be employed for

PrEfACE i
 powerfulteachable moments
throughoutthe term. Assess-ment
items in the Test Bankconnect to each quiz item, so
Instructor Supplements
instructors can formally assessstudent understanding. Arobust set of instructor resources and multimedia accom-panies
• Video Field Trips enable students to visit real-life sites the text and can be accessed through Mastering
that bring environmentalissuesto life. Studentscantour a Environmental Science. Organized chapter-by-chapter, eve-rything
power plant, a windfarm, a wastewatertreatment facility, you need to prepare for your course is offered in one
a site combating invasive species, and more—all without convenient set of files. Resources include Video Field Trips,
leaving campus. Everyday Environmental Science Videos, PowerPoint Lec-ture
presentations, Instructor’s Guide, Active Lecture ques-tions
to facilitate class discussions (for use with or without
Essential Environment has grown from our experiencesin teach-ing,
clickers), and an image library that includes all art and tables
research,and writing. Wehavebeenguidedin our efforts
from the text.
by input from hundreds of instructors across North America
The Test Bank files, offered in both MS Word and Test-Gen
whohave served asreviewers and advisors. The participation of
formats, include hundreds of multiple-choice questions
so manylearned,thoughtful, andcommittedexpertsand educa-tors
plus unique graphing and scenario-based questions to test stu-dents’
hasimproved this volume in countless ways.
critical-thinking abilities.
Wesincerely hope that our efforts are worthy of the
The Mastering Environmental Science platform is the
immense importance of our subject matter. Weinvite youto
most effective and widely used online tutorial, homework,
let us know how well we have achieved our goals and where
and assessment system for the sciences.
you feel wehave fallen short. Please writeto usin care of our
NEW to this edition, Ready-to-Go Teaching Mod-ules
editor, Cady Owens(cady.owens@pearson.com),at Pearson
on key environmental issues provide instructors with
Education. Wevalue your feedback and are eager to know
assignments to use before and after class, as well as in-class
how wecan serve you better.
activities that use clickers or Learning Catalytics for
—Jay Withgottand MatthewLaposata assessment.

x PrEfAC
 Acknowledgments
This textbook results from the collective labor and dedication Todd Tracy for his help with the Test Bank, James Dauray
of innumerable people. The two of us are fortunate to be sup-portedfor revising the PowerPoint lectures, Jenny Biederman for
by a tremendous publishing team. updating the clicker questions, Donna Bivans for revising the
Sponsoring editor Cady Owens coordinated our team’s reading questions, Julie Stoughton for correlating the shared
efforts for this sixth edition of Essential Environment. She media, and Karyn Alme for accuracy reviewing the Dynamic
has been a pleasure to work with, and we are grateful for Study Modules, reading questions, and practice tests.
her guidance, deft touch, and sound judgment. We were also As we expand our online offerings with Mastering
thrilled to welcome back Courseware Sr. analyst Mary Ann Environmental Science, we thank Sarah Jensen, Nicole
Murray, whose past work for our books has stood the test of Constantine, Libby Reiser, Kimberly Twardochleb, and
time. Mary Ann again brought an intense work ethic and a Todd Brown for their work on Mastering Environmental
mix of creativity, big-picture smarts, and focus on detail that Science and our media supplements.
we truly appreciate. Content producer Margaret Young once We give thanks to marketing managers Christa Pesek
more ably steered us through the complex logistical tangles Pelaez and Mary Salzman. And we admire and appreciate the
of the textbook process. Executive editor Alison Rodal over-saw work and commitment of the manysales representatives who
the project and lent her steady hand, and we thank direc-tor help communicate our vision, deliver our product, and work
Beth Wilbur for her support of this book through its six with instructors to ensure their satisfaction.
editions and for helping to invest the resources that our books Finally, we each owe debts to the people nearest and
continue to enjoy. dearest to us. Jay thanks his parents and his many teachers
Editorial assistant Ali Candlin managed the review pro-cess and mentors over the years for making his own life and edu-cation
and provided timely assistance, while Courseware direc-tor so enriching. He gives loving thanks to his wife, Susan,
Ginnie Simione-Jutson oversaw our development needs. who has patiently provided caring support throughout this
Bonnie Boehme provided meticulous copy editing, and photo book’s writing and revision over the years. Matt thanks his
researcher Kristin Piljay helped to acquire quality photos. family, friends, and colleagues, and is grateful for his chil-dren,
Eric Schrader managed permissions for our figures. Alicia who give him three reasons to care passionately about
Elliot of Imagineering Art did a wonderful job executing the future. Most important, he thanks his wife, Lisa, for being
our art program, and Lisa Buckley designed our engaging a wonderful constant within a whirlwind of change and for
new text and cover style. We offer a big thank-you to Norine lending him her keen insight and unwavering support. The
Strang for her extensive work with our compositor to help talents, input, and advice of Susan and of Lisa have been vital
guide our book through production. to this project, and without their support our own contribu-tions
As always, a select number of top instructors from around would not have been possible.
North America teamed with us to produce the supplementary We dedicate this book to today’s students, who will
materials, and we are grateful for their work. Our thanks go shape tomorrow’s world.
to Danielle DuCharme for updating our Instructor’s Guide, —Jay Withgott and Matthew Laposata

x
 Reviewers
We wish to express special thanks to the dedicated review-ers
who shared their time and expertise to help make this
sixth edition the best it could be. Their efforts built on those
of the nearly 700 instructors and outside experts who have
reviewed material for the previous five editions of this book
and the six editions of this book’s parent volume, where
they are acknowledged in full. Here we thank those who
contributed in particular to this sixth edition of Essential
Environment—in most cases with multiple in-depth chap-ter
reviews despite busy teaching schedules. Our sincere
gratitude goes out to all of them. If the thoughtfulness and
thoroughness of these reviewers are any indication, we feel
confident that the teaching of environmental science is in
excellent hands!

Donna Bivans, Pitt Community College

Martha Bollinger, Winthrop University
Lynn Corliss, South Puget Sound Community College

James Daniels, Huntingdon College

Eden Effert-Fanta, Eastern Illinois University
Jeff Fennell, Everett Community College

Paul Gier, Huntingdon College

Kelley Hodges, Gulf Coast State College

Ned Knight, Linfield College

Kurt Leuschner, College of the Desert

Heidi Marcum, Baylor University

Eric Myers, South Suburban College

Craig Phelps, Rutgers University

Julie Stoughton, University of Nevada at Reno

Jamey Thompson, Hudson Valley Community College

Pat Trawinski, Erie Community College

Daniel Wagner, Eastern Florida State College

xi
 Engagestudents in science through
current environmental issues

Essential Environment: The Science Behind the Stories, 6th Edition, by Jay Withgott
and Matt Laposata, is the #1 book in the introductory environmental science market, known
for its student-friendly narrative style, its integration of real stories and case studies, and its
presentation of the latest science and research.

Integrated Central Case Studies begin and are New Topics Include:
woven throughout each chapter, highlighting the real
• Chapter 4: Leaping Fish, Backwards River: Asian
people, real places, and real data behind environmental
Carp Threaten the Great Lakes
issues. Revised throughout and updated with current
• Chapter 9: Saving the World’s Greatest Rainforest
stories, the Central Case Studies draw students in, pro-viding
• Chapter 14: Rising Seas Threaten South Florid
a contextual framework to makescience memo-rable
and engaging.
 Help students see the big picture
by makingconnections

NEW! Closing the

Loop feature brings
each chapter’s opening
Central Case Study
full circle by revisit-ing
the Central Case
Study at the end of
each chapter. This new
feature encourages
students to think criti-cally
about the issues
laid out in the chapter,
summarizing the rela-tionship
between the
chapter concepts and
the Central CaseStudy
itself.

NEW! Central Case

Study Connection
questions at the end of
each chapter allow instruc-tors
to assign questions
specific to the Central
Case Study, prompting
students to think about
both the problems and
potential solutions to
the issues explored in
the Central Case Study.

NEW! Case Study Video Tours use

Google EarthTM and striking images deliv-ered
in highly engaging videos to bring
each chapter’s opening Case Study to
life. The video tours are embedded in the
Pearson eText, encouraging students to
immerse themselves in each Case Study’s
theme, and are assignable in Mastering
Environmental Science
Encourage students with a focus
on sustainable solutions

NEW! Success Story feature, included in

every chapter, highlights successful efforts to
address local, national, and global environmental
issues. These Success Stories encourage students
by showing them that sustainable solutions are
within reach.

NEW! Success Story Coaching

Activities pair with the new in-text
Success Story feature, giving students
the opportunity to explore the data
behind each sustainable solution
Assign activities that usereal data to help
students develop problem-solving skills

NEW! 10 GraphIt! Coaching

Activities help students develop
the skills they need to read, inter-pret,
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usesreal data focusing on a cur-rent
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asthe carbon footprint of food,
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acidification—in an entirely new
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Interpreting Graphs and

Data activities helpstudents
develop basic data analysis skills
and practice applying those skills
byinterpreting real data related to
environmental issues. Each activity is
paired with one of the Data Q ques-tions
that appear with a number
offigures throughout the text
 Use Ready-to-Go Teaching Modulesto get
the most out of your course

Ready-to-Go Teaching Modules

on key topics provide instructors with assign-ments
for before and after class, as well
asideas for in-class activities. These modules
incorporate the best that the text, Mastering
Environmental Science, and Learning
Catalytics have to offer, and are accessible
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Mastering Environmental Science.

Instructors can easily incorporate

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questions.

Learning CatalyticsTM helpsinstructors to customize lectures, generate

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using students’ smartphones, tablets, or laptops. Learning Catalytics allows
instructors to:

• Engage students in moreinteractive tasks, helping them to

develop critical thinking skills.
• Monitor student responses to determine where they are
struggling.
• Usereal-time data to adjust ateaching strategy.
• Misconception Questions can be used during class to spark discussion and
reveal common misconceptions about environmental issues. Test Bank ques-tions
connect to Learning Catalytics, allowing instructors to reinforce concepts
and test student understanding
 Givestudents accessto their textbook,
anytime, anywhere

NEW! Pearson eText integrates an electronic version of the

text with rich media assets,such as CaseStudy Video Tours,in
a customizable format that students can use on smartphones,
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 environment
ESSENTIAL

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORIES 6thEditio

 Science
CHAPTER
andSustainability
AnIntroductionto
EnvironmentalScience

2 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

 OurIsland, Earth
Viewed from space, our home planet resembles a small blue marble suspended in a
vast inky-black void. Earth may seem enormous to us as we go about our lives on its
surface, but the astronaut’s view reveals that our planet is finite and limited. With this
perspective, it becomes clear that as our population, technological power, and resource
consumption all increase, so does our capacity to alter our surroundings and damage the
very systems that keep us alive. Learning how to live peacefully, healthfully, and sus-tainably
on our diverse and complex planet is our society’s prime challenge today. The
field of environmental science is crucial in this endeavor.

Our environment surrounds us

A photograph of Earth from space offers a revealing perspective, but it cannot con-vey
the complexity of our environment. Our environment consists of all the living and
nonliving things around us. It includes the continents, oceans, clouds, and ice caps you
can see in a photo from space, as well as the animals, plants, forests, and farms of the
landscapes in which welive. In a moreinclusive sense, it also encompasses the struc-tures,
urban centers, and living spaces that people have created. In its broadest sense,
our environment includes the complex webs of social relationships and institutions that
shape our daily lives.
People commonly use the term environment in the narrowest sense—to mean a
nonhuman or “natural” world apart from human society. This is unfortunate, because it
Upon completing this masks the vital fact that people exist within the environment and are part of nature. As
chapter, you will be able to: one of many species on Earth, we share dependence on a healthy, functioning planet.
The limitations of language make it all too easy to speak of “people and nature,” or
• Describe the field of
“humans and the environment,” as though they were separate and did not interact. How-ever,
environmental science
the fundamental insight of environmental science is that we are part of the “natural”
• Explain the importance of natural
world and that our interactions with the rest of it matter a great deal.
resources and ecosystem services
to our lives

• Discuss population growth, Environmental science explores our

resource consumption, and their

consequences
interactions with the world
• Explain what is meant by an Understanding our relationship with the world around us is vital because we depend
ecological footprint
on our environment for air, water, food, shelter, and everything else essential for living.
• Describe the scientific method Throughout human history, we have modified our environment. By doing so, we have
and the process of science enriched our lives; improved our health; lengthened our life spans; and secured greater

• Appreciate the role of ethics material wealth, mobility, and leisure time. Yet many of the changes we have madeto
in environmental science, and our surroundings have degraded the natural systems that sustain us. Air and water pollu-tion,
compare and contrast major soil erosion, species extinction, and other impacts compromise our well-being and
approaches in environmental jeopardize our ability to survive and thrive in the long term.
ethics Environmental science is the scientific study of how the natural world works, how
• Identify major pressures on the our environment affects us, and how weaffect our environment. Understanding these
global environment interactions helps us devise solutions to society’s many pressing challenges. It can be

• Discuss the concept of

daunting to reflect on the sheer magnitude of dilemmas that confront us, but these prob-lems

sustainability, and describe also bring countless opportunities for creative solutions.
sustainable solutions being Environmental scientists study the issues most centrally important to our world and
pursued on campuses and in the its future. Right now, global conditions are changing more quickly than ever. Right now,
wider world we are gaining scientific knowledge more rapidly than ever. And right now there is still
time to tackle society’s biggest challenges. With such bountiful opportunities, this moment
in history is an exciting time to be alive—and to be studying environmental science.

Our island, Earth

 • Solar energy • Fresh water • Crude oil
• Wind energy • Forest products • Natural gas
• Waveenergy • Biodiversity • Coal
• Geothermal energy • Soils • Minerals

(a) Inexhaustible renewable (b) Exhaustible renewable natural (c) Nonrenewable natural resources
natural resources resources

FIGURE 1.1 Natural resources may be renewable or nonrenewable. Perpetually renewable, orinexhaust-ible,
resources such as sunlight and wind energy (a) willalways be there for us. Renewable resources such as
timber, soils, andfresh water(b) arereplenished onintermediate timescales,if weare carefulnotto deplete
them. Nonrenewable resources such as minerals and fossil fuels (c) exist in limited amounts that could one day
be gone.

Werely on natural resources Population growth amplifies

Islands are finite and bounded, andtheir inhabitants must ourimpact
cope with limitations in the materials they need. On our
For nearly all of human history, fewer than a million people
island—planet Earth—there arelimits to many of our natural
populated Earth at any one time. Today our population has
resources,the substancesand energy sources wetake from
grown beyond 7.5 billion people. For every one person who
our environment and that werely on to survive (FIGURE 1.1).
usedto exist morethan 10,000 yearsago, severalthousand
Natural resources that are replenished over short periods
people exist today! FIGURE 1.3 shows just how recently and
are known as renewable natural resources. Somerenewable
suddenly this monumental change hastaken place
natural resources, such as sunlight, wind, and wave energy,
are perpetuallyrenewedandessentiallyinexhaustible. Others,
such as timber, water, animal populations, and fertile soil,
renew themselves over months, years, or decades. Thesetypes
of renewableresources maybe usedat sustainablerates, but
they may become depleted if we consume them faster than
they are replenished. Nonrenewable natural resources,
such as mineralsandfossil fuels, arein finite supply and are
formed far moreslowly than we usethem. Once we deplete a
nonrenewable resource, it is nolonger available.

Werely on ecosystem services

If we think of natural resources as “goods” produced by
nature, then wesoon realize that Earth’s natural systems also
provide “services” on which we depend. Our planet’s eco-logical
processes purify air and water, cycle nutrients, regu-late
climate, pollinate plants, and recycle our waste. Such
essentialservices are commonly called ecosystem services
(FIGURE 1.2). Ecosystem services arise from the normal func-tioning
of natural systems and are not meantfor our benefit,
yet wecould not survive withoutthem. The waysthat ecosys-tem
services support our lives and civilization are countless
and profound (pp. 39, 101–102, 172).
Justas we maydepletenaturalresources, we maydegrade
ecosystem services when, for example, we destroy habitat or
FIGURE 1.2 Werely on the ecosystem services that natural
generate pollution. For years, our depletion of nature’s goods systems provide. For example, forested hillsides help people
and our disruptionof nature’sserviceshaveintensified, driven living below by purifying water and air, cycling nutrients, regulating
by rising resource consumption and a human population that waterflow, preventing flooding, and reducing erosion, as well as by
growslarger every day. providing game, wildlife,timber, recreation, and aesthetic beauty.

4 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

 8 The factors driving population growth have brought us
better lives in many ways. Yet as our world fills with people,
7
population growth has begun to threaten our well-being.
6 We must ask how well the planet can accommodate the nearly
Industrial revolution
10 billion people forecast by 2050. Already our sheer num-bers
(billions

• Fossil fuels 5
• Cities and factories are putting unprecedented stress on natural systems and
• Industrialized agriculture 4
the availability of resources.
• Better medicine

Agricultural • Better sanitation 3 population

revolution
2
Human
Resourceconsumption exerts social
1
and environmental pressures
0
Besides stimulating population growth, industrialization
~10,000 yr 0 500 1000 1500 2000
before present increased the amount of resources each of us consumes. By
Year mining energy sources and manufacturing more goods, we

FIGURE 1.3 The global human population increased after the have enhanced our material affluence—but have also con-sumed

agricultural revolution and then skyrocketed following the more and more of the planet’s limited resources.
industrial revolution. Note that the tear in the graph represents One way to quantify resource consumption is to use the
the passage oftime and a change in x-axis values. Data
from U.S. concept of the ecological footprint, developed in the 1990s
Census Bureau, U.N. Population Division, and other sources. by environmental scientists Mathis Wackernagel and William
Rees. An ecological footprint expresses the cumulative area
For every person alive in the year 1800, about how
of biologically productive land and waterrequired to provide
many are alivetoday?
the resources a person or population consumes and to dispose
NOTE: Each DATA Qin this book asks you to examine the figure of or recycle the waste the person or population produces
carefully so that you understand whatit is showing. Once you (FIGURE 1.4). It measuresthe total area of Earth’s biologically
take the time to understand whatit shows, the rest is a breeze! productive surface that a given person or population “uses”
Because this is the first DATA Q of our book, let’s walk
once all direct and indirect impacts are summed up.
through it together. You would first note that in the graph, time
is shown on the x-axis and population size on the y-axis. You
wouldfind the year 1800 (three-fifths of the way between 1500
Carbon (60%):
and 2000 on the x-axis) and trace straight upward to determine
forest land needed to
the approximate value of the datain that year. You’d then do
absorb CO2 emissions
the samefor today’s date atthe far right end ofthe graph.To from burning
calculate roughly how many people are alive today for every one fossil fuels
person alivein 1800, you would simply divide today’s number by
the number for 1800.
For each DATA Q,you can check your answers in
APPENDIX Ain the back of the book.

Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

Fishing grounds (3%):

Two phenomenatriggered our remarkableincreasein for seafood
population size. The first was our transition from a hunter-gatherer
lifestyle to an agricultural way of life. This change
Pasture (6%):
beganabout 10,000yearsago andis knownasthe agricultural for animal products
revolution. As people began to grow crops, domesticate ani-mals,
Forest (10%):
and live sedentary lives on farms and in villages, they
for wood products
produced morefood to meettheir nutritional needsand began
having morechildren. Built-up land (2%):
The second phenomenon, known as the industrial for housing,
transportation,
revolution, beganin the mid-1700s.It entailed a shift from
commerce, etc.
rural life, animal-powered agriculture, and handcrafted goods
toward an urban society provisioned by the massproduction Cropland (19%):
of factory-made goods and powered by fossil fuels (nonre-newable for food and fiber

energy sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas; FIGURE 1.4 An ecological footprint shows the total area
pp. 343, 346). Industrialization brought dramatic advances in of biologically productive land and water used by a given
technology, sanitation, and medicine.It also enhancedfood person or population. Shown here is a breakdown of major com-ponents
production through the use of fossil-fuel-powered equipment of the average person’s footprint. Data from Global Footprint
andsynthetic pesticidesandfertilizers (pp. 142–143). Network, 2017.

Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability 5

 For humanity as a whole, Wackernagel and his col-leaguescontinue living off the account far into the future. If we begin
at the Global Footprint Network calculate that we depleting the principal, we draw down the bank account.
are now using 68% more of the planet’s resources than are To live off nature’s interest—the renewable resources that are
available on a sustainable basis. That is, we are depleting replenished year after year—is sustainable. To draw down
renewable resources by using them 68% faster than they are resources faster than they are replaced is to eat into nature’s
being replenished. To look at this another way, it would take capital, the bank account for our planet and our civilization.
1.68 years for the planet to regenerate the renewable resources Currently we are drawing down Earth’s natural capital—and
that people use in just 1 year. The practice of consuming more we cannot get away with this for long.
resources than are being replenished is termed overshoot
because we are overshooting, or surpassing, Earth’s capacity
to sustainably support us(FIGURE 1.5). Environmental science can help
Scientists debate how best to calculate footprints and
uslearn from the past
measure overshoot. Indeed, any attempt to boil down com-plicated
issues to a single number is perilous, even if the gen-eral Historical evidence suggests that civilizations can crumble
concept is sound and useful. Yet some things are clear; when pressures from population and consumption overwhelm
for instance, people from wealthy nations such as the United resource availability. Historians have inferred that environ-mental
States have much larger ecological footprints than do people degradation contributed to the fall of the Greek and
from poorer nations. Using the Global Footprint Network’s Roman empires; the Angkor civilization of Southeast Asia;
calculations, if all the world’s people consumed resources and the Maya, Anasazi, and other civilizations of the Ameri-cas.
at the rate of Americans, we would need the equivalent of In Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East, areas
almost five planet Earths! that today are barren desert had earlier been lush enough to
support the origin of agriculture and thriving ancient soci-eties.
Easter Island has long been held up as a society that
Conserving natural capitalis like self-destructed after depleting its resources, although new

maintaining a bank account research paints a more complex picture (see THE SCIENCE
BEHIND THE STORY, pp. 8–9).
We can think of our planet’s vast store of resources and In today’s globalized society, the stakes are higher than
ecosystem services—Earth’s natural capital—as a bank ever because our environmental impacts are global. If we
account. To keep a bank account full, we need to leave the cannot forge sustainable solutions to our problems, then the
principal intact and spend only the interest, so that we can resulting societal collapse will be global. Fortunately, envi-ronmental
science holds keys to building a better world. By
studying environmental science, you will learn to evaluate
1.8 the whirlwind of changes taking place around us and to think
critically and creatively about waysto respond.
1.6
Ecological footprint
planets 1.4
Biocapacity

The Natureof
of

1.2
Overshoot

(number
1.0
Environmental Science
0.8
Environmental scientists examine how Earth’s natural sys-tems
0.6
footprint
function, how these systems affect people, and how
0.4 weinfluence these systems. Many environmental scientists
are motivated by a desire to develop solutions to environ-mental
Global 0.2
Footprint in 1960 Footprint today problems. These solutions (such as new technolo-gies,
0 policies, or resource management strategies) are
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
applications of environmental science. The study of such
Year
applications and their consequences is, in turn, also part of
FIGURE 1.5 Analyses by one research group indicate that environmental science.
we have overshot Earth’s biocapacity—its capacity to sup-port
us—by 68%. Weare using renewable natural resources
68% faster than they are being replenished.
Network,2017.
Datafrom GlobalFootprint
Environmental science
is interdisciplinary
How muchlarger is the global ecological footprint
today than it was half a century ago? Studying our interactions with our environment is a com-plex
endeavor that requires expertise from many academic
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
disciplines, including ecology, earth science, chemistry,

6 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

 Ethics Ecology
movement
the
dedicated
natural
to
world—and,
protect-ing
by
FaQ
extension, people—from unde-sirable
Biology aren’t environmental
Economics changes brought about by
scientists also
human actions.
environmentalists?

Chemistry Not necessarily. Although envi-ronmental

Engineering

The Nature
scientists search for
solutions to environmental prob-lems,

Political
science
Environmental
science
Atmospheric
science
of Science they strive to keep their
research rigorously objective and
free from advocacy. Of course,
Science is a systematic process for
like all human beings, scientists
learning about the world and test-ing
Oceanography are motivated by personal val-ues
History our understanding of it. The
and interests—and like any
term science is also used to refer
human endeavor, science can
to the accumulated body of knowl-edge never be entirely free of social
Anthropology Geology
that arises from this dynamic influence. However, whereas per-sonal
process of observing, questioning, values and social concerns
Archaeology Geography
testing, and discovery. may help shape the questions
Knowledge gained from sci-encescientists ask, scientists do their
FIGURE 1.6 Environmental science is an interdisciplinary
can be applied to address utmost to carry out their work
pursuit. It draws from many different established fields of study
society’s needs—for instance, to impartially and to interpret their
across the natural sciences and social sciences.
develop technology or to inform results with wide-open minds.

policy and management deci-sions.Remaining open to whatever

From the food we eat conclusions the data demand
biology, geography, economics, political science, demog-raphy,
to the clothing we wear to the is a hallmark of the effective
ethics, and others. Environmental science is
health care we rely on, virtually scientist
interdisciplinary, bringing techniques, perspectives, and
research results from multiple disciplines together into a everything in our lives has been

broad synthesis (FIGURE 1.6). improved by the application of

Traditional establisheddisciplines are valuable because science. Many scientists are motivated by the potential for

their scholars delve deeply into topics, developing exper-tise developing useful applications. Others are motivated simply

in particular areasand uncovering new knowledge.In by a desire to understand how the world works.

contrast, interdisciplinary fields are valuable because their

practitioners consolidate and synthesize the specialized
knowledge from manydisciplines and makesense of it in Scientiststest ideas by critically
a broad context to better serve the multifaceted interests examining evidence
of society.
Environmentalscience is especially broad becauseit Science is all about asking and answering questions. Scien-tists
encompasses not only the natural sciences (disciplines that examine how the world works by making observations,
examine the natural world) but also the social sciences (dis-ciplines
taking measurements, and testing whether their ideas are sup-ported
that address humaninteractions and institutions). by evidence. The effective scientist thinks critically and
Most environmental science programs focus more on the does not simply accept conventional wisdom from others. The
natural sciences, whereas programs that emphasize the social scientist becomes excited by novel ideas but is skeptical and
sciences often usethe term environmental studies. Which-ever
judges ideas by the strength of evidence that supports them.
approach one takes, these fields bring together many A great deal of scientific work is descriptive science,
diverse perspectives and sources of knowledge. research in which scientists gather basic information about
organisms, materials, systems, or processes that are not yet
well known. In this approach, researchers explore new fron-tiers
Environmental scienceis not of knowledge by observing and measuring phenomena

the same as environmentalism to gain a better understanding of them.

Once enough basic information is known about a subject,
Although many environmental scientists are interested in scientists can begin posing questions that seek deeper expla-nations
solving problems,it would beincorrect to confuseenviron-mental about how and why things are the way they are. At
science with environmentalism or environmental this point scientists may pursue hypothesis-driven science,
activism. They are very different. Environmental science research that proceeds in a more targeted and structured man-ner,
involves the scientific study of the environmentand ourinter-actions using experiments to test hypotheses within a framework
with it. In contrast, environmentalism is a social traditionally known as the scientific method.

Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability 7

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Goto Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

WhatArethe Lessonsof EasterIsland?

A mere speck of land in the vast Pacific Withthe forest gone, soil eroded away (data from lake bot-toms
Ocean, Easter Island is one of the most showed a great deal of accumulated sediment). Erosion
remote spots on the globe. Yet this would have lowered yields of bananas, sugarcane, and sweet
far-flung island—called Rapa Nui by potatoes, perhaps leading to starvation and population decline.
its inhabitants—is the focus of an Further evidence indicated that wild animals disappeared.
intense debate among scientists Archaeologist David Steadman analyzed 6500 bones and found
seeking to solve its myster-ies. that at least 31 bird species provided food for the islanders.
The debate shows how, Today, only one native bird species is left. Remains from char-coal
in science, new information fires show that early islanders feasted on fish, sharks, por-poises,
can challenge existing ideas—and turtles, octopus, and shellfish—but in later years they
also how interdisciplinary consumed little seafood.
research helps us to tackle As resources declined, researchers concluded, people fell
complex questions. into clan warfare, revealed by unearthed weapons and skulls
Ever since European explor-ers with head wounds. Rapa Nui appeared to be a tragic case
stumbled upon Rapa Nui on of ecological suicide: A once-flourishing civilization depleted
Easter Sunday, 1722, outsiders its resources and destroyed itself. In this interpretation—popularized
have been struck by the island’s by scientist Jared Diamond in his best-selling 2005
Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo barren landscape. Early Euro-pean book Collapse—Rapa Nui seemed to offer a clear lesson: We
on Easter Island accounts suggested that on our global island, planet Earth, had better learn to use our
the 2000–3000 people living on limited resources sustainably.
the island seemed impoverished, subsisting on a few meager When Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo began research on Rapa
crops and possessing only stone tools. Yet the forlorn island Nui in 2001, they expected simply to help fill gaps in a well-understood
also featured hundreds of gigantic statues of carved rock. How history. But science is a process of discovery,
could people without wheels or ropes, on an island without and sometimes evidence leads researchers far from where
trees, have moved 90-ton statues as far as 10 km (6.2 mi)from they anticipated. For Hunt, an anthropologist at the University
the quarry where they were chiseled to the coastal sites where of Hawai‘i at Manoa, and Lipo, an archaeologist at Califor-nia
they were erected? Apparently, some calamity must have State University, Long Beach, their work led them to con-clude
befallen a once-mighty civilization on the island. that the traditional “ecocide” interpretation didn’t tell the
Researchers who set out to solve Rapa Nui’s mysteries whole story.
soon discovered that the island had once been lushly forested. First, their radiocarbon dating (dating of items using radio-isotopes
Scientist John Flenley and his colleagues drilled cores deep of carbon; p. 31) indicated that people had not
into lake sediments and examined ancient pollen grains pre-servedcolonized the island until about a.d. 1200, suggesting that
there, seeking to reconstruct, layer by layer, the history deforestation occurred rapidly after their arrival. How could so
of vegetation in the region. Finding a great deal of palm pollen, few people have destroyed so much forest so fast? Hunt and
they inferred that when Polynesian people colonized the island Lipo’s answer: rats. When Polynesians settled new islands,
(a.d. 300–900, they estimated), it was covered with palm trees. they brought crop plants and chickens and other domestic ani-mals.
By studying pollen and the remains of wood from char-coal, They also brought rats—intentionally as afood source or
archaeologist Catherine Orliacfound that atleast 21 other unintentionally as stowaways. In either case, rats can multiply
plant species—now gone—had also been common. Clearly quickly, and they soon overran Rapa Nui.
the island had once supported a diverse forest. Forest plants Researchers found rat tooth marks on old nut casings, and
would have provided fuelwood, building materialfor houses Hunt and Lipo suggested that rats ate so many palm nuts and
and canoes, fruit to eat, fiber for clothing—and, researchers shoots that the trees could not regenerate. With no young trees
guessed, logs and fibrous rope to help move statues. growing, the palm went extinct once mature trees died.
But pollen analysis showed that trees began declining after Diamond and others counter that plenty of palm nuts on
human arrival and were replaced by ferns and grasses. Then Easter Island escaped rat damage, that most plants on other
between 1400 and 1600, pollenlevels plummeted. Charcoal in the islands survived rats introduced by Polynesians, and that more
soil proved the forest had been burned, likely for slash-and-burn than 20 additional plant species went extinct on Rapa Nui.
farming. Researchers concluded that the islanders, desperate for Moreover, people brought the rats, so even if rats destroyed the
forest resources and cropland, had deforested their own island. forest, human colonization was still to blame.

8 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainabilit

 Despite the forest loss, Hunt and Lipo argue that island-ers Thus, the new hypothesis holds that the collapse of Rapa Nui’s
were able to persist and thrive. Archaeology shows how civilization resulted from a barrage of disease, violence, and
islanders adapted to Rapa Nui’s poor soil and windy weather slaveraids following foreign contact. Beforethat, Hunt and Lipo
by developing rock gardens to protect crop plants and nourish say, Rapa Nui’s people boasted 500 years of a peaceful and
the soil. Hunt and Lipo contended that tools viewed by previous resilient society.
researchers as weapons were actually farm implements; lethal Hunt and Lipo’sinterpretation, putforth in a 2011 book, The
injuries were rare; and no evidence of battle or defensive for-tressesStatues That Walked, would represent a paradigm shift (p. 14)
was uncovered. in how we view Easter Island. Debate between the two camps
Hunt, Lipo, and others also unearthed old roads and inferred remains heated, however, and research continues as scientists
that the statues could have been moved by tilting and rocking look for new waysto test the differing hypotheses. In 2015, a six-person
them upright, much as we might move a refrigerator. Islanders research team set out to estimate when human land use
had adapted to their resource-poor environment by becoming began to decline for each of three sites on the island. They did
a peaceful and cooperative society, they maintained, with the this by measuring how long ago pieces of obsidian rock at each
statues providing a harmless outlet for competition among fam-ily site were unearthed from the soil and exposed to the air(obsidian
clans over status and prestige. absorbs water molecules very slowly, chemically changing over
Altogether, the evidence led Hunt and Lipo to propose that many years). The researchers found that land use had declined
far from destroying their environment, the islanders had acted prior to European contact at a dry site and at a site with naturally
as responsible stewards. The collapse of this sustainable civi-lization,
poor soil, but that land use had continued at a moist site with
they argue, came with the arrival of Europeans, who fertile soil for farming. They proposed that the true picture was
unwittingly brought contagious diseases to which the islanders complex: Perhaps islanders had indeed degraded their environ-ment
had never been exposed. Indeed, historical journals of sequen-tial in areas where conditions were sensitive, but had sustained
European voyages depict a society falling progressively into themselves in areas where conditions were moreforgiving.
disarray asif reeling from epidemics. Like the people of Rapa Nui, we are all stranded together
Peruvian ships then began raiding Rapa Nui and taking on an island with limited resources. What, then, is the lesson of
islanders away into slavery. Foreigners acquired the land, forced Easter Island for our global island, Earth? Perhaps there are two:
the remaining people into labor, and introduced thousands of Any island population must learn to live within its means—but
sheep, which destroyed the few native plants left on the island. with care and ingenuity, there is hope that we can.

Werethe haunting statues of Rapa Nui erected by a civilization that collapsed after devastatingits
environment or by a sustainable civilization that fell because of outside influence?

Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

 The scientific methodis atraditional populations of plants and animals? All of these are ques-tions
environmental scientists ask.
approach to research
The scientific method is a technique for testing ideas with Develop a hypothesis Scientists address their ques-tions
observations. Thereis nothing mysteriousaboutthe scien-tific by devising explanations that they can test. A

method; it is merely a formalized version of the way hypothesis is a statement that attempts to explain a phe-nomenon

any of us might use logic to resolve a question. Because or answer a scientific question. For example, a

scienceis an active, creative process,innovative research-ers scientist investigating why algae are growing excessively

may depart from the traditional scientific method when in local ponds might observe that chemical fertilizers are

particular situations demand it. Moreover, scientists in being applied on farm fields nearby. The scientist might

different fields approach their work differently because then propose a hypothesis as follows: “Agricultural fertil-izers

they deal with dissimilar types of information. Nonethe-less, running into ponds cause the amount of algae in the
ponds
scientists of all persuasionsbroadly agree on funda-mental to increase.”

elements of the process of scientific inquiry. As

practiced by individual researchers or research teams, the Make predictions The scientist next usesthe hypoth-esis
scientific method(FIGURE1.7)typically follows the steps to generate predictions, specific statements that can

outlined below. be directly and unequivocally tested. In our algae exam-ple,

a researcher might predict: “If agricultural fertilizers

Make observations Advancesin science generally begin are added to a pond, the quantity of algae in the pond will
increase.”
withthe observation of some phenomenon that the scientist
wishesto explain. Observationssetthe scientific methodin
motion and play a role throughout the process. Test the predictions Scientiststest predictions by gath-ering
evidence that could potentially refute the predic-tions
and thus disprove the hypothesis. The strongest form
Ask questions Curiosity is in our human nature. Just
of evidence comes from experiments. An experiment is
observe young children exploring a new environment—they
an activity designed to test the validity of a prediction or
wantto touch, taste, watch, andlisten to everything, and as
a hypothesis. It involves manipulating variables, or condi-tions
soon as they can speak, they begin asking questions. Sci-entists,
that can change.
in this respect, are kids at heart. Whyis the ocean
For example, a scientist could test the prediction link-Hypothesis
salty? Whyarestorms becoming moresevere? Whatis caus-ing
ing algal growth to fertilizer by selecting two identical ponds
algae to cover local ponds? Whenpesticides poison fish
and adding fertilizer to one of them. In this example, fertil-izer
or frogs, are people also affected? How can we help restore
input is an independent variable, a variable the scientist
manipulates, whereas the quantity of algae that results is the
dependent variable, a variable that depends on the fertil-izer
input. If the two ponds are identical except for a single
Scientific method FIGURE 1.7 The scientific method
independent variable (fertilizer input), then any differences
is the traditional experimental
that arise between the ponds can be attributed to changes in
Observations approach that scientists use to
learn how the world works. the independent variable. Such an experiment is known as a
controlled experiment because the scientist controls for the
effects of all variables except the one he or she is testing. In
our example, the pond left unfertilized serves as a control,
Questions
an unmanipulated point of comparison for the manipulated
treatment pond.
Whenever possible, it is best to replicate one’s experi-ment;
that is, to stage multiple tests of the same comparison.
Our scientist could perform a replicated experiment on, say,
10 pairs of ponds, adding fertilizer to one of each pair.

Analyze and interpret results Scientistsrecord data,

Predictions
or information, from their studies (FIGURE 1.8). Researchers
particularly value quantitative data (information expressed
Reject
using numbers), because numbers provide precision and are
hypothesis.
Fail to reject Form a easy to compare. The scientist conducting the fertilization
Test
hypothesis. new one. experiment, for instance, might quantify the area of water
Test a new
surface covered by algae in each pond or might measure the
prediction.
dry weight of algae in a certain volume of watertaken from
each. It is vital, however, to collect data that are representa-tive.
Results
Because it is impractical to measure a pond’s total alga

10 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

growth, our researcher might instead sample from multiple
areas of each pond. These areas must be selected in a ran-dom
manner. Choosing areas with the most growth or the
least growth, or areas most convenient to sample, would not
provide a representative sample.
Even with the precision that numerical data provide,
experimental results may not be clear-cut. Data from treat-ments
and controls may vary only slightly, or replicates may
yield different results. Researchers must therefore analyze
their data using statistical tests. With these mathematical
methods, scientists can determine objectively and precisely
the strength and reliability of patterns they find.
If experiments disprove a hypothesis, the scientist will
reject it and may formulate a new hypothesis to replace it.
If experiments fail to disprove a hypothesis, this lends sup-port
to the hypothesis but does not prove it is correct. The FIGURE 1.8 Researchers gather data to test predictions in

scientist may choose to generate new predictions to test the experiments. Here, a scientist samples algae from a pond.

hypothesis in different ways and further assess its likelihood

of being true. In this way, the scientific method loops back
on itself, giving rise to repeated rounds of hypothesis revision
and experimentation (see Figure 1.7). say he or she finds seven times morealgal growth in the fer-tilized
If repeated tests fail to reject a hypothesis, evidence ponds. The scientist may conclude that algal growth
in favor of it accumulates, and the researcher may eventu-ally is correlated with fertilizer input, that is, that onetends to
conclude that the hypothesis is well supported. Ideally, increase along with the other.
the scientist would want to test all possible explanations. This type of evidence is not as strong as the causal dem-onstration
For instance, our researcher might formulate an additional that manipulativeexperiments can provide, but
hypothesis, proposing that algae increase in fertilized ponds often a natural experiment is the only feasible approach.
because chemical fertilizers diminish the numbers of fish or Because many questions in environmental science are com-plex
invertebrate animals that eat algae. It is possible, of course, and exist at large scales,they mustbe addressed with
that both hypotheses could be correct and that each may correlative data. As such, environmental scientists cannot
explain some portion of the initial observation that local always provide clear-cut answers to questions from policy-makers
ponds were experiencing algal blooms. and the public. Nonetheless,good correlative stud-ies
can makefor very strong science, and they preserve the
real-world complexity that manipulative experiments often
Wetest hypotheses sacrifice. Whenever
possible,scientiststry to integrate natural
experiments and manipulative experiments to gainthe advan-tages
in different ways of each.
An experiment in whichthe researcher actively chooses
and manipulates the independent variable is known as a
manipulative experiment. A manipulative experiment pro-vides Scientists use graphsto represent
strong evidence becauseit canreveal causalrelation-ships,data visually
showing that changes in anindependent variable cause
changes in a dependent variable. In practice, however, we To summarize and present the data they obtain, scien-tists
cannotrun manipulativeexperimentsfor all questions,espe-cially often use graphs. Graphs help to makepatterns and
for processes involving large spatial scales or long trends in the data visually apparent and easy to understand.
timescales. For example, to study global climate change FIGURE 1.9 shows a few examples of how different types of
(Chapter 14), wecannotrun a manipulativeexperimentadd-ing graphs can be usedto present data. Each of thesetypes is
carbon dioxide to 10 treatment planets and 10 control illustrated clearly and explained further in APPENDIX B at
planets and then compare the results! Thus, it is common for the back of this book. The ability to interpret graphs is a
researchersto run natural experiments, whichcompare how skill you will find usefulthroughout yourlife. Weencourage
dependent variables are expressed in naturally occurring, you to consult Appendix B closely as you begin your envi-ronmental
but different, contexts. In such experiments, the independent science course.
variable varies naturally, andresearcherstest their hypoth-eses You will also note that many of the graphs in this
by searching for correlation, or statistical association book are accompanied by DATA Q questions. These ques-tions
among variables. are designed to help you interpret scientific data
Forinstance, let’s suppose our scientist studying algae and build your graph-reading skills. You can check your
surveys 50 ponds, 25 of which happen to be fed by fertilizer answers to these questions by referring to APPENDIX A at
runoff from nearbyfarm fields and 25 of whichare not. Let’s the back of this book.

Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability 1

 10 35
Fertilized
9 treatment pond
30
alga

8
by

algae

7 25
Fertilizer
of

sample

6
20
covered

(g)
added in
5 week 3
10-gal

Unfertilized 15
pond

4
control pond
weight
of

Dry
from
3 10
2
5
1 Percentage

0
Fertilized Unfertilized
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
treatment pond control pond
Time in weeks

(a) Line graph of algal density through time in a fertilized (b) Bar chart of mean algal density in several fertilized
treatment pond and an unfertilized control pond treatment ponds and unfertilized control ponds

30
Algal
25 species #1
(32%)
pond

20
algae

of

by Algal
species #5
15
(11%) Algal
species #2
10
(23%)
covered

Algal
Percentage

5 species #4
(16%) Algal
0 species #3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 (18%)
Fertilizer application (kg/ha)

(c) Scatter plot of algal density correlated with fertilizer use (d) Pie chart of species of algae in a sample of pond water
on surrounding farmland

FIGURE 1.9 Scientists use graphs to present and visualize their data. For example, in (a), aline graph
shows how the amount of algaeincreased whenfertilizer was added to atreatment pond in an experiment yet
stayed the same in an unfertilized control pond. In (b), a bar chart shows how fertilized ponds, on average,
have several times more algae than unfertilized ponds. In (c), a scatter plot shows how ponds with morefertil-izer
tend to contain more algae. In (d), a pie chart shows the relative abundance offive species of algaein a
sample of pond water. See APPENDIX Bto learn moreabout how to interpret these types of graphs.

• In part (a), is time in weeks shown on the x-axis orthe y-axis? • In part (b), whatis the depen-dent
variable? • In part (c), do the data show a positive correlation or a negative correlation?
• In part (d), which species is most numerous? Whichis least numerous? • What are the thin black lines
atop the colored barsin part (b) called? Explain whatthese lines indicate.

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

The scientific process continues scientists share their work). Thejournal’s editor asks several
beyondthe scientific method otherscientists whospecializein the subject areato examine
the manuscript, provide comments and criticism (generally
Scientific research takes place within the context of a commu-nity anonymously), and judge whetherthe work merits publica-tion
of peers. To haveimpact, a researcher’s work mustbe pub-lished in the journal. Thisprocedure, known as peer review, is
and madeaccessibleto this community(FIGURE1.10). an essential part of the scientific process.
Peer review is a valuable guard against faulty research
Peer review Whena researcher’s workis complete and contaminatingthe literature (the body of publishedstudies)
the results are analyzed, he or she writes up the findings and on which all scientists rely. However, because scientists are
submits them to a journal (a scholarly publicationin which human, personal biases and politics can sometimes creep

12 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

into the review process. Fortunately, just
Scientific process (as practiced by scientific community)
as individual scientists strive to remain
objective in conducting their research,
the scientific community does its best to
ensure fair review of all work.
Further
research
Grants and funding To fund their
by scientific
research, most scientists need to spend Scientific method (as practiced by
community
a great deal of time requesting money individual researcher or research group)

from private foundations or from gov-ernment

agencies such as the National Observations
Publication
Science Foundation. Grant applications in

undergo peer review just as scientific scientific

Questions journal
papers do, and competition for funding
is generally intense.
Scientists’ reliance on funding sources
Hypothesis Paper rejected Paper accepte
can occasionally lead to conflicts of
interest. A researcher who obtains data
showing his or her funding source in an Revise
Predictions paper
unfavorable light may be reluctant to
publish the results for fear of losing fund-ing. Reject
Fail to
hypothesis
This situation can arise, for instance, reject
Test
when an industry funds research to test hypothesis Peer review

its products for health or safety. Most sci-entists

resist these pressures, but when-ever Results
you are assessing a scientific study,
Scientific paper
it is always a good idea to note where the
researchers obtained their funding.

Conference presentations Scientists frequently pres-ent FIGURE 1.10 The scientific method that research teams
follow is part of alarger framework—the overall process of
their work at professional conferences, where they inter-act
science carried out by the scientific community. This process
with colleagues and receive comments on their research.
includes peer review and publication of research, acquisition of
Such interactions can help improve a researcher’s work and
funding, and the elaboration of theory through the cumulative work
foster collaboration among researchers.
of many researchers.

Repeatability The careful scientist maytest a hypoth-esis

repeatedly in various ways. Following publication,
other scientists may attempt to reproduce the results in their a phenomenon and has under-gone the
own experiments.
accepting a novel hypothesis, so the
Scientists are inherently cautious
more a result can be
about extensiveandrigorous test-ing,
such that confidence in it is ISSUeS
reproduced by different research teams, the more confidence extremely strong.
scientists will have that it provides a correct explanation. Forexample, Darwin’stheory Follow the Money
of evolution by natural selection Let us say you are a research
Theories If a hypothesis survives repeated testing by (pp. 50–51) has been supported scientist wanting to study the
numerous research teams and continues to predict experi-mental and elaborated by manythou-sands
impacts of chemicals released

outcomes and observations accurately, it may be of studies over 160 years of into lakes by pulp-and-paper mills.

incorporated into a theory. A theory is a widely accepted, intensive research. Observations Obtaining research funding has

well-tested explanation of one or more cause-and-effect and experiments have shown been difficult. Then alarge pulp-and-paper
company contacts you
relationships that have been extensively validated by a repeatedly andin great detail how
and offers to fund your research
great amount of research. Whereas a hypothesis is a simple plants and animals change over
explanatory statement that may be disproved by a single generations, or evolve, express-ingexamining how its chemical efflu-ents

affect water bodies. What

experiment, a theory consolidates many related hypotheses characteristics that best pro-mote
are the benefits and drawbacks of
that have been supported by a large body of data. survival and reproduction.
this offer? Would you accept the
Note that scientific use of the word theory differs from Becauseof its strongsupport and
offer? Why or why not?
popular usage of the word. In everyday language when we explanatory power, evolution-weighing
say something is “just a theory,” we are suggesting it is a ary theory is the central unify-ing
speculative idea without muchsubstance. However, scientists principle of modernbiology.
mean just the opposite when they use the term. In a scien-tific Other prominent scientific theories include atomic theory, cell
context, a theory is a conceptual framework that explains theory, big bangtheory, platetectonics, and generalrelativity.

Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability 13

 Science undergoes paradigm shifts who believe that ethics do and should vary with social con-text.
However, different societies show a remarkable extent
Asthe scientific community accumulatesdatain an area of of agreement on what moral standards are appropriate. For
research, interpretations sometimes may change. Thomas this reason, many ethicists are universalists, who maintain
Kuhn’s influential 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revo-lutions
that there exist objective notions of right and wrong that hold
arguedthat sciencegoesthrough periodic upheavalsin across cultures and contexts. For both relativists and universal-ists,
thought, in which one scientific paradigm, or dominant view, ethics is a prescriptive pursuit; rather than simply describ-ing
is abandonedfor another. For example, before the 16th century, behavior, it prescribes how we ought to behave.
Europeanscientists believedthat Earth wasatthe centerofthe
universe. Their data on the movements of planets fit that con-cept Environmental ethics pertains
somewhat well—yet the idea eventually was disproved
after Nicolaus Copernicusshowedthat placingthe sun atthe
to people and the environment
center ofthe solar system explained the data much better. The application of ethical standards to relationships between
Another paradigm shift occurred in the 1960s, when people and nonhuman entities is known as environmental ethics.
geologists accepted plate tectonics (p. 232). By this time, Our interactions with our environment can give rise to ethical
evidence for the movement of continents and the action of questions that are difficult to resolve. Consider some examples:
tectonic plates had accumulated and become overwhelm-ingly
1. Is the present generation obligated to conserve resources
convincing. Paradigm shifts demonstrate the strength
for future generations? If so, how much should we
and vitality of science, showing science to be a process that
conserve?
refines andimprovesitself through time.
Understanding how science works is vital to assessing 2. Can we justify exposing some communities of people

how scientific interpretations progressthrough time asinfor-mation to a disproportionate share of pollution? If not, what

accrues. Thisis especiallyrelevant in environmental actions are warranted to prevent this?

science—a young discipline that is changing rapidly as we 3. Are humans justified in driving species to extinction? If
attain vast amounts of new information. However, to under-stand destroying a forest would drive extinct a species of bird
and addressenvironmental problems, we need more but would create jobs for hundreds of people, would that
than science. Wealso needto consider ethics. People’s ethical action be ethically admissible?
perspectives, worldviews, and cultural backgrounds influence
Answers to such questions depend partly on what ethical
how weapply scientific knowledge. Thus,our examination of
standard(s) a person adopts. They also depend on the breadth
ethics (and of economics and policy in Chapter 5) will help us
of the person’s domain of ethical concern. A person who val-ues
learn how values shape human behavior and how information
the welfare of animals or ecosystems would answer the
from scienceis interpreted and putto usein our society.
third pair of questions very differently from a person whose
domain of ethical concern ends with human beings. We can
Environmental Ethics think about how peoples’ domains of ethical concern can vary
by dividing the continuum of attitudes toward the natural
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that involves the study of world into three ethical perspectives, or worldviews: anthro-pocentrism,
good and bad, of right and wrong. Theterm ethics can also biocentrism, and ecocentrism (FIGURE 1.11).
refer to the set of moralprinciples or valuesheld by a person
or a society. Ethicists examine how people judge right from
Ecocentrism
wrong by clarifying the criteria that people use in making
these judgments. Such criteria are groundedin values—for
instance, promoting human welfare, maximizing individual
freedom, or minimizing pain and suffering. Biocentrism
Ethical standards arethe criteriathat help differentiate
Anthropocentrism
right from wrong. Oneclassic ethical standard is the categori-cal
imperative proposed by German philosopher Immanuel
Kant, whichadvisesusto treat othersas we would preferto
betreated ourselves. In Christianity this standard is called the
“Golden Rule,” and most of the world’s religions teach this
samelesson. Anotherethicalstandardis the principle of utility,
elaborated by British philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John
Stuart Mill. The utilitarian principle holds that something is
right whenit producesthe greatestpractical benefitsfor the
most people. Weall employ ethical standards as we make
countless decisions in our everyday lives.
Peopleof different cultures or worldviews maydifferin
their values andthus maydisagree about actions they consider FIGURE 1.11 We can categorize people’s ethical perspectives
to beright or wrong.Thisis whysomeethicistsarerelativists, as anthropocentric, biocentric, or ecocentric

14 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

 Anthropocentrism describes a human-centered view of
our relations with the environment. An anthropocentrist denies,
overlooks, or devalues the notion that nonhuman entities have
rights and inherent value. An anthropocentrist evaluates the
costs and benefits of actions solely according to their impact
on people. For example, if cutting down a forest for farming
or ranching would provide significant economic benefits while
doing little harm to aesthetics or human health, the anthropo-centrist
would conclude this was worthwhile, even if it would
destroy many plants and animals. Conversely, if protecting the
forest would provide greater economic, spiritual, or other ben-efits
to people, an anthropocentrist would favor its protection.
In the anthropocentric perspective, anything not providing
benefit to people is considered to be of negligible value.
In contrast, biocentrism ascribes inherent value to cer-tain
living things or to the biotic realm in general. In this
FIGURE 1.12 A pioneering advocate of the preservation
perspective, human life and nonhuman life both have ethical
ethic, John Muir helped establish the Sierra Club, a major
standing. A biocentrist might oppose clearing a forest if this
environmental organization. Here Muir(right) is shown with
would destroy a great number of plants and animals, even
President Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite National Park in
if it would increase food production and generate economic
1903. After this wilderness camping trip with Muir, the president
growth for people. expanded protection of areas in the Sierra Nevada.
Ecocentrism judges actions in terms of their effects on
whole ecological systems, which consist of living and nonliv-ing
which holds that we should protect the natural environment in
elements and the relationships among them. An ecocen-trist
a pristine, unaltered state. Muir argued that nature deserved
values the well-being of entire species, communities, or
protection for its own sake (an ecocentrist argument), but he
ecosystems (we study these in Chapters 2–4) over the welfare
also maintained that nature promoted human happiness (an
of a given individual. Implicit in this view is that preserving
anthropocentrist argument based on the principle of utility).
systems generally protects their components, whereas protect-ing
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,” he wrote, “Places
components may not safeguard the entire system.
An eco-centrist
to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength
would respond to a proposal to clear forest by broadly
to body and soul alike.”
assessing the potential impacts on water quality, air qual-ity,
Some of the factors that motivated Muir also inspired
wildlife populations, soil structure, nutrient cycling, and
Gifford Pinchot (1865–1946; FIGURE 1.13). Pinchot founded
ecosystem services. Ecocentrism is a more holistic perspec-tive
what would become the U.S. Forest Service and served as its
than biocentrism or anthropocentrism. It encompasses a
chief in President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration. Like
wider variety of entities at a larger scale and seeks to preserve
Muir, Pinchot opposed the deforestation and unregulated
the connections that tie them together into functional systems.
development of American lands. However, Pinchot took a
more anthropocentric view of how and why we should value
Conservation and preservation nature. He espoused the conservation ethic, which holds that
arose withthe 20th century people should put natural resources to use but that we have a

Asindustrialization proceeded, raising standards of living but

amplifying human impacts on the environment, more people
began adopting biocentric and ecocentric worldviews. In
the 19th and 20th centuries, the worldviews of people in the
United States evolved as the nation pushed west, urbanized,
and exploited the continent’s resources, boosting affluence
and dramatically altering the landscape in the process.
A key voice for restraint during this period of rapid
growth and change was John Muir (1838–1914), a Scottish
immigrant who made California’s Yosemite Valley his wilder-ness
home. Muir lived in his beloved Sierra Nevada for long
stretches of time, but also became politically active and won
fame as a tireless advocate for the preservation of wilderness
(FIGURE 1.12).
Muir was motivated by the rapid environmental change
FIGURE 1.13 Gifford Pinchot was aleading proponent of
he witnessed during his life and by his belief that the natu-ral the conservation ethic. This ethic holds that we should use
world should be treated with the same respect we give to natural resources in ways that ensure the greatest good for the
cathedrals. Today he is associated with the preservation ethic, greatest number of peoplefor the longest time.

Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability 1

 responsibility to manage them wisely. The conservation ethic It was not just science that pulled Leopold from an
employs a utilitarian standard and contends that we should anthropocentric perspective toward a more holistic one. One
allocate resources to provide the greatest good to the greatest day he shot a wolf, and when he reached the animal, Leop-old
number of people for the longest time. Whereas preservation was transfixed by “a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.”
aims to preserve nature for its own sake and for our aesthetic The experience remained with him for the rest of his life and
and spiritual benefit, conservation promotes the prudent, effi-cient, helped lead him to an ecocentric ethical outlook. Years later,
and sustainable extraction and use of natural resources as a University of Wisconsin professor, Leopold argued that
for the good of present and future generations. people should view themselves and “the land” as members
The contrasting ethical approaches of Pinchot and Muir of the same community and that we are obligated to treat the
often pitted them against one another on policy issues of the land in an ethical manner.
day. However, both men opposed a prevailing tendency to Leopold intended the land ethic to help guide decision
promote economic development without regard to its nega-tive making. “A thing is right,” he wrote, “when it tends to preserve
consequences—and both menleft legacies that reverber-ate the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is
today. wrong when it tends otherwise.” Leopold died before seeing
his seminal 1949 essay “The Land Ethic” and his best-known
Aldo Leopold’s land ethicinspires book, A Sand County Almanac, in print, but today many view

manypeople him as the most eloquent philosopher of environmental ethics.

As a young forester and wildlife manager, Aldo Leopold Environmental justice seeksfair
(1887–1949; FIGURE 1.14) began his career in the conser-vationist
treatment for all people
camp after graduating from Yale Forestry School,
which Pinchot had helped to establish. As a forest manager Our society’s domain of ethical concern has been expanding
in Arizona and New Mexico, Leopold embraced the govern-ment from rich to poor, and from majority races and ethnic groups
policy of shooting predators, such as wolves, to increase to minority ones. This ethical expansion involves applying
populations of deer and other game animals. a standard of fairness and equality, and it has given rise to
At the same time, Leopold followed the advance of eco-logicalthe environmental justice movement. Environmental justice
science. He eventually ceased to view certain spe-cies involves the fair and equitable treatment of all people with
as “good” or “bad” and instead came to see that healthy respect to environmental policy and practice, regardless of
ecological systems depend on protecting all their interacting their income, race, or ethnicity.
parts. Drawing an analogy to mechanical maintenance, he The struggle for environmental justice has been fueled
wrote, “to keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of by the recognition that poor people tend to be exposed to
intelligent tinkering.” more pollution, hazards, and environmental degradation than
are richer people (FIGURE 1.15). Advocates of environmental
justice also note that racial and ethnic minorities tend to suf-fer
more than their share of exposure to most hazards. Indeed,
studies repeatedly document that poor and nonwhite com-munities
each tend to bear heavier burdens of air pollution,
lead poisoning, pesticide exposure, toxic waste exposure, and
workplace hazards. This is thought to occur because lower-income
and minority communities often have less access
to information on environmental health risks, less political
power with which to protect their interests, and less money to
spend on avoiding or alleviating risks.
A protest in the 1980s by residents of Warren County,
North Carolina, against a proposed toxic waste dump in their
community helped to ignite the environmental justice move-ment.
The state had chosen to site the dump in the county with
the highest percentage of African Americans. Warren County
residents lost their battle and the dump was established—but
the protest inspired countless efforts elsewhere.
Like African Americans, Native Americans have encoun-FIGURE
tered many environmental justice issues. Uranium mining on
lands of the Navajo nation employed many Navajo in the 1950s
and 1960s. Although uranium mining had been linked to health
problems and premature death, neither the mining industry
1.14 Aldo Leopold, a wildlife manager, author, and
philosopher, articulated a new relationship between people nor the U.S. government provided the minersinformation or
and the environment. In his essay “The Land Ethic” he called on safeguards against radiation and its risks. As cancer began to
peopleto embracethe land in their ethical outlook. appear among Navajo miners, a later generation of American

16 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

 (a) Migrant farm workers in Colorado

(c) Children in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

FIGURE 1.15 Environmental justice efforts are inspired by

the fact that the poor are often exposed to more hazards
than arethe rich. For example, Latinofarm workers(a) may
experience health risks from pesticides, fertilizers, and dust. Low-income
white Americans in Appalachia (b) may suffer air pollution
from nearby coal-fired power plants. African American communities
in New Orleans(c) were most susceptible to flooding and were
(b) Homes near a coal-fired power plant devastated by Hurricane Katrinain 2005.

perceivednegligenceand discrimination. Theysought relief agriculture generatespesticideemissions,dairy feedlot emis-sions,

through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, a and windblown dust from eroding farmland, yet this
federal law compensating Navajo miners who suffered health pollution wasnot being regulated. Valley residents enlisted the
impactsfrom unprotectedworkin the mines. help of organizationsincluding the Centeron Race,Poverty,
Likewise, low-income white residents ofthe Appalachian and the Environment, a San Francisco–based environmental
region havelong beenthe focus of environmentaljustice con-cerns.
justicelaw firm. Togetherthey persuadedCaliforniaregulators
Mountaintop coal-mining to enforce Clean Air Act provisions and convinced California

weighingthe practices (pp. 246, 352) in this legislators to pass newlaws regulating agricultural emissions.

ISSUeS
economically neglected region As we explore environmental issues from a scientific
provide jobs to local residents standpoint throughout this book, we will also encounter the
but also pollute water, bury social, political, ethical, and economic aspects of these issues,
environmental Justice? streams, destroy forests, and andthe conceptof environmentaljustice will arise againand
Consider the area where you grew cause flooding. Low-income res-identsagain. Environmental justice is a key component in pursuing
up. Where were the factories, of affected Appalachian the environmental, economic, and social goals of the modern
waste dumps, and polluting facili-ties communities continue to have drivefor sustainabilityandsustainabledevelopment.
located, and who lived clos-est little political power to voice
to them?
them in the town
Wholives nearest
or city that hosts
complaints over the impacts of
these miningpractices.
Sustainabilityand OurFuture
your campus? Do you think the Today the world’s econo-mies Recall the ethical question posed earlier (p. 14): “Is the pres-ent
concerns of environmental justice have grown, but the gaps generation obligated to conserve resources for future gen-erations?”
advocates are justified? If so, what betweenrich and poor have wid-ened. This questioncuts to the core of sustainability,
could be done to ensure that poor
And despite much progress a guiding principle of modern environmental science and a
communities do not suffer more
toward racial equality, signifi-cant concept you will encounter throughout this book.
hazards than wealthy ones?
inequities remain. Environ-mental Sustainabilitymeans
living withinour planet’s means,
such
laws have proliferated, that Earth can sustain us—and all life—for the future. It means
but minorities and the poor still leaving our children and grandchildren a world asrich and full
suffer substandardenvironmentalconditions. Yettoday, more asthe world welive in now. Sustainability meansconserving
people are fighting environmental hazards in their commu-nities Earth’s resources so that our descendants mayenjoy them as we
and winning. One ongoing story involves Latino farm have. It meansdeveloping solutions that workin the long term.
workersin California’s San Joaquin Valley. These workers Sustainabilityrequires maintainingfully functioning ecological
harvest much ofthe U.S.food supply of fruits and vegetables systems, because wecannot sustain human civilization without
yet suffer some of the nation’s worstair pollution. Industrial sustainingthe naturalsystemsthat nourishit.

Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability 1

 Population and consumption drive
environmental impact
Each day, we add over 200,000 people to the planet. This is Brazil
(3.0 ha)
like adding a city the size of Augusta, Georgia,on Monday;
Canada
Akron, Ohio, on Tuesday; Richmond, Virginia, on Wednes-day; United
(8.8 ha)
Rochester, New York, on Thursday; Amarillo, Texas, States
(8.6 ha) Mexico
on Friday; and on and on, day after day. This ongoing rise
(2.6 ha)
in human population (Chapter 6) amplifies nearly all of our Afghanistan
environmental impacts. (0.9 ha)
Ourconsumption of resourceshasrisen evenfaster than
our population. The modernrise in affluence has been a posi-tive
developmentfor humanity,andour conversionofthe plan-et’s
natural capital has madelife better for most of us so far. Haiti World average
However,like rising population, rising per capita consumption (0.6 ha) (2.9 ha) Indonesia
magnifies
the demands we makeon our environment. (1.4 ha)

The world’s people have not benefited equally from soci-ety’s

overall rise in affluence. Today the 20 wealthiest nations
boast over 55times the per capitaincome of the 20 poorest
nations—three times the gapthat existed just two generations India
China
(1.1 ha
ago. Withinthe United States,the richest 10% of people now (3.6 ha)
France Israel
claim half of the total income and morethan 70% of thetotal
(5.1 ha) (6.0 ha)
wealth. The ecological footprint of the average citizen of a
developed nation such as the United Statesis considerably Rwanda
larger than that of the averageresident of a developingcoun-try (0.9 ha)

(FIGURE 1.16).
Our growing population and consumption are intensify-weighing
FIGURE 1.16 People of some nations have much larger
ing the manyenvironmentalimpacts weexaminein this book,
ecological footprints than people of others. Shown are
including erosion and other im-pacts
the from agriculture (Chapter 7),
ecological footprints for average citizens of several nations,

ISSUeS
along withthe world’s average per capita footprint of 2.9 hectares.
deforestation(Chapter 9), toxic One hectare (ha) = 2.47 acres. Datafrom GlobalFootprint
substances (Chapter 10), mineral Network,2017.
extraction and mining impacts
Leaving a Large Footprint
(Chapter 11), fresh waterdeple-tion • Which nation shown here has the largest footprint?
What do you think accounts for • How manytimes larger is it than that of the nation
(Chapter 12), fisheries de-clines
the variation in per capita eco-logical shown here withthe smallest footprint?
(Chapter 12), air and water
footprints among societ-ies?
pollution (Chapters 12 and 13), Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
Do you feel that people with
waste generation (Chapter 17),
larger footprints havean ethical
and, of course, global climate
obligation to reduce their envi-ronmental
change (Chapter 14). Theseim-pacts However,in extracting coal, oil, and natural gas, we are
impact, so as to leave
more resources available for
degrade our health and splurging on a one-time bonanza,becausethesefuels are non-renewable
people with smaller footprints? quality of life, andthey alterthe and in finite supply. Attempts to reach further for
Why or why not? landscapes in which we live. new fossil fuel sources threaten moreimpacts for relatively
They also are driving the loss of less fuel. The energychoices we makenow will greatlyinflu-ence
Earth’sbiodiversity(Chapter8)—perhaps the nature of our lives for the foreseeable future.
our greatest problem, because extinction is irrevers-ible.
Once a species becomes extinct, it is lost forever. Sustainable solutions abound
Energy choices willshape our future Humanity’s challenge is to develop solutions that enhance our
quality oflife while protecting and restoring the environment
Our reliance on fossil fuels intensifies virtually every that supportsus. Manyworkablesolutions areat hand:
impact we exert on our environment. Yet fossil fuels have
• Renewable energy sources (Chapter 16) are beginning
also helpedto bring usthe materialaffluence weenjoy. By
to replace fossil fuels.
exploiting the concentrated energy in coal, oil, and natural
gas, we’ve been able to power the machinery of the indus-trial • Scientistsandfarmersarepursuingsoil conservation,high-efficiency
revolution, produce chemicalsthat boost crop yields, irrigation, and organic agriculture (Chapter 7).
run vehicles and transportation networks, and manufacture • Energy efficiency efforts continue to gain ground
and distribute countlessconsumergoods(Chapter 15). (Chapter 15).

18 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

 SUCCESS Removing Lead from Gasoline
STORY
Did you ever wonder why unleaded gas is called “unleaded?”
250 16 It’s because we used to add lead to gasoline to make cars
Average blood lead run more smoothly—even though scientific research showed
concentration 14
that emissions ofthis toxic heavy metalfrom tailpipes caused
200
12 severe health problems, including brain damage and prema-ture
tons/year)

death. Back in 1970, air pollution was severe in many

10
(metric 150 American cities, and motorvehicles accounted for 78% of U.S.
8 lead emissions. In response, environmental scientists, medical
(micrograms/deciliter)

100 researchers, auto engineers, and policymakers all merged their

gasoline
6
knowledge and skills into a process that brought about the
in

removal of lead from gasoline. The ban on lead was phased in

blood

4
50 in

used
gradually because some older vehicles required leaded gas, but
Lead used 2
Lead
by 1996, all gasoline sold in the United States was unleaded,
Lead
in gasoline
0 0 and the nation’s largest source of atmospheric lead pollution
was eliminated. As aresult, levels of lead in people’s blood fell
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005201
dramatically, producing one of America’s greatest public health
Levels of lead in the blood of U.S. children (ages 1–5) declined successes.
as lead use in U.S. gasoline was reduced. Datafrom National Health
and Nutrition Examination Survey(CDC) and other sources. EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

• Laws and new technologies have reduced air and water about 2% of U.S. carbon emissions. Reducing the ecological
pollution in wealthier societies (Chapters 5, 12, and 13). footprint of a campus can be challenging, yet students, fac-ulty,

• Conservation biologists are protecting habitat and endan-gered staff, and administrators on thousands of campuses are

species (Chapter 8). working together to make the operations of educational insti-tutions
more sustainable (FIGURE 1.17).
• Governments, businesses, and individuals are taking
Students are running recycling programs, promoting effi-cient
steps to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that
transportation options, restoring native plants, growing
drive climate change (Chapter 14).
organic gardens, and fostering sustainable dining halls. They
• Better waste managementis helping usto conserve are finding waysto improve energy efficiency and water con-servation
resources(Chapter 17). and are pressing for green buildings. To address cli-mate
change, students are urging their institutions to reduce
Theseare a few of the manyefforts we will examine greenhouse gas emissions, divest from fossil fuel corpora-tions,
in the course of this book while exploring sustainable solu-tions and use and invest in renewable energy.
to our challenges. In each chapter, a SUCCESS STORY In our Epilogue and throughout this book you will encoun-ter
will feature one specific example. Additionally, you will examples of campus sustainability efforts (for example,
encounter many further solutions to problems, addressed pp. 139, 399, and 435). Should you wish to pursue such efforts on
in many ways,throughout the text. Then in the EPILOGUE your own campus, information and links in the Selected Sources
at the end of the book, we will review 10 majorstrategies and References online at MasteringEnvironmentalScience
or approaches that can help us generate sustainable solu-tions point you toward organizations and resources that can help.
(p. 436).

Environmental science prepares

Students are promoting solutions you for the future
on campus
By taking a course in environmental science, you are prepar-ing
Asa college student, you can helpto design andimplement sus-tainable yourself for a lifetime in a world increasingly dominated
solutions onyour own campus.Proponentsof campus by concerns over sustainability. The course for which you are
sustainability seek ways to help colleges and universities using this book right now likely did not exist a generation
reduce their ecological footprints. Although wetend to think ago. But as society’s concerns have evolved, colleges and uni-versities
of collegesand universities as enlightenedand progressive have adapted their curricula, helping students learn
institutions that benefit society, they are also centers of lav-ish how to tackle the challenges of creating a sustainable future.
resource consumption. Classrooms, offices, research labs, Still, at most schools, fewer than half of students take
dormitories, dining halls, sports arenas, vehicle fleets, and even a single course on the basic functions of Earth’s natu-ral
road networks all consume resources and generate waste. systems, and still fewer take courses on the links between
Togetherthe 4500 campusesin the United Statesgenerate human activity and sustainability. As a result, many educators

Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability 19

 (a) Urging divestment from fossil fuels (b) Recycling (c) Collecting electronic waste

FIGURE 1.17 Students are helping to make their campuses more sustainable in all kinds of ways.

worry that most students graduate lacking environmental of how the world works. You will be better qualified for the
literacy, a basic understanding of Earth’s physical andliving green-collar job opportunities of today and tomorrow. And
systems and how we interact with them. By taking an environ-mental you will be better prepared to navigate the many challenges
science course, you will gain a better understanding of creating a sustainable future.

closing the LOOp

Finding effective ways of living peace-fully, prevent environmental problems. Although many of today’s
healthfully, and sustainably on our trends may cause concern, a multitude ofinspiring success sto-ries
diverse and complex planet requires give usreason for optimism. Identifying a problem is the first
a solid ethical grounding as well as a step toward devising a solution, and addressing environmental
sound scientific understanding of natural problems can move us toward health, longevity, peace, and
and social systems. Environmental science prosperity. Science in general, and environmental science in
helps us comprehend our intricate relationship particular, can help us develop balanced, workable, sustainable
with our environment and informs our attempts to solve and solutions and create a better world now and for the future

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. How and why did the agricultural revolution affect perspective might evaluate the development of a
human population size? How and why did the industrial shopping mall atop a wetland in your town or city.
revolution affect human population size? Explain what 7. Differentiate the preservation ethic from the conservation
benefits and what environmental impacts have resulted. ethic. Explain the contributions of John Muir and Gifford
2. What is an ecological footprint? Explain what is meant Pinchot in the history of environmental ethics.
by the term overshoot. 8. Describe Aldo Leopold’s land ethic. How did Leopold
3. What is environmental science? Name several define the “community” to which ethical standards
disciplines that environmental science draws upon. should be applied?

4. Compare and contrast the two meanings of the term 9. Explain the concept of environmental justice. Give an
science. Name three applications of science. example of an inequity relevant to environmental justice

5. Describe the scientific method. Whatis its typical sequence that you believe exists in your city, state, or country.
of steps? What needs to occur before a researcher’s 10. Describe in your own words what you think is meant by
results are published? Whyis this process important? the term sustainability. Name three ways that students,
6. Compare and contrast anthropocentrism, biocentrism, faculty, or administrators are seeking to make their

and ecocentrism. Explain how individuals with each campuses more sustainable.

SEEKINGSolutions
1. Resources such as soils, timber, fresh water, overexploit the resource and name one thing we
and biodiversity are renewable if we use them in could do to conserve the resource. For each, what
moderation, but can become nonrenewable if we might constitute sustainable use? (Feel free to
overexploit them (see Figure 1.1). For each of these look ahead and peruse coverage of these issues
four resources, describe one way wesometimes throughout this book.)

20 Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability

 2. What do you think is the lesson of Easter Island? What produced so far? Whatfurther efforts would you like
more would you like to learn or understand about this to see pursued on your campus? Do you foresee any
island and its people? What similarities do you perceive obstacles to these efforts? How could these obstacles
between Easter Island and our own modern society? be overcome? How could you become involved?
What differences do you see between their predicament 5. THINK IT THROUGH You have become head of a
and ours? major funding agency that grants money to scientists
3. Describe your ethical perspective, or worldview, as it pursuing research in environmental science. You must
pertains to your relationship with your environment. give your staff several priorities to determine what
Do you feel that you fit into any particular category types of scientific research to fund. What environmental
discussed in this chapter? How do you think your problems would you most like to see addressed with
culture has influenced your worldview? How has your research? Describe the research you think would need
personal experience shaped it? What environmental to be completed in order to develop workable solutions.
problem do you feel most acutely yourself? What else, beyond scientific research, might be needed

4. Find out what sustainability efforts are being made to develop sustainable solutions?
on your campus. What results have these efforts

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints

Researchers atthe Global Footprint Network continue to refine yet weuse on average 2.87 ha(7.09 acres) per person, creating
their method of calculating ecological footprints—the amount of a global ecological deficit, or overshoot (p. 6), of 68%.
biologically productive land and water required to produce the Compare the ecological footprints of each nation listed
energy and natural resources we consume and to absorb the in the table. Calculate their proportional relationships to the
wastes we generate. According to their most recent data, there world population’s average ecological footprint and to the
are 1.71 hectares (4.23 acres) available per person in the world, area available globally to meet our ecological demands.

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT PROPORTION RELATIVE TO PROPORTION RELATIVE TO

NATION (HECTARES PER PERSON) WORLD AVERAGE FOOTPRINT WORLD AREA AVAILABLE

Bangladesh 0.7 0.3 (0.7 4 2.9) 0.4 (0.7 4 1.7)

Tanzania 1.3

Colombia 1.9

Thailand 2.6

Mexico 2.6

Sweden 6.5

United States 8.6

World average 2.9 1.0 (2.9 4 2.9) 1.7 (2.9 4 1.7)

Your personal footprint (see Question 4)

Data from Global Footprint Network, 2017.

1. Why do you think the ecological footprint for people in page/personal_footprint and take the test to determine
Bangladesh is so small? your own personal ecological footprint. Enter the value
2. Why do you think the ecological footprint is so large for you obtain in the table, and calculate the other values

people in the United States? as you did for each nation. How does your footprint
compare to that of the average person in the United
3. Based on the data in the table, how do you think
States? How does it compare to that of people from
average per capita income is related to ecological
other nations? Name three actions you could take to
footprints? Name some ways in which you believe a
reduce your footprint
wealthy society can decrease its ecological footprint.
4. Go to an online footprint calculator such as the one at
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Go to Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Go to Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

Chapter 1 Science and Sustainability 21

 Environmental
CHAPTER
Systems
Matter,Energy,
and Ecosystems

22 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 central CASESTUDY

TheVanishingOysters
ofthe ChesapeakeBay
Baltimore
I’m 60. Danny’s 58. A visit to DealIsland, Maryland,
We’re the young ones. on the Chesapeake Bay reveals
—Grant Corbin, oysterman Chesapeake
a situation that is all too common
in Deal Island, Maryland Bay
in modern America: The island,
which was once bustling with
The Bay continues to be
productive industries and growing populations, is falling into
in serious trouble. And it’s
really no question why this is
decline. Economic opportunities in the community are few,

occurring. We simply haven’t and its populace is shrinking and “graying” as more and
managed the Chesapeake more young people leave to find work elsewhere. In 1930,
Bay as a system the way DealIsland had a population of 1237 residents. In 2010, it
science tells us we must. was a mere 471 people.
—Will Baker, President,
Unlike other parts of the country with similar stories
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
of economic decline, the demise of DealIsland and other
Upon completing this bayside towns was not caused by the closing of a local
chapter, you will be able to: factory, steel mill, or corporate headquarters; it was caused by the collapse of the Chesa-peake
Bay oyster fishery.
• Describe the nature of
The Chesapeake Bay was once a thriving system of interacting microbes, plants,
environmental systems
and animals, including economically important blue crabs, scallops, and fish. Nutrients
• Explain the fundamentals of
carried to the bay by streams in its roughly 168,000 km2 (64,000 mi2) drainage basin, or
matter and chemistry, and apply
watershed—the land area that funnels water to a given body of water—nourished fields
them to real-world situations
of underwater grasses that provided food and refuge to juvenile fish, shellfish, and crabs.
• Differentiate among forms of
Hundreds of millions of oysters kept the bay’s water clear by filtering nutrients and phyto-plankton
energy and explain the first and
(microscopic photosynthetic algae, protists, and cyanobacteria that drift near the
second laws of thermodynamics
surface) from the water column.
• Distinguish photosynthesis,
Oysters had been eaten locally since the region was populated, but the intensive har-vest
cellular respiration, and
of bay oysters for export didn’t begin until the 1830s. Bythe 1880s the bay boasted the
chemosynthesis, and summarize
world’s largest oyster fishery. People flocked to the Chesapeake
their importance to living things
to work on oystering ships or in canneries, dockyards, and
• Define ecosystems and discuss
shipyards. Bayside towns like Deal Island prospered
how living and nonliving entities
along with the oyster industry and developed a
interact in ecosystem-level
unique maritime culture that defined the region.
ecology
But by 2010 the bay’s oyster populations
• Outline the fundamentals of had been reduced to a mere 1% of their abun-dance
landscape ecology and ecological
prior to the start of commercial harvest-ing,
modeling
and the oyster industry in the area was
• Explain ecosystem services and all but wiped out. Perpetual overharvesting,
describe how they benefit our habitat destruction, virulent oyster diseases,
lives
and water pollution had nearly eradicated
• Compare and contrast how water, this economically and ecologically important
carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus organism from bay waters. The monetary
cycle through the environment, losses associated with the oyster fishery col-lapse
and explain how human activities
in the Chesapeake Bay have been stag-gering,
affect these cycles
costing the economies of Maryland and
Virginia an estimated $4 billion from 1980 to 2010.
In addition to overharvesting, one of the biggest
impacts on oysters in recent decades is the pollution of the

Chesapeake Bay oystermen haul Sorting oysters from the Chesapeake Bay

in their catch on the shores of the

Chesapeake Bay. 2
 bay withhighlevels ofthe nutrientsnitrogen and phosphorus 25 years of failed pollution control agreements and nearly
from agricultural fertilizers, animal manure, stormwater runoff, $6 billion spent on cleanup efforts, the Chesapeake Bay Foun-dation
and atmospheric compounds produced by fossil fuel combus-tion. (CBF), a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving
Oysters naturally filter nutrients from water, but with so few the bay, sued the EPA in 2009 for failing to use its available
oysters in the bay, elevated nutrient levels have caused phyto-plankton powers under the Clean Water Act to clean up the bay. This
populations to increase. When phytoplankton die, settle spurred federal action, and in 2010 a comprehensive “pollution
to the bay bottom, and are decomposed by bacteria, oxygen in budget” and restoration plan was developed and implemented
the wateris depleted—a condition called hypoxia—which cre-ates by the EPA—with the assistance of the District of Columbia,
“dead zones” in the bay. Grasses, oysters, crabs, fish, and Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
other organisms perish in these dead zones or are forced to West Virginia—aiming to substantially reduce inputs of nitrogen
flee to less optimal areas of the bay. Hypoxia and other human and phosphorus into the bay by 2025. Further, oyster restora-tion
impacts ultimately landed the Chesapeake Bay on the Environ-mental efforts are finally showing promise in the Chesapeake (see
Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) list of dangerously polluted THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY, pp. 26–27). If these initia-tives
waters in the United States. can begin to restore the bay to health, Deal Island and
However, recent events in the Chesapeake have offered other oyster-fishing communities may again enjoy the prosperity
hope for the recovery of the Chesapeake Bay system. After they once did on the scenic shores of the Chesapeake.

Earth’sEnvironmental battery
power plants?
with its many miles of transmission lines and distant

Systems No matter how we attempt to isolate or define a system,

we soon see that it has connections to systems larger and
Understandingthe rise and fall of the oysterindustry in the smaller than itself. Systems may exchange energy, matter,
Chesapeake Bay, as with many other human impacts on the and information with other systems, and they may contain
environment, involves comprehending the complex, inter-linkedor be contained within other systems. Thus, where we draw
systemsthat makeup Earth’senvironment. Asystem boundaries may depend on the spatial (space) or temporal
is a network of relationships among parts, elements, or com-ponents
(time) scale on which we choose to focus.
that interact with and influence one another through Assessing questions holistically by taking a “systems
the exchangeof energy, matter,or information. Earth’snatu-ral approach” is helpful in environmental science, where so
systems include processesthat shape the landscape, affect many issues are multifaceted and complex. Taking a broad
planetary climate, govern interactions betweenspeciesand and integrative approach poses challenges, because systems
the nonliving entities around them, and cycle chemical ele-mentsoften show behavior that is difficult to predict. However,
vital to life. Because we depend onthese systems and environmental scientists are rising to the challenge of study-ing
processesfor our verysurvival, understandinghowthey func-tion systems holistically, helping usto develop comprehensive
and how human activities affect them is an important solutions to complicated problems such as those faced in the
aspect of environmental science. Chesapeake Bay.
Thereare many waysto delineate natural systems. For
instance, scientists sometimes divide Earth’s components
into structural spheres to help make our planet’s dazzling
Systems involve feedback loops
complexity comprehensible. Thelithosphere (p. 232) is the
rock and sediment beneath our feet, the planet’s uppermost Earth’s environmental systems receive inputs of energy, mat-ter,
mantle and crust. The atmosphere (p. 288) is composed of or information; process these inputs; and produce outputs.
the air surrounding our planet. The hydrosphere (p. 257) The Chesapeake Bay system receives inputs of fresh water,
encompasses all water—salt or fresh; liquid, ice, or vapor—in sediments, nutrients, and pollutants from the rivers that empty
surface bodies, underground, and in the atmosphere. The into it. Oystermen, crabbers, and fishermen harvest some of
biosphere (p. 59) consists of all the planet’s organismsand the bay system’s output: matter and energy in the form of sea-food.
the abiotic (nonliving) portions of the environment with This output subsequently becomes input to the nation’s
whichthey interact. economic system and to the body systems of people who
Naturalsystems seldom have well-defined boundaries, consume the seafood.
so deciding where one system ends and another begins some-times Sometimes a system’s output can serve as input to that
can be difficult. As an analogy, consider a smartphone. same system, a circular process described as a feedback
It is certainly a system—a network of circuits and partsthat loop, whichcan be either negative or positive.In a negative
interact and exchange energy and information—but where are feedback loop, output that results from a system moving
its boundaries? Is the system merelythe phone itself, or does in one direction acts as input that moves the system in the
it include the other phones you call and text, the websites other direction. Input and output essentially neutralize one
you access on it, and the cellular networks that keep it con-nected?
another’s effects, stabilizing the system. As an example,
Whataboutthe energygrid that rechargesthe phone’s negative feedback regulates body temperature in human

24 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

(FIGURE 2.1a): If
water that then evaporates,
we get too hot, our sweat glands pump out
which cools us down. Or we just
individuals
offspring
there are, the
that can be produced.
more
FaQ
move into the shade. If we get too cold, we shiver, creating Another positive feedback
But isn’t positive feedback
heat, or we just move into the sun or put on a sweater. Most cycle that is of great concern to
“good” and negative
systems in nature involve such negative feedback loops. Neg-ative environmental scientists today
feedback “bad”?
feedback enhances stability, and over time only those involves the melting of glaciers
In daily life, positive feedback,
systems that are stable will persist. and sea ice in the Arctic as a
such as a compliment, can act as
In a system stabilized by negative feedback, when result of global warming (p. 322).
a stabilizing force (“Keep up the
processes move in opposing directions at equivalent rates Because ice and snow are white,
good work, and you’ll succeed”)
so that their effects balance out, they are said to be in they reflect sunlight and keep
whereas negative feedback, such
dynamic equilibrium. Processes in dynamic equilibrium surfaces cool. But if the climate
as a criticism, can destabilize (“You
can contribute to homeostasis, the tendency of a system to warms enough to melt the ice
need to change your approach to
maintain relatively constant or stable internal conditions. and snow, darker surfaces of land succeed”). But in environmental
A system (such as an organism) in homeostasis keeps its and water are exposed, and these systems, it’s the opposite! Nega-tive
internal conditions within a range that allows it to func-tion. darker surfaces absorb sunlight. feedback resists change in
However, the steady state of a homeostatic system This absorption warms the sur-face,systems, enhancing stability and
may itself change slowly over time. For instance, Earth has causing further melting, typically keeping conditions within
experienced gradual changes in atmospheric composition which in turn exposes more dark ranges beneficial to life. Positive
and ocean chemistry over its long history, yet life persists surface area, leading to further feedback, in contrast, exerts desta-bilizing

and our planet remains, by most definitions, a homeostatic warming (FIGURE 2.1b). Run-away effects that push conditions

system. cycles of positive feedback to extremes, threatening organisms

Ratherthan stabilizing a system, positive feedback loops are rare in untouched nature, but adapted to the system’s normal

drive the system further toward an extreme. In positive feed-back, they are common in natural sys-temsconditions. Thus, negative feedback

increased output from a system leads to increased input, altered by human activities, in environmental systems typically
aids living things, whereas positive
leading to further increased output, and so on. Exponential and such feedback loops can
feedback often harms them.
growth in a population (p. 63) is one such example—the more destabilize those systems.

FIGURE 2.1 Feedback loops can

Brain
(control center) stabilize or destabilize systems.
(a) The human body’s response to heat
Seek shade Body and cold involves a negative feedback
Too hot
Sweat cools
loop that keeps core body temperatures
relatively stable. Positive feedback loops
Wear more clothes Body (b) push systems away from equilibrium.
Too cold
Shiver warms For example, when Arctic glaciers and sea
ice meltbecause of global warming,darker
surfaces are exposed, which absorb more
sunlight, causing further warming and
(a) Negative feedback further melting.

1 In cool climate, sunlight reflects off 2 As climate warms, sunlight is 3 Light absorption speeds warming,
white surfaces absorbed where dark surfaces are exposing more dark surfaces
exposed

Solidsurface Glaciercompletely Seaice Glacier Morewater Moreland

of sea ice covers land melting melting exposed expose

(b) Positive feedback

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 25

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Goto Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

Are We“Turningthe Tide”for Native

Oystersin ChesapeakeBay?
In 2001, the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea populations. The work he and his team began would help turn

virginica) wasin dire trouble in the Ches-apeake

the tide in favor of native oysters in the bay’s restoration efforts.

Bay. Populations had dropped One of the biggest impacts on native oysters was the

by 99%, and the Chesapeake’s destruction of oyster reefs by a century of intensive oyster har-vesting.

oyster industry, once the larg-est Oysters settle and grow best on the shells of other oys-ters,

in the world, had collapsed. and over long periods this process forms reefs (underwater

Poor water quality, reef destruc-tion, outcrops of living oysters and oyster shells) that solidify and

virulent diseases spread become as hard as stone. Throughout the bay, massive reefs

by transplanted oysters, and that at one time had jutted out of the water at low tide had been

200 years of overharvesting all reduced to rubble on the bottom from a century of repeated

contributed to the collapse. scouring by metal dredgers used by oyster-harvesting ships.

Restoration efforts had largely The key, Schulte realized, was to construct artificial reefs like

failed. Moreover, when scientists those that once existed, to get oysters off the bottom—away

or resource managers proposed from smothering sediments and hypoxic waters—and up into

rebuilding oyster populations the plankton-rich upper waters.

by significantly restricting oyster In 2004, armed with the resources available to the Corps,

harvests or establishing oyster Schulte opted to take a landscape ecology approach to restore
David Schulte, U.S. Army
reef “sanctuaries,” these initia-tives patches of reef habitat on nine complexes of reefs, creating a
Corps of Engineers.
were typically defeated by total of 35.3 hectares (87 acres) of oyster sanctuary near the

the politically powerful oyster industry. All this had occurred in mouth of the Great Wicomico River in the lower Chesapeake
a place whose very name (derived from the Algonquin word Bay (FIGURE 1)—a much larger restoration effort than any
Chesepiook) means “great shellfish bay.”
Withthe collapse of the native oyster fishery and with politi-cal
obstacles blocking restoration projects for native oysters,
support grew among the oyster industry, state resource man-agers,
and some scientists for the introduction of Suminoe oys-ters
(Crassostrea ariakensis) from Asia. This species seemed Washington, D.C.

well suited for conditions in the bay and showed resistance to MARYLAND
the parasitic diseases that were ravaging native oysters. Pro-ponents
argued that introducing Suminoe oysters would rees-tablish
thriving oyster populations in the bay and revitalize the
oyster fishery.
Proponents additionally maintained that introducing oys-ters
P
would also improve the bay’s water quality, because as o t o
ma c
R
i
v

oysters feed, they filter phytoplankton and sediments from the

e

water column. Filter-feeding by oysters is an important ecologi-cal

service in the bay because it reduces phytoplankton den-sities,
VIRGINIA
clarifies waters, and supports the growth of underwater
grasses that provide food and refuge for waterfowl and young Chesapeake
crabs. Because introductions of invasive species can have Bay
profound ecological impacts (pp. 78–79), the Army Corps of Experiment
Engineers was directed to coordinate an environmental impact conducted in the

statement (EIS, p. 108) on oyster restoration approaches in the Great Wicomico River

Chesapeake.
It was in this politically charged, high-stakes environment Miles 25

that Dave Schulte, a scientist with the Corps and doctoral stu-dent

at the College of William and Mary, set out to determine FIGURE 1 Schulte’s study was conducted in the Great
whether there was a viable approach to restoring native oyster Wicomico River in Virginia in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

26 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 previously attempted. Schulte and his team constructed artificial
reefs by spraying oyster shells off barges (FIGURE 2), which then
drifted to the river bottom, forming high-relief reefs (in which
shells were piled to create a reef that was 25–45 cm above the
river bottom) and low-relief reefs (with shells piled to 8–12 cm
above the river bottom) that the oysters could colonize, safe
from harvesting. Other areas of the river bottom were “unre-stored”
and left in their natural state.
Oyster populations on the constructed reefs were sampled
in 2007, and the results were stunning. The reef complex sup-ported
an estimated 185 million oysters, a number nearly aslarge
as the wild population of 200 million oysters estimated to live
on the remaining degraded habitat in all of Maryland’s waters.
Higher constructed reefs supported an average of more than
1000 oysters per square meter—four times morethan the lower
constructed reefs and 170 times more than unrestored bottom
(FIGURE 3). Like natural reefs, the constructed reefs began to FIGURE 2 A water cannon blows oyster shells off a barge
solidify, providing a firm foundation for the settlement of spat—young, and onto the river bottom to create an artificial oyster reef
newly settled oysters. In 2009, Schulte’s research made for the experiment.
a splash when his team published its findings in the journal
Science, bringing international attention to their study.
After reviewing eight alternative approaches to oyster resto-ration
that involved one or more oyster species, the Corps advo-cated 1000 Total
Adults
an approach that avoided the introduction of non-native
Spat
oysters. Instead it proposed a combination of native oyster res-toration,
800
a temporary moratorium on oyster harvests (accompa-nied
m2

8
by a compensation program for the oyster industry), and per

6
enhanced support for oyster aquaculture in the bay region.
600
Schulte’s restoration project cost roughly $3 million and will 4
(oysters

require substantial investments if it is to be repeated elsewhere 2

in the bay. This is particularly true in upper portions of the bay, 0
400
where water conditions are poorer, the oysters areless resis-tant
density

to disease, and oyster reproduction levels are lower, requir-ing

Mean

restored reefs to be “seeded” with oysters. Many scientists 200

contend that expanded reef restoration efforts are worth the
cost because they enhance oyster populations and provide a
vital service to the bay through water filtering. Some scientists 0
also see value in promoting oyster farming, in which restoration High-relief Low-relief Unrestored

efforts would be supported by businesses instead of taxpayers. Reef type

These efforts are encouraged by the continued success of the FIGURE 3 Reef height had a profound effect on the density
project. By summer 2016 the majority of high-relief reef acreage of adult oysters and spat. Schulte’s work suggested that native
wasthriving, despite pressures from poachers and several years oyster populations could rebound in portions of Chesapeake Bayif
of hypoxic conditions. Moreover, many of the low-relief reefs that they were provided elevated reefs and were protected from harvest.
were originally constructed eventually accumulated enough new Data from Schulte, D.M., R.P. Burke, and R.N. Lipicus, 2009. Unprecedented

shell to be as tall as the high-relief reefs in the initial experiment—the restoration of a native oyster metapopulation. Science 325: 1124–1128.

reef treatment that showed the highest oyster densities in the

original experiment. Further, oyster reproduction rates in 2012 3640 hectares (9000 acres) of new oyster sanctuaries—25% of
were among the highest Schulte had seen during the project, existing oyster reefs in state waters—and seeded these reefs
and a follow-up study in 2013 found that spat from the sanctuary with more than a billion hatchery-raised spat. This movement
reefs were seeding other parts of the Great Wicomico River and toward increased protection for oyster populations, coupled
increasing oyster populations outside protected areas. with findings ofincreased disease resistance in bay oysters, has
Protected sites for oyster restoration efforts are now being given new hope that native oysters may once again thrive in the
established elsewhere in the bay. Maryland recently designated waters ofthe “great shellfish bay.”

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 27

 Environmental systemsinteract Runoff from agriculture was a major source of these nutri-ents,
contributing 43% of the nitrogen (FIGURE 2.3a) and 55%
The Chesapeake Bay and the rivers that empty into it pro-vide of the phosphorus (FIGURE 2.3b) entering the bay. In some
an example of how systems interact. Ona map,the riv-ers parts of the bay’s watershed, roughly one-third of nitrogen
that feedinto the bay area branchedandbraided network inputs come from atmospheric sources within this system.
of water channels surrounded by farms, cities, and forests Elevated nitrogen and phosphorus inputs cause phyto-plankton
(FIGURE 2.2). But where are the boundaries of this system? in the bay’s waters to flourish. High phytoplankton
For a scientist interested in runoff—the precipitation that density leads to elevated mortality in the population due to
flows over land and enters waterways—and the flow of increased competition for sunlight and nutrients. Dead phy-toplankton
water, sediment, or pollutants, it may makethe most sense drift to the bottom of the bay, where they are
to define the bay’s watershedas a system. However,for a joined by the waste products of zooplankton, tiny creatures
scientist interested in hypoxia and the bay’s dead zones, it that feed on phytoplankton. The increase in organic material
may be bestto define the watershed together with the bay as causes an explosion in populations of microbial decomposers,
the system ofinterest, becausetheir interaction is centralto which deplete the oxygen in bottom waters as they consume
the problem being investigated. Thus, in environmental sci-ence,the organic matter. Deprived of oxygen, bottom-dwelling
identifying the boundaries of systems depends on the organisms will either flee the area or suffocate. This process
questionsbeing asked. of nutrient overenrichment, increased production of organic
If the question we are asking about the Chesapeake matter, and subsequent ecosystem degradation is known as
Bay relates to the dead zones in the bay, which are due to eutrophication (FIGURE 2.4).
the extremely highlevels of nitrogen and phosphorusdeliv-ered Once oxygen levels at the bottom of the bay are
to its watersfrom the 6 states in its watershed and the depleted, they are slow to recover. Oxygenated fresh water
15 statesin its airshed—the geographicareathat produces entering the bay from rivers remains stratified in a layer at
air pollutants likely to end up in a waterway—then we’ll the surface and is slow to mix with the denser, saltier bay
wantto define the boundaries of the system to include both water, limiting the amount of oxygenated surface water
the watershedandthe airshed of the bay.In 2015, the bay that reaches the bottom-dwelling life that needs it. As a
received an estimated 121 million kg (267 million lb) of result, sedentary creatures living on the bay bottom, such as
nitrogen and 7.2 million kg (15.8 million lb) of phosphorus. oysters, suffocate and die.

Dissolved oxygen
Boundaries of watershed
10.0 mg/L

Lake Erie Baltimore

Forests Binghamton
Washington, D.C.

0.0 mg/L
e r
v
R i

a
n n

New York City

h
e

Pittsburgh u
s
q

Industry Harrisburg
Philadelphia
m
o a c
t R
o i
P
v
e
r

Baltimore

Washington, D.C.

Richmond
Cities

a m
J e s
Ri
v e r

Richmond Chesapeake Bay

Norfolk
Norfork

Farms

FIGURE 2.2 The Chesapeake Bay watershed encompasses 168,000 km2 (64,000 mi2) of land area in
six states and the District of Columbia. Tens of thousands of streams carry water, sediment, and pollutants
from a variety of sources downriver to the Chesapeake, where nutrient pollution has given rise to large areas of
hypoxic waters. The zoomed-in map (at right) shows dissolved oxygen concentrations in the Chesapeake Bay
in 2016. Oysters, crabs, and fish typically require a minimum of 3 mg/L of oxygen and are therefore excluded
from large portions of the bay where oxygen levels are too low. Source: Figure atright adapted from National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Geological Survey, https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/news/?p=15670

28 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 Atmospheric
deposition Natural
(8%) sources
(10%)
Agriculture—fertilizer
and manure
Municipal
(43%)
Agriculture—fertilizer and industrial
Natural sources and manure wastewater
(16%) (55%) (16%)

Septic Urban/suburban
systems fertilizer runoff
(3%) (15%) Urban/suburban
Municipal and fertilizer runoff and
industrial wastewater transported sediments
(14%) (19%)

(a) Sources of nitrogen entering the Chesapeake Bay (b) Sources of phosphorus entering the Chesapeake Bay

FIGURE 2.3 The Chesapeake Bay receives inputs of (a) nitrogen and (b) phosphorus from many
sources in its watershed. Datafrom Chesapeake Bay Program Office, 2015, Watershed Model Phase 5.3.2 (Chesapeake
Bay Program Office, 2016). Totals for nitrogen do not equal 100% due to rounding.

Freshwater river 1 Nitrogen and 2 Phytoplankton

phosphorus flourish at the
input surface

Phytoplankton

Warmer, less
dense fresh-water
layer
(oxygenated)

Microbial
decomposers
Colder, denser
ocean water
layer
(hypoxic)

3 Dead phytoplankton 4 Microbial 5 Insufficient oxygen suffocates

and their waste drift decomposer oysters and grasses, fish and shrimp
to bottom, providing population grows at the bottom; dead zone (hypoxic
morefood for microbes and consumes zone) forms
to decompose more oxygen

FIGURE 2.4 Excess nitrogen and phosphorus cause eutrophication in aquatic systems such as the
Chesapeake Bay. Coupled with stratification (layering) of water, eutrophication can severely deplete dissolved
oxygen. 1 Nutrients from river water 2 boost growth of phytoplankton, 3 which die and are decomposed at
the bottom by bacteria. Stability of the surface layer prevents deeper waterfrom absorbing oxygen to replace
4 oxygen consumed by decomposers, and 5 the oxygen depletion suffocates or drives away bottom-dwelling
marinelife. This process gives rise to hypoxic zones like those in the bay. The process of eutrophica-tion
occurs in both fresh water and marine environments, and in water bodies of all sizes—from small ponds to
large expanses of coastal ocean waters.

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 2

 Hypoxic (dead) zone

Human footprint (%)

0–1
1–10
10–20
20–30
30–40
40–60

FIGURE 2.5 More than 500 marine dead zones have been recorded across the world. Dead zones
(shown by dots on the map) occur mostly offshore from areas ofland with the greatest human ecological
footprints (here, expressed on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher numbers indicating bigger human footprints). Data
from World Resources Institute, 2016, http://www.wri.org/our-work/project/eutrophication-and-hypoxia; and Diaz, R., and R. Rosenberg,

2008. Spreading dead zones and consequences for marine ecosystems. Science 321: 926–929. Reprinted with permission from AAAS.

The ChesapeakeBayis notthe only waterbody suffering Atoms and elements are chemical
from eutrophication. Nutrient pollution hasled to morethan
500 documented hypoxic dead zones (FIGURE 2.5), including
building blocks
onethat forms each year nearthe mouthof the Mississippi An element is a fundamental type of matter,a chemical sub-stance
River (p. 277). The increase in the number of dead zones—there with a given set of properties that cannot be chemically
were 162 documented in the 1980s and only 49 in the broken down into substances with other properties. Chemists
1960s—reflectshow humanactivities are changingthe chem-istrycurrently recognize 98 elements occurring in nature, as well
of waters around the world. Let’s now take a look at as about 20 others they have created in the lab.
chemistry andits applications in environmental science. An atom is the smallest unit that maintains the chemi-cal
properties of an element. Atoms of each element contain

Matter,Chemistry, a specific number of protons, positively charged particles

in the atom’s nucleus (its dense center), and this number is
andthe Environment called the element’s atomic number. (Elemental carbon, for
instance, has six protons in its nucleus; thus, its atomic num-ber
All material in the universe that has mass and occupies is 6.) Mostatoms also contain neutrons, particles in the
space—solid, liquid, and gas alike—is called matter. The nucleus that lack an electrical charge. An element’s mass
study of types of matter and their interactions is called number denotes the combined number of protons and neu-trons
chemistry. Chemistry plays a central role in addressing the in the atom. An atom’s nucleus is surrounded by nega-tively
environmental challenges facing the Chesapeake Bay, as it chargedparticles known as electrons, whichare equal
helps us understandhowtoo muchnitrogen or phosphorusin in number to the protons in the nucleus of an atom, balancing
one part of a system can lead to too little oxygen in another. the positive charge of the protons (FIGURE 2.6).
Once you examine any environmental issue, from acid rain Elements especially abundant on our planet include
to toxic chemicalsto climate change,you willlikely discover hydrogen (in water), oxygen (in the air), silicon (in Earth’s
chemistry playing a central role. crust), carbon (in living organisms), and nitrogen (in the air).
Matter may be transformed from one type of substance Elements that organisms need for survival, such as carbon,
into others, butit cannot be created or destroyed. This prin-ciplenitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus, are called nutrients. Each
is referred to as the law of conservation of matter. In element is assigned an abbreviation, or chemical symbol; for
environmental science, this principle helps us understand that instance, “H” stands for hydrogen and “O” for oxygen. The
the amount of matterstays constantasit is recycled in eco-systems
periodic table of the elements organizes the elements according
and nutrient cycles (pp. 39–44). It also makesit clear to their chemical properties and behavior (see APPENDIX D).
that we cannot simply wish away “undesirable” matter, such
Isotopes
as nuclear wasteor toxic pollutants. Becauseharmful sub-stances Although all atoms of a given element contain
can’t be destroyed, we musttake steps to minimize the same number of protons, they do not necessarily contain
their impacts onthe environment. the same number of neutrons. Atoms with differing number

30 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 – –
FIGURE 2.6 In an atom, protons
Proton
Nucleus and neutrons stay in the nucleus,
– – – – –
Neutron and electrons move about the
– – – – – – nucleus. Each chemical element has
Electron
– –
its own particularnumber of protons.
Carbon possesses 6 protons; nitro-gen,
– – – – – –
– –

7; and phosphorus, 15. These

schematic diagrams are meantto
– –
– –
clearly show and compare numbers
–
of electrons for these three elements.
In reality, however, electrons do not
Carbon (C) Nitrogen (N) Phosphorus (P)
orbit the nucleus in rings as shown;
Atomic number = 6 Atomic number = 7 Atomic number = 15
Protons = 6 Protons = 7 Protons = 15 they movethrough space in more
Neutrons = 6 Neutrons = 7 Neutrons = 15 complex ways,forming a negatively-charged
Electrons = 6 Electrons = 7 Electrons = 15 “cloud” around the nucleus.

of neutrons are isotopes (FIGURE 2.7a). Isotopes are denoted ranging from fractions of a second to billions of years. The
by their elemental symbol preceded by the mass number, radioisotope uranium-235 (235U) is the primary source of
or combined number of protons and neutrons in the atom. energy for commercial nuclear power (pp. 366–371). It decays
For example, 12C (carbon-12), the most abundant carbon into a series of daughter isotopes, eventually forming lead-207
isotope, has six protons and six neutrons in the nucleus, (207Pb), and has a half-life of about 700 million years.
whereas 14C (carbon-14) has eight neutrons (and six pro-tons).
Ions Atoms mayalso gain orlose electrons,thereby becom-ing
Becausethey differ slightly in mass,isotopes of an
ions, electrically charged atoms or combinations of
element differ slightly in their behavior.
atoms (FIGURE 2.7b). Ions are denoted by their elemental
Some isotopes, called radioisotopes, are radioactive
symbol followed by their ionic charge. For instance, a com-mon
and “decay” by changing their chemical identity asthey shed
ion used by mussels and clams to form shells is Ca21,
subatomic particles and emit high-energy radiation. The radia-tion
a calcium atom that has lost two electrons and thus has a
released by radioisotopes harms organisms because it
charge of positive 2.
focuses a great deal of energy in a very small area, which can
be damaging to living cells. Radioisotopes decay into lighter
and lighter radioisotopes until they become stable isotopes Atoms bond to form molecules
(isotopes
at a rate determined
that are not radioactive).
by that isotope’s
Each radioisotope
half-life, the amount
decays
of
and compounds
time it takes for one-half the atoms to give off radiation and Atoms bond together because of an attraction for one another’s
decay. Different radioisotopes have very different half-lives, electrons. They can bond together to form molecules, combina-tions
of two or more atoms. Some common molecules contain
only a single element, such as hydrogen and oxygen, which can
Addition of
be written as “H2” and “O2,” respectively, using their chemical
1 neutron
formulas as a shorthand wayto indicate the type and number of
(a) Hydrogen isotope, 2H atoms in the molecule. A molecule composed of atoms of two or
Protons = 1
more different elements is called a compound. One compound
Electrons = 1
Neutrons = 1 is water, which is composed of two hydrogen atoms bonded to
–

one oxygen atom and is denoted by the chemical formula H2O.

Another compound is carbon dioxide, consisting of one carbon
atom bonded to two oxygen atoms; its chemical formula is CO2.

– Some compounds are made up of ions of differing charge

that bind with one another to form ionic bonds. A crystal of table
Hydrogen atom, H (b) Hydrogen ion, H+
Protons = 1 Protons = 1 salt, sodium chloride (NaCl), is held together by ionic bonds
Electrons = 1 Electrons = 0 between the positively charged sodium ions (Na1) and the nega-tively
Neutrons = 0 Neutrons = 0
charged chloride ions (Cl–). Atoms that lack an electrical
charge combine by “sharing” electrons. For example, two atoms
Loss of
1 electron of hydrogen bind together to form hydrogen gas (H2) by sharing
their electrons. This type of bond is called a covalent bond.
FIGURE 2.7 Hydrogen has a mass number of 1 because
Elements, molecules, and compounds can also come
a typical atom of this element contains one proton and no
together without chemically bonding, in mixtures called
neutrons. Deuterium (hydrogen-2 or 2H), an isotope of hydrogen
solutions. Air in the atmosphere is a solution formed of con-stituents
(a), contains a neutron as well as a proton and thus has greater
mass than a typical hydrogen atom; its mass number is 2. The such as nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, and carbon
hydrogen ion, H1 (b), occurs when an electron is lost; it therefore dioxide. Other solutions include ocean water, petroleum, and
has a positive charge. metal alloys such as brass.

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 3

 Hydrogenions determine acidity H H

H H H
In anyaqueoussolution,asmall numberof watermolecules
split H C C
C C C
apart, each forming a hydrogen ion (H1) and a hydroxide ion H C H H C C H
(OH2). The product of hydrogen and hydroxide ion concentra-tions C C C
H H H H C C H
is alwaysthe same;as oneincreases,the other decreases.
Pure water contains equal numbers of these ions. Solutions in H H

whichthe H1 concentration is greaterthan the OH2 concentra-tion

(a) Methane, (b) Ethane, (c) Naphthalene, C10H8
are acidic, whereas
solutionsin whichthe OH2concentra-tion CH4 C2H6
exceedsthe H1 concentration are basic, or alkaline.
The pH scale (FIGURE2.8) quantifies the acidity or alkalin-ity FIGURE 2.9 Hydrocarbons have a diversity of chemical

of solutions.It runsfrom 0to 14; pure wateris neutral, with structures. The simplest hydrocarbon is methane (a). Many
hydrocarbons consist of linear chains of carbon atoms with
a hydrogen ion concentration of 1027 and a pH of 7. Solutions
hydrogen atoms attached; the shortest of these is ethane
with a pH less than 7 are acidic, and those with a pH greater
(b). The air pollutant naphthalene (c) is a ringed hydrocarbon.
than 7 are basic. ThepH scaleis logarithmic, so eachstep on
the scale represents a 10-fold difference in hydrogen ion con-centration.
Thus,a substancewitha pH of 6 contains10times bonds, and they may also include other elements, such as
as many hydrogen ions as a substance with a pH of 7 and nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus.Inorganic com-pounds,
100times as manyhydrogen ions as asubstance with a pH of 8. in contrast, lack carbon–carbon bonds.
Mostbiological systemshavea pH between6 and 8, and Carbon’s unusual ability to bond together in chains,
substances that are strongly acidic (battery acid) or strongly rings, and other structuresto build elaborate moleculeshas
basic (sodium hydroxide) are harmful to living things. Human resulted in millions of different organic compounds. One
activities canchangethe pH of wateror soils and makecondi-tionsclass of such compounds that is important in environmental
less amenable to life. Examples include the acidifica-tion science is hydrocarbons, which consist solely of bonded
of soils and waterfrom acid rain (pp. 303–306) and from atoms of carbon and hydrogen (although other elements may
acidic minedrainage(p. 245). enter these compounds as impurities) (FIGURE 2.9). Fossil
fuels andthe manypetroleum products we makefrom them
Matteris composed of organic (Chapter 15) consist largely of hydrocarbons.

andinorganic compounds Macromoleculesare building

Beyond their need for water, living things also depend on blocks oflife
organic compounds. Organic compounds consist of carbon
atoms (and generally hydrogen atoms) joined by covalent Just as carbon atoms in hydrocarbons may be strung together
in chains, organic compounds sometimes combine to form
long chains of repeated molecules.Thesechains are called
14 NaOH (sodium polymers. There arethree types of polymers that are essential
hydroxide)
13 Basic to life: proteins, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates. Along with
lipids (which are not polymers),thesetypes of moleculesare
12
Ammonia referred to as macromolecules because of their large sizes.
11
Proteins consist of long chains of organic molecules
Soft soap
10 called amino acids. The manytypes of proteinsservevarious
9
functions. Some help produce tissues and provide structural
support; for example, animals use proteins to generate skin,
8 Seawater
hair, muscles,and tendons. Some proteins help store energy,
pH 7 Neutral Pure water whereas others transport substances. Some act in the immune
6 system to defend the organism against foreign attackers. Still
Normal rainwater
othersare hormones, moleculesthat act as chemical messen-gers
5
within an organism. Proteins can also serve as enzymes,
4 Acidrain moleculesthat catalyze, or promote, certain chemical reactions.
3 Nucleic acids direct the production of proteins. The
Lemon juice two nucleic acids—deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and
2
Stomach acid ribonucleic acid (RNA)—carry the hereditary information
1 Acidic
Car battery acid for organisms and are responsible for passingtraits from
0 parents to offspring. Nucleic acids are composed of a series
FIGURE 2.8 The pH scale measures how acidic or basic
of nucleotides, each of which contains a sugar molecule, a
(alkaline) a solution is. The pH of pure wateris 7, the midpoint phosphategroup,and a nitrogenousbase. DNAcontainsfour
of the scale. Acidic solutions have a pH less than 7, whereas basic types of nucleotides and can be pictured as a ladder twisted
solutions havea pH greaterthan 7. into aspiral, givingthe moleculeashapecalled a double helix

32 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 plants to acquire starch. Plants and animals also use complex
carbohydrates to build structure. Insects and crustaceans form
Phosphate
hard shells from the carbohydrate chitin. Cellulose, the most
group
abundant organic compound on Earth, is a complex carbohy-drate

Sugar Nitrogenous found in the cell walls of leaves, bark, stems, and roots.
base
Lipids include fats and oils (for energy storage), phos-pholipids
(for cell membranes), waxes (for structure), and ste-roids
(a) DNA nucleotide
(for hormone production). Although chemically diverse,
these compounds are grouped together because they do not
Nitrogenous dissolve in water.
base

T
Energy: AnIntroduction
A
Creating and maintaining organized complexity—of a cell, an
G
C Sugar-phosphate organism, or an ecological system—requires energy. Energy
backbone is needed to organize matter into complex forms, to build and
T
maintain cellular structure, to govern species’ interactions, and to
drive the geologic forces that shape our planet. Energy is involved
(b) DNA double helix
in nearly every chemical, biological, and physical phenomenon.
FIGURE 2.10 Nucleic acids encode genetic information in the But what is energy? Energy is the capacity to change
sequence of nucleotides, small molecules that pair together the position, physical composition, or temperature of matter.
like rungs of aladder. DNA includes four types of nucleotides Scientists differentiate two types of energy: potential energy,
(a), each with a different nitrogenous base: adenine (A), guanine (G), or the energy of position; and kinetic energy, the energy
cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Adenine (A) pairs with thymine (T), and of motion. Consider river water held behind a dam. By pre-venting
cytosine (C) pairs with guanine (G). In RNA, thymine is replaced by
water from moving downstream, the dam causes the
uracil (U). DNA (b) twists into the shape of a double helix.
water to accumulate potential energy. Whenthe dam gates are
opened, the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy as
the water rushes downstream.
(FIGURE 2.10). Regions of DNA coding for particular proteins Energy conversions take place at the atomic level
that perform particular functions are called genes. every time a chemical bond is broken or formed. Chemical
Carbohydrates include simple sugars that are three to energy is essentially potential energy stored in the bonds
seven carbon atoms long. Glucose(C6H12O6)fuels living cells among atoms. Bonds differ in their amounts of chemical
and serves as a building block for complex carbohydrates, such energy, depending on the atoms they hold together. Convert-ing
as starch. Plants use starch to store energy, and animals eat molecules with high-energy bonds (such as the carbon–carbon
bonds of fossil fuels)
into molecules with lower-energy
Potential energy Kinetic energy bonds (such as the
bonds in water or carbon diox-ide)
releases energy and pro-duces
Food motion, action, or heat.
molecules Just as automobile engines
split the hydrocarbons of gaso-line
to release chemical energy
and generate movement, our
bodies split glucose molecules
in our food for the same pur-pose
(FIGURE 2.11).

FIGURE 2.11 Energy is

released when potential
energy is converted to kinetic
energy. Potential energy
(a) stored in sugars (such as
glucose) in the food we eat,
combined with oxygen, becomes
kinetic energy (b) when we exer-cise,
C6H12O6 + O2 CO2 + H2O +
releasing carbon dioxide,
Glucose Oxygen Carbon dioxide Water Heat water, and heat as by-products.

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 33

 Besides occurring as chemical energy, potential energy accomplish tasks as efficiently. For example, the potential
can occur as nuclear energy, the energy that holds atomic energy available in ash (a less-ordered state of wood) is far
nuclei together. Nuclear power plants use this energy when lower than that available in a log of firewood (the more-ordered
they break apart the nuclei of large atoms within their reac-tors. state of wood).
Mechanical energy, such as the energy stored in a com-pressed The second law of thermodynamics specifies that sys-tems
spring, is yet another type of potential energy. Kinetic tend to movetoward disorder. How, then, does any sys-tem
energy can also express itself in different forms, including maintain its order? The order of an object or system can
thermal energy, light energy, sound energy, and electrical be increased by the input of energy from outside the system.
energy—all of which involve the movement of atoms, sub-atomic Living organisms, for example, maintain their highly ordered
particles, molecules, or objects. structure by consuming energy. When they die and these
inputs of energy cease, the organisms undergo decomposition
and attain a less-ordered state.
Energy is always conserved,
butit changes in quality
Light energy from the sun powers
Energy can change from one form to another, but it cannot
mostliving systems
be created or destroyed. Just as matter is conserved, the total
energy in the universe remains constant and thus is said to be The energy that powers Earth’s biological systems comes
conserved.Scientistsrefer to this principle asthe first law of primarily from the sun. The sun releases radiation across
thermodynamics. The potential energy of the water behind large portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, although our
a dam will equal the kinetic energy of its eventual movement atmosphere filters much of this out and we see only some of
downstream. Likewise, we obtain energy from the food we this radiation as visible light (FIGURE 2.13).
eat and then expend it in exercise, apply it toward maintain-ing Some organisms use the sun’s radiation directly to produce
our body and all of its functions, or store it in fat. We their own food. Such organisms, called autotrophs, or primary
do not somehow create additional energy or end up with less producers, include green plants, algae, and cyanobacteria.
energy than the food gives us. Any particular system in nature Through the process of photosynthesis (FIGURE 2.14), auto-trophs
can temporarily increase or decreasein energy, but the total use sunlight to power a series of chemical reactions
amount in the universe always remains constant. that transform molecules with lower-energy bonds—water
Although the overall amount of energy is conserved in and carbon dioxide—into sugar molecules with many high-energy
anyconversionof energy,the secondlaw of thermodynamics bonds. Photosynthesis is an example of a process
states that the nature of energy will change from a that
more-ordered moves toward a state of lower entropy, and so requires
state to a less-ordered state, as long as no force a substantial input of outside energy, in this case from
counteracts this tendency. That is, systems tend to move sunlight.
toward increasing disorder, or entropy. For instance, a log Photosynthesis occurs within cellular organelles called
of firewood—the highly organized and structurally com-plex chloroplasts, where the light-absorbing pigment chlorophyll
product of many years of tree growth—transforms in a (the substance that makes plants green) uses solar energy to
campfire to a residue of carbon ash, smoke, and gases such initiate a series of chemical reactions called 1 the light reac-tions.
as carbon dioxide and water vapor, as well as the light and During these reactions, water molecules split, releasing
the heat of the flame (FIGURE 2.12). With the help of oxygen, electrons whose energy is used to produce the high-energy
the complex biological polymers that make up the wood are molecules ATP (from the addition of a phosphate group to
converted into a disorganized assortment of rudimentary ADP) and NADPH (where a pair of electrons and a hydrogen
molecules and heat and light energy. When energy trans-forms ion are added to NADP1); ATP and NADPH are then used to
from a more-ordered to less-ordered state, it cannot fuel reactions in the Calvin cycle. During 2 the Calvin cycle,

CO2
Light

H2O
Heat

FIGURE 2.12 The burning

of firewood demonstrates
energy conversion from a
more-ordered to aless-ordered
state. This increase in
Potential energy Kinetic energy Increase in entropy
(stored in the chemical bonds (released as heat andlight) entropy reflects the second law
of organic molecules in wood) of thermodynamics

34 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 Microwaves Visible light
Radio Ultra-violet Gamma
Infrared X-rays
waves rays

Low energy, High energy,

longer shorter
wavelength wavelength

1 10–2 10–4 10–6 10–8 10–10 10–12 10–1

Wavelength (meters)

FIGURE 2.13 The sun emits radiation from many portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Visible light makes up only a small proportion of this energy.

carbon atoms—from the carbon dioxide in air that enters the by-product of photosynthesis, forming the oxygen gas in the
plant through its leaves—are linked together to produce sug-ars. air we breathe.
Thus in photosynthesis, plants draw up water from the Photosynthesis is a complex process, but the overall
ground through their roots, absorb carbon dioxide from the reaction can be summarized in the following equation:
air through their leaves, and harness the power of sunlight
with the light-absorbing pigment chlorophyll. With these 6 CO2+ 6 H2O+ thesun,s ¡ C6H12O6+ 6 O2
ingredients, green plants create sugars for their growth and
energy (sugar)
maintenance, and in turn provide chemical energy to any Not all primary production requires sunlight, however.
organism that eats them. Plants also release oxygen as a Onthe deep ocean floor, jets of water heated by magma in
the crust gush into the icy-cold depths. These hydrothermal
vents can host entire communities of specialized organisms
that thrive in the extreme high-temperature, high-pressure
conditions.
Hydrothermal vents are so deep underwaterthat they
completely lack sunlight, so the energy flow of these com-munities
cannot be fueled through photosynthesis.Instead,
Light energy
bacteria in deep-sea vents use the chemical-bond energy
of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to transform inorganic car-bon
Chloroplast into organic carbon compounds in a process called
chemosynthesis. Chemosynthesis occurs in various ways,
and one wayis defined bythe following equation:
1 Light reactions H2O O2

6 CO2 + 6 H2O + 3 H2S ¡ C6H12O6+ 3 H2SO4

ATP ADP (sugar)

NADP+
Energyfrom chemosynthesis passesthrough the deep-sea-vent
NADPH Inorganic
phosphate
animal community asconsumerssuch asgigantic clams,
tubeworms, mussels,fish, and shrimp gain nutrition from
chemoautotrophic bacteria and one another.

2 Calvin cycle CO2 Sugars

Cellularrespiration releases
chemical energy
Organisms make use of the chemical energy created by pho-tosynthesis
in a processcalled cellular respiration. In this
FIGURE 2.14 In photosynthesis, autotrophs use sunlight process, cells use oxygen to release the chemical energy of
to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar. glucose, converting it back into its original starting materi-als:
In the light reactions, the energy released by splitting water results waterand carbon dioxide. The energy released during
in the synthesis of the high-energy molecules ATP and NADPH,
this processis usedto power all of the biochemical reactions
forming oxygen as a by-product. ATP and NADPH are then used
that sustain life. The net equation for cellular respiration is the
to drive reactions in the Calvin cycle, in which carbon dioxide is
exact oppositeofthat for photosynthesis:
used to produce sugars. Molecules of ADP, NADP1, and inorganic
phosphate created in the Calvin cycle, in turn, help power the light C6H12O6+ 6 O2 ¡ 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + energy
reactions, creating an endless loop. (sugar)

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 35

 However, the energy released per glucose molecule in Some plant biomass is subsequently eaten by herbi-vores,
respiration is only two-thirds of the energy input per glucose which use the energy they gain from plant biomass
molecule in photosynthesis—a prime example of the second for their own metabolism or to generate biomass in their
law of thermodynamics. Cellular respiration is a continuous bodies (such as skin, muscle, or bone), termed secondary
process occurring in all living things and is essential to life. production. Herbivores are then eaten by higher-level
Thus, it occurs in the autotrophs that create glucose and also consumers, which are in turn eaten by higher levels of
in heterotrophs, organisms that gain their energy by feed-ing consumers. Thus, the chemical energy formed by photo-synthesis
on other organisms. Heterotrophs include most animals, in plants provides energy to higher and higher
as well as the fungi and microbes that decompose organic levels of consumers. This chemical energy is eventually
matter. released to the environment as heat when it is metabolized
by producers, consumers, or decomposers (FIGURE 2.15).
Then, when producers and consumers die, their bio-mass
is consumed and metabolized by detritivores and
Ecosystems decomposers.
In contrast to chemical energy, nutrients are generally
Let’s now apply our knowledge of chemistry and energy recycled within ecosystems. Energy and nutrients pass among
to see how energy, matter, and nutrients move through the organisms through trophic interactions in food-web relation-ships
living and nonliving environment. An ecosystem consists (p. 75). Chemical nutrients are recycled because when
of all organisms and nonliving entities that occur and inter-act organisms die and decay, their nutrients remain in the sys-tem—unlike
in a particular area at the same time. Animals, plants, the chemical energy that eventually leaves the
water, soil, nutrients—all these and more help compose ecosystem once it is metabolized.
ecosystems.
The ecosystem concept originated with scientists who
recognized that biological entities are tightly intertwined Ecosystems varyin their
with the chemical and physical aspects of their environment.
For instance, in the Chesapeake Bay estuary—a water body
productivity
where rivers flow into the ocean, mixing fresh water with Ecosystems differ in the rate at which autotrophs con-vert
saltwater—aquatic organisms are affected by the flow of energy to biomass. The rate at which this conversion
water, sediment, and nutrients from the rivers that feed the occurs is termed productivity, and the energy or biomass
bay and from the land that feeds those rivers. In turn, the pho-tosynthesis,
that remains in an ecosystem after autotrophs have metab-olized
respiration, and decomposition that these organ-isms enough for their own maintenance through cellular
undergo influence the chemical and physical conditions respiration is called net primary productivity. Ecosys-tems
of the Chesapeake’s waters. whose plants convert solar energy to biomass rapidly
Ecologists soon began analyzing ecosystems as an are said to have high net primary productivity. Freshwater
engineer might analyze the operation of a machine. In this wetlands, tropical forests, coral reefs, and algal beds tend
view, ecosystems are systems that receive inputs of energy, to have the highest net primary productivities, whereas
process and transform that energy while cycling chemi-cal deserts, tundra, and open ocean tend to have the lowest
nutrients internally, and produce outputs (such as heat, (FIGURE 2.16). Variation among ecosystems and among
water flow, and animal waste products) that enter other biomes (see Chapter 4) in net primary productivity results
ecosystems. in geographic patterns across the globe. In terrestrial eco-systems,
net primary productivity tends to increase with
temperature and precipitation. In aquatic ecosystems, net
Energyflows and mattercycles primary productivity tends to rise with light and the avail-ability

through ecosystems of nutrients.

Energy flows in one direction through ecosystems. As auto-trophs,

such as green plants and phytoplankton, convert solar Ecosystemsinteract across
energy to the energy of chemical bonds in sugar through
landscapes
the process of photosynthesis, they perform primary
production. The total amount of chemical energy pro-duced Ecosystems occur at different scales. An ecosystem can be as
by autotrophs is termed gross primary production. small as a puddle of water or as large as a bay, lake, or forest.
Autotrophs use most of this production to power their own For some purposes, scientists even view the entire biosphere
metabolism by cellular respiration, releasing heat energy to as a single all-encompassing ecosystem. The term ecosystem
the environment as a by-product. The energy that remains is most often used, however, to refer to systems of moder-ate
after respiration and that is used to generate biomass geographic extent that are somewhat self-contained. For
(such as leaves, stems, and roots) is called net primary example, the tidal marshesin the Chesapeake where river
production. Thus, net primary production equals gross water empties into the bay are an ecosystem, as are the sec-tions
primary production minus the energy used in respiration. of the bay dominated by oyster reefs

36 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 FIGURE 2.15 In systems, energy
Consumers flows in one direction, whereas
chemical nutrients cycle. Light energy
from the sun (yellow arrow) drives
photosynthesisin producers, which
begins the transfer of chemical energy in
Chemical nutrients
Chemical energy biomass (orange arrows) among trophic
is metabolized Hawk are conserved and
levels (pp. 73–75) and detritivores and
cycle within the
and then released
system. decomposers. Energy exits the system
as heatin a one-way
through cellular respiration in the form of
flow through
the system. heat (red arrows). Chemical nutrients
(gray arrows) cycle withinthe system.
For simplicity, various abiotic compo-nents
Rodent
(such as water, air, and inorganic
soil content) of ecosystems have been
omitted.

Grasshopper
Solar energy
Earthworm Soil bacteria

Detritivores and
decomposers

Flow of chemical
energy in biomass

Chemical Plant
nutrient cycling Producers
Heat loss

Adjacent ecosystems may share components and interact

Algal beds and reefs extensively. Rivers,tidal marshes,and open watersin estuaries
all may interact, as do forests and prairie where they converge.
Tropical rainforest
Areas where ecosystems meet may consist of transitional zones
Swamp and marsh calledecotones,in whichelementsof eachecosystemmix.
Because components of different ecosystems may inter-mix,
Tropical seasonal forest
ecologists often find it useful to view these systems

Estuaries
on larger geographic scales that encompass multiple eco-systems.
In such a broad-scale approach, called landscape
Temperate evergreen forest ecology, scientists study how landscape structure affects the
abundance, distribution, and interaction of organisms. Tak-ing
Temperate deciduous forest
a view across the landscape is important in studying birds
Savanna that migrate long distances, mammals that move seasonally
between mountains and valleys, and fish such as salmon that
Boreal forest
swim upriver from the ocean to reproduce.
For a landscape ecologist, a landscape is made up of
Cultivated land
patches (of ecosystems,communities, or habitat) arrayed
Temperate grassland

Continental shelf FIGURE 2.16 Net primary productivity varies greatly

between ecosystem types. Freshwater wetlands, tropical
Lake and stream
forests, coral reefs, and algal beds show high values on aver-age,
Tundra and alpine whereas deserts, tundra, and the open ocean show low
values. Datafrom Whittaker,R.H.,1975. Communitiesandecosystems,
Open ocean 2nd ed. New York, NY: Macmillan.
Terrestrial ecosystems
Aquatic ecosystems
Desert and semi-desert shrub If afarmerin the Amazonbasin converts a hectare of
tropical rainforest to cultivated land, how manytimes
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 less productive willthat hectare ofland be?
Net primary productivity
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
(g C/m2/yr)

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 3

 Montane coniferous
forest Ecotone Patches of forest
and grassland

Corridor

River

Lowland broadleaf forest Freshwater marsh

Grassland

FIGURE 2.17 Landscape ecology deals with spatial patterns above the ecosystem level. This generalized
diagram of alandscape shows a mosaic of patches offive ecosystem types (three terrestrial types, a marsh, and
a river). Thick red lines indicate ecotones. A stretch oflowland broadleaf forest running along the river serves as
a corridor connecting the large region of forest on the left to the smaller patch of forest alongside the marsh. The
inset shows a magnified view of the forest-grassland ecotone and how it consists of patches on a smaller scale.

spatially over a landscape in a mosaic (FIGURE 2.17). Land-scape

information systems (GIS)—computer software that takes
ecologyis of greatinterestto conservation biologists multiple types of data (for instance, on geology, hydrology,
(p. 181), scientists who study the loss, protection, and resto-ration vegetation, animal species, and human development) and
of biodiversity. Populations of organisms have spe-cific layers them together on a common set of geographic coordi-nates.

weighingthe habitat requirements and so GIS is being used in the Chesapeake Bay to assess its

ISSUeS
occupy suitable patches across current status and the progress being madetoward long-term
the landscape. Of particular con-cern restoration goals.
is the fragmentation of habi-tat

ecosystems Where You Live into small and isolated patches Modeling helps ecologists
Thinkaboutthe area whereyou
(p. 205)—something that often
understand systems
results from human development
live, and briefly describe its ecosys-tems.
How do these systemsinter-act? pressures. Establishing corridors Another way in which ecologists seek to make sense of the

If one ecosystem were greatly of habitat (see Figure 2.17) to link complex systems they study is by working with models. In sci-ence,

modified(say, if alarge apartment patches and allow animals to move a modelis a simplified representationof a complicated
complex were built atop a wetland among them is one approach that natural process, designed to help us understand how the process
or amid aforest), whatimpacts on conservation biologists pursue as occurs and to make predictions. Ecological modeling is the
nearby ecosystems might result? they attempt to maintain biodiver-sity practice of constructing and testing models that aim to explain
(Note: If you live in a city,realize in the face of human impact. and predict how ecological systems function (FIGURE 2.18).
that urban areas can be thought Landscape-level analyses Ecological models can be mathematically complicated,
of as ecosystems, too.) have been greatly aided by sat-ellite but they are grounded in actual data and based on hypotheses
imaging and geographic about how components interact in ecosystems. Models ar

38 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

used to make predictions about how large, compli-cated
systems will behave under different conditions.
Modeling is a vital pursuit in the scientific study of
Observe relationships
Earth’s changing climate (pp. 317–328), and ecolog-ical
in nature
models are used to predict the responses of fish,
crabs, oysters, and underwater grasses to changing
water conditions in the Chesapeake Bay.
Design hypothesis
to explain relationships
Ecosystemservices sustain
our world
Construct model
Human society depends on healthy, functioning
ecosystems. WhenEarth’s ecosystems function nor-mally
and undisturbed, they provide goods and ser-vices
Predict relationships
that we could not survive without. As we’ve
in nature
seen, werely not just on natural resources (which
can be thought of as goods from nature) but also on
the ecosystem services (p. 4) that our planet’s sys-tems
Gather new data
provide (TABLE 2.1).
Ecological services are the natural processes that
humans benefit from, such as the way soil nourishes
Refine model
our crops, estuaries purify the water we drink, insects
pollinate the food plants we eat, and bacteria break
down some of the waste and pollution we generate.
The negative feedback cycles that are typical of eco-systems
FIGURE 2.18 Ecological modelers observe relationships among variables
regulate and stabilize the climate and help to
in nature and then construct models to explain those relationships and
dampen the impacts of disturbances humans create in
make predictions. Theytest and refine the models by gathering new data
natural systems.
from nature and seeing how wellthe models predict those data
One of the most important ecosystem services is
the cycling of nutrients. Through the processes that take place
within and among ecosystems, the chemical elements and com-pounds TABLE 2.1 Ecosystem Services
that we need—water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and
many more—cycle through our environment in intricate ways. ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES DO MANY THINGS THAT
BENEFIT US:

Biogeochemical Cycles •

•
Cycle carbon,

Regulate oxygen,
nitrogen,

carbon
phosphorus,

dioxide,
and other

stratospheric
nutrients

ozone, and

Just as nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer on Pennsyl-vania other atmospheric gases

corn fields end up in Chesapeake Bay oysters, all nutri-ents • Regulate temperature and precipitation by means of ocean
move through the environment in intricate ways. As we currents, cloud formation, and so on
have discussed, whereas energy enters an ecosystem from the
• Store and regulate water supplies in watersheds and
sun, flows from organism to organism, and dissipates to the
aquifers
atmosphere as heat, the physical matter of an ecosystem is
circulated over and over again. • Form soil by weathering rock, and prevent soil erosion

• Protect against storms, floods, and droughts, mainly by the

Nutrients circulate through moderating effects of vegetation

ecosystemsin biogeochemical cycles • Filter waste, remove toxic substances, recover nutrients,
and control pollution
Nutrients move through ecosystems in nutrient cycles (or
• Pollinate plants and control crop pests
biogeochemical cycles) that circulate elements or molecules
through the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and bio-sphere. • Produce fish, game, crops, nuts, and fruits that people eat
A carbon atom in your fingernail today might have
• Supply lumber, fuel, metals, fodder, and fiber
been in the muscle of a cow a year ago, may have resided
in a blade of grass a month before that, and may have been • Provide recreation such as ecotourism, fishing, hiking,
part of a dinosaur’s tooth 100 million years ago. After we birding, hunting, and kayaking
die, the nutrients in our bodies will disperse into the envi-ronment,
• Provide aesthetic, artistic, educational, spiritual, and
and could be incorporated into other organisms far scientific amenities
into the future.

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 39

 As we will see in the following sections, human activities
Large flux
Source Sink affect the cycling of nutrients by altering fluxes, residence
times, and the relative amounts of nutrients in reservoirs.

Short Long
residence time residence time
Small flux The watercycle affects all other cycles
FIGURE 2.19 The main components of a biogeochemical Water is so integral to life and to Earth’s fundamental pro-cesses
cycle are reservoirs and fluxes. A source releases more materials
that we frequently take it for granted. Wateris the
than it accepts, and a sink accepts more materials than it releases.
essential medium for all manner of biochemical reactions,
and it plays key roles in nearly every environmental system,
Nutrients and other materials movefrom one reservoir, including each of the nutrient cycles we are about to dis-cuss.
or pool, to another, remaining in each reservoir for varying Water carries nutrients, sediments, and pollutants from
amounts of time (the residence time). The dinosaur, the the continents to the oceans via surface runoff, streams, and
grass, the cow, and your body are each reservoirs for carbon rivers. These materials can then be carried thousands of miles
atoms. The rate at which materials move between reservoirs on ocean currents. Water also carries atmospheric pollutants
is termed a flux. When a reservoir releases more materials to Earth’s surface when they dissolve in falling rain or snow.
than it accepts, it is called a source, and when a reservoir The hydrologic cycle, or water cycle (FIGURE 2.20), summa-rizes
accepts more materials than it releases, it is called a sink. how water—in liquid, gaseous, and solid forms—flows
FIGURE 2.19 illustrates these concepts in a simple manner. through our environment.

Atmosphere
12,700

Evaporation Precipitation
63,000 Ice caps, glaciers,
413,000 113,000
and snowfields
26,350,000

Precipitation Rivers and lakes

373,000 178,000 Evaporation
Extraction Transpiration

Runoff 7000
40,000

Land plants

Human use Uptake Infiltration

12,600
Water
tabl
Extraction Soil water 122,000

Oceans
1,335,000,000
Groundwater flow
2000 Aquifer
Groundwater
15,300,000

FIGURE 2.20 The water cycle, or hydrologic cycle, summarizes the many routes that water molecules
take as they move through the environment. Gray arrows represent fluxes among reservoirs for water. Oceans
hold 97% of our planet’s water, whereas most fresh water resides in groundwater and ice caps. Water vapor in
the atmosphere condenses and falls to the surface as precipitation, then evaporates from land and transpires from
plants to return to the atmosphere. Water flows downhill into rivers, eventually reaching the oceans. In the figure,
reservoir names are printed in black type, and numbers in black type represent reservoir sizes expressed in units of
cubic kilometers (km3). Processes give rise to fluxes, both of which are printed in italic red type and expressed in km3
per year. Datafrom Schlesinger, W.H.,2013. Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change, 3rd ed. London, England: Academic Press.

40 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 The oceans are the largest reservoir in the hydrologic The largest reservoir of carbon, sedimentary rock
cycle, holding morethan 97% of all water on Earth. The fresh (p. 235), is formed in oceans and freshwater wetlands. When
water we depend on for our survival accounts for the remain-ing organisms in these habitats die, their remains can settle in sed-iments,
water, and two-thirds of this small amount is tied up in and as layers of sediment accumulate, the older layers
glaciers, snowfields, and ice caps (p. 257). Thus, considerably are buried more deeply and experience high pressure for long
less than 1% of the planet’s water is in a form that we can periods. These conditions can convert soft tissues into fos-sil
readily use—groundwater, surface fresh water, and rain from fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—and can turn shells and
atmospheric water vapor. skeletons into sedimentary rock, such as limestone. Although
Water moves from oceans, lakes, ponds, rivers, and moist any given carbon atom spends a relatively short time in the
soil into the atmosphere by evaporation, the conversion of a atmosphere, carbon trapped in sedimentary rock may reside
liquid to gaseous form. Water also enters the atmosphere by there for hundreds of millions of years. Carbon trapped in
transpiration, the release of water vapor by plants through sedimentary rocks and fossil fuel deposits may eventually be
their leaves, or by evaporation from the surfaces of organ-isms released into the oceans or atmosphere by geologic processes
(such as sweating in humans). Water returns from the such as uplift, erosion, and volcanic eruptions. It also reenters
atmosphere to Earth’s surface as precipitation when water the atmosphere when we extract and burn fossil fuels.
vapor condenses and falls as rain or snow. Precipitation may Ocean waters are the second-largest reservoir of car-bon
be taken up by plants and used by animals, but much of on Earth. Oceans absorb carbon-containing compounds
it flows as runoff (p. 259) into streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, from the atmosphere, terrestrial runoff, undersea volcanoes,
and oceans. and the detritus of marine organisms. The rates at which the
Some water soaks down through soil and rock through a oceans absorb and release carbon depend on many factors,
process called infiltration, recharging underground reservoirs including temperature and the numbers of marine organisms
known as aquifers. Aquifers are porous regions of rock and converting CO2into carbohydrates and shells and skeletons.
soil that hold groundwater, water found within the soil. The Human activity affects the carbon cycles through our uses
upper limit of groundwater held in an aquifer is referred to as of coal, oil, and natural gas. By combusting fossil fuels, we
the water table. Groundwater becomes surface water whenit release carbon dioxide and greatly increase the flux of carbon
emerges from springs or flows into streams, rivers, lakes, or from the ground to the air. In addition, cutting down forests
the ocean from the soil (p. 258). removes carbon from the pool of vegetation and releases it to
Human activity affects every aspect of the water cycle. the air. And if less vegetation is left on the surface, there are
By damming rivers, we slow the movement of water from fewer plants to draw CO2 back out of the atmosphere.
the land to the sea, and we increase evaporation by holding As a result, scientists estimate that today’s atmospheric
water in reservoirs. Weremove natural vegetation by clear-cutting carbon dioxide reservoir is the largest that Earth has experi-enced
and developing land, which increases surface runoff, in the past 1 million years, and likely in the past 20 mil-lion
decreases infiltration and transpiration, and promotes evapo-ration. years. The ongoing flux of carbon into the atmosphere
Our withdrawals of surface water and groundwater for is one driving force behind today’s anthropogenic global cli-mate
agriculture, industry, and domestic uses deplete rivers, lakes, change (Chapter 14).
and streams and lower water tables. This can lead to water Some of the excess CO2 in the atmosphere is now being
shortages and conflicts over water supplies (p. 275). (We will absorbed by ocean water. This is causing ocean water to
revisit the water cycle, water resources, and human impacts in become more acidic, leading to problems that threaten many
more detail in Chapter 12.) marine organisms (pp. 283–284).
Our understanding of the carbon cycle is not yet com-plete.
Scientists remain baffled by the so-called missing
The carbon cycle circulates carbon sink. Of the carbon dioxide we emit by fossil fuel

a vital nutrient combustion

how much goes into
and deforestation,
the atmosphere
researchers
and oceans,
have measured
but there
As the definitive component of organic molecules, carbon remain roughly 2.3–2.6 billion metric tons unaccounted
is an ingredient in carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, and for. Many scientists think this CO2 is probably taken up by
occurs in the bones, cartilage, and shells of all living things. plants or soils of the temperate and boreal forests (pp. 85–89).
The carbon cycle describes the routes that carbon atoms They’d like to know for sure, though, because if certain for-ests
take through the environment (FIGURE 2.21). Autotrophs pull are acting as a major sink for carbon, conserving these
carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and out of surface water ecosystems is particularly vital.
to use in photosynthesis. They use some of the carbohydrates
from photosynthesis to fuel cellular respiration, thereby
releasing some of the carbon back into the atmosphere and The nitrogen cycleinvolves
oceans as CO2. When producers are eaten by consumers,
specialized bacteria
which in turn are eaten by other animals, more carbohydrates
are broken down in cellular respiration and released as carbon Nitrogen makesup 78% of our atmosphere by massandis the
dioxide. The same process occurs as decomposers consume sixth most abundant element on Earth. It is an essential ingre-dient
waste and dead organic matter. in proteins, DNA, and RNA and, like phosphorus, is an

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 4

 Atmosphere

Respiration Respiration
GPP

Consumers Producers

Atmosphere
Decomposers
750 + 5.0/yr

Oceans 90

Ocean–atmosphere Reduced
uptake by
exchange Fossil fuel plants Respiration Respiration
0.9
92 combustion 60 60
Volcanic GPP
and hydrothermal 9.1
120
emissions
< 0.1 Rivers
Net
deforestation

Runoff
0.8 Land
Oceans Weathering plants Consumers
38,000 < 0.1 615
Anthropogenic
sources

Decomposition

Burial 0.1 Fossil fuel

extraction
Soil and
Oceans Fossil fuels soil biota
(coal, oil, natural gas) 2344
Sedimentary rock 4000
80,600,000

FIGURE 2.21 The carbon cycle summarizes the many routes that carbon atoms take as they move
through the environment. Gray arrows represent fluxes among reservoirs for carbon. In the carbon cycle,
plants use carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for photosynthesis (gross primary production, or “GPP” in the
figure). Carbon dioxide is returned to the atmosphere through cellular respiration by plants, their consumers,
and decomposers. The oceans sequester carbon in their water and in deep sediments. The vast majority of
the planet’s carbon is stored in sedimentary rock. In the figure, reservoir names are printed in black type, and
numbers in black type represent reservoir sizes expressed in petagrams (units of 1015 g) of carbon. Processes
give rise to fluxes, both of which are printed in italic red type and expressed in petagrams of carbon per year.
Data from Schlesinger, W.H., 2013. Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change, 3rd ed. London, England: Academic Press.

essential nutrient for plant growth. Thus the nitrogen cycle accomplished in two ways: by the intense energy of lightning
(FIGURE 2.22) is of vital importance to all organisms. Despite strikes or by particular types of nitrogen-fixing bacteria that
its abundance in the air, nitrogen gas (N2) is chemically inert inhabit the top layer of soil. These bacteria live in a mutual-istic
and cannot cycle out of the atmosphere and into living organ-isms relationship (p. 73) with many types of plants, includ-ing
without assistance from lightning, highly specialized soybeans and other legumes, providing them nutrients by
bacteria, or human intervention. However, once nitrogen converting nitrogen to a usable form. Other types of bacteria
undergoes the right kind of chemical change, it becomes bio-logically
then perform a process known as nitrification, converting
active and available to the organisms that need it, ammonium ions first into nitrite ions (NO2 –), then into nitrate
and can act as a potent fertilizer. ions (NO3 –). Plants can take up these ions, which also become
To become biologically available, inert nitrogen gas (N2) available after atmospheric deposition on soils or in water or
mustbe “fixed,” or combined with hydrogen in natureto form after application of nitrate-based fertilizer.
ammonia (NH3), whose water-soluble ions of ammonium Animals obtain the nitrogen they need by consuming
(NH4 1) can be taken up by plants. Nitrogen fixation can be plants or other animals. Decomposers obtain nitrogen fro

42 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 Atmosphere (N2)

Fixation Dust from

150 lan
Volatilization

Precipitation Denitrification
67 300

Atmosphere (N2)
NO2 –

NH3 NH4+ 3,870,000,000

NO3 –

Denitrification
Producers Consumers 81
Biotic
cycling
Emissions Fixation
8000
Decomposers (NOX) ) 20 by lightning
4

Oceans
Rivers
Consumers Land plants Natural
biological
Runoff 58
fixation
Fixation by 120
100
crops (60) Assimilation
1200
Industry and and fertilizer Decomposition
automobiles production (136) and waste

Oceans Deposition in NH4 + NO2_

Nitrification NO3
precipitation
Bacterial conversion
Inorganic N
720,000 Extraction and Groundwater Soil organic matter (NH3)
combustion infiltration 115,000
118
Burial 10 Groundwater
Fossil fuels

Sediments and sedimentary rock

FIGURE 2.22 The nitrogen cycle summarizes the many routes that nitrogen atoms take as they move
through the environment. Gray arrows represent fluxes among reservoirs for nitrogen. In the nitrogen cycle,
specialized bacteria play key roles in “fixing” atmospheric nitrogen and converting it to chemical forms that
plants can use. Other types of bacteria convert nitrogen compounds back to the atmospheric gas, N2.In the
oceans, inorganic nitrogen is buried in sediments, whereas nitrogen compounds are cycled through food webs
as they are on land. In the figure, reservoir names are printed in black type, and numbers in black type repre-sent
reservoir sizes expressed in teragrams (units of 1012 g) of nitrogen. Processes give rise to fluxes, both
of which are printed in italic red type and expressed in teragrams of nitrogen per year. Datafrom Schlesinger, W.H.,
2013. Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change, 3rd ed. London, England: Academic Press.

dead and decaying plant and animal matter, and from the our species is fixing at least as much nitrogen artificially as
urine and feces of animals. Once decomposers process the is being fixed naturally, and we are overwhelming nature’s
nitrogen-rich compounds, they release ammonium ions, denitrification abilities.
making these available to nitrifying bacteria to convert again While the impacts of nitrogen runoff have become
to nitrates and nitrites. The next step in the nitrogen cycle painfully evident to oystermen and scientists in the Ches-apeake
occurs when denitrifying bacteria convert nitrates in soil Bay, hypoxia in waters is by no means the only
or water to gaseous nitrogen. Denitrification thereby com-pletes human impact on the nitrogen cycle. Oddly enough, the
the cycle by releasing nitrogen back into the atmo-sphere overapplication of nitrogen-based fertilizers can strip the
as a gas. soil of other vital nutrients, such as calcium and potassium,
Historically, nitrogen fixation was a bottleneck, a step thereby reducing soil fertility. Additionally, burning fossil
that limited the flux of nitrogen out of the atmosphere and fuels, forests, or fields generates nitrogenous compounds in
into water-soluble forms. Once people discovered how to the atmosphere that act as greenhouse gases (p. 314), cause
fix nitrogen on massive scales, a process called industrial acid deposition (p. 303), promote eutrophication, and con-tribute
fixation, we accelerated its flux into other reservoirs. Today, to photochemical smog (p. 296).

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 43

 The phosphorus cycle circulates People increase phospho-rus weighingthe
alimited nutrient
concentrations
waters through runoff
in surface
of the ISSUeS
Sedimentaryrocks arethe largestreservoirin the phosphorus phosphorus-rich fertilizers we
cycle (FIGURE 2.23). The vast majority of Earth’s phosphorus apply to lawns and farmlands. Nutrient pollution and Its

is contained within rocks and is released only by weathering A 2008 study determined that Financial Impacts

(p. 144), whichreleasesphosphateions (PO432) into water. an average hectare of land in A sizeable amount of the nitrogen

Phosphates dissolved in lakes or in the oceans precipitate into the Chesapeake Bay region and phosphorus that enter the

solid form, settle to the bottom, and reenter the lithosphere received a net input of 4.52 kg Chesapeake Bay originates from

in sediments. Thescarcity of phosphorusin watersand soils (10 lb) of phosphorus per year, farms and other sources far from

explains why phosphorus is frequently a limiting factor for promoting phosphorus the bay, yet people living
accu-mulation near the
bay, such as oystermen and crab-bers,
plant growth. in soils, runoff into
Aquatic producerstake up phosphatesfrom surround-ing waterways, and phytoplankton are the ones who bear many
of the negative impacts. Who do
waters, whereas terrestrial producers take up phos-phorus
blooms and hypoxia in the bay.
you believe should be responsible
from soil water through their roots. Herbivores People also add phosphorus to
for addressing this problem?
acquire phosphorusfrom plant tissues and passit on to waterways through releases
Should environmental policies be
higher predators when they are consumed. Animals also of treated wastewater rich in
developed and enforced by state
pass phosphorus to the soil through the excretion of waste. phosphates from the detergents
governments, the federal govern-ment,
Decomposersbreak down phosphorus-rich organisms and we use to wash our clothes and
both, or neither? Explain
their wastesand, in so doing, return phosphorus to the soil. dishes.
the reasons for your answer.

Biotic cycling
1150

Atmosphere

Consumers Producers Transport of dust and sea spray

Decomposers

Uptake 2 Mineable rock

12,800
Weathering
Mining 25

Rivers

Land plants
Runoff Erosion
500
21 Consumers
Pollution

Fertilizers
Uptake
and detergents Geologic
85
Burial
uplift
19 Decomposers
Oceans
Burial 2 Soils
90,000
66,000
Sediment and sedimentary rock
4,000,000,000

FIGURE 2.23 The phosphorus cycle summarizes the many routes that phosphorus atoms take as
they move through the environment. Gray arrows represent fluxes among reservoirs for phosphorus. Most
phosphorus resides underground in rock and sediment. Rocks containing phosphorus are uplifted geologically
and slowly weathered away. Small amounts of phosphorus cycle through food webs, where this nutrient is often
alimiting factor for plant growth. In the figure, reservoir names are printed in black type, and numbers in black
type represent reservoir sizes expressed in teragrams (units of 1012 g) of phosphorus. Processes give rise to
fluxes, both of which are printed in italic red type and expressed in teragrams of phosphorus per year. Data from
Schlesinger, W.H., 2013. Biogeochemistry: An analysis of global change, 3rd ed. London, England: Academic Press.

44 Chapter 2 Environmental Systems

 FIGURE 2.24 Costs for reducing nitrogen
$200+ Stormwater
inputs into the Chesapeake Bay vary widely.
WWTP
($/lb
Approaches that slow runoff to waterways avoid
Agriculture
nitrogen inputs for a few dollars per pound,
cost
$92.40
New practices
whereasupgradesto wastewatertreatment plants
(WWTP), enhanced nutrient management plans
pollution (NMP—careful regulation of nutrient applications),
and stormwater upgrades can be considerably
$47.40
more expensive. Datafrom Jones, C.,et al., 2010. How
nutrient trading could help restore the Chesapeake Bay. WRI
nitrogen

$21.90 Working Paper. Washington D.C.: World Resources Institute.

Annual
$15.80
$7.00 $4.70 $3.20 $3.20 $3.10 $1.50 For whatit costs to remove 1 pound of
Stormwater WWTP WWTP Cover Grassed Restored/ nitrogen by using enhanced nutrient man-agement
retrofits upgrades upgrades crops buffers constructed
programs (NMP), how many pounds of
(High) (Low) wetlands
Stormwater Enhanced Native Conservation Forest nitrogen could be kept out of waterways by planting
management for NMP oyster tillage buffers forested buffers around streams instead?
new development aquaculture
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on
Strategy
Mastering Environmental Science

Tackling nutrient enrichment • Using natural and constructed wetlands (p. 280) to filter
stormwater and farmland runoff
requires diverse approaches
• Improving technologies in sewage treatment plants to
Given our reliance on synthetic fertilizers for food production enhance nitrogen and phosphorus capture
and fossil fuels for energy, nutrient enrichment of ecosystems • Upgrading stormwater systems to capture runoff from
will pose a challenge for many years to come. Fortunately, a roads and parking lots
number of approaches are available to control nutrient pollu-tion
• Reducing fossil fuel combustion to minimize atmo-spheric
in the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways affected by
inputs of nitrogen to waterways
eutrophication, including:
Some of these methods cost more than others for similar
• Reducing fertilizer use on farms and lawns and timing its
results. For example, planting vegetation buffers and restor-ing
application to reduce waterrunoff
wetlands can reduce nutrient inputs into waterways at a
• Planting and maintaining vegetation “buffers” around fraction of the cost of some other approaches, such as upgrad-ing
streams to trap nutrient and sediment runoff wastewater treatment plants (FIGURE 2.24).

SUCCESS Considering Cost When Saving the Bay

STORY
The federal government One reason for the recent success is due to farmers,
and the states around residents, resource managers, and local, state, and federal
the Chesapeake Bay are now government agencies embracing a variety of approaches
managing the bay as a holistic to reduce nutrient inputs into the bay. Some of these
system—an approach that, at methods cost morethan others for similar results. For
last, offers prospects for recov-ery. example, planting vegetation buffers and restoring wetlands
This systemic approach is can reduce nutrient inputs into waterways at a fraction of
showing earlysigns of success. the cost of some other approaches, such as upgrading
The Chesapeake Bay Founda-tion’s wastewater treatment plants. By educating people about
most recent “State of the manyinexpensive yet effective steps that can be taken
the Bay” report (published in Aforested buffer lining in yards, farms, businesses, and local communities to
2016) concluded that the bay’s a waterway in Maryland. reduce nutrient inputs into the Chesapeake Bay, saving
health rating in 2016 was the the bay became something for which everyone can do his
highest it had been since CBF’s founding in 1964, with mean-ingful or her part.
improvements in pollution reduction, fisheries recovery,
and the restoration of natural habitats in and around the bay. EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 45

 closing the LOOp

Earth hosts many complex and inter-acting landscape ecology, GIS, and ecological modeling aid these
systems, and the way we per-ceive efforts by providing a broad view of the Chesapeake Bay eco-system,
them depends on the questions and how it may react to changes in nutrient inputs
we ask. Life interacts with its nonliving and restoration efforts.
environment in ecosystems, systems While the progress made toward recovery is certainly
through which energy flows and materials encouraging, the program’s long term future is uncertain, as the
are recycled. Energy and chemistry, including budget submitted in 2017 by the Trump administration elimi-nated
the cycles that circulate vital nutrients, are tied to nearly every federal funding for its cleanup efforts. While Congress
environmental issue examined in this textbook. Applications has indicated a willingness to continue the program, if it were to
of chemistry can provide solutions to environmental problems side with the President and defund the program, efforts to rem-edy
involving agricultural practices, water resources, air quality, the Chesapeake Bay willlikely collapse. Butif the program
energy policy, and environmental health. can be continued, the 18 million people living in the Chesapeake
The Chesapeake Bay provides a case study that illus-trates Bay watershed have reason to hope that the Chesapeake Bay
the importance of understanding systems, chemistry, of tomorrow may be healthier than it is today, thanks to the
and the need for taking a systems-level approach to restore collaborative efforts of concerned citizens, advocacy organiza-tions,
ecosystems degraded by human activities. Tools such as and the federal and bay-state governments.

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Which type of feedback loop is more common in nature, 7. List five ecosystem services provided by functioning
and which more commonly results from human action? ecosystems, and rank them according to your perceived
For either type of feedback loop, provide an example value of each.
that was not mentioned in the text. 8. What role does each of the following play in the carbon
2. Describe how hypoxic conditions can develop in aquatic cycle?
ecosystems such as the Chesapeake Bay.
• Photosynthesis
3. Differentiate an ion from an isotope.
• Automobiles
4. Describe the two major forms of energy and give
• The oceans
examples of each. Compare and contrast the first
law of thermodynamics with the second law of • Earth’s crust

thermodynamics. 9. Distinguish the function performed by nitrogen-fixing

5. What substances are produced by the process of bacteria from that performed by denitrifying bacteria.
photosynthesis? By cellular respiration? 10. How has human activity altered the hydrologic cycle?
6. Compare and contrast the typical movements of energy The carbon cycle? The phosphorus cycle? The nitrogen
and matter through an ecosystem. cycle? What environmental problems have been
produced by these alterations?

SEEKINGSolutions
1. Can you think of an example of an environmental • Aforest-breeding warbler that suffers poor nesting
problem not mentioned in this chapter that a good success in small, fragmented forest patches
knowledge of chemistry could help us solve? Explain • A bighorn sheep that must move seasonally between
your answer. mountains and lowlands
2. Consider the ecosystem(s) that surround(s) your • A toad that lives in upland areas but travels cross-country
campus. How is each affected by human activities? to breed in localized pools each spring
3. For a conservation biologist interested in sustaining 4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION Suppose you are
populations ofthe organisms that follow, why wouldit a Pennsylvania farmer who has learned that the
be helpful to take a landscape ecology perspective? government is offering incentives to farmers to help
Explain your answer in each case. reduce fertilizer runoff into the Chesapeake Bay. What

46 Chapter 2 Environmental System

 types of approaches described in this chapter might you oysters. One day your senator comes to town, and
be willing to try, and why? you have a one-minute audience with her. What steps
5. THINK IT THROUGH You are an oysterman in the would you urge her to take in Washington, D.C., to try to

Chesapeake Bay, and your income is decreasing help alleviate the dead zone and bring back the oyster
because the dead zone is making it harder to harvest fishery?

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints

The second law of thermodynamics has profound implica-tions 10 Calories of plant material. So, when we raise animals for
for human impacts on the environment, as it affects meat using grain, it is less energetically efficient than if we ate
the efficiency with which we produce our food. In ecological the grain directly.
systems, a rough rule of thumb is that when energy is trans-ferred Humans are considered omnivores because we can eat
from plants to plant-eaters or from prey to predator, both plants and animals. The choices we make about what
the efficiency is only about 10% (p. 74). Much of this inef-ficiencyto eat have significant ecological consequences. With this in
is a consequence of the second law of thermody-namics. mind, calculate the ecological energy requirements for four
Another way to think of this is that eating 1 Calorie different diets, each of which provides a total of 2000 dietary
of meat from an animal is the ecological equivalent of eating Calories per day.

NUMBER OF ECOLOGICALLY TOTAL ECOLOGICALLY

SOURCE OF CALORIES EQUIVALENT EQUIVALENT
DIET CALORIES CONSUMED CALORIES CALORIES

100% plant Plant

0% animal Animal

90% plant Plant 1800 1800 3800

10% animal Animal 200 2000

50% plant Plant

50% animal Animal

0% plant Plant

100% animal Animal

1. How many ecologically equivalent Calories would it 3. What percentages of the Calories in your own diet do
take to support you for a year for each of the four diets you think come from plant versus animal sources?
listed? Estimate the ecological impact of your diet, relative to

2. How does the ecological impact from a diet consisting a strictly vegetarian one.
strictly of animal products (e.g., dairy products, eggs, 4. List the major factors influencing your current diet
and meat) compare with that of a strictly vegetarian (e.g., financial considerations, convenience, access to
diet? How many additional ecologically equivalent groceries, taste preferences). Do you envision your diet’s
Calories do you consume each day byincluding aslittle distribution of plant and animal Calories changing in the
as 10% of your Calories from animal sources? near future? Why or why not?

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Go to Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Go to Mastering Environmental Science for automatically
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, graded activities, current events, videos, and reading questions that you
and activities. can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

Chapter 2 Environmental Systems 4

 Evolution,
Biodiversit
CHAPTER
andPopulation
Ecology

48 Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology

 central CASESTUDY

SavingHawaii’s
NativeForest Birds
HAWAI`I
When an entire island Jack Jeffreystopped in histracks.
avifauna . . . is devastated “I hear one!” he said. “Over there
almost overnight because of in those trees!”
Pacific Ocean
human meddling, it is, quite
Jeffrey led his group of
simply, a tragedy.
ecotourists through alush and misty woodland of ferns,
—H. Douglas Pratt, ornithologist and

expert on Hawaiian birds

shrubs, and vines toward an emphatic chirping sound.
They ducked under twisting gnarled limbs covered with
To keep every cog and wheel moss and lichens, beneath stately ancient ‘hi‘a-lehua
is the first precaution of trees offering bright red flowers loaded with nectar and
intelligent tinkering. pollen. Atlast, in the branches of a koa tree, they spotted
—Aldo Leopold
the bird—an ‘akiapl‘au, one of fewer than 1500 of its
kind left alivein the world.
The ‘akiapl‘au (or “aki” for short) is a sparrow-sized
wonder of nature—one of many exquisite birds
that evolved on the Hawaiian Islands and exists only here (see photo below). For millions of
years, this chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has acted as a cradle of evolu-tion,
generating new and unique species. Yet today many of these species are going from
the cradle to the grave. Half of Hawaii’s native bird species (70 of 140) have gone extinct in
recent times, and many of those that remain—like the aki—teeter on the brink of extinction.
The aki is a type of Hawaiian honeycreeper. The Hawaiian honeycreepers include
18 living species (and at least 38 species recently extinct), all of which originated from an
ancestral species that reached Hawai‘i several million years ago. As new volcanic islands
Upon completing this emerged from the ocean and then eroded away, and as forests expanded and contracted
chapter, you will be able to: over millennia, populations were split and new honeycreeper species evolved.

• Explain natural selection and cite As honeycreeper species diverged from their common ancestor and from one another,
evidence for this process they evolved different colors, sizes, body shapes, feeding behaviors, mating preferences,

• Describe how evolution generates

diets, and bill shapes. Billsin some species became short and
and shapes biodiversity
straight, allowing birds to gleaninsects from leaves. In other
species, bills became long and curved, enabling birds
• Discuss the factors behind species
to probe into flowers to sip nectar. The bills of still
extinction and identify Earth’s
other species became thick and strong for crack-ing
known mass extinction events
seeds. Some birds evolved highly special-ized
• List the levels of ecological
bills: The aki uses the short, straight lower
organization
half of its bill to peck into dead branches to
• Outline the characteristics of
find beetle grubs, then uses the long, curved
populations that help predict
upper half to reach in and extract them.
population growth
Hawaii’s honeycreepers thrived for
• Explain how logistic growth, several million years in the islands’ forests,
limiting factors, carrying capacity,
amid a unique community of plants found
and other fundamental concepts
nowhere else in the world. Yet today these
affect population ecology
native Hawaiian forests are under siege. The
• Identify and discuss challenges crisis began 750 or more years ago as Polyne-sian
and current efforts in conserving
settlers colonized the islands, cutting down
biodiversity
trees and introducing non-native animals. Europe-ans
arrived more than 200 years ago and did more of
the same. Pigs, goats, and cattle ate their waythrough the

The endangered ‘akiapl‘au

Native Hawaiian forest at Hakalau
Forest National Wildlife Refuge 4
 native plants, transforming luxuriant forests into ragged grass-lands.
Rats, cats, dogs, and mongooses destroyed the eggs KAUA`I

and young of native birds. Foreign plants from Asia, Europe, and
America, whose seeds accompanied the people and animals, O`AHU
spread across the altered landscape.
Foreign diseases also arrived, including strains of pox and
MAUI
malariathat target birds. The native fauna were not adapted to
resist pathogens they had never encountered. Avian pox and avian Hakalau
Forest NWR
malaria, carried by introduced mosquitoes, killed off native birds
everywhere except on high mountain slopes, where it was too Mauna Kea
Pacific Hilo
cold for mosquitoes. Today few native forest birds exist anywhere
Ocean Mauna Loa
on the Hawaiian Islands below 1500 m(4500 ft) in elevation.
The aki being watched by Jeffrey’s group inhabits the
Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, high atop the slopes
of Mauna Kea, a volcano on the island of Hawai‘i, the largest HAWAI`I
island in the chain (FIGURE 3.1). At Hakalau, native birds find a
rare remaining patch of disease-free native forest. FIGURE 3.1 The Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge lies
Jeffrey was a biologist at Hakalau for 20 years before his on the slopes of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawai‘i.
retirement, and led innovative projects to save native plants and
birds from extinction. Staff and volunteers at Hakalau fenced out so that even protected areas such as Hakalau are not immune.
pigs and planted thousands of native plants in areas deforested The next generation of managers will need to innovate further to
by cattle grazing. Youngrestored nativeforest is now regrowing fend off extinction for the island’s native species.
on thousands of acres. More birds are using this restored forest Plenty of challenges remain, but the successes at Hakalau
every year. Forest so far provide hope that through responsible manage-ment
However,today global climate change is presenting new we can restore Hawaii’s native flora and fauna, prevent
challenges. As temperatures climb, mosquitoes move upslope, further impacts, and preserve the priceless bounty of millions of
and malaria and pox spread deeper into the remaining forests, years of evolution on this extraordinary chain ofislands.

Evolution:TheSource Natural selection shapes organisms

of Earth’sBiodiversity the
Natural selection
process of natural
is a primary
selection,
mechanism
inherited
of evolution.
characteristics
In

The animals and plants native to the Hawaiian Islands help that enhance survival and reproduction are passed on more
reveal how our world becamepopulated withthe remarkable frequently to future generations than characteristics that
diversity of life wesee today—a lush cornucopia of millions do not, thereby altering the genetic makeup of populations
of species (FIGURE 3.2). through time.
Aspeciesis a particulartype of organism. Moreprecisely, Natural selection is a simple concept that offers a powerful
it is a population or group of populations whose members explanation for patterns evident in nature. The idea of natural
share characteristics and can freely breed with one another selection follows logically from a few straightforward facts that
and producefertile offspring. A populationis a groupof indi-viduals
are readily apparent to anyone who observes the life around us:
of a given species that live in a particular region at a • Organisms face a constant struggle to survive and reproduce.
particular time. Over vast spans of time, the process of evolu-tion
• Organisms tend to produce more offspring than can
hasshapedpopulationsandspecies,giving usthe vibrant
survive to maturity.
abundance of life that enriches Earthtoday.
• Individuals of a species vary in their attributes.
In its broad sense, the term evolution meanschange over
time. In its biological sense, evolution consists of change Variation is due to differences in genes, the environments
in populations of organisms from generation to genera-tion. in which genes are expressed, and the interactions between
Changesin genes (p. 33) often lead to modifications in genes and environment. As a result of this variation, some
appearanceor behavior. individuals of a species will be better suited to their environ-ment
Evolution is one of the best-supported and mostillumi-nating than others and will be better able to reproduce.
concepts in all of science, and it is the very founda-tion Attributes are passed from parent to offspring through
of modernbiology. Perceivinghowspeciesadaptto their the genes, and a parent that produces many offspring will pass
environments and change over time is crucial for compre-hending on more genes to the next generation than a parent that pro-duces
ecology and for learning the history of life. Evolu-tionary few or no offspring. In the next generation, therefore,
processesinfluence manyaspectsof environmental the genes of better-adapted individuals will outnumber those
science, including agriculture, pesticide resistance, medicine, of individuals that are less well adapted. From one generation
and environmentalhealth. to another through time, characteristics, or traits, that lea

50 Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology

 to better and better repro-ductive mechanism to explain how and why organisms evolve through
success in a given time. Once geneticists worked out how traits are inherited, this
environment will evolve in understanding launched evolutionary biology. In the century and

FaQ
the population. This pro-cess a half since Darwin and Wallace,
is termed adaptation, legions of researchers have refined
and a trait that promotes our understanding of evolution,
reproductive success is powering dazzling progress in bi-ology
Isn’t evolution based on just
also called an adaptation that has helped shape our one man’s beliefs?
or an adaptive trait. society. Because Charles Darwin con-tributed
The concept of natural so muchto our early

1
selection
in the
was first proposed
1850s by Charles
Understanding understanding of evolution,
people assume the concept itself
many

Darwin and, indepen-dently, evolution is vital hinges on his ideas. But scientists
by Alfred Russel
for modernsociety andlaypeople had been observing
Wallace, two exceptionally nature, puzzling over fossils, and

keen British naturalists. Evolutionary processes play key discussing the notion of evolution
By this time, scientists and roles in today’s society and in our long before Darwin. Once he and

amateur naturalists were everyday lives. As we will see Alfred Russel Wallaceindepen-dently
widely discussing the idea shortly, we depend on a work-ing proposed the concept of

that populations evolve, yet knowledge of evolution for natural selection, scientists finally
gained a way of explaining how
no one could say how or the food we eat and the clothes
2 and why organisms change across
why. After spending years we wear, each and every day,
generations. Later, geneticists dis-covered
studying and catalogu-ing as these have been made pos-sible
Gregor Mendel’sresearch
an immense variety of by the selective breeding
on inheritance and worked out
natural phenomena—in his of crops and livestock. Applying
how traits are passed on—and
English garden and across an understanding of evolution to
modern evolutionary biology was
the world to the Galápagos agriculture can also help us avoid
born. Twentieth-century scientists
Islands—Darwin finally antibiotic resistance in feedlots
Ronald Fisher, Sewall Wright,
concluded that natural se-lectionand pesticide resistance in crop-eating
Theodosius Dobzhansky, George
helped explain the insects (p. 152).
Gaylord Simpson, Ernst Mayr, and
world’s great variety of liv-ing Medical advances result others ran experiments and devel-oped
things. Once he came to from our knowledge of evolution, sophisticated mathematical
this conclusion, however, as well. Understanding evolution models, documenting phenom-ena
3
Darwin put off publishing helps us determine how infectious with extensive evidence and
his findings, fearing the so-cial diseases spread and how they gain building evolutionary biology into
disruption that might or lose potency. It allows scien-tists one of science’s strongest fields.
ensue if people felt their to track the constantly evolv-ing Sincethen, evolutionary research
religious convictions were strains of influenza (flu), HIV by thousands of scientists has

threatened. Darwin was (human immunodeficiency virus, driven our understanding of biol-ogy
at last driven to go public which causes AIDS), and other and has facilitated spectacular

when Wallace wrote to him pathogens. Armed with such advancesin agriculture, medicine,
from the Asian tropics, in-dependently
information, biomedical experts and technology.

describing the can predict which flu strains will

idea of natural selection. most likely spread in a given year
The two men’s shared ideas and then design effective vaccines targeting them. Compre-hending
were presented together at a evolution also enables usto detect and respond to the
scientific meeting in 1858, evolution of antibiotic resistance by dangerous bacteria.
and the next year Darwin Additionally, applying our knowledge of evolution
published his groundbreak-ing informs our technology. From studying how organisms adapt
book, On the Origin of to challenges and evolve new abilities, we develop ideas on
Species. how to design technologies and engineer solutions.
With natural selection,

4
humanity at last
a precise and viable
uncov-ered
Selection acts on genetic variation
For an organism to pass a trait along to future generations,

FIGURE 3.2 Hawai‘i hosts a treasure trove of biodiversity, genesin its DNA (p. 32) mustcode for the trait. In an organ-ism’s
including the 1 happyface spider, 2 ‘i‘iwi, 3 nn, and lifetime, its DNA will be copied millions of times by
4 Haleakala silversword. millions of cells. Amid all this copying, sometimes a mistake

Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology 5

 Generalists

Foragers among leaves

Nectarivores

Cactus
in Arizona

Bark pickers
Seed and
fruit eaters
Euphorb (spurge)
in the CanaryIslands

(a) Divergent evolution of Hawaiian honeycreepers (b) Convergent evolution of cactus and spurge

FIGURE 3.3 Natural selection can cause closely related species to diverge or distantly related
species to converge. Hawaiian honeycreepers (a) diversified as they adapted to different food resources and
habitats, as indicated by the diversity of their plumage colors and bill shapes. In contrast, cacti of the Americas
and euphorbs of Africa (b) became similar to one another as they independently adapted to arid environments.
These plants each evolved succulent tissues to hold water, thorns to keep thirsty animals away, and photosyn-thetic
stems without leaves to reduce surface area and water loss.

is made. Accidental changes in DNA, called mutations, give in the evolution of traits that enable success within a given
rise to genetic variation amongindividuals. If a mutation environment. Closelyrelated speciesthat live in different
occurs in a sperm or egg cell, it may be passed on to the next environments tend to diverge in their traits as differing selec-tive
generation. Most mutations havelittle effect, but some can be pressures drive the evolution of different adaptations
deadly,and otherscan be beneficial. Thosethat are notlethal (FIGURE 3.3a). Conversely,sometimes very unrelated spe-cies
provide the genetic variation on which natural selection acts. living in similar environments in separate locations may
Genetic variation also results as organisms mix their independently acquire similar traits as they adapt to selective
genetic materialthrough sexual reproduction. Whenorgan-ismspressures;this is called convergent evolution (FIGURE3.3b).
reproduce sexually, each parent contributes to the genes
of the offspring, producing novel combinations of genes and Evidence ofselection is all around us
generatingvariation amongindividuals.
Genetic variation can help populations adapt to chang-ing Theresults of naturalselection are all around us, visible in
every adaptation of every organism.
environmental conditions. For example, one of the honey-creeper Moreover, scientists
species of the Hakalau Forest,the ‘amakihi, has have demonstrated the rapid evolution of traits by selection
recently been discovered in ‘hi‘a trees atlow elevations where in countlesslab experiments withfast-reproducing organisms
avian malaria has killed off other honeycreepers. Research-ers such as bacteria, yeast, and fruit flies.
determinedthat some of the ‘amakihis living there when The evidence for selection that may be most famil-iar
malariaarrived had genes that by chance gave them a natural to usis that which Darwin himself cited prominently in
resistance to the disease. Theseresistant birds survived malaria’s his work 160 years ago: our breeding of domesticated ani-mals.
onslaught, and their descendantsthat carried the malaria-resistant In dogs, cats, and livestock, we have conducted selec-tion
genesreestablished a population that is growing today. under our own direction;that is, artificial selection. We
Environmental conditions determine the pressures have chosen animals possessing traits we like and bred them
that natural selection will exert, and these selective pres-sures
together, while culling out individuals with traits we do not
in turn affect which members of a population will like. Through such selective breeding, we have been able to
survive and reproduce. Over manygenerations,this results augment particular traits we prefer

52 Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology

 Saint
Evolution generates biodiversity
Great
Bernard
Dane Just asselective breeding helps us create newtypes of pets,
farm animals, and crop plants, natural selection can elaborate
and diversify traits in wild organisms, helping to form new
speciesand whole newtypes of organisms. Life’s complex-ity
Collie Chihuahua
can be expressed as biological diversity, or biodiversity.
These terms refer to the variety of life across all levels,
including the diversity of species, genes, populations, and
communities.
Scientists have described about 1.8 million species, but
many more remain undiscovered or unnamed. Estimates
vary for the actual number of species in the world, but they
(a) Ancestral wolf (Canis lupus) and derived dog breeds
range from 3 million upto 100 million. Hawaii’s insect fauna
provides one example of how much wehave yet to learn.
Scientists studying fruit flies in the Hawaiian Islands have
Cabbage
Broccoli described morethan 500 speciesof them, butthey havealso
identified about 500 others that have not yet been formally
named and described. Still morefruit fly species probably
exist but havenot yet beenfound.
Subtropical islands such as Hawai‘i are by no meansthe
only places rich in biodiversity. Step outside just about any-where,
Brussels
and you will find manyspecies within close reach.
sprouts
Cauliflower
Plants poke up from cracks in asphalt in every city in the
world, and even Antarctic ice harbors microbes. A handful
of backyard soil maycontain an entire miniature world of
life, including insects, mites, millipedes, nematode worms,
plant seeds, fungi, and millions of bacteria. (We will examine
(b) Ancestral Brassica oleracea and derived crops Earth’sbiodiversityin detailin Chapter8.)

FIGURE 3.4 Artificial

has given us many breeds
selection through selective
of dogs and varieties
breeding
of crops.
The ancestral wild species for dogs (a) is the gray wolf(Canis lupus).
By breeding like withlike and selecting for traits we preferred,
we produced breeds as different as Great Danes and Chihuahuas.
Bythis same process we created animmense variety of crop plants
(b). Cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower were all
generated from a single ancestral species, Brassica oleracea.
Consider the great diversity of dog breeds (FIGURE 3.4a).
People generatedevery type of dog alive today by starting
with a single ancestral species and selecting for particular
desired traits as individuals were bred together. From Great
Daneto Chihuahua,all dogs are ableto interbreed and pro-duce
viable offspring, yet breeders maintain differences
among them by allowing only like individuals to breed.
Artificial selection through selective breeding has also
given us the many crop plants and livestock we depend on the other populations. Overtime, each population will inde-pendently
for food, all of which people domesticated from wild spe-cies accumulate its own set of mutations. Eventually,
and carefully bred over years, centuries, or millennia
(FIGURE 3.4b). Through selective breeding, we have cre-ated members can no longer
corn with bigger, sweeter kernels; wheat and rice with viable offspring. (This
larger and more numerous grains; and apples, pears, and
oranges with better taste. We have diversified single types
into many—for instance, breeding variants of wild cabbage
(Brassica oleracea)to createbroccoli, cauliflower, cabbage,
and brussels sprouts. Our entire agricultural system is based
on artificial selection.
Speciation produces new types
of organisms
How did Earth come to have so manyspecies? The process by
whichnew speciesare generatedis termed speciation. Spe-ciation
can occur in a number of ways, but the main modeis
generally thought to be allopatric speciation, whereby species
form from populationsthat becomephysically separatedover
some geographic distance. To understand allopatric specia-tion,
begin by picturing a population of organisms. Individu-als
withinthe population possess manysimilarities that unify
them as a species because they are able to breed with one
another, sharing genetic information. However,if the popula-tion
is split into two or moreisolated areas,individuals from
one area cannot reproduce with individuals from the others.
When a mutation arises in the DNA of an organism in
one of these newlyisolated populations,it cannot spreadto
the populations maydiverge, growing so differentthat their
mate with one another and produce
can occur because of changes in
reproductive organs,hormones,courtship behavior, breeding
timing, or other factors.) Populations that no longer exchange
genetic information will embark on their own independent
pathsasseparatespecies.
For speciation to occur, populations mustremain iso-lated
for a verylong time, generallythousandsof generations.

Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology 5

 Populations can undergo long-term geographic isolation in
1 Single population
various ways. Lava flows can destroy forest, leaving small iso-lated
patches intact (FIGURE 3.5). Glacial ice sheets may move
across continents during ice ages and split populations in two.
Major rivers may change course or mountain ranges may be
uplifted, dividing regions and their organisms. Sea level may
rise, flooding low-lying regions and isolating areas of higher
ground as islands. Drying climate may partially evaporate
lakes, subdividing them into smaller bodies of water. Warming
or cooling climate may cause plant communities to shift, creat-ing
new patterns of plant and animal distribution.
Alternatively, sometimes organisms colonize newly cre-ated
2 Geographically isolated
areas, establishing isolated populations. Hawai‘i provides
populations
an example. As shown in Figure 11.7 (Chapter 11, p. 237),
the Pacific tectonic plate moves over a volcanic “hotspot”
that extrudes magma into the ocean, building volcanoes that
form islands once they break the water’s surface. The plate
inches northwest, dragging each island with it, while new
islands are formed at the hotspot. The result, over millions
of years, is along string of islands, called an archipelago. As
each new island is formed, plants and animals that colonize it
mayundergo allopatric speciation if they areisolated enough
from their source population (see THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE
STORY, pp. 56–57).
3 Divergence due to
long-term isolation

Wecaninfer the history oflife’s

diversification
Innumerable speciation events have generated complex pat-terns
of diversity beyond the species level. Scientists represent
this history of divergence by using branching diagrams called
phylogenetic trees. Similar to family genealogies, these dia-grams
illustrate hypotheses proposing how divergence took
place (FIGURE 3.6). Phylogenetic trees can show relationships
4 Isolated populations come among species, groups of species, populations, or genes. Sci-entists
together; they can no longer
construct these trees by analyzing patterns of similarity
interbreed and are now
two species among the genes or external traits of present-day organisms
and by inferring which groups share similarities because they
are related. Once a phylogenetic tree is created, traits can be
mapped onto the tree according to which organisms possess
them, and we can thereby trace how the traits have evolved.
Knowing how organisms are related to one another also
helps scientists classify them and name them. Taxonomists
use an organism’s genetic makeup and physical appearance
to determine its species identity. These scientists then group
species by their similarity into a hierarchy of categories
meant to reflect evolutionary relationships. Related species
are grouped together into genera (singular: genus), related
genera are grouped into families, and so on (FIGURE 3.7).
FIGURE 3.5 The long, slow process of allopatric speciation
begins when a geographic barrier splits a population—as Each species is given a two-part Latin or Latinized scientific
whenforest 1 is destroyed bylava flowing from a volcano, but name denoting its genus and species.
isolated patches of forest 2 are left. Hawaiian fruit flies are weak For example, the ‘akiapl‘au, Hemignathus munroi, is
fliers and become isolated in such forested patches, called kipukas.
similar to other honeycreepers in the genus Hemignathus.
Over centuries, each population accumulates its own set of genetic
These species are closely related in evolutionary terms, as
changes 3 until individuals become unable to breed with individu-als
indicated by the genus name they share. They are more dis-tantly
from the other population. The two populations now represent
separate species and will remain so even if the geographic barrier related to honeycreepers in other genera, but all honey-creepers
disappears 4 and the new species intermix. are classified together in the family Fringillidae

54 Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology

 FIGURE 3.6 Phylogenetic trees show the history of
life’s divergence. The tree hereillustrates relationships
among groups of vertebrates—just one small portion of
Lampreys
the huge and complex “tree oflife.” Each branch results
from a speciation event; asyou follow the tree left to
right from its trunk to the tips ofits branches, you pro-ceed
Sharks forward in time, tracing life’s history. Majortraits are
“mapped” onto the tree to indicate whenthey originated.

Find the hash markindicating the origin of

Bony fish jaws. • Which group or groups of vertebrates
Jaw possess jaws? • Which group(s) diverged before
jaws originated? • Are birds moreclosely related
to amphibians or to crocodiles? • Explain how you
Lung or Lungfish know this.
swimbladder
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering
Environmental Science

Amphibians

Mammals
Four legs Hair

Turtles
Moisture-retaining
egg for terrestrial
living

Snakes
and lizards

Skull with two

Crocodiles
openings

Birds
Feathers

Domain:
Eukarya

Kingdom:
FIGURE 3.7 Taxonomists
Animalia
classify organisms using a
nested hierarchical system Phylum:
Chordata
meant to reflect evolution-ary
relationships. Species Class:

similar in appearance, behavior, Aves

and genetics (because they Order:

share recent common ancestry) Passeriformes
are placed in the same genus. Family:

Similar genera are placed in Fringillidae

the same family, families are Genus:
Hemignathus
placed within orders, and so
on. For example, honeycreep-ers
Species:
belong to the class Aves, Hemignathus
along with peacocks, loons, munroi
and ostriches. However, these
birds differ greatly enough
(after diverging across millions
of years of evolution) that they
are placed in different orders,
families, and genera.

Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology 5

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Go to Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

How Do SpeciesFormin Hawaii’s

“Natural Laboratory” of Evolution?
For scientists who study how species form, no The best-understood radiation has occurred withthe Hawai-ian
place on Earthis moreinformative than an fruit flies. Some of these insects speciate within islands in
isolated chain of islands. The Hawaiian kipukas (see Figure 3.5), but most have done so by island-hopping.
Islands—among the most remote By combining genetic analysis and geologic dating,
on the planet—are often called a researchers determined that the process began 25 mya on
“natural laboratory of evolution.” islands that today are beneath the ocean. From a single original
The key to this laboratory fruit fly species, an estimated 1000 species have evolved—fully
lies in the process that drives one-sixth of allthe world’sfruit fly species.
Hawaii’s geologic history. Flip Other groups have undergone adaptive radiations on the
ahead to Figure 11.7 (p. 237), Hawaiian Islands as well, including damselflies, crickets, mirid
and examine it closely. Deep bugs, spiders, and multiple families of plants. Scientists pro-pose
beneath the Pacific Ocean, that once a species colonizes an island, it may spread and
a volcanic “hotspot” spurts evolve rapidly because competitors are few and there tend to be
magma as the Pacific Plate unoccupied niches (p. 60).
slides across it in tectonic The Hawaiian honeycreepers are so diverse that research-ers
motion like a conveyor belt. have long puzzled over what type of bird gave rise to their
Mountains of lava accumulate radiation—and whether there was just one colonizing ancestor
Dr. Heather Lerner, underwater until eventually a or many.In 2011, to clarify how the honeycreeper radiation took
of Earlham College volcano rises above the waves, place, one research team combined genetic sequencing tech-nology
building an island. As the tec-tonic with resources from museum collections and our knowl-edge
plate moves northwest, it carries each newly formed island of Hawaiian geology.
withit, creating along chain, or archipelago. Over several million Heather Lerner and five colleagues first took tissue sam-ples
years, each island gradually subsides, erodes, and disappears from bird specimens in museum collections. Working with
beneath the waves. As old islands disappear on the northwest Robert Fleischer and Helen James at the Smithsonian Institu-tion,
end of the chain, new islands are formed on the southeast end. Lerner, now at Earlham College in Indiana, sampled 19
Geologists analyzing radioisotopes (p. 31)in the islands’ rocks species of honeycreepers plus 28 diverse types of finches
have determined that this process has been going on for atleast from around the Pacific Rim that experts had identified as pos-sible
85 million years. They estimate that Kaua‘i was formed about ancestors.
5.1 millionyears ago (mya), and the island of Hawai‘i just 0.43 mya. Lerner’s team obtained data from 13 genes and from mito-chondrial
Despite the remoteness of the Hawaiian archipelago, over genomes by sequencing DNA(p. 32) from each tissue
time a few plants and animals found their way there, estab-lishingsample. Theyran the datathrough computer programs to ana-lyze
populations. As some individuals hopped to neighbor-ing how the DNA sequences—and thus the birds—were related
islands, populations that were adequately isolated evolved to one another, then produced phylogenetic trees (pp. 54–55)
into new species. Such speciation by “island-hopping” has showing the relationships (FIGURE 1). They published their
driven the radiation of Hawaiian honeycreepers and many other results in the journal Current Biology.
organisms. Lerner’s team found that the Hawaiian honeycreepers
For instance, the barren and windswept high volcanic slopes apparently derive from one ancestor and are most related to
of Hawai‘i are graced by some of the most striking flowering the Eurasian rosefinches, indicating that honeycreepers evolved
plants in the world, the silverswords (see Figure 3.2). These after some rosefinch-like bird arrived from Asia. Today’s rose-finches
spectacular plants have spiky, silvery leaves and tall stalks that are partly nomadic; when food supplies crash, flocks
explode into bloom with flowers once in the plant’s long life fly long distances to find food. Perhaps a wandering flock of
before it dies. Researchers have discovered that Hawaii’s 28 ancestral rosefinches was caught up in a storm long ago and
species of silverswords all evolved from a modest tarweed plant blown to Hawai‘i.
from California that reached Hawai‘i and diversified by island-hopping. Once this common ancestor of today’s rosefinches and
University of California, Berkeley, botanist Bruce Bald-win honeycreepers arrived on an ancient Hawaiian island, its prog-eny
and other researchers analyzed genetic relationships and adapted to conditions there by natural selection, result-ing
learned that the silverswords’ radiation was rapid (on a geologic in modified bill shape, diet, and coloration. Every once in a
timescale), taking place in just 5 million years. great while, wandering birds colonized other islands, founding

56 ChapTEr 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecolog

 Common Rosefinch populations that each adapted to local
(most closely related to
conditions and might eventually evolve
the honeycreepers)

Poouli into separate species.

(diverged when
Because the age of each island is
Kaua`iformed)
Maui Creeper known, Lerner’s team could calibrate
rates of evolutionary changein the birds’
Kaua`i Creeper DNA sequences, and thus measure the

The common ancestor age of each divergence. That is, they

of the rosefinch and
Palila could tell how “old” each bird species is.
the honeycreepers (diverged when They found that the rosefinch-like ances-tor
lived 7.2 mya O`ahu formed)

Nihoa Finch
arrived by 5.7 mya, about the time
that the oldest of today’s main islands

Laysan Finch (Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau) were forming. After

O‘ahu emerged 4.0–3.7 mya, the specia-tion

The ancestor of
`I`iwi process went into overdrive, giving
the honeycreepers rise to many new species with distinc-tively
arrived in Hawai`i Akohekohe different colors, bill shapes, and
about 5.7 mya (diverged when
Mauiformed)
habits. By the time Maui arose 2.4–1.9
`Apapane mya, most of the major differences in
body form and appearance had evolved
`Akiapl`au (see bottom portion of Figure 1).
Thus, most major innovations arose
Maui Parrotbill midway through the island-formation pro-cess,
Most speciation
when O‘ahu and Kaua‘i were the
took place after
O`ahu was formed
Anianiau mainislands in the chain. After this burst
of innovation, major changes werefewer,
Hawai`i Creeper perhaps because most evolutionary pos-sibilities
had been explored, or perhaps
Kaua`i`kepa because the newer islands of Maui and
Hawai‘i were too close together to isolate
`kepa populations adequately.
The team’s data show that the age
Kaua`i `Amakihi of each honeycreeper species does
not neatly match the age of the island
O`ahu`Amakihi or islands it inhabits today. Instead, the
island-hopping process was complex,
Maui`Amakihi with some birds hopping “backward” from
newer islands to older ones. Moreover,
Hawai`i `Amakihi within each island there is a great deal of
(diverged when
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Hawai`iformed) variation in climate, topography, and veg-etation,
because windward slopes catch
I

Islands were moisture from trade winds over the ocean

formed in
MAU

and become lush and green, whereas

KAUA`I NI`IHAU O`AHU
HAWAI`

sequence, from
Kaua`i and Ni`ihau
leeward slopes in the rainshadow are arid.
(4.9–5.7 mya) to The varied habitats and rugged topog-raphy
Hawai`i (0.4–0.7
Pacific Ocean create barriers that can lead to spe-ciation
mya)
withinislands.
For all these reasons, the “natural
FIGURE 1 Using gene sequences, researchers generated this phylogenetic tree
laboratory” of Hawai‘i still has much to
showing relationships among the Hawaiian honeycreepers. They then matched the
history of the birds’ diversification with the known geologic history of the islands’ formation. teach us about how the honeycreepers
Adapted from Lerner, H.R.L., et al., 2011. Multilocus resolution of phylogeny and timescale in the extant and other groups have evolved, and how

adaptive radiation of Hawaiian honeycreepers. Curr. Biol. 21: 1838–1844. new species are formed.

Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology 57

 Fossilsreveallife’s history extinction. From studying fossils, paleontologists calcu-late
that the average time a species spends on Earth is 1–10
Scientistsalso decipherlife’s history by studying fossils. As million years. The number of species in existence at any one
organisms die, some are buried by sediment. Under certain time is equal to the number added through speciation minus
conditions, the hard parts of their bodies—such as bones, the number removed by extinction.
shells, andteeth—may be preservedas sedimentsare com-pressed
into rock (p. 235). Mineralsreplace the organic mate-rial,
leaving behind a fossil, an imprint in stone of the dead Somespecies are especially
organism(FIGURE3.8). Over millions of years, geologic pro-cesses
have buried sediments and later brought sedimentary
vulnerable to extinction
rock layers to the surface, revealing assemblages of fossilized In general, extinction occurs when environmental conditions
plantsand animalsfrom different time periods. By datingthe change rapidly or drastically enough that a species cannot
rock layers that contain fossils, scientists can determine when adapt genetically to the change; the slow process of natural
particular organisms lived. The cumulative body of fossils selection simply does not have enough time to work. Small
worldwideis known asthe fossil record. populations are vulnerable to extinction because fluctuations
Thefossil record shows that the number of species exist-ing in their size could, by chance, bring the population size to
at any onetime hasgenerallyincreased, butthat the spe-cieszero. Small populations also sometimes lack enough genetic
alive on Earthtoday arejust a small fraction of all species variation to buffer them against environmental change. Spe-cies
that have ever existed. During life’s 3.5 billion years on Earth, narrowly specialized to some particular resource or way
complexstructureshaveevolvedfrom simple ones,andlarge of life are also vulnerable, because environmental changes
sizes from small ones. However, simplicity and small size that make that resource or role unavailable can spell doom.
have also evolved when favored by natural selection; it is Speciesthat are endemic to a particular region occur nowhere
easyto arguethat Earthstill belongsto the bacteriaand other else on Earth. Endemic species face elevated risks of extinc-tion
microbes, some ofthem little changed over eons. because when some event influences their region, it may
Even enthusiasts of microbes, however, must mar-vel affect all members of the species.
at some of the exquisite adaptations of animals, plants, Island-dwelling species are particularly vulnerable.
and fungi: the heart that beats so reliably for an animal’s Because islands are smaller than mainland areas and are iso-lated
entire lifetime; the complex organ system to which the heart by water, fewer species reach and inhabit islands. As a
belongs;the stunning plumage of a peacock;the ability of result, some of the pressures and challenges faced daily by
plants to lift water and nutrients from the soil, gather light organisms in complex natural systems on a mainland don’t
from the sun, and produce food; and the human brain and its exist in the simpler natural systems on islands. For instance,
ability to reason. All these adaptationsand morehavecome only one land mammal—a bat—ever reached Hawai‘i natu-rally,
about as evolution has generated new species and whole new so Hawaii’s birds evolved for millions of years with-out
branches on the tree of life. needing to protect against the threat of predation by
Although speciation generates Earth’s biodiversity, it mammals. Likewise, Hawaii’s plants did not need to invest
is only part of the equation; the fossil record teaches us that in defenses (such as thick bark, spines, or chemical toxins)
the vast majority of creatures that once lived are now gone. against mammals that might eat them. Because defenses
The disappearanceof an entire speciesfrom Earthis called are costly to invest in, most island birds and plants lost the
defenses their mainland ancestors may have had.
Eventually, people colonized Hawai‘i—and Hawaii’s
native organisms (FIGURE 3.9a) were completely unprepared
for the animals that people brought with them (FIGURE 3.9b).
Introduced rats, cats, and mongooses preyed voraciously on
ground-nesting seabirds, ducks, geese, and flightless rails,
driving many of these native birds extinct. Livestock—such
as cattle, goats, and pigs—ate through the vegetation, turning
luxuriant forests into desolate grasslands. Half of Hawaii’s
native birds were driven extinct soon after human arrival.

Earth hasseen episodes

of massextinction
Most extinction occurs gradually, one species at a time, at a
rate referred to as the background extinction rate. However,

FIGURE 3.8 The fossil record helps reveal the history of life the fossil record reveals that Earth has seen at least five events
on Earth. Trilobites were once abundant, but today we know these of staggering proportions that killed off massive numbers of
extinct animals only from their fossils. species at once. These episodes, called mass extinction events

58 Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology

 overhunt and overharvest populations; pollute air, water, and
soil; introduce invasive non-native species; and alter climate,
we set in motion processes that combine to threaten Earth’s
biodiversity (pp. 176–181). Because we depend on organisms
for life’s necessities—food, fiber, medicine, and vital ecosys-tem
services (pp. 4, 39, 172)—biodiversity loss and extinc-tion
ultimately threaten our own survival.

Ecology and the Organism

Extinction, speciation, and other evolutionary forces play
(a) Hawaiian petrel, a native species at risk
key roles in ecology. Ecology is the scientific study of the
interactions among organisms and of the relationships
between organisms and their environments. Ecology allows
us to explain and predict the distribution and abundance of
organisms in nature. It is often said that ecology provides the
stage on which the play of evolution unfolds. The two are
intertwined in many ways.

Westudy ecology at severallevels

Life exists in a hierarchy of levels, from atoms, molecules,
and cells (pp. 30–33) up through the biosphere, the cumula-tive
total of living things on Earth and the areas they inhabit.
(b) Mongoose, an introduced species that preys on natives
Ecologists are scientists who study relationships at the higher
FIGURE 3.9 Island-dwelling species that have lost defenses levels of this hierarchy (FIGURE 3.10), namely atthe levels of
are vulnerable to extinction when enemies are introduced. the organism, population, community, ecosystem, landscape,
The Hawaiian petrel (a), a seabird that nests in the ground, is
and biosphere.
endangered as a result of predation by mammals introduced to
Atthe level of the organism, ecology describes relation-ships
Hawai‘i, such as (b) the Indian mongoose.
between an organism and its physical environment.
Organismal ecology helps us understand, for example, what
aspects of a Hawaiian honeycreeper’s environment are impor-tant
have occurred at widely spaced intervals in our planet’s his-tory
to it, and why. In contrast, population ecology examines
and have wiped out 50–95% of Earth’s species each time
the dynamics of population change and the factors that affect
(see Figure 8.7, p. 175).
the distribution and abundance of members of a population. It
The best-known mass extinction occurred 66 mil-lion
helps us understand why populations of some species decline
years ago and brought an abrupt end to the dinosaurs
while populations of others increase.
(although today’s birds are descendants of a type of dino-saur
In ecology, a community consists of an assemblage of
that survived). Evidence suggests that the collision of a
populations of interacting species that inhabit the same area.
gigantic asteroid with Earth caused this event. Still more cata-strophic
A population of ‘akiapl‘au, a population of koa trees, a
wasthe mass extinction 250 million years ago at the
population of wood-boring grubs, and a population of ferns,
end of the Permian period (see APPENDIX E for Earth’s geo-logic
together with all the other interacting plant, animal, fungal,
periods). Scientists estimate that 75–95% of all species
and microbial populations in the Hakalau Forest, would be
perished during this event, described by one researcher as
considered a community. Community ecology (Chapter 4)
the “mother of all mass extinctions.” Hypotheses as to what
focuses on patterns of species diversity and on interactions
caused the end-Permian extinction event include massive
among species, ranging from one-to-one interactions up to
volcanism, an asteroid impact, methane releases and global
complex interrelationships involving the entire community.
warming, or some combination of these factors.
Ecosystems (p. 36) encompass communities and the abi-otic
(nonliving) materials and forces with which community

The sixth massextinction is upon us members interact. Hakalau’s cloud-forest ecosystem consists
of its community plus the air, water, soil, nutrients, and energy
Many biologists have concluded that Earth is currently enter-ing used by the community’s organisms. Ecosystem ecology
its sixth mass extinction event—and that we are the cause. (Chapter 2) addresses the flow of energy and nutrients by
Changes to our planet’s natural systems set in motion by studying living and nonliving components of systems in con-junction.
human population growth, development, and resource deple-tion Today’s warming climate (Chapter 14) is having
have driven many species to extinction and are threaten-ing ecosystem-level consequences as it affects Hakalau and other
countless more. As we alter and destroy natural habitats; ecosystems across the world.

Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology 5

 Concerns such as climate change and habitat loss,
Biosphere
together with technologies such as satellite imagery, are
The sum total of
invigorating the study of how ecosystems are arrayed across
living things on
Earth and the the landscape. Landscape ecology (p. 37) helps us under-stand
areas they how and why ecosystems, communities, and popula-tions
inhabit
are distributed across geographic regions. Indeed, as
new technologies help scientists study the complex dynamics
of natural systems at a global scale, ecologists are expanding
their horizons to the biosphere as a whole.

Landscape
A geographic
Each organism has habitat needs
region including
At the level of the organism, each individual relates to its
an array of
ecosystems environment in ways that tend to maximize its survival and
reproduction. One key relationship involves the specific envi-ronment
in which an organism lives, its habitat. A species’
habitat consists of the living and nonliving elements around it,
including rock, soil, leaf litter, humidity, plant life, and more.
The ‘akiapl‘au lives in a habitat of cool, moist, montane
Ecosystem forest of native koa and ‘hi‘a trees, where it is high enough
A functional in elevation to be safe from avian pox and malaria.
system consisting Each organism thrives in certain habitats and not in oth-Population
of a community,
ers, leading to nonrandom patterns of habitat use. Mobile
its nonliving
environment, organisms actively select habitats from among the range of
and the options they encounter, a process called habitat selection.
interactions Each species assesses habitats differently because each spe-cies
between them
has different needs. A species’ needs may vary with the
time and place; many migratory birds use distinct breeding,
Community wintering, and migratory habitats. In the case of plants and

A set of
of stationary animals (such as sea anemones in the ocean),
populations of whose young disperse and settle passively, patterns of habitat
different species use result from success in some habitats and failure in others.
living together in
Habitat is a vital concept in environmental science.
a particular area
Because habitats provide everything an organism needs,
including nutrition, shelter, breeding sites, and mates, the
organism’s survival depends on the availability of suitable
habitats. Often this need results in conflict with people who
want to alter a habitat for their own purposes.

A group of
individuals of a Organismshaveroles in communities
species that live
in a particular Another way in which an organism relates to its environment
area is through its niche, its functional role in a community. A spe-cies’
niche reflects its use of habitat and resources, its con-sumption
of certain foods, its role in the flow of energy and
matter, and its interactions with other organisms. The niche is
a multidimensional concept, a kind of summary of everything
Organism an organism does. The pioneering ecologist Eugene Odum
An individual once wrote that “habitat is the organism’s address, and the
living thing
niche is its profession.”
Organisms vary in the breadth of their niches. A species
with narrow breadth (and thus very specific requirements) is
said to be a specialist. One with broad tolerances, a “jack-of-all-trades”
able to use a wide array of resources, is a generalist.
A native Hawaiian honeycreeper like the ‘akiapl‘au is a
specialist, because its unique bill is exquisitely adapted for
FIGURE 3.10 Green sea turtles are part of a coral reef com-munity feeding on grubs that tunnel through the wood of certain
that inhabits reef ecosystems along Hawaii’s coasts. native trees. In contrast, the common myna (a bird introduce

60 Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology

to Hawai‘i from Asia)is a generalist;its unremarkablebill population size Expressedasthe number of individual
allows it to eat manyfoods in many habitats. As a result, the organisms present at a given time, population size may
common mynahas spreadthroughout the HawaiianIslands increase, decrease,undergo cyclical change, or remain sta-ble
wherever people have altered the landscape. over time. Populations generally grow when resources
Generalistslike the mynasucceed by being able to live in are abundant and natural enemies are few. Populations can
manydifferent placesand withstandvariable conditions, yet declinein responseto loss of resources,natural disasters,or
they do not thrive in any single situation as well as a special-ist impacts from other species.
adapted for those specific conditions. (A jack-of-all-trades, The passenger pigeon, now extinct, illustrates extremes in
asthe saying goes,is a masterof none.) Specialistssucceed populationsize (FIGURE3.11). Notlong agoit wasthe most
over evolutionary time by being extremely good at the things abundant bird in North America; flocks of passenger pigeons
they do, yet they are vulnerable when conditions change and literally darkened the skies. In the early 1800s, ornithologist
threatenthe habitat or resource on whichthey havespecial-ized.Alexander Wilsonwatcheda flock of 2 billion birds 390 km
An organism’s habitat preferences, niche, and degree of (240 mi)long that took 5 hours to fly over and sounded like
specialization each reflect adaptations of the species and are a tornado. Passenger pigeons nested in gigantic colonies in
productsof naturalselection. the forests of the upper Midwestand southern Canada.Once
settlers began cutting the forests, the birds were easy targets
for market hunters, who gunned down thousands at a time.
Population Ecology Thebirds wereshippedto marketbythe wagonloadand sold
for food. By 1890, the population had declined to such a low
A population, as wehaveseen, consists of individuals of a number that the birds could not form the large colonies they
evidently neededto breed.In 1914,the last passengerpigeon
species that inhabit a particular area at a particular time. Pop-ulation
ecologists try to understand and predict how popula-tions on Earth died in the Cincinnati Zoo, bringing the continent’s
change overtime. The ability to predict a population’s most numerous bird species to extinction in just afew decades.
growth or decline is useful in monitoring and managing wild-life, Hawai‘i offers a story with a happier ending. Hawaii’s
fisheries, and threatened and endangered species. For state bird is the nn (pronounced “nay-nay”), also called the
instance, biologists at Hawaii’s HakalauForestsurvey popu-lations Hawaiian goose (see Figure 3.2). Before people reached the
of native birds to assessthe success of forest restora-tion HawaiianIslands, nns werecommon, andresearchersesti-mate
efforts there. Understanding population ecology is also that the nn population numbered atleast 25,000 birds.
crucial for predictingthe dynamics of our humanpopulation After human arrival, the nn was nearly driven to extinction
(Chapter 6)—a central element of environmental science and by humanhunting;livestock and plantsthat peopleintroduced
one of the prime challenges for our society today. (which destroyed and displaced the vegetation it fed on); and
rats, cats, dogs,pigs, and mongooses
that preyed onits eggs
and young. By the 1950s,these impacts had eliminated nns
Populations show features that help from all islands except the island of Hawai‘i, wherethe popu-lation

predicttheir dynamics size wasdownto just 30individuals. Fortunately,dedi-cated

conservation efforts have turned this decline around.
All populations—from humans to honeycreepers—exhibit Biologists and wildlife managershave labored to breed nns
attributesthat helppopulationecologistspredicttheir dynamics. in captivity and havereintroducedthem into protectedareas.

FIGURE 3.11 Flocks of

passenger pigeons liter-ally
darkened the skies as
billions of birds passed
overhead. Still, hunting and
deforestation drove North
America’s most numerous
bird to extinction within
decades.

(a) Passenger pigeon (b) 19th-century lithograph of pigeon hunting in Iowa

Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology 6

 These efforts are succeeding, and today nns live in at least growth, whereas an unbalanced ratio leaves many indi-viduals
seven regions on four of the Hawaiian Islands, with a popula-tion without mates. Most species are not monogamous,
size of more than 2000 birds. however, so sex ratios vary from one species to another.

population density The flocks and breeding colonies age structure Age structure describes the relative num-bers
of passenger pigeons showed high population density, of individuals of different ages within a population.
another attribute that ecologists assess. Population density By combining this information with data on the reproduc-tive
describes the number of individuals per unit area in a popu-lation. potential of individuals in each age class, a popula-tion
High population density makes it easier for organ-isms ecologist can predict how the population may grow or
to group together and find mates, but it can also lead shrink.
to competition and conflict if space, food, or mates are in Many plants and animals continue growing in size as
limited supply. Overcrowding among individuals can also they age, and in these species, older individuals often repro-duce
increase the transmission of infectious disease. In contrast, more. Older, larger trees in a population produce more
at low population densities, individuals benefit from more seeds than smaller, younger trees. Larger, older fish produce
space and resources but may find it harder to locate mates more eggs than smaller, younger fish of the same species.
and companions. Birds use the experience they gain with age to become more
successful breeders at older ages.
population distribution Population distribution describes Human beings are unusual because we often survive past
the spatial arrangement of organisms in an area. Ecolo-gists our reproductive years. A human population made up largely
define three distribution types: random, uniform, and of older (post-reproductive) individuals will tend to decline
clumped (FIGURE 3.12). In a random distribution, individu-als over time, whereas one with many young people (of repro-ductive
are located haphazardly in no particular pattern. This or pre-reproductive age) will tend to increase. (We
type of distribution can occur when resources are plenti-ful will use diagrams to explore these ideas further in Chapter 6,
throughout an area and other organisms do not strongly pp. 124–125, as westudy human population growth.)
influence where members of a population settle.
A uniform distribution, in which individuals are evenly
spaced, can occur when individuals compete for space. Ani-mals Populations may grow, shrink,
may hold and defend territories. Plants need space for
or remain stable
their roots to gather moisture, and they may exude chemicals
that poison one another’s roots as a means of competing for Let’s now take a more quantitative approach by examin-ing
space. As a result, competing individuals may end up distrib-uted some simple mathematical concepts used by popula-tion
at equal distances from one another. ecologists and by demographers (scientists whostudy
A clumped distribution often results when organisms human populations). Population change is determined by four
seek habitats or resources that are unevenly spaced. In arid factors:
areas, manyplants grow in patches near water. Hawaiian hon-eycreepers
• Natality (births within the population)
tend to cluster near flowering trees that offer nec-tar.
• Mortality (deaths within the population)
People frequently aggregate in villages, towns, and cities.
• Immigration (arrival of individuals from outside the
population)
Sex ratio A population’s sex ratio is its proportion of
males to females. In monogamous species (in which each sex • Emigration (departure of individuals from the
takes a single mate), a 1:1 sex ratio maximizes population population)

(a) Random: Distribution of organisms (b) Uniform: Individuals are spaced (c) Clumped:Individuals concentrate
displays no pattern. evenly. in certain areas.

FIGURE 3.12 Individuals in a population can spatially distribute themselves in three fundamental ways

62 Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology

 Wecan measure a population’s rate of natural increase 8

simply by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate:

7

(birth rate) (deathrate) =rate of naturalincrease 6

5
To obtain the population growth rate, the total rate of rout

change in a population’s size per unit time, we must also 4

per

include the effects of immigration and emigration: 3

Birds

2
(birth rate deathrate) +(immigrationrate emigrationrate)
= populationgrowthrate 1

0
The rates in these formulas are often expressed in num-bers
per 1000 individuals per year. For example, a popula-tion 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015

with a birth rate of 18 per 1000/yr, a death rate of 10 per Year

1000/yr, an immigration rate of 5 per 1000/yr, and an emigra-tion

FIGURE 3.13 A population may grow exponentially when
rate of 7 per 1000/yr would have a population growth
colonizing an unoccupied environment or exploiting an
rate of 6 per 1000/yr: unused resource. The Eurasian collared doveis spreading across
the United States, propelled by exponential growth. Datafrom Sauer,
(18/1000 10/1000) +(5/1000 7/1000) =6/1000 J.R., et al., 2017. The North American Breeding Bird Survey, results and analysis

1966–2015. Version 2.07.2017. Laurel, MD: USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research

Given these rates, a population of 1000 in one year will Center.

grow to 1006 in the next. If the population is 1,000,000, it

will reach 1,006,000 the next year. Such population increases
shows exponential growth. Populations increase exponen-tially
are often expressed in percentages, as follows:
unlessthey meetconstraints. Each organism repro-duces
by a certain amount, and as populations grow, there
population growthrate × 100%
are moreindividuals reproducing bythat amount. If there are
adequateresourcesand no externallimits, ecologists expect
Thus, a growth rate of 6/1000 would be expressed as:
exponential growth.
Normally, exponential growth occurs in nature only
6/1000 ×100% = 0.6%
whena populationis small, competitionis minimal,and envi-ronmental
conditions are ideal for the organism in question.
By measuring population growth in percentages, we can
Most often, these conditions occur whenthe organism arrives
compare changes among populations of far different sizes.
in a newenvironmentthat containsabundantresources. Mold
Wecan also project changes into the future. Understanding
growing on a piece of fruit, or bacteria decomposing a dead
and predicting such changes helps wildlife and fisheries man-agers
animal, are cases in point. Plants colonizing regions during
regulate hunting and fishing to ensure sustainable har-vests,
primary succession(p. 77) after glaciersrecedeor volcanoes
informs conservation biologists trying to protect rare
erupt also show exponential growth. In Hawai‘i, manyspecies
and declining species, and assists policymakers planning for
that colonized the islands underwent exponential growth for a
human population growth in cities, regions, and nations.
time after their arrival. Onecurrent example of exponential
growth in mainland North America is the Eurasian collared
dove (see Figure 3.13). Unlike its extinct relative the passen-ger
Unregulated populations increase pigeon,this speciesarrived herefrom Europe,thrives in
by exponential growth areas disturbed by people, and has spread across the continent
in a matter of years.
When a population increases by a fixed percentage each year,
it is said to undergo exponential growth. Imagine you put
money in a savings account at a fixed interest rate and leave
Limiting factors restrain growth
it untouched for years. As the principal accrues interest and
grows larger, you earn still more interest, and the sum grows Exponential growth rarely lasts long. If even a single spe-cies
by escalating amounts each year. The reason is that a fixed per-centage were to increase exponentially for very many genera-tions,
of a small number makes for a small increase, but the it would blanket the planet’s surface! Instead, every
same percentage of a larger number produces a larger increase. population eventually is constrained by limiting factors—physical,
Thus, as savings accounts (or populations) grow larger, each chemical, and biological attributes of the envi-ronment
incremental increase likewise becomes larger in absolute terms. that restrain population growth. Together, these
Such acceleration characterizes exponential growth. limiting factors determinethe carrying capacity, the maxi-mum
We can visualize changes in population size by using population size of a species that a given environment
population growth curves. The J-shaped curve in FIGURE 3.13 cansustain.

Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology 63

 and then spread north and west. Today its numbers are grow-ing
fastest in western areas it has recently reached, and more
slowly in southeastern areas where it has been present for
Limiting factors:
longer. In Florida, it has apparently reached carrying capacity
Stabilized - Resource availability
Carrying population - Temperature extremes (FIGURE 3.15).
capacity size - Predators/parasites Many factors influence a population’s growth rate and
- Disease
Disease
carrying capacity. For animals in terrestrial environments,
limiting factors include temperature extremes; disease preva-lence;

t
h predator abundance; and the availability of food, water,
w

mates, shelter, and breeding sites. Plants are often limited by

gr

size
a
l sunlight, moisture, soil chemistry, disease, and plant-eating
i
t
animals. In aquatic systems, limiting factors include salin-ity,
n
e
n
o

x
p sunlight, temperature, dissolved oxygen, fertilizers, and
E

pollutants.
Population
A population’s density can enhance or diminish the
Time impact of certain limiting factors. Recall that high population
density can help organisms find mates but may also increase
FIGURE 3.14 The logistic growth curve shows how popula-tion
competition, predation, and disease. Such limiting factors are
size may increase rapidly at first, then slow down, and
said to be density-dependent because their influence rises
finally stabilize at a carrying capacity.
and falls with population density. The logistic growth curve
in Figure 3.14 represents the effects of density dependence.
Ecologists use the S-shaped curve in FIGURE 3.14 to Thelarger the population size, the stronger the effects of the
show how an initial exponential increase is slowed and even-tually limiting factors.
brought to a standstill by limiting factors. This phe-nomenon Density-independent factors are those whose influence
is called logistic growth. Alogistic growth curve is independent of population density. Temperature extremes
rises sharply at first but then begins to level off as the effects and catastrophic events such as floods, fires, and landslides
of limiting factors become stronger. Eventually the collec-tive are examples of density-independent factors, because they
force of these factors stabilizes the population size at its can eliminate large numbers of individuals without regard to
carrying capacity. their density.
We can witness this process by taking a closer look at The logistic curve is a simple model, and real populations
data for the Eurasian collared dove, gathered by thousands in nature can behave differently. Some may cycle above and
of volunteer birders and analyzed by government biologists below the carrying capacity. Others may overshoot the carry-ing
in the Breeding Bird Survey, a long-running citizen science capacity and then crash, destined for either extinction or
project. The dove first appeared in Florida a few decades ago recovery.

FIGURE 3.15 Exponential growth slows

over time and gives way to logistic
growth. By breaking down the continent-wide
data for the Eurasian collared dove from
Figure 3.13, we can track its spread west and
north from Florida, where it first arrived. Today
its population growth is fastest in the west,
slower in the east (where the species has been
present longer), and stable in Florida (where it
In the western United In the eastern United States,
has apparently reached carrying capacity).
States, the dove has the dove’s population
arrived recently and growth is slowing.
Data from Sauer, J.R., et al., 2017. The North American

is still undergoing Breeding Bird Survey, results and analysis 1966–2015.

exponential growth. Version 2.07.2017. Laurel, MD: USGS Patuxent

Wildlife Research Center.

The dove is spreading north

and west across the United States. Looking several decades into the
future, what do you predict the pop-ulation
growth graph for the Eurasian collared
dove in the western United States willlook
like? Explain why.
In Florida, where the invasion
began, the dove population has Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering
reached carrying capacity. Environmental Science

64 Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology

 Carrying capacities can change
Becauseenvironments are complex and ever-changing,car-rying
capacities can vary. If a fire destroys a forest, the car-rying
capacities for most forest
weighingthe animals will decline, whereascar-rying

ISSUeS capacities for species that

benefit from fire will increase. Our
own specieshasprovedcapable of
Carrying Capacity and
intentionally altering our environ-ment
human population Growth
to raise our carrying capacity.
The global human population has Whenour ancestorsbeganto build
surpassed 7 billion, far exceeding
shelters and usefire for heating and
our population’s size throughout
cooking, they eased the limiting
our history on Earth. Name some
factors of cold climates and were
ways in which we have raised
able to expand into new territory.
Earth’s carrying capacity for our
As human civilization developed,
species. Do you think we can
we overcame limiting factors time
continue to raise our carrying
and again by creating new technol-ogies
capacity? How might we do so?
andculturalinstitutions. Peo-ple
Whatlimiting factors exist for the
FIGURE 3.16 Hawai‘i protects some of its diverse natural
human population today? Might
have managedso far to increase
areas, helping to stimulate its economy with ecotourism.
Earth’s carrying capacity for us
the planet’s carrying capacity for
Here, a scuba diver observes raccoon butterflyfish at a coral reef.
decrease? Why or why not? our species,but wehavedoneso by
appropriating immense proportions
of the planet’s natural resources. In Hawaii’scitizensarereaping economicbenefitsfrom their
the process,wehavereducedcarrying capacitiesfor countless conservation efforts. The islands’ wildlife and natural areas
other organisms that rely on those same resources. draw visitors from around the world, a phenomenon called
ecotourism (FIGURE 3.16). A large proportion of Hawaii’s

ConservingBiodiversity tourism is ecotourism, and altogether tourism draws over

7 million visitors to Hawai‘i each year, creates thousands of

Populations have always been affected by environmental jobs, and pumps$12 billion annuallyinto the state’seconomy.
change, but today human development, resource extraction,
and population pressure are speeding the rate of change and Climate change poses achallenge
bringing newtypes of impacts. Fortunately,committed peo-ple
aretaking action to safeguard biodiversity andto preserve Traditionally, people sought to conserve populations of
and restore Earth’s ecological and evolutionary processes threatened species by preserving and managing tracts of land
(as weshall see morefully in our coverage of conservation (or areas of ocean) designated as protected areas. However,
biology in Chapter 8). global climate change(Chapter 14) nowthreatensthis strat-egy.
Astemperatures climb and rainfall patterns shift, condi-tions
Innovative solutions are working within protected areas may become unsuitable for the
speciesthey were meantto protect.
Amid all the challenges of Hawaii’s extinction crisis, hard work Hawaii’s systems are especially vulnerable. At Hakalau
is resulting in some inspirational success stories, and several Forest on the slopes of Mauna Kea, mosquitoes and malaria
species have been saved from imminent extinction. At Hakalau are moving upslopetoward the refuge astemperaturesrise,
Forest, ranchland is being restored to forest, invasive plants are exposing moreand morebirds to disease. Some research sug-gests
being removed, native ones are being planted, and nn are being that climate change will also reduce rainfall here, push-ing
protected while new populations of them are being established. the upperlimit of the forest downward.If so, Hakalau’s
Early conservation work at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National honeycreepers may become trapped within a shrinking band
Park inspired the work at Hakalau, as well as efforts by man-agersof forest by diseasefrom below and drought from above.
and volunteers from the Hawai‘i Division of Forestry Thechallenges posedby climate change meanthat sci-entists
and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i, Kame-hameha and managers needto come up with new waysto save
Schools, and local watershed protection groups. declining populations. In Hawai‘i, management and eco-tourism
Across Hawai‘i, people are protecting land, removing alien can help conserve naturalsystems, butresourcesto
mammals and weeds, and restoring native habitats. Offshore, preserve habitat and protect endangered species will likely
Hawaiians are striving to protect their fabulous coral reefs, needto be stepped up. Restoring communities—as at Haka-lau
sea grass beds, and beaches from pollution and overfishing. Forest—will also be necessary.Ecologicalrestoration is
The northwesternmost Hawaiian Islands are now part of the one phenomenon we will examine in our next chapter, as we
largest federally declared marine reserve (p. 283) in the world. shift from populationsto communities.

Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology 6

 SUCCESS restoring hakalau’s Forest
STORY
Bythe time the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife species. Gradually the forest recovered, and stands of young
Refuge was established in 1985, much of Hawaii’s trees took root in what had been barren pasture. Biologists
native forest had been cleared for cattle monitored nine species of native forest birds, including four
ranching, while free-roaming pigs federally endangered ones. After 21 years of surveys, they
and invasive plants had degraded concluded that populations of most native birds were either
what remained. So Hakalau’s stable or slowly increasing. Although data suggested that
managers swung into action populations may have declined in the most recent 9 years,
to restore the native forest. native birds at Hakalau were faring better than elsewhere
They built fences to keep pigs on the island of Hawai‘i, and the reforestation of Hakalau’s
and cattle out. They planted upper slopes was creating new habitat into which birds were
half a million native plants. moving. The success at Hakalau is a hopeful sign that with
They labored to remove inva-sive research and careful management we can undo past ecologi-cal
weeds. They located damage and preserve endangered island species, habi-tats,
and protected the last The Hawai‘i ‘kepa is one and communities.
remaining individuals of native species benefiting from
several endangered plant forest restoration. EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

closing the LOOp

The honeycreepers of Hakalau Forest human travel, non-native species brought to Hawai‘i have
National Wildlife Refuge, along with overrun the islands’ landscapes and disrupted their ecological
many other Hawaiian species, help to systems. As biologists monitor dwindling populations of native
illuminate the fundamentals of evolution species, conservationists race to restore habitats, fight inva-sive
and population ecology that are integral species, and save native plants and animals. If we can
to environmental science. Island chains study, understand, and act to address the challenges facing
like Hawai‘i can be viewed as “laboratories of populations and biodiversity in places like Hawai‘i, we can do
evolution,” showing us how populations evolve and how new so anywhere in the world—and do so we must if we are to
species arise. But just as islands are crucibles of speciation, protect Earth’s biodiversity
today they are also hotspots of extinction. In our age of global

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Define the concept of natural selection in your own 6. Define and contrast the concepts of habitat
words, and explain how it follows logically from a few and niche.
common observations of nature. 7. List and describe each of the five major attributes of
2. Describe an example of evidence for natural selection populations that help ecologists predict population
and an example of evidence for artificial selection. growth or decline. Briefly explain how each attribute
3. Describe the steps involved in allopatric speciation. shapes population dynamics.

4. Name two organisms that have become extinct or are 8. Can a species undergo exponential growth indefinitely?
threatened with extinction. For each, give a probable Explain your answer.

reason for its decline. 9. Describe how limiting factors relate to carrying capacity.
5. Define the terms species, population, and community. 10. What are some advantages of ecotourism for a
How does a species differ from a population? How does state like Hawai‘i? Can you think of any potential
a population differ from a community? disadvantages?

SEEKINGSolutions

1. In what ways have artificial selection and selective breeding be used to improve our quality of life further?
breeding changed people’s quality of life? Give Can you envision a way they could be used to reduce
examples. How might artificial selection and selective our environmental impact?

66 Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology

 2. In your region, what species are threatened with 5. THINK IT THROUGH You are a population ecologist
extinction? Why are they vulnerable? Suggest steps that studying animals in a national park, and park managers
could be taken to increase their populations. are asking for advice on how to focus their limited

3. Do you think the human species can continue raising conservation funds. How would you rate the following
its global carrying capacity? How so, or why not? Do three species, from most vulnerable (and thus most in

you think we should try to keep raising our carrying need of conservation attention) to least vulnerable? Give
capacity? Why or why not? reasons for your choices.

4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION Describe two of the

• A bird that is a generalist in its use of habitats and
threats facing native species at Hakalau Forest National resources
Wildlife Refuge or elsewhere in Hawai‘i, and two actions
• A salamander endemic to the park that lives in high-elevation
people have taken to address these threats. What new
forest
trend is now jeopardizing some of these efforts? What
• Afish that specializes on a few types ofinvertebrate
steps do you think might be required in the future to
prey and has alarge population size
safeguard native species, populations, and communities
in mountainous habitats in places like Hawai‘i?

CaLCULaTING Ecological Footprints

Professional demographers delve deeply into the latest statis-tics Florida was one of the fastest-growing U.S. states dur-ing
from cities, states, and nations to bring us updated esti-mates this particular 1-year period, and Illinois was one of the
on human populations. The table shows population slowest-growing states (in fact, Illinois decreased in popula-tion).
estimates for two consecutive years that take into account You can find data for your own state, city, or metro-politan
births, deaths, immigration, and emigration. To calculate the area by exploring the Web pages of the U.S. Census
population growth rate (p. 63) for each region, simply divide the Bureau.
2016 data bythe 2015 data, subtract 1.00, and multiply by 100:
pop. growth rate = [(2016 pop. / 2015 pop.) 1] × 100

REGION 2015 POPULATION 2016 POPULATION POPULATION GROWTH RATE

Hawai‘i 1,425,157 1,428,557

Florida 20,244,914 20,612,439

Illinois 12,839,047 12,801,539

Your state or city

United States 320,896,618 323,127,513 0.70

World 7,336,435,000 7,418,152,000

Data from U.S. Census Bureau and Population Reference Bureau.

1. Assuming its population growth rate remained at the 3. Atthe growth rate you calculated for Florida, the
calculated rate, what would the population of the United population of that state will double in just 38 years.
States have been in 2017? Whatimpacts would you expect this to have on (1) food

2. The birth rate of the United States in recent years has supplies, (2) drinking water supplies, (3) forests and
been 12.5 births per 1000 people, and the death rate other natural areas, and (4) wildlife populations?

has been 8.2 deaths per 1000 people. Using these data 4. How does your own state, city, or metropolitan area
and the formula on p. 63, what was the rate of natural compare in its growth rate with other regions in the
increase for the United States between 2015 and 2016? table? What steps could your region take to lessen
Now subtract this rate from the population growth rate potential impacts of population growth on (1) food
to obtain the net migration rate. Wasthe United States supplies, (2) drinking water supplies, (3) forests and
experiencing moreimmigration or more emigration other natural areas, and (4) wildlife populations?
during this year?

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Go to Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Go to Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

Chapter 3 Evolution, Biodiversity, and Population Ecology 67

 TheEcology
CHAPTER
of Communities
68 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities
 central CASESTUDY

LeapingFish,
BackwardsRiver:
Asian Carp Threaten CANADA

the GreatLakes
Great Lakes

Chicago U.S.

Asian carp, if they Callit electroshock therapy for fish. The U.S. Army Corps of
come into the Great Lakes . . . Engineers sends electricity into the waters ofthe Chicago
could be very abundant. They Ship and Sanitary Canal to stun fish swimming toward
could become one-third of Lake Michigan, causing them to drift back in the other
the total fish weight.
direction, toward the Mississippi River. These electric barri-ers
That is quite alot.
were an engineering solution to a biological challenge—to
—Hongyan Zhang, University of

Michigan researcher keep invasive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes.
But let’s rewind the story a bit. It begins far away
This is not about in China, where for centuries people have raised carp in
Asian carp. This is about aquaculture ponds for food. Starting in the 1960s and
two artificially connected 1970s, managers of catfish farms and wastewater treat-ment
watersheds that many people plants in the southern and central United States
argue never should have
began importing several species of these carp to help
been connected.
clean up infestations of algae and parasitic snails. Black
—Peter Annin, University

of Notre Dame
carp eat snails and other mollusks. Grass carp scrape
Upon completing this leafy aquatic plants off the bottom. Silver carp and
chapter, you will be able to: bighead carp consume plankton (microscopic aquatic
• Summarize and compare plants and animals) that they filter from the water.
the major types of species In time, individuals of these four species, collectively nicknamed “Asian carp,” escaped
interactions from these facilities and moved into streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes. Finding plenty of

• Describe feeding relationships

food, these alien fish grew rapidly, becoming too large for predators to capture. Reproduc-ing

and energy flow, and use them quickly, their populations grew as they spread to waterways
to identify trophic levels and across the southern United States, especially in the lower
navigate food webs Mississippi River Valley. As millions of these non-native

• Discuss characteristics of a
fish invaded these ecosystems, they competed with
keystone species native fish for food, preyed on native plants and
animals, filtered out plankton, and stirred up
• Characterize disturbance,
sediment. These impacts reduced native pop-ulations,
succession, and notions of

community change
changed water quality, and altered
aquatic communities. The silver carp even
• Describe the potential impacts of
injures people: It leaps high out of the water
invasive species in communities,
when boats approach—and a hunk of scaly
and offer solutions to biological
invasions
fish 1 m(3.3 ft) long weighing 27 kg (60 lb)
can do real damage in a head-on collision!
• Explain the goals and methods
Before long, Asian carp swam far up the
of restoration ecology
Mississippi and Ohio rivers and their tributar-ies,
• Identify and describe the
invading waterways across the Midwest
terrestrial biomes of the world
(FIGURE 4.1). As carp from the Mississippi River
advanced up the Illinois River, people around the
Great Lakes became alarmed. If the carp moved into
Lakes Michigan, Huron, Superior, Ontario, and Erie, they

Silver carp leap from the waters

of the Illinois River as a boat An invasive Asian carp

approaches.
6
 NORTH CANADA
DAKOTA Lake Superior
MINNESOTA Lake
J
St. Lawrence
Electric Michigan
River
a

e
barrier
L
s

a
R
k
i
n e
v
a

Ontario
e H
g
r
u
i

Lake
r
h

WISCONSIN
o
c

i
M
n
NEW YORK
SOUTH
e
MICHIGAN Illinois
DAKOTA
D

River
k

s a Erie

Lake
L

o Chicago PENNSYLVANIA Chicago River

M i

and canal system

is

NEBRASKA ne e r
s v
s
Ri
i

OHIO
o
R

u v
r IOWA e
i r s

oi r
e

R
n v

INDIANA
i
i

FIGURE 4.1 Asian carp have spread from the southern United
l i
v
l R
e r I

e
r
ILLINOIS h

WEST
States up the Mississippi River and many of its tributaries. Red
s i
R
a

o
VIRGINIA
b

a hi VIRGINIA
O
KANSAS W

color indicates stretches of major rivers invaded by carp. The gray-shaded

r KENTUCKY

area indicates the region in which carp have invaded smaller rivers, lakes,
e

MISSOURI
v

i
R NORTH
r
and ponds. When Chicago (inset) built canals and reversed the flow of
v
e
i
p
TENNESSEE i
CAROLINA
OKLAHOMA i
R
s

s e

Ar k
a
ns
s
i

s
e
the Chicago River to flow into the Illinois River, this connected the water-sheds
n ne
s
s

a i T e
s
M

e r SOUTH
R v of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, enabling species to
i

v R
i
CAROLINA
e
r
ARKANSAS
o

o
move between them, affecting aquatic communities in each watershed.
z
ALABAMA

TEXAS
Y
a
GEORGIA
Today an electric barrier (see inset) is in place to try to stop Asian carp
LOUISIANA
MISSISSIPPI
from reaching the Great Lakes.

might alter the ecology of the lakes and destroy multimillion-dollar sea lamprey, an eel-like creature that began attacking and para-sitizing
sport and commercial fisheries. Millions of people could the lakes’ freshwater fish. All told, the Great Lakes today
be affected in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, host 180 non-native species that are considered to be invasive.
Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario. Ships have been part of the problem. To maintain stabil-ity,
An Asian carp invasion of the Great Lakes is possible only ships take water into their hulls as they begin their voyage
because of an amazing feat the city of Chicago pulled off a cen-tury and then dischargeit at their destination. Along withthis ballast
ago. Chicago had always drawn its drinking water from Lake water come allthe plants and animals that were taken up in the
Michigan, but it also was polluting this drinking water source by water. In this way, the zebra mussel was brought to America in
dumping its sewage into the Chicago River, whichflowed into the 1980s from seasin central Asia. Withinafew years, this tiny
the lake. So, in 1900 Chicago reversed the flow of the river! It mussel spread by the trillions through the Great Lakes and into
engineered a canal system that connected the Chicago River waterways across half the nation, clogging pipes, covering boat
to the Illinois River, whose waters flowed naturally to the Missis-sippi propellers, outcompeting native mussels, and transforming fish-eries.
River (see inset in Figure 4.1). As a result, water was now The zebra musselinvasion has been blamed for economic
pulled out of Lake Michigan and through the canals, sending losses of hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Chicago’s waste flowing southwest down the Illinois River and As zebra mussels sped down the Illinois River plastered to
into the Mississippi, whereit became other people’s problem. boat hulls, they passed Asian carp making their way up the river
In this way, two of North America’s biggest natural toward the Great Lakes. Fishermen and scientists alarmed about
watersheds—those of the Mississippi River and the Great the carp bent the ear of policymakers, who now fund biologists to
Lakes—were artificially joined. This was a boon for ship navi-gation monitorlakes, rivers, and canals for signs ofthe alienfish. They are
and commerce, but it also allowed species that had also funding numerous efforts to prevent and control their spread,
evolved in the Great Lakes to enter the Mississippi Basin, and including catching the carp; poisoning them; deterring their move-ments;
vice versa. And when species from one place are introduced introducing larger fish to eat them; and persuading restau-rants
to another, ecological havoc can result. to put them on the menu. Against this backdrop, Michigan
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away at their eastern end, and other Great Lakes states launched lawsuits against Chicago in
the Great Lakes were connected to the Atlantic Ocean when an unsuccessful attempt to force it to shut down its canal system.
engineers completed the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959. This Time willtell whether Asian carp successfully invade the Great
600-km (370-mi) system of locks and canals along the Saint Lakes and, if so, whatimpacts they will have. Whatis clear is that
Lawrence River allowed ocean-going ships to travel into the welive in a dynamic world, and that as species are movedfrom
lakes. It also allowed access for non-native species, including the place to place they can transform the communities around us.

SpeciesInteractions
By interacting with many species in a variety of ways, are the threads in the fabric of ecological communities.
Asian carp have set in motion an array of changes in the Ecologists organize species interactions into several main
communities they have invaded. Interactions among species categories (TABLE 4.1).

70 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities

TABLE 4.1 Species Interactions: Effects on Yellow-bellied
Each Participant sapsucker drills
rows of holes
TYPE OF EFFECT ON EFFECT ON
White-breasted and consumes
INTERACTION SPECIES 1 SPECIES 2 sap and insects
nuthatch climbs
down trunk stuck in sap
Competition 2 2

looking for insects

Predation, parasitism, 1 2

herbivory

Mutualism 1 1

“1” denotes a positive effect; “2” denotes a negative effect.

Competition can occur when

Pileated
resources arelimited woodpecker Brown creeper
digs deeply climbs up
When multiple organisms seek the same limited resource, into wood to trunk looking
for tiny
their relationship is said to be one of competition. Competing find large insects
insects
organisms do not usually fight with one another directly and
physically. Instead, competition is generally more subtle and
indirect, taking place as organisms vie with one another to
procure resources. Such resources include food, water, space,
shelter, mates, sunlight, and more. Competitive interactions
can occur between members of the same species (intraspe-cific
competition) or between members of different species FIGURE 4.2 When species compete, they may partition
(interspecific competition). As an example of interspecific resources. Birds that forage for insects on tree trunks use different
competition, researchers have found that silver and bighead portions of the trunk and seek different foods in different ways.

carp compete with native fish for plankton. In the Illinois

River, these two species of Asian carp eat so much plankton smaller seeds. This process is called resource partitioning
that native fish have become smaller and have had to shift because the species partition, or divide, the resources they use
their diets. in common by specializing in different ways (FIGURE 4.2).
If one species is a very effective competitor, it may In competitive interactions, each participant exerts a neg-ative
exclude other species from resource use entirely. Alterna-tively, effect on other participants by taking resources the oth-ers
species may be able to coexist, adapting over evolu-tionary could have used. This is reflected in the two minus signs
time as natural selection (p. 50) favors individuals that shown for competition in Table 4.1. In other types of interac-tions,
use slightly different resources or that use shared resources some participants benefit while others are harmed; that
in different ways. For example, if two bird species eat the is, onespeciesexploitsthe other(notethe +/ interactionsin
same type of seeds, natural selection might drive one species Table 4.1). Such exploitative interactions include predation,
to specialize on larger seeds and the other to specialize on parasitism, and herbivory (FIGURE 4.3).

FIGURE 4.3 Predation, parasitism, and herbivory are exploitative interactions in which one
participant benefits at the expense of another. In predation (a), a predator kills and eats prey.In
parasitism (b), a parasite gains nourishment while harming its host. In herbivory (c), an animal feeds
on plants.

A snake devours a frog. Sea lampreys suck blood

from Great Lakes fish.

A caterpillar feeds
on leaves.

(a) Predation (b) Parasitism (c) Herbivory

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 7

 Predators kill and consume prey Parasites exploitliving hosts
Everyliving thing needsto procurefood, and for mostani-mals,Organismscan exploit other organisms withoutkilling them.
this means eating other organisms. Predation is the Parasitism is a relationship in which one organism, the para-site,
process by which individuals of one species—the predator—hunt, depends on another, the host, for nourishment or some
capture, kill, and consumeindividuals of anotherspe-cies,other benefit while doing the host harm (see Figure 4.3b).
the prey (see Figure 4.3a). Unlike predation, parasitism usually does not result in an
Black carp wereintroduced to U.S. fish farms to help rid organism’s immediate death.
them of parasitic snails becausethe carp prey on mollusks Manytypes of parasiteslive inside their hosts.For exam-ple,
such as snails. However, oncethe carp escaped into the wild, tapeworms live in their hosts’ digestive tracts, robbing
these predators began preying on native snails and mussels, them of nutrition. Thelarvae of parasitoid waspsburrow into
manyof whichbecamethreatened. the tissues of caterpillarsand consumethem from the inside.
In response to the spread of Asian carp, fisheries man-agersOther parasites are free-living. Cuckoos of Eurasia and cow-birds
are now proposing to reestablish populations of the of the Americas lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and
alligator gar, a fish that would prey on the carp. The alli-gatorlet the host raise their young. Still other parasiteslive on
gar is native to the exterior of their hosts, such as fleas or ticks that suck
North American waterways but disap-peared
from manyrivers becausein the past,fishermen felt blood through the skin. The sealamprey is a tube-shaped
it threatened sport fish, and managers set out to eradicate vertebrate that grasps fish with its suction-cup mouth and
it. One of the few fish large enough to catch an adult carp, rasping tongue, sucking their blood for days or weeks (see
the alligator gar grows upto 3 m(9 ft) long, can weigh over Figure4.3b). Sealampreys invaded the GreatLakesfrom the
140 kg (300 lb), and features a long snout with fearsome-lookingAtlantic Ocean after people dug canals to connect the lakes
teeth. for shipping. The lampreys soon devastated economically
Predator-preyinteractions can drive changes in the important fisheries of chubs, lake herring, whitefish, and
population sizes of both predator and prey, thereby influenc-ing lake trout.
the composition of ecological communities and affect-ing Parasites that cause disease in their hosts are called
the structure of the food webs we will examineshortly. pathogens. Common human pathogensinclude the protists
Predation also has evolutionary consequences. Individual that cause malaria and amoebic dysentery, the bacteria that
predators that are moreadept at capturing prey maylive lon-ger cause pneumonia and tuberculosis, andthe viruses that cause
lives, reproduce more,and be better providers for their hepatitisand AIDS.
offspring. Natural selection (p. 50) will thereby lead to the Just as predators and prey evolve in response to one
evolution of adaptations (p. 51) that enhance hunting skills. another, so do parasites and hosts, in a reciprocal process
Prey,however,face astronger selective pressure—therisk of of adaptation and counter-adaptation called coevolution.
immediate death. As a result, predation pressure has driven Hosts and parasites may become locked in a duel of escalat-ing
the evolution of an elaborate array of defenses against being adaptations, known as an evolutionary arms race. Like
eaten(FIGURE4.4). rival nationsracing to stay aheadof one anotherin military

A gecko’s camouflage A yellowjacket’s coloring This caterpillar’s false eyespots

hides it from predators. signals that it is dangerous. startle predators by mimicking
a snake’s head.

(a) Cryptic coloration (camouflage) (b) Warning coloration (c) Mimicry

FIGURE 4.4 Natural selection to avoid predation has resulted in fabulous adaptations. Some prey spe-cies
use cryptic coloration (a) to blend into their background. Others are brightly colored (b) to warn predators
they are toxic, distasteful, or dangerous. Others use mimicry (c) to fool predators.

72 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communitie

technology, host and parasite repeatedly evolve new responses housing and nutrients for specialized algae in exchange for
to the other’s latest advance. In the long run, though, it may food the algae produce through photosynthesis (pp. 34–35).
not be in a parasite’s best interest to do its host too much You, too, are part of a symbiotic mutualism. Your diges-tive
harm. In many cases, a parasite may leave more offspring by tract is filled with microbes that help you digest food and
allowing its host to live longer. carry out other bodily functions. In return, you provide these
microbes a place to live. Without these mutualistic microbes,

Herbivores exploit plants none of us would survive for long.

Not all mutualists live in close proximity. Pollination
In herbivory, animals feed on the tissues of plants. Insects (p. 153) involves free-living organisms that may encounter each
that feed on plants are the most common type of herbivore; other only once. Bees, birds, bats, and other creatures transfer
nearly every plant in the world is attacked by insects (see pollen (containing male sex cells) from flower to flower, fertil-izing
Figure 4.3c). Herbivory generally does not kill a plant out-right ovaries (containing female sex cells) that grow into fruits
but may affect its growth and reproduction. with seeds. These pollinators consume pollen or nectar (a reward
Like animal prey, plants have evolved an impressive arse-nal the plant uses to entice them), and the plants are pollinated and
of defenses against the animals that feed on them. Many reproduce. Bees pollinate three-fourths of our crops—from soy-beans
plants produce chemicals that are toxic or distasteful to herbi-vores. to potatoes to tomatoes to beans to cabbage to oranges.
Othersarm themselves with thorns, spines, or irritating
hairs.
herbivorous
Still others attract insects like
insects. In response,
ants or
herbivores
wasps that attack
evolve ways to Ecological Communities
overcome these defenses, and the plant and the animal may
A community is an assemblage of populations of organ-isms
embark on an evolutionary arms race.
living in the same area at the same time (as wesaw in
Figure 3.10, p. 60). Members of a community interact in the
Mutualists help one another ways discussed above, and these species interactions have
indirect effects that ripple outward to affect other community
Unlike exploitative interactions, mutualism is a relationship
members. Species interactions help determine the structure,
in which two or more species benefit from interacting with
function, and species composition of communities. Commu-nity
one another. Generally, each partner provides some resource
ecology (p. 59) is the scientific study of species interac-tions
or service that the other needs (FIGURE 4.5).
and the dynamics of communities. Community ecologists
Many mutualistic relationships—like many parasitic
study which species coexist, how they interact, how communi-ties
ones—occur between organisms that live in close physical
change through time, and why these patterns occur.
contact. Physically close association is called symbiosis, and
symbiosis can be either mutualistic or parasitic. Most terres-trial
plant species depend on mutualisms with fungi; plant Food chains consist oftrophic levels
roots and some fungi together form symbiotic associations
Some of the most important interactions among community
called mycorrhizae. In these relationships, the plant provides
members involve who eats whom. As organisms feed on one
energy and protection to the fungus while the fungus helps the
another, matter and energy move through the community
plant absorb nutrients from the soil. In the ocean, coral pol-yps,
from one trophic level, or rank in the feeding hierarchy, to
the tiny animals that build coral reefs (p. 267), provide
another (FIGURE 4.6; and compare Figure 2.15, p. 37). As
matter and energy are transferred from lower trophic levels
to higher ones, they are said to pass up a food chain, alinear
series of feeding relationships.

Producers Producers,or autotrophs(“self-feeders,” p. 34),

make up the first (lowest) trophic level. Terrestrial green
plants, cyanobacteria, and algae capture solar energy and
use photosynthesis to produce sugars (p. 35). The chemo-synthetic
bacteria of hydrothermal vents use geothermal
energy in a similar way to produce food (p. 35).

Consumers Organisms that consume producers are

known as primary consumers and make up the second tro-phic
level. Herbivorous grazing animals, such as deer and
grasshoppers, are primary consumers. The third trophic
level consists of secondary consumers, which prey on pri-mary
consumers. Wolves that prey on deer are secondary
FIGURE 4.5 In mutualism, organisms of different species
benefit one another. Hummingbirds visit flowers to gather nectar, consumers, as are rodents and birds that prey on grass-hoppers.
and in the process they transfer pollen between flowers, helping Predators that feed at still higher trophic lev-els
the plantto reproduce. are known as tertiary consumers. Examples of tertiary

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 7

 An aquatic food chain An terrestrial food chain photosynthesis with sunlight that penetrates the water.
The most abundant primary consumers are zooplankton, the
tiny aquatic animals that eat phytoplankton. Some fish eat
Tertiary phytoplankton and thus are primary consumers, whereas
consumers
fish that eat zooplankton are secondary consumers. Ter-tiary
consumers include birds and larger fish that feed on
zooplankton-eating fish. (The left side of Figure 4.6 shows
Cormorant Hawk
these relationships in very generalized form.) Asian carp that
eat both phytoplankton and zooplankton function on multi-ple
trophic levels. When an organism dies and sinks to the

Secondary bottom, detritivores scavenge its tissues and decomposers

consumers recycle its nutrients.

Fish Rodent
Energy decreases at higher
trophic levels
At each trophic level in a food chain, organisms use energy

Primary in cellular respiration (p. 35), and most of the energy ends up
consumers being given off as heat. Only a small portion of the energy is
transferred to the next trophic level through predation, herbiv-ory,
or parasitism. A general rule of thumb is that each trophic
Zooplankton Grasshopper
level contains about 10% of the energy of the trophic level
below it (although the actual proportion varies greatly). This
pattern can be visualized as a pyramid (FIGURE 4.7).
This pattern also tends to hold for numbers of organ-Producers
isms; in general, fewer organisms exist at high trophic levels
than at low ones. A grasshopper eats many plants in its life-time,
arodent eats many grasshoppers, and a hawk eats many
rodents. Thus, for every hawk there must be many rodents,
Phytoplankton Plant
still more grasshoppers, and an immense number of plants.

FIGURE 4.6 Afood chain organizes species hierarchically Because the difference in numbers of organisms among tro-phic
by trophic level. The diagram shows aquatic (left) and terrestrial levels tends to be large, the same pyramid-like relation-ship
(right) examples at each level. Arrows indicate the direction of often holds true for biomass, the collective mass of
energy flow. Producers synthesize food by photosynthesis, primary living matter.
consumers (herbivores) feed on producers, secondary consum-ers
eat primary consumers, and tertiary consumers eat secondary
consumers. Detritivores and decomposers (not shown) feed on
nonliving organic matter and “close the loop” by returning nutrients
Tertiary
to the soil or the water column for use by producers.
consumers 1

Secondary
consumers 10
consumers include hawks and owls that eat rodents that
have eaten grasshoppers.
Primary
consumers 100
Detritivores and decomposers Detritivoresand decom-posers
consume nonliving organic matter. Detritivores, such Producers 1000
as millipedes and soil insects, scavengethe wasteproducts
or dead bodies of other community members. Decompos-ers, FIGURE 4.7 Lower trophic levels contain more energy—and
such as fungi, bacteria, and earthworms, break down generally more organisms and biomass—than higher
leaf litter and other nonliving matterinto simpler constitu-ents trophic levels. The 10:1 ratio shown here for energy is typical,

that can betaken up and used by plants. These organ-isms but varies greatly.

enhance the topmost soil layers (pp. 144–145) and play

Using the ratios shown in this example, let’s suppose
essentialroles asthe community’s recyclers, makingnutri-ents
that primary consumers have a total energy content of
from organic matter available for reuse by living mem-bers
3000 kcal/m2/yr. • How much energy would you expect
of the community.
among secondary consumers? • How much would you expect
In Great Lakes communities,the main producers are among tertiary consumers?
phytoplankton, consisting of microscopic algae, protists,
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Scienc
and cyanobacteria that drift in open water and conduct

74 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities

 weighingthe This pyramid pattern illus-trates Food websshow feeding
ISSUeS why eating atlower trophic
levels—being vegan or vegetarian,
relationships and energy flow
for instance—decreases a person’s Thinking in terms of food chains is conceptually useful, but
the Footprints of Our Diets
ecological footprint. Eachamount ecological systems are far more complex than simple linear
What proportion of your diet of meator other animal product chains. A fuller representation of the feeding relationships
consists of meat, milk, eggs, or we eat requires the input of a con-siderably
in a community is a food web—a visual mapthat shows the
other animal products? Would you
greateramount of plant many paths along which energy and matter flow as organisms
decrease this proportion to reduce
material (see Figure 7.14, p. 156). consume one another.
your ecological footprint? How else
Thus, when we eat animal prod-ucts, FIGURE 4.8 portrays a food web from a temperate decidu-ous
could you reduce your footprint
we use up far moreenergy forest of eastern North America. It is greatly simplified
through your food choices?
per calorie that we gain than when and leaves out most species and interactions. Note, however,
weeat plant products. that even within this simplified diagram wecan pick out many

Caterpillar and other

White insects on leaves
Spider
oak

Eastern
chipmunk Cedar
waxwing

Insects
Blackberry
Tick

Rat snake

Red-bellied
woodpecker

White-tailed deer

Eastern
cottontail
Shelf fungus

Deer mouse

Grasses, wildflowers,
American toad
herbaceous plants

Soil bacteria Earthworm

FIGURE 4.8 This food web shows feeding relationships among organisms in eastern North America’s
temperate deciduous forest. Arrows indicate the direction of energy flow as a result of predation, parasitism,
or herbivory. The actual community contains many morespecies andinteractions than can be shown.

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 7

 food chains involving different sets of species. For instance, would decrease in turn once they had fewer of those fish to
grasses are eaten by deer mice that may be consumed by rat eat. However, smallmouth bass were predicted to increase
snakes—while in another food chain, blackberry leaves are by 13–16% because they would benefit from consuming
consumed by caterpillars that provide food for spiders, which the newly abundant young of the invasive carp. Overall, the
in turn may be eaten by American toads. researchers predicted that in 20 years the carp would com-prise
A food web for the aquatic community of the Illinois 30% of the total fish biomass in Lake Erie, after causing
River would include phytoplankton that photosynthesize; populations of most native fish species to decline.
zooplankton that eat them; fish that eat phytoplankton and
zooplankton; and herons, ducks, and raptors that eat fish. It
Some organisms play outsized roles
would include many underwater plants and algae that pro-vide
food and shelter for animals. And it would include a “Some animals are more equal than others,” George Orwell
diversity of insect larvae, mussels, snails, crayfish, and other wrote in his classic novel Animal Farm. Orwell was making
freshwater invertebrates living amid the plants and on the wry sociopolitical commentary, but his remark hints at an eco-logical
muddy bottom. Today, an Illinois River food web would also truth. In communities, some species exert greater influ-ence
include invasive Asian carp that are modifying many aspects than do others. A species that has strong or wide-reaching
of the community as they carve out their own roles within impact far out of proportion to its abundance is often called a
it (jump ahead to Figure 4.12 for a peek at some of these keystone species. A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone at the
interactions). top of an arch that holds the structure together. Remove the
In 2016, researchers assessed the diets of various fish keystone, and the arch will collapse (FIGURE 4.9a). In an eco-logical
native to Lake Erie to predict how the food web of the lake community, removal of a keystone species will likewise
might change if Asian carp were to invade it. Their ecologi-cal have major consequences.
model projected that competition for food from silver and Often, secondary or tertiary consumers near the tops of
bighead carp would reduce the biomass of plankton-eating food chains are considered keystone species. Top predators con-trol
fish such as rainbow smelt, gizzard shad, and emerald shiner populations of herbivores, which otherwise could multiply
by 13–37%, and that the biomass of predatory adult walleye and greatly modify the plant community (FIGURE 4.9b). Thus,
predators at high trophic levels can indirectly
promote populations of organisms at low tro-phic
Keystone
absent
levels by keeping species at intermediate
trophic levels in check, a phenomenon referred
to as a trophic cascade. For example, the U.S.
government long paid bounties to promote the
hunting of wolves and mountain lions, which
Keystone
were largely exterminated by the mid-20th
century. In the absence of these predators, deer
populations grew, overgrazing forest-floor veg-etation
(a) A keystone and eliminating tree seedlings, leading
to major changes in forest structure.
This removal of top predators was an
Sea otter absent uncontrolled large-scale experiment with
unintended consequences, but ecologists
have verified the keystone species concept
Sea otter
in controlled scientific experiments. Classic
(keystone
Kelp research by biologist Robert Paine established
species)
that the predatory sea star Pisaster ochraceus
shapes the community composition of inter-tidal
Overgrazed
Explosion of organisms (p. 263) on North America’s
kelp
sea urchin
population

FIGURE 4.9 Sea otters are a keystone

species. A keystone (a) sits atop an arch, holding
the structure together. A keystone species (b) is a
species that exerts great influence on a commu-nity’s
composition and structure. Sea otters con-sume
sea urchins that eat kelp in coastal waters
Sea
urchin of the Pacific. Otters keep urchin numbers down,
allowing lush underwater forests of kelp to grow,
providing habitat for many species. When otters
are absent, urchins increase and devour the kelp,

(b) A keystone species destroying habitat and depressing species diversity

76 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities

Pacific coast. When Pisaster is present in this community, and ecosystem. A disturbance can be localized, such as
species diversity is high, with various types of barnacles, when a tree falls in a forest, creating a gap in the canopy
mussels, and algae. When Pisaster is removed, the mussels that lets in sunlight. Or it can be as large and severe as a
it preys on become numerous and displace hurricane,
other species, sup-pressing tornado, or volcanic eruption. Some disturbances
species diversity. are sudden, such as landslides or floods, whereas others
Animals at high trophic levels—such as wolves, sea stars, are more gradual. Some recur regularly and are considered
sharks, and sea otters—are often viewed as keystone species, normal aspects of a system (such as periodic fire, seasonal
but other types of organisms also exert strong community-wide storms, or cyclical insect outbreaks). Today, human impacts
effects. “Ecosystem engineers” physically modify environ-ments. are major sources of disturbance for ecological communities
Beavers build dams across streams, creating ponds and worldwide.
swamps by flooding land. Prairie dogs dig burrows that aerate Communities are dynamic and may respond to distur-bance
the soil and serve as homes for other animals. Ants disperse in several ways. A community that resists change and
seeds, redistribute nutrients, and selectively protect or destroy remains stable despite disturbance is said to show resistance
insects and plants near their colonies. to the
Asian carp alter the com-munities disturbance. Alternatively, a community may show
they invade in many ways. resilience, meaning that it changes in response to disturbance
Less conspicuous organisms at low trophic levels can but later returns to its original state. Or, a community may be
exert still more impact. Remove the fungi that decompose modified by disturbance permanently and never return to its
dead matter, or the insects that control plant growth, or the original state.
phytoplankton that support the marine food chain, and a com-munity
may change rapidly indeed. However, because there
are usually more species at lower trophic levels, it is less Successionfollows severe
likely that any single one of them alone has wideinfluence.
Often if one species is removed, other species that remain
disturbance
may be able to perform many of its functions. If a disturbance is severe enough to eliminate all or most
of the species in a community, the affected site may then
undergo a predictable series of changes that ecologists have
Communities respond to traditionally called succession. In the conventional view of

disturbance in various ways this process, there are two types of succession (FIGURE 4.10).
Primary succession follows a disturbance so severe that no
Theremoval of a keystone species is just onetype of distur-bancevegetation or soil life remains from the community that had
that can modify a community. In ecological terms, a occupied the site. In primary succession, a community is built
disturbance is an event that has drastic impacts on environ-mental essentially from scratch. In contrast, secondary succession
conditions, resulting in changes to the community begins when a disturbance dramatically alters an existing

PRIMARY SUCCESSION

Bare rock Lichens

Grasses,small Shrubs and fast-growing Shade-intolerant Forest of shade-tolerant

herbs, and forbs trees trees trees

Disturbance: Farming,
fire, landslide, etc.

SECONDARY SUCCESSION

FIGURE 4.10 In succession, an area’s plant community passes through a series of typical stages.
Primary succession begins as organisms colonize alifeless new surface (two panels at top left). Secondary
succession occurs after some disturbance removes most vegetation from an area(panel at bottom left).

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 7

 community but does not destroy all life and organic matter. disturbance restarts succession. Early ecologists felt that each
In secondary succession, vestiges of the previous community region had its own characteristic climax community, deter-mined
remain, and these building blocks help shape the process. by climate.
At terrestrial sites, primary succession takes place after
a bare expanse of rock, sand, or sediment becomes exposed
to the atmosphere. This can occur when glaciers retreat, lakes
Communities mayundergo shifts
dry up, or volcanic lava or ash covers a landscape. Species
Today, ecologists recognize that community change is far
that arrive first and colonize the new substrate are referred to
more variable and less predictable than early models of
as pioneer species. Pioneer species are adapted for coloniza-tion;
succession suggested. Conditions at one stage may promote
for instance, they generally have spores or seeds that can
progression to another stage, or organisms may, through
travel long distances.
competition, inhibit a community’s progression to another
The pioneers best suited to colonizing bare rock are the
stage. The trajectory of change can vary greatly according
mutualistic aggregates of fungi and algae known as lichens.
to chance factors, such as which particular species happen
In lichens, the algal component provides food and energy
to gain an early foothold. And climax communities are not
via photosynthesis while the fungal component grips the
determined solely by climate, but vary with soil condi-tions
rock and captures moisture. As lichens grow, they secrete
and other factors from one time or place to another.
acids that break down the rock surface, beginning the pro-cess
Ecologists came to modify their views about how commu-nities
that forms soil. Small plants and insects arrive, provid-ing
respond to disturbance after observing changes dur-ing
more nutrients and habitat. As time passes, larger plants
long-term field studies at locations such as Mount Saint
and animals establish, vegetation increases, and species
Helens following its eruption (see THE SCIENCE BEHIND
diversity rises.
THE STORY, pp. 80–81).
Secondary succession begins when a fire, a storm, log-FaQ
Once a community is disturbed and changes are set in
ging, or farming removes much of the biotic community. Con-sider
motion, there is no guarantee that it will return to its original
a farmed field in eastern North America that has been
state. Instead, sometimes communities may undergo a regime
abandoned. The site becomes
shift, or phase shift, in which the character of the commu-nity
colonized by pioneer species of
fundamentally changes. This can occur if some crucial
grasses, herbs, and forbs that dis-perse
climatic threshold is passed, a keystone species is lost, or
well or were already in the
a non-native species invades. For instance, many coral reef
Once we disturb a
vicinity. Soon, shrubs and fast-growing
communities have become dominated by algae after people
community, won’t it return
trees such as aspens and
overharvested fish or turtles that consume algae. In some
to its original state if wejust
poplars begin to grow. As time
grasslands, livestock grazing and fire suppression have led
leave the area alone?
passes, pine trees rise above the
shrubs and trees to invade, forming shrublands. And remov-ing
Probably not, if the disturbance has pioneer trees and shrubs, forming
sea otters can lead to the loss of kelp forests (p. 76).
been substantial. For example, if a pine forest. This forest attains
Regime shifts show that we cannot count on being able to
soil has become compacted or if
an understory of hardwood trees,
reverse damage caused by human disturbance, because some
watersources have dried up,then
because pine seedlings do not
changes we set in motion may become permanent.
the plant species that grew atthe
grow well under a canopy but
site originally may nolonger be able Today human disturbance and the introduction of non-native
some hardwood seedlings do.
to grow. Different plant species may species are creating wholly new communities that have
Eventually the hardwoods out-grow
take their place—and among them, not previously occurred on Earth. These novel communities,
the pines, creating a hard-wood
a different suite of animal species or no-analog communities, are composed of novel mixtures
forest.
mayfind habitat. Sometimes a of plants and animals and have no analog or precedent. Given
Succession occurs in many
whole new community may arise. today’s fast-changing climate, habitat alteration, species
ecological systems. For instance,
Forinstance, as deforestation has extinctions, and species invasions, scientists predict that we
a pond may undergo succession
caused climate to become drier will see more and more novel communities.
in parts ofthe Amazon, unprec-edented as algae, microbes, plants, and

fires have burned tropical zooplankton grow, reproduce,

rainforests, converting some of and die, gradually filling the Introduced species mayalter
them to scrub-grassland. In the water body with organic mat-ter.
communities
past, people didn’t realize how The pond acquires further
permanent such changes could be, organic matter and sediments Traditional concepts of communities involve species native to
because wetendedto view natural from streams and runoff, and an area. But whatif a species not native to the area arrives
systems as static, predictable, and eventually it may fill in, becom-ing from elsewhere? In our age of global mobility and trade, peo-ple
liable to return to equilibrium. Today a bog (p. 260) or a terrestrial have moved countless organisms from place to place. As
ecologists recognize that systems system. a result, today most non-native arrivals in a community are
are highly dynamic and can some-times In the traditional view of suc-cession
introduced species, species introduced by people.
undergo rapid, extreme, and described here, the pro-cess In many cases, introductions have been intentional. People
long-lasting change. leads to a climax community, intentionally imported Asian carp to North America, believ-ing
which remains in place until some these fish could offer valuable services to aquaculture an

78 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities

 wastewater treatment facilities. Many other introductions
have occurred by accident. Zebra mussels arrived in the Great
Lakes as a result of global trade, inadvertently transported in
the ballast water of cargo ships.
Most introduced species fail to establish populations,
but a minority succeed. Over time, successful alien species
may accumulate, and today many regions support novel
communities rich in non-native species. Over 180 non-native
species inhabit the Great Lakes. Across much of San
Francisco Bay the majority of species are non-native, while
30% of California’s plant species are non-native.
Of those species that successfully persist in their new FIGURE 4.11 When non-native species are introduced, they
home, some may do exceptionally well, spreading widely, may sometimes become invasive. Garlic mustard has displaced
pushing aside native species, and coming to dominate com-munities.
native ground cover in many forests of eastern North America.
Ecologists term such species invasive species Dedicated volunteers are doing their best to remove it.

because they “invade” native communities (FIGURE 4.11).

The U.S. government defines invasive species as non-native fungus caused Dutch elm disease, which destroyed most of
species “whose introduction causes or is likely to cause eco-nomicthe American elms that once gracefully lined the streets of
or environmental harm or harm to human health.” many U.S. cities. Alien grasses introduced in the Ameri-can
Introduced species can become invasive when limit-ing West for ranching have overrun entire regions, crowd-ing
factors (p. 63) that regulate their population growth are out native vegetation and encouraging fires that damage
absent. Plants and animals brought to a new area mayleave native plants like sagebrush, furthering the dominance of the
behind the predators, parasites, herbivores, and competitors grasses. Hundreds of island-dwelling animal and plant spe-cies
that had exploited them in their native land. If few organ-isms worldwide have been driven extinct by goats, pigs, rats,
in a new environment eat, parasitize, or compete with and other mammalsintroduced by human colonists and visi-tors
an introduced species, then it may thrive and spread. As the (Chapter 3).
species proliferates, it may exert diverse influences on other Because of such impacts, most ecologists view invasive
community members (FIGURE 4.12). By altering communi-ties, species in a negative light, and this often carries over to their
invasive species are one of the central ecological forces perceptions of non-native species in general. Yet many of
in today’s world. us enjoy the beauty of introduced ornamental plants in our
Examples abound of invasive species that have had gardens. Some introduced species provide economic bene-fits,
major ecological impacts (pp. 178–180). The chestnut such as the European honeybee, which pollinates many
blight, an Asian fungus, killed nearly every mature Ameri-can of our crops (p. 153). And some organisms are introduced
chestnut, a dominant tree species of eastern North intentionally to control pests through biocontrol (p. 153).
American forests, between 1900 and 1930. Asian trees In recent years, some scientists have begun pushing
had evolved defenses against the fungus over millennia of back against the conventional wisdom. They point out that
coevolution, but the American chestnut had not. A different the locations and habitats in which exotic species generally
establish themselves tend to be those
that are already severely disturbed by
human impact. In such degraded areas,
Small zooplankton may
increase if freed from non-native species can actually be ben-eficial;
predation and competition they may provide resources to
from larger zooplankton
native organisms and, arguably, may
eaten by carp.
help severely degraded ecosystems

Native plankton-eating Effects on

Silver and FIGURE 4.12 Asian carp modify the
fish are phyto-plankton
bighead carp
excluded and
aquatic communities they invade. Silver
deplete
zooplankton. decline. vary. and bighead carp outcompete native fish
for zooplankton, which can in turn affect

Black carp
phytoplankton in various ways. Grass and
Carp stir up deplete native black carp alter water quality by stirring up
sediment. snails and sediment as they consume native plants
mussels.
and mollusks. Basedon datafrom Sass, G.,et al.,
Grass carp modify the 2014. Invasive bighead and silver carp effects on zoo-plankton
plant community.
communities in the Illinois River, Illinois, USA.

J. Great Lakes Research 40: 911–921, and various

other studies.

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 7

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Go to Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

How Do CommunitiesRecoverafter Disturbance?

The eruption of Mount Saint Helens (FIGURE 1), carpeted with shrubs, young trees, and colorful
offered ecologists a rare opportunity to flowers. And what ecologists have learned has modified our
study how communities recover from view of primary succession and informed the entire study of dis-turbance
catastrophic disturbance. On May ecology.
18, 1980, this volcano in the state Given the ferocity and scale of the eruption, most scientists
of Washington erupted in sud-den initially presumed that life had been wiped out completely over
and spectacular violence, a large area. Based on traditional views of succession, they
with 500 times the force of the expected that pioneer species would colonize the area gradu-ally,
atomic blast at Hiroshima. spreading slowly from the outside margins inward, and that
The massive explosion over many years a community would be rebuilt in a systematic
obliterated an entire landscape and predictable way.
of forest as a scalding mix of Instead, researchers discovered that some plants and ani-mals
gas, steam, ash, and rock was had survived the blast. Some were protected by deep
hurled outward. A pyroclastic flow snowbanks. Others were sheltered on steep slopes facing away
(p. 237) sped downslope, along with from the blast. Still others were dormant underground whenthe
the largest landslide in recorded eruption occurred. These survivors, it turned out, would play key
history. Rock and ash rained down roles in rebuilding the community.
Dr. Virginia Dale at and mudslides and lahars (p. 240) Many of the ecologists drawn to Mount Saint Helens
Mount Saint Helens raced down river valleys, inundating studied plants. Virginia Dale of Oak Ridge National Labora-tory
everything in their paths. Altogether, in Tennessee and her colleagues examined the debris
4.1 km3 (1.0 mi3) of material was ejected from the moun-tain, avalanche, a landslide of rock and ash as deep as a 15-story
affecting 1650 km2 (637 mi2), an area twice the size of building. This region appeared barren, yet small numbers
New York City. of plants of 20 species had survived, growing from bits of
In the aftermath of the blast, ecologists moved in to take root or stem carried down in the avalanche. However, most
advantage of the natural experiment of a lifetime. For them, the plant regrowth occurred from seeds blown in from afar.
eruption provided an extraordinary chance to study how primary Dale’s team used sticky traps to sample these seeds as they
succession unfolds on a fresh volcanic surface. Which organ-isms chronicled the area’s recovery. After 30 years, the number of
would arrive first? What kind of community would emerge? plant species had grown to 155, covering 50% of the ground
How long it would take? These researchers set up study plots surface.
to examine how populations, communities, and ecosystems Oneimportant pioneer species was the red alder. This tree
would respond. grows quickly, deals well with browsing by animals, and pro-duces
Today, almost 40 years later, the barren gray moonscape many seeds at a young age. As a result, it has become
that resulted from the blast is a vibrant green in many places the dominant tree species on the debris avalanche. Because it

(a) 1980 (b) 2011

FIGURE 1 Mount Saint Helens (a) after its eruption in 1980 and (b) three decades later.

80 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communitie

fixes nitrogen (p. 42), the red alder enhances soil fertility and 100
Seeded plots
thereby helps other plants grow. Researchers predict that red 80
alder willremain dominant for years or decades and that coni-fers 60
cove

such as Douglas fir will eventually outgrow the alders and

40
establish a conifer-dominated forest. Unseeded plots
20
Percentage plant

Patterns of plant growth have varied in different areas.

0
Roger del Moral of the University of Washington and his col-leagues
compared ecological responses on a variety of 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

surfaces, including barren pumice, mixed ash and rock, mud-flows, Yearssince eruption

and the “blowdown zone” where trees were toppled (a) Percentage plant cover
like matchsticks. Numbers of species and percentage of plant
cover increased in different ways on each surface, affected by 40
Seeded plots
a diversity offactors.
30
Parts of the blast zone were replanted by people. After the
plot

species

eruption, concerns about erosion led federal officials to disperse 20

of

Unseeded plots
seeds of eight plant species (seven of them non-native) by heli-copter
study

10
overlarge areas in hopes of quickly stabilizing the surface
per

Number

with vegetation. Dale and her colleagues took the opportunity to 0

compare plant regrowth in areas that were manually reseeded 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

against regrowth in areas that recovered naturally. They found Years since eruption

that manual seeding established plant cover on the ground more (b) Species richness
quickly, and that this effect waslong-lasting: Even after 30 years,
FIGURE 2 Plants recovered differently at manually seeded
manually seeded areas had more plant cover than unseeded
and unseeded sites at Mount Saint Helens. In the 30 years
areas (FIGURE 2a). The same was true, to alesser extent, with
after the eruption, (a) percentage of ground covered by plants and
the number of plant species (FIGURE 2b). However, the manually
(b) species richness of plants bothincreased, with cover and spe-cies
reseeded areas contained a larger proportion of plants of non-native
richness being greaterin manuallyreseeded areasthanin
species than did the naturally seeded areas, even after unseeded areas recovering naturally. Datafrom Dale,V.H.andE.M.
30 years. Researchers predict that eventually both types of areas Denton, in press. Plant succession on the Mount St. Helens debris avalanche

will become more similar as conifer forest replaces the pioneer deposit and the role of non-native species. In C.M. Crisafulli and V.H. Dale

species—and Dale’s team is finding evidence that this is already (Eds.), Ecological responses at Mt. St. Helens: Revisited 35 years after the 1980

beginning to occur. eruption. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.

Among plants, windblown seeds accounted for most

regrowth, but plants that happened to survive in sheltered “refu-gia”
within the impact zone helped to repopulate areas nearby. Once plants took hold, animals began exerting influ-ence
Indeed, chance played alarge rolein determining which organ-isms through herbivory. Caterpillars fed on plants, occa-sionally
survived and how vegetation recovered, researchers have extinguishing small populations as they began to
found. Had the eruption occurred in late summer instead of establish. Researchers led by Charles Crisafulli of the U.S.
spring, there would have been no snow, and many of the plants Forest Service studied mammals and found that their species
that survived would have died. Had the eruption occurred at diversity increased in alinear fashion. Fully 34 of the 45 mam-mal
night, nocturnal animals would have been hit harder. species present in the larger region colonized the blast
Animals played major roles in the recovery. In fact, research-ers area within 35 years—from tiny mice to elk and mountain
such as Patrick Sugg and John Edwards of the University goats.
of Washington showed that insects and spiders arrived in great All told, research at Mount Saint Helens has shown that
numbers before plants did. Insects fly, while spiders disperse by succession is not a simple and predictable process. Instead,
“ballooning” on silken threads, so in summer the atmosphere is communities recover from disturbance in ways that are
filled with an “aerial plankton” of windblown arthropods. Trap-ping dynamic, complex, and highly dependent on chance factors.
and monitoring at Mount Saint Helens in the months fol-lowing The results also show life’s resilience. Even when the vast
the eruption showed that insects and spiders landed majority of organisms perish in a natural disaster, a few may
in the impact zone by the billions. Researchers estimated that survive, and their descendants may eventually build a new
more than 1500 species arrived in the first few years, surviving community.
by scavenging or by preying on other arthropods. Mostindividu-als Ecological change at Mount Saint Helens will continue for
soon died, but the nutrients from their bodies enriched the many decades more. All along, ecologists will continue to study
soil, helping the community to develop. and learn from this tremendous natural experiment.

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 81

 weighingthe recover from human impact. chemicals, ultraviolet light, heat, electricity, and physical fil-tration

ISSUeS Defenders
also stress that
of non-native
non-natives
species
gen-erally
to kill organisms onboard without exchanging water.

increase the species diver-sity Communities can berestored

are all Introduced Species of a community rather than
harmful? Invasive species are adding to the transformations that people
decreasing it. Some even main-tain
have forced on natural systems through habitat alteration,
If weintroduce a non-native spe-cies that in a world shaped by
pollution, overhunting, and climate change. Ecological sys-tems
to a community and it greatly human impact, the species that
support our civilization and all of life, so when systems
modifies the community, do you have proven themselves success-ful
think that, in itself, is a bad thing? cease to function, our health and well-being are threatened.
invaders may give biodiver-sity
What if it causes a native species This realization has given rise to the science of
its best chance of persisting
to disappear from the community? restoration ecology. Restoration ecologists research the his-torical
in the face of our dominance.
What if the non-native species conditions of ecological communities as they existed
Whatever view one takes,
arrived on its own, rather than before our industrialized civilization altered them. They then
the changes that introduced spe-cies—and
through human intervention? What devise ways to restore altered areas to an earlier condition.
particularly invasive
if it provides economic services, In some cases, the intent is to restore the functionality of a
species—bring to native popu-lations
as the European honeybee does? system—to reestablish a wetland’s ability to filter pollutants
and communities can be
What ethical standard(s) (p. 14) and recharge groundwater, for example, or a forest’s ability
significant. These impacts are
would you apply to assess whether to cleanse the air, build soil, and provide wildlife habitat. In
growing year by year with our
we should reject, tolerate, or wel-come other cases, the aim is to return a community to its natural
increasing mobility and the glo-balization
an introduced species? “presettlement” condition. Either way, the science of restora-tion
of our society.
ecology informs the practice of ecological restoration,
the on-the-ground efforts to carry out these visions and
Wecan respond to invasive restore communities.

species with control, eradication,

or prevention
Ever since U.S. policymakers began to recognize the impacts of SUCCESS Restoring Native Prairie Near Chicago
invasive species in the 1990s, federal funding has become avail-able STORY
for their control and eradication. Eradication (total elimina-tion
Nearly all the tallgrass prairie in North America
of a population) is extremely difficult, so managers usually
was converted to agriculture in the 1800s and early
aim merely to control populations—that is, to limit their growth,
1900s. Immense regions ofland in
spread, and impact. Managers have tried to control Asian carp
states like Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois
in heavily infested waterways like the Illinois River by netting
that today grow corn, wheat, and
juvenile fish; hiring contract fishermen to catch adults; bubbling
soybeans were once carpeted
carbon dioxide into the water; broadcasting noise into the water;
in alush and diverse mix of
and testing the effects of hot water and ozone. Researchers are
grasses and wildflowers and
also trying to develop a chemical microparticle that will poison
inhabited by countless birds,
carp while not affecting other fish, and they are aiming to rein-troduce
bees, and butterflies. Today,
the alligator gar as a predator.
people are trying to re-create
However, most of these are localized or short-term
these rich native landscapes
fixes. With one invasive species after another, managers find
through ecological restora-tion.
that control and eradication are so difficult and expensive
Scientists and volun-teers The restored prairie at
that trying to prevent invasions in the first place represents a
are restoring patches Fermilab, outside Chicago,
better investment. This explains why, with Asian carp, man-agers
of prairie by planting native Illinois
are working hard to prevent them from entering the
vegetation, weeding out
Great Lakes. The Army Corps’ electric barriers in the Chi-cago
invaders and competitors, and introducing prescribed fire
Ship and Sanitary Canal are one main prevention tech-nique.
(p. 201) to mimic the fires that historically maintained prairie
Engineers have also built various dikes and berms to
communities. Theregion outside Chicago,Illinois, boasts a
block floodwaters when heavy rains cause water to over-flow
number of prairie restoration projects, the largest of which is
from riverbanks and canals.
inside the gigantic ring at the Fermilab National Accelerator
To meet the challenge of species transport across oceans
Laboratory. The project, begunin 1971 by ecologists Robert
in ballast water, the U.S. government and the international
Betz and Raymond Schulenberg, today involves hundreds of
community each require ships to dump their freshwater
community volunteers and has restored more than 400 ha
ballast at sea (where freshwater organisms are killed by
(1000 acres) of prairie.
salt water) and exchange it with salt water before entering
port areas. They also are working with industry researchers EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

to test and approve methods of treating ballast water with

82 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities

 Ecological restoration involves trying to undo impacts Former

of human disturbance and to reestablish species, populations, canal

communities, and natural ecological processes. Restoration

often involves removing invasive species and planting native
vegetation. Sometimes it means reintroducing natural pro-cesses
such as fire or flooding. It may also mean modifying the Restored
river
landscape to reduce erosion or influence patterns of water flow.
The world’s largest restoration project is the ongoing
effort to restore the Everglades, a vast ecosystem of marshes
and seasonally flooded grasslands stretching across southern
Florida. This wetland system has been drying out for decades
because the water that feeds it has been manipulated for FIGURE 4.13 Thelargest restoration project today is in
flood control and overdrawn for irrigation and development. Florida. Here, waterfrom a canal has been returned to the
Kissimmee River, which now winds freely toward the Everglades.
Economically important fisheries have suffered greatly as a
result, and the region’s famed populations of wading birds
have dropped by 90–95%. The 30-year, $7.8-billion restora-tion Asour populationgrowsandasdevelopmentspreads,eco-logical
project intends to restore natural water flow by removing
restoration is becoming anincreasingly vital conserva-tion
hundreds of miles of canals and levees. Because the Ever-glades
strategy. However,restoration is difficult, time-consuming,
provides drinking water for millions of Florida citi-zens, and expensive.It is therefore best, wheneverpossible,to pro-tect
as well as considerable tourism revenue, restoring its
natural systems from degradation in the first place.
ecosystem services (pp. 4, 39, 101) should prove economi-cally
beneficial as well asecologically valuable.
Efforts in Florida have met with some success so far:
Earth’sBiomes
Canals have been filled in and stretches of the Kissimmee Across the world, each location is home to different sets of
River now flow freely (FIGURE 4.13), bringing waterto Lake species,leading to endless variety in community composi-tion.
Okeechobee and then to the Everglades. But many challenges However, communities in far-flung places often share
remain. Invasive species such as the Burmese python are strong similarities, so we can classify communities into
spreading faster than they can be controlled, eating their way broad types. A biome is a major regional complex of similar
through the native fauna. Moreover, the ambitious project has communities—a large-scale ecological unit recognized pri-marily
struggled against budget shortfalls and political interference, byits dominant planttype and vegetationstructure.
and most of its goals have not yet been met. (We will explore The world contains a number of terrestrial biomes, each cov-ering
ecological restoration projects again in Chapter 8; p. 185.) large geographic areas (FIGURE 4.14).

Pacific
Atlantic Ocean
Ocean
Tropic of Cancer 23.5° N

Pacific
Ocean
Equator 0°

Indian
Ocean
Tropic of Capricorn 23.5° S

Temperate deciduous forest Tropical rainforest Desert Chaparral

Temperate grassland Tropical dry forest Tundra Mountainous regions

Temperate rainforest Savanna Boreal forest Unvegetated region

FIGURE 4.14 Biomes are distributed around the world, correlated roughly with latitude.

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 83

 Climate helps determine biomes Aquatic systems resemble biomes
Whichbiome covers each portion of the planet dependson Our discussion of biomesfocuses exclusively on terrestrial
a variety of abiotic factors, including temperature, precipita-tion, systems because the biome concept, as traditionally devel-oped
soil conditions, and the circulation patterns of wind in and applied, has done so. However, areas equivalent to
the atmosphereand waterin the oceans.Amongthesefactors, biomes also exist in the oceans,along coasts,andin fresh-water
temperature and precipitation exert the greatest influence systems (Chapter 12). One might consider the shal-lows
(FIGURE 4.15). Global climate patterns cause biomes to occur along the world’s coastlines to represent one aquatic
in large patchesin different partsof the world. Forinstance, system,the continentalshelvesanother, andthe openocean,
temperate deciduous forest occurs in Europe, China, and east-ern the deep sea, coral reefs, and kelp forests as still others.
North America. Notein Figure 4.14 that patches of any Freshwater wetlands and manycoastal systems—such assalt
given biometend to occur at similar latitudes. Thisis dueto marshes,rocky intertidal communities, mangroveforests,
Earth’s north–south gradients in temperature and to atmo-spheric
and estuaries—share terrestrial and aquatic components.
circulation patterns (p. 290). Aquatic systems are shaped not by air temperature and
Scientists use climate diagrams, or climatographs,to precipitation, but by watertemperature, salinity, dissolved
depict information on temperature and precipitation. As we nutrients, wave action, currents, depth, light levels, and type
tour the world’sterrestrial biomes, you will see climate dia-grams
of substrate(e.g., sandy, muddy,or rocky bottom). Marine
from specific localities. The data in each graph are communities are also moreclearly delineated by their animal
typical of the climate for the biome the locality lies within. life than bytheir plant life.

FIGURE 4.15 Temperature and precipita-tion

Cold
–15 are the main factors determining where
each biome occurs. As precipitation increases,
vegetation becomes taller and moreluxuriant. As
temperature increases, types of plant communi-ties
change. Forinstance, deserts occur in dry
ARCTIC/ALPINE regions; tropical rainforests occur in warm, wet
regions; and tundra occurs in the coldest regions.
The breakin the y-axis indicates ajump in values;
Tundra
the temperate zone has a widerrange oftempera-tures
–5 than the other zones.

(°C
COLD TEMPERATE

Boreal forest

5
TEMPERATURE

annual

Temperate WARM TEMPERATE

grassland
Mean
Temperate
Desert deciduous Temperate

(cool) Chaparral forest rainforest

20

TROPICAL

Desert Tropical Tropical

(hot) Savanna dry forest rainforest

Hot 30
0 100 200 300 400

Dry Mean annual PRECIPITATION (cm) Wet

84 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities

 (a) Temperate deciduous forest (a) Temperate grassland

(oC) 40 300 (mm) (oC)

40 300 (mm
Temperature
30 250 30 250
Precipitation

20 200 20 200

temperature

10 150 precipitation
temperature

10 150 precipitation

0 100 0 100
monthly
monthly
monthly
–10 50 –10 50
monthly

Mean –20 0 Mean –20 0

Mean
Mean

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D
Month Month

(b) Washington, D.C., USA (b) Odessa, Ukraine

FIGURE 4.16 Temperate deciduous forests (a) experience FIGURE 4.17 Temperate grasslands experience seasonal
fairly stable precipitation but temperatures that vary with temperature variation and too little precipitation for trees
the seasons. Scientists use climate diagrams (b) to illustrate to grow. Climatograph adapted from Breckle, S.-W., 2002.
average monthly precipitation and temperature. In these dia-grams,
the blue bars indicate precipitation and the red data lines Compare this climate diagram to the one for temperate
indicate temperature, from month to month. Summer months deciduous forest in Figure 4.16. • How do average
are in the center of the x-axis for both Northern-Hemisphere and temperatures for temperate grassland differ from those for
Southern-Hemisphere locations. Climate diagram here andin the fol-lowing temperate deciduous forest? • What differences do you see in
figures adapted from Breckle, S.-W., 2002. Walter’s vegetation of the precipitation between temperate grassland and temperate
Earth: The ecological systems of the geo-biosphere, 4th ed. Berlin, Heidelberg: deciduous forest?
Springer-Verlag.
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

Wecan divide the world

rainforests. Oaks, beeches, and maplesare a few of the most
into 10terrestrial biomes commontypes of treesin theseforests. Sometypical animals
Temperate deciduous forest Thetemperate decidu-ous of the temperate deciduous forest of eastern North America
forest (FIGURE 4.16) that dominates the landscape are shown in Figure 4.8 (p. 75).
around much of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River
Valley is characterized by broad-leafed trees that are Temperate grassland Traveling westward from the
deciduous, meaning that they lose their leaves each fall Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, temperature differ-ences
and remain dormant during winter, when hard freezes between winter and summer become more extreme,
would endanger leaves. These midlatitude forests occur rainfall diminishes, and we find temperate grassland
in much of Europe, eastern China, and eastern North (FIGURE 4.17). This is because the limited precipitation in
America—all areas where precipitation is spread rela-tively the Great Plains region supports grasses more easily than
evenly throughout the year. trees. Alsoknown as steppeor prairie, temperate grasslands
Soils of the temperate deciduous forest are fertile, but were once widespread in much of North and South America
this biome contains far fewer tree species than do tropical and central Asia.

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 85

 (a) Temperate rainforest (a) Tropical rainforest

350 450
(oC)
(mm)

40 300 400
(oC) (mm

30 250 350

20 200 40 300
temperature
precipitation

10 150 30 250
temperature
precipitation

monthly
0 100 20 200
monthly

–10 50 monthly 10 150

monthly

Mean

Mean

–20 0 0 100
J F M A M J J A S O N D Mean

Mean

–10 50
Month
–20 0
(b) Nagasaki, Japan
J A S O N D J F M A M J

FIGURE 4.18 Temperate rainforests receive a great deal of

Month

precipitation and have moist, mossy interiors. Climatograph (b) Bogor, Java, Indonesia
adapted from Breckle, S.-W., 2002.
FIGURE 4.19 Tropical rainforests, famed for their biodiver-sity,
grow under constant, warm temperatures and a great
Vertebrate animals of North America’s native grasslands
deal of rain. Climatograph adapted from Breckle, S.-W., 2002.
include American bison, prairie dogs, pronghorn antelope,
foxes, coyotes, and ground-nesting birds such as meadow-larks
and prairie chickens. People have converted most of old-growth forests, such as the spotted owl and marbled
the world’s grasslands for farming and ranching, however, so murrelet, toward extinction.
most of these animals exist today at a tiny fraction of their
historic population sizes. Tropical rainforest In tropical regions weseethe same
pattern found in temperate regions: Areas of high rain-fall
Temperate rainforest Farther westin North America, grow rainforests, areas of intermediate rainfall sup-port
the topography becomes varied, and biome types intermix. dry or deciduous forests, and areas of low rainfall
The coastal Pacific Northwest region, with its heavy rain-fall are dominated by grasses. However, tropical biomes differ
and mild temperatures, features temperate rainforest from their temperate counterparts in other ways because
(FIGURE 4.18). Coniferous trees such as cedars, spruces, they are closer to the equator and therefore warmer on
hemlocks, and Douglas fir grow very tall in the temperate average year-round. For one thing, they hold far greater
rainforest, and the forest interior is shaded and damp. Mois-ture-loving
biodiversity.
animals such as the bright yellow banana slug Tropical rainforest (FIGURE 4.19)—found in Central
are common. America, South America, Southeast Asia, West Africa, and
The soils of temperate rainforests are fertile but are sus-ceptible
other tropical regions—is characterized by year-round rain
to landslides and erosion when forests are cleared. and uniformly warm temperatures. Tropical rainforests have
We have long extracted commercially valuable products dark, damp interiors; lush vegetation; and highly diverse
from temperate rainforests, but timber harvesting has elimi-nated communities, with more species of insects, birds, amphib-ians,
most old-growth trees, driving species that rely on and other animals than any other biome. These forests

86 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities

 (a) Tropical dry forest (a) Savanna

350
(oC)
(mm)
(oC) 40 300 (mm
40 300
30 250
30 250
20 200
20 200
temperature
precipitation
temperature

10 150 precipitation

10 150
0 100
monthly
0 100 monthly

–10 50
monthly
monthly

–10 50
Mean
Mean –20 0
–20 0
Mean
Mean

J A S O N D J F M A M J
J A S O N D J F M A M J Month
Month
(b) Harare, Zimbabwe
(b) Darwin, Australia
FIGURE 4.21 Savannas are grasslands with clusters of
FIGURE 4.20 Tropical dry forests experience significant sea-sonal trees. They experience slight seasonal variation in temperature
variation in precipitation but relatively stable, warm but significant variation in rainfall. Climatographadaptedfrom Breckle,
temperatures. Climatographadaptedfrom Breckle,S.-W.,2002. S.-W., 2002.

consist of high numbers of tree species intermixed, each at a Rains during the wet season can be heavy and can lead to
low density. Atree may be draped with vines and loaded with severe soil loss where people have cleared forest. Across the
orchids. Indeed, trees sometimes collapse under the weight of globe, we have converted a great deal of tropical dry forest
all the life they support! for agriculture. Clearing for farming or ranching is straight-forward
Despite this profusion of life, tropical rainforests have because vegetation is lower and canopies less dense
poor, acidic soils that are low in organic matter. Nearly all than in tropical rainforest.
nutrients in this biome are contained in the plants, not in the
soil. An unfortunate consequence is that once people clear Savanna Drier tropical regions give rise to savanna
tropical rainforests, the soil can support agriculture for only ( FIGURE 4.21), tropical grassland interspersed with clus-ters
a short time (p. 145). As a result, farmed areas are abandoned of acacias or other trees. The savanna biome is found
quickly, and farmers move on and clear more forest. across stretches of Africa, South America, Australia,
India, and other dry tropical regions. Precipitation usu-ally
Tropical dry forest Tropical areas that are warm year-round arrives during distinct rainy seasons, whereas in
but where rainfall is lower overall and highly seasonal the dry season grazing animals concentrate near widely
give rise to tropical dry forest, or tropical deciduous forest spaced water holes. Common herbivores on the African
(FIGURE 4.20), a biome widespread in India, Africa, South savanna include zebras, gazelles, and giraffes. Preda-tors
America, and northern Australia. Wet and dry seasons each of these grazers include lions, hyenas, and other
span about half a year in tropical dry forest. Organisms that highly mobile carnivores. Science indicates that the Afri-can
inhabit tropical dry forest have adapted to seasonal fluctua-tions savanna was the ancestral home of the human spe-cies.
in precipitation and temperature. For instance, plants The open spaces of this biome likely favored the
leaf out and grow profusely with the rains, then drop their evolution of our upright stance, running ability, and keen
leaves during dry times of year. vision.

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 87

 (a) Desert (a) Tundra

(oC) 40 300 (mm) (oC) 40 300 (mm

30 250 250
30

20 200 20 200

temperature
10 150 precipitation temperature

10 150 precipitation

0 100 0 100
monthly

–10 50
monthly
monthly

–10 50
monthly

Mean –20 0 Mean –20 0

Mean

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D
Mean

Month Month
(b) Cairo, Egypt (b) Vaigach, Russia

FIGURE 4.22 Deserts are dry year-round, but are not always FIGURE 4.23 Tundra is a cold, dry biome found near the
hot. Climatographadaptedfrom Breckle,S.-W.,2002. poles. Alpine tundra occurs atop high mountains at lower lati-tudes.
Climatograph adapted from Breckle, S.-W., 2002.

Desert Whererainfall is very sparse,desert(FIGURE4.22) reduce water loss, or green trunks so that the plant can con-duct
forms. The driest biome on Earth, most deserts receive photosynthesis without leaves. The spines of cacti and
well under 25 cm (10 in.) of precipitation per year, much other desert plants guard them from being eaten by herbivores
of it during isolated storms months or years apart. Some desperate for the precious water they hold. Such traits have
deserts, such as Africa’s Sahara, are mostly bare sand evolved by convergent evolution in deserts across the world
dunes. Others, such as the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and (see Figure 3.3b, p. 52).
northwest Mexico, receive more rain and are more heavily
vegetated. Tundra Nearly as dry as desert, tundra (FIGURE 4.23)
Deserts are not always hot; the high desert of the west-ern occurs at very high latitudes in northern Russia, Canada,
United States is positively cold in winter. Because des-erts and Scandinavia. Extremely cold winters with little day-light
have low humidity and little vegetation to insulate them and summers with lengthy days characterize this
from temperature extremes, sunlight readily heats them in the landscape of lichens and low, scrubby vegetation without
daytime, but heat is quickly lost at night. As a result, tem-peratures
trees. The great seasonal variation in temperature and day
vary greatly from day to night and from season to length results from this biome’s high-latitude location,
season. Desert soils can be saline and are sometimes known angled toward the sun in summer and away from the sun
as lithosols, or stone soils, for their high mineral and low in winter.
organic-matter content. Because of the cold climate, underground soil remains
Desert animals and plants show many adaptations to permanently frozen and is called permafrost. During win-ter,
deal with a harsh climate. Most reptiles and mammals, such surface soil freezes as well. When the weather warms,
as rattlesnakes and kangaroo mice, are active in the cool of the soil melts and produces pools of surface water, forming
night. Many Australian desert birds are nomadic, wander-ing ideal habitat for the larvae of mosquitoes and other insects.
long distances to find areas of recent rainfall and plant The swarms of insects benefit bird species that migrate long
growth. Desert plants tend to have thick, leathery leaves to distances to breed during the brief but productive summer.

88 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities

 (a) Boreal forest (a) Chaparral

(oC) 40 300 (mm) (oC)

40 300 (mm

30 250 30 250

20 200 20 200

temperature

10 150 precipitation
temperature

10 150 precipitation

0 100 0 100
monthly monthly

–10 50
monthly
–10 50
monthly

Mean –20 0 Mean –20 0

Mean Mean

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D
Month Month

(b) Archangelsk, Russia (b) Los Angeles, California, USA

FIGURE 4.24 Boreal forest experiences long, cold winters, FIGURE 4.25 Chaparral is a seasonally variable biome domi-nated
cool summers, and moderate precipitation. Climatographadapted by shrubs, influenced by marine weather, and depen-dent
from Breckle, S.-W., 2002. on fire. Climatographadaptedfrom Breckle,S.-W.,2002.

Cariboualso migrateto the tundra to breed,then leave for
the winter. Only a few animals, such as polar bears and
musk oxen, can survive year-round in tundra. Today global
climate changeis warming high-latitude regions the most.
This is melting large areas of permafrost, causing the green-house
the brief, intensely productive, summers. The boreal forests
gas methaneto seep out of the ground, driving climate are vast, but are being lost and modified today as a result of
changefurther.
Tundra also occurs as alpine tundra at the tops of
mountains in temperate and tropical regions. Here, high
elevation creates conditions similar to those of high
latitude.
Boreal forest The northern coniferous forest, or boreal
forest, often called taiga (FIGURE 4.24), extends across
muchof Canada,Alaska, Russia,and Scandinavia. A few
species of evergreen trees, such as black spruce, dominate
large stretches of forest, interspersed with many bogs and
lakes. Borealforests occur in cooler, drier regions than do
temperate forests, and they experience long, cold
and short, cool summers.
Soilsaretypically nutrient-poorandsomewhatacidic. As
a result of strong seasonal variation in day length, tempera-ture,
and precipitation, manyorganisms compressa year’s
worth offeeding and breedinginto a few warm, wet months.
Year-round residents of boreal forest include mammals such
as moose, wolves, bears, lynx, and rodents. Many insect-eating
birds migratehere from the tropics to breed during
logging, fossil fuel extraction, andfires and pest outbreaks
driven by climate change (p. 202).
Chaparral In contrast to the boreal forest’s broad, con-tinuous
distribution, chaparral (FIGURE 4.25) is limited to
small patches widely flung around the globe. Chaparral
consists mostly of evergreen shrubs and is densely thick-eted.
This biome is highly seasonal, with mild, wet winters
and warm, dry summers—a climate influenced by ocean
waters and often termed “Mediterranean.” Besides ringing
the Mediterranean Sea, chaparral occurs along the coasts of
California, Chile,andsouthern Australia. Chaparralcommu-nities
winters naturally experience frequent fire, and their plants are
adapted to resist fire or even to depend on it for germination
of their seeds. As aresult, peopleliving in regions of chap-arral
need to pay special attention to managing risks from
wildfire.

Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 89

 closing the LOOp

Ecological communities are shaped considering whether to spend billions of dollars to reconfig-ure
by many forces. Within communities, the canal system to somehow shut off access to alien
species interact through competi-tion, species for good.
predation, parasitism, herbivory, Meanwhile, along the waterways where these invasive
and mutualism. Communities are sta-ble fish are established, people bear the costs and adapt as
only until disturbed—and in today’s best as they can. Fortunately, all biological invasions eventu-ally
world, invasive species such as Asian carp slow and populations stop growing. Often, some native
are one major and growing form of disturbance. species discover the aliens and become their predators,
Scientists, policymakers, and managers are try-ing parasites, or competitors. Some long-established invasive
to limit the spread of Asian carp by controlling their species in North America have begun to decline, and a few
numbers in the Mississippi and Ohio river basins, and are have even disappeared.
trying to prevent their establishment in the Great Lakes. No one knows what the future holds in the case of Asian
The Army Corps is building a fourth electric barrier in the carp, but they and many other species that people have
Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal, but the government moved from place to place are creating a topsy-turvy world
admits that these barriers are merely an “experimental, of novel and modified communities. In response, through
temporary fix.” While researchers try to develop innovative ecological restoration, we are attempting to undo some of
new means of deterring Asian carp, policymakers are now the changes we have set in motion

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Explain how competition promotes resource partitioning. 7. Describethe process of primary succession. How does
2. Compare and contrast the three main types of it differ from secondary succession? Give an example
exploitative species interactions (predation, parasitism, of each.

and herbivory), explaining how they differ. 8. Whatis restoration ecology? Whyis it an important
3. Give examples of symbiotic and nonsymbiotic scientific pursuit in today’s world?

mutualisms. Describe at least one wayin which a 9. What factors most strongly influence the type of biome
mutualism affects your daily life. that forms in a particular place onland? What factors

4. Using the concepts of trophic levels and energy flow, determine the type of aquatic system that mayform in
explain why the ecological footprint of a vegetarian a given location?

person is smaller than that of a meat-eater. 10. Draw a typical climate diagram for a tropical rainforest.
5. Differentiate afood chain from a food web. Which best Label all parts of the diagram, and describe all the types

represents the reality of communities, and why? of information an ecologist could glean from such a
diagram. Now draw a climate diagram for a desert. How
6. Whatis meant by the term keystone species, and what
does it differ from your rainforest diagram, and what
types of organisms are most often considered keystone
does this tell you about how the two biomes differ?
species?

SEEKINGSolutions
1. Suppose you spot two species of birds feeding side by a simple food web involving all the organisms you
side, eating seeds from the same plant. You begin to observed.
wonder whether competition is at work. Describe how 3. Can you think of one organism not mentioned in
you might design scientific research to address this this chapter as a keystone species that you believe
question. What observations would you try to make at may be a keystone species? For what reasons
the outset? Would you try to manipulate the system to do you suspect this? How could an ecologist
test your hypothesis that the two birds are competing? experimentally test whether an organism is a
If so, how? keystone species?
2. Spend some time outside on your campus, in your 4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION Describe three ecological
yard, or in the nearest park or natural area. Find at least changes to freshwater communities that have occurred
10 species of organisms (plants, animals, or others), since the invasion of Asian carp in North America.
and observe each one long enough to watch it feed Describe one economic impact ofthe invasion. What
or to make an educated guess about how it derives is one wayto prevent these fish from spreading to
its nutrition. Now, using Figure 4.8 as a model, draw new areas?

90 Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities

 5. THINK IT THROUGH Afederal agency has put you in consider pursuing immediately, and for which strategies
charge of devising responses to the invasion of Asian would you commission further scientific research? For
carp. Based on what you know from this chapter, how each of your ideas, name one benefit or advantage. For
would you seek to control the spread of these species each idea, identify one obstacle it might face in being
and reduce their impacts? What strategies would you implemented.

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints
Environmental scientists David Pimentel, Rodolfo Zuniga, and losses and damage, as well as costs required to control the
Doug Morrison of Cornell University reviewed scientific esti-mates species. (The researchers did not quantify monetary estimates
for the economic and ecological costs imposed by for losses of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and aesthetics,
introduced and invasive species in the United States. They which they said would drive total costs several times higher.)
found that approximately 50,000 species had been introduced Calculate values missing from the table to determine the num-ber
in the United States and that these accounted for over $120 of introduced species of each type of organism and the
billion in economic costs each year. These costs include direct annual cost that each imposes on our economy.

PERCENTAGE OF NUMBER OF SPECIES PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL ANNUAL ECONOMIC

GROUP OF ORGANISM
TOTAL INTRODUCED INTRODUCED ANNUAL COSTS COSTS

Plants 50.0 25,000 27.2

Microbes 40.0 20.2

Arthropods 9.0 15.7

Fish 0.28 4.2

Birds 0.19 1.5 $1.9 billion

Mollusks 0.18 1.7

Reptiles and amphibians 0.11 0.009

Mammals 0.04 20 29.4 $37.5 billion

TOTAL 100 50,000 100 $127.4 billion

Data from Pimentel, D., R. Zuniga, and D. Morrison, 2005. Update on the environmental and economic costs associated with alien-invasive species in the
United States. Ecological Economics 52: 273–288.

1. Ofthe 50,000 species introduced into the United States, half of the costs documented by Pimentel’s team. What
half are plants. Describe two ways in which non-native steps can we—farmers, policymakers, and all of us as
plants might be brought to a new location. How might a society—take to minimize the impacts ofinvasive
we help prevent non-native plants from establishing in species on crops?
new areas and altering native communities? 3. How might your own behavior influence the influx and
2. Organisms that damage crop plants are the most costly ecological impacts of non-native species such as those
of introduced species. Weeds, pathogenic microbes, listed above? Name three things you could personally
and arthropods that attack crops together account for do to help reduce the impacts of invasive species.

Mastering Environmental Science

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Chapter 4 The Ecology of Communities 9

 Economics,
Policy,
CHAPTER
andSustainable
Development

92 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

 central CaSe StUDY

CostaRicaValuesIts
EcosystemServices
Caribbean
Sea
Costa Rica’s PSA Few nations have transformed
program has been one of the
COSTA
their path of development in just
RICA
conservation success stories a few decades—but Costa Rica
San José
of the last decade.
has. In the 1980s, this small
—Stefano Pagiola, The World Bank
Central American country was losing its forests as fast
as any place on Earth. Yet today this nation of 4.9 million
In the last 25 years, my home
people has regained much ofits forest cover, boasts a
country has tripled its GDP
world-class park system, and stands as a global model
while doubling the size of its
forests. for sustainable resource management.
—Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Costa Rica took many steps on this impressive road
Upon completing this former Minister of Energy and the
to success. One key step was to begin paying landhold-ers
Environment, Costa Rica

chapter, you will be able to: to conserve forest on private land, in a novel govern-ment
program called Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA)—Payment for Environmental
• Explain how our economies exist
Services.
within the environment and rely
Nature provides ecosystem services (pp. 4, 39, 99), such as air and water purification,
on ecosystem services
climate regulation, and nutrient cycling. For example, forests in Costa Rica’s mountains cap-ture
• Identify principles of classical
rainfall and provide clean drinking water for towns and cities below. Ecosystem ser-vices
and neoclassical economics and
are vital for our lives, but historically we have taken them for granted, and rarely do we
summarize their implications for
acknowledge their value by paying for them in the marketplace. As a result, these services have
the environment
diminished as we degrade the natural systems that provide them. For these reasons, many
• Describe aspects of
economists feel it is important to create financial incentives for conserving ecosystem services.
environmental economics and
In Costa Rica, which had lost over three-quarters of its forest, political leaders adopted
ecological economics, including
this approach in Forest Law 7575, passed in 1996. Since then, the Costa Rican government
valuation of ecosystem services
has been paying farmers and ranchers to preserve forest on their land, replant cleared areas,
and full cost accounting
allow forest to regenerate naturally, and establish sustainable forestry systems. Payments
• Describe environmental policy
are designed to be competitive with potential profits from farming or cattle ranching, and
and discuss its societal context
in recent years these payments have averaged $78/hectare (ha)/yr
• Explain the role of science in
($32/acre/yr).
policymaking
The PSA program recognized four ecosystem ser-vices
• Discuss the history of U.S. that forests provide:
environmental policy and
1. Watershed protection: Forests cleanse
summarize major U.S.
water by filtering pollutants, and they
environmental laws
conserve water and reduce soil erosion
• List institutions that influence
by slowing runoff.
international environmental
policy and describe how nations 2. Biodiversity: Tropical forests such as
handle transboundary issues Costa Rica’s are especially rich in life.

• Compare and contrast the 3. Scenic beauty: This encourages rec-reation

different approaches to and ecotourism, which bring
environmental policymaking money to the economy.
• Define sustainable development, 4. Carbon sequestration: By pulling carbon
explain the “triple bottom line,” dioxide from the atmosphere, forests
and describe how sustainable
slow global warming.
development is pursued
worldwide To fund the PSA program, Costa Rica’s gov-ernment
sought money from people and companies
that benefit from these services. With watershed protection,

Costa Rica’s forests are home to wildlife like this toucan

A Costa Rican banana plantation 9

 Forested area

(a) 1940 (b) 1987 (c) 2005

FIGURE 5.1 Forest cover in Costa Rica decreased between 1940 and 1987, but it increased thereafter.
Data from FONAFIFO.

for example, irrigators, bottlers, municipal water suppliers, and utili-ties payments to locations where forest is most at risk and environ-mental
that generate hydropower all madevoluntary paymentsinto assets are greatest.
the program, and a tariff on water users was added in 2005. For In recent years, forest cover in Costa Rica has been ris-ing
biodiversity and scenery, the country targeted ecotourism, whileinter-national (FIGURE 5.1),from alow of 17% in 1983 to morethan 53%
lending agencies provided loans and donations. Because today. The nation has thrived economically while protecting its
carbon dioxideis emitted whenfossil fuels are burned, the nation used environment. Since the PSA program began, Costa Ricans have
a 3.5% tax on fossil fuels to help fund the program. It also sought to enjoyed an increase in real, inflation-adjusted per capita income
sell carbon offsets in global carbon trading markets(p. 337). of more than 60%—a rise in wealth surpassing the vast majority
Costa Rican landholders rushed to sign up for the PSA pro-gram. of nations.
The agency administering it, Fondo Nacional de Financia-miento Many factors have contributed to Costa Rica’s success in
Forestal (FONAFIFO), signed landowners to contracts building a wealthier society while protecting its ecological assets.
and sent agents to advise them on forest conservation and to Back in 1948, Costa Rica abolished its armed forces and shifted
monitor compliance. Through 2016, FONAFIFO had paid 186 funds from the military budget into health and education. (The
billion colónes ($336 millionin today’s U.S. dollars) to morethan only mainland nation in the world without a standing army, Costa
15,000 landholders and had registered 1.2 million ha (3.0 million Rica enjoys security from alliances with the United States and
acres)—23% of the nation’s land area. other nations, and has experienced seven decades of peace.)
Deforestation slowed in Costa Rica in the wake of the With a stable democracy and a healthy and educated citizenry,
program. Forest cover rose by 10% in the decade after 1996, the stage was set for well-managed development, including
and policymakers, economists, and environmental advocates innovative advances in conservation. The nation created one of
cheered the PSA program’s apparent success. However, some the world’s finest systems of national parks, which today covers
observers argued that forest loss had been slowing for other fully one-quarter of its territory. Ecotourism at the parks brings
reasons and that the program itself was having little effect. They wealth to the country: Each year more than 2 million foreign
contended that payments were being wasted on people who had tourists inject over $2 billion into Costa Rica’s economy.
no plans to cut down their trees. Critics also lamented that large As a result, Costa Ricans understand the economic value
wealthy landowners utilized the program more than low-income of protecting their natural capital. They see how innovative poli-cies
small farmers. Allthese concerns were borne out by researchers can help conserve resources while boosting the economy
(see THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY, pp. 102–103). and enhancing the quality of people’s everyday lives. By plac-ing
In response, the government modifiedits policies, making economic value on nature, Costa Ricais pointing the way
the program more accessible to small farmers and targeting the toward truly sustainable development.

Economicsand that arein demand.The wordeconomicsandthe wordecol-ogy

the Environment
An economy is a social system that converts resources into
goods (material commodities madeand bought by individuals
and businesses)and services(work donefor othersas a form
of business). Economics is the study of how people decide to
usepotentially scarceresourcesto providegoodsandservices
come from the same Greekroot, oikos, meaning “house-hold.”
Economists traditionally have studied the household
of human society, whereasecologists study the broader
household of all life. Just as the environment influences our
economy, the economic decisions we all makefrom day to
day haveimplications for the environment.Forthesereasons,
understanding economics helps us appreciate the complex
interface betweenenvironmentalscienceandsociety

94 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

Economiesrely on goods and think of natural resources as “goods” produced by nature.
Environmental systems also naturally function in a manner
servicesfrom the environment that supports our economies. Earth’s ecological systems
Oureconomiesand our societiesexist withinthe naturalenvi-ronment
purify air and water, form soil, cycle nutrients, regulate
and depend on it in vital ways. Economies receive climate, pollinate plants, and recycle waste. Such essential
inputs (such as natural resources and ecosystem services) ecosystem services (pp. 4, 39, 99) support the very life that
from the environment, processthem, and dischargeoutputs makes our economic activity possible. Together, nature’s
(such as waste)into the environment (FIGURE 5.2). resources and services make up the natural capital (p. 6) on
Theseinteractions are readily apparent, yet many main-stream
which we depend.
economists still adhereto a worldviewthat over-looks When we deplete natural resources and generate pollu-tion,
their importance and largely ignores the environment we degrade the capacity of ecological systems to func-tion.
(and instead considers only the tan box in the middle of Scientists with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,
Figure 5.2). Thistraditional view, which continuesto drive a worldwide review undertaken in 2005, concluded that
many policy decisions, implies that natural resources are 15 of 24 ecosystem services they surveyed globally were
free andlimitless and that wastes can be endlessly absorbed being degraded or used unsustainably. The degradation of
at no cost. ecosystem services can weaken economies. In Costa Rica,
Newerschools of thought, however, recognize that econ-omies
rapid forest loss up through the 1980s was causing soil ero-sion,
exist within the environment and rely on its natural water pollution, and biodiversity loss that increasingly
resources and ecosystemservices. This explains why Costa threatened the nation’s economic potential. Low-income
Rica and other nations havetaken stepsto better protect their small farmers were the first to feel these impacts. Indeed,
natural assets. across the world, ecological degradation tends to harm poor
Naturalresources(p. 4) are the substancesand forces and marginalized people before wealthy ones, the Millen-nium
that sustain us: the fresh water we drink; the trees that Ecosystem Assessment found. As a result, restoring
supply our lumber; the rocks that provide our metals; and ecosystem services stands as a prime avenue for alleviating
the energy from sun, wind, water,and fossil fuels. Wecan poverty.

ENVIRONMENT
ECONOMY

Agriculture, industry, business

Products Payment
Recycling (goods and for
Wages Labor
services) products

Natural resources Wasteacceptance

(ecosystem goods) (ecosystem service

Households

Natural recycling: Climateregulation, air and water purification,

nutrient cycling, etc. (ecosystem services)

FIGURE 5.2 Economies exist within the natural environment, receiving resources from it, discharg-ing
waste into it, and benefiting from ecosystem services. Conventional neoclassical economics has
focused only on processes of production and consumption between households and businesses (tan box
in middle), viewing the environment merely as an external factor. In contrast, environmental and ecological
economists emphasize that economies exist within the natural environment and depend on all that it offers.

Follow each arrow in this figure to make sure you understand what it indicates. Then answer these
questions: • When you work at ajob, what do you give and what do you receive? • When you
buy a product, what do you give and what do you receive? • Describe three things that the environment
provides to the economy, basing your answer on this diagram.

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 95

 Economictheory moved value of bananasgrown or cattle raised on a tract of Costa
Rican land cleared for agriculture, yet difficult to assign
from “invisible hand” to supply monetary value to the complex ecological costs of clearing
and demand the forest. Becausemonetarybenefitsare usually moreeasily
quantified than environmental costs, benefits tend to be over-represented
Asthe field of economicsdevelopedin the 18thcentury, many in traditional cost-benefit analyses. As a result,
people felt that individuals acting in their own self-interest environmental advocatesoftenfeel such analysesare biased
harm society. However, Scottish philosopher Adam Smith toward economic development and against environmental
(1723–1790) arguedthat self-interested economic behavior protection.
can benefit society, aslong asthe behavior is constrained by
the rule of law and private property rights within a competi-tive
marketplace.A founder of classical economics, Smith Neoclassicaleconomics has
felt that when people pursue environmental consequences
FaQ economic self-interest
these conditions, the
under
market-place
Today’s marketsystems operatelargely in accord with the
will behave as if guided principles of neoclassical economics. These systems have
Doesn’t environmental
by “an invisible hand” to ben-efit generated unprecedented material wealth for our societies,
protection hurt the economy?
society as a whole. yet four basic assumptionsof neoclassicaleconomics often
Weoften hearit said that protect-ing
Today, Smith’s philosophy contribute to environmental degradation.
environmental quality costs too
remains a pillar of free-market
much money,interferes with prog-ress,
thought, which manycredit for
or leads to job loss. However, Replacing resources Oneassumption is that natural
the tremendous gains in mate-rial
growing numbers of economists resources and human resources (such as workers or tech-nologies)
dispute this. Instead, they assert
wealth that capitalist mar-ket
are largely substitutable and interchangeable.
that environmental protection tends
economies have achieved.
This implies that once we have depleted a resource, we
to enhance our economic bottom
Otherscontend that free-market
will always be able to find some replacement for it. As
line and improve our quality oflife. policies tend to worseninequal-ities
a result, the market imposes no penalties for depleting
The view one takes depends in part betweenrich andpoor.
resources.
on the timeframe. Weoften make Economists subsequently
It is true that many resources can be replaced. However,
economic judgments on short tim-escales, adopted more quantitative
Earth’s material resources are ultimately limited. Nonrenew-able
andin the short term many approaches. Neoclassical eco-nomics
resources (such as fossil fuels) can be depleted, and
activities that cause environmental examines consumer
many renewable resources (such as soils, fish stocks, timber,
damage may be economically prof-itable.choices and explains market
and clean water) can be used up if we exploit them faster than
In the longer term, however, prices in terms of preferences
they are replenished.
environmental degradation imposes for units of particular commodi-ties.
economic costs. Moreover, when In neoclassical econom-ics,
resource extraction or development buyers desire a low price External costs A second assumption of neoclassical
degrades environmental conditions,
whereas sellers desire a high economics is that all costs and benefits associated with
often afew private parties benefit
price, so a compromise priceis an exchange of goods or services are borne by individu-als
financially while the broader public
reached. Marketplace dynam-ics engaging directly in the transaction. In other words, it
is harmed.
are expressed in terms of is assumed that the costs and benefits are “internal” to the
Today, concerns over fossil
supply, the amount of a prod-uct transaction, experienced bythe buyer andseller alone.
fuels, pollution, and climate change
offered for sale at a given However, many transactions affect other members of
have led many people to see
price, and demand, the amount society. Whena landowner fells a forest, people nearby suf-fer
immense opportunities in revamp-ing
of a product people will buy at a poorer waterquality, dirtier air, andless wildlife. When
our economies with clean and
given price if free to do so. a factory, power plant, or mining operation pollutes the air
renewable energy technologies.
The jobs, investment, and eco-nomic
To evaluate an action or water, it harms the health of those who live nearby. In

activity that come with

or decision, economists use such cases, people who are not involved in degrading the
building a green energy economy
cost-benefit analysis, which environment end up paying the costs. A cost of a transac-tion
demonstrate how economic prog-ress
compares the estimated costs that affects someone other than the buyer or seller is
and environmental protection of a proposed action withthe known as an external cost (TABLE5.1). Often, wholecom-munities
can go hand in hand. estimated benefits. If benefits suffer external costs while certain individuals
exceed costs, the action should enjoy private gain.
be pursued;if costs exceedben-efits, If marketpricesdo nottake the social, ecological,or eco-nomic
it should not. Given a choice of actions, the one withthe costs of environmental degradation into account, then
greatest excess of benefits over costs should be chosen. taxpayers bear the burden of paying them. Wheneconomists
Thisreasoning seems eminently logical, but problems ignore externalcosts,this createsafalseimpression ofthe true
arise when not all costs and benefits can be easily identified, and full consequences of our choices. External costs are one
defined, or quantified.It maybe simpleto quantifythe dollar reasonthat governmentsdevelopenvironmentalpolicy(p. 104)

96 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

 TABLE 5.1 Common Examples of External Costs

Health impacts Depletion of resources

Physical health problems, Declines in abundance of—or loss

stress, anxiety, or other medi-cal of access to—natural resources
conditions caused by air that provide wealth or sustenance,
pollution, water pollution, such as fish, game, and wildlife;
toxic chemicals, or other timber and forest products; grazing
environmental impacts. land; or fertile soils.

Aesthetic damage Financial loss

Degradation of scenery and Loss of monetary value caused by

harm to the enjoyment of pollution or by resource depletion,
one’s physical surround-ings, via declining real estate values, lost
as from strip mining; tourism revenue, costlier medical
clear-cutting; urban sprawl; expenses, damage from climate
erosion; or air, water, noise, change and sea level rise, or other
and light pollution. means.

Discounting Third, neoclassical economics grants an Howsustainableis economic

event in the future less value than one in the present. In
economic terminology, future effects are “discounted.”
growth?
Discounting is meant to reflect how people tend to grant Our global economy is eight times the size it wasjust half
more importance to present conditions than to future con-ditions.a century ago. All measuresof economic activity are greater
Just as you might prefer to have an ice cream than ever before. Economic expansion has brought many
cone today than to be promised one next month, market people much greater wealth (although not equally, and gaps
demand is greater for goods and services that are received betweenrich and poor are wideand growing).
sooner. Economic growth can occur in two ways: (1) by an
Unfortunately, giving more weight to current costs and increasein inputsto the economy(suchas morelabor or natural
benefits than to future costs and benefits encourages policy-makersresources) or (2) byimprovements in the efficiency of produc-tion
to play down the long-term consequences of deci-sions. dueto better methodsortechnologies (ideas or equipment
Many environmental problems unfold gradually, that enableusto produce moregoods withfewerinputs).
yet discounting discourages us from addressing resource As our population and consumption rise, it is becoming
depletion, pollution buildup, and other cumulative impacts. clearer that wecannot sustain growth forever by using the first
Instead, discounting shunts the costs of dealing with such approach. Nonrenewableresourcesarefinite in quantity,and
problems onto future generations. Discounting has emerged renewable resources can also be exhausted if weoverexploit
as a flashpoint in the debate over how to respond to climate them. As for the second approach to growth, we have used
change. Economists agree that climate change will impose technological innovation to push backthe limits on growth
major costs on society, but they differ on how much to dis-count time and again. More efficient technologies for extracting
future impacts—and so they differ on how much we minerals, fossil fuels, and groundwater allow usto minethese
should invest today to battle climate change. resources morefully withless waste. Better machineryand
robotics in our factories speed manufacturing. Wecontinue to
Growth Economic growth can be defined as an increase makecomputer chips more powerful while also makingthem
in an economy’s production and consumption of goods smaller. In such ways,weare producing moregoodsandser-vices
and services. Neoclassical economics assumes that eco-nomic with relatively fewer resources.
growth is essential for maintaining social order, Can we conclude, then, that technology and human inge-nuity
becausea growing economy can alleviatethe discontent of will allow usto overcomeall environmentalconstraints
poorer people by creating opportunities for them to become and continue economic growth forever? We can certainly
wealthier. A rising tide raises all boats, asthe saying goes; continue to innovate and achieve further efficiency. Yet ulti-mately,
if we makethe overall economic pielarger, then each per-son’s if our population and consumption continueto grow
slice can become larger (even if some people still have and we do not enhance the reuse and recycling of materials,
much smaller slices than others). However, critics of the we will continue to diminish our natural capital, putting ever-greater
growth paradigm maintainthat growth cannot be sustained demandson our capacityto innovate.
forever, because resources to support growth are ultimately Economists in the field of environmental economics
limited. feel wecan modifyneoclassicaleconomic principlesto make

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 9

 resource use more efficient and thereby attain sustainability approach they each take is to assign monetary values to eco-system
within our current economic system. Environmental econo-mists goods and services, so as to better integrate them into
were the first to develop methods to tackle the problems cost-benefit analyses.
of external costs and discounting.
Economists in the field of ecological economics feel that
sustainability requires more far-reaching changes. They stress Wecan assign monetaryvalue
that in nature, every population has a carrying capacity (p. 63)
to ecosystem goods and services
and systems operate in self-renewing cycles. Ecological econ-omists
maintain that societies, like natural populations, cannot Ecosystems provide us essential resources and life-support
surpass environmental limitations. Many of these economists services, including fertile soil, waste treatment, clean water,
advocate economies that neither grow nor shrink, but are and clean air. Yet we often abuse the very ecological systems
stable. Such a steady-state economy is intended to mirror that sustain us. Why? From the economist’s perspective,
natural systems. Critics of steady-state economies assert that people overexploit natural resources and processes largely
to halt growth would dampen our quality of life. Proponents because the market assigns these entities no quantitative
respond that technological advances would continue, behav-ioral monetary value—or assigns values that underestimate their
changes (such as greater use of recycling) would accrue, true worth.
and wealth and happiness would rise. Ecosystem services are said to have nonmarket values,
Attaining sustainability will certainly require the reforms values not usually included in the price of a good or service
pioneered by environmental economists and may require the (FIGURE 5.3). For example, the aesthetic and recreational
fundamental shifts advocated by ecological economists. One pleasure we obtain from natural landscapes is something of

FIGURE 5.3 Accounting for nonmarket

values such as those shown here may
help us make better environmental and
economic decisions.

(a) Use value: The worth of something we (b) Existence value: The worth of knowing
use directly that something exists, even if we never
experience it ourselves

(c) Option value: The worth of something (d) Aesthetic value: The worth of
we might use later something’s beauty or emotional appeal

(e) Scientific value: The worth of something (f) Educational value: The worth of (g) Cultural value: The worth of something
for research something for teaching and learning that sustains or helps define a cultur

98 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

real value. Yet because we do not generally pay money for that are degraded, to replace their functions with technology,
this, its value is hard to quantify and appears in no traditional or to clean up pollution.
measures of economic worth. Or consider Earth’s water cycle For example, in Costa Rica, a team led by Taylor Rick-etts
(p. 40): Rain fills our reservoirs with drinking water; rivers of Stanford University studied pollination (pp. 73, 153)
give us hydropower and flush away our waste; and water by native bees at a coffee plantation. By carefully measur-ing
evaporates, purifying itself of contaminants and later fall-ing how bees pollinated the coffee plants and comparing the
as rain. This natural cycle is vital to our very existence, resulting coffee production in areas near forest and far from
yet because we do not pay money for it, markets impose no forest, the researchers calculated that forests were providing
financial penalties when we disturb it. the farm with pollination services worth $60,000 per year.
For these reasons, economists have sought ways to Researchers have even sought to calculate the total eco-nomic
assign market values to ecosystem services. They use sur-veys value of all the services that oceans, forests, wetlands,
to determine how much people are willing to pay to and other systems provide across the world. Teams headed
protect or restore a resource. They measure the money, time, by ecological economist Robert Costanza have combed the
or effort people expend to travel to parks. They compare scientific literature and evaluated hundreds of studies that
housing prices for similar homes in different settings to infer estimated dollar values for 17 major ecosystem services
the dollar value of landscapes, views, or peace and quiet. (FIGURE 5.4). The researchers reanalyzed the data using
They calculate how much it costs to restore natural systems multiple valuation techniques to improve accuracy, then

Storing water
supplies
Regulating
$2.1 trillion
climate
$6.6 trillion

Regulating Purifying air;

water flow Supplying regulating
$1.9 trillion raw materials atmosphere
$2.2 trillion $0.1 trillion

Forming
Enabling
soil
Providing
recreation
$1.0 trillion Providing
$20.6 trillion
genetic habitat
resources $10.9 trillion Cycling
$10.2 trillion nutrients
Providing
Controlling
$11.1
erosion
food
trillion
$14.8 trillio
$16.2 trillion
Pollinating
plants
$0.2 trillion Controlling Dampening
pests disturbance
$1.3 trillion $1.4 trillion

Treating waste;
filtering runoff
$22.6 trillion

Providing cultural and

educational opportunities
$1.5 trillion

FIGURE 5.4 Ecological economists have estimated the value of the world’s ecosystem services
at morethan $148 trillion (in 2017 dollars). This amount is an underestimate because it does notinclude
ecosystems and services for which adequate data were unavailable. Shown are subtotals for each ecosystem
service, in 2007 dollars. Datafrom Costanza,R.,et al., 2014. Changes
in the globalvalueofecosystemservices. GlobalEnv.
Change 26: 152–158.

Whichthree ecosystem services provide the greatest benefit to us,in dollar value, according to the
datain this illustration?

Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 99

 multiplied average estimates for each ecosystem by the global
12,000
area it occupied. Their initial analysis in 1997 was ground-breaking,
and in 2014 they updated their research. The 2014 10,000
study calculated that Earth’s biosphere in total provides more capit

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

than $125 trillion worth of ecosystem services each year, in 8,000
per capita
per

2007 dollars. This is equal to $148 trillion in 2017 dollars,

an amount that exceeds the global annual monetary value of 6,000
dollars

goods and services created by people!

Costanza also joined Andrew Balmford and 17 other col-leagues 4,000

to compare the benefits and costs of preserving natu-ral Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)
Year-2005
2,000
systems intact versus converting wild lands for agriculture, per capita

logging, or fish farming. After reviewing many studies, they

0
reported that a global network of nature reserves covering
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
15% of Earth’s land surface and 30% of the ocean would be
Year
worth $4.4 to $5.2 trillion. This amount is 100 times greater
FIGURE 5.5 Full cost accounting indicators such as the
than the value of those areas were they to be converted and
GPI aim to measure progress and well-being more effec-tively
exploited for direct use.
than the GDP. Data from 17 major nations, combined
Such research has sparked debate. Some ethicists argue
here, show that per capita GDP has increased dramatically since
that we should not put dollar figures on amenities such as
1950, yet per capita GPI peaked in 1978. Datafrom Kubiszewski,I.,
clean air and water, because they are priceless and we would et al., 2013. Beyond GDP: Measuring and achieving global genuine progress.
perish without them. Others say that arguing for conservation Ecological Economics 93: 57–68. All data are adjusted for inflation using

purely on economic grounds risks not being able to justify it year-2005 dollars.
whenever it fails to deliver clear economic benefits. However,
• What was the ratio of GDP to GPIin 1950? (Divide
backers of the research counter that valuation does not argue
GDP by GPI using the values shown on the graph for that
for making decisions on monetary grounds alone, but instead
year.) • What was this ratio in the year you were born? • What
clarifies and quantifies values that we already hold implicitly.
was this ratio in 2004? • How has the ratio of GDP to GPI
In 2010, researchers wrapped up a large international
changed through time, and what does this indicate to you?
effort to summarize and assess attempts to quantify the eco-nomic
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
value of natural systems. The Economics of Ecosys-tems
and Biodiversity study published a number of fascinating
reports that you can download online. This effort describes
the valuation of nature’s economic worth as “a tool to help To calculate GPI, we begin with conventional economic
recalibrate [our] faulty economic compass.” It concludes that activity and add to it positive contributions not paid for with
this is useful because “the invisibility of biodiversity values money, such as volunteer work and parenting. Wethen sub-tract
has often encouraged inefficient use or even destruction of the negative impacts, such as crime and pollution.
natural capital that is the foundation of our economies.” GPI can differ strikingly from GDP: FIGURE 5.5 compares
these indices internationally across half a century. On a per-person
Wecan measureprogress basis, GDP rose greatly, but GPI has declined slightly

withfull cost accounting since 1978. Data for the United States show a very similar
pattern, with per capita GDP more than tripling over 50 years
If assigning market values to ecosystem services gives us but GPI remaining flat for the latter 30 years. These discrepan-cies
a fuller and truer picture of costs and benefits, then we can suggest that people in most nations—including the United
take a similar approach in measuring our economic progress States—have been spending more and more money but that
as a society. For decades, we have assessed each nation’s their quality of life is not improving.
economy by calculating its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), The GPI is an example of full cost accounting (also
the total monetary value of final goods and services a nation called true cost accounting) becauseit aims to account fully
produces each year. Governments regularly use GDP to make for all costsand benefits.SeveralU.S.stateshavebegunusing
policy decisions that affect billions of people. However, GDP the GPIto measureprogress and help guide policy. Critics of
fails to account for nonmarket values (such as those shown full cost accounting argue that the approach is subjective and
in Figure 5.3). It also lumps together all economic activ-ity, too easily driven byideology. Proponentsrespondthat making
desirable and undesirable. GDP can rise in response to a subjective attempt to measure progress is better than misap-plying
crime, war, pollution, and natural disasters, because we spend an indicator such as the GDP to quantify well-being—something
money to protect ourselves from these things and to recover it was never meant to do.
from them. Today, attempts are gaining ground to measure hap-piness
Environmental economists have developed indicators (rather than economic output) as the prime goal of
meantto distinguish desirablefrom undesirableeconomic national policy. The small Asian nation of Bhutan pioneered
activity and to better reflect our well-being. Onesuch alterna-tive this approach with its measure of Gross National Happiness.
to the GDPis the Genuine ProgressIndicator (GPI). Another indicator is the Happy Planet Index, which measures

100 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

 how much happiness we gain per amount of resources we
Science
consume. By this measure, Costa Rica was recently calcu-lated
to be the top-performing nation in the world.
Costa Rica is also one of five

FaQ
Information
nations working with the World and analysis

Bank (p. 110) in a program to

implement full cost account-ing Private sector Government Citizenry
Does having more money
Lobbying, Votes,
methods. Together they are
make a person happier? campaign lobbying,
addressing questions such as funding, campaign
This age-old question has long
how much economic benefit legal action funding,
been debated by philosophers,
the nation’s forests, parks, and legal action
but in recent years researchers
other natural amenities gener-ate
have analyzed the issue scientifi-cally. Advancesin Personal
through tourism and water-shed
Studies have found a sur-prising efficiency and POLICY actions and
protection. Data so far show technology consumer
degree of consensus: In
Costa Rica’s forests to be con-tributing choices
general, we become happier as
we get wealthier, but once we gain 10–20 times more to

a moderate level of wealth (roughly the economy than had been esti-mated

$50,000–$90,000 in yearly from timber sales alone.

income), attaining further money Advancesin Solutions to
nolonger increases our happi-ness. efficiency and environmental
Apparently, reaching a basic Marketscanfail technology problems

level offinancial securityalleviates

When markets do not take into
day-to-day economic worries, FIGURE 5.6 Policy plays a central role in addressing
account the positive outside
but once those worries aretaken environmental problems.
effects on economies (such as
care of, our happiness revolves
around other aspects of ourlives ecosystem services) or the nega-tive
(such as family, friends, and the side effects of economic
analyses needed to identify and understand problems and
joy of helping others). Research on activity (external costs), econo-mists
devise solutions. Ethics and economics each offer criteria
happiness can help us guide our call this market failure.
by which to assess problems and help clarify how we might
personallife decisions. It also sug-gests Traditionally, we have tried to
address them. Government interacts with citizens, organiza-tions,
that enhancing a society’s counteract market failure with
and the private sector to formulate policy (FIGURE 5.6).
happiness might best be achieved government intervention. Gov-ernment
by raising many people’s incomes can help by restraining
by alittle, rather than by raising improper individual and corpo-rate Environmental policy addresses
some people’s incomes by alot. behavior through laws and issues offairness andresource us
regulations. It can tax harmful
activities. It can also design eco-nomic Because market capitalism is driven by incentives for short-term

incentives that use market mechanisms to promote economic gain, it provides businesses and individuals

fairness, resource conservation, and economic sustainability. with little motivation to minimize environmental impacts, to

Paying for the conservation of ecosystem services, as Costa seek long-term social benefits, or to equalize costs and ben-efits

Rica does, is one way of deploying economic incentives among parties. As we noted, such market failure has

toward policy goals. We will now examine these approaches traditionally been viewed as justification for government

in our discussion of environmental policy. involvement. Governments typically intervene in the market-place
for several reasons:

EnvironmentalPolicy: • To provide social services, such as national defense, health

care, and education

An Overview • To provide
victims
“safety
of natural disasters,
nets” (for the elderly, the poor,
and so on)
When a society recognizes a problem, its leaders may try • To eliminate unfair advantages held by single buyers
to resolve the problem using policy, a formal set of gen-eral or sellers
plans and principles intended to guide decision mak-ing.
• To manage publicly held resources
Public policy is policy made by people in government.
• To minimize pollution and other threats to health and
Environmental policy pertains to our interactions with our
quality of life.
environment. Environmental policy generally aims to regulate
resource use or reduce pollution to promote human welfare or Environmental policy aims to protect people’s health
protect natural systems. and well-being, to safeguard environmental quality and con-serve
Forging effective policy requires input from science, natural resources, and to promote equity or fairness in
ethics, and economics. Science provides information and people’s use of resources.

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 101

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Goto Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

Do PaymentsHelpPreserveForest?
Costa Rica’s program to pay for ecosys-tem
services has garnered international 4.0%
4
praise and inspired other nations to
implement similar policies. But have
Costa Rica’s payments actually
3
enrolle

been effective in preventing for-est 2.8%

loss? A number of research

teams have sought to answer
parcels

2
of

this surprisingly difficult question

by analyzing data from the PSA
program.
1.0%
Some early studies were quick Percentage
1

to credit the PSA program for

saving forests. A 2006 study con-ducted
0.0% 0.0%
for FONAFIFO, the agency
0–15 15–30 30–45 45–60 60–75
administering the program, con-cluded
Probability of deforestation (percentage)
that PSA payments in the
Costa Rican farmers
central region of the country had FIGURE 1 In areas at greater risk of deforestation, lower per-centages
take PSA payments into
account when judging prevented 108,000 ha (267,000 of land parcels were enrolled in the PSA program.

whether to clear forest. acres) of deforestation—38% of This is because land more profitable for agriculture was less often
the area under contract. Indeed, enrolled. Datafrom Pfaff, A., et al., 2008. Payments for environmental services:

deforestation rates fell as the program proceeded; rates of forest Empirical analysis for Costa Rica. Working Papers Series SAN08-05, Terry

clearance in 1997–2000 were half what they werein the preced-ing Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University.

decade.
However, some researchers hypothesized that PSA pay-ments
were not responsible for this decline and that forest loss Moreover, since enrollment was voluntary, most landowners
would have slowed anyway because of other factors. To test applying for payments likely had land unprofitable for agricul-ture
this hypothesis, a team led by G. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa of and were not actually planning to clear forest (FIGURE 1).
the University of Alberta and Alexander Pfaff of Duke University In a 2008 paper, these researchers compared lands under PSA
worked with FONAFIFO’s payment data, as well as data on land contracts with similar lands not under contracts. PSA lands
use and forest cover from satellite surveys. They layered these experienced no forest loss, whereas the deforestation rate on
data onto maps using a geographic information system (GIS) non-PSA lands was 0.21%/yr. However, their analyses indi-cated
(p. 38), and then explored the patterns revealed. that PSA lands stood only a 0.08%/yr likelihood of being
In 2007,in the journal Conservation Biology, they reported clearedin the first place, suggesting that the program prevented
that only 7.7% of PSA contracts were located within 1 km of only 0.08%/yr of forest loss, not 0.21%/yr. Other research was
regions where forest was at greatest risk of clearance. PSA bearing this out; at least two studies found that many PSA par-ticipants,
contracts were only slightly morelikely to be near such aregion wheninterviewed, said they would have retained their
than far from it. This meant, they argued, that PSA contracts forest even without the PSA program.
were not being targeted to regions where they could have the These researchers argued that Costa Rica’s success in
mostimpact. halting forest loss was likely due to other factors. In particular,

The tragedy of the commons Whenpublicly acces-sibleno single person ownsthe pasture,no one hasincentive to
resources are open to unregulated exploitation, they expend effort taking care of it. Instead, each person takes
tend to become overused, damaged, or depleted. So argued what he or she can until overgrazing causes grass growth
environmental scientist Garrett Hardin in his 1968 essay “The to collapse, hurting everyone. This scenario, known as the
Tragedy of the Commons.” Basing his argument on an age-old tragedy of the commons, pertains to manytypes of resources
scenario, Hardin explained how in a public pasture (or held and used in common by the public: forests, fisheries,
“common”) open to unregulated grazing, each person who clean air, clean water—evenglobal climate.
grazes animals will be motivated by self-interest to increase Whenshared resources are being depleted or degraded,
the number of his or her animals in the pasture. Because it is in society’s interest to develop guidelinesfor their use.

102 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

Forest Law 7575, which had established the PSA system, had
1.4
also banned forest clearing nationwide. This top-down govern-ment
PSA program
mandate, assuming it was enforceable, in theory made 1.2 introduced,
1996
the PSA payments unnecessary. However, the PSA program
1.0
made the mandate far more palatable to legislators, and Forest (%/yr

Law 7575 might never have passed had it notincluded the PSA
rate
0.8
payments.
Despite the PSA program’s questionable impact in pre-serving 0.6
existing forest, scientific studies show that it has been
0.4
effective in regenerating new forest. In Costa Rica’s Osa Pen-insula,
Deforestation

Rodrigo Sierra and Eric Russman of the University of

0.2
Texas at Austin found in 2006 that PSA farms had five times
more regrowing forest than did non-PSA farms. Interviews 0.0
with farmers indicated that the program encouraged them to 1960–1979 1979–1986 1986–1997 1997–2000 2000–2005
let land grow back into forest if they did not soon need it for
production. Deforestation period

In the nation’s northern Caribbean plain, a team led by

FIGURE 2 Forest recovery was underway in Costa Rica
Wayde Morse of the University of Idaho combined satellite data before the PSA program began. Deforestation rates had already
with on-the-ground interviews, finding that PSA payments plus dropped steeply, indicating that other factors were responsible.
the clearance ban reduced deforestation rates from 1.43%/ Data from Sanchez-Azofeifa, G.A., et al., 2007. Costa Rica’s payment for envi-ronmental

year to 0.10%/year and that the program encouraged forest services program: intention, implementation, and impact. Conservation

regrowth still more. Meanwhile, research by Rodrigo Arriagada Biology 21: 1165–1173.

indicated that the regeneration of new forest seemed to be the

PSA program’s major effect at the national level as well.
Most researchers today hold that Costa Rica’s forest recov-ery
FONAFIFO should prioritize applicants, or pay more money, in
results from along history of conservation
policies and eco-nomic
regions that are ecologically most valuable or that are at great-est
developments. Indeed, deforestation rates had been
risk of deforestation. In a 2008 study, Tobias Wünscher of
dropping before the PSA program was initiated (FIGURE 2).
Bonn, Germany, and colleagues modeled and tested seven
There are several major reasons:
possible ways to target the payments, using data from Costa
• Earlier policies (tax rebates and tax credits for timber Rica’s
pro-duction) Nicoya Peninsula. Wünscher’s team suggested using
encouraged forest cover. auctions, in which applicants for PSA funds put in bids stating

• The creation of national parks fed a boom in ecotourism, how much they were requesting. Because applicants have out-numbered

so Costa Ricans saw how conserving natural areas could available contracts 3to 1, FONAFIFO could favor the

bring economic benefits. lower bids to keep costs down, whilethe auction system could

• Falling market prices for meat discouraged ranching. make differential payments politically acceptable.
Costa Rica’s government is responding to suggestions
• After an economic crisis roiled Latin America in the 1980s,
from researchers by aiming payments toward regions of greater
Costa Rica ended subsidies that had encouraged ranchers
environmental value and by making the program more acces-sible
and farmers to expand into forested areas.
to low-income farmers in undeveloped regions. The gov-ernment
To help the PSA program make better use of its money, has also raised the payment amounts considerably.
most researchers today feel that PSA payments should be tar-geted. Researchers—and other nations—are watching closely to see
Instead of paying equal amounts to anyone who applies, how the program develops.

In Hardin’s example, guidelines might limit the number if the resource is localized and enforcement is simple, but
of animals each person can graze or might require pasture these conditions are rare. Alternatively, the resource can be
users to help restore and manage the resource. These two subdivided and allotments sold into private ownership, so
concepts—management and restriction of use—are central that each owner gains incentive to manage his or her por-tion.
to environmental policy today. Privatization may be effective if property rights can be
Public oversight through government is a standard way clearly assigned (as with land), but it tends not to work with
to alleviate the tragedy of the commons, but we can also resources such as air or water. Privatization also opens the
address it in other ways. Resource users can voluntarily door to short-term profit taking at the long-term expense of
cooperate to prevent overexploitation. This may be effective the resource.

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 103

 Free riders A secondreason we develop policy for pub-licly Another hurdle for environmental policy stems from
held resources is the predicament caused byfree riders. the nature of environmental problems, which often develop
Let’ssay a community on ariver suffers from waterpollu-tion gradually over long time periods. Human behavior is geared
that emanates from 10 different factories. The problem toward addressing short-term needs, and this is reflected in
could in theory be solved if every factory voluntarily agrees our social institutions. Businesses usually opt for short-term
to reduce its own pollution. However,oncethey all begin financial gain. The news media focus coverage on new and
reducing their pollution, it becomes tempting for any one of sudden events. Politicians often act in their short-term inter-est
them to stop doing so. A factory that avoids the efforts oth-ers because they depend on reelection. For all these reasons,
are making wouldin essenceget a “free ride.” If enough environmental policy may be obstructed.
factories take a free ride, the whole collective endeavor will Policy in general can be held up for many reasons, even
collapse. Because of the free-rider problem, private volun-tary if a majority of people favor it. Checks and balances in a con-stitutional
efforts are oftenless effectivethan efforts mandatedby democracy seek to ensure that new policy is imple-mented
public policy. only after extensive review and debate. However, less
desirable factors can also hinder policy. In democracies such
External costs Environmental policy also aims to pro-moteas the United States, each person has a political voice and

fairness by dealing with external costs (p. 96). can make a difference—yet money wields influence. People,

For example, a factory that discharges wasteinto a river organizations, industries, or corporations with enough wealth

imposes external costs (water pollution, health impacts, to buy access to power exert disproportionate influence over

reduced fish populations, aes-theticpolicymakers.

weighingthe impacts) on downstream

ISSUeS users of the river. If the gov-ernment

forces the company Scienceinforms policy but
Internalizing external Costs
running the factory to clean up is sometimes disregarded
its pollution, pay fees, or reim-burse
Imagine that we wereto use Policy that is effective is generally informed by scien-tific
affected residents for
policy to internalize all the external research. For instance, Costa Rica’s PSA program was
damage,this helpsto “internal-ize”
costs of gasoline (pollution, health inspired by research into the value of ecosystem services.
costs. The costs would then
risks, climate change, impacts
be paid by the company, which Later, once scientists diagnosed shortcomings in how the pro-gram
from oil drilling and transport,
would likely passthem on to was being run, policymakers responded with remedies.
etc.) and that as a result, gas
consumers by raising the prices When deciding whether to regulate a substance that may pose
prices rise to $13 per gallon. What
of its products. Higher market a public health risk, government agencies may comb the sci-entific
effects do you think this would
prices mayreduce demand for literature for information or commission new stud-ies
have on the choices we make
the products, and consumers to resolve outstanding questions. When crafting a bill to
as consumers (such as driving
behavior and types of vehicles may instead favor less expen-sive reduce pollution, a legislator may consult scientific data that

products that impose fewer quantify impacts of the pollution or that predict benefits from
purchased)? Whatinfluence might
costs on society. its reduction. In today’s world, a nation’s strength depends
it have on the types of vehicles
on its commitment to science. This explains why govern-ments
produced and the types of energy
sources developed? What effects devote a portion of their tax revenue to fund scientific

might it have on our taxes and Various factors research.

Unfortunately, sometimes policymakers allow factors
our health insurance
In the long run,
premiums?
do you think that
can obstruct other than science to determine their decision making on
internalizing external costs in this environmental scientific matters. Politicians may ignore scientific con-sensus
way would end up costing society
policy on well-established matters such as evolution, vac-cination,
more money or saving society or climate change if it suits their political needs
money? What factors might be If environmental policy brings or if they are motivated chiefly by political or religious
important in determiningthe clear benefits, then why are ideology. Some may reject or distort scientific advice if
outcome? environmental laws and regu-lationsthis helps to please campaign contributors or powerful
often challenged? One constituencies.
reason is the perception that Whenever taxpayer-funded science is suppressed or dis-torted
environmental protection requires economic sacrifice (see for political ends, society is harmed. We cannot take
FAQ, p. 96). Businesses often view regulations as restric-tive for granted that science will play a role in policy. Aseducated
and costly. Landowners may fear that zoning (p. 424) citizens of a democracy, we need to stay vigilant and help
or protections for endangered species (p. 182) will restrict ensure that our representatives in government are making
how they can use their land. Developers complain of time proper use of the tremendous scientific assets we have at our
and money lost in obtaining permits; reviews by government disposal. Each of us can contribute by reelecting those politi-cians
agencies; and required environmental controls, monitoring, who consult and appreciate science and by voting out of
and mitigation. office those who do not

104 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

 U.S.EnvironmentalLaw environmental
help level the playing
advocates
field
and organizations
with large corporations
use lawsuits to
and agen-cies.
and Policy Conversely, the courts hear complaints from businesses
and individuals challenging the constitutional validity of
The United States provides a good focus for understanding environmental laws they feel to be infringing on their rights.
environmental policy in constitutional democracies world-wide, Individuals and organizations also lodge suits against gov-ernment
for several reasons. First, the United States has pio-neered agencies when they feel the agencies are failing to
innovative environmental policy. Second, U.S. policies enforce their own regulations.
serve as models—of both success and failure—for other The structure of the federal government is mirrored at the
nations and for international bodies. Third, the United States state level with governors, legislatures, judiciaries, and agen-cies.
exerts a great deal of influence on the affairs of other nations. States, counties, and municipalities all generate policy
Finally, understanding U.S. policy at the federal level helps us of their own. They can act as laboratories experimenting with
to understand policy at local, state, and international levels. novel ideas, so that policies that succeed may be adopted
elsewhere. In the “cooperative federalism” approach, a fed-eral

Federal policy arises from the three agency sets national standards and then works with state
agencies to achieve them in each state.
branches of government
Federal policy in the United States results from actions of the Early U.S.environmental policy
legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government.
promoted development
Congress creates laws, or legislation, by crafting bills that
can become law with the signature of the head of the execu-tive Environmental policy in the United States was created in
branch, the president. Once a law is enacted, its imple-mentation
three periods. Laws enacted during the first period, from the
and enforcement are assigned to an administrative 1780s to the late 1800s, accompanied the westward expansion
agency in the executive branch. Administrative agencies cre-ate of the nation and were intended mainly to promote settlement
regulations, specific rules intended to achieveobjectives and the extraction and use of the continent’s abundant natural
of a law. These agencies also monitor compliance with laws resources (FIGURE 5.7).
and regulations. Several dozen administrative agencies influ-ence Among these early laws were the General Land Ordi-nances
U.S. environmental policy, ranging from the Environ-mental of 1785 and 1787, by which the new federal gov-ernment
Protection Agency to the Forest Service to the Food gave itself the right to manage the lands it was
and Drug Administration to the Bureau of Land Management. expropriating from Native American nations. These laws cre-ated
The judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court and a grid system for surveying these lands and readying them
various lower courts, is charged with interpreting law and for private ownership. Subsequently, the government promoted
is an important arena for environmental policy. Grass-roots settlement in the Midwest and West, and doled out millions

(a) Settlers in Nebraska, circa 1860 (b) Loggers felling an old-growth tree,
Washington

FIGURE 5.7 Early U.S. environmental policy promoted settlement and natural resource extraction.
The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed settlers (a) to claim 160 acres of public land by paying $16, living there for
5 years, and farming or building a home. The timber industry was allowed to cut the nation’s ancient forests
(b) with little policy to encourage conservation.

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 10

 of acres to its citizens and to railroad companies, encouraging
settlers, entrepreneurs, and land speculators to move west.
Western settlement was meant to provide U.S. citizens
with means to achieve prosperity while relieving crowding in
Eastern cities. It expanded the geographic reach of the United
States at a time when the young nation was still jostling with
European powers for control of the continent. It also wholly
displaced the millions of Native Americans whose ancestors
had inhabited these lands for millennia. U.S. environmental
policy of this era reflected a perception that the vast western
lands were inexhaustible in natural resources.

The second waveof U.S.

environmental policy encouraged
conservation
In the late 1800s, as the continent became more populated
and its resources were increasingly exploited, public policy
toward natural resources began to shift. Reflecting the emerg-ing
conservation and preservation ethics (p. 15) in American
FIGURE 5.8 Scientist and writer Rachel Carson revealed
society, laws of this period aimed to alleviate some of the
the effects of DDT and other pesticides in her 1962 book,
environmental impacts of westward expansion.
Silent Spring.
In 1872, Congress designated Yellowstone the world’s
first national park. In 1891, Congress authorized the president
to create forest reserves to prevent overharvesting and protect waste that the river actually caught fire near Cleveland a num-ber
forested watersheds. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt of times in the 1950s and 1960s (FIGURE 5.9). Such spec-tacles,
created the first national wildlife refuge. These acts launched coupled with an oil spill offshore from Santa Barbara,
the creation of a national park system, national forest system, California, in 1969, moved the public to prompt Congress and
and national wildlife refuge system that still stand as global the president to better safeguard water quality and public health.
models (pp. 203, 199, 204). These developments reflected Leaders in government and academia responded to the
a new understanding that the continent’s resources were growing public desire for environmental protection. Stewart
exhaustible and required legal protection. Udall, secretary of the interior from 1961 to 1969, helped shape
Land management policies continued through the 20th key laws and oversaw the creation of more than 100 federal
century, targeting soil conservation in the wake of the Dust parks and refuges for conservation and public use. Legal scholar
Bowl (p. 149) and wilderness preservation with the Wilder-nessJoseph Saxin 1970 published a seminal paper developing the
Act of 1964 (p. 204).

Thethird waveresponded
to pollution
Further social changes in the 20th century gave rise to the
third major period of U.S. environmental policy. In a more
densely populated nation driven by technology, industry, and
intensive resource consumption, Americans found themselves
better off economically but living amid dirtier air, dirtier
water, and more waste and toxic chemicals. Events in the
1960s and 1970s triggered greater awareness of environmen-tal
problems, bringing about a profound shift in public policy.
A landmark event was the 1962 publication of Silent
Spring, a best-selling book by American scientist and writer
Rachel Carson (FIGURE 5.8). Silent Spring awakened the
public to the ecological and health impacts of pesticides and
industrial chemicals (p. 216). The book’s title refers to Car-son’s
warning that pesticides might kill so many birds that
few would be left to sing in springtime. FIGURE 5.9 Ohio’s Cuyahoga River was so polluted with
Ohio’s Cuyahoga River also drew attention to pollution oil and waste that the river caught fire multiple times in the
hazards. The Cuyahoga was so polluted with oil and industrial 1950s and 1960s and would burn for days at a time

106 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

public trust doctrine, which holds that natural resources such With the aid of such leaders, public demand for a
as air, water, soil, and wildlife should be held in trust for the pub-lic cleaner environment during this period inspired a number of
and that government should protect them from exploitation major laws that underpin modern U.S. environmental policy
by private parties. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson founded (TABLE 5.2). You will encounter most of these laws again later
Earth Day in 1970, a now-annual event, which galvanized public in this book, and they have already helped to shape the quality
support for action to address pollution problems. of your life.

TABLE 5.2 Major U.S. Environmental Protection Laws, 1963–1980

Clean Air Act Resource Conservation and

1963; amended 1970, 1990 Recovery Act
1976
Sets standards for air quality,
restricts emissions from new Sets standards and permitting
sources, enables citizens to procedures for the disposal
sue violators, funds research of solid waste and hazardous
on pollution control, and estab-lished waste(p. 405). Requires that
an emissions trading the generation, transport, and
program for sulfur dioxide. As a disposal of hazardous waste
result, the air we breathe today be tracked “from cradle to
is far cleaner (pp. 292–295). grave.”

Endangered Species Act Clean Water Act

1973 1977

Seeks to protect species Regulates the discharge of

threatened with extinction. wastes, especially from industry,
Forbids destruction ofindividu-als into rivers and streams (p. 278).
oflisted species or their Aimsto protect wildlife and
critical habitat on public and human health, and has helped
private land, provides funding to clean up U.S. waterways.
for recovery efforts, and allows
negotiation with private land-holders
(pp. 182–183).

Safe Drinking Water Act Soil and Water Conservation

1974
Authorizes the EPAto set
quality standards for tap
provided by public water sys-tems,
and to work with states
to protect drinking water
sources from contamination.
Act
1977
water Directs the U.S. Department
of Agriculture to survey and
assess soil and water condi-tions
across the nation and
prepare conservation plans.
Responded to worsening soil
erosion and water pollution
on farms and rangeland as
production intensified.

Toxic Substances CERCLA (“Superfund”)

Control Act
1976; amended, 2016
Directs the EPAto monitor
thousands ofindustrial chemi-cals
and gives it power to ban
those found to pose too
health risk (p. 228). However,
the number of chemicals
continues to increase far too
quickly for adequate testing.
1980
Fundsthe Superfundprogramto
clean up hazardous waste at the
nation’s most polluted sites (p. 414).
Costs wereinitially charged to pol-luters
much but most are now borne by
taxpayers. The EPA continues to
progress through manysites that
remain. Full name is the Compre-hensive
Environmental Response
Compensation and Liability Act.

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 10

 Historians suggest that major advances in environmental external costs (pp. 96–97, 104) show that EPA actions have
policy occurred in the 1960s and 1970s because (1) environ-mental brought net benefits worth hundreds of billions of dollars to
problems became readily apparent and were directly the American public each and every year (p. 117).
affecting people’s lives, (2) people could visualize policies
to deal with the problems, and (3) citizens were politically
active and leaders were willing to act. In addition, photo-graphs
The social context for policy evolves
from NASA’s space program allowed humanity to see,
In the 1980s Congress strengthened, broadened, and elabo-rated
for the first time ever, images of Earth from space (see photos
upon the laws of the 1970s. But the political climate
on pp. 2 and 437). It is hard for us to comprehend the power
in the United States soon changed. Although public support
those images had at the time, but they revolutionized many
for the goals of environmental protection remained high,
people’s worldviews by making us aware of the finite nature
many people began to feel that the regulatory means used
of our planet.
to achieve these goals too often imposed economic burdens
Today, largely because of policies enacted since the
on businesses or individuals. Attempts were made to roll
1960s, our health is better protected and the nation’s air and
back environmental policy, beginning with the presiden-tial
water are considerably cleaner. Thanks to the many Ameri-cans
administration of Ronald Reagan and continuing with
who worked tirelessly in grass-roots efforts, and to pol-icymakers
the George W. Bush administration and most congressional
who listened and chose to make a difference in
sessions since 1994. The administration of Barack Obama
people’s lives, we now enjoy a cleaner environment where
strengthened environmental policy, particularly on issues
industrial chemicals, waste disposal, and resource extraction
pertaining to climate change, but was repeatedly obstructed
are more carefully regulated. Much remains to be done—and
by Congress in these efforts. The rise of Donald Trump to
we will always need to stand ready to defend our advances—but
the presidency, along with Republican control of Congress,
all of us alive today owe a great deal to the dedicated
brought an aggressive backlash against environmental policy
people who inspired policy to tackle pollution during this
on multiple fronts.
period.
Today in the United States, legal protections for public
health and environmental quality remain strong in some areas
but have been weakened in others. Past policies restricting
Passage of NEPAand creation toxic substances such aslead and DDT have improved public
of the EPA were milestones health, but scientists and regulators cannot keep up with the
flood of new chemicals being introduced by industry. And as
One of the foremost U.S. environmental laws is the National demand for energy rises while concern over climate change
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), drafted by Indiana Uni-versityintensifies, people continue to suffer impacts from fossil fuel
political scientist Lynton Caldwell and signed into use and extraction while striving to find a path toward clean
law by Republican President Richard Nixon in 1970. NEPA and renewable energy.
created an agency called the Council on Environmental Qual-ity Amid the heightened partisanship of U.S. politics today,
and required that an environmental impact statement environmental policy has gotten caught in the political cross-hairs.
(EIS) be prepared for any major federal action that might sig-nificantly Despite the fact that some of the greatest early con-servationists
affect environmental quality. An EIS summarizes were Republicans, and even though the words
results from studies that assess environmental impacts that conservative and conservation share the same root mean-ing,
could result from development projects undertaken or funded environmental issues have today become identified as a
by the federal government. predominantly Democratic concern. As a result, significant
The EIS process forces government agencies and the bipartisan advances rarely occur, and most environmental
businesses that contract with them to evaluate impacts using policy is now being crafted atthe state andlocal level.
a cost-benefit approach (p. 96) before proceeding with a new
dam, highway, or building project. The EIS process rarely
halts development projects, but it serves as an incentive to Environmental policy advances
lessen environmental damage. NEPA grants ordinary citizens
today onthe international stage
input into the policy process by requiring that EISs be made
publicly available and that policymakers solicit and consider Although the United States has ceded much of its leader-ship
public comment on them. internationally on environmental policy, other nations
In l970 policymakers also created the Environmental are forging ahead with innovative policy. Germany has used
Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA was charged with con-ductingpolicy to make impressive strides with solar energy (pp. 375–376).
and evaluating research, monitoring environmental Sweden maintains a thriving society while promoting
quality, setting and enforcing standards for pollution levels, progressive environmental policies. Small developing nations
assisting the states in meeting the standards, and educating such as Costa Rica are bettering their citizens’ lives while
the public. Since then, the EPA has played a central role in protecting and restoring their natural capital. Even China,
environmental policy. Industries whose practices are regu-lated despite becoming the world’s biggest polluter, is taking the
by the EPA complain constantly of expense and bureau-cracy, world’s biggest steps toward renewable energy, reforestation,
but studies that examine how regulations can reduce and pollution control

108 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

 FIGURE 5.10 Concerns over
climate change are now driv-ing
environmental policy in
all nations. Policymakers are
responding to the concerns of
ordinary people, such as those
at the People’s Climate Marchin
2014 in New York City.

Worldwide, we have now embarked on a fourth wave of our lives. Billions of people enjoy a degree of access to news,
environmental policy, defined by two main goals. One is to education, arts, and science that we could barely have imag-ined
develop solutions to climate change (Chapter 14), an issue in the past, and billions also now live under governments
of unprecedented breadth and global reach (FIGURE 5.10). that are more democratic. Over recent decades, we have
The second goal is to achieve sustainability through sustain-able gained a richer awareness of other cultures, and warfare has
development (pp. 114–115), finding ways to safeguard declined.
natural systems while raising living standards for the world’s Yet as globalization proceeds and social conditions
people. International conferences (pp. 335, 115) have brought change, many people are feeling anxious or threatened by
together the world’s nations to grapple with each issue, and the loss of traditional cultural norms. As people, goods, and
these efforts seem bound to continue for the foreseeable ideas flow freely across national borders, debates over trade,
future. jobs, immigration, and identity are fueling populist reactions
against globalization, forcing difficult conversations, and
undercutting social and political stability in North America

International Environmental and Europe. Atthe same time, ecological systems are under-going
change at unprecedented rates and scales. People are
Policy moving organisms from one continent to another, allowing
invasive species to affect ecosystems everywhere. Multi-national
Environmental systems pay no heed to political boundaries, corporations operate outside the reach of national
and neither do environmental problems. Climate change is laws and rarely have incentive to conserve resources or limit
a global issue because carbon pollution from any one nation pollution while moving from nation to nation. Today our
spreads through the atmosphere and oceans, affecting all biggest environmental challenges are global in scale (such
nations. Because one nation’s laws have no authority in other as climate change, ozone depletion, overfishing, and biodi-versity
nations, international policy is vital to solving “transbound-ary” loss). For all these reasons, in our globalizing world
problems in our globalizing world. the institutions that shape international law and policy play
increasingly vital roles.

Globalization makesinternational
institutions vital International law includes customary
law and conventional law
Welive in an era of rapid and profound change. Globalization
describes the process by which the world’s societies have International law known as customary law arises from
become more interconnected, linked by trade, diplomacy, and long-standing practices, or customs, held in common by
communication technologies in countless ways. Globaliza-tion most cultures. International law known as conventional law
has brought us many benefits by facilitating the spread of arises from conventions, or treaties (written contracts), into
ideas andtechnologies that empower individuals and enhance which nations enter. One example of a treaty is the United

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 10

 TABLE 5.3 Major International Environmental Treaties

YEAR IT CAME NATIONS THAT STATUS IN

CONVENTION OR PROTOCOL INTO FORCE HAVE RATIFIED IT UNITED STATES

CITES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered 1975 175 Ratified

Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (p. 183)

Ramsar Convention on Wetlands ofInternational Importance 1975 159 Ratified

Montreal Protocol, of the Vienna Convention for the Protection 1989 196 Ratified
of the Ozone Layer (p. 303)

Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements 1992 172 Signed but not ratified
of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (p. 414)

Convention on Biological Diversity (p. 183) 1993 168 Signed but not ratified

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (p. 228) 2004 152 Signed but not ratified

Paris Agreement, of the UN Framework Convention on Climate 2016 151, as of 2017 Signed but not ratified;
Change (p. 335) U.S. may withdraw

Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which
in 1994 establisheda framework for agreementsto reduce
greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
The Kyoto Protocol (a protocol is an amendment or addition
to a convention) and the Paris Agreementeachlater speci-fied the United Nations plays an active role in environmental
the agreed-upon details of the emissions limits (p. 335).
TABLE 5.3 shows a selection of major environmental treaties
ratified (legally approved by a government) by mostof the
world’s nations.
Treaties are also signed among pairs or groups of nations.
The United States, Mexico, and Canadaenteredinto the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994.
NAFTA eliminated trade barriers such as tariffs on imports
and exports, makinggoodscheaperto buy. Yet NAFTA also
threatened to undermine protections for workers and the
environment by steering economic activity to regions where
regulations were mostlax. Side agreements werenegotiated
to try to address these concerns, and NAFTA’s impacts on
jobs and on environmental quality in the three nations have
beencomplex. Many U.S.jobs movedto Mexico,but fears
that pollution would soar and regulations
largely did not cometo pass—indeed,some sustainable
products and practices spread from nation to nation. Debates
recur with each proposed free trade agreement, as negotiators
try to find waysto gainthe benefits of free trade whileavoid-ing The World Trade Organization
environmental damage and economic harm to
people.
Several organizations shape
international environmental policy
In our age of globalization, a number of international institu-tions laws as unfair barriers to trade. Forinstance, in 1995, the U.S.
act to influence the policy and behavior of nations by
providing funding, applying political or economic pressure,
and directing media attention.
The United Nations Founded in 1945 and including
representativesfrom virtually all nations of the world,the
United Nations (UN) seeks to maintain peace, security, and
friendly relations among nations; to promote respect for
human rights and freedoms; and to help nations cooperate to
resolve global challenges. Headquartered in New York City,
policy by sponsoring conferences, coordinating treaties, and
publishing research.
The World Bank Establishedin 1944 and basedin Wash-ington,
D.C.,the World Bank is one of the largest sources
offunding for economic developmentand majorinfrastruc-ture
projects. In fiscal year 2016, the World Bank provided
$61 billion in loans and support for projects designedto
benefit low-income people in developing countries. Despite
its admirable mission, the World Bank is often criticized
for funding unsustainable projects that causeenvironmen-tal
impacts, such as dams that generate electricity but also
flood valuable forests and farmland. Providing for the needs
of growing human populationsin poor nations while mini-mizing
damage to the ecological systems on which people
would be gut-ted rely can be a tough balancing act. Environmental scientists
agreethat the concept of sustainable development mustbe
the guiding principle for such efforts.
Foundedin 1995 and
working based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Trade Organi-zation
(WTO) represents multinational corporations. It
promotesfree trade by reducing obstaclesto international
commerce and enforcing fairness among nations in trad-ing
practices. The WTO has authority to impose financial
penalties on nationsthat do not comply withits directives.
The WTO has interpreted some national environmental
EPAissued regulationsrequiring cleaner-burning gasolinein
U.S. cities. Brazil and Venezuela filed a complaint with the
WTO,saying the new rules discriminated against the dirtier-burning
petroleumthey exportedto the United States. The
WTOagreed, ruling that eventhough the dirty gasoline posed
athreat to human healthin the United States,the EPArule

110 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

 SUCCESS Using a Treaty to Halt Ozone Depletion
STORY
In the 1980s, the world was shocked to learn upper atmosphere was being lost rapidly, stripping our planet of
of a global threat that seemed to come from out of a compound that protects life from dangerous ultraviolet radia-tion
nowhere. Scientific monitoring revealed that ozone in Earth’s from the sun. Researchers discovered that artificially manu-factured
chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—widely
350 used in aerosol spray cans, as refrigerants, and for other pur-poses—were
Montreal Protocol, destroying ozone once they were released into the
1987
units)
300 atmosphere. Policymakers and industry responded quickly to
the science, andin 1987 the world’s nations signed the Montreal
Ozone stabilized after
250 Protocol, a treaty to cut CFC production in half. Follow-up trea-ties
the Montreal Protocol.
deepened the cuts and restricted other ozone-depleting sub-stances.
Antarctic

(Dobson

Industry successfully switched to alternative chemicals

200
levels
Halley,
for products. As a result, we stopped atmospheric ozone loss
Ozone was being
at

lost dramatically in the 1990s, and Earth’s ozone layer is on track to fully recover
150
Ozone
until the Montreal later this century. Thus, by harnessing international cooperation
Protocol.
on policy, humanity succeeded in resolving a major global prob-lem.
100 (Read the full story in Chapter 13, pp. 301–303.) Now, we
1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015
need the world’s nations to act together to tackle today’s major
Year
global problem: climate change. The Montreal Protocol provides
Data from an Antarctic research station revealed the loss hope that such an effort can succeed.
of ozone in the stratosphere—and shows its stabilization
following treaties to address the problem. EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

weighingthe were an illegal trade barrier. The

Policy canfollow three approaches
ISSUeS ruling forced the United Statesto
weakenits regulations. Environmental policy can use a variety of strategies within
three major approaches (FIGURE 5.11).
trade Barriers and Nongovernmental organi-zations
environmental protection Manynongovernmental Lawsuits in the courts Priorto the legislative push of
If Canada has stricter laws for organizations (NGOs)—non-profit, recent decades, most environmental policy questions were
environmental protection than mission-driven organi-zations
addressed with lawsuits in the courts. Individuals suffer-ing
Mexico,andif theselaws limit not overseen by any external costs from pollution would sue polluters, one
Mexico’s ability to export its goods government—have become inter-national
case at a time. The courts sometimes punished polluters by
to Canada,then by WTOpolicy in scope and exert ordering them to stop their operations or pay damages to the
Canada’s laws could be overruled influence over policy. Environ-mental
affected parties. However, as industrialization proceeded
in the name offree trade. Do you NGOs such asthe Nature and population grew, pollution became harder to avoid, and
think this is fair? Now consider Conservancy focus on conser-vation
judges became reluctant to hinder industry. People began to
that Canadais wealthierthan Mex-ico objectives on the ground view legislation and regulation as more effective means of
and that Mexico could use an
(such as purchasing and man-aging
protecting public health and safety.
economic boost. Doesthis affect
land and habitat for rare
your response?
species) withoutbecoming politi-cally Command-and-control policy Mostenvironmentallaws
involved. Other groups, and regulations use a command-and-control approach, in
such as Greenpeace, Conserva-tion which a regulating agency such as the EPA sets rules, stan-dards,
International, and Popula-tion or limits on certain actions and threatens punishment
Connection, attempt to shape policy through research, for violations. This simple and direct approach has brought
education, lobbying, or protest. residents of the United States and other nations cleaner air,
cleaner water, safer workplaces, and many other advances.
The relatively safe, healthy, comfortable lives most of

Approachesto us enjoy
environmental
today owe
policy
much to
of recent
the
decades.
command-and-control

Environmental Policy Even in plain financial terms, command-and-control

policy has been effective. Each year the White House Office
Whenmostof usthink of environmentalpolicy, whatcomesto of Management and Budget analyzes U.S. policy to cal-culate
mind are majorlaws or regulations. However, environmental the economic costs and benefits of regulations. These
policyis diverse. analyses have consistently revealed that benefits far outweigh

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 111

 PROBLEM SOLUTIONS
Pollution from factory harms people’s health Three policy approaches

1 Lawsuits in the courts: People can sue factories

EPA

FIGURE 5.11 Three major policy approaches exist to resolve

environmental problems. To address pollution from a factory,
we might 1 seek damages through lawsuits, 2 limit pollution
through legislation and regulation, or 3 reduce pollution using 2 Command-and-control policy: Governments can
market-based strategies. regulate emissions

costs and that environmental regulations have been most

beneficial of all. You can explore some of these data in
Calculating Ecological Footprints (p. 117).

Economic policy tools Despite the successes of

command-and-control policy, many people dislike the top-down
nature of government mandates that dictate particular
solutions to problems. As an alternative approach, we can aim
3 Economic policy tools: Policy can create incentives;
to channel the innovation and economic efficiency of market
a factory that pollutes less (right) will outcompete
capitalism in ways that benefit the public. Economic policy one that pollutes more(left) through permit trading,
tools use financial incentives to promote desired outcomes by avoiding green taxes, or selling ecolabeled products

encouraging private entities competing in a marketplace to

innovate and generate new or better solutions at lower cost.
Each of these three approaches has strengths and weak-nesses,
and each is best suited to different conditions. The costs by making these costs part of the normal expense of

approaches may also be used together. For instance, Costa doing business. Atax on an environmentally harmful activity

Rica’s Forest Law 7575 was a command-and-control law that or product is called a green tax.

banned forest clearing, but it also established the PSA pro-gram Under green taxation, a firm owning a polluting factory

as an economic policy tool to help the policy succeed. might pay taxes on the pollution it discharges—the more pol-lution,

Government regulation is often needed to frame market-based the higher the tax payment. This gives factory own-ers

efforts, and citizens can use the courts to ensure that a financial incentive to reduce pollution while allowing

regulations are enforced. Let’s now explore several types of them the freedom to decide how to do so. One polluter might

economic policy tools: taxes, subsidies, emissions trading, choose to invest in pollution control technology if this is

and ecolabeling. more affordable than paying the tax. Another polluter might
choose to pay the tax—funds the government could then use
to reduce pollution in some other way.
Greentaxes discourage Costa Rica uses a green tax to help fund its PSA pro-gram.

undesirable activities It applies a tax of 3.5% to sales of fossil fuels and then
uses the revenue to pay for conserving forests, which soak up
In taxation, moneypassesfrom private partiesto the govern-ment,
carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion. In the United
which usesit to pay for services to benefit the public. States, similar “sin taxes” on cigarettes and alcohol are long-accepted
Taxing undesirable activities helps to internalize external tools of social policy. Taxes on pollution are mor

112 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

common in Europe, where manynations have adoptedthe Renewables
(wind, solar,
polluter-pays principle, which specifies that the party cre-ating geothermal,
pollution be held responsible for covering the costs of biofuels)
($81 billion)
its impacts. Today manynationsandstatesare experimenting
Nuclear
with carbon taxes—taxes on gasoline, coal-based electricity, ($73 billion)
and fossil-fuel-intensive products—to fight climate change
(p. 332).

Subsidies promote certain activities

Oil

Anothereconomic policy tool is the subsidy, a government Hydropower ($369 billion)

giveaway of money or resources that is intended to support or ($90 billion)

promote an industry or activity. Subsidies take manyforms,

and oneis the tax break, whichrelievesthe tax burden on an
industry, firm, or individual. Costa Rica’s PSA program sub-sidizes Coal
($104 billion)
the conservation and restoration of forests by trans-ferring
public moneyto landowners whoconserveor restore
Natural gas
forests. Ironically, much of the nation’s deforestation had
($121 billion)
resulted from ranching and farming that the government had
previously beensubsidizing.
Subsidies like Costa Rica’s payments for ecological
services promote environmentally sustainable activities—but FIGURE 5.12 The well-established fossil fuel industries
all too oftensubsidiesare usedto prop up unsustainableones. (slices in shades of gray) receive the majority of U.S.
energy subsidies. Cumulative data for the United States
In the United States, subsidies for grazing, timber extrac-tion
from 1950 to 2010 are shown. Apportionments remain similar
(p. 200), and mineralextraction(p. 249) on publiclands
today. Datafrom Management
Information Services,Inc., 2011. 60 years
all benefit private parties that may profit from, and deplete,
of energy incentives: Analysis of federal expenditures for energy development.
publicly held resources.
Washington, D.C.: Management Information Services.
Fossil fuels have been a majorrecipient of subsidies
over the years. From 1950 to 2010, the U.S. government gave • How many dollars in subsidies have gone to fossil
$594 billion ofits citizens’ moneyto oil, gas, and coal corpo-rations fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas)for every dollar that has
(most of this in tax breaks),accordingto onerecent gone to other energy sources? • How many dollars in subsidies
have gone to fossil fuels for every dollar that has gone to energy
compilation (FIGURE 5.12). In comparison, just $171 billion
from wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels?
was granted to renewable energy, and most ofthese subsidies
wentto hydropower andto corn ethanol, whichis not widely Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

viewed as a sustainable fuel (p. 393). In recent years, global

fossil fuel subsidies have outpaced renewable energy sub-sidies
by four to eight times, accordingto the International
createsa marketin permitsfor the emission of pollutants,and
Energy Agency.
companies, utilities, or industries then buy and sell the per-mits
In 2009, President Obamaand other leaders ofthe Group
among themselves. In a cap-and-trade emissions trad-ing
of 20(G-20) nationsresolvedto graduallyphaseouttheir col-lective
system,the governmentfirst capsthe overall amount of
$300 billion of annual fossil fuel subsidies. Doing so
pollution it will allow, then grants or auctions off permits to
would hasten a shift to cleaner renewable energy sources and
polluters that allow them each to emit a certain fraction of
accomplishhalfthe greenhousegasemissionscuts neededto
that amount. Aspolluterstrade these permits,the government
hold global warming to 2°C. However, since that time, fos-sil
progressively lowers the cap of overall emissions allowed
fuel subsidies have grown, not shrunk. Onereason is lob-bying
(see Figure 14.28, p. 333).
byfossil fuel corporations. Anotheris that consumers
Supposeyou own an industrial plant with permits to
accustomed to artificially low prices for gasoline and electric-ity
release 10 units of pollution, but you find that you can make
might punish policymakers wholift subsidies andlet these
your plant more efficient and release only 5 units instead.
pricesrise.
You now have a surplus of permits, which you can sell to
some other plant owner who needs them. Doing so generates
Emissionstrading uses markets income for you and meetsthe needs of the other plant, while
the total amount of pollution does not rise. By providing
Subsidies and green taxes each create financial incentives firms an economic incentive to reduce pollution, emissions
in direct and selective ways. However, we may also pursue trading can lower expenses for industry relative to a conven-tional
policy goals by establishingfinancial incentives andthen let-ting regulatory system.
marketplace dynamics run their course, asin emissions The United States pioneered the cap-and-trade approach
trading. In an emissions trading system, a government withits programto reducesulfur dioxideemissions,established

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 11

 by the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. Sulfur dioxide to consumers. Once established, however, ecolabeling can
emissions from sources in the program declined by 67%, acid spread in a free market as businesses seek to win consumer
rain was reduced, and air quality improved (see Figure 13.21, confidence and to outcompete less sustainable brands. Of
p. 305). Similar cap-and-trade programs have shown success course, some businesses may try to mislead us into thinking
with smog in the Los Angeles basin and with nitrogen oxides their products are more sustainable than they actually are—a
in northeastern states. phenomenon called greenwashing. Independent certification
To address climate change, European nations are oper-ating by outside parties can help ensure that consumers get accu-rate
a market in greenhouse gas emissions (p. 333). In the information. When labeling is accurate, each of us as
United States, carbon trading markets are running in Califor-nia consumers can provide businesses and industries a powerful
and among northeastern states (p. 333), while other states incentive to switch to more sustainable processes when we
and nations are establishing programs. (We will assess some buy ecolabeled products.
of these efforts in Chapter 14.) The creative use of economic policy tools is growing
and diversifying, while command-and-control regulation and
legal action in the courts continue to play vital roles in envi-ronmental
Marketincentives are diverse policy. As a result, we have a variety of strategies
atthe local level available as we seek sustainable solutions to our society’s
challenges.
You are most likely already taking part in transactions
involving financial incentives as policy tools. Many munici-palities
charge residents for waste disposal according to the
amount of waste they generate. Some cities place taxes or SustainableDevelopment
disposal fees on items whose safe disposal is costly, such as
tires and motor oil. Others give rebates to residents who buy Today’s search for sustainable solutions centers on
water-efficient toilets and appliances, because rebates can sustainable development, economic progress that maintains
cost a city less than upgrading its wastewater treatment sys-tem. resources for the future. The United Nations defines sustain-able
Likewise, power utilities may offer discounts to cus-tomers development as development that “meets the needs of
who buy high-efficiency appliances, because doing the present without sacrificing the ability of future genera-tions
so is less costly than expanding the generating capacity of to meet their own needs.” Sustainable development is
their plants. an economic pursuit shaped by policy and informed by sci-ence.
It is also an ethical pursuit because it asks us to manage
our resource use so that future generations can enjoy similar
Ecolabeling empowers consumers access to resources.

In the approach known as ecolabeling, sellers who use sus-tainable

practices in growing, harvesting, or manufacturing
products advertise this fact on their labels, hoping to win
Sustainable development involves
approval from buyers (FIGURE 5.13). Examples include label-ing environmental protection, economic
recycled paper (p. 404), organic foods (p. 162), dolphin-safe
well-being, and social equity
tuna, shade-grown and fair-trade coffee, and sustainably
harvested lumber (p. 202). Economists use the term development to describe the use
In many cases, ecolabeling grew from initial steps taken of natural resources for economic advancement (as opposed
by governments to require the disclosure of information to simple subsistence, or survival). Development involves

(a) Organic foods (b) Energy-efficient appliances (c) Fair-trade products

FIGURE 5.13 Ecolabeling enables each of us to promote sustainable business practices through our
purchasing decisions. Among the many ecolabeled products now widely available are (a) organic foods,
(b) energy-efficient appliances, and (c) fair-trade coffee.

114 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Developmen

 TABLE 5.4 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals

• End poverty in allits forms everywhere

• End hunger, achieve food security, and promote sustainable

Environmental Social goals agriculture
goals
• Promote health and well-being for all

Sustainable • Ensure quality education for all

development
• Achieve gender equality and empower women and girls

• Ensure water and sanitation for all

• Ensureaccessto affordable,reliable, and sustainable

energy sources
• Promote sustainable economic growth and employment

• Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industry,

Economic goals and foster innovation

• Reduce inequality within and among nations

• Make cities safe, resilient, and sustainable

• Ensure sustainable consumption and production

• Take urgent action to combat climate change and its many

FIGURE 5.14 Sustainable development occurs when social,
impacts
economic, and environmental goals overlap.
• Conserve marine resources

• Protect and restore terrestrial ecosystems and halt

making purposeful changesintended to improve our quality of
biodiversity loss
life. Construction of homes, schools, hospitals, power plants,
factories, and transportation networks are all examples of • Promote peaceful, inclusive, and just institutions

development. In the past, manyadvocates of development felt • Renew partnerships for sustainable development
that protecting the environment threatened people’s economic
needs, while manyadvocatesof environmentalprotectionfelt Adapted from the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development

that development degraded the environment, jeopardizing the (www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment).

improvements in quality of life that were intended. Today,

however,peopleincreasingly perceivehow weall dependon
a healthy and functional natural environment.
Wealso now recognize that society’s poorer people tend projects, publish research, and facilitate collaboration
to sufferthe mostfrom environmentaldegradation.Asaresult, across borders among governments, businesses, and non-profit
advocates of environmental protection, economic develop-ment, organizations.
and socialjustice began workingtogether toward com-mon The Earth Summit at Río de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992
goals. This cooperation gave rise to the modern drive for was the world’s first major gathering focused on sustainable
sustainable development, which seeks waysto promote social development. With representatives from over 200 nations,
justice, economic well-being,andenvironmentalquality atthe this conference gave rise to notable achievements, includ-ing
same time (FIGURE 5.14). Governments, businesses,industries, the Convention on Biological Diversity (p. 183) and the
and organizations pursuing sustainable development aim to Framework Convention on Climate Change (p. 334). Ten
satisfy atriple bottomline, atrio of goalsincluding economic years later, nations met in Johannesburg, South Africa, at
advancement, environmental protection, and social equity. the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. Then
Programs that pay for ecosystem services are one exam-ple in 2012, the world returned to Río de Janeiro for the Rio+20
of a sustainable developmentapproachthat seeksto sat-isfy conference.
a triple bottom line. Costa Rica’s PSA program aims to In 2015, world leaders met at the United Nations and
enhance its citizens’ well-being by conserving the country’s adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals for humanity
natural assets while compensating affected landholders for (TABLE 5.4). Each broad goal for sustainable development
any economic losses. The intention is to achieve a win-win-win has a number of specific underlying targets—169 in all—that
result that pays off in economic, social, and environmental may be met by implementing concrete strategies. Many
dimensions. of the Sustainable Development Goals were given a 2030
target date, and we are making better progress on some than

Sustainable development is global on others. Westill have along way to go to resolve the many
challenges facing humanity. Pursuing solutions that meet a
Sustainable development has blossomed as an inter-national
triple bottom line of environmental, economic, and social
movement. The United Nations, the World goals can help pave the way for a truly sustainable global
Bank, and other organizations sponsor conferences, fund society.

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 11

 closing THELOOP

Environmental policy is a problem-solving decisions byits political leaders has enabled the nation to make
tool that makes use of science, impressive progress in social, economic, and environmen-tal
ethics, and economics. Command-and-control dimensions. By paying farmers and ranchers to preserve
legislation and regula-tion and restore forest on private land, for example, the country’s
remain our most common policy citizenry reaps the rewards of a cleaner and healthier envi-ronment,
approaches, but innovative market-based which in turn has enhanced economic progress. As
policy tools are also being deployed. Environ-mental Costa Rica’s leaders use research-based feedback to refine
and ecological economists are quantifying the value of andimprove the PSA program, the program should be able to
ecosystem services and devising alternative means of measur-ing better accomplish its goals. The government, businesses, and
progress, thereby helping to show how economic progress people of Costa Ricarecognize how economic health depends
is tied to environmental protection and resource conservation. on environmental protection, and seem poised to build on their
In pursuing sustainable development, we recognize that eco-nomic,success so far. In Costa Rica and across the world, if we can
social, and environmental well-being depend on one enhance our economic and social well-being while conserving
another and can be mutually reinforcing. natural resources, then truly sustainable solutions will be within
The nation of Costa Rica provides one useful model reach
of a pathway toward sustainable development. A series of

teStING Your Comprehension

1. Name and describe two key contributions that the another. Describe two current priorities in international
natural environment makes to our economies. environmental policy.
2. Describe four ways in which neoclassical economic 7. What did the National Environmental Policy Act
approaches can contribute to environmental problems. accomplish? Briefly describe the origin and mission of
3. Compare and contrast the views of neoclassical econo-mists, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

environmental economists, and ecological econo-mists, 8. Compare and contrast the three major approaches to
particularly regarding the issue of economic growth. environmental policy: lawsuits, command-and-control,

4. What are ecosystem services? Give several examples. and economic policy tools. Describe an advantage and
Describe ways in which some economists have disadvantage of each.

assigned monetary values to ecosystem services. 9. Explain how each of the following works: a green tax,
5. Describe two of the major justifications for environmen-tal a subsidy, and an emissions trading system.

policy. Now articulate three problems that environ-mental 10. Define sustainable development. Whatis meant by
policy commonly seeks to address. the triple bottom line? Whyis it important to pursue

6. Summarize how the first, second, and third waves of sustainable development?
environmental policy in U.S. history differed from one

SeeKING Solutions

1. Do you think that a steady-state economy is a practical 4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION Suppose you are a Costa
alternative to our current approach that prioritizes Rican farmer who needs to decide whether to clear a
economic growth? Why or why not? stand of forest or apply to receive payments to preserve

2. Do you think we should attempt to quantify and assign it through the PSA program. Describe all the types of
market values to ecosystem services? Why or why not? information you would want to consider before making

What consequences might this have? your decision. Now, describe what you think each of the
following people would recommend to you if you were to
3. Reflect on causes for the transitions in U.S. history
ask him or her for advice: (a) a neoclassical economist
from one type of environmental policy to another.
and (b) an ecological economist.
Now peer into the future, and consider how life and
society might be different in 25, 50, or 100 years. What 5. THINK IT THROUGH You have just returned from
would you predict about the environmental policy of serving in the U.S. Peace Corps in Costa Rica, where

the future, and why? Whatissues might future policy you worked closely withfarmers, foresters, ecologists,
address? Do you predict we will have more or less and policymakers on issues related to Costa Rica’s
environmental policy? PSA program. You have now been hired as an adviser

116 Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development

 on natural resource issues to the governor of your state. residents to conserve ecosystem services? Why or
Think about the condition of the forests, land and soil, why not? Describe what policies you would advocate
water supplies, and other natural resources in your state. to best conserve your state’s resources and ecosystem
Given what you learned in Costa Rica, would you advise services while advancing the economic and social
your governor to institute some kind of program to pay condition of its people.

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints

Critics of command-and-control policy often argue that regu-lations Results from the most recent report, covering the decade from
are costly to business and industry, yet cost-benefit 2005 to 2015, are shown below. This decade includes periods
analyses (p. 96) have repeatedly shown that regulations bring of both Republican and Democratic control of the presidency
citizens more benefits than costs, overall. Each year the U.S. and of Congress. Subtract costs from benefits, and enter these
Office of Management and Budget assesses costs and ben-efits values for each agency in the third column. Divide benefits by
of major federal regulations of administrative agencies. costs, and enter these values in the fourth column.

Costs and Benefits of Major U.S. Federal Regulations, 2005–2015

(average values from ranges of estimates, in billions of dollars)
BENEFITS BENEFIT : COST
AGENCY BENEFITS COSTS MINUS COSTS RATIO

Department of Energy 25.9 9.1 16.8 2.8

Department of Health and Human Services 13.9 3.7

Department of Transportation 28.6 10.9

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 426.8 47.1

Other departments 76.8 22.3

Total 572.0 93.1

Data from U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 2016. 2016 Draft report to Congress on the benefits and costs

of federal regulations and agency compliance with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. Washington, D.C.: OMB.

1. For how many of the agencies shown do regulations 3. What percentage of total benefits from regulations comes
exert more costs than benefits? For how many do from EPA regulations? Most of the benefits and costs from
regulations provide more benefits than costs? EPA regulations are from air pollution rules resulting from
2. Which agency’s regulations have the greatest excess of the Clean Air Act and its amendments. Judging solely by

benefits over costs? Which agency’s regulations have these data, would you say that Clean Air Act legislation
the greatest ratio of benefits to costs? has been a success or a failure for U.S. citizens? Why?

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Go to Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Go to Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

Chapter 5 Economics, Policy, and Sustainable Development 11

 Human
Population
CHAPTER

118 Chapter 6 Human Population

 central CASESTUDY

WillChina’sNew
“Two-Child Policy”
DefuseIts Population ASIA

“Time Bomb”? CHINA

We don’t need The People’s Republic of Chinais the world’s most pop-ulous
adjustments to the family-planning nation, home to one-fifth of the more than 7 billion
policy. What we people living on Earth. It is also the site of one of the
need is a phaseout of the most controversial social experiments in history.
whole system. When Mao Zedong founded the country’s cur-rent
—Gu Baochang, Chinese demographer
regime in 1949, roughly 540 million people lived
at People’s University, Beijing, referring

to the nation’s “one-child” policy in 2013 in a mostly rural, war-torn, impoverished nation. Mao’s
policies encouraged population growth, and by 1970
As you improve health in a improvements in food production, food distribution,
society, population growth and public health allowed China’s population to swell to
goes down. . . . Before 790 million people. At that time, Chinese women gave
I learned about it, I thought birth to an average of 5.8 children in their lifetimes and
it was paradoxical.
China’s population grew by 2.8% annually.
—Bill Gates, Founder, Microsoft
Corporation
However, the country’s burgeoning population and
its industrial and agricultural development were eroding
the nation’s soils, depletingits water, and polluting its air. Realizingthat the nation mightnot
be able to continue to feed its people, Chinese leaders decided in 1970 to institute a popula-tion
control program that prohibited most Chinese couples from having more than one child.
The“one-child” program applied mostlyto families in urban areas. Manyfarmers and ethnic
minorities in rural areas were allowed more than one child, because success on the farm
often depends on having multiple children.
The program encouraged people to marrylater and have fewer children,
and increased accessibility to contraceptives and abortion.
Families with only one child were rewarded with govern-ment
jobs and better housing, medical care, and
Upon completing this access to schools. Families with more than one
chapter, you will be able to: child, meanwhile, were subjected to costly mon-etary

• Describe the scope of human

fines, employment discrimination, and
population growth social scorn. The experiment was a success
in slowing population growth: The nation’s
• Explain how human population,
growth rate is now down to 0.5%, and
affluence, and technology affect
the environment
Chinese women now have only an average
of 1.6 children in their lifetimes.
• Explain the fundamentals of
However, the one-child policy also pro-duced
demography
a population with a shrinking labor
• Describe the concept of
force, increasing numbers of older people,
demographic transition
and too few women. These unintended con-sequences
• Explain how family planning, the led some demographers to question
status of women, and affluence whether China’s one-child policy simply traded
affect population growth
one population problem—overpopulation—for other
population problems.

Will the two-child policy balance China’s skewed sex ratio?

Crowded street in Shanghai, one
of China’s largest cities 11
 Age 60+
Age 15–59
Age 0–14

6 FIGURE 6.1 China’s one-child policy is

8 10
17 leading to a shrinking workforce and
28 36
rising numbers of older citizens. Values
in the figure represent the percentage of the
Chinese population in each age group.
54
58 Source: Figure from Population Reference Bureau,
67 2004. China’s Population: New Trends and Challenges.
66
58 51
Data for 2017–2050 from U.S. Census Bureau Inter-national

Database, www.census.gov/population/

international/data/idb/.

40
34
23 17 14 13

1964 1982 2000 2017 2035 2050

Year

The rapid reduction in fertility that resulted from this policy applied for it. Faced with the prospect of continued population
drastically changed China’s age structure (FIGURE 6.1). Once issues, the Chinese government announced in October 2015
consisting predominantly of young people, China’s popula-tion that the former one-child policy would immediately become a
has shifted, such that the numbers of children and older two-child policy, and couples would be permitted to have two
people are now more even. This means there will be relatively children without penalty.
fewer workers for China’s growing economy, which is driving up It is unclear, however, if Chinese couples, used to the
wages and encouraging companies with factories in China to material wealth and urban lifestyle many enjoy, will embrace the
seek out moreinexpensive labor in other nations. The growing opportunity to grow their families—and accept the costs of rais-ing
number of older Chinese individuals poses problems because a second child—now that it is allowed. A survey from 2008
the Chinese government lacks the resources to fully support by China’s family-planning commission, for example, reported
them, putting a heavy economic burden on the millions of only that only 19% of the people they surveyed wished to have a
children produced under the one-child policy as they help pro-vide second child if the one-child policy was relaxed. But in 2016,
for their retired parents. the first full year since the relaxing of the one-child policy, birth
Modern China also has too few women. Chinese culture rates were 7.9% higher than in 2015, suggesting that many
has traditionally valued sons because they carry on the family couples are choosing to have a second child. It therefore
name, assist withfarm labor in rural areas, and care for aging remains to be seen if China’s relaxing of the one-child policy
parents. Daughters, in contrast, will most likely marry and leave came too late to defuse the pending time bomb the nation may
their parents, as the traditional culture dictates. Thus, when experience as China’s population grays in the midst of its rapid
faced with being limited to just one child, many Chinese cou-ples industrialization.
preferred a son to a daughter. Tragically, this led in some China’s reproductive policies have long elicited intense
instances to selective abortion and the killing of female infants. criticism worldwide from people who oppose government intru-sion
This has caused a highly unbalanced ratio of young men and into personal reproductive choices, and such intrusion
women in China, leading to the social instability that arises continues today, albeit with a higher allowable family size. The
when large numbers of young men are unable to find brides and policy, however, has proven highly effective in slowing popu-lation
remain longtime bachelors. growth rates and aiding the economic rise of modern
Until recently, Chinese authorities attempted to address China. As other nations become more crowded and seek to
this looming population “time bomb” of an aging population with emulate China’s economic growth, might their governments
skewed ratios of men and women by occasionally loosening the also feel forced to turn to drastic policies that restrict individ-ual
one-child policy. For example, the government announced in freedoms? In this chapter, we examine human population
2013 that if either member of a married couple is an only child, dynamics in China and worldwide, consider their causes, and
the couple would be allowed to have a second child—but only assess their consequences for the environment and human
1.5 million of the 11 million citizens eligible for this exemption society.

120 Chapter 6 Human Populatio

 Our Worldat SevenBillion The human population
Chinareceives a great deal of attention with regard to popula-tion
continues to grow

status
issues
as the
because of its
world’s
unique reproductive
most populous nation.
policies
But China is
and its
not
Our global population grows by
over 80 million peopleeach year, FaQ
alone in struggling with population matters.India soon will which meansthat we add more
surpass China in possessing the world’s largest population how big is a billion?
than two people to the planet every
( FIGURE 6.2). India was the first nation to implement compre-hensivesecond. Takealook at FIGURE6.3 It can be difficult to conceptual-ize
population control policies, but when India’s policy-makersand notejust how recent and sud-den huge numbers. As a result,

introduced forced sterilization in the 1970s, the resulting we oftenfail to recognize the true
our rapid increase has been.It
magnitude of a number such as
outcry forced the government to change its policies. Since then, took until after 1800, virtually all
India’s efforts have been more modest and far less coercive, 7 billion. Although we know that
of human history, for our popula-tion
a billion is bigger than a million,
focusing on family planning and reproductive health care. to reach 1 billion. Yetby 1930
wetend to view both numbers
Like India, many of the world’s poorer nations continue we had reached 2 billion, and
asimpossibly large and therefore
to experience substantial population growth, which leads to 3 billion in just 30 more years.
similarin size. For example, guess
stresses on society, the environment, and people’s well-being. Ourpopulationaddedits next bil-lion
(without calculating) how long it
In our world of now more than 7.4 billion people, one of our in just 15 years, and it has
wouldtake a banker to count out
greatest challenges is finding ways to slow the growth of the taken only 12 years to add each $1 millionif she did so at a rate
human population without coercive measures such as those of the nextthree installments of a of a dollar a second for 8 hours a
used in China, but rather by establishing conditions that lead billion people. day, 7 days a week. Now guess
people to desire to have fewer children. Whataccounts for our unprec-growth?
howlong it wouldtake to count
edented Exponential $1 billion at the same rate. It may
growth—the increase in a quan-tity surprise you to learn that counting
by a fixed percentage per unit $1 million would take a mere 35
time—acceleratesthe increasein days, whereas counting $1 billion
population size over time, just as would take 95 years! Living 1 mil-lion
compound interest accrues in a seconds takes only 12 days,
savingsaccount(p. 63). Therea-son,while living for 1 billion seconds

you will recall, is that a fixed requires morethan 31 years.

percentage of a small number Examples like these can help us

makes
for asmallincrease,butthat appreciate the bin billion.

same percentage of alarge number

8
7
6
human
(billions)

5
4
(a) Reproductive counseling in India 8
3
2.0
Global
2 7
China population
1
0 6
India
(billions

1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

5
1.5 Year
(billions)
4
Population

population

3
1.0 2
2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 Human

Year 1

(b) Population projections for China and India 0

FIGURE 6.2 India willlikely soon surpass China as the most

10,000 yr 0 500 1000 1500 2000
before present
populous nation. Both nations have embraced population control
Year
initiatives (a), but China’s more stringent reproductive policies will
likely lead to its population stabilizing in coming decades, while FIGURE 6.3 Wehave risen from fewer than 1 billion in 1800
India’s population will continue to grow (b). China’s rate of growth to more than 7.4 billion today. Viewing global human population
is now lower than India’s as a result of China’s aggressive popula-tion size over along timescale (bottom graph) and growth since the
policies. Datafrom U.S.CensusBureau
InternationalDatabase,www industrial revolution (inset top graph) shows that nearly all growth
.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/. has occurredin just the past 200 years. Data
from U.S.Census
Bureau.

Chapter 6 Human Population 121

 produces a large increase. Thus, even if the growth rate remains have brought down death rates. Birth rates have not declined
steady, population size will increase by greater increments with as much, so births have outpaced deaths for many years now,
each successive generation. leading to population growth. But can the human population
For much of the 20th century, the growth rate of the continue to grow indefinitely?
human population rose from year to year. This rate peaked at Environmental factors set limits on the growth of popu-lations
2.1% during the 1960s and has declined to 1.2% since then. (p. 64), but environmental scientists who have tried
Although 1.2% may sound small, a hypothetical population to pin a number to the human carrying capacity (p. 63) have
starting with one man and one woman that grows at 1.2% come up with wildly differing estimates. The most rigor-ous
gives rise to a population of 112,695 after only 60 generations. estimates range from 1–2 billion people living prosper-ously
At a 1.2% annual growth rate, a population doubles in size in a healthy environment to 33 billion people living in
in only 58 years. Wecan roughly estimate doubling times with extreme poverty in a degraded world of intensive cultivation
a handy rule of thumb. Just take the number 70 (which is 100 without natural areas.
times 0.7, the natural logarithm of 2) and divide it by the annual The difficulty in estimating how many humans our planet
percentage growth rate: 70/1.2 5 58.3. China’s current growth can support is that we have repeatedly increased our carrying
rate of 0.5% meansit would take roughly 140 years (70/0.5 5 capacity by developing technology to overcome the natural
140) for its current population to double, but India’s current limits on our population growth. For example, British econo-mist
growth rate of 1.5% predicts a doubling in only about 47 years Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) argued in his influential
(70/1.5 5 46.7). Had China not instituted its one-child policy work, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), that
and its growth rate remained at 2.8%, it would have taken only if society did not reduce its birth rate, then rising death rates
25 years (70/2.8 5 25) to double in size. Although the global would reduce the population through war, disease, and star-vation.
growth rate is 1.2%, rates vary widely from region to region and Although his contention was reasonable at the time,
are highest in nations with developing economies (FIGURE6.4). agricultural improvements in the 19th century increased food
supplies, and his prediction did not come to pass. Similarly,
biologist Paul Ehrlich predicted in his 1968 book, The Pop-ulation
Is there alimit to human Bomb, that human population growth would soon

population growth? outpace food production and unleash massive famine and
conflict in the latter 20th century. However, thanks to the way
Our spectacular growth in numbers has resulted largely from the “Green Revolution” (p. 142) increased food production
technological innovations, improved sanitation, better medi-cal in developing regions in the decades after his book, Ehrlich’s
care, increased agricultural output, and other factors that dire forecasts did not fully materialize.

Population growth rate

Less than 0% (negative)

0–0.75%
0.76–1.50%
1.51–2.25%
2.26–3.00%
Morethan 3.00%

FIGURE 6.4 Population growth rates vary greatly from place to place. Populations are growing fast-est
in poorer nations, while populations are beginning to decrease in some highly industrialized nations.
Shown are rates of natural increase as of 2016. Data from U.S. Census BureauInternational Database, www.census.gov/
population/international/data/idb/.

• Which world region has the highest population growth rates? • Which world region has the
lowest population growth rates?

Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

122 Chapter 6 Human Populatio

 Does this mean we can disregard the concerns of environmental challenges brought about by this rapid eco-nomic
Malthus and Ehrlich? Some economists say yes. Under the development. Intensive agriculture has expanded west-ward
Cornucopian view that many economists hold, population out of the nation’s moist rice-growing regions, causing
growth poses no problem if new resources can be found or farmland to erode and blow away, much like the Dust Bowl
created to replace depleted ones. In contrast, environmental tragedy that befell the U.S. heartland in the 1930s (p. 149).
scientists recognize that not all resources can be replaced—such China has overpumped aquifers and has drawn so much water
as the ecosystem services provided by a species that for irrigation from the Yellow River that this once-mighty
was driven to extinction. Thus, the environmental scientists waterway now dries up in many stretches. Although China is
argue, population growth is indeed a problem if it depletes reducing its air pollution from industry and charcoal-burning
resources, stresses social systems, and degrades the natural homes, the country faces new threats to air quality from rapidly
environment, such that our quality of life declines. rising numbers of automobiles. The air in Beijing is so polluted
(p. 300), for example, that simply breathing it on a daily basis
damages the lungs to the same extent as smoking 40 cigarettes.
Populationis one of severalfactors As the world’s developing countries try to attain the material

that affect the environment prosperity that industrialized nations enjoy, China is a window
into what much of the rest of the world could soon become.
One widely used formula gives us a handy way to think about
population and other factors that affect environmental qual-ity.
Nicknamed the IPAT
proposed in 1974 by Paul
model, it is a variation
Ehrlich and John
of a formula
Holdren. The
Demography
IPAT model represents how our total impact (I) on the envi-ronment
People do not exist outside nature. We exist within our envi-ronment
results from the interaction among population (P), as one species of many. As such, all the principles of
affluence (A), and technology (T): population ecology that drive biological change in the natural
world (Chapter 3) apply to humans as well. The application of
I = P* A* T principles from population ecology to the study of statistical
Wecan interpret impact in various ways, but can generally change in human populations is the focus of demography.
boil it down either to unsustainable resource consumption or to
the degradation of ecosystems by pollution. Increased popula-tion
intensifies impact on the environment as more individu-als Demographyis the study
take up space, use natural resources, and generate waste.
of human populations
Increased affluence magnifies environmental impact through
greater per capita resource consumption, which generally has Demographers study population size, density, distribution,
accompanied enhanced wealth. Technology that enhances our age structure, sex ratio, and rates of birth, death, immigration,
abilities to exploit minerals, fossil fuels, old-growth forests, or and emigration of people, just as population ecologists study
fisheries generally increases impact, but technology to reduce these characteristics in other organisms. Each is useful for
smokestack emissions, harness renewable energy, or improve predicting population dynamics and environmental impacts.
manufacturing efficiency can decrease impact. One reason our
Population size Our global human population of more
population has kept growing, despite limited resources, is that
than 7.4 billion is spread among 200 nations with populations
we have developed technology—the Tin the IPAT equation—time
ranging up to China’s 1.38 billion, India’s 1.33 billion, and
and again to increase efficiency, alleviate our strain on
the 324 million citizens of the United States (FIGURE 6.5).
resources, and allow us to expand further.
We might also add a fourth factor, sensitivity (S), to
the equation to denote how sensitive a given environment is
India
to human pressures. For instance, the arid lands of western UnitedStates(324 million)
(1.329 billion)
China are more sensitive to human disturbance than the moist
China Indonesia (259 million)
regions of southeastern China. Plants grow more slowly in
(1.378 billion)
the arid west, making the land more vulnerable to deforesta-tion Brazil (206 million)
and soil degradation. Thus, adding an additional person Pakistan (203 million)
to western China has more environmental impact than adding Nigeria (187 million)
one to southeastern China. We could refine the IPAT equa-tion Bangladesh (163 million)
Other nations
further by adding terms for the influence of social factors (3.096 billion)
Russia (144 million)
such as education, laws, ethical standards, and social stability Mexico(129 million)
and cohesion. Such factors all affect how population, afflu-ence,
and technology translate into environmental impact.
Modern-day China shows how all elements of the IPAT for-mula FIGURE 6.5 Almost one in five people in the world lives
can combine to cause tremendous environmental impact in China, and more than one of every six live in India. Three
in little time. Although China boasts one of the world’s fast-est-growing
of everyfive people live in one of the 10 most populous nations.
economies, the country is battling unprecedented Data from Population Reference Bureau, 2016. 2016 World population data sheet.

Chapter 6 Human Population 12

 rainforest, and tundra. Human population is dense along
16
High-fertility scenario seacoasts and rivers, and less dense farther away from water.
Medium-fertility scenario At more local scales, we cluster together in cities and towns.
14
(billions
Low-fertility scenario This uneven distribution means that certain areas bear
12 more environmental impact than others. Just as the Yellow
River experiences pressure from Chinese farmers, the world’s
10
population
other major rivers all receive more than their share of human
impact. At the same time, some areas with low population
8
global
density are sensitive (a high S value in our revised IPAT

6 model) and thus vulnerable to impact. Deserts and arid grass-lands,

for instance, are easily degraded by agriculture and
4 ranching that commandeer too much water.
Projected

2 Age structure Agestructure describesthe relative numbers

1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
of individuals of each age class within a population (p. 62).
Data on age structure are especially valuable to demographers
Year
trying to predict future dynamics of human populations. A pop-ulation
FIGURE 6.6 The United Nations predicts world population
made up mostly of individuals past reproductive age
growth. In the latest projection, population is estimated to reach
will tend to decline over time. In contrast, a population with
9.8 billion for 2050 and around 11.2 billion in 2100, using a medium-fertility
many individuals of reproductive age or pre-reproductive age
scenario. In the high-fertility scenario, women on average
is likely to increase. A population with an even age distribution
have half a child more than in the medium scenario. In the low-fertility
scenario, women have half a child fewer than in the medium sce-nario. will likely remain stable as births keep pace with deaths.
Adapted by permission from Population Division ofthe Department of Eco-nomic Age structure diagrams, often called population pyra-mids,
and Social Affairs ofthe United Nations Secretariat, 2015. Worldpopulation are visual tools scientists use to illustrate age structure
prospects: The 2015 revision. esa.un.org/unpd/wpp,©United Nations, 2015. (FIGURE 6.7). The width of each horizontal bar represents the
number of malesor females in each age class. A pyramid with
The United Nations Population Division estimates that by
a wide base denotes a large proportion of people who have
the year 2050, the global population will surpass 9.8 billion
not yet reached reproductive age—and this indicates a popu-lation
(FIGURE 6.6). However, population size alone—the absolute
soon capable of rapid growth. As an example, compare
number of individuals—doesn’t tell the whole story. Rather,
age structures for Canada and Nigeria (FIGURE 6.8). Nigeria’s
a population’s environmental impact depends on its density,
large concentration of individuals in younger age classes pre-dicts
distribution, and composition (as well as on affluence, tech-nology,
a great deal of future reproduction. Not surprisingly,
and other factors outlined earlier).
Nigeria has a higher population growth rate than Canada.
Population density and distribution Peopleare dis-tributed Today, populations are aging in many nations, and the
unevenly across our planet. In ecological terms, global population is “grayer” than in the past. The global
our distribution is clumped (p. 62) at all spatial scales. At median age today is 28, but it is predicted to be 38 by the
the global scale, population density is highest in regions year 2050. By causing dramatic reductions in the number of
with temperate, subtropical, and tropical climates and low-est children born since 1970, China’s former one-child policy
in regions with extreme-climate biomes, such as desert, virtually guaranteed that the nation’s population age structure

100
Number Number Number Number Number Number
90 of males of females of males of females of males of females

80
Post-reproductive
70
age
60

(years)
50

Age 40
Reproductive
30 age
20
Pre-reproductive
10

0 age
Population increasing rapidly Population stable Population decreasing

FIGURE 6.7 Age structure diagrams show numbers of males and females of different age classes in
a population. A diagram like that on the left is weighted toward young age classes, indicating a population that
will grow quickly. A diagram like that on the right is weighted toward old age classes, indicating a population
that will decline. Populations with balanced age structures, like the one shown in the middle diagram, willremain
relatively stablein size.

124 Chapter 6 Human Population

 Male Female Male Female

100 100
90 90

80 80

70 70

60 60

50 50
Age Ag

40 40

30 30
20 20
10 10

0 0
1.6 1.2 0.8 0.4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 16 12 8 4 0 4 8 12 16

Population (millions) Population (millions)

(a) Age structure diagram of Canada (b) Age structure diagram of Nigeria

FIGURE 6.8 Canada (a) shows a fairly balanced age structure, whereas Nigeria (b) shows an age
distribution heavily weighted toward young people. Nigeria’s population growth rate (2.6%) is over eight
times greater than Canada’s (0.3%). Datafrom U.S. Census Bureau International Database, www.census.gov/population/
international/data/idb/.

would change (FIGURE 6.9). Indeed, in 1970 the median age

in China was 20; by 2050 it is predicted to be 45.
Changing age distributions have caused concerns in some
nations that have declining numbers of workers and strong social
welfare programs for retirees (which are supported by current
workers), such as the Social Security program in the United
States. Despite the long-term benefits associated with smaller
populations, many policymakers find it difficult to let go of the
notion that population growth increases a nation’s economic,
political, and military strength. So, while China and India strug-gle
to get their population growth under control, some national
governments—such as Canada—offer financial and social incen-tives
that encourage their own citizens to have more children. These
incentives include free health care, extended maternityand pater-nity
leave, subsidized child care, and tax breaks for larger families.
(a) Billboard promoting China’s “one child” policy

Male Female Male Female Male Female

100
90

80

70

60

50
Age

40
30
20
10

0
70 56 42 28 14 0 14 28 42 56 70 70 56 42 28 14 0 14 28 42 56 70 70 56 42 28 14 0 14 28 42 56 70

Population (millions) Population (millions) Population (millions)

(b) China in 1970 (c) China in 2017 (d) China in 2050 (projected)

FIGURE 6.9 As China’s population ages, older people will outnumber the young. China’s one-child policy
(a) was highly successful in reducing birth rates but alsoin significantly changing China’s age structure. Population
pyramids show the predicted graying of the Chinese population from (b) 1970 to (c) 2017 to (d) whatis predicted
for 2050. Data
from U.S.CensusBureau
International
Database,
www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb./data/idb.

Chapter 6 Human Population 125

 Sex ratios Theratio of malesto females also can affect Population changeresults from birth,
population dynamics. The naturally occurring sex ratio at
birth in human populationsfeatures a slight preponderance
death,immigration, and emigration
of males; for every 100 female infants born, about 106 male
Rates of birth, death,immigration, and emigration determine
infants are born. This phenomenon is an evolutionary adap-tation
whether a population grows, shrinks, or remains stable. The
(p. 51) to the fact that males are slightly more prone formula for measuringpopulation growth (p. 63) also per-tains
to death during any given year of life. It tends to ensure that
to people: Birth and immigration add individuals to a
the ratio of mento women will be approximately equal when
population, whereas death and emigration remove individu-als.
people reach reproductive age. Thus, a slightly uneven sex Technological advanceshaveled to a dramatic decline
ratio at birth may be beneficial. However, a greatly distorted in human death rates, widening the gap between birth rates
ratio canlead to problems. and death rates and resulting in the global human population
In recent years, demographers have witnessed an unset-tling expansion.
trend in China: The ratio of newborn boys to girls has Theseimprovements have been particularly successful
become strongly skewed. Today, roughly 116 boys are born in reducing infant mortality rate, the frequency of chil-dren
for every 100 girls. Some provinces have reported sex ratios dying in infancy. Through-out
as high as 138 boysfor every 100 girls. As mentioned
in the much of human history, weighingthe
opening Case Study,the leading hypothesis for these unusual
sex ratios is that some parents learn the gender of their fetus
parents needed to have larger
families as insurance against
ISSUeS
by ultrasound and selectively abort female fetuses. A 2016 the likelihood that one or more
China’s reproductive policy
report by American researchers has suggested that some of of their children would die dur-ing
Consider the benefits as well as
these “missing girls” in rural areas may actually have been infancy. Poor nutrition,
the problems associated with
born, but they just weren’t reported. Local authorities sim-ply disease, exposure to hostile
areproductive policy such as
“looked the other way” when the girls were born, and elements, and limited medical
China’s. Do you think a govern-ment
then addedthem to official registries whenthey became care claimed the lives of many
should be ableto enforce
school-aged. infants in their first year of life.
strict penalties for citizens who fail
China’s skewed sex ratio may further lower population As societies have industrial-ized
to abide by such a policy? If you
growth rates. However, it has the undesirable social conse-quence and become more afflu-ent, disagree with China’s policy, what
of leaving large numbers of Chinese men single. With-out infant mortality rates have alternatives can you suggest for
the anchoring effect a wife and family provide, many of plummeted as a result of better dealing with the resource demands
these menleave their native towns and find work elsewhere nutrition, prenatal care, and the of arapidly growingpopulation?
as migrant workers. Living as bachelors far from home, these presence of medically trained
men often engage in more risky sexual activity than their mar-ried practitioners during birth.
counterparts. Researchers speculate that this could lead to As shown in FIGURE 6.10, infant mortality rates vary
higher incidence of HIV infection in China in coming decades, widely around the world and are closely tied to a nation’s
as tens of millions of bachelors find work as migrant workers. level of industrialization. China,for example,sawits infant

Infant mortality rate

(per 1000 live births)

No data 31–40
1–5 41–50
6–10 51–75
11–20 76–100
21–30

FIGURE 6.10Infant mortality rates are highest in poorer nations, such asthose in sub-Saharan
Africa, and lowest in wealthier nations. Industrialization brings better nutrition and medical care, which
greatly reduce the number of children dying in their first year oflife. Datafrom PopulationReferenceBureau,2016.
2016 World population data sheet.

126 Chapter 6 Human Populatio

 World lifetime. Replacement fertility is the TFR that keeps the
More developed regions size of a population stable. For humans, replacement fertil-ity
Less developed regions
Least developed countries
roughly equals a TFR of 2.1.
the
ISSUeS
(Two children replace the mother
Global population and father, and the extra 0.1

8 accounts for the risk of a child

3.5
dying before reaching reproduc-tive What are the Consequences
3.0 7 age.) If the TFR drops below of Low Fertility?
people

2.1, population size in a given

2.5 6of In the United States, Canada, and
country (in the absence of immi-gration)
(percentage) almost every European nation,
2.0 5 will shrink.
the total fertility rate is now at or
Factors such as industrializa-tion,
rate

below the replacement fertility rate

(billions

1.5 4
improved women’s rights (although some ofthese nations
growth
1.0 3 (pp. 133–134), access to fam-weighing
are still growing because ofimmi-gration).

population
ily planning, and quality health What economic or social
0.5 2
care have driven the TFR down-ward consequences do you think might

0.0 1 in many nations in recent result from below-replacement

Population
Global

years. All these factors have fertility rates? Would you rather live
–0.5 0
come together in Europe, where in a society with a growing popula-tion,

the TFR has dropped from 2.6 a shrinking population, or a

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
to 1.6 in the past half-century. stable population? Why?
Year
Nearly every European nation
FIGURE 6.11 The annual growth rate of the global human
now has a fertility rate below the
population peaked in the late 1960s and has declined since
replacement level, and populations are declining in 15 of 45
then. Growth rates of developed nations have fallen since 1950,
European nations. In 2016, Europe’s overall annual rate of
whereas those of developing nations have fallen since the global
peak in the late 1960s. For the world’s least developed nations, natural increase (also called the natural rate of population

growth rates began to fall in the 1990s. Although growth rates are change)—change due to birth and death rates alone, exclud-ing
declining, global population sizeis still growing about the same migration—was between 0.0% and 0.1%. Worldwide by
amount each year, because smaller percentage increases of ever-larger 2016, 84 countries had fallen below the replacement fertility
numbers produce roughly equivalent additional amounts. Data of 2.1. These low-fertility countries make up a sizeable por-tion
from Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the of the world’s population and include China (with a TFR
United Nations Secretariat, 2011. World population prospects: The 2010 revision.
of 1.6). TABLE 6.1 shows total fertility rates of major continen-tal
esa.un.org/unpd/wpp. © United Nations, 2011. Data updates for 2011–2016
regions.
from Population Reference Bureau, 2011–2016 World population data sheets.

Global population in 2020 is projected.

Manynations have experienced

the demographic transition
mortality rate drop from 47 children per 1000 live births in
1980 to 11 children per 1000 live births in 2016, as the nation Many nations with lowered birth rates and TFRs are expe-riencing

industrialized and prospered. Many other industrializing a common set of interrelated changes. In coun-tries

nations enjoyed similar success in reducing infant mortality with reliable food supplies, good public sanitation,

during this time period. and effective health care, more people than ever before

In recent decades, falling growth rates in many coun-tries are living long lives. As a result, over the past 50 years

have led to an overall decline in the global growth rate the life expectancy for the average person worldwide has

( FIGURE 6.11). This decline has come about, in part, from

a steep drop in birth rates. Note, however, that although
the rate of growth is slowing, the absolute size of the TABLE 6.1 Total Fertility Rates for Major Regions
population continues to increase, as growth rates remain
REGION TOTAL FERTILITY RATE (TFR)
positive.
Africa 4.7

Australia and the South Pacific 2.3

Total fertility rate influences Latin America and the Caribbean 2.1
Asia 2.1
population growth North America 1.8

One key statistic demographers calculate to examine a popu-lation’s Europe 1.6

potential for growth is the total fertility rate (TFR), Data from Population Reference Bureau, 2016. 2016 World population
the average number of children born per woman during her data sheet.

Chapter 6 Human Population 127

 increased from 46 to 71 years, as the worldwide death rate model, population growth is seen as a temporary phenome-non
has dropped from 20 deaths per 1000 people to 8 deaths that occurs as societies move from one stage of devel-opment
per 1000 people. Life expectancy is the average number to another.
of years that an individual in a particular age group is
likely to continue to live, but often people use this term to The pre-industrial stage The first stage of the demo-graphic
refer to the average number of years a person can expect transition model is the pre-industrial stage, charac-terized
to live from birth. Much of the increase in life expectancy by conditions that have defined most of human history.
is due to reduced rates of infant mortality. Societies going In pre-industrial societies, both death rates and birth rates are
through these changes are generally those that have under-gone high. Death rates are high because disease is widespread,
urbanization and industrialization and have generated medical care rudimentary, and food supplies unreliable and
personal wealth for their citizens. difficult to obtain. Birth rates are high because people must
To make sense of these trends, demographers devel-oped compensate for infant mortality by having many children and
a concept called the demographic transition. This is because reliable methods of birth control are not available.
a model of economic and cultural change—first proposed In this stage, children are valuable as workers who can help
in the 1940s and 1950s by demographer Frank Notestein—to meet a family’s basic needs. Populations in the pre-industrial
explain the declining death rates and birth rates that stage are not likely to experience much growth, which is why
have occurred in Western nations as they industrialized. the human population grew very slowly until the industrial
Notestein argued that nations move from a stable revolution.
pre-industrial
state of high birth and death rates to a stable post-industrial
state of low birth and death rates (FIGURE 6.12). Industrialization and falling death rates Industrializa-tion
Industrialization, he proposed, causes these rates to fall by initiates the second stage of the demographic transition,
first decreasing mortality and then lessening the need for known as the transitional stage. This transition from the
large families. Parents thereafter choose to invest in qual-ity pre-industrial stage to the industrial stage is generally char-acterized
of life rather than quantity of children. Because death by declining death rates due to increased food pro-duction
rates fall before birth rates fall, a period of net population better sanitation, and improved medical care. Birth
growth results. Thus, under the demographic transition rates in the transitional stage remain high, however, because

Pre-industrial Transitional Industrial Post-industrial

stage stage stage stage

Birth rate and

death rate Birth rate declines

are high due to increased

opportunities for
women and access
Birth ta e
to birth control

rate

Population
Death rate
Growth

declines due increase Birth rate and

death rate
to increased
food production are low

and improved D
e
at
medical care h
r
at e

Time

FIGURE 6.12 The demographic transition models a process that has taken some
populations from a pre-industrial stage of high birth rates and high death rates to a
post-industrial stage oflow birth rates and low death rates. In this diagram, the wide green
area between the two curves illustrates the gap between birth and death rates that causes rapid
population growth during the middle portion ofthis process. Adaptedfrom Kent, M.,and K. Crews,1990.
World population: Fundamentals of growth. By permission of the Population Reference Bureau.

• In which stage of the demographic transition does population increase the most?
• Is growth greatest toward the beginning or end ofthis stage?
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

128 Chapter 6 Human Population

people have not yet grown used to the new economic and influence (and are influenced by) population dynam-ics.
social conditions. As a result, population growth surges. Many factors affect fertility in a given society. They
include public health issues, such as people’s access to

The industrial stage and falling birth rates The contraceptives and the rate of infant mortality. They also

third stage in the demographic transition is the industrial include cultural factors—such as the level of women’s
stage. Industrialization increases opportunities for employ-ment rights, the relative acceptance of contraceptive use, and

outside the home, particularly for women. Children even cultural influences like television programs (see THE

become less valuable, in economic terms, because they do not SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY, pp. 130–131). There are also

help meetfamily food needs as they did in the pre-industrial effects from economic factors,

stage. If couples are aware of this, and if they have access to such as the society’s level of weighingthe
birth control,
rates fall,
they may choose to
closing the gap with death rates and reducing
have fewer children. Birth affluence,

popu-lation child labor,

the importance
and the availabil-ity
of
ISSUeS
growth. of governmental support for
retirees. Let’s now examine a Should the United States

few of these societal influences abstain from International

The post-industrial stage In the final stage, called
on fertility more closely. Family planning?
the post-industrial stage, both birth and death rates have
Overthe years,the United States
fallen to low and stable levels. Population sizes stabilize or
has joined 180 other nations in
decline slightly. The society enjoys the fruits of industri-alization
without the threat of runaway population growth. Family planning providing millionsof dollarsto
the United Nations Population
is a key approach Fund(UNFPA), which advises

Is the demographic transition for controlling governments on family planning,

sustainable development, poverty
inevitable? population growth reduction, reproductive health,
and AIDS preventionin many
The demographic transition has occurred in European Perhaps the greatest single fac-tor
nations, including China. Starting
countries, the United States, Canada, Japan, and a number enabling a society to slow its
withthe Reagan administration
of other developed nations over the past 200–300 years. population growth is the ability
in 1984, Republican presidential
It is a model that may or may not apply to all develop-ing of women and couples to engage
administrations have withheldfunds
nations as they industrialize now and in the future. On in family planning, the effort
from UNFPA, saying that U.S.law
the one hand, note that, as shown in Figure 6.11, growth to plan the number and spac-ing
prohibits funding any organization
rates fell first for more developed nations, then for less of one’s children. Family-planning
that “supports or participates in the
developed nations, and finally for least developed nations. programs and clinics management of a program of coer-cive
This pattern suggests that it may merely be a matter of offer information and counseling abortion orinvoluntary steriliza-tion,”
time before all nations experience the transition. On the to potential parents on reproduc-tive maintainingthat the Chinese
other hand, some developing nations may already be suf-fering issues. government has been implicated
too greatly from the impacts of large populations to An important component in both. Democratic presidential
replicate the developed world’s transition, a phenomenon of family planning is birth con-trol, administrations, however, provided

called demographic fatigue. Demographically fatigued the effort to control the funds to the program, notingthat
governments face overwhelming challenges related to number of children one bears, money from the United States is

population growth, including educating and employing particularly by reducing the not used to perform abortions and

swelling ranks of young people. When these stresses are frequency of pregnancy. Birth citing the value of the family-planning

coupled with large-scale environmental degradation or dis-ease control relies on contraception, servicesthat UNFPA pro-vides.
What do you think U.S. pol-icy
epidemics, the society may never complete the demo-graphicthe deliberate attempt to prevent
transition. pregnancy despite sexual inter-course. should be? Shouldthe United
States fund family-planning efforts
Moreover, natural scientists estimate that for people Common methods of
in other nations? Whatconditions,
of all nations to attain the material standard of living that modern contraception include
if any, should it place on the use
North Americans now enjoy, we would need the natural condoms, spermicide, hormonal
of such funds?
resources of four and one-half more planet Earths. Whether treatments (birth control pill/
developing nations (which include the vast majority of the hormone injection), intrauterine
planet’s people) pass through the demographic transition is devices (IUDs), and permanent
one of the most important questions for the future of our sterilization through tubal ligation or vasectomy. Many fam-ily-planning
civilization and Earth’s environment. organizations aid clients by offering free or dis-counted
contraceptives.
Worldwide in 2016, 56% of women aged 15–49 reported

Populationand Society using modern contraceptives,

widely among nations. China and the
with rates of use
United Kingdom, at
varying

Demographic transition theory links the quantitative study 84%, had the highest rate of contraceptive use of any nations.
of how populations change with the societal factors that Eight European nations showed rates of contraceptive use

Chapter 6 Human Population 12

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Go to Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

Did Soap Operas Help ReduceFertilityin Brazil?

Over the past 50 years, the South Ameri-can flocked to growing cities such as Río de Janeiro and São Paulo.
nation of Brazil experienced the This brought about the fertility reductions that typically occur
second-largest drop in fertility among when people leave the farm for the city.
developing nations with large It turns out, however, that Brazil may also have had a
populations—second only to rather unique influence on its fertility rates over the past sev-eral
China. In the 1960s, the aver-age decades—soap operas (FIGURE 1). Brazilian soap operas,
woman in Brazil had six chil-dren. called telenovelas or novelas, are a cultural phenomenon
Today, Brazil’s total fertility and are watched religiously by people of all ages, races, and
rate is 1.8 children per woman, incomes. Each novela follows the activities of several fictional
which is lower than that of the families, and these TV shows are wildly popular because they
United States. Brazil’s drastic have characters, settings, and plot lines with which everyday
decrease in fertility is interest-ing Brazilians can identify.
because, unlike in China, it Telenovelas do not overtly address fertility issues, but they
occurred without intrusive govern-mental do promote a vision of the “ideal” Brazilian family. This fam-ily
policies to control its citizens’ is typically middle-or upper-class, materialistic,individual-istic,
reproduction. and full of empowered women. By challenging existing
Brazil accomplished this, in part, cultural and religious values through their characters, nove-las
Eliana La Ferrara, by providing women equal access to had, and continue to have, a profound impact on Brazilian
Bocconi University education and opportunities to pursue society. In essence, these programs provided a model family
careers outside the home. Women now for Brazilians to emulate—with small family sizes being a key
make up 40% ofthe workforce in Brazil and graduate from col-lege characteristic.
in greater numbers than men. In 2010,
Brazilians elected a woman, Dilma Rousseff,
as their nation’s president.
The Brazilian government also provides
family planning and contraception to its citi-zens
free of charge. Eighty percent of married
women of childbearing age in Brazil currently
use contraception, a rate higher than that
in the United States or Canada. Universal
access to family planning has given women
control over their desired family size and has
helped reduce fertility across all economic
groups, from the very rich to the very poor.
It is interesting to note that induced abortion
is not used in Brazil as it is in China; the pro-cedure
is illegal except in rare circumstances.
As Brazil’s economy grew with indus-trialization,
people’s nutrition and access to
health care improved, greatly reducing infant
mortality rates. Increasing personal wealth
promoted materialism and greater emphasis FIGURE 1 Telenovelas are a surprising force for promoting lower fertility
on career and possessions over family and rates. Here, residents gather outside a café in Río de Janeiro to watch the popular pro-gram
children. The nation also urbanized as people Avenida Brasil.

130 Chapter 6 Human Populatio

 In a 2012 paper in the American Economic Journal: Applied 7
Economics, a team of researchers from Bocconi University in 1970 1980 1991

Italy, George Washington University, and the Inter-American 6

Development Bank (based in Washington, D.C.) analyzed vari-ous
5
of

parameters to investigate statistical relationships between woma

telenovelas and fertility patterns in Brazil from 1965 to 2000. 4

Rede Globo, the network that has a virtual monopoly on the
number per

3
most popular novelas, increased the number of areas that
births

received its signal in Brazil over those 35 years (FIGURE 2), and Average
2
it now reaches 98% of Brazilian households. By combining data live

on Rede Globo broadcast range with demographic data, the 1

researchers were able to compare changes in fertility patterns

0
over time in areas of Brazilthat received access to novelas with
15–19 20–24 25–29 30–34 35–39 40–44
areas of Brazil that did not.
Age
The team, led by Dr. Eliana La Ferrara, found that women
in areas that received the Globo signal had significantly lower FIGURE 3 Fertility declines among Brazilian women

fertility than those in areas not served by Rede Globo. They between 1970 and 1991 were most pronounced in later age
classes. The authors attribute some of this decline to women in
also found that fertility declines were age-related, with sub-stantial
those age classes emulating the low fertility oflead female charac-ters
reductions in fertility occurring in women aged 25–44,
in novelas. Source:La Ferrara,E.,et al., 2012. Soapoperasandfertility:
but not in younger women (FIGURE 3). The authors hypoth-esized
Evidence from Brazil. Am. Econ. J. Appl. Econ. 4: 1–31.
that this effect was likely because women between 25
and 44 were closer in age to the main female characters in
novelas, who typically had no children or only a single child. The researchers determined that access to television alone
The depressive effect on fertility among women in areas did not depress fertility. For example, comparisons of fertil-ity
served by Globo was therefore attributed to wider spacing rate in areas with access to a different television network,
of births and earlier ending of reproduction by women over Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão, found no relationship. The study
25, rather than to younger women delaying the birth of their authors concluded that this was likely due to the reliance of
first child. Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão on programming imported from
other nations, with which everyday Brazilians did not connect as
they did with novelas from Rede Globo.
Television’s ability to influence fertility is not limited to

3000 Brazil. A 2014 study found that in the United States, tweets
and Google searches for terms such as “birth control”
Brazil increased significantly the day following the airing of new epi-sodes
signal

2000
areas

of
of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant. By correlating geographic
Globo

patterns in viewership with fertility data, the study authors

by

concluded that MTV’s Teen Mom series may have been

1000
responsible for reducing teenage births in the United States
Number

covered
by up to 20,000 per year.
0 The factors that affect human fertility can be complex and

1965 1970 1980 1990 2000 vary greatly from one society to another. As this is a correla-tive
Year study (p. 11), it does not prove causation between watch-ing
telenovelas and reduced fertility. It does show, however,
FIGURE 2 The Globo television network expanded over time
that effects on fertility may come from intentional factors, such
and now reaches nearly all households in Brazil. Fertility declines
were correlated with the availability of Globo, and its novelas, over as a government increasing the availability of birth control, and
the time periods in the study. Source: La Ferrara, E., et al., 2012. Soap at other times may come from unexpected and unintentional
operas and fertility: Evidence from Brazil. Am. Econ. J. Appl. Econ. 4: 1–31. factors—such as popular television shows.

Chapter 6 Human Population 131

 SUCCESS Family Planning without Coercion: Thailand’s Population Program
STORY
No nation has pursued a sustained population 7
control program as intrusive as China’s, but other China
China‘s “one-child”
6
rapidly growing nations have implemented successful family-planning policy begins (1970) Thailand
programs. The government of Thailand, for example, 5 Thailand‘s population
facing many of the same challenges as its populous neighbor
rat

program begins (1971)

4
to the north, instituted a comprehensive population program in
1971. At the time, Thailand’s growth rate was 2.3%, and the fertility

3
nation’s TFR was 5.4. Unlike the Chinese, Thais were given
Total

2
control over their own reproductive choices, but were provided
with family-planning counseling and modern contraceptives 1
supported by an engaging public education campaign. Aided
0
by a relatively high level of women’s rights in Thai society,
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
this program—and the fertility reductions that accompanied
Year
the nation’s economic development over the past 45 years—reduced
the growth rate to 0.4%, with a TFR of 1.6 children per
China and Thailand instituted population control programs
woman in 2016. The success of this program, and similar initia-tives
at roughly the same time and showed similar patterns in
in nations such as Brazil, Cuba, Iran, and Mexico, show fertility declines over the subsequent 45 years, despite
that population programs need not be as intrusive as China’s to utilizing very different approaches. Datafrom WorldBank,2016,
produce similar declinesin population growth. data.worldbank.org.

EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

of 70% or more, as did Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Family-planning programs are
Rica, Cuba, Micronesia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Paraguay,
Puerto Rico, South Korea, Thailand, and Uruguay. At the
working around the world
other end of the spectrum, 12 African nations hadrates at or Data show that funding and policies that encourage fam-ily
below 10%. planning canlower population growth ratesin all types
Low usage rates for contraceptives in some societies of nations, even those that are least industrialized. No other
are caused by limited availability, especially in rural areas. nation has pursued a sustained population control program as
As the need for contraceptives can be continuous, women intrusive as China’s,but somerapidly growing nations have
in isolated villages can therefore experience “gaps” in birth implemented programs that areless restrictive but have none-theless
control. This occurs when couples use up their supply of been very effective in lowering rates of population
contraceptives before reproductive counselors once again growth.
visit their village. In others, low usage may be due to reli-gious The effects of an effective approach to reproductive ini-tiatives
doctrine or cultural influences that hinderfamily plan-ning, is best seen whencomparing nations that have similar
denying counseling and contraceptives to people who cultures andlevels of economicdevelopmentbut very differ-ent
might otherwise use them. This can result in family sizes approaches to family planning—such as Bangladesh and
that are larger than the parents desire and lead to elevated Pakistan. Whenboth nations werefaced with rapid popula-tion
rates of population growth. growth dueto highfertility in the 1970s(with TFRin
In a physiological sense, access to family planning
both nations hovering around 7), Bangladesh instituted a
(and the civil rights to demand its use) gives women control government-supported program to improve access to contra-ception
over their reproductive window, the period of their life—beginning andreproductivecounselingto its citizensin an effort
withsexual maturityand ending with menopause—in to reduce its rate of population growth. Pakistan took a far
which they may become pregnant. A healthy woman less aggressive and coordinated approach, which madeaccess
can potentially bear up to 25 children within this window to family planning by Pakistani womenfar less reliable than
( FIGURE 6.13), but she may choose to delay the birth of her that for Bangladeshi women. After 40 years of differing
first child to pursue education and employment. She may also approaches to reproductive issues, the results are striking.
use contraception to delay her first child, space births within WhileBangladesh’sTFRin 2016hadfallen to 2.3, Pakistan’s
the window, and “close” her reproductive window after TFR was 3.7 children per woman—one of the highest in
achieving her desiredfamily size. southern Asia.

132 Chapter 6 Human Population

 Reproductive window

First menstrual
cycle

Last menstrual
cycle (menopause)

Birth 10 years 20 years 30 years 40 years 50 years 60 years

(a) Potential fertility

Delaying childbirth to focus

on education and career
Spacing births with
Ending reproductive
contraception
potential with
First menstrual
contraception
cycle
Last menstrual
cycle (menopause)

Birth 10 years 20 years 30 years 40 years 50 years 60 years

(b) Fertility reductions by delaying childbirth and contraceptive use

FIGURE 6.13 Women can potentially have very high fertility within their “reproductive window” but
can choose to reduce the number of children they bear. They maydothis by delayingthe birth oftheir
first child, or by using contraception to space pregnancies or to end their reproductive window.

Empowering womenreduces
fertility rates
8
Today, many social scientists and policymakers recognize
7
that for population growth to slow and stabilize, womenin Ethiopia
societies worldwideshould be grantedequalityin both deci-sion-making
6
and access to education and job opportunities.
5 Cambodia Guatemala
In addition to providing a basic human right, empowerment (1995–2000

Kenya
of women would have manybenefits with respectto fertil-ity 4 Syria South
Egypt Africa
rate

rates: Studies show that where women are freer to decide

3 India Colombia Peru
whether and when to have children, fertility rates fall, and
Vietnam Jamaica
children are bettercaredfor, healthier,and bettereducated. 2
fertility

For women, one benefit of equal rights is the ability to

1
Total

makereproductive decisions. In some societies, menrestrict

women’sdecision-makingabilities,including decisionsasto 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
how many children they will bear. Birth rates have dropped
the mostin nations where women have gained reliable access Female secondary school enrollment rate (percentage)

to contraceptivesandto family planning. Thistrend indicates FIGURE 6.14 Increasing female literacy is strongly
that giving women the right to control their reproduction associated with reduced birth rates in many nations. Data
reduces fertility rates. from McDonald, M., and D. Nierenberg, 2003. Linking population, women, and

Expanding educational opportunities for womenis an biodiversity. State of the world 2003. Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute.

important component of equal rights. In many nations, girls

Is the relationship between total fertility rate and the
are discouraged from pursuing an education or are kept out of
rate of enrollment of girls in secondary school positive
school altogether. Worldwide,morethan two-thirds of people
(as TFR increases, so does school enrollment), nega-tive
who cannot read are women. And data clearly show that as (as TFR increases, school enrollment decreases), oris there
women become educated, fertility rates decline (FIGURE 6.14). no obvious relationship (increases in TFR are not correlated with
Educationencourageswomento delaychildbirth asthey pur-sue changes in school enrollment)?
careers, and gives them moreknowledge of reproductive
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
options andgreatersayin reproductive decisions.

Chapter 6 Human Population 133

 FaQ Fertility decreases
$60,000
as people become $55,000
how have societal and
economic factors affected
wealthier $50,000
North
America

U.S.fertility? $45,000
Poorer societies tend to show
$40,000
The United States has experi-enced higher population growth rates Australia

peaks and valleys in its

(GNI-PPP $35,000 and S. Pacific
than do wealthier societies Europe
total fertility rate over the past $30,000
(FIGURE 6.15), as one would
century. In 1913, TFR in the $25,000
expect given the demographic income

United States was around 3.5 $20,000 Latin America

transition model. There are
children per woman, and then and Caribbean
many ways that growing afflu-ence capita
$15,000
plunged to around 2.2 dur-ing
andreducing poverty lead Per
$10,000 Asia
the trying economic times
to lower rates of population $5000 Africa
of the Great Depression in the
growth. $0
1930s. Fertility climbed as the
As nations industrialize, 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
nation pulled out of the Great
Depression, leveled off during
they become wealthier and Population growthrate
World WarII, and then climbed
more urban. This depresses
FIGURE 6.15 Poverty and population growth show a fairly
again during the economically fertility, as children are no lon-ger
strong correlation, despite the influence of many other
prosperous periodfollowing needed as farmhands and
factors. Regions with the lowest per capita incomes tend to have
the war (the post-war “baby better healthcare reduces the the most rapid population growth. Per capita income is here mea-sured
boom”), peaking at 3.7in 1957. needfor parentsto account for in GNI PPP, or “gross national income in purchasing power
Fertility then fell infant mortality
sharply in the when deciding parity.” GNI PPP is a measure that standardizes income among
mid-1960s, as modern contra-ception on family size. Women move nations by converting it to “international” dollars, which indicate the
became widely available into the workforce and modern amount of goods and services one could buy in the United States
and women enjoyed increased contraception becomes avail-able with a given amount of money. Datafrom Population Reference Bureau,
opportunities to pursue higher and affordable. Moreover, 2016. 2016 World population data sheet.
education and employment out-side if a government provides some
the home. form of social security to retir-ees,
Fertility rates have been parents need fewer children 6
largely stable around the replace-ment to support them in their old age. 2016 2050
level (2.1) since 1970, but
Economic factors are tied 5
may soon fall. A 2015 report by
closely to population growth.
the UrbanInstitute found that
Poverty exacerbates popula-tion 4
U.S. women born after the early
growth, and rapid popula-tion
1980s (the “millennial” genera-tion)
growth worsens poverty.
(billions)

are having children at the 3

This connection is important
lowest rate in American his-tory.
because a vast majority of the
Surveys find that millennial 2
next billion peopleto be added Population

women value children as much

as previous generations did at
to the global population will
1
their age, but many are delay-ing
be born into nations in Africa,
marriage and childbirth due Asia, and Latin America that
0
to financial insecurity. Thatis, have emerging, industrializing Africa Australia/ Latin America/ Asia North Europe
many young people state that economies (FIGURE 6.16). Some S. Pacific Caribbean America
they’d like to marry and have of these nations have rather
FIGURE 6.16 The vast majority of future population
children but simply can’t afford high rates of poverty, and add-ing
growth will occur in developing regions. Africa will experi-ence
to do so whenfaced with uncer-tain more people can lead to
the greatest population growth of any region in coming
employment prospects and increased environmental deg-radation.
decades. The highly industrialized regions of Europe and North
relatively high levels of debt from People who depend America are predicted to experience only minor population
college. on agriculture and live in areas change. Datafrom Population Reference Bureau, 2016. 2016 Worldpopu-lation
of poor farmland, for instance, data sheet.

may needto farm even if doing

so degrades the soil and is not sustainable. Poverty also • Which region will add the most people between

drives people to cut forests and to deplete biodiversity as 2016 and 2050? • Which willincrease by the greatest
percentage during this time period? • Propose one
they seek to support their families. For example, impov-erished
explanation for why the fastest-growing region willincrease faster
settlers and miners hunt large mammals for “bush
than other regions.
meat”in Africa’s forests, including the great apesthat are
now heading toward extinction. Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

134 Chapter 6 Human Population

 Average per U.S. resident: Average per India resident:

• Economic activity: $56,430 • Economic activity: $6020

• Footprint: 8.2 hectares • Footprint: 1.2 hectares
• CO2: 17.0 metric tons • CO2: 1.7 metric tons

(a) A family living in the United States (b) Afamily living in India

FIGURE 6.17 Material wealth varies widely from nation to nation. A typical U.S. family (a) may own a
large house with a wealth of material possessions. A typical family in a developing nation such as India (b) may
live in a much smaller home with far fewer material possessions. Compared with the average resident ofIndia,
the average U.S. resident shares in 9 times more economic activity, has an ecological footprint 7 times higher,
and emits 10 times more carbon dioxide. Economic activity is calculated by dividing the gross national income
(GNI) of each country by its population. Datafor ecological footprints arefor 2012 and arefrom Global Footprint Network,
www.footprintnetwork.org; data for economic activity and carbon dioxide emissions are from World Bank, 2016, data.worldbank.org.

Expanding wealthcan escalate a long-term ability to support our civilization. The rising con-sumption
that is accompanying the rapid industrialization
society’s environmental impacts of China, India, and other populous nations makes it all the

Poverty can lead people into environmentally destructive more urgent for us to reverse this trend and find a path to

behavior, but wealth can produce even global

more severe and far-reaching sustainability.

environmental impacts. The affluence of a society

such as the United States, Japan, or Germany is built on lev-els Ecological footprint
of resource consumption unprecedented in human his-tory. Projected ecological footprint
Consider that the richest one-fifth of the world’s people Biocapacity
possess over 80 times the income of the poorest one-fifth
and use 85% of the world’s resources (FIGURE 6.17). This is 2.5

meaningful, as the environmental impact of human activities Business as usual

2.0
depends not only on the number of people involved but also Earth

Overshoot
on the way those people live (recall the A for affluence in the Path to
1.5 sustainability Ecological
IPAT equation). planet

reserve
An ecological footprint represents the cumulative amount of

1.0
of Earth’s surface area required to provide the raw materials Ecological
a person or population consumes and to dispose of or recycle debt
Number 0.5
the waste produced (p. 400). Individuals from affluent societ-ies
leave considerably larger per capita ecological footprints
0
(see Figure 1.16, p. 18). In this sense, the addition of one
1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100
American to the world has as much environmental impact as Year
the addition of 3.4 Chinese, 8 Indians, or 14 Afghans. This
fact reminds us that the “population problem” does not lie FIGURE 6.18 The global ecological footprint of the human
population is estimated to be 50% greater than what Earth
solely with the developing world.
can bear. If population and consumption continue to rise (orange
Indeed, just as population is rising, so is consumption.
dashed line), we willincrease our ecological deficit, or degree
Researchers have found that humanity’s global ecological foot-print
of overshoot, until systems give out and populations crash. If,
surpassed Earth’s capacity to support us in 1971 (p. 6),
instead, we pursue a path to sustainability (red dashed line), we
and that our species is now living 50% beyond its means can eventually repay our ecological debt and sustain our civiliza-tion.
(FIGURE 6.18). We are running a global ecological deficit, Adaptedfrom WWF,
2008. Livingplanetreport 2008. Gland,Switzerland:
gradually draining our planet of its natural capital and its WWF International.

Chapter 6 Human Population 135

 closing the LOOp
China has demonstrated that it is pos-sible everywhere, and some countries are even seeing population
to rapidly and drastically slow declines. Most developed nations have passed through the
a nation’s population growth, but demographic transition, showing that it is possible to lower
its one-child policy created numer-ous death rates while stabilizing population and creating more
demographic problems and raised prosperous societies. Second, progress has been made in
important human rights issues. China’s expanding rights for women worldwide. Although there is still
populous neighbor India started employ-ing a long wayto go, women are obtaining better education, more
population control initiatives at roughly the same time as economic independence, and more ability to control their
China, but its initial draconian policies caused public outcry. reproductive decisions than they had in the past.
India’s subsequent relaxed policies, along with the societal Human population cannot continue to rise forever. The
changes brought about by industrialization, have acted to question is how it will stop rising: Will it be through the
reduce fertility rates, but not to the extent of its neighbor to the gentle and benign process of the demographic transition
north—and India will soon surpass China as the world’s most as is happening in India, through restrictive governmen-tal
populous nation. intervention such as China’s policies, or through the
Today’s human population is larger than at any time in the miserable Malthusian checks of disease and social con-flict
past. Our growing population and our growing consumption caused by overcrowding and competition for scarce
of resources affect the environment and our ability to meet the resources? How we answer this question today will deter-mine
needs of all the world’s people. However, there are at least not only the quality of the world in which welive but
two reasons to be encouraged. First, although global popu-lation also the quality of the world we leave to our children and
is still rising, the rate of growth has decreased nearly grandchildren

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Whatis the approximate current human global 6. Whatis the total fertility rate (TFR)? Whyis the
population? How many people are being added to the replacement fertility for humans approximately 2.1?
population each day? How is Europe’s TFR affecting its rate of natural

2. Why has the human population continued to grow increase?

despite environmental limitations? Do you think this 7. How does the demographic transition model explain the
growth is sustainable? Why or why not? increase in population growth rates in recent centuries?
3. Contrast the views of environmental scientists with How does it explain the recent decrease in population

those of Cornucopian economists regarding whether growth rates in many countries?

population growth is a problem. Name several reasons 8. Why have fertility rates fallen in many countries?
why population growth is commonly viewed as a 9. Whyis the empowerment of women and the pursuit
problem. of gender equality viewed as important to controlling
4. Explain the IPAT model. How can technology either population growth? Describe the aim of family-planning
increase or decrease environmental impact? Provide at programs.
least two examples. 10. Whydo poorer societies tend to have higher population
5. Describe how demographers use size, density, growth rates than wealthier societies? How does poverty
distribution, age structure, and sex ratio of a population affect the environment? How does affluence affect the
to estimate how it may change in the future. How does environment?
each of these factors help determine the impact of
human populations on the environment?

SEEKING
Solutions
1. The World Bank estimates that 10% of the world’s affluence, technology, and ecological sensitivity each
people live in extreme poverty on less than $2 per day. affect China’s environment? Now consider your own
How do you think this situation affects the political country or your own state. How do the same factors
stability of the world? Explain your answer. each affect your environment? How can we minimize

2. Apply the IPAT model to the example of China the environmental impacts of growth in the human
provided in the chapter. How do population, population?

136 Chapter 6 Human Population

 3. Do you think that all of today’s developing nations the population is growing older, as shown by the top-heavy
will complete the demographic transition and reach a population pyramid for the year 2050. If you were
permanent state of low birth and death rates? Why or why tasked with maximizing the contributions of the growing
not? What steps might we as a global society take to help number of retirees to Chinese society, what sorts of
ensure they do? And will developed nations such asthe programs would you devise?
United States and Canada continue to lower and stabilize 5. THINK IT THROUGH India’s prime minister puts you
their birth and deathrates in a state of prosperity? What in charge of that nation’s population policy. India has a
factors might affect whether they do so? population growth rate of 1.5% per year, a TFR of 2.3,
4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION China’s reduction in birth a 47% rate of contraceptive use, and a population that is
rates is leading to significant change in the nation’s 67% rural. What policy steps would you recommend to
age structure. Review Figure 6.9, which shows that reduce growth rates, and why

CALCULATING
EcologicalFootprints
A nation’s population size and the affluence of its citizens latest estimate for the world’s average ecological footprint
each influence its resource consumption and environmental was 2.8 hectares (ha) per person. The sampling of data in
impact. As of 2016, the world’s population passed 7.4 billion, the table will allow you to explore patterns in how population,
average per capita income was $15,415 per year, and the affluence, and environmental impact are related.

POPULATION PERSONAL IMPACT (PER TOTAL IMPACT

(MILLIONS OF AFFLUENCE (PER CAPITA CAPITA FOOTPRINT, IN (NATIONAL FOOTPRINT,
NATION PEOPLE) INCOME, IN GNI PPP)1 HA/PERSON) IN MILLIONS OF HA)

Belgium 11.3 $44,100 7.4 83.6

Brazil 206.1 $15,020 3.1

China 1378.0 $14,160 3.4

Ethiopia 101.7 $1,620 1.0

India 1328.9 $6,020 1.2

Japan 125.3 $38,870 5.0

Mexico 128.6 $17,150 2.9

Russia 144.3 $23,790 5.7

United States 323.9 $56,430 8.2 2656.0

1GNI PPP(gross national income in purchasing power parity)is a measure that standardizes income among nations by con-verting
it to “international” dollars, the amount of goods and services one could buy in the United States with a given amount
of money.

Sources: Population and affluence data arefrom Population Reference Bureau, 2016 World population data sheet. Footprint
data are from Global Footprint Network, www.footprintnetwork.org/ecological_footprint_nations/. All data arefor 2012.

1. Calculate the total impact (national ecological footprint) 4. Draw a graph illustrating total impact (on the y axis) in
for each country. relation to affluence (on the x axis). What do the results

2. Draw a graph illustrating per capita impact (on the y suggest to you?
axis) versus affluence (on the x axis). What do the results 5. You have just used three of the four variables in the
show? Explain why the data look the way they do. IPAT equation. Now give one example of how the T
3. Draw a graph illustrating total impact (on the y axis) in (technology) variable could potentially increase the total

relation to population (on the x axis). What do the results impact of the United States, and one example of how it
suggest to you? could potentially decrease the U.S.impact.

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Goto Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Go to Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
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Chapter 6 Human Population 137

 Soil,Agriculture,
CHAPTER
andtheFuture
ofFood

138 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 central CASESTUDY

Farmto Table—And
Back Again:The
Commonsat Kennesaw Kennesaw

StateUniversity
Atlanta
State
University

GEORGIA

What we eat has It’s not surprising to see phrases such as “think globally, eat
changed morein the last locally,” and “farm to table” when you’re dining at a trendy
40 years than in the restaurant, but would you expect to see them at your cam-pus
previous 40,000. dining hall?
—Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation (2005)
Believe it or not, campus dining services around the
country are now among the industry leaders in culinary
There are two spiritual
sustainability, a pursuit that embraces the use of fresh,
dangersin not owning a
farm. Oneis the danger of healthy, locally produced foods to provide diners deli-cious,

supposing that breakfast nutritious meals. One leader in sustainable dining

comes from the grocery, and is Kennesaw State University (KSU) in suburban Atlanta,
the other that heat comes Georgia. In 2009, the university opened The Commons,
from the furnace. a dining facility that serves more than 5000 students
—Aldo Leopold, conservationist
each day and was granted gold-level certification as a
Upon completing this and philosopher
sustainable building by the Leadership in Energy and
chapter, you will be able to:
Environmental Design (LEED) program (p. 429). The next
• Explain the challenge of feeding year, KSUlaunched a Farm-to-Campus program whenit acquired a plot offarmland just off
a growing human population campus.
• Compare and contrast traditional, Today, the university runs three farms near the campus, on 27 hectares (67 acres) of
industrial, and sustainable land that grow thousands of pounds of produce each year, supplying many ofthe fruits and
agricultural approaches vegetables served to students in The Commons. But KSU does even more, and is working

• Identify the goals, methods,

to create a fully closed-loop system. Uneaten food waste from The Commons is fed into an

and consequences of the Green aerobic digestion system behind the facility, whereit is broken down to generate a nutrient-rich
Revolution liquid. This liquid compost is trucked back to the campus
farms and applied there as a fertilizer to nourish the soil
• Explain the importance of soils to

agriculture
and help grow new crops. As KSU’s first director of
Culinary and Hospitality Services put it, “We go
• Analyze the causes and impacts of
beyond farm-to-campus. We embrace farm-to-campus
soil erosion and land degradation,
and back-to-farm operations.”
and discuss solutions
Kennesaw State’s ambitious program to
• Compare and contrast approaches
mesh sustainable agriculture with campus
to irrigation, fertilization, and
dining got its start when the university com-mitted
pest management in industrial
to make sustainability a prime consid-eration
and sustainable agriculture
in construction and operation of The
• Describe the science behind
Commons. KSU’s architects and engineers
genetic engineering, and evaluate
designed afacility that minimizes energy use,
the public debate over its use
water consumption, and waste generation.
• Discuss the impacts of how we
Illuminated with floor-to-ceiling windows and
raise animals for food
high-efficiency lighting, The Commons offers
• Analyze the nature, growth, and nine themed food stations and a rotating menu
potential of organic agriculture
of 200–300 items. Foods are prepared to order orin
small batches according to demand, drastically reduc-ing
the amount of leftover food. A “trayless” approach to

Student worker on a college farm

Kennesaw State University’s
Hickory Grove Farm. 13
 food service further reduces food waste and the amount of between farm and campus continue to grow. Afarmers’ mar-ket
water used in dishwashing, as diners without trays tend to eat has been established on campus, and a student group—Students
less and use fewer plates. The Commons has special dishwash-ing for Environmental Sustainability—has launched a per-maculture
systems designed for water and energy efficiency, napkin project next to the science building. Student volun-teers
dispensers that reduce paper waste, hydration stations for refill-ing and interns work at the farms, and new classes in organic
reusable water bottles, and a recycling and composting pro-gram farming and beekeeping are using the farms as well.
that diverts 44,000 pounds of waste from the landfill each Kennesaw State has enjoyed unusual success in linking
month. The facility even generates biodiesel from its used cook-ing campus and farm to enhance students’ dining experiences, but
oil(p. 393) to fuel university vehicles. food service operations on many campuses across North Amer-ica
With an award-winning green building as the anchor of its today are embracing fresh locally farmed food as they pursue
program, KSU set about creating an agricultural system that culinary sustainability in various ways. Michigan State University
could supply diners withfresh, healthy, local produce. The three engages students in organic farming through teaching, research,
campus farms grow dozens of items—everything from toma-toes and production. At California State University, Chico, more than
to cucumbers to melons to apples—using practices that 35 students are employed at the school’s 800-acre farm, sup-plying
protect soil quality by minimizing the use of chemical pesticides fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products to the din-ing
and synthetic fertilizers. Indeed, soil quality is enhanced by the halls, farmers’ markets, and local restaurants. Many dozens
application of nutrient-rich compost and liquid from the digester. of schools—from Hampshire College to Clemson University
Sixty free-range chickens produce 300 organic eggs per week, to Dickinson College to Case Western Reserve University—provide
and apiaries house 48 honeybee colonies that produce 30 gal-lons their communities with food through community-supported
of honey each year. agriculture (CSA) programs (p. 163).
On campus, herbs, lettuce, and shiitake mushrooms are Altogether, about 70% of America’s largest colleges and
grown in an herb garden and greenhouse behind The Com-monsuniversities now have a campus farm or garden from which
and in 10 hydroponic stations scattered throughout the their dining halls can source food directly, according to a recent
dining area. These are each watered with rainwater collected survey of more than 300 major institutions. Meanwhile, more
in barrels on the roof of The Commons. There is even a grist and more campus dining halls are gaining LEED certification
mill on site that grinds fresh grits and cornmeal. In addition, as green buildings. Collectively, these efforts are reducing the
the university has cultivated relationships withlocal farms and ecological footprints of American colleges and universities and
meat producers, sourcing locally produced food whenever pointing the way to a more sustainable food future—all while
possible. supplying students with healthy and delicious meals.
KSU’s culinary program is receiving wide recognition, and Throughout this chapter, we'll see how principles of sus-tainability
in 2013 Kennesaw State became the first educational institution embraced at colleges and universities are being rep-licated
to win the National Restaurant Association’s Innovator of the at ever-larger scales, helping us chart a path toward
Year award, beating out competitors such as Walt Disney Parks ensuring adequate food for all people while minimizing the envi-ronmental
and Resorts and the U.S. Air Force. Today at KSU, the links impacts of agriculture.

TheRaceto Feedthe World 5.0

World population
4.5 Vegetables
Someone dining at The Commons, surrounded by a diversity
of food options, mightfind it hardto imagine that manypeo-ple 4.0
Fruits

in the world today struggle on a daily basisto get enough

level

Grains
3.5
to eat. Unfortunately, such is the case, and asthe human popu-lation 1961
Roots and tubers
continuesto grow—with our numbersexpectedto swell to
3.0
to over 9 billion by the middle of this century—the challenge
2.5
of feeding a growing world population will only become more
dire. Feeding 2 billion morepeoplethan wedotoday while
relative

2.0
protecting the integrity of soil, water, and ecosystems will
require the large-scale embrace of farming practices that are Growth
1.5

moresustainablethan those wecurrently use. Providingfood 1.0

security, the guarantee of an adequate, safe, nutritious, and 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
reliable food supply available to all people at all times, will be Year
one of our greatestchallengesin the coming decades.
FIGURE 7.1 Global production of most foods has risen more
There is good news, however. Overthe past half-century,
quickly than the world population. This meansthat we have
our ability to produce food has grown evenfaster than the global produced morefood per person each year. The datalines show
population(FIGURE7.1).Improving people’squality of life by cumulative increases relative to 1961 levels (for example,
producing morefood per personis a monumental achievement a value of 2.0 meanstwice the 1961 amount). Food is measured
of whichhumanity can be proud. However,ensuringthat our by weight.Data
from UNFoodandAgriculture
Organization
(FAO).

140 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 food production can be sustained depends on conserving soil, wayto go to eliminate hunger, but these positive trends are
water, and biodiversity by using careful agricultural practices. encouraging.
Today many of the world’s soils are in decline, and most of Although nearly 1 billion people lack access to nutri-tious
the planet’s arable land has already been claimed. Hence, even foods, many others consume too many calories each
though agricultural production has outpaced population growth day. Overnutrition causes unhealthy weight gain, which
so far, we have no guarantee that this will continue. leads to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other health
problems. As a result, more than one in three adults in the
Weface undernutrition, United States are obese, according to the Centers for Dis-ease
Control and Prevention. Across the world as a whole,
overnutrition, and malnutrition the World Health Organization estimates that 39% of adults
Despite our rising food production, nearly 800 million people are overweight, and that of these, one-third are obese. The

worldwide do not have enough to eat. These people suffer growing availability of highly processed foods (which are

from undernutrition, receiving fewer mini-mum often calorie-rich,

calories than the nutrient-poor, and affordable to people of

dietary energy requirement. As a result, every 5 seconds, all incomes) suggests that overnutrition will remain a global

somewhere in the world, a child dies because he or she lacks nutritional problem, along with undernutrition, for the fore-seeable

access to a nutritious diet. In most cases, poverty limits the future.

amount of food people can buy. One out of every seven of the Just as the quantity of food a person eats is important for

world’s people lives on less than $1.25 per day, and one out of health, so is the quality of food. Malnutrition, a shortage of
three lives on less than $2 per day, according to World Bank nutrients the body needs, occurs when a person fails to obtain

estimates. Political obstacles, regional conflict and wars, and a complete complement of proteins (p. 32), essential lipids

inefficiencies in distribution contribute significantly to hun-ger (p. 33), vitamins, and minerals. Malnutrition can lead to

as well. Even our energy choices affect food supplies. For disease (FIGURE 7.3). For example, people who eat a diet

example, sizeable amounts of cropland are devoted to growing that is high in starch but deficient in protein can develop

crops for the production of biofuels (pp. 393–394). kwashiorkor. Children who have recently stopped breast-feeding

The good news is that globally, the number of people and are no longer getting protein from breast milk

suffering from undernutrition has been falling since the are most at risk for developing kwashiorkor, which causes

1960s. The percentage of people who are undernourished bloating of the abdomen, deterioration and discoloration of
has fallen even more (FIGURE 7.2). We still have a long hair, mental disability, immune suppression, developmental
delays, and reduced growth. Protein deficiency together with
a lack of calories can lead to marasmus, which causes wast-ing
or shriveling among millions of children in the develop-ing
1000 40 world. Iron deficiency can result in anemia, which causes
fatigue and developmental disabilities; iodine deficiency can
900 35
produce swelling of the thyroid gland and brain damage; and
800 Number of people 30 vitamin A deficiency can lead to blindness.
undernourished
(millions)
700 25
undernourished
people

of

600 20
people

500 15 of

Number

Percentage of people
undernourished
400 undernourished 10

300 5
Percentage

0 0

1990–1992
1995–1997
2000–2002
2005–2007
2010–2012
2014–201

Year

FIGURE 7.2 The number and the percentage of people in the

developing world who suffer undernutrition have each been
declining. Datafrom Food and Agriculture Organization ofthe United Nations,
2015. The state offood insecurity in the world, 2015. Rome: FAO.

Explain how the percentage of undernourished people

could have decreased between 2000–2002 and
2005–2007, while the number of undernourished people
increased slightly during the same period.

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

FIGURE 7.3 Millions of children suffer from forms of
malnutrition, such as kwashiorkor and marasmus.

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 141

 The ChangingFace are equally
pathogens,
susceptible
or insect
to bacterial
pests that can spread
and viral diseases, fungal
quickly.
of Agriculture Industrial agriculture’s reliance on genetically similar
crop varieties is a source of efficiency, but also an Achilles
If we are to enhance global food security, we will need to heel. Concern over potential crop failure has led to coordinated
examine the ways we produce our food and how we can efforts to conserve the wild relatives of crop plants and crop
makethem more sustainable. Wecan define agriculture as varieties indigenous to various regions, because they contain
the practice of raising crops and livestock for human use and genes we may one day need to introduce into our commercial
consumption. We obtain most of our food and fiber from crops. Seeds of these species are stored in some 1400 seed
cropland, land used to raise plants for human use, and from banks, institutions that preserve some 1–2 million different
rangeland, land usedfor grazinglivestock. seed types in locations around the world. Many agricultural
Asthe human population has grown, so have the amounts scientists feel that we also need to protect the genetic integrity
of land and resources we devote to agriculture. Agriculture is of wild relatives of crop plants by preventing gene exchange
currently practiced on 38% of Earth’s land surface, and uses between these species and crop plants that have been geneti-cally
more land area than any other human activity. Of this land, modified with genes from other species (p. 158). These
26% is rangeland and 12% is cropland. The percentages are scientists want to avoid genetic “contamination” of wild popu-lations
even greater in the United States, where nearly half the land is so that we preserve the natural gene combinations of
devoted to agriculture. Here, rangeland covers 27% and crop-land plants that are well adapted to their environments.
covers 19% of our land area. Our use of monocultures also contributes to a narrowing
of the human diet. Globally, 90% of the food we consume
Industrial agriculture is a recent now comes from just 15 crop species and eight livestock
species—a drastic reduction in the diversity of food humans
human invention have historically eaten. For example, only 30% of the maize

During most of the human species’ 200,000-year existence, we varieties that grew in Mexico in the 1930s exist today. The

were hunter-gatherers, depending on wild plants and animals number of wheat varieties in China dropped from 10,000 in
for our food and fiber. Then about 10,000 years ago, as glaciers 1949 to 1000 by the 1970s. In the United States, apples and

retreated and the climate warmed, people in some cultures other fruit and vegetable crops have decreased in diversity by

began to raise plants from seed and to domesticate animals. 90% in less than a century.
For thousands of years, the work of cultivating, harvest-ing,
storing,
and animal
and distributing
muscle power,
crops
along
was performed
with hand tools
by human
and simple
The Green Revolution boosted
machines—anapproach known as traditional agriculture. production—and exported
Traditional farmers typically plant polycultures (“many industrial agriculture
types”), mixtures of different crops in small plots of farmland,
such as the Native American farming systems that mixed The desire for greater quantity and quality of food for our
maize, beans, squash, and peppers. Traditional agriculture is growing population led in the mid-and late-20th century to
still practiced today but has rapidly been overtaken by newer the Green Revolution, which introduced new technology,
methods of farming that increase crop yields. crop varieties, and farming practices to the developing world
Thousands of years after humans began practicing tradi-tional and drastically increased food production in these nations.
agriculture, the industrial revolution (p. 5) introduced The transfer of technology and knowledge to the developing
large-scale mechanization and fossil fuel combustion to agri-culture, world that marked the Green Revolution began in the 1940s,
just as it did to industry. Farmers replaced horses and when the American agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug
oxen with machinery that provided faster and more powerful introduced Mexico’s farmers to a specially bred type of
means of cultivating, harvesting, transporting, and process-ing wheat (FIGURE 7.4a). This strain of wheat produced large
crops. Such industrial agriculture also boosted yields seed heads, was resistant to diseases, was short in stature to
by intensifying irrigation and introducing synthetic fertilizers, resist wind, and produced high yields. Within two decades,
while the advent of chemical pesticides reduced herbivory Mexico tripled its wheat production and began exporting
by crop pests and competition from weeds. Today, industrial wheat. The stunning success of this program inspired similar
agriculture is practiced on over 25% of the world’s cropland projects around the world. Borlaug—who won the Nobel
and has been a major factor in reducing food prices world-wide Peace Prize for his work—took his wheat to India and Paki-stan
due to its large-scale, intensive production model. and helped transform agriculture there.
The use of machinery created a need for highly orga-nized Soon many developing countries were doubling, tripling,
approaches to farming, and this led to the planting of or quadrupling their yields using selectively bred strains of
vast areas with single crops in orderly, straight rows. Such wheat, rice, corn, and other crops from industrialized nations
monocultures (“one type”) make farming more efficient, (FIGURE 7.4b). These crops dramatically increased yields and
but they reduce biodiversity by eliminating habitats used helped millions avoid starvation. When Borlaug died in 2009
by organisms in and around traditional farm fields. More-over, at age 95, he was widely celebrated as having “saved more
when all plants in a field are genetically similar, they lives than anyone in history.

142 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 Sustainable agriculture reduces
environmental impacts
Wehave achieved our impressive growth in food production
by devoting morefossil fuel energyto agriculture;intensify-ing
our use of irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides; cultivat-ing
moreland; planting and harvesting morefrequently; and
developing(through crossbreedingand genetic engineering)
more productive varieties of crops and livestock. However,
many of these practices have degraded soils, polluted waters,
and affected biodiversity.
Wecannot simply keep expanding agriculture into new
areas,becauseland suitable and availablefor farming is run-ning
out. Instead, we mustfind waysto improve the efficiency
(a) Norman Borlaug
of food production in areas already under cultivation. Indus-trial
300 300
agriculture in someform seems necessaryto feed our
Production
tons)
(kg
planet’s morethan 7 billion people, but manyexperts feel we
Production per person
250 250 will be better off in the long run by raising animals and crops
metric

in waysthat areless polluting, areless resource-intensive,and

200 200
person

causeless impact on natural systems. Tothis end, manyfarm-ers

and agricultural scientists are creating agricultural sys-tems
per

(million 150 150

that better mimicthe waya naturalecosystemfunctions.
100 100 Sustainable agriculture describes agriculture that main-tains
production
the healthy soil, clean water, pollinators, and genetic
production 50 50 diversity essentialto long-term cropandlivestock production.
Grain
The best approach for making an agricultural system sustain-able
0 0
is to mimic the way a natural ecosystem functions. Eco-systems
Grain

19601965197019751980198519901995200020052010 operatein cycles and are internally stabilized with

Year negative feedback loops (p. 24). In this way they provide a
useful model for agriculture. We will see that some farmers
(b) Grain production in India
andranchershavealready adoptedstrategiesand conservation
FIGURE 7.4 Norman Borlaug (a) helped launch the Green methodsto this end. Reducing fossil fuel inputs andthe pollu-tion
Revolution. The high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat that he
these inputs causeis a key aim of sustainable agriculture,
bred helped boost agricultural productivity in many developing
andto manythis meansmovingawayfrom the industrial model
countries, such asIndia (b).
andtoward moretraditional organic andlow-input models.
Low-input agriculture describes approaches to agri-culture
The effects ofindustrial agriculture that uselesser amounts of fossil fuel energy, water,
have been mixed pesticides, fertilizers, growth hormones, and antibiotics than
are usedin industrial agriculture. Low-input approachesalso
Along with the new grains, developing nations imported the seek to reduce food production costs by allowing nature to
methods of industrial agriculture. They began applying large provide valuable ecosystem services—such as creating habi-tat
amounts of synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides on for birds and otherinsect predatorsto provide pestcon-trol
their fields, irrigating crops generously with water, and using in farm fields—that farmers using industrial agricultural
more machinery powered by fossil fuels. From 1900 to 2000, methods mustpay for themselves.
people increased energy inputs into agriculture by 80 times In the sectionsthat follow, we will examinethe basicele-ments
while expanding the world’s cultivated area by just one-third. of agriculture—maintaining soil fertility, watering and
The environmental and social impacts of thesedevelop-ments fertilizing crops, and controlling agricultural pests—and how
have been mixed. On the positive side, intensifying moresustainable methodscan reduce these impacts while
the use of already-cultivated land reduced pressures to con-vert maintaining high crop yields. We will begin with soils, the
additional lands for cultivation. Between 1961 and 2013, foundation of agriculture.
global food production more than tripled and per-person food
production rose 48%, while area converted for agriculture
increased
preserve
only 11%. In this
biodiversity
way, the
and natural
Green Revolution
ecosystems
helped
by preventing
Soils
a great deal of deforestation and habitat destruction. On the Soil is not merelylifeless dirt; it is a complex system con-sisting
negative side, the intensified use of fossil fuels, water,inor-ganic of disintegratedrock, organic matter, water, gases,
fertilizers, and synthetic pesticides has worsened pollu-tion, nutrients, and microorganisms. By volume, soil consists very
topsoil erosion, and soil and water quality (Chapter 9). roughly of 50% mineral matterand upto 5% organic matter.

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 143

 The rest consists of the space between soil particles (pore the physical, chemical, and biological processes that convert
space) taken up by air or water. The organic matter in soil large rock particles into smaller particles.
includes living and dead microorganisms as well as decaying Once weathering has produced fine particles, biologi-cal
material derived from plants and animals. The soil ecosys-tem activity contributes to soil formation through the depo-sition,
supports a diverse collection of bacteria, fungi, protists, decomposition, and accumulation of organic matter.
worms, insects, and burrowing animals (FIGURE 7.5). As plants, animals, and microbes die or deposit waste, this
material is incorporated amid the weathered rock particles,
Soilforms slowly mixing with minerals. For example, the deciduous trees of
temperate forests drop their leaves each fall, making leaf lit-ter
Soil formation begins when the lithosphere’s parent mate-rial available to the detritivores and decomposers (p. 74) that
is exposed to the effects of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, break it down and incorporate its nutrients into the soil. In
and biosphere. Parent material is the base geologic material decomposition, complex organic molecules are broken down
in a particular location. It can be hardened lava or volca-nic into simpler ones, which plants can take up through their
ash; rock or sediment deposited by glaciers; sediments roots. Partial decomposition of organic matter creates humus,
deposited in riverbeds, floodplains, lakes, and the ocean; or a dark, spongy, crumbly mass of material made up of com-plex
bedrock, the continuous mass of solid rock that makes up organic compounds. Soils with high humus content hold
Earth’s crust. Parent material is broken down by weathering, moisture well and are productive for plant life. Soils on the
Kennesaw State University farms have well-developed quan-tities
of humus, because they are regularly resupplied with
organic material collected from dining hall operations.
Although soil is a renewable resource, it forms so slowly
that it cannot readily be regained once it is lost. Because
forming just 1 inch of soil can require hundreds or thousands
of years, we would be wise to conserve the soil we have.

Snail
Slug Asoil profile consists oflayers
known as horizons
As wind, water, and organisms move and sort the fine particles
that weathering creates, distinct layers eventually develop. Each
Sowbug layer of soil is known as a soil horizon, and the cross-section
Cicada as a whole, from surface to bedrock, is known as a soil profile.
nymph
Soil horizons can be generally categorized as A, B,
and C horizons—or topsoil, subsoil, and parent material,
respectively—but soil scientists often recognize at least three
additional horizons, including an O horizon (litter layer) that

Soil consists primarily of organic matter (FIGURE 7.6). Soils from

fungi different locations vary, and few soil profiles contain all six
Earthworm horizons, but any given soil contains at least some of them.
Generally, the degree of weathering and the concentra-tion
of organic matter decrease as one moves downward in

Mite a soil profile. Minerals are transported downward by leach-ing,

Beetle grub where solid particles suspended or dissolved in liquid are
transported to another location. In some soils, minerals may
be leached so rapidly that plants are deprived of nutrients.
Leached minerals may enter groundwater, and some can pose
Protists
human health risks when the water is extracted for drinking.
A crucial horizon for agriculture and ecosystems is the
A horizon, or topsoil. Topsoil consists mostly of inorganic
mineral components such as weathered substrate, with
organic matter and humus from above mixed in. Topsoil is the
Bacteria portion of the soil that is most nutritive for plants, and it takes
its loose texture, dark coloration, and strong water-holding
capacity from its humus content. The O and A horizons are
home to most of the countless organisms that give life to soil.
FIGURE 7.5 Soil, a complex mixture of organic and inorganic
components, is full of living organisms. Most soil organisms
Topsoil is vital for agriculture, but agriculture practiced unsus-tainably
decompose organic matter. Some, such as earthworms, also help over time will deplete organic matter, reducing the
to aerate the soil. soil’s fertility and ability to hold water

144 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 FIGURE 7.6 Mature soil
consists of layers, or hori-zons,

Organic matter deposited by

that have different
O Horizon Organic (litter layer) attributes.
organisms

Some organic material mixed with

A Horizon Topsoil regions such as the Amazon
mineral components
basin readily leaches minerals
and nutrients out of the topsoil
and E horizon, below the reach
E Horizon Minerals and organic matter tend
Eluviated (leaching layer) of plants’ roots. At the same
to leach out of this horizon
time, warm temperatures in the
Amazon speed the decomposi-tion
of leaf litter and the uptake
Minerals and organic matter of nutrients by plants, so only
B Horizon Subsoil
accumulate here small amounts of humus remain
in the thin topsoil layer.
As a result, when tropical
rainforest is cleared for farming,
C Horizon Weathered parent material Initial step in soil formation
cultivation quickly depletes the
soil’s fertility. This is why the
traditional form of agriculture in
tropical forested areas is swidden
R Horizon Rock (parent material)
Bedrock, lava, etc. agriculture, in which the farmer
cultivates a plot for oneto a few
years and then moves on to clear
another plot, leaving the first to
Regional differencesin soil traits grow back to forest. Plots are often burned before planting, in

affect agriculture which case the practice is called slash-and-burn agriculture

(FIGURE 7.7a). Cleared plots are increasingly being converted
Soil characteristics vary from place to place, and they are to pasture for ranching livestock instead of growing back as
affected by climate and other variables. For example, it may forest, and so agriculture has degraded the soils of many trop-ical
surprise youto learn that soils of the Amazonrainforest are areas.
muchless productive than soils in Iowa or Kansas. This is In contrast, on the grasslands of North America, which have
because the enormous amount of rain that falls in tropical been almost entirely converted to agriculture (FIGURE 7.7b),

(a) Slash-and-burn agriculture on nutrient-poor soil in the tropics (b) Industrial agriculture on rich topsoil in Iowa

FIGURE 7.7 Regional soil differences affect how people farm. In tropical forested areas such
as Indonesia (a), farmers pursue swidden agriculture by the slash-and-burn method because trop-ical
rainforest soils (inset) are nutrient-poor and easily depleted. On American farmland (b), less
rainfall means fewer nutrients are leached from the topsoil, and more organic matter accumulates,
forming a thick, dark topsoil layer (inset).

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 14

 there is less rainfall andtherefore less leaching, so nutrients Sustainable approaches to irrigation
remain within reach of plants’ roots. Plants return nutrients to
the topsoil asthey die, maintaining its fertility. This creates
maximize efficiency
the thick, rich topsoil of temperate
FaQ
One of the most effective ways to reduce water use in agricul-ture
grasslands, which can be farmed is to better match crops and climate. Many arid regions
repeatedly with minimal loss of have been converted into productive farmland through exten-sive
fertility as long as farmers guard irrigation, often with the support of government sub-sidies
Whatis “slash-and-burn”
against loss of soil. that make irrigation water artificially inexpensive.
agriculture?

Soils of tropical rainforests are not Some farmers in these areas cultivate crops that require
large amounts of water, such as rice and cotton. This leads
well suited for cultivating
because they contain relatively low
crops
Wateringand to extensive water loss from evaporation in the arid climate.

Fertilizing
levels of plant nutrients. Instead, Choosing other crops that require far less water could enable
most nutrients are tied upin the these areasto remain agriculturally productive while greatly
forest’s lush vegetation.
farmers cut tropical rainforest for
When
Crops reducing
Another
water use.
approach is to embrace technologies that
agriculture, they enrich the soil by improve efficiency in water use. Currently, irrigation effi-ciency
Just as soil is a crucial resource
burning the plants on site. The worldwide is low, as plants end up using only about
for farming and ranching, so are
nutrient-rich ash is tilled into the 40% of the water that we apply. The rest evaporates or soaks
water and nutrients. Plants require
soil, providing sufficient fertility to into the soil away from plant roots (FIGURE 7.8a). Drip irri-gation
grow crops. Unfortunately, the
water and morethan a dozen vital
systems that target water directly toward plant roots
nutrients from the ash are usually nutrientsfor growth, and cropsand
through hoses or tubes can increase efficiencies to more than
depleted in just a few years. At
livestock are provided with supple-mental
90% (FIGURE 7.8b). Such drip irrigation systems are used on
this point,farmers movedeeper water and nutrients when
the Kennesaw State University campus farms that supply The
into the forest and slash and burn needed,to boostproduction.
Commons with much of its produce, greatly reducing water
another swath ofland, causing
use. In addition, rainwater is gathered in barrels atop the roof
additional impacts to these pro-ductive
and biologically diverse Irrigation boosts of The Commons; rainwater harvesting is another technique
for making good use of water. As systems for drip irriga-tion
ecosystems (p. 86).
productivity but can and rainwater harvesting become more affordable, more

damage soil farmers, gardeners, and homeowners are turning to them.

Plants require water for optimum growth, and people have

long supplementedthe waterthat crops receive from rain-fall. Fertilizers boost crop yields but can
The artificial provision of water to support agriculture be overapplied
is known asirrigation. By irrigating crops, people maintain
high yieldsin times of drought andturn previously dry and Along with water,crop plantsrequire nitrogen, phosphorus,
unproductive regions into fertile farmland. Some crops, such and potassium to grow, as well as smaller amounts of more
asrice and cotton, uselarge amounts of waterand generally than a dozen other nutrients. Leachingand uptake by plants
require irrigation, whereas others, such as beans and wheat, removes these nutrients from soil, andif soils come to contain
need relatively little water. too few nutrients, crop yields decline. Therefore, we go to
Worldwide,irrigated acreagehasincreased along with great lengths to enhance nutrient-limited soils by adding
the adoption of industrial farming methods,and 70% of the fertilizers, substances that contain essential nutrients for
fresh water withdrawn by people is applied to crops. In some plant growth.
cases, withdrawing waterfor irrigation hasdepleted aquifers Therearetwo maintypes of fertilizers. Inorganic fertil-izers
and dried up rivers andlakes (pp. 269–271). are mined or synthetically manufactured nutrient supple-ments.
It’s possible to overwater, however. Waterlogging Organic fertilizers consist of the remains or wastes
occurs whenoverirrigation causesthe watertable to rise to of organismsandinclude animal manure,crop residues,fresh
the point that water drowns plant roots, depriving them of vegetation (green manure), and compost, a mixture produced
access to gases and essentially suffocating them. A more whendecomposers break down organic matter,including food
frequent problemis salinization, the buildup of saltsin sur-faceandcrop waste,
in a controlledenvironment.
soil layers. In dryland areas where precipitation is mini-mal One of the highlights of The Commons’ sustainability
and evaporation rates are high, the evaporation of water efforts at KSU is its closed-loop system for recycling wastes.
from the soil’s A horizon maypull water with dissolved Uneatenfood and scrapsfrom food preparationare placedin
salts up from lower horizons. Whenthe water evaporates alarge “digester” tank outside the dining hall. Overtime, the
at the surface, those salts remain on the soil, often turning food items break down inside the digester, generating roughly
the soil surface white. Salinization now reduces produc-tivity1900 L (500 gal) of nutrient-rich waterdaily. Thisliquid is
on 20% of all irrigated cropland, costing morethan trucked to the nearby campus farms, whereit is used as an
$11 billion each year. organic fertilizer

146 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 (a) Flood-and-furrow irrigation (b) Drip irrigation

FIGURE 7.8 Irrigation methods vary in their water use. Conventional methods (a) areinefficient, because
most wateris lost to evaporation andrunoff. In dripirrigation systems(b), hoses drip waterdirectlyinto soil near
plants’ roots, so that muchless is wasted.

Historically, people relied on organic fertilizers to at countlessriver mouths,lakes, and pondsthroughout the
replenish soil nutrients. But during the latter half of the world. Components of some nitrogen fertilizers can even vol-atilize
20th century, farmers in industrialized and Green Revolu-tion (evaporate) into the air, contributing to photochemical
regions widely embraced the use of inorganic fertilizers smog(p. 296)and acid deposition(p. 303).
(FIGURE 7.9). This use has greatly boosted our global food
production, but the overapplication of inorganic fertilizers
is causing increasingly severe pollution problems. Nutrients Sustainablefertilizer useinvolves
from these fertilizers can also have impacts far beyond the
monitoring and targeting nutrients
boundaries of the fields. For instance, nitrogen and phos-phorus
runoff from farms and other sources spurs Sustainable approaches to fertilizing
phyto-plankton crops with inorganic
blooms in the Chesapeake Bay and creates an fertilizers target the delivery of nutrientsto plant roots and
oxygen-depleted “dead zone” that kills animal and plant life avoid the overapplication of fertilizer. Farmers using drip
(Chapter 2). Such eutrophication (pp. 28–30, 276) occurs irrigation systems can add fertilizer to irrigation water,
thereby releasing it only above plant roots. Growersprac-ticing
no-till farming or conservation tillage (p. 150) often
inject fertilizer along with seeds, concentratingit nearthe
180 developing plant. Farmers can also avoid overapplication
by regularly monitoring soil nutrient content and applying
160
fertilizer only whennutrient levels aretoo low. Thesetypes
tons

140 Total of approaches are examples of precision agriculture, which

fertilizer use involves using technology to precisely monitor crop condi-tions,
120
crop needs,andresource use,to maximize production
metric

100 while minimizing waste of resources. In addition, by plant-ing

of

80
buffer strips of vegetation along field edges and water-courses,
(millions
growers can helpto capture nutrientrunoff beforeit
60
enters streams and rivers.
40 Sustainable agriculture embraces the use of organic fer-1970
Fertilizer tilizers, becausethey can provide some benefitsthat inor-ganic
20
fertilizers cannot. Organic fertilizers provide not only
0 nutrients but also organic matter that improves soil struc-ture,
1960 1980 1990 2000 2010 nutrient retention, and water-retainingcapacity. When
Year manure is applied in amounts needed to supply sufficient
FIGURE 7.9 Use of synthetic, inorganic fertilizers has risen
nitrogen for a crop, however, it mayintroduce excess phos-phorus,
sharply over the past half-century. Today, usage stands at whichcanrun off into waterways.Accordingly,sus-tainable
morethan 190 million metrictons annually. Datafrom InternationalFertil-izer approaches do not rely solely on organic fertilizers
Industry Association and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2015). but integrate them with the targeted use ofinorganic fertilizer.

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 147

 ConservingAgricultural a form of land degradation
is lost as a result
in which more than
of erosion, soil compaction,
10% of pro-ductivity
forest
Resources removal, overgrazing, drought, salinization, climate change,
water depletion, and other factors. Most such degradation
Throughout the world, especially in drier regions, it has got-ten results from wind and water erosion. By some estimates,
more difficult to raise crops and graze livestock. Soils desertification endangers the food supply or well-being of
have deteriorated in quality and declined in productivity—a more than 1 billion people in over 100 countries and costs
processtermed soil degradation. Eachyear,our planet gains tens of billions of dollars in income each year through
around 80 million people yet loses 5–7 million ha (12–17 mil-lion reduced productivity.
acres, about the size of West Virginia) of productive crop-land
to degradation. The common causes include soil erosion,
nutrient depletion, water scarcity, salinization, waterlogging, Grazing practices can contribute
chemical pollution, changes in soil structure and pH, and loss
to soil degradation
of organic matter from the soil. Over the past 50 years, sci-entists
estimate that soil degradation has reduced potential We have focused in this chapter largely on the cultivation of
rates of global grain production on cropland by 13%. This is crops, but raising livestock is a major component of agricul-ture
a dangerous trend, given that we will need to maximize the and likewise exerts a toll on soils and ecosystems. People
productivity of our farmland if we are to feed an additional across the globe tend more than 3.4 billion cattle, sheep, and
2 billion people by 2050. goats, most of which graze on grasses on the open range. As
A major contributor to the degradation of soil ecosys-tems long as livestock populations do not exceed the rangeland’s
is erosion, the transfer of material from one place to carrying capacity (p. 63) and do not consume grass faster than
another bythe action of wind or water. Deposition occurs it can regrow, grazing can be sustainable. Moreover, human
when eroded material is deposited at a new location. Ero-sion use of rangeland does not necessarily exclude its use by wild-life
and deposition are natural processes that can help create or its continued functioning as a grassland ecosystem.
soil. Flowing water can deposit freshly eroded nutrient-rich However, grazing too manylivestock that destroy too much
sediment across river valleys and deltas, producing fertile of the plant cover impedes plant regrowth. Without adequate
soils. However, erosion can be a problem locally because it regeneration of plant biomass, the result is overgrazing.
generally occurs much more quickly than soil is formed. Ero-sion When livestock remove too much plant cover or churn
also tends to thin the biologically important topsoil layer. up the soil with their hooves, soil is exposed and made vul-nerable
In general, steeper slopes, greater precipitation intensities, to erosion. In a positive feedback cycle, soil erosion
and sparser vegetation all lead to greater water erosion. makes it difficult for vegetation to regrow, a problem that
People have made land more vulnerable to erosion perpetuates the lack of cover and gives rise to more erosion.
through three widespread practices: overcultivating fields Moreover, non-native weedy plants that are unpalatable or
through poor planning or excessive tilling (plowing); over-grazingpoisonous to livestock may invade and outcompete native
rangeland with more livestock than the land can vegetation in the new, modified environment. Too many
support; and clearing forests on steep slopes or with large livestock trampling the ground can also compact soil and
clear-cuts (p. 200). alter its structure. Soil compaction makes it more difficult
In today’s world, humans are the primary cause of soil for water to infiltrate, for soil to be aerated, and for plants’
erosion, and we have accelerated it to unnaturally high roots to expand. All of these effects further decrease plant
rates. A 2004 study concluded that human activities move growth and survival.
over 10 times more soil than all other natural processes on Worldwide, overgrazing causes as much soil degradation
the surface of the planet combined. More than 19 billion ha as cropland agriculture does, and it causes more desertifica-tion.
(47 billion acres) of the world’s croplands suffer from ero-sion Degraded rangeland costs an estimated $23 billion per
and other forms of soil degradation. Farmlands in the year in lost agricultural productivity.
United States, for example, lose roughly 5 tons of soil for
every ton of grain harvested. A 2007 study found an even
greater degree of human impact, but also pointed toward The Dust Bowl prompted the United
a solution,
approaches
revealing
erodes at slower
that land farmed
rates than land
with sustainable
under industrial
Statesto fight erosion
farming practices. Prior to the large-scale cultivation of North America’s Great
Plains, native prairie grasses of this temperate grassland
region held soils in place. In the late 19th and early 20th
Desertification reduces productivity centuries, many homesteading settlers arrived in Oklahoma,

of arid lands Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, and Colorado with hopes of
making a living there as farmers. Farmers grew abundant
Much of the world’s population lives and farms in drylands, wheat, and ranchers grazed manythousands of cattle, con-tributing
arid and semi-arid environments that cover about 40% of to erosion by removing native grasses and altering
Earth’sland surface. Theseareasare proneto desertification, soil structure

148 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 North
Montana Minnesota
Dakota

South
Wisconsin
Dakota
Wyoming

Iowa
Nebraska

Utah Illinois
Colorado Kansas

Missouri
Arizona
Oklahoma
New
Mexico Arkansas

(a) Kansas dust storm, 1930s Texas

Louisiana

Severity of Erosion
FIGURE 7.10 Drought and poor agricultural practices devas-tated
millions of U.S. farmers in the 1930s in the Dust Bowl.
Severe Most severe
The photo (a) shows a dust storm approaching Rolla, Kansas. The
map (b) shows the extent of the Dust Bowl region. (b) Dust Bowl region

In the early 1930s, a drought exacerbated the ongoing
human impacts, andthe region’s strong winds began to erode
millionsoftons oftopsoil. Duststormstraveled upto 2000km
(1250 mi), blackening rain and snow as far away as New York
and Washington, D.C. Some areaslost 10 cm (4 in.) of top-soil the next. Soybeans are legumes, plants that have specialized
in a few years. The mostaffectedregion in the southern
Great Plains became known asthe Dust Bowl, a term now
also used for the historical event itself. The “black blizzards”
of the Dust Bowlravagedtowns in the heartlandandforced
thousands of farmers off their land (FIGURE 7.10).
In response, the U.S. government, along with state and
local governments,increasedits support for research on soil
conservation practices. The U.S. Congress passed the Soil
Conservation Act of 1935, establishing the Soil Conserva-tion
Service(SCS). This new agency workedclosely with
farmers to develop conservation plans for individual farms.
The SCS (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service)
served as a modelfor other nationsthat establishedtheir
own soil conservation agencies to aid farmers in fighting
soil erosion.
Sustainable agriculture begins with
soil management
A number of farming techniques can reduce the impacts of
conventional cultivation on soils and combat soil degradation
(FIGURE7.11). Not all these approaches are new, as some
have been practiced since the dawn of agriculture.
Crop rotation In crop rotation, farmers alternatethe type
of crop grown in a given field from one season or year to the
next (FIGURE7.11a). Rotatingcrops can return nutrientsto
the soil, break cycles of disease associated with continuous
cropping, and minimize the erosion that can come from let-ting
fields lie uncultivated. Many U.S.farmers rotate their
fields between wheat or corn and soybeans from one year to
bacteria on their roots that fix nitrogen(p. 42), revitalizing
soil that the previous crop had partially depleted of nutrients.
Croprotation also reduces insect pests;if an insect is adapted
to feed andlay eggs on onecrop, planting a differenttype of
crop will leave its offspring with nothing to eat.
In a practice similar to crop rotation, manyfarmers plant
temporary cover crops, such as nitrogen-replenishingclover,
to prevent erosion after crops have been harvested.
Contour farming Waterrunning down a hillside withlit-tle
vegetative cover can easily carry soil away, so farmers have
developed several methodsfor cultivating slopes. Contour
farming (FIGURE7.11b)consistsof plowingfurrows sideways
across a hillside, perpendicular to its slope and following the
natural contours of the land. In contour farming, the side of
eachfurrow actsas a small damthat slowsrunoff and captures
eroding soil. Farmers also plant buffer strips of vegetation
along the borders of their fields and along nearby streams,
whichfurther protectagainsterosionand waterpollution.
Terracing On extremely steepterrain, the mosteffective
methodfor preventing erosionis terracing (FIGURE7.11c).
Terraces are level platforms, sometimes with raised edges,
that are cut into steep hillsides to contain water from irriga-tion
and precipitation. Terracingtransforms slopesinto series
of steps like a staircase, enabling farmers to cultivate hilly
land withoutlosing hugeamountsof soil to watererosion.

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 14

 (a) Crop rotation (b) Contour farming

(c) Terracing (d) Intercropping

(e) Shelterbelts (f) No-till farming

FIGURE 7.11 Farmers have adopted various strategies to conserve soil. These include rotating crops (a),
contour farming (b), terracing (c), intercropping (d), planting shelterbelts (e), and no-till agriculture (f).

Intercropping Farmers may also minimize erosion by can be combined with intercropping; mixed crops are planted
intercropping, planting different types of crops in alternat-ing in rows surrounded by or interspersed with rows of trees that
bands (FIGURE 7.11d). Intercropping helps slow erosion provide fruit, wood, and wildlife habitat, as well as protection
by providing more ground cover than does a single crop. Like from wind.
crop rotation, intercropping reduces vulnerability to insects
and disease and, when a nitrogen-fixing legume is planted, Conservation tillage Conservation tillage describes
replenishes the soil with nutrients. approaches that reduce the amount of tilling (plowing) rela-tive
to conventional farming. Turning the earth by tilling
Shelterbelts Atechniqueto reduce erosionfrom windis aerates the soil and works weeds and old crop residue into
to establish shelterbelts, or windbreaks (FIGURE 7.11e). These the soil to nourish it, but tilling also leaves the surface bare,
are rows of trees or other tall plants that are planted along the allowing wind and waterto erode away precious topsoil.
edges of fields to slow the wind. On the Great Plains, fast-growing No-till farming is the ultimate form of conservation till-age
species such as poplars are often used. Shelterbelts (FIGURE 7.11f). Rather than plowing after each harvest

150 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 Policy can promote conservation
SUCCESS Saving Soils in South America with No-Till
STORY Farming measuresin agriculture
Many nations spend billions of dollars in government sub-sidies
When agriculture in South America vastly expanded in the to support agriculture. In the United States,roughly
1970s, farmers largely used conventional soil tilling. This prac-tice, one-fifth of the income of the average farmer comes from
however, led to massivelosses of topsoil and organic subsidies. Proponents stress that the uncertainties of weather
matter due to erosion from torrential makeprofits andlossesfrom farming unpredictablefrom year
rainfall in wetter regions, and dry, to year. To persist, these proponents say, an agricultural sys-tem
windy winters in the more arid needs some wayto compensate farmers for bad years.
regions. Farms in the wetter This maybethe case,but subsidiescan encouragepeopleto
portions of Brazil, for exam-ple, cultivate land that would otherwise not be farmed; to produce
saw soil organic matter morefood than is needed,driving down pricesfor other pro-ducers;
decrease by up to 50% after and to practice unsustainable farming methodsthat
only afew years of conven-tional further degradethe land. They suggest that a better model is
tilling. for farmersto buyinsuranceto protectagainstshort-term pro-duction
Withtheir livelihoods failures, an approach increasingly embraced by the
threatened, farmers—with the U.S. government in its support for agriculture.
vigorous support of national Farmers across Brazil have
Whilegovernmentsubsidies maypromote soil degrada-tion,
governments—enthusiastically embraced no-till agriculture.
the U.S. Congress has also enacted provisions promot-ing
embraced the emerging tech-nology soil conservation through the farm bills it passes every
of no-till agriculture. Farmers, on farms big and small, five to six years. Manyprovisions require farmersto adopt
were trained in no-till farming techniques, which were aided soil conservation practices before they can receive subsidies.
by the availability ofinexpensive, locally produced herbicides The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), established
for weed suppression. Farmers not only saw topsoil losses in the 1985 U.S.Farm Bill, paysfarmers to stop cultivating
significantly decrease—by up to 97% in the wetter portions highly erodible cropland and instead place it in conservation
of Brazil and 80%in Argentina—but also enjoyedincreased reserves planted with grassesand trees. Lands under the Con-servation
crop yields and higher profitability from reduced labor and fuel ReserveProgramnow cover an area nearlythe size
costs. Today, the use of no-till farming is widespread in South of Virginia, and the United States Department of Agriculture
America, being used on 90% of croplandin Paraguay, 80%in (USDA) estimates that each dollar invested in this program
Argentina and Uruguay, and 50% in Brazil (80% in southern saves nearly 1 ton of topsoil. Besidesreducing erosion,the
Brazil), saving tons of soil each year from erosion in this major CRP generates income for farmers, improves water quality,
food-producing region. and provides habitat for wildlife. Recently,the federal govern-ment
EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science
paidfarmers about $2 billion per yearfor the conser-vation
of 11 million ha (27 million acres) of land. The 2014
Farm Bill continued this program, but capped the amount of
land it could cover by 2017at 10 millionha(24 millionacres).
Internationally, the United Nations promotes soil conserva-tion
farmers leave crop residues atop their fields or plant cover andsustainableagriculturethrough a variety of programs
crops, keeping the soil covered with plant material at all led byits Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
times. This reduces erosion by shielding the soil from wind
and water. To plant the next crop, they cut a thin, shallow
groove into the soil surface,
using a machine called a no-till
drop in seeds, and cover them,
drill. By planting seeds of the
Controlling Pests,
new crop through
organic material
the residue
accumulates,
of the old, less soil erodes away,
and the soil soaks up more
PreservingPollinators
water—all of which encourage better plant growth. Throughoutthe history of agriculture, the insects, fungi,
By increasing organic matter and soil biota while viruses, rodents, and weedsthat eat, infect, or compete with
reducing erosion, conservation tillage can improve soil our crop plants have taken advantage of the ways wecluster
quality and combat global climate change by storing carbon food plantsinto agricultural fields. Pestspose an especially
in soils. Today across the United States, nearly one-quarter great threat to monocultures, where a pest adapted to special-ize
of farmland is under no-till cultivation, and more than onthe crop can moveeasily from plant to plant.
40% is farmed using conservation tillage. Forty percent of Whatpeopleterm a pestis any organismthat damages
soybeans, 21% of corn, and 18% of cotton receive no-till crops that are valuable to us. What weterm a weedis any
treatment. All of these conservation approaches are having plant that competes with our crops. There is nothing inher-ently
positive effects: According to U.S. government figures, malevolentin the behavior of a pest or a weed.These
soil erosion on cropland in the United States declined from organisms are simply trying to survive and reproduce, like all
3.05 billion tons in 1982 to 1.72 billion tons in 2010. living things, butthey affectfarm productivity whendoingso.

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 15

 Wehave developed thousands individuals within populations vary in their genetic makeup.
Because most insects, weeds, and microbes can exist in huge
of chemical pesticides numbers, it is likely that a small fraction of individuals may
by chance already have genes that enable them to metabolize
Because industrial monocultures limit the ability of natural
enemiesto control pest populations,farmers have felt the and detoxify a pesticide (p. 218). These individuals will sur-vive
exposure to the pesticide, whereas individuals without
need to introduce some type of pest control to produce food
these genes will not. If an insect that is genetically resistant to
economically at a large scale. In the past half-century, most
farmers haveturnedto chemicalsto suppresspestsand weeds. an insecticide survives and mates with another resistant indi-vidual,
the genes for pesticide resistance will be passed to their
In that time wehave developed thousands of synthetic chemi-cals
offspring. Asresistant individuals become more prevalent in the
to kill insects (insecticides), plants (herbicides), and fungi
(fungicides). Suchpoisonsarecollectively termed pesticides. pest population, insecticide applications will cease to be effec-tive,
the pest population will increase in size (FIGURE 7.12), and
All told, nearly 400 million kg (900 million lb) of active
agricultural losses to pests will escalate.
ingredients from conventional pesticides are applied in the
In many cases, industrial chemists are caught up in an
United States each year—almost 3 pounds per person. Four-fifths
evolutionary arms race (p. 72) with the pests they battle,
of this total is applied on agricultural land. Since 1960,
racing to increase or retarget the toxicity of their chemicals
pesticideusehasrisenfourfold worldwide. Usage
in industrial-ized
nations hasleveled off, but it continues to rise in the devel-oping while the armies of pests evolve ever-stronger resistance to
their efforts. Because we seem to be stuck in this cyclical
world. Today morethan $44 billion is expended annually
process, it has been nicknamed the “pesticide treadmill.”
on pesticidesacrossthe world.Exposureto synthetic pesticides
Currently, among arthropods (insects and their relatives)
can havehealthimpacts on people and other nontarget organisms
alone, there are more than 10,000 known cases of resis-tance
(Chapter 10), so their usein agriculture hasfar-reaching effects.
by 600 species to morethan 330 insecticides. Hun-dreds
Pests evolveresistance to pesticides more weed species and plant diseases have evolved
resistance to herbicides and other pesticides. Many species,
Despitethe toxicity of pesticides,their effectivenesstendsto including insects such as the green peach aphid, Colorado
decline with time as pests evolve resistance to them. Recall potato beetle, and diamondback moth, have evolved resis-tance
from our discussion of natural selection (pp. 50–57) that to multiple chemicals.

1 Pests attack crops 2 Pesticide is applied 3 Most pests are killed. A few
with innate resistance survive

4 Survivors breed and produce a 5 Pesticide is applied again 6 Pesticide has little effect.
pesticide-resistant population New, more toxic, pesticides
are develope

FIGURE 7.12 Through the process of natural selection, crop pests often evolve resistance to the
poisons we apply to kill them.

152 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 Biological control pits one organism IPM has become popular in many parts of the world that
are embracing sustainable agriculture techniques. Indonesia
against another stands as an exemplary case. This nation had subsidized pes-ticide
use heavily for years, but its scientists came to under-stand
Because of pesticide resistance, toxicity to nontarget organ-isms,
and humanhealthrisks from somesynthetic chemicals, that pesticides were actually making pest problems
worse. They were killing the natural enemies of the brown
agricultural scientists increasingly battle pests and weeds
planthopper, which began to devastate rice fields as its popu-lations
with organisms that eat or infect them. This moresustainable
pestcontrol strategy, called biological control or biocontrol, exploded. Concluding that pesticide subsidies were
costing money, causing pollution, and apparently decreas-ing
operates on the principle that “the enemy of one’s enemy is
yields, the Indonesian government in 1986 banned the
one’s friend.” For example, parasitoid wasps(p. 72) are natu-ral
enemiesof manycaterpillars. These waspslay eggs on a import of 57 pesticides, slashed pesticide subsidies, and pro-moted
IPM. Within just four years, pesticide production fell
caterpillar, and the larvae that hatch from the eggs feed on
by half, imports fell by two-thirds, and the government saved
the caterpillar, eventually killing it. Parasitoid waspsarefre-quently
money by eliminating subsidy payments. Rice yields rose
used as biocontrol agents and have often succeededin
13% with IPM, and since then the approach has spread to
controlling pests and reducing chemical pesticide use.
dozens of other nations, particularly in rice-growing regions
A widespreadbiocontrol effort is the use of Bacillus
in Asia. While the 11-year program was highly successful, its
thuringiensis (Bt), a naturally occurring soil bacterium that
support by the Indonesian government has been inconsistent
produces a protein that kills many caterpillars and some fly
over the past 15 years. This has led pesticide manufacturers
and beetlelarvae. Farmersspray Btspores on their cropsto
to once again aggressively market their products to farmers
protect against insects. In addition, scientists haveisolated the
in the countryside, and some of the very same problems that
gene responsible for the bacterium’s poison, engineering it
into crop plantssothat the plantsproducethe poison(p. 160). gave rise to IPM in the first place are once again occurring.
One classic case of successful biological control is the
introduction of the cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum, from
Argentinato Australiain the 1920sto control the invasive Pollinators are beneficial “bugs”
prickly pear cactus that was overrunning rangeland. Within worth preserving
just a few years, the moth managedto free millions of hect-ares
of Australianrangelandfrom the cactus. Managing insect pests is such a major issue in agriculture that

However, biocontrol approaches entail risks. Biocon-trol it is easy to fall into a habit of thinking of all insects as some-how
organisms are sometimes more difficult to managethan bad or threatening. Butin fact, mostinsects are harmless
chemical controls, becausethey cannot be “turned off” once to agriculture—and some are absolutely essential. The insects

they areinitiated. Further, biocontrol organisms havein some that pollinate crops are among the most vital factors in our food

cases become invasive and harmed nontarget organisms. Fol-lowingproduction. Pollinators are the unsung heroes of agriculture.

the cactus moth’ssuccessin Australia,for example, Pollination (p. 73) is the process by which male sex

it was introduced in other countries to control non-native cells of a plant (pollen) fertilize female sex cells of a plant;

prickly pear. Mothsintroduced to Caribbean islands spread it is the botanical version of sexual intercourse. Pollinators

to Florida ontheir own and are now eatingtheir waythrough are animals that move pollen from one flower to another.

rare native cacti in the southeastern United States. If these Flowers are, in fact, evolutionary adaptations that function to

mothsreach Mexicoand the southwestern United States, attract pollinators. The sugary nectar and protein-rich pollen

they could decimate many native and economically impor-tant in flowers serve as rewards to lure pollinators, and the sweet
species of prickly pear cacti. Because of concerns about smells and bright colors of flowers advertise these rewards.

unintendedimpacts, researchersstudy biocontrol proposals Our staple grain crops are derived from grasses and are

carefully before putting them into action. wind-pollinated, but 800 types of cultivated plants rely on
bees, wasps, beetles, moths, butterflies, and other insects for
pollination. Farmers in the United States alone gain an esti-mated
Integrated pest management $17 billion per year in pollination services from the
combines varied approaches introduced European honeybee that beekeepers have domes-ticated

to pest control for use with crops, and more than $3 billion per
year from many of the nation’s 4000 species of wild native
As it became clear that both chemical and biocontrol bees. However, scientific data indicate that populations
approaches pose risks, agricultural scientists and farmers of honeybees and of wild native bees are declining steeply
began developing more sophisticated strategies, trying to across North America.
combine the best attributes of each approach. Integrated Scientists studying the pressures on bees, butterflies,
pest management (IPM) incorporates numerous techniques, and other pollinators are concluding that they are suffering a
including close monitoring of pest populations, biocontrol “perfect storm” of stresses—many of which result from indus-trial
approaches,useof synthetic chemicals whenneeded,habitat agriculture. A direct source of mortality is the vast arsenal
alteration, crop rotation, transgenic crops, alternative tillage of chemical insecticides we apply to crops, lawns, and gardens
methods,and mechanicalpestremoval. (see THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY). Pollinators have also

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 15

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Go
toProcess
ofScience
onMastering
Environmental
Science

WhatRole Do Pesticides Playin the Collapse

of Bee Colonies?
Chemical pesticides have been implicated as prevent the creation of a new queen while she is healthy and
one of the factors scientists believe may active. But when the queen becomes old or dies, her phero-mones
be contributing to the elevated rate are nolonger present and the workers create new queens
of honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony byfeeding several larval worker bees a high-nutrient food called
collapses observed over the past royal jelly. The newly created queens then embark on a mating
decade (p. 156). Highly con-trolledflight, during which they are fertilized by male bees, called drones,
laboratory studies have and they are then able to begin their life as the matron of a hive.
shown that honeybees suffer As part of the study, vanEngelsdorp’s team surveyed a
physiological harm, increased total of 91 bee colonies from March 2007 to January 2008.
mortality, and altered behav-ioral The colonies were part ofthree migratorycommercial beekeep-ing
patterns when exposed operations that, starting in Florida, moved northward up
to elevated levels of some the East Coast of the United States, pollinating farmers’ crops
common agricultural pesticides. (a service for whichthe farmers paidthe beekeepers). Between
These studies, which typically pollination jobs, the bees foraged in natural areas for pollen to
test single pesticides at a time, create honey, or rested in holding areas where the hives were
have provided extremely valu-able maintained and prepared for their next job.
insight into the toxicity lev-els Pesticides can become concentrated in beehives because
Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, of some pesticides for bees, bees forage over a wide area in their search for pollen and nec-tar,
University of Maryland but do not capture the stresses often covering 100 km2 (38 mi2)around the hive. Forager
faced by bees in natural settings, bees bring pollen, some of it containing agricultural pesticides,
where they can be exposed to hundreds of potentially harmful back to the hive and store it in honeycomb cells near develop-ing
chemicals. beelarvae. Nurse bees consume this pollen-rich substance,
Arecent study—led by Dennis vanEngelsdorp ofthe University called “beebread,” and use specialized glands to convert it to a
of Maryland and published in 2016 in Nature Scientific Reports—took protein-rich and calorically dense secretion that is then fed to
on the challenge of determining how the multitude of pes-ticidesthe larvae (FIGURE 1). Nectar, which can also be contaminated
in the environment may be affecting honeybee colonies. with pesticides, is similarly deposited in honeycomb cells and is
The researchers embraced an approach by which they treated the used to create honey, which sustains the worker bees and the
highly organized, communal beehive as a single “super-organism” queen throughout their adult lives. Thus, contaminated pollen
and measured the cumulative pesticide exposures experienced and nectar from up to 100 km2 can become concentrated inside
by colonies during a typical agricultural season. They then com-pared a single beehive, potentially affecting alllife stages of the colony.
the pesticide exposures of individual colonies with mea-sures
of colony health—such as whether the colony survived the
season orif the colony lost its queen—to identify factors related to
pesticide exposure that may predict bee colony collapses.
Treating a bee colony as a single organism makes logical
sense, as a thriving honeybee colony depends on the collective
efforts of hundreds or thousands ofindividual bees, so stressors
that impair even one of the critical functions that sustain the hive
can causethe entire colonyto collapse. Hivestypically have a sin-gle
queen, a fertile female whose mainfunction is to deposit eggs
into honeycomb cells within the hive; the queen is the mother of
most,if not all, bees in the hive. Worker bees, the most numer-ous
class of bees in the hive, are sterile females that have many
responsibilities. Nurse bees are workers that care for the queen
and the larval bees that hatch from her eggs. Foragers leave the
hive to forage for food, such as nectar and pollen, which they
bring back to the hive. Other workers maintain, clean, and defend FIGURE 1 Nurse bees tending to larvae in the hive. Nearby
the hive. Chemicals secreted by the queen, called pheromones, honeycomb cells are used to store beebread while others store honey.

154 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Foo

 Thisis akinto bioaccumulation (p. 221), wheretoxic substances indicated that as the number of detected pesticides increased,
attain higher concentrations in the tissues of organisms than are so did the chances of the hive dying, regardless of the
found in the surrounding environment. concentration of each pesticide in the hive. In the words of
To assess the colony’s cumulative pesticide exposure, the vanEngelsdorp, “Our results fly in the face of one of the basic
researchers collected samples of beebread throughout the sea-son, tenets oftoxicology—that the dose makes the poison” (p. 223).
and took samples of honeycomb wax(in which larvae were The researchers hypothesized that as the sheer number of
brooded and honey and beebread were stored) at the begin-ning toxic compounds increased in the hive, the bees experienced
and end of the season. The samples were then sent to a extreme physiological stress as they tried to detoxify such a
laboratory and screened for the presence of 171 common agri-culturaldiverse collection of contaminants within their bodies. In some
pesticides. At the end of the season, the researchers cases this stress was simply too much to overcome, and the
noted which hives survived the entire season, as well as those hive collapsed as more and more workers perished.
that experienced a “queen event”—the death of the queen bee. When examining queen events, the study determined that
The death of the queen can occur naturally, but is also seen hives experiencing a queen event (1) contained moretotal pesti-cides
in stressed hives where the worker bees, perceiving something in their beebread and wax and (2) had a higher HQin wax
is wrong with the queen, kill her and attempt to replace her than hives that maintained their queen throughout the season
with a new queen. These events are predictors of hive survival, (FIGURE 2). So, while the concentration of pesticides in the hive,
as studies have shown that as the number of queen events as measured by HQ, did not correlate with the survival of the
increases in a hive, so does its likelihood of dying. hive, it did correlate with queen events, suggesting that hives
For each of the beebread and honeycomb wax samples with higher cumulative concentrations of pesticides were more
collected, the researchers determined the total number of pes-ticideslikely to experience the loss of their queen.
detected, the number of those pesticides that exceeded Additionally, the team found that fungicides, which are sprayed
accepted toxicity levels, and the colony’s “hazard quotient (HQ),” on crops to reduce damage from fungal infections, correlated with
a measure of the cumulative toxicity the hive experienced from increased risk of hive death. This result was unexpected. While
all the detected pesticides. These three measures were then laboratory studies had shown that bee larvae experience higher
subjected to correlation analysis with measures of hive health to mortality when exposed to elevated concentrations of some fun-gicides,
determine how the bee colonies responded to the diverse collec-tion it was thought that the relatively lower concentrations of
of chemical pesticidesin the modernagricultural environment. fungicides bees experiencein agricultural settings weresafe.
In all, 93 different pesticides were detected in the colo-nies It is important to note that correlative studies (p. 11) such
over the course of the season. More than half of the bee as this one do not establish causation. Rather, they highlight
colonies perished during the study period, with hive mortality connections between factors, providing a roadmap of promis-ing
rates increasing as the season progressed. Correlation analy-sis avenues for future research. This study, and others like it to
revealed that the likelihood of a colony dying was positively come, maytherefore play a valuable role in aiding scientists to
correlated with the total number of pesticides in beebread and one day unravel the mystery of what is killing one of the most
honeycomb wax but not with the concentration of the pesti-cides,important organisms in modern agriculture—and help us find
as measured by HQ. This was an unexpected result; it solutions to save our bees.

15 4000
Queen event

wax No queen event

3000
in 10
wa

in 2000
HQ

5
residues

of
1000
#

0 0

(a) Total number of pesticides in wax (b) Hazard quotient (HQ) in wax

FIGURE 2 Hives that experienced a “queen event” had significantly more pesticides in their wax
honeycomb and higher hazard quotient (HQ) values in their wax than did hives whose queen survived
the season. Hazard quotient is calculated by dividing the total concentration of pesticides in the wax bythe
lethal dose of each detected pesticiderequired to kill 50% ofthe beesin a sample(the pesticide’s LD50;
p. 223). Figurefrom Traynor,K.,et al., 2016.In-hive pesticideexposome:Assessing
risks to migratoryhoneybeesfromin-hive pesti-cide
contamination in the eastern United States. Nature Scientific Reports, 6:33207, http://www.nature.com/articles/srep33207.

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 155

 sufferedlosses of habitatandflower resourcesfor decades,as are chickens. Global meat production has increased fivefold
natural areas are developed. Beesare also being attacked by since 1950, and per capita meat consumption has doubled. The
invasive parasites and pathogens. In particular, two acciden-tally United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) esti-mates
introduced parasitic miteshavesweptthrough honeybee that as more developing nations go through the demo-graphic
populations in recent years, decimating hives. transition (pp. 127–129) and become wealthier, total
Researchers are finding that these multiple sources of meat consumption could nearly double again by the year 2050.
stress seemto interact and cause moredamagethan the sum
of their parts. For example, pesticide exposure and difficulty
finding food might weakena bee’s immune system, makingit Ourfood choices areresource
morevulnerableto parasites.Any or all of thesefactors may choices
possibly play a role in colony collapse disorder, in whichthe
majority of worker beesin a colony disappear, endangering the What we choose to eat has ramifications for how we use
hive by deprivingthe queenandits developing beelarvae of resources that support agriculture. Every time that one organ-ism
their life-sustaining workers. For the past decade,this mysteri-ous consumes another, only about 10% of the energy moves
disorder has destroyed up to one-third of all honeybeesin from one trophic level up to the next; the great majority of
the UnitedStateseachyear. energy is used up in cellular respiration (p. 35). For this rea-son,
Fortunately, we have a number of solutions at hand eating meat is far less energy-efficient than relying on a
to help restore bee populations. By retaining or establish-ing vegetarian diet and leaves a far greater ecological footprint.
wildflowers and flowering shrubsin or nearfarm fields, Some animals convert grain feed into milk, eggs, or
farmers can provide bees a refuge and a source of diverse meat more efficiently than others (FIGURE 7.14). Scientists
food resources. Encouraging flowers on highway rights-of-wayhave calculated relative energy-conversion efficiencies for
can provide resourcesto pollinators while beautify-ing
roadsides. In addition, farmers can decreasetheir use of
chemical insecticides by using biocontrol or integrated pest
management.Homeownerscan help pollinators by reducing Feed Produce output
or eliminating the use of pesticides, tending gardens of flow-ering input (edible weight)
plants, and providing nestingsitesfor bees.

Beef

RaisingAnimalsfor Food 20.0 kg 1 kg

Foodfrom cropland agriculture makesup alarge portion of

the human diet, but most of us also eat animal products. Just
asfarming methodshave changed over time, so havethe ways
weraise animalsfor food.
As wealth and global commerce have increased, so has
humanity’s production of meat, milk, eggs, and other animal
Pork
products (FIGURE7.13). The world population of domesti-cated
animals raised for food rose from 7.3 billion animals in 7.3 kg 1 kg
1961 to over 30 billion animals today. Most of these animals

Eggs
4.5 kg 1 kg
40
Meat

Chicken
production

30
2.8 kg 1 kg
Seafood
global

(kg/person/year) 20
Milk

1.1 kg 1 kg
Per-person

10

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 201
FIGURE 7.14 Producing different animal food products
Year
requires different amounts of animal feed. Twenty kilograms
FIGURE 7.13 Per-person production of meat from farmed of feed must be provided to cattle to produce 1 kg of beef. Datafrom
animals and of seafood has risen steadily worldwide. Datafrom Smil, V., 2001. Feeding the world: A challenge for the twenty-first century.

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

156 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 different types of animals. Such energy efficiencies have grazingimpacts these animals would exert acrosslarge por-tions
ramifications for land use: Land and water are required to of the landscape.
raise food for the animals, and some animals require more Intensified animal production through the industrial
than others. FIGURE 7.15 shows the area of land and weight feedlot model has some negative consequences,though.
of water required to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of food protein for Forty-five percent of our global grain production goes to
milk, eggs, chicken, pork, and beef, as well as the greenhouse feed livestock and poultry. This
gas emissions released in the process. Producing eggs and elevatesthe price of staple grains weighingthe
chicken meatrequires
beef requires
the least space and water, whereas pro-ducingand endangers food security for
the most. Such differences make clear the very poor. Livestock produce ISSUeS
that when we choose what to eat, we are also indirectly choos-ing prodigious amounts of manure
Feedlots and animal rights
how to make use of resources such as land and water. and urine, and their waste can
pollute surface water and ground-waterAnimal rights advocates denounce

factory farming because they argue

Feedlots have benefits and costs nearfeedlots. Thecrowded
that it mistreats animals. Chick-ens,
conditions under which animals
pigs, and cattle are crowded
In traditional agriculture, livestock are kept by farming fami-lies are often kept necessitate heavy
together in small pens their entire
neartheir homes or are grazed on open grasslandsby use of antibiotics to control dis-ease.
lives, fattened up, and slaughtered.
nomadic herders or sedentary ranchers. Thesetraditions sur-vive, The overuse of antibiotics
Should we concern ourselves with
but the advent of industrial agriculture has brought a can cause microbes to become
the quality oflife of the animals that
new method.Feedlots, also known asfactory farms or con-centrated
resistant to the antibiotics (just
constitute part of our diet? Do you
animal feeding operations (CAFOs), are essentially as pests become resistant to pes-ticides),
think animal rights concerns are as
huge warehouses or pens designedto deliver energy-rich food making these drugs less important as environmental con-cerns?
to animalsliving at extremelyhigh densities.Todaynearly half effective. Are conditions at feedlots a
the world’s pork and most of its poultry come from feedlots. Livestock are also a major good reason for being vegetarian?
Feedlot operations allow for economic efficiency and source of greenhouse gases, such
increased production, which make meataffordableto more as methane,that lead to climate
people. Concentrating cattle and other livestock in feedlots change (p. 313). The FAO reported in 2013 that livestock
also removes them from rangeland, thereby reducing the agriculture contributesover 14% of greenhousegasemissions

450
300
400
750

250 350

(kg) (kg
300
(m2)
200
500
water
250
area

150
of

equivalents
200
Land

Weight
150
100
CO2

250
100
50
50

0 0 0
Beef Pork Milk Eggs Beef Milk Pork Eggs Beef Milk Pork Eggs
Chicken Chicken Chicken

(a) Land required to produce 1 kg of (b) Water required to produce 1 kg of (c) Greenhouse gas emissions released
protein protein in producing 1 kg of protein

FIGURE 7.15 Producing different types of animal products requires different amounts of (a) land and
(b) water—and releases different amounts of(c) greenhouse gas emissions. Raisingcattlefor beef exerts
the greatest impacts in all three ways. Data(a, b)from Smil,V.,2001. Feedingthe world:A challengeforthetwenty-firstcentury.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; and (c) from FAO, 2015. Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model (GLEAM).

Answer the following in terms of protein, pound for pound. • How manytimes moreland does it take
to produce beef than chicken? • How manytimes more water does beef require, compared with
chicken? • How manytimes more greenhouse gas emissions does beef release, relative to chicken?

Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 157

 worldwide. On a brighter note, the FAO judged that green-house
gas emissions from livestock could be reduced by as
much as 30% with the widespread adoption of best practices
in livestock production.
Not all livestock are raised in intensive facilities, how-ever.
Meat, eggs, and dairy products are also produced from
“free-range” animals that are not always confined indoors or
in pens. The certification of an operation as free range is quite
broad, though. For example, the only requirement the USDA
imposes for certifying poultry operations as “free range” is
that the birds be given access to the outdoors. The Kennesaw
State University farms maintain some 60 free-range chick-ens,
and these hens supply The Commons with 300 or more
eggs weekly. Raising animals in this manner can be costlier
than in intensive facilities, so prices for free-range meat and
eggs are often higher than for conventionally raised animals.

FIGURE 7.16 Transgenic salmon (top) grow faster than wild

Weraise seafood with aquaculture salmon of the same species. They often reach alarger size;
these two fish are the same age.
Besides growing plants as crops and raising animals on range-lands
and in feedlots, we rely on aquatic organisms for food.
Increased demand and new technologies have led us to overhar-vest
example, if salmon that have been genetically engineered
most marine fisheries (pp. 281–283); as a result, wild fish
for rapid growth wereto escapefrom aquaculturefacilities,
populations are plummeting throughout the world’s oceans.
they could spread disease orintroduce genesinto wild salmon
This means that raising fish and shellfish on “fish farms” may
populations (FIGURE 7.16).
be the only way to meet our growing demand for these foods.
The cultivation of aquatic organisms for food in con-trolled
environments,
with over
called
220 freshwater
aquaculture,
and
is now
marine species
being pur-sued
of fish,
GeneticallyModifiedFood
crustaceans, mollusks, and plants. Many aquatic species are
The Green Revolution enabled us to feed a greater number
grown in open water in large, floating net-pens. Others are
and proportion of the world’s people, but relentless popula-tion
raised in ponds or holding tanks. Aquaculture is the fastest-growing
growth is demanding still moreinnovation. A new set
type of food production; in the past 20 years, global
of potential solutions began to arise in the 1980s and 1990s
output has increased fivefold. Most widespread in Asia, aqua-culture
as advancesin genetics enabled scientists to directly alter
today produces $125 billion worth of food and pro-vides
the genes of organisms, including crop plants andlivestock.
three-quarters of the freshwater fish and two-thirds of
The genetic modification of organisms that provide usfood
the shellfish that we eat.
holds promise to enhance nutrition and the efficiency of
Aquaculture helps reduce fishing pressure on overhar-vested
agriculture while lessening impacts on the planet’s environ-mental
and declining wild stocks. Furthermore, aquaculture
systems. However, genetic modification may also
consumes fewer fossil fuels and provides a safer work envi-ronment
poserisks that are not yet well understood. This possibility
than does commercial fishing. Fish farming can also
has given rise to anxiety and protest by consumer advocates,
be remarkably energy-efficient, producing as much as 10
small farmers, environmental activists, and critics of big
times more fish per unit area than is harvested from waters of
business.
the continental shelf and up to 1000 times more than is har-vested
from the open ocean.
Along with its benefits, aquaculture has disadvantages.
Foods can be genetically modified
Aquaculture can produce prodigious amounts of waste, both
from the fish and shellfish and from the feed that goes uneaten Genetic engineering is any process whereby scientists
and decomposes in the water. Like feedlot animals, commer-cially directly manipulate an organism’s genetic material in the lab-oratory
farmed fish often are fed grain, and this affects food by adding,deleting, or changingsegmentsofits DNA
supplies for people. In other cases, farmed fish are fed fish (p. 32). Genetically modified (GM) organisms are organ-isms
meal made from wild ocean fish such as herring and ancho-vies, that have been genetically engineered using recombi-nant
whose harvest from oceans may place additional stress DNA, whichis DNA that has been patchedtogether
on wild fish populations. from the DNA of multiple organisms (FIGURE 7.17). The goal
If farmed aquatic organisms escape into ecosystems is to place genes that code for certain desirable traits (such
wherethey are not native (as several carp species have done asrapid growth, diseaseresistance, or high nutritional con-tent)
in U.S. waters), they may spread disease to native stocks or into organisms lacking those traits. An organism that
may outcompete native organisms for food or habitat. For contains DNA from anotherspeciesis called a transgeni

158 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 organism, and the genes that have moved between them are have influenced the genetic makeup of our livestock and
called transgenes. crop plants for thousands of years. However, as critics are
The creation of transgenic organisms is one type of quick to point out, the techniques geneticists use to create
biotechnology, the material application of biological sci-ence GM organisms differ from traditional selective breeding in
to create products derived from organisms. Bio-technology
several ways. For one, selective breeding mixes genes from
has helped us develop medicines, clean up individuals of the same or similar species, whereas scientists
pollution, understand the causes of cancer, dissolve blood creating recombinant DNA routinely mix genes of organ-isms
clots, and make better beer and cheese. TABLE 7.1 shows as different as bacteria and plants, or spiders and goats.
several notable developments in GM foods. The stories For another, selective breeding deals with whole organisms
behind them illustrate both the promises and pitfalls of food living in the field, whereas genetic engineering works with
biotechnology. genetic material in the lab. Third, traditional breeding selects
The genetic alteration of plants and animals by peo-ple from combinations of genes that come together naturally,
is nothing new; through artificial selection (p. 52), we whereas genetic engineering creates the novel combinations
directly.

Cell from
Bacterium another organism
Biotechnology is transforming
Nucleus the products around us
DNA
In just three decades, GM foods have gone from science fic-tion
1 2
to mainstream business (FIGURE 7.18). Some GM crops
today are engineered to resist herbicides, so that farmers
Bacterial can apply herbicides to kill weeds without having to worry
chromosome
about killing their crops. Other crops are engineered to
Gene of
Plasmid resist insect attack. Some are modified for both types of
interest
resistance. Resistance to herbicides and insect pests enables
large-scale commercial farmers to grow crops more effi-ciently.
As a result, sales of GM seeds to these farmers in
Recombinant
3 DNA the United States and other countries have risen quickly.

200
Worldtotal
4 180
Industrialized nations
160
Developing nations
Bacterium with planted
140
recombinant
120
plasmid crops

100
hectares GM

of
80
in

60
Cell division and 40
5
Millions

reproduction
20

1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 201

6 Year
Gene transfer to
target organism FIGURE 7.18 GM crops have spread with remarkable
speed since their commercial introduction in 1996.
They now are planted on more than 10% of the world’s cropland.
Data from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech

Applications (ISAAA, 2017).

FIGURE 7.17 To create recombinant DNA, scientists follow
several steps. First they isolate plasmids 1 , small circular DNA Compare the growth in the number of hectares planted
molecules, from a bacterial culture. DNA containing a gene of with GM crops in developing nations from 2007 to 2011
interest is then removed 2 from another organism. Scientists with the growth from 2012 to 2016. • What are some possible
insert this gene into the plasmid to form 3 recombinant DNA. explanations for the slowdown in the cultivation of GM crops in
This recombinant DNA enters 4 new bacteria that reproduce, developing nations in recent years? • If current trends continue,
generating many copies 5 of the desired gene. The gene is then which group of nations will have more GM crops in 2020? • Can
transferred to individuals of the target plant or animal 6 and will be you estimate how much more this group of nations might have?
expressed in the genetically modified organism as a desirable trait,
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
such asrapid growth orinsect resistance.

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 159

 TABLE 7.1 Several Notable Examples of Genetically Modified Food Technologies
CROP DESCRIPTION AND STATUS CROP DESCRIPTION AND STATUS

Golden rice Engineered to produce beta-carotene Bt cotton Engineered with genesfrom bacterium
to fight vitamin A deficiency in Asia Bacillusthuringiensis (Bt), which kills
and the developing world. May offer insects. Hasincreased yield, decreased
only moderate nutritional enhancement insecticide use, and boosted income
despite years of work. Still undergoing for 14 millionsmall farmers in India,
research and development. China, and other nations.

Virus-resistant Resistantto ringspot virus and Roundup-Ready Oneof manycrops engineeredto

papaya grown in Hawai‘i. In 2011 became alfalfa tolerate Monsanto’s Roundup herbi-cide
the first biotech crop approved for (glyphosate). Because the crop
consumption in Japan. can withstand it, the chemical can
be applied in great quantities to kill
weeds. Unfortunately, many weeds are
evolving resistance to glyphosate as
a result. Planted in the United States
from 2005 to 2007, GM alfalfa was
then banned because alawsuit forced
the USDA to better assess its environ-mental
impact. Reapproved in 2011.

GM salmon Engineered for fast growth andlarge
size. The first GM animal approved
for sale as food. To prevent fish from
breeding with wildsalmon and spread-ing
disease to them, the company
AquaBounty promised to
fish sterile and raise them
in inland pens.
Roundup-Ready Tolerant of Monsanto’s Roundup
sugar beet herbicide (glyphosate). Swept to domi-nance
(95% of U.S. crop) in just two
years. As withalfalfa, alawsuit forced
more environmental review, afterit had
maketheir already become widespread. Reap-proved
in 2012.

Biotech potato Resistant to late blight, the pathogen Biotech soybean The most common GM crop in
that caused the 1845 Irish Potato the world, covering nearly half the
Famine and that still destroys $7.5 cropland devoted to biotech crops.
billion of potatoes each year. Being Engineered for herbicide tolerance,
developed by European scientists, insecticidal properties, or both.
but struggling with European Union Like other crops, soybeans may be
(EU) regulations on research. “stacked” with morethan one engi-neered
trait.

Bt corn Engineered with genes from bacte-rium Sunflowers and Research on Bt sunflowers suggests
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which superweeds that transgenes might spread to their
killsinsects. One of many Bt crops wildrelatives and turn them into vigor-ous
developed. “superweeds” that compete with
the crop orinvade ecosystems. This
is mostlikely to occur with squash,
canola, and sunflowers, which can
breed with their wildrelatives.

Globally in 2017, morethan 18 million farmers grew GM over 70% of processed foods in U.S. stores contain GM ingre-dients.
crops on 180 million ha (445 million acres) of farmland—nearly Thus, it is highly likely that you consume GM foods
12% of all cropland in the world. In the United States on a daily basis.
today, roughly 90% of corn, soybeans, cotton, and canola Soybeans account for half of the world’s GM crops
consist of genetically modified strains. This is incredible (FIGURE 7.19a). Ofthe 28 nations growing GM crops in 2017,
growth, considering that GM crop varieties have been com-mercially
five (the United States, Brazil, Argentina, India, and Canada)
planted only since 1996. Worldwide, four of every accounted for over 90% of production, with the United States
five soybean and three of every four cotton plants are now alone growing 40% of the global total (FIGURE 7.19b). More-over,
transgenic, as are one of every three corn plants and one of half of all GM crops worldwide are grown in developing
every four canola plants. It is conservatively estimated that nations

160 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 FIGURE 7.19 So far, genetic
engineering has mainly
involved common crops
Brazil
(24.6%) grown in industrialized
Corn nations. Ofthe world’s GM
(30%)
crops (a), soybeans are the
Argentina
Soybeans (13.6%) most common. Of global acre-age
(51%) United States planted in GM crops (b), the
(39.5%) United States devotes the most
Cotton area. Datafrom the International Ser-vice
India (6.5%)
Canola
(13%) for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech
Applications (ISAAA).

(5%)
Canada (6.1%)

23 other nations
Other crops (1%)
(9.7%)

(a) GM crops by type (b) GM crops by nation

Whatarethe impacts of GMfoods? enhance food security and reduce the need for new farmland,
conserving natural areas. Crops engineered for drought resis-tance
Genetic modification has the potential to advance agriculture reduce the need for irrigation, and those engineered for
by engineering crops with high drought tolerance for use in better nutrition—such as golden rice—combat malnutrition.
arid regions, and by developinghigh-yieldcropsthat canfeed Herbicide-resistant crops promote no-till farming. Planting
our growing population on existing cropland. However, most of insect-resistant GM crops, proponents maintain, also reduces
these nobleintentions havenot yet cometo pass.Thisis largely pesticide applications.
becausethe corporations that develop GM varieties cannot easily Although GM crops do appear to result in lower levels
profit from selling seedto small farmers in developing nations. of insecticide use, studies find that the cultivation of these
Instead, mostbiotech crops have beenengineeredfor insect crops tends to result in more herbicide use. As weeds evolve
resistance and herbicide tolerance, whichimprove efficiency for resistance to herbicides, farmers apply ever-larger quantities
large-scale industrial farmers whocan afford the technology. of herbicide. Worldwide, over 250 weedspecies have evolved
Regardless,proponentsof GMfoods maintainthat these resistance to herbicides, and resistance to the weed-killer
foods bring environmental and social benefits and promote glyphosate is being documented more widely than in the past
sustainable agriculture in several ways.Increased crop yields (FIGURE 7.20).

500 2002

450

400

350
case

300 1
unique

250
of
2
200
First herbicide-tolerant 3
150 crops
Number

introduced 4
100
5
50 2015
6
0
1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 7
Year 8
(a) Known cases of herbicide resistance
9

Glyphosate-resistant
FIGURE 7.20 Weeds are evolving resistance to herbi-cides.
Documented cases of herbicide resistance have surpassed
species
(a) 475 biotypes involving 275 species of plants. In little over a
decade, weed resistance to glyphosate (b) spread across North
America. Datafrom Heap,I.InternationalSurveyof Herbicide-ResistantWeeds.
January, 2017. www.weedscience.com. (b) Spread of glyphosate resistance

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 161

 Most scientists feel that ecological impacts of GM foods favor. This has resulted in farmers being ordered to pay damages
pose the greatest threat. Many conventional crops can inter-breed of tens of millions of dollars to agrobiotech companies.
with their wild relatives (crop varieties of rice can breed Although American consumers have largely accepted GM

FaQ with wild rice, for

there seems little reason to believe
example), so foods,
expressed
consumers
widespread
in Europe, Japan,
unease about genetic
and other nations
engineering.
have
For
that transgenic crops would not do example, opposition to GM foods
Is it safe to eat genetically the same. In the first confirmed in Europe blocked the import of weighingthe
modified
In principle,
foods?
there is nothing about
case,
of canola)
GM oilseed rape (a relative
wasfound hybridizing
hundreds of
U.S. agricultural
millions of dollars in
products from
ISSUeS
the process of genetic engineering with wild mustard. In another 1998 to 2003, until the United
Do You Want Food Labeled?
that should make genetically modi-fied case, creeping bentgrass engi-neeredStates brought a successful case
food anyless safeto eatthan Dozens of nations currently require
for use on golf courses—a before the World Trade Organiza-tion
that genetically modified foods be
food produced by conventional GM plant not yet approved by the (p. 110) to force their import.
methods. Thefact that technol-ogy labeled as such. How would you
USDA—pollinated wild grass up More than 60 nations require
vote if your state held a ballot initia-tive
is used to move a gene does
to 21 km (13 mi) away from its that GM foods be labeled so that
not makethe gene unsafe. Thus, requiring that genetically modi-fied
experimental growing site. Most consumers know what they are
to determine whether GM foods foods be labeled? Consider
scientists think transgenes will buying, but the United States is
pose any health risks, studies that well over 70% of processed
inevitably make their way from not one of them. Proponents of
food now contains GM ingredients,
must be done comparing those
GM crops into wild plants, but labeling argue that consumers such as corn syrup from GM corn.
foods with conventional versions,
the ecological impacts of this are have a right to know what’s in the Would you personally choose
one by one—just as researchers
open to debate. food they buy. Opponents argue among foods based on such label-ing?
wouldstudy any othersubstance
Because biotechnology is that labeling implies the foods Why or why not
for health risks (Chapter 10). Thus
rapidly changing, and because are dangerous and may result in
far, no study has shown undeni-able
the large-scale introduction of lower sales.
evidence of health impacts
on humans from any GMfood, GMOs into our environment is
recent, we cannot yet know every-thing
The Growth of Sustainable
but this lack of evidence does not
guarantee that such foods pose about the consequences.

Agriculture
no risk. A great deal of research is Many experts feel we should pro-ceed
controlled bythe companies that with caution, adopting the
develop GM foods, and we will precautionary principle, the idea
never be able to test all GMfoods. that one should not undertake a Industrial agriculture has allowed food production to keep

Hence, the effects on humans of new action until its ramifications pace with our growing population, but it involves many

consuming GMfoods willlargely are well understood. Others feel adverse environmental and social impacts. These range from
be examined with correlative stud-ies that enough research has been done the degradation of soils to reliance on fossil fuels to problems
(p. 11) overlong time periodsin to allow for informed choices, and arising from pesticide use, genetic modification, and intensive
coming decades. that it is time to double our bet on feedlot and aquaculture operations. Although intensive com-mercial
biotechnology because it appears agriculture may help alleviate certain environmental

to offer more benefits than risks. pressures, it often worsens others. Throughout this chapter,
wehave seen examples of sustainable approaches to agricul-ture
that maintain high crop yields, minimize resource inputs

Public debate over GMfoods into food production, and lessen the environmental impacts of
farming. Let’s now take a closer look at the growth of sustain-able
continues agriculture and its adoption around the world.

Science helps inform us about genetic engineering, but ethical

and economic concerns have largely driven the public debate.
Organicagriculture is booming
For many people, the idea of “tinkering” with the food supply
seems dangerous or morally wrong. Others fear that the global One type of sustainable agriculture is organic agriculture,
food supply is being dominated by a handful of large corpora-tions which uses no synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides,
that develop GM technologies, among them Monsanto, or herbicides. In 1990, the U.S. Congress passed the Organic
Syngenta, Bayer CropScience, Dow, DuPont, and BASF. Crit-ics Food Production Act to establish national standards for
say these multinational corporations threaten family farm-ers, organic products and facilitate their sale. Under this law, in
and recent legal actions by these corporations against small 2000 the USDA issued criteria by which crops and livestock
farmers have stoked such fears. Agrobiotech corporations have could be officially certified as organic, and these standards
taken out patents on the transgenes they’ve developed for use went into effect in 2002 as part of the National Organic Pro-gram.
in GM crops—and some have sued farmers who are found to California, Washington, and Texas established stricter
have GM crops on their land, even if the farmers contend that state guidelines for labeling foods organic, and today many
GM crops from neighboring fields contaminated their non-GM U.S. states and over 80 nations have laws spelling out organic
crops. Court cases have largely been decided in the companies’ standards.

162 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 For farmers, organic farming can bring a number of benefits: conversion is complete, studies suggest that reduced inputs
lower input costs, enhanced income from higher-value produce, and higher market prices can make organic farming at least as
and reduced chemical pollution and soil degradation. Transi-tioningprofitable for the farmer as conventional methods.
to organic agriculture does involve some risk, however,
because farmers must use organic approaches for three years
Locally supported agriculture
before their products can be certified as organic and sold at the
higher prices commanded by organic foods. One of Kennesaw is growing
State University’s campus farms that supplies The Commons
Apart from organic methods, another component of the move
with fruits and vegetables, for example, had to undergo such a
toward sustainable agriculture is an attempt to reduce the use
waiting period before being able to label its produce as “organic.”
of fossil fuels for the long-distance transport of food. The
The main obstacle for consumers to organic foods is
average food product sold in a U.S. supermarket travels at
price. Organic products tend to be 10–30% more expensive
least 1600 km (1000 mi) between the farm and the grocery.
than conventional ones, and some (such as milk) can cost
Because of the travel time, supermarket produce is often
twice as much. However, because many consumers are will-ing
chemically treated to preserve freshness and color.
to pay more for organic products, grocers and other busi-nesses
In response, increasing numbers of farmers and con-sumers
are making them more widely available.
in developed nations are supporting local small-scale
Today, about 80% of Americans buy organic food at
agriculture and adopting the motto “think global, eat local.”
least occasionally, and most retail groceries offer it. U.S. con-sumers
Farmers’ markets are springing upthroughout North America
spent more than $35 billion on organic food in 2016,
as people rediscover the joys of fresh, locally grown produce.
amounting to 5% of all food sales. This is up significantly
At farmers’ markets, consumers buy meats and fresh fruits
from 1998, when organic food sales in the United States were
and vegetables in seasonfrom local producers. These markets
only $5 billion and 1% of all food sales. Worldwide, sales of
generally offer a wide choice of organic items and unique
organic food grew similarly fast, increasing nearly fivefold
local varieties not found in supermarkets. At Kennesaw State
between 2000 and 2016.
University, a weekly, on-campus farmers’ market provides
Production of organicfood is increasing along with demand
students, faculty, and staff with an opportunity to purchase
(FIGURE 7.21). Although organic agriculture takes up less than
fresh produce while supporting local agriculture.
1% of agricultural land worldwide, this area is rapidly expand-ing.
Some consumers are even partnering with local farmers in a
Two-thirds of organic acreage is in developed nations. In
phenomenon called community-supported agriculture (CSA).
the United States, the number of certified operations has more
In a CSA program, consumers pay farmers in advance for a share
than tripled since the 1990s, while acreage devoted to organic
of their yield, usually a weekly delivery of produce. Consumers
crops and livestock has quadrupled. In the European Union,
get fresh seasonal produce, and farmers get a guaranteed income
organic crops are grown on morethan 5% of agricultural land.
stream up front to invest in their crops—a welcome alternative to
Government policies have aided organic farming. In the
taking out loans and being at the mercy of the weather.
United States, the 2014 Farm Bill had a number of provisions
that directly aid organic agriculture, including funds to defray
certification expenses. The European Union supports farm-ers Sustainable agriculture provides
financially during conversion to organic agriculture. Once
aroadmap for the future
A variety of approaches exist as pathways to sustainable agri-culture.
km2) 13 13 On one end of the spectrum is conventional indus-trial
Certified operations
12 12
of
agriculture. It produces high yields, thanks to intensive
Cropland
11 11
inputs of fossil fuels, pesticides, and fertilizers applied to
Pasture/Rangeland
10 10 operation

monocultures. At the other end of the spectrum is organic

9 9
agriculture, which rejects chemical pesticides and fertilizers
(thousands 8 8
and takes a low-input approach, accepting lower yields but
7 7
organic

protecting natural resources that support agriculture in the

6 6
long term. In between are a host of approaches that modify
5 5
elements of conventional industrial agriculture and reduce
certified

production

4 4 of

environmental degradation from food production.

3 3
Sustainable agriculture, like sustainability itself, involves
organic
2 2
in
1 1 a triple bottom line of social, economic, and environmental

0 0
Thousands
dimensions (p. 115). Sustainable agriculture consists of agri-culture
that provides food security to society, that is profitable
Land

1995 2000 2005 2010

Year enough to provide farmers and ranchers a viable living, and
that conserves resources adequate to support future agricul-ture.
FIGURE 7.21 Organic agriculture is growing. Since the 1990s,
U.S. acreage devoted to organic crops andlivestock has quadru-pled, While many paths can be embraced to reach this goal, it
and certified operations have morethan tripled. Datafrom USDA is imperative to follow them if we are to leave a productive,
EconomicResearch
Service. ecologically healthy planet to future generations.

Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 163

 closing the LOOp

Even if we have never set foot on a Today many colleges and universities are managing cam-pus
farm, milked a cow, or shorn a sheep, farms, serving organic food, running trayless dining halls,
we depend on agriculture for our daily composting food scraps, reusing waste oil as biodiesel, and
needs, including food and clothing. It is even growing food for the communities around them. Chances
thus important for all of usto help ensure are that you, as a college student, can take part in such activi-ties
that the world’s agricultural systems are and play a role in helping to reduce the ecological footprint
sound and sustainable. This means safeguard-ing of modern agriculture.
the quality and availability of resources on which crops and If our planet is to support well over 9 billion people by mid-century
livestock rely, including soil, water, nutrients, and pollinators. without further degrading the soil, water, pollinators,
When students at Kennesaw State University enter their din-ing and other resources and ecosystem services that support our
hall,they actually know where a good portion oftheir food food production, we mustfind waysto shift to sustainable agri-culture.
comes from, and how it has been grown. By sourcing produce Biological pest control, organic agriculture, pollinator
locally at its campus farms, The Commons at KSU provides conservation, preservation of native crop diversity, sustainable
wholesome, delicious food produced in sustainable ways. aquaculture and meat production, and likely some degree of
With a minimum of fossil fuel consumption, chemical use, and careful and responsible genetic modification of food may all be
processing, Kennesaw State supplies its students with food parts of the game plan we will need to achieve a sustainable
choices that have alight footprint, thus protecting the region’s future
soil, water, and other agricultural resources.

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Identify patterns in global food security from 1970 to the 6. Name three human activities that can promote soil erosion.
present, and describe the techniques people have used Describe several farming techniques (such as terracing and
to increase agricultural production. no-till farming) that can help to reduce the risk of erosion.
2. Compare and contrast the methods used in traditional 7. Compare and contrast the approaches to controlling pests
and industrial agriculture. How does sustainable used in biological control, in integrated pest management,
agriculture differ from industrial agriculture? and in conventional industrial agriculture. Explain how

3. How are soil horizons created? List and describe the agricultural pests can develop resistance to pesticides.
major horizons in a typical soil profile. How is organic 8. Name several positive and negative environmental
matter distributed in atypical soil profile? consequences of raising animals for food in feedlot
4. Explain how overirrigation can damage soils and reduce operations and aquaculture.

crop yields, and describe how irrigation processes can 9. How is a transgenic organism created? Howis genetic
be made more efficient. engineering different from traditional agricultural

5. Explain the differences between inorganic and organic breeding? How is it similar?
fertilizers. How do fertilizers boost crop growth? Describe 10. Describe the recent growth of organic and locally
approaches that act to reduce nutrient runoff into waterways. supported agriculture in the United States.

SEEKINGSolutions
1. Select two techniques or approaches described in 3. What factors makefor an effective biological control
this chapter that you think are especially effective strategy of pest management? What risks are involved
in sustaining agricultural resources—for instance, in using a biocontrol approach? If you had to decide
in conserving soil or water, orin minimizing nutrient whether to use biocontrol against a particular pest, what
pollution—and describe how each sustains the questions would you want to have answered before you
resource. decide?
2. Describe and assess several waysin which high-input 4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION As part of a class
industrial agriculture can be beneficial for the environment, project, you have been asked to analyze your campus
and several ways in which it can be detrimental. Suggest dining services and to provide alist of approaches
several ways in which we might modify industrial that could increase the sustainability of the dining
agriculture to reduce its environmental impacts. service. If your institution does not have on-campus

164 Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food

 dining operations, assume such a facility is in the Provide arationale for how you ranked the items in
planning stages and that your input will affect its design the list.
and operation. Create a prioritized list of the following 5. THINK IT THROUGH You are a USDA official and must
factors (and any others you’d like to offer) to present decide whether to allow the planting of a new genetically
to the director of campus dining: the establishment of modified strain of cabbage that produces its own pesticide
a campus farm; preferentially purchasing food from and has twice the vitamin content of regular cabbage.
local farms; using “trayless” dining to reduce waste What questions would you ask of scientists before deciding
and conserve water; converting used cooking oil to whether to approve the new crop? What scientific data would
biodiesel; composting organic wastes; and shortening you want to see? Would you also consult nonscientists or
the dining hall’s hours of operation to conserve energy. consider ethical, economic, and social factors

CALCULATINGEcologicalFootprints
Many people who want to reduce their ecological footprint transport from producer to retailer, as measured by food-miles,
have focused on how much energy is expended (and how is just one source of carbon emissions in the overall
many climate-warming greenhouse gases are emitted) in process of producing and delivering food.
transporting food from its place of production to its place of In 2008, environmental scientists Christopher Weber and
sale. The typical grocery store item is shipped by truck, air, H. Scott Mathews conducted a thorough analysis of U.S.
and/or sea for many hundreds of miles before reaching the food production and delivery. By filling in the table below, you
shelves, and this transport consumes petroleum. This con-cern will get a better idea of how our dietary choices contribute to
over “food-miles” has helped drive the “locavore” move-ment climate change.
to buy and eat locally sourced food. However, food’s

TOTAL EMISSIONS1 EMISSIONS1 PERCENTAGE EMISSIONS

FOOD TYPE ACROSS LIFE CYCLE FROM DELIVERY2 FROM DELIVERY2,3

Fruits and vegetables 0.85 0.10 11.8

Cereals and carbohydrates 0.90 0.07

Dairy products 1.45 0.03

Chicken/fish/eggs 0.75 0.03

Red meat 2.45 0.03

Beverages 0.50 0.04

1“Emissions” are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, per household per year.

2“Delivery” means transport from producer to retailer.

3“Percentage emissions from delivery” is calculated by dividing emissions from delivery/total emissions across life cycle, and then multiplying by 100
(to convert proportion to percentage).
Source: Weber, C.L., and H.S. Mathews, 2008. Food-miles and the relative climate impacts offood choices in the United States. Environmental Science and
Technology 42: 3508–3513.

1. Which type of food is responsible for the most 3. After measuring mass, energy content, and dollar value
greenhouse gas emissions across its whole life cycle? for each food type, the researchers calculated emissions
Which type is responsible for the least emissions? per kilogram, calorie, and dollar. In every case, red meat
2. Whatis the range of values for percentage of emissions produced the most emissions, followed by dairy products

from transport of food to retailers (delivery)? Weber and chicken, fish, and eggs. They then calculated
and Mathews found that 83% of food’s total emissions that shifting one’s dietfrom meat and dairy to fruits,
came from its production process on the farm or vegetables, and grains for just one day per week would
feedlot. What do these numbers tell you about how reduce emissions as much as eating 100% locally (cutting

you might best reduce your own footprint with regard food-miles to zero) all the time. Knowing all this, how
to food? would you choose to reduce your own food footprint?
By how much do you think you could reduce it?

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Go to Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Go to Mastering Environmental Science for
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Chapter 7 Soil, Agriculture, and the Future of Food 165

 Biodiversity
and
CHAPTER
Conservation
Biology

166
 central CASESTUDY

WillWeSlicethrough
the Serengeti?
Lake
KENYA
Construction It’s been calledthe greatest wild-life Victoria

of the road will be a huge spectacle on Earth. Each year Serengeti

relief for us. We will sell . . . more than 1.2 million wildebeest National
maize and horticultural Park TANZANIA
migrate across the vast plains of
products to our colleagues in
the Serengeti in East Africa, along
Arusha and they will bring us
with more than 700,000 zebras and hundreds of thou-sands
cows and goats.
of antelope. The herds can stretch as far as the eye
—Bizare Mzazi, a farmer outside

Serengeti National Park can see. Packs of lions track the procession and pick off
the weak and the unwary, while hungry crocodiles waitin
If we construct this road, all ambush at river crossings. After bearing their calves during
our rhinos will disappear. ... the wet season, the wildebeest journey north to find fresh
We should strive to conserve grass. The great herds spend the dry season at the north-ern
our heritage for future end of the Serengeti ecosystem, and then head back
generations.
south to complete their cyclical annual journey.
—Sirili Akko, executive officer of the

Tanzania Association of Tour Operators

This epic migration, with its dramatic interplay of
predators and prey, has cycled on for millennia. Yet
today, the entire phenomenon may be threatened by a proposal to build a commercial high-way
across the Serengeti, slicing straight across the animals’ migratory route.
Before examining the highway proposal, let’s step back for a broad view of the Seren-geti.
The people native to this region, the Maasai, are semi-nomadic herders who have long
raised cattle on the grasslands and savannas. Because the Maasai subsist on their cattle
and have lived at low population densities, wildlife thrived here long after it had declined in
other parts of Africa.
When East Africa was under colonial rule, the British created game reserves to conserve
wildlife for their own hunting. Tanzania, Kenya, and other African nations gained indepen-dence
Upon completing this in the mid-20th century, and the British reserves became the basis for today’s national
chapter, you will be able to: protected areas. Serengeti National Park was established in 1951,
and the Maasai Mara National Reserve was later created
• Characterize the scope of
biodiversity on Earth just across the border in Kenya. These two protected
areas, together with several adjacent ones, encom-pass
• Specify the benefits that
the Serengeti ecosystem. This 30,000-km2
biodiversity brings us
(11,500-mi2) region is one of the last places on
• Discuss today’s extinction crisis in
the planet where an ecosystem remains nearly
geologic context
intact and functional over a vast area.
• Evaluate the primary causes of Today 2 million people from around the
biodiversity loss
world visit Tanzania and Kenya each year,
• Assess the science and practice of most of them ecotourists who visit the parks
conservation biology and protected areas. Serengeti National

• Analyze efforts to conserve Park alone receives 800,000 annual visi-tors.

threatened and endangered Tourism injects close to $3 billion into
species these nations’ economies and creates jobs for

• Compare and contrast

tens of thousands of local people. Because the
conservation efforts above the region’s people see that functional ecosystems full
species level of wildlife bring foreign dollars into their communi-ties,
many support the parks. Indeed, East Africa has
been at the forefront of community-based conservation

A Maasai man herding his cattle

Wildebeest crossing the vast
plains of the Serengeti 16
 (p. 185), in which local people act as stewards managing their nongovernmental organization, the African Network for Animal
own natural resources, often in collaboration with international Welfare, sought to stop the highway with alawsuit in the East
conservationists. Africa Court of Justice, a body that adjudicates international
However, most people living in northern Tanzania remain matters in the region. After various hearings and appeals, this
desperately poor and live without electricity or medical care. court in 2014 issued a final ruling prohibiting the project from
Farmers, villagers, and townspeople along the shores of Lake going forward.
Victoria feel isolated from the rest of Tanzania by a poor road Meanwhile, international pressure rose on Tanzania to
system. Walled off by Serengeti National Park to their east abandon its plans. Highway opponents proposed an alterna-tive
(which does not allow commercial truck traffic on its few dirt route that would wrap around the Serengeti’s southern end,
roads), these people have little access to outside markets to passing through more towns and serving five times as many
buy and sell goods. In response, Tanzania’s president Jakaya people along the way. The World Bank and the German govern-ment
Kikwete promised to build a paved commercial highway across offered to help fund this alternative route instead.
the Serengeti, connecting Lake Victoria communities with cities In 2016, John Magufuli took office as Tanzania’s new
to the east and ports on the Indian Ocean. The World Bank and president. Late that year he resurrected the original highway pro-posal
the German government offered to finance the $480-million and authorized construction of the highway through the
project, and Chinese contractors stood ready to build it. park. Again, the diverse coalition of highway opponents raised
Around the world, conservationists reacted with alarm. The an international outcry, and within weeks Magufuli backed down.
proposed highway would slice right through the middle of the wil-debeest Meanwhile, a new plan kicked off debate. The nation of
migration path (FIGURE 8.1). Scientists predicted that the Uganda wanted to export oilfrom its recently developed oilfields
road would block migration and that vehicles would kill countless eastward to ports on the Indian Ocean. In 2016, three routes for
animals in collisions. A highway would also provide access for an oil pipeline were proposed, and the most direct option would
poaching (the illegal killing of wildlifefor meat or body parts) and cut straight across Serengeti National Park.
would allow an entry corridor for exotic plant species that could Such an oil pipeline (accompanied by a road) would create
invade the ecosystem. A highway would encourage human set-tlementa barrier to migratory animals just as a highway would. It would
right up to the park boundary, makingthe park anisland bring allthe impacts of a highway, along withrisks of oil spills.
of habitat hemmed in by agriculture, housing, and commerce. So, when news of the pipeline project became public, scientists
And by boosting development, a highway could spur the towns and conservationists again rushed to express opposition to a
along Lake Victoria to grow into large cities, creating demand for development corridor through the park. The non-profit group
still-larger transportation corridors in the future. For all these rea-sons, Serengeti Watch said it would sue to stop the proposal in the
experts predicted that the highway would diminish animal East Africa Court of Justice.
populations and possibly destroy the migration spectacle. Faced withthe opposition, Magufuli’s government announced
Such an outcome could devastate tourism, so the region’s that any pipeline route would avoid passing through game
tourism operators opposed the highway. So did most Kenyans, reserves and national parks. Officials instead began studying
who feared that the highway would prevent migratory animals routes around the Serengeti.
from reaching Kenya’s Maasai Mara Reserve. In 2010 a Kenyan Today in Tanzania, poaching is on the rise, and animal
populations are falling. The Serengeti is one of our planet’s last
intact large ecosystems, so impacts here have global ramifica-tions
for biological diversity on Earth. We would all be impover-ished
Proposed new
Lake
highway route if the Serengeti’s biodiversity were lost, so we must hope
Victoria
that Africans can find ways to improve their standard of living
KENYA while conserving their wildlife and natural systems. East Africa
has helped to pioneer win-win solutions in conservation thus far,
so there is hope that it will show the way yet again.

Alternate
(southern bypass)
highway proposal

Lake FIGURE 8.1 A proposed

Victoria KENYA highway would slice through
Serengeti National Park. It would
increase commerce and connect
Tanzanian people on each side,
Serengeti National Park Indian
but would cut across the migration
Other protected areas Ocean
TANZANIA TANZANIA route for wildebeest and other
Wildebeest movement
animals. Highway opponents
Existing major roads
suggest an alternate route around
the park’s southern edge.

168 Chapter 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biolog

 Life’s Diversityon Earth
Rising human population and resource consumption are put-ting
ever-greater pressure on the flora and fauna of our planet.
We are diminishing the ultimate source of our civilization’s
wealth and happiness: Earth’s diversity of life, the very qual-ity
that makes our planet unique. Thankfully, many people
around the world are working tirelessly to save threatened
animals, plants, and ecosystems in efforts to stop the loss of
our planet’s priceless biological diversity.

Biodiversity encompasses
multiplelevels Ecosystem diversity

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variety of life

across all levels of biological organization. It includes diversity
in species, genes,populations,communities, and ecosystems
(FIGURE 8.2). Thelevel that people find easiestto visualize and
that werefer to mostcommonly is species diversity.

Species diversity A speciesis a distinct type of organ-ism,

a set of individuals that uniquely share certain charac-teristics
and can breed with one another and produce fertile
offspring (p. 50). Species form by the process of speciation
(p. 53) and may disappear by extinction (p. 58). Species
diversity describes the number or variety of species found
in a particular area. One component of species diversity is
speciesrichness,the number of speciesinhabiting an area. Species diversit

Another is evenness or relative abundance, the degree to

which species in a given area differ in numbers of individu-als
(greater evenness meansthey differ less).
Biodiversity exists below the species level in the form
of subspecies, populations of a species that occur in different
geographicareasand differ from one anotherin slight ways.
Subspecies arise by the same processes that drive speciation
but result when divergence stops short of forming separate spe-cies.
Asan example,the blackrhinocerosdiversifiedinto about
eight subspecies, eachinhabiting a different part of Africa. The
easternblackrhino, whichis nativeto Kenyaand Tanzania,dif-fers
in its attributes from each ofthe other subspecies.

Genetic diversity Scientists designatesubspecies when Genetic diversity

they recognize substantial genetically based differences
FIGURE 8.2 The concept of biodiversity encompasses
amongindividuals from different populations of a species.
multiple levels in the hierarchy of life.
However, all species consist of individuals that vary geneti-cally
from one another to some degree, and this variation is
an important component of biodiversity. Genetic diversity
genetically similar parents mateand produce weakor defective
encompasses the differences in DNA composition (p. 32)
offspring. Scientistshavesounded warningsoverlow genetic
among individuals, and these differences provide the raw
diversity in species that have dropped to low population sizes,
materialfor adaptationto local conditions. In the long term,
including American bison, elephant seals, and the cheetahs of
populations with more genetic diversity may be morelikely
the East African plains. Diminishedgenetic diversityin our
to persist, because their variation better enablesthem to cope
crop plants is a prime concern to humanity (p. 142).
withenvironmental change.
Populations with little genetic diversity are vulnerable to Ecosystem diversity Ecosystem diversity refers to the
environmental changeif they lack genetic variantsto helpthem number and variety of ecosystems (pp. 36, 59), but biologists
adaptto changing conditions. Populations with low genetic mayalsorefer to the diversity of communities(pp. 59, 73) or
diversity mayalso show less vigor, be morevulnerable to dis-ease,habitats (p. 60). Scientists may also consider the geographic
and suffer inbreeding depression, which occurs when arrangementof habitats,communities,or ecosystemsacrossa

ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 169

 landscape, including the sizes and shapes of patches and the The Serengeti region holds a diversity of habitats, includ-ing
connections among them (p. 38). Under any of these concepts, savanna (p. 87), grassland (p. 85), hilly woodlands, sea-sonal
a seashore of beaches, forested cliffs, offshore coral reefs, and wetlands, and rock outcroppings. This habitat diversity
ocean waters would hold far more biodiversity than the same contributes to the rich diversity of species in the region.
acreage of a monocultural cornfield. A mountain slope whose
vegetation changes with elevation from desert to forest to Biodiversityis unevenly distributed
alpine meadow would hold more biodiversity than a flat area
the same size consisting of only desert, forest, or meadow. In numbers of species, insects show a staggering predomi-nance
over all other forms of life (FIGURE 8.3). Among insects,
about 40% are beetles, and beetle species alone outnumber all
Plants non-insect animal species and all plant species. No wonder
the British biologist J.B.S. Haldane famously quipped that
God must have had “an inordinate fondness for beetles.”
Fungi
Biodiversity is also greater in some places than others.
Insects Near the equator, greater amounts of solar energy, heat, and

Mollusks humidity spur plant growth, making tropical regions more

productive than temperate regions and consequently better

Arachnids able to support larger numbers of organisms. Species diver-sity

generally is higher near the equator, likely because the
Birds steady amount of sunlight year-round and the relatively stable
climates of tropical regions allow numerous species to coex-ist.
Mammals Bacteria
Crustaceans Whereas variable environmental conditions favor general-ists
Reptiles
(species that can tolerate a wide range of circumstances;
Protists/
Flatworms
Sponges p. 60), stable conditions favor specialists (species highly
Amphibians Archaea chromists
adapted to particular circumstances; p. 60).
Structurally diverse habitats tend to create more ecologi-cal
Jellyfish
niches (p. 60) and support greater species diversity. For
Fishes
Echinoderms instance, forests generally support more diversity than grass-lands.
Annelids
Roundworms For any given area, species diversity tends to increase
with diversity of habitats, because each habitat supports a dif-ferent
mix of organisms.
(a) Organisms scaled in size according to species richness

Protists/chromists Vertebrates
Bacteria
33,000 66,00
10,400

Fungi Arachnids
Archaea
140,000 111,000
500

Mollusks Birds
80,000 10,400
Plants
382,000 Reptiles
10,200
Insects Fishes
Animals Other animal 1,014,000 33,100
1,552,000 groups Amphibians
281,000 6400

Mammals
5900
All species Animals Vertebrates

(b) Numbers of species in major groups

FIGURE 8.3 Some groups contain morespecies than others. Theillustration(a) shows organisms
scaled in size to the number of species known from each group, giving a visual sense of their species rich-ness.
The pie charts (b) show that most species are animals and that nearly two-thirds of animals are
insects (whereas vertebrates make up only 4%). Datafrom Roskov,Y.,et al.(eds.), 2017. Species2000 &ITIS catalogue
oflife, 30 June 2017. Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/col. Leiden, the Netherlands: Species 2000: Naturalis.

• What percentage of vertebrate species do mammal species make up? • What percentage of
animal species are mammals? • What percentage of the world’s total species are mammals?
• How manyinsect species exist for every mammal species?

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

170 ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

 Human disturbance
of habitats. This increases
often creates
habitat diversity
patchwork combina-tions
locally; so, in
Benefitsof Biodiversity
moderately disturbed areas, species diversity generally rises. These days mostof uslive in cities and suburbs, spend nearly
However, at larger scales, human disturbance can decrease all our time indoors, and pass hours each day staring at elec-tronic
diversity if it replaces regionally unique habitats with homog-enized screens. It’s no wonder that we often fail to appreci-ate
disturbed habitats, causing many specialist species to how biodiversity relates to our lives. Yet we benefit from
disappear while widespread generalist species thrive.
More-over, biodiversity and it supports our society in fundamental ways.
species that rely on large expanses of habitat disappear Indeed, our cities, homes, and technology would simply not
when those habitats are fragmented by human disturbance. exist without the resources and services that Earth’s living
species provide us.
Manyspecies await discovery
Biodiversity enhancesfood security
Westill are profoundly ignorant of the number of species that
exist. So far, scientists have identified and described about Biodiversity provides the food we eat. Throughout our his-tory,
1.8 million species of plants, animals, fungi, and micro-organisms.
human beings haveusedatleast 7000 plant speciesand
However, estimates for the total number that actu-ally several thousand animal species for food. Today industrial
exist range from 3 million to 100 million, with the most agriculture has narrowed our diet. Globally, we now get 90%
widelyacceptedestimatesin the neighborhoodof 14 million. of our food from just 15 crop speciesand 8livestock species,
Our knowledge of species numbers is incomplete for and this lack of diversity leaves us vulnerable to crop fail-ures.
several reasons. First, manyspecies are tiny and easily over-looked. In a world where 800 million people go hungry, wecan
Theseinclude bacteria, nematodes(roundworms), improve food security (the guaranteeof an adequate,safe,
fungi, protists, and soil-dwelling arthropods. Second, many nutritious, and reliable food supply; p. 140) by finding sus-tainable
organisms are difficult to identify; sometimes, organisms that waysto harvest or farm wild species and rare crop
arethought to be of the same speciesturn out to be differ-ent varieties.
species once biologists examine them moreclosely. Third, TABLE 8.1 shows a selection of promising wild food
some areas of Earth remain little studied. We have barely resources from just one region of the world—Central and
sampledthe oceandepths, hydrothermalvents(p. 35), orthe South America. Plenty of additional new or underusedfood
tree canopies and soils of tropical forests. Thereremain many sources exist there and elsewhere worldwide. As examples,
frontiers on our planet to explore! the babassu palm of the Amazon produces more vegetabl

TABLE 8.1 Potential New Food Sources*

Amaranths Capybara
(three species of Amaranthus) (Hydrochoeris hydrochaeris)

Grain and leafy vegetable; World’s largest rodent; meat

livestock feed; rapid growth, esteemed; easily ranched in
drought resistant open habitats near water

Buriti palm Vicuna

( Mauritia exuosa) (Lama vicugna)

“Tree oflife” to Amerindians; Threatened species related

vitamin-rich fruit; pith as to llama; source of meat, fur,
source for bread; palm heart and hides; can be profitably
from shoots ranched

Maca Chachalacas
(Lepidium meyenii) (Ortalis, many species)

Cold-resistant root vegetable Tropical birds; adaptable

resembling radish, with distinc-tive to human habitations; fast
flavor; near extinction growing

*The wild species shown here—all native to Latin America—are just afew ofthe many plants and animals that could supplement ourfood supply.

Adapted from Wilson, E.O., 1992. The diversity of life. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.

ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 171

 oil than any other plant. The serendipity berry generates a Biodiversity provides ecosystem
sweetener 3000 times sweeter than table sugar. Some salt-tolerant
grasses and trees are so hardy that farmers can irri-gate
services
them with saltwater to produce animal feed and other
Contrary to popular opinion, some things in life can indeed
products. be free—as long as weprotectthe ecological systemsthat
Moreover, the wild relatives of our crop plants hold res-ervoirs
provide them. Forests cleanse air and water, while buffering
of genetic diversity that can help protect the crops we
us against floods. Native crop varieties insure us against dis-ease
grow in monocultures by providing helpful genes for cross-breeding and drought. Wildlife can attracttourism that generates
or genetic engineering (p. 142). We have already
income for people. Intact ecosystems provide these and other
received tens of billions of dollars’ worth of disease resistance
valuable processes, known as ecosystem services (pp. 4, 39),
from the wild relatives of potatoes, wheat, corn, barley, and for all of us,free of charge. Accordingto scientists, biodiver-sity
other crops.
helps to:

• Providefood,fuel,fiber, andshelter.
Organisms provide drugs
• Purify air and water.
and medicines
• Detoxify and decompose wastes.
Peoplehave mademedicinesfrom plantsand animalsfor cen-turies,
• Stabilize Earth’s climate.
and about half of today’s pharmaceuticals are derived
• Moderatefloods, droughts, and temperatures.
from chemical compounds from wild plants (TABLE 8.2).
A well-known exampleis aspirin, which was derivedfrom • Cyclenutrientsandrenew soil fertility.
compounds found in willows and meadowsweetfrom Europe • Pollinate plants,including manycrops.
andthe Middle East. • Control pests and diseases.
Each year, pharmaceutical products owing their origin
• Maintain genetic resources for crop varieties, livestock
to wild species generate up to $150 billion in sales and save
breeds, and medicines.
thousands of human lives. The world’s biodiversity holds an
evengreatertreasurechestof medicinesstill to be discovered. • Providecultural andaestheticbenefits.
Yet with every species that goes extinct, welose one more In these ways, organisms and ecosystems support vital
opportunity to find cures and treatments. processes that people cannot replicate or would needto pay

TABLE 8.2 Natural Plant Sources of Pharmaceuticals*

Pineapple Pacific yew

(Ananas comosus) (Taxus brevifolia)

Drug: Bromelain Drug: Taxol

Application: Controls tissue Application: Anticancer agent
inflammation (especially ovarian cancer)

Autumn crocus Velvet bean

(Colchicum autumnale) (Mucuna pruriens)

Drug: Colchicine Drug: L-Dopa

Application: Anticancer agent Application: Parkinson’s
disease suppressant

Yellow cinchona Common foxglove

(several species of Cinchona) (Digitalis purpurea)

Drug: Quinine Drug: Digitoxin

Application: Antimalarial Application: Cardiac stimulant
agent

*Shown are just a few of the many plants that provide chemical compounds of medical benefit.

Adapted from Wilson, E.O., 1992. The diversity of life. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.

172 ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biolog

for if nature did not provide them. The global economic value parks draw millions of visitors from around the world.
of just 17 ecosystem services has been estimated at more than Although excessive development of infrastructure for ecotour-ism
$148 trillion per year (p. 99). can damage the natural assets that draw people, ecotour-ism
can provide a powerful financial incentive for nations,
Biodiversity helps maintain states, and local communities to preserve natural areas and
reduce impacts on the landscape and on native species.
functioning ecosystems
Ecological research demonstrates that biodiversity tends Peoplevalue connections with nature
to enhance the stability of communities and ecosystems.
Not all of biodiversity’s benefits to people can be expressed
Research has also found that biodiversity tends to increase the
in the hard numbers of economics or the practicalities of food
resilience (p. 77) of ecological systems—their ability to with-stand
and medicine. Some scientists and philosophers argue that
disturbance, recover from stress, or adapt to change.
people find a deeper value in biodiversity. Harvard Univer-sity
Thus, the loss of biodiversity can diminish a natural system’s
biologist Edward O. Wilson has popularized the notion
ability to function and to provide services to our society.
of biophilia, asserting that human beings share an instinctive
Will the loss of a few species really make much differ-ence
love for nature and feel an emotional bond with other living
in an ecosystem’s ability to function? Consider a meta-phor
things (FIGURE 8.4). As evidence of biophilia, Wilson and oth-ers
first offered by Paul and Anne Ehrlich (p. 122): The loss
cite our affinity for parks and wildlife, our love for pets,
of one rivet from an airplane’s wing—or two, or three—may
the high value of real estate with a view of natural landscapes,
not cause the plane to crash. But as rivets are removed the
and our interest in hiking, bird-watching, fishing, hunting,
structure will be compromised, and eventually the loss of just
backpacking, and other outdoor pursuits.
one more rivet will cause it to fail.
Indeed, a love for nature and biodiversity appears to be
Research shows that removing a keystone species (p. 76)
good for us: Wethrive mentally and physically when we have
such as atop predator can significantly alter an ecological sys-tem.
access to nature, and we suffer when we don’t. As children
Think of lions, leopards, and cheetahs on the Serengeti—or
in recent years have been increasingly deprived of outdoor
wolves, mountain lions, and grizzly bears at Yellowstone
experiences and contact with wild organisms, writer Rich-ard
National Park (a place sometimes called “America’s Seren-geti”).
Louv argues that they suffer what he calls “nature-deficit
These predators prey on herbivores that consume many
disorder.” In his 2005 book, Last Child in the Woods, Louv
plants. The removal of a top predator can have consequences
maintained that an alienation from nature and biodiversity
that multiply as they cascade down the food chain.
damages childhood development and may lie behind much
Likewise, losing an “ecosystem engineer” (such as ants
of the angst and anxiety felt by young people today. Since
or earthworms; p. 77) can have major effects. For example,
then, many researchers have begun to study this question
elephants eat and trample many plants, helping to maintain
scientifically. In a 2017 book, The Nature Fix, writer Florence
the open structure of Africa’s savannas. Scientists have found
Williams surveyed the growing scientific evidence that expo-sure
that when elephants are removed (as by illegal hunting), the land-scape
to nature revitalizes our bodies and our brains. Interview-ing
fills in with scrubby vegetation, converting the savanna
scientists, assessing research, and presenting stories from
into a dense scrub forest and affecting countless other species.
around the world, her book shows how access to wildlife and
Ecosystems are complex, however, and it is difficult to
green spaces can relieve stress, bring us happiness, make us
predict which species may be most influential. Thus, many
mentally sharper, and improve our physical health.
people prefer to apply the precautionary principle (p. 161) in
the spirit of Aldo Leopold (p. 16), who advised, “To keep every
cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

Biodiversity boosts economies

through tourism and recreation
When people travel to observe wildlife and explore natural
areas, they create economic opportunities for area residents.
Visitors spend money at local businesses, hire local people
as guides, and support parks that employ local residents. The
parks and wildlife of Kenya and Tanzania are prime examples.
Ecotourism (p. 65) brings in fully a quarter of all foreign
money entering Tanzania’s economy each year. Leaders and
citizens in both nations who recognize biodiversity’s economic
benefits have managed their parks and reserves diligently.
Ecotourism is a vital source of income for many nations,
FIGURE 8.4 An Indonesian girl gazes into a flower of Rafflesia
including Costa Rica, with its rainforests; Australia, with its arnoldii, the largest flower in the world. Biophilia holds that
Great Barrier Reef; and Belize, with its caves and coral reefs. human beings have an instinctive love and fascination for nature
The United States, too, benefits from ecotourism; its national and a deep-seated desire to affiliate with other living things.

ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 17

 Do wehave ethical obligations house mouse(Mus musculus) is one example. This small, fast-reproducing
mammal thrives by living and feeding in and near
toward other species? our buildings. In contrast, “losing” species tend to be those that
specialize on certain resources, have trouble coping with change,
Asidefrom all of biodiversity’s pragmatic benefits, many peo-ple
feel that living organismssimply havean inherent right and rely on mature and well-vegetated habitats. The tiger (Pan-thera
tigris) is such a species. Large, slow-reproducing, and
to exist. Human beings are part of nature, andlike any other
high in the food chain, it needs huge areas of mature habitat
animal we needto use resources and consume other organ-isms
to survive. However,wealso haveconsciousreasoning full of prey and free of people. Geographically widespread spe-cies
stand a much better chance to succeed in a changing world
ability and can make deliberate decisions. Our ethical sense
undergoing human impact than species limited to small areas,
has developed from this intelligence and ability to choose.
Asour society’s sphereof ethical considerationhas widened and mainland species tend to do better than island species.

over time, and as more of us take up biocentric or ecocentric

worldviews(p. 15), morepeoplehavecometo feel that other Many populations are declining
organisms haveintrinsic value. In this view, the conservation
Asthe population size of a species shrinks, the species encounters
of biodiversity is justified on ethical grounds alone.
two problems. First, it loses genetic diversity; and second, its geo-graphic
range tends to become smaller asit disappears from parts
BiodiversityLoss of its range. Both problems make a population vulnerable to fur-ther

and Extinction
declines. Many species today are less numerous and occupy
less area than they once did. For example, studies have docu-mented
significant population declines among large mammals of
Despiteour society’sexpandingethical breadthand despitethe the Serengeti in recent years, due to a variety of human impacts.
manyclear benefitsthat biodiversity brings us,the future of many To quantify such change globally, scientists at the World
speciesremainsfar from secure.In today’sfast-changing world, Wildlife Fund and the United Nations Environment Pro-gramme
every corner of our planet has beentouched in some mannerby (UNEP) developed the Living Planet Index. This index
humanimpact, and biological diversity is being rapidly lost. expresses how large the average population size of a species is
now, relative to its size in the year 1970. The mostrecent compi-lation
Human disturbance creates summarized trends from 14,152 populations of 3706 ver-tebrate
winners andlosers species that are sufficiently monitored. Between 1970
and 2012, the Living Planet Index fell by 58%—meaning that
Weaffect ecosystems and landscapes in many ways, and this on average, population sizes became 58% smaller (FIGURE 8.5).
creates both “winners” and “losers” among the world’s plants This suggests that in the merelifetimes of the authors of this
andanimals.In general, when wealter naturalsystems wetend textbook, Earth has lost the majority of its vertebrate animals.
to makeeach area moresimilar to other areas. This is because
wespread into diverse natural environments and then shape Extinction is irreversible
them to our own species’particulartastes and needs. Wetend
to makelandscapes moreopen in structure, by clearing vegeta-tion Whena population declines to a very low level, extinction
to makeroom for farms, pastures,towns, and cities. And becomes a possibility. Extinction (p. 58) occurs whenthe last
wefrequently createpollution. Becausethe overall nature of memberof a speciesdiesandthe speciesceasesto exist. The
our impacts is similar across regions and cultures, certain types disappearance of a particular population from a given area,
of organisms tend to do wellin our wake, whereas othertypes but not the entire species globally, is referred to as “local
tend notto do well. As aresult, the speciesthat benefitfrom extinction” or extirpation. Extirpationis an erosive process
the changes we make—andthe species that are harmed—each that can, over time, lead to extinction. The black rhinoceros
tend to show predictable sets of attributes (TABLE 8.3). has been extirpated from most of its historic range across
“Winning” speciestend to be generalistsableto fill many Africa (FIGURE8.6), but as a speciesit is not yet extinct.
niches,tolerate disturbance, and use open habitats or edges. The However, at least three of its subspecies are extinct.

TABLE 8.3 Characteristics of Winning and Losing Species

WINNERS TEND TO BE LOSERS TEND TO BE

• Generalists, using many resources or habitats • Specialists on certain resources or habitats

• Geographically widespread • Limited to a small range
• Users of open, early successional habitats • Users of mature, dense habitats
• Able to cope with fast-changing conditions • Needing stable conditions
• Small and fast-reproducing • Large and slow-reproducing
• Low on the food chain • High on the food chain
• Not in need oflarge areas of habitat • Needing large areas of habitat
• Mainland species • Island specie

174 ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

 1.6
Living Planet Index
1.4 Terrestrial index

1.2 Marineindex
Freshwater index
1.0

= 1.0

0.8
(1970

0.6

Index
0.4

0.2

0
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Year Black rhinoceros

FIGURE 8.5 Populations of vertebrate animals are less distribution

than one-half the size today that they were just 42 years Current
ago. Between 1970 and 2012, the Living PlanetIndex fell by 58%. Former
Theindex for terrestrial species fell by 38%; for marine species, by
36%; and for freshwater species, by 81%. Datafrom WWF,
2016.Living
planet report 2016. Gland, Switzerland: WWF International.

FIGURE 8.6 The black rhinoceros has disappeared from most

of its range across Africa. Poaching is a major cause (p. 178).
Based on data from Deon Furstenburg, wildliferanching.com, and other sources.
Human impact is responsible for most extirpation and
extinction today, but these processes also occur naturally at a
much slower rate. If species did not naturally go extinct, our
world would be filled with dinosaurs, trilobites, ammonites, Earth has experienced five mass
and millions of other creatures that vanished from our planet
extinction events
long before humans appeared. Paleontologists estimate that
roughly 99% of all species that ever lived are now extinct. Extinction rates rose far above this background rate at several
Most extinctions preceding the appearance of human beings points in Earth’s history. In the past 440 million years, our planet
occurred singularly for independent reasons, at a pace referred to has experienced five mass extinction events (p. 58). Each event
as the background extinction rate (p. 58). By studying traces eliminated more than one-fifth of life’s families (p. 55) and at
of organisms preserved in the fossil record (p. 58), scientists least half its species (FIGURE 8.7). The most severe episode
infer that for mammals and marine animals, each year, on aver-age, occurred at the end of the Permian period (see APPENDIX E). At
1 species out of every 1–10 million has vanished. this time, about 250 million years ago, close to 90% of all species

Earth‘s biggest mass The majority of Today, human impacts threaten

extinction killed off species were large animals, specialized
nearly 90% of species. eliminated in an organisms, island species, and
Massive volcanism may event of unknown species harvested by people.
About 85% of marine have been to blame. causes.
organisms went extinct,
Dinosaurs and 75%
possibly due to habitat loss
from climate change and
of species were
wiped out, likely by
falling sea levels.
an asteroid impact.
Most marine species
vanished, from
unknown causes.

Quaternary

Cambrian Ordovi-cianSilurian Devonian Carboniferous Permian Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous Paleo-geneNeo-gene

Period

500 400 300 200 100 0

Millions of years ago

FIGURE 8.7 Scientists have documented five mass extinction events in the past 500 million
years. Ongoing study of geology and the fossil record (p. 58)is revealing clues about the causes and
consequences of each event. Today ourimpacts arethreateningto cause a sixth massextinction.

ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 175

 went extinct.
ago atthe end of the
The best-known episode occurred 66 million years
Cretaceous period, when evidence points to
mammals (such
horses, and giant
as camels, lions,
ground sloths)
FAQ
an asteroid impact (and possibly volcanism) that brought an end after people arrived more than
If a mass extinction is
to the dinosaurs and many other groups. 13,000 years ago.
happening, why don’t I notice
If current trends continue, our modern era, known as Today, species loss is accel-erating
species disappearing all
the Quaternary period, may see the extinction of more than as our population growth
around me?
half of all species. Although similar in scale to previous mass and resource consumption put
There are two reasons that most of
extinctions, today’s ongoing mass extinction is different in increasing strain on habitats
us don’t personally sense the scale
two primary respects. First, we are causing it. Second, we and wildlife. In 2005, scientists
of biodiversity loss. First, if you live
will suffer as a result. with the Millennium Ecosystem
in atown or city, the plants and
Assessment (p. 95) calculated
animals you see from day to day
Wearesetting the sixth mass that the current global extinction
are generalist species that thrive

extinction in motion rate is

than the
100–1000
background
times greater
extinction
in disturbed areas. In contrast, the
species most in trouble are those
In the past few centuries alone, we have recorded hun-dreds rate, and rising. that rely on less-disturbed habitats
of instances of species extinction caused by people. To monitor threatened and far from urban areas.
Among North American birds in the past two centuries, we endangered species, the Interna-tional Second, a human lifetime is
have driven into extinction the Carolina parakeet, great auk, Union for Conservation very short! The loss of populations

Labrador duck, and passenger pigeon (p. 61); almost cer-tainly of Nature (IUCN) maintains the and species may seem slow to

the Bachman’s warbler and Eskimo curlew; and likely Red List, a regularly updated list us, but on Earth’s timescale it is

the ivory-billed woodpecker (FIGURE 8.8). Several more spe-cies, of species facing high risks of sudden. Because each of usis

including the whooping crane, Kirtland’s warbler, and extinction. As of 2017, the Red born into a world that has already

California condor (p. 184), teeter on the brink of extinction. List reported that fully 20% of lost species, we don’t recognize

People have been hunting species to extinction for thou-sands the 64,000 species with data ade-quatewhat’s already vanished. Likewise,

to assess were threatened our grandchildren won’t appreciate

of years. Archaeological evidence shows that in case
what welose in our lifetimes. Each
after case, a wave of extinction followed close on the heels with extinction. This included
human generation experiences just
of human arrival on islands and continents. After Polynesians 21% (1194) of mammal species,
a portion ofthe overall phenom-enon,
reached Hawai‘i, half its birds went extinct. Birds, mam-mals, 13% (1460) of bird species, 20%
so we have difficulty sens-ing
and reptiles vanished following human arrival on many (1090) of reptile species, 32%
the big picture. Nonetheless,
other oceanic islands, including huge landmasses such as (2067) of amphibian species, and
researchers and naturalists who
New Zealand and Madagascar. Dozens of species of large 14% (2153) of fish species. In
spend their time outdoors observ-ing
vertebrates died off in Australia after people arrived roughly the United States alone during
nature see biodiversity loss
50,000 years ago. North America lost 33 genera of large the past 500 years, 236 animal
around them all the time—and
species and 38 plant species are
that’s precisely why they feel so
known to have gone extinct. For
passionate about preventing it.
all these figures, the actual num-bers
of species are without doubt
greater than the known numbers.

Several majorcauses of biodiversity

loss stand out
Scientists have identified five primary causes of population
decline and species extinction: habitat loss, pollution, over-harvesting,
invasive species, and climate change. Each of
these causes is intensified by human population growth and
by our increasing per capita consumption of resources.

Habitat loss Habitatloss is the single greatestthreat to

biodiversity today. A species’ habitat is the specific envi-ronment
in which it lives (p. 60). Because organisms have
adapted to their habitats over thousands or millions of years
FIGURE 8.8 The ivory-billed woodpecker was one of North
of evolution, any sudden, major change in their habitat will
America’s most majestic birds. It lived in old-growth forests
likely render it less suitable for them. Habitat is lost when it
of the southeastern United States. Forest clearing and timber
is destroyed outright, but also when it becomes fragmented
harvesting eliminated the maturetrees it needed for food, shelter,
and nesting, and this symbol of the South appeared to go extinct. or degraded.
Recent fleeting, controversial reports raised hopes that the species Many human activities alter, degrade, or destroy habitat.
persists, but proof has been elusive. Farming replaces diverse natural communities with simplifie

176 ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

 and plants requiring the habitat disappear from one fragment
after another. Fragmentation can also block animals from
moving from place to place; this is the concern of opponents
of the proposed highway through the Serengeti. In response
to habitat fragmentation, conservationists try to link frag-ments
together with corridors of habitat along which animals
can travel. (In Chapter 9 we will learn more about fragmenta-tion,
1 Original habitat
the effects on wildlife, and potential solutions.)
Habitat loss affects all the world’s biomes. Morethan half
of the world’s temperate forests, grasslands, and shrublands
had been converted by 1950 (mostly for agriculture). Today,
habitat is being lost most rapidly in tropical rainforests, tropi-cal
dry forests, and savannas. Within most biomes, wetlands
(p. 260) are especially threatened. More than half the wetlands
of the lower 48 U.S. states and Canada have been drained for
agriculture. Habitat loss is the

2 Gaps form as habitat

primary source of population
weighingthe
ISSUES
declines for more than 80% of
becomes fragmented
threatened mammals and birds,
according to UNEP data. For
example, the prairies of North habitat Fragmentation
America’s Great Plains are in Your region
today almost entirely converted
Examine satellite imagery ofthe
to agriculture. Less than 1% of region where youlive using an
original prairie habitat remains. online application such as Google
As a result, grassland bird popu-lationsEarth or Google Maps. How much

3 Gaps become larger; have declined by an esti-matedof the area around you is devel-oped
fragments become smaller 82–99%. withroads, buildings, and
and more isolated Of course, when we alter agriculture? How much is forested
habitat, we benefit some species. orin natural areas? Arethe natural
Animals such as starlings, rac-coons,
areas connected to one another,

house sparrows, pigeons, or arethey fragmented? Discuss

gray squirrels, rats, mosquitoes, how easy or difficult it would be for

and cockroaches thrive among an animal such as a deer or a bear

us in farmland, towns, and cities. to movefrom one habitat patch to

However, these “winning” spe-cies another.Doyou see waysin which

4 Species disappear natural areas could be better con-nected
due to tend to be weedy generalists
habitat fragmentation using corridors? Now zoom
that are in little danger of disap-pearing.
in or zoom out a bit on the map,
The concern is that far
FIGURE 8.9 Habitat fragmentation occurs as human impact and address these same questions
too many other species are “los-ing”
creates gaps that expand and eventually come to domi-nate at a different landscape scale.
as a result of the ways we
the landscape, stranding islands of habitat. As habitat
alter habitats.
becomes fragmented, fewer populations can persist, and numbers
of species in the fragments decline.
Pollution Pollution can harm organismsin manyways.Air
pollution degrades forest ecosystems and affects the atmo-sphere
ones of just a few plant species. Grazing modifies grasslands and climate. Noise and light pollution impinge on the
and can lead to desertification (p. 148). Clearingforests behavior and habitat use of animals. Waterpollutionimpairs
removes the food and shelter that forest-dwelling organisms fish and amphibians. Agricultural runoff containing fertilizers,
need to survive. Damming rivers creates reservoirs upstream pesticides, and sediments harms manyterrestrial and aquatic
while affecting waterconditions and floodplain communi-ties species. Heavy metals,endocrine-disruptingcompounds,and
downstream. Urban sprawl supplants natural ecosystems, other toxic chemicals poison people and wildlife. Plastic gar-bage
driving manyspecies from their homes. in the ocean can strangle, drown, or choke marine crea-tures.
Habitatloss occurs mostcommonly by gradual,piecemeal Theeffects of oil spills on wildlife are dramaticand well
degradation, such as habitat fragmentation (FIGURE 8.9). known. Weexamine all these impacts in other chapters of this
Whenfarming, logging, road building, or development intrude book. However, although pollution can cause extensive dam-age
into an unbroken expanseof forest or grassland,this breaks to organismsandecosystems,
it tendsto beless significant
up a continuous area of habitat into fragments, or patches. As as a cause of population-wide decline than public perception
habitat fragmentation proceedsacross a landscape, animals holdsit to be,andit is far lessinfluential than habitatloss.

ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 17

 Overharvesting For mostspecies,being huntedor har-vested
species’ future. Fortunately, the United States in 2016 enacted
will not in itself pose a threat of extinction. How-ever,its own ban on the ivory trade, and China followed suit in
with today’s illegal global trade in wildlife products 2017. If these policies are enforced, it should help elephant
surpassing $20 billion per year, poaching—the unlawful conservation greatly.
killing of wildlife for meat or body parts—has led to steep Meanwhile, in much of Africa today, protecting wild-life
population declinesfor manyanimals. Mostvulnerable are remains a dangerous job. Poaching is conducted with
large-bodied species that are long-lived and slow to repro-duce, brutal efficiency by organized crime syndicates using heli-copters,
such as elephants, rhinoceroses, and other large mam-mals night-vision goggles, and automatic weapons. Park
of the African savanna. Rhinocerospopulations have rangers are heavily armed, yet are routinely outgunned in
crashed as poachers slaughter rhinos for their horns, which firefights with poachers, and many courageous rangers have
are ground into powder and sold illegally to ultra-wealthy lost their lives. In this way the demand for luxury goods by
Asianconsumersascancercures,party drugs,and hangover wealthy foreign consumers in Asia, Europe, and America
treatments, even though the horns have no such properties has grave consequences for Africans living in regions like
and consist of the same material as our fingernails. In Cen-tral the Serengeti.
Africa, gorillas and other primates are killed for their Today scientists are assisting efforts to curb poaching
“bush meat” and could soon face extinction. Across Asia, and save wildlife. Researchers in the field are tracking ele-phants
tigers are threatened by poaching as well as habitat loss; and ivory by putting radio collars on animals, satellite-tracking
body partsfrom onetiger canfetch a poacher$15,000 onthe tusks with microchips, and flying drones (unmanned
black market, where they are sold as aphrodisiacs in China surveillance aircraft) over parks to capture real-time video
of poachers.
and other Asian countries. Today half the world’s tiger sub-species Meanwhile, researchers in the lab are conduct-ing
are extinct, and mostof the remaining animals are genetic analyses to expose illegal hunting and wildlife
crowded onto just 1% of the land they occupied historically. trade. For instance, forensic DNA testing can reveal the geo-graphic
In the world’s oceans, manyfish stocks today are over-harvested origins of elephant ivory, helping authorities to focus
(p. 281). Whalingdrove the Atlantic gray whale on hotspots of illegal activity (see THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE
extinct and hasleft several othertypes of whalesthreatened or STORY,pp. 186–187).
endangered. Thousands of sharks are killed each year merely
for their fins, whichare usedin soup. Altogether,the oceans Invasive species Whennon-nativespeciesareintroduced
contain only 10% of the large animals they once did (p. 282). to new environments, most perish, but the few that survive
Elephants have long been killed to extract their tusks for may do very well, especially if they find themselves freed
ivory (FIGURE8.10). By 1989, 7% of African elephants were from the predators, parasites,and competitorsthat had kept
being slaughtered each year, so the world’s nations enacted a their populations in check back home. Once released from
global ban onthe commercialtrade of ivory. Elephantnum-berssuchlimiting factors (p. 63), anintroduced species maypro-liferate
recovered following the ban, but after 2007, poaching and become invasive (pp. 78–79), and mayoften dis-place
rose to all-time highs, driven by high black-market prices for native species (TABLE 8.4).
ivory paid by wealthyoverseasbuyers. From 2011through Someintroductions are accidental. Examplesinclude
2015, morethan 170,000 African elephants were killed—enough
animals that escape from the pet trade; weeds whose
to send populations downward and threaten the seeds cling to our clothing and shoes as wetravel from
placeto place; and aquatic organisms
transported in the ballast water
of ships. If a highway is built
through the Serengeti, ecolo-gists
fear that passing vehicles
would introduce weed seeds.
Several American plants, such
as datura, parthenium, and
prickly poppy, have already
spreadthrough African grasslands
and are toxic to native herbivores.
Other introductions are intentional.
Throughout history, people have brought food
crops and animals with them as they colonized
new places, andtoday wecontinue global trade in
exotic petsand ornamentalplants.In Lake Victoria
nearthe Serengeti, the Nile perch wasintroduced
as a food fish to supply people much-needed
FIGURE 8.10 Poachers slaughter elephants to sell their tusks for protein (see Table 8.4). It soon spreadthrough-out
ivory. Here Kenyan officials at Maasai Mara National Reserve prepare to set the vast lake, however, preying on and driving
fire to tusks confiscated from poachers, in an effort to discourage the trade. extinct dozensof nativespeciesof cichlidfish fro

178 ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

TABLE 8.4 Invasive Species

European gypsy moth Nile perch

(Lymantria dispar) (Lates niloticus)

Introduced to Massachusetts in Alarge fish from the Nile River.

the hope it could produce silk. Introduced to Lake Victoria in
The moth failed to do so, and the 1950s, it proceeded to eat
instead spread across the east-ern its way through hundreds of
United States, where its species of native cichlid fish,
outbreaks defoliate trees over driving a number of them to
large regions every few years. extinction. People value the
perch as food, but it has radi-cally
altered the lake’s ecology.

European starling Emerald ash borer

(Sturnus vulgaris) ( Agrilus planipennis)

Introduced to New York City Discovered in Michigan in 2002,

in the 1800s by Shakespeare this wood-boring insect reached
devotees intent on bringing 12 U.S. states and Canada by
every bird mentioned in Shake-speare’s 2010, killing millions of ash trees
plays to America. Out-competing in the upper Midwest. Billions of
native birds for nest dollars will be spent in trying to
holes, within 75 years starlings control its spread.
became one of North Ameri-ca’s
most abundant birds.

Kudzu Sudden oak death pathogen

(Pueraria montana) (Phytophthora ramorum)

A Japanese vine that can grow This disease has killed more
30 m(100 ft) in a single sea-son, than 1 million oak trees in
the U.S. Soil Conservation California since the 1990s. The
Service introduced kudzu in the pathogen (a water mold) was
1930s to help control erosion. likely introduced via infected
Kudzu took over forests, fields, nursery plants. Scientists are
and roadsides throughout the concerned about damage to
southeastern United States. eastern U.S. forests if it spreads
to oaks there.

Brown tree snake Polynesian rat

(Boiga irregularis) (Rattus exulans)

Nearly every native forest bird One of several rat species that
on the South Pacific island of have followed human migrations
Guam has disappeared, eaten across the world. Polynesians
by these snakes, which arrived transported this rat to islands
from Asia as stowaways on across the Pacific, including
ships and planes after World Easter Island (pp. 8–9). On
WarII. Guam’s birds had not each island it caused ecological
evolved with snakes, and had havoc, and has driven extinct
no defenses against them. birds, plants, and mammals.

one of the world’s most spectacular evolutionary radiations of resist invaders that are better adapted to these pressures. For
animals. The Nile perch is providing people food, but at sig-nificantinstance, Hawaii’s native plants and animals have been under
ecological cost. siege from invasive organisms such as rats, pigs, and cats, and
Species native to islands are especially vulnerable to intro-duced this has led to a number of extinctions (Chapter 3).
species.Island species have existed in isolation for mil-lennia Some of the most devastating invasive species are
with relatively few parasites, predators, and competitors; microscopic pathogens that cause disease. In Hawai‘i,
as a result, they have not evolved the defenses necessary to malaria and avian pox transmitted by introduced mosquitoes

Chapter 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 17

 are killing off the islands’ native birds, whichlack immu-nity A mixof causes threatens many
to these foreign diseases. Some scientists classify dis-ease
separatelyas a majorcause of biodiversity loss.
species
Experts debate the role of introduced species in today’s For many species, multiple factors are conspiring to cause
world. For decades most biologists have focused on the declines. The monarch butterfly, once familiar to every
negativeimpacts that invasive speciesexert on native eco-systems
American schoolchild, is today in precipitous decline
and the economic damage they cause. However, ( FIGURE 8.12). On its breeding grounds in the United States
manyintroduced species, such as the European honeybee and Canada, industrial agriculture and chemical herbicides
(p. 153), provide economic benefits. Andin today’s world have eliminated most of the milkweed plants monarchs
there is no truly pristine ecosystem—all have been touched depend on. Our highly efficient monocultures leave no nat-ural
in some way by human impact, and many contain novel com-munities habitat remaining, while insecticides intended for crop
(p. 78), newly formed mixturesof native and non-native
pests also kill monarchs and other beneficial insects. In win-ter
species. In some cases these communities host greater the entire monarch population of eastern and central North
species diversity than the communities they replaced, and America migrates south and funnels into a single valley in
mayfunction just as wellin providing ecosystemservices. Mexico, where the butterflies cluster by the millions in groves
Thus, while it is undeniably true that invasive species have oftall trees. Heresome people areillegally logging these for-ests
driven extensive losses of native biodiversity in case after while others fight to save the trees, the butterflies, and
case,introduced species often increase overall biodiversity the ecotourism dollars they bring to the community.
at local scales. Reasons for the decline of a population or species can be
complex and difficult to determine. The worldwide collapse
Climate change Our manipulation of Earth’s climate of amphibians provides an example of a “perfect storm”
(Chapter 14) is having global impacts on biodiversity. As we of bewildering factors. Today entire populations of frogs,
warm the atmosphere with emissions of greenhouse gases toads, and salamanders are vanishing without a trace. More
from fossil fuel combustion, we modifyclimate patternsand than 40% of the world’s known species of amphibians are in
increase the frequency of extreme weather events (such as decline, 30% are threatened, and at least 170 species studied
droughts and storms) that put stress on populations. just years or decades ago are thought to be extinct. As these
In the Arctic, meltingseaice is threatening polar bears
and people alike (FIGURE 8.11). Across the world, warming
temperatures are forcing organisms to shift toward the poles
and upwardin altitude. Mountaintoporganismscannot move
farther upslope, so many may perish. Trees may not move 22
toward the polesfast enough. Asranges shift, animals and 20
18.19
plants encounter new prey, predators, and parasites to which
colonies

18
they are not adapted. In a variety of ways, scientists predict 7.81
16
that climate disruption will put manythousands ofthe world’s
14
monarch

plants and animals atincreased risk of extinction. by

12

10

8
2.91
occupied

4
Hectares

1994–1995 1999–2000 2004–2005 2009–2010 2016–201

Winter season

FIGURE 8.12 The once-abundant monarch butterfly has

undergone alarming declines due to herbicides, pesticides,
and habitat loss. Annual surveys on its Mexican wintering
grounds show the population occupying many fewer hectares
of forest than in the past. Datafrom Monarch Watch,collected bythe
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve and World WildlifeFund Mexico.

• How much area did monarchs occupy in 2016–2017,

FIGURE 8.11 The polar bear became the first species as a proportion of the area occupied in 1994–1995?
listed under the Endangered Species Act as a result of • As a proportion of the area occupied in 1996–1997?
climate change. As Arctic warming melts the sea ice from
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
which they hunt seals, polar bears must swim farther for food.

180 Chapter 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

 As researchers learn more, they are designing responses
All habitat loss to amphibian declines. An IUCN conservation action plan
recommends that we protect and restore habitat, crack down
Pollution
on illegal harvesting, enhance disease monitoring, and estab-lish
Fires
captive breeding programs.
Invasive species Today many people are striving to save vanishing spe-cies.
The search for solutions to our biodiversity crisis is
Disease
dynamic and inspiring, and scientists are developing innova-tive
Other causes approaches to sustain Earth’s diversity of life.

Unknown Non-threatened species

Threatened species

0 1000
Number
2000
of species
3000 4000
ConservationBiology:
FIGURE 8.13 The world’s amphibians are vanishing. The Searchfor Solutions
The golden toad is one of at least 170 species of amphibians
that have suddenly gone extinct in recent years. This brilliant The urge to act as responsible stewards of natural systems,
orange toad of Costa Rican cloud forests disappeared due to and to use science as a tool in this endeavor, sparked the rise
drought, climate change, and/or disease. Habitat loss is the of conservation biology. This scientific discipline is devoted
main reason for amphibian declines, but many declines remain to understanding the factors, forces, and processes that influ-ence
unexplained. Data from IUCN, 2008. Global amphibian assessment.
the loss, protection, and restoration of biological diver-sity.
Conservation biologists aim to develop solutions to such
• What is the second-greatest known cause of
problems as habitat degradation and species loss (FIGURE 8.14).
amphibian declines, after habitat loss? • What is the
greatest cause for threatened species? • Whatis a greater Conservation biology is thus an applied and goal-oriented
cause for non-threatened species: fires or pollution? science, with implicit values and ethical standards.

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

Conservation biology responds

to biodiversity loss
creatures disappear before our eyes, scientists are racing to
discover why, and studies implicate a wide array of factors Conservation biologists integrate an understanding of evolution
(FIGURE 8.13). These include habitat destruction, chemical and ecology as they use field data, lab data, theory, and experi-ments
pollution, invasive species, climate change, and a disease to study our impacts on other organisms. They also
called chytridiomycosis caused by a fungal pathogen. Biolo-gists design, test, and implement responses to these impacts.
suspect that multiple factors are interacting and multi-plying At the genetic level, conservation geneticists ask how
the effects. small a population can become and how much genetic variation

(a) Sampling insects in Madagascar (b) Drawing blood from a Seychelles (c) Checking camera traps in Africa
magpie robin

FIGURE 8.14 Conservation biologists use many approaches to study the loss, protection, and
restoration of biodiversity, seeking to develop scientifically sound solutions.

ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 18

 it can lose before running into problems such as inbreeding
depression (p. 169). By determining a minimum viable popu-lation SUCCESS Bringing Back Endangered Birds
STORY
size, conservation geneticists help wildlife managers
decide how vital it may be to increase a population. Studies In the early 1970s, things looked dire for a number

of genes, populations, and species inform conservation efforts oficonic North American bird species whose popu-lations

with habitats, communities, ecosystems, and landscapes. By had collapsed, including the majestic peregrine falcon

examining how organisms disperse from one habitat patch to (the world’s fastest bird),the stately brown pelican, and several
another, and how their genes flow among subpopulations, hawks and owls. Even the
con-servation United States’ national bird, the

biologists try to learn how likely a population is to bald eagle, was threatened with extinction. The falcon, pelican,

persist or succumb in the face of environmental change. and eagle had almost completely disappeared from the Lower
48 U.S. states before scientists discovered what was threaten-ing
them. One hint was that they were all predators atop their

Endangered species are afocus food chains, and thus were receiving heavy doses of toxic
chemicals accumulated from the many smaller animals they
of conservation efforts ate over time (p. 222). Research eventually revealed that the
chemical insecticide DDT(p. 216)—which had become widely
The primary legislation for protecting biodiversity in the
used in the mid-20th century—was causing these birds’ egg-shells
United States is the Endangered Species Act. Enacted in
to become thin and break too early, killing the young.
1973, the EndangeredSpecies Act (ESA) offers protection
U.S. leaders banned DDTin 1973, the same year they enacted
to species that are judged to be endangered (in danger of
the Endangered Species Act. Together these two actions
becoming extinct in the nearfuture) or threatened (vulnerable
led to spectacular recoveries of the peregrine falcon, brown
to becomingendangeredsoon). The ESAforbids the govern-ment
pelican, and bald eagle. Biologists began running programs
and private citizens from taking actions that destroy
to assist recovery, and the populations of these birds roared
individuals of these species or the habitats that are critical to
back. Today all three species are thriving across large portions
their survival. The ESAalso forbids trade in products made
of North America.
from threatened and endangered species. The aim is to pre-vent
extinctions and enable declining populations to recover.
10,000
Asof 2017,there were1276speciesin the UnitedStateslisted
as endangered and 376 morelisted asthreatened. For most of
these species, government agencies arerunning recovery plans 8000

to protectthem andstabilize orincreasetheir populations.

The ESA has had a number of successes. Species such
6000
pairs

asthe bald eagle,peregrinefalcon, and brown pelican have of

recovered and are no longer listed as endangered. Intensive

management programs with species such as the red-cockaded 4000
Endangered Species
woodpeckerhave held populationssteadyin the face of con-tinued
Number

Act passed and DDT

pressure on habitat. For every listed species that has banned, 1973
2000
gone extinct, three have recovered enough that they have been
removedfrom the endangeredspecieslist.
Thesesuccesses have come despite the fact that the U.S. 0
Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries 1963 19731974 1981198419861988199019921994199619982000 200
Service,the agenciesthat administer the ESA, are perenni-ally
Year
underfunded. Federal authorization for spending under
Bald eagle populations rebounded following their protection
the ESA expired in 1992, so Congress appropriates funds for
as an endangered species.
its administration year by year. Today a number of species
arejudged by scientists to need protection but have not been
added to the endangered species list because funding is inad-equateEXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science
to helprecoverthem. Suchspeciesaresaidto be“war-ranted
but precluded”—meaning that listing is warranted by
scientific research but precluded by lack of resources. This
hasled some environmental advocacy groupsto suethe gov-ernment
for failing to enforce the law. Well-meaning Fish for the northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet—birds
and Wildlife Service staff are frequently caught in a no-win that rely on old-growth forest—have slowed timber
situation, battling lawsuits at the sametime asthey suffer harvesting. In addition, many landowners worry that fed-eral
budget cuts. officials will restrict the use of private land on which
Polls repeatedly show that most Americans support pro-tecting
threatened or endangered species are found. This has led to
endangeredspecies. Yetsome opponentsfeel that the a practice described as “shoot, shovel, and shut up,” among
ESA can imperil people’s livelihoods. This has been a com-mon landowners who want to conceal the presence of such spe-cies
perceptionin the Pacific Northwest, whereprotection on their land.

182 ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

 this treaty’s biggest accomplishment so far. When nations
enforce its provisions, CITES can protect rhinos, elephants,
tigers, and other species whose body parts are traded.
In 1992, nations agreed to the Convention on Bio-logical
Diversity, aiming to help conserve biodiversity,
use it in a sustainable manner, and ensure the fair distribu-tion
of its benefits. The treaty prompted nations to protect
more areas, enhanced markets for sustainable crops such as
shade-grown coffee, and helped Africans profit from eco-tourism
at their parks and preserves. Yet the overall goal—“to
achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the current
rate of biodiversity loss”—was not met.
Today the Convention’s signatory nations aim to achieve
20 new biodiversity targets by 2020. Goals include:
FIGURE 8.15 Populations of the greater sage grouse have • Cutting the loss of natural habitats in half—and, where
declined steeply. Their listing as an endangered species would
feasible, bringing this loss close to zero
have complicated efforts to ranch and drill for oil and gas, so the
• Conserving 17% of land areas and 10% of marine and
U.S. government instead designed collaborative agreements with
ranchers and the oil and gas industry to try to conserve the bird coastal areas
without listing it. • Restoring at least 15% of degraded areas

• Alleviating pressures on coral reefs

However, the ESA has stopped very few development

projects—and a number of its provisions and amendments Captive breeding, reintroduction,
promote cooperation with landowners. A landowner and
the government can agreeto a habitat conservation plan,
and cloning are being pursued
which grants the landowner an “incidental take permit” In the effort to save species at risk, zoos and botanical gar-dens
to harm some individuals of a species if he or she volun-tarily have become centers for captive breeding, in which
improves habitat for the species. Likewise, in a safe individuals are bred and raised in controlled conditions with
harbor agreement, the government agrees not to mandate the intent of reintroducing their progeny into the wild. The
additional or different management requirements if the IUCN counts 65 plant and animal species that now exist only
landowner actsto assistaspecies’recovery. in captivity or cultivation. Reintroducing species into areas
Recent efforts to conserve the greater sage grouse they used to inhabit is resource-intensive, but it can pay big
(FIGURE 8.15) exemplify the cooperative public-private dividends. In 2010 the first of 32 black rhinos were translo-cated
approach. This species had beenjudged “warranted but from South Africa to Serengeti National Park to help
precluded,” but cattle ranchers and the oil and gas indus-try restore aformer population (FIGURE 8.16)
opposed listing the species as endangered because
restrictions on land use across vast sagebrushregions of
the Westcould complicate ranching and drilling activities.
As a result, federal agencies embarked on a campaign with
ranchers andthe energyindustry across 13 westernstates
to design voluntary agreements to lessen impacts on sage
grouse populations. In 2015 the bird was denied listing,
as federal officials said the collaborative agreements were
adequate to conserve the species. This produced celebra-tion
and relief in many quarters but also criticism both from
development advocates, whofelt the agreements weretoo
restrictive, and from environmental advocates, whojudged
that the strategy would fail to save the species.

Treaties promote conservation

Onthe global stage,the United Nations(p. 110) hasfacili-tated
international treaties to protect biodiversity. The 1973
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Spe-cies
of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) protects endan-gered
FIGURE 8.16 We can reestablish populations by reintroducing
species by banning the international transport of their them to areas where they were extirpated. Black rhinos have
body parts. The 1990 global ban onthe ivory trade maybe been helicopteredin to Serengeti NationalPark.

Chapter 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 183

 last surviving individual, which had died in 2000. The cloned
500 Condors in captivity
baby ibex died shortly after birth. Even if cloning can suc-ceed
Condors in the wild
400 from a technical standpoint, however, it is not an adequate
response to biodiversity loss. Cloning does nothing to protect
condors
300 genetic diversity, and without ample habitat and protection in the
wild, having cloned animals in a zoo does little good.
of

200

Number
100 Forensics can help protect species
n/

0 To counter poaching and illegal trade, scientists have a new

tool at their disposal. Forensic science, or forensics, involves
1890 1939 1965 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

the scientific analysis of evidence to makean identification or

Years
answer a question relating to a crime or an accident. Conser-vation
FIGURE 8.17 California condors are being bred in biologists are now using forensics to protect species
captivity and released to the wild, gradually rebuilding
at risk. By analyzing DNA from organisms or their tissues
their population.
sold at market, researchers can often determine the species or
subspecies—and sometimes the geographic origin. This can
• In 2016, were there more condors in the wild or in
captivity? • Describe how the ratio of wild to captive help detect illegal activity and enhance law enforcement.
condors has changed over the years. • Roughly how One example is the analysis of illegal ivory shipments to
many condors are alive today compared with the number alive determine the origin of African elephants that were killed to obtain
in the 1980s? • How large is today’s condor population relative their tusks (see The Science behind the Story, pp. 186–187).
to the wild condor population in 1890? Forensic analysis has also helped researchers trace the origins of

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science meatfrom whales sold in Asian markets, providing valuable data
used to set policy for whaling and whale conservation.

A prime example of captive breeding and reintroduction Severalstrategies address habitats,

is the programto savethe Californiacondor, North America’s
communities, and ecosystems
largest bird (FIGURE 8.17). Condors are harmless scaven-gers
of dead animals, yet people a century ago used to shoot Scientistsknowthat protectingspeciesdoeslittle goodif the
them for sport. Condorsalso collided with electrical wires larger systems they rely on are not also sustained. Yet nolaw
and succumbed to lead poisoning after scavenging carcasses or treaty exists to protect communities or ecosystems. For
of animals killed withlead shot. By 1982, only 22 condors these reasons, conservation biologists pursueseveralstrate-gies
remained, and biologists madethe wrenching decision to take for conserving ecological systems on broader scales.
all the birds into captivity.
Todaythe collaborative program betweenthe Fish and Biodiversity hotspots To prioritize regions for conser-vation
Wildlife Service and several zoos has boosted condor num-bers. efforts, scientists have mapped biodiversity hotspots
As of 2016, there were 170 birds in captivity and 276 ( FIGURE8.18a). A biodiversity hotspot is a region that sup-ports
birdsliving in the wild. Condorshave beenreleased at sites an especiallygreat number of speciesthat are endemic
in California, Arizona, and Baja California (Mexico), where (p. 58), found nowhere else in the world (FIGURE 8.18b).
they thrill people lucky enough to spot the huge birds soar-ing To qualify as a hotspot, a region must harbor at least 1500
through the skies. Unfortunately, manyof these birds endemic plant species(0.5% of the world’stotal plant spe-cies).
still die of lead poisoning, and wild populations will likely In addition, a hotspot must have already lost 70% of its
not become sustainable until hunters convert from lead shot habitat to human impact and be at risk of losing more.
to nontoxic shot madeof copper or steel. Californiahas now The ecosystems of the world’s biodiversity hotspots
banned lead shot for all hunting, effective in 2019. This may together once covered 15.7% of the planet’s land surface.
give condors a fighting chance, while helping to stop the Today,because of habitatloss, they cover only 2.3%. This small
accumulationof a highlytoxic substancein the environment. amountof land is the exclusive homefor halfthe world’splant
One newidea for saving species from extinction is to cre-ate species and 42% of terrestrial vertebrate species. The hotspot
individuals by cloning them. In this technique, DNA from
concept motivatesusto focus onthesevaluableregions, where
an endangeredspeciesis insertedinto a cultured egg without the greatest number of unique species can be protected.
a nucleus, and the egg is implanted into a female of a closely
related speciesthat acts as a surrogate mother.Several mammalsParks and protected areas A prime wayto conserve
havebeenclonedin this way, with mixedresults. Somescien-tists habitats,communities, ecosystems,andlandscapesis to set
even talk of recreating extinct species from DNA recov-ered aside areas of undeveloped land in parks and preserves. Cur-rently
from preserved body parts, and researchers may attempt people have set aside nearly 15% of the world’s land
this withthe woolly mammoth,
the passengerpigeon,and other areain national parks, state parks, provincial parks, wilder-ness
recently extinct species.In 2009 a subspecies of Pyreneanibex areas, biosphere reserves, and other protected areas.
(atype of mountaingoat) wasclonedfrom cellstakenfrom the Many of these lands are managedfor recreation, water

184 ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

(a) The world’s biodiversity hotspots (b) Ring-tailed lemur

FIGURE 8.18 Biodiversity hotspots are priority regions for habitat preservation. Highlighted in red
(a) are the 34 hotspots mapped by Conservation International, a nongovernmental organization. (Only 15% of
the highlighted areais actually habitat; mostis developed.) These regions are home to species such as the ring-tailed
lemur (b), a primate endemicto Madagascarthat haslost morethan 90% ofits forest habitat as aresult
of human population growth and resource extraction. Datafrom Conservation
International.

quality Ecological restoration

protection, or other purposes (rather than for bio-diversity), Protecting natural areas before
and many suffer from illegal logging, poaching, they become degradedis the best wayto safeguard native
and resource extraction. Yetthese areas offer animals and biodiversity and ecological systems. However, in some cases
plants a degree of protection from human persecution, and we can restore degraded natural systems to a semblance of
some are large enough to preserve entire natural systems their former conditionthrough the practice of ecological res-toration
that otherwise would befragmented, degraded,or destroyed. (p. 82). In Kenya, efforts are being madeto restore
Serengeti National Park and the adjacent Maasai Mara the Mau Forest Complex, Kenya’s largest remaining for-ested
National Reservearetwo of the world’slargest and mostcel-ebrated area and a watershed
that provides waterfor the Maa-sai
parks, but Tanzania and Kenya have each set aside a Mara Reserve and for the people of the region. Overthe
number of other protected areas. Some of the best known years so muchforest in this densely populated area has been
include (in Kenya)Amboseli,Tsavo, Mount Kenya,and Lake destroyed by agriculture, settlement, and timber extraction
Nakuru National Parks; and (in Tanzania) Ngorongoro Conser-vation
that the water supply for the Serengeti’s wildlife and for mil-lions
Area, Selous Game Reserve, Kilimanjaro National Park, of Kenyanpeopleis now threatened. Kenya’sgovern-ment
and GombeStream NationalPark. Altogetherroughly 25% of is working with international agencies and with U.S.
Tanzania’sland area and 12% of Kenya’sland areais protected. funding to replant and protect areas of the forest.
Alas, simply setting aside land is not always enough to
ensureeffective conservation.In Kenyaand Tanzania,pres-suresCommunity-based conservation
from outside the reserves (settlements, hunting, competi-tion
with livestock, and habitat loss to farming) are reducing
is growing
populationsof migratory wildlife withinthe reserves. Similar Helpingpeople, wildlife, and ecosystemsall atthe sametime
situations occur in North America: Despite the large size of is the focus of many current conservation efforts. In the past,
Yellowstone National Park, animals such as elk, bears, bison, conservationists from industrialized nations, in their zeal to
and wolvesroam seasonallyin and out of the park,sometimes preserveecosystemsin developing nations, often neglected
coming into conflict with ranchers. As a result, conservation-ists the needs of people in the areas they wanted to protect.
have tried to find waysto protect animals and habitats Developing nations came to view this as a kind of neoco-lonialism.
acrossthe GreaterYellowstone Ecosystem,the larger region Today,in contrast, manyconservation biologists
over whichthe animals roam. actively engage local people in efforts to protect land and
As global warming (Chapter 14) drives species toward wildlife—a cooperative approach called community-based
the poles and upwardin elevation,this canforce them out of conservation. A quarter of the world’s protected areasare
protected areas. A major challenge today is to link protected now being managed using community-based conservation.
areas across the landscape with corridors of habitat so that In several African nations, the African Wildlife Foundation
specieslike wildebeestor grizzly bearscan movein response funds community-basedconservationprogramsto help com-munities
to climate change. (We will explore parks and protected areas conserve elephants, lions, rhinos, gorillas, and other
morefully in Chapter9). animals.

ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 18

 ThE SCIENCEbehindthe story Go to Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

CanForensic DNAAnalysis Help SaveElephants?

As any television buff knows, forensic science
is a crucial tool in solving mysteries and 100
fighting crime. In recent years, conser-vation
biologists have been using
80
forensics to unearth secrets and
catch bad guys in the multibillion-dollar
poaching

60
illegal global wildlife trade. elephant

to

One such detective story cen-ters

on the poaching of Africa’s
due

40
elephants for ivory.
Percentage

Each year, tens of thou-sands deaths

20
of elephants are slaugh-Confiscated
tered illegally by poachers, simply
for their tusks (FIGURE 1). Cus-toms 0

agents andlaw enforcement 2003 20042005 20062007 200820092010 20112012 20132014 2015201

authorities manage to discover Year

and confiscate tons of tusks being
FIGURE 1 Since 2010, more than half of African elephant
tusks being shipped internationally in the ivory
deaths have been due to poaching, alevel scientists con-clude
destroyed in Kenya, to trade. Yet only a small percentage
is unsustainable. Values above the horizontal line in this
discourage poaching of tusks arefound and confiscated, graph arethought to cause declines in the population. Datafrom
and poachers are rarely appre-hended,MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants), 2017. Levels and trends of illegal

so the organized international crime syndicates that run killing of elephants in Africa to 31 December 2016—preliminary findings.

these lucrative operations have been largely unhindered thus far.

Enter conservation biologist Samuel Wasser of the University frequencies of alleles (different versions of genes) in these vari-able
of Washington in Seattle. By bringing the tools of genetic anal-ysis, DNA stretches. Bythis process they created a map of allele
he and his colleagues have been shedding light on where frequencies for 71 geographic areas for both types of elephants;
elephants are being killed and where tusks are being shipped, this would act as a kind of reference library with which they could
thereby helping law enforcement efforts. In 2015, Wasser’s team compare any samples from tusks confiscated from the ivory trade.
published a summary of nearly 20 years of work in the journal Working withlaw enforcement officials, Wasser was able to
Science, revealing two major “poaching hotspots” in Africa. access 20% of all ivory seizures madeinternationally between
The researchers began by accumulating 1350 reference 1996 and 2005, 28% made between 2006 and 2011, and 61%
samples of DNA from elephants at 71 locations across 29 made between 2012 and 2014 (FIGURE 2). Taking samples
African nations. Two subspecies of African elephant exist—savanna
from these tusks and sequencing the DNA, Wasser’s teams
elephants, whichlive in open savannas, and forest ele-phants,were then able to compare the results to their library of 71 loca-tions
which live in the forests of West and Central Africa. Of and look for matches. In this way, with the help of sophis-ticated
the 1350 genetic samples (from tissues or dung), 1001 came statistical techniques, they were able to determine the
from savanna elephants and 349 came from forest elephants. geographic origin of each of the tusks they tested, within an
Wasser’s teams sequenced DNA from the reference estimated distance of about 300–400 km (185–250 mi).
samples and compiled data on 16 highly variable stretches of For instance, ivory seized in the Philippines from 1996 to
DNA. For each of the 71 geographic locations, they measured 2005 all appeared to come from forest elephants in an area of

In East Africa,conservationistsandscientistsbegan work-ing land grab,andlaws againstpoachingdeprivethem of aright to

withthe Maasaiand other people of the region years ago,
understanding that to conserve animals and ecosystems, local
people needto be stewardsof the land and feel investedin
conservation. This has proven challenging becausethe parks
and reserves were created on land historically used by local
people. Residentswereforcibly relocated; bysome estimates
50,000 Maasai were evicted to create Serengeti National Park.
In the view of manylocal people,the parks werea government
kill wildlife. As human population grewin the region, conflicts
between people and wildlife increased. Ranchers worried that
wildebeestand buffaloes mightspreaddiseaseto their cattle.
Farmerslost produce when elephants ate their crops. Andthe
economic benefits of ecotourism were not being shared with
all peoplein the region.
In response, proponents of conservation have tried to
reallocatetourist dollarsto local villagesandto transfersome

186 ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

 killed there than Zambia’s government had realized. The
Zambian government responded; it replaced its wildlife direc-tor
and began imposing harsher sentences on poachers and
ivory smugglers.
For shipments seized between 2006 and 2014, the genetic
research indicated a surprisingly clear pattern of two main
poaching hotspots. Most forest elephant tusks seized originated
from a small region of West-Central Africa where two protected
areas overlap the boundaries offour nations (FIGURE 3a). As for
savanna elephant tusks, most came from animals in southern
Tanzania and northern Mozambique during the early portion ofthe
period. Later in the period, tusks originated from throughout Tan-zania
(FIGURE 3b), pointing to a shift northward and an increase
in poaching in the parks of central and northern Tanzania.
In most cases, shipments seized in ports such as Hong
FIGURE 2 Dr. Samuel Wasser worked with law enforcement
Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka were labeled with their
officials to obtain samples of confiscated ivory.
shipping origin (often a coastal port in Kenya, Tanzania, Togo,
or other African countries). Withthe additional help of Wasser’s
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo—just one small por-tion research, authorities could learn the entire route of the ivory
oftheir large geographic range. This region was difficult to shipments, from where the elephants were killed to where the
patrol, however, due to its remoteness and to warfare occur-ring tusks were exported to where they were imported. Combined
at the time, so little could be done with the information. with other data on poaching collected by international survey
In contrast, when customs agents seized 6.5 tons of efforts, the genetic information from DNA forensic studies is
tusks in Singapore in 2002, Wasser’s team determined that painting a clearer picture of the crime network threatening ele-phants,
their DNA matched known samples from savanna elephants and is giving law enforcement authorities more and bet-ter
in Zambia, indicating that many more elephants were being information with which to work.

FIGURE 3 Genetic analysis

of confiscated ivory reveals
where elephants were
killed. For example, analysis of
a shipment confiscated in Hong
Kong in 2013 (a) shows that it
came from forest elephants killed
in a small area of West-Central
Africa. Likewise, tusks from a
Estimated Estimated shipment confiscated in Uganda
origin of origin of in 2013 (b) were found to have
ivory sample ivory sample come from various areas within
Tanzania. Adapted from Wasser, S.,
Forest Savanna
elephant elephant et al., 2015. Genetic assignment of

reference site reference site large seizures of elephant ivory reveals

Africa’s major poaching hotspots.

Science 349: 84–87.

(a) Origin of tusks confiscated in Hong Kong (b) Origin of tusks confiscated in Uganda

authority over wildlife management

to local people. In the sides. Settingasideland for preservationmaydeprivelocal peo-ple
regions around the Maasai Mara Reserve,the Kenya Wildlife of access to exploitable resources, but it also helps ensure
Service and international non-profits have been helping farm-ers that those resources can be sustainably managedand will not
and ranchersbuild electric fencesto keep wildlife away be usedup or soldto foreign corporations.If tourism revenues
from their crops and livestock. These efforts are reducing are adequately distributed, people gain direct economic ben-efits
conflicts between people and wildlife and are fostering more from conserving wildlife. Community-based conservation
favorable attitudestoward conservation. hasnot alwaysbeensuccessful,butin a worldof rising human
Working cooperatively to make conservation beneficial population, sustaining biodiversity will require locally based
for local peoplerequires patience,investment, andtrust on all management
that sustainably meetspeople’sneeds.

ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 18

 closing ThE LOOp

Data from scientists worldwide con-firm and Kenya are home to exceptionally rich species diver-sity.
what any naturalist who has Both nations have invested heavily in protected areas
watched the habitat change in his or to try to safeguard wildlife populations and functioning
her hometown already knows: From ecosystems, and both nations have been pioneers in
amphibians to zebras, biological diver-sity community-based conservation. However, these countries
is being lost rapidly within our lifetimes. also face severe economic and demographic challenges
This erosion of biodiversity threatens to result as people in their swelling populations attempt to rise up
in a massextinction event equivalent to those of the geologic from poverty amid widespread land degradation in rural
past. Habitat alteration, pollution, overharvesting, invasive regions. East Africa’s people desire economic develop-ment,
species, and climate change are the primary causes of biodi-versity and it can be challenging to achieve this while
loss. This loss matters, because society cannot func-tion protecting natural resources. The debates over the Seren-geti
without biodiversity’s pragmatic benefits. Conservation highway and pipeline proposals bring these issues
biologists are conducting research that guides efforts to save into stark relief, but there is hope that if local people can
endangered species, protect their habitats, recover popula-tions, obtain economic benefits from ecotourism, they will be
and preserve and restore natural ecosystems. inspired to help protect the Serengeti ecosystem and
Areas such as East Africa have outsized importance achieve a win-win solution for economic development and
globally for biodiversity and its conservation. Tanzania biodiversity conservation.

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Whatis biodiversity? Describe three levels of 7. Describe one successful accomplishment of the U.S.
biodiversity. Endangered Species Act. Now describe one reason

2. Define the term ecosystem services. Givethree some people have criticized it.
examples of ecosystem services that people would have 8. Explain how captive breeding can assist endangered
a hard time replacing if these were lost. species recovery, and give an example. Now explain
3. Whatis the relationship between biodiversity and food why cloning could never be, in itself, an effective
security? Between biodiversity and pharmaceuticals? response to species loss.
Give three examples of the benefits of biodiversity 9. Name two reasons that a large national park like
conservation for food supplies and medicine. Serengeti or Yellowstone might not be adequate to
4. List three reasons why people suggest that biodiversity effectively conserve a population of a threatened

conservation is important. species. What solutions exist to address these reasons?

5. Whatarethe five primary causes of biodiversity loss? 10. Explain the notion of community-based conservation.

Give one specific example of each. Why have conservation advocates been turning to this
approach? What challenges exist in implementing it?
6. List three invasive species, and describe their impacts.

SEEKINGSolutions
1. Many arguments have been advanced for the 4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION You are an adviser to
importance of preserving biodiversity. Which argument do the president of Tanzania, who is seeking to develop
you find most compelling, and why? Which argument a formal policy on the question of potential highways
do you find least compelling, and why? and pipelines through Serengeti National Park. Given
2. Some people declare that we shouldn’t worry about what you know from our Central Case Study, what

endangered species because extinction has always would be your preliminary advice to the president,
occurred. How would you respond to this view? and why? To bolster your advice, what further information
would you seek to learn from the region’s residents?
3. Compare the approach of setting aside protected areas
From scientists and conservationists? From tourism
with the approach of community-based conservation.
operators? From international sources that might help
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
fund a project
Can we—and should we—follow both approaches?

188 ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

 5. THINKIT THROUGH As a resident of your community developers say the forest loss will not matter because
and a parent of two young children, you attend atown plenty of 1-acre stands still exist scattered throughout
meeting called to discuss the proposed development the area. Consider the development’s possible impacts
of a shopping mall and condominium complex. The on the community’s biodiversity, children, and quality of
development would eliminate a 100-acre stand of life. What will you choose to tell your fellow citizens and
forest, the last sizeable forest stand in your town. The the town’s decision-makers at this meeting, and why?

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints

Research shows that much of humanity’s footprint on biodi-versity according to their populations. When footprints are equal to
comes from our use of grasslands for grazing livestock or below biocapacity, then resources are being used sustain-ably.
and forests for timber and other resources. Grasslands and When footprints surpass biocapacity, then resources
forests contribute different amounts to each nation’s bioca-pacity are being used unsustainably.
(a region’s natural capacity to provide resources and In the table, fill in the proportion of each nation’s per
absorb our wastes), depending on how much of these habi-tats capita footprint accounted for by use of grazing land and for-est
each nation has. Likewise, the per capita biocapacity and land. Then fill in the proportion of each nation’s per capita
per capita ecological footprints of each nation vary further biocapacity provided by grazing land and forest land.

FOOTPRINTS AND BIOCAPACITIES

KENYA TANZANIA UNITED STATES CANADA
(HECTARES PER PERSON)

Footprint from grazing land 0.23 0.32 0.30 0.33

Footprint from forest land 0.26 0.22 0.82 1.11

Total ecological footprint 1.02 1.24 8.58 8.76

Percent footprint from grazing and forest 48

Biocapacity of grazing land 0.24 0.32 0.28 0.29

Biocapacity of forest land 0.02 0.16 1.57 8.99

Total biocapacity 0.53 1.01 3.78 16.18

Percent biocapacity from grazing and forest 57

Data from Global Footprint Network, 2017.

1. In which nations is grazing land being used sustainably? 3. The Living Planet Index (p. 174) declined 52%
In which nations is forest land being used sustainably? between 1970 and 2010, but its temperate and tropical
2. Doforest use and grazing make up alarger part of components differed. During this period, the index for

the footprint for temperate-zone industrialized nations temperate regions decreased by 36%, whereas the
such as Canada and the United States, or for tropical index for tropical regions declined by 56%. Based on
developing nations such as Kenya and Tanzania? What this information, do you predict that biodiversity loss has
do you think accounts for this difference between these been steepest in Kenya and Tanzania or in Canada and

two types of nations? What else besides use of forests the United States? Explain your answer.
and grasslands contributes to an ecological footprint?

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Goto Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Goto Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

ChApTEr 8 Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 18

 Forests,
CHAPTER
ForestManagemen
andProtected
Areas
 central CASESTUDY

Savingthe World’s
GreatestRainforest
Imagine a man By any measure,the Amazon Amazon
without lungs. Imagine rainforest is enormous—and rainforest
Earth without Amazon enormously important. Two-thirds
BRAZIL
rainforest. the size ofthe contiguous
—Vinita Kinra, Indian-Canadian author
United States, it encompasses
most of the rainforest on Earth. It captures water, regu-lates
Destroying rainforest
climate, and absorbs much of our planet’s carbon
for economic gain is like
dioxide while releasing oxygen. Incredibly biodiverse, it
burning a Renaissance
painting to cook hosts manythousands of plant and animal species—as
a meal. well as tribes of indigenous people, some not yet con-tacted
—Edward O. Wilson, biologist and by outside civilization.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author
The Amazon plays all these vital roles in the health
of our planet. And yet, we are losing this vast forest as
people clear its trees for agriculture and settlement. Fully one-fifth of the immense forest
that was standing just half a century ago is now gone.
The Amazon rainforest spreads across portions of nine South American nations, but
nearly two-thirds lies within Brazil. Just as the United States in the 1800s pushed its frontier
west to seek resources and expand its influence, Brazil today is pushing into the Amazon
basin. Like the United States in the past, Brazil has sought to relieve crowding and poverty in
its cities by encouraging urban-dwellers to settle on lands at its frontier.
For several decades, Brazil’s government has provided incentives for settlement
while foreign investors have helped fund development. In the 1970s, Brazil built the Trans-Amazonian
highway across the forest and promised each settler 100 hectares (250 acres)
of land, along withloans and 6 months’ salary. People flooded into the region and cleared
a great deal offorest for small farms, but most were unable to make a living at farming, and
many plots were abandoned.
Onceland is clearedfor one purpose, however,it can be sold
for others. Land speculators bought and sold parcels, and
Upon completing this
vast areas ended up going to wealthy landowners over-seeing
chapter, you will be able to:
large-scale agriculture. Since that time, cattle
• Summarize the ecological and ranching has accounted for three-quarters of the
economic contributions of forests
forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon (FIGURE 9.1).
• Outline the history and current Starting in the 1990s, rising global
scale of deforestation demand for soy, sugar, rice, corn, and palm

• Assess approaches to resource oil fueled the destruction of Amazonian for-est

management, describe methods for industrial-scale farming. In particu-lar,
of harvesting timber, and appraise vast monocultures of soybeans spread
aspects of forest management across the land. Most soy was exported for

• Identify federal land management biodiesel and animal feed.

agencies and the lands they Meanwhile, each new highway, road, or
manage path cut into the forest allowed access notjust

• Recognize types of parks and

for farmers, ranchers, and settlers, but also for
protected areas and evaluate miners, loggers, and poachers—many of whom
issues involved in their design were exploiting resources illegally. These pursuits in
turn created more roads, which divided the forest into
smaller and smaller fragments. Soon, dam construction

Member of the Xingu tribe from the Amazon

Aerial view of a stretch
of Amazon rainforest 19
 Forest
Cattle ranching
Soybeans and
cattle

BRAZIL

(a) Amazon rainforest and regions of cleared forest (b) An area of rainforest cleared for agriculture

FIGURE 9.1 Large areas of Amazon rainforest have been cleared for cattle ranching and soybean
farming. Mapadaptedfrom Nepstad,D.,et al., 2014. SlowingAmazondeforestation
through publicpolicyandinterventionsin
beef and soy supply chains. Science 344: 1118–1123.

and oil and gas drilling caused more forest loss. As a result of the use of private land. After revision, the Forest Code mandated
all these activities, each year from the 1970s through 2008 an that landowners in the Amazon conserve 80% of their land as
average of nearly 17,000 km2 (6600 mi2) were clearedin Brazil forest, and that rural landowners elsewherein Brazil conserve
(FIGURE 9.2)—an area larger than Connecticut. The Brazilian 20%. The newly revised law also established large protected
Amazon waslosing moreforest than anywhere elsein the world. areas to protect tribes, conserve water, and prevent soil erosion.
In response, an international outcry arose from scientists In addition, the government strengthened its historically weak
and the public. People worldwide feared the loss ofthe region’s enforcement of forest protections.
biodiversity, and lamented the fate of the Amazon’s indigenous International pressure also convinced banks to begin requir-ing
tribespeople, who were dying from disease and conflict intro-duced landowners to document compliance with environmental
by loggers, miners, and poachers trespassing on their regulations in order to get loans. And it persuaded purchasers
land. As the threat of global climate change grew worse, people of beef, leather, and soy to stop buying Brazilian products or to
also dreaded the loss of one of Earth’s biggest carbon sinks. For buy only those certified as sustainable by third-party certifiers.
all these reasons, the Amazon rainforest came to be perceived In 2006, soy traders responded to an international campaign
as aninternational treasure—and its protection was regarded as by agreeing not to buy Brazilian soybeans planted in recently
vital for the good of people everywhere. deforested areas. This “soy moratorium” gave growers in Brazil
This new international scrutiny put pressure on Brazil incentive to plant on previously cleared land rather than cutting
to curb deforestation. Brazilian policymakers responded by down forest. At the same time, global commodity prices were
strengthening the nation’s Forest Code, a 1965 law governing affecting Brazilian agriculture; for instance, a fall in beef prices
made cattle ranching less profitable.
As a result, after 2004 deforestation rates in the Brazilian
Amazon fell sharply. Since 2009 they have averaged 6300 km2
30,000
(2400 mi2) per year (see Figure 9.2), an area the size of Dela-ware.
Scientists and environmental advocates around the world
25,000
held up Brazil as a model for slowing forest loss.
(km2

Today, however, deforestation is rising again as Brazil

20,000
faces economic challenges and political instability amid cor-ruption
destroyed

15,000 scandals engulfing its political leaders. Policymakers

had begun revising the Forest Code again in 2012, granting
an amnesty for people who had illegally cleared forest under
forest

of
10,000
the old law, and loosening the restrictions on forest clear-ance.
Area

5,000 Today’s Forest Code offers much weaker protections

than the earlier version.
0 As Brazil’s current government acts to encourage develop-ment
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 at the expense of forests, observers worry that the nation
Year will be unable to keep promises it made at the Paris Climate
FIGURE 9.2 Annual forest loss has slowed in the Brazilian Conference in 2015 to reduce forest loss. Brazil’s decisions in
Amazon. Bars show area of forest cleared each year. Datafrom Insti-tuto coming years will shape the fate of the Amazon, which in turn
Nacional de Pequisas Espaciais (INPE). bears significance for forests and societies around the world.

192 ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas

 Forest Ecosystems
and Forest Resources
Aforest is any ecosystem with a high density of trees. Forests
provide habitat for countless organisms; help maintain the
quality of soil, air, and water; and play key roles in our planet’s
biogeochemical cycles (pp. 39–44). Forests also provide us
with wood for fuel, construction, paper production, and more.

There are manytypes offorests

Most of the world’s forests occur as boreal forest, a biome
that stretches across much of Canada, Scandinavia, and
Russia; or as tropical rainforest, a biome in Latin America,
equatorial Africa, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia. Temperate
FIGURE 9.3 This maple-birch-beech forest from the Upper
deciduous forests, temperate rainforests, andtropical dry for-ests
Peninsula of Michigan belongs to 1 of 23 forest types found
also cover large regions (pp. 83–87).
in the continental United States.
Within each forest biome, the plant community varies
from region to region because of differences in soil and cli-mate.
Asa result, ecologists classify forests into forest types, cat-egoriesmammals, and other animals subsist on the leaves, fruits, and
defined by their predominant tree species (FIGURE 9.3). seeds that trees produce, or find shelter in the cavities of tree
The eastern United States contains 10 forest types, ranging trunks. Tree canopies are full of life, and understory shrubs
from spruce-fir to oak-hickory to longleaf–slash pine. The west-ern and groundcover plants provide food and shelter for yet more
United States has 13 forest types, ranging from Douglas fir organisms. Plants are colonized by an extensive array of fungi
and hemlock–sitka spruce forests of the moist Pacific Northwest and microbes, in both parasitic and mutualistic relationships
to ponderosa pine and pinyon-juniper woodlands of the dry inte-rior. (pp. 72–73). And much of a forest’s biodiversity resides on
In the Amazon rainforest, two of the main forest types are the forest floor, where the fallen leaves and branches of the
várzea (forest that gets flooded by swollen waters of the Amazon leaf litter nourish the soil (FIGURE 9.5). A multitude of soil
River or its tributaries for weeks or months each year) and terra organisms helps to decompose plant material and cycle nutri-ents
firme (forest on land high enough to avoid seasonal flooding). (p. 144).
Altogether, forests currently cover 31% of Earth’s land Forests with a greater diversity of plants tend to host a
surface (FIGURE 9.4). Forests occur on all continents except greater diversity of organisms overall. As forests change by
Antarctica. the process of succession (p. 77), their species composition
changes along with their structure. In general, old-growth

Forests are ecologically complex forests contain more structural diversity, microhabitats, and
resources for more species. Old-growth forests also are home
Because of their structural complexity and their capacity to to more species that are threatened, endangered, or declining,
provide many niches for organisms, forests comprise some because today old forests have become rare relative to young
of the richest ecosystems for biodiversity. Insects, birds, forests.

FIGURE 9.4 Forests cover 31%

of Earth’s land surface. Most
widespread are boreal forests in the
north and tropical forests near the
equator. “Wooded land” supports
trees at sparser densities. Datafrom
Food and Agriculture Organization of the

United Nations, 2010. Global forest resources

assessment 2010.

Forest

Other
wooded
land

ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas 19

 Treefall gap

Canopy

Snag

Subcanopy

Understory

Shrub layer

Forest floor

Soil

Ground-cover Leaf litter Moss and Roots Fallen log

epiphytes

FIGURE 9.5 A mature forest is complex in its structure. Crowns of tall trees form the canopy, and trees
beneath them form the subcanopy and understory. Shrubs and ground cover grow just above the forest floor,
and vines, mosses, lichens, and epiphytes cover portions of trees and the forest floor. Snags (dead trees)
provide food and nesting sites for woodpeckers and other animals, and logs nourish the soil. Fallen trees
create openings called treefall gaps, letting light through and allowing early successional plants to grow.

Forests provide ecosystem services (p. 34) and then store carbon in their tissues, forests serve
as a major reservoir for carbon. Scientists estimate that the
Besides hosting biodiversity, a typical forest supplies us with world’sforests store about 296 billion metrictons of carbon
many vital ecosystem services (pp. 4, 39, 172; FIGURE 9.6). in living tissue, which is morethan the atmosphere contains.
As plants grow, their roots stabilize the soil and help to pre-vent Each year forests absorb about 2.4 billion metrictons of car-bon
erosion. Trees’ roots draw minerals up from deep soil from the air, withthe Amazonrainforest taking care of
layers and deliver them to surface layers where other plants one-quarter of that total. Conversely, when plant matter is
can use them. Plants also return organic material to the top-soil burned or when plants die and decompose, carbon dioxide
when they die or drop their leaves. Whenrain falls, leaves is released—andthereafter less vegetation remains to soak
and leaf litter intercept water, slowing runoff. This helps it up. Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas driving
water soak into the ground to nourish roots and recharge aqui-fers, climate change (p. 314). Therefore, when we destroy forests,
thereby preventing flooding, reducing soil erosion, and we worsenclimate change. The moreforests wepreserveor
helping keep streams and rivers clean. Forest plants also filter restore, the morecarbon wekeep out of the atmosphere, and
pollutants and purify water as they take it up from the soil and the better wecan address climate change.
release it to the atmosphere by the process of transpiration
(p. 41). Plants release the oxygen that we breathe, regulate Forests provide us valuableresources
moisture and precipitation, and moderate climate.
Because forests perform all these ecological functions,
Carbon storage and other ecosystem services alone makefor-ests
they are indispensable for our survival. Forests also enhance pricelessto our society, but forests also provide many
our health and quality of life with cultural, aesthetic, and recre-ational
economically valuable resources. Among these are plants for
values (p. 98). People seek out forests for adventure and
medicines, dyes, and fibers; and animals, fruits, and nuts for

for spiritual solace alike—to admire beautiful trees, to observe

food. Amazonianforests abound withresourcesranging from
wildlife, to enjoy clean air, and for many other reasons.
Brazil nuts to açaí berries to latex for making rubber (from
the sap of rubber trees). And, of course, forest trees provide us

Carbonstoragelimits climate change with wood.For millennia, woodhasfueledthe firesthat cook

our food and keep us warm. It has built the homes that keep
Of all the services that forests provide, their storage of car-bon us sheltered. It built the ships that carried people and cultures
is eliciting the greatestinterest as nations debatehowto betweencontinents. Andit gave us paper,the mediumof the
control global climate change (Chapter 14). Because plants first information revolution. Forest resources have helped us
absorb carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis achievethe standardof living wenow enjoy

194 ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas

 damaging impacts as our population swells. Deforestation

Stores
leads to biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and desertification

CO2 carbon Supports (p. 148). It also releases carbon dioxide to the atmosphere,
biodiversity
O2 contributing to climate change.
In 2015, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization
Provides fuel wood, (FAO) released its latest Global Forest Resources Assess-ment,
Produces
lumber, paper, a periodic report based on remote sensing data from
oxygen
medicines, dyes,
satellites, analysis from forest experts, questionnaire
foods, fibers
responses, and statistical modeling. The assessment con-cluded
that we are eliminating 7.6 million hectares (ha;

H2O 18.8 million acres) of forest each year. Subtracting annual

regrowth from this amount makes for an annual net loss of
3.3 million ha (8.2 million acres)—an area about the size of
Purifies water,
Maryland. This rate (for the period 2010–2015) is lower than
filters pollution
Promotes and
deforestation rates for earlier years. In the 1990s, the world
provides health,
beauty, recreation had been losing 1.8% of its forest each year; in 2010–2015 it
lost just 0.8% each year.
While this is good news, some other research efforts have
calculated higher rates of forest loss. In 2013, a large research
Returns organic
Slows runoff, team analyzed satellite data, published their work in the
matter to soil
prevents flooding journal Science, and worked with staff from Google to cre-ate
interactive mapsof forest loss and gain across the world.
They found much more deforestation than the FAO had: From
2000 to 2012, this team calculated annual losses of 19.2 mil-lion
ha and annual gains of 6.7 million ha, for a net loss per
Transports year of 12.5 million ha (30.9 million acres—an area larger
Stabilizes soil,
minerals to
prevents erosion than New York State).
soil surface

Wedeforested muchof
FIGURE 9.6 Aforest provides us with a diversity of ecosys-tem North America
services, as well as resources that we can harvest.
Deforestation for timber and farmland propelled the expan-sion
of the United States and Canada westward across the
In recent decades,industrial harvestinghasallowed usto
North American continent. The vast deciduous forests of the
extract moretimber than ever before. Mostcommercial tim-ber
East were cleared by the mid-1800s, making way for count-less
extraction today takes place in Canada, Russia, and other
small farms. Timber from these forests built the cities of
nations withlarge expansesof borealforest; andin tropical
the Atlantic Seaboard and the upper Midwest.
nations withlarge areas ofrainforest, such as Brazil andIndo-nesia.
As a farming economy shifted to an industrial one,
In the United States, mostlogging takes place in pine
wood was used to fire the furnaces of industry. Logging
plantationsofthe Southand coniferforests ofthe West.
operations moved south to the Ozarks of Missouri and
Arkansas, and then to the pine woodlands and bottom-land
ForestLoss hardwood forests of the South, which were logged
and converted to pine plantations. Once mature trees were
Whentrees are removed more quickly than they can regrow, removed from these areas, timber companies moved west,
the result is deforestation, the clearing and loss of forests. cutting the continent’s biggest trees in the Rocky Moun-tains,
Deforestationhas altered landscapes across much of our the Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Mountains, and the
planet. In the time it takes you to read this sentence, 2 hect-ares Pacific Coast ranges. Exploiting forest resources fed the
(5 acres) of tropical forest will have been cleared. As we American economy, but we were depleting our store of
alter, fragment, and eliminate forests, welose biodiversity, renewable resources for the future.
worsen climate change, and disrupt the ecosystem services By the 20th century, very little primary forest—natural
that support our societies. forest uncut by people—remained in the lower 48 U.S. states,
and today even less is left ( FIGURE 9.7). Nearly all the larg-est
Agriculture and demandfor wood trees in North America today are second-growth trees:

put pressure onforests trees that sprouted after old-growth trees were cut. Second-growth
trees typify secondary forest, which contains smaller,
To make wayfor agriculture and to extract wood products, younger trees. In terms of species composition, structure, and
people have been clearing forests for millennia. This has fed nutrient balance, a secondary forest differs markedly from the
our civilization’s growth, but the loss of foreststoday exerts primary forest that it replaced.

ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas 19

 Primary forest

Secondary forest

(a) 1620 (b) Today

FIGURE 9.7 Areas of primary (uncut) forest have been dramatically reduced. When Europeans first
colonized North America (a), much of what is now the United States was covered in primary forest (dark green).
Today, nearly all this primary forest is gone (b). Much of the landscape has become reforested with secondary
forest (pale green). Adapted from (a) U.S. Forest Service; and (b) maps by Hansen, M.C., et al., 2013. High-resolution global maps
of 21st-century forest cover change. Science 342: 850–853, and George Draffan, Endgame Research (www.endgame.org).

Forests are being cleared most As wehave seen, Brazil waslosing forests faster than any

rapidly in developing nations other countryin the 1980sand 1990s(FIGURE9.9).Its reduc-tion

Uncut primary forests still remain in
developing countries. Thesenations are in the positionthe
United States and Canada enjoyed a century or two ago, but
today’s powerfulindustrial technologiesallow these nationsto
exploit their resources and push back their frontiers even faster
than occurred in North America. As a result, deforestation
is mostrapid today in Indonesia, Africa, and Latin America
(FIGURE 9.8). In these regions, developing nations are striving
to expand settlement for their burgeoning populations and to
boosttheir economiesby extracting naturalresources.
of deforestation in the Amazonsince that time has been an
Brazil and in many inspiring success story, proving that a nation can save its for-ests
whiledevelopingeconomically. Alas,that nation’srecent
political struggles are leading to an increase in forest loss in
the Amazon,andto higherrates of clearing in other partsof
the country. Moreover, most of Brazil’s neighbors that share
portions of the Amazon rainforest—Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador,
Colombia,Venezuela,Guyana,Surinam,and French Guiana—have
not yet managedto slow their deforestation rates.
In contrast, parts of Europe and North America are gain-ing
forest as they recover from past deforestation. This is

Forest is regrowing
in much of Europe
and the United States

Monocultural plantations
in China account for gain

Net Loss of “forest,” but primary

forest is still being lost
> 500,000 ha across Asi
> 100,000–500,000 ha
> 10,000–100,000 ha

Small Change (gain or loss)

Lessthan 10,000 ha

Net Gain

> 10,000–100,000 ha
Forest loss is highest in
> 100,000–500,000 ha Latin America, Africa,
> 500,000 ha and Indonesia

FIGURE 9.8 Tropical forests are being lost. Africa, Latin America, and Indonesia are losing the most forest,
whereas Europe and North America are slowly gaining secondary forest. In Asia, tree plantations are increasing,
but natural primary forests are still being lost. Datafrom Food and Agriculture Organization ofthe United Nations, 2015. Global
forest resources assessment 2015. By permission.

196 ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas

 Satellite photo of Satellite photo of
Rondonia, Brazil, 1975 same area, 2001

20 km 20 km

FIGURE 9.9 Deforestation of Amazonian rainforest has been rapid. Satelliteimages of the state of Rondonia
in Brazil show extensive clearing resulting from settlement in the region.

not compensating for the loss of tropical forests, however,

because tropical forests are home to far more biodiversity
than the temperate forests of North America and Europe.
Developing nations frequently are desperate enough
for economic development and foreign capital that they
impose few restrictions on logging. They often allow their
timber to be extracted by foreign multinational corpora-tions,
which pay fees for a concession, or right to extract
the resource. Once a concession is granted, the corporation Land cleared
has little or no incentive to manage resources sustainably. for oil palm
plantations

FAQ
Local people may receive tem-porary
employment from the ASIA
Pacific
corporation, but once the timber
Ocean

Is the Amazon all primary

is gone they no longer have the
forest and the ecosystem ser-vices
forest?
it provided. As a result, Primary
People long assumed that the Indian AUSTRALIA
most economic benefits are forest
entire Amazon rainforest was Ocean
short term and are reaped not by
pristine, untouched primary forest,
local residents but by the for-eign
but recent scientific research is
corporation. Much of the
revealing that portions of the Ama-zon
had been cleared for farms, wood extracted in developing

orchards, and villages centuries nations is exported to Europe

ago and that the region evidently and North America. In this way,
supported thousands, or perhaps our consumption of high-end
millions, of people. Most ofthem furniture and other wood prod-ucts
died in epidemics that swept the can drive forest destruction
Forested
Americas in the wake of early visits in poorer nations.
Unforested
by Europeans, who sometimes Throughout Southeast Asia
unknowingly brought diseases and Indonesia today, vast areas Borneo, 1950 Borneo, 2010

against which Native American of tropical rainforest are being

FIGURE 9.10 Oil palm plantations are replacing primary
people had evolved no defenses. cut to establish plantations of oil
forest across Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Since 1950,
Once these Amazonian civiliza-tions palms (FIGURE 9.10). Oil palm
the immense island of Borneo (maps at bottom) has lost most
disappeared, the regions
fruit produces palm oil, which we
of its forest. Data from Radday, M., WWF-Germany, 2007. Designed
they had cleared regrew into the
use in snack foods, soaps, cos-metics,
by Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal. Extent of deforestation in Bor-neo
forest we see today.
and as a biofuel. In Indo-nesia, 1950–2001, and projection towards 2020. http://www.grida.no/
the world’s largest palm oil resources/8324.

ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas 19

 producer, oil palm plantations have displaced over 8 million
ha (20 million acres) of rainforest. Clearing for plantations SUCCESS Planting Trees, Empowering People:
encourages further development STORY
Wangari Maathai and The Green Belt
weighingthe and eases access for people to

ISSUES
Movement
enter the forest and conduct log-ging
illegally, leading to exten-sive
When an area is deforested, allis not lost. People can reforest
loss of biodiversity.
Logging here or There the land by planting trees. One success story has unfolded in
the African nation of Kenya, which has long experienced some
Suppose you are an activist pro-testing
Solutions are of the world’s fastest population growth.
the logging of old-growth

trees near your hometown. Now emerging By the 1970s, forest had disap-peared

let’s say you know that if the pro-test across vast areas of Kenya
Many avenues are being pur-sued as rural people harvested wood
is successful, the company
to address deforestation in for fuel and building material.
will move to a developing country
developing nations. Some con-servation
Communities began run-ning
and cut its primary forest instead.
proponents are running out of water and sinking
Would you still protest the logging
community-based conservation deeperinto poverty as aresult.
in your hometown? Would you
pursue any other approaches? projects (p. 185) that empower Stepping forward to tackle this
local people to act as stewards problem was Wangari Maathai,
of their forest resources. In other East Africa’s first female profes-sor
cases, conservation organizations, such as Conservation Inter-national, and later a member of
are buying concessions and using them to preserve Kenya’s parliament. In 1977 Dr. Wangari Maathai
forest rather than to cut it down. Another approach is the debt-for-nature
she founded a grass-roots
swap, in which a conservation organization or a organization, the Green Belt Movement, to teach people how
government offers to pay off a portion of a developing nation’s forests help conserve water and to organize people to plant
international debt in exchange for a promise by the nation to trees near where they live. Since then, farmers and villagers
conserve natural land. have planted 51 milliontrees at 6500 sites across southern
Forest proponents are also trying to focus new agricul-tural Kenya. Rural women are paid for each tree they plant that
development on lands that are already cleared. Bra-zil’s survives—a valuable source of income in an impoverished
2006 soy moratorium, negotiated by soy producers, region. Besides restoring forests and improving water supplies,
international conservationists, and Brazilian policymakers, the work has helped empower individuals, particularly women
successfully reduced clearing for soy by 30 times. People and girls, while enhancing livelihoods and making communities
elsewhere in the world saw this as a model, and today are more sustainable. For her efforts, Maathai wasinternationally
trying similar approaches. In Indonesia, the nonprofit World recognized withthe Nobel Peace Prizein 2004. Maathai died in
Resources Institute (WRI) began working with palm oil 2011, but her legacy lives on. Today her institute, her founda-tion,
companies that own concessions to clear primary rainfor-est her four books, and the ongoing work of the Green Belt
and steers them instead to plant their plantations on land Movement inspire countless individuals to carry on her work
that is already logged. with trees, people, and communities.
Because deforestation accounts for at least 12% of the
EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science
world’s greenhouse gas emissions—nearly as much as all the
world’s vehicles emit—international efforts to address global
climate change include plans to curb deforestation using
financial incentives. At recent international climate confer-ences
(p. 335), negotiators have outlined a program called
Reducing
(REDD;
Emissions from
changed to
Deforestation
REDD+ as the
and Forest
program
Degrada-tion
expanded
Forest Management
in scope), whereby wealthy industrialized nations pay poorer As our demands on forests intensify, we need to manage
developing nations to conserve forest. The aim is to makefor-ests forests with care. Forestersare professionals who manage
more valuable when saved than when cut down. Under forests through the practice of forestry. Foresters must bal-ance
this plan, poor nations gain income while rich nations receive our society’s demand for forest products withthe central
carbon credits to offset their emissions in an international importance of forests asecosystems.
cap-and-trade system (pp. 113, 333). Although REDD+ has Debates over how to manage forest resources reflect
not yet been formally agreed to, the approach gained crucial broader questions about how to manage natural resources in
momentum at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015. Brazil general. Resources
such asfossil fuels and manymineralsare
gained praise at the Paris conference nonrenewable, whereas resources such as the sun’s energy
by promising to reduce
its emissions by 37% by 2025 and 43% by 2030 (compared are perpetually renewable (p. 4). Between these extremes lie
resourcesthat arerenewableif they are not exploitedtoo rap-idly.
withits 2005 levels) through aggressive steps to curb defor-estation.
Unfortunately, its policy shifts since then will make Theseinclude timber, as well as soils, fresh water,range-land,
these goals more challenging. wildlife, andfisheries

198 ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas

 Resource managersfollow Carrying capacity:

several strategies Slow

Population
in the absence
size

growth of harvesting
Resource management describes our use of strategies to
manageand regulate the harvest of renewable resources.
siz

Sustainable resource management involves harvesting these

Fastest
resources in waysthat do not deplete them. A key question Managers harvest
growth at this population
in managingresourcesis whetherto focus strictly on the
size to obtain
resource of interest or to look more broadly at the environ-mental Population

maximum
system of which it is a part. Taking a broader view sustainable yield
often helps avoid degradingthe system andthereby helpsto Slow
sustain the resource. growth

Maximum sustainable yield A guiding principle in Time

resource management has traditionally been maximum
FIGURE 9.11 Maximum sustainable yield maximizes the
sustainable yield. Its aimis to achievethe maximumamount
amount of resource harvested while sustaining the harvest.
of resource extraction without depleting the resource from
one harvestto the next. Recallthe logistic growth curve(see
to improve methods through time. For managers, it entails
Figure 3.14, p. 64), which shows how a population grows
monitoring the results of one’s practices and adjusting them
most quickly whenit is at anintermediate size—specifically,
based upon what is learned.
at one-half of carrying capacity. Afisheries managerstriving
for maximum sustainable yield, for example, will aim to keep
fish populations at intermediate levels so that they rebound Weextract timber from private
quickly after each harvest. Doing so should result in the and publiclands
greatest amount of fish harvested over time while sustaining
the population (FIGURE 9.11). This approach, however, keeps The United States began formally managing forest resources
the fish population at only half its carrying capacity—well a century ago, after depletion of eastern U.S. forests prompted
below the size it would attain in the absence of fishing. This fear of a “timber famine.” This led the federal government
will alter the food web dynamics of the community. to form forest reserves: public lands set aside to grow trees,
In forestry, maximumsustainableyield arguesfor cutting produce timber, and protect water quality. Today’s system of
trees shortly after they gothrough their fastest stage of growth. national forests consists of 77 million ha (190 million acres),
Becausetrees increase in biomass most quickly at an inter-mediate
managed by the U.S. Forest Service and covering more than
age,they are cutlong before growing aslarge asthey 8% of the nation’s land area (FIGURE 9.12). The Forest Service
would in the absence of harvesting. This
practice maximizes timber production, but
it altersforest ecologyand eliminateshabi-tat
for speciesthat depend on maturetrees.

Ecosystem-based management
Because of these dilemmas, more and
more managersespouse ecosystem-based
management, which aims to minimize
impact on the ecological processesthat
provide the resource. Underthis approach,
foresters may protect certain forested
areas,restore ecologically important habi-tats,
and consider patterns atthe landscape
level (p. 37), allowing timber harvesting
while preservingthe functional integrity
of the forest ecosystem. Ecosystems are
complex, however, so it can be challeng-ing Federal lands by agency
to determine how to implement this Bureau of Indian Affairs
type of management. Bureau of Land Management
Fish and Wildlife Service
Adaptive management Some man-agement Forest Service

actions will succeed, and some National Park Service

will fail. Adaptive management involves FIGURE 9.12 U.S. residents enjoy over 250 million ha (600 million acres)
testing different approaches and trying of public lands. Datafrom United States Geological Survey.

ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas 199

 Note, however, that even when the regrowth of trees out-paces
20
Net annual growth their removal, the character of a forest may change.
Net annual removal Once primary forest is replaced by secondary forest or single-species
plantations, the resulting community may be very dif-ferent
15
and is generally less ecologically valuable.
feet

cubic

of

Plantation forestry has grown

10
Today’s timber industry focuses on production from planta-tions
(billions
of fast-growing tree species planted in single-species
monocultures (p. 142). All trees in a stand are planted at the
Trees 5
same time, so the stands are said to be even-aged. Stands are
cut after a certain number of years (the rotation time), and the
land is replanted with seedlings. Plantation forestry is grow-ing,
0
and 7% of the world’s forests are now plantations. One-quarter
National Other public Private
forests forests land of these feature non-native tree species.
Type of land ownership Ecologists and foresters view plantations as akin to crop
agriculture. With few tree species and little variation in tree age,
FIGURE 9.13 In the United States, trees are growing faster
plantations do not offer habitat to many forest organisms. They
than they are being removed. However, forests that regrow
lack the structural complexity of a mature natural forest (see
after logging often differ greatly from the forests they replace.
Figure 9.5) and are vulnerable to outbreaks of pest species. For
“Private land” here combines land owned by the timber industry and by small

landholders. Data from Oswalt, S.N., et al., 2014. Forest resources of the
these reasons, some harvesting methodsaim to maintain uneven-aged
United States, 2012. For. Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. WO-91. Washington, D.C.:
stands featuring a mix of trees of different ages and species.
USDA Forest Service.

Weharvest timber in several ways

For which of the three types of land is the ratio
of growth to removal greatest?
Timber companies choosefrom several methodsto harvesttrees.
In clear-cutting, all trees in an area are cut at once (FIGURE 9.14).
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
Clear-cutting is cost-efficient, and to some extent it can mimic
natural disturbance events, such asfires or windstorms. How-ever,
the ecological impacts are severe. An entire ecological com-munity
is removed, soil erodes away, and sunlight penetrates to
was established in 1905 under Gifford Pinchot, whose conser-vation ground level, changing microclimatic conditions. As a result, new
ethic (p. 15) meant managing forests for “the greatest types of plants replace those of the original forest.
good of the greatest number in the long run.” Pinchot believed Concerns about clear-cutting led to alternative harvesting
that the nation should extract and use resources from its pub-lic methods. In seed-tree systems and shelterwood systems, a few
lands, but that wise and careful management of timber large trees are left standing in clear-cuts to reseed the area or
resources wasimperative. to provide shelter for seedlings. In selection systems, a minor-ity
Today almost 90% of timber harvesting in the United of trees is removed at any one time, while most are left
States takes place on private land owned by the timber indus-try
or by small landowners (FIGURE 9.13). Timber companies
generally pursue maximum sustainable yield on their land, as
well as extracting timber from public forests. In the national
forests, U.S. Forest Service staff conduct timber sales and
build roads to provide access for logging companies, which
sell the timber they harvest for profit. In this way, taxpayers
subsidize private harvesting on public land (p. 113).
In U.S. national forests, timber extraction increased in
the 1950s as the nation underwent a postwar economic boom,
paper consumption rose, and the growing population moved
into newly built suburban homes. Harvests began to decrease
in the 1980s as economic trends shifted and public concern
over logging grew. Today, regrowth is outpacing removal on
national forests by 11 to 1 (see Figure 9.13); in an average
year, about 2% of U.S. forest acreage is cut for timber. Over-all,
timber harvesting in the United Statesand other developed FIGURE 9.14 Clear-cutting is cost-efficient for timber com-panies
nations has remained stable for the past half-century, while it but has ecological consequences. These include soil
has more than doubled in developing nations. erosion, water pollution, and altered community composition.

200 Chapter 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas

 standing. Selection systems preserve much of a forest’s struc-tural
10
diversity, but are less cost-efficient for the industry.
9
All harvesting methods disturb soil, alter habitat, affect
plants and animals, and modify forest structure and composition. 8
Most methods speed runoff, raise flooding risk, and increase 7
soil erosion, thereby degrading water quality. Finding waysto burne

6
minimize these impacts is important, because timber harvesting
is necessary to obtain the wood products that all of us use.
acres

5
of

As people became more aware of the impacts of logging, 4

many began to urge that public forests be managed for recre-ation,
3
wildlife, and ecological integrity. In 1976 the U.S. Con-gress
Millions

2
passed the National Forest Management Act, mandating
that every national forest draw up plans for renewable resource 1

management that assess the ecological impacts of logging and 0

are subject to public input under the National Environmental 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Policy Act (p. 108). As a result, timber-harvesting methods Year

were integrated with ecosystem-based management goals, and FIGURE 9.15 Wildfires have been burning more acreage
the Forest Service developed programs to manage wildlife and across the United States. Fuel buildup from decades offire suppres-sion
restore degraded ecosystems. has contributed to this trend. Datafrom NationalInteragency Fire Center.

Fire can hurt or helpforests Once a catastrophic high-intensity fire burns a forest,
One element of management involves how to handle wildfire. it may leave many dead trees. Timber harvesters often try to
For over a century, the Forest remove
Service and other agencies sup-pressed dead trees, or snags, for their wood following a fire (or
fire whenever and wherever it broke out. Yet scientific after a windstorm, insect damage, or disease)—a practice called
research now shows that many species and ecological commu-nities salvage logging. From a short-term economic standpoint, sal-vage
depend on fire. Some plants have seeds that germinate logging may seem to make good sense. However, ecologi-cally,
only in response to fire. Whenfire is suppressed, shrubs invade snags have immense value; the insects that decay them
grasslands, pine woodlands become cluttered with hardwood provide food for wildlife, and many animals depend on holes in
understory, invasive plants movein, and animal diversity and snags for nesting and roosting. Running logging operations on
abundance decline. recently
Researchers studying tree rings have docu-mented burned land can also cause soil erosion, impede tree
that historically, North regeneration, and promote further wildfire.

FAQ America’s
woodlands
grasslands
burned
and pine
frequently.
To help
agencies
prevent
now
catastrophic
burn areas of forest
fires, land
deliberately
manage-ment
with
(Burn marks in a tree’s growth low-intensity fires under carefully controlled conditions
Aren’t all forest fires bad?
rings reveal past fires, giving sci-entists(FIGURE 9.16). These prescribed burns clear away fuel
No. Fire is a natural process that
an accurate history of fire loads, nourish the soil with ash, and encourage the vigorous
helps to maintain many forests
events extending back hundreds growth of new vegetation.
and grasslands. When allowed to
or even thousands of years.)
occur naturally, low-intensity fires
Scientists also now know that
generally burn moderate amounts
putting out frequent low-intensity
of material, return nutrients to the
fires in forests increases the risk of
soil, and promote lush growth of
occasional large catastrophic fires
new vegetation. When we sup-press
fire, we allow unnaturally that can damage forests, destroy

large amounts of dead wood, property, and threaten lives. When

dried grass, and leaf litter to accu-mulate. fire is suppressed, branches, logs,

This material becomes and leaf litter accumulate on the

kindling that eventually can feed a forest floor, producing kindling
truly damaging fire that grows too for a catastrophic fire. Severe fires
big and too hot to control. This is have become more numerous in
why many land managers today recent years (FIGURE 9.15), and
conduct carefully controlled pre-scribed fire control expenses now eat up
burns and also allow some most of the U.S. Forest Service’s
natural fires to run their course. By budget. Meanwhile, residential
doing so, they aim to help return development alongside forested
our fire-dependent ecosystems to
land—in the wildland-urban FIGURE 9.16 Prescribed fire helps to promote forest health
a healthier and safer condition.
interface—is placing more homes and prevent larger damaging fires. Forest Service staff are
in fire-prone areas. shown hereconducting a carefullycontrolled,low-intensity burn.

ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas 201

 Climate change and pest outbreaks
are altering forests
Global climate change(Chapter 14)is now worsening wildfire
risk in North Americaand otherregions whereit is bringing
warmer and drier weather.In the
weighingthe Amazon in recent years, unprec-edented

ISSUES fires have destroyed

large areas of rainforest—wet
forest ecosystems that are not
how to handle Fire? adapted to fire. Tropical rain-forests
Canyou suggest solutions to help in Indonesia and Cen-tral
protect people’s homes from fire in America have also suffered
the wildland-urban interface while severe fire damage during hot,
improving the ecological condi-tion
dry spells resulting from strong
of forests? Should people
El Niño conditions (p. 262) and
who choose to live in homes in
climate change. Likewise, Cana-da’s FIGURE 9.17 Climate change is enabling bark beetles
fire-prone areas pay a premium to destroy vast numbers of trees in North America.
boreal forests have suffered
for insurance against fire damage?
vastfires in recent years.
Should homeowners in fire-prone
areas be fined if they don’t adhere
Deforestation can worsen Sustainableforestry is gaining ground
the impacts of climate change,
to fire-prevention maintenance
because when forests are Each of us can help address the challenges to forests by
guidelines? Should new home
removed across a large region, supporting certified sustainable forestry practices when we
construction be allowed in areas
humidity and transpiration are shop for wood or paper products. Certification organiza-tions
known to be fire-prone?
reduced and less precipitation examine timber-harvesting practices and rate them

falls, making the region drier. against criteria for sustainability. These organizations then

Many areas of the Amazon grant sustainable forest certification to forests, companies,
rainforest, particularly its edges,are muchdrier than they and products produced using methods judged to be sustain-able

used to be, intensifying the risk of rainforest destruction (FIGURE 9.18). As consumers, we can also choose to

by wildfire. In this way, deforestation and climate change buy reclaimed or salvaged wood, which lowers the market
create a dangerouspositive feedbackloop. demand for cutting trees.

Climate change also is promoting outbreaks of pest Among certification organizations, the Forest Stew-ardship

insects. Bark beetles feed within the bark of conifer trees. Council (FSC) is considered to have the strictest

They attract one anotherto weakenedtrees and attack en standards. FSC-certified timber-harvesting operations are

masse, eating tissue, laying eggs, and bringing with them required to protect rare species and sensitive habitats, safe-guard

a small army of fungi, bacteria, and other pathogens. Since water sources, control erosion, minimize pesticide

the 1990s,infestations of bark beetles have devastatedtens use, and maintain the diversity of the forest and its ability to

of millions of acres of forest in western North America regenerate after harvesting.

(FIGURE9.17), killing tens of billions of conifer trees and

leaving them as fodder for fires.
Today’s unprecedented outbreaks result from milder win-ters
that allow beetlesto overwinter farther north and from
warmer summers that speed up their feeding and reproduc-tion.
In Alaska, beetles have switched from a two-year life-cycle
to a one-yearcycle. In parts of the Rocky Mountains,
they now produce two broods per year instead of one. More-over,
drought has stressed and weakenedtrees, makingthem
vulnerableto attack. Ontop of these climatic effects, past
forest management has resulted in large areas of even-aged
plantation forests dominated by single species that the beetles
prefer, and manytreesin theseforests are now at a primeage
for beetle infestation.
As climate change interacts with pests, diseases,fire, and
deforestation,ourforests are being alteredin profound ways.
Already, many dense, moist forests—from North America to
the Amazon—have beenreplaced by drier woodlands, shrub-lands,FIGURE 9.18 Logs from trees harvested using certified
or grasslands. sustainable practices are marked with the FSC logo

202 ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas

 As you turn the pages of this textbook, you are handling
paper made from trees that were grown, managed, harvested,
and processed using FSC-certified practices from sustain-ably
managed forests. The paper for this textbook is “chain-of-custody
certified,” meaning that all steps in the life-cycle
of the paper’s production—from timber harvest to transport to
pulping to production—have met strict standards.
More than 6% of the world’s forests managed for timber
production are FSC-certified, as of 2017—over 199 million
ha (492 million acres) in 83 nations, and growing. The range
of certification programs is also growing. In Brazil, for exam-ple,
a new program by the Sustainable Agriculture Network
certifies cattle ranches that meet sustainability guidelines that
help protect forest.
Research indicates that certification can be effective.
One recent study showed that FSC certification in Indone-sia
reduced deforestation there by 5% between 2000 and
2008, while also improving air quality, respiratory health,
firewood availability, and nutrition for people living near
timber-harvesting areas.
(a) Yosemite National Park, Californi
Pursuing sustainable forestry practices is often costlier for
producers, but they recoup these costs when consumers pay
more for certified products. If certification standards are kept
strong, then we as consumers can help to promote sustainable
forestry practices by exercising choice in the marketplace.

Parks and Protected Areas

As our world fills with more people consuming more
resources, the sustainable management of forests and other
ecosystems becomes ever more important. So does our need
to preserve functional ecosystems by setting aside tracts of
undisturbed land to remain forever undeveloped.

Whycreate parks andreserves?

People establish parks, reserves, and protected areas because
these places offer us:

• Inspiration from their scenic beauty.

(b) Arches National Park, Utah
• Hiking, fishing, hunting, kayaking, bird-watching, and
other recreation. FIGURE 9.19 The awe-inspiring beauty of America’s
national parks draws millions of people for recreation and
• Revenue from ecotourism (pp. 65, 173).
wildlife-watching.
• Health, peace of mind, exploration, wonder, and solace.

• Utilitarian benefits and ecosystem services (such as how

but open to nature appreciation and recreation (FIGURE 9.19).
forested watersheds provide cities clean drinking water
Yellowstone National Park wasestablished in 1872, followed
and a buffer against floods).
by Sequoia, General Grant (now Kings Canyon), Yosemite,
• Refuges for biodiversity, helping to maintain popula-tions,
Mount Rainier, and Crater Lake National Parks.
habitats, communities, and ecosystems.
The National Park Service was created in 1916 to admin-ister
the growing system of parks, monuments, historic sites,
Parks andreserves were pioneered and recreation areas, which today numbers 417 units totaling

in the United States more than 34 million ha (84 million acres; see Figure 9.12).
Because America’s national parks are open to everyone and
The striking scenery of the American West persuaded U.S. showcase the nation’s natural beauty in a democratic way,
leaders to create the world’s first national parks, public writer Wallace Stegner famously called them “the best idea
lands protected from resource extraction and development we ever had.”

ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas 203

 Another type of protected area in the United States is Protected areas areincreasing
the national wildlife refuge. The national wildlife refuge
system, begun in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt,
internationally
now totals more than 560 sites comprising nearly 60 million Many nations have established protected areas and are ben-efiting
ha (150 million acres; see Figure 9.12). The U.S. Fish and from ecotourism as a result—from Kenya and Tanza-nia
Wildlife Service administers these refuges, which serve as (Chapter 8) to Costa Rica (Chapter 5) to Belize to Ecuador
havens for wildlife and encourage hunting, fishing, wildlife to India to Australia. Today thousands of protected areas cover
observation, photography, environmental education, and almost 15% of the planet’s land area and 4% of its ocean area.
other public uses. However, parks often do not receive funding adequate to man-age
In response to the public’s desire for undeveloped areas resources, provide recreation, or protect wildlife from
of land, in 1964 the U.S. Congress passed the Wilderness Act, poaching and trees from logging. As a result, many of the
which allowed some existing federal lands to be designated as world’s protected areas are merely paper parks—protected on
wilderness areas. These areas are off-limits to development paper but not in reality.
but are open to hiking, nature study, and other low-impact Brazil has designated more acreage for protection than
public recreation. Overall, the nation has 765 wilderness areas any other nation. Most of this area lies deep in the Amazon
totaling 44 million ha (109 million acres), covering 4.5% of rainforest, in large tracts set aside for indigenous tribes of peo-ple
U.S.land area (2.7% if Alaska is excluded). who live in the forest. Altogether about 30% of the Brazil-ian
Efforts to set aside and manage public land at the Amazon is afforded—on paper, at least—some degree of
national level are paralleled at state, regional, and local levels. protection. A recent scientific study of the Brazilian Amazon
Each U.S. state has agencies that manage resources and pro-vide found that protected areas suffered 10 times less deforestation
for recreation on public lands, as do many counties and than did non-protected areas. However, policymakers tend
municipalities. to locate protected areas in regions that are remote and that
Private nonprofit groups also preserve land. Land face fewer development pressures. Thus, to obtain a fair com-parison,
trusts are local or regional organizations that purchase the researchers controlled for location variables and
ecologically important tracts of land in order to preserve found that about half the difference in deforestation rates was
them for future generations. The Nature Conservancy is the due to protected status and half was due to location.
world’s largest land trust, but nearly 1700 local land trusts More and more protected areas today incorporate sustain-able
in the United States together own 870,000 ha (2.1 million use to benefit local people. The United Nations oversees
acres) and have helped preserve an additional 5.6 million biosphere reserves (FIGURE 9.20), areas with exceptional
ha (13.9 million acres), including scenic areas such as Big biodiversity that couple preservation with sustainable devel-opment
Sur on the California coast, Jackson Hole in Wyoming, and (p. 114). Each biosphere reserve consists of (1) a core
Maine’s Mount Desert Island. area that preserves biodiversity; (2) a buffer zone that allows

Biodiversity Sustainable agriculture,

protection small settlements

Core area

FIGURE 9.20 Biosphere reserves

couple preservation with sustain-able
Buffer zone development. Each biosphere
reserve includes three zones. The photo
Transition zone above shows one example of sustain-able
use of forest products: Women
process and sell Maya nuts harvested
from rainforest trees in the Maya Bio-sphere
Reserve in Guatemala. Here,
Limited development;
research; education; management of forest concessions by
ecotourism local communities has helped to reduce
illegal logging

204 Chapter 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas

local activities and limited development; and (3) an outer (FIGURE 9.21c). Their nests are attacked by predators and
transition zone where agriculture, settlement, and other land parasites that favor open habitats or that travel along habitat
uses are pursued sustainably. edges. Because of such edge effects, avian ecologists judge
World heritage sites, another type of international pro-tectedforest fragmentation to be a main reason why populations of
area, are designated for their natural or cultural value. many North American songbirds are declining.
One such site is a transboundary reserve for mountain gorillas Fragmentation is affecting our national parks, which
shared by three nations in Africa. Protected areas that overlap are islands of habitat surrounded by farms, ranches, roads,
national borders sometimes function as “peace parks,” acting and cities. In 1983 conservation biologist William Newmark
as buffers between nations. examined historical records of mammal sightings in North
American national parks. He found that most parks were
Habitatfragmentation makes missing species they had held previously. The red fox and

preserves morevital river otter had vanished from Sequoia and Kings Canyon
National Parks, for example, and the white-tailed jackrabbit
Protecting large areas of land has taken on new urgency now and spotted skunk no longer lived in Bryce Canyon National
that scientists understand the risks posed by habitat fragmen-tation Park. In all, 42 species had disappeared. As ecological theory
(see THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY, pp. 206–207). predicted, smaller parks lost more species than larger parks.
Expanding agriculture, spreading cities, highways, logging, The parks were too small to sustain these populations, New-mark
and other impacts routinely divide large expanses of habitat concluded, and they had become too isolated to be
into small, disconnected ones (see Figure 8.9, p. 177). Even recolonized by new arrivals.
where forest cover is increasing, forests are becoming frag-mented Because habitat fragmentation is a central issue in bio-diversity
into ever-smaller parcels (FIGURE 9.21a, b). conservation, and because there are limits on how
Whenforests arefragmented, manyspecies suffer. Bears, much land can feasibly be set aside, conservation biolo-gists
mountain lions, and other animals that need large areas of have come to see value in corridors of protected land
habitat may disappear. Birds that thrive in the interior of that allow animals to travel between islands of habitat (see
forests may fail to reproduce near the edge of a fragment Figure 2.17, p. 38). In theory, connecting fragments provides

(a) Fragmentation from clear-cuts in British Columbia (c) Wood thrush

FIGURE 9.21 Forest fragmentation has

ecological consequences. Fragmentation
results from (a) clear-cutting and (b) agricul-ture
and residential development. Fragmen-tation
affects forest-dwelling species such as
the (c) wood thrush, whose nests are para-sitized
by cowbirds that thrive in surrounding
open country. Source(b): Curtis, J.T., 1956. The
modification of mid-latitude grasslands and forests by
man.In W.L.Thomas Jr.(Ed.), Man’srole in changing
1831 1882 1950
the face ofthe earth. ©1956. Used by permission of
(b) Fragmentation of wooded area (green) in Cadiz Township, Wisconsin the publisher, University of Chicago Press.

ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas 20

 ThE SCIENCEbehindthe story Go to Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

ForestFragmentationin the Amazon

What happens to animals, plants, and eco-systemswould serve as control plots against which the fragments
when we fragment a forest? could be compared.
A massive research experiment in Besides comparing treatments (fragments) and con-km2
the middle of the Amazon rainfor-est trols (continuous forest), the project also surveyed popu-lations
is helping scientistslearn the in fragments before and after they were isolated.
answers. These data on trees, birds, mammals, amphibians, and
Stretching across 1000 invertebrates showed declines in diversity in most groups
(386 mi2)oftropical rain-forest(FIGURE 2).
north of the Brazilian As researchers studied the plots over the years, they found
city of Manaus, the Biologi-cal that small fragments lost more species, and lost them faster,
Dynamics of Forest Frag-mentsthan large fragments—just as theory predicts. To slow down
Project (BDFFP) is the species loss by 10 times, researchers found that a fragment
world’s largest and longest-running needs to be 1000 times bigger. Even 100-ha fragments were
experiment on forest not large enough for some animals, and they lost half their spe-cies
fragmentation. For more than 30 in less than 15 years. Monkeys died out because they
years, hundreds of researchers need large ranges. So did colonies of army ants, as well as
have muddied their boots here, the birds that follow them to eat insects scared up as the ants
Dr. Thomas Lovejoy publishing over 700 scientific swarm across the forest floor.
in the Amazon research papers, graduate theses, Fragments distant from continuous forest lost more species,
and books. but data revealed that even very small openings can stop organ-isms
The story begins back in the 1970s as conservation biol-ogists from dispersing to recolonize fragments. Many understory
debated how to apply ecological theory from ocean birds adapted to deep interior forest would not traverse cleared
islands to forested landscapes that were being fragmented areas of only 30–80 m(100–260 ft). Distances of just 15–100 m
into islands of habitat. Biologist Thomas Lovejoy decided (50–330 ft) were insurmountable for some bees, beetles, and
some good hard data were needed. He conceived a huge tree-dwelling mammals.
experiment to test ideas about forest frag-mentation
and established it in the heart of
the biggest rainforest on the planet—South
BDFFP
America’s Amazon rainforest. Manaus
Farmers, ranchers, loggers, and miners
Amazon
were streaming into the Amazon then, and
rainforest
deforestation was rife. If scientists could learn Brazil
how large fragments had to be in order to retain
their species, it would help them work with
policymakers to preserve forests in the face of
development pressures.
Lovejoy’s team of Brazilians and Ameri-cans
worked out a deal with Brazil’s gov-ernment:
Ranchers could clear some forest
within the study area if they left square plots
of forest standing as fragments within those
clearings. By this process, 11 fragments of
three sizes (1, 10, and 100 ha [2.5, 25, and
250 acres]) were left standing, isolated as
“islands” of forest, surrounded by “seas” of
cattle pasture (FIGURE 1). Each fragment was
fenced to keep cattle out. Then, 12 study
plots (of 1, 10, 100, and 1000 ha) were estab-lished
within the large expanses of continuous FIGURE 1 Experimental forest fragments of 1, 10, and 100 ha were created in
forest still surrounding the pastures; these the BDFFP.

206 ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Area

 100 areas soon became common in adjacent fragments. Open-country
butterfly species moved in, displacing interior-forest
Forest isolated
80 butterflies.
into fragment
The invasion by open-country species illustrated one type
60 of edge effect (p. 205). There were more: Edges receive more
sunlight, heat, and windthan interior forest, which can killtrees
40
Specie

adapted to the dark, moist interior. Tree death releases car-bon

dioxide, worsening climate change. Sunlight also promotes
20
growth of vines and shrubs that create a thick, tangled understory
along edges. As BDFFP researchers documented these impacts,
0
they found that many edge effects extended deep into the forest
1980 1985 1990 1995

Year
(FIGURE 3). Smallfragments essentially became “all edge.”
The results on edge effects are relevant for all of Amazonia,
FIGURE 2 This graph shows how species richness of because forest clearance and road construction create an
understory birds declined in a 1-ha parcel offorest afterit
immense amount of edge. A satellite image study in the 1990s
was isolated as a fragment in 1984. Error bars show statisti-cal
estimated that for every 2 acres of land deforested, 3 acres
uncertainty around mean estimates. Datafrom Ferraz,G.,et al.,
were brought within 1 km of a road or pasture edge.
2003. Rates of species loss from Amazonian forest fragments. Proc. Natl.
BDFFP scientists emphasize that impacts across the Ama-zon
Acad. Sci. 100: 14069–14073. © 2003 National Academy of Sciences.
will be more severe than those revealed by their experi-ments.
By permission.
This is because most real-life fragments (1) are not
• On average, about how many bird species were protected from hunting, logging, mining, and fires; (2) do not
presentin this forest plot beforefragmentation? have secondary forest to provide connectivity; (3) are not near
• How many were present after fragmentation? large tracts of continuous forest that provide recolonizing spe-cies

Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science and maintain humidity and rainfall; and (4) are not square in
shape, and thus feature more edge. Scientists say their years of
data argue for preserving numerous tracts of Amazonian forest
that are as large as possible.
Soon, a complication ensued: Ranchers abandoned many The BDFFP has inspired other large-scale, long-term
of the pastures because the soil was unproductive, and these experiments on forest fragmentation elsewhere in the world;
areas began filling in with young secondary forest, making the such studies are now running in Kansas, South Carolina, Aus-tralia,
fragments less like islands. However, this led to new insights. Borneo, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. These
Researcherslearned that secondary forest can act as a corridor projects are providing data showing how smaller area, greater
for some species, allowing them to disperse from mature forest isolation, and more edge are affecting species, communities,
and recolonize fragments where they’d disappeared. By docu-menting
and ecosystems. Thus far, they indicate that fragmentation
whichspecies did this, scientistslearned which may be decreases biodiversity by 13–75% whilealtering nutrient cycles
more resilient to fragmentation. and other ecological processes—and that the effects magnify
The secondary forest habitat also introduced new species—generalists
with time. Insights from these projects are helping scientists
adapted to disturbed areas. Frogs, leaf-cutter ants, and policymakers strategize how best to conserve biodiversity
and small mammals and birds that thrive in second-growth amid continued pressures on forests.

FIGURE 3 Edge effects can extend far into

Increased wind disturbance
the interior of forest fragments. Datafrom stud-ies
Elevated tree mortality
summarized in Laurance, W.F.,et al., 2002. Ecosystem
Invasion of disturbance-adapted butterflies
Altered species composition of leaf-litter invertebrates
decay of Amazonianforest fragments: A 22-yearinvestiga-tion.

effect Lower relative humidity Conservation Biology 16: 605–618, Fig. 3. Adapted by

Reduced canopy height permission of John Wiley & Sons,Inc.

Edge
Reduced soil moisture
Increased air temperature • Would a tree inside a forest fragment,

Reduced understory-bird abundance 275 meters in from the edge, be suscep-tible

Increased sunlight to edge effects? • If so, which ones?

Invasion of disturbance-adapted plants
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Environmental Science

Edge penetration distance (m)

ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas 207

 animals access to more habitat and encourages gene flow in elevation (p. 327). In a landscape of fragmented habitat,
to maintain populations in the long term. For these reasons, some organisms may be unable to move from one fragment
many land managers now try to establish corridors to join to another. Species we had hoped to protect in parks may, in
new reserves to existing reserves. a warming world, become trapped in them. High-elevation
species face the most risk from climate change, because they
Climate change threatens have nowhere to go once a mountaintop becomes too warm

protected areas or dry. In this light, corridors to allow movement from place
to place become still more important. In response to these
Today global climate change (Chapter 14) threatens our challenges, conservation biologists are now looking beyond
investments in protected areas. As temperatures become parks and protected areas as they explore strategies for saving
warmer, species ranges shift toward the poles and upward biodiversity

closing ThE LOOp

Forests are ecologically vital and eco-nomically In North America, early emphasis on resource extraction
valuable, yet we continue evolved into policies of sustainable yield as land and resource
to lose them around the world. The availability began to decline. Public forests today are man-aged
slowing of deforestation in the Brazil-ian not only for timber production but also for recreation,
Amazon has been encouraging, but wildlife habitat, and ecosystem integrity. Sustainable forest
renewed commitment will be needed to certification now provides economic incentives for conserva-tion
build on that trend. The condition of the Ama-zon on forested lands.
rainforest today raises questions relevant for forests and Around the world, public support for the preservation of
people everywhere: How can we best safeguard areas of high natural lands has led to the establishment of parks and pro-tected
biodiversity? How can economies transition from resource areas. As development spreads across the landscape,
exploitation to conservation and sustainable use? How can fragmenting forests, scientists trying to conserve species,
protected areas function as intended? Can climate change communities, and ecosystems are working more and more at
policies and financial incentives protect and restore forests? the landscape level.
And can sustainable certification programs help preserve for-ests
while benefiting local people?

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Name at least two reasons why natural primary forests 6. Describe several ecological impacts of logging. How has
contain more biodiversity than even-aged, single-species the U.S. Forest Service responded to public concern
forestry plantations. over these impacts?
2. Describe three ecosystem services that forests provide. 7. Are forest fires a bad thing? Explain your answer. How

3. Name several major causes of deforestation. Whereis do people use fire in a positive way?
deforestation most severe today? 8. Name atleast three reasons that people have created

4. Compare and contrast maximum sustainable yield, parks and reserves. How do national parks differ from
ecosystem-based management, and adaptive national wildlife refuges? What is a wilderness area?
management. How may pursuing maximum 9. Whatpercentage of Earth’sland is protected? Describe
sustainable yield sometimes affect populations and one type of protected area that has been established
communities? outside North America.
5. Compare and contrast the major methods oftimber 10. Givetwo examples of how forest fragmentation affects
harvesting. Which methods keep forest ecosystems animals. How might research like that of the Biological
most intact? Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project help us design
reserves?

SEEKINGSolutions

1. People in industrialized nations are fond of warning exploiting its resources in the past. What would you
people in industrializing nations to stop destroying say to the president of anindustrializing nation, such
rainforest. People ofindustrializing nations often respond as Indonesia or Brazil, in which a great deal of forest is
that this is hypocritical, because the industrialized being cleared? What strategies might you suggest to
nations became wealthy by deforesting their land and help them achieve wealth while also conserving forests?

208 ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas

 2. Do you think maximum sustainable yield represents can work out some other solution. Describe what
a desirable policy for resource managers to follow? solution(s) you would try to arrange. Consider the
Why or why not? What might be some alternative range of options discussed in this chapter, including
approaches? protected areas, land trusts, biosphere reserves,

3. Consider the impacts that climate change may have forest management techniques, carbon offsets,
on species’ ranges. If you were trying to preserve an certified sustainable forestry, and more. Explain

endangered mammal that occurs in a small area and reasons for your choice(s).
you had generous funding to acquire land to help restore 5. THINK IT THROUGH You have just become supervisor
its population, how would you design a protected area of a national forest. Timber companies are asking to cut
for it? Would you use corridors? Wouldyou include a as manytrees as you willlet them, but environmental
diversity of elevations? Would you design afew large advocates want no logging at all. Ten percent of
reserves or many small ones? Explain your answers. your forest is old-growth primary forest, and 90% is

4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION You run a non-profit secondary forest. Your forest managers are split among
environmental advocacy organization and are trying preferring maximum sustainable yield, ecosystem-based

to save a tract of rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon. management, and adaptive management. What
You have worked in this region for years and care management approach(es) will you take, and why? Will

for the local people, who want to save the forest you allow logging of all old-growth trees, some, or none?
and its animals but also need to make a living and Will you allow logging of secondary forest? If so, what

use the forest’s resources. Brazil’s government harvesting strategies will you encourage? What would
plans to sell a concession to a multinational timber you ask your scientists before deciding on policies on
corporation to log the entire forest unless your group fire management and salvage logging

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints

Weall rely on forest resources. The average North American for each region, calculate the per capita consumption for each
consumes 225 kg (500 lb) of paper and paperboard each year. using the population data in the table. Note: 1 metric ton 5
Using the estimates of paper and paperboard consumption 2205 pounds.

TOTAL PAPER CONSUMED PER CAPITA PAPER

REGION POPULATION (MILLIONS) (MILLIONS OF METRIC TONS) CONSUMED (POUNDS)

Africa 1136 8 16

Asia 4351 190

Europe 741 92

Latin America 618 27

North America 353 76

Oceania 39 4

World 7238 400 122

Data are for 2014, from Population Reference Bureau and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

1. How much paper would be consumed if everyone in annually in recent years by recycling, shifting to online
the world used as much paper as the average North activity, and reducing packaging of some products.
American? Name three specific things you personally could do to
2. How much paper would North Americans save each reduce your own consumption of paper products.

year if they consumed paper at the rate of Europeans? 4. Describe three ways in which consuming FSC-certified
At the rate of Africans? paper rather than conventional paper can reduce the

3. North Americans have been reducing their per-person environmental impacts of paper consumption.
consumption of paper and paperboard by nearly 5%

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Goto Mastering Environmental Science for Instructors Goto Mastering Environmental Science for
assignments, the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
current events, and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

ChApTEr 9 Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas 209

1
Environmental
Health
CHAPTER
andToxicology
210 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology
 central CASESTUDY

Are WeBeingPoisoned
Bisphenol A: Worldwide

by OurFood Packaging?
This chemical is Thanks to a lifetime of nutritional education, we are all
harming snails, insects, aware that a diet high in sugars, fats, and processed foods
lobsters, fish, frogs, reptiles, can lead to harmful health impacts such as obesity, dia-betes,
birds, and rats, and
and high blood pressure. Hence, we are taught
the chemical industry is
to choose our foods wisely to avoid the dangers of an
telling people that because
unhealthy diet. But,it turns out, the beverage bottles, food
you’re human, unless there’s
cans, and wrappers that surround our food may also pose
human data, you can feel
a risk to our health byleaching harmful chemicals into the
completely safe.
—Dr. Frederick vom Saal, BPA researcher foods we eat and the liquids we drink.
Plastics are the predominant source of these chem-icals.
There is no basis for human Plastics are polymers (p. 32) that contain a number
health concerns from of synthetic chemicals that can be released into foods
exposure to BPA. and liquids—a process sped up by factors that promote
—The American Chemistry Council
the breakdown of plastics, such as extreme tempera-tures,
exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun, or pro-longed
contact with highly acidic liquids, such as soda
and fruit juices.
One chemical of concern is bisphenol A(BPA for short). Epoxy resins containing BPA
are used to line the insides of metalfood and drink cans and the insides of pipes for our
water supply, as well as in enamels, varnishes, adhesives, and even dental sealants for our
Upon completing this teeth. BPAis also present in polycarbonate plastic, a hard, clear type of plastic used in water
chapter, you will be able to: bottles, food containers, CDs and DVDs, electronics, baby bottles, and children’s toys.
• Explain the goals of Many plastic products also contain another class of hormone-disrupting chemical,
environmental health and identify called phthalates. Used to soften plastics, they are found in bottles and manytypes of food
major environmental health packaging, as well asin perfumes and children’s toys.
hazards Unfortunately, BPA and phthalates can leach out of their many products and into our

• Describe the types of toxic food, water, air, and bodies. Over90% of Americans carry detectable
substances in the environment, concentrations of PBA and phthalates in their urine, accord-ing
the factors that affect their to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
toxicity, and the defenses that (CDC). Because these chemicals pass through the
organisms have against them body within hours, these data suggest that we are
• Explain the movements of toxic receiving almost continuous exposure.
substances and how they affect What, if anything, are BPA and phthal-ates
organisms and ecosystems doing to us? To address such questions,

• Discuss the approaches used scientists run experiments on laboratory

to study the effects of toxic animals, administering known doses of
chemicals on organisms the substance and measuring the health
impacts that result. Hundreds of stud-ies
• Summarize risk assessment and
risk management with rats, mice, and other animals have
shown many apparent health impacts from
• Compare philosophical
BPA and pthalates, including a wide range of
approaches to risk and how they
reproductive abnormalities. Studies have also
relate to regulatory policy
connected BPA and phthalates to impacts on
human health. For example, a 2013 review of the
scientific literature found 91 studies that examined the
relationship between the level of BPAin subjects’ urine or
Many consumers are embracing
“BPA-free” water bottles due Food packaging exposes people to BPAand phthalates.
to concerns about the safety
of bisphenol A. 21
 FIGURE 10.1 Studies have
linked elevated blood/urine
BPA concentrations to
numerous health impacts
in humans. Althoughthese
correlative studies do not
Behavioral issues
conclusively prove that BPA
Cardiovascular Blood hormone
disease Type 2 diabetes levels causes each observed ailment,
they indicate topics for further
Obesity research.
Kidney
Hypertension
functioning
Asthma

Sperm quality Thyroid

function

Malesexual
Immune
performance
function

Male genital Egg development

abnormalities and maturation

blood and a variety of health problems (FIGURE 10.1). Phthal-ates cans, many drink containers, and thousands of other products.
have also been associated with a range of adverse health The European Union and nine other nations have banned some
impacts, such as birth defects, breast cancer, reduced sperm types of phthalates, and in 2008, the United States banned six
counts, diabetes, and cognitive impairment in children exposed types of phthalates in toys. Still, across North America, many
to phthalates in the womb. routes of exposure remain.
Many of these effects occur at extremely low doses—much In the face of mounting public concern about the safety of
lower than the exposure levels set so far by regulatory these chemicals, many companies are voluntarily choosing to
agencies for human safety. Scientists say this is because BPA remove them from their products, even in the absence of strin-gent
and phthalates mimic certain hormones, such as male and regulation by the U.S. government. Walmart and Toys “R”
female sex hormones; that is, they are structurally similar to Us, for example, decided to stop carrying children’s products
sex hormones and can induce some of their effects in animals with BPA several years before the U.S. Food and Drug Adminis-tration
(see Figure 10.5, p. 218). Sex hormones function at minute (FDA) banned BPA use in baby bottles in 2012. Canned
concentrations, so when a synthetic chemical that is similar goods and containers that do not contain BPA are now avail-able
to the hormone reaches the bodyin a similarlylow concentra-tion, from large food companies such as ConAgra, Campbell’s,
it can fool the body into responding. Other hormonal sys-tems, and Tyson Foods, and are typically identified as BPA-free on
such as the thyroid system that regulates growth and their label. There is precedent for such efforts, because BPA
development, can also be affected by hormone-mimicking was voluntarily phased out of can liners in Japan starting in the
chemicals. late 1990s.
In reaction to research linking BPA and phthalates to health To make matters worse, other classes of chemicals in
effects on humans, a growing number of researchers, doctors, packaging may be affecting our health. A 2017 study, for exam-ple,
and consumer advocates have called on governments to regu-late found that one-third of fast food packaging (mostly items
BPA, phthalates, and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals with coatings designed for grease resistance) contained fluori-nated
and for manufacturers to stop using them. The chemical indus-try chemicals that may also act as endocrine disruptors (see
has long insisted that BPA and phthalates are safe, point-ing p. 218).
to industry-sponsored research that finds no direct health Although we don’t yet know everything there is to know
impacts on people exposed to these chemicals. about BPA and phthalates, they aren’t likely to be among our
Some governments have taken steps to regulate the use of greatest environmental health threats. However, they provide
BPA and phthalates in consumer products. Canada, for exam-ple, a timely example of how we as a society assess health risks
has banned BPA completely. In many other nations, includ-ing and decide how to manage them. As scientists and government
the United States, its use in products for babies and small regulators assess these chemicals’ potential risks, their efforts
children has been restricted. Accordingly, concerned parents give us a window on how hormone-disrupting chemicals are
can now more easily find BPA-free items for their infants and challenging the way we appraise and control the environmental
children, but the rest of us remain exposed through most food health risks we face.

212 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicolog

 Environmental Health of these
ourselves
hazards,
with emergency
but we can minimize
plans and avoiding
risk by preparing
practices that
Examining the impacts of human-made chemicals such as make us vulnerable to certain physical hazards. For example,
BPA is just one aspect of the broad field environmental scientists can map geologic faults to determine areas at risk of
health, which assesses environmental factors that influence earthquakes, engineers can design buildings to resist damage,
our health and quality oflife. Thesefactors include both natu-ral and governments and individuals can create emergency plans

and anthropogenic (human-caused) factors. Practitioners to prepare for a quake’s aftermath.

of environmental health seek to prevent adverse effects on

human health and on the ecological systems that are essential
Chemical hazards Chemicalhazardsinclude manyofthe
to our well-being. synthetic chemicals that our society manufactures, such as
pharmaceuticals, disinfectants, and pesticides (FIGURE 10.2b).
Weface four types of environmental Some substances produced naturally by organisms, such
as venoms, can also be hazardous, as can many substances
hazards that are found in nature and then processed for our use,

We can categorize environmental health hazards into four such as hydrocarbons, lead, and asbestos. Following our

main types: physical, chemical, biological, and cultural. overview of environmental health, much of this chapter will

Although some amount of risk is unavoidable, focus on chemical

much of envi-ronmental health hazards and the ways westudy
health consists of taking steps to minimize the and regulate them.

risks of encountering hazards and to lessen the impacts of the

hazards we do encounter.
Biological hazards Biological hazardsresult from eco-logical
interactions among organisms (FIGURE 10.2c). When
Physical hazards Physical hazardsarise from processes we become sick from a virus, bacterial infection, or other
that occur naturally in our environment and pose risks to pathogen, we are suffering parasitism (pp. 72–73). Some
human life or health. Some are ongoing natural phenom-ena, infectious diseases are spread when pathogenic microbes
such as excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radia-tion attack us directly. With others, infection occurs through a
from sunlight, which damages DNA and has been vector, an organism, such as a mosquito, that transfers the
tied to skin cancer, cataracts, and immune suppression pathogen to the host. This is what we call infectious disease.
( FIGURE 10.2a). We can reduce these risks by shielding our Infectious diseases such as malaria, cholera, tuberculosis,
skin from intense sunlight with clothing and sunscreen. and influenza (flu) are major environmental health hazards,
Other physical hazards include discrete events such as especially in developing nations with widespread poverty
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires, floods, blizzards, land-slides, and limited health care. As with physical and chemical haz-ards,
hurricanes, and droughts. We cannot prevent many it is impossible for us to avoid risk from biological

(c) Biological hazard

(a) Physical hazard (b) Chemical hazard (d) Cultural hazard

FIGURE 10.2 Environmental health hazards come in four types. The sun’s ultraviolet radiation is an exam-ple
of a physical hazard (a). Chemical hazards (b) include both synthetic and natural chemicals. Biological hazards
(c) include diseases and the organisms that transmit them. Cultural or lifestyle hazards (d) include the behavioral
decisions we make, such as smoking, as well as the socioeconomic constraints that may be forced upon us.

Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology 21

 agents completely, but through monitoring, sanitation, and their genetics, coupled with environmental and lifestyle fac-tors.
medical treatment we can reduce the likelihood and impacts For instance, whether a person develops lung cancer
of infection. depends on his or her genes and on environmental conditions,
such as the individual’s exposure to airborne cancer-inducing
Cultural hazards Hazardsthat result from our place of chemicals, and to lifestyle choices, such as whether or not he
residence, our occupation, the circumstances of our socioeco-nomic or she chooses to smoke.
status, or our behavioral choices can be thought of as Although infectious disease accounts for fewer deaths
cultural hazards. We can minimize or prevent some of these than noninfectious disease, infectious disease robs society of
cultural or lifestyle hazards, whereas others may be beyond more years of human life, because it strikes people at all ages,
our control. For instance, people can choose whether or not including the very young. Infectious diseases account for about
to smoke cigarettes (FIGURE 10.2d), but exposure to second-hand 17% of deaths worldwide that occur each year (FIGURE 10.3b).
smoke at home or in the workplace may be beyond Infectious disease is a greater problem in developing coun-tries,
one’s control. Much the same might be said for other cul-tural where it accounts for nearly half of all deaths. Infec-tious
hazards such as diet and nutrition, workplace hazards, disease causes many fewer deaths in developed nations
and drug use. Environmental justice advocates (pp. 16–17) because their wealth allows for better public sanitation and
argue that “forced” risks from cultural hazards, such as liv-ing hygiene, which reduce the chance of contracting an infectious
near a hazardous waste site, are often higher for people disease, and better access to medical care, which enables
with fewer economic resources or less political clout. treatment if a disease is contracted.
In our world of global mobility and dense human popu-lations,
novel infectious diseases (or new strains of old dis-eases)
Diseaseis a majorfocus that emerge in one location are more likely to spread

of environmental health quickly to other locations. Recent examples include the

H5N1 avian flu (“bird flu”), which first appeared in humans
Despite all our technological advances, disease causes the in 1997; severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), where
vast majority of human deaths (FIGURE 10.3a). Over half the the first outbreak in humans was reported in 2003; the
world’s deaths result from noninfectious diseases, such as H1N1 swine flu that spread across the globe in 2009–2010;
cancer and heart disease, which develop without the action and the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2014. Diseases
of a foreign organism. You don’t “catch” noninfectious like influenza are caused by pathogens that mutate readily,
diseases—people develop them through a combination of giving rise to a variety of strains of the disease with slightly

Other 3.5

Respiratory and 3.0

digestive diseases

11.2% Infectious
2.5
Maternal diseases (millions

and 16.9%
11.4% 2.0
perinatal
conditions
deaths

4.5% 1.5
Cardiovascular
9.2% diseases Annual

1.0
31.2%
Injuries
15.6%
0.5

0
Cancers Respiratory Diarrheal AIDS TB Malaria Meningitis
infections diseases
(influenza,
pneumonia, etc.)

(a) Leading causes of death acrossthe world (b) Leading causes of death byinfectious diseases
FIGURE 10.3 Infectious diseases are the second-leading cause of death worldwide. Sixtypes
of diseases account for 80% of all deaths from infectious disease. Datafrom WorldHealthOrganization,
2015. Geneva,
Switzerland: WHO, http://www.who.int.

AIDSis a well-known infectious disease, but respiratory and diarrheal diseases claim far morelives
every year than AIDS. According to the figure, how manytimes morelives werelost to respiratory
infections and diarrheal diseases than to AIDS?

Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

214 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology

 different genetics. As a pathogen’s genes determine its Toxicology is the study of chemical
virulence (a measure of how fast a disease spreads and the
harm it does to infected individuals), these frequent muta-tions
hazards
make it more likely that a highly virulent strain may Although most indicators of human health are improving as
arise and threaten a global pandemic at any time. the world’s wealth increases, our modern society is exposing
There are many ways to fight infectious disease. We us to more and more synthetic chemicals. Some of these sub-stances
can reduce the chance of infection through immunization, pose threats to human health, but figuring out which
improved public sanitation, access to clean water, food secu-rity of them do—and how, and to what degree—is a complicated
(p. 140), and public education campaigns that inform scientific endeavor. Toxicology examines how poisonous
people of risks and how to avoid them. If infection occurs, the chemicals affect the health of humans and other organisms.
health effects and spread of infectious disease can be mini-mized Toxicologists assess and compare substances to deter-SUCCESS
by providing access to health care and medication. mine their toxicity, the degree of harm a chemical substance
can inflict. Atoxic substance, or poison, is called a toxicant,
but any chemical substance may exert negative impacts if we
expose ourselves to enough of it. Conversely, if the quantity is

Improving Access to Clean Drinking small enough, a toxicant may pose no health risk at all. These
STORY facts are often summarized in the catchphrase “The dose makes
Water and Sanitation
the poison.” In other words, a substance’s toxicity depends not

Water-borne diseases, such as cholera and dysentery, have only on its chemical properties but also on its quantity.

been a vexing problem for many of the world’s developing In recent decades, our ability to produce new chemicals

countries. But thanks to the efforts of the United Nations (UN), has expanded, concentrations of chemical contaminants in the

national governments, and aid organizations, the threat from environment have increased, and public concern for health

these infectious diseases—spread bythe ingestion of food and the environment has grown. These trends have driven the

or water that has been contaminated with human or animal rise of environmental toxicology, which deals specifically

feces—is abating. Public health educa-tion with toxic substances that come from or are discharged into

campaigns have taught people the environment. Toxicologists generally focus on human

how to sterilize their drinking health, using other organisms as models and test subjects.

water, as wellas how to avoid Environmental toxicologists study animals and plants to

contaminating the source determine the ecological impacts of toxic substances and to

ofit. Infrastructure projects, see whether other organisms can serve as indicators of health

such as the drilling of water threats that could soon affect people.

wells and the construction of

modern facilities to treat
water and wastewater,
drink-ing
have
Manyenvironmental health hazards
provided 91% of people across existindoors
the globe with access to safe A young woman sampling
Modern Americans spend roughly 90% of their lives indoors.
drinking water—an increase of water from her village’s
Unfortunately, our homes and workplaces can be rife with
2.6 billion people since 1990. new well
environmental hazards.
In that same time period, some
Cigarette smoke and radon, a radioactive gas that seeps
2.1 billion people gained access to sanitary facilities as people
up from the ground, are leading indoor hazards and are the
in cities and villages embraced approaches to minimize the
top two causes of lung cancer in developed nations. Homes
contamination of water supplies with fecal material, such as
and offices can have problems with toxic compounds pro-duced
byinstalling composting toilets (as piped wateris sometimes
by mold, which can flourish in wall spaces when mois-ture
unavailable to the very poor) and through improved access to
levels are high. Asbestos, usedin the past as insulation
sewer systems, septic systems, and public latrines.
in walls and other products, is dangerous wheninhaled. Lead
Initiatives to provide people with clean drinking water have
poisoning from waterpipes orleaded paint can causecogni-tive
been very successful, enabling the United Nations to meet
problems and behavioral abnormalities, damage to vital
its Millennium Development Goal(enacted in 2000) of provid-ing
organs, and even death. Lead poisoning among U.S. children
88% of the world’s population with clean water by 2015.
has greatly declined in recent years, however, as a result of
Whilethese efforts represent a significant improvement, many
education campaigns and the phaseout of lead-based paints
people in rural areas in poorer nations continue to lack access
and leaded gasoline (p. 19) in the 1970s.
to safe drinking water and advanced sanitation. Efforts are cur-rently
Onerecently recognized indoor hazardis polybromi-nated
underway to address these deficiencies, and the United
diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). These compounds are used
Nationsin 2017 announced the goal of providing all people
as fire retardants in computers, televisions, plastics, and fur-niture,
access to clean drinking water by 2030.
and they may evaporate at very slow rates throughout
EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science the lifetime of the product. Like bisphenol A, PBDEs appear
to act as endocrine disruptors. Animal testing suggests that

Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology 21

 PBDEs may also cause cancer, affect thyroid hormones, and dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) to the public’s atten-tion.
influence the development of the brain and nervous sys-tem. The book was written at a time when large amounts of
The U.S. government’s National Health and Nutrition pesticides virtually untested for health impacts were indis-criminately
Examination Survey in 2009 tested the blood and urine of a sprayed, on the assumption that the chemicals
cross-section of Americans and found one type of PBDE was would do no harm to people.
detected in nearly every person in the study—showing how Carson synthesized scientific studies, medical case his-tories,
widespread exposure to PBDEs is in modern America. The and other data to contend that DDT in particular, and
European Union banned PBDEs in 2003, but in the United synthetic pesticides in general, were hazardous to people,
States there has so far been little movement on government wildlife, and ecosystems. The
regulation of these chemicals. book became a best-seller and weighingthe
Risks mustbe balanced
helped
change
generate significant
in views and
social
actions
ISSUe
toward the environment. The use
against rewards of DDT was banned in the United
a Circle of poison?

Although many nations have

States in 1973 and is now illegal
It is important to keep in mind that artificially produced chemi-cals
banned the use of DDT, the com-pound
in a number of nations.
have played a crucial role in giving usthe high standard is still manufactured in India
Despite its damaging effects,
of living we enjoy today. These chemicals have helped create and exported to developing nations
DDT is still manufactured today
the industrial agriculture that produces our food, the medical that lack such bans. How do you
because some developing coun-tries
advances that protect our health and prolong our lives, and many feel about this? Is it unethical for
with tropical climates use it
of the modern materials and conveniences that we use every a company to sell a substance
to control disease vectors, such as
day. With most hazards, there is some tradeoff between risk and that has been deemed toxic by
mosquitoesthat transmit malaria.
reward. Plastic bottles, can liners, and wrappers serve a useful so many nations? Or would it be
In these countries, malaria repre-sents
purpose in safely containing and preserving our food, and their unethical not to sell DDT to tropical
a greater health threat than
usefulness means that despite their health risks, we may as a nations if they need it to improve
do the toxic effects of the pes-ticide.
public health, such as in controlling
society choose to continue including them in products when we
New research and tech-nologies
mosquitoes that transmit malaria or
judge their benefits to outweigh their impacts on human health.
are showing promise for the Zika virus?
Thus, for BPA, phthalates, and numerous other toxic chemicals,
controlling mosquito populations
it is appropriate to remember their benefits as we examine some
without the use of DDT, however,
of the unfortunate side effects these substances may elicit.
giving hope that the chemical will soon nolonger be needed for
controlling disease vectors and could be phased out worldwide.
ToxicSubstancesand Their
Notalltoxic substances
Effectson Organisms are synthetic
Ourenvironment contains countless natural substancesthat may
Although many toxicologists focus on synthetic chemicals,
pose health risks. These include oil oozing naturally from the
toxic substances also exist naturally in the environment
ground; radon gas seeping up from bedrock; and toxins, toxic
around us and in the foods we eat. Thus, it would be a mis-take
chemicals manufacturedin the tissues ofliving organisms—for
to assume that all synthetic substances are unhealthy
example, chemicals that plants use to ward off herbivores or that
and that all natural substances are healthy. In fact, the plants
insects use to defend themselves from predators. In addition, we
and animals we eat contain many chemicals that can cause
are exposed to many synthetic (human-made) chemicals, some
us harm. Recall that many plants produce toxins to ward off
of which have toxic properties.
animals that eat them. In domesticating crop plants, we have
selected (p. 52) for strains with reduced toxin content, but
Silent Spring beganthe public traces of naturally occurring plant toxins can still be found in

debate over synthetic chemicals many of the plants we eat. Furthermore, when we consume
animal meat, we ingest toxins the animals obtained from
Synthetic chemicals surround usin our daily lives, and each plants or animals they ate. Scientists are actively debating just
year in the United States we manufacture or import around how much risk natural toxicants pose, and it is clear that more
113 kg (250 lb) of chemical substances for every man, research is required on these questions.
woman, and child. Many of these substances, particularly
the pesticides we use to control insects and weeds, find their Toxic substances come
way into the soil, air, and water—and into humans and other
in different types
organisms (FIGURE 10.4).
It was not until the 1960s that most people began to Toxic substances can be classified based on their particular
learn about the risks of exposure to pesticides. The key impacts on health. The best-known toxicants are carcinogens,
event was the publication of Rachel Carson’s 1962 book which are substances or types of radiation that cause can-cer.
Silent Spring (p. 106), which brought the insecticide In cancer, malignant cells grow uncontrollably, creating

216 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology

 Industry and manufacturing

ts
uc t s

pr
o
d

o
d
u
c

fertilizers W
W
at e
s

er
s
a
m r
W

p t
e
a

u e
s

s and t

n c
o
e
a
C l
s

p e

k d

r
o i
c

W i

Agriculture: crops, Water: surface

Home Work rangeland, feedlots and groundwater Air Soil

W
n
t
o

r
a

k r

p g
l
e
a
t
C c
d
o e e

n o f

s e
o
f

u x e

m p c D
t
e
r
o
s r i

r
A P
s
e i l

at
n

pr u
r
a

od
r

w
k
f
e
i n

uc g
n o

n
r
g
t
s ki
g
r
b

i n
ng
o

Dr
r
w

hi
a
e
w

at
t a
t

br e
e
t
h

or
r h

Ai f
i

r n

H
u
nt
i
Humans ng
an
dh
Genes, womb, ar v
est
breast milk i ng

Nonhuman biota

Human fetuses and babies

FIGURE 10.4 Synthetic chemicals take many routes in traveling through the environment. People take
in only atiny proportion of these compounds, and many compounds are harmless. However, people receive
small amounts of toxicants from many sources, and developing fetuses and babies are particularly sensitive.

tumors, damaging the body, and often leading to death. Can-cer an individual’s sperm or egg cells, then the individual’s off-spring
frequently has a genetic component, but a wide variety suffer the effects.
of environmental factors are thought to raise the risk of can-cer. Chemicals that cause harm to the unborn are known as
In our society today, the greatest number of cancer cases teratogens. Teratogens that affect development of human
is thought to result from carcinogens contained in cigarette embryos in the womb can cause birth defects. One example
smoke. Carcinogens can be difficult to identify because there is the drug thalidomide, which was developed in the 1950s to
may be a long lag time between exposure to the agent and the aid in sleeping and to prevent nausea during pregnancy. Trag-ically,
detectable onset of cancer—up to 15–30 years in the case of the drug caused severe organ defects and limb deformi-ties
cigarette smoke—and because only a portion of the people in thousands of babies whose mothers were prescribed
exposed to a carcinogen eventually develop cancer. this medication. Thalidomide was banned in the 1960s once
Mutagens are substances that cause genetic mutations scientists recognized its connection with birth defects.
in the DNA of organisms (p. 32). Although most mutations Other chemical toxicants known as neurotoxins assault
have little or no effect, some can lead to severe problems, the nervous system. Neurotoxins include venoms produced
including cancer and other disorders. If mutations occur in by animals, heavy metals such as lead and mercury, and some

Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology 217

 pesticides. A famous case of neurotoxin poisoning occurred
in Japan, where a chemical factory dumped mercury waste
into Minamata Bay between the 1930s and 1960s. Thousands
of people there ate fish contaminated with the mercury and
Hormone
soon began suffering from slurred speech, loss of muscle con-trol,
sudden fits of laughter, and in some cases death.
The human immune system protects our bodies from dis-ease.
Some toxic substances weaken the immune system, reduc-ing
Response
the body’s ability to defend itself against bacteria, viruses,
and other threats. Allergy-causing agents, called allergens, Receptor

overactivate the immune system, causing an immune response

when one is not necessary. One hypothesis for the increase in Cell membrane Inside cel
asthma in recent years is that allergenic synthetic chemicals are
more prevalent in our environment. Allergens are not univer-sally
(a) Normal hormone binding
considered toxicants, however, because they affect some
people but not others and because one’s response does not nec-essarily
correlate with the degree of exposure.
Pathway inhibitors are toxicants that interrupt vital bio-chemical Hormone mimic

processes in organisms by blocking one or more

steps in a pathway. Rat poisons, for example, cause internal
Hormone
hemorrhaging in rodents by interfering with the biochemi-cal
pathways that create blood-clotting proteins. Some her-bicides,
such as atrazine, kill plants by chemically blocking
Response
steps in photosynthesis (p. 34). (identical
Most recently, scientists have recognized endocrine Receptor
to that
caused by
disruptors, toxic substances that interfere with the endocrine
hormone)
system. The endocrine system consists of chemical messen-gers,
known as hormones, that travel through the bloodstream Cell membrane Inside cell
at extremely low concentrations and have many vital func-tions.
They stimulate growth, development, and sexual matu-rity,
(b) Hormone mimicry
and they regulate brain function, appetite, sex drive, and
many other aspects of our physiology and behavior. Some FIGURE 10.5 Many endocrine-disrupting substances mimic

hormone-disrupting toxicants affect an animal’s endocrine the chemical structure of hormone molecules. Like a key simi-lar
enough to fit into another key’s lock, the hormone mimic binds
system by blocking the action of hormones or accelerating
to a cellular receptor for the hormone, causing the cell to react as
their breakdown. Others are so similar to certain hormones in
though it had encountered the hormone.
their molecular structure and chemistry that they “mimic” the
hormone by interacting with receptor molecules just as the
actual hormone would (FIGURE 10.5). pyrethrin found in chrysanthemums. Over time, organisms
Among other effects, both BPA and phthalates appear to able to tolerate these harmful substances have gained an evo-lutionary
act as endocrine disruptors on the reproductive system. BPA advantage.
is one of many chemicals that seem to mimic the female sex Skin, scales, and feathers are the first line of defense
hormone estrogen and bind to estrogen receptors. Indeed, against toxic substances because they resist uptake from
emerging research is indicating that bisphenol A might not the surrounding environment. However, toxicants can cir-cumvent
be the only estrogen-mimicking compound in plastics, calling these barriers and enter the body through eating,
into question the safety of all the plastics that are ubiquitous drinking, and breathing. Once inside the organism, they
in our lives. With their diverse impacts on human health, BPA are distributed widely by the circulatory and lymph sys-tems
and phthalates show how a substance can be a carcinogen, a in animals, and by the vascular system in plants.
mutagen, and an endocrine disruptor all at the same time. Organisms possess biochemical pathways that use
enzymes to detoxify harmful chemicals that enter the body.
Organisms have natural defenses Some pathways break down, or metabolize, toxic substances

against toxic substances to render them inert. Other pathways make toxic substances
water soluble so they are easier to excrete through the urinary
Although synthetic toxicants are new, organisms have long system. In humans, many of these pathways are found in the
been exposed to natural toxicants. Mercury, cadmium, arse-nic, liver. As a result, this organ is disproportionately affected by
and other harmful substances are found naturally in the the intake of harmful substances, such as excessive alcohol.
environment. Some organisms produce biological toxins to Some toxic substances cannot be effectively detoxified
deter predators or capture prey. Examples include venom or made water soluble by detoxification enzymes. Instead,
in poisonous snakes and spiders, and the natural insecticide the body sequesters these chemicals in fatty tissues and cell

218 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology

 membranes to keep them
dioxins, PBDEs,
away from
and some insecticides
vital organs.
(including
Heavy met-als,
DDT)
ToxicSubstancesand Their
are stored in body tissue in this manner. Effectson Ecosystems
Defense mechanisms for natural toxins have evolved over
millions of years. For the synthetic chemicals that are so prev-alent When toxicants concentrate in environments and harm the
in today’s environment, however, organisms have not health of many individuals, populations (p. 50) of the affected
had long-term exposure, so the species become smaller. This decline in population size can

FaQ impacts of these toxic

can be severe and unpredictable.
substances then
the
affect other species.
organism affected
For instance,
by toxicants
species that
could experience
are prey of
popula-tion
growth because predation levels are lower. Predators of the
Why do some insects

survive exposure to Individuals varyin poisoned species, however, would decline as their food source
became less abundant. Cascading impacts can cause changes in
a pesticide while others
their responses the composition of the biological community (p. 73) and threaten
are killed by it?

When a population of organisms

to hazards ecosystem functioning. There are many ways toxicants can con-centrate
and persist in ecosystems and affect ecosystem services.
is exposed to a toxicant, such as Some of the defenses described
a pesticide, a few individuals often
survive whilethe vast majority of
above have a genetic basis. As a Airborne substances can travel widely
result, individuals may respond
the population is killed. These indi-viduals
quite differently to identical expo-sures Toxic substances may sometimes be redistributed by air cur-rents
survive because they pos-sess
to hazards because they (Chapter 13), exerting impacts on ecosystems far from
genes (which others in the
happen to have different combi-nationstheir site of release. Because so many substances are car-ried
population do not)that code for
of genes. Poorer health by the wind, synthetic chemicals are ubiquitous world-wide,
enzymes that counteract the toxic
also makes an individual more even in seemingly pristine areas. Earth’s polar regions
properties ofthe toxicant. Because
sensitive to biological and chemi-cal are particularly contaminated, because natural patterns of
the effects of these genes are
hazards. Sensitivity also can global atmospheric circulation (p. 290) tend to move airborne
expressed only whenthe pesticide
vary with sex, age, and weight. chemicals toward the poles (FIGURE 10.6). Thus, although we
is applied, many people think the
toxicant “creates” detoxification Because of their smaller size and

genes by mutating the DNA of a rapidly developing organ sys-tems, 3 At high latitudes,
younger organisms (for deposition of pollutants
small number ofindividuals. Thisis
exceeds evaporation
not the case. The genes for detoxi-fying example, fetuses, infants, and 2 Pollutants are
4 Pollutants enter
enzymes were presentin the young children) tend to be much transported by
the polar food
atmosphere and
DNA of resistant individuals from more sensitive to toxicants than web and
ocean currents
birth, but their effects were seen are adults. Regulatory agencies re nt s accumulate in
c ur
ri c biota
only when pesticide exposure such as the U.S. Environmental he
sp
Deposition

mo
caused selective pressure (p. 51) Protection Agency (EPA) typi-cally At
for resistance to the pesticide. set human chemical expo-sure Evaporation North Pole
standards for adults and
extrapolate downward for infants Evaporation

and children. However, many scientists contend that these Deposition

cur r ent
linear extrapolations often do not offer adequate protection to ni c
ea
Oc
fetuses, infants, and children. 1 Atlow
latitudes,

Thetype of exposure can affect evapora-tion

of
the response pollutants
exceeds
deposition
The risk posed by a hazard often varies according to whether
a person experiences high exposure for short periods of time,
known as acute exposure, or low exposure over long periods of E qu
ato r
time, known as chronic exposure. Incidences of acute exposure
are easier to recognize because they often stem from discrete
events, such as accidental ingestion, an oil spill, a chemical
spill, or a nuclear accident. Toxicity tests in laboratories gen-erally
FIGURE 10.6 Air and water currents direct pollutants to the
reflect acute toxicity effects. However, chronic exposure
poles. In the process of “global distillation,” pollutants that evapo-rate
is more common—and more difficult to detect and diagnose.
and rise high into the atmosphere atlower latitudes are carried
Chronic exposure often affects organs gradually, as when smok-ing
toward the poles by atmospheric currents, while ocean currents
causes lung cancer or when alcohol abuse leads to liver carry pollutants deposited in the ocean toward the poles. This
damage. Because of the long time periods involved, relation-ships process exposes polar organisms to unusually concentrated levels
between cause and effect may not be readily apparent. oftoxic substances.

Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology 219

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Go to Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

AreEndocrine DisruptorsLurking
in YourFast Food?
The plastics used in food packaging pre-serve from people across the United States by asking participants to
the contents and protect against undergo a physical examination by a medical professional, pro-viding
food pathogens, but can also expose blood and urine samples and completing a detailed ques-tionnaire
us to endocrine-disrupting chemi-cals about their lifestyle, including a description of the foods
that can adversely affect our they had recently consumed.
health. Increasingly, diet is being The team scoured the surveys from 2003 to 2010 and found
recognized as a major source of that around one-third of participants reported having eaten fast
exposure to bisphenol A, which food in the 24 hours preceding their examination.(For the sake
is used to line food cans and of the study, fast food was defined as food from restaurants
beverage containers, and phthal-ates, that lack wait service, carryout and delivery food options, and
which can leach from food-processing
pizza.) The team then used a correlational approach to look for
equipment and into relationships in the subjects’ reported consumption of fast food
foods. But do some types of food and their urinary concentrations of BPA and two types of phthal-ates
pose a higher risk than others? used in food packaging and processing—di(2-ethylhexyl)
Researchers have hypothesized phthalate (DEHP) and diisononyl phthalate (DiNP).
that fast food may expose people After analyzing morethan 8800 individuals, Dr. Zota’s team
to higher levels of endocrine dis-ruptors
found a positive correlation between the consumption of fast
Dr. Ami Zota, George than other types of food. food and urinary concentrations of both types of phthalates,
Washington University A 2016 study, headed by Dr. Ami demonstrating that people who had recently eaten fast food had
Zota of George Washington Univer-sity measurably higher levels of phthalates than people who had not
and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspec-tives, eaten fast food (FIGURE 1). The quantity of fast food eaten was
embraced an epidemiological approach to answer a simple also related to concentrations of the two phthalates in subjects.
question: Did people who had recently eaten fast food have People who consumed less than 35% of their calories from fast
higher levels of BPA and phthalates in their bodies than people food (“low consumers”) had DEHPlevels 15% higher than people
who had not recently eaten fast food? who had not eaten fast food (“nonconsumers”), while those who
To find out, the team dove into atreasure trove of data, the consumed more than 35% of their calories from fast food (“high
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). consumers”) had DEHP levels 23% higher than people who had
This survey, conducted every two years by the Centers for Dis-ease not eaten fast food. Similar results were seen for DiNP, where
Control and Prevention (CDC), gathers detailed information low consumers and high consumers had urinary concentrations

manufactureandapply syntheticsubstances mainlyin temper-ate Toxic substances mayconcentrate

and tropical regions, contaminants are strikingly concen-trated
in the tissues of Arctic polar bears, Antarctic penguins,
in water
and peopleliving in Greenland.Polychlorinated biphenyls Waterrunning off from land oftentransports toxicants from
(PCBs), for example, were a class of toxic industrial chemi-cals large areas and concentrates them in small volumes of sur-face
used in electrical equipment, paints, and plastics from water. Wastewater treatment plants also add toxins,
1929 untilthey werebannedin the UnitedStatesin 1979.Yet, pharmaceuticals,and detoxification productsfrom humans
wildlife in the Arctic to this day are found to possess danger-ouslyto waterways. Manychemicals are soluble in water and enter
high levels of these chemicals in their tissues. organisms’ tissues through drinking or absorption. For this
Effects can also occur over relatively shorter distances. reason,aquatic animals suchasfish, frogs, and streaminver-tebrates
Pesticides, for example, can be carried by air currents to sites are effective indicators of pollution. The contami-nants
far from agricultural fields in a process called pesticide drift. that washinto streams and rivers also flow and seep
The CentralValleyof Californiais the world’s mostproductive into the waterwedrink. Onceconcentratedin water,toxicants
agricultural region, andthe region’s frequent winds often blow can often movelong distances through aquatic systems and
airborne pesticide spray—and dust particles containing pesti-cide affect a diversity of organisms and ecosystems. For example,
residue—forlong distances.In the nearby mountainsofthe in 2017 scientistsreported that small crustaceanscollected
Sierra Nevada,research has associated pesticide drift from the from some of the deepest trenches in the Pacific—depths up
CentralValley withpopulationdeclinesin four speciesoffrogs. to 9.5 km(6 mi)belowthe surface—containedlevels of PCB

220 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology

 24% and 39% higher than nonconsumers, respectively. The concentrations of phthalates detected in subjects was below the
researchers hypothesized that plastics in gloves from people levels deemed dangerous for humans bythe EPA, and so argue
preparing fast food meals and from food-processing equipment that phthalate exposures from fast food pose no risk to human
were releasing phthalates into foods, particularly hot foods and health. Critics counter that the guidelines established by the EPA
foods that contain high levels of fat to which phthalates can have not been revised since 1988, despite recent research that
bind. Unlike phthalates, BPA did not show a statistically signifi-cant has shown impacts on reproductive and developmental systems
correlation with fast food consumption. The researchers at levels like those seen in the study. The regulation of chemicals
hypothesizethat BPA exposurefrom fast food consumption may that operate at extremely low concentrations, such as phthal-ates,
be minor relative to exposure from other sources of BPA, such will continue to pose regulatory challenges. Studies such
as eating canned foods and drinking beverages from cans and as this one, however, can identify major sources of exposure
bottles, resulting in any added BPAfrom fast food items simply people mayexperience and prompt further study and action by
being “washed out” bylarger exposures from other sources. scientists, government regulators, and fast food companies to
Industry groups, such as the National Restaurant Asso-ciationreduce such exposures—and safeguard human health from the
and the American Chemistry Council, point out that the far-reaching health impacts of endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

100 12 3
Had eaten
fast food 10
80
Had not eaten
urinary

of (ng/L
fast food 8 2
60

mean 6

40
4 1
concentration

20
Geometric
2

0 0 0
(a) Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) (b) Diisononyl phthalate (DiNP) (c) Bisphenol A (BPA)

FIGURE 1 People who had recently eaten fast food showed significantly higher levels of
(a) di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and (b) diisononyl phthalate (DiNP) in their urine (measured as
nanograms of chemical per liter of urine) than people who had not eaten fast food. Urinary concentra-tions
of (c) BPA were not significantly different in the two groups. Note the scale on the y axis differs in each of
the three figure parts. Datafrom Zota, A.R., et al., 2016. Recentfast food consumption and bisphenol A and phthalates exposures
among the U.S. population in NHANES, 2003–2010. Environmental Health Perspectives 124: 1521–1528.

and PDBEs that were up to 50 times higher than concentra-tions precisely because they resist breakdown. Sooner or later,
found in crustaceans from some of the most polluted however, most toxic substances degrade into simpler com-pounds
rivers on Earth. called breakdown products. Often these are less
harmful than the original substance, but sometimes they
Sometoxicants persist are just as toxic as the original chemical, or more so. For
instance, DDT breaks down into DDE, a highly persistent
in the environment and toxic compound in its own right.

Atoxic substance that is released into the environment may

degrade quickly and become harmless, or it mayremain unal-tered Toxic substances mayaccumulate
and persistfor manymonths,years,or decades.Therate and moveupthe food chain
at which a given substance degrades depends onits chemistry
and on factors such astemperature, moisture, and sun expo-sure. Within an organism’s body, some toxic substances are quickly
The Bttoxin (p. 153) usedin biocontrol andin geneti-callyexcreted, and some are degradedinto harmless breakdown
modified crops has a very short persistencetime, whereas products. Others persist intact in the body. Substances that
chemicals such as DDT and PCBs can persist for decades. are fat soluble or oil soluble (including organic compounds
Persistent synthetic chemicals exist in our environ-mentsuch as DDT and DDE)are absorbedand storedin fatty tis-sues.
today because we have designed them to persist. The Such persistent toxicants accumulate in an organism’s
synthetic chemicals usedin plastics,for instance, are used body in a processtermed bioaccumulation, suchthat the

Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology 221

 organism’s tissues have a greater concentration of the sub-stanceout in the eastern United States, and the bald eagle, the U.S.
than exists in the surrounding environment. national bird, was virtually eliminated from the lower 48
Toxic substances that bioaccumulate in an organism’s tis-sues states. Eventually scientists determined that DDT was causing
may be transferred to other organisms as predators con-sume these birds’ eggshells to grow thinner, so that eggs were break-ing
prey, resulting in a process called biomagnification in the nest and killing the embryos within. In a remarkable
(FIGURE 10.7). When one organism consumes another, the environmental success story, populations of all these birds
predator takes in any stored toxicants and stores them in its own have rebounded since the United States banned DDT.
body. Thus, bioaccumulation takes place on all trophic levels. Impacts from biomagnification still persist, though. Unfor-tunately,
Moreover, each individual predator consumes many individu-als DDT continues to impair wildlife in parts of the world
from the trophic level beneath it, so with each step up the where it is still used. Mercury bioaccumulates in some com-mercially
food chain, concentrations of toxicants become magnified. important fish species, such as tuna. Polar bears of
The process of biomagnification occurred through-out Svalbard Island in Arctic Norway show extremely high levels
North America with DDT. Top predators, such as birds of PCB contamination from biomagnification, and polar bear
of prey, ended up with high concentrations of the pesticide cubs suffer immune suppression, hormone disruption, and high
because concentrations became magnified as DDT moved mortality when they receive PCBs in their mothers’ milk.
from water to algae to plankton to small fish to larger fish and In all these cases, biomagnification affects ecosystem
finally to fish-eating birds. composition and the ecosystem services (p. 4) that nature
Biomagnification of DDT caused populations of many provides. When populations of top predators such as eagles
North American birds of prey to decline precipitously from or polar bears are reduced, species interactions change, and
the 1950s to the 1970s. The peregrine falcon was nearly wiped effects cascade through food webs (pp. 75–76).

Studying Effects of Hazards

Determining the effects of particular environmental hazards
DDT concentration on organisms and ecosystems is a challenging job, and scien-tists
(parts per million) rely on several different methods to do this, ranging from
correlative surveys to manipulative experiments (p. 11)
Osprey

25 ppm Wildlifestudies integrate work

in the field andlab
Large fish Scientists study the impacts of environmental hazards on wild
animals to help conserve animal populations and to under-stand
potential risks to people. Often, wildlife toxicologists
2 ppm
work in the field with animals to take measurements, docu-ment
patterns, and generate hypotheses before heading to the
laboratory to run controlled manipulative experiments to test
their hypotheses. The work of two of pioneers in the study of
Small fish
endocrine disruptors illustrates the approaches embraced in
wildlife studies.
0.5 ppm
Biologist Louis Guillette studied alligators in Florida and
discovered that many showed unusual reproductive problems.
Females had trouble producing viable eggs; young alligators
Zooplankton
had abnormal gonads; and male hatchlings had too little of
the male sex hormone testosterone, while female hatchlings
0.04 ppm
had too much of the female sex hormone estrogen. Because
certain lakes received agricultural runoff that included insec-ticides
such as DDT and dicofol and herbicides such as atra-zine,
Guillette hypothesized that chemical contaminants were
Water 0.000003 ppm
disrupting the endocrine systems of alligators during their
development in the egg. Indeed, when Guillette and his team
FIGURE 10.7 In a classic case of biomagnification, DDT
compared alligators in polluted lakes with those in cleaner
becomes highly concentrated in fish-eating birds such as
lakes, they found the ones in polluted lakes to be suffer-ing
ospreys. Organisms at the lowest trophic level take in fat-soluble
far more problems. Moving into the lab, the researchers
compounds such as DDT from water. As animals at higher tro-phic
levels eat organisms lower on the food chain, each organism found that several contaminants detectedin alligator eggs and
passes its load of toxicants up to its consumer, such that organisms young could bind to receptors for estrogen and reverse the
on all trophic levels bioaccumulate the substance in their tissues. sex of male embryos. Their experiments showed that atrazine

222 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology

 measure the rate at which deaths, cancers, or other health prob-lems
occur in each group. The epidemiologists then analyze the
data, looking for observable differences between the groups, and
statistically test hypotheses accounting for differences. When a
group exposed to a hazard shows a significantly greater degree
of harm, it suggests that the hazard may be responsible. The epi-demiological
process is akin to a natural experiment (p. 11), in
which an event creates groups of subjects that researchers can
study (for example, people exposed to carcinogenic compounds
in their drinking water versus those not similarly exposed).
Epidemiological studies measure a statistical association
between a health hazard and an effect, but they do not confirm
that the hazard causes the effect. To establish causation, manipu-lative
experiments are needed. However, subjecting people to
massive doses of toxic substances in a lab experiment would
clearly be unethical. This is why researchers have traditionally
used animals—such as laboratory strains of rats, mice, and other
mammals—as test subjects. Because of shared evolutionary his-tory,
substances that harm mice and rats are reasonably likely to
FIGURE 10.8 Wildlife studies examine the effects of toxic harm us. Some people feel the use of animals for testing is uneth-ical,
substances in the environment. Researcher Tyrone Hayes found but animal testing enables scientific and medical advances
that frogs show reproductive abnormalities that he attributes to that would beimpossible or far moredifficult otherwise.
endocrine disruption by pesticides.

Dose-responseanalysis
appeared to disrupt hormones byinducing
an enzyme that converts testosterone
production of aro-matase,
to estrogen.
is a mainstayoftoxicology
Following Guillette’s work, researcher Tyrone Hayes The standard method of testing with lab animals in toxicol-ogy
(FIGURE 10.8) found similar reproductive problems in frogs is dose-response analysis. Scientists quantify the toxic-ity
and attributed them to atrazine. In lab experiments, male of a substance by measuring the strength of its effects or
frogs raised in water containing very low doses of the herbi-cide the number of animals affected at different doses. The dose
became feminized and hermaphroditic, developing both is the amount of substance the test animal receives, and the
testes and ovaries. Hayes then moved to the field to look for response is the type or magnitude of negative effects the ani-mal
correlations between herbicide use and reproductive impacts exhibits as a result. The response is generally quantified
in the wild. His field surveys showed that leopard frogs across by measuring the proportion of animals exhibiting negative
North America experienced hormonal problems in areas of impacts. The data are plotted on a graph, with dose on the
heavy atrazine usage. His work indicated that atrazine, which x axis and response on the y axis (FIGURE 10.9a). The result-ing
kills plants by blocking biochemical pathways in photosyn-thesis, curve is called a dose-response curve.
can also act as an endocrine disruptor. Once they have plotted a dose-response curve, toxicolo-gists
can calculate a convenient shorthand gauge of a sub-stance’s
Human studies rely on case histories, toxicity: the amount of the substance it takes to kill

epidemiology, and animal testing half the population of study animals used. This lethal dose for
50% of individuals is termed the lethal dose–50%, or LD50.
In studies of human health, we gain much knowledge by A high LD50 indicates low toxicity for a substance, and a low
directly studying sickened individuals. This process of LD50 indicates high toxicity.
observation and analysis of individual patients is known as If the experimenter is interested in nonlethal health
a case history approach. Case histories have advanced our impacts, he or she may want to document the level of toxicant
understanding of human illness, but they do not always help at which 50% of a population of test animals is affected in
us infer the effects of rare hazards or chemicals that exist at some other way (for instance, the level of toxicant that causes
low environmental concentrations and exert minor, long-term 50% of lab mice to develop reproductive abnormalities). Such
effects. Case histories also tell us little about probability and a level is called the effective dose–50%, or ED50.
risk, such as how many extra deaths we might expect in a Some substances can elicit effects at any concentration,
population due to a particular cause. but for others, responses may occur only above a certain dose,
For such questions, which are common in environmental or threshold. Such a threshold dose (FIGURE 10.9b) might be
toxicology, weneedepidemiologicalstudies,large-scalecom-parisons
expected if the body’s organs can fully metabolize or excrete
among groups of people, usually contrasting a group a toxicant at low doses but become overwhelmed at higher
known to have been exposed to some hazard against a group concentrations.
that has not. Epidemiologists track the fate of all people in the Sometimes a response may decrease as a dose increases.
study for a long period of time (often years or decades) and Toxicologists are finding that some dose-response curves

Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology 22

 100 are U-shaped, J-shaped, or shaped like an inverted U
( FIGURE 10.9c). Such counterintuitive curves contradict
toxicology’s traditional assumption that “the dose makes the
poison.” These unconventional dose-response curves often
population
dos
Linear dose-response curve occur with endocrine disruptors, such as BPA and phthalates,
by

likely because the hormone system is geared to respond to

test

50
of minute concentrations of substances (normally, hormones in
the bloodstream). Because the endocrine system responds to
minuscule amounts of chemicals, it may be vulnerable to dis-ruption
affected

by contaminants that are dispersed through the envi-ronment

Percentage

LD50 and that reach our bodies in very low concentrations.

0 Researchers generally give lab animals much higher doses
Low High
relative to body massthan people would receive in the environ-ment.
Dose
This is so that the response is great enough to be mea-sured
(a) Linear dose-response curve and so that differences between the effects of small and
large doses are evident. Data from a range of doses give shape

100 to the dose-response curve. Once the data from animal tests
are plotted, researchers can extrapolate downward to estimate
responses to still-lower doses from a hypothetically large popu-lation
of animals. This way,they can come up with an estimate
population
dose of, say, what dose causes cancer in 1 mouse in 1 million. A sec-ond
by
extrapolation is required to estimate the effect on humans,
50
test

of
with our greater body mass. Because these two extrapolations
stretch beyond the actual data obtained, they introduce uncer-tainty
Linear dose-response curve
into the interpretation of what dosesare safe for people.
affected

Percentage Threshold
LD50
Chemical mixes maybe morethan
0
Low High the sum of their parts
Dose
It is difficult enough to determine the impact of a single hazard,
(b) Dose-response curve with threshold but the task becomes astronomically more difficult when mul-tiple
hazards interact. Chemical substances, when mixed, may

100 act together in ways that cannot be predicted from the effects
of each in isolation. Mixed toxicants may sum each other’s
effects, cancel out each other’s effects, or multiply each other’s
effects. Interactive impacts that are greater than the simple sum
population
Nonlinear inverted of their constituent effects are called synergistic effects.
dose

dose-response curve
by With Florida’s alligators, lab experiments have indicated
test
50
of
that the DDT breakdown product DDE can either promote
or inhibit sex reversal, depending on the presence of other
affected

chemicals. Mice exposed to a mixture of nitrate, atrazine, and

the insecticide aldicarb have been found to show immune,
endocrine, and nervous system effects that were not evident
Percentage

LD50
0 from exposure to each of these chemicals alone.
Low High
Traditionally, environmental health has tackled impacts of
Dose single hazards one at a time. In toxicology, the complex exper-imental
(c) Unconventional dose-response curve designs required to test interactions, and the sheer
number of chemical combinations, have meant that single-substance
tests have received priority. This approach is chang-ing,
FIGURE 10.9 Dose-response curves show that organisms’ but the interactive effects of most chemicals are unknown.
responses to toxicants may sometimes be complex. In a
classic linear dose-response curve (a), the percentage of animals Endocrine disruption poses
killed or otherwise affected by a substance rises withthe dose.
The point at which 50% of the animals are killed is labeled the lethal challenges for toxicology
dose–50, or LD50. For some toxic substances, a threshold dose
As today’s emerging understanding of endocrine disruption
(b) exists, below which doses have no measurable effect. Some
substances—in uncon-ventional, leads toxicologists to question their assumptions, unconven-tional
particular, endocrine disruptors—show
nonlinear dose-response curves (c) that are U-shaped, dose-response curves are presenting challenges for scien-tists
J-shaped, or shapedlike aninverted U. studying toxic substances and for policymakers trying to set

224 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology

safety standards for them. Knowing the shape of a dose-response one may encounter it, the amount of substance or degree of
curve is crucial if one is using it to predict responses at doses threat to which one is exposed, and one’s sensitivity to the
below those that have been tested. Because so many novel syn-thetic threat. Such factors help determine the overall risk posed.
chemicals exist in very low concentrations over wide areas, Risk can be measured in terms of probability, a quantita-tive
many scientists suspect that we may have underestimated the description of the likelihood of a certain outcome. The
dangers of compounds that exert impacts at low concentrations. probability that some harmful outcome (for instance, injury,
Scientists first noted endocrine-disrupting effects decades death, environmental damage, or economic loss) will result
ago, but the idea that synthetic chemicals might be altering the from a given action, event, or substance expresses the overall
hormones of animals was not widely appreciated until the 1996 risk posed by a particular threat.
publication of the book Our Stolen Future, by Theo Colburn,
Dianne Dumanoski, and J.P. Myers. Like Silent Spring, this book Our perception ofrisk maynot
integrated scientific work from various fields and presented a uni-fied matchreality
view of the hazards posed by endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Today, thousands of studies have linked hundreds of sub-stancesEvery action we take and every decision we make involves

to effects on reproduction, development, immune some element of risk, some (generally small) probability
function, brain and nervous system function, that things
and other hor-mone-driven will go wrong. Wetypically try to behave in ways

processes. Evidence is strongest so far in nonhu-man that minimize risk, but our perceptions of risk do not always

animals, but many studies suggest impacts on humans. match statistical reality (FIGURE 10.10). People often worry
Some researchers argue that the sharp rise in breast cancer rates unduly about small risks yet readily engage in activities that

(one in eight U.S. women today develops breast cancer) may pose higher risks. For instance, most of us perceive flying in

be due to hormone disruption, because an excess of estrogen an airplane as a riskier activity than driving a car, but, sta-tistically
appearsto feed tumor development in older women. Othersci-entists speaking, plane travel is much safer. Psychologists

attribute male reproductive problems to elevated BPA argue that this disconnect occurs because we feel more at risk

exposure. For example, studies found that workers in Chinese when we are not controlling a situation and safer when we are
factories that manufactured BPA had elevated rates of erec-tile “at the wheel”—regardless of the actual risk involved.

dysfunction and reduced sperm counts when compared to This psychology may help account for people’s anxiety

workers in factories manufacturing other products. over exposure to bisphenol A, nuclear power, toxic waste, and

Much of the research into hormone disruption has

brought about strident debate. This is partly because scientific
uncertainty is inherent in any developing field. Another reason 1in 7 Heart disease and cancer
is that negative findings about chemicals pose an economic
threat to the manufacturers of those chemicals, who stand to
lose many millions of dollars in revenue if their products were 1in 27 Chronic lower respiratory disease

to be banned or restricted in the United States.

1 in 97 Intentional self-harm

RiskAssessmentand Risk 1 in 103 Accidental poisoning

Management 1 in 113

1 in 133
Motor vehicle incidents

Falls

Policy decisions on whether to ban chemicals or restrict their 1in 358 Assault by firearms

use generally follow years of rigorous testing for toxicity. 1in 1183 Drowning and submersion
Likewise, strategies for combating disease and other health Exposure to fire, flames, or smoke
1in 1454
threats are based on extensive scientific research. However,
1in 9737 Air and space transport incidents
policy and management decisions also incorporate econom-ics
1 in 64,706 Bee, wasp, or hornet sting
and ethics—and all too often the decision-making process
is heavily influenced by pressure from powerful corporate 1in 174,426 Lightning

and political interests. The steps between the collection and

interpretation of scientific data and the formulation of policy FIGURE 10.10 Our perceptions of risk do not always match
involve assessing and managing risk. the reality of risk. Listed here are several leading causes of
death in the United States, along with a measure of the risk each

Weexpressriskin terms of probability poses.

the risk
The larger the area
of dying from that
of the
cause.
circle in the figure, the
Data arefor 2013, from Injury Facts,
greater

Exposure to an environmental health threat does not invariably 2016. Itasca, IL: National Safety Council.

produce a given consequence. Rather, it causes some prob-ability

People tend to view car travel as being safer than air-plane
of harm, a statistical chance that damage will result. To
travel, but a person is how many times morelikely
understand a health threat, a scientist must know morethan to die from a car accident than from an airplane crash?
just its identity and strength. He or she must also know the
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
chance that one will encounter it, the frequency with which

Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology 22

 pesticide residues on foods—environmental hazards that are of risk are considered in light of economic, social, and politi-cal
invisible or little understood and whose presence in our lives needs and values. Risk managers assess costs and benefits
is largely outside our personal control. In contrast, people are of addressing risk in various ways, with regard to both scien-tific
readier to accept and ignore the risks of smoking cigarettes, and nonscientific concerns, before making decisions on
overeating, and not exercising, which are voluntary activities whether and how to reduce or eliminate risk (FIGURE 10.11).
statistically shown to pose far greater risks to health. In environmental health and toxicology, comparing costs
and benefits (p. 96) can be difficult because the benefits are
Riskassessment analyzesrisk often economic, whereas the costs often pertain to health.

quantitatively Moreover,
quantified,
economic benefits
and of a discrete
are generally
and stable amount,
known, eas-ily
whereas
The quantitative measurement of risk and the comparison of health risks are hard-to-measure probabilities, often involv-ing
risks involved in different activities or substances together are a small percentage of people likely to suffer greatly and
termed risk assessment. Risk assessment is a way to iden-tify a large majority likely to experience little effect. Because of
and outline problems. In environmental health, it helps the lack of equivalence in the way costs and benefits are mea-sured,
ascertain which substances and activities pose health threats risk management frequently tends to stir up debate.
to people or wildlife and which are largely safe. In the case of BPA and phthalates, eliminating food pack-aging
Assessing risk for a chemical substance involves several in the name of safety could do more harm than good.
steps. The first steps involve the scientific study of toxicity we The plastic lining inside metal cans, for example, can release
examined above—determining whether a substance has toxic BPA into the food, but also helps prevent metal corrosion and
effects and, through dose-response analysis, measuring how the contamination of food by pathogens. Some alternative
effects vary with the degree of exposure. Subsequent steps substances exist to those that expose users to BPA and phthal-ates,
involve assessing the individual’s or population’s likely extent of but replacing them with alternatives will entail economic
exposure to the substance, including the frequency of contact, the costs to industry, and these costs get passed on to consumers
concentrations likely encountered, and the length of encounter. in the prices of products. Such complex considerations can
makerisk management decisions difficult even if the science
Risk managementcombines science of risk assessment is fairly clear.

and other socialfactors

Two approaches existfor testing
Accurate risk assessment is a vital step toward effective risk
the safety of new products
management, which consists of decisions and strategies to
minimize risk. In most nations, risk management is handled Because we cannot know a substance’s toxicity until we mea-sure
largely by federal agencies. In the United States, these include and test it, and because so many untested chemicals and
agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the combinations exist, science will never eliminate the many
EPA, and the CDC. In risk management, scientific assessments uncertainties that accompany risk assessment. In such a world

Scientific results Political, social,

and measurement economic, and
of probability ethicalconsiderations

Risk Risk
Policy
assessment management

Scientific data on Information, opinion, and lobbying from

Hazard Toxicity Extent of Private Industry and Nonprofit

identification character-ization exposure citizens manufacturing interest

groups

FIGURE 10.11 The first step in addressing risks from an environmental hazard is risk assessment.
Once science identifies and measures risks, then risk management can proceed. In risk management,
economic, political, social, and ethical issues are considered in light of the scientific data from risk assessment.

226 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicolog

 “Innocent until proven Precautionary FIGURE 10.12 Two main
Sequence of events
guilty” approach principle approach approaches can be taken
to introduce new substances
to the market. In one approach,
Industrial research and
substances are “innocent until
development
proven guilty”; they are brought to
market relatively quickly after limited
testing. Products reach consumers
more quickly, but some fraction of
Pre-market testing by
them (white jug in the diagram)
industry, government,
may cause harm to some fraction
and academic
scientists of people. The other approach is
Limited testing; most Rigorous testing; only the safest
products brought to market products brought to market to adopt the precautionary prin-ciple,
bringing substances to mar-ket
cautiously, only after extensive
testing. Products that reach the
Consumer use of
market should be safe, but many
products
perfectly safe products (gray bottle
Some products harm Minimal impact on
human health human health in diagram) will be delayed in
reaching consumers.

Post-market testing by
industry, government,
and academic scientists
Rigorous testing demanded Limited testing required

Regulations and bans

of unsafe products

Unsafe products recalled

Consumer use of safe

products

of uncertainty, there are two basic philosophical approaches to approaches. European nations have recently embarked on a
categorizing substances as safe or dangerous (FIGURE 10.12). policy course that incorporates the precautionary principle.
One approach is to assume that substances are harmless The United States, however, has
until shown to be harmful. This is nicknamed long embraced
the “innocent-until-proven-guilty” an innocent-until-proven-guilty weighingthe
every existing substance
approach. Because thoroughly
(and combination of substances)
testing
for may be changing,
approach.
however,
This
as the
ISSUeS
its effects is a hopelessly long, complicated, and expensive passage of the Frank R. Laut-enberg
the precautionary principle
pursuit, the innocent-until-proven-guilty approach has the Chemical Safety for the
virtue of facilitating technological innovation and economic 21st Century Act in 2016 directs Industry’s critics say chemical
manufacturers should bear the
activity. However, it has the disadvantage of putting into wide the EPA to require more stringent
burden of proof for the safety of
use some substances that may later turn out to be dangerous. testing of industrial chemicals
their products before they hit the
The other approach is to assume that substances are harm-ful before they are used in products.
market. Industry’s supporters
until shown to be harmless. This approach follows the pre-cautionary
say that mandating more safety
principle (p. 162). This more cautious approach
should enable us to identify troublesome toxicants before they
Governments research will hamper the introduc-tion

are released into the environment, but it may also impede the regulate industrial of products that consumers

want and willincrease the price

pace of technological and economic advance.
chemicals of products as research costs are
These two approaches are actually two ends of a contin-uum
passed on to consumers. What
of possible approaches. The two endpoints differ mainly In the United States, several
do you think? Which approach
in where they lay the burden of proof—specifically, whether federal agencies are assigned
should U.S. government regulators
product manufacturers are required to prove a product is safe responsibility for tracking and embrace?
or whether government, scientists, or citizens are required to regulating synthetic chemicals
prove a product is dangerous. under various legislative acts.
The choice of philosophical approach has direct implica-tions The FDA, under an act first passed in 1938, monitors foods
for policy, and nations vary in how they blend the two and food additives, cosmetics, drugs, and medical devices.

Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology 22

 FaQ The EPA regulates pesticides
under a 1947 act and its amend-ments. Lautenberg
have been thoroughly
Chemical
screened for toxicity.
Safety for the 21st
The Frank R.
Century Act, an
The Occupational Safety update to the TSCA, addresses some of these concerns by
If the government allows a
and Health Administration mandating more stringent testing of some chemicals, but
product to be sold in stores,
(OSHA) regulates workplace critics argue that many potentially dangerous chemicals will
isn’t it safe?
hazards under a 1970 act. Sev-eral remain inadequately tested.
Just because a product is avail-able
other agencies regulate other The European Union (EU) is taking the world’s boldest
to the public doesn’t mean
substances. step toward testing and regulating manufactured chemicals. In
it poses no risk to consumers.
Synthetic chemicals not 2007, the EU’s REACH program went into effect (REACH
Medicines, cosmetics, and some
types of food are tested for safety
covered by other laws are regu-lated stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and restric-tion

prior to release, but other poten-tially by the EPA under the 1976 of CHemicals). REACH largely shifts the burden of

dangerous products, such Toxic Substances Control Act proof for testing chemical safety from national governments

as BPAin plastics, are not simi-larly (TSCA). The Toxic Substances to industry and requires that chemical substances produced or
tested. And with the federal Control Act directs the EPA to imported in amounts of over 1 metric ton per year be regis-tered
agencies that oversee product monitor thousands of industrial with a new European Chemicals Agency.
toxicity tests, such as the EPA, chemicals manufactured in or The world’s nations have also sought to address chemi-cal
now struggling due to extremely imported into the United States, pollution with international treaties. The Stockholm Con-vention
steep budget cuts, it would be ranging from PCBs to lead to on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) came into
a mistaketo assume that the bisphenol A. The act gives the force in 2004 and has been ratified by over 150 nations. POPs
products you use have been agency power to regulate these are toxic chemicals that persist in the environment, bioac-cumulate
thoroughly tested. The best substances and ban them if they and biomagnify up the food chain, and can travel
approach is to educate yourself are found to pose excessive risk. long distances. The PCBs and other contaminants found in
on the risks in products you use However, many public health polar bears are a prime example. The Stockholm Convention
and exercise the famous senti-ment
advocates have long viewed aims first to end the use and release of 12 POPs shown to be
of “caveat emptor”—Latin
TSCA as being far too weak, as most dangerous, a group nicknamed the “dirty dozen”. It sets
for “let the buyer beware.”
only a small percentage of the guidelines for phasing out these chemicals and encourages
chemicals that fall under TSCA transition to safer alternatives.

closing the LOOp

Domestic regulation in the United and other consumer products. Research into the adverse effects
States by the FDA and EPA, and inter-nationalof these chemicals is emerging, and while some nations have
agreements such as REACH banned BPA and phthalates, some have only restricted their use
and the Stockholm Convention, indi-cate in children’s products and others have chosen not to restrict
that governments may act to protect them at all. But growing consumer concern over the presence
the world’s people, wildlife, and ecosys-tems of harmful chemicals such as BPA and phthalates has spurred
from toxic substances and other environ-mental
some companies to shift to safer alternatives, even in the
hazards. At the same time, solutions often come more absence of governmental regulation in the United States.
easily when they do not arise from government regulation It is important to remember, however, that synthetic
alone. Consumer choice exercised through the market can chemicals, while exposing people to some risk, have brought
often be an effective way to influence industry’s decision mak-ing, us innumerable modern conveniences, a larger food supply,
but this requires consumers to have full information from and medical advances that save and extend human lives. A
scientific research regarding the risks involved. Once scientific safer and happier future, one that safeguards the well-being
results are in, a society’s philosophical approach to risk man-agement
of both people and the environment, therefore depends on
will determine what policy decisions are made. knowing the risks that some hazards pose, assessing these
All these factors have come into play regarding regulation of risks, and having meansin place to phase out harmful sub-stances
BPA, phthalates, and other harmful chemicals in food packaging and replace them with safer ones whenever possible

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. What four major types of health hazards are examined environmental health experts study to learn how
by practitioners of environmental health? diseases affect human health?
2. In what way is disease the greatest hazard that 3. Where does most exposure to lead, asbestos, radon,
people face? Whatkinds ofinterrelationships must and PBDEs occur?

228 Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology

 4. List and describe the general categories oftoxic 8. Whyare animals used in laboratory experiments in
substances covered in this chapter. toxicology? Explain the dose-response curve. Whyis a
5. Explain the mechanisms within organisms that protect substance with a high LD50 considered safer than one
them from damage caused by toxic substances. with a low LD50?

6. How do toxic substances travel through the environment? 9. What factors may affect an individual’s response to a
Describe and contrast the processes of bioaccumulation toxic substance? What are synergistic effects, and why

and biomagnification. are they difficult to measure and diagnose?

7. Whatare epidemiological studies, and how arethey 10. How do scientists identify and assess risks from

most often conducted? substances or activities that may pose health risks

SEEKINGSolutions
1. Describe some environmental health hazards you may can minimize their exposure to the chemical. You begin
be living with indoors. How may you have been affected by examining your own lifestyle and finding ways to
by indoor or outdoor hazards in the past? How could use alternatives to BPA-containing products. Create a
you best deal with these hazards in the future? list of five ways that you are exposed to BPA daily, and

2. Do you feel that laboratory animals should be used in then list approaches you could take to help you avoid
experiments in toxicology? Why or why not? or minimize these exposures. What are some potential
costs in terms of time and/or money in embracing
3. Describe differences in the policies of the United States
these changes? Whatinformation about BPA could you
and the European Union regarding the study and
provide to the public as it relates to human health?
management of the risks of synthetic chemicals. Which
do you believe is more appropriate—the policies of the 5. THINK IT THROUGH You are the parent of two young

United States or those of the European Union? Why? children and want to minimize the environmental health
risks they are exposed to. Name five steps you could
4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION You work for a public
take in your household and in your daily life that would
health organization. You have been asked to educate
minimize their exposure to environmental health hazards.
the public about BPA and to suggest ways that people

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints

In 2007, the last year the EPA gathered and reported data 302 million, and the world’s population was 6.63 billion. In the
on pesticide use, Americans used 1.13 billion pounds of table, calculate your share of pesticide use as a U.S. citizen
pesticide active ingredients, and global use totaled 5.21 bil-lion in 2007 and the amount used by (or on behalf of) the average
pounds. In that same year, the U.S. population was citizen of the world.

1. Whatis the ratio of your annual pesticide use to the

Annual pesticide use world’s per capita average?
2. In 2007, the average U.S. citizen had an ecological
POUNDS OF ACTIVE
YOU INGREDIENTS
footprint of 8.0 hectares, and the average world citizen’s
footprint was 2.7 hectares. Compare the ratio of
Your class
pesticide usage with the ratio of the overall ecological
footprints. How do these differ, and how would you
Your state
account for the difference?
United States 1.13 billion 3. Does the per capita pesticide use for a U.S. citizen seem
reasonable for you personally? Why or why not? Do you
World (total) 5.21 billion
find this figure alarming or oflittle concern? What else
World (per capita) would you like to know to assess the risk associated
with this level of pesticide use?

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Goto Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Goto Mastering Environmental Science for
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Chapter 10 Environmental Health and Toxicology 229

1
Geology,
Minerals,
CHAPTER
and Mining
 central CASESTUDY

Mining
for ...
CellPhones?
D.R.
The conflict in the You walk across your college CONGO
Democratic Republic of the campus to your next class. In Region of
Congo has become mainly the process, you pull out your coltan mining
about access, control, and cell phone and text afriend—and
trade of five key mineral
likely give very little thought to the technology that makes
resources: coltan, diamonds,
this text possible. What you probably don’t know is that
copper, cobalt, and gold.
inside your phone is alittle-known metal called tantalum—just
—Report to the United Nations Security

Council, April 2001 a tiny amount—and withoutit, no cell phone can oper-ate.
Half a world away, a minerin the heart of Africa toils all
Coltan . . . is not helping the day in a jungle streambed, sifting sediment for nuggets of
local people. In fact, it is the
coltan ore, which contain tantalum.
curse of the Congo.
In bedeviling ways, tantalum links our glossy global
—African journalist Kofi Akosah-Sarpong

high-tech economy with one of the most abused regions

on Earth. Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R. Congo)
has long been embroiled in a sprawling regional con-flict
fueled by ethnic tensions and access to valuable natural resources. This conflict has
involved six nations and various rebel militias and has claimed morethan 5 millionlives since
1998. The current conflict is the latest chapter in the sad history of a nation rich in natu-ral
resources—copper, cobalt, gold, diamonds, uranium, and timber—whose impoverished
people have been repeatedly robbed of the control of those resources.
Tantalum (Ta), element number 73 on the periodic table (APPENDIX D),is at the heart of
the current battle over resources in D.R. Congo. As noted, werely on this metalfor our cell
phones, but it is also vital for production of computer chips, DVD players, game consoles,
and digital cameras. Tantalum powder is ideal for capacitors (the components that store
Upon completing this
energy andregulate currentin miniaturecircuit boards) becauseit is highly heat resistant and
chapter, you will be able to:
readily conducts electricity.
• Explain how plate tectonics Tantalum comes from a dull blackish mineral called tantalite,
and the rock cycle shape the which often occurs with a mineralcalled columbite—so
landscape around us the ore is referred to as columbite–tantalite, or coltan
• Identify major types of geologic for short. In eastern Congo, miners dig craters in
hazards and describe ways to rainforest streambeds, panning for coltan much
minimize their impacts as early California miners panned for gold.

• Describe the types of mineral Asinformation technology boomed in the

resources and their uses late 1990s, global demand for tantalum rose,
and market prices for the metal shot up.
• Describe the major methods of
High prices led some Congolese miners to
mining
mine coltan by choice, but many more were
• Discuss the environmental and
forced to work as miners.
social impacts of mining
Open war broke out in D.R. Congo
• Explain reclamation efforts and
in 1998 when rebel groups, supported by
mining policy
forces from neighboring Rwanda and Uganda,
• Evaluate ways to encourage attempted to overthrow the government of
sustainable use of mineral President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. The country was
resources
fragmented by conflict between government forces
and various rebel groups, with 11 other African nations

Mining is harming the endangered okapi in eastern Congo.

Coltan mining in eastern

D.R. Congo 23
 becoming involved in the hostilities. In mineral-rich eastern D.R. Corporations rushed to assure consumers that they were
Congo, fighting was particularly intense. Local farmers were not using tantalum from eastern D.R. Congo—noting that the
chased off their land; villages were burned; and civilians were region was producing less than 10% of the world’s supply.
raped, tortured, and killed. Soldiers and rebels seized control Meanwhile, some observers felt an embargo could hurt the
of mining operations. They forced farmers, refugees, prisoners, long-suffering Congolese people. The mininglife may be miser-able,
and children to work, and enriched themselves by selling coltan they said, but it pays better than mostjobs in aland where
to traders, who in turn made profits by selling it to processing the average income is only 20 cents a day.
companies in the United States, Europe, and Asia. These com-panies A 2002 peace treaty led to the withdrawal of foreign troops
refine and sell tantalum powder to capacitor manufac-turers,from D.R. Congo, but conflict with rebel groups within the coun-try
which in turn sell capacitors to Nokia, Motorola, Sony, continues, bankrolled by the mineral riches of the region.
Intel, Compaq, Dell, and other high-tech corporations that use Success by Congolese troops and an African-led UN interven-tion
the capacitors in their products. brigade against a major rebel group in eastern D.R. Congo
The conflict also caused ecological havoc as people has, however, helped to reduce conflict in the region.
streamed into national parks to avoid the fighting and locate Steps are now being taken to help support legitimate Con-golese
new sources of minerals. This led to the clearing of rainfor-ests mines while preventing the exploitation that has defined
for fuelwood and the killing of wildlife for food, includ-ing miningin D.R. Congo in the recent past. Industry groups, work-ing
forest elephants; endangered gorillas; and okapi, a rare with national governments and nongovernmental aid orga-nizations,
zebra-like relative of the giraffe. Miners disturbed streambeds are creating a certification system for conflict-free
in the search for coltan, increasing erosion rates and choking coltan to aid consumers in avoiding products that contain con-flict
streams with sediments. minerals.
A grass-roots activist movement urged international These efforts and others offer an opportunity to significantly
action to stop the violence and exploitation in D.R. Congo and reduce trade in conflict minerals while promoting trade of miner-als
advanced the slogan, “No blood on my cell phone!” In 2001, sourced from legitimate minesin poor nations such as D.R.
an expert panel commissioned by the United Nations (UN) con-cluded Congo. It is hoped that ongoing regulatory efforts to certify min-erals
that coltan riches werefueling, financing, and prolonging willestablish aframework that not only satisfiesthe world’s
the war. The panel urged a UN embargo on coltan and other demand for mineralresources but also protects the people and
mineralsfrom regions of D.R. Congo where conflict flourished. ecosystems that provide them.

Geology:ThePhysicalBasis especially soft rock,

above the asthenosphere
melted in some areas.
is the lithosphere.
The harder rock
The lithosphere

for EnvironmentalScience includes both the uppermost mantle and the entirety of Earth’s
third major layer, the crust, the thin, brittle, low-density layer
Coltan provides just one example of how we extract raw of rock that covers Earth’s surface. The intense heat in the
materials from beneath our planet’s surface and turn them inner Earth rises from core to mantle to crust, and it eventually
into products we use every day. To understand the environ-mental dissipates at the surface.
impacts of extracting resources from the earth, and the The heat from the inner layers of Earth also drives con-vection
many ways we can make mineral extraction less damaging, currents that flow in loops in the mantle, pushing the
we first need a working knowledge of some of the physical mantle’s soft rock cyclically upward (as it warms) and down-ward
processes that shape our planet. (as it cools), like a gigantic conveyor belt system. As
Our planet is dynamic, and this dynamism is what moti-vatesthe mantle material moves, it drags large plates of lithosphere
geology, the study of Earth’s physical features, pro-cesses,
along its surface. This movement is known as plate tectonics,
and history. A human lifetime is just a blink of an eye a process of extraordinary importance to our planet.
in the long course of geologic time, and the earth we expe-rience
is merely a snapshot in our changing planet’s long Platetectonics shapes Earth’s
history.
we consider
We can begin to
two processes
grasp this long-term
of fundamental
dynamism
importance to
as
geography
geology—plate tectonics and the rock cycle. Our planet’s surface consists of about 15 major tectonic
plates, which fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle

Earth consists oflayers ( FIGURE 11.2). Imagine peeling an orange and then plac-ing
the pieces back onto the fruit; the ragged pieces of peel
Our planet consists of multiple layers (FIGURE 11.1). At Earth’s are like the lithospheric plates riding atop Earth’s surface.
center is a dense core consisting mostly of iron, solid in the However, the plates are thinner relative to the planet’s size,
inner core and moltenin the outer core. Surrounding the core morelike the skin of an apple. These plates moveat rates of
is athick layer of less dense, elastic rock called the mantle. A roughly 2–15 cm (1–6 in.) per year. This slow movement has
portion of the upper mantlecalled the asthenosphere contains influenced Earth’s climate and life’s evolution throughout ou

232 ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining

 Crust FIGURE 11.1 Earth’s three primary layers—core, mantle, and
Oceanic crust—are themselves layered. The inner core of solid iron is
Continental
surrounded by an outer core of molten iron, and the rocky mantle
includes the molten asthenosphere near its upper edge. At Earth’s
Lithosphere surface, dense and thin oceanic crust abuts lighter, thicker conti-nental

Uppermost mantle crust. The lithosphere consists of the crust and the upper-most
mantle above the asthenosphere.

Asthenosphere
Upper mantle
~100 km (62 mi)
planet’s history as the continents combined, separated, and
recombined in various configurations. By studying ancient
rock formations throughout the world, geologists have deter-mined
~250 km (155 mi)
that at least twice, all landmasses werejoined together
in a “supercontinent.” Scientists have dubbedthe landmass
that resulted about 225 million years ago Pangaea(see inset
in Figure 11.2).

There arethree types of plate

Lower
mantle
boundaries
Outer core The processesthat occur at each type of plate boundary all
Inner core have majorconsequences.
At divergent plate boundaries, tectonic plates push apart
~600 km (370 mi) from one another as magmarises upward to the surface, cre-ating
newlithosphere asit cools (FIGURE11.3a). Anexample
2900 km (1800 mi)
is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, part of a 74,000-km (46,000-mi)
5150 km (3190 mi)
system of divergent plate boundaries slicing across the floors
6370 km (3950 mi) of the world’soceans.

Juan de
Fuca Plate

Eurasian
North Plate
American Philippine
Arabian
Plate Plate
Plate
Pacific
San Andreas
Caribbean Plate
Fault
Plate

Caroline
Cocos
African Plate
Plate M
id
-
South A Plate
t

American
l

Plate n

Nazca
i

Pacific Plate R

i
Indian-Australian
Plate
d

g
Plate
e

Scotia
Plate

Antarctic
Divergent plate boundary
Plate
Transform plate boundary

Convergent plate boundary

P
A FIGURE 11.2 Earth’s crust consists of roughly
N
G 15 major plates that move very slowly by the process
E
A of plate tectonics. Today’s continents werejoined
together in the landmass Pangaea (inset) about 225 million
years ago.

ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 233

 Continental Collision
crust mountains
Oceanic Trench
Rift crust
Ridge
Strike-slip fault

Lithospher
Volcano
Asthenosphere

Magma Subduction Magma

(a) Divergent plate boundary (b) Transform plate boundary (c) Convergent plate boundaries

FIGURE 11.3 There are three types of boundaries between tectonic plates, generating different
geologic processes.

Where two plates meet, they may slip and grind along-side ranges result. The Himalayas, the world’s highest mountains,
one another, forming a transform plate boundary result from the Indian-Australian Plate’s collision with the
( FIGURE 11.3b). This movement creates friction that gener-ates Eurasian Plate beginning 40–50 million years ago, and these
earthquakes (p. 236) along strike-slip faults. The Tohuku mountains are still rising today as these plates converge.
earthquake, for example, occurred at such a fault off the coast
of Japan. Faults are fractures in Earth’s crust, and at strike-slip
faults, each landmass moves horizontally in opposite Tectonics produces Earth’s
directions. The Pacific Plate and the North American Plate,
landforms
for example, slide past one another along California’s San
Andreas Fault. Southern California is slowly inching its way In these ways, the processes of plate tectonics build moun-tains;
northward along this fault, and so the site of Los Angeles will shape the geography of oceans,islands, and continents;
eventually—in about 15 million years or so—reach that of and give rise to earthquakes and volcanoes. The coltan mining
modern-day San Francisco. areas of eastern Congo are situated along the western edge of
Convergent plate boundaries, where two plates come Africa’s Great Rift Valley system, a region wherethe African
together, can give rise to different outcomes (FIGURE 11.3c). plate is slowly pulling itself apart. Some of the world’s larg-est
As plates of newly formed lithosphere push outward from lakes have formed in the immense valley floors, far below
divergent plate boundaries, this oceanic lithosphere gradually towering volcanoes such as Mount Kilimanjaro.
cools, becoming denser. After millions of years, it becomes The topography created by tectonic processes, in turn,
denser than the asthenosphere beneath it and dives downward shapes climate by altering patterns of rainfall, wind, ocean
into the asthenosphere in a process called subduction. Asthe currents, heating, and cooling—all of which affect rates of
lithospheric plate descends, it slides beneath a neighboring weathering and erosion and the ability of plants and animals
plate that is less dense, forming a convergent plate boundary. to inhabit different regions. Thus, the locations of biomes
The subducted plate is heated and pressurized as it sinks, and (pp. 83–89) are influenced by plate tectonics. Moreover, tecton-ics
water vapor escapes, helping to melt rock (by lowering its has affected the history of life’s evolution; the convergence
melting temperature). The molten rock rises, and this magma of landmasses into supercontinents such as Pangaea is thought
may erupt through the surface via volcanoes (p. 236). to have contributed to widespread extinctions by reducing the
When one plate of oceanic lithosphere is subducted area of species-rich coastal regions and by creating an arid con-tinental
beneath another plate of oceanic lithosphere, the resulting interior with extreme temperature swings.
volcanism may form arcs of islands, such as Japan and the
Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Subduction zones may also create
The rock cycle alters rock
deep trenches, such as the Mariana Trench, our planet’s deep-est
abyss, located in the western Pacific Ocean. When oceanic Wetend to think of rock as pretty solid stuff. Yet in the long
lithosphere slides beneath continental lithosphere, volcanic run, over geologic time, rocks and the minerals that compose
mountain ranges form that parallel coastlines (Figure 11.3c, them are heated, melted, cooled, broken down, and reassem-bled
left). An example is South America’s Andes Mountains, where in a very slow process called the rock cycle (FIGURE 11.4).
the Nazca Plate slides beneath the South American Plate. A rock is any solid aggregation of minerals. A mineral,
When two plates of continental lithosphere meet, the in turn, is any naturally occurring solid element or inorganic
continental crust on both sides resists subduction and instead compound with a crystal structure, a specific chemical com-position,
crushes together, bending, buckling, and deforming layers of and distinct physical properties. The type of rock
rock from both platesin a continental collision (Figure 11.3c, in a given region affects soil characteristics and thereby
right). Portions of the accumulating masses of buckled crust influences the region’s plant community. Understanding the
are forced upward as they are pressed together, and mountain rock cycle enables us to better appreciate the formation and

234 ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining

 FIGURE 11.4 The rock cycle. Igne-ous
Cooling and rock (a) is formed when rock melts
crystallization and the resulting magma orlava then
cools. Sedimentary rock (b) is formed
whenrock is weatheredand eroded and
Magma
the resulting sediments are compressed
and lava
to form new rock. Metamorphic rock
Melting (c) is formed when rock is subjected to
intense heat and pressure underground.
Through these processes, each type of
(a) Igneous rock
re rock can be converted into either ofthe
ss u
pr e
a nd other two types.
ng
He ati

Weathering, erosion,
W htae ,gnire transport, deposition
e oisor
,n
tr a n
sp r
ot , de
(c) Metamorphic rock
posi
ti
on

n,
osi o
o
eir n
n p,
g
o s ti
ri
he d e
Heating and at t,
W
e or
p
pressure ns
a Sediments
t

Lithification

(b) Sedimentary rock

conservation of soils, mineral resources, fossil fuels, and and paleontologists can assign relative dates to fossils they
other natural resources. find in sedimentary rock.

Igneous rock All rocks can melt. At high enough temper-atures, Metamorphic rock Geologic forces may bend, uplift,
rock will enter a molten,liquid state called magma. compress, or stretch rock. When any type of rock is sub-jected
If magma is released through the lithosphere (as in a volca-nic to great heat or pressure, it may alter its form, becom-ing
eruption), it may flow or spatter across Earth’s surface metamorphic rock (from the Greek for “changed
as lava. Geologistscall the rock that forms when magma form”) (FIGURE 11.4c). The forces that metamorphose rock
or lava cools igneous rock (from the Latin ignis, meaning generally occur deep underground, at temperatures lower
“fire”) (FIGURE 11.4a). than the rock’s melting point but high enough to change its
appearance and physical properties.
Sedimentary rock All exposedrock weathersaway with Geologic processes occur at timescales that are difficult
time. The relentless forces of wind, water, freezing, and to conceptualize. But only by appreciating the long periods
thawing eat away at rocks, stripping off one tiny grain (or within which our planet’s geologic forces operate can we
large chunk) after another. Through weathering (p. 144) realize how exceedingly slow processes such as plate tec-tonics
and erosion (p. 148), particles of rock come to rest down-hill, or the formation of sedimentary rock can reshape our
downstream, or downwind from their sources, forming planet. This lengthy timescale is referred to as deep time, or
sediments. Alternatively, some sedimentsform chemically geologic time.
from the precipitation of substances out of solution.
Over time, deep layers of sediment accumulate, causing
the weight and pressure on the layers
Sedimentary
below them to increase.
rock (FIGURE 11.4b) is formed as sediments are
Geologicand Natural
physically pressed together and as dissolved minerals seep Hazards
through sediments and act as a kind of glue, binding sediment
particles (a process termed lithification). Plate tectonics shapes our planet, but the consequences of
These processes also create the fossils of organisms tectonic movement can also pose hazards to us. Earthquakes
(p. 58) we use to learn about the history of life on Earth and and volcanic eruptions are examples of such geologic hazards.
the fossil fuels we use for energy (p. 343). Because sedimen-tary We can see how such hazards relate to tectonic processes by
layers, or strata, pile upin chronological order, geologists examining a map of the circum-Pacific belt, or “ring of fire”

ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 235

 FIGURE 11.5 Most of our
planet’s volcanoes and
earthquakes occur along the
circum-Pacific belt, or “ring
Aleutian
Japan offire.” In this map,red symbols
Islands
Mt. Rainier
indicate majorvolcanoes, and
Mt.Fuji
Mt. St. Helens gray-shaded areasindicate areas
Mt.Lassen of greatest earthquake risk.
Mt. Popocatepetl
Mt. Mauna Loa
Mt. Pinatubo • What similarities do
Mt. Kilauea
you note between the
Mariana Trench “ring offire” around the
edges ofthe Pacific Oceanand
Mt. Mayon
San Andreas Fault the boundaries of the tectonic
plates shown in Figure 11.2?
Mt. Cotopaxi • Whichtype of plate bound-ary
(see Figure 11.3)is most
Mt. Krakatoa
common along the length of the
“ring of fire”?
Mt. Tambora Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data
on Mastering Environmental
Major volcanoes Science

Greatest earthquake risk

(FIGURE 11.5). Ninety percent of earthquakes and over half the

TABLE 11.1 Examples of Large Earthquakes
world’s volcanoes occur along this 40,000-km (25,000-mi)
arc of subduction zones and fault systems.
YEAR LOCATION FATALITIES MAGNITUDE1

Earthquakes result from movement 1556 Shaanxi Province, China 830,000 ~

at plate boundaries andfaults 1755 Lisbon, Portugal 70,0002 8.7

Along tectonic plate boundaries, and in other places where 1906 San Francisco, California 3,000 7.8

faults occur, the earth may relieve built-up pressure in fits

1923 Kwanto, Japan 143,000 7.9
and starts. Each release of energy causes what we know as
an earthquake. Most earthquakes are barely perceptible, 1964 Anchorage, Alaska 1282 9.2

but occasionally they are powerful enough to do tremendous

1976 Tangshan, China 255,000+ 7.5
damage to human life and property (TABLE 11.1). Earthquakes
can also occur in the interior tectonic plates, when faults 1985 Michoacan, Mexico 9,500 8.0
are formed by continental plates being stretched and pulled
1989 Loma Prieta, California 63 6.9
apart by geologic forces within the earth. Such earthquakes
are not only rare but poorly understood. The New Madrid 1994 Northridge, California 60 6.7
seismic zone, which lies beneath the lower Mississippi River
1995 Kobe, Japan 5,502 6.9
basin in the central United States, is one area where such an
“intraplate” earthquake may occur (FIGURE 11.6). And human
2004 Northern Sumatra 228,0002 9.1
activities may also be inducing earthquakes in areasfar from
the boundaries of tectonic plates (see THE SCIENCE BEHIND 2005 Kashmir, Pakistan 86,000 7.6

THE STORY, pp. 238–239).

2008 Sichuan Province, China 50,000+ 7.9

Volcanoes arisefrom rifts, 2010 Port-au-Prince, Haiti 236,000 7.0

subduction zones, or hotspots 2010 Maule, Chile 500 8.8

Where molten rock, hot gas, or ash erupts through Earth’s sur-face, 2011 Northern Japan 18,0002 9.0

a volcano is formed, often creating a mountain over time

2015 Kathmandu, Nepal 8,900 7.8
as cooled lava accumulates. As we have seen, lava can extrude
in rift valleys and along mid-ocean ridges, or above subduc-tion 1Measured by moment magnitude; each full unit is roughly 32 times as
zones as one tectonic plate dives beneath another. Lava powerful as the preceding full unit.
may also be emitted at hotspots, localized areas where plugs 2Includes deaths from the resulting tsunami.

236 Chapter 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining

FIGURE 11.6 Many parts
of the United States
are at elevated risk for
earthquakes. The West
Coastfaces threatsfrom
earthquakes due to its
position atthe boundary of
tectonic plates. Portions of
the continental interior have
elevated risk due to naturally
occurring intraplate earth-quakes
or human-induced
earthquakes, typically from
wastewater injection or
hydraulic fracturing. The Highest hazard

units for the figure are %g, 64+

a measure of accelera-tion Hawai`i 48–64
related to the force of 32–48
%g
gravity. Source:U.S.Geological 16–32
Survey. 8–16
4–8
0–4
Alaska
Lowest hazard

of molten rock from the mantle erupt through the crust. As a unleash a pyroclastic flow—a fast-moving cloud of toxic gas,
tectonic plate moves across a hotspot, repeated eruptions from ash, and rock fragments that races down the slopes, envelop-ing
this source may create a linear series of volcanoes. The Hawai-ian everything in its path. Such a flow buried the inhabitants
Islands provide an example of this process (FIGURE 11.7). of the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in
At some volcanoes, lava flows slowly downhill and at a.d. 79, when Mount Vesuvius erupted.
other times, a volcano may let loose large amounts of ash Volcanic eruptions affect people as well as the environ-ment.
and cinder in a sudden explosion. Sometimes a volcano can Ash blocks sunlight, and sulfur emissions lead to a

RUSSIA ALASKA

CANADA

D
i

e
c
Pacific Ocean
t
i

This location on (
I
o
n
UNITED
s

the crust was STATES

l
o
a f
n
pl

over the hotspot d

s a
t
e
60 million years g
e
t
mo
ago. ol
d
v
e
e
r) me Present-day MEXICO
n

Hawaiian Islands
Older submerged
Islands

Midway Is.
This location on the crust
Laysan Is. is overthe hotspottoday.

FIGURE
(a) Current11.7
andThe Hawaiian
former IslandsIslands,
Hawaiian are theformed
productas crust
of a hotspot
moves on Earth’s
over a mantle.
(b) Mt. The Hawaiian
Kilauea erupting
volcanic
Islands hotspot
(a) have been formed by repeated eruptions from a hotspot of magmain the mantle as the Pacific Plate
passes over the hotspot. The BigIsland of Hawai‘iis mostrecently formed, and it is still volcanically active. The
other islands are older and have already begun eroding away. To their northwest stretches along series of for-mer
islands, now submerged. The active volcano Kilauea (b), on the BigIsland’s southeast coast, is currently
located abovethe edge ofthe hotspot.

ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 237

 ThE SCIENCEbehindthe story Go
toProcess
ofScience
onMastering
Environmental
Science

Arethe EarthquakesRattling Oklahoma

Causedby HumanActivity?
In November 2011, a series of earthquakes fracturing (p. 342) operations in Oklahoma increased from 2010
and aftershocks struck the small town of to 2013, with gas extraction rising by 17% and oil extraction by
Prague, Oklahoma (population 2300), 65%. And as Oklahoma’s oil and gas output increased, so did
roughly 100 km (60 mi)east of Okla-homaits disposal of wastewater byinjection, increasing by 20% from
City. The shaking damaged 2010to 2013. Oiland gas arethe modifiedremains of ancient
14 homes, buckled the pavement marine organisms, and deposits often contain briny water that
of a local highway, and caused is separated from the oil and gas after the fuels are extracted.
severalinjuries. One ofthe trem-ors This salty wastewater, which can also contain toxic and radio-active
measured 5.7 on the Richter compounds, is then typically disposed of by trucking it to
scale—the largest earthquake a facility far from the oil and gas wells. Once there, it is injected
ever recorded in the state. into porous rock formations thousands of feet underground,
Earthquakes are uncommon well below the more shallow rock layers that contain ground-water
in Oklahoma, especially ones of aquifers. This approach is designed to dispose of waste-water
such magnitude. But scientists in a manner that prevents it from contaminating sources
were not completely surprised of drinking water, both aboveground and belowground.
by the 2011 event, because they Wastewater had been injected in this manner beneath Okla-homa
had been noting an increase in for decades without any measurable increase in seismic

Geophysicist earthquake activity (FIGURE 1). activity, but scientists were aware that continued pumping of
Katie Keranen, For example, between 1978 and wastewater into rock formations could lead to earthquakes. As
Cornell University 2008, Oklahoma experienced the pores within rocks become saturated with water, pressure
a yearly average of only ~1.5 grows in the underground rock layers, causing the rocks to
earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or greater. In 2009, that number expand. These expanding rock layers then push against exist-ing
rose to 20, and by 2016 had jumped to 641. And scientists had faults in the earth, which “lubricates” them and causes them
even proposed an explanation for the increase—the injection of to slip and produce earthquakes. The rock formations beneath
wastewater from oil and gas extraction into porous rock layers Oklahoma facilitate this process, as many of the porous layers
beneath the state. of limestone into which wastewaters are injected are located
Spurred by high energy prices, the extraction of crude oil near stressed rocks around faults.
and natural gas from conventional wells (p. 346) and hydraulic

OKLAHOMA

Tulsa

Oklahoma
City

Location of
>90% of
injection
wells

2010 43 earthquakes 2013 109 earthquakes 2016 641 earthquakes

FIGURE 1 The number of earthquakes in Oklahoma has increased greatly in recent years. Many of
these earthquakes are thought to be related to the injection of wastewater from oil and gas extraction into
underground rock layers. Each circle indicates an earthquake event. The higher the magnitude of the earth-quake,
the darker and wider the circle. Source: Oklahoma Geological Survey, 2017, http://earthquakes.ok.gov/what-we-know/
earthquake-map/.

238 ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Minin

 Scientists grew more and more convinced that the a seismic event. These actions led to lower levels of waste-water
increased seismic activity in Oklahoma was due to wastewater injection in 2016 versus 2015, and may have resulted
injections; however, persuading legislators, regulators, and the in immediate benefit, as the number of earthquakes of mag-nitude
public proved challenging. Oil and gas extraction is big business 3.0 or greater in Oklahoma dropped from 890 in 2015
in Oklahoma. By some estimates, one in five jobs in the state to 641 in 2016. But while the number of earthquakes declined
is connected to the industry. Landowners benefitfrom royalties in 2016, the state did experience the largest earthquake in its
earned by fossil fuel extractions on their land. Tax revenue from history—a magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck near Pawnee,
sales of oil and gas is the state’s third-largest revenue source—behind Oklahoma.
only sales taxes and personal income taxes. While recent events may be showing progress in reduc-ing
With such widespread economic benefits, the oil and gas induced earthquakes in Oklahoma, research has shown
industry enjoys high levels of support in Oklahoma government. that seismic activity is likely to occur long after wastewater
When calls arose following the Prague quake to temporarily halt injection has ceased, even in locations far from injection sites.
further wastewater injections, the government urged a cautious Therefore, the south central United States, muchlike the U.S.
approach and echoed the industry’s position that greater study West Coast, will be a hotbed for seismic study in coming
was needed before decisive action should be taken. decades (FIGURE 2).
Decisive action was eventually spurred in part by a sci-entific
study published in 2013 that directly linked the Prague
earthquake to nearby injections of wastewater from oil and gas
extraction. Although the connection between underground fluid
1200
injection and earthquakes was well known, studies directly con-necting
specific events with injection sites were rare. The study,
led by geophysicist Katie Keranen of the University of Oklahoma 1000

(now at Cornell University) and published in the journal Geology,

measured the aftershocks produced by the 2011 earthquake to 800
magnitude

determine the location of the fault that produced the quake.

Reacting quickly to the initial earthquake, the researchers 600
deployed seismic sensors near Prague, and gathered detailed
readings on two major tremors and 1183 aftershocks that fol-lowed.
400
Analysis of the patterns revealed that the tip of the fault earthquakes

that ruptured was within about 200 m (650 ft) of an active of

200
wastewater injection well and occurred at depths consistent
#

withinjected rock layers. Keranen’s work also showed that it

0
is possible for nearly two decades to pass between the initia-tion
1975 1985 1995 2005 2015
of wastewater injection and a subsequent seismic event,
Year
callinginto question the safety of many otherinjection sites. A
FIGURE 2 Larger earthquakes are becoming more
subsequent study led by Keranen found that earthquakes could
common in the central and eastern United States. Much of
beinduced as far as 30 km (19 mi)from injection wellfields, and
the increase is centered in Oklahoma, where the local geology,
concluded that up to 20% of the induced seismic activity over
coupled with the use of seismic-inducing activities such as oil
an area covering 2000 km2 (770 mi2)in the central United States
extraction and wastewater injection, has led to more frequent
could be traced to the activity of four high-volume wastewater
tremors. Source: Rubinstein, J.L., and A.B. Mahani, 2015. Myths andfacts on
disposal wellsin Oklahoma. wastewater injection, hydraulic fracturing, enhanced oil recovery, and induced
As research continued into the connection between waste-water seismicity. Seismol. Res. Lett. 86: 1–8 and U.S. Geological Survey, 2016.
injection and seismic activity, and the issue gained pub-lic
• In which two sequential years was there the greatest
attention, the state incrementally increased its regulation of
change in the number of earthquakes? • How many
wastewater injection wells. The government mandated regu-lar
times more earthquakes occurred in the later year of this
monitoring of well pressures in injection sites, and directed
time period than in the earlier year?
operators to slow injection rates or stop injections altogether
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
if underground conditions were deemed conducive to initiating

ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 239

 FIGURE 11.8 Tsunami
waves overtop a seawall
following the Tohoku
earthquake in 2011. The
tsunami caused a greater
loss oflife and property
than the earthquake that
generated it and led to a
meltdown at the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant.

sulfuric acid haze that blocks radiation and cools the atmo-sphere. Tsunamis can follow earthquakes,
Large eruptions can depress temperatures through-out
the world. WhenIndonesia’s MountTamboraeruptedin
volcanoes, orlandslides
1815, it cooled the planet enough over the following year Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and large coastal landslides
to cause worldwide crop failures and make 1816 “the year can all displace huge volumes of ocean water instantaneously
withouta summer.” Oneofthe world’slargest volcanoes—so and trigger a tsunami, an immense swell, or wave, of water
large it is called a supervolcano—lies in the United States. that can travel thousands of miles across oceans. In 2011, a
The entire basin of Yellowstone National Park is an ancient tsunami generated by an offshore earthquake devastated large
supervolcanothat has at times erupted so massivelyasto portions of northeastern Japan (FIGURE 11.8). The tsunami
cover large parts of the continent deeply in ash. Although and earthquake killed more than 18,000 people, caused hun-dreds
another eruption is not expected imminently, the region is still of billions of dollars in economic impacts, and contrib-uted
geothermallyactive,as evidencedbyits numeroushotsprings to the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power
and geysers. plant (p. 369). In December 2004, a massive tsunami, trig-gered
by an earthquake off Sumatra, devastated the coastlines
Landslides are aform of mass of countries all around the Indian Ocean, including Indone-sia,

wasting Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and several African nations.

Roughly 228,000 people were killed and 1–2 million were
At a smaller scale than volcanoes or earthquakes, a landslide displaced. Since the 2004 tsunami, nations and international
occurs whenlarge amounts of rock or soil collapse and flow agencies have stepped up efforts to develop systems to give
downhill. Landslidesaresevere, oftensudden, manifestations coastal residents advance warning of approaching tsunamis.
of the phenomenon of mass wasting, the downslope move-ment Those of us who live in the United States and Canada
of soil and rock due to gravity. Mass wasting occurs should not consider tsunamis to be something that occurs only
naturally, but oftenit is brought about by humanland use in faraway places. Residents of the Pacific Northwest—such as
practices that expose or loosen soil, making slopes more the cities of Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon—could
prone to collapse. Heavy rains may saturate soils and trigger be at risk if there is a slip in the Cascadia subduction zone that
mudslidesof soil, rock, and water. lies 1100 km (700 mi) offshore. The tsunami produced by such
Most often, mass wasting eats away at unstable hillsides, a slip would inundate 1.1 million km2 (440,000 mi2) of coastal
damaging property onestructure at atime. Occasionally mass land and cause massive destruction over an area that is cur-rently
wastingeventscanbe colossaland deadly; mudslidesthat fol-lowed hometo 7 million people.
the torrential rainfall of Hurricane Mitchin Nicaragua
and Honduras in 1998 killed over 11,000 people. Mudslides Wecan worsen orlessen
caused when volcanic eruptions meltsnow and send huge
the impacts of natural hazards
volumes of destabilized mud racing downhill are called
lahars, andthey are particularly dangerous.Alahar following Asidefrom geologic hazards, people face othertypes of natu-ral
an eruption in 1985 buried the entire town of Armero, Colom-bia, hazards. Heavy rains can lead to flooding that ravages low-lying
killing 21,000 people. areas near rivers and streams (p. 272). Coastal erosio

240 ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining

can eat away at beaches (p. 255). Wildfire can threaten life landslides, floods, fires, and storm surges can help keep us out
and property in fire-prone areas. Tornadoes and hurricanes of harm’s way. Finally, addressing global climate change may
can cause extensive damage and loss of life. help reduce the frequency of natural hazards in many regions.
Although werefer to such phenomena as “natural hazards,”
the magnitude of their impacts on us often depends on choices
we make. Wesometimes
hazards in various
worsen the impacts
ways. For example,
of so-called natural
we live in areas that are
Earth’s MineralResources
prone to hazards, such as the floodplains of rivers or in coastal Coltan provides just one example of how we extract raw materi-als
areas susceptible to flooding. People also use and engineer from beneath our planet’s surface and turn them into prod-ucts
landscapes around usin waysthat can increase the frequency or we use every day. We mine and process a wide array of
severity of natural hazards. Damming and diking rivers to con-trol mineral resources in the modern world. Indeed, without these
floods can sometimes lead to catastrophic flooding, and the resources—which we use to make everything from building
clear-cutting of forests on slopes (p. 200) can induce mass wast-ing materials to fertilizers—civilization as we know it could not
and increase water runoff. Human-induced climate change exist. Just consider a typical scene from a student lounge at a
(Chapter 14) can cause sea levels to rise and promote coastal college or university (FIGURE 11.9) and note how manyitems are
flooding, and can increase the risks of drought, fire, flooding, made with elements from the minerals wetake from the earth.
and mudslides by altering precipitation patterns.
We can often reduce or lessen the impacts of hazards
Weobtain minerals by mining
through the thoughtful use of technology, engineering, and
policy, informed by a solid understanding of geology and ecol-ogy. We obtain the minerals we use through the process of mining.
Examples include building earthquake-resistant structures; The term mining in the broad sense describes the extraction
designing early warning systemsfor earthquakes,tsunamis, and of any resource that is nonrenewable on the timescale of our
volcanoes; and conserving reefs and shoreline vegetation to society. In this sense, we mine fossil fuels and groundwater,
protect against tsunamis and coastal erosion. In addition, bet-ter as well as minerals. When used specifically in relation to min-erals,
forestry, agriculture, and mining practices can help prevent mining refers to the systematic removal of rock, soil, or
mass wasting. Zoning regulations, building codes, and insur-ance other material for the purpose of extracting minerals of eco-nomic
incentives that discourage development in areas prone to interest. Because most minerals of interest are widely

Gypsumin
Silica and Aluminum wallboard
lithium in in can
glasses Titanium, chromium,
iron, cadmium, and
others in wall paint
Copper, nickel,
and zinc in coins
Silver and gold Tantalum in
in jewelry cell phone

Tungsten in
Titanium, zinc, lightbulb
iron, copper, and
others in cosmetics

Lithium in batteries
for laptop

Lead, platinum, hafnium,

gallium, indium, tantalum,
and others in laptop

Lead in
Copper and Salt in food
solder
Iron, chromium, zinc in brass Iron in

manganese, nickel, belt buckle pen ink Zinc and manganese

and others in steel in batteries for radio

FIGURE 11.9 Elements from minerals that we mine are everywhere in the products we use in our
everyday lives. This scene from a typical college student lounge points outjust afew of the many elements
from mineralsthat surround us.

Chapter 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 24

 FaQ spread but in low
miners and
concentrations,
mining geologists
945 lb
Copper
37,587 lb
Salt
1.59 Troy oz.
first try to locate concentrated
how do geologists find Gold
sources of minerals before min-ing 11,977 lb
mineral deposits that are Clays
begins. 15,287 lb
deep in the earth?
Phosphate rock 552 lb
Searching for reserves of under-ground
minerals, also called Weuse mined 393,054 lb
Zinc

prospecting, can be pursued in

materials Coal 1.31 million lb
Stone, sand,
a number of ways. The earliest
prospectors explored promising extensively 4,885 lb and gravel

areas on foot, looking for exposed Bauxite

The average American consumes 72,983 gal
(Aluminum)
seams of mineral-containing Petroleum
more than 17,900 kg (39,500 lb)
rocks orfor minerals carried into
of new minerals and fuels every 21,276 lb 886 lb
streams by runoff. Today, geolo-gists Iron ore
year, according to 2016 estimates Lead
direct vibrations into under-ground
by the U.S. Minerals Educa-tion
rock strata and capture 50,274 lb + 50,210 lb
Coalition. At current rates Cement Other minerals
the vibrations with sensors as
of use, a child born in 2016 will 7.08 million cu.ft. and metals
the vibrations bounce off under-ground
use more than 1.4 million kg Natural gas
rock layers and reflect
back to the surface. This process (3.1 million lb) of minerals and
FIGURE 11.10 At current rates of use, an American baby
enables scientists to visualize the fuel during his or her lifetime born in 2016 is predicted to use morethan 1.4 million kg
underlying rock layers and identify (FIGURE 11.10). (3.1 million lb) of minerals over his or her lifetime. Datafrom
likely locations for reserves, just More than half of the annual Minerals Education Coalition, 2016.

as they do for fossil fuel deposits mineral and fuel use is from the
(p. 346). Geologists also measure coal, oil, and natural gas used to
the magnetic fields in rock layers supply our intensive demands for or her lifetime. This level of consumption clearly shows the
to look for metal ores, and they energy. Much of the remaining potential of recycling and reuse (such as recycling stone and
conduct chemical analyses of mineral use is attributable to the gravel from old highways into new construction) to make our
stream waterto detect minerals sand, gravel, and stone used in modern, mineral-intensive lifestyle more sustainable.
ofinterest. If promising sites are constructing our buildings, roads,
located, cores can be drilled deep
into the ground and inspected for
bridges, and parking lots. Metal
Metalsare extracted from ores
use is dwarfed by these other
the desired mineral before actual
two categories, but the average Some minerals can be mined for metals. As we have seen,
mining begins.
American will still use more the tantalum used in electronic components comes from the
than 2 tons of aluminum over his mineral tantalite (FIGURE 11.11). A metal is a type of chemical

(a) Coltan ore (b) Capacitors containing tantalum

FIGURE 11.11 Tantalum is used to manufacture electronics. Coltan ore (a) is mined from the ground and
then processed to extract the pure metal tantalum. This metal is used in capacitors (b) and other electronic
components.

242 Chapter 11 Geology, Minerals, and Minin

FIGURE 11.12 A worker guides molten iron out of a blast fur-nace. FIGURE 11.13 This surface impoundment at the Upper Big
The metal is separated from the surrounding rock by melting Branch mine in West Virginia holds coal tailings from a sur-face
ore at high temperatures and collecting the heavier metal. mining operation. The impoundment, shown in the bottom
left of the image—below the mined hillside above it—is like alarge
in-ground swimming pool holding potentially toxic liquids produced
element, or a mass of such an element, that typically is lus-trous,by the mining or processing of metals, minerals, or fuels.
opaque,and malleable,and can conduct heatand elec-tricity.
Most metals are not found in a pure state in Earth’s
crust but instead are present within ore, a mineral or grouping cyanideis usedto extract gold from ore and sulfuric acid
of mineralsfrom which weextract metals.Copper,iron, lead, is used to extract copper. Mining operations often store
gold, and aluminum are among the manyeconomically valu-able toxic slurries of tailings in large reservoirs called surface
metals weextract from mined ore. impoundments (FIGURE11.13).Their wallsare designedto
prevent leaks, but accidents can occur if the structural integ-rity
ofthe impoundment is compromised. In 2000, a breach of
Weprocess metalsafter mining ore animpoundment nearInez, Kentucky,released over 1 billion
Extracting mineralsfrom the groundis the first stepin putting liters (250–300 million gal) of coal slurry, blackening 120 km
them to use. However, most metalsneedto be processedin some (75 mi) of streams, killing aquatic wildlife, and affecting
wayto become useful for our products. For example, after ores drinking watersupplies. Thefailure oftwo impoundments at
are mined,the metal-bearing
rock is pulverizedand washed, an iron ore minein Brazil in 2015 buried nearby villages in
andthe desired mineralsarethen isolated using chemical and/or atoxic slurry of water and mining waste,claiming 19 lives.
physical means.Foriron, this involves heating ore-bearing rocks
to extremelyhightemperaturesin a blastfurnaceand collecting Wealso minenonmetallic
the molteniron whenit separatesfrom the surrounding miner-als, mineralsandfuels
a process known assmelting (FIGURE 11.12). For aluminum,
bauxiteoreis first treated withchemicalsto extractalumina(an We mineand use many mineralsthat do not contain metals.
aluminum oxide), andthen an electrical currentis usedto gener-ate FIGURE11.14illustrates the nation of origin and usesfor some
pure aluminum from alumina. Withcoltan, processing facili-ties economically important mineral resources, both metallic and
useacidsolventsto separatetantalitefrom columbite. Other nonmetallic. Asyou can see, manygeologicresourcesin the
chemicals arethen used to produce metallictantalum powder. products we use are mined in faraway nations. Concentrated
This powder can be consolidated by various meltingtechniques deposits of minerals form in several different ways, causing
andcan beshapedinto wire,sheets,or otherforms. Sometimes them to be unevenlydistributed on Earth.In somecases, min-erals
we mix, melt, andfuse a metal with another metalor a nonmetal are concentrated in magma and so accumulate in rock
substanceto form an alloy. For example, steel is an alloy ofthe layers beneath magmachambers andin areas withlarge quan-tities
metaliron that hasbeenfused withasmall quantity of carbon. of igneous rocks. Thisis true of many metals,includ-ing
Processing minerals exerts environmental impacts. Most tantalum, iron, nickel, and platinum. In other cases, hot
methods are water-intensive and energy-intensive. Moreover, groundwater dissolves mineralsfrom large areas of rock, and
extracting metalsfrom ore emits air pollution—smelting then concentratesthem into one area whenthe water cools
plants in particular can be hotspots of toxic air pollution. In and the minerals precipitate out of solution. This occurs for
addition, soil and watercommonly become polluted bytailings, minerals containing sulfur, zinc, and copper. Geologic pro-cesses,
portions of oreleft over after metalshavebeenextracted.Tail-ings such as platetectonics androck weathering,also play
mayleach heavy metals present in the ore waste as well a role in creating mineral reserves and making them acces-sible
as chemicals appliedin the extraction process.Forinstance, for mining.

ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 24

 Silver: Poland Iron: Ukraine, Russia, Australia
jewelry, currency, steelmaking, metallurgy, auto Chromium: Kazakhstan
Indium: Canada electronics, photography parts, paints and dyes chemical industry,
Titanium: China
LCDs, solar cells metalworking
airplanes, aerospace,
missiles

Zinc: United States, China Tin: China

coatings and alloys, auto
steel plating for
parts, batteries, paints
cans, alloys, solder,
superconductors

Phosphates: Morocco,
Western Sahara Lead: China

fertilizer, industrial and batteries, solder, X-ray

home chemicals shields, TV tubes, formerly
paints and gasoline additives
Tungsten: China
metalworking,
Nickel: Cuba, Australia
machinery,lightbulbs
alloy for stainless steel, Aluminum: Guinea Uranium: Australia
aerospace applications, packaging, building, nuclear power, medicine
batteries transportation
Platinum: South Africa
catalytic converters,

chemical industry,
Cobalt: D.R. Congo capacitors
Copper: Chile
alloys for jet engines,
electric wiring,
carbides for tools,
plumbing, machinery,
chemical industry Gold: South Africa Tantalum: Australia
alloys and coatings
ingots for monetary value, electric circuitry, auto
jewelry, coins, dentistry, parts, steelmaking and

medicine alloys

FIGURE 11.14 The minerals we use come from all over the world. Shown is a selection of economically
important minerals (mostly metals, with several nonmetals), together with their major uses and their main nation
of origin. Only a minority of minerals, uses, and origins is shown.

Sand and gravel (the most commonly mined mineral processing of mined materials—often involves the degrada-tion
resources)providefill and construction materials.Phosphates of large areas of land, thereby exerting severeimpacts
provide us with fertilizer. We minelimestone, salt, potash, on the environment and on the people living near the mining
and other minerals for many diverse purposes. locations.
Gemstonesaretreasuredfor their rarity and beauty.For If various methodsare appropriatefor a givenresource,
instance, diamonds have long been prized—and like coltan, companies typically select a method based on its economic
they havefueled resource wars. Besidesthe conflict in east-ern efficiency.In the sectionsthat follow, we’ll examinethe pri-mary
Congo,the diamond trade has acted to fund, prolong, and mining techniques that are used throughout the world,
intensify wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and other andtake note of the impacts of each as we proceed.
nations. Thisis the origin of the term “blood diamonds,”just
as coltan has been called a “conflict mineral.”
Wealso mine substances for fuel. Uranium ore is a min-eral Strip miningremoves surfacelayers
from which weextractthe metaluranium,usedin nuclear of soil and rock
power (p. 366). One ofthe mostcommon fuels we mine,coal
(p. 346), is the modified remains of ancient swamp plants When a resource occurs in shallow horizontal depos-its
near the surface, the most effective
and is madeup of the mineralcarbon. Otherfossil fuels—petroleum, mining method is
natural gas, and alternative fossil fuels such as oil often strip mining, wherebylayers of surface soil and
sands, oil shale, and methanehydrates—are also organic and rock are removed from large areas to expose the resource.
areextractedfrom the earth(Chapter 15). Heavy machinery removes the overlying soil and rock
(termed overburden)from a strip of land, and the resource
is extracted. This strip is then refilled with the overburden

Mining Methodsand that had been removed, and miners proceed to an adjacent
strip of land and repeat the process. Strip miningis com-monly
TheirImpacts used for coal (FIGURE 11.15a) and oil sands (p. 347),
and sometimes for sand and gravel.
Miningfor mineralsis animportant industry that providesus Strip mining can be economically efficient, but it oblit-erates
with raw materialsfor the countless products we use daily. natural communities over large areas, and the soil
However,the extraction of minerals—andthe cleaning and in refilled areas can easily erode away. Strip mining als

244 ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining

 Surface
Surface Coal seams

Ventilation

Main
Shaft

(a) Strip mining

FIGURE 11.15 Coal mining illustrates two types of mining

approaches. In strip mining (a), soil is removed from the surface
in strips, exposing seams from which coal is mined. In subsurface
Coal seams
mining (b), miners work belowground in shafts and tunnels blasted
through the rock. These passageways provide access to under-ground
seams of coal or minerals. (b) Subsurface mining

FAQ pollutes waterways through the

process of acid mine drainage,
deep into the ground, and networks of tunnels are dug or
blasted out to follow deposits of the mineral(FIGURE 11.15b).
which occurs whensulfide min-eralsMinersremovethe resource systematically and shipit to the
Why would anyone choose
in newly exposed rock surface.
to work in a mine when it’s
surfaces react with oxygen and Weuse subsurface mining for metalssuch as zinc, lead,
such dangerous work?
rainwater to produce sulfuric nickel,tin, gold, copper,and uranium,as well asfor diamonds,
Subsurface mining is the most
acid (FIGURE 11.16). Asthe sulfu-ric phosphate, salt, and potash.In addition, a great deal of coal is
dangerous form of miningand
acid runs off, it leaches met-als mined using the subsurface technique
indeed one of society’s most
from the rocks, and manyof
dangerous occupations. Besides
risking injury or death from dyna-mite
these metals are toxic to organ-isms.
blasts, natural gas explosions,
Acid drainage can affect
and collapsing shafts and tunnels,
fish and other aquatic organisms
minersinhale toxic fumes and coal when it runs into streams and
dust, which can lead to respiratory can pollute groundwater supplies
diseases,including fatal blacklung people usefor drinking wateror
disease. irrigating crops. Although acid
Many ofthe people who work drainage is a natural phenom-enon,
in mines do so because they have mining greatly accelerates
few other options. Underground this process by exposing many
mining often occurs in economi-cally newrock surfacesat once.
depressed areas, such as
Appalachia in the United States,

jobs
where miningis one ofthe few
that pay well. And for
In subsurface
most
miningjobs, people can begin mining, miners
working right out of high school.
So,althoughthe workis danger-ous,
work underground
many miners are willing to When a resource occurs in con-centrated
accept those risks to provide pockets or seams
for themselves and their families
deep underground, and the
because relatively fewer reliable,
earth allows for safe tunneling,
well-paying career opportunities
then mining companies pur-sue FIGURE 11.16 Acidic drainage flows from a coal mine
are available.
subsurface mining. In this in Scotland. The orange color is due to iron from the drainage
approach, shafts are excavated settling out onthe soil surfaceandforming rust.

ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 245

 FIGURE 11.18 The Bingham Canyon open pit mine outside
Salt Lake City, Utah, is the world’s largest human-made hole
in the ground. This immense mine produces mostly copper.

involves digging a gigantic hole and removing the desired

ore, along with wasterock that surrounds the ore. Some open
pit mines are inconceivably enormous. The world’s largest,
the Bingham Canyon MinenearSalt Lake City, Utah,is 4 km
FIGURE 11.17 Smoldering mine fires beneath Centralia, (2.5 mi) across and 1.2 km (0.75 mi) deep (FIGURE 11.18).
Pennsylvania, have led to the creation of a “ghost town.” Conveyor systems and immense trucks with tires taller than a
A nearly 1-mile-long section of State Route 61 was closed, as personcarry out nearly half a milliontons of copper ore and
subsidence due to minefires caused the road to buckle and crack.
wasterock each day.
The roadway has become a tourist attraction for people visiting
Open pit mines are terraced so that people and machin-ery
the area.
can moveabout, and wasterock is left in massiveheaps
outside the pit. The pitis expanded until the resource runs out
Occasionally,subsurface minescan haveimpacts even or becomes unprofitable to mine. Open pit mining is used to
long after the mines have been closed. For example, coal extract copper,iron, gold, diamonds,and coal, among other
veins in abandoned mines underneath Centralia, Pennsylva-nia, resources. This technique is also used to extract clay, gravel,
caughtfire in 1961.Theonce-thrivingcity becamea ghost sand, and stone (such as limestone, granite, marble, and
town as nearly all ofits residents accepted buyouts in the 1980s slate), butsuch pits are generallycalled quarries.
and relocated whenit became clear that the smoldering fires Once mining is complete, abandoned pits generally fill
beneaththem could not becontained;andindeed,the fires con-tinueup with groundwater, whichsoon becomestoxic as sulfides
to burn to this day (FIGURE 11.17). Acidic drainage from from the ore react and produce sulfuric acid. Acidic water
subsurface mines can contaminate surface and groundwater, from the pit can harm wildlife and can percolate into aquifers
sometimesfor centuries.Naturaldisastersor accidentscanlead andspreadthroughthe region.
to catastrophic releases of toxin-laden groundwater that accu-mulates
in abandoned mines,as occurredin 2015 when mil-lions Mountaintop miningreshapes
of gallons of heavy metal–laden mine drainage from an
abandoned gold minein Colorado were accidentally released
ridges and canfill valleys
into the nearby AnimasRiver,killing aquatic wildlife andcon-taminating
When a resource occurs in underground seams near the
water supplies for communities in Colorado, Utah, tops of ridges or mountains,miningcompanies maypractice
New Mexico,andthe Navajo nation. mountaintop removal mining, in which several hundred
vertical feet of mountaintop may be blasted off to allow
Open pit miningcreatesimmense recovery of entire seams of the resource(FIGURE11.19).This
holesin the ground method of mining is used primarily for coal in the Appala-chian
Mountains of the eastern United States.In mountaintop
Whena mineralis spread widely and evenly throughout a removal mining,a mountain’sforests areclear-cut,the timber
rock formation, or when the earth is unsuitable for tunnel-ing, is sold, topsoil is removed, andthen rock is repeatedly blasted
the methodof choiceis open pit mining. Thisessentially awayto exposethe coalfor extraction

246 ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining

 levels of salts and toxic metals that degrade water quality and
affect aquatic organisms. Although hundreds of permits for
mountaintop mining were issued during the Bill Clinton and
George W. Bush administrations, in 2010 the U.S. Environ-mental
Protection Agency (EPA) announced new guidelines
that prohibit valley fills unless strict measures of water quality
can be attained. Critics of the policy argue that these new guide-lines
will essentially end the practice of mountaintop mining. In
2011, the EPA revoked the permit of an existing mountaintop
mining operation in West Virginia, citing these new guidelines.
A 2014 court ruling backed the EPA’s decision, and the agency
continued to reexamine other permits across Appalachia.

Placer mining usesrunning water

to isolate minerals
Some metals and gems accumulate in riverbed deposits, hav-ing
been displaced from elsewhere and carried along by flow-ing
water. To search for these metals and gems, miners sift
through material in modern or ancient riverbed deposits, gen-erally
using running water to separate lightweight mud and
gravel from heavier minerals of value (FIGURE 11.20). This
technique is called placer mining (pronounced “plasser”).
Placer mining is the method used by D.R. Congo’s coltan
FIGURE 11.19 Mountaintop mining removes entire mountain-tops
miners, who wade through streambeds, sifting through large
to obtain the coal underneath. The rocks removed during
amounts of debris by hand with a pan or simple tools, search-ing
the process are dumped into adjacent valleys, burying streams,
for high-density tantalite that settles to the bottom while
promoting flooding, and contaminating drinking water supplies.
low-density material washes away. Today’s African miners
practice small-scale placer mining similar to the method used
Afterward, overburden is placed back onto the moun-taintop,
by American miners who ventured to California in the Gold
but this waste rock is unstable and typically takes up Rush of 1849, and later to Alaska in the Klondike Gold Rush
more volume than the original rock, so generally a great deal
of waste rock is dumped into adjacent valleys (a practice called
“valley filling”). So far, mountaintop removal in the Appala-chian
Mountains has blasted away an area the size of Delaware
and has buried nearly 3200 km (2000 mi) of streams.
Scientists are finding that dumping tons of debris into
valleys degrades or destroys immense areas of habitat, clogs
streams and rivers, and pollutes waterways with acid drain-age.
With slopes deforested and valleys filled with debris,
erosion intensifies, mudslides become frequent, and flash
floods ravage the lower valleys. Worsening the environmen-tal
impact of mountaintop removal mining is the fact that the
Appalachian forests cleared in mountaintop mining are some
of the richest forests for biodiversity in the nation.
People living in communities near the mining sites expe-rience
social and health impacts. Explosions that are a part of
clearing the mountaintops crack house foundations and wells,
loose rock tumbles down into yards and homes, and floods
tear through properties when mining operations block or divert
streams. Coal dust causes respiratory ailments, and contami-nated
water unleashes a variety of health problems. Studies have
shown that people in mountaintop mining areas exhibit elevated
levels of birth defects, lung cancer, heart disease, kidney dis-ease,
pulmonary disorders, hypertension, and early mortality.
FIGURE 11.20 Miners in eastern Congo find coltan by placer
Critics of mountaintop removal mining argue that val-ley mining. Sediment is placed in plastic tubs, and wateris run
filling violates the Clean Water Act (p. 107) because run-off through them. A mixing motion allows the sediment to be poured
flowing through waste rocks in valleys often contains high off whilethe heavy coltan settlesto the bottom.

ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 24

 of 1896–1899. Placer mining for gold is still practiced in
areas of Alaska and Canada, although today, miners use large
dredges and heavy machinery.
Placer mining is environmentally destructive because
most methods wash large amounts of debris into streams,
making them uninhabitable for fish and other life for many
miles downstream. This type of mining also disturbs stream
banks, causing erosion and harming ecologically important
plant communities.

Solution mining dissolves and

extracts resources in place
When a deposit is especially deep underground and the
FIGURE 11.21 More mine sites are now being restored. Here,
resource can be dissolved in a liquid, miners may use a
bison graze on land reclaimed from a tar sands mining operation in
technique called solution mining. In this technique, a nar-row Alberta, Canada.
borehole is drilled to reach the deposit, and water, acid,
or another liquid is injected down the borehole to leach the
resource from the surrounding rock and dissolve it in the liq-uid.
The resulting solution is then sucked out, and the desired
Restorationhelpsto reclaim minesites
resource is removed from solution. Sodium chloride (table Becauseofthe environmentalimpacts of mining,governments
salt), lithium, boron, bromine, magnesium, potash, copper, of the United Statesand other developed nations now require
and uranium can be mined in this way. that mining companies restore, or reclaim, surface-mined sites
Solution mining generally exerts less environmental following mining.Theaim of suchrestoration,orreclamation,is
impact than other mining techniques, because less area at the to restore the siteto an approximation ofits pre-mining condition.
surface is disturbed. The primary potential impacts involve To restore a site, companies are required to remove
accidental leakage of acids into groundwater surrounding the buildings and other structures usedfor mining,replace over-burden,
borehole, and the contamination of aquifers with acids, heavy fill in shafts, and replant the area with vegetation
metals, or uranium leached from the rock. (FIGURE 11.21). In the United States,the 1977 Surface Mining
Control and Reclamation Act mandatesrestoration efforts,
weighingthe Some mining
requiring companies to post bonds to cover reclamation costs

ISSUES
before mining can be approved. This ensures that if the com-pany
occursin the ocean fails to restorethe land for anyreason,the government
will havethe moneyto do so. Mostother nations exercise less
restoring Mined Areas
The oceans hold many minerals oversight regarding reclamation, and in nations such as D.R.
useful to our society. Weextract Congo,thereis essentiallynoregulation.
Mining has severe environmen-tal
some minerals from seawater, The miningindustry has madegreat strides in reclaiming
impacts, but restoring mined
sites to their pre-mining condi-tion
such as magnesium from salts minedland, but even on sitesthat are restored,impacts from
can be costly and difficult.
held in solution. Weextract other mining—such as soil and water damage from acid drainage—can
How extensively should mining mineralsfrom the ocean floor. be severe andlong-lasting becausethe soil is often acidic
companies be required to restore
For example, many minerals are andcancontainhighlevels of metals that aretoxic to nativeplant
a site after a mineis shut down, concentrated in manganesenod-ules,life. It is therefore often difficult to regain the same biotic com-munities
and what criteria should we use small ball-shaped accre-tions that werenaturally present before mining. Researchers
to guide restoration? Should we that are scattered across are hybridizing varietiesof wild grassesto create newstrains
require nearly complete restora-tion? parts of the ocean floor. More of plantsthat cantolerate the soil conditions on reclaimed sites,
What should our priorities than 1.5trillion tons of manga-nesewiththe hopethat such plants will pavethe wayfor the reintro-duction
be—to minimize water pollution, nodules may exist in the of nativevegetation.Establishingplantcommunitieson
impacts on human health, biodi-versity Pacific Ocean alone, and their reclaimed sites is key, becausethe plants stabilize the soil, pre-vent
loss, soil damage, or other reserves of metal may exceed erosion, and can help create conditions that favor the rees-tablishment
factors? What measures should all terrestrial reserves. As land of nativevegetationandfunctioning ecosystems.
we use to evaluate the results of resources become scarcer and
restoration? Should the amount of as undersea mining technology
restoration we require depend on
develops, mining companies may An 1872law still guides
how much money the company

made from the mine? Explain your

turn increasingly to the seas. The U.S. mining policy
logistical difficulty of mining
recommendations.
offshore resources, however, has The waysin which mining companies stake claims and use
limited their extractionso far. land in the UnitedStatesis guided by alaw that is well ove

248 ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining

a century old. The General Mining Act of 1872 encourages
Nickel
people and companies to prospect for minerals on federally Economically recoverable
owned land by allowing any U.S. citizen, domestic com-pany, Molybdenum Technically recoverable
or foreign company with permission to do business in
Copper
the United States to stake a claim on any plot of public land
open to mining. The person or company owning the claim Zinc

gains the sole right to take minerals from the area. The
Iron from ore
claim-holder can also patent the claim (i.e., buy the land)
Cobalt
for only about $5 per acre. Regardless of the profits they
might make on the minerals they extract, the law requires Titanium
no payments of any kind to the public and, until recently, no
Lead
restoration of the land after mining. Supporters of the policy
say that it is appropriate and desirable to continue encour-aging
0 100 200 300 400 500
the domestic mining industry, which must undertake
Years left available
substantial financial risk and investment to locate resources
FIGURE 11.22 Minerals are nonrenewable resources, so
that are vital to our economy. Critics counter that the policy
supplies of metals are limited. Shown in red are the num-bers
gives valuable public resources away to private interests
of remaining years that certain metals are estimated to be
nearly for free, and have tried unsuccessfully over the past
economically recoverable at current prices. The entire lengths
two decades to repeal or modify this Act. of the bars(red plus orange) show how long certain metals are
The General Mining Act of 1872 covers a wide variety of estimated to be available at present rates of consumption, using
metals, gemstones, uranium, and minerals used for building current technology on all known deposits whether economically
materials. In contrast, fossil fuels, phosphates, sodium, and recoverable or not. Dataarefor 2016,
from U.S.Geological
Survey,
2017.
sulfur are governed by the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. This Mineral commodity summaries 2017. Reston, VA: USGS.

law sets terms for leasing public lands that vary according to
• Which metal has the highest proportion ofits tech-nically
the resource being mined, but in all casesthe terms include
recoverable reserves that are currently eco-nomically
the payment of rents for the use of the land and the payment
recoverable? • Approximately what percentage is
of royalties on profits. economically recoverable? • Which metal has the smallest
proportion of its technically recoverable reserves that are cur-rently
economically recoverable, and whatis this value?

Toward Sustainable Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

MineralUse
Mining exerts plenty of environmental impacts, but wealso have industries now are working intensely to develop ways of sub-stituting
another concern to keep in mind: Minerals are not inexhaustible other materialsfor indium, and platinum’s high mar-ket
resources (p. 96). As a result, it will benefit us to find waysto price encouragesrecycling, which maykeepit available,
conserve the supplies we have left and to makethem last. albeit as an expensive metal.
FIGURE11.22shows estimated years remaining for selected
mineralsattoday’s consumptionrates. Calculatinghowlong a
Mineralsare nonrenewable given mineralresource will be available to usis beset by a great

resources in limited supply deal of uncertainty. There are several majorreasons why such
estimates mayincreaseor decreaseovertime, each of which
Some minerals we use are abundant and will likely never run we’ll discussin turn.
out, but others are rare enough that they could soon become
unavailable. For instance, geologists in 2017 calculated that Discovery of new reserves As wediscover new depos-its
the world’s known reserves of tantalum will last about 129 of a mineral, the known reserves—and thus the number
more years at today’s rate of consumption. If demand for tan-talum of yearsthis mineralis availableto us—increase.For exam-ple,
increases, it could run out faster. And if everyone in the in 2010 geologists associated with the U.S. military
world began consuming tantalum at the rate of U.S. citizens, discovered that Afghanistan holds immense mineral riches.
then it would last for only 31 more years! The newly discoveredreserves of iron, copper, niobium,
Most pressing may be the dwindling supply of indium. lithium, and many other metals are estimated to be worth
This obscure metal, which is used in LCD screens and other over $1 trillion—enough to realign the entire Afghan econ-omy
electrical components, might last only another 30 years. A around mining.It is important to note, however,that
lack of indium and gallium would threaten the production of these mineralriches are not guaranteed to make Afghanistan
high-efficiency cells for solar power. Platinum is dwindling as a wealthy nation; history teaches usthat regions rich in non-renewable
well, andif this metal became unavailable, it would be harder resources,such as D.R. Congoand Appalachian
to develop fuel cells and catalytic converters for vehicles. regions of the United States, have often been unable to pros-per
However, because of supply concerns and price volatility, from them.)

ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 24

 New extraction technologies Just as rising prices of
scarce minerals encourage companies to expend more effort
to accessdifficult-to-reach deposits,rising prices mayalso
favor the development of enhanced mining technologies that
can reach more minerals at less expense. If more powerful
technologies are developed,they mayincreasethe amount of
mineralsthat aretechnically feasible to mine.
Changing social and technological dynamics New
societal developments and newtechnologies in the marketplace
can modify demandfor mineralsin unpredictable ways.Just
as cell phones and computer chips boosted demand for tanta-lum,
fiber-optic cables decreased demand for copper as they
replacedcopper wiringin communicationsapplications.Today
lithium–ion batteries are replacing nickel–cadmium batteries
in manydevices. Synthetically produced diamonds are driving extraction by encouragingthe recycling of these resources.
down pricesof natural diamondsand extendingtheir availabil-ity. Electronic waste, or e-waste—from discarded computers,
Additionally, health concerns sometimes motivate change:
Wehave replaced toxic substances such as lead and mercury
withsafer materials
in manyapplications,for example.
Changing consumption patterns Changes
in the rates
and patterns of consumption also alter the speed with which
we exploit mineralresources. For instance, economic recession
depresseddemandandled to a decrease
in productionand con-sumption
programshandleuseditems that consumersplacein recycling
of most mineralsfrom 2007 to 2009 after rising for
long stretches. However, over the long term, demand has been
rising. Thisis especiallytrue today as China,India, and other
majorindustrializing nationsrapidly increase their consumption.
Recycling Advancesin recycling technologies and the
extent to which minerals are currently being recycled have
helped to extend the lifetimes of many mineralresources,
and will likely continue to do so as the technology and the
demand for recycled materials grows. Considering Earth’s
finite suppliesof mineralresources,conservingthemthrough
reuse and recycling can benefit ustoday—by preventing price
hikes that result from reduced supply—while safeguarding
these valuableresourcesfor future generations.
Wecan makeour mineral use more
sustainable
Wecan address the challenges of a finite supply of mineral
resources and the environmental damage associated with its
printers, cell phones, handheld devices, and other electronic
products—is rising fast. Recycling old electronic devices
helps to keep the hazardous substances associated with them
out of landfills, while also assisting usto conserve valuable
mineralssuch as tantalum, for whichthe miningindustry
estimates that recycling accounts for 20–25% of this metal’s
availability for use in manufacturing. Municipal recycling
bins, thus diverting metalsfrom the waste stream (p. 400).
Currently, around 35% of metalsin the U.S. municipal solid
wastestreamare divertedfor recycling. For example,80% of
the lead weconsume today comes from recycled materials,i

SUCCESS Recycling Metals from E-Waste

STORY
Amplifier and receiver: By some estimates, about 500 million old cell phones are cur-rently
Arsenic and gallium
lying inactive in people’s homes and offices, and upgrades
and improvements render morethan 130 million additional cell
phones obsolete each year in the United States alone. So, what
can you do with your old cell phone? Aware ofthe problems
posed by e-waste, more and more people are donating their
retired cell phones to recycling programs, and by doing so, are
Touch screen:
Indium giving the valuable metals and minerals within them a second life.
For example, when you turn in your old phone for recycling
rather than discarding it, the phone may be dismantled and the
various parts recycled for their metals. Alternatively, the phone
Circuitry: may be refurbished and resold—people in African nations in
Copper
particular readily buy used cell phones because they areinex-pensive
gold
palladium and land-line phone service does not always exist in
platinum poor and rural areas. Either way, by recycling your cell phone
silver Case:Petroleum you’re helpingto extend the availability of ourfinite resources.
tungsten and magnesium Today only about 10% of old cell phones are recycled,
meaning that we have along way to go! But as more of us
recycle our phones, computers, and other electronicitems,
we’ll be closer to sustainably reusing tantalum and other valu-able
metals, while decreasing the amount of e-waste that
Your cell phone contains a diversity of mined materials from
enters the waste stream.
around the world.
EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

250 Chapter 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining

 TABLE 11.2 Recycled minerals in the United States

MINERAL U.S. RECYCLING RATE

Gold Slightly less is recycled than is consumed

Iron and steel scrap 85% for autos, 82% for appliances, 72–98% for construction materials, 70% for cans

Lead 69% consumed comes from recycled post-consumer items

Tungsten 59% consumed is from recycled scrap

Nickel 45% consumed is from recycled nickel

Zinc 37% produced is recovered, mostlyfrom recycled materials used in processing

Chromium 34% is recycled in stainless steel production

Copper 32% of U.S. supply comes from various recycled sources

Aluminum 30% produced comes from recycled post-consumer items

Tin 30% consumed is from recycled tin

Germanium 30% consumed worldwide is recycled. Optical device manufacturing recycles more than 60%

Molybdenum About 30% gets recycled as part of steel scrap that is recycled

Cobalt 28% consumed comes from recycled scrap

Niobium (columbium) Perhaps 20% gets recycled as part of steel scrap that is recycled

Silver 15% consumed is from recycled silver. U.S. recovers as much as it produces

Bismuth All scrap metal containing bismuth is recycled, providing less than 10% of consumption

Diamond (industrial) 7% of production is from recycled diamond dust, grit, and stone

Data are for 2015, from U.S. Geological Survey, 2016. Mineral commodity summaries 2016. Reston, VA: USGS.

particular, recycled car batteries. Similarly, 33% of our cop-per iron and steel scrap requires much less energy than producing
comes from recycled copper sources such as pipes and steel from virgin iron ore. Because this practice saves money,
wires. Werecycle steel, iron, platinum, and other metals from the steel industry today is designed to make efficient use of
auto parts. Altogether, we have found ways to recycle much iron and steel scrap. Over half its scrap comes from discarded
of our gold, lead, iron and steel scrap, chromium, zinc, alu-minum,consumer items such as cars, cans, and appliances. Similarly,
and nickel. TABLE 11.2 shows minerals that currently more than 40% of the aluminum in the United States today
boast high recycling rates in the United States. is recycled. This is beneficial because it takes over 20 times
In many cases, recycling can decrease energy use sub-stantially.
more energy to extract virgin aluminum from ore (bauxite)
For instance, making steel by re-melting recycled than it does to obtain it from recycled sources.

closing the LOOp

The physical processes of geology, Economically efficient mining methods have greatly contrib-uted
such as plate tectonics and the rock to our material wealth, but they have also resulted in
cycle, are centrally important because extensive environmental impacts, ranging from habitat loss to
they shape Earth’s terrain and form the acid drainage.
foundation for living systems. Geologic As shown in the opening case study, which profiled
processes also generate phenomena that the mining of tantalum in D.R. Congo, procuring these met-als
can threaten our lives and property, including can have profound impacts on people and ecosystems,
earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and tsunamis. In addition, a realization that prompted the current movement toward
geologic processes also influence our access to the diversity the certification of minerals and gemstones as “conflict
of minerals and metals on which we depend through mining. free.” These initiatives are vital, as conflict minerals are an

Chapter 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 25

 emerging problem in regions other than central Africa. A in metals and minerals. Consumers can also play a role in
thriving black market in coltan is developing in remote por-tions supporting these initiatives, by using online guides to choose
of the northern Amazon jungle, and the recent dis-covery products that avoid conflict minerals. Through these efforts,
of vast mineral reserves in Afghanistan suggests along with endeavors to make our mineral use more sustain-able
that it, too, could become a significant source of conflict by maximizing recovery and recycling, we are working
minerals. toward a future in which we can simultaneously meet our
Manufacturers, governments, and nongovernmental orga-nizations
demand for these vital resources while minimizing environ-mental
are collaborating to make certification efforts practi-cal impacts and adverse effects on the people who extract
and meaningful in the complex, multilayered global trade and produce them.

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Name the primary layers that make up our planet. Which method willthe mining company likely use to extract it?
portions does the lithosphere include? Whatis one common environmental impact ofthis type
2. Describe what occurs at a divergent plate boundary. of mining?
Whathappens at a transform plate boundary? Compare 7. How does strip mining differ from subsurface mining?
and contrast the types of processes that can occur at a How does each of these approaches differ from open pit
convergent plate boundary. mining?
3. Namethe three maintypes ofrocks, and describe how 8. Whatis acid drainage, and where doesit come from in
each type may be converted to the others via the rock a mining context? Why can such drainage be toxic to
cycle. fish?

4. Explain the processes that produce earthquakes, 9. List five factors that can influence how long global
volcanoes, tsunamis, and mass wasting. supplies of a given mineral willlast, and explain how

5. Define each of the following: (1) mineral, (2) metal, each might increase or decrease the time span the
(3) ore, (4) alloy. Compare and contrast the terms. mineral will be available to us.

6. A mining geologist locates a horizontal seam of coal 10. Summarize the major factors that influence our
very near the surface of the land. What type of mining estimates of reserves of valuable minerals and metals.

SEEKINGSolutions
1. For each of the following natural hazards, describe one military conflicts in nations that are too poor or
thing that we can do to minimize its impacts on our lives ineffectively governed to protect these resources. In
and property: such resource wars, civilians often suffer the most as
civil society breaks down. Suppose you are the head
• Earthquake of an international aid agency that has earmarked
• Tsunami $10 million to help address conflicts related to mining

• Mass wasting in D.R. Congo. You have access to government and

rebel leaders in D.R. Congo and neighboring countries,
2. List three impacts of mining on the natural environment, to ambassadors ofthe world’s nations in the United
and describe how particular mining practices can lead Nations, and to representatives of international mining
to each of these impacts. How are these impacts being corporations. Based on what you know from this
addressed? Can you think of additional solutions to chapter, what steps would you consider taking to help
prevent, reduce, or mitigate these impacts? improve the situation in this nation?
3. You have won a grant from the EPA to work with a 5. THINK IT THROUGH As you finish your college degree,
mining company to develop a more effective way of you learn that the mountains behind your childhood
restoring a mine site that is about to be closed. Describe home in the hills of Kentucky are slated to be mined
afew preliminary ideas for carrying out restoration for coal using the mountaintop removal method. Your
better than it is typically being done. Now describe a parents, who still live there, are worried for their health
field experiment you would like to run to test one of and safety and do not want to lose the beautiful forested
your ideas. creek and ravine behind their property. However, your
4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION The story of coltan in brother is out of work and could use a steady, well-paying
D.R. Congo is just one example of how an abundance mining job. What would you attempt to do in this
of exploitable resources can often worsen or prolong situation?

252 ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Minin

 CALCULATINGEcological Footprints

As we saw in Figure 11.22, the supplies of some metals standards, then this will sharply increase pressures on min-eral
are limited enough that, at today’s prices, these metals supplies.
could be available to us for only a few more decades. After The table below shows currently known economically
that, prices will rise as they become scarcer. The number recoverable global reserves for several metals, together
of years of total availability (at all prices) depends on a with the amount used per year (each figure in thousands
number of factors: On the one hand, metals will be avail-able of metric tons). For each metal, calculate and enter (in the
longer if new deposits are discovered, if new min-ing fourth column) the years of supply left at current prices
technologies are developed, and/or if recycling efforts by dividing the reserves by the amount used annually.
improve. On the other hand, if our consumption of metals The fifth column shows the amount the world would use if
increases, the number of years we have left to use them everyone in the world consumed the metal at the rate that
will decrease. Americans do. Now calculate the years of supply left at
Currently the United States consumes metals at a much current prices for each metal if the world were to consume
higher per-person rate than the world does as a whole. If one the metals at the U.S. rate, and enter these values in the
goal of humanity is to lift the rest of the world up to U.S.living sixth column.

KNOWN AMOUNT YEARS OF AMOUNT USED PER YEAR YEARS OF ECONOMIC SUPPLY
ECONOMIC USED PER ECONOMIC IF EVERYONE CONSUMED LEFT IF EVERYONE CONSUMED
METAL RESERVES YEAR SUPPLY LEFT AT U.S. RATE AT U.S. RATE

Titanium 830,000 6600 125.8 24,692 33.6

Copper 720,000 19,400 41,308

Nickel 78,000 2250 4846

Tin 4700 280 932

Tungsten 3100 86 337

Antimony 1500 130 531

Silver 570 27 167

Gold 57 3.1 3.8

Data are for 2016, from U.S. Geological Survey, 2017. Mineral commodity summaries 2017. USGS, Washington, D.C.

All numbers are in thousands of metric tons. World consumption data are assumed equal to world production data.
“Known economic reserves” include extractable amounts under current economic conditions. Additional reserves exist
that could be mined at greater cost.

1. Which of these eight metals willlast the longest under 3. In this chart, our calculations of years of supply left
current economic conditions and at current rates of do not factor in population growth. How do you think
global consumption? For which of these metals will population growth will affect these numbers?
economic reserves be depleted fastest? 4. Describe two general ways that we could increase the
2. If the average citizen of the world consumed metals at years of supply left for these metals. What do you think
the rate that the average U.S. citizen does, the economic it willtake to accomplish this?
reserves of which of these eight metals would last the
longest? Which would be depleted fastest if everyone
consumed at the U.S. rate?

Mastering Environmental Science

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ChApTEr 11 Geology, Minerals, and Mining 25

1
FreshWater,
Oceans
CHAPTER
andCoasts

254 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 central CaSe StUDY

Starvingthe Louisiana
Coast
Mississippi
River

The Louisiana and The state of Louisianais shrink-ing. LOUSIANA

Mississippi coastal region Its coastal wetlands straddle
New Orleans
is critical to the economic, the boundary between the land
Gulf of Mexico
cultural, and environmental and the ocean, and these wet-lands
integrity of the nation.
are disappearing beneath the waters of the Gulf of
—Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White
Mexico. Louisiana loses 75 km2 (29 mi2) of coastal wet-lands
House Council on Environmental

Quality (2010) each year—about the size of Manhattan Island in

New York City. Comparisons of wetland area from the
What really screwed up the mid-1800s to the early 1990s show a drastic decrease in
marsh is when they put the wetlands (FIGURE 12.1a).
levees on the river. They Louisiana’s coastal wetlands transition from com-munities
should take the levees out
of salt-tolerant grasses at the ocean’s edge to
and let the water run; that’s
freshwater bald cypress swamps farther inland, sup-porting
what built the land.
a diversity of animals such as shrimp, alligators,
—Frank “Blackie” Campo, Resident
of Shell Beach, Louisiana and black bears. The state’s coastal wetlands also pro-tect

Upon completing this New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and other communities

chapter, you will be able to: from damaging storms, acting as as buffer against strong winds and storm surges coming
inland from the Gulf.
• Explain water’s importance to
Louisiana’s millions of acres of coastal wetlands formed over the past 7000 years as the
people and ecosystems, and
Mississippi River deposited sediments at its delta before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.
describe the distribution of fresh
The Mississippi River accumulates large quantities of sediment from water flowing over land
water on Earth
and into streams in the river’s 3.2-million-km2 (1.2-million-mi2) watershed (FIGURE 12.1b).
• Describe the freshwater, marine,
The salt marshes in the river’s delta naturally compact over time, lowering the level
and coastal portions of the
of the marsh bottom and submerging vegetation under increasingly deeper waters. When
interconnected aquatic system
waters become too deep, the vegetation dies and soils are washed away by the Gulf of
• Discuss how humans use water Mexico. The natural compaction is offset, however, byinputs of sediments from the river and
and alter aquatic systems
from the deposition of organic matterfrom marsh grasses. These
• Assess problems of water supply additions keep soil levels high, water depths relatively stable,
and propose solutions to address and vegetation healthy.
depletion of fresh water So why are Louisiana’s wetlands being swal-lowed
• Describe the major classes of by the sea? It’s because people have
water pollution and propose modified the Mississippi River so extensively
solutions to address water that much ofits sediments no longer reach the
pollution wetlands that need them. The river’s basin
• Explain how we treat drinking contains roughly 2000 dams, which slow
water and wastewater river flow and allow sediments suspended in

• Review the state of ocean the water to settle in reservoirs. This not only
fisheries and reasons for their prevents sediments from reaching the river’s
decline delta, but also slowly fills in each dam’s res-ervoir,
decreasing its volume and shortening
• Evaluate marine protected areas
and reserves as solutions for its life span. In this way, dams throughout the
conserving biodiversity Mississippi Basin affect the Louisiana coastline
hundreds of miles downriver.
The Mississippi River is also lined with thou-sands
of miles of levees—long raised mounds of
earth—to prevent small-scale flooding. Levees at the
Louisiana’s vanishing coastal
wetlands support a diversity of People fishing in a wetland in Louisiana.

wildlife, such as these Roseate

Spoonbills. 25
 Helena e
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Pittsburgh
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Chicago
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Columbus
i
o
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l r i o
P Ri v e l hi
l O

1839
Louisville
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Mississippi River St. Louis

Watershed
e
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Memphis
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r e
n

Oklahoma
e T e n
v
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r
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a n

City
s a s
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i
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New Orleans

Gulf of Mexico

1993 (b) Mississippi River watershed

2020
(a) Coastal wetland area in 1839, 1993,
and 2020 (c) Sediment plumes from Mississippi River entering Gulf

FIGURE 12.1 Human modifications along the Mississippi River affect coastal wetlands at the river’s
mouth. Louisiana’s coastal wetlands shrank (a) from 1839 to 1993, and are predicted to shrink even more by
2020 dueto the construction of dams andlevees along the river. The Mississippi River system (b) is the largest
in the United States, draining over 40% of the land area of the lower 48 states. A satellite image of south Louisi-ana
(c) shows the brown plumes of sediments being released into the Gulf of Mexicofrom the Mississippi River
(plume on the right) and the Atchafalaya River(left). (a) Adaptedfrom EnvironmentalDefenseFund.

mouth of the Mississippi provide a deep river channel for ship-ping Proposed solutions for coastal erosion center on restoring
into the Gulf of Mexico and prevent the river from spilling the system to its natural state by diverting large quantities of
into its delta, pouring sediments off the continental shelf and waterfrom the Mississippi Riverinto coastal wetlandsinstead
into the waters ofthe Gulf(FIGURE 12.1c). of shooting it out into the Gulfin the river’s main channel. Pro-ponents
Although oil and gas extraction has benefited Louisiana’s of this approach point to the Atchafalaya River, which
economy, it has also promoted wetland losses. The extrac-tion currently diverts one-third of the lower Mississippi River’s vol-ume
of oil, natural gas, and saline groundwater associated with and carries it to the Gulf. The Atchafalaya delta, fed by
oil deposits causes the land to compact, lowering soil levels. this water and sediment, is actually gaining coastal land area.
Additionally, engineers have cut nearly 13,000 km (8000 mi) of Additionally, the 2012 Resources and Ecosystems Sustainabil-ity,
canals through coastal wetlands to facilitate shipping and oil Tourist Opportunities and Revived Economies of the Gulf
and gas exploration, thus fragmenting wetlands and increasing Coast States Act (RESTORE Act), legislation passed in the
erosion rates by enabling salty ocean water to penetrate inland, aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill (pp. 358–359), cre-ated
damaging vegetation and wildlife in freshwater marshes. a comprehensive ecosystem restoration plan for the Gulf
The need for rapid interventions to combat wetland losses Coast, financed by 80% of the fines paid for Clean Water Act
was bolstered by a 2017 paper from researchers (p. 107) violations
at Tulane Uni-versity, associated with the spill.
reporting that the Louisiana coast was, on average, sink-ing Given the conflicting demands we put on waterways for
by 9 mm(0.35 in.) a year. The team used sensors, installed water withdrawal, shipping, and flood control, there are no
along the Louisiana coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to easy solutions to the problems faced in the Mississippi River
accurately measure the level of coastal subsidence, or sinking. and southern Louisiana. But how we tackle problems like
Their findings were significant because previous studies had those in Louisiana’s coastal wetlands will help determine the
indicated that a “worst case scenario” would be the land sinking long-term sustainability of one of our most precious natu-ral
by 8–10 mm a year (0.31–0.39 in.), showing that current levels resources—the aquatic ecosystems that provide us life-sustaining
of coastal subsidence are already at alarming levels. water.

256 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 FreshwaterSystems that resides
reaching
within pores in soil or rock.
Earth’s land surface infiltrates
Some of the precipi-tation
the surface to
“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” The well-knownbecome groundwater. Groundwater flows slowly beneath the

line from the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

is an apt description of the situation on our planet. Water may
surface
to
from
areas
areas
of low
of high pres-sure
pressure and FaQ
seem abundant, but waterthat we can drink is quite rare and can remain underground for long

limited (FIGURE 12.2). About 97.5% of Earth’s water resides periods, in some cases for thou-sandsIs groundwater found

of years. Groundwater in huge underground

in the oceans and is too salty to drink or to use to water crops.
caverns?
Only2.5%is consideredfresh water, waterthat is relatively makes up one-fifth of Earth’s fresh

pure with few dissolved salts. Because most fresh water is water supply and plays a key role As one of the “out of sight”

tied up in glaciers, ice caps, and underground aquifers, just in meeting human water needs. elements of the water cycle, it’s
Groundwater is contained sometimes difficult for people to
over 1 part in 10,000 of Earth’s water is easily accessible for
human use. within aquifers, porous forma-tions visualize how water exists under-ground.
of rock, sand, or gravel that Many incorrectly assume
Water is renewed and recycled as it moves through the
hold water (FIGURE 12.4). An that groundwater is always found
water cycle (pp. 40–41). The movement of water in the
in large underground caves—essentially
water cycle creates a web of interconnected aquatic sys-tems aquifer’s upper layer, or zone of
lakes beneath Earth’s
that exchange water, organisms, sediments, pollut-ants, aeration, contains pore spaces
surface. That is not the case. If
and other dissolved substances (FIGURE 12.3). What partly filled with water. In the
you look at soil under a micro-scope,
happens in one system therefore affects other systems—even lower layer, or zone of satura-tion,
you'll see there are small
those that are far away. Precipitation falling from the the spaces are completely
pores between the particles of
sky either sinks into the ground or flows off the land to filled with water. The bound-ary
minerals and organic matter that
form rivers, which carry water to the oceans or large inland between these two zones is
compose the soil. Manytypes
lakes. As they flow, rivers can interact with ponds, wet-lands,the water table. Any area where
of rock, such as limestone and
and coastal aquatic ecosystems. Underground aqui-fers water infiltrates Earth’s surface
sandstone, have relatively large
exchange water with rivers, ponds, and lakes through and reaches an aquifer below is pores between the particles of
the sediments on the bottoms of these water bodies. Let’s known as a recharge zone. When mineralsthat make up the rock.
examine the components of this interconnected system, a porous, water-bearing layer of So, when people extract ground-water
beginning with groundwater. rock, sand, or gravel is trapped with wells, we are simply
between upper and lower layers sucking water out of the pores

Groundwater plays key roles of less permeable substrate (often between soil particles or within
clay), it is called a confined rocks in the portion of the soil
in the water cycle aquifer, or artesian aquifer. In beneath the watertable
such a situation, the water is
Liquid water occurs as either surface water or groundwater.
Surface wateris waterlocated atop Earth’ssurface(such as under great pressure. In contrast,
an unconfined aquifer has no impermeable upper layer to
a river or lake), and groundwater is water beneaththe surface
confine it, so its water is under less pressure and can be read-ily
recharged by surface water.

All water

Oceans (97.5%)

Fresh
water
Groundwater Surface
Ice caps
(20%) fresh
and water
Soil moisture
glaciers
(38%)
(79%) Lakes
Fresh water(2.5%) (52%)

Surface fresh water (1%)

Rivers (1%) Atmospheric
Water within
FIGURE 12.2 Only 2.5% of Earth’s water is fresh water. Ofthat 2.5%, mostis tied organisms water vapor
up in glaciers and ice caps. Ofthe 1% that is surface water, mostis in lakes and soil (1%) (8%)

moisture. Datafrom UnitedNationsEnvironmentProgramme(UNEP)and WorldResources

Institute.

What percentage of Earth’s wateris fresh waterin lakes?

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 257

 Groundwater
springs feed
river water
Freshwater wetlands

Salt marsh

Pesticides and
fertilizer enter
groundwater
and surface
water

Agricultural pollutants
and eroded soil
Levees facilitate shipping but
prevent deposition of river
sediments to coastal wetlands
River

Water withdrawals for

irrigation reduce river flow

Dam

Reservoir

Urban and
industrial Ocea
pollutants
Dam blocks river flows and
traps sediments in reservoir

Groundwater flowing
into river and ocean

FIGURE 12.3 Water flows through freshwater systems and marine and coastal aquatic systems that
interact extensively with one another. People affect the components of the system by constructing dams
and levees, withdrawing water for human use, and introducing pollutants. Because the systems are closely con-nected,
these impacts can cascade through the system and cause effects far from where they originated. In the
figure, orange arrows indicate inputs into water bodies and black arrows indicate the direction of water flow.

Surface water
convergesin
river and stream
ecosystems
Artesian
well Surface water accounts for just 1%

Well of fresh water, but it is vital for

our survival and for the planet’s
Water ecological systems. Groundwater
table and surface water interact, and
water can flow from one type of
Ground-water
system to the other. Surface water
becomes groundwater by infiltra-tion.
Groundwater becomes sur-face
Unconfined
water through springs (and
aquifer
human-drilled wells), often keep-ing
Confined
aquifer streams flowing or wetlands
Aquifer recharge
Upper moist when surface conditions
zone
confining
are otherwise dry. Each day in
layer (clay) Lower
confining the United States, 1.9 trillion L
Spring
layer (clay) (492 billion gal) of groundwater

FIGURE 12.4 Groundwater occurs in unconfined aquifers above orin confined aqui-fers are released into surface waters—nearly
between impermeable layers. Water mayrise to the surface at springs, in wetlands, as much as the daily flow of
andthrough wells.Artesian wellstap into confined aquifersto mine waterunder pressure. the Mississippi River.

258 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 Water that falls from the sky as rain, emerges from large-scale flooding events that scour new channels. How-ever,
springs, or melts from snow or a glacier and then flows over extensive damming on the Mississippi and other rivers
the land surface, is called runoff. As it flows downhill, run-off has reduced the rate of river meandering by 66–83% from its
converges where the land dips lowest, forming streams, historic rate. Instead of coursing downriver, floodwaters are
creeks, or brooks. These small watercourses may merge into often trapped in reservoirs behind dams or are contained in
rivers, whose water eventually reaches a lake or ocean. A river channels by levees.
smaller river flowing into a larger one is called a tributary.
The area of land drained by a river system—a river and all Lakes and ponds are ecologically
its tributaries—is that river’s drainage basin, or watershed
diverse systems
(p. 23). If you could trace every drop of water in the Missis-sippi
River back to the spot where it first fell as precipitation, Lakes and ponds are bodies of standing surface water. The
you would have delineated the river’s watershed, the area largest lakes, such as North America’s Great Lakes, are
shown in Figure 12.1. sometimes known as inland seas. Although lakes and ponds
Rivers shape the landscapes through which they run. can vary greatly in size, scientists have described several
Over thousands or millions of years, a meandering river zones common to these waters (FIGURE 12.5).
may shift from one course to another, back and forth over a Around the nutrient-rich edges of a water body, the water
large area, carving out a flat valley and picking up sediment is shallow enough that aquatic plants grow from the mud and
that is later deposited in coastal wetlands. Areas nearest reach above the water’s surface. This region, named the lit-toral
to a river’s course that are subject to periodic flooding are zone, abounds in invertebrates—such as insect larvae,
said to be within the river’s floodplain. Frequent deposition snails, and crayfish—that fish, birds, turtles, and amphibians
of silt (eroded soil) from flooding makes floodplain soils feed on. The benthic zone extends along the bottom of the
especially fertile. As a result, agriculture thrives in flood-plains,lake or pond, from the shore to the deepest point. Manyinver-tebrates
and riparian (riverside) forests are productive and live in the mud, feeding on detritus or on one another.
species-rich. A river’s meandering course is often driven by In the open portion of a lake or pond, far from shore, sunlight

FIGURE 12.5 Lakes

and ponds are com-posed
of distinct
zones. In the littoral
zone, emergent plants

Sunlight grow along the shore-line.

The limnetic zone is
Littoral
the layer of open, sunlit
zone
water, where photosyn-thesis
takes place. Sun-light
does not reach the
deeper profundal zone.
The benthic zone, at
the bottom of the water
body, often is muddy,
rich in detritus and nutri-ents,
and low in oxygen.

Limnetic
zone

Profundal
zone

Benthic
zone

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 25

 penetrates the shallow waters of the limnetic zone. Because
light enables photosynthesis, the limnetic zone supports phy-toplankton
(algae, protists, and cyanobacteria), which in turn
support zooplankton (p. 28), both of which are eaten by fish.
Below the limnetic zone lies the profundal zone, the volume
of open water that sunlight does not reach. This zone lacks
photosynthetic life and is lower in dissolved oxygen than are
the upper waters.
Ponds and lakes change over time as streams and runoff
bring them sediment and nutrients. Oligotrophic lakes and
ponds, which are low in nutrients and high in oxygen, may
slowly transition to the high-nutrient, low-oxygen conditions
of eutrophic water bodies (pp. 28–30). Eventually, water
bodies may fill in completely by the process of aquatic suc-cession
(p. 78). These changes occur naturally, but eutrophi-cation
can also result from human-caused nutrient pollution. FIGURE 12.6 Freshwater wetlands, such as this bald cypress
swamp in Louisiana, support biologically diverse and pro-ductive
ecosystems.

Freshwater wetlandsinclude
a landlocked region far from the coast, the oceans still affect
marshes,swamps, bogs, you, and you affect the oceans.
and vernal pools
Wetlands are systems in which the soil is saturated with
The physical makeupofthe ocean
water, and generally feature shallow standing water with
ample vegetation. There are many types of freshwater is complex
wetlands, and most are enormously rich and productive.
The world’s five major oceans—Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arc-tic,
In freshwater marshes, shallow water allows plants such
and Antarctic—are all connected, comprising a single vast
as cattails and bulrushes to grow above the water surface.
body of water that covers 71% of Earth’s surface. Ocean water
Swamps also consist of shallow water rich in vegetation,
contains roughly 96.5% H2O by mass; most of the remain-der
but they occur in forested areas (FIGURE 12.6). Bogs are
consists of ions from dissolved salts. Ocean water is salty
ponds covered with thick floating mats of vegetation and
primarily because ocean basins are the final repositories for
can represent a stage in aquatic succession. Vernal pools are
runoff that collects salts from weathered rocks and carries
seasonal wetlands that form in early spring from rain and
them, along with sediments, to the ocean. Whereas the water
snowmelt, and dry up once the weather becomes warmer.
in the ocean evaporates, the salts do not, and they accumulate
Wetlands are extremely valuable habitat for wildlife.
in ocean basins (the salinity of ocean water generally ranges
Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, for example, provide habitat
from 33,000 to 37,000 parts per million, whereas the salinity of
for approximately 1.8 million migratory waterbirds each
freshwater runoff typically is less than 500 parts per million). If
year. Wetlands also provide important ecosystem services
we were able to evaporate all the water from the oceans, a layer
by slowing runoff, reducing flooding, recharging aquifers,
of dried salt 63 m(207 ft) thick would be left behind.
and filtering pollutants.
Sunlight warms the ocean’s surface but does not pen-etrate
Despite the vital roles that wetlands play, people have
deeply, so ocean water is warmest at the surface and
drained and filled them extensively for agriculture. Many
becomes colder with depth. Deep below the surface, water
wetlands are lost when people divert and withdraw water,
is dense and sluggish, unaffected by winds and storms, sun-light,
channelize rivers, and build dams. The United States and
and daily temperature fluctuations. Ocean water trav-els
southern Canada, for example, have lost well over half their
in currents, vast riverlike flows that move in the upper
wetlands since European colonization.
400 m(1300 ft) of water, horizontally and for great distances
(FIGURE 12.7). These flows are driven by differences in the
density of seawater (warmer water is less dense than cooler

The Oceans water, but water also becomes

and cooling, wind, and the
denser as it gets saltier),
Coriolis effect (p. 290).
heat-ing

The oceans are an important component of Earth’s inter-connected Surface winds and heating also create vertical currents in
aquatic systems. While a small number of rivers seawater. Upwelling is the rising of deep, cold, dense water
empty into inland seas, the vast majority of rivers empty into toward the surface. Because this water is rich in nutrients
oceans; thus, the oceans receive most of the inputs of water, from the bottom, upwellings often support high primary pro-ductivity
sediments, pollutants, and organisms carried by freshwater (p. 36) and lucrative fisheries, such asthose along
systems. The oceans influence virtually every environmen-tal the coasts of Peru and Chile. At downwellings, warm sur-face
system and every human endeavor, so even if you live in water rich in dissolved gases is displaced downward

260 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 ARCTIC OCEAN

Alaska North Atlantic

Azores
California

Gulf Stream
N. Pacific C.
Loop
Kuroshio
North Equatorial
North Equatorial Caribbean

North Equatorial CC North Equatorial CC

Monsoon

North
Brazil
Somali
South Equatorial South Equatorial

Benguela Equatorial
South
PACIFIC OCEAN Brazil
ATLANTIC OCEAN

INDIAN OCEAN
Austral.
Peru/Chil Aguthas
E.

Malvinas
Antarctic Circumpolar Antarctic Circumpolar Antarctic Circumpolar

SOUTHERN OCEAN

FIGURE 12.7 The upper waters of the oceans flow in surface currents, long-lasting and predictable
global patterns of water movement. Warm-and cold-water currents interact with the planet’s climate sys-tem,
and people have used them for centuries to navigate the oceans. Adaptedfrom RickLumpkin(NOAA/AOML).

• If you released a special buoy that traveled on the surface ocean currents shown above into the
Pacific Oceanfrom the southeastern coast of Japan, wouldit likely reach the United States or
Australia first? • On what currents wouldit be carried?

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

providing an influx of oxygen for deep-water life and “bury-ing” islands above sea level, such as the Hawaiian Islands. Our
CO2in ocean sediments. planet’s longest mountain range is under water—the Mid-Atlantic
Many parts of the ocean floor are rugged and complex. Ridge (p. 233) that runs the length of the Atlantic
Underwater volcanoes shoot forth enough magma to build Ocean. Stylized maps (FIGURE 12.8) that reflect bathymetry

Continental shelf Shelf-slope break FIGURE 12.8 A stylized bathymetric profile

shows key geologic features of the subma-rine
Continental slope
environment. Shallow water exists around
Continental rise
the edges of continents over the continental
Abyssal plain
shelf, which drops off at the shelf-slope break.
The steep continental slope gives way to the
more gradual continental rise, all of which are
underlain by sediments from the continents. Vast
areas of seafloor are flat abyssal plain. Seafloor
spreading occurs at oceanic ridges, and oceanic
crust is subducted in trenches (p. 234). Volcanic
activity along trenches may give rise to island
chains such as the Aleutian Islands. Features on
the left side of this diagram are more character-istic
Sediment
of the Atlantic Ocean, and features on the
right side of the diagram are more characteristic
of the Pacific Ocean.

Oceanic ridge

Volcanic
island arc

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 261

 Greenland Water loses its heat Equator
to cold air and sinks

Europe Sunlight warms Pacific

Convective
water on ocean Ocean loop
surface in tropics

Equator Equator Winds

Movement

c
urrent Pacific
Indonesia
of water
ce Ocean
f
Atlantic
War ms ur
Ocean
e e p c u re nt
Col d d
Upwelling Peru
of deep,
cold
FIGURE 12.9 As part of the oceans’ thermohaline circula-tion, water
warm surface currents carry heat from equatorial
waters northward toward Europe, where they warm the
atmosphere. The waterthen cools and sinks, forming the North
(a) Normal conditions
Atlantic Deep Water(NADW).

Increased
(the measurement of ocean depths) and topography (the convection

physical geography, or shape and arrangement of land-forms)

Winds
show that gently sloping continental shelves sit Equator
Movement
beneath the shallow waters bordering the continents. The Winds
Indonesia of water
continental shelf then drops off at the shelf-slope break,
where the continental slope angles more steeply downward
to the deep ocean basin below.

Oceancurrents affect Earth’sclimate Deep,

cold
Peru

stays water
below
The horizontal and vertical movements of ocean water can have surface
far-reaching effects on climate globally and regionally. The
thermohaline circulation is a worldwide current system in
(b) El Niño conditions
which warmer water with lower salt content moves along the
surface and colder, saltier water (which is denser) moves deep FIGURE 12.10 El Niño conditions occur every 2 to 8 years,

beneath the surface (FIGURE 12.9). One segment of this world-wide causing marked changes in weather patterns. In these

conveyor-belt system includes the warm surface water in diagrams, red and orange colors denote warmer water, and

the Gulf Stream that flows across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. blue and green colors denote colder water. Under normal condi-tions
(a), prevailing winds push warm surface waters toward the
Upon reaching Europe, this water releases heat to the air, keep-ing
western Pacific. Under El Niño conditions (b), winds weaken,
Europe warmer than it would otherwise be, given its latitude.
and the warm water flows back across the Pacific toward South
The now-cooler water becomes saltier through evaporation,
America, like water sloshing in a bathtub. Adapted from National
and thus becomes denser and sinks, creating a region of down-welling
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Tropical Atmospheric Ocean Project.
known as the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW).
Scientists hypothesize that interrupting the thermohaline
circulation could trigger rapid climate change. If climate change blow from eastto westalong the equator, from a region of high
(Chapter 14) causes much of Greenland’s ice sheet to melt, pressure in the eastern Pacific to one of low pressure in the
the resulting freshwater runoff into the North Atlantic would westernPacific,forming alarge-scale convectiveloop in the
make surface waters less dense, because fresh water is less atmosphere (FIGURE 12.10a). The winds push surface waters
dense than saltwater. This could stop the NADW formation and westward, causing waterto “pile up” in the western Pacific.
shut down the northward flow of warm water, causing Europe Asaresult, waternearIndonesiacan be 50 cm (20 in.) higher
to cool rapidly. A 2015 study indicated that climate change is and 8°C warmerthan water near South America, elevating the
already slowing the flow of this current, potentially affecting risk of coastal flooding in the Pacific. The westward-moving
climate in Europe over the long term if this slowdown persists. surface watersallow cold waterto rise upfrom the deepin a
Another interaction between ocean nutrient-rich upwelling along the coast of Peru and Ecuador.
currents and the
atmosphere that influences climate is the El El Niño conditions are triggered
Niño–Southern when air pressure
Oscillation (ENSO), a systematic shift in atmospheric pres-sure,decreases in the easternPacific and increasesin the western
sea surface temperature, and ocean circulation in the trop-ical Pacific, weakeningthe equatorial winds and allowing the warm
Pacific Ocean. Under normal conditions, prevailing winds waterto flow eastwardtoward South America(FIGURE12.10b).

262 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 This suppresses upwelling along the Pacific coast of the Ameri-cas, a variety of ecosystems.Thesesystems maynot give usthe
shutting down the delivery of nutrients that support marine water we need for drinking and growing crops, but they teem
life and fisheries. This phenomenon was called El Niño (Span-ish with biodiversity and provide manyother necessary resources.
for “little boy” or “Christ Child”) by Peruvian fishermen
because the arrival of warmer waters usually occurred shortly Intertidal zones undergo constant
after Christmas.
the world, creating rainstorms
El Niño events alter weather patterns around
and floods in areas that are gener-ally
change
dry, such as southern California, and causing drought and Wherethe ocean meetsthe land, intertidal, or littoral, eco-systems
fire in regions that are typically moist, such as Indonesia. The El (FIGURE12.11)spreadbetweenthe uppermostreach
Niño event of 2015–2016 was especially strong, with massive of the high tide and the lowest limit of the low tide. Tides are
heat waves afflicting India and drought ravaging Southeast Asia. the periodic rising andfalling of the ocean’s height at a given
La Niña events are the opposite of El Niño events; in a location, caused by the gravitational pull of the moonand
La Niña event, unusually cold waters rise to the surface and sun. Intertidal organisms spend part of each day submerged in
extend westward in the equatorial Pacific when winds blow-ing water, part of the day exposed to air and sun, and part of the
to the west strengthen, and weather patterns are affected day beinglashed by waves.
in opposite ways. ENSO cycles are periodic but irregular, Life abounds in the crevices of rocky shorelines, which
occurring every 2–8 years. Scientists are exploring whether provide shelter and pools of water (tide pools) during low
warming air and sea temperatures due to climate change may tides. Sessile(stationary) animalssuch asanemones,mussels,
be increasing the frequency and strength of these cycles. and barnacles live attached to rocks, filter-feeding on plank-ton
in the waterthat washes over them. Urchins, sea slugs,

Marineand Coastal chitons, andlimpets eat intertidal algae or scrapefood from

the rocks. Sea stars (starfish) prey upon the filter-feeders and
Ecosystems herbivores, while crabs scavenge detritus. Therocky intertidal
zoneis so diversebecauseenvironmentalconditions such as
With their variation in topography, temperature, salinity, nutri-ents, temperature, salinity, and moisture change dramatically from
and sunlight, marine and coastal environments feature the high to the low reaches.

Supratidal zone
(splash zone)

Level of high tide

Intertidal zone

Level of low tide

Subtidal zone

FIGURE 12.11 The rocky intertidal zone stretches along rocky shorelines between the lowest
and highest reaches of the tides. Theintertidal zone provides niches for a diversity of organisms,
including sea stars (starfish), crabs, sea anemones, corals, chitons, mussels, nudibranchs (sea slugs),
and sea urchins. Areas higher on the shoreline are exposed to the air morefrequently and for longer periods,
so organisms that tolerate exposure best specialize in the upper intertidal zone. The lower intertidal zone
is exposed less frequently and for shorter periods, so organisms less tolerant of exposure thrive in
this zone.

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 26

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Go
toProcess
ofScience
onMastering
Environmental
Science

Are WeDestinedfor a Futureof

“Megadroughts”in the UnitedStates?
From 2012 to 2016, record-low levels to 30-cm depth; from the surface to 2-m depth; and by using
of precipitation coupled with record-high the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), a measure of the dif-ference
heat kept California in severe between soil moisture supply (from precipitation) and
drought conditions, prompting soil moisture demand (from evaporation and uptake by plants).
the state to act aggressively to In the PDSI, negative values mean drier conditions, or drought,
implement a series of far-reach-ing and positive values mean wetter conditions.
measures to promote water Whenthe researchers combined data from the past, pres-ent,
conservation in agriculture, and future, the results were stunning—and troubling. The
industry, and homes. While climate models predicted unprecedented levels of drought in
near-record levels of precipita-tion the Central Plains and Southwest regions through 2100, with
bathed the state in 2016 high levels of agreement between the 17 climate models and
and 2017—refilling reservoirs the three measures of soil moisture (FIGURE 1). The study con-cluded
and expanding snowpack in the that the drying of soils was not being driven by drastic
mountains—state officials main-tained reductions in precipitation but rather by increased evaporative
many of the water conserva-tion pressure; that is, warmer temperatures leading to higher rates
measures enacted during the of evaporation and elevated rates of soil water uptake by plants.
drought, as climatic studies suggest The models also concluded that human-induced climate
Benjamin I. Cook, NASA that California may very well experi-ence change, and not natural variability in climate, would be the driving
severe drought in the future. force for drier soils in the Central Plains and Southwest. A com-parison
This was the sobering conclusion reached by a team of with the past indicated that these future conditions would
researchers led by Benjamin Cook, research scientist at NASA be far worse than those seen during the “Medieval megadrought
Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and advanced in a paper period” from a.d. 1100 to 1300. This extended drought is thought
published in the journal Science Advances in 2015. In an effort to have led to the decline of the ancient Pueblos, the Anasazi, who
to frame the current drought in the western United States in the lived along the Colorado Plateau. Smerdon described their results
proper context, the group compared the climate of the Central as follows: “Even when selecting for the worst megadrought-dominated
Plains and Southwest over the past 1000 years with predictions period, the 21st Century projections make the mega-droughts
of their climates over the next 100 years based on computer seem like quaint walks through the Garden of Eden.”
simulations. “We are the first to do this kind of quantitative com-parison Comparing the probability of extended droughts in the lat-ter
between the projections and the distant past,” said co-author half of the 20th century (1950–2000) with the probability of
Jason Smerdon, “and the storyis a bit bleak.” such droughts in the latter half of the 21st century (2050–2099)
Researchers used the North American Drought Atlas provided further cause for concern. According to the simulations,
(NADA)—a reconstruction of climates based on data from tens the probability that the two regions would experience a decade-long

of thousands of samples of tree rings from the United States, drought essentially doubled, and the chance that they would
Canada, and Mexico—to estimate the past climates ofthe Cen-tral experience a multidecade drought increased from around 10% to
Plains and Southwest regions. Trees are a natural archive more than 80% (FIGURE 2). If greenhouse gases are reduced, the

of climate data, because they grow at varying rates depending chance of a multidecade drought drops to 60–70% for the Cen-tral
on moisture, temperature, and other factors. Using data from Plains but remains above 80% for the Southwest, providing
the recent past, scientists have determined the relationship yet another incentive for combating global climate change.
between tree growth patterns and climatic factors, and they Studies like these help us to prepare for the future by provid-ing
then use this relationship to reconstruct past climates for which an idea of what to expect. They show that it would be wise to
they have data on tree growth from tree rings. maintain indefinitely the water conservation strategies embraced
To predict the future climate of the southwestern United by California during its historic drought—even in times of unusu-ally
States and the Central Plains, the researchers used 17 climate high levels of precipitation. These studies also suggest that,
models and ran simulations based on a“business as usual” sce-nario, given the future predictions of dire drought, implementing water
in which the growth in greenhouse gas emissions followed conservation in other states in the Central Plains and Southwest
current trends, as well as on a “moderate reduction” scenario, in would be a prudent course of action. In the words of study co-author
which growth in greenhouse gas emissions was more modest. Toby Ault, “The time to act is now. The time to start plan-ning
The study also used three indicators of drought, measur-ing for adaptation is now. We need to assess what the rest of
the level of soil moisture available to plants from the surface this century willlook like for our children and grandchildren.

264 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 2 FIGURE 1 Soil moisture

1 levels for the Central Plains

and Southwest regions,
0
as predicted by the North
balance

–1 American Drought Atlas

(NADA) and computer climate
Moisture
–2
NADA SM–2 m models. Negative values for
–3
Central Plains PDSI SM–30 cm moisture balance indicate drier
–4 soils (drought) and positive values
1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100 indicate wetter soils. The predicted
Year drought conditions in the late
21st century are unprecedented
2
in the past 1000 years. (PDSI =
1
Palmer Drought Severity Index,

balance
0 SM–30 cm = soil moisture to
30 cm depth, and SM–2 m=
–1
soil moisture to 2 m depth. The
Moisture
–2 gray-shaded areas represent the

–3 variability in model PDSI values

Southwest across computer climate models.)
–4
Source: Cook, B.I., et al., 2015. Science
1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100
Advances 1(1): e1400082.
Year

Decadal drought risk Multidecadal drought risk

100 100
PDSI
SM–30 cm
80 80
SM–2 m

60 60
Plain

40 40
Central

20 20

0 0
1950–2000 2050–2099 1950–2000 2050–2099

100 100

80 80

60 60

Southwest
40 40

20 20

0 0
1950–2000 2050–2099 1950–2000 2050–2099

Years Years

FIGURE 2 Risk of decadal (11-year) and multi-decadal (35-year) drought in the Southwest
and Central Plains in the late 20th century and late 21st century for three measures of soil
moisture. Due to human-induced climate change, both regions are far more likely to have long-term
drought in the future than in the past. Source: Cook, B.I., et al., 2015. Science Advances 1(1): e1400082.

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 265

 FIGURE 12.12 Salt marshes occur in temperate intertidal FIGURE 12.13 Mangrove forests line tropical and subtropical
zones where the substrate is muddy. Tidal waters flow in chan-nels coastlines. Mangrove trees, withtheir unique roots, are adapted
called tidal creeks amid flat areas called benches, sometimes for growing in saltwater and provide habitat for manyfish, birds,
partially submerging the salt-adapted grasses. crabs, and other animals.

Fresh water meetssaltwater Mangroveforests line coasts

in estuaries in the tropics and subtropics
Water bodies where rivers flow into the ocean, mixing fresh In tropical and subtropical latitudes, mangrove forests
water with saltwater, are called estuaries. Estuaries are bio-logically
replace salt marshes along the coasts. Mangroves are salt
productive ecosystems that experience fluctuations tolerant, and they have unique roots that curve upward
in salinity with the daily and seasonal variations in tides and like snorkels to attain oxygen or downward like stilts to
freshwater runoff. The shallow water of estuaries nurtures sea support the tree in changing water levels (FIGURE 12.13).
grass beds and other plant life, and provides critical habitat Fish, shellfish, crabs, snakes, and other organisms thrive
for shorebirds and many commercially important shellfish among the root networks, and birds feed and nest in the
species. dense foliage of these coastal forests. Mangroves protect
Estuaries everywhere have been affected by coastal shorelines from storm surges, filter pollutants, and cap-ture
development, water pollution, habitat alteration, and over-fishing. eroded soils, protecting offshore coral reefs. They
The Chesapeake Bay estuary (profiled in Chapter 2) also provide materials that people use for food, medi-cine,
is one such example. Estuaries and other coastal ecosystems tools, and construction. Half the world’s mangrove
have borne the brunt of human impact because two out of forests have been destroyed as people have developed
every three people choose to live within 160 km (100 mi) of coastal areas, often for tourist resorts and shrimp farms
the ocean. (p. 158).

Salt marshesline temperate Kelpforests harbor many

shorelines organisms
Along many of the world’s coasts at temperate latitudes, salt Along manytemperate coasts, large brown algae, or kelp,
marshes occur where the tides wash over gently sloping grow from the floor of continental shelves, reaching up
sandy or silty substrates. Rising and falling tides flow into toward the sunlit surface. Some kelp reaches 60 m (200 ft)
and out of channels called tidal creeks and at highest tide spill in height and can grow 45 cm (18 in.) per day. Dense stands
over onto elevated marsh flats, like those in coastal Louisi-ana of kelp form underwater “forests” (FIGURE 12.14). Kelp for-ests
(FIGURE 12.12). Marsh flats grow thick with salt-tolerant provide shelter and food for invertebrates and fish, which
grasses, as well as rushes, shrubs, and other herbaceous in turn provide food for larger predators. Kelp forests absorb
plants. Salt marshesboast very high primary productivity and wave energy and protect shorelines from erosion. People eat
provide critical habitat for shorebirds, waterfowl, and many some types of kelp, and kelp provides compounds that serve
fish and shellfish species. Salt marshes also filter pollution as thickeners in cosmetics, paints, ice cream, and other con-sumer
and stabilize shorelines against storm surges. products

266 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 (a) Coral reef community

Bleaching is evident in
FIGURE 12.14 “Forests” of tall brown algae known as kelp the whitened regions
of this cora
grow from the floor of the continental shelf. Numerous fish
and other creatures eat kelp or find refuge among its fronds.

Coralreefs aretreasure troves

of biodiversity
Shallow subtropical andtropical watersare home to coral reefs.
Areef is an underwater outcrop ofrock, sand, or other material. A
coral reefis a massof calciumcarbonatecomposedofthe shells
of tiny marineanimals known as corals. Acoral reef mayoccur
asan extension of a shoreline; along a barrier island paralleling a
(b) Bleached coral
shoreline;or asan atoll, aring aroundasubmerged
island.
FIGURE 12.15 Coral reefs provide food and shelter for a tre-mendous
Corals aretiny invertebrate animals related to sea anem-ones
diversity (a) of fish and other creatures. Today these
andjellyfish. Theyremain attachedto rock or existing
reefs face multiple stresses from human impacts. Many corals have
reef and capture passing food with stinging tentacles. Cor-als died as a result of coral bleaching (b), in which corals lose their
also derive nourishment from symbiotic algae known as zooxanthellae.
zooxanthellae, whichinhabit their bodies and producefood
through photosynthesis—and provide the diversity of vibrant
colors in reefs. Most corals are colonial, and the surface of a 2300 km (1400 mi) along the coast of Australia, has recently
coral reef consists of millions of densely packedindividuals. beenseverely damagedby bleaching. Majorbleachingevents
Ascorals die, their shells remain part ofthe reef and new cor-als in 2016 and 2017, attributed to rising sea temperatures due to
grow atop them. This accumulation of coral shells enables climate change, affected some 1500 km (900 mi) of the reef
the reef to persistand growlarger overtime. and havedecimatedlarge stretchesof its northernand middle
Like kelp forests, coral reefs protect shorelines by sections.
absorbing wave energy. They also host tremendous biodiver-sity Oncelarge areas of coral die, species that hide within the
(FIGURE12.15a).Thisis becausecoral reefs providecom-plexreef are exposedto higherlevels of predation, andtheir num-bers
physical structure (and thus many habitats) in shallow decline. Withoutliving coral—the foundation ofthe eco-system
nearshore waters, which are regions of high primary produc-tivity. on which so many species rely—biological diversity
If you haveever gonediving or snorkeling over a coral on reefs declines as organismsflee or perish. Coral bleach-ing
reef, you will have noticed the staggering diversity of anemo-nes, is thought to occur when coral are strongly stressed,
sponges, hydroids, tubeworms, and other sessile inverte-brates;with common stressors including increased sea surface tem-peratures
the innumerable mollusks,flatworms, seastars, and associated with global climate change(p. 313), and
urchins; and the manyfish species that find food and shelter exposure to elevated levels of pollutants.
in reef nooks and crannies. Another threat to coral comes from nutrient pollution
The promotion of biodiversity by coralreefs makestheir in coastal waters, which promotesthe growth of algaethat
alarming decline worldwide particularly disturbing. Manyreefs are smothering reefs in the Florida Keys and in many other
have fallen victim to “coral bleaching,” which occurs when regions. Coral reefs also sustain damage when divers use
zooxanthellaedie or abandonthe coral,thereby deprivingthe cyanideto stunfish in capturingthem for food or for the pet
coral of nutrition. Coralslacking zooxanthellae lose color and trade, a common practice in Indonesia and the Philippines.
frequently die,leaving behind ghostly white patchesin the reef A few coral species thrive in waters outside the tropics
(FIGURE12.15b).The Great Barrier Reef, whichstretchesfor and build reefs on the oceanfloor at depths of 200–500 m

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 267

 (650–1650ft). Theselittle-known reefs—which occurin cold-water
bacteriato derivetheir energyfrom chemicalsin the heated
areas off the coasts of Norway, Spain, the British Isles,
and elsewhere—are only now being studied by scientists.
Open-ocean ecosystems vary
in their biodiversity
The uppermost 10 m(33 ft) of ocean waterabsorbs 80%
of the solar energy that reaches its surface. For this reason,
nearly all of the oceans’ primary productivity occurs in the
well-littop layer, or photic zone. Generally,the warm,shal-low for human use, build dams andlevees, and introduce pollutants
waters of continental shelves are the most biologically
productive and support the greatest species diversity. Habitats
and ecosystemsoccurring betweenthe ocean’ssurface and
floor are classified as pelagic, whereasthose that occur on
the ocean floor are classified as benthic.
Biological diversityin pelagicregions of the openocean
is highly variable in its distribution. Primary production
(p. 36) and animal life near the surface are concentrated in
regions of nutrient-richupwelling. Microscopicphytoplankton
constitute the base ofthe marinefood chain in the pelagic zone
and are the prey of zooplankton which in turn become food
for fish, jellyfish, whales,and otherfree-swimming animals
(FIGURE 12.16). Predators at higher trophic levels include larger
fish, seaturtles, and sharks. Fish-eating birds such as puffins
and petrelsalsofeed atthe surface ofthe openocean.
In the little-known deep-water ecosystems, animals have
adapted to tolerate extreme water pressures and to live in
the dark withoutfood from autotrophs(p. 34). Manyof these
often bizarre-looking creatures scavenge carcasses or organic
detritus that falls from above. Others are predators, and still
others attainfood from mutualistic(p. 73) bacteria. Ecosys-tems
wedoin one part ofthe interconnectedaquaticsystemaffects
also form around hydrothermal vents, where heated water
spurts from the seafloor, carrying mineralsthat precipitate to
form rocky structures.Tubeworms,shrimp,and othercreatures
in these recently discovered deep-water systems use symbiotic
FIGURE 12.16 The uppermost reaches
billions upon billions of phytoplankton—tiny
algae, protists, and bacteria that
marine food chain. This part of the ocean is
small animals and protists that
268 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts
waterrather than from sunlight. They manageto thrive within
narrow zones between scalding hot andicy-cold waters.
Aquatic systems are affected
by human activities
Ourtour of aquatic systems hasshown the ecological and eco-nomic
value of freshwater and marineecosystems. We will now
see how peopleaffectthese systems when we withdraw water
that alter water’s chemical, biological, and physical properties.
Effectsof HumanActivities
on Waterways
Although water is a limited resource, it is also a renewable
resource aslong as we manageour use sustainably. However,
peopleare withdrawing waterat unsustainablelevels and are
depleting many sources of surface water and groundwater.
Already, one-third of the world’s people are affected by water
shortages.
Additionally, people have intensively engineered fresh-water
waterways with dams, levees, and diversion canals to
satisfy demandsfor watersupplies,transportation, and flood
control. An estimated 60% of the world’s 227 largest riv-ers,
for example, have been strongly or moderately affected
by humanengineering. As wehaveseenin our Central Case
Study, dams and channelization in the Mississippi River
Basin have led to adverse impacts at the river’s mouth. What
many other parts, sometimes in significant ways.
Fresh waterand human populations
are unevenly distributed acrossEarth
World regions differ in the size of their human populations
and, as a result of climate and other factors, possess varying
amounts of groundwater, surface water, and precipitation.
Hence, not every human around the world has equal accessto
fresh water (FIGURE 12.17). Because of the mismatched dis-tribution
of waterand population, humansocieties havefre-quently
struggled to transport fresh water from its source to
where people needit.
Fresh wateris distributed unevenly in time as well as
space. For example, India’s monsoon storms can dump half
of a region’s annual rain in just a few hours. Rivers have sea-sonal
differencesin flow becauseof the timing of rains and
snowmelt. For this reason, people build dams to store water
from wetter monthsthat can be usedin drier times of the year,
whenriver flow is reduced.
of ocean water con-tain
As if the existing mismatches between water availabil-ity
photosyn-thetic
and human need were not enough, global climate change
form the base of the (Chapter14) hasand willcontinueto worsenconditionsin many
also home to zoo-plankton, regions by altering precipitation patterns, melting glaciers, caus-ing
dine on phytoplankton. early-season
runoff, andintensifying droughtsandflooding
Available fresh water
(cubic meters per capita
per year)

Lessthan 1000
1000–2000

2000–5000
5000–10,000

10,000–20,000

20,000–100,000

More than 100,000

Insufficient data
Major inland waterway

FIGURE 12.17 Nations vary tremendously in the amount of fresh water per capita available to their
citizens. For example, with over 100,000 cubic meters per capita per year, Iceland, Papua New Guinea,
Gabon, and Guyana each have more than 100 times more water per person than do many Middle Eastern and
North African countries. Datafrom Harrison, P., and F. Pearce, 2000. AAAS atlas of population and the environment, edited bythe
American Association for the Advancement of Science, © 2000 bythe American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Compare the water availability per person in the developing regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin
America and the Caribbean. Which region has the most water per person?

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

A 2009study found that one-third of the world’s 925 major
rivers experienced reduced flow from 1948 to 2004, withthe
majority ofthe reduction attributed to effects of climate change.
Watersupplies households,
50 yearsago, and have doubled the amount of land under
irrigation. This expansion of irrigated land has helped food
and fiber production to keep up with population growth, but
manyirrigated areasare using waterunsustainably,threaten-ing
their long-term productivity.

industry, and agriculture Excessivewater withdrawalscan

Weall use water at home for drinking, cooking, and cleaning.
Most mining,industrial, and manufacturingprocessesrequire
water. Farmers and ranchers use water to irrigate crops and
waterlivestock. Globally, we allot about 70% of our annual
fresh wateruseto agriculture;industry accountsfor roughly
20%, andresidential and municipal uses account for only 10%.
Theremoval of waterfrom an aquifer or from a body of
surface water withoutreturning it to its sourceis called con-sumptive
sea. Thisreduction in flow not onlythreatensthe future of the
use. Our primary consumptive use of wateris for
agricultural irrigation (p. 146). Nonconsumptive use of water,
in contrast, does not remove, or only temporarily removes,
waterfrom an aquifer or surface water body. Using waterto
generate electricity at hydroelectric dams is an example of
nonconsumptiveuse; wateris taken in, passedthrough dam
machineryto turn turbines, andreleased downstream.
The large amount of water used for agriculture is due
to our rapid population growth, whichrequires usto feed
and clothe more and more people each year. Overall, we
withdraw 70% more waterfor irrigation today than wedid
drain rivers andlakes
In many places, we are withdrawing surface water at unsus-tainable
rates and are drastically reducing river flows. Because
of excessive water withdrawals, many major rivers—the
Colorado Riverin North America, the Yellow Riverin China,
andthe Nilein Africa—regularly run dry before reaching the
cities and farms that depend on these rivers, but also drasti-cally
alters the ecology of the rivers and their deltas, changing
plant communities, wipingout populationsof fish andinverte-brates,
and devastating fisheries.
Worldwide,roughly 15–35% of water withdrawals for irri-gation
arethoughtto beunsustainable(FIGURE12.18).In areas
where agriculture is demanding morefresh waterthan can be
sustainably supplied, water mining—withdrawing waterfaster
thanit canbereplenished—istaking place.In theseareas,aqui-fers
are being depleted or surface wateris being piped in from
otherregionsto meetthe demandfor irrigation.

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 26

 FIGURE 12.18 Irrigation
for agriculture is the
main contributor to
unsustainable water
use. Regions whereover-all
use offresh water(for
agriculture, industry, and
domestic use) exceeds the
available supply, requiring
groundwater depletion or
diversion of waterfrom
other regions, areidenti-fied
on this map. The map
actually understates the
problem, because it does
not reflect seasonal short-ages.
Datafrom UNESCO,
2006. Water: A shared respon-sibility.

World Water Develop-ment

Report 2. UNESCO and High overuse Adequate supply

Berghahn Books.
Moderate overuse Little or no use

Low overuse

Nowhere are the effects of surface water depletion soil became salty and waterlogged. Today 60,000 fishing
so evident as in the Aral Sea (FIGURE 12.19a). Once the jobs are gone, winds blow pesticide-laden dust up from the
fourth-largest lake on Earth, just larger than Lake Huron in dry lake bed (FIGURE 12.19c), and little cotton grows on the
the Great Lakes, it lost more than four-fifths of its volume blighted soil.
in only 45 years (FIGURE 12.19b). This dying inland sea, on
the border of present-day Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, is the
Groundwater can also be depleted
victim of poor irrigation practices. The former Soviet Union
instituted industrial cotton farming in this dry region by Groundwater is more easily depleted than surface water
flooding the land with waterfrom the two rivers that supplied because most aquifers recharge very slowly. If we compare
the Aral Sea its water. For a few decades this boosted Soviet an aquifer to a bank account, we are making more withdraw-als
cotton production, but it shrank the Aral Sea, and the irrigated than deposits, and the balance is shrinking. Today we are
mining groundwater, extracting 160 km3 (5.65 trillion ft3) more
Russia water each year than returns to the ground. This is a problem
because one-third of Earth’s human population—including
Kazakhstan

Uzbekistan

FIGURE 12.19 The Aral Sea in central Asia was once the world’s fourth-largest
lake. However, it has been shrinking (a, b) because so much water was withdrawn to irrigate
cotton crops. Ships were stranded (c) along the former shoreline of the Aral Sea because the
Black Sea Iran waters receded so far and so quickly. Today restoration efforts are beginning to reverse the
Caspian Sea Turkmenistan decline in the northern portion of the sea, and waters there are slowly rising.

50 km

(a) Satellite image of Aral (b) Satellite image of Aral (c) A ship stranded by the Aral Sea’s fast-receding water
Sea, 1987 Sea, 2015

270 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 FaQ 99% of the rural
United States—relies
population of the
on ground-water Wyoming South Dakota

for its needs.

When fresh water is scarce,
As aquifers are mined, water
why don’t weirrigate crops
tables drop deeper underground.
with seawater?
Nebraska
This deprives freshwater wet-lands
Freshwater resources are often
of groundwater inputs,
strained by agricultural irriga-tion.
causing them to dry up. Ground-water
Some agriculture occurs in
also becomes more diffi-cult
coastal areas, where huge vol-umes
and expensive to extract. In Ogallala
of seawater are available
Aquifer
parts of Mexico, India, China,
a short distance away, yet farm-ers
and multiple Asian and Middle Kansas
do not use it to watertheir
crops, even in times of extreme Eastern nations, water tables

drought. Why? are falling 1–3 m (3–10 ft) per

Colorado
The crops we grow for food, year. In the United States, over-pumping
such as wheat and broccoli and has drawn the Ogal-lala
strawberries, are terrestrial plants Aquifer in the Great Plains
and are evolutionarily adapted (FIGURE 12.20) down by more
to use fresh water to grow. If the than 320 million liters (85 trillion
cells of aterrestrial plant, such gal), a volume equal to half the
New Mexico Oklahoma
as corn, are placed in a solution annual flow of the Mississippi
of seawater, the waterinside River. Waterfrom this massive
the cells will be “pulled out” aquifer has enabled American
into the surrounding saltwater farmers to create the most pro-ductive
by the process of diffusion. This
grain-producing region Saturated thickness,
occurs because there are fewer
in the world. However, unsus-tainable in feet
dissolved substances (such as
water withdrawals are Miles 0–100
sugars, proteins, and salts) within 0 100 100–400
threatening long-term use of the Texas
the cell than there are dissolved
aquifer for agriculture. 400–800
0 160
substances (such as salts)in 800–1200
As aquifers lose water, they Kilometers
the seawater. Accordingly, the
become less able to support over-lying
concentration of waterinside FIGURE 12.20 The Ogallala Aquifer is the world’s largest
strata, and the land surface
the cell is therefore greater than aquifer, and it held 3700 km3 (881 mi3) of water before pump-ing
above may sink, compact, or col-lapse,
the concentration of waterin the began. This aquifer lies beneath 453,000 km2 (175,000 mi2) of
seawater.
creating sinkholes. Venice,
the Great Plains, stretching over eight U.S. states. Overpumping for
Wateralways diffuses from Bangkok, Beijing, and Mexico
irrigation is currently reducing the volume and extent of this aquifer.
areas of higher concentration to City are slowly sinking; overpump-ing

lower concentration, soit flows is causing the streets to buckle

from inside the cell to outside and undergound pipes to rupture.
Bottled water has ecological costs
the cell; this diffusion is called Once the ground sinks, soil and
osmosis when it occurs across rock become compacted, losing the These days, our groundwater is being withdrawn for a
cell membranes. With continued porosity that enabled them to hold new purpose—to be packaged in plastic bottles and sold
exposure to saltwater, the plant water. Recharging a depleted aqui-fer on supermarket shelves. The average American drinks
will dehydrate and die. Marine thereafter becomes more dif-ficult. over 136 L (36 gal) of bottled water a year, and sales top
organisms have evolved physi-ological Compaction of rock layers $14 billion annually in the United States and $160 billion
mechanisms to combat due to groundwater Overextraction worldwide.
or replace such water loss from caused some agricultural regions Bottled water exerts substantial ecological impact.
their cells, so they are able to in California to sink by 9 m(30 ft) The energy costs of bottled water are estimated to be
survive in seawater, unlike the
from 1925 to 1977, and many areas 1000–2000 times greater than the energy costs of tap
terrestrial plants that supply us
continue to sink today as overex-traction water, mostly as a result of transportation costs. After their
with so much of our food.
continues. contents are consumed, at least three out of four bottles
in the
When groundwater is over-extracted United States are thrown away, and not recycled.
in coastal areas, salt-water That’s 30–40 billion containers per year (5 containers for
from the ocean can intrude into inland aquifers. every human being on Earth) and close to 1.5 million tons
This causes coastal wells to draw up saline groundwater of plastic waste. Many people who buy bottled water do
instead of the desired fresh groundwater. This problem has so because they believe it is superior to tap water. How-ever,
occurred in California, Florida, India, the Middle East, in blind taste tests people think tap water tastes just
and many other locations where groundwater is heavily as good, and chemical analyses show that bottled water is
extracted. no safer or healthier than tap water.

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 27

 People buildlevees to control floods drinking water, facilitate irrigation, weighingthe
Amongthe reasons wecontrol the movementof fresh water,
flood prevention ranks high. People have always been
and generate electricity.
Worldwide, we have erected ISSUeS
morethan 45,000 large dams (greater
attracted to riverbanks for their water supply and for the flat than 15 m, or 49 ft, high) across rivers reaching for Water

topography andfertile soil of floodplains. Butif onelives in a in more than 140 nations, and have The rapidly growing Las Vegas met-ropolitan
floodplain, one must be prepared to face flooding. Flooding built tens of thousands of smaller area is exceeding its allot-ment
is a normal, natural process that occurs when snowmelt dams. Only a few major rivers in the of water withdrawals from the
or heavyrain swells the volume of waterin a river sothat world remain undammed Colorado River, and has proposed
and free-flowing. a

water spills over the river’s banks. In the long term, floods These rivers run through the $3.5 billion project that would divert
areimmensely beneficial to both natural systems and human tundra and taiga of Canada, Alaska, groundwater from up to 450 km

agriculture, becausefloodwaters build and enrich soil by and Russia, and in remote regions of (280 mi)away to meet the growing

spreading nutrient-rich sediments overlarge areas. water needs of Nevada’s largest city.
Latin America and Africa.
In the short term, however, floods can do tremendous Dams produce a mix of ben-efits
Do you think such diversions are

damageto the farms, homes,and property of people who and costs, as illustrated in
ethically justified? If rural communi-ties
and wetland ecosystems at the
choose to live in floodplains. To protect against floods, com-munities
FIGURE 12.21. As an example of
diversion site in eastern Nevada are
and governmentshavebuiltlevees(also called dikes) this complex mix, we can consider
destroyed by this project, is this an
along banks of rivers to hold waterin main channels. These the world’s largest dam project.
acceptable cost given the economic
structures prevent flooding at mosttimes and places, but can The Three Gorges Dam on Chi-na’s
activity generated in Las Vegas?
sometimes worsenflooding becausethey force waterto stay Yangtze River, 186 m(610 ft)
How else might cities like Las Vegas
in channels and accumulate, building up enormous energy high and 2.3 km (1.4 mi) wide, was
meet their future water needs
andleading to occasional catastrophic overflow events. completed in 2008. Its reservoir
stretches for 616 km (385 mi; as
Wedivert surface waterto suit long as Lake Superior in the Great

our needs Lakes). This project provides flood control, enables boats and
barges to travel farther upstream, and generates enough hydro-electric
People havelong diverted waterfrom rivers and lakes to power to replace dozens of large coal or nuclear plants.
farms, homes, and cities with aqueducts—artificial rivers, However, the Three Gorges Dam cost $39 billion to build and
also called canals. Waterin the Colorado Riverin the western its reservoir flooded 22 cities, forcing the relocation of 1.24 million
UnitedStatesis heavily divertedand utilized asthe river flows people. Asthe river slows upon entering the dam’s reservoirs, sedi-ments
toward the Pacific Ocean. Early in its course, some Colorado are deposited in the reservoir, eroding wetlands atthe mouth
River wateris pipedthrough a mountaintunnel and downthe of the river—just as in Louisiana. Manyscientists also worry that
Rockies’ eastern slope to supply the city of Denver. Moreis the Yangtze’s many pollutants will be trapped in the Three Gorges
removed for Las Vegas and other cities, and for farmland as Dam reservoir, eventually making the water undrinkable.
the waterproceedsdownriver. When
the river reaches Parker People who feel that the costs of some dams outweigh their
Dam on the California–Arizona state line, large amounts of benefits are pushing for such dams to be dismantled. By removing
water are diverted into the Colorado River Aqueduct, which dams and letting rivers flow freely, they say, we can restore eco-systems,
brings waterto the Los Angelesand San Diegoareas. Ari-zona reestablish economically valuable fisheries, and revive
also draws waterfrom Parker Dam,transporting it in the river recreation, such as fly-fishing and rafting. Many aging dams
canals of the Central Arizona Project. Farther south, wateris are in need of costly repairs or have outlived their economic
diverted into the Coachellaand All-American Canals,des-tined
usefulness, making them suitable candidates for removal. Some
for agriculture, mostlyin California’s Imperial Valley. 400 dams have been dismantled in the United States in the past
The world’slargest diversion project is underway in China. decade, and more will come down in the next 10 years, whenthe
Threesetsof massive
aqueducts,totaling 2500km(1550 mi)in licenses of over 500 dams come up for renewal.
length, are being built to movetrillions of gallons of waterfrom In 2014, the world’s largest dam removal project was com-pleted
the Yangtze Riverin southern China, where wateris plentiful, whenthe last section of the 64-m (210-ft) Glines Canyon
to northern China’sYellow River, whichroutinely driesupatits Dam on the Elwah River in Washington State was demolished.
mouth dueto the region’s drier climate as well as withdrawal of Built in 1914 to supply power for local wood mills, the dam
decimated local fisheries by preventing salmon from migrating
much of its waterfor farms, factories, and homes. Manysci-entists
saythe $62 billion project won’ttransfer enough water upriver to spawn, imperiling the livelihood of Native Ameri-cans
to makea difference and will cause extensive environmental who had long harvested the river’s salmon and shellfish.
impacts, all while displacing hundreds of thousands of people. But since the dam’s removal, the Elwah River system has
rebounded. Sediments that were once held behind the dam have

Wehave erected thousands of dams flooded downstream, rebuilding riverbanks, beaches, and estu-aries.
Habitats for shellfish and small fish are being restored in
A damis any obstructionplacedin ariver or streamto block and around the river’s mouth. And as salmon migrate upriver to
its flow. Dams create reservoirs, artificial lakes that store spawn in the Elwah’s tributaries, it is hoped that an entire func-tional
waterfor human use. Webuild damsto prevent floods, provide ecosystem will emerge along with their return.

272 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 40–80 million people New recreational
Reliable drinking displaced by dam projects opportunities on reservoir
water if watershed in past 50 years Sediment settles behind dams,
lands are protected filling reservoir and not nourishing
downstream floodplains

Small risk of
Reliable irrigation catastrophic failure
for farming

Habitat alteration
(upstream and
downstream)

Lost recreational

Carbonemissions opportunities
on river
much lower than
power from fossil
fuels

Fisheries decline from

thermal pollution and
blockage of migration
Generation of
renewable electricity

Disruption of flooding
Flood control by
that builds topsoil
storing seasonal
surges

FIGURE 12.21 Damming rivers has diverse consequences for people and the environment. The
generation of clean and renewable electricity is one of several major benefits (green boxes) of hydroelectric
dams. Habitatalterationis one ofseveral negativeimpacts (orange boxes).

Solutionsto Depletion As a result,

wealthy oil-rich
large-scale
nations
desalination is
where energy is plentiful
pursued
and
mostly in
water is

ofFresh Water extremely scarce. Saudi Arabia, for example, produces half of
the nation’s drinking water with desalination.
To address the depletion of fresh water, we can aim to either
increase supply or reduce demand. Increasing water supplies Wecan decrease our demand
by constructinglarge dams wasa common solution to water for water
shortages in the past. However,large dams have already been
constructed at sites mostsuitable for them, and most of the Because supply-based strategies do not hold great promise
remaining locations arein regions that makesuch construc-tionfor increasing watersupplies, peopleare embracingdemand-based
projects prohibitive. Building moredams, therefore, does solutions. Strategies for reducing fresh water demand
not appear to be a viable solution to meetpeople’s increasing include conservation and efficiency measures.Such strategies
demandsfor fresh water. require changesin individual behaviorsandcantherefore be
An alternate supply strategy is to generate fresh water politically difficult, but they offer better economic returns and
through desalination, or desalinization—the removal of salt cause less ecological and social damage. Our existing shift
from seawater. Desalinationcan be accomplished by heat-ing from supply-basedto demand-basedsolutionsis already pay-ing
saltwater and condensing the water vapor that evaporates dividends. The United States, for example, decreased
from it—essentially distilling fresh water. Over 20,000 desal-ination
its water consumption by 16% from 1980 to 2010 thanks to
facilities are operating worldwide, but it is expen-sive,conservation measures,even whileits population grew 34%.
requires large inputs of fossil fuel energy, kills aquatic Let’s examine approaches that can conserve waterin agricul-ture,
life at waterintakes, and generatesconcentratedsalty waste. households,industry, and municipalities.

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 27

 Agriculture Farmerscanimprove efficiency by adopting Industry and municipalities Industry and munici-palities
more efficient irrigation methods. “Flood and furrow” irri-gation, can take water-saving steps as well. Manufacturers
in whichfields are flooded with water,accountsfor are shifting to processesthat useless water,and in doing
90% of irrigation worldwide. However, crop plants end up so are reducing their costs. Las Vegas is one of many cit-ies
using only 40% of the water applied, as much of the water that are recycling treated municipal wastewater for irri-gation
evaporatesor seepsinto the ground,away from crops. Other and industrial uses. Finding and patching leaks in
methods arefar moreefficient. Low-pressure spray irrigation pipes has saved some cities and companies large amounts
squirts water downward toward plants, and drip irrigation of water—and money. Boston and its suburbs reduced
systemstarget individual plants, introducing waterdirectly water demand by 43% over 30 years by patching leaks,
onto the soil (p. 146). Experts estimate that drip irrigation—in retrofitting homes with efficient plumbing, auditing indus-try,
which as little as 10% of wateris wasted—could cut water and promoting conservation. This program enabled
usein half whileraising crop yields, and could produce as Massachusetts
to avoid an unpopular $500 million river
much as $3 billion in extra annual income for farmers of the diversion scheme.
developing world. Researchers are currently experimenting
with various materialsand approachesto develop reliable, Nations often cooperate to resolve
inexpensive drip irrigation systems that could convey these
water disputes
benefits to poorer farmers.
Another wayto reduceagricultural wateruse wouldbeto Population growth, expansion of irrigated agriculture, and
eliminate government subsidies for the irrigation of crops that industrial development doubled our annual fresh water use
require a great deal of water—such as cotton and rice—in arid between 1960 and 2000. Increased withdrawals of fresh
areas. Biotechnology mayplay arole by producingcrop vari-eties water can lead to shortages, and resource scarcity can lead
that require less waterthrough selective breeding (p. 52) to conflict. Many security analysts predict that water’s role
and genetic modification (pp. 158–162). in regional conflicts will increase as human populationcon-tinues
to grow and as climate change alters precipitation pat-terns.
Households In our households, we can reduce water Atotal of 261 major rivers—whose watersheds cover
use by installing low-flow faucets, showerheads, washing 45% of the world’sland area—cross national borders, and
machines, and toilets. Automatic dishwashers, studies show, transboundary disagreements are common (FIGURE 12.22).
useless water than does washing dishes by hand. Catching Accessto wateris already a key element in the disagreements
rain runoff from your roof in a barrel, or rainwater harvest-ing, amongIsrael,the Palestinianpeople,and neighboring nations
will reduce the amount of water you needto usefrom the in the arid Middle East.
hose. Replacing exotic vegetation with native plants adapted Yet on the positive side, many nations have cooperated
to the region’s natural precipitation patternscan alsoreduce to resolve water disputes. India has struck agreementsto
water demand. For example, more and moreresidents in the co-manage transboundary rivers with Pakistan, Bangladesh,
U.S. Southwest are practicing xeriscaping, a type of land-scaping
Bhutan, and Nepal. In Europe, nations along the Rhine and
that usesplants adaptedto arid conditions. Danube
rivers havesigned water-sharing
treaties.

Aral sea

Ob Tumen
Kura-Araks
Han

Jordan Salween

Ganges-FIGURE
Brahmaputra-Meghna
Senegal
Nile
Lampa Tigris/ Mekong
Lake Chad Euphrates

Kunene Zambezi
Potential conflicting interests
and/or lack of institutional La Plata Okavango Limpopo
capacity
Orange Incomati
Recent dispute;
negotiations in progress

Otherinternational basins

12.22 Water basins that cross national boundaries (yellow) have the potential for conflict if
water supplies become scarce. Basins with higher potential for conflict (red) arefound in regions with grow-ing
populations, but negotiationsare underway on severalinternational basinsto prevent conflict(orange).

274 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coast

 WaterPollution andIts to pollution
“end-of-pipe”
therefore embrace preventive
strategies such astreatment
strategies rather than
and cleanup.
Control
Waterpollution comesfrom point
Wehave seen that people affect aquatic systems by withdraw-ing
sources and non-point sources
too much water and by erecting dams, diversions, and levees
that alter natural processes in aquatic systems. Introducing toxic Water pollution—changes in the chemical, physical, or
substances and disease-causing organisms into surface waters biological properties of waters caused by human activities—comes
and groundwater is yet another way that people adversely affect in many forms and can have diverse impacts on
aquatic ecosystems—and threaten human health. aquatic ecosystems and human health. Most forms of water
Developed nations have made admirable advances in clean-ing pollution are not conspicuous, so scientists and technicians
up water pollution over the past few decades. Still, the World measure water’s chemical properties, such as pH, plant
Commission on Water, an organization that focuses on water nutrient concentrations, and dissolved oxygen levels; physi-cal
issues, recently concluded that over half the world’s major rivers characteristics, such as temperature and turbidity—the
remain “seriously depleted and polluted.” In 2013, the U.S. Envi-ronmental
density of suspended particles in a water sample; and bio-logical
Protection Agency (EPA) reported that 55% of U.S. properties, such as the presence of harmful microor-ganisms
streams and rivers are in poor condition to support aquatic life. or the species diversity in aquatic ecosystems.
The largely invisible pollution of groundwater, meanwhile, has Some water pollution is emitted from point sources—discrete
been termed a “covert crisis.” Preventing pollution is easier and locations, such as a factory, sewer pipe, or
more effective than treating it later. Many of our current solutions oil tanker (FIGURE 12.23). In contrast, pollution from

Non-point sources of water pollution Pollutant Point sources of water pollution

Farms, Fertilizers,
lawns, and herbicides, and
golf courses pesticides

Animal feedlots
(also non-point source)

Nutrients, waste,
and bacteria

Salt on winter roads;

Residential neighborhoods oil, grease, and
and urban streets chemicals
Sewage treatment plants
from urban runoff

Industrial waste Factories and

and toxic chemicals disposal sites

Construction
sites, and
deforested and Eroded soil
overgrazed
land

Oil spills

Abandoned mines Acid

Oiltankers
(also point source) drainage

FIGURE 12.23 Point-source pollution (on right) comes from discrete facilities or locations, usually
from single outflow pipes. Non-point-source pollution, such as runoff from streets, residential neighbor-hoods,
lawns, andfarms (on left), originatesfrom numeroussources spread overlarge areas.

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 27

 non-point sources is cumulative, arising from multiple Biological pollution by pathogens causes more human health
inputs over larger areas, such as farms, city streets, and resi-dential problems than any other type of water pollution. In the United
neighborhoods. The U.S. Clean Water Act (p. 107) States, an estimated 20 million people fall ill each year from
addressed point-source pollution with some success by tar-geting drinking water contaminated with pathogens. Worldwide, the
industrial discharges. United Nations estimates that 3800 children die every day
In the United States today, the greater threat to water from diseases associated with unsafe drinking water, such as
quality comes from non-point-source pollution resulting cholera, dysentery, and typhoid fever.
from countless common activities, such as applying fertil-izers Wereduce the risks posed by waterborne pathogens by
and pesticides to farms and lawns, applying salt to disinfecting drinking water (p. 279) and by treating waste-water
roads in winter, and leaking automobile oil. To minimize (p. 279) prior to releasing it into waterways. Other
non-point-source pollution of drinking water, govern-ments measures to lessen health risks include public education to
often limit development on watershed land sur-rounding
encourage personal hygiene and government enforcement of
reservoirs. regulations to ensure the cleanliness of food production, pro-cessing,
and distribution.

Waterpollution takes manyforms

Nutrient pollution The Chesapeake Bay’s dead zone
Waterpollution comes in manyforms that can impair water-ways,
shows how nutrient pollution causes eutrophication and
and threaten people and organisms that drink the water
hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen concentrations) in surface
or live in or near affected waters. Let’s survey the major
waters (p. 24). When excess nitrogen and/or phosphorus
classes of water pollutants affecting watersin the world today. enters a water body, it fertilizes algae and aquatic plants,
boosting their growth. As algae die off, bacteria in sedi-ments
Toxic chemicals Our waterways have become pol-luted consume them. Because this decomposition requires
with toxic organic substances of our own mak-ing, oxygen, dissolved oxygenlevels decline. Theselevels can
including pesticides, petroleum products, and other drop too low to support fish and shellfish, leading to dra-matic
synthetic chemicals (p. 216). Many of these can poison changes in aquatic ecosystems.
animals and plants, alter aquatic ecosystems, and cause A “dead zone” of very low dissolved oxygen levels
an array of human health problems, including cancer. appears annually in the northern Gulf of Mexico, fueled by
Toxic metals such as arsenic, lead, and mercury also nutrients from Midwest farms carried by the Mississippi and
damage human health and the environment, as do acids Atchafalayarivers (FIGURE12.24). Thelow-oxygen condi-tions
from acid precipitation (p. 303) and acid drainage from have adversely affected marinelife and greatly reduced
mining sites (p. 245). Issuing and enforcing more strin-gent catches of shrimp and fish.
regulations on industry can help reduce releases of Excessivenutrient concentrations sometimes give rise
many toxic chemicals. We can also modify our industrial to population explosions among several species of marine
processes and our purchasing decisions to rely less on algae that produce powerful toxins. Blooms of these algae
these substances. are known as harmful algal blooms. Sometoxic algal spe-cies
produce a red pigment that discolors the water—hence
Pathogens and waterborne diseases Disease-causing the name red tides. Harmful algal blooms can causeill-ness
organisms (pathogenic viruses, protists, and bacteria) can and death in aquatic animals and people and adversely
enter drinking water supplies that become contaminated with affect communities that rely on beach tourism and fishing.
human waste from inadequately treated sewage or animal Eutrophicationis a natural process,but nutrient input
waste from feedlots, chicken farms, or hog farms (p. 157). from wastewater andfertilizer runoff from farms, golf courses,

FIGURE 12.24 The map

Mississippi
TEXAS LOUISIANA
shows dissolved oxygen con-centrations
River
in bottom waters
of the Gulf of Mexico off the
Louisiana coast in 2015. The Atchafalaya
darkest areas indicate the low-est River
oxygen levels, with regions
considered hypoxic (<2 mg/L)
outlined in black. The dead zone
forms to the west of the mouth
of the Mississippi River because
prevailing currents carry nutrients Dissolved oxygen (mg/L)
in that direction. Hypoxic zone data
>5 2–3 Outline of
from Nancy Rabalais, LUMICON, and hypoxic zone
4–5 1–2 Gulf of Mexico 60 k
R. Eugene Turner, LSU.
3–4 <1

276 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

lawns, and sewage can dramatically increase the rate at which
it occurs. We can reduce nutrient pollution by specially
treating municipal wastewater to remove nutrients, reduc-ing
fertilizer applications, using phosphate-free detergents,
and planting vegetation and protecting natural areas around
streams and rivers to reduce nutrient inputs into waterways.

Biodegradable wastes Introducinglarge quantitiesof bio-degradable

materials into waters also decreases dissolved oxygen
levels. When human wastes, animal manure, paper pulp from
paper mills, or yard wastes (grass clippings and leaves) enter
waterways, bacterial decomposition escalates as organic mate-rial
is metabolized, and this lowers dissolved oxygen levels in the
water. Wastewater is water affected by human activities and is
a source of biodegradable wastes. It includes water from toilets,
showers, sinks, dishwashers, and washing machines; water used
in manufacturing or industrial cleaning processes; and storm-water
runoff. The widespread practice of treating wastewater to FIGURE 12.25 Sediments wash into the Pacific Ocean from

remove organic matter has greatly reduced impacts from a river in

biode-gradable Costa Rica. Farming, construction, and other human

wastes in developed nations. Oxygen depletion remains activities can cause elevated levels of soil to enter waterways
affecting water quality and aquatic wildlife.
a major problem in some developing nations, however, where
wastewater treatment is less common.
Much of the oil entering the ocean from sources other
than seeps accumulates in waters from innumerable, widely
Sediment Erodedsoils, called sediments, can be carried
spread, small non-point sources. Shipping vessels and rec-reational
to rivers by runoff and transported long distances by river
boats can leak oil as they ply ocean waters. Motor
currents (FIGURE 12.25). Clear-cutting, mining, clearing land
oil from vehicles on roads and parking lots is washed into
for development, and cultivating farm fields all expose soil
streams by rains and carried to the sea. Spills from oil tankers
to wind and water erosion (p. 148). Some water bodies, such
(FIGURE 12.26) account for 12% of oil pollution in an average
as the Colorado River and China’s Yellow River, are natu-rally
sediment-rich, but many others are not. When a clear-water
river receives a heavy influx of eroded sediment,
aquatic habitat changes dramatically, and fish adapted to
clear water may be killed. Wecan reduce sediment pollution 800

by better managing farms and forests and avoiding large-scale

Atlantic Empress
disturbance of vegetation. t 700 287,000 t

ABT Summer
Castillo De Bellver 260,000 t
tons,

Oil pollution Oil pollution is another important source 600

252,000 t
of marine pollution. Although large oil spills occur infre-quently, Sea Empress
(metric
500 Khark V
their impacts can be staggering near the spill site. 72,000 t
80,000 t
The danger that oil spills pose to fisheries, economies, and
Erika
400
ecosystems became clear in 1989, when the oil tanker Exxon tankers 20,000 t
Exxon
Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, spilling hun-dreds Valdez
300 Prestige
of thousands of barrels of oil and causing an ecologi-cal from
37,000 t
63,000 t
disaster along the Alaskan coast.
200
The dangers of oil pollution made headlines again in spilled
Hebei Spirit
11,000 t
2010, when British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon offshore
Oil

100
drilling platform exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico
off the Louisiana coast (pp. 358–359). Oil gushed from the
0
platform’s underwater well, was spread widely by ocean cur-rents,
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
and washed up on coastal areas across the northern Gulf
Year
of Mexico. Hundreds of miles of water, sediments, and shore-line
FIGURE 12.26 Less oil is being spilled into ocean waters
along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and
today in large tanker spills, thanks in part to regulations
Florida were impacted, both economically and ecologically.
imposed on the oil-shipping industry and improved spill-response
Five years after the accident, populations of oysters, crabs,
techniques. The bar chart shows cumulative quantities
and sea turtles remained at low levels, and large numbers of of oil spilled worldwide from nonmilitary spills of morethan 7 metric
marine mammals were beaching themselves on Gulf shores, tons. Larger spills areidentified by vessel name, and spill amounts
suggesting that the impacts of this accident may continue to from these events areindicated with orange or green bars. Datafrom
be felt for some time. International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Ltd.

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 277

 Too little heat can also cause problems. Onthe Mississippi
and many other dammed rivers, water at the bottoms of res-ervoirs
is colder than water at the surface. When dam opera-tors
release water from the depths of a reservoir, downstream
watertemperatures drop suddenly. In some river systems, these
pulses of cold water have favored cold-loving invasive fish spe-cies
over native species adapted to normal river temperatures.

Groundwater pollution is a difficult

problem
Many pollutants that affect surface waters also affect ground-water.
Groundwater pollution is difficult to detect. Moreover,
pollutants may reside in groundwater longer than in surface
waters. Because groundwater is not exposed to sunlight, con-tains
FIGURE 12.27 Aquatic life, such as this loggerhead turtle
fewer microbes and minerals, and holds less dissolved
ensnared in a discarded fishing net, can suffer from their
interactions with plastics in the ocean. oxygen and organic matter than surface waters, pollutants
decompose more slowly. For example, concentrations of the
herbicide alachlor decline by half after 20 days in soil, but in
year, and 3% comes from leakage that occurs during the
extraction of oil by offshore oil rigs. Although the Exxon Val-dez groundwater this takes almost four years.
Some chemicals that are toxic at high concentrations—including
spill wascatastrophic, the good news is that the amount
of oil spilled from tankers worldwide hasdecreasedoverthe aluminum, fluoride, nitrates, and sulfates—occur
naturally in groundwater. However, groundwater pollution
pastthree decades,in part because of an increased emphasis
resulting from industrial, agricultural, and urban wastes—from
on spill prevention and response.
heavy metalsto petroleum products to solvents to pes-ticides—can
Nets and plastic debris Discardedfishing nets,fishing leach through soil and seep into aquifers. For
example, nitrate from fertilizers has leached into aquifers
line, plastic bags and bottles, and other trash can harm aquatic
organisms(FIGURE12.27). Seabirds,fish, aquatic mammals, across the United States and Canada. Nitrate in drinking
water has been linked to cancers, miscarriages, and “blue-baby”
and seaturtles mistakefloating plastic debris for food and can
syndrome, a condition in which the oxygen-carrying
die as aresult of ingesting materialthey cannot digest or expel.
Thechemicalsthat plasticscontain also havetoxic effects on capacity of infants’ blood is reduced.
Leakage of carcinogenic pollutants from underground
organisms, and floating plastics can serve as “rafts” that facili-tate
tanks—such as chlorinated solvents, gasoline, and industrial
the introduction of invasive species to new habitats.
In recent years,scientistshavelearnedthat plastictrashis chemicals—also poses a threat to groundwater. The EPA

accumulating in gyres, regions ofthe oceans wherecurrents con-verge.manages a nationwide cleanup program to unearth and repair
leaky tanks, and by 2017 the agency had confirmed leakage
Onesuch areais the Great Pacific Garbage Patchin the
northernPacific,an arealargerthan Texas,in whichtiny pieces from over 535,000 tanks from across the United States, and
had completed cleanup of more than 465,000 of them.
of floating plastic outnumber organisms by a 6-to-1 margin.
The leakage of radioactive compounds from underground
Becauseplasticstake 500–1000 yearsto degradeat sea
tanks is also a source of groundwater pollution. Currently, 67
and there is no viable way to collect the innumerable small
of the 177 underground storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear
bits of plastics that litter the oceans, preventing their entry
Reservation in Washington State have been confirmed to be
into the oceansis keyto remedying oceanicplastic pollution.
leaking radioactive waste into the soil. This site is the most
In 2006, the U.S. Congress responded to ocean pollution by
passing the Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduc-tion radioactively contaminated area in the United States, storing
60% of the United States’ high-level radioactive waste. Cleanup
Act, aiding effortsto keepplastics out of marinewaters.
of the radioactive material stored at present in the site’s aging
In 2015, Congressstrengthened these efforts by passing a ban
underground tanks is not scheduled for completion until 2047.
on the sale and distribution of products containing tiny plas-tic
“microbeads,” which wereaddedto sometoothpastesand
shower gelsto act astiny “scrubbers.” Legislative and regulatory efforts
have helped to reduce pollution
Thermal pollution Water’sability to hold dissolved oxy-gen
decreases as temperature rises, so some aquatic organ-isms As numerous as our freshwater pollution problems may seem,
maynot survive when human activities raise water it is important to remember that many were much worse in
temperatures. When we withdraw water from a river and the United States a few decades ago, when, for example, the
useit to cool an industrial facility, wetransfer heat from the Cuyahoga River in Ohio repeatedly caught fire (p. 106). Citi-zen
facility backinto the river wherethe wateris returned. Peo-ple activism and government response during the 1960s and
also raise water temperatures by removing streamside 1970s resulted in the Federal Water Pollution Control Act
vegetationthat shades water. of 1972, amended and later renamed the Clean Water Act i

278 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 1977. These acts madeit illegal to discharge pollution from Wetreat our drinking water
a point source without a permit, set standardsfor industrial
wastewater as well as contaminant levels in surface waters, Technological advances as well as government regulation
and funded construction of sewage treatment plants. Thanks have improved drinking water quality. The treatment of drink-ing
to suchlegislation, point-sourcepollution in the UnitedStates water is a widespread and successful practice in devel-oped
wasreduced, andrivers and lakes became notably cleaner. nations today. Before being sent to your tap, water from
In the past several decades, however, enforcement of a reservoir or aquifer is treated with chemicals to remove
waterquality laws has grown weaker,as underfundedand particulate matter; is passed through filters of sand, gravel,
understaffed state and federal regulatory agencies have faced and charcoal; and may be disinfected with small amounts of
challenges when enforcing existing laws. A comprehensive an agent such as chlorine to combat pathogenic bacteria. The
investigation bythe NewYorkTimesin 2009revealedthat vio-lations
U.S. EPA sets standards for morethan 90 drinking water con-taminants,
ofthe Clean WaterAct haverisen, andthat documented whichlocal governments and private water suppli-ers
violations now number morethan 100,000 per year—to say are obligated to meet.
nothing of undocumentedviolations. The EPAand statesact
on only a tiny percentage ofthese violations, the Times found. Wetreat our wastewater
As a result, 1 in 10 Americans have been exposed to unsafe
drinking water—forthe mostpart unknowingly,becausemany Wastewater treatment is also now a mainstream practice.
pollutants cannot be detected by smell, taste, or color. Wastewater includes water that carries sewage; water from
The Great Lakes of Canadaand the United Statesrepre-sent showers, sinks, washing machines, and dishwashers; water
an encouragingsuccessstoryin fighting waterpollution. used in manufacturing or industrial cleaning processes; and
In the 1970sthese lakes, which hold 18% ofthe world’s surface stormwater runoff. Natural systems can process moder-ate
fresh water, werebadly polluted with wastewater,fertilizers, amounts of wastewater, but the large and concentrated
and toxic chemicals. Algal blooms fouled beaches, and Lake amounts that our densely populated areas generate can harm
Erie was pronounced “dead.” Today, efforts of the Canadian ecosystems and pose health threats. Thus, attempts are now
and U.S.governmentshave paid off. Accordingto Environ-mentwidely made to treat wastewater before it is released into the
Canada,releases of seven toxic chemicals are down by environment.
71%, municipal phosphorus has decreased by 80%, and chlo-rinated In rural areas, septic systems are the most popular
pollutantsfrom paper mills are down by 82%. Levels method of wastewater disposal. In a septic system, wastewa-ter
of PCBs and DDE are down by 78% and 91%, respectively. runs from the house to an underground septic tank, inside
Bird populations are rebounding, and Lake Erieis now home which solids and oils separate from water. The clarified water
to the world’slargest walleyefishery. The GreatLakes’troubles proceeds downhill to a drain field of perforated pipes laid
are by no meansover—sediment pollution is still heavy, algal horizontally in gravel-filled trenches underground. Microbes
blooms still plague Lake Erie, and fish are not always safe to decompose pollutants in the wastewater these pipes emit.
eat. However,the progressso far shows how conditions can Periodically, solid waste from the septic tank is pumped out
improve whencitizens pushtheir governments to take action. and taken to alandfill.

SUCCESS Using Wetlands to Aid Wastewater Treatment

STORY
Long before people built the first wastewa-ter One of the first constructed wetlands was established in
treatment plants, natural wetlands filtered Arcata, atown on northern California’s scenic Redwood Coast.
and purified water. Recognizing this, This 35-hectare (86-acre) engineered wetland system was builtin
engineers have begun manipulat-ing the 1980s after residents objected to a $50 million plan to build
wetlands—and have even alarge treatment plant that would have pumped treated waste-water
constructed new wetlands—to into the ocean. The wetland, which cost just $7 million
employ as tools to cleanse to build, not only treats wastewater but also serves as a haven
wastewater. In this approach, for wildlife and human recreation. In fact, the Arcata Marsh and
wastewater that has gone Wildlife Sanctuary has brought the town’s waterfront back to life,
through primary or secondary with morethan 200,000 people visiting each year. Additionally,
treatment at a conventional wildlife has flourished in the area, with 100 species of plants,
facility is pumped into the 300 species of birds, 6 species offish, and a diversity of mam-mals
wetland, where microbes The Arcata Marsh and and invertebrates populating the wetlands. The practice of
living amid the algae and Wildlife Sanctuary treating wastewater with artificial wetlands is growing fast; today
aquatic plants decompose morethan 500 artificially constructed or restored wetlandsin the
the remaining pollutants. Water cleansed in the wetland can United States are performing this valuable service.
then be released into waterways or allowed to percolate
underground. EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 27

 Raw sewage enters
treatment facility

1 Screens and
grit tank
Solid objects
and grit removed

Oils and greases Solids disposed

float to the top at landfill

Solids sink to
2 Primary the bottom
clarifier
Oils, greases,
and solids
removed
Gases chemically
treated to reduce
odor

3 Aeration basin
Microbes consume
organic matter

Some solids returned

to seed aeration basin
with new microbes

4 Secondary
clarifier
Remaining oils,
Sludge sent to
greases, and
anaerobic digester
solids removed

5 Filtering and
disinfection
Water filtered
with coal and
sand, and/or
disinfected with
chlorine or UV
light

Effluent discharged Gasto generate Biosolids for

into waterways electricity cropland

FIGURE 12.28 Shown here is a generalized process from a modern, environmentally sensitive wastewater
treatment facility. Wastewaterinitially passes through screens to remove large debris andinto grittanks to let grit settle
1 It then enters tanks called primary clarifiers 2 , in which solids settle to the bottom and oils and greases float to the
top for removal. Clarified waterthen proceeds to aeration basins 3 that oxygenate the waterto encourage decomposi-tion
by aerobic bacteria. Waterthen passesinto secondary clarifier tanks 4 for removal of further solids and oils. Next,
the water may be purified 5 by chemical treatment with chlorine, passage through carbon filters, and/or exposure to
ultraviolet light. The treated water(called effluent) maythen be pipedinto natural water bodies, used for urban irriga-tion,
flowed through a constructed wetland, or used to recharge groundwater. In addition, mosttreatment facilities use
anaerobic bacteria to digest sludge removed from the wastewater. Biosolids from digesters may be sent to farm fields as
fertilizer, and gasfrom digestion maybe usedto generateelectric power.

280 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coast

 In more densely populated areas, municipal sewer sys-tems water pollutants directly into the ocean or into rivers that
carry wastewater from homes and businesses to central-ized empty into the sea. We are also putting pressure on oceans
treatment locations. There, pollutants are removed by by overharvesting fish species and threatening the balance
physical, chemical, and biological means (FIGURE 12.28). At and functioning of marine and coastal ecosystems.
atreatment facility, primary treatment, the physical removal More than half the world’s marine fish populations are
of contaminants in settling tanks or clarifiers, removes about fully exploited, meaning that we cannot harvest them more
60% of suspended solids. Wastewater then proceeds to intensively without depleting them, according to the United
secondary treatment, in which water is stirred and aerated Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). An addi-tional
so that aerobic bacteria degrade organic pollutants. Roughly 28% of marine fish populations are overexploited and
90% of suspended solids may be removed after secondary already being driven toward extinction. Only one-fifth of the
treatment. Finally, the clarified water is treated with chlorine, world’s marine fish populations can yield more than they are
and sometimes ultraviolet light, to kill bacteria. Most often, already yielding without being driven into decline. If current
the treated water, called effluent, is piped into rivers or the trends continue, a comprehensive 2006 study in the journal
ocean following primary and secondary treatment. However, Science predicted, populations of all ocean species that we
many municipalities are recycling “reclaimed” water for fish for today will collapse by the year 2048.
lawns and golf courses, for irrigation, or for industrial pur-poses If fisheries collapse as predicted, we will lose the ecosys-tem
such as cooling water in power plants. services they provide. Productivity will be reduced, eco-systems
As water is purified throughout the treatment process, will become more sensitive to disturbance, and the
the solid material removed is termed sludge. Sludge is sent filtering of water by vegetation and organisms (such as oys-ters)
to digesting vats, where microorganisms decompose much of will decline, making harmful algal blooms, dead zones,
the matter. The result, a wet solution of “biosolids,” is then fish kills, and beach closures more common. Aquaculture
dried and disposed of in alandfill, incinerated, or used as fer-tilizer(p. 158) is booming—helping to relieve pressure on wild
on cropland. Methane-rich gas created by the decom-positionstocks—but it comes with its own set of environmental dilem-mas.
process is sometimes burned to generate electricity, To prevent a collapse of the world’s fisheries, it is vital
helping to offset the cost of treatment. Each year about 6 mil-lion that weturn immediately to moresustainable fishing practices.
dry tons of sludge are generated in the United States.

Industrialized fishing facilitates

Emptyingthe Oceans overharvesting
Weaffect the oceans and their biological resources by engi-neeringTotal global fisheries catch, after decades of increases, leveled
waterways with dams and levees and by introducing off after the late 1980s (FIGURE 12.29). This occurred despite
increased fishing effort,
and aquaculture—humans
180
raising fish as one raises
Aquaculture production
160 livestock—now rivals cap-tures
Global fisheries catch
140 of wild-caught fish
tons
in total seafood produc-tion.
120
This seeming stability
100
in catch since then can be
metric

production

of

80 explained by several fac-tors

60 that conceal popula-tion
Seafood

declines: Fishing fleets

(millions 40
are exploiting increasingly
20
remote fishing areas, are
0 engaging in more inten-sive
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2014 fishing, are capturing
Year smaller fish than before,
FIGURE 12.29 After rising for decades, global fisheries catch has stalled for the past 25 years. and are targeting less desir-able
Many scientists fear that a global decline is imminent if conservation measures are not taken. Note how fish species they for-merly
the growth in aquaculture has enabled seafood production to increase, despite flat hauls from capture overlooked.
fisheries in recent decades. Datafrom the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2016. The state of Today’s industrialized
world fisheries and aquaculture 2016. Fig. 1. commercial fishing fleets
employ huge vessels and
• Approximately what percentage of the total global production of fisheries in 2014 came from
powerful new technologies
aquaculture? • How does this compare to 1980? • Offer an explanation for the difference in
aquaculture production in these 2 years.
to capture fish in large num-bers
using several methods.
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science.
In purse seining, vessels

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 281

 (a) Purse seining (b) Driftnetting

(c) Longlining (d) Bottom-trawling

FIGURE 12.30 Commercial fishing fleets use several methods of capture. The illustrations above are
schematic for clarity and do not portray the immense scale that these technologies can attain; for instance,
industrial trawling nets can be large enough to engulf multiple jetliners.

deploy large nets, some aslong as a kilometer (0.6 mi),around (mammals and turtles need to surface to breathe) or dying
schools offish nearthe surfaceandthen drawthe net shutlike from air exposure on deck (fish suffocate when kept out
alaundry bag(or the hood on a sweatshirt) bythe purseline, a of the water). Driftnetting is now banned in international
rope running through the top of the net(FIGURE 12.30a). Some waters because of excessive bycatch, but the practice con-tinues
ships set outlong driftnetsthat spanlarge expansesof water in manynational waters.Bottom-trawling is oftenlik-ened
(FIGURE 12.30b). These chains of transparent nylon meshnets to clear-cutting (p. 200) the ocean floor. It is especially
are arrayed to drift with currents so asto capture passing fish; destructive to structurally complex areas, such asreefs, that
floats atthe top and weightsat the bottom keepthe netsver-tical.provideshelter and habitatfor animals. Thescale of bycatch
Longline fishing (FIGURE 12.30c) involves setting out can be stunning. A 2011 report from the National Oceanic
extremely long lines (up to 80 km [50 mi]long) with up to sev-eral and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that
thousand baitedhooksspacedalongtheir lengths. Trawling a staggering 17% of all commercially harvestedfish were
entails dragging immense cone-shaped netsthrough the water, captured unintentionally.
with weights at the bottom and floats at the top. Trawling in
open watercaptures pelagic fish, whereasbottom-trawling
(FIGURE 12.30d) involves dragging weighted nets across the Fisheries collapse quickly under
floor of the continental shelf to catch benthic organisms. intensive harvest
Unfortunately,these fishing practicescatch morethan
just the species they target. Bycatch, the accidental cap-ture Throughout the world’s oceans, today’s industrialized fish-ing
of nontarget animals, accounts for the deaths of mil-lions fleets are depleting marine populations. In a 2003 study,
of animals each year. Purse seining and driftnetting fisheries biologists Ransom Myersand Boris Wormanalyzed
capture dolphins, seals, and seaturtles, as well as countless fisheries data and concluded that the oceans today contain
nontargetedfish. Mostof these creatures end up drowning only one-tenth of the large-bodied fish and sharksthey onc

282 Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 did, largely because of the wide-scale use of industrialized Hundreds of marine protected areas (MPAs) have been
fishing practices. established worldwide, most of them along the coastlines of
Many fisheries have collapsed in recent years. Ground-FaQ developed countries. However, despite their name, nearly all
fish (species that live in benthic habitats, such as Atlantic cod, MPAs allow fishing or other extractive activities and so are
haddock, halibut, and flounder) not fully protected from impacts from people.
powered the economies of New Because of the lack of true refuges from fishing pres-sure,
England and Maritime Canada many scientists want to establish areas where fish-ing
I enjoy eating seafood, so for 400 years. Yet fishing pres-sure is prohibited. Such “no-take” areas are called marine
how can I make sustainable became so intense that most reserves. Designed to preserve ecosystems intact, marine
choices? stocks collapsed, bringing fishing reserves are also intended to improve fisheries. Scientists
To most of us, marine fishing economies down with them. The argue that marine reserves can act as production factories
practices may seem a distant cod fishery of the northwestern for fish for surrounding areas, because fish larvae pro-duced
phenomenon over which we have Atlantic was decimated by more inside reserves will disperse and stock other parts of
no control, especially given that than a century of overfishing, but the ocean. By serving both purposes, proponents maintain,
more than 80% of seafood sold after the Canadian and American marine reserves are a win-win proposition for environmen-talists
in the United States is imported. governments banned cod harvests and fishers alike. However, many commercial and
But although we don’t have con-trol in the 1990s, the fishery is now recreational fishers dislike the idea of no-take reserves and
over the seafood presented on a slow path to recovery. have opposed nearly every marine reserve that has been
to us, we have full control over
Red snapper stocks in the established.
whichitems we buy. Finding out
Gulf of Mexico off the Louisi-ana Data from marine reserves around the world have indi-cated
how seafood items were caught
coast have been similarly that reserves can work as win-win solutions that ben-efit
is difficult, however, because this
depleted by overfishing. Snapper ecosystems, fish populations, and fishing economies. A
information is not readily available
have also suffered when they are comprehensive review of data from marine reserves in 2001
to consumersin mostcases.
captured as bycatch on shrimp-ing revealed that just 1–2 years after their establishment, marine
Thus, several organizations, such
vessels. The species was reserves, on average, increased species diversity by 23%;
asthe Environmental Defense
identified as severely overfished the density of organisms within the reserve by 91%; the
Fund, have devised concise
in 1989, and current populations total biomass of organisms by 192%; and the average size of
guides and smartphone apps to
help consumers differentiate fish
are at a mere 3% of their histori-cal each organism by 31%. From this and numerous other data

and shellfish that are overfished abundance. A comprehensive sets, increasing numbers of scientists, fishers, and policy-makers

or whose capture is ecologically recovery plan has been developed are advocating the establishment of fully protected

damaging from those that are for red snapper, but the road to marine reserves as a central management tool for marine
harvested more sustainably. recovery will be a slow one as biodiversity.
stocks remain exceedingly low.
Fishery catches have remained
high, however, as fishing fleets Climate changeis altering
have been shifting
less desirable ones.
from large,
Time
desirable
and again,
species to
fleets have depleted
smaller,
ocean chemistry
popular food fish (such as cod) and shifted to species of Overfishing is not the only major threat to marine biodiver-sity.
lower value (such as capelin, a smaller fish eaten by cod). Elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from
Because this often entails catching species at lower trophic fossil fuel combustion can pollute ocean water and change
levels, this phenomenon has been termed “fishing down the its chemical properties—much in the way excess plant nutri-ents
food chain.” or toxic substances change the chemical properties of
seawater and affect marine organisms. The oceans absorb

Marinereserves protect ecosystems carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, as we first saw
in our study of the carbon cycle (p. 41). As our civilization
Fisheries managers conduct surveys, study fish popu-lation pumps excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning
biology, and monitor catches to determine the fossil fuels for energy and removing vegetation from the land,
number of fish of a given species that can be harvested the buildup of atmospheric CO2 is causing the planet to grow
without reducing future catches—a concept called maxi-mum warmer, setting in motion many changes and consequences
sustainable yield (p. 199). Despite the use of this (Chapter 16).
technique over several decades, a number of fish and The oceans have soaked up roughly a third of the excess
shellfish stocks have plummeted. Thus, many scientists CO2 that we’ve added to the atmosphere, and this has slowed
and managers feel it is time to shift the focus away from global climate change. However, there are two concerns.
individual species and toward viewing marine resources The first concern is that the ocean’s surface water may soon
as elements of larger ecological systems. One key aspect become saturated with as much CO2 as it can hold. Once it
of such ecosystem-based management (p. 199) is to set reaches this limit, then climate change will accelerate asthe
aside areas of ocean where systems can function without oceans will no longer remove large amounts of carbon diox-ide
human interference. from the atmosphere.

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 28

 The second concern is that as ocean water soaks up CO2, predicted that as atmospheric CO2 levels rise, coral reefs
it becomes more acidic. As ocean acidification proceeds, sea will shrink in distribution, diversity, and density. By the
creatures such as coral, snails, and mussels have difficulty time atmospheric CO2 levels pass 500 ppm, little area of
forming shells because the carbonate ions (CO3 2) they need ocean will be left with conditions to support coral reefs.
to create them become less available with increasing acidity, Because of this threat to coral reefs, scientists are inten-sifying
and elevated acidity levels can cause the shells of sea crea-tures the study of coral responses to warmer and acidified
to even begin dissolving. ocean waters to better inform efforts to conserve ecologi-cally
Chemistry tests in the lab show that coral shells, for important reef habitats. Research published in 2015,
example, begin to erode faster than they are built once the for example, revealed that individual coral colonies vary
carbonate ion concentration falls below 200 micromoles/kg greatly in their responses to heat and acidity, suggesting
of seawater. Researchers studying coral reefs in the field are some reefs may be more resilient than others to changes in
finding the same thing: Reefs are growing only in waters water temperature and pH. In another study, scientists found
with greater than 200 micromoles/kg of carbonate ion avail-ability.that an endangered Caribbean coral was able to sustain
A 2007 study used historical data and computer sim-ulationsgrowth under stressful conditions by increasing its feeding
to model how the distribution of coral reefs around rate, indicating that some reefs may be able to better per-sist
the world would vary at differing levels of atmospheric CO2 under increasingly stressful conditions as long as food
and, hence, differing levels of ocean acidity. The results is plentiful.

closing the LOOp

The challenges faced in Louisiana’s important habitats such as coral reefs and the biodiversity
disappearing wetlands demonstrate those reefs support.
how our planet’s aquatic systems There is plenty of reason for optimism, however. Improve-ments
comprise an interconnected web of in water use efficiency show promise for reducing
ecosystems where activities in one loca-tion demand for water, even with increasing human populations.
can affect other locations far away. To Water quality in many freshwater bodies has improved in
meet our needs for water for farms, homes, and industries, we recent decades, thanks to legislative action from policymakers
have overextracted surface water and groundwater in many and the efforts of millions of concerned citizens. In the oceans,
locations, and have engineered waterways with canals, levees, marine reserves give hope that we can restore ecosystems
and dams, altering their natural functions. Water pollutants and commercial fisheries at the same time. Water is a vital
threaten human health and ecosystem stability, and over-harvesting
need for people, so it is only with care and continued vigilance
of marine fish populations threatens the oceans’ that we will be able to secure the water we need while main-taining
biodiversity. Climate change is altering the temperature and the health of the aquatic ecosystems that provide us so
chemistry of the world’s oceans, endangering ecologically many valuable ecosystem services

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Explain why the distribution of water on Earth makes 6. Name three major types of water pollutants, and provide
it difficult for many people to access adequate fresh an example of each. Explain which classes of pollutants
water. you think are most important in your local area.
2. Pick one of the aquatic systems profiled in this chapter, 7. Define groundwater, and list some sources of
and provide three examples of ways it interacts with groundwater pollution that come from human activities.
other aquatic systems. 8. Describe and explain the major steps in the process of
3. Why are coral reefs biologically valuable? How are they wastewater treatment. How can artificially constructed
being degraded by human impact? Whatis causing the wetlands aid such treatment?
disappearance of mangroveforests and salt marshes? 9. Name three industrial fishing practices, and explain how
4. Why do the Colorado, Rio Grande, Nile, and Yellow they result in bycatch and marine habitat degradation.
rivers now slow to atrickle orrun dry beforereaching 10. How does a marine reserve differ from a marine
their deltas? protected area? Why do many fishers oppose marine
5. Describe three benefits and three costs of damming reserves? Explain why many scientists say no-take
rivers. Whatarethe costs and benefits oflevees? reserves will be good for fishers.

284 CHAPTER 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts

 SEEKINGSolutions

1. How can we lessen agricultural demand for water? congressional representatives for federal action to
Describe some ways we can reduce household water restore sediment flows to the coastline. What actions,
use. specifically, would you ask your representatives to

2. Describe three ways in which your own actions propose to Congress in order to help save the coastline
contribute to water pollution. Now describe three ways and your community?

in which you could diminish these impacts. 5. THINK IT THROUGH Your state’s governor has put
3. Describe the trends in global fish capture from 1950 to you in charge of water policy for the state. The aquifer

1990 and from 1990 to 2016. Describe several factors beneath your state has been overpumped, and many
that account for these trends. wells have run dry. Agriculture is a big part of the state’s
economy, but crop production recently declined for
4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION You are mayor of a
the first time in 40 years. Meanwhile, the state’s largest
coastal town in Louisiana that is slowly losing its land to
city is growing so fast that more water is needed for its
the sea, andlocal residents are concerned about their
burgeoning urban population. What policies would you
homes and their community as the land disappears.
consider to restore your state’s water supply? Would you
Because this threat is due to actions upstream on
try to take steps to increase supply, decrease demand,
the Mississippi River that rob it of land-nourishing
or both? Explain why you would choose such policies.
sediments, your constituents want you to lobby your

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints

One ofthe single greatest personal uses of wateris for show-ering. minute. Given an average daily shower time of 8 minutes, cal-culate
Old-style showerheads that were standard in homes the amounts of water used and saved over the course
and apartments built before 1992 dispense at least 5 gal-lons of a year with old standard versus low-flow showerheads,
(19 L) of water per minute, but low-flow showerheads and record your results in the table.
produced after that year dispense just 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) per

ANNUAL WATER USE WITH ANNUAL WATER USE WITH ANNUAL WATER SAVINGS WITH
STANDARD SHOWERHEADS LOW-FLOW SHOWERHEADS LOW-FLOW SHOWERHEADS
(GALLONS) (GALLONS) (GALLONS)

You

Your class

Your state

United States

1. In 2010, the EPA began promoting showerheads that 3. Compare your answers to questions 1 and 2. Do
produce still-lower flows of 2 gallons (7.5 L) per minute you save more water by showering 8 minutes with
(gpm). How much water would you save per year by using a 2-gpm showerhead or 6 minutes with a 2.5-gpm
a 2-gpm showerhead instead of a 2.5-gpm showerhead? showerhead?
2. How much water would you be able to save annually by 4. Can you think of any factors that are not being
shortening your average shower time from 8 minutes to considered in this scenario of water savings? Explain.
6 minutes? Assume you use a 2.5-gpm showerhead.

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Goto Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Goto Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

Chapter 12 Fresh Water, Oceans, and Coasts 28

1
TheAtmosphere,
CHAPTER
AirQuality,
and
Pollution
Control

286 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 central CASESTUDY

Clearingthe Airin L.A.

andin MexicoCity
UNITED
STATES
I left L.A. in 1970, and Los Angeles has long symbol-ized
Los Angeles
one of the reasons I left was air pollution. Smog—that
MEXICO
the horrible smog. And then unhealthy mix of air pollut-ants
they cleaned it up. That was Mexico City
resulting from fossil fuel
one of the greatest things the
combustion—has blanketed the
government has ever done for
city for decades. Exhaust from millions of automobiles
me. You have beautiful days
clogging L.A.’s freeways regularly becomes trapped by
now. It’s a much, much nicer
the mountains that surround the city, and the region’s
place to live.
—Actor and comedian Steve Martin,
warm sunshine turns the pollutants to smog. In response,
speaking to Los Angeles Magazine Los Angeles has used policy and technology to improve
its air quality. Today L.A. still suffers the nation’s worst
This city can be a model smog, butits skies are clearer than in decades.
for others.
One city that looked to L.A.’s efforts as it planned
— Mexico City Mayor Miguel

Ángel Mancera
its own responses to smog is Mexico City, the capital of
Mexico and one of the world’s largest metropolises. Not
long ago, Mexico City suffered the most polluted air in the world. On days of poor air qual-ity
in the 1990s, residents wore face masks on the streets, teachers kept students inside
at recess, and outdoor sports events were canceled. Children drawing pictures would use
brown crayons to color the sky. Scientists documented severe health impacts of air pollution
on the city’s residents (see THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY, pp. 298–299). Indeed, each
year thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of hospital visits were blamed on pollution.
Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes called his nation’s capital “Makesicko City.”
Asin Los Angeles, traffic generates most of the pollution in Mexico City, where motor-ists
in nearly 7 million cars traverse miles of urban sprawl. And like L.A., Mexico Citylies

Upon completing this in a valley surrounded by mountains, vulnerable to temperature inversions that trap pollut-ants

chapter, you will be able to: over the city. Moreover, at Mexico City’s high altitude—2240 m(7350 ft) above sea
level—solar radiation is intense, which worsens smog formed by
• Describe the composition,
the interaction of pollutants with sunlight. Mexico City envi-ronmental
structure, and function of Earth’s
chemist Armando Retama likens his home-town
atmosphere
to “a casserole dish with a lid on top.”
• Relate weather and climate to
Despite the challenges, Mexico City’s 21 million
atmospheric conditions
people fought back and made notable improve-ments
• Identify major outdoor air in air quality. Cityleaders took bold action
pollutants and outline the scope to clean up the air, and in recent years Mexico
of air pollution
City has been enjoying a renaissance. As the
• Assess strategies and solutions smog began to clear, revealing beautiful views
for control of outdoor air pollution of the snow-capped peaks that ring the valley,

• Explain stratospheric ozone Mexico City became an international model

depletion and identify steps taken for other cities seeking to fight pollution.
to address it Efforts began in the 1990s, when city

• Describe acid deposition, discuss

leaders shut down an oil refinery and pushed

its consequences, and explain factories and power plants to shift to cleaner-burning
how we are addressing it natural gas. Policymakers mandated that
lead be removed from gasoline, that the sulfur con-tent
• Characterize the scope of indoor

air pollution and assess solutions

of diesel fuel be reduced, and that catalytic con-verters
(p. 294) be phased in for new vehicles.

Testing emissions at a vehicle inspection station in Los Angeles

Mexico City on a smoggy day 28

 Levels of many pollutants fell, but as the population grew, All these changes paid off with cleaner air.In 1991, Mexico
smog from traffic persisted. In response, city officials stepped up City’s air was deemed hazardous to breathe on all but 8 days of
vehicle emissions testing and upgraded taxis and city vehicles to the year. By 2010–2015, most pollutants had been slashed by
cleaner models. To monitor air quality, 34 sampling stations were morethan 75%, and the air was meeting health standards on
set up across the city, sending real-time data to city engineers. one of every two days.
In 2007 Mayor Marcelo Ebrard accelerated efforts as part However, plenty of hurdles remain. Rampant development
of a 15-year sustainability plan he launched aiming to make is challenging efforts to plan for sustainable growth. New high-way
Mexico City “the greenest city in the Americas.” New lines construction is inducing more people to drive. The typical
were added to the subway system, and 800 exhaust-spewing motorist still spends three hours a day stuck in traffic that aver-ages
minibuses were replaced with fuel-efficient buses. More than just 13 mph. And smog still contributes to an estimated
450,000 people now use these buses each day, cutting carbon 4000 deaths each year. In 2016, a month-long spell of hot,
dioxide emissions by an estimated 80,000 tons per year. windless weather brought back foul air conditions that the city
In 2010 Ebrard introduced a bicycle-sharing program to had not suffered in over a decade. Angry residents complained
free short-distance commuters from dependence on cars. With that the city’s politicians had become complacent and were fail-ing
1000 bikes at rental stations throughout the city, people can to follow through on further reforms. In response, Mexico’s
rent a bike cheaply at one location and drop it off at another. president, Enrique Peña Nieto, urged leaders to buckle down
In the most popular initiative, every Sunday morning the city’s anew and tighten emissions testing on vehicles. The hope is
main boulevard, the Paseo de la Reforma, is closed to car traf-fic, that Mexico City will continue to follow in the footsteps of Los
creating a safe and pleasant community space for pedestri-ans, Angeles, making steady progress toward cleaner air.
bikers, joggers, and skateboarders. L.A. and Mexico City typify cities of developed and devel-oping
After 2012, Ebrard’s successor as mayor, Miguel Ángel nations today. Nations that are industrializing as they try
Mancera,built on these efforts by expandingthe bicycle program to build wealthfor their citizens are confronting the same air
and putting electric buses and taxis on the roads. Mancera also quality challenges that plagued the United States and other
rolled out a car-sharing program, aiming to remove 40,000 vehicles wealthy nations a generation and more ago. We willexamine the
from circulation. Privateentrepreneursare now gettingin onthe act; solutions soughtin Los Angeles, Mexico City, and elsewhere as
recent university graduates have launched companies providing welearn about Earth’s atmosphere and how to reduce the pol-lutants
car-sharing and carpooling services, some using electric vehicles. we release into it.

The Atmosphere Argon (Ar): 0.93%

Carbon dioxide (CO2): 0.04%
Every breath we take reaffirms our connection to the
Neon (Ne): 0.0018%
atmosphere, the layer of gasesthat envelops our planet. Nitrogen (N2) Helium (He): 0.0005%
The atmosphere moderates our climate, provides oxygen, (78.08%) Methane (CH4): 0.00018%
helpsto shield us from meteorsand hazardoussolar radia-tion, Oxygen (O2) Other trace gases: <0.0001%
(20.95%)
and transports and recycles water and nutrients.
Watervapor (H2O)
Earth’s atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen (N2) and
varies from 0% to 4%
21% oxygen(O2), by volume of dry air. Theremaining 1%is
composed of argon (Ar) and minute concentrations of other
gases (FIGURE 13.1). The atmosphere also contains water FIGURE 13.1 Earth’s atmosphere consists of nitrogen, oxy-gen,
vapor (H2O)in concentrationsthat vary withtime and place argon, and a mix of gases at dilute concentrations.

from 0% to 4%. Today, human activity is altering the quan-tities

of some atmospheric gases, such as carbon dioxide
(CO2), methane(CH4), and ozone(O3).
The atmosphere is layered
The atmospherethat stretchesso high above usis actually
just 1/100 of Earth’s diameter, like the fuzzy skin of a peach.
It consists of four layers that differ in temperature, density,
and composition(FIGURE13.2).
Withinthe bottommost layer, the troposphere, air move-mentlittle
drives the planet’s weather. The troposphere is thin
(averaging 11 km [7 mi] high) relative to the atmosphere’s
other layers, but it contains three-quarters of the atmosphere’s
mass.Thisis becausegravity pulls massdownward, making
air denser near Earth’s surface. Tropospheric air gets colder
with altitude, dropping to roughly –52°C (–62°F) atthe top of
the troposphere. Atthis point,temperaturesstabilize, marking
a boundary called the tropopause. The tropopause acts like a
cap, limiting mixing between the troposphere and the atmo-spheric
layer aboveit, the stratosphere.
The stratosphere extends 11–50 km (7–31 mi) above
sea level. Similar in composition to the troposphere, the
stratosphereis drier and less dense.Its gasesexperience
vertical mixing, so once substances (including pollut-ants)
enter it, they tend to remain for a long time. The strato-sphere
warms with altitude, becauseits ozone and oxygen
absorb the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation (p. 35). Most
of the atmosphere’s ozone concentratesin a portion of th

288 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 Land and surface water absorb solar energy and then emit
Ozone concentration (milli-Pascals)
thermal infrared radiation, which warms the air and causes
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
some water to evaporate. As a result, air near Earth’s surface
120
tends to be warmer and moister than air at higher altitudes.

110
These differences set into motion a process of convective
Thermosphere circulation. Warm air, being less dense, rises and creates ver-tical
(up to 500 km)
100 currents. As air rises into regions of lesser atmospheric
pressure, it expands and cools, causing moisture to condense
90 and fall as rain. Once the air cools, it descends and becomes
denser, replacing warm air that is rising. The descending air
Temperature profile
80 picks up heat and moisture near ground level and prepares

Mesosphere to rise again, continuing the process. Convective circulation

70 influences both weather and climate.
Weather and climate each involve physical properties
60 of the troposphere, such as temperature, pressure, humidity,
(km

cloudiness, and wind. Weather specifies atmospheric con-ditions

50
in a location over minutes, hours, days, or weeks. In
contrast, climate describes typical patterns of atmospheric con-ditions
Altitude

Ozone
40
concentration in a location over years, decades, centuries, or millen-nia.
Stratosphere
Mark Twain noted the distinction by remarking, “Climate
30
is what we expect; weather is what we get.” For example, Los
Angeles has a climate characterized by warm dry summers and
20
Tropopause mild rainy winters, yet on some autumn days, dry Santa Ana
winds blow in from the desert and bring extremely hot weather.
10
Troposphere

0 Inversions affect air quality

–80 –60 –40 –20 0

Temperature (oC) Under most conditions, air in the troposphere becomes cooler
as altitude increases. Because warm air rises, vertical mix-ing
FIGURE 13.2 The atmosphere is layered. Temperature (red line)
results (FIGURE 13.3a). Occasionally, however, a layer
drops with altitude in the troposphere, rises with altitude in the strato-sphere,
of cool air may form beneath a layer of warmer air. This
drops in the mesosphere, and rises in the thermosphere.
departure from the normal temperature profile is known as a
The tropopause separates the troposphere from the stratosphere.
Ozone (blue area) is densest in the lower stratosphere. Adapted from temperature inversion, orthermal inversion (FIGURE13.3b).
Jacobson, M.Z., 2002. Atmospheric pollution: History, science, and regulation. The band of air in which temperature rises with altitude is
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; and Parson, E.A., 2003. Protecting the called an inversion layer (because the normal direction of
ozone layer: Science and strategy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. temperature change is inverted). The cooler air at the bottom
of the inversion layer is denser than the warmer air above,
so it resists vertical mixing and remains stable. Temperature
stratosphereroughly 17–30 km (10–19 mi)abovesealevel,
inversions can occur in different ways, sometimes involving
a region we call the ozone layer. By absorbing and scatter-ing
cool air at ground level and sometimes involving an inver-sion
incoming UV radiation, the ozone layer greatly reduces
layer higher above the ground. One common type of
the amount ofthis radiation that reaches Earth’ssurface. UV
inversion (shown in Figure 13.3b) occurs in mountain valleys
light can damageliving tissue and induce genetic mutations,
where slopes block morning sunlight, keeping ground-level
and life has evolved to rely onthe protective presence of the
air within the valley shaded and cool.
ozonelayer.
Vertical mixing allows pollutants in the air to be carried
Above the stratosphere lies the mesosphere, wheretem-peratures
upward and diluted, but temperature inversions trap pollutants
decrease with altitude and where incoming mete-ors
near the ground. As a result, cities such as Los Angeles and
burn up. Abovethis the thermosphereextends upwardto
Mexico City suffer their worst pollution when inversions pre-vent
an altitude of 500 km (300 mi). Still higher, the atmosphere
pollutants from being dispersed. Both metropolitan areas
mergesinto spacein a region called the exosphere.
are encircled by mountains that promote inversions, interrupt
air flow, and trap pollutants. Los Angeles experiences inver-sions
The suninfluences weather most often when a “marine layer” of air cooled by the

and climate ocean moves inland. In Mexico City in 1996, a persistent tem-perature
inversion sparked a five-day crisis in which air pol-lution
Anenormous amount of energy from the sun constantly bom-bards killed at least 300 people and sent 400,000 to hospitals.
the upper atmosphere.Ofthis solar energy,about 70% Acrossthe world, inversions frequently concentrate pollution
is absorbed by the atmosphere and planetary surface, while over metropolitan areas in valleys ringed by mountains, from
the rest is reflected back into space (see Figure 14.2, p. 313). Tehran to Seoul to Río de Janeiro to São Paulo.

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 289

 High Cool High Warm

Vertical
mixing
Sun
warms
surface Heatradiates
Altitude
up from Altitude

surface Temperature
Pollution Temperatur

trapped

Low Warm Low Cool

(a) Normal conditions (b) Thermal inversion

FIGURE 13.3 Temperature inversions trap air and pollutants. Under normal conditions (a), air becomes
cooler with altitude and air of different altitudes mixes, dispersing pollutants upward. In atemperature inversion
(b), dense cool air remains near the ground, and air warms with altitude within the inversion layer. Little mixing
occurs, and pollutants are trapped.

pairs of convective cells, Ferrel cells and polar cells, lift air and
Large-scale circulation systems create precipitation around 60° latitude north and south and

produce global climate patterns cause air to descend at 30° latitude and in the polar regions.
Together these three pairs of convective cells create wet
Atlarge geographic scales, convective air currents contribute climates nearthe equator, arid climates near 30° latitude, moist
to broad climate patterns (FIGURE 13.4). Near the equator, solar regions near 60° latitude, and dry conditions near the poles. These
radiation sets in motion a pair of convective cells known as patterns, combined with temperature variation, help explain why
Hadley cells. Here, where sunlight is most intense, surface air biomes tend to occur in latitudinal bands (see Figure 4.14, p. 83).
warms, rises, and expands. Asit does so, it releases moisture, The Hadley, Ferrel, and polar cells interact with Earth’s
producing the heavy rainfall that gives rise to tropical rainfor-ests. rotation to produce global wind patterns. As Earth rotates on
After releasing much of its moisture, this air diverges and its axis, regions of the planet’s surface near the equator move
moves in currents heading north and south. The air in these westto east more quickly than locations near the poles. As a
currents cools and descends at about 30 degrees latitude north result, from the perspective of an Earth-bound observer, air cur-rents
and south. Because the descending air is now dry, the regions of the convective cells that flow north or south appear to
around 30° are quite arid, giving rise to deserts. Two additional be deflected from a straight path. This deflection is called the

Polar cell
Hadley cell Hadley cell
60o N
Ferrel cell
(moist)
Hadley cells
Westerlies

30o N
(arid)

NEtrade winds
Equator
30o S 30o N

0o (Equator)
(Doldrums)
(wet, tropical)

SEtrade winds Arid Wet, tropical Arid

climate climate climate

30o S
FIGURE 13.4 Large-scale convective cells
(arid)
Westerlies create global patterns of moisture and
wind. These cells give rise to a wet climate in
60o S tropical regions, arid climates around 30° latitude,
Ferrel cell
(moist) moist climates around 60°, and dry climates near
the poles. Surface air movement of these cells
interacts withthe Coriolis effect to create global
Polarcell windcurrents, shown with black arrows.

290 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 Corioliseffect,andit resultsin the curving global windpatterns Fires (p. 201) from burning vegetation generatesoot and
shown in Figure 13.4. For centuries, people madeuse of these gases. Worldwide, morethan 60 million hectares (ha; 150
patternsto facilitate oceantravel by wind-powered sailing ships. million acres; an area the size of Texas) of forest and grass-land
Understandinghowthe atmospherefunctions enables us burnin atypical year.Volcaniceruptions(p. 236)release
to appreciate what drives Earth’s climate and can help us pre-dict particulate matter and sulfur dioxide that may spread over
our weather day by day. Such knowledge also helps us large regions. Ashfrom major eruptions can ground airplanes
comprehendhow our pollution ofthe atmosphereaffects cli-mate,
and poserespiratory health dangers.In 2012, Mexico City
ecological systems, economies, and human health. residents went on alert asthe nearby volcano of Popocatepetl
erupted, adding to the region’s pollution challenges. Wind-blown

Outdoor Air Quality dustis another natural pollution source. Duststorms

in arid regions can sometimes blow dust from one continent
Throughout history, wehave madethe atmosphere a dumping to another.

ground for our airborne wastes. Whetherfrom simple wood Somenaturalimpacts are madeworseby humanactivity
fires or modern coal-burning power plants, we have gener-ated andland use policies. Farming and grazing practices that strip
air pollutants, gases and particulate material added to vegetation from the soil promote wind erosion andlead to dust

the atmospherethat canaffect climate or harmpeopleor other storms,like those that devastatedAmerica’sDust Bowlin the
living things. Fortunately, our efforts to control air pollution, 1930s (p. 149). In the tropics, manyfarmers set fires to clear
forest (p. 145). In North American forests, the suppression of
the release of air pollutants, have brought some of our best
successesin confronting environmental problems.
fire hasallowed fuel to build up and eventually feed highly
In recent decades, public policy and improved technolo-gies destructive fires (p. 201). And climate change (Chapter 14),
driven by our use of fossil fuels, is leading to drought in many
havehelpedusreduce mosttypes of outdoor air pollution
(often called ambient air pollution) in industrialized nations.
regions, worseningduststormsandfires as aresult.
However, outdoor air pollution remains a problem, particularly
in industrializing nationsandin urbanareas.Globally,the World Wecreate outdoor air pollution
Health Organization (WHO) estimatesthat each year 3.3 million
people die prematurely as aresult of health problems caused by Human activity produces many air pollutants. As with water
outdoorair pollution. Moreover,weface an enormousair pol-lution
pollution, anthropogenic (human-caused) air pollution can
challenge today in our emission of greenhouse gases emanate from point sources or non-point sources (p. 275).
(p. 314), which contribute to global climate change. (We discuss A point source describes a specific location from which large
climatechangeseparatelyandin depthin Chapter14.) quantities of pollutants are discharged (such as a coal-fired
power plant). Non-point sources are more diffuse, consisting

Some pollutionis from natural sources of many small, widely spread sources (such as millions of
automobiles).
When wethink of outdoor air pollution, wetend to envision Pollutants released directly from a source are termed
smokestacks belching smoke from industrial plants. How-ever, primary pollutants. Ash from a volcano, sulfur dioxide
natural processesalso pollute the air (FIGURE13.5). from a power plant, and carbon monoxide from an engine

Atlantic Ocean

Africa

500 km

(a) Natural fire in California (b) Mount Saint Helens eruption, 1980 (c) Satellite image of dust storm blowing
dust from Africa to the Americas

FIGURE 13.5 Wildfire, volcanoes, and dust storms are three natural sources of air pollution.

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 29

 major pollutants in ambient air. It is largely up to the states to
Long-lived pollutants can monitor emissions and air quality and to develop, implement,
drive global processes
and enforce regulations within their borders. States submit
such as climate change
CO2 CH4 N2O
and stratospheric ozone implementation plans to the EPA for approval, and if a state’s
SF6 HFCs HCFCs
depletion. plans are not adequate, the EPA can take control of enforce-ment.
Global PFCs CFCs

impac If a region fails to clean up its air, the EPA can prevent
of CO it from receiving federal money for transportation projects.
Hemispheric
Tropospheric
scale

ozone
Agencies monitor emissions
SO42–NO3 –

Regional
NH4 + PM2.5
State and local agencies monitor and report to the EPA emis-sions
Short-lived
SO2 NO2 of six major pollutants, profiled below. Across the
Maximum

pollutants can
Local NH3 PM10
United States in 2016, human activity polluted the air with
affect health.
NO
roughly 80 million tons of these six pollutants.
Hours Days Weeks Years
Months
Centuries Carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide(CO) is a color-less,
Residence time in the atmosphere odorless gas produced primarily by the incomplete

FIGURE 13.6 Substances with short residence times affect combustion of fuel. Vehicles and engines account for most
air quality locally, whereas those with long residence times CO emissions in the United States. Other sources include
affect air quality globally. Source: United Nations Environment Pro-gramme, industrial processes, waste combustion, and residential
2007. Global environmental outlook (GEO-4), Nairobi, Kenya. wood burning. Carbon monoxide is hazardous because it
binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells, which in turn pre-vents
hemoglobin from binding with oxygen. Carbon mon-oxide
are all primary pollutants. Often primary pollutants react
poisoning induces nausea, headaches, fatigue, heart
with one another, or with constituents of the atmosphere, and
and nervous system damage, and potentially death.
form other pollutants, called secondary pollutants. Exam-ples
include ozone formed near ground level (p. 294) from
Sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide(SO2)is a colorlessgas with
pollutants in urban smog, or the acids in acid rain, formed
a pungent odor. Mostemissions result from the combustion of
when certain primary pollutants react with water and oxygen.
coal for electricity generation and industry. During combus-tion,
Because substances differ in how readily they react in air
elemental sulfur (S), a contaminant in coal, reacts with
and in how quickly they settle to the ground, they differ in
oxygen (O2) to form SO2. Oncein the atmosphere, SO2 may
their residence time, the amount of time a substance spends
react to form sulfur trioxide (SO3) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4),
in the atmosphere. Pollutants with brief residence times exert
which may settle back to Earth in acid deposition (p. 303).
localized impacts over short time periods. Most particulate
matter and most pollutants from automobile exhaust stay aloft Nitrogen oxides Nitrogen oxides (NOX) are a family
only hours or days, which is why air quality in a city like Mex-ico of compounds that include nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen
City or Los Angeles changes from day to day.In contrast, dioxide (NO2). Most U.S. emissions of nitrogen oxides
pollutants with long residence times can exert impacts region-ally result when nitrogen and oxygen from the atmosphere react
or globally for long periods, even centuries (FIGURE 13.6). at high temperatures during combustion in vehicle engines.
The pollutants that drive climate change andthose that deplete Fossil fuel combustion in industry and at electrical utilities
Earth’s ozone layer (two separate phenomena!—see FAQ, accounts for most of the rest. NOX emissions contribute to
p. 303) are each able to cause these long-lasting global smog, acid deposition, and stratospheric ozone depletion.
impacts because they persist in the atmosphere for so long.
Volatile organic compounds Volatile organic com-pounds
(VOCs) are carbon-containing chemicals emitted
The Clean Air Act addresses by vehicle engines and a wide variety of solvents, industrial
pollution processes, household chemicals, paints, plastics, and con-sumer
items. Examples range from benzene to acetone to
To address air pollution in the United States, Congress has passed
formaldehyde. One group of anthropogenic VOCs consists
a series of laws, most notably the Clean Air Act, first enacted
of hydrocarbons (p. 32). Other VOCs are emitted naturally
in 1963 and amended multiple times since, chiefly in 1970 and
by plants. VOCs can react to produce secondary pollutants,
1990. This body of legislation funds research into pollution
as occurs in urban smog.
control, sets standards for air quality, and encourages emissions
standards for automobiles and for stationary point sources such Particulate matter Particulate matter is composed of
asindustrial plants. It also imposes limits on emissions from new solid or liquid particles small enough to be suspended in the
sources, funds a nationwide air quality monitoring system, and atmosphere. Particulate matter includes primary pollutants such
enables citizens to sue parties violating the standards. as dust and soot, as well as secondary pollutants such as sulfates
Underthe Clean Air Act,the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion and nitrates. Scientists classify particulate matterby the size of
Agency (EPA) sets nationwide standards for (1) emis-sions the particles. Smaller particles are morelikely to get deep into
of several key pollutants and (2) concentrations of the lungs and to pass through tissues, causing damage to the

292 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 200
300 250
+246%

Year
1970 250 200 +184%
150 (–99%)
(–75%) 2016
emitted tons 150
(% change) 200
of (1970–2015

100
tons

100 150
+44% +57%
50
of

change

100
0
Thousands

Millions
50 (–60%)
(–61%) (–92%)
50
–50
(–78%)
Percentage

–71%
0 0 –100
CO NOx VOCs SO2 PM10 Pb Emissions Energy Population Vehicle GDP

Air pollutant consumption miles

traveled
(a) Declines in six major pollutants (b) Trends in major indicators

FIGURE 13.7 U.S. emissions have declined sharply since 1970. We have achieved reductions (a) in the
six major pollutants tracked by the EPA, despite increases (b) in U.S. energy consumption, population, vehicle
miles traveled, and gross domestic product. Datafrom U.S. EPA.

• By what percentage has population increased since 1970? • By what percentage have emissions
decreased? • Using these two percentages, calculate the change in emissions per person.
(Hint: Begin by envisioning a population of 100 people and 100 units of emissions.)

Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

lungs, heart, and brain. PM10 pollutants consist of particles less

than 10 micronsin diameter (one-seventh the width of a human
hair). PM2.5pollutantsconsist of still-finer particlesless than
2.5 micronsin diameter. Most PM10pollution is from road dust,
whereas most PM2.5pollution results from combustion. 4 Excess mist 5 Purified flue gas
condenses exits to stack
on screen
Lead Lead(Pb) is a heavy metalthat entersthe atmosphere
as a particulate pollutant. The lead-containing compounds 2 Gasrises
tetraethyl lead and tetramethyl lead, when added to gasoline, toward spray
improve engine performance. However, exhaust from the com-bustion nozzles through
mist of
of leaded gasolineemits airbornelead, whichcan be
chemically
inhaled or can settle on land and water. Whenlead enters the treated water
7 Cleansed
food chain,it accumulates
in bodytissuesand cancausecentral
water is
nervous system malfunction and manyother ailments (p. 215). piped
1 Dirty flue gas
Sincethe 1980s the United States and manyother nations have up from
enters scrubber
phasedoutleaded gasoline(p. 19), and now mostdeveloping settling
tank and
nations arefollowing suit. In developed nations today, the main
reused
source of atmospheric lead is industrial metalsmelting.
8 Sludge of

Wehavereduced emissions 3 Mistcaptures

pollutants
is disposed
pollutants and of as
Since the Clean Air Act of 1970, the United States has hazardous
brings them
reduced emissions of each of the six monitored pollutants to bottom waste
substantially (FIGURE 13.7a). These dramatic reductions in
emissions have occurred despite significant increases in the 6 Dirty water is drained to
nation’s population, energy consumption, milestraveled by settling tank and cleansed

vehicle, and gross domestic product (FIGURE13.7b).

This success in controlling pollution has resulted from
FIGURE 13.8 Scrubbers typically remove at least 90% of
policy steps and technological advances,each motivatedby
particulate matter and gases such as sulfur dioxide. Scrub-bers
grass-roots social demand for cleaner air. In factories, power
and other pollution control devices come in many designs.
plants, and refineries, technologies such as baghouse fil-ters, In this diagram of a spray-tower wet scrubber, follow the numbers
electrostatic precipitators,andscrubbers (FIGURE13.8) to see how polluted air rises through a chamber while nozzles
chemically convert or physically remove pollutants before spray a mist of water mixed withlime or other active chemicals
they are emitted from smokestacks. Cleaner-burning motor to capture pollutantsand washthem out ofthe air.

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 293

 5 These less harmful gases Nitrogen gas (N2)
are expelled from the Carbon dioxide (CO2)
vehicle’s tailpipe.
Water vapor (H2O)

4 Metals in the honeycomb help

catalyze chemical reactions,
which, with heat and oxygen,
convert pollutants into
nitrogen, carbon dioxide,
and water vapor.
1 Pollutants from the
engineflow into the Main chemical reactions:
catalytic converter.
2 NO N2 + O2
2 NO2 N2 + 2 O2
2 CO + O2 2 CO2
Carbon monoxide (CO)
CxHy+ O2 CO2 + H2O
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) CO + NOx CO2 + N
Hydrocarbons

2 Honeycomb-like Catalytic metals

(Pd, Rh, Pt)
masses inside a
stainless steel 3 The honeycomb structure
Washcoat
housing maximize is covered with aluminum
(Al2O3)
FIGURE 13.9 Catalytic converters surface area for oxide, palladium, rhodium,

contact with gases. and platinum.

improve air quality by filtering Substrate
pollutants from vehicle exhaust. (metal or ceramic)

vehicle engines and automotivetechnologies such as cata-lyticphotochemicalsmog (pp. 296–297),this colorless gas poses
converters have cut down on pollution from automobile health risks becausethe O3 molecule will readily split into a
exhaust. In a catalytic converter, engine exhaust reacts with molecule of oxygen gas(O2) and afree oxygen atom. The oxy-gen
metalsthat convert hydrocarbons,CO,and NOXinto carbon atom maythen participatein reactionsthat injure living tis-sues
dioxide, water vapor, and nitrogen gas (FIGURE 13.9). Phase-outs and causerespiratory problems. Tropospheric ozoneis the
of leaded gasoline causedlead emissionsto plummet pollutantthat mostfrequently exceedsits EPAstandard.
(p. 19), and the EPA’s Acid Rain Program and its emissions Across the United States, more than 4000 monitoring
trading system (pp. 304–305), along with clean coal technolo-gies stations take hourly or daily air samples to measurepollutant
(p. 360), havereduced SO2and NOXemissions. concentrations.The EPA compilesthese data and calculates
values for its Air Quality Index (AQI) for each site. Each of six
Air quality hasimproved pollutants—CO, SO2, NO2, O3,PM10,and PM2.5—receives an
AQI valuefrom 0to 500that reflectsits current concentration.
As a result of emissions reductions, air quality hasimproved AQI values below 100 indicate satisfactory air conditions, and
markedlyin industrialized nations.In the United States,the EPA values above 100 indicate unhealthy conditions. The highest
andthe states monitoroutdoorair quality by measuring
concen-trations
AQI valuefrom the pollutants on a particular dayis reported
of six criteria pollutants, pollutants judged to posesub-stantial
as the overall AQI value for that day, and these values are
risk to human health. Thesix criteria pollutants include madeavailable online and reported in weatherforecasts.
four of the six pollutants whoseemissionsare monitored—carbon Thanksto the actions of scientists, policymakers,indus-trial
monoxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter,andlead—as leaders, and everyday people, outdoor air quality today is
well as nitrogen dioxide andtropospheric ozone. far better than it wasa generation or two ago. However,there
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a foul-smelling, highly reac-tive,remains plenty of room for improvement. Concernsovernew
reddish brown gas that contributes to smog and acid pollutants are emerging, greenhouse gas emissions are alter-ing
deposition. Along with nitric oxide (NO), NO2belongs to the the climate, and people in low-income communities often
family of nitrogen oxides (NOX). Nitric oxide reactsreadily suffer from hotspots of pollution. In fact, many Americans
in the atmosphere to form NO2, which is both a primary and live in areas where pollution continues to reach unhealthy lev-els.
secondary pollutant. Forinstance, despite greatimprovement over the pasttwo
Although ozonein the stratosphereshields usfrom the decades,residents of Los AngelesCountybreatheairthat vio-lates
dangers of UV radiation, ozone from human activity accumu-lates health standards for five ofthe six criteria pollutants. As
low in the troposphere. Tropospheric ozone (O3; also of 2015, 127 million Americanslived in counties that violated
called ground-levelozone)is asecondarypollutant,createdby the national standardfor tropospheric ozone. Still, L.A. and
the reaction of nitrogen oxides and volatile carbon-containing other metropolises are making perceptible headway toward
chemicalsin the presenceof sunlight. A majorcomponentof cleanerair for their residents(FIGURE13.10).

294 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 FIGURE 13.10 In most U.S. cities,
air has become cleaner. This
16

Seattle
18 map shows numbers of days with
13
5 Philadelphia unhealthy airfrom years spanning
Cleveland
Portland four decadesfor 29 metropolitan
5 1 areas, according to the Air Quality
Boston
25 Minneapolis
12 24
Index (p. 294). Datafrom U.S.EPA.
Sacramento
9 Detroit Pittsburgh
17
Locate where you live on
Chicago
Salt Lake City 22
this map. • How does
New York
5 your city or the nearest major city to
17
11 6 8 Washington 6 you compare to others in its air
San Francisco Denver 7
Las Vegas St. Louis
Cincinnati Baltimore quality? • How hasits air quality
changed in recent years?
7

29
Now explore one ofthe EPA web-sites
2 Atlanta
45
Memphis
that lets you browse information
Dallas
20 Phoenix on the air you breathe: www.airnow
106
San Diego .gov, www.epa.gov/aircompare, or
32
5 www.epa.gov/air/emissions/where
Los Angeles Houston
New Orleans 0 .htm. • How does your region’s
5
Miami
Tampa air quality compare to that of the
rest of the nation? • Whatfactors
Number of days with influence the quality of your region’s
unhealthy air, by year 1985 1995 2005 2015 air? • Propose three steps for
reducing air pollution in your region.

Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on

Mastering Environmental Science

SUCCESS Clearing the Air for Better Health Across America

STORY

With every breath we take, each of us alive today hampering people’s health and well-being across the United
benefits from America’s success in fighting outdoor States. The Clean Air Act changed that, by encouraging pol-lution
air pollution. A generation or two ago, poor air quality was reduction and spurring advances in technology. The
resulting drop in outdoor air pollution since 1970 represents
120 one of America’s greatest accomplishments in safeguard-ing
100 human health and environmental quality. As the figure
standar

shows, ambient concentrations of all criteria pollutants have

80
declined below their health standards set by the EPA. Lead,
safety
60 not shown, has plummeted from 900% of its standard since
Most recent
SO2
and
40 national standard 1980. The EPA estimates that between 1970 and 1990
Ozone alone, clean air regulations and the resulting technological
20
health advances in pollution control saved the lives of 200,000
0
Americans. This success demonstrates how seemingly
CO
from

–20 intractable problems can be addressed when government

PM2.5
and industry apply information from science and are respon-sive
–40 NO2
PM10 to the public’s demands. However, progress gained can
–60
difference
also be lost. To protect our hard-won gains and build on
–80 our success, we must insist that our policymakers uphold
beneficial regulations and resist influence from polluting
–100
interests that threaten our health and safety. We also would
–120
Percentage

do well to remember that outdoor air is cleaner than indoor

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
air—so it pays to get off the couch, turn off the screen, and
Year
get outside!
Concentrations of criteria pollutants in ambient air across
the United States have fallen in the wake of Clean Air Act EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science
regulations. Datafrom U.S. EPA.

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 295

 Smog poses health risks factories and coal-burning stoves and creating foul conditions
that killed 4000 people—and by some estimates up to 12,000.
Now let’s take a closer look at one of the most prevalent In the wake of “killer smog” episodes such as those in Lon-don
types of air pollution: smog. Smog is a general term for an and Donora, governments of developed nations began
unhealthy mixture of air pollutants that can accumulate as regulating industrial emissions, and this greatly reduced
a result of fossil fuel combustion, generally over industrial industrial smog. However, in industrializing regions such as
regions or urban areas with heavy automobile traffic. China, India, and eastern Europe, coal burning and lax pollu-tion
Since the onset of the industrial revolution, cities control continue to allow severe industrial smog.
have suffered a type of smog known asindustrial smog Most smog in urban areas today results largely from auto-mobile
(FIGURE 13.11a). When coal or oil is burned, some portion exhaust. In Mexico City, vehicles contribute 31% of
is completely combusted, releasing CO2; some is partially VOCs, 50% of sulfur dioxide, and 82% of nitrogen oxides.
combusted, emitting CO; and some remains unburned and is Some of these emissions react with sunlight, so pollution tends
released as soot (particles of carbon). Moreover, coal contains to be worst in cities with sunny climates, such as Mexico City
contaminants such as mercury and sulfur. Sulfur reacts with and Los Angeles.Suchcitiessufferfrom photochemicalsmog,
oxygen to form sulfur dioxide, which can undergo a series of which forms when sunlight drives chemical reactions between
reactions to form sulfuric acid and other compounds. These primary pollutants and atmospheric compounds, producing a
substances, along with soot, are the main components of potent cocktail of more than 100 different chemicals, tropo-spheric
industrial smog. ozone often being the most abundant (FIGURE 13.12a).
America’s most severe industrial smog event occurred Becauseit alsoincludes NO2,photochemicalsmog generally
in Pennsylvania,in a small town named Donora,in 1948 appears as a brownish haze (FIGURE 13.12b).
(FIGURE 13.11b). Donorais located in a mountain valley, and Hot, sunny, windless days in urban areas create perfect
one day after air had cooled during the night, the morning conditions for the formation of photochemical smog. On a
sun did not reach the valley floor to warm and disperse the typical weekday, exhaust from morning traffic releases NO
cold air. The resulting temperature inversion trapped smog and VOCs into a city’s air. Sunlight then promotes the pro-duction
from a steel and wire factory. Twenty-one people died, and of ozone and other secondary pollutants, leading
more than 6000 people—nearly half the town—became ill. pollution typically to peak in midafternoon. Photochemical
The world’s worst industrial smog crisis occurred in smog irritates people’s eyes, noses, and throats, and over time
London, England, in 1952, when a high-pressure system set-tled can lead to asthma, lung damage, heart problems, decreased
over the city for several days, trapping pollutants from resistance to infection, and even cancer.

Oxygen (O2) Water vapor (H2O)

INDUSTRIAL SMOG

Soot Sulfur dioxide

Sulfuric acid (H2SO4)
(Particulate matter) (SO2)

Combustio
Carbon (C)

and

Sulfur (S) contaminants

in coal and oil

(a) Formation of industrial smog (b) Donora, Pennsylvania, at midday in its 1948 smog event

FIGURE 13.11 Industrial smog results from fossil fuel combustion. When coal or oil is burned in a power
plant or factory, soot (particulate matter of carbon) is released, and sulfur contaminants give rise to sulfur diox-ide,
which may react with atmospheric gases to produce further compounds (a). Carbon monoxide and carbon
dioxide are also emitted. Under certain weather conditions, industrial smog can blanket whole regions, as it did
in Donora, Pennsylvania (b), shown in the daytime during its deadly 1948 smog episode.

296 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 Wecantake steps to reduce smog Los Angeles’s quest to solve its smog problem spurred much
of the early research into photochemical smog and how auto-mobiles
Photochemical smog afflicts countless American cities, from might burn fuel more cleanly.
Atlanta to Newark to Baltimore to Houston to Salt Lake City. Los Angeles’s city and county officials began by pass-ing
Mayors, city councilors, and state and federal regulators every-where ordinances restricting emissions from power plants, oil
are trying to devise ways to clear their air. refineries, and petrochemical facilities, then targeted emis-sions
Elsewhere in the world, many cities are tackling pho-tochemical from motor vehicles. Because air pollution spreads from
smog. In Tehran, Iran, city leaders now require place to place, responsibility for
vehicle inspections, regulate traffic into the city center, and pollution control soon moved weighingthe
pay drivers to turn in
ones. The government
old,
reduced
polluting cars for newer, cleaner from the city and county levels to
sulfur in diesel fuel and con-vertedthe state and federal levels. ISSUeS
buses to run on (cleaner-burning) natural gas. To raise California took the lead among
public awareness, 22 electronic billboards were installed U.S. states in adopting pollution Smog-Busting Solutions

around the city, displaying current pollutant levels. All these control technology and setting Does the city you live in, or a

efforts helped reduce pollution, yet so many people contin-ued emissions standards for vehicles. In major city near you, suffer from

to stream into the city and buy cars that pollution soon 1967 state leaders established the photochemical smog or other air

grew worse again. In response, officials lowered gasoline California Air Resources Board, pollution? How is this city respond-ing?

subsidies, rationed fuel, and began expanding the subway the first state agency focused on What policies do you think

system. regulating air quality. Today in it should pursue? What benefits

might your city enjoy from such
Los Angeles’s struggle with air pollution beganin 1943, California and 33 other states, driv-ers
policies? Might they cause any
whenthe city’s first major smog episode cut visibility to three are required to have their vehi-cle
unintended consequences?
blocks. Withthe city’simage as a clean and beautiful coastal exhaust inspected periodically.
haven at risk, civic leaders confronted the problem head-on. These inspection programs, which

Oxygen (O2)

Solar radiation Peroxyacyl

nitrates
(PANs)
Oxygen atom (O) Ozone (O3)

VOCs
Nitric oxide (NO) PHOTOCHEMICAL SMOG

Aldehydes
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
Many other
secondary
pollutants
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) Nitric oxide (NO) VOCs

Hydrocarbons Combustion

Gasoline Diesel
fuel

(a) Formation of photochemical smog (b) Photochemical smog over Los Angeles

FIGURE 13.12 Photochemical smog results when pollutants from automobile exhaust react amid
exposure to sunlight. Nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, and VOCsinitiate a series of chemical reactions (a) that
produce atoxic brew of secondary pollutants including ozone, peroxyacyl nitrates (PANs), aldehydes, and
others. Photochemical smog is common over Los Angeles (b) and many other urban areas, especially those
withhillytopography orfrequentinversions.

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 29

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Go to Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

Does Air Pollution Affectthe Brain,

as Wellasthe Lungs and Heart?
“I know I’m inhaling poison,” a 38-year-old In 2007 a research team led by Isabelle Romieu of Mexi-co’s
candy vendor named Guadalupe told a National Institute of Public Health examined the effects of
reporter amid the fumes of a traffic-chokedgrowing up amid polluted air. Her team measured lung function
intersection in Mexico City. in 3170 eight-year-old children from 39 Mexico City schools
“But there is nothingI can do.” across 3 years and correlated this with their exposure to tro-pospheric
For as long as we have pol-luted ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter. The
our air, people have felt team found that children from more-polluted neighborhoods
effects on their health. But lagged behind those from cleaner onesin the ability to inhale
quantifying those impacts and exhale deeply—indicating smaller, weaker lungs. Romieu
poses a challenge for scien-tists. and her colleagues also showed that the city’s pollution wors-ens
For researchers wanting asthma in children. Analyzing data from 200 asthmatic and
to understand pollution’s health healthy children, her team found that children in areas with more
impacts—and to design solutions traffic and pollutants coughed, wheezed, and used medication
for people like Guadalupe—what more often.
better place to go than Mexico City, Another Mexican researcher, Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas—now
long home to some of the world’s at the University of Montana—compared chest X-ray films
worst air pollution? and medical records of Mexico City children withthose of similar

Dr. Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas A key first step is to deter-mine children from less-polluted locations. Her team found hyperinfla-tion
what’s in the air. One and other problems with the lungs of Mexico City youth.
researcher who led the way is Mexico City children reported many respiratory problems,
Mario Molina, a chemist who won a Nobel Prize for helping to whereas rural children did not (FIGURE 2).
discover the cause of stratospheric ozone depletion (p. 301). Air pollution also harms the heart and the cardiovascular
Molina organized hundreds of scientists to sample the air in system, affecting heart rate, blood pressure, blood clotting,
Mexico City, his hometown. The nearly 200 research papers blood vessels, and atherosclerosis. Epidemiological studies
spawned by these efforts clarified many aspects of the city’s
air quality. One study used machines to identify and record
individual particles in real time. It found that metal-rich par-ticulates
from trash incinerators were peaking in the morning,
whereas smoke from fires outside the city blew in during the
afternoon. Other researchers discovered that VOCs control
the amount of tropospheric ozone formed in smog. City offi-cials
responded by targeting VOC emissions for reduction,
while also discouraging automobile traffic (FIGURE 1).
Few people understand Mexico City’s air pollution better
than Armando Retama, the city’s director of atmospheric moni-toring.
But he may grasp its impacts best when he leaves town.
“I can breathe better. I’m not all dry. My eyes aren’t irritated. My
skin doesn’t crack,” he says. “We have chronic symptoms that
we aren’t aware of.”
Most known health impacts of urban pollution affect the
respiratory system. At high altitudes like Mexico City’s, the “thin
air” forces people to breathe deeply to obtain enough oxygen.
This means they pull more air pollutants into their lungs than
people at lower elevations. Many studies confirm that Mexico
City residents show poorer lung function than people from less-pollutedFIGURE 1 During a resurgence of smog in Mexico City
areas and that respiratory problems and emergency in 2016, commuters wore face masks and took advantage
room visits become more numerous when pollution is severe. of free mass transit once authorities restricted car traffic.

298 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Contro

 Cough
deat
20
Nasal of

obstruction
15
Nasal
dryness
10
Chest
likelihood

in

discomfort
5
Nasal
lesions change

Scabbing 0
mucus

0 25 50 75 100 Percentage
–5
Lowest Highest
Percentage of children
showing symptoms Concentration of
particulate matter
FIGURE 2 Mexico City children show respiratory symptoms
from air pollution. These data are from 174 Mexico City children. FIGURE 3 Rates of death increase in Mexico City with
Of 27 similar children from less-polluted areas outside Mexico City, exposure to air pollution. Datafrom Borja-Aburto,V.,et al., 1997.
none showed any of these conditions. Datafrom Calderón-Garcidueñas, Ozone, suspended particulates, and daily mortality in Mexico City.

Am. J. Epidemiology 145: 258–268.

L., et al., 2003. Respiratory damage in children exposed to urban pollution.

Pediatric Pulmonology 36: 148–161.

(p. 223) show that pollution correlates with emergency room in ways similar to Alzheimer’s disease. In one study, Calderón-Garcidueñas
admissions for heart attacks, chest pain, and heart failure, as used brain scans and found that 56% of Mexico
well as death from heart-related causes. This is because tiny City youth had lesions on the prefrontal cortex, whereas fewer
particulates can work their way into the bloodstream, causing than 8% did in a region with clean air. In another study, her
the heart to reduce blood flow or go out of rhythm. The heart team compared 20 children from Mexico City with 10 similar
mounts an inflammatory response against pollutant particles children from a Mexican city with clean air, measuring their cog-nitive
laden with dead bacteria in the blood, but if pollution is persis-tent, skills and scanning their brains with magnetic resonance
the inflammation becomes chronic and stresses the heart. imagery (MRI). The Mexico City children performed more poorly
Even young people are at risk. One Mexican research team ana-lyzed on most cognitive tests of reasoning, knowledge, and memory.
the hearts of 21 Mexico City residents who had died at an The differences in cognition were consistent with differences in
early age, and found that pollution exacts a toll before age 18. volume of white matter in key portions of the brain, as revealed
Allthese impacts of air pollution on the lungs and heart can bythe MRIs.
lead to higher rates of death. Studies by one research team Such findings led researchers at the University of South-ern
in Mexico City compared death certificate records against air California to run rigorously controlled experimental tests
pollution measurements. The team found that death rates withlab mice. These USC scientists are collecting polluted air
rose immediately after severe pollution episodes, especially in alongside Los Angeles freeways and pumping the pollutants
response to particulate matter (FIGURE 3). into the air that lab mice breathe. They are then comparing the
Today researchers are learning that air pollution also affects brains of these mice after death to those of micethat breathed
our brains. Calderón-Garcidueñas was one of the first to rec-ognize clean air. Results thus far are showing that tiny PM2.5 pollutants
this. She noticed that older dogs in polluted Mexico City do indeed pass through tissue layers and harm the brains of
neighborhoods often seemed lethargic, disoriented, and senile. the mice.
Deciding to test her observations scientifically, she examined Today a number of scientists are conducting long-term epi-demiological
the brains of such dogs after they died and compared them research to better assess the impacts of air pol-lution
to brains of dogs from less-polluted areas. The brains of dogs on the human brain. A 2016 review of 18 such studies
from polluted parts of the city showed deposits of the protein from six nations found that all but one showed some correlation
amyloid ß, the “plaques” that signal Alzheimer’s disease. between air pollution and dementia. Continued research could
Subsequent research of hers and others has indicated reveal promising new avenues to fight dementia and Alzheimer’s
that pollution also appears to damage children’s brain tissue disease.

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 299

 sources of fuel, such as wood, charcoal, and coal, for cooking
250 0.40
and home heating. Mexico embodies these trends, and despite
0.35 the progress in its capital, residents of many Mexican cities
200 and towns continue to suffer health impacts from polluted air
0.30
standard

(ppm

(see The Science behind the Story, pp. 298–299).

0.25 Today, people in the vast sprawling cities of India, China,
federal
150
and other Asian nations suffer the world’s worst air quality.
0.20 Many Asian nations have fueled their rapid industrial devel-opment
100
concentration

with coal, the most-polluting fossil fuel. Power plants

0.15
and factories often use outdated, inefficient, heavily polluting
exceeding

Federal health standard

0.10 technology because it is cheaper and quicker to build. In addi-tion,
50
car ownership is skyrocketing. According to 2016 WHO
Maximum

0.05
Basin-days Days exceeding federal ozone standard data for PM2.5 pollutants, 12 of the 25 most polluted cities on
Maximum 8-hour average ozone concentration
Earth today are in India. People in the Middle East and Africa
0 0.00
1980 1990 2000 2010 also suffer dangerous air quality, in cities from Riyadh to
Cairo to Peshawar to Kampala to Baghdad to Kabul. Because
FIGURE 13.13 In the Los Angeles region, tropospheric
ozone in photochemical smog has been reduced since the these cities struggle with many challenges of urban poverty,
1970s, thanks to public policy and improved automotive they have made relatively few efforts to tackle air pollution,
technology. Ozone pollution still violates the federal health stan-dard, despite its vast toll on health. Urban air quality is nearly as
however. Datafrom South Coast Air Quality Management District. bad in eastern European nations such as Poland and Bulgaria,
where old Soviet-era factories still pollute the air and where
• By roughly what percentage has Los Angeles reduced
many people burn coal for home heating.
its ozone pollution since the late 1970s? • Calculate
In China’s capital of Beijing in the winter of 2013, pollu-tion
changes in each data set shown. • Do the two data sets show
became so severe that airplane flights were canceled and
similar patterns?
people woreface masksto breathe (FIGURE 13.14). Thousands
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
of people suffered ill health as pollution soared 30 times past
the WHO’s safe limits. Each winter since then, Beijing’s
“airmageddon” has returned.
require owners to repair cars that pollute excessively, have cut
Across China, the health impacts of outdoor air pollution
vehicle emissions by 30%.
are enormous. Breathing the air in some Chinese cities is like
California’s demands also helped lead the auto industry
smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Recent research has
to develop less-polluting cars. A study by the non-profit group
blamed outdoor air pollution for 1.2 million premature deaths in
Environment California concluded that a new car today gen-erates
China each year, and one study found that residents of polluted
just 1% of the smog-forming emissions of a 1960s-era
northern China die on average five years earlier than residents
car. For this reason, the air is cleaner, even with more vehicles
of southern China, where the air is cleaner. Moreover, prevail-ing
on the road. In Los Angeles, VOC pollution has declined by
westerly winds carry some of China’s pollution across the
98% since 1960, even though the city’s drivers now burn 2.7
Pacific Ocean to North America! A 2014 study calculated that
times more gasoline. L.A.’s peak smog levels have decreased
substantially since 1980 (FIGURE 13.13).
Despite its progress, Los Angeles still suffers the worst
tropospheric ozone pollution of any U.S. metropolitan area,
according to annual rankings by the American Lung Associa-tion.
L.A. residents breathe air exceeding California’s health
standard for ozone on morethan 90 days per year. One recent
study calculated that air pollution in the L.A. basin and the
nearby San Joaquin Valley each year causes nearly 3900 pre-mature
deaths and costs society $28 billion (due to hospital
admissions, lost workdays, etc.).

Air pollution remains severe

in industrializing nations
Althoughthe United Statesand otherindustrialized nations
haveimproved their air quality, outdoor air pollution is grow-ing
worsein manyindustrializing countries. In these societies,
moreand morepeopleare driving automobiles while prolifer-ating
factories and power plants are emitting morepollutants. FIGURE 13.14 At Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, children
Atthe sametime, manypeople continueto burn traditional wearface masks during an “airpocalypse” gripping the city.

300 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 Chinese pollution reaching the U.S. West Coast adds at least were allowed to choose how to reduce their plants’ emissions—by
one extra smoggy day per year to Los Angeles’s total. upgrading technology, switching from coal to natural
In 2015, China’s citizens were transfixed by an online gas, enhancing efficiency, promoting renewable energy, or
video that went viral (and was soon banned by the Chinese gov-ernment),
through carbon taxes or cap-and-trade programs. The plan
titled Under the Dome. This powerful 104-minute aimed to cut CO2 emissions from power plants by 32% below
documentary, produced and narrated by a Chinese investiga-tive 2005 levels by the year 2030. The EPA estimated that SO2
reporter, Chai Jing, confirmed for China’s people what and NOX would be reduced by 20%, that cleaner air would
they already knew: They spend their daily lives trapped under save 3600 lives, and that by 2030 the plan would bring public
a dome of dangerously polluted air. health and climate benefits worth $54 billion each year.
China’s government is now striving to reduce pollu-tion. A number of states and industries challenged the plan
It has closed down some heavily polluting factories and in court, and in 2016 the Supreme Court issued a stay of the
mines, phased out some subsidies for polluting industries, plan in a controversial 5 to 4 ruling, preventing the EPA from
and installed pollution controls in power plants. It subsidizes enforcing the plan until the lawsuits were resolved. Sub-sequently,
efficient electric heaters for homes to replace dirty, ineffi-cient the rise of Donald Trump to the presidency, his
coal stoves. It has mandated cleaner gasoline and die-sel appointment of longtime EPA foe Scott Pruitt as the agency’s
and has raised standards for fuel efficiency and emissions head, and the opposition of many Republicans in Congress
for cars beyond what the United States requires. In Beijing, to EPA policy all suggest the Clean Power Plan will likely be
masstransit is being expanded and many buses run on natural dismantled. A Trump executive order in spring 2017 initiated
gas. China is also aggressively developing wind, solar, and this process.
nuclear power to substitute for coal-fired power. The EPA will no doubt continue to face formidable oppo-sition
from emitting industries and from policymakers who fear
that regulations will hamper economic growth. Yetif we were
Should weregulate greenhouse able to reduce emissions of other pollutants sharply since 1970

gasesas air pollutants? while advancing our economy, we can hope to achieve similar
results in reducing greenhouse gasemissions. Indeed, although
Because humanity continues to release vast quantities of car-bon U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have risen significantly since
dioxide and other greenhousegasesthat warmthe lower 1970, they fell by 14% from 2007 to 2016 even as the econ-omy
atmosphere and drive global climate change (Chapter 14), grew. This decrease in emissions resulted from a shift
this is arguably today’s biggest air pollution problem. Indus-try from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas, and from improved
and utilities generate manyof these emissions, but all of fuel efficiency in automobiles and other technologies.
us contribute by living carbon-intensive lifestyles. Each year
the average U.S.vehicle driver releasescloseto 6 metrictons
of carbon dioxide, 275 kg (605 lb) of methane, and 19 kg OzoneDepletion
(41 lb) of nitrous oxide, all of them greenhouse gasesthat
drive climatechange. and Recovery
In 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has
legal authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon Although ozone in the troposphere is a pollutant in photo-chemical

dioxide and other greenhousegasesas air pollutants. Presi-dent smog, ozone in the stratosphere (p. 289) protects life

Barack Obama urged Congress to address greenhouse on Earth by absorbing the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation,

gas emissions through bipartisan legislation. When Congress which can damage tissues and DNA. When scientists discov-ered

failed to doso, Obamainstructed the EPAto developregula-tions that our planet’s stratospheric ozone was being depleted,

for these emissions. In 2011, the EPAintroduced mod-eratethey realized this posed a major threat to human health and

carbon emission standards for cars andlight trucks, and the environment. Years of research by hundreds of scientists

in 2012it announcedthat it would begin phasingin limits on revealed that certain airborne chemicals destroy ozone and

carbon emissions for new coal-fired power plants and cement that most of these ozone-depleting substances were human-made.

factories (but not existing ones). Our subsequent campaign to halt degradation of the
Thecoal-mining and petrochemicalindustries objected, stratospheric ozone layer stands as one of society’s most suc-cessful

and several states joined them in suing the EPA, but a court efforts to address a major environmental problem.

of appeals unanimously upheld the EPA’s regulations. The

Synthetic
automotiveindustry supportedthese regulations. U.S.auto-makers chemicals deplete ozone
had begun investing in fuel-efficient vehicles, and
preferred one set of federal emissions standards to avoid hav-ing Researchers identifying ozone-depleting substances pin-pointed
to worry about meeting manydifferent state standards. primarily halocarbons—human-made compounds
The public also voiced strong support; 2.1 million Americans derived from simple hydrocarbons (p. 32) in which hydro-gen
sent comments to the EPA in favor of its actions—a record atoms are replaced by halogen atoms such as chlorine,
number of public commentsfor anyfederalregulation. bromine, or fluorine. In the 1970s, industry was producing
In 2015, the EPAlaunched a regulatory plan for existing more than 1 million tons per year of one type of halocarbon,
power plants,the Clean Power Plan. Underthe plan, states chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFCs were useful as refrigerants,

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 30

 UV radiation
O3
The ozone hole appears each year
CFC
Ozone In 1985,researchersshockedthe world whenthey announced
Cl
that stratospheric ozone levels over Antarctica in the south-ern
O2 springtime had declined by nearly half during just the
Chlorine
Chlorofluorocarbon
atom Oxygen previous decade,leaving athinned ozoneconcentrationthat
wassoon named the ozone hole (FIGURE 13.16). During each
Southern Hemisphere spring since then, ozone concentrations
Cl O
over this immense region have dippedto roughly half their
Chlorine monoxide
historic levels.
Extensive scientific detective work has revealed why
O2 O seasonalozone depletionis focused over Antarctica(and to a
Refrigerators, aerosol Oxygen Oxygen atom lesser extent, the Arctic). During the dark andfrigid Antarctic
spray cans, air conditioners winter (June to August), icy clouds form in the stratosphere
(sources of chlorofluorocarbons)
containing condensednitric acid, whichsplits chlorine atoms
FIGURE 13.15 CFCs destroy ozone in a multistep process, off from compounds such as CFCs. Thefreed chlorine atoms
repeated many times. A chlorine atom released from a CFC accumulatein the clouds,trapped over Antarcticaby circular
moleculein the presence of UVradiation reacts with an ozone wind currents. In the Antarctic spring (starting in September),
molecule,forming one molecule of oxygen gas and one chlorine sunshine returns and dissipates the clouds. This releases the
monoxide (ClO) molecule. The oxygen atom of the ClO molecule chlorine atoms, whichbegindestroyingozone.Thesolarradi-ation
then binds with a stray oxygen atom to form oxygen gas, leaving also catalyzes chemical reactions, speeding up ozone
the chlorine atom to begin the destructive cycle anew.
depletion astemperatures warm. The ozone hole lingers over
Antarcticauntil December,when warmth weakensthe circu-lar
as fire extinguishers, as propellants for aerosol spray cans, as currents, allowing ozone-depleted air to diffuse away and
cleaners for electronics, and for making polystyrene foam. ozone-rich air from elsewhere to stream in. The ozone hole
Unfortunately, CFCs can linger in the stratosphere for a vanishesuntil the following spring.
century or more. There, intense UV radiation from the sun By the time scientists had worked this out, plummet-ing
breaks bonds in CFC molecules, releasing their chlorine ozone levels had become a serious international concern.
atoms. In a two-step chemical reaction (FIGURE 13.15), each Ozonedepletion wasoccurring globally, year-round—notjust
newly freed chlorine atom can split an ozone molecule and in Antarctica. Scientists worriedthat intensified UV exposure
then ready itself to split more. During its long residence time at Earth’s surface would promote skin cancer, damage crops,
in the stratosphere, each free chlorine atom can catalyze the and kill off oceanphytoplankton,the baseof the marinefood
destruction of as many as 100,000 ozone molecules! chain.

350

300

units

250

(Dobson

200
levels

Ozone

150
Southern-hemisphere fall
Southern-hemisphere spring

100
1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015
Year

(a) The ozone hole (b) Fall vs. spring ozone levels at Halley, Antarctica

FIGURE 13.16 The “ozone hole” is a vast area of thinned ozone density in the stratosphere over the
Antarctic region. It has reappeared seasonally each September in recent decades. Colorized satellite imagery
of Earth’s Southern Hemisphere from September 24, 2006, (a) shows the ozone hole (purple/blue) atits maxi-mal
recorded extent to date. Datafrom Halley, Antarctica, (b) show a drop in springtime stratospheric ozone
concentrations from the 1950s to 1990. Once ozone-depleting substances began to be phased out, ozone
concentrationsstopped declining. Data
from(a) NASA
and(b) BritishAntarcticSurvey.

302 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 Weaddressed ozone depletion with 4

the Montreal Protocol 3

2
Policymakers responded to the scientific concerns, and inter-national
1
efforts to restrict production of CFCsbore fruit in
concentratio

1987 with the Montreal Protocol. In this treaty, the world’s 0

nations agreed to cut CFC production in half by 1998. –1

ozone

Follow-up agreementsdeepened
FaQ
–2
the cuts, advanced timetables for –3
compliance, and added nearly
–4
Is the ozone hole related
100 further ozone-depleting stratospheric

–5
substances—most of which have
in

to global warming?
–6
now been phased out—with
This is a common misconception Observed data
industry makingthe shift to alter-native change
–7
held by many people. In reality, Model simulations
chemicals. As a result, we –8
stratospheric ozone depletion and Statistical uncertainty
global warming are completely
haveevidently haltedthe advance –9

different issues. Ozone depletion

of ozone depletion and stopped Percentage
1960 2000 2040 2080

allows excess ultraviolet radia-tion

the Antarctic ozone hole from Year

from the sun to penetrate the growing larger (FIGURE 13.17).

FIGURE 13.18 Globally, stratospheric ozone is starting to
atmosphere, but this does not This is a remarkable success that
recover. Data averaged from multiple satellite and ground-based
significantly warm or cool the atmo-sphere.all humanity can celebrate. sources (red line) show a global decrease in observed ozone con-centrations,
Conversely, global warming Earth’s ozone layer is not followed by a gradual increase. Simulations from many
does not appreciably affect ozone expected to recover completely models (blue dashed line shows mean; gray shading shows sta-tistical
loss. However, by coincidence until after 2060 (FIGURE 13.18). uncertainty) indicate that recovery should be complete later
many ozone-depleting substances Muchof the 5.5 milliontons of this century. Adapted from World Meteorological Organization, 2014. Scientific
banned by the Montreal Protocol CFCs emitted into the tropo-sphere
assessment of ozone depletion: 2014. Geneva, Switzerland: WMO, Global Ozone
also happen to be greenhouse has not yet diffused into Research and Monitoring Project—Report #55.
gases that warm the atmosphere. the stratosphere, so concentra-tions
Thus, although the Montreal Proto-col may not peak there until
was designed to combat ozone
2020. Because of this time lag
depletion, it is also helping us slow and the long residencetimes of
down climate change.
many halocarbons, many years AddressingAcid Deposition
will pass before our policies have
the desired result—one reason Just as stratospheric ozone depletion crosses political bound-aries,
that scientists often argue for proactive policy guided by the so doesacid deposition,the depositionof acidic(p. 32)
precautionary principle (pp. 162, 227). or acid-forming pollutants from the atmosphere onto Earth’s
Becauseof its successin addressing ozone depletion, surface. As with ozone depletion, weare enjoying some suc-cess
the Montreal Protocol is widely viewed as an inspiring in addressingthis challenge.
modelfor international cooperation on other global chal-lenges,
from biodiversity loss (p. 183) to persistent organic
pollutants (p. 228) to climate change (p. 335). Fossilfuel combustion spreads
30
acidic pollutants far and wide
Montreal Aciddepositionoftentakes placeby precipitation(commonly
25
Protocol referred to as acid rain) but also mayoccur by fog, gases, or
km

20 the deposition of dry particles. Acid deposition is one type of

atmospheric deposition, whichrefers broadly to the wetor
sq

of

15
dry deposition of a variety of pollutants, including mercury,
nitrates, organochlorines, and others, from the atmosphere
10
onto Earth’ssurface.
Millions

5 Acid deposition originates primarily withthe emission of

sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, largely through fossil fuel
0 combustion by automobiles, electric utilities, and industrial
1979 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
facilities. Once airborne, these pollutants react with water,
Year
oxygen, and oxidants to produce compounds of low pH
FIGURE 13.17 Phase-outs of ozone-depleting substances (p. 32), primarily sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Suspended
since 1987 have halted the growth of the Antarctic ozone in the troposphere, these acids maytravel days or weeksfor
hole. Data
from NASA,
reflectingaverages
from 7 Sept.to 13 Oct.eachyear. hundredsof kilometers(FIGURE13.19).

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 303

 Primary pollutants Secondary pollutants FIGURE 13.19 Acid deposi-tion
has impacts far down-wind
Water(H2O) from where pollutants
Oxygen (O2) are released. Sulfur dioxide
and oxidants and nitric oxide emitted by
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) Sulfuric acid (H2SO4)
industries, utilities, and vehicles
react in the atmosphere to

Nitric oxide (NO) Nitric acid (HNO3) form sulfuric acid and nitric
acid. These acidic compounds
descend to Earth’s surface
in rain, snow, fog, and dry
Acid deposition deposition.

Acid deposition has manyimpacts soil concentrations of metal ions such as aluminum damage
the root tissue of plants, hindering their uptake of water and
Acid deposition has wide-ranging detrimental effects on eco-systems
nutrients. In some areas, acid fog with a pH of 2.3 (equiva-lent
(TABLE 13.1). Acids leach nutrients such as calcium, to vinegar, and over 1000 times more acidic than nor-mal
magnesium, and potassium ions out of the topsoil, altering rainwater) has enveloped forests, killing trees. Animals
soil chemistry and harming plants and soil organisms. This are affected by acid deposition, too; populations of snails and
occurs because hydrogen ions from acid deposition take the other invertebrates typically decline, and this reduces the food
place of calcium, magnesium, and potassium ions in soil supply for birds.
compounds, and these valuable nutrients leach into the sub-soil, When acidic water runs off from land, it affects streams,
where they become inaccessible to plant roots. rivers, and lakes. Thousands of lakes in Canada, Europe, the
Acid deposition also “mobilizes” toxic metal ions such United States, and elsewhere fish because have lost their
as aluminum, zinc, mercury, and copper by chemically con-vertingacid precipitation leaches aluminum ions out of soil and
them from insoluble forms to soluble forms. Elevated rock and into waterways. These ions damage the gills of fish
and disrupt their salt balance, water balance, breathing, and
circulation.
TABLE 13.1 Ecological Impacts of Acid
Besides altering ecosystems, acid deposition damages
Deposition
crops, erodes stone buildings, corrodes vehicles, and erases
ACID DEPOSITION IN NORTHEASTERN U.S. FORESTS HAS ... the writing from tombstones. Ancient cathedrals in Europe,
sacred temples in Asia, and revered monuments in Washing-ton,
• accelerated leaching of base cations (ions such as Ca2+,
D.C., are experiencing unrecoverable damage as their
Mg2+, NA+, and K+, which counteract acid deposition)
from soil
features dissolve away (FIGURE 13.20).
Because the pollutants leading to acid deposition can
• allowed sulfur and nitrogen to accumulate in soil, where travel long distances, their effects may be felt far from their
excess N can encourage weeds
sources. Much of the pollution from power plants and fac-tories
• increased dissolved inorganic aluminum in soil, hindering in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois travels east with
plant uptake of water and nutrients prevailing winds and falls out in states such as New York, Ver-mont,
and New Hampshire. As a result, regions of greatest
• leached calcium from needles of red spruce, causing trees
acidification tend to be downwind from heavily industrialized
to die from wintertime freezing
source areas of pollution.
• increased mortality of sugar maples due to leaching of base
cations from soil and leaves Weare addressing acid deposition
• acidified hundreds of lakes and diminished their capacity
The Acid Rain Program established under the Clean Air Act
to neutralize further acids
of 1990 has helped fight acid deposition in the United States.
• elevated aluminum levels in surface waters This program set up an emissions trading system (p. 113) for
sulfur dioxide. Coal-fired power plants were allocated permits
• reduced species diversity and abundance of aquatic life,
for emitting SO2 and could buy, sell, or trade these allow-ances.
affecting entire food webs
Each year the overall amounts of allowed pollution were

Adapted from Driscoll, C.T., et al., 2001. Acid rain revisited. Hubbard Brook decreased. (See p. 333 for further explanation of how such
Research Foundation. © 2001 C. T. Driscoll. Used with permission. a system works.) The economic incentives created by thi

304 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 FIGURE 13.20 Acid
deposition corrodes
statues and buildings.
Shown is an Egyptian
obelisk known as
Cleopatra’s Needle,in
Central Park, New York
City, (a) before and
(b) after significant
acid deposition.

(a) Before acid rain damage (b) After acid rain damage

cap-and-trade program encouraged polluters to switch to low-sulfur

coal, invest in technologies such as scrubbers (p. 293),
and deviseother waysto becomecleanerand moreefficient.
During the course of the cap-and-trade program, SO2 emis-sions
acrossthe UnitedStatesfell by 67%(FIGURE13.21).Asa
result, average sulfate loads in precipitation acrossthe eastern
United States were 51% lower in 2008–2010 than in 1989–1991,
and arestill lower today. pH
The Acid Rain Program also required power plants to 4.1
reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, with the EPA allowing 4.5

plantsflexibility in howthey did so. Emissionsof NOXfell 4.9

significantly as a result, and wet nitrogen deposition declined 5.3

5.7
as well. Thanks to the declines in SO2 and NOX, air and
waterqualityimproved throughout the eastern United States
(a) pH of precipitation in 1990
(FIGURE 13.22). This market-based program spawned similar

16
Emissions after first year of

14 cap-and-trade program
Allowances allocated
in recent years

12
tons

10 pH
(million 4.1
8 4.5
4.9
6
emissions 5.3
5.7
SO2
4

(b) pH of precipitation in 2015

2
FIGURE 13.22 Precipitation has become less acidic as air
quality has improved under the Clean Air Act. Average pH val-ues
0
for precipitationrose between(a) 1990 and(b) 2015. Precipita-tion
19901995 2000 2005 2010 remains most acidic in regions near and downwind from areas
Year of heavyindustry. Datafromthe NationalAtmosphericDepositionProgram.

FIGURE 13.21 Sulfur dioxide emissions fell 67% in the wake • In the area where you live, how did the pH of precipi-tation
of an emissions trading system. By 2010, emissions from U.S. change between 1990 and 2015? • Has precipi-tation
power plants participating in this EPA program mandated by the become more acidic orless acidic?
1990 Clean Air Act had dropped well below the amount allocated
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
in permits(black line). Datafrom U.S.EPA.

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 305

 cap-and-trade programs for other pollutants, including green-house with limited ventilation and with windows that do not open.
gases (p. 333). The Los Angeles region adopted its own These steps save energy, but they also trap stable, unmixed
cap-and-trade program in 1994. The RECLAIM (Regional air—and pollutants—inside. There is good news, however.
Clean Air Incentives Market) program has helped the L.A. In both developing and developed nations, we have feasible
basin reduce emissions of sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides waysto address the primary causes of indoor air pollution.
by morethan 70%.
Many have attributed the success in reducing acid depo-sition
nationwide to the Acid Rain Program, and the EPA Risksdifferin developing
has calculated that the program’s economic benefits (in
and developed nations
health care expenses avoided, for instance) outweighed its
costs by 40 to 1. However, some experts maintain that pol-lution Indoor air pollution exerts most impact in the develop-ing
declined because cleaner fuels became less expensive world, where poverty forces millions of people to burn
and because simultaneous conventional regulation man-dated wood, charcoal, animal dung, or crop waste inside their
emissions cuts. Indeed, during this time period Euro-pean homes for cooking and heating, with little or no ventilation
nations using command-and-control regulation (p. 111) (FIGURE 13.23). As a result, people inhale soot, carbon mon-oxide,
instead of emissions trading reduced their SO2 emissions by and other pollutants on a regular basis. This increases
even more than the United States did. In 2011, emissions trad-ing the risks of premature death by pneumonia, bronchitis, and
ended once the EPA issued its Cross-State Air Pollution lung cancer, as well as allergies, sinus infections, cataracts,
Rule, which aimed to limit pollution drifting from upwind asthma, emphysema, and heart disease.
states into downwind states. In industrialized nations, the primary indoor air health
As with recovery of the ozone layer, there is a time lag risks are cigarette smoke and radon. Smoking cigarettes irri-tates
before the positive consequences of emissions cuts kick the eyes, nose, and throat; worsens asthma and other
in, so it will take time for acidified ecosystems to recover. respiratory ailments; and greatly increases the risk of lung
Meanwhile, in industrializing nations, the problem is cancer and heart disease. Inhaling secondhand smoke from
becoming worse. Today China emits the mostsulfur dioxide a nearby smoker causes the same problems. Tobacco smoke
of any nation, as a result of coal combustion in power plants is a brew of more than 4000 chemical compounds, over 250
and factories that lack effective pollution control equipment. of which are known or suspected to be toxic or carcinogenic.
Not surprisingly, China has the world’s worst acid rain Although smoking has become less popular in developed
problem. nations in recent years, it is still estimated in the United States
Overall, data on acid deposition show advances in con-trollingalone to cause 160,000 lung cancer deaths per year.
outdoor air pollution but also indicate that more could
be done. The same can be said for indoor air pollution, a
source of human health threats that is less familiar to most of
us, but statistically more dangerous.

Indoor Air Quality

Indoor air generally contains higher concentrations of pol-lutants
than does outdoor air. As a result, the health impacts
from indoor air pollution in workplaces, schools, and homes
outweigh those from outdoor air pollution. The World Health
Organization (WHO) attributes nearly 3.5 million prema-ture
deaths each year to indoor air pollution (compared with
3.3 million for outdoor air pollution). Indoor air pollution
takes nearly 10,000 lives each day.
If this seems surprising, consider that the average Ameri-can
spends at least 90% of his or her time indoors. Then con-sider
the dizzying array of consumer products in our homes and
offices. Many of these products are made of synthetic materials,
and novel synthetic substances are not comprehensively tested
for health effects before being brought to market (Chapter 10).
Furniture, carpeting, cleaning fluids, insecticides, and plastics
all exude volatile chemicals into the air.
Ironically, some well-meaning attempts to enhance the
FIGURE 13.23 In the developing world, many people build
energy efficiency of buildings have ended up worseningindoor fires indoors for cooking and heating, as in this Maasai
air quality. To reduce heat loss, building managers often seal home in Kenya. Indoor fires expose people to severe pollution
off ventilation, while designers often construct new buildings from particulate matter and carbon monoxide

306 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 Heating and cooling ducts
Pollutants: Mold and bacteria
Hot showers with Health risks: Allergies, asthma,
chlorine-treated water
respiratory problems
Furniture; carpets; foam insulation;
Pollutant: Chloroform
Health risks: Nervous pressed wood

system damage Pollutant: Formaldehyde

Health risks: Respiratory irritation, cancer

Old paint
Pollutant: Lead Leaky or unvented gas and
Health risks: wood stoves and furnaces;
Nervoussystem car left running in garage
and organ Pollutant: Carbon monoxide
damage Health risks: Neural
impairment,
Fireplaces; fatal at high doses
wood stoves
Pollutant: Particulate Gasoline
matter Pollutant: VOCs
Health risks: Health risks: Cance
Respiratory problems,
lung cancer

Pipe insulation; floor

and ceiling tiles
Pollutant: Asbetos
Health risks: Asbestosis

Unvented stoves
and heaters
Pollutant: Nitrogen
oxides
Health risks: Respiratory
problems

Pets
Tobacco smoke
Pollutant: Animal dander
Pollutants: Many toxic or
Health risks: Allergies
carcinogenic compounds
Health risks: Lung cancer,
Pesticides; paints; cleaning fluids
respiratory problems
Pollutants: VOCs and others
Computers and office
Health risks: Neural or organ
equipment
damage, cancer
Pollutant: VOCs
Health risks: Irritation, neural or
Rocks and soil beneath house
organ damage, cancer
Pollutant: Radon
Health risks: Lung cancer

FIGURE 13.24 The typical home contains many sources of indoor air pollution. Shown are common
sources, the major pollutants they emit, and some of the health risks they pose.

Radonis the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the
developed world,responsiblefor an estimated21,000 deaths
per year in the United States and 15% of lung cancer cases
worldwide. Radon (p. 215) is a colorless, odorless, radioac-tive furnishings, building materials, carpets, laser printers, and fax
gasresulting from the natural decay of uraniumin soil,
rock, or water.It seeps up from the ground and can penetrate
buildings. The only wayto tell if radon is entering a building
is to sample air with atest kit. The EPAestimatesthat 6% of
U.S. homes exceed its safety standard for radon. Morethan
a million homes have undergone mitigation, and today new
homesare beingbuilt withradon-resistantfeatures.
Manysubstances pollute indoor air
In our daily lives at home, we are exposed to
air pollutants (FIGURE13.24).The mostdiverse are volatile
organic compounds (p. 292), airborne carbon-containing
compoundsreleased by plastics,oils, perfumes,paints,clean-ing
fluids, adhesives, and pesticides. VOCs evaporate from
machines.Some products,such as chemically treated furni-ture,
release many VOCs when new and progressively fewer
as they age. Others, such as photocopying machines, emit
VOCseachtime they are used.Formaldehyde—aVOC used
in pressed wood, insulation, and other products—irritates
mucous membranes,induces skin allergies, and causes other
ailments. The “new car smell” that fills the interiors of new
automobiles comes from a complex mix of dozens of VOCs
asthey outgas from the newly manufactured plastic, metal,
and leather components of the car. Somescientific studies
manyindoor warn of health risks from this brew and recommend that you
keepa newcar well ventilated.

Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 307

 Another widespread source of indoor air pollution is liv-weighingAdministration (OSHA) estimates that 30–70 million Ameri-cans
ing organisms. Tiny dust mites can worsen asthma and trigger have suffered ailments related to the building in which
allergies, as can dander (skin flakes) from pets. The airborne they live.
spores of some fungi, molds, and mildews can cause allergies,

the
asthma, and other respiratory
Wecan enhanceindoor air quality
ailments. Some airborne bacte-ria

ISSUeS can cause infectious

Heating and cooling
disease.
systems in
Using low-toxicity
rooms clean,
materials,
and providing
monitoring
adequate
air quality,
ventilation
keep-ing
are the
buildings make ideal breeding keys to alleviating indoor air pollution. In the developed
how Safe Is Your Indoor
grounds for microbes, providing world, we can avoid cigarette smoke, limit our exposure to
environment?
moisture, dust, and foam insula-tion new plastics and treated wood, and restrict our contact with
Name some potential indoor air
as substrates, along with air pesticides, cleaning fluids, and other toxic substances by
quality hazards in your home,
currents to carry the organisms keeping them in garages or outdoor sheds. The EPA recom-mends
work, or school environment. Are
aloft. that we test our homes and offices for radon, mold,
these spaces wellventilated? What
Microbes that induce aller-gic and carbon monoxide. Keeping rooms and air ducts clean
could you do to improve the safety
responses are thought to be a will reduce irritants and allergens. Developing nations are
of the indoor spaces you use?
major cause of building-related making progress in reducing indoor air pollution in various
illness, a sickness produced by ways, especially by introducing cleaner-burning fuels and
indoor pollution. Whenthe cause stoves. Researchers calculate that rates of premature death
of such an illness is a mystery, and when symptoms are gen-eral from indoor air pollution dropped nearly 40% from 1990
and nonspecific, the illness is often called sick build-ing to 2010. With continued efforts, we should see additional
syndrome. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health progress in safeguarding people’s health.

closing the LOOp

Air quality is vital for our health. Los Outdoor air pollution is influenced not only by our
Angeles was among the first cities to emissions but also by natural sources of pollution and by
confront severe outdoor air pollution atmospheric conditions. The more we understand about the
and take major steps to alleviate it. science of the atmosphere, the better we can protect our
Mexico City has also been a pioneer and health against pollution.
a model for others. In Mexico City, regula-tions Likewise, science has proven crucial to addressing two
now require catalytic converters and vehi-cle other major air quality issues—ozone depletion and acid
emissions tests. Industrial facilities were forced to clean up deposition. Policymakers responded quickly to scientific
their operations, while city leaders pressured the national oil findings on stratospheric ozone depletion, and as a result,
company, Pemex, to remove lead from gasoline, improve its our global society appears to have dodged a bullet; today
refineries, and sell cleaner-burning petroleum products. As a our planet’s ozone layer is on the mend. With acid depo-sition,
result of such efforts—alongside an expanded subway sys-tem, we responded to scientific research by launching
a fleet of low-emission buses, and bike-and car-sharing policies to reduce emissions of acidic pollutants, and eco-systems
programs—smog in Mexico City has been reduced since 1990 are now beginning to recover.
by morethan half. Particulate matter is down by 70%, carbon As the world’s less-wealthy nations industrialize, con-tinued
monoxide by 74%, sulfur dioxide by 86%, and lead by 95%. integration of science, policy, economics, and tech-nology
Across the world, industrializing nations such as China can help achieve cleaner air. However, people in all
and India are confronting the need to make similar progress, nations and societies will need to remain vigilant and keep
while in all nations the growing awareness of indoor air pollu-tion pressure on their policymakers to protect public health by
is encouraging action and solutions. reducing pollution and improving air quality

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. About how thick is Earth’s atmosphere? Name one 3. How does solar energy influence weather and climate?
characteristic of the troposphere and one characteristic Describe how Hadley, Ferrel, and polar cells help to
of the stratosphere. determine climate patterns and the location of biomes.
2. Whereis the “ozone layer” located? Describe how 4. Describe atemperature inversion. Explain how inversions
and why stratospheric ozone is beneficial for people, contribute to severe smog episodes such as the ones in
whereastropospheric ozone is harmful. London, England, andin Donora, Pennsylvania.

308 Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control

 5. How does a primary pollutant differ from a secondary 8. Explain how chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) deplete
pollutant? Give an example of each. stratospheric ozone. Whyis this depletion considered
6. What has happened with the emissions of major along-term international problem? What was done to

pollutants in the United States in recent decades? What address this problem?
has happened with concentrations of “criteria pollutants” 9. Why are the effects of acid deposition often felt in areas
in U.S. ambient air? far from where the primary pollutants are produced? List
7. How does photochemical smog differ from industrial three impacts of acid deposition.

smog? Give three examples of the health risks posed by 10. Name three common sources of indoor pollution and
the outdoor air pollutants in smog. their associated health risks. For each pollution source,
describe one way to reduce exposure to the source.

SEEKINGSolutions
1. Name one type of natural air pollution, and discuss how 4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION Describe at least three
human activity can sometimes worsen it. What potential ways in which Los Angeles or Mexico City has responded
solutions can you think of to minimize this human impact? to its air pollution challenges. Whatresults have each of
2. Explain how and why emissions of major pollutants have these responses produced? Now consider your city or

been reduced by well over 50% in the United States a major city near where you live. Describe at least one
since 1970, despite increases in population, energy use, approach used by L.A. or Mexico City that you feel would

and economic activity. Describe at least two ways you help address air pollution in your city, and explain why.
think air quality might be further improved. 5. THINK IT THROUGH You have just taken ajob at a

3. International action through a treaty helped to halt medical clinic in your hometown. The nursing staff has
stratospheric ozone depletion, but other transboundary asked you to develop a brochure for patients featuring

pollution issues—such as acid deposition and tips on how to minimize health impacts from air pollution
greenhouse gas pollution—have not been addressed (both indoor and outdoor) in their dailylives. Listthe top
as effectively. What types of actions do you feel are five tips you willfeature, and explain for each why you
appropriate for pollutants that cross political boundaries? willinclude it in your brochure.

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints
“While only some motorists contribute to traffic fatalities, all
TOTAL NOX NOX EMISSIONS
motorists contribute to air pollution fatalities.” So stated a EMISSIONS (lb) FROM VEHICLES (lb)
writer for the Earth Policy Institute, pointing out that air pollu-tion
You
kills far more people than vehicle accidents. According to
EPA data, emissions of nitrogen oxides in the United States
Your class
in 2016 totaled 10.4 million tons (20.8 billion lbs). Nitro-gen
oxides come from fuel combustion in power plants and Your state

various industrial, commercial, and residential sources, but

United States 20.8 billion 12.0 billio
fully 6.0 million tons (12.0 billion lbs) of the 2016 total came
from motor vehicles. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the Data from U.S. EPA.
nation’s population to have been 323.1 million in 2016 and
projects that it will reach 359.4 million in 2030. Considering 2. Assume you are an average American. Using the
these data, calculate the missing values in the table. 2016 emissions totals, how many pounds of total
NOX emissions are you responsible for creating? How
1. By what percentage is the U.S. population projected many pounds of NOX emissions from vehicles are you
to increase between 2016 and 2030? Do you think that responsible for creating? What percentage of your total
NOX emissions willincrease, decrease, or remain the NOX emissions would that be?
same over that period of time? Why?(You may wish to 3. Describe three ways in which an American driver could
refer to Figure 13.7.) reduce his or her NOX emissions from vehicular travel.
What steps could you take to reduce the overall NOX
emissions for which you are responsible?

Mastering Environmental Science

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Chapter 13 The Atmosphere, Air Quality, and Pollution Control 309

1
Global
CHAPTER
Climate
Change

310 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 central CASESTUDY

RisingSeasThreaten
SouthFlorida
Atlantic
FLORIDA Ocean

Miami, as we know it It happens nowin Miamiatleast

today, is doomed. It’s not six times a year. Salty water bub-bles Gulf of
a question of if. It’s a up from drains, seeps up Mexico
question of when. from the ground, fills the streets,
—Dr. Harold Wanless, University
and spills across lawns and sidewalks. Under the daz-zling
of Miami geologist
sun of a South Florida sky, floodwaters stall car traffic,

Miami Beach is not going to

creep into doorways, force businesses to close, and keep

sit back and go underwater. people from crossing the street. Employees struggle to get
—Philip Levine, mayor of Miami Beach to work whiletourists stand around, baffled.
The flooding is most severe in Miami Beach, the cel-ebrated
strip of glamorous hotels, clubs, shops, and res-Miami
taurants that rises from a 7-mile barrier island just offshore from Miami. The carefree affluent
image of Miami Beach, withits sun and fun, is increasingly jeopardized by the grimy reality
of these unwelcome saltwater intrusions. By 2030, flooding is predicted to strike Miami and
Miami Beach about 45 times per year—becoming no longer a curious inconvenience, but an
existential threat.
These mysterious floods that seem to come out of nowhere are arecent phenomenon,
so Miami-area residents are just now realizing that their coastal metropolis is slowly being
swallowed by the ocean. The cause? Rising sea levels driven by global climate change.
The world’s oceans rose 20 cm (8 in.) in the 20th century as warming temperatures
expanded the volume of seawater and caused glaciers and ice sheets to melt, discharging
waterinto the oceans. These processes are accelerating today, and scientists predict that
sea level willrise another 26–98 cm (10–39 in.) or morein this century as climate change
intensifies.
As sea levels rise, coastal cities across the globe—from Venice to Amsterdam to New
York to San Francisco—are facing challenges. In the United States, scientists find that the
Atlantic Seaboard andthe Gulf Coast are especially vulnerable. The
Upon completing this
hurricane-prone shores of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and the
chapter, you will be able to:
Carolinas are at risk, as are coastal cities such as Hous-ton
• Describe Earth’s climate system and New Orleans. From Cape Cod to Corpus
and explain the factors that
Christi, millions of Americans wholive in shoreline
influence global climate
communities are beginning to suffer significant
• Identify greenhouse gases, and expense, disruption to daily life, and property
characterize human influences on damage as beaches erode, neighborhoods
the atmosphere and on climate
flood, aquifers are fouled, and storms strike
• Summarize how researchers with moreforce.
study climate Perhaps nowhere in America is more

• Outline current and expected vulnerable to sea level rise than Miami
future trends and impacts of and its surrounding communities in South
climate change in the United Florida. Six million people live in this region,
States and across the world and three-quarters of them inhabit low-lying

• Suggest and assess ways we may coastal areas that also hold most of the region’s
respond to climate change wealth and property. Experts calculate that Miami
alone has more than $400 billion in assets at risk
from sea level rise—more than any other city in the

Bulldozing beach sand off a Flooding in Miami after Hurricane Irma in 2017
Fort Lauderdale boulevard after
a storm surge 31
 simply wall themselves off from a rising ocean, because sea-walls
won’t stop water from seeping up from below.
Moreover, as saltwater moves inland, it contaminates the
fresh drinking water of South Florida’s Biscayne Aquifer. Fort
Lauderdale and several other communities are already strug-gling
with saltwater incursion. Florida is building desalination
plants to convert seawater to drinking water, but desalination
(p. 273) is expensive and consumes large amounts of energy.
Some of Florida’s top state-level politicians have long been
in denial about climate change, but today Miami-area leaders
and citizens are taking action to safeguard their region’s future.
In 2010, commissioners of Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and
Palm Beach Counties adopted an agreement to work together
on strategies to combat climate change and its effects in the
region. This agreement, the Southeast Florida Regional Climate
FIGURE 14.1 In Miami, property and infrastructure valued at
Change Compact, is garnering wide recognition as a model for
billions of dollars are located within just meters of the ocean.
regional cooperation on climate issues. Despite alack of money
from the state and federal governments, these policymakers are
world (FIGURE 14.1). Hurricanes strike the area frequently, and helping to build up dunes, raise building foundations, shift devel-opment
every centimeter of sea level rise makes the surge of seawater inland, and stop subsidizing insurance for development
from a storm more expansive, costly, and dangerous. In 2017, in low-lying coastal areas.
HurricaneIrma sent floodwaters coursing through the streets In Miami Beach, Mayor Philip Levine won election to office
of Miami, Miami Beach, Jacksonville, and other Florida cities. in 2013 after a campaign ad showed him paddling a kayak
Miami’s mayor Tomás Regalado, a Republican, pleaded with through the streets of the South Beach neighborhood, promis-ing
federal leaders to recognize that climate change wasfueling to address flooding. “I wasn’t swept into office,” Levineis
stronger storms and hurting cities like his. “If this isn’t climate fond of saying. “I floated in.” Under Levine, the city has raised
change, I don’t know whatis,” Regalado declared. “This is truly some roadways 3 feet, and businesses are being urged to
[a] poster child for whatis to come.” remodel their first floors. The city raised stormwater charges
South Florida is highly sensitive to sea level change on residents and is spending $400 millioninstalling a system of
because its landscape is exceptionally flat; just 1 m(3.3 ft) of massive pumps to extract floodwater. Engineers expect these
sea level rise would inundate more than a third of the region. A measures to get the city through the next couple of decades,
4-m (13-ft) rise in sea level would submerge Miami and reduce but they recognize that moreinterventions will be needed later.
the region to a handful of small islands. Only time willtell whether South Florida’s communities will
The porous limestone bedrock that underlies South Flor-ida overcome their challenges and provide a shining example for
also poses a challenge. Pockmarked with holes like Swiss other regions. In Miami and many other coastal cities, vast sums
cheese, this permeable rock lets water percolate through. This will be spent on pumps, drains, pipes, seawalls, and other engi-neering
is why Miami’s floods seem to arise out of nowhere; during the solutions, but ultimately these are only temporary fixes;
highest tides of the year, ocean water is forced inland, where they may buy time, but they cannot stop the water forever. In the
it mixes with fresh water underground and is pushed up as long term, only reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases will
a briny mixture through the limestone directly into yards and halt sea level rise and the many other imminent consequences
streets. As a result, Miami and its neighboring cities cannot of global climate change.

OurDynamicClimate Because new developments

you to explore beyond this
are occurring
book, and
so rapidly, we urge
with your instructor,
Climate influences virtually everything around us, from the the most recent information on climate change and the conse-quences
day’s weather to major storms, from crop success to human it may have for your future.
health, and from national security to the ecosystemsthat
support our economies. If you are a student in your teens or Whatis climate change?
twenties, the accelerating change in our climate today may
wellbethe majoreventof yourlifetime andthe phenomenon Climate describesan area’slong-term atmospheric condi-tions,
that mostshapes your future. including temperature, precipitation, wind, humidity,
Climate change is also the fastest-developing area of barometric pressure, solar radiation, and other characteristics.
environmental science. New scientific studies that refine Climatediffers from weather(p. 289)in that weatherspeci-fies
our understanding of climate are published every week, and conditions over hours or days, whereas climate summa-rizes
policymakers and businesspeoplerespond just as quickly. conditions over years,decades,or centuries

312 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 Global climate change—generally referred to simply Threefactors influence climate
as climate change—describes an array of changes in aspects
of Earth’s climate, such as temperature, precipitation, and the Three natural factors exert the most influence on Earth’s
frequency and intensity of storms. People often use the term climate. The first is the sun. Without the sun, Earth would
global warming synonymously in casual conversation, but be dark and frozen. The second is the atmosphere. Without
global warming refers specifically to an increase in Earth’s this protective layer of gases, Earth would be as much as
average surface temperature. Global warming is only one 33°C (59°F) colder on average, and temperature differences
aspect of global climate change, but warming does in turn between night and day would be far greater than they are.
drive other components of climate change. The third is the oceans, which store and transport heat and
Over the long term, our planet’s climate varies naturally. moisture.
However, today’s climatic changes are unfolding at an exceed-ingly Thesun supplies mostof our planet’s energy. Earth’s
rapid rate, and they are creating conditions humanity atmosphere, clouds, land, ice, and water together absorb
has never experienced. Scientists agree that human activities, about 70% of incoming solar radiation and reflect the
notably fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, are largely remaining 30% back into space (FIGURE 14.2). The 70%
responsible. Some researchers point out that the term “cli-mate that is absorbed warms the surface and the atmosphere, and
change” is so mild-sounding as to be misleading, and powers everything from wind to waves to evaporation to
that a more accurate term would be “climate disruption.” photosynthesis.

Incoming solar Reflected solar Outgoing longwave

Units are in watts
radiation radiation radiation
per square meter
340 100 239

Reflected by Emitted by Emitted by

clouds, aerosols, atmosphere surface and passing
and atmosphere and clouds through atmosphere
76

Absorbed by
atmosphere
Greenhouse gases in
79 Evapo-Thermals atmosphere
transpiration
20 84

Reflected by
surface Radiation
24 emitted by
Shorter-wavelength surface Back
398 radiation
UV and visible 342
light pass
through
Longer-wavelength Absorbed
atmosphere
Absorbed by infrared radiation is by surface
surface absorbed and re-emitted 324
by atmosphere, creating
161
the greenhouse effect

FIGURE 14.2 Our planet receives about 340 watts of energy per square meter from the sun, and it
naturally reflects and emits this same amount. Earth absorbs nearly 70% of the solar radiation it receives,
and reflects the rest back into space (yellow arrows). The radiation absorbed is then re-emitted (orange
arrows) asinfrared radiation, which haslonger wavelengths. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb a
portion of this long-wavelength radiation and then re-emit it, sending some back downward to warmthe atmo-sphere
and the surface by the greenhouse effect. DatafromIntergovernmentalPanelon ClimateChange
(IPCC); Stocker,
T.F., et al. (Eds.), 2013. Climate change 2013: The physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the fifth assessment

report of the IPCC. Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 31

 Greenhousegases warmthe lower 400 2000

atmosphere Carbon dioxide (CO2)

1800
Nitrous oxide (N2O)
As Earth’s surface absorbs solar radiation, the surfaceincreases (ppb)

Methane (CH4) 1600

350
in temperatureandemitsinfraredradiation(p. 35),radiation with N2O

1400
wavelengthslonger than those of visible light. Atmospheric gases
(ppb

Industrial
having three or moreatoms in their moleculestend to absorb 1200 CH4

(ppm),
revolution
infraredradiation. Theseinclude watervapor(H2O), ozone(O3), 300
CO2
1000
carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane(CH4),
as well as halocarbons, a diverse group of mostly human-made 800

gases(p. 301). Allthese gasesare knownas greenhousegases.

250 600
After absorbing radiation emitted from the surface, greenhouse 0 500 1000 1500 2000
gasesre-emitinfraredradiation. Someofthis re-emittedenergy Year
is lost to space, but much of it travels back downward, warming
FIGURE 14.3 Since the start of the industrial revolution
the lower atmosphere (specifically the troposphere; p. 288) and
around 1750, global concentrations of carbon dioxide,
the surface,in a phenomenonknown asthe greenhouseeffect. methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere have
Greenhouse gases differ in their capacity to warm the increased markedly. DatafromIPCC, 2013. Fifthassessmentreport.
troposphere and surface. Global warming potential refers to
the relative ability of a moleculeof a given greenhousegas By about what percentage has atmospheric carbon
to contribute to warming. TABLE 14.1 shows global warming dioxide concentration increased since 1750?

potentials for several greenhouse gases. Values are expressed Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
in relation to carbon dioxide, whichis assigneda value of 1.
For example, at a 20-year time horizon, a molecule of meth-ane
is 84 times morepotent than a molecule of carbon diox-ide. greenhouseeffect, our planet would be too cold to support
Yetbecausea methanemoleculetypically residesin the life as weknow it. Thus,it is not the natural greenhouse effect
atmosphere for less time than a carbon dioxide molecule, that concerns scientists today, but rather the anthropogenic
methane’s global warming potential is reduced atlonger time (human-generated)intensification of the greenhouseeffect.
horizons(it is 28 at a 100-yearhorizon). Byincreasing the concentrations of greenhouse gasesover the
Although carbon dioxide is less potent on a per-molecule past 250 years (FIGURE 14.3), weare intensifying the green-house
basis than most other greenhouse gases,it is far moreabun-dant effect beyond whatour specieshasever experienced.
in the atmosphere. Moreover,greenhousegasemissions We have boosted Earth’s atmospheric concentration of
from human activity consist mostly of carbon dioxide; for carbon dioxidefrom roughly 278 parts per million(ppm) in
this reason, carbon dioxide has caused nearly twice as much the late 1700s to morethan 400 ppm today (see Figure 14.3).
warmingsince the industrial revolution as have methane, The concentration of CO2in our atmosphere now is far higher
nitrous oxide, and halocarbons combined. than it has beenin over 800,000 years,andlikely in the past
20 million years.
Greenhousegas concentrations Why have atmospheric carbon dioxide levels risen so
much? Mostcarbonis stored for long periodsin the upper
arerising fast layers of the lithosphere (p. 232). The deposition, partial
The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon, and green-housedecay, and compression of organic matter (mostly plants

gaseshave been presentin our atmospherethrough-out and phytoplankton) in wetland or marine areas hundreds
Earth’s history. That’s a good thing: Without the natural of millions of years ago led to the formation of coal, oil,
and natural gas in buried sediments (p. 346). Over the past
two centuries, wehave extractedthesefossil fuels from the
TABLE 14.1 Global Warming Potentials of Four ground and burned them in our homes, power plants, and
Greenhouse Gases automobiles, transferring large amounts of carbon from one
RELATIVE HEAT-TRAPPING ABILITY reservoir (underground depositsthat stored the carbon for
(IN CO2 EQUIVALENTS) millions of years) to another (the atmosphere). This sudden
GREENHOUSE GAS OVER 20 YEARS OVER 100 YEARS
flux of carbon from the lithosphere to the atmosphere is the
mainreason atmospheric CO2concentrations haverisen so
Carbon dioxide 1 1
dramatically.
Methane 84 28 Atthe sametime, people have cleared and burned forests
to makeroom for crops, pastures,villages, and cities. Forests
Nitrous oxide 264 265
serve asareservoir for carbon as plants conduct photosynthesis
Hydrochlorofluoro-carbon 10,800 12,400 (p. 34) and store carbon in their tissues. When weclear forests,
HFC-23 wereduce the biosphere’sability to remove carbon diox-ide
from the atmosphere. In this way, deforestation (p. 195)
Data from IPCC, 2013. Fifth assessment report. contributes to rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

314 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 atmosphere, it undergoes various
Natural fluxes
Units are in billions
Anthropogenic fluxes reactions, some of which lead to
of metric tons of
CO2 per year acid deposition (p. 303) and form a
sulfur-rich aerosol haze that blocks
ATMOSPHERE
sunlight. Sulfate aerosols released
26 6 0.3 ~15 by major volcanic eruptions can
cool Earth’s climate for up to sev-eral
70
plants

440 260
by
years. This occurred in 1991
with the eruption of Mount Pina-tubo,
use

Absorption Absorption

Photosynthesis uptake
= a volcano in the Philippines.
land

To quantify the impact that

440
accumulatio

a given factor exerts on Earth’s

Weathering

260 80
temperature, scientists calculate
Net

Changing

10 0.7
Respiration Volcanoes Release Release

Industry Increased

its radiative forcing, the amount

LAND OCEAN of change in thermal energy that
the factor causes. Positive forc-ing
FIGURE 14.4 Human activities are sending more carbon dioxide from Earth’s surface to
its atmosphere than is moving from the atmosphere to the surface. Shown are all current warms the surface, whereas
fluxes of CO2, with arrows sized according to mass. Green arrows indicate natural fluxes, and negative forcing cools it. When
gray arrows indicate anthropogenic fluxes. Adapted from IPCC, 2007. Fourth assessment report. scientists sum up the effects of all
factors, they find that Earth is now
For every metric ton of carbon dioxide we emit due to changes in land use (e.g.,
experiencing radiative forcing of
deforestation), how much do we emit from industry?
about 2.3 watts/m2(FIGURE 14.5).
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science This meansthat our planet today is
receiving and retaining roughly
FIGURE14.4 summarizes scientists’ understanding of the 2.3 watts/m2 morethermal energy than it is emitting into space.
fluxes (natural and anthropogenic) of carbon dioxide among (By contrast, the pre-industrial Earth of 1750 wasin balance,
the atmosphere,land, and oceans. emitting as much radiation as it was receiving.) This extra
Methane concentrations are also rising—150% since amount is equivalent to the power converted into heat and light
1750 (see Figure 14.3)—and today’s atmospheric concentra-tion by 200 incandescent lightbulbs (or morethan 900 compact flu-orescent
is the highest by far in over 800,000 years. Werelease lamps) across a football field. As Figure 14.2 shows,
methane bytapping into fossil fuel deposits, raising livestock Earth naturally receives and gives off about 340 watts/m2
that emit methane as a metabolic waste product, growing of energy. Although 2.3 may seem like a small proportion of
cropssuch asrice, anddisposing of organic matter
in landfills. 340, heat from this imbalance accumulates, and over time it is
Wehavealso elevated atmospheric concentrations of nitrous enough to alter climate significantly.
oxide. This greenhouse gas, a by-product of feedlots, chemical
manufacturingplants, auto emissions,and synthetic nitrogen
fertilizers, hasrisen by 20% since 1750 (see Figure 14.3).
Carbon dioxide
Among other greenhouse gases, ozone concentrations
in the troposphere have risen roughly 42% since 1750, a CH4 + N2O +
result of photochemical smog (p. 296). The contribution of halocarbons
halocarbons to global warming has begun to slow because of Stratospheric Tropospheric
Ozone
the MontrealProtocoland subsequentcontrols ontheir pro-duction
and use (p. 303). Water vapor is the most abundant Land use Soot
Surface reflectivity
greenhouse gas in our atmosphere and contributes mostto on snow
the natural greenhouseeffect. Its concentrationsvarylocally,
Aerosols
but becauseits global concentration has not changed, it is not
thought to have driven industrial-age climate change.

Total anthropogenic
radiative forcing
Otherfactors warm or cool
the surface –2 –1 0 1 2

Radiative forcing relative to 1750 (watts/m2)

Whereasgreenhousegases warmthe atmosphere,aerosols,
FIGURE 14.5 This graph shows the radiative forcing of
microscopic droplets and particles, can have either a warming
major factors that warm or cool our planet. Radiative forcing is
or a cooling effect. Soot particles, or “black carbon aerosols,” expressed as the effect each factor has on temperature today rela-tive
generally cause warmingby absorbingsolar energy,but most to 1750, in watts/m2. Red barsindicate positive forcing (warm-ing),
other aerosols cool the atmosphere by reflecting the sun’s rays. and blue barsindicate negative forcing (cooling). Datafrom IPCC,
Whensulfur dioxide from fossil fuel combustion entersthe 2013.Fifth assessmentreport.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 315

 Climate varies naturally for several Solar output The sun varies in the amount of radia-tion
it emits, over both short and long timescales. How-ever,
reasons scientists are concluding that the variation in solar
Aside from atmospheric composition, our climate is influ-enced energy reaching our planet in recent centuries has simply
by cyclical changesin Earth’srotation and orbit, not been great enough to drive significant temperature
variation in energy released by the sun, absorption of carbon change on Earth’s surface. Estimates place the radiative
dioxide by the oceans, and ocean circulation patterns. How-ever,forcing of natural changes in solar output at only about
scientific dataindicate that none of these four natural 0.05 watt/m2—less than any of the anthropogenic causes
factors can fully explain the rapid climate change that we are in Figure 14.5.
experiencing today.
Ocean absorption Theoceanshold 50times morecarbon
Milankovitch cycles In the 1920s, Serbian mathemati-cian than the atmosphere holds. Oceans absorb carbon dioxide
Milutin Milankovitch described three types of periodic from the atmosphere when CO2dissolves directly in water
changes in Earth’s rotation and orbit around the sun. Over and when marine phytoplankton use it for photosynthesis.
thousands of years, our planet wobbles on its axis, varies in However, the oceans are absorbing less CO2than we are
the tilt of its axis, and experiences change in the shape of addingto the atmosphere(see Figure 2.21, p. 42). Thus,car-bon
its orbit, all in regular long-term cycles of different lengths. absorption by the oceans is

FaQ
These variations, known as Milankovitch cycles, alter slowing global warming but is
the way solar radiation is distributed over Earth’s surface not preventing it. Moreover,as
(FIGURE 14.6). By modifying patterns of atmospheric heat-ing, ocean water warms, it absorbs
these cycles trigger long-term climate variation, includ-ing less CO2 because gases are less the climate changes
periodic episodes of glaciation during which global soluble in warmer water—a naturally, so why worry
surface temperatures drop and ice sheets expand outward positive feedback effect (p. 25) about climate change?
from the poles. These cycles are highly influential in the that accelerates warming of the Earth’s climate does indeed
very long term, but science shows that they do not account atmosphere. change naturally over very long
for the very rapid, extreme climate disruption we are expe-riencing periods oftime, but there is noth-ing
today. “natural” about today’s sud-den
Ocean circulation Ocean
climate disruption. Weknow
water exchanges heat with the
that human activity is directly
atmosphere, and ocean cur-rents
causing the unnaturally rapid
move energy from place
changes we are now witnessing.
25
to place. For example, the
Moreover, humanity has never
oceans’ thermohaline circula-(a) before experienced the sheer
22
tion system (p. 262) moves amount of change predicted for
warm tropical water north-ward,
this century. In fact, the quantity
Orbital Equator providing Europe a far by which the world’s temperature
plane milder climate than it would is forecast to rise is greater than
otherwise have. Scientists are the amount of cooling needed to
studying whether freshwater bring on an ice age! Greenhouse
input from Greenland’s melting gas concentrations are already
ice sheet mightshut down this higher than they’ve been in more

warm-water flow—an occur-rence

than 800,000 years, and they
Axial wobble (b) Variation of tilt
that could plunge Europe are rising. The human species,

into muchcolder conditions. Homo sapiens, has existed for just

Multiyear climate variability 200,000 years, and our civilization

Earth results from what is known as arose only in the past few thou-sand

the El Niño–SouthernOscillation years during an exceptionally

(p. 262), which involves system-atic stable period in Earth’s climate his-tory.
Sun Unless we reduce our emis-sions,
Earth shifts in atmospheric pres-sure,
we will soon be challenged
sea surface temperature,
by climate conditions our species
and ocean circulation in the trop-ical
has never lived through
Pacific Ocean. These shifts
(c) Variation of orbit overlie longer-term variability
from the Pacific Decadal Oscil-lation.
FIGURE 14.6 There are three types of Milankovitch cycles:
(a) an axial wobble that occurs on a 19,000-to 23,000-year cycle;
El Niño and La Niña events alter weather patterns in
(b) a 3-degree shift in the tilt of Earth’s axis that occurs on a diverse ways,oftenleading to rainstorms and floods in dry
41,000-year cycle; and (c) a variation in Earth’s orbit from almost regions and drought and fire in moist regions. This leads to
circularto moreelliptical, whichrepeats every 100,000 years. impacts on wildlife, agriculture,andfisheries.

316 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 Studying Climate Change climate
include
at that place and time.
tree rings (which
Other types
reveal year-by-year
of proxy indicators
histories of precip-itation
To comprehend any phenomenon that is changing, we must and fire), pack-rat middens (rodent dens in which plant

study its past, present, and future. Scientists monitor present-day parts may be preserved for centuries in arid regions), and coral

climate, but they also have devised clever means of inferring past reefs (p. 267), which reveal aspects of ocean chemistry.
change and sophisticated methodsto predict future conditions.
Direct measurementstell us about
Proxyindicators tell us ofthe past the present
To understand past climate, scientists decipher clues from Today we measure temperature with thermometers, rainfall
thousands or millions of years ago by taking advantage of the with rain gauges, wind speed with anemometers, and air pres-sure
record-keepingcapacityofthe natural world. Proxyindicators with barometers, using computer programs to integrate
aretypes of indirect evidence that serve as proxies, or substi-tutes,and analyze this information in real time. With these technol-ogies
for direct measurement. and more, we document fluctuations in weather day-by-day
For example, Earth’sice caps,ice sheets,and glaciers and hour-by-hour across the globe.
hold clues to climate history. In frigid regions near the poles We also measure the chemistry of the atmosphere and
and atop high mountains, snow falling year after year com-presses
the oceans. Direct measurements of carbon dioxide concen-trations
into ice. Over millennia,this ice accumulatesto great in the atmosphere reach back to 1958, when scien-tist
depths, preserving within its layers tiny bubbles of the ancient Charles Keeling began analyzing hourly air samples from
atmosphere. Scientists can examine the trapped air bubbles a monitoring station at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory.
by drilling into the ice andextractinglong columns, or cores. These data show that atmospheric CO2 concentrations have
Thelayered ice, accumulating season after season for thou-sandsincreased from 315 ppm in 1958 to more than 400 ppm today.
of years, provides a timescale.
By studying the chemistry of the
bubbles in each layer, scientists can
determine atmospheric composition,
greenhouse gas concentrations,tem-perature, CH4 today (1860)

snowfall, solar activity, and

even (from trapped soot particles) the
frequency of forest fires and volcanic
eruptions during eachtime period.
Recently,researchersanalyzedthe
400 CO2 today (406)
deepestice core ever (FIGURE14.7). At
(ppmv)

a remote site in Antarctica,they drilled 350

down 3270 m(10,728 ft) and pulled 300

out morethan 800,000 years’ worth of dioxide

250
ice! This core chronicles Earth’s history
acrosseight glacialcycles. Byanalyzing Carbon
200

air bubbles trapped in the ice, research-ers 800

discoveredthat overthe past 800,000 700
(ppbv

years, atmospheric concentrations of 600

carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous
500
oxide have never been as high asthey are Methane

today. Theice coreresults alsoconfirm 400

4
that temperature swings in the past were
tightly correlated with greenhouse gas
change

0
concentrations.This bolstersthe scien-tific C)

–4
consensusthat greenhouse gasemis-sions
arecausing Earthto warmtoday. –8
Researchersalso drill cores into Temperature

beds ofsediment beneath bodies of water. 800,000 600,000 400,000 200,000 0

Sediments often preserve pollen grains Years before present
andotherremnantsfrom plantsthat grew
FIGURE 14.7 Data from the EPICA ice core reveal changes across 800,000 years.
in the past(as describedin the study of Shown are surface temperature (black line), atmospheric methane concentration (blue line),
EasterIsland; pp. 8–9). Becauseclimate and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (red line). Concentrations of CO2 and meth-ane
influencesthe kinds of plantsthat grow rise and fall in tight correlation with temperature. Today’s current values are included at
in an area, knowing what plants were the top right of the graph, for comparison. Adapted by permission of Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Brook,
presentcantell usa greatdealaboutthe E. 2008. Paleoclimate: Windows on the greenhouse. Nature 453: 291–292, Fig. 1a. www.nature.com.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 317

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Goto Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

How Do Climate Models Work?

Models are indispensable for scientists with one another. But the virtual reality of climate models can-not
studying climate today—and they are be so detailed—there is simply not enough computer power
increasingly vital for our society available. Instead, modelers approximate reality by dividing time
because they help us predict what into periods (called time steps) and by dividing Earth’s surface
conditions will confront us in the into cells or boxes in a grid (called grid boxes) (FIGURE 2).
future. Yet to most of us, a cli-mate Each grid box contains land, ocean, or atmosphere, much
model is a mysterious like a digital photograph is made up of discrete pixels of cer-tain
black box. So how do scien-tists colors. The grid boxes are arrayed in a three-dimensional
create a climate model? layer by latitude and longitude, orin equal-sized polygons. The
The colorful maps and finer the scale of the grid, the greater resolution the model will
data-rich graphs that scientists have, and the better it will be able to predict results region by
generate from a climate model region. However, more resolution requires more computing
are the end result, but the pro-cess power, and climate models already strain the most powerful
begins when
they put into the
Incoming Outgoing
model a long solar energy heat
series of mathe-matical
Transition
A researcher works with
equations. from solid
satellite data used to model
These equations to vapor
climate change.
describe how vari-ous Evaporative Cumulus
Cirrus
components and heat Snow clouds
exchanges clouds
cover
of Earth’s systems function. Some equations are
derived from physical laws such as those on the
conservation of mass, energy, and momentum
Vegetation, Stratus
(p. 30). Others are derived from observational and topography, clouds
experimental data on physics, chemistry, and biol-ogy, reflectivity
Precipitation
gathered from the field. Converted into com-puting
and
language, these equations are integrated evaporation
Runoff
with information about Earth’s landforms, hydrol-ogy,
vegetation, and atmosphere (FIGURE 1). Winds Heat
exchange
Earth’s climate system is mind-bogglingly Soil
Ocean Ocean currents,
moisture
complex, but as computers grow more powerful, Sea
bathymetry temperature,
sophisticated modelsareincorporating moreand ice and salinity
more of the factors that influence climate. Most
models consist of submodels, each handling a Upwelling and
downwelling
different component—ocean water, seaice, gla-ciers,
forests, deserts, troposphere, stratosphere,
and so on.
For a model to function, all its building blocks
must be given equations to make them behave
realistically in space and time. In the real climate
system, time is continuous and spatial effects FIGURE 1 Climate models incorporate a diversity of natural factors and
reach down to the level of molecules interacting processes. Anthropogenic factors can then be added in.

Models help us predict the future programs that combine what is known about atmospheric
circulation, ocean circulation, atmosphere–ocean interac-tions,
To understand how climate systems function and to predict and feedback cycles to simulate climate dynamics
future climate change, scientists simulate climate processes (see THE SCIENCEBEHIND THE STORY). This requires manip-ulating
with sophisticated computer programs. Climate models are vast amounts of data with complex mathematica

318 ChaptEr 14 Global Climate Change

 that fit real-world climate observations the best (FIGURE 3). This
supports the idea that human activities, as well as natural pro-cesses,
areinfluencing our climate.
The major human influence on climate is our emission of
greenhouse gases, and modelers need to select values to enter
for future emissions if they wantto predict future climate. Gen-erally,
they will run their simulations multiple times, each time
with a different future emission rate according to a specified
scenario. Differences between the results from such scenarios
tell us whatinfluence these different emission rates would have.
Researchers are constantly testing and evaluating their
models. They improve them by incorporating what is learned
from new research and by taking advantage of what new com-puting
technologies allow. As their work proceeds, we can
expect increasingly precise and accurate predictions about
future climate conditions.

1.2

Observed data
FIGURE 2 Climate models divide Earth’s surface into a
0.9 Natural and human factors
layered grid. Each grid box represents land, air, or water, and
Natural factors only
(°C

interacts with adjacent grid boxes via the flux of materials and
energy. Adapted from Bloom, Arnold J., 2010. Global climate change:
0.6
Convergence of disciplines. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.
change

0.3
supercomputing networks. Today’s best climate models feature
dozens of grid boxes piled up from the bottom of the ocean to
0.0
the top of the atmosphere, with each grid box measuring a few
temperature

dozen miles wide, and time measured in periods ofjust minutes.

–0.3
Global

Once the grid is established, the processes that drive cli-mate

are assigned to each grid box, with their rates parceled
out among the time steps. The modellets the grid boxes inter-act –0.6
through time by means of the flux of materials and energy 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

into and out of each grid box. Year

Once modelershaveinput allthis information, learned from FIGURE 3 Models that incorporate both natural and
our study of Earth and the climate system, they let the model anthropogenic factors predict observed climate trends
run through time and simulate climate, from the past into the best. Adapted from Melillo,J.M., et al.(Eds.), 2014. Climate change impacts

future. If the computer simulation accurately reconstructs past in the United States: The third national climate assessment. U.S. Global Change

and present climate, then that inspires confidence in the mod-el’s Research Program.

ability to predict future climate accurately as well.

• Why do you think the red-shaded area diverges from
A number of studies have compared model runs that
the blue-shaded area in the right-hand portion of the
include only natural processes, model runs that include only
graph? • Why does the observed data (black line) track with the
human-generated processes, and model runs that combine red-shaded area rather than with the blue-shaded area?
both. These studies have found repeatedly that the model runs
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
incorporating both human and natural processes are the ones

equations—a task not possible until the advent of modern the efficacy of a model by entering past climate data and
computers. running the model toward the present. If a model accurately
Climate modelers provide starting information to the reconstructs current climate, then we have reason to believe
model based on real data from the field, set up rules for the that it simulates climate mechanisms realistically and may
simulation, and then let the program run. Researchers test accurately predict future climate.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 319

 Plenty of challenges remain for climate modelers, 1.00

because Earth’s climate system is so complex. Yet as sci-entific

knowledge builds and computing power intensifies, (°C)
0.75

climate models continue to improve in resolution and are averag

0.50
allowing us to make predictions region-by-region across
the world.
0.25
temperature

in
1901–2000

Impacts of Climate Change the

–0.25
Departure

Virtually everyone is noticing changes in the climate these

from

days. Miami-area residents suffer flooding. Texas ranchers –0.50

1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020
and California farmers endure multiyear droughts. Coastal
Year
homeowners struggle to obtain insurance against hurricanes
and storm surges. People from New York to Atlanta to Chi-cago (a) Global temperature measured since 1880

to Los Angeles face unprecedented heat waves and cold

snaps. Climate change has already exerted a multiplicity of
impacts on our planet and on our society. If we continue to
emit greenhouse gases, the consequences of climate change 0.5
will grow more severe. (°C)

average

0.0
Scientific evidence for climate
changeis extensive temperature

in
1961–1990

–0.5
For decades, scientists have studied climate change in enor-mous the

breadth, depth, and detail. As a result, the scientific lit-erature

today is replete with many thousands of independent
Departure
from

–1.0
published studies, and we have gained a rigorous understand-ing
of most aspects of climate change. To make this vast and 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
growing research knowledge accessible to policymakers and Year

the public, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (b) Northern Hemisphere temperature, past 1000 years
(IPCC) has taken up the task of reviewing and summariz-ing
FIGURE 14.8 Global temperatures have risen sharply in
it. This international body consists of many hundreds of
the past century. Data from thermometers (a) show changes in
scientists and national representatives. The IPCC shared the Earth’s average surface temperature since 1880. Since 1976, every
Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for its work in informing the world single year has been warmer than average. In (b), proxy indica-tors
of the trends and impacts of climate change. (blue line) and thermometer data (red line) together show
In 2013–2014, the IPCC released its Fifth Assessment average temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere over the past
Report. Summarizing thousands of scientific studies, this 1000 years. The gray-shaded zone represents the 95% confidence

report documents observed trends in surface temperature, range. Datafrom (a) NOAA National Climatic Data Center; and (b) IPCC, 2001.

precipitation patterns, snow and ice cover, sea level, storm Third assessment report.

intensity, and other factors. It also predicts future trends after

considering a range of scenarios for future greenhouse gas
2018, but was thrown into limbo when President Trump dis-banded
emissions. The report addresses impacts of climate disrup-tion
its scientific advisory panel.
on wildlife, ecosystems, and society. Finally, it discusses
strategies we might pursue in response. To learn more, you
Temperatures continue to rise
may wish to download the Fifth Assessment Report yourself.
Three working group reports and a synthesis report are acces-sible Average surface temperatures on Earth have risen by about
online at the IPCC’s website. 1.1°C (2.0°F) in the past 100 years (FIGURE 14.8). Most of
For the United States, impacts have been assessed by the this increase has occurred since 1975—and just since 2000,
U.S. Global Change Research Program, which Congress cre-ated we have experienced 17 of the 18 warmest years since global
to coordinate federal climate research. Its 2014 National measurements began 140 years ago! Since the 1960s, each
Climate Assessment summarized current research, observed decade has been warmer than the last. If you were born after
trends, and predicted future impacts of climate change on the 1976, you have never in your life lived through a year with aver-age
United States. You can explore scientists’ predictions for the global temperatures lower than the 20th-century average.
nation and for your own region by consulting this publicly If you were born after 1985, you have never even lived through
accessible report online. An updated report was due out in a month with cooler-than-average global temperatures.

320 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 temperature (FIGURE 14.10) are predicted to vary from region
to region in ways that they already have. For example, polar
regions will continue to experience the most intense warming.

Precipitation is changing
A warmer atmosphere speeds evaporation and holds more
water vapor, and precipitation has increased worldwide by
2% over the past century. Yet some regions of the world
are receiving less rain and snow than usual while others
receive more. In the western United States, droughts have
become more frequent and severe, harming agriculture,
worsening soil erosion, reducing water supplies, and trig-gering
wildfire. In parts of the eastern United States, heavy
Temperature change (oF)
rain events have increased, leading to floods that have killed
>1.5 –0.5 to 0.0
dozens of people and left thousands homeless.
1.0 to 1.5 –1.0 to –0.5
Future changes in precipitation (FIGURE 14.11) are pre-dicted
0.5 to 1.0 –1.5 to –1.0
to intensify regional changes that have already occurred.
0.0 to 0.5 < –1.5
Many wet regions will receive more rainfall, increasing flood-ing
FIGURE 14.9 Temperatures have risen across the United risks, while many dry regions will become drier, worsen-ing
States. Most of the nation has warmed by morethan 1°F(0.6°C) water shortages.
whenthe average from the period 1991–2012 is compared to the
average from 1901–1960. Datafrom NOAANationalClimaticDataCenter
as

the
presented

United
in

States:
Melillo,

The
J.M.,

third
et al. (Eds.),

national climate
2014. Climate

assessment.
change

U.S.
impacts

Global
in

Change
Extreme weatheris becoming
Research Program. “the new normal”
• By how much did the average temperature rise or The sheer number of extreme weather events in recent years—droughts,
fall where you live during the timeframe illustrated? floods, hurricanes, snowstorms, cold snaps, heat
• How does this compare with other parts of the country? waves—has caught everyone’s attention, and weather records
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science are falling left and right. In the United States in 2012 alone, the
nation experienced a freakish March heat wave, a drought that
devastated agriculture across three-fifths of the country, and
Superstorm Sandy, which inflicted over $65 billion in damage
In just the past two decades, temperatures in most areas along the Atlantic Coast. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey flooded
of the United States have risen by more than 1 full degree Houston while Hurricane Irma devastated the Caribbean and
Fahrenheit (FIGURE 14.9). drenched Florida and the Southeast, even as wildfires raged
We can expect global surface temperatures to continue out of control in the West.
rising because we are still emitting greenhouse gases and Scientific data summarized by the U.S. Climate Extremes
because the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere will Index confirm that the frequency of extreme weather events
continue warming the globe for decades to come. At the end in the United States has doubled since 1970. Scientists are
of the 21st century, the IPCC predicts global temperatures not the only ones to notice this trend. The insurance indus-try
will be 1.0–3.7°C (1.8–6.7°F) higher than today’s, depending is finely attuned to such patterns, because insurers pay
on how well we control our emissions. Unusually hot days out money each time a major storm, drought, or flood hits.
and heat waves will become more frequent. Future changes in A major German insurer, Munich Re, calculated that since

Temperature
increase (oC)
by 2100
0.5–1
FIGURE 14.10 Surface temperatures
1–1.5
are projected to rise for the years 2081–2100,
1.5–2
relative to 1986–2005. Landmasses
2–3 are expected to warm morethan oceans,
3–4 and the Arctic will warmthe most. This map
4–5 was generated using an intermediate emis-sions
5–7 scenario involving an average global
7–9 temperature rise of 2.2°C (4.0°F). Datafrom
IPCC, 2013. Fifth assessment report.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 32

 FIGURE 14.11 Precipitation
Percent change in (June–August) is projected
precipitation by 2100 to change for the years
10–20% decrease 2081–2100, relative to 1986–2005.
0–10% decrease Brownershadesindicate
0–10% increase
less precipitation; bluer shades
indicate more. This map was
10–20% increase
generated using an intermediate
20–30% increase
emissions scenario involving an
30–40% increase
average global temperature rise of
40–50% increase 2.2°C (4.0°F). DatafromIPCC, 2013.
>50% increase Fifth assessment report.

1980, extreme weather events causing losses have doubled in in regions that depend on mountain meltwater. As a warm-ing
Europe and haverisen by 2.5times in Africa, 4times in Asia, climate diminishes mountain glaciers, summertime water
and 5times in North America. supplies are declining for millions of people, and this will
For years, researchers conservatively stated that although likely force whole communities to look elsewhere for water,
climate trends influence the probability of whatthe weather or to move.
maybelike on any given day, no single particular weather Warmingtemperaturesare also meltingvast amountsof
event can be directly attributed to climate change. In the polar ice. In Antarctica, coastal ice shelves the size of Rhode
aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, a metaphor spread across the Island have disintegrated as a result of contact with warmer
Internet: Whena baseballplayertakes artificial steroids and ocean water,and researchnow suggeststhat the entire West
starts hitting morehome runs, you can’t attribute any one par-ticular
home run to the steroids, but you can conclude that
the steroids wereresponsiblefor the increasein homeruns.
Ourgreenhouse gas emissions arelike steroids that are super-charging
our climate and increasing the instance of extreme
weatherevents. Cool
In 2012, research by Jennifer Francis of Rutgers Uni-versity weather
and Stephen Vavrus of the University of Wisconsin
revealed a mechanismthat mayexplain how and why global iyc
T
p
al
warming leads to more extreme weather. Warming has been Warm j et
st
weather re
greatest in the Arctic, and this has weakenedthe intensity of a m

the Northern Hemisphere’spolarjet stream, a high-altitude

Weather systems move
air current that blows west-to-east and meanders north and west to east at normal rate
south, influencing the weatheracross North America and
Eurasia. Asthe jet stream slows down, its meandering loops
(a) Normal jet stream
become longer, and may get stuck in what meteorologists call
an atmosphericblocking pattern wherebythe eastward move-ment
of weather systemsis blocked (FIGURE 14.12). Whenthis
happens, a rainy system that might normally move past a city ng
p at t
er
k n
in a day caninstead be heldin placefor several days, caus-ing o
c

flooding. Or dry conditions over a farming region might Persistent n

b

last two weeksinstead of two days, resulting in drought. Hot cold weather k
i

spellslast longer, and cold spellslast longer,too.

c

stu
Persistent
m
hot weather
Meltingice hasfar-reaching effects
a
L
e
o
r
o
pi n st Weather systems are held in
g j et
place, creating prolonged
Asthe world warms, mountaintopglaciers are disappearing bouts of extreme weather
(FIGURE 14.13). Between 1980 and 2016, the World Glacier
Monitoring Service estimates that the world’s major glaciers on (b) Jet stream in March 2012
averageeachlost massequivalentto morethan 19 m(62 ft) in
FIGURE 14.12 Changes in the jet stream can cause extreme
vertical height of water.In Glacier National Parkin Montana,
weather events. Arctic warming can slow the jet stream, causing
only 25 of 150 glaciers present at the park’s inception remain. it to depart from its normal configuration (a) and create a blocking
Scientistsestimatethat by 2030eventhese will be gone. pattern (b) that stalls weather systems in place, leading to extreme
Mountains accumulate snow in winter and release melt-waterweather events. The blocking pattern shown here brought record-breaking
gradually during summer. Oneout of six peoplelive heatto the eastern UnitedStatesin March2012.

322 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 and mineral reserves. Russia, Canada, the United States, and
other nations are jockeying for position, trying to lay claim to
regions of the Arctic seafloor as the ice melts.
One reason warming is accelerating in the Arctic is that
as snow and ice melt, darker, less reflective surfaces (such as
bare ground and pools of meltwater) are exposed. As a result,
more of the sun’s rays are absorbed, and the surface warms.
In a process of positive feedback, this warming causes more
ice and snow to melt, which in turn causes more absorption

(a) Jackson Glacier in 1911 and warming (see Figure 2.1b, p. 25).
Warming Arctic temperatures are also causing perma-frost
(permanently frozen ground) to thaw and settle, desta-bilizing
buildings, pipelines, roads, and bridges. A recent
study estimates Alaska will suffer $5.6–7.6 billion in dam-age
to public infrastructure by 2080 due to climate change.
Moreover, when permafrost thaws, it can release methane that
has been stored for thousands of years. Because methane is
a potent greenhouse gas, its release acts as positive feedback
that intensifies climate change.

Rising sealevels mayaffect

hundreds of millions of people
(b) Jackson Glacierin 2009 As glaciers and ice sheets melt, the runoff causes sea levels to
FIGURE 14.13 Glaciers are melting rapidly as global warming rise. Sea levels also are rising because ocean water is warm-ing,
proceeds. The Jackson Glacier in Glacier National Park, Montana, and water expands in volume as it warms. In addition,
retreated substantially between (a) 1911 and (b) 2009. as we extract groundwater from aquifers (for drinking and to
apply to farmland), the wastewater that enters rivers and the
Antarctic ice shelf may be onits wayto collapse, which would excessirrigation waterthat runs off farmland eventually reach
create a 3-m (10-ft) rise in sea level. the ocean, adding to sea level rise.
In the Arctic,
where temperatures
have warmed more 12
than anywhere else,
ALASKA
the immense ice km2
10
RUSSIA
sheet that covers
Greenland is melt-ing 8
(billion

CANADA
faster and faster.
ice

Sea ice is also thin-ning 6

Sea

(FIGURE 14.14),
and as this ice melts 4

earlier in the season,

freezes later, and 1870 1900 1950 2000

recedes from shore,

it becomes harder
for Inuit people and
for polar bears alike
to hunt the seals GREENLAND FIGURE 14.14 As Arctic sea

they each rely on for ice melts, it recedes from

large areas. The map shows
food. As Arctic sea
mean minimum summer extent
ice disappears, new
of sea ice for the recent past,
shipping lanes open
ICELAND FINLAND present, and future. The graph
up for commerce, SWEDEN shows declines in sea ice aver-aged
and governments and Sea ice NORWAY from six data sets. Data
companies rush to 2000 from National Center for Atmospheric

exploit newly acces-sible 2002 2040–2060 Research and National Snow and Ice

underwater oil 2010–2030 2070–2090 Data Center.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 323

 25 sea level rise (FIGURE 14.16), with the East Coast and the Gulf
Causes of sea level rise, 1993–2010 Coast most at risk.
20
Thermal expansion ~39%
In the southern Pacific Ocean, small island nations have
Glaciers ~27%

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets ~21% seen sea levels rise as quickly as 9 mm/yr. Rising seas threaten
Groundwater extraction ~13%

(cm
15 the very existence of countries like the Maldives, a nation of
1200 islands in the Indian Ocean. In the Maldives, four-fifths
rise

10 of the land lies less than 1 m(39 in.) above sea level (FIGURE
level
14.17a). Saltwater is contaminating drinking supplies, and
5 storms are eroding beaches and damaging the coral reefs that
Sea

Tide gauge data support the Maldives’ tourism and fishing industries. Resi-dents
0 Satellite data
have already evacuated several low-lying islands. For
Statistical uncertainty
these reasons, leaders of the Maldives have played a promi-nent
–5
role in international efforts to fight global warming. In
1880 1920 1960 2000
2009, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and his cabinet
Year
donned scuba gear and dove into a coastal lagoon, where they
FIGURE 14.15 Global average sea level has risen more held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting—part of a
than 24 cm (9.5 in.) since 1880. Sea levels rise because water
campaign to draw global attention to the impacts of climate
expands as it warms, glaciers and ice sheets are melting, and
change (FIGURE 14.17b).
groundwater we extract eventually reaches the ocean. Datafrom
In the United States, several major hurricanes have dem-onstrated
IPCC, 2013. Fifth assessment report; CSIRO; and NASA.
the impact that storm surges can inflict on highly
developed metropolitan areas. In 2017, flooding from Hur-ricane
Worldwide, average sealevels haverisen 24.1 cm (9.5 in.) Harvey devastated Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest
in the past 135 years (FIGURE 14.15), reaching a rate of 3.4 mm/ city, along with large regions of Texas and Louisiana. This
yr from 1993 to 2016. These numbers represent vertical rises was followed by Hurricane Irma, which flooded coastal cit-ies
in waterlevel, and on most coastlines a vertical rise of a few from Miami to Jacksonville to Charleston, after ravaging
inches translates into a great many feet of incursion inland. the Florida Keys and many Caribbean islands. Then Hurri-cane
Higher sea levels lead to beach erosion; coastal flooding; intru-sion Maria brought ruin to Puerto Rico. In 2012, Superstorm
of saltwater into aquifers; and greater impacts from storm Sandy—a hurricane until just before it made landfall—battered
surges, temporary local rises in sea level generated by storms. the eastern part of the nation, leaving 160 people
Regions experience differing amounts of sea level change dead and thousands homeless (FIGURE 14.18). In New Jersey,
due to patterns of ocean currents or because land may be ris-ing coastal communities were inundated with salt water and sand,
or subsiding naturally, depending on local geologic condi-tions. thousands of homes were destroyed, and iconic boardwalks
The United States is experiencing varying degrees of were washed away. In New York City, economic activity

Boston
San Francisco Much of city is built atop
1-m rise would put filled-in wetlands that the New York City
airports, power plants, ocean could easily reclaim. The city is spending billions
Silicon Valley companies, of dollars to recover from

and $49 billion in Superstorm Sandy and

property at risk. prepare for future flooding.

Norfolk, Virginia
Land is subsiding, and
Galveston, Texas New Orleans flooding threatens
1.5 mrise would top Most of city is below sea neighborhoods and the
seawalls and displace level, protected only by world’s largest naval base.
100,000 people. levees that could fail.

Tampa/St. Petersburg,
Florida
Sea level trends
This area is low-lying, and
(mm/yr)
in path of hurricanes;
–3 to 0 3 to 6 9 to 12 saltwater is contaminating
0 to 3 6 to 9 aquifers.

FIGURE 14.16 Rising sea levels are putting many U.S. cities at risk of costly damage. Rates are highest
(taller darker blue arrows) whereland is subsiding along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Datafrom NationalOceanicand
Atmospheric Administration; city profiles adapted from Rising seas: A city-by-city forecast. Rolling Stone, 20 June, 2013.

324 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 (a) Malé, capital of the Maldives (b) The “underwater cabinet meeting”

FIGURE 14.17 Rising sea levels threaten island nations. The capital of the Maldives(a) is crowded onto an
island averaging just 1.5 m(5 ft) above sea level. In 2009, the Maldives’ president led his cabinet in an underwa-ter
meeting (b) to focus international attention on the plight ofisland nations vulnerable to sea level rise.

ground to a halt as tunnels, subway stations, vehicles, and protection against future storm surges. Aroundthe world,
buildings flooded. rising seas are eating away at the salt marshes, dunes, man-grove
Although not directly and solely caused by climate forests, and coral reefs that serve as barriers protect-ing
change, these storms werefacilitated and strengthened by it. our coasts.
Warmer ocean water boosts the chances of large and power-ful In its Fifth Assessment Report, the IPCC predicted that
hurricanes. A warmeratmosphereretains more moisture, meanglobalsealevel will rise 26–82cm(10–32in.) higherby
which a hurricane can dump onto land. Ablocking pattern in 2100, depending on our level of emissions. However, research
the jet stream contributed to Sandy’s energy. And higher sea since then finds that Greenland’s ice is melting faster and
levels magnifythe damagecausedbystorm surges. faster, which wouldlead seasto rise morequickly—perhaps
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans over 1 m(3.3 ft) by 2100. Morethan half of the U.S. popula-tion
and the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1800 people and lives in coastal counties, and 3.7 million Americans live
inflicting $80 billion in damage. Outside New Orleans within1 vertical meterof the hightide line. It is estimatedthat
today, marshes of the Mississippi River delta continue a 1-m rise threatens 180 U.S. cities with losing an average
to disappear under rising seas (pp. 255–256), weakening of 9% of their land area. South Florida is judged mostat risk

18 FIGURE 14.18 Climate change contributes to the power and reach of devastating
storms like Superstorm Sandy. The map shows areas in New York City flooded by the 2012
storm. The graph shows sea level rise in New York City in the past century. Mapdatafrom The
12
New York Times as adapted from federal agencies; graph datafrom Horton, R., et al., 2015. New York City panel
(inches

rise
on climate change 2015 report chapter 2: Sea level rise and coastal storms. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1336: 36–44.
6
level

Sea

0 Area flooded
1900 1960 2020 Severe damage
Completely
Bronx
destroyed

Manhattan
Hoboken
Newark Jersey Queens
City
NEW YORK
Elizabeth
CITY

Brooklyn
Staten
Island
Shoreline homes toppled
The by storm surge
Rockaways

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 325

 FLORIDA
Pembroke
Hollywood
Pines

Miramar

Sea level rise

Hialeah
scenarios

1-ft rise

2-ft rise Miami Beach

3-ft rise MIAMI

4-ft rise FIGURE 14.20 Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffered severe
5-ft rise coral bleaching in 2016–2017. Coralbleachingcan occur when
Key Biscayne warmed ocean waters cause corals to expel the symbiotic algae
6-ft rise
they rely on for food. The world’s coral reefs are also vulnerable to
10 km
Not mapped ATLANTIC OCEAN ocean acidification.

FIGURE 14.19 Miami, Florida, is one of many U.S. cities

vulnerable to sea level rise. Shown are areas of the Miami concentration). Scientists are witnessinginitial impacts on a vari-ety
region that would be flooded by rises in sealevel of 1–6 feet. of marineanimals,and acidifiedseawaterhasalreadykilled
Data from NOAA Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper, www.coast.noaa.gov/ billions oflarval oystersin Washingtonand Oregon,jeopardizing
floodexposure/#/map. the region’s once-thriving industry. By 2100, scientists predict
that seawater will declinein pH by another0.06–0.32units—possibly
enoughto destroy most of our planet’sliving coral reefs
(FIGURE14.19). Here2.4 million people, 1.3 million homes,
(p. 267). Such destruction could be catastrophic for marine bio-diversity
and 1.8 million acres are vulnerable, according to experts with
andfisheries, becauseso manyorganismsdependon
the Surging Seas project of Climate Central.In morethan 100
coral reefs for food and shelter.Indeed, ocean acidification, with
South Floridatowns, fully halfthe populationis at risk.
the potentialloss of marinelife, threatensto becomeone ofthe
Whethersealevels this century rise 26 cm, 1 m, or more,
mostfar-reaching impacts of global climate change.
hundreds of millions of people will be displaced or will need
Coral reefs face two additional risks from climate
to invest in costly efforts to protect against high tides and
change: Warmerwaterscontributeto deadly coral bleaching
storm surges. A 2015 study calculated that if we burn all the
(FIGURE 14.20; p. 267), and stronger storms physically dam-age
fossil fuels remaining in the world, this would melt all the
reefs. All these factors concern residents of places like
ice on Antarctica(half of it in just 1000 years),raising sea
South Florida. South of Miamiin the Florida Keys,coral
levels by about a foot per decade.If all the world’s ice melted,
reefs protect coastlines from erosion, offer snorkeling and
the oceans would be 65 m(216 ft) higher. This would put the
scuba diving sites for tourism, and provide habitat for fish
entire state of Florida under water,along withthe rest ofthe
consumedlocally andexportedfor profit.
Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast. Thelower Mississippi River
all the way up to Memphis would become a gigantic bay, and
California’s CentralValley, where muchof our food is grown Organisms and ecosystems
today, would be submerged under an inland sea.
are affected
Acidifying oceansimperil marinelife As global warming proceeds, it modifies biological phenom-ena
that rely on temperature. In the spring, plants are leaf-ing
Theoceanshaveabsorbedroughly one-quarterof the carbon out earlier and insects are hatching earlier. Theseshifts
dioxide we have added to the atmosphere. This is altering can create mismatches in seasonal timing with phenomena
ocean chemistry, making seawater more acidic—a phenom-enon driven mostly by day length, such as bird migration. For
referredto asocean acidification (p. 284). Oceanacidi-fication
example,in eastern North America,forests are greening up
threatens marine animals such as corals, clams, earlier in spring but many migratory songbirds are failing to
oysters, mussels, and crabs, which pull carbonate ions out of arrive early enough to keep up withthe change. This can have
seawaterto build their exoskeletonsof calcium carbonate. As consequences;
in Europe,some birds areraising fewer young
seawater becomes more acidic, carbonate ions become less because the insects they eat are peaking earlier and the birds
available, and calcium carbonate begins to dissolve, jeopar-dizinghave been unable to adjust.
the existenceof these animals. Biologists are alsorecording spatial shifts in the ranges
So far, global ocean chemistry has decreased by 0.1 pH of species, as plants and animals movetoward the poles or
unit, whichcorresponds
to a 26%rise in acidity (hydrogenion upwardin elevation (toward cooler areas) astemperature

326 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 seasons become longer. Research shows that enriched atmo-spheric
carbon dioxide may or may not boost yields, and also that
crops can become less nutritious when supplied with more CO2.
If rainfall continues to shift in space and time, intensified droughts
and floods will likely cut into agricultural productivity. Consider-ing
all factors, the IPCC has predicted that global crop yields will
increase somewhat—but that beyond a rise of 3°C (5.4°F), they
will decline, worsening hunger in developing nations.
Pikas are disappearing
from mountains after
being forced upslope.
Climate change affects our health,
wealth,and security
FIGURE 14.21 Animal populations are shifting toward the Droughts, floods, storm surges, and other aspects of climate
poles and upward in elevation. Mountain-dwelling animals such changeare already taking a toll onthe lives andlivelihoods
as the pika, a unique mammal of western North America, are being of millions of people. Ultimately, these impacts have conse-quences
forced upslope (into more limited habitat) as temperatures warm. for our health, wealth, and national security.
Many pika populations in the Great Basin have disappeared from
mountains already. health As climate change proceeds, weare facing more
heat waves—andheat stress can cause death. A 1995 heat
warm (FIGURE 14.21). Organisms that cannot adjust could wavein Chicago killed at least 485 people, and a 2003 heat
face extinction. Many trees may not be able to shift their wave in Europe killed 35,000 people. A warming climate

distributions fast enough. Rarespecies maybe forced out
of preserves and into developed areas where they cannot
survive. Organisms adapted to mountainous environments
maybeforced uphill until there is nowhereleft to go.
Changes in precipitation also have consequences. In
regions where heavy rainstorms are increasing, erosion and
flooding can pollute and alter aquatic systems. Whererain
and snow are decreasing, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and streams
are drying up. Overall,the manyimpacts of climate change
on ecological systems will tend to diminish the ecosystem
goods and services on which people depend.
Cropsandforests experience a mix
of consequences
Understanding
the effectsof climate changeon plant commu-nities
haveless wealthand technology with whichto adaptto cli-mate
is vital, especially in the ecosystems that we managefor
food and resources. Plants draw in carbon dioxide for photo-synthesis,
food and water) that are sensitive to climate disruption.
soit standsto reasonthat an atmospherericherin
CO2 might enhance plant growth, resulting in more CO2 being
removed from the air. Onthe other hand,if plant growth is inhib-ited
by drought,fire, or disease,
then moreCO2getsreleasedto
the air. Scientists studying these questions arefinding complex
answers, and large-scale outdoor experiments show that extra
CO2canbothaugmentanddiminish plant growth.
In the forests that provide ourtimber and paper products,
enriched atmospheric CO2can spur growth, but drought, fire,
and diseaseofteneliminatethese gains.Forestersincreasingly
find themselves battling catastrophic fires, invasive species,
and insect and disease outbreaks, all of which can worsen
withlonger periods of warmand dry weather.Forinstance,
milder winters and hotter, drier summers are promoting out-breaks
The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, com-missioned
of bark beetlesthat are destroying millions of acres of
treesin western North America(p. 202).
For some agricultural crops in the temperate zones, moder-ate Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculated in
warmingmayslightly increaseproductionbecausegrowing
also exposesusto other healthrisks:
• Respiratory ailments from air pollution as hotter temp-eratures
promote photochemical smog (pp. 296–297)
• Expansionoftropical diseases,such as malariaand den-gue
fever, into temperate regions as disease vectors (such
as mosquitoes) spread toward the poles
• Diseaseand sanitation problems whenfloods overcome
sewagetreatment systems
• Injuries and drowning from worsened storms
Wealth People are experiencing a variety of economic
costs and benefits from the impacts of climate change, but
researcherspredict that costs will outweigh benefits. They
also expect climate change to widen the gap between rich
and poor, both within and among nations. Poorer people
change, andthey rely more on resources (such as local
Economistshavetried to quantify damagesfrom climate
change by totaling up its various external costs (pp. 96, 104).
Their estimates for the social cost of carbon, the economic
cost of damagesresulting from eachton of carbon dioxide
weemit, run the gamut from $10to $350 perton, depending
on what costs are included and what discount rate (p. 97) is
used. The U.S.governmenthasapplied a formal estimate of
roughly $40 per ton ($37 in 2007 dollars, rising with infla-tion)
to decide when and how to regulate emissions. Other
nationsand manylarge corporationsusetheir own estimates.
In terms of overall cost to society, the IPCC has estimated
that climate change mayimpose costs of 1–5% of GDPglobally,
withpoor nationslosing proportionally morethan rich nations.
by the British government, concluded that climate
changecould costus 5–20%of GDPbythe year2200. The U.S.
2015
that reducing greenhousegasemissionswouldsavethe United

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 32

 Whatis behind the debate over
climate change?
Scientists agree that today’s global warming is due to the
well-documented recent increase in greenhouse gas concen-trations
in our atmosphere. They agree that this rise results
primarily from our combustion of fossil fuels for energy and
secondarily from the loss of carbon-absorbing vegetation due
to deforestation. They have documented a wide diversity of
impacts on the physical properties of our planet, on organisms
and ecosystems, and on human well-being (FIGURE 14.23).
Yet despite the overwhelming evidence for climate dis-ruption
and its impacts, many people, especially in the United
States, have long tried to deny that it is happening. Most of
these “climate skeptics” or “climate change deniers” now
FIGURE 14.22 Climate change can contribute to humanitar-ian,
accept that the climate is changing but still express doubt that
geopolitical, and national security problems. Prolonged
drought associated with climate change weakened agriculture and
we are the cause. Public debate over climate change has been

helped spark the civil war in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State fanned by corporate interests, ideological think tanks, and a
(ISIS), many experts have concluded. The resulting flow of refu-gees, handful of scientists funded by fossil fuel industries, all of
in turn, put social and political strains on European nations whom have aimed to cast doubt on the scientific consensus.
that received them. For instance, the oil corporation Exxon-Mobil funded
attacks on climate science for years, methodically sowing
doubt in the public discourse—even after its own in-house
States $235–334 billion by the year 2050, and $1.3–1.5 tril-lion scientists had done cutting-edge research back in the 1980s
by 2100. Regardless of the precise numbers, most econo-mists documenting climate change! In the 2010 book Merchants of
have concluded that investing money now to fight climate Doubt, science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway
change will spare us a great deal of these costs in the future. reveal how some of the ideologically motivated individuals
who cast doubt on climate science had previously done the
National security The manycosts and impacts of cli-matesame against widely accepted scientific conclusions on the
disruption are beginning to endanger the ability of risks of tobacco smoke, DDT, ozone depletion, and acid rain.
nations to ensure social stability and protect their citizens The views of climate change deniers have long been
from harm. The Pentagon, the White House, the U.S. Navy, amplified by the mainstream American news media, which
the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Central Intelli-gence traditionally have sought to present two sides to every issue,
Agency have all concluded and publicly reported that even when the arguments of the two sides were not equally
climate change is contributing to political violence, war supported by evidence. In today’s more fragmented media
and revolution, humanitarian disasters, and refugee crises environment, climate change has become a victim of political
(FIGURE 14.22). “Climate change will affect the Department partisanship, and many of usreceive information—and mis-information—from
of Defense’s ability to defend the Nation and poses immedi-ate social media and partisan sources online.
risks to U.S. national security,” the U.S Defense Depart-ment The rise of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency brought
stated bluntly in a landmark 2014 report. The report opposition to addressing climate change into the White
described how storms, rising seas, and other impacts are House. Yet, as data have mounted over the decades and as the
“threat-multipliers,” making small problems larger. Already, social and economic costs of climate disruption have grown
extreme weather events have damaged military installa-tions, clearer, more and more policymakers, business executives,
weakened the economies and infrastructure of allies military leaders, national security experts, and everyday peo-ple
and trading partners, disrupted flows of oil and gas, and have concluded that climate change is escalating and is
strained emergency response abilities, while Arctic melting causing impacts to which we must begin to respond.
has set off a competitive race among nations to claim polar
resources.

suffer
When environmental
as a result, some
conditions
of them
worsen
may leave their
and people
homes and
Respondingto
become refugees,
ideologies
while
or even terrorism.
others may turn to radical
This is why national
political
security
Climate Change
experts have linked climate change and drought to the origins From this point onward, our society will be focusing on how
of the war in Syria, to conflicts elsewhere in the Middle East best to respond to the challenges of climate change. The good
and Africa, and to the resulting refugee crisis in Europe. In the news is that everyone can play a part in this all-important
years ahead,the world’s militaries and emergency responders search for solutions—not just leaders in government and
will be devoting more and more of their efforts toward prob-lems business, but people from all walks of life, and especially
created or made worse by climate disruption. today’s youth. Already we have made progress: Greenhous

328 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 Average surface temperature Precipitation has varied by
has risen 1°C (1.8°F) since region, making wet areas
1900. By 2100 it could rise wetter and dry ones drier.
1.0–3.7°C (1.8–6.7°F) more. Ocean surface waters are
warming, melting Arctic sea
ice and affecting circulation.

Polar ice and mountain

glaciers are melting, Storms, heavy rain, and
worsening sea level rise flooding have increased,
and reducing drinking threatening crops, property,
Ocean water is becoming more
water supplies. and human lives.
acidic, endangering marine life,
coral reefs, and fisheries.

Most organisms
and ecosystems
are being affected.
Some species
could go extinct.
Heat waves and drought
areintensifying in many
regions, affecting farms,
forests, and human health.
Sealevel rose 21 cm (8 in.) since 1900 and
could rise much more by 2100, displacing
people and causing escalating expense.

FIGURE 14.23 Current trends and future impacts of climate change are extensive. Shown are major
physical, biological, and social trends andimpacts (both observed and predicted) as reported bythe IPCC.
(Mean estimates are shown; the IPCC reports ranges and statistical probabilities as well.) Datafrom IPCC, 2013.
Fifth assessment report.

gas emissions globally may be finally reaching a peak, and in of the problem. Weneed to pursue adaptation because even
the United Statesthey have begunto decline. if we could halt all our emissions tomorrow, the greenhouse
gas pollution alreadyin the atmospherewouldcontinue driv-ing
Wecanrespondin two ways global warming for years, with the temperature rising
an estimated 0.6°C (1.0°F) more by the end of the century.
Wecan respond to climate change in two fundamental ways. Becausethis changeis alreadylocked in, we would be wise
Oneis to pursue actionsthat reduce the magnitudeof cli-mate
change. This strategy is called mitigation because the
aim is to mitigatethe problem; that is, to alleviate it or lessen
its severity. To mitigateclimate change, weneedto reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. Examples of mitigation include
improving energy efficiency, switching to clean renewable
energysources, preservingand restoring forests, recovering
landfill gas, and promoting farm practices that protect soil
quality.
In the secondtype of response, weseekto cushion our-selves
from the impacts of climate change. This strategy is
called adaptation because the goal is to adapt to change.
Installing elaboratepump systems,as Miami Beachis doing
to pump out its floodwaters, is an example of adaptation
(FIGURE 14.24). Other examples include erecting seawalls;
restricting coastal development;adjusting farming practices
to cope with drought; and modifying water management prac-tices
to deal with reduced river flows, glacial outburst floods, FIGURE 14.24 Miami Beach is trying to adapt to sea level
or salt contamination of groundwater. rise by constructing an elaborate system of pumps and
Adaptation aims to address the impacts wesuffer from drainage pipes. Adaptation is a more costly and less effective
climate change, whereas mitigationaddressesthe root cause response to climate change than mitigation, however.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 32

 to find ways to adapt to its impacts. But we also need to pur-sue accounts for most of the resulting emissions. Natural gas
mitigation, because otherwise climate change will eventu-ally generates the same amount of energy as coal, but with half
overwhelm any efforts we might maketo adapt. We will the emissions. In recent years the United States has reduced
spend the remainder of our chapter examining approaches for its emissions largely by switching from coal to natural gas
the mitigation of climate change. at its power plants (see Figure 15.13, p. 353). Cleaner still
are nuclear power (Chapter 15) and renewable energy
sources such as solar power, wind power, geothermal power,

Whatcan you do personally? bioenergy, and hydropower (Chapter 16). As a homeowner,

you can install solar panels or ground-source heat pumps. As
Although climate change requires action from leaders in a student on campus, you can help persuade your college or
policy, economics, business, and engineering, every one of university to purchase renewable power or to generate solar
us as individuals can play a role in reducing emissions. Just or wind power on campus.
as we each have an ecological footprint (p. 5), we each have
a carbon footprint that expresses the amount of carbon we What you eat Oneof the mosteffective waysto lower
are responsible for emitting. We can reduce our own carbon your carbon footprint is through your diet. Eating animal
footprints by taking simple steps in our everyday lives. Taken products such as meat, eggs, and milk is far more energy-intensive
together, individual decisions and actions scale upto make a than eating lower on the food chain—so a vegetar-ian
difference at the societal level. diet will reduce your emissions greatly. The type of meat
one eats also makes a difference: Pound for pound, beef leads
how you get around Transportationaccountsfor more to eight times more emissions than chicken (see Figure 7.15,
than 35% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, largely because p. 157)! Scientists estimate that animal agriculture accounts
werely on motor vehicles that run on gasoline. If you can for fully 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. For
drive less—or live without a car—you will cut down greatly many of us, reducing the amount of red meat we eat while
on your carbon footprint. Today many people are reducing shifting to more fruits and vegetables can reduce our carbon
their reliance on cars. Some people are choosing to live nearer footprint morethan any other single action we could take,
to their workplaces. Others use mass transit such as buses, while also enhancing our health.
subway trains, and light rail. Still others bike or walk to work. Eating locally grown food (or buying any locally made
If you drive, selecting afuel-efficient vehicle makes a huge product)—as opposed to items shipped in from far away—cuts
difference. The typical automobile is highly inefficient; only down on fuel use, and thus emissions, from long-distance
14% of the energy from fuel in our gas tanks actually moves transportation. Studies show that the type of food you eat
our cars down the road; most of the rest escapes as waste heat. tends to have more influence than where it comes from (for
Better engineering for more aerodynamic designs, increased example, eating less meat makes more difference than buy-ing
engine efficiency, and improved tire design can improve fuel local produce), but keeping both things in mind will help
efficiency (p. 364). New technology is also bringing us alter-natives make a dent in emissions.
to the traditional combustion-engine automobile. These Finally, being careful not to waste food will make a
include electric vehicles, gasoline-electric hybrids (p. 364), difference. About 40% of U.S. food goes to waste, adding
and vehicles that use hydrogen fuel cells (p. 395) or fuels such greatly to the nation’s emissions. Taking smaller portions
as compressed natural gas or biodiesel (p. 393). Finally, sim-ple (encouraged by trayless dining at campus dining halls), order-ing
steps like driving the speed limit and keeping your tires wisely at restaurants, and cleaning out your refrigerator
inflated can boost your fuel efficiency by a third. all help to reduce food waste.

how you power up From cooking to heatingto light-ing What you do Wecantake manyother stepsto minimize
to surfing the internet, much of what we do each day our carbon footprints. Here are just a few:
depends on electricity, which accounts for 35% of U.S. • Choose energy-efficient products when shopping,
emissions. One easy way to reduce electricity consump-tion—and thereby encouraging manufacturers and retailers to pro-duce
save money at the same time—is to purchase and sell low-emission products.
energy-saving products. You can consult EnergyGuide
• Cut back on waste by buying only what you need, reus-ing
labels and labels from the EPA’s Energy Star program when
items whenever possible, and recycling and compost-ing
shopping for electronics, appliances, and home and office
what you no longer need (Chapter 17).
equipment to judge which brands and models will save
energy and money (pp. 364–365). In recent years U.S. con-sumers,• Get involved in sustainability efforts on campus (pp. 19,

businesses, and industries have saved hundreds of 435), such as running recycling programs; finding

billions of dollars while reducing emissions by adopting ways to enhance energy and water efficiency; managing

energy-efficient appliances, lighting, windows, doors, ducts, gardens and sustainable dining halls; or pressing admin-istrators

insulation, electronics, and heating and cooling systems. to build green buildings, divest from fossil fuel

Asindividuals and as a society wealso can reduce emis-sions stocks, or invest in renewable energy (FIGURE 14.25).

by switching to cleaner energy sources. Two-thirds • Get engaged politically by communicating with your
of our electricity comes from burning fossil fuels, and coal representatives in government, supporting candidates fo

330 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change


FIGURE 14.25 You can help reduce the carbon footprint
your college or university. Pressing for divestment from fos-sil
fuel stocks is just one of many ways students are working to
reduce campus emissions.
office who will tackle the challenges of climate disrup-tion,
and advocating for policies to support clean energy
and energy efficiency.
• Bea modelfor others in your daily life. Perhaps you
can encourage resource conservation at your workplace.
Maybeyou will pursuea careerin a professionthat pro-motesdeepsalt mines,depletedoil and gasdeposits,or other under-ground
energy efficiency or renewable energy. Perhaps as
a parent you will pass onto your children what you’ve
learned about addressingclimate change. Ouractions
reverberate with the people around us—so through what
you say and do, you can multiply your own efforts.
Multiplestrategies can help
usreduce emissions
There is no single “magic bullet” for stopping climate
change—butthere are many waysthat together can help.
Waste managers are cutting emissions by generating energy
from wastein incinerators (p. 407); capturing methaneseep-ing
from landfills (p. 408); and encouragingrecycling, reuse,
and composting (pp. 403–405). Power producers are captur-ing
excess heat from electricity generation and putting it to
useby cogeneration(p. 363). Sustainably managingcropland
of
and rangeland enables soil to store more carbon, while new
techniquesreduce methaneemissionfrom rice farming and
cattle. Preserving forests, reforesting cleared areas, and pur-suing
sustainable forestry practices (pp. 202–203) all help to
absorbcarbondioxidefrom the air.
As our society transitions to clean energy, we are also
trying to capture emissions before they leak to the atmo-sphere.
Billions of dollars are being spentto develop carbon
capture and storage, by which carbon dioxide is removed
from emissions and stored belowground under pressure in
reservoirs (see Figure 15.19, p. 360).
Back in 2004, environmental scientists Stephen Pacala
and RobertSocolowadvisedthat wefollow someage-old wis-dom:
Whenthe job is big, breakit into smaller parts. Pacalaand
Socolow identified 15 strategies (FIGURE 14.26)that could each

14
7
7 Stabilization 6
wedges
5 Waysto eliminate 1 “wedge” of emissions
4
Double the fuel economy of cars
3
2 Halve the miles driven by car
1 Maximize efficiency in all buildings
14
7
Delay 2005 2055 Double the efficiency of coal-powered plants

Switch from coal to natural gas at 1400 plants

year
Capture and store carbon from 800 coal plants

Capture and store carbon from 180 “synfuels” plants

per

Historical Emissions
Increase hydrogen fuel production by 10 times
emitted
emissions to avoid
7 Action
tons
Triple the world’s nuclear capacity
of

Increase wind power capacity by 50 times

Emissions Increase solar power capacity by 700 times

Carbon

billions
allowed Increase ethanol production by 50 times
Produce hydrogen fuel with 4 million windmills
0 Halt tropical deforestation and double reforestation
1955 2005 2055 Adopt conservation tillage on all croplands
Year

FIGURE 14.26 To stabilize emissions, we can break the job down into smaller steps. Back in 2004,
environmental scientists Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow created this graph showing the doubling of CO2
emissions that scientists expected to occur from 2005 to 2055. They added a flat line to represent the trend
if emissions were held constant and then separated the graph into emissions allowed (below the line) and
emissions to be avoided (the triangular area above the line). Theythen divided this “stabilization triangle” into
seven equal-sized wedges. Each “stabilization wedge” represents 1 billion tons of CO2 emissions in 2055 to be
avoided. Finally,they identified a series of strategies, each of which could take care of one wedge. Accomplish-ing
just 7 of these strategies could halt our growth in emissions for the next half-century. Since then, society has
made enough progress on multiplefronts (renewable energy, efficiency measures, converting from coal to gas,
and more)that global emissions held steady in 2014–2016. Adaptedfrom Pacala,S.,and R. Socolow,2004. Stabilization
wedges: Solving the climate problem for the next 50 years with current technologies. Science 305: 968–972.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 331

 eliminate 1 billion tons of carbon per year by 2050 if deployed driver might opt to buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle, a home-owner
at a large scale. Achieving just 7 of these 15 aims would stabi-lize might choose to live in a city near a bus route rather
our emissions. If we were to than in a remote suburb, or a factory might relocate to a site
weighingthe achieve more, we would reduce along a railroad line. Likewise, businesses, industries, and

ISSUeS emissions.
of these
Since that time,
15 strategies
no one
has been
utilities
products
gain
as consumer
motivation to
demand
switch to less
changes—a
carbon-intensive
coal-fired power
fully achieved, yet we have made plant might switch to cleaner-burning natural gas, or an
taking Climate Change
progress with enough of them, and oil company might boost its investments in solar and wind
to Court
others, that global emissions at last energy. As the cost of the tax is passed along through trans-actions,
People desiring stronger action held steady from 2014 to 2016, carbon-intensive products become more expensive
against climate change are now even as economic growth contin-ued. and every party in the economy gains incentives to buy, sell,
taking their grievances to court. In With further progress on mul-tiple and use products that cause less carbon pollution.
the Netherlands in 2015, a group
fronts, global emissions may Although costs are passed along to consumers, con-sumers
named Urgenda and 900 citizens
peak and begin to decline. end up paying nothing extra if carbon taxation takes
sued the Dutch government for
a fee-and-dividend approach. In this approach, funds the
“knowingly contributing” to global
government receives from fossil fuel suppliers through the
warming—and

agreed that
won. The court

Dutch policy would not

Wecan put a price carbon tax (the “fee”) are transferred back to taxpayers as a

hold warming to the internation-ally on carbon tax cut or a tax refund (the “dividend”). This way, any costs
of a carbon tax that get passed along to consumers will be
set 2°C goal, and ordered the
To encourage efforts to reduce reimbursed to them (FIGURE 14.27) in the form of a reduc-tion
government to deepen emission
emissions, today there is a grow-ing in their income taxes. In theory, such a system gives
cuts. In a U.S. lawsuit in 2016,
the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust
call for “putting a price on everyone a financial incentive to reduce emissions while
carbon”—using economic incen-tives imposing no financial burden on taxpayers and no drag on
and 21 young people demanded
action on climate change, saying as tools to motivate vol-untarythe economy. The fee-and-dividend approach is a type of

the federal government had “will-fully reductions in emissions. revenue-neutral carbon tax, because there is no net trans-fer
ignored this impending harm.” Carbon pricing is intended to of revenue from taxpayers to the government. For this
In Peru, afarmer sued a fossil fuel compensate the public for the reason, the approach is gaining broad appeal across the
power company, asking monetary external costs (pp. 96, 104) we political spectrum.
compensation for impacts of gla-cier all suffer from fossil fuel emis-sions Carbon taxes of various types have been introduced
melt on his community. and climate change. Car-bon in roughly 40 nations and 20 cities and states. Sweden
Do you think lawsuits are an pricing lifts the burden of
appropriate way to strengthen pol-icy paying for these impacts off the
responses to climate change? shoulders of the public and shifts
To what degree is a government it to the parties responsible for Emitters pay Government reduces

obligated to protect its citizens carbon tax taxes for taxpayers

emissions. Supporters of carbon
from climate change? Do you favor
pricing view it as the fairest, least
suing fossil fuel companies for
expensive, and most effective
compensation for climate change
strategy for reducing emissions.
impacts? What ethical or human
Wecan approach carbon pricing Government
rights issues, if any, do you think
in two ways: (1) carbon taxation
climate change presents? How
and (2) carbon trading.
could these best be resolved?

Carbon taxation A carbon

tax is atype of green tax (p. 112)
on the carbon content of fossil fuels, meant to discourage
combustion of the fuel and the resulting emission of carbon
dioxide. In carbon taxation, governments charge suppliers Business and The public
industry
of fossil fuels a fee for each unit of CO2 that results from
Consumers pay higher
their product. For instance, a government might tax firms
prices for products
that mine, process, sell, or import fossil fuels—such as coal-mining
companies, natural gas suppliers, or oil refineries.
These parties will pass the cost of the tax along to distribu-tors
and retailers, such as gas stations or the utilities that
FIGURE 14.27 In revenue-neutral carbon taxation, emitters
generate power from fossil fuels, and their costs in turn get
pay a carbon tax to the government, and then charge
passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices for
consumers higher prices for products, but consumers are
products like gasoline or electricity. reimbursed by tax cuts from the government. No parties gain
Higher prices give consumers motivation to reduce fossil or lose money, yet business and industry areincentivized to reduce
fuel use by switching to cheaper alternatives. For instance, a emissions because doing so means paying a smaller carbon tax

332 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

has one of the world’s steepest and longest-running car-bon The world’s largest cap-and-trade program is the Euro-pean
taxes and has reduced fossil fuel use greatly as a result Union Emission Trading Scheme. This market began in
(see Figure 15.29, p. 367), while expanding its economy and 2005, but investors soon realized that national governments
providing its citizens one of the world’s highest standards had allocated too many permits to their industries. The overal-location
of living. The Canadian province of British Columbia has gave companies little incentive to reduce emissions,
embarked on revenue-neutral carbon taxation that is also so permits lost their value and market prices collapsed. Euro-peans
showing success. In the United States, Boulder, Colorado, addressed these problems by making emitters pay for
taxes electricity consumption; Montgomery County, permits, and today the market runs more effectively. Similar
Maryland, taxes power plants; and San Francisco Bay Area difficulties befell the world’s first emissions trading program
counties tax businesses for emissions. for greenhouse gas reduction, the Chicago Climate Exchange,
which operated from 2003 to 2010 and involved several hun-dred
Carbon trading Thesecond meansof pricing carbon is corporations, institutions, and municipalities.
carbon trading. In an emissions trading system (p. 113), a Today, California is running a cap-and-trade program
government sets up a market in permits for the emission of that seems to be succeeding. It is on track to reduce emis-sions
pollutants, and companies, utilities, or industries buy and to 1990 levels by the year 2020, while the state’s econ-omy
sell the permits among themselves (FIGURE 14.28). A car-bon continues to thrive. The Canadian province of Quebec
trading system is one in which permits are traded for joined California’s market in 2017 and Ontario plans to join
the emission of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases in gen-eral. in 2018. Meanwhile, nine northeastern states are participating
In such a market, the price of permits fluctuates freely in the Regional Greenhouse GasInitiative. In this effort, Con-necticut,
according to supply and demand. In the approach known as Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New
cap-and-trade (p. 113), the government sets a cap on the Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont run a cap-and-trade
amount of pollution it will allow, then gives, sells, or auc-tions program for power plant emissions. From 2005 to
permits to emitters that allow them to emit a certain 2014, these states cut their CO2 emissions from power plants
fraction of the total amount. Over time the government low-ers by 45%, even as their economies grew. It is estimated that
the cap to ensure that total emissions decrease. Emitters investment of the auction proceeds will save consumers $4.7
with too few permits to cover their pollution must reduce billion in energy costs and eliminate 15 million tons of CO2
their emissions, buy permits from other emitters, or pay for emissions.
carbon offset credits (p. 337). Internationally, China is setting up a national cap-and-trade
As with carbon taxation, carbon trading harnesses the program, and Mexico may do so as well. Many
financial incentives of free-market capitalism while grant-ing observers are skeptical that China will be able to ensure
emitters the freedom to decide how they can best reduce transparency, prevent corruption, and minimize government
emissions. In theory, once polluters are charged a price for interference in its market—but if China succeeds, this could
polluting, market forces do the work of reducing pollution in represent a major step toward controlling emissions globally.
an economically efficient way by allowing business, indus-tries, All these early experiments are providing lessons for how to
or utilities flexibility in how to respond. set up effective and sustainable trading systems.

1 Government establishes cap on emissions from all plants 3 Plant Bfails to cut emissions
2 Plant A succeeds
in cutting emissions

Allowances

$$$$$

4 Plant A profits from selling allowances to Plant B

FIGURE 14.28 A cap-and-trade emissions trading system harnesses the efficiency of market capi-talism
to reduce emissions. In the diagram, Plant A succeeds in reducing its emissions below the cap and
Plant B does not. As aresult, Plant B pays moneyto Plant Ato purchase allowances that Plant A no longer
needs to use. Plant A profits from this sale, and the government cap is met,reducing pollution overall. Over
time, the cap can belowered to achievefurther emissions cuts.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 33

 SUCCESS taxing Carbon in British Columbia
STORY
The Canadian province of British Columbia intro-duced at $10 per ton of CO2 equivalent and gradually rose to $30,
a revenue-neutral carbon tax in 2008. Estab-lished garnering morethan a billion dollars in revenue per year. Monies
by a politically conservative government, the tax began raised from the carbon tax have been replacing revenues from
corporate and personal income taxes, which werelowered. So
Total Emissions Emissions per far, the policy appears to be working: British Columbia’s fuel
emissions per-capita dollar of GDP
consumption and greenhouse gas emissions have declined, the
5%
province’s economy has remained strong, and its taxpayers are
gas

0% enjoying lower income taxes. According to calculations by the

nonprofit Carbon Tax Center, British Columbia reduced its per
pre-ta

–5%
capita greenhouse gas emissions by 12.9% in the five years
vs.

greenhouse

following introduction of the carbon tax, while elsewhere in

in –10%
post-tax
Canada per capita emissions fell by only 3.7%. Interpretations
–15% of the data vary, but perceived success in British Columbia led
Canada’s national government to propose nationwide carbon
change

–20% British Columbia

pricing, slated to begin in 2018. Under the plan, each of Can-ada’s
emissions,
Rest of Canada
Percent provinces would either adopt a national revenue-neutral
–25%
carbon tax (starting at $10/ton and rising to $50/ton in 2022) or
Relative to the rest of Canada, British Columbia released fewer
join a cap-and-trade market.
emissions after introducing its carbon tax (2008–2013) than
before the tax (2000–2007). EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

Whatrole should government play? protect and restore forests, and encourage energy efficiency.
It also led to the Clean Power Plan (p. 301), under which the
Amid all the promising approaches,strategies,andtechnolo-gies EPA proposed to regulate existing power plants.
for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, people often The rise of Donald Trump to the presidency, together
disagree on what role government should play to encour-age with Republican control of Congress, resulted in the sud-den
such efforts: Shouldit mandatechange through laws reversal of most Obama-era federal policies designed to
and regulations? Should it design policies that give private reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By executive order, Trump
entities financial incentives to reduce emissions? Shouldit halted the Clean Power Plan. His actions and policies raised
impose no policies at all and hope that private enterprise will questions as to whether and how the United States would
develop solutions on its own? This debate has been vigorous continue to engage with other nations in international efforts
in the United States, where manybusinessleadersand politi-cians
to curb climate change.
have opposed all government action to address climate
change, fearful that emissions reductions will impose eco-nomic
costsonindustry and consumers. International climate negotiations
In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that carbon diox-ide havesought to limit emissions
was a pollutant that the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) could regulate underthe Clean Air Act(p. 292). When Disruptionofthe climateis a global problem,so global coop-eration
Barack Obama became president, heinstead urged that Con-gress is needed to forge effective solutions. In 1992, most
craft laws to address emissions. In 2009, the House nations signed the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate
of Representativespassedlegislation to createa nationwide Change.Thistreaty outlined a planfor reducing greenhouse
cap-and-trade system in which industries and utilities would gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000 through a vol-untary
compete to reduce emissions for financial gain, and under approach. Emissions kept rising, however, so nations
whichemissions were mandatedto decrease17% by 2020. forged a binding treaty to require emissions reductions.
However, legislation did not passin the Senate. As a result, Draftedin 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, the Kyoto Protocol man-dated
responsibility for addressing emissions passed to the EPA, signatory nations, by the period 2008–2012, to reduce
whichbeganphasingin emissionsregulations onindustry and emissions of six greenhousegasesto levels below those of
utilities, hoping to spur energy efficiency retrofits and renew-able 1990. Thetreaty took effect in 2005 after Russia became the
energy use. 127th nation to ratify it.
In 2013, President Obamaannouncedthat becauseof The United States wasthe only developednation not
legislative gridlock, he would take steps to address climate to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. U.S.leaders objected to how it
change using the president’s executive authority. His Climate required industrialized nations to reduce emissions but did
Action Plan aimed to jumpstart renewable energy develop-ment,
not requirethe sameof rapidly industrializing nationssuch as
modernize the electrical grid, finance clean coal and China and India. Proponents of the Kyoto Protocol countered
carbon storage efforts, improve automotive fuel economy, that this wasjustified becauseindustrialized nations created

334 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 the climate problem and therefore should take the lead in 1990 levels. However, much of this reduction was dueto eco-nomic
resolving it. contraction in Russia and nations of the former Soviet
As of 2015, nations that signed the Kyoto Protocol Bloc following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Whenthese
had decreased their emissions (FIGURE 14.29) by 12.0% from nations are factored out, the remaining signatories showed
only a 0.7% decrease in emissions. Nations not parties to
the accord, including China, India, and the United States,
Non–Soviet-Bloc nations increased their emissions.
All nations All along, representatives of the world’s nations were
20
Former Soviet-Bloc nations meeting at a series of annual conferences, trying to design a
treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. Delegates from Euro-pean
leve

10

1990
nations and small island nations generally took the lead,
0 while China, India, and the United States were reluctant to
from
commit to emissions cuts. At a contentious 2009 conference
–10 in Copenhagen, Denmark, nations endorsed a goal of lim-iting
climate change to 2°C of warming, but failed to agree
Protocol
change

–20 on commitments. In Cancun, Mexico, in 2010, nations made

entered
into force, progress on a plan, nicknamed REDD (p. 198), to help tropi-cal
–30 2005 nations reduce forest loss, and developed nations promised
Percentage
to help fund mitigation and adaptation efforts for developing
Protocol
–40
adopted, nations. In Doha, Qatar, in 2012, negotiators extended the
1997 Kyoto Protocol until 2020, but a number of nations backed
–50 out, and the protocol now applies to only about 15% of the
1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 world’s emissions.
Year

(a) Changes in emissions, 1990–2015

The Paris Accord produced global
Australia consensus
Canada
At the 2015 climate conference in Paris, France, the world’s
Japan nations made more far-reaching commitments than ever
United States before. European nations announced plans to further reduce
their emissions. China pledged to cut back on coal-fired
France
power and to establish a cap-and-trade program. Brazil prom-ised
Italy
to halt deforestation. India agreed to slow its emissions
European Union growth and reforest its land while aggressively develop-ing
Germany renewable energy. And the United States committed to
emissions cuts it hoped would result from new regulations
Russia
on coal-fired power plants and from switching from coal to
United Kingdom
natural gas. All these national commitments were voluntary
–40 –20 0 20 40 and unenforceable, but a strong global consensus was forged,

Percentage change in greenhouse creating powerful diplomatic peer pressure on all parties to
gas emissions, 1990–2015 live up to their pledges.

(b) Changes in emissions for selected nations The impressive progress at the Paris conference resulted
because all nations were encouraged to bring their own par-ticular
FIGURE 14.29 The Kyoto Protocol produced mixed
solutions to the table. Success at Paris was also facili-tated
results. Nations ratifying it reduced their emissions of six green-house
by an agreement a year earlier between U.S. President
gases by 12.0% by 2015 (a), but this was largely due
to unrelated economic contraction in the former Soviet-Bloc Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which broke the
countries. A selection of major nations (b) shows varied out-comes impasse between these two largest polluting nations. In their
in reducing emissions. The United States did not ratify the joint announcement, Obama had pledged the United States
Protocol, Australia joined it late, and Canada left early. Values do would reduce carbon emissions by 28% by 2025, and Xi Jin-ping
not include influences of land use and forest cover. Datafrom U.N. had promised China would halt its emissions growth
Framework Convention on Climate Change. by 2030.
In 2017, President Trump announced that his admin-istration
In part (b), compare the nations whose emissions
would withdraw the United States from the Paris
increased with those whose emissions decreased.
Accord, breaking with 194 other nations and joining Nicara-gua
What difference(s) do you note between these two groups that
might explain why their emission trends differ? and Syria as the only nations not party to the agreement.
Trump felt the accord would hurt America’s economy. His
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
decision drew scorn and outrage from around the world and

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 335

 as a result of numerous efficiency measures and a shift from

6 coal to natural gas in power plants. The U.S. economy grew

during this period, suggesting that cutting emissions need not
5
hinder economic growth. Moreover, from 2014 through 2016,
Business as usual 4.2°C
4 for the first time in history, global carbon emissions stopped
Paris commitments 3.3°C rising; they remained stable while the world economy con-tinued
3
to grow. These encouraging data suggest that we may
2°C goal
2 2.0°C perhaps have reached a historic turning point at which eco-nomic
growth has become decoupled from greenhouse gas
1
emissions.
0 Because resource use and per capita emissions are high
in the United States, policymakers and industry leaders
often assume the United States has more to lose economi-cally
from restrictions on emissions than developing nations
do. However, industrialized nations are also the ones most
FIGURE 14.30 Commitments made in the 2015 Paris Accord likely to gain economically from major energy transitions,
would limit the global temperature increase to 3.3°C (6.0°F) because they are best positioned to invent, develop, fund,
by 2100. This is less than the 4.2°C (7.6°F) rise predicted in the
and market new technologies to power the world in a post-fossil-fuel
absence of those commitments, but exceeds the target oflimiting
era. Germany, Japan, and China have realized this
temperature rise to 2.0°C (3.6°F). Datafrom ClimateInteractive.
and are now leading the world in production, deployment,
and sales of renewable energy technology. If the United
wasopposedin polls bythe majority of the American peo-ple. States does not act quickly to develop such energy technolo-gies,
Whatimpact a U.S. withdrawal—which by the terms then the future could belong to nations like China, Ger-many,
of the accord cannot formally take effect until 2020—might and Japan.
haveis unclear. Manypeoplefearedthat the decision would
cause other nations to abandon the commitments they made States, cities, and businesses are
in Paris. Yetthe resolute unity nations displayed in the face
of Trump’s announcementsuggested that the rest of the
advancing climate change efforts
world might instead redouble its commitment to fighting In the absence of action at the federal level to address climate
climate change. change,state andlocal governmentsacrossthe United States
Ultimately, the historic conferencein Paris will be are taking action. In South Florida, mayors, county commis-sioners,
judged by how well nations live up to their pledges. Yet even and otherleaders arecollaboratingto protectthe peo-ple
if all nations fully meet their Paris pledges, calculations and property of their region against flooding, erosion, and
indicate that the averageglobal temperature by 2100 would other impacts of sea level rise. By regulating development,
still rise about 3.3°C (6.0°F) (FIGURE 14.30). Indeed, many installing pump systems,raising streets and buildings, and
experts now predict that success in mitigating climate change strengthening coastal dunes, these leaders are helping resi-dents
willrest ontechnological advances,economicincentives, and adaptto climate change.
business investments in renewable energy and energy effi-ciency, Elsewhere,political leaders are pursuing mitigation,try-ing
as well as on government initiatives at the national, to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Mayors from more
regional, state,andlocal levels. than 1000 cities have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protec-tion
Agreement,committing their cities to pursue policiesto
Willemissions cuts hurt “meet or beat” Kyoto Protocol guidelines. A number of U.S.
the economy? states have enacted targets or mandatesfor renewable energy
production, seekingto boost alternativesto fossil fuels. The
Like President Trump, many U.S. policymakers have opposed boldest state-level action so far has come in California. In
reducing emissions because they fear this will hamper eco-nomic2006 that state’s legislature worked with then-Governor
growth. Chinaand India long resisted emissionscuts Arnold Schwarzeneggerto passthe Global WarmingSolu-tions
under the same assumption. This is understandable, given Act, which sought to cut California’s greenhouse gas
that our economies have relied so heavily on fossil fuels. emissions 25% by the year 2020. This law established the
Yetnations such as Germany,France,and the United King-domstate’s cap-and-tradeprogram andfollowed earlier effortsto
have reduced their emissions greatly since 1990 while mandatehigher fuel efficiency for automobiles.
enhancing their economies and providing their citizens very In the wake of President Trump’s decision to leave the
high standardsof living. The per-personemission of green-house
Paris Accord,state,regional, andlocal efforts wentinto over-drive.
gasesin wealthy nations from Denmark to New Zea-land Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
to Hong Kongto Switzerland to Swedenis less than half established a group that brought together dozens of gover-nors,
that in the United States. mayors, university presidents, and corporate leaders
Indeed, the United States wasable to reduce its carbon who promised action to support the U.S. emissions reduc-tion
dioxide emissionsby 14% from 2007to 2016. This occurred pledgeunderthe Paris Accord. California governorJerr

336 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 Brown flew to Beijing and met with Chinese President Xi
Place space
Jinping to discuss climate cooperation between China and mirrors in orbit
California.
Moreover, individuals from the private sector have
become involved as never before. At the Paris conference,
Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates Inject sulfate

led an effort to attract private investment into renewable aerosolsinto

stratosphere
energy from some of the wealthiest people in the world. And
as Trump mulled over his decision, CEOs of many major
corporations urged him to stay in the Paris Accord. Busi-ness Capture carbon
Restore
thrives on certainty and stability of policy direction, and with artificial trees Seed clouds with
forests
seawater mist
most corporations today have already invested a great deal in
energy efficiency and emissions reductions—and have found
these efforts to help their bottom line. Erect land-based
Ultimately, many businesses, utilities, universities, gov-ernments, mirrors

and individuals are aiming to achieve carbon-neutrality, Store carbon

a condition in which no net greenhouse gases are underground

emitted. In practice, this generally requires buying carbon

offsets, voluntary payments intended to enable another entity
Fertilize ocean with iron
to help reduce the emissions that one is unable to reduce. The
to spur plankton blooms
payment thus offsets one’s own emissions. For example, a
coal-burning power plant could fund a reforestation project
to plant trees that will soak up as much carbon dioxide as the
coal plant emits. Or a university could fund clean renewable FIGURE 14.31 Geoengineering proposals seek to use

energy projects to make up for fossil fuel energy the univer-sity technology to remove carbon dioxide from the air or reflect
sunlight away from Earth. However, most geoengineering ideas
uses. In principle, carbon offsets are a powerful idea, but
would take years to develop, may not work well, or might cause
rigorous oversight is needed to make sure that offset funds
undesirable side effects. Thus, they are not a substitute for reduc-ing
achieve what they are intended for—and that offsets fund
emissions.
only emissions cuts that would not occur otherwise.

Should weengineer the climate? However, as climate change intensifies, scientists are begin-ning
to assess the risks and benefits of geoengineering, so
Whatif all our efforts to reduce emissions are not adequateto that wecan bereadyto take well-informed actionif climate
rein in climate change? As climate disruption becomes more change becomes severe enough to justify it.
severe,some scientists and engineersarereluctantly consid-ering
drastic, assertive steps to alter Earth’s climate in a last-ditch Weall can address climate change
attempt to reverse global warming—an approach called
geoengineering(FIGURE14.31). Governmentpolicies,corporateactions,international treaties,
One geoengineering approach would be to suck carbon carbon pricing, technological innovations—and perhaps even
dioxide out of the air. To achieve this, we might enhance geoengineering—all have roles to play in addressing climate
photosynthesisby plantingtrees at large scales or by fertil-izing change. Butin the end, the mostinfluential factor maybe
ocean phytoplankton with nutrients such as iron. A the collective actions of millions of regular people. To help
more high-tech method might be to design “artificial trees,” reduce emissions, each of us can take steps in our everyday
structuresthat chemicallyfilter CO2from the air. A different lives, from shifting our diets to choosing energy-efficient
approach would beto block sunlight before it reaches Earth, appliances to deciding whereto live and how to getto work.
thereby cooling the planet. We might deflect sunlight by College students are vital to driving personal and soci-etal
injecting sulfates or otherfine dust particlesinto the strato-sphere; changesto reduce carbonfootprints and addressclimate
by seeding clouds with seawater; or by deploying change—through common practices, educating others, and
fleets of reflecting mirrors on land, at sea, or in orbit in space. political engagement. Today a groundswell of interest is
Scientists werelong reluctant evento discussthe notion sweeping acrosscampuses,and manystudents are pressing
of geoengineering. The potential methods are technically their administrations to seek carbon-neutrality.
daunting, would take years or decadesto develop, and might Global climate change may be the biggest challenge
pose unforeseenrisks. Blocking sunlight does not reduce weface, but halting it would be our greatestvictory. With
greenhouse gases, so ocean acidification would continue. concerted action, there is still time to avert the most severe
And any method would work only aslong as society hasthe impacts. Through outreach, education, innovation, and life-style
capacityto maintainit. Moreover,manyexpertsare wary of choices, wehavethe powerto turn the tables on climate
promulgating hope for easy technological fixes, lest politi-cians change and help bring about a bright future for humanity and
lose incentive to try to reduceemissionsthrough policy. our planet.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 33

 closing the LOOp

Many factors influence Earth’s cli-mate, emissions, so increasingly, people at local and regional lev-els
and human activities have come are the ones making a difference. In South Florida, citizens
to play a major role. Climate change is and local leaders are investing time, thought, money, and
well underway, and additional green-house creativity into finding solutions to rising sea levels. They are
gas emissions willintensify global seeking to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse
warming and cause progressively severe gas emissions and to adapt to climate change by building
and diverse impacts. Sea level rise and other pumping systems, raising streets and foundations, and tailor-ing
consequences of global climate change are affecting loca-tions financial and insurance incentives to guide development
worldwide—from Miami to the Maldives, Alaska to Ban-gladesh,
toward upland areas. Like people anywhere who love their
and New York to the Netherlands. As scientists and homes, residents of South Florida are girding themselves for
political leaders come to better understand anthropogenic a long battle to protect their land, communities, and quality
climate disruption and its consequences, more and more of of life while our global society inches its way toward emis-sions
them are urging immediate action. reductions. For all of us across the globe, taking steps to
Policymakers at the international and national levels have mitigate and adapt to climate change represents the foremost
struggled to take meaningful steps to slow greenhouse gas challenge for our future

tEStING Your Comprehension

1. What happens to solar radiation after it reaches Earth? 6. Describe how rising sea levels, caused by global
How do greenhouse gases warm the lower atmosphere? warming, can create problems for people. How is
2. Whyis carbon dioxide considered the main greenhouse climate change affecting marine ecosystems?

gas? Why are carbon dioxide concentrations increasing 7. How might a warmer climate affect agriculture? How is it
in the atmosphere? affecting distributions of plants and animals? How might

3. What evidence do scientists use to study the ancient it affect human health?
atmosphere? Describe what a proxy indicator is, and 8. What are the two largest sources of greenhouse gas
give two examples. emissions in the United States? How can wereduce
4. Has simulating climate change with computer programs emissions from these sources?

been effective in helping us predict climate? Briefly 9. What roles have international treaties played in
describe how these programs work. addressing climate change? Give two specific examples.

5. List three major trends in climate that scientists have 10. Whatis meant by “putting a price on carbon?” Describe
documented so far. Now list three future trends that the two major approaches to carbon pricing. Discuss
scientists predict, along with potential consequences. advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

SEEKINGSolutions
1. Some people argue that we need “more proof” or to reduce emissions on your campus that you feel
“better science” before we commit to changes in our would be effective and feasible. How would you present
energy economy. How much certainty do you think we these proposals to campus administrators to gain their
need before wetake action regarding climate change? support?
How much certainty do you need in your own life before
4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION You are the city manager
you make a major decision? Should nations and elected
for a coastal U.S. city that scientists predict will be hit
officials follow a different standard? Do you feel that the
hard by sea level rise, with risks and impacts trailing
precautionary principle (pp. 162, 227) is an appropriate
those in Miami by just a few years. You have recently
standard in the case of global climate change? Why or
returned from a professional conference in Florida,
why not?
where you toured Miami Beach and learned of the
2. Suppose that you would like to make your own lifestyle efforts being made there to adapt to climate change.
carbon-neutral. You plan to begin by reducing the What steps would you take to help your own city
emissions you are responsible for by 25%. What three prepare for rising sea level? How would you explain the
actions would you take first to achieve your goal? risks and impacts of climate disruption to your fellow
3. How might your campus reduce its greenhouse gas city leaders to gain their support? Ofthe measures
emissions? Develop three concrete proposals for ways being taken in Florida communities, which would you

338 Chapter 14 Global Climate Change

 choose to study closely, which would you want to begin popular with voters. One neighboring state has just
right away, and which would be highest priority in the passed legislation mandating that one-third of its
long run? Explain your choices. energy come from renewable sources within 10 years.

5. THINK IT THROUGH You have just been elected Another neighboring state has recently joined a
governor of a medium-sized U.S. state. Polls show regional emissions trading consortium. A third

that the public wants you to take action to reduce neighboring state has just enacted a revenue-neutral
greenhouse gas emissions, but does not want prices carbon tax. Whatactions will you take in your first year
of gasoline or electricity to rise. Your state legislature as governor, and why? What effects would you expect
will support you in your efforts as long as you remain each action to have?

CaLCULatINGEcologicalFootprints
Weall contribute to global climate change, because fossil fuel enable you to calculate your own personal carbon footprint,
combustion plays such alarge role in supporting the lifestyles the amount of carbon emissions for which you are responsible.
we lead. Likewise, as individuals, each one of us can help Go to http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/ or
to address climate change through personal decisions and to www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx, take the quiz,
actions in how we live our lives. Several online calculators and enter the relevant data in the table.

CARBON FOOTPRINT (TONS PER PERSON PER YEAR)

World average

U.S. average

Your footprint

Your footprint with three changes (see Question 3)

1. How does your personal carbon footprint compare to footprint quiz again, incorporating these three changes.
that of the average U.S. resident? How does it compare Enter your resulting footprint in the table. By how much
to that of the average person in the world? Why do you did you reduce your yearly emissions?
think your footprint differs in the ways it does? 4. What do you think would be an admirable yet realistic
2. As you took the quiz and noted the impacts of various goal for you to set as a target value for your own
choices and activities, which one surprised you most? footprint? Would you choose to purchase carbon offsets
3. Think of three changes you could make in your lifestyle to help reduce your impact? Why or why not?

that would lower your carbon footprint. Now take the

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Go to Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Go to Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

Chapter 14 Global Climate Change 33

1
Nonrenewable
Energy
CHAPTER
Sources,
Their
Impacts
andEnergy
Conservati

340 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation
 central CASESTUDY

Frackingthe
MarcellusShale
Dimock, Pennsylvania

Hydraulic fracturing Whenthe menfrom Cabot Oil

and horizontal drilling have and Gas Corporation came to
opened up a new era of the small town of Dimock in rural
UNITED STATES
energy security, job growth, Pennsylvania, many of Dimock’s
and economic strength.
1500 residents were happy to sign on to the contracts the
—American Petroleum Institute
company offered. In exchange for the right to drill for natural
director Erik Milito

gas on their land, Cabot would pay them royalties on sales

There’s no safe way to put of the gas extracted from their property. To some in this
toxic chemicals into the small, rural community, the gas payments and the potential
ground and control them. for jobs seemed like aticket to economic security.
—New York schoolteacher
Soon the new drilling sites around Dimock were
Elizabeth Bouiss

Upon completing this producing the most natural gas from anywhere in the
chapter, you will be able to: Marcellus Shale, the vast gas-bearing rock formation that underlies portions of Pennsylvania,
New York, West Virginia, and Ohio (FIGURE 15.1). Money and jobs from the gas boom kept
• Identify the energy sources that
Dimock economically afloat, even as other towns in the region reeled from recession and cut
we use
funding for schools and basic services.
• Understand the value of the EROI Yet despite the economic gains, some Dimock residents began having second thoughts
concept
about drilling. Their once-tranquil community was now experiencing noise, nighttime light,
• Describe the formation of coal, and air pollution; heavy truck traffic; and toxic wastewater spills. Soon, many people’s drink-ing
natural gas, and crude oil, and water began to turn brown, gray, or cloudy with sediment, and chemical smells began
evaluate how we extract, process, wafting from their wells. On New Year’s Day, 2009, Norma Fiorentino’s well exploded. Meth-ane
and use these fossil fuels
had built up in her well water, and a spark from a motorized pump set off a potentially
• Assess concerns over the future lethal blast.
decline of conventional oil supplies Residents blamed the drilling technique that Cabot Oil and Gas was using: hydraulic frac-Actor
• Outline ways in which we are turing. Townspeople who could no longer drink their own well water appealed for help. Retired
extending our reach for fossil fuels schoolteacher Victoria Switzer approached Cabot, local political
and exploring unconventional leaders, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmen-tal
new fossil fuel sources Protection (DEP) but was turned away by them all.
• Examine and assess environmental, Then she went to the news media, and the story got
political, social, and economic out. Documentary filmmaker Josh Fox came to
impacts of fossil fuel use, and town and filmed residents setting their meth-ane-contaminated
explore potential solutions tap water on fire. His 2010
• Specify strategies for enhancing film Gasland won numerous awards, and
energy efficiency and conserving Dimock became Ground Zero in the burgeon-ing
energy national debate over hydraulic fracturing.

• Describe nuclear energy and how Across the United States, virtually all
we harness it the easily accessible oil and natural gas has
already been discovered and extracted. To
• Assess the benefits and
extract more, we’ve needed to develop ever
drawbacks of nuclear power, and
outline the societal debate over more powerful technology to reach petroleum
this energy source deposits deeper underground, deeper under-water,
and at lower concentrations. In formations
such as the Marcellus Shale, natural gas is locked
up in tiny bubbles dispersed throughout the shale
rock. Hydraulic fracturing is now making this shale gas
and anti-fracking activist
accessible.
Mark Ruffalo holds up water from
Hauling fracking wastewater—one of many
a Dimock, Pennsylvania, well
jobs created by shale gas extraction
during a protest at New York’s
capitol building in Albany.
34
 policymakers nor scientists nor homeowners have access to
data to makefully informed judgments about potential health or
environmental effects.
NEW YORK In such a climate of uncertainty, people in places like
Dimock are left to wonder, worry, and argue. After recogniz-ing
Albany that for some Dimock families the water was undrinkable,
Pennsylvania’s DEP fined Cabot and required the company
Dimock
to haul in clean drinking water from outside town. However,
New York
PENNSYLVANIA City the water shipments ended once Tom Corbett, an avid sup-porter

Philadelphia of fracking, was elected Pennsylvania’s governor. As

Pittsburgh publicity built and activists claimed Pennsylvania was not

OHIO MARYLAND safeguarding its citizens, the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion
Agency (EPA) stepped in, sending federal researchers in
2012 to test Dimock’s water. After sampling water from 64
WEST VIRGINIA wells, the EPA stated that the results did not warrant its tak-ing
VIRGINIA
action. In 2016, however, reanalysis of the results by a
Marcellus Shale different federal agency showed levels of at least 10 chemi-cals
high enough to threaten health in 27 of the wells tested,
along with widespread methane contamination and other
FIGURE 15.1 The Marcellus Shale formation underlies
water quality issues.
large portions of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and
In 2015 the EPAissued a draft of its 6-year nationwide
West Virginia.
study of the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water,
but was forced to revise its conclusions after criticism from
Hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as fracking) its own scientific advisory board. The study’s final version,
involves drilling deep into the earth and angling the drill hori-zontally
issued in 2016, admitted greater impacts on drinking water
once a shale formation is reached. An electrical and detailed problems in Dimock and other locations such
charge sets off targeted explosions that perforate the drill-ing as Pavilion, Wyoming, and Parker County, Texas. However,
pipe and create fractures in the shale. Drillers then pump research in Dimock and nationwide has suffered from a lack
a slurry of water, sand, and chemicals down the pipe under of data comparing water quality before and after drilling, so it
great pressure. The sand lodges in the fractures and holds has been difficult to prove that drilling has been the cause of
them open, while some of the liquids return to the surface. water problems.
Natural gas trapped in the shale migrates into the fractures Meanwhile, in Dimock, 44 families brought lawsuits against
and rises through the drilling pipe to the surface, where it is Cabot. After years of legal struggles, all but two settled with
collected (FIGURE 15.2). the company and signed non-disclosure agreements bind-ing
Fracking has boosted the amount of natural gas extracted them to silence. In 2016, a jury found Cabot negligent and
from the Marcellus Shale, the Barnett Shale in Texas, the awarded the remaining two families $4.24 million in damages.
Haynesville Shale in Louisiana, and elsewhere in recent years, But in 2017, the judge reversed the jury’s decision, canceling
igniting a boom in U.S. natural gas production. This has the award and ordering a new trial.
employed thousands of people and has driven down the price Debates like those in Dimock have been occurring across
of natural gas. Expanded use of domestically produced natural the nation as fracking has spread. People from Ohio to Cali-fornia
gas has reduced the United States’ reliance on coal for electric-ity. are experiencing impacts on their water, land, and air,
Because natural gas is cleaner-burning than coal, burning and are trying to weigh these against fracking’s economic
it in place of coal reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that benefits. State governments have reacted in various ways.
drive climate change. The neighboring states of Pennsylvania and New York offer a
For all these reasons—and also because of the politi-cal study in contrast. Pennsylvania’s political leaders welcomed
influence of oil and gas corporations—policymakers have the gas industry with open arms, exempting it from regula-tions.
encouraged fracking. They have freed it from many regula-tory New York’s leaders, in contrast, chose to ban fracking
constraints that would normally apply; fracking has been entirely. Vermont and Maryland have also banned fracking,
exempted from seven major federal environmental laws that whereas Ohio, Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, and other states
protect public health, including the National Environmental have encouraged it.
Policy Act andthe Safe Drinking WaterAct. Today many policymakers, scientists, and engineers are
As a result, gas companies do not need to report the seeking ways to minimize the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, so
chemical additives they plan to use in fracking. Nor do they that we can continue to use it to boost shale gas production.
need to test for chemical compounds drawn up in fracking Their hope is that natural gas can bring economic and national
wastewater (much of which is radioactive because drillers add security benefits and that this fossil fuel can serve as a “bridge”
radioisotopes [p. 31] as tracers to the fracking fluids they inject, from the more-polluting fossil fuels of the past to the cleaner
and because naturally occurring radioisotopes are brought up renewable energy sources we will need to develop now and for
from deep underground). Consequently, neither regulators nor the future.

342 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservatio
 7 Natural gas is
Tanker trucks Pumper trucks collected in tanks
deliver water inject water, and trucked to 8 Wastewater from
sand, chemicals pipeline underground is
1 Wellis dumped in pits and
drilled
evaporated, or sent
to treatment facilities

1000 ft Aquifer

Cement
casing
2000 sand

and
6 Natural gas
Ga seeps through
3000 fissures and
Sand and
up pipe
Water

Steel fracking Gas

casing fluids
4000

5000 2 Casing surrounds

5 Sand grains
well pipe asit goes
in fracking
through aquifer
fluid hold
6000 fissures open

4 Pressurized fracking fluids

pass through holes in pipe
7000 and fracture rock

3 Wellturns
horizontally upon
Shale
reaching shale
8000 formation
deposit

FIGURE 15.2 Hydraulic fracturing is used to extract natural gas trapped in shale deposits deep underground.

Sourcesof Energy TABLE 15.1 Energy Sources We Use

Humanity has devised many ways to harness the various forms ENERGY SOURCE DESCRIPTION TYPE OF ENERGY

of energy available on Earth (TABLE 15.1). We have taken most Coal Fossil fuel (solid) Nonrenewable
of our energy from nonrenewable sources—fossil fuels and Oil Fossil fuel (liquid) Nonrenewable
nuclear power—but various renewable sources are also avail-able.
Natural gas Fossil fuel (gas) Nonrenewable
Weuse our planet’s energy sources to heat and light our
Nuclear energy Energy from Nonrenewable
homes; power our machinery; fuel our vehicles; produce plas-tics,
atomic nuclei
pharmaceuticals, and synthetic fibers; and provide the
Biomass energy Energy stored in Renewable
comforts and conveniences to which we’ve grown accustomed.
plant matter

Hydropower Energy from Renewable

Westill rely mostlyonfossil fuels running water

Solar energy Energy from Renewable

Of all the energy sources shown in Table 15.1, wehave relied sunlight directly
the most heavily on fossil fuels, highly combustible sub-stances
Windenergy Energy from Renewable
formed underground over millions of years from the
wind
buried remains of ancient organisms. Weusethree mainfos-sil
Geothermal energy Earth’s internal Renewable
fuels, in solid form (coal), liquid form (oil), and gas form
heat
(natural gas). Fossil fuels provide most of the energy that
Ocean energy Energy from Renewable
we buy, sell, and consume because their high energy content
tides and waves
makes them efficient to ship, store, and burn. A single gallon

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 343
 4.5 once depleted, they cannot be replenished within any time
span useful to our civilization. It takes a thousand years for
Oil the biosphere to generate the amount of organic matter that
3.5
must be buried to produce a single day’s worth of fossil fuels
equivalent

for our society. To replenish the fossil fuels we have used so

consumption
Coal
far would take many millions of years.
oil

2.5
For this reason, fossil fuel companies have developed
of
fuel

Natural gas
tons
approaches such as hydraulic fracturing to exploit less-acces-sible
fossil

1.5 deposits. And for this same reason, many people are
World seeking to develop other energy sources—such as sunlight,
(billion

geothermal energy, and tidal energy—that are perpetually

0.5
renewable because natural processes readily replenish them
1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015
(p. 4). Such renewable energy sources also cause less pol-lution
Year
than do fossil fuels. While our society embarks on a
FIGURE 15.3 Annual global consumption of fossil fuels has transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, measures to
risen greatly over the past half-century. Oilremains our lead-ing
extend the availability of conventional fossil fuels by conserv-ing
energy source. Datafrom BP p.l.c., 2017. Statistical review of world
energy and improving energy efficiency are vital.
energy 2017.

• By roughly what percentage has the annual Energyis unevenly distributed

consumption of oil risen since the year you were born?
• Which fuel has risen fastest since you were born—oil, coal, or Because fossil fuels are formed by geologic processes and
natural gas? because regions vary in their geologic histories and condi-tions,
some areas of the globe have ended up with substantial
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
reserves of oil, coal, or natural gas, whereas others possess
very few. For example, half the world’s proven reserves of
of oil contains as much energy as a person would expend in crude oil lie in the Middle East. The Middle East is also rich
nearly 600 hours of human labor. in natural gas, as is Russia. The United States possesses the
Weusefossil fuels for transportation, manufacturing,heat-ing, most coal of any nation (TABLE 15.2).
and cooking, and also to generate electricity, a secondary Rates at which we consume energy also vary from place
form of energy that we can transfer over long distances and to place. Per person, the most industrialized nations use more
applyto manyuses. Globalconsumptionof coal, oil, and natu-ral than 50 times more energy than do the least industrialized
gasis now atits highestlevel ever (FIGURE15.3). Acrossthe nations. The United States claims only 4.4% of the world’s
worldtoday, over 80% of our energy andtwo-thirds of our elec-tricitypopulation, but it consumes nearly 18% of the world’s energy.
comefrom thesethree mainfossil fuels (FIGURE15.4). Societies differ in how they use energy, as well. Indus-trialized
Given our accelerating consumption, we risk using up nations apportion roughly one-third to transporta-tion,
Earth’s reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas. Thesefuels are one-third to industry, and one-third to all other uses.
considered nonrenewable: Theytake so long to form that, In contrast, industrializing nations devote more energy to

New renewables
Oil(4.3%)
(1.4%)

Hydropower (2.4%) Bioenergy and

Oil
(31.3%) Coal new renewables
Nuclear (4.8%) (40.8%) (6.3%)

Bioenergy Nuclear
(10.3%) (10.6%)
Coal

(28.6%)
Natural gas
Natural gas Hydropower
(21.6%)
(21.2%) (16.4%)

(a) World energy production, by source (b) World electricity generation, by source

FIGURE 15.4 Fossil fuels dominate the global energy supply. Together, oil, coal, and natural gas account
for (a) 81% of the world’s energy production and (b) two-thirds of global electricity. DatafromInternationalEnergy
Agency, 2016. Key world energy statistics 2016. Paris: IEA.

344 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation
 1200:1
TABLE 15.2 Nations with the Largest Proven
Reserves of Fossil Fuels
70:1

OIL NATURAL GAS COAL EROI for discovery

60:1
(% world reserves) (% world reserves) (% world reserves) EROI for production

50:1
Venezuela* 17.6 Iran 18.0 United States 22.1
EROI
40:1
Saudi Arabia 15.6 Russia 17.3 China 21.4

30:1
Canada* 10.0 Qatar 13.0 Russia 14.1

20:1
Iran 9.3 Turkmenistan 9.4 Australia 12.7

10:1
Iraq 9.0 United States 4.7 India 8.3
0:1
*Most reserves in Venezuela and Canada consist of oil sands, which are
included in these figures. Datafrom BP p.l.c., 2017. Statistical review of 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 201
world energy 2017.
Year
FIGURE 15.5 EROI values for the discovery and production

subsistence activities such as growing and preparing food and of oil and gas in the United States have declined over the

heating homes. Because industrialized nations rely more on past century. Datafrom Guilford, M., et al., 2011. A new long term assess-ment

mechanizedequipmentandtechnology, they use morefossil of energy return oninvestment (EROI) for U.S. oil and gas discovery and
production. Pp. 115–136 in Hall, C., and D. Hansen(Eds.), Sustainability, Special
fuels. In the United States, oil, coal, and natural gas supply
Issue, 2011, New studies in EROI(energy return oninvestment).
82% of energy demand.

It takes energyto makeenergy Where will weturn for energy?

Wedo not simply get energy for free. To harness, extract, pro-cess,Sincethe onset of the industrial revolution, coal, oil, and natu-ral
and deliver energy, weneedto invest substantialinputs gas have powered the astonishing advances of our civiliza-tion.
of energy. For instance, fracturing shale layers deep under-ground Theseextraordinarily rich sources of energyhavehelped
requires the use of powerful machinery,large quanti-ties to bring us a standard of living our ancestors could scarcely
of water,and specializedchemicals, as well as vehicles, have imagined. Yet because fossil fuel deposits arefinite and
storage tanks, pipelines, waste ponds, processing facilities, nonrenewable,easily accessiblesupplies of the three main
fossil fuels have dwindled, and EROI ratios have fallen.
equipment for workers,and more—allrequiring the con-sumption
of energy. Thus, whenevaluating an energy source, In response, today weare devoting enormous amounts
it is important to subtract costs in energy invested from the of money,energy, and technology to extend our reach for
benefitsin energyreceived. Netenergy expressesthe differ-encefossil fuels. We are using potent extraction methods such
between energy returned and energy invested: as hydraulic fracturing to free gas and oil tightly bound in
rock layers. Weare deploying powerful new machineryand
Netenergy = Energyreturned - Energyinvested techniques to squeeze morefuel from sites that were already
When we assess energy sources, it is also helpful to use a extracted. Weare drilling deeper underground, farther off-shore,
ratio known as EROI (energy returned on investment). andinto the Arcticseabed. And weare pursuing new
EROIratios are calculatedasfollows: types of fossil fuels.
There is, however, a different way we can respond to
EROI = Energyreturned/ Energyinvested the depletion of conventionalfossil fuel resources: Wecan
Higher EROIratios meanthat wereceive moreenergy hasten the development of renewable energy sources to
from each unit of energy weinvest. Fossil fuels are widely used replace them (Chapter 16). By transitioning to clean and
becausetheir EROI ratios have historically been high. However, renewable alternatives, wecan gain energy that is sustain-able
EROIratios canchangeovertime. Ratiosrise astechnologiesto in the long term while reducing pollution and its health
extract and processfuels become moreefficient, andthey fall as impacts and the emission of greenhouse gases that drive
resources are depleted and become harderto extract. climate change.
For example, EROI ratios for “production” (extraction
and processing) of conventional oil and natural gas in the
United States declined from roughly 24:1 in the 1950sto about
FossilFuels:TheirFormation,
11:1in recent years(FIGURE15.5).This meansweusedto gain Extraction,and Use
24 units of energy for every unit of energy expended, but now
we gain only 11. EROI ratios for both the discovery and the To grapple effectively with the energy issues weface, it is
production of oil and gashavedeclinedbecausewefound and important to understandhow fossil fuels areformed, how we
extracted the easiest deposits first and now must work harder locate deposits, how we extract these resources, and how our
and harderto find andextractthe remaining amounts. society putsthem to use.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 345
 Fossilfuels areformed from ancient Because fossil fuels form only under certain conditions,
they occur in isolated deposits. For example, the Marcellus
organic matter Shale holds rich reserves of natural gas that other nearby rock
formations do not. Geologists searching for fossil fuels drill
Fossil fuels form only after organic material is broken down
over millions of yearsin an anaerobicenvironment, one with cores and conduct ground, air, and seismic surveys to map
underground rock formations and predict where fossil fuel
little or no oxygen. Such environments include the bottoms
deposits might occur.
of lakes, swamps, and shallow seas. The fossil fuels weburn
today in our vehicles, homes,industries, and power plants
Coal The world’s mostabundantfossil fuel is coal, a hard
wereformed from the tissues of organisms that lived 100–500
blackish substance formed from organic matter (generally
million years ago. Whenorganisms were buried quickly
woody plant material) compressed under very high pres-sure,
in anaerobicsedimentsafter death,chemical energyin their
creating dense, solid carbon structures. Coal typically
tissues became concentrated as the tissues decomposed and
results when water is squeezed out of such material as pres-sure
their hydrocarboncompounds(p. 32) werealtered and com-pressed
and heat increase over time, and when little decompo-sition
(FIGURE 15.6).
takes place. The proliferation 300–400 million years
ago of swamps where organic material was buried created
Woody terrestrial coal deposits in many regions of the world.
vegetation dies To extract coal from deposits near the surface, we use strip
and falls into
mining, in which heavy machinery scrapes away huge amounts
swamp.
of earth. For deposits deep underground, we use subsurface
Phytoplankton,
mining, digging vertical shafts and blasting out networks of
zooplankton,
and other marine horizontal tunnels to follow seams, or layers, of coal. (Strip
organisms die mining and subsurface mining are illustrated in Figure 11.15,
and sink to p. 245.) We are also mining coal on immense scales in the
seafloor.
Appalachian Mountains, blasting away entire mountaintops in
Ancient swamp Ancient ocean
a process called mountaintop removal mining (pp. 246, 352).

Organic matter Organic matter Oil and natural gas Thethick blackishliquid weknow
from woody from soft-bodied as oil consists of a mix of many types of hydrocarbon mol-ecules
plants is partly sea life is partly (p. 32). The term crude oil refers specifically to oil
decomposed decomposed by
extracted from the ground before it is refined. Natural gas
by microbes microbes under
under accumulating is a gas consisting primarily of methane (CH4) and lesser,
accumulating sediments; some variable, amounts of other volatile hydrocarbons. Oil is also
sediments; carbon bonds are known as petroleum, although this term is commonly used
kerogen broken; kerogen
to refer to oil and natural gas collectively.
forms. forms.
Anaerobic conditions
Both oil and natural gas are formed from organic mate-Coal
rial (especially dead plankton) that drifted down through
Heat and pressure
deep underground coastal marine waters millions of years ago and became bur-ied
alter kerogen in sediments on the ocean floor. This organic material was
transformed by time, heat, and pressure into today’s natural
gas and crude oil. Natural gas may form directly, or it may
form from coal or oil altered by heating. As a result, natural
gasis often found above deposits of oil or seams of coal, and
formed Thermogenic
is often extracted along with those fuels.
from kerogen. natural
Underground pressure tends to drive oil and natural gas
gas formed
from kerogen. upward through cracks and fissures in porous rock until they
become trapped under a dense, impermeable rock layer. Oil
and gas companies employ geologists to study rock formations
Present day Crude oil formed
from kerogen. to identify promising locations. When such a location is identi-fied,
a company typically conducts exploratory drilling, drilling
FIGURE 15.6 Fossil fuels begin to form when organisms die
small holes to great depths. If enough oil or gas is encountered,
and end up in oxygen-poor conditions. This can occur when
extraction may begin. Because oil and gas are under pressure
trees fall into lakes and are buried by sediment, or when phyto-plankton
while in the ground, they rise to the surface when a deposit is
and zooplankton drift to the seafloor and are buried (top).
Organic matter that undergoes slow anaerobic decomposition tapped. Once pressure is relieved and some portion has risen to
deep under sediments forms kerogen (middle). Coal results when the surface, the remainder will need to be pumped out.
plant matter is compacted so tightly that there is little decomposi-tion
(bottom left). The action of geothermal heating on kerogen Unconventional fossil fuels Besides
thethree conventional
may create crude oil and natural gas (bottom right), which come fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—other types of fossil
to reside in porous rock layers beneath dense, impervious layers. fuels exist, often called “unconventional” because we are not

346 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservatio
(yet) using them as widely. Three examples of unconventional several ways. One wayis to bake it in the presence of hydrogen
fossil fuels are oil sands, oil shale, and methane hydrate. and in the absence of air to extract liquid petroleum (a process
Oil sands (also called tar sands) consist of moist sand called pyrolysis). The world’s known deposits of oil shale may
and clay containing 1–20% bitumen, a thick and heavy contain 3trillion barrels of petroleum (more than all the world’s
form of petroleum. Oil sands result from crude oil deposits conventional crude oil), but oil shale is costly to extract, and its
degraded and chemically altered by water erosion and bac-terial EROI is low, ranging from 4:1 down to just 1.1:1.
decomposition. The third unconventional fossil fuel, methane hydrate, is
Oil from oil sands is extracted by two main methods. For an ice-like solid consisting of molecules of methane embedded
deposits near the surface (FIGURE 15.7a), a process akin to strip in a crystal lattice of water molecules. Methane hydrate occurs
mining for coal or open-pit mining for minerals (pp. 244–246) in sediments in the Arctic and on the ocean floor because it is
is used. Shovel-trucks peel back layers of soil and dig out stable at temperature and pressure conditions found there.
vast quantities of bitumen-soaked sand or clay. This is mixed Scientists estimate there are enormous amounts of methane
with hot water and solvents at an extraction facility to purify hydrate on Earth, holding perhaps twice as much carbon as all
the bitumen. Oil sands deeper underground (FIGURE 15.7b) are known deposits of oil, coal, and natural gas combined. Japan
extracted by injecting steam and solvents down a drilling shaft recently extracted methane hydrate from the seafloor by sending
to liquefy and isolate the bitumen, then pumping it out. Bitu-men down a pipe and lowering pressure within it so that the methane
from either process must then be chemically refined and turned to gas and rose to the surface. However, we do not yet
processed to create synthetic crude oil (called syncrude). Three know whether extraction is safe and reliable. If extraction were
barrels of water are required to extract each barrel of oil, and the to destabilize a methane hydrate deposit on the seafloor, this
toxic wastewater that results is discharged into vast reservoirs. could cause a landslide and tsunami and lead to a sudden release
The second type of unconventional fossil fuel, oil shale, of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
is sedimentary rock (p. 235) filled with organic matterthat can
be processed into aliquid form of petroleum called shale oil. Economics determines how much
Oil shale is formed by the same processes that form crude
will be extracted
oil but occurs whenthe organic matter was not buried deeply
enough or subjected to enough heat and pressure to form oil. As we develop more powerful technologies for locating and
Oil shale is extracted using strip mines or subsurface mines. extracting fossil fuels, the proportions of these fuels that are
It can be burned directly like coal, or it can be processed in physically accessible to us—the “technically recoverable”

2 Materialis pouredinto
a crushing machine.

Storage
silo

Crusher Rotary
breaker
Separation
Unit
Froth
3 Hot water
treatment
is added.
1 Deposits are
strip-mined.
4 Bitumen rises
to top of slurry.

5 Bitumen is skimmed off,

mixed with solvents, and
6 Synthetic crude is processed into synthetic
piped to a refinery. crude oil. 1 Steam and solvents
Oil sands are injected into
underground deposits.

2 Liquefied bitumen
is pumped up to
surface
(a) Strip-mining method (b) Steam extraction

FIGURE 15.7 Oil sands are extracted by two processes. Near-surface deposits of oil sands (a) are
strip-mined. Deeper deposits of oil sands (b) are liquefied and extracted through well shafts.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 347
 portions—tend to increase. However, whereas technology The amounts of a fossil fuel “produced” (extracted and
determines how much fuel can be extracted, economics deter-mines processed) from a nation’s reserves depends on many factors.
how much will be extracted. This is because extraction TABLE 15.3 shows amounts produced and amounts consumed
becomes increasingly expensive as a resource is removed, so (as a percentage of global production and consumption) by
companies rarely find it profitable to extract the entire amount. leading nations.
Instead, a company will consider the costs of extraction (and
other expenses) and balance these against the income it expects
Refining gives us a diversity offuels
from sale of the fuel. Because market prices of fuel fluctuate, the
portion of fuel from a given deposit that is “economically recov-erable” Once we extract oil or gas, it must be processed and refined
fluctuates as well. As market prices rise, economically (FIGURE 15.8). Crude oil is a mix of hundreds of types of
recoverable amounts approach technically recoverable amounts. hydrocarbon molecules characterized by carbon chains of
The amount of a fossil fuel that is technologically and different lengths (p. 32). Chain length affects a substance’s
economically feasible to remove under current conditions chemical properties, and this has consequences for human
is termed its proven recoverable reserve. Proven recover-able use, such as whether a given fuel burns cleanly in a car
reserves increase as extraction technology improves or engine. Through the process of refining at a refinery, hydro-carbon
as market prices of the fuel rise. Proven recoverable reserves molecules are separated by size and are chemically
decrease as fuel deposits are depleted or as market prices fall transformed to create specialized fuels for heating, cooking,
(making extraction unprofitable). Some examples of proven and transportation and to create lubricating oils, asphalts, and
recoverable reserves are shown in Table 15.2 (p. 345). the precursors of plastics and other petrochemical products.

Distillation
column

Boiling temp. Product

Lessthan 5oC
Butan

20–180oC
Naphtha

20–200oC
Gasoline

Crude oil 180–260oC

Kerosene

260–340oC
Diesel

300–370oC
Lubricating oil

370–600oC
Fuel oil

(a) Distillation columns

Boiler
Residue

(b) Distillation process

Gasoline (49.8%)
FIGURE 15.8 The refining process produces arange of petroleum products. At
oilrefineries (a), crude oilis boiled, causing its many hydrocarbon constituents to volatil-ize
and proceed upward (b) through a distillation column. Constituents that boil at the
Diesel fuel and
heating oil (24.1%) hottest temperatures and condense readily once the temperature cools willcondense
atlow levels in the column. Constituents that volatilize at cooler temperatures willcon-tinue
Jet fuel (8.2%)
rising through the column and condense at higher levels, wheretemperatures are
Liquefied petroleum
cooler. In this way, heavy oils(generally those with hydrocarbon molecules withlong
gases (3.1%)
carbon chains) are separated from lighter oils(generally those with short-chain hydrocar-bon
Other (14.8%)
molecules). Shownin (c) are percentages of each major category of product typi-cally
(c) Typical output of refined oil generatedfrom a barrelofcrude oil.Data
(c)from U.S.Energy
InformationAdministration.

348 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation
 TABLE 15.3 Top Producers and Consumers
Fossilfuels have manyuses
of Fossil Fuels Each majortype of fossil fuel hasits own mixof uses.
PRODUCTION CONSUMPTION
Coal People have burned coal to cook food, heat homes,
(% world production) (% world consumption)
and fire pottery for thousands of years. Coal-fired steam
Coal
engines helped drive the industrial revolution by powering
China 46.1 China 50.6
factories, trains, and ships, and coal fueled the furnaces of
United States 10.0 India 11.0 the steel industry. Today we burn coal largely to generate
Australia 8.2 United States 9.6 electricity. In coal-fired power plants, coal combustion con-verts
India 7.9 Japan 3.2 water to steam, which turns turbines to create elec-tricity
(FIGURE 15.9). Coal provides 40% of the electrical
Indonesia 7.0 Russia 2.3
generatingcapacity of the United States,andit has powered
Oil
China’s surging economy.
United States 13.4 United States 20.3

Saudi Arabia 13.4 China 12.8 Natural gas Weuse natural gasto generateelectricity in
Russia 12.2 India 4.6
power plants, to heat and cook in our homes, and for many
other purposes. Convertedto a liquid at low temperatures
Iran 5.0 Japan 4.2
(liquefied natural gas, or LNG), it can be shipped long dis-tances
Iraq 4.8 Saudi Arabia 4.0
in refrigerated tankers. Versatile and clean-burning,
Natural Gas natural gasemitsjust half as muchcarbon dioxide per unit of
United States 21.1 United States 22.0 energy released as coal andtwo-thirds as muchas oil. For this
Russia 16.3 Russia 11.0 reason, many experts view natural gas as a climate-friendly

Iran 5.7 China 5.9

“bridge fuel” that can help us transition from today’s pol-luting
fossil fuel economy toward a clean renewable energy
Qatar 5.1 Iran 5.7
economy. However, manyother experts worrythat investing
Canada 4.3 Japan 3.1
in natural gas will simply delay our transition to renewables
Datafrom BP p.l.c., 2017. Statistical review of world energy 2017. andinstead deepen our reliance on fossil fuels.

3 Steam turns a turbine,

which rotates magnets past
4 Electricity is
copper coils in a generator,
distributed to
generating electricty.
consumers by
transmission lines.
Turbine
Generator
2 Heat from
1 Coal is pulverized
combustion
and blown into
boils water.
furnace.

Boiler Cooling tower

Cooling loop

Condenser
Coal bunker

5 Steam is cooled and returned

Pulverizing mill as water to the furnace.

Filter

6 Pollutants from
combustion are
Furnace filtered.

FIGURE 15.9 At a coal-fired power

plant, pulverized coal is combusted in
7 Toxic ash residue is
a high-temperature furnace, causing taken to hazardous
steam to turn a turbine and a generator waste landfills.
to generate electricity.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 34

 Cosmetics, Shower Nylon and Light switch Pesticides Tires, upholstery, Plastic Containers Nonstick coating
medicines, curtain polyester and and automobile lampshade on cookware
lotions, clothing fertilizers components Paraffin waxes
and soap Shower Plastic picture Bicycle Plastic cups on fruit, candy,
Toothbrush head frame components Asphalt Gasoline and dishware and other food

Plastic Shoes with Plastic storage Vinyl and plastic Home heating oil Blender and other Components of
wastebasket synthetic soles box laminate furniture to heat house small appliances stove and other
Detergents, Polypropylene CDs and DVDs Components Linoleum large appliance

cleaning supplies Toilet seat coat in TV and stereo flooring

FIGURE 15.10 Petroleum products are everywhere in our daily lives. Petroleum helps to make many
of the fabrics we wear,the materials we consume, and the plastics in countless items we use every day.

Oil Ourglobalsociety consumesnearly 750 L(200 gal) of oil levels of production (33.6 billion barrels globally per year),
each year for every man, woman, and child. Mostis used as fuel 1.7 trillion barrels would last about 51 more years. Applying
for vehicles, including gasoline for cars, diesel for trucks, and jet the R/P ratio to natural gas, we find that the world’s proven
fuel for airplanes. Fewer homes burn oil for heating these days, reserves of this resource would last 53 more years. For coal,
but industry and manufacturing continue to use a great deal of it. the latest R/P ratio estimate is 153 years.
Refining techniques and chemical manufacturing have The actual number of years remaining for these fuels
greatly expanded our uses of petroleum to include a wide could turn out to be less than these figures suggest if our
array of products and applications, from plastics to lubricants demand and production continue to increase. Alternatively,
to fabrics to pharmaceuticals. Today, petroleum-based prod-ucts the actual number of years may end up being more than the
are all around us in our everyday lives (FIGURE 15.10). figures suggest if we reduce demand and consumption by
Take a moment to explore Figure 15.10, and reflect on all the enhancing efficiency. The actual number of years may also
conveniences in your own life that depend on petroleum prod-ucts. turn out to be greater because proven recoverable reserves
The fact that we use petroleum to help create so many increase as new deposits are discovered, as extraction tech-nology
items and materials werely on day by day makes it vital that becomes more powerful, and as market prices rise.
wetake care to conserve our remaining oil reserves. For instance, hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in
the Marcellus Shale and elsewhere in the United States has

Weare depleting fossil fuel reserves expanded the nation’s proven reserves of natural gas con-siderably
in recent years. Likewise, fracking of the Bakken
Because fossil fuels are nonrenewable, the total amount avail-able Formation—layers of shale and dolomite that underlie parts
on Earth declines as we use them. Many scientists and of North Dakota, Montana, and Canada—is allowing us to
oil industry analysts calculate that we have already extracted extract oil trapped tightly in this rock. By accessing this so-called
nearly half the world’s conventional oil reserves. So far, we tight oil, conventional oil held tightly in or near shale
have used up about 1.2 trillion barrels of oil, and most esti-mates(which differs from shale oil, a petroleum liquid from spe-cially
hold that about 1.2 trillion barrels of proven recover-able processed oil shale), the United States has boosted
reserves remain. Adding proven reserves of oil from oil its proven recoverable reserves of oil. In fact, the recent oil
sands brings the total remaining to about 1.7 trillion barrels. boom in North Dakota, along with increases in drilling deep
To estimate how long this remaining oil will last, ana-lysts offshore, enabled the United States, beginning in 2014, to
calculate the reserves-to-production ratio, or R/Pratio, become the world’s largest extractor of oil.
by dividing the amount of remaining reserves by the annual Eventually, however, extraction of any nonrenewable
rate of “production” (extraction and processing). At current resource will come to a peak and then decline. In general,

350 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation
 extraction tends to decline once reserves are depleted half-way. amount again, as fracking has enabled us to extract formerly
If demand for the resource holds steady or rises while inaccessible oil and as we have pursued various unconventional
extraction declines, a shortage will result. With oil, this petroleum sources.
scenario has come to be nicknamed peak oil. For the world as a whole, many scientists today are cal-culating
that global extraction of oil will soon begin to decline

Peakoil will pose challenges (FIGURE 15.11b). Since about 2005, extraction of conventional
oil has in fact been declining, and we have had to seek out a
To understand concerns about peak oil, let’s turn back the clock variety of less-conventional petroleum sources to compensate
to 1956. In that year, Shell Oil geologist M. King Hubbert for this decline. Predicting an exact date for global peak oil is
calculated that U.S. oil extraction would peak around 1970. difficult, however. Many companies and governments do not
His prediction was ridiculed at first, but it proved to be accu-rate; reveal their data on oil reserves, and estimates differ as to how
U.S. extraction peaked in that very year (FIGURE 15.11a). much oil we can continue extracting from existing deposits.
This peak in extraction came to be known as Hubbert’s peak. For these reasons, estimates vary for the timing of an oil extrac-tion
Today, however, U.S. oil extraction has risen close to this peak, although most studies predict dates before 2035.
Whenever an oil peak occurs,
a divergence of supply and demand

1970 New oil from Alaska could have momentous consequences

extraction and Gulf of Mexico that profoundly affect our lives.
4 peak Writer James Howard Kunstler has
sketched a frightening scenario of our
3 post-peak world during what he calls
“the long emergency”: Lacking cheap
barrels/yea

oil with which to transport goods

2 New oil from
Actual U.S. fracking and long distances, today’s globalized
of

oil extraction deep offshore

Hubbert’s
1
Billions
prediction

0
1900 1950 2000 2050

Year

(a) Hubbert’s prediction of peak in U.S. crude oil extraction, along with actual data

Conventional oil
30 peaked in 2005
FIGURE 15.11 Peak oil describes
a peak in extraction. U.S. extraction
of crude oil peaked in 1970 (a), just
25
as geologist M. King Hubbert had pre-dicted.
year

Drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of

per 20 Mexico enhanced extraction during the
subsequent decline, and today extrac-tion
has risen sharply as deep offshore
barrels
15
drilling and hydraulic fracturing have
made new deposits accessible. As for
10
Billion

global oil extraction, many analysts

calculate that it may soon peak. Shown

5 in (b) is one projection, from a recent

analysis by scientists at the Associa-tion
for the Study of Peak Oil. These
0 data show that conventional sources
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 of oil peaked around 2005, and that
Year since then unconventional sources have
driven the continued overall rise. Paler
Unconventional oil, by type Conventional oil, by location
shades indicate future data predicted by
Natural gas liquids Middle East
the researchers. Datafrom (a) Hubbert, M.K.,
Polar oil Other
1956. Nuclear energy and the fossil fuels. Shell
Deep-water oil Russia
Development Co. Publ. No. 95, Houston, TX;
Heavy oil Europe
and U.S. Energy Information Administration; and
Lower 48 U.S. states
(b) Campbell, C.J., and Association for the Study

(b) Modern prediction of peak in global oil extraction of Peak Oil. By permission of Dr. Colin Campbell.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 351
 FaQ economy
isolated local
would
economies.
collapse into
Large
Our society’s
ease constraints
love
on travel,
affair with fossil
lengthen
fuels has helped to
our life spans, and boost
cities would need to run urban our material standard of living dramatically. Yet continued
hasn’t “peak oil” been
farms to feed their residents, and reliance on fossil fuels poses growing risks to human health;
debunked? We’re extracting
with less mechanized farming environmental quality; and social, political, and economic
more oil all the time, right?
and fewer petroleum-based fer-tilizersstability. Indeed, the risks from climate change alone are
An eventual peak is inevitable with
and pesticides, we might great enough that the International Energy Agency’s chief
any nonrenewable resource, so
feed only a fraction of the world’s economist recently joined a growing chorus of scientists in
the notion of peak oil is sound.
people. The American suburbs concluding that we will need to leave most fossil fuels in the
Its timing is a major question,
would be hit particularly hard ground if we are to avoid dangerous climate disruption. As
though—and much depends
because of their dependence on wesurvey the ways we are expanding our reach for fossil fuel
on how one defines “oil.” If one
the automobile. energy, we will also examine the impacts of fossil fuel use
counts only conventional crude
More-optimistic observers and assess ways to minimize these impacts.
oil,then dataindicate that we
argue that as oil supplies dwin-dle,
passed the global extraction
peak around 2005. If one also rising prices will create pow-erful
Mountaintop mining extends our
incentives for businesses,
includes “unconventional”
difficult-to-access sources such
oilfrom
governments, and individuals to
reach for coal
as oil sands, deep-water offshore conserve energy and to develop
Coal mining has long been an economic mainstay of the
oil, polar oil, and “tight oil”freed alternative energy sources—and
Appalachian region, but mountaintop removal mining has
by fracking, then extraction has that these efforts will save us
brought coal extraction—and its impacts—to a whole new
been roughly flat since 2005. If from major disruptions.
level (FIGURE 15.12 and pp. 246–247). In this method, entire
one also lumps in various addi-tional If we discover and exploit
mountaintops are blasted away to access seams of coal. The
petroleum sources (such as enough new deposits to continue
massive scale of mountaintop removal mining makes it eco-nomically
liquids condensed from natural extracting more and more oil, we
efficient, but it can cause staggering volumes of
gas),then extraction is still rising. might postpone our day of reck-oning
rock and soil to slide downslope, polluting or burying streams
In the big picture, conventional for decades. If we do so,
and disrupting life for people living nearby.
oil has already been declining for however, we will find ourselves
Mountaintop mining magnifies many of the impacts
more than a decade, and today
wrestling with another concern:
of traditional strip mining for coal, which erodes soil and
weincreasingly rely on a host of
trying to avoid runaway climate
destroys large areas of habitat. These mining methods also
petroleum sources that are more
change driven by greenhouse gas
difficult and expensive to access. send chemical runoff into waterways in the form of acid
emissions from the combustion
drainage (p. 245), whereby sulfide minerals in newly exposed
of all that additional oil!
rock surfaces react with oxygen and rainwater to produce
sulfuric acid. In most developed nations, mining compa-nies

ReachingFurtherfor
are required to restore affected areas after mining, bu

FossilFuels. . . and Coping

withthe Impacts
To stave off the day when supplies of oil, gas, and coal begin
to decline, we are investing more and more money, effort, and
technology into locating and extracting new fossil fuel depos-its.
Weare extending our reach for fossil fuels in several ways:

• Mountaintop mining for coal

• Secondary extraction from existing wells

• Directional drilling

• Hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas

• Offshore drilling in deep waters

• Moving into ice-free waters of the Arctic

• Exploiting new “unconventional” fossil fuel sources

All these pursuits are expanding the amount of fossil fuel

energy available to us. However, as we extend our mining and
FIGURE 15.12 In mountaintop removal mining for coal, entire
drilling efforts into less-accessible placesto obtain fuel that is mountain peaks are leveled, and fill is dumped into adjacent
harder to extract, we also reduce the EROI ratios of our fuels, valleys. Shown is an aerial view spanning many square miles in
intensify pollution, and worsen climate change. West Virginia.

352 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation
reclamation is rarely able to re-create the ecological commu-nities Coal Naturalgas CO2emissions
that preceded mining (p. 248). Subsurface coal mining, 30 6000
for its part, has long posed health risks to miners. They are at
risk of accidents, and they breathe coal dust and toxic gases
tons

BTU)
25 5000
in confined spaces, which can lead to black lung disease and from

metric

other respiratory ailments. (We explore coal mining and its

20 4000
impacts further in Chapter 11.)
Once mined, coal is transported by rail, and this can (quadrillion
emissions
(million

release coal dust into the air. In the Pacific Northwest, clean 15 3000

energy advocates are opposing the transport of coal by train

10 2000
dioxide

from the interior West, where it is mined, to coastal terminals,

consumed

to be shipped to Asia. Pollution along the route is one con-cern; consumption

another is that we are facilitating China’s heavy reliance 5 1000

Carbon

Energy

on coal, a driver of global climate change.

energy

0 0
Secondary extraction yields 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

additional fuel
Year

FIGURE 15.13 Fracking has led natural gas to replace coal

At a typical oil or gas well, as much as two-thirds of a deposit at many U.S. power plants. Americans’ consumption of coal

may remain in the ground after primary extraction, the initial and natural gas used to be roughly equal, but from 2007 to 2016,

drilling and pumping of oil or gas. So, companies may return use of natural gas rose by more than 20% while use of coal fell
by nearly 38%. This sudden divergence reduced greenhouse
and conduct secondary extraction using new technology or
gas emissions. U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide from energy
approaches to force the remaining oil or gas out by pressure.
consumption (gray bars in the graph) peaked in 2007, and have
In secondary extraction for oil, solvents are injected, under-ground
since dropped nearly 14%.
rocks are flushed with water or steam, or hydraulic
fracturing may be used. Because secondary extraction is more
expensive than primary extraction, most deposits undergo United States. The new flow of oil reduced U.S. dependence
secondary extraction only when market prices of oil and gas on foreign imports and, by 2016, led to a glut on the world

are high enough to make the process profitable. market that brought oil prices down to less than one-quarter
of their 2008 high. The new flow of natural gaslowered the
price of that fuel and has enabled many U.S. power plants to
Directional drilling reaches more switch from coal to gas. Because natural gas is much cleaner-burning
fuel withless impact than coal, this has reduced carbon dioxide emissions
from electricity generation substantially (FIGURE 15.13). Con-sidering
Drilling for oil or gas typically requires building networks of
that during this period the American economy and
accessroads, housing for workers, transport pipelines, waste
population each grew, this drop in emissions is a notable
piles for removed soil, and ponds to collect toxic sludge. All
achievement in the fight against global warming.
this tends to pollute soil, air, and water; fragment habitat; and
Yet despite the benefits it has delivered, fracking has
disturb wildlife and people. Today’s directional drilling tech-nology
sparked debate wherever it has occurred. Above the Marcellus
helps to lessen some of these impacts by allowing drill-ers
Shale, it is affecting the landscapes, economies, politics, and
to bore down vertically and then curve to drill horizontally.
everyday lives of people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York,
This enables them to follow horizontal layered deposits such
and neighboring states. The choices people face between
as the Marcellus Shale or the Bakken Formation. By allow-ing
financial gain and protecting their health, drinking water, and
access to alarge underground area (up to several thousand
environment have been dramatized in popular films such as
meters in radius) around each drill pad, fewer drill pads are
Promised Land and Gasland. In North Dakota, fracking for
needed, and the surface footprint of drilling is smaller.
oil supercharged the economy and drew young people from
around the nation for high-paying jobs, but it also polluted the
Hydraulicfracturing expands our landscape, drew down water resources, and left many workers

accessto oil and gas jobless once oil prices fell and rigs shut down.
One pollution risk from hydraulic fracturing is that frack-ing
For oil and natural gas trapped tightly in shale or other rock, fluids may leak out of drilling shafts and into aquifers
petroleum companies now use hydraulic fracturing (see that people rely on for drinking water. Another concern is that
Figure 15.2). Chemically treated water under high pressure is methane may contaminate groundwater used for drinking if
pumped into layers of rock to crack them, and sand or small it travels up fractures or leaks through a shaft. Fracking also
glass beads hold the cracks open as the water is withdrawn. gives rise to air pollution as methane and volatile toxic com-ponents
Gasor oil then travels upward through the system of fractures. of fracking fluids seep up from drilling sites. Some
By unlocking formerly inaccessible deposits of shale of the unhealthiest air in the United States has been found
gas and tight oil, fracking ignited a boom in extraction in the in a remote region of Wyoming near fracking operations.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 353
 In addition, fracking is now known to cause earthquakes
(see The Science behind the Story, Chapter 11, pp. 238–239).
Most have been minor, but this does raise questions about
whether all social and economic costs have been considered.

Weare drilling farther offshore

Roughly 35% of the oil and 10% of the natural gas extracted
in the United States today come from offshore sites, primarily
in the Gulf of Mexico and off southern California. Geologists
estimate that most U.S. gas and oil remaining is found off-shore.
As oil and gas are depleted at shallow-water sites and
as drilling technology improves, the industry is moving into
deeper and deeper water.
Deep offshore drilling is boosting oil and gas production,
but it poses risks. In the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010
FIGURE 15.14 The explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon
drilling platform in 2010 unleashed the world’s largest (p. 277), faulty equipment allowed natural gas accompanying
accidental oil spill. Here, vessels try to put out the blaze. an oil deposit to shoot up a well shaft and ignite on a British
Petroleum platform off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 work-ers
(FIGURE 15.14). The platform sank, emergency shut-off
Like the people of Dimock, Pennsylvania, residents of areas systems failed, and oil began gushing out of a broken pipe
near fracking sites across North America have experienced on the ocean floor at a rate of 30 gallons per second. British
polluted air and fouled drinking water. Petroleum’s engineers tried one solution after another, but the
Fracking also consumes immense volumes of fresh flow of oil and gas continued out of control for three months,
water. Injected water often returns to the surface laced with spilling roughly 4.9 million barrels (206 million gallons) of
salts, radioactive elements such as radium, and toxic chemi-cals oil. BP’s Macondo well, where the accident took place, lay
such as benzene from deep underground. This waste-water beneath 1500 m(5000 ft) of water. The deepest wells in the
may be sent to sewage treatment plants that are not Gulf of Mexico are now twice that depth.
designed to handle all the contaminants and that do not test As oil from the Macondo well spread through the Gulf
for radioactivity. In Pennsylvania, millions of gallons of and washed ashore, the region suffered a wide array of
drilling waste from Marcellus Shale fracking sites have been impacts (FIGURE 15.15). Unknown numbers of fish, birds,
sent to treatment plants, which then release their water into shrimp, corals, and other marine animals were killed, affect-ing
rivers that supply drinking water for people in Pittsburgh, coastal and ocean ecosystems in complex ways. Plants in
Harrisburg, and other cities. In response to public outcry coastal marshes died, causing erosion that put New Orleans
and government pressure, the oil and gas industry is begin-ning and other cities at greater risk from storm surges and flood-ing.
to reduce its water use by reusing wastewater in Beach tourism suffered, as did Gulf Coast fisheries,
multiple injections. which supply much of the nation’s seafood. Thousands of

(a) Brown pelican coated in oil (b) Beach cleanup

FIGURE 15.15 Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon spill were many. This brown pelican, coated in oil
(a), was one of countless animals killed. For months, volunteers and workers labored (b) to clean oil from
the Gulf’s beaches.

354 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservatio
fishermen and shrimpers were put out of work. Throughout Weare exploiting newfossil fuel
this process, scientists studied the spill’s manyimpacts on the
region (see THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY, pp. 358–359).
sources, such as oil sands
The Deepwater Horizon spill was the largest accidental
Threesources of “unconventional” fossil fuels—oil sands, oil
oil spill in world history, far eclipsing the spill that resulted shale,and methanehydrate—areabundant,andtogether could
when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in 1989 and dam-aged
theoretically supply our civilization for centuries. However,
ecosystems and economies in Alaska’s Prince William
they are difficult and expensive to extract and process, and
Sound. The Exxon Valdez event had led U.S. policymak-ers their net energyvalues and EROIratios are verylow (p. 393).
to tighten regulation and improve spill response capac-ity.
Extracting oil sands and oil shale consumes large volumes of
But in 2008, responding to rising gasoline prices and a
water, devastates landscapes, and pollutes waterways. Burn-ing
desire to reduce dependence on foreign oil, Congress lifted thesefossil fuels wouldlikely emit moregreenhousegases
a long-standing moratorium on offshore drilling along much
than our use of coal, oil, and natural gas currently does, wors-ening
of the nation’s coast. The Obama administration then opened
air pollution and climatechange.
vast areas for drilling, including most waters from Delaware
Oil sands are becoming a major fuel source—and a focus
to Florida, more of the Gulf of Mexico, and most waters off
of debate. Muchof the world’s oil sands underlie a vastregion
Alaska’s North Slope. Once the Deepwater Horizon spill
of borealforestin northern Albertain Canada.Thesetar-like
occurred, however, public reaction forced Obama’s adminis-tration
deposits produce a low-quality fuel that requires a great deal
to backtrack. Later, the administration sought a mid-dle
of energy to extract and process. Mostscientific estimates for
path, opening access to areas holding 75% of technically
the EROIratio of Alberta’soil sandsrangefrom around 3:1to
recoverable offshore oil and gas reserves while banning drill-ing
5:1. Yet when oil prices are high, mining oil sands becomes
offshore from states that did not want it. Drilling leases
profitable, and in some recent years companies have pro-duced
were expanded off Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico, but not nearly2 million barrelsof oil from them per day.
along the East and West Coasts.
To extract these resources, companies clear vast areas
Globally, pollution from large oil spills has declined in
of forest and dig enormous open pits miles wide and hun-dreds
recent decades(p. 277),thanks to government regulations (such of feet deep(FIGURE15.16a). Theimmense volumes
as requirements for double-hulled ships) and improved spill
of water used become polluted and are piped to gigantic
response efforts. Most water pollution from oil today results
reservoirs, where the toxic oily water kills waterfowl. The
from innumerable small non-point sources to which we all con-tribute Syncrudecompany’s wastewaterreservoir near Fort McMur-ray,
(p. 275). Oil from automobiles, homes, gas stations, and
Alberta, is so massivethat it is held back by the world’s
businesses runs off roadways and enters rivers and wastewater
second-largest dam.
facilities, being discharged eventually into the ocean. To sellits oil, Canadalooked southto the United States.
TransCanada Corporation built the Keystone Pipeline to pipe
Meltingice is opening up the Arctic diluted bitumen 4700 km (2900 mi)to Illinois and to Texas
refineries for export overseas.TransCanada
then proposeda
Today all eyes are on the Arctic. As climate change melts the pipeline segment cutting across the Great Plains to shave off
sea ice that covers the Arctic Ocean (p. 323), new shipping distance and add capacity to the line (FIGURE 15.16b). This
lanes are opening and nations and companies are jockey-ing Keystone XL pipeline proposal metoppositionfrom people
for position, scrambling to stake claim to areas of ocean living along the route who were concerned about health, water
where oil and gas deposits might lie beneath the seafloor. quality, and propertyrights. It alsofaced nationwide opposi-tion
However, offshore drilling in Arctic waters poses severe from advocates of action to address global climate change.
pollution and safety risks. Frigid temperatures, ice floes, Pipeline proponents argued that the Keystone XL project
winds, waves, and brutal storms make conditions challenging wouldcreatejobs and guaranteea dependableoil supply for
and accidents likely. If a spill were to occur, icebergs, pack decades. They stressed that buying oil from Canada—a sta-ble,
ice, storms, cold, and wintertime darkness would hamper friendly, democratic neighbor—could help reduce U.S.
response efforts, while frigid water temperatures would slow reliance on oil-producing nations with authoritarian govern-ments
the natural breakdown of oil. and poor human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia
So far, Royal Dutch Shell has been the only company and Venezuela.
to pursue offshore drilling in Alaska’s stormy waters—and Opponentsof the pipelineextensionexpresseddismayat
it met with one mishap after another. One drilling rig ran forest destruction in Alberta and anxiety about transporting
aground while being towed during a storm. Another drilling oil over the Ogallala Aquifer (p. 271), wherespills might con-taminate
ship nearly metthe same fate in the Aleutian Islands. A con-tainment drinking waterfor millions of peopleandirrigation
dome intended to control leaks was crushed dur-ing waterfor America’s breadbasket. They also sought to prevent
testing. An icebreaker ran aground and had to be towed extraction of a vast new source of fossil fuels whose combus-tion
for repairs all the way to Portland, Oregon, where it faced wouldemit hugeamounts of greenhousegases.By buy-ing
media-savvy demonstrators protesting its arrival by rowing a source of oil that is energy-intensive to extract andthat
in kayaks and dangling from a bridge. In 2015, Shell gave burns 14–20% less cleanly than conventional oil, they held,
up and withdrew from the Arctic after spending $7 billion in the United States would prolong fossil fuel dependenceand
efforts to drill there. worsen climate change.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 35

 Existing Keystone
Fort McMurray
pipeline

Proposed Keystone
XL extension

Oil sands
Alberta
Manitoba

Saskatchewan

Montana
N. Dakota

S. Dakota
Sandhills

Nebraska
(a) Massive oil sands mine in Alberta

Illinois
Ogallala Kansas
Aquifer Missouri

Oklahoma

Texas

Port Arthur
Houston

(b) Keystone pipeline and Keystone XL extension

FIGURE 15.16 The Keystone XL pipeline project has

been afocus of debate. In Alberta (a), oil sands are mined
from enormous pits. The Keystone pipeline brings oilinto
the United States(b), whereits proposed extensionset off a
complex discussion, including large protests (c) in front of the
(c) Protest at the White House U.S. White House.

The KeystoneXL projectrequired a permitfrom the U.S. Fuel canleak during transport
State Department. Starting in 2008, this spurred an escalat-ing
Another high-profile pipeline project is the Dakota Access
political drama that came to include lawsuits, conflict-of-interest
charges, high-stakes quarrels between President Pipeline, a 1900-km (1200-mi) underground pipeline proposed
Obamaand Congress, and street protests atthe White House to bring oil from Bakken Formation drilling sites in North
(FIGURE 15.16c). In 2015, Obama decided against approving Dakota to a tank farm in Illinois. In 2016–2017, thousands of
the project,telling the nationthat Keystone XL “would not people joined Native American protests against the pipeline
serve the national interest of the United States” because its on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation (FIGURE 15.17a).
construction would not contribute meaningfully to the U.S. The Standing Rock Sioux objected to the pipeline’s potential
economy,it would not lower gas pricesfor consumers,and harm to sacred burial grounds where it would cross their land,
it would not enhance America’s energy security. Moreover, andto the risk of waterpollution whereit wouldcross under
he noted, approving it on the eve of global climate talks in the Missouri River. After months of protests, legal wrangling,
Paris(p. 335) wouldundercut U.S.leadershipjust as America and international media attention, the U.S. Army Corps of
sought to gather nations together to address climate change. Engineers in the final weeks of President Obama’s adminis-tration
In 2017 President Donald Trump reversed Obama’s deci-sion denied an easement for pipeline construction. The next
and signed an executive order approvingthe Keystone month, however, President Trump ordered expedited con-struction
XL project. TransCanada will still need to obtain local per-mits, of the pipeline.
fight legal battles, and acquire funding to build the pipe-line, Concerns about pipeline spills are justified. Oil from Cana-da’s
however,and it maychooseto do so only if oil prices oil sands hasleaked out of pipelines, causing spills alongthe
rise high enough. We will leave it to you and your instructor Kalamazoo Riverin Michigan,in a residential neighborhood of
to flesh outthe rest ofthis evolving story. Mayflower,Arkansas,
andelsewhere.However,because
thereis

356 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservatio
(a) Protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline (b) Explosive derailment of an oil train in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec

FIGURE 15.17 Spills and pollution are always risks, however oil is transported. In 2016–2017,
thousands of demonstrators protested the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation
(a), contending that spills could contaminate water supplies and degrade sacred land. However, transport-ing
oil by rail poses its own set of risks, as shown by the tragic derailment and explosion in Lac-Mégantic,
Quebec (b), in 2014.

not enough pipeline capacity to serve the Bakken oil fields, most refineries, and in other jobs that entail frequent exposure to
Bakken oil is transported by rail, in pressurized tank cars. Tragi-cally, oil pollutants such as hydrogen sulfide, lead, and arsenic can
a series of explosive derailments of trains carrying North develop serious health problems, including cancer.
Dakota crude oil has illustrated the risks of carrying oil by train The combustion of oil in vehicles and coal in power
(FIGURE 15.17b). Worst wasthe 2013 explosion in Lac-Mégantic, plants releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which con-tribute
Quebec, which killed 47 people and destroyed the town’s cen-ter. to smog (p. 296) and acid deposition (pp. 303–304).
In the two following years the United States saw 10 major Air pollution from fossil fuel combustion is intensifying in
explosions, and in 2014 there were 141 tanker spills. The Obama
administration responded with regulations to upgrade the safety
of tanker cars; industry complained of additional cost while 10

safety advocates said the steps were not strong enough. 9

Total
8
Emissions pose health risks Coal
7 Oil
and drive climate change carbon/yea

6
Natural gas
of

As our society extends its reach for fossil fuel energy in so 5

many ways, scientists, engineers, and policymakers are seek-ing
tons

4
solutions for air pollution and climate change. When
metric

we burn fossil fuels, we alter fluxes in Earth’s carbon cycle 3

(pp. 41–42). Weessentially remove carbon from a long-term 2
reservoir underground and release it into the air (FIGURE 15.18).
Billion

1
This occurs as carbon from the hydrocarbon molecules of
fossil fuels unites with oxygen from the atmosphere during
combustion, producing carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon diox-ide 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

is a greenhouse gas (p. 314), and CO2released from fossil Year

fuel combustion warms our planet (Chapter 14). Because cli-mate

FIGURE 15.18 Emissions from fossil fuel combustion have
change is beginning to have diverse and severe impacts, risen dramatically as nations have industrialized and as
carbon dioxide pollution is becoming recognized as the single population and consumption have grown. In this graph,
biggest negative consequence of fossil fuel use. Methane is global emissions of carbon from carbon dioxide are subdivided
also a potent greenhouse gas that drives climate warming. by source (oil, coal, or natural gas). Datafrom CarbonDioxide
Infor-mation
Fossil fuel emissions affect our health, as well. Com-busting Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of

coal can emit mercury that bioaccumulates in organ-isms’ Energy, Oak Ridge, TN.

tissues, poisoning animals as it moves up food chains

By what percentage have carbon emissions increased
(pp. 221–222) and posing health risks to people. Gasolinecom-bustion
since the year your mother or father was born?
in automobiles releases cancer-causing pollutants
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
such as benzene and toluene. Workers at drilling operations,

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 357
 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Goto Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

DiscoveringImpacts ofthe Gulf Oil Spill

President Barack Obama echoed the per-ceptions University of Georgia biochemist Mandy Joye, who had
of many Americans when he studied natural seeps in the Gulffor years, documented that the
called the Deepwater Horizon oil spill leaking wellhead was creating a plume of oil the size of Manhat-tan.
“the worst environmental disaster She also found evidence of low oxygen concentrations, or
America has everfaced.” But what hypoxia (p. 24), because some bacteria consume oil and gas,
has scientific research told us depleting oxygen from the water and makingit uninhabitable for
about the actual impacts of the fish and other creatures.
Gulfoil spill? Joye and other researchers feared that the thinly dispersed
We will never have all the oil might devastate plankton (the base of the marine food chain)
answers, because the deep and the tiny larvae of shrimp, fish, and oysters (the pillars of the
waters affected by the spill fishing industry). Scientists taking water samples documented
have been difficult for scientists sharp drops in plankton during the spill, but it willtake years to
to study. Yet the intense and learn whether the impact on larvae will diminish populations of
focused scientific response to the adult fish and shellfish. Studies on the condition of living fish in
spill demonstrates the dynamic way the region have shown gill damage, tail rot, lesions, and repro-ductive
in which science can assist society. problems at much higher levels than is typical.
As the spill was taking place, gov-A What was happening to life on the seafloor was a mystery,

scientist rescues ernment agencies called on scientists to because only a handful of submersible vehicles in the world are

an oiled Kemp’s help determine how much oil was leak-ing. able to travel to the crushing pressures of the deep sea. Luck-ily,
ridley sea turtle. Researchers eventually determined a team of researchers led by Charles Fisher of Penn State
the rate reached 62,000 barrels per day. University had been scheduled to embark on a regular survey of
Using underwater imaging, aerial surveys, and shipboard water deepwater coral across the Gulf of Mexicoin late 2010—shortly
samples, researchers tracked the movement of oil up through after the spill occurred, as it turned out. Using the three-person
the water column and across the Gulf. These data helped pre-dict submersible Alvin and the robotic vehicles Jason and Sentry, the
when and where oil might reach shore, thereby helping to team found healthy coral communities at sites far away from the
direct prevention and cleanup efforts. Meanwhile, as engineers Macondo well but found dying corals and brittlestars covered in
struggled to seal off the well using remotely operated submers-ibles, a brown material at a site 11 km from the Macondo well.
researchers helped government agencies assess the fate Eager to determine whether this community was contami-nated
of the oil (FIGURE 1). by the BP oil spill, the research team added chemist

Remaining in water, Direct recovery

MISSISSIPPI ALABAMA GEORGIA
Lake on shore, orin from wellhead
Pontchartrain Tallahassee sediments* 17%
FLORIDA
23%
LOUISIANA

Burned
5%
New
Skimmed
Orleans
3%

Macondo well
(site of Deepwater Horizon blowout) Chemically
dispersed* FIGURE 1 Scientists
Evaporated 16% helped track oil from
Oil on shoreline Oil on water surface or dissolved Naturally
dispersed* the Deepwater Horizon
Very light 1–10 days 23%
13% spill. The map (a) shows
Light 10–30 days areas polluted by oil. The pie
*Oil in these 3
Medium chart (b) gives a breakdown
More than 30 days categories is expected
Heavy to degrade naturally. of the oil’s fate. Source: (a) NOAA
Office of Response and Restoration;

(a) Extent of the spill (b) Fate of the oil (b) NOAA.

358 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservatio
 Helen White of Haverford College and returned a month later, Scientists expect some consequences of the Gulf spill to be
thanks to a National Science Foundation program that funds long-lasting. Oilfrom the similar Ixtoc blowout off Mexico’s coast
rapid response research. On this trip, chemical analysis of the in 1979 continues to lie in sediments near dead coral reefs, and
brown material showed it to match oilfrom the BP spill. fishermen there say it took 15–20 years for catches to return to
Other questions revolve around the chemical dispersant normal. After the Amoco Cadiz spill, it took seven years for oys-ters
that BP used to break up the oil, called Corexit 9500. Work by and other marine species to recover. In Alaska, oilfrom the
biologist Philippe Bodin following the Amoco Cadiz oil spill in 1989 Exxon Valdez spill remains embedded in beach sand today.
France in 1978 had found that Corexit 9500 appeared more However, manyresearchers are hopeful about the Gulf of
toxic to marinelife than the oilitself. BP threw an unprecedented Mexico’s recovery from the Deepwater Horizon spill. The Gulf’s
amount of this chemical at the Deepwater Horizon spill, inject-ing warm waters and sunny climate speed the natural breakdown
a great deal directlyinto the path of the oil atthe wellhead. of oil.In hot sunlight, volatile components of oil evaporate from
This caused the oil to dissociate into trillions of tiny droplets that the surface and degrade in the water, so that fewer toxic com-pounds
dispersed across large regions. Many scientists worried that this affect marine life. In addition, bacteria that consume
caused the oil to affect far more plankton, larvae, and fish. hydrocarbons thrive in the Gulf because some oil has always
Impacts of the oil on birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals seeped naturally from the seafloor and because leakage from
wereless difficult to assess, and hundreds of these animals were platforms, tankers, and pipelines is common. These microbes
cleaned and saved by wildlife rescue teams. Officially confirmed give the region a natural self-cleaning capacity.
deaths numbered 6104 birds, 605 turtles, and 97 mammals, but Researchers continue to conduct a wide range of scientific
a muchlarger, unknown, number surely succumbed to the oil and studies (FIGURE 2). A consortium of federal and state agencies
were never found. Whatimpacts this mortality may have on popu-lations has been coordinating research and restoration efforts in the
in coming years is unclear. (After the Exxon Valdez spill in largest ever Natural Resource Damage Assessment, a process
Alaskain 1989, populations of some species rebounded, but pop-ulationsmandated under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Answers to ques-tions
of others have never come back.) Researchers have been will come in gradually as long-term impacts become clear.
following the movements of marine animals in
the Gulf with radio transmitters to try to learn SHORELINES WATERCOLUMN AND SEDIMENTS
what effects the oil may have had. • Air and ground surveys • Water quality surveys
As images of oil-coated marshes satu-rated • Habitatassessment • Sedimentsampling
• Measurements of • Transect surveys to detect oil
the media,researchers worried that the
subsurface oil • Oil plume modeling
death of marsh grass would leave the shore-line
vulnerable to severe erosion by waves. AQUATIC VEGETATION HUMAN USE

Louisiana has already lost many coastal wet-lands• Air and coastal surveys • Air and ground surveys

to subsidence, dredging, sea level rise,

and silt capture by dams on the Mississippi
River (pp. 255–256). Fortunately, research-ers
found that oil did not penetrate to the
roots of most plants and that oiled grasses
Wellhead
were sending up new growth. Indeed, Loui-siana
State University researcher Eugene
Turner said that loss of marshland from the
oil“pales in comparison” with marshlandlost
each year due to other factors.
The ecological damage caused by the
spill had measurable consequences for peo-ple.
The region’s mighty fisheries were shut FISH, SHELLFISH, AND CORALS BIRDS, TURTLES, MARINE MAMMALS
down, forcing thousands of fishermen out of • Population monitoring of adults and larvae • Air, land, and boat surveys
• Surveys of food supply (plankton • Radiotelemetry, satellite tagging,
work. The government tested fish and shell-fish
and invertebrates) and acoustic monitoring
for contamination and reopened fishing
• Tissue collection and sediment sampling • Tissue sampling
once they were found to be safe, but con-sumers
• Testing for contaminants • Habitat assessment
balked at buying Gulf seafood. Beach FIGURE 2 Thousands of researchers continue to help assess damage to natural
tourism remained low all summer as visitors resources from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. They have been surveying habitats,
avoided the region. Together, losses in fishing collecting samples and testing them in the lab, tracking wildlife, monitoring populations,
and tourism totaled billions of dollars. and more.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 35

 developing nations that are industrializing, but it has been Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (pp. 301, 334).
reduced in developed nations as a result of laws and regula-tions However, the coal industry spends a great deal of money
to protect public health (Chapter 13). In these nations, fighting regulations on its practices. As a result, many power
public policy has encouraged industry to develop and install plants have little in the way of pollution control technologies.
technologies that reduce pollution, such as catalytic convert-ers Many energy analysts argue that clean coal technologies will
that cleanse vehicle exhaust (see Figure 13.9, p. 294). never result in energy that is completely clean and that coal
should be replaced outright with cleaner energy sources.

Cleancoaltechnologies aimto Can wecapture and store carbon?

reduce air pollution from coal
Even if clean coal technologies were able to remove every last
At coal-fired power plants, scientists and engineers are seek-ing contaminant from power plant emissions, coal combustion
ways to cleanse coal exhaust of sulfur, mercury, arsenic, would still pump huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the
and other impurities. Clean coal technologies refer to tech-niques,air, intensifying the greenhouse effect and worsening climate
equipment, and approaches that aim to remove chemi-cal change. This is why many current efforts focus on carbon
contaminants during the generation of electricity from coal. capture and storage (CCS; p. 331). This approach involves
Among these technologies are scrubbers, devices that chemically capturing CO2 emissions, converting the gas to a liquid, and
convert or physically remove pollutants (see Figure 13.8, p. 293). then sequestering (storing) it in the ocean or underground in a
Another approach is to dry coal that has high water content, to geologically stable rock formation (FIGURE 15.19).
make it cleaner-burning. Wecan also gain more power from Carbon capture and storage is being attempted at a vari-ety
coal with less pollution through gasification, in which coal is con-verted of facilities. The world’s first coal-fired power plant to
into a cleaner synthesis gas, or syngas, by reacting it with approach zero emissions opened in 2008 in Germany. This
oxygen and steam at a high temperature. Syngas from coal can be plant removes its sulfate pollutants and captures its carbon
used to turn a gas turbine or to heat waterto turn a steam turbine. dioxide, then compresses the CO2 into liquid form, trucks
The U.S. government and the coal industry have each it away, and injects it 900 m (3000 ft) underground into a
invested billions of dollars in clean coal technologies for new depleted natural gas field. In North Dakota, the Great Plains
power plants. These efforts have helped to reduce air pollu-tion Synfuels Plant gasifies its coal and sends half the CO2through
from sulfates, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and particulate a pipeline to Canada, where an oil company injects it into an
matter (pp. 292–295). If the many older plants that still pol-lute oilfield to help it pump out the remaining oil.
our air were retrofitted with these technologies, pollu-tion The highest-profile CCS effort has suffered a rocky
could be reduced even more, and this was a goal of the history. Beginning in 2003, the U.S. Department of Energy
teamed up with seven energy
companies to build a prototype
of a near-zero-emissions coal-fired
power plant. The Future-Gen
CO2 Power plant project (and its successor,
(emitting CO2)
the $1.65-billion FutureGen 2.0)
aimed to design, construct, and
Refinery operate a plant that captures 90%
of its CO2 emissions and seques-ters
CO2
the CO2 deep underground
beneath layers of impermeable
CO2 rock. It was hoped that this show-case
CO2
project, located in downstate
Illinois, could be a model for a
new generation of power plants
across the world, but financial
CO challenges plagued it, and in 2015
Deep saline
the project was suspended.
aquifer
At present, carbon capture
Abandoned
coal seam and storage remains unproven.
We do not know how to ensure
Depleted that carbon dioxide will stay
oil or gas
underground once injected there.
reservoir
Injection might in some cases con-taminate

FIGURE 15.19 Carbon capture and storage schemes propose to inject liquefied carbon groundwater supplies or
dioxide emissions underground. The CO2 may be injected into depleted fossil fuel deposits, trigger earthquakes. Injecting car-bon
deep saline aquifers, or oil or gas deposits undergoing secondary extraction. dioxide into the ocean would

360 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation
 further acidify its waters (pp. 284, 326). Moreover, CCS is and helps fund local economies—yet far more people are
energy-intensive and decreases the EROI of coal, adding to employed in tourism, fishing, and service industries, all of
its cost and the amount we consume. Finally, many renewable which were hurt by the Deepwater Horizon spill.
energy advocates fear that CCS In Alaska, the oil industry maintains public support for

weighingthe takes the burden off emitters and drilling by paying the Alaskan government a portion of its

ISSUeS
prolongs our dependence on fos-sil revenues. Since the 1970s, the state of Alaska has received
fuels rather than facilitating a more than $70 billion in oil revenues. One-quarter of these
shift to renewables. revenues are placed in the Permanent Fund, an investment
Clean Coal and Carbon fund that pays yearly dividends to all citizens. Since 1982,
Capture
Weall pay external each
from
Alaska resident
$331 to $2072.
has received annual payouts ranging

Do you think we should spend bil-lions

of dollarsto try finding ways

costs In contrast, in most parts of the world where fossil fuels
to burn coal more cleanly and to are extracted, local residents suffer pollution without compen-sation.
The costs of addressing the many
sequester carbon emissions from When multinational corporations pay governments of
health and environmental impacts
fossil fuels? Oris our money better developing nations for access to oil or gas, the money generally
of fossil fuel extraction and
spent on developing new clean does not trickle down to the people who live where the extrac-tion
use are generally not internal-ized
and renewable energy sources, takes place. Moreover, oil-rich developing nations such as
in the market prices of
evenif they don’t yet have enough Venezuela and Nigeria tend to have few environmental regula-tions,
fossil fuels. Instead, we all pay
infrastructure to generate power and governments may not enforce regulations if doing so
these external costs (pp. 96,
at the scale that coal can? What would jeopardize the large sums of money associated with oil
104) through medical expenses,
pros and cons do you see in each development.
approach? costs of environmental cleanup,
In Ecuador, local people brought suit against Chevron for
and impacts on our quality of
environmental and health impacts from years of oil extraction
life. The prices we pay at the
in the nation’s rainforests. An Ecuadorian court in 2011 found
gas pump or on our monthly
the oil company guilty and ordered it to pay $9.5 billion for
utility bill have been kept inexpensive as a result of govern-ment
cleanup—the largest-ever such judgment. Chevron refused,
subsidies to extraction companies. The profitable fos-sil
and the court battle proceeded to the United States, where a
fuel industries receive far more financial support from
judge threw out the ruling. The ongoing legal battle has now
taxpayers than do the emerging renewable energy sources
moved to other nations.
(see Figure 5.12, p. 113, and Figure 16.6, p. 379). In this
In Nigeria, the Shell Oil Company extracted $30 billion
way, we all pay extra for fossil fuel energy through our
of oil from land of the native Ogoni people. Oil spills, noise,
taxes, generally without realizing it.
and gas flares caused chronic illness among them, but oil
profits went to Shell and to the military dictatorships of Nige-ria,
Fossilfuel extraction has mixed while the Ogoni remained in poverty with no running

consequencesfor local people water or electricity.

worked for fair compensation
Ogoni activist
to the
and leader
Ogoni.
Ken Saro-Wiwa
After 30 years of
Wherever fossil fuels are extracted, people living nearby persecution by the Nigerian government, he was arrested in
must weigh the environmental, health, and social drawbacks 1994, given a trial universally regarded as a sham, and put to
of extractive development against the financial benefits they death by military tribunal.
may gain. In North America, communities where fossil fuel
extraction takes place often experience a flush of high-paying
jobs and economic activity. However, economic booms often
prove temporary, whereas residents may be left with a pol-luted
environment for generations to come.
In recent years debate over this type of trade-off has
roiled inhabitants of Pennsylvania, New York, and other states
above the Marcellus Shale. Many working-class residents of
small New York towns have viewed jobs and economic activ-ity
across the border in Pennsylvania with envy and wish their
state were encouraging fracking for shale gas as well. Other
New Yorkers fear drinking water contamination and feel the
short-term economic benefits are not worth the long-term
health and environmental impacts (FIGURE 15.20).
People are wrestling with similar dilemmas in North
Dakota and in parts of the South and Westin response to new
oil and gas drilling. In Appalachia, the debate has gone on for FIGURE 15.20 Pollution from shale gas drilling creates exter-nal
years over mountaintop removal mining. And along the Gulf costs. This Pennsylvania homeowner can set fire to her tap
of Mexico, the oil and gas industry employs 100,000 people water because it is contaminated with methane.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 36

 Dependence onforeign energy
affects the economies of nations Saudi Arabia
(11.0%)

Putting all your eggs in one basket is always a risky strat-egy. Venezuela
(7.9%)
Because virtually all of our moderntechnologies
and services depend in some way on fossil fuels, we are Canada
Mexico
(6.7%)
susceptible to supplies becoming costly or unavailable. (37.8%)

Nations withfew fossil fuel reserves of their own are espe-cially

vulnerable (FIGURE 15.21). In the wake of its 1970 Colombia (4.8%)
oil extraction peak, the United States began relying more
Russia (4.3%)
onforeign supplies.
Other
Such reliance means that seller nations can control non-OPEC Iraq (4.2%)
energy prices,forcing buyer nationsto pay moreassupplies nations
(12.2%) Ecuador (2.4%)
dwindle. This became clear in 1973, whenthe Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) resolved to stop
Other OPEC
selling oil to the United States. The predominantly Arab
nations (8.8%) OPEC nations
nations of OPEC opposed U.S.support for Israel in the Arab–Israeli
Non-OPEC nations
Yom Kippur Warand sought to raise prices by restrict-ing
FIGURE 15.22 The United States now receives most of its
supply. OPEC’sembargocreated panicin the Westand
imported oilfrom non-OPEC nations and from non-Middle-Eastern
caused oil prices to skyrocket, spurring inflation. Fear of oil
nations. Datafrom U.S.EnergyInformation Administration.
shortages drove Americans to waitin long lines at gas pumps.
Asimilar supply shock occurredin 1979in responseto the
Iranian revolution.
Withthe majority of world oil reserves located in the has diversified its sources of imported petroleum consider-ably
politically volatile Middle East, crisesin this region have (FIGURE 15.22).
dramatically affected oil supplies and prices time and While diversifying sources of foreign energy in response
again. For many U.S.leaders, this has enhanced the allure to the supply shocksof the 1970s, U.S.leaders also enacted
of usingfracking to boost domestic oil and gasextraction. conservation measures,funded research on renewable energy
By supplying more of its own energy, the United States sources, and established an emergency stockpile (which today
becomes less susceptible to foreign entanglements. Indeed, stores one month’ssupply of oil) deep undergroundin salt
the United Statesnowimports just one-quarterof its oil and caverns in Louisiana, called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Theyalso called for secondary extraction andthe develop-ment
of moredomestic sources.
Since then, the desire to reduce reliance on foreign oil
20
by boosting domesticproduction hasdriventhe expansionof
Extraction
offshore drilling into deeper water. It has repeatedly driven
Consumption
day

a proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on

15
per
Alaska’s North Slopeto oil extraction, despite arguments
oil
that drilling there would spoil
of

10
America’s last true wilderness weighingthe
barrels
whileaddinglittle to the nation’s
oil supply. Today it is driving
the push to drill for oil in Arc-tic
ISSUeS
5
Million waters,despitethe risks. As Drill, Baby, Drill?

domestic oil and gas production Do you think the United States
rises with enhanced drilling, the should encourage hydraulic frac-turing
0
United Statesbecomesfreer to by subsidizing it and loosen-ing
Saudi Iran Japa
United
Arabia States Germany makegeopolitical decisions with-out regulations? Do you think the

being hamstrung by depen-dence United States should open more

FIGURE 15.21 The United States, Germany, and Japan on foreign energy. Atthe ofits offshore waters to oil and

are among nations that consume more oil than they same time, however, climate gas extraction? In each case, what

extract. Saudi Arabia and Iran extract more oilthan they change is posing new national benefits and costs do you foresee?
consume and are able to export oilto high-consumption security concerns. As we reach Would the benefits likely exceed
countries. Datafrom U.S.EnergyInformation Administration. the costs? How strictly should
further for fossil fuels, our soci-ety
government regulate oil and gas
For every barrel of oil produced in the United States,
will continue to debate the
extraction once drilling begins?
how many barrels are consumed in the United States? complex mix of social, political,
Givereasons for your answers.
economic, and environmental
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
costsand benefits.

362 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation
 Energy Efficiencyand 400
Canada

Conservation
Saudi Arabia
United States
person

Fossil fuels are limited in supply, and their use has health, per

300
environmental, political, and socioeconomic consequences.
Russia
BTU

For these reasons, many people have concluded that fossil

fuels are not a sustainable long-term solution to our energy France

needs. They see a need to shift to clean and renewable sources

(million
200 Japan

of energy that exert less impact on climate and human health. Germany

As our society transitions to renewable energy, it will benefit

capita
United Kingdom

us to extend the availability of fossil fuels. We can do so by per

China
conserving energy and by improving energy efficiency. use
100 WORLD

Mexico

Efficiency and conservation bring Energy

Indonesia

India
benefits
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Energy efficiency describesthe ability to obtain a given amount
Year
of output whileusingless energyinput. Energyconservation
(a) Per capita energy consumption
describes the practice of reducing wasteful or unnecessary
energy use. In general, efficiency results from technological
improvements, whereas conservation stems from behavioral Saudi Arabia
choices. Because greater efficiency allows us to reduce energy dollar)

Russia
15
use, efficiency is a primary means of conservation.
Canada
per

Efficiency and conservation help us to waste less and to United States

China
reduce our environmental impact. In addition, by extending the (BTU

lifetimes of our nonrenewable energy supplies, efficiency and GDP

10
conservation help to alleviate many of the difficult individual of

choices and divisive societal debates related to fossil fuels. WORLD

Indonesia
Americans use far more energy per person than people dollar

India
in most other nations (FIGURE 15.23a). Residents of many France
5
per

European nations enjoy standards of living similar to those Japan

use

of U.S. residents yet use less energy per capita. This indi-cates Mexico

that Americans could reduce their energy consump-tion Germany

United Kingdom
Energy

considerably without diminishing their quality of

life. Indeed, per-person energy consumption has declined 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
slightly in the United States over the past three decades (see Year
Figure 15.23a)—and this has occurred during a period of
(b) Energy intensity
sustained economic growth.
FIGURE 15.23 The United States trails other developed
During this period, the United States also cut in half its
nations in energy efficiency but has made much progress.
energy intensity, or energy use per dollar of Gross Domestic
U.S. per-person energy use (a) has fallen slightly since 1979 but
Product (GDP) (FIGURE 15.23b). Lower energy intensity indi-cates
remains greater than that of most other nations. U.S. energyintensity
greater efficiency, and these data show that the United
(b) has fallen steeply and now approaches that of other developed
States now gets twice as much economic bang for its energy nations. Energyintensity is energy use perinflation-adjusted 2005
buck. Thus, although the United States continues to burn through dollars of GDP,using purchasing power parities, which control for
more energy per dollar of GDP than most other industrialized differences among nations in purchasing power. Datafrom U.S.Energy
nations, Americans have achieved tremendous gains in effi-ciencyInformation Administration.

already and should be able to make further progress.

individual or business, reducing energy consumption saves

Personal actions and efficient money while helping to conserve resources.
technologies are two routes to As a society, we can conserve energy by developing tech-nologies

conservation and strategies to make devices and processes more

efficient. Currently, more than two-thirds of the fossil fuel
Asindividuals, we can make conscious choices to reduce our energy we use is simply lost, as waste heat, in automobiles
energy consumption by driving less, dialing down thermo-stats, and power plants.
turning off lights when rooms are not in use, and invest-ing One way we can improve the efficiency of power plants
in energy-efficient devices and appliances. For any given is through cogeneration, in which excess heat produced

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 363
 FIGURE 15.24 A thermogram reveals heat loss from
buildings. It records energy in the infrared portion of the
electromagnetic spectrum (pp. 34–35). In this image, one house
is uninsulated; its red color signifies warmtemperatures where
heatis escaping. Green shades signify cool temperatures, where
heatis being conserved. Also note that in all houses, more heat is
escaping from windows than from walls.
FIGURE 15.25 EnergyGuide labels provide consumers
information on energy efficiency. These yellow-and-black labels
during electricity generation is captured and used to heat on ovens, water heaters, and other appliances allow us to compare

nearby workplaces and homes and to produce other kinds of the performance of one brand or model versus others. In the

power. Cogeneration can almost double the efficiency of a example shown here, a refrigerator uses an estimated 630 kilowatt-hours
of electricity per year. It has an estimated yearly operating
power plant. The same is true of coal gasification and com-bined
cost of $67, which is intermediate compared with similar brands
cycle generation, in which coal is treated to create hot
and models.
gases that turn a gas turbine, while exhaust from this turbine
heats waterto drive a steam turbine.
In homes, offices, and public buildings, a significant save American consumers many billions of dollars; studies
amount of heat is needlessly lost in winter and gained in show in case after case that savings on utility bills more than
summer because of poor design and inadequate insula-tion offset the slightly higher prices of energy-efficient products.
(FIGURE 15.24). Improvements in design can reduce the
energy required to heat and cool buildings. Such improve-ments
can involve passive solar design (p. 382), better insu-lation, Automobile fuel efficiency is akey
a building’s location, the vegetation around it, and
to conservation
the color of its roof (lighter colors keep buildings cooler by
reflecting sunlight). Automotive technology represents perhaps our best opportu-nity
Many consumer products, from lightbulbs to computers to conserve large amounts of fossil fuels. Wecan accom-plish
to dishwashers, have been reengineered through the years to this with electric cars, electric/gasoline hybrids, plug-in
enhance efficiency. Energy-efficient lighting, for example, hybrids, or vehicles that use hydrogen fuel cells (p. 395).
can reduce energy use by 80%. Compact fluorescent bulbs Among electric/gasoline hybrids, current models obtain fuel-economy
are more efficient than traditional incandescent lightbulbs, ratings of up to 50 miles per gallon (mpg)—twice
which is why the United States and many other nations are that of the average American car. Many fully electric vehicles
phasing out incandescent bulbs. now obtain fuel-economy ratings of over 100 mpg. Automak-ers
Federal standards for energy-efficient appliances have also can enhance fuel efficiency for gasoline-powered
already reduced per-person home electricity use below what it vehicles by using lightweight materials, continuously variable
wasin the 1970s. The U.S. EPA’s Energy Star program certifies transmissions, and more efficient engines.
appliances, electronics, doors and windows, and other prod-ucts One of the ways in which U.S. leaders responded to the
that surpass efficiency standards. The federal government OPEC embargo of 1973 was to mandate an increase in the
also requires manufacturers of certain types of appliances fuel efficiency of automobiles. Automakers responded by
to post test results for energy efficiency on yellow-and-black boosting fuel efficiency more than 60% between 1975 and
“EnergyGuide” labels on the products (FIGURE 15.25). 1982 (FIGURE 15.26). Over the next three decades, however,
These two labeling programs enable consumers to take as market prices for oil fell, many of the conservation ini-tiatives
energy use into account when shopping, and each program of this time were abandoned. Without high market
has been credited with reducing energy consumption and car-bon prices and a threat of shortages, people lost the economic
emissions by enormous amounts. These programs also motivation to conserve, and U.S. policymakers repeatedly

364 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservatio
 failed to raise the corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE)
SUCCESS Improving Energy Efficiency standards, which set benchmarks for auto manufacturers to
STORY meet. The average fuel efficiency of new vehicles fell from
When shopping for electronics, appliances, or 22.0 mpg in 1987 to 19.3 mpg in 2004, as sales of sport-utility
home and office equipment, most of us would like to vehicles increased relative to sales of cars.
choose energy-efficient models. But how can we know how In 2007, Congress mandated that automakers raise aver-30
efficient a given TV or microwave oven or computer printer or age fuel efficiency to 35 mpg by the year 2020. Then when
refrigerator is? Luckily, American consumers can look for the automakers requested a government bailout during the 2008–2009
Energy Star label. This famil-iar recession, President Obama persuaded them to agree
blue-and-white label tells to boost average fuel economies to 54.5 mpg by 2025. The
us that a product has been required technologies would add more than $2000 to the aver-age
independently certified as price of a car, but drivers would save perhaps $6000 in fuel
performing above federal costs over the car’s lifetime. These
energy-efficiency standards. policies resulted in a substantial weighingthe
By helping consumers
identify and choose energy-efficient
increase in average
(see Figure 15.26).
fuel efficien-cies
However,
ISSUeS
brands and models, the 54.5-mpg goal may not come
More Miles, Less Gas
the Energy Star program is to pass, as President Trump in
If you drive an automobile, what
reducing electricity demand 2017 signaled to automakers that
gas mileage does it get? How
and saving consumers he would let them renege on the
The Energy Star label certifies does it compare to the vehicle
money. For each extra dol-lar agreement.
products as energy-efficient. averagesin Figure 15.26? If your
wespend on an Energy U.S. policymakers could do
vehicle’s fuel efficiency were 10
Star product, we save an average of $4.50 on energy costs, more to encourage oil conserva-tion.
mpg greater, andif you drove the
while preventing morethan 35 pounds of greenhouse gas The United States has kept
same amount, how many gallons
emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, taxes on gasoline extremely low,
of gasoline would you nolonger
which runs the program. From 1992 through 2014, the Energy relative to most other nations.
need to purchase each year? How
Star program helped Americans save $362 billion in utility bills, Americans pay two to three times much money would you save?
and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 billion tons. less per gallon of gas than driv-ers Do you think U.S.leaders
Armed with information from this simple label, each and every in many European countries. should mandatefurther increases
one of us is empowered to make our own decisions about con-servingIn fact, gasoline in the United in the CAFE standards? Should the
energy through our purchasing behavior. States is sold more cheaply than government raise taxes on gaso-line
bottled water! As a result, U.S. sales as an incentive for con-sumers
EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science
gasoline prices do not account to conserve energy? What
for the substantial external costs effects on economics, on health,

(pp. 96–97, 104) that oil produc-tion and on environmental quality might
and consumption impose on each of these steps have?

society. Some experts estimate

that if all costs to society were
taken into account, the price of gasoline would exceed $13
per gallon. Instead, our artificially low gas prices diminish
25 our economic incentive to conserve.
Cars

Therebound effect cutsinto

efficiency gallon

20
Both cars and trucks
efficiency gains
per

fuel

(miles
Trucks
Average
15 Energy efficiency is a vital pursuit, but it may not always save
as much energy as we expect. This is because gains in effi-ciency
from better technology may be partly offset if people
10
engage in more energy-consuming behavior as a result. For
1975 1985 1995 2005 2015
instance, a person who buys a fuel-efficient car may choose to
Model year
drive more because he or she feels it’s okay to do so now that
FIGURE 15.26 Automotive fuel efficiencies have responded
less gas is being used per mile. This phenomenon is called
to public policy. Fuel efficiency for automobiles in the United
the rebound effect, and studies indicate that it is widespread.
States rose dramatically in the late 1970s as a result of legislative
In some instances, the rebound effect may completely erase
mandates but then stagnated once no further laws were enacted
efficiency gains.
to improve fuel economy. Recent legislation has now once again
improved fuel efficiency. Datafrom U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Nonetheless, efficiency will play a necessary role in the
2016. Light-duty automotive technology, carbon dioxide emissions, and fuel
conservation efforts we make toward reducing energy use. It
economy trends: 1975 through 2016. is often said that reducing energy use is equivalent to finding

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 365
 a new oil reserve. Some estimates hold that energy conserva-tion atoms, such as uranium or plutonium, are bombarded with
and efficiency in the United States could save 6 million neutrons. Ordinarily, neutrons movetoo quickly to split nuclei
barrels of oil a day—nearly the amount gained from all off-shore when they collide with them, but if neutrons are slowed down,
drilling, and considerably more than would be gained they can break apart nuclei. In a nuclear reactor, the neutrons
from Canada’s oil sands. In fact, conserving energy is better bombarding uranium are slowed down with a substance called
than finding a new reserve because it alleviates health and a moderator, most often water or graphite. Each split nucleus
environmental impacts while at the same time extending our emits energy in the form of heat, light, and radiation, and it also
future access to fossil fuels. Yet regardless of how much we releases neutrons. These neutrons (two to three in the case of
conserve, we will still need energy. Among the alternatives to uranium-235) can in turn bombard other uranium-235 (235U)
fossil fuels for our energy economy is nuclear power. atoms, resulting in a self-sustaining chain reaction.
If not controlled, this chain reaction becomes a runaway
process of positive feedback (p. 25)—the process that creates
NuclearPower the explosive power of a nuclear bomb. Inside a power plant,
however, fission is controlled so that, on average, only one
Nuclearpower is free of the air pollution produced by fossil fuel of the two or three neutrons emitted with each fission event
combustion and thereby offers a powerful means of combating goes on to induce another fission event. To soak up the excess
climate change. Yet nuclear power’s promise has been clouded neutrons produced when uranium nuclei divide, control rods
by nuclear weaponry, the thorny dilemma of radioactive waste made of a metallic alloy that absorbs neutrons are placed
disposal, and the long shadow of accidents at Chernobyl and among the water-bathed fuel rods of uranium. Engineers
Fukushima. As a result, public safety concerns and the costs of move the control rods in and out of the water to maintain fis-sion
addressing them have constrained nuclear power’s expansion. at the desired rate. In this way, the chain reaction main-tains
a constant output of energy. All this takes place within
Fissionreleases nuclear energyin the reactor core and is the first step in the electricity-generating
process of a nuclear power plant (FIGURE 15.28).
reactors to generate electricity First developed commercially in the 1950s, nuclear power
experienced most of its growth during the 1970s and 1980s.
Nuclear energy is the energy that holds together protons and
The United States generates over a quarter of the world’s
neutrons (p. 30) in the nucleus of an atom. We can harness
nuclear power yet receives less than 20% of its electricity from
this energy by converting it to thermal energy inside nuclear
this energy source. A number of other nations rely more heav-ily
reactors, facilities contained within nuclear power plants.
on nuclear power (TABLE 15.4). Today 452 nuclear power
This thermal energy is then used to generate electricity by
plants operate in 30 nations.
heating water to produce steam that turns turbines. The gen-eration
of electricity using nuclear energy in this wayis what
we call nuclear power.
The reaction that drives the release of nuclear energy inside
nuclear reactors is nuclear fission, the splitting apart of atomic TABLE 15.4 Top Producers of Nuclear Power
nuclei (FIGURE 15.27). In fission, the nuclei of large, heavy
NUCLEAR PERCENTAGE
POWER NUMBER ELECTRICITY
CAPACITY OF FROM NUCLEAR
NATION (gigawatts) REACTORS POWER
Neutron

United States 100.4 100 19.7

Smaller atom
France 63.1 58 72.3
(krypton, for example)
Japan 40.3 43 2.2

Energy
China 31.4 36 3.6
Free neutrons
Russia 26.5 36 17.1
Nucleus of 235Uranium
South Korea 23.1 25 30.3

Canada 13.6 19 15.6

Neutron
Smaller atom Ukraine 13.1 15 52.3
Proton (barium, for example)
Germany 10.8 8 13.1
FIGURE 15.27 Nuclear fission drives modern nuclear
power. In nuclear fission, the nucleus of an atom of uranium-235 Sweden 9.7 10 40.0
is bombarded with a neutron. The collision splits the uranium atom
United Kingdom 8.9 15 20.
into smaller atoms and releases two or three neutrons, along with
heat, light, and radiation. Data from International Atomic Energy Agency.

366 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation
 2 Waterheated byfission circulates
through a pressurized primary loop.

3 Hot waterin the primaryloop

boils water in the secondary 4 Thesteam drives
loop, creating steam. turbines, which
Control Primary Secondary
1 Fissionoccursin rotate magnets past
the reactor core,
rod loop loop Steam copper coils in a
where fuel rods Moderator generator to
Turbine
are submerged in (water) generate electricity.
water. Control
rods absorb
excess neutrons
to regulate the
reaction rate.
Generator

Cooling
tower

Reactor
core Cooling
Reactor Nuclear fuel Steam Condenser loop
vessel (uranium) generator

5 Cold waterfrom the coolingtower circulates withinthe coolingloop,

Containment building condensing steam in the secondary loop and converting it to liquid
water, whichreturns to be boiled by the water of the primary loop.

FIGURE 15.28 In a pressurized light water reactor (the most common type of nuclear reactor),
radioactive uranium fuel rods heat water, and steam turns turbines and generators to generate
electricity.

Nuclearenergy comes from footprint, but the actual nuclear power–generating process
is essentially emission-free. Alltold, scientists estimatethat
processed and enriched uranium using nuclear power in place of fossil fuels helps the world
We use the element uranium for nuclear power because its
avoid emissions of 2.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide
atoms are radioactive, emitting subatomic particles and per year,about 7% of global CO2emissions.
high-energy radiation as they decay into a series of lighter
In the nation of Sweden, nuclear power took the place
isotopes (p. 31). We obtain uranium by mining.
of
Uranium-containing
coal and natural gas to such an extent that Sweden was
minerals are uncommon and in finite supply, ableto slash its use of fossil fuels in half (FIGURE15.29).
so nuclear power is generally considered a nonrenewable
Onerecent study calculated that the replacement of coal-fired
energy source.
power with nuclear power in Sweden over the years had

More than 99% of the uranium in nature occurs as the

prevented 2.1 billion metrictons of CO2emissions and had
isotope uranium-238. Uranium-235 (with three fewer neu-trons)
saved 61,000 lives by cutting down on air pollution.
makes up less than 1% of the total. Because 238U does
not emit enough neutrons to maintain a chain reaction, we use 400
235U for commercial nuclear power. Therefore, we must pro-cess
Fossil fuels
the ore we mine to enrich the concentration of 235U to
(oil, coal, and natural gas)
at least 3%. This enriched uranium is formed into pellets of 300
uranium dioxide, which are used in fuel rods.
After several years in areactor, the decayed uranium fuel
(terawatt-hours

no longer generates adequate energy, so it must be replaced 200

supply

with new fuel. In some countries, the spent fuel is reprocessed

to recover the remaining energy. However, this is costly rela-tive
Nuclear
to the market price of uranium, so most spent fuel is dis-posed 100
energy

power
of as radioactive waste.

Nuclearpower delivers energy Sweden’s

0

morecleanly than fossil fuels 1970 1980 1990

Year
2000 2010

Using fission, nuclear power plants generate electricity with-out FIGURE 15.29 Sweden has cut its fossil fuel consumption in
creating the air pollution that fossil fuels do. Of course, half since 1970, largely by replacing fossil fuels with nuclear
the construction of plants and equipment has a large carbon power. Datafrom Swedish Energy Agency.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 367
 TABLE 15.5 Risks and Impacts of Coal-Fired versus Nuclear Power Plants

TYPE OFIMPACT COAL NUCLEAR

Land and ecosystem disturbance from mining Extensive, on surface or underground Less extensive

Greenhouse gas emissions Considerable emissions None from plant operation; much less
than coal over the entire life-cycle

Other air pollutants Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particu-late No pollutant emissions
matter, and other pollutants

Radioactive emissions No appreciable emissions No appreciable emissions during nor-mal

operation; possibility of emissions
if severe accident occurs

Occupational health among workers More known health problems and fatalities Fewer known health problems and
fatalities

Health impacts on nearby residents Air pollution impairs health No appreciable known health impacts
under normal operation

Consequences of accident or sabotage No widespread effects Potentially catastrophic widespread

effects

Solid waste More generated Less generated

Radioactive waste None Radioactive waste generated

Fuel supplies remaining Should last several hundred more years Uncertain; supplies could last longer or
shorter than coal supplies

For each type ofimpact, the more severe impact is shown in red.

Nuclear power offers a mix of advantages and Three

dis-weighing MileIsland In Pennsylvaniain 1979, a combina-tion
advantages compared with fossil fuels—coal in particular of mechanicalfailure and human error at the Three
(TABLE 15.5). For residents living downwind from power Mile Island plant caused coolant water to drain from the
plants, scientists calculate that nuclear power poses far reactor vessel, temperatures to rise inside the reactor core,
and metalsurroundingthe fuel rods to melt,releasingradia-tion.
the
fewer chronic health risks from
pollutants (such as nitrogen

ISSUeS
This process is termed a meltdown, and at Three Mile
oxides and sulfur dioxide). And Island it proceeded through half of one reactor core. Area
because uranium generates far residents stood ready to be evacuatedasthe nation heldits
Choose Your risk
more power than coal by weight breath, but fortunately mostradiation remained inside the

Examine Table 15.5. Given the

or volume, less of it needs to containment building.
be mined, so uranium mining Oncethis accident wasbrought under control, the damaged
choice of living next to a nuclear
causes less damage to land-scapesreactor wasshut down, and multi-billion-dollar cleanup efforts
power plant orliving next to a coal-fired
power plant, which would you
and generates less waste stretched onfor years. Three MileIslandis bestregardedasa
than coal mining. A drawback of near miss;the emergency could have been far worse had the
choose? What would concern you
most about each option? nuclear power is that arranging meltdown proceeded through the entire stock of uranium fuel
for safe disposal of radioactive or hadthe containmentbuilding not containedthe radiation.
waste is challenging. Another is
that if an accident occurs at a power plant, the consequences Chernobyl In 1986the Chernobyl plantin Ukraine(part
can potentially be catastrophic. of the Soviet Union at the time) suffered the mostsevere
nuclear accident yet (FIGURE 15.30a). Engineers hadturned
off safety systems to conduct tests, and human error, along
Nuclear power posessmall risks with unsafereactor design,led to explosionsthat destroyed
oflarge accidents the reactor and sent clouds of radioactive debris billowing
into the atmosphere. Windscarried radioactive fallout across
Although nuclear power delivers energy more cleanly than much of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly Ukraine,
fossil fuels, the possibility of catastrophic accidents has Belarus, and parts of Russia and Europe. For 10 days, radia-tion
spawned a great deal of public anxiety. Three events have escaped while emergencycrews risked their lives put-ting
been influential in shaping public opinion about nuclear out fires. The Soviet government evacuated morethan
power: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. 100,000 residents of the area.

368 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservatio
(a) The destroyed reactor at Chernobyl, 1986 (b) The confinement dome under construction, 2015

FIGURE 15.30 The world’s worst nuclear accident unfolded in 1986 at Chernobyl. The destroyed
reactor (a) waslater encased in a massive concrete sarcophagus to contain radiation leakage. Today an
international team has built a huge new confinement structure (b) that has been slid into place to encase
the deteriorating sarcophagus.

The accident killed 31 people directly and sickened and three others were seriously damaged. Parts of the plant
thousands more. Exact numbers are uncertain because of remained inaccessible for months because of radioactive
inadequate data and the difficulty of determining long-term water. It will likely require decades to fully clean up the site.
radiation effects. Health authorities estimate that most of the Radioactivity was released during and after these events
6000-plus cases of thyroid cancer diagnosed in people who atlevels about one-tenth of those from Chernobyl. Thousands
were children at the time resulted from radioactive iodine. of area residents were evacuated and screened for radiation
An international consensus effort 20 years after the event effects (FIGURE 15.31b), and restrictions were placed on food
estimated that radiation raised cancer rates among exposed and water from the region. Much of the radiation spread by
people by as much as a few percentage points, resulting in up air or water into the Pacific Ocean, and trace amounts were
to several thousand fatal cancer cases. detected around the world (FIGURE 15.31c). In the years fol-lowing
Following the catastrophe at Chernobyl, workers erected the event, a slow flow of radioactive groundwater
a gigantic concrete sarcophagus around the demolished reac-tor, from beneath the plant has continued to leak into the ocean.
scrubbed buildings and roads, and removed irradiated Japan’s government has dedicated $1.2 billion to monitor the
materials. However, the landscape for at least 30 km (19 mi) region’s people for signs of any long-term health effects.
around the plant remains contaminated, the demolished In the aftermath of the disaster, the Japanese government
reactor is still full of dangerous fuel and debris, and idled all 50 of the nation’s nuclear reactors and embarked on
radioactivity leaks from the hastily built, deteriorating sar-cophagus.
safety inspections. Efforts to restart them were met with pub-lic
In 2016 an international team finished building an debate and street protests. Across the world, many nations
enormous confinement structure (FIGURE 15.30b) and slid it reassessed their nuclear programs. Germany reacted most
on rails into place around the old sarcophagus to prevent a strongly, shutting down half of its nuclear power plants and
re-release of radiation. deciding to phase out the rest by 2022.
The calamity at Fukushima could likely have been
Fukushima Daiichi On March11, 2011,a magnitude9.0 avoided had the emergency generators not been located in the
earthquake struck eastern Japan and sent an immense tsunami basement where a tsunami could flood them. And the design
roaring onshore (p. 240). More than 18,000 people were killed of most modern reactors is safer than Chernobyl’s. Yet natu-ral
and many thousands of buildings were destroyed. This natu-ral disasters and human error will always pose risks—and as
disaster affected the operation of several of Japan’s nuclear plants age, they require more maintenance and become less
plants, most notably Fukushima Daiichi. Here, the earth-quake safe. Moreover, radioactive material could be stolen from
shut down power, and the tsunami flooded the plant’s plants and used in terrorist attacks. This possibility has been
emergency generators (FIGURE 15.31a). Without electricity, especially worrisome in the cash-strapped nations of the for-mer
workers could not use moderators and control rods, and the Soviet Union, where hundreds of former nuclear sites
fuel began to overheat as fission proceeded, uncontrolled. have gone without adequate security for years.
Amid the chaos across the region, help was slow to To address concerns about stolen fuel and to reduce the
arrive, so workers flooded the reactors with seawater in a des-perateworld’s nuclear weapons stockpiles, the United States and
effort to prevent meltdowns. Several explosions and Russia embarked on a remarkably successful program nick-named
fires occurred. Three reactors experienced full meltdowns, “Megatons to Megawatts.” Between 1993 and 2013,

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 36

 Sea of
Japan

Fukushima

Pacific
JAPAN Ocean

(a) The tsunami barrels toward the Fukushima reactors Intensity of cesium-137 radiation in fallout relative to
intensity at the plant site (1 = 100%, 0.9 = 90%, etc)

0.9–1 0.4–0.6 0.01–0.1

0.7–0.9 0.3–0.4 0.005–0.01

0.6–0.7 0.1–0.3 0.001–0.005

(c) Most radiation drifted eastward over the ocean

FIGURE 15.31 The Fukushima Daiichi crisis was unleashed

after an earthquake generated a massive tsunami. The
tsunami (a) tore through a seawall and inundated the plant’s
nuclear reactors. Children evacuated from the region (b) were
screened for radiation exposure. Most of the radiation that escaped
from the plant drifted over the ocean, as shown in this map (c) of
cesium-137 isotopes in the 9 days following the accident. Datain
(c) from Yasunari, T.J., et al. 2011. Cesium-137 deposition and contamination

of Japanese soils due to the Fukushima nuclear accident. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

USA 108: 19530–19534.

(b) AJapanese child is screened for radiation

the United States purchased weapons-grade uranium and Currently, such wasteis held in temporary storage at nuclear
plutonium from Russia, let Russia process them into lower-enrichedpower plants. To minimize leakage of radiation, spent fuel rods
fuel, and diverted the fuel to peaceful use in power are sunken in pools of cooling water (FIGURE 15.32a) or encased
generation. As a result, in recent years fully 10% of Ameri-ca’s in thick casks of steel, lead, and concrete (FIGURE 15.32b). In
electricity has been generated from fuel recycled from total, U.S. power plants are storing morethan 70,000 metric tons
Russian warheads that used to be atop missiles pointed at of high-level radioactive waste (such as spent fuel)—enough to
American cities! fill a football field to the depth of 7 m(21 ft)—as well as much
morelow-level radioactive waste(such as contaminated clothing

Wastedisposal remains a challenge and equipment). This wasteis held at morethan 120 sites spread
across 39 states (FIGURE 15.33). The majority of Americans live
Even if nuclear power could be made completely safe, we within 125 km (75 mi) of temporarily stored waste.
would still be left with the conundrum of what to do with Because storing waste at many dispersed sites creates
spent fuel rods and other radioactive waste. This waste a large number of potential hazards, nuclear waste managers
will continue emitting radiation for as long as our civiliza-tion would prefer to send all waste to a single, central repository
exists—uranium-235 has a half-life (p. 31; the time it that can be heavily guarded. In the United States, govern-ment
takes for half the atoms to decay and give off radiation) of scientists selected Yucca Mountain, a remote site in the
700 million years. Nevada desert. Choice of this site followed extensive study,

370 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservatio
 WA VT ME
MT NH
ND MN
MA
OR ID WI NY
SD
SD RI
MI CT
WY
IA PA
NE NJ
NV OHWV
UT MO IL IN DE
CO KS KY
VA
CA MD
TN NC
AZ
OK AR
NM GA SC
MS AL
LA
TX

HI AK FL

Metrictons
of spent fuel
>1000 <1–100
101–1000 0

FIGURE 15.33 High-level radioactive waste from civilian

(a) Wet storage
reactors is currently stored at more than 120 sites in 39
states across the United States. In this map, dots indicate
storage sites, and colors indicate the amount of waste stored in
each state. Datafrom Nuclear EnergyInstitute.

invest in new plants, and reaction to Fukushima stalled a

resurgence in the industry. Building, maintaining, operat-ing,
and ensuring the safety of nuclear facilities is enor-mously
expensive, and almost every nuclear plant has
overrun its budget. In addition, plants have aged more
quickly than expected because of problems that were under-estimated,
such as corrosion in coolant pipes. The plants
that have been shut down—well over 100 to date—have
served on average less than half their expected lifetimes.
Moreover, shutting down, or decommissioning, a plant is
(b) Dry storage sometimes more expensive than the original construction.
As a result of these financial
FIGURE 15.32 Nuclear waste is stored at nuclear power
plants, because no central repository yet exists. Spent fuel
issues, electricity from nuclear weighingthe
rods are kept in wet storage (a) in pools of water, which keep them
cool and reduce radiation release, orin dry storage (b) in thick-walled
power
than
remains
electricity
more expen-sive
from fos-sil ISSUeS
caskslayered withlead, concrete, andsteel. fuels. Governments are still
subsidizing nuclear power to More Nuclear power?

and $13 billion wasspent onits development. MostNevadans keep electricity prices down for A number of European nations

ratepayers, but many private have reduced their carbon emis-sions

opposed the choice, however, and concerns wereraised about
by expanding their use of
seismic activity. In 2010 the Obamaadministration ended sup-port investors lost interest long ago.
Nonetheless, nuclear power nuclear power to replace fossil
for the project, althoughlawsuits have challengedthis
remains one of the few currently fuels. Do you think the United
decision andthe Trump administration mayattempt to revive it.
viable alternatives to fossil fuels States should expandits nuclear
Untilthe UnitedStatesestablishesacentralrepository for
power program? Why or why not?
radioactive waste,this waste will remain spread among many with which we can generate large

locations. However, one concern with a centralized reposi-tory amounts of electricity in short

is that wastewould needto betransportedthere from the order. This is why more and

many current storage sites and from each nuclear plant in the more environmental advocates propose expanding nuclear

future. Becausethis would involve manythousands of ship-mentscapacity using a new generation of reactors designed to
by rail and truck across hundredsof public highways be safer and less expensive. For a nation wishing to cut its

through almost every state of the union, some people worry pollution and greenhouse gas emissions quickly and substan-tially,

that the risk of an accident is unacceptably high. nuclear power is in many respects the leading option.
Yet with future growth for nuclear power uncertain, fossil

Nuclearpower’s growth hasslowed fuels in limited supply, and climate change worsening, our
society must determine where we will turn for clean and sus-tainable
Dogged by concerns over waste disposal, safety, and cost energy. Increasingly, people are turning to renewable
overruns, nuclear power’s growth has slowed. Public anxi-ety energy sources (Chapter 16), those that cannot be depleted by
in the wakeof Chernobyl madeutilities less willing to our use.

Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 37

 closing the LOOp

Over the past two centuries, fossil The paths we choose to meet our global energy needs will
fuels have helped us build the com-plex have far-reaching consequences for human health and well-being,
industrialized societies we enjoy for Earth’s climate, and for the stability and progress
today. Yet our supplies of conven-tional of our civilization.
fossil fuels are declining. We can Today’s debate over hydraulic fracturing for shale gas is a
respond to this challenge by expanding microcosm of the larger conversation about our energy future.
our search for new sources of fossil fuels—and A key question is whether natural gas will be a bridge fuel to
paying ever-higher economic, health, and environmen-tal renewables or an anchor that keeps us in the fossil fuel age.
costs. Or, we can encourage conservation and efficiency Fortunately, as renewable energy sources become increasingly
while developing alternative energy sources that are clean well developed and economical, it becomes easier to envision
and renewable. Nuclear power provides a climate-friendly freeing ourselves from a reliance on fossil fuels and charting
alternative to fossil fuels, but high costs and public fears a bright future for humanity and the planet with renewable
over safety in the wake of accidents have stalled its growth. energy

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. Why are fossil fuels our most prevalent source of energy 6. Give an example of a clean coal technology. Now describe
today? How are fossil fuels formed? Why are they how carbon capture and storage is intended to work.
considered nonrenewable? 7. Describe two specific examples of how technological
2. Describe how net energy differs from energy returned on advances can improve energy efficiency. Now describe
investment (EROI). Why are these concepts important one specific action you could take to conserve energy.
when evaluating energy sources? 8. Based on datain this chapter, give two explanations for
3. Describe how coal is used to generate electricity. Now, why it is reasonable to expect that Americans should be
describe how we create petroleum products. Provide able to use energy more efficiently in the future as the
examples of several of these products. U.S. economy expands.

4. Summarize two fundamental ways by which we can 9. In what ways did the events at Three MileIsland,
respond to a global peak in the extraction of oil. What Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi differ? What
are the pros and cons of each type of response? consequences resulted from each incident?
5. Describe three ways in which we are now extending our 10. List several concerns about the disposal of radioactive
reach for fossil fuels. List several impacts (positive or waste. What has been done so far about its disposal?
negative) that these actions might have.

SEEKINGSolutions

1. Summarize the main arguments for and against 4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION You are the mayor of a
hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Marcellus rural Pennsylvania town above the Marcellus Shale, and
Shale. What problems is this extraction helping to a gas company would like to drill in your town. Some
address? What problems is it creating? If a gas of your town’s residents are eager to have jobs that
company offered you money to drill for gas in your hydraulic fracturing for shale gas would bring. Others
backyard, how would you respond? arefearful that leaks of methane and fracking fluids
2. Describe three specific health or environmental impacts from drilling shafts will contaminate the water supply.
resulting from fossil fuel extraction or consumption. For Some of your town’s landowners are excited to receive

each impact, what steps could governments, industries, payments from the gas company for use of their
orindividuals take to alleviate the impact? What might land, whereas others dread the prospect of noise and

prevent them from taking such steps? What could pollution. If the company receives too much opposition
encourage them to take such steps? in your town, it says it will drill elsewhere instead. What
information would you seek from the gas company, from
3. Contrast the experiences of the Ogoni people of Nigeria
your state regulators, and from scientists and engineers
with those of the citizens of Alaska. How have they
before deciding whether support for fracking is in the
been similar and different? Do you think businesses
best interest of your town? How would you make your
or governments should take steps to ensure that local
decision? How might you try to address the diverse
people benefit from oil drilling operations? How could
preferences of your town’s residents?
they do so?

372 Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation
 5. THINK IT THROUGH You are elected governor of the spill, with its ecological, social, and economic impacts.
state of Florida as the federal government is debating Would you support or oppose offshore drilling off the
opening new waters to offshore drilling for oil and Florida coast? Why? What, if any, regulations would
natural gas. Drilling in Florida waters would create jobs you insist beimposed on such development? What
for Florida citizens and revenue for the state in the questions would you ask of scientists before making
form of royalty payments from oil and gas companies. your decision? Whatfactors would you consider in
However, there is always the risk of a catastrophic oil making your decision?

CALCULATINGEcological Footprints

Scientists at the Global Footprint Network calculate the Assume that you are an average American who burns
energy component of our ecological footprint by estimating about 6.1 metric tons of oil-equivalent in fossil fuels each
the amount of ecologically productive land and sea required year and that average terrestrial net primary productivity
to absorb the carbon released from fossil fuel combustion. (p. 36) can be expressed as 0.0037 metric ton/ha/year.
This translates into 6.1 hectares (ha) of the average Ameri-can’s Calculate how many hectares of land it would take to supply
8.6-ha ecological footprint. Another way to think about our fuel use by present-day photosynthetic production.
our footprint, however, is to estimate how much land would
be needed to grow biomass with an energy content equal to 1. Compare the energy component of your ecological
that of the fossil fuel we burn. footprint calculated in this way with the 6.1 ha calculated
using the method of the Global Footprint Network.
Explain why results from the two methods may differ.
HECTARES OF LAND FOR
2. Earth’s total land area is approximately 15 billion
FUEL PRODUCTION
hectares. Compare this to the hectares of land for fuel
You 1649 production from the table.

Your class 3. In the absence of stored energy from fossil fuels, how
large a human population could Earth support at the level
Your state of consumption of the average American, if all of Earth’s
area were devoted to fuel production? Do you consider
United States
this realistic? Provide two reasons why or why not.

Mastering Environmental Science

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Chapter 15 Nonrenewable Energy Sources, Their Impacts, and Energy Conservation 37

1
Renewable Energy
CHAPTER
Alternatives

374 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives

 central CaSe StUDY

GermanyReaches
for the Sun
[Renewable energy] When wethink of solar energy, GERMANY
will provide millions of most of us envision a warm
new jobs. It will halt global sunny place such as Arizona EUROPE
warming. It will create a more
or southern California. Yet the
fair and just world. It will
country that produces the most
clean our environment and
solar power per person is Germany, a northern European
make our lives healthier.
—Hermann Scheer, energy expert
nation that receives less sun than Alaska! In recent years
and member of the German Germany has been among the world’s top installers and
parliament, 2009
users of photovoltaic (PV) solar technology, which pro-duces
electricity from sunshine. Germany now obtains
The nation that leads the
nearly 7% of its electricity from solar power—one of the
clean energy economy will
highest rates in the world.
be the nation that leads the
global economy. Howis this possible in such a cool and cloudy coun-try?
—U.S. President Barack Obama, 2010 A bold federal policy has used economic incentives
Upon completing this to promote solar power and other forms of renewable
chapter, you will be able to: energy. Germany’s feed-in tariff system has required
utilities to buy power (at guaranteed premium prices under long-term contract) from anyone
• Discuss reasons for seeking
alternatives to fossil fuels
who can generate power from renewable energy sources and feed it into the electrical grid.
In response, German homeowners and businesses rushed to install PV panels and began
• Identify the major sources of
selling their excess solar power to utilities at a profit.
renewable energy, and assess
The feed-in tariffs have applied to allforms of renewable energy. As a result, Germany
their recent growth and future

potential
became the world leader in wind power in the 1990s, until being overtaken by the United
States and China. Today Germany ranks third or fourth in the world in solar water heat-ing,
• Describe solar energy and how
biomass-generated power, electrical power capacity from renewable sources, and
we harness it, and evaluate its
renewable energy generated per person. The nation gets fully one-third ofits electricity from
advantages and disadvantages
renewable sources.
• Describe wind power and how
Germany’s push for renewable energy dates back to 1990.
we harness it, and evaluate its
In the wake of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power
advantages and disadvantages
plant in Ukraine (part of the Soviet Union at the time)
• Describe geothermal energy and
(p. 368), Germany decided to phase out its own
how we harness it, and evaluate
nuclear power plants. However, if these were shut
its advantages and disadvantages
down, the nation would lose virtually allits clean
• List the various ocean energy
energy and would become utterly dependent
sources and describe their
on oil, gas, and coal imported from Russia
potential
and the Middle East.
• Outline the scale, methods, and Enter Hermann Scheer, a German par-liament
impacts of hydroelectric power
member and an expert on renew-able
• Describe established and energy. While everyone else assumed
emerging sources and techniques that solar, wind, and geothermal energy
involved in harnessing bioenergy, were costly and risky, Scheer saw them as
and assess bioenergy’s benefits
a great economic opportunity—and as the
and shortcomings
only long-term answer. In 1990, Scheer helped
• Explain hydrogen fuel cells, and push through a landmark law establishing feed-in
weigh options for energy storage tariffs. Ten years later, the law was revised and
and transportation
strengthened: The Renewable Energy Sources Act of
2000 aimed to promote renewable energy production and

Installing PV solar panels

Rooftop photovoltaic solar panels

on German homes 37
 use, enhance the security of the energy supply, reduce carbon Energiewende, in German—the government has been allotting
emissions, and lessen the many external costs (pp. 96, 104) of more public money to renewable energy than any other nation—over
fossil fuel use. $25 billion annually in recent years.
Under the law, each renewable source was assigned its As Germany replaces fossil fuels with renewable energy,
own payment rate. These rates have since been lowered year it is improving its air quality and is helping to fight climate
by year to encourage increasingly efficient means of producing change. Since 1990, carbon dioxide emissions from German
power. However, utilities pass along to consumers their costs of energy sources have fallen by 25%, and emissions of seven
paying the feed-in tariffs, and these costs soon grew to 15% of other major pollutants (CH4, N2O, SO2, NOX, CO, VOCs, and
the average German citizen’s electric bill. To ease this burden on dust) have been reduced by 12–95%. At least half of these
ratepayers, the German government in 2010 decided to slash reductions are attributed to renewable energy paid for under
PV solar tariff rates. the feed-in tariff system.
When German consumers heard that the solar tariff rate The planned transition from fossil fuels in Germany has
would be reduced, sales of PV modules skyrocketed as peo-ple not been completely smooth, however. In response to pub-lic
rushed to lock in contracts at the existing rate. Further tariff protests following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan
reductions the next two years also spurred rushes to install PV in 2011 (p. 369), the German government shut down 7 of its
systems before the rates dropped. In 2010, 2011, and 2012, 15 nuclear power plants. As a result, the electricity supply
Germans installed more than 7 gigawatts of PV solar capac-ity from nuclear power fell sharply, causing rates to rise and lead-ing
each year—an amount surpassing the total capacity of solar to an increase in the combustion of coal for power. At the
power in the United States at the time. Then from 2013 on, same time, the rise of solar and wind, two intermittent power
solar installations in Germany slowed as tariff rates became low sources, meant that the German grid occasionally was flooded
(FIGURE 16.1). with excess electricity. Germany’s Energiewende thus faced the
By reducing the subsidies, Germany’s leaders aimed to challenge of keeping renewables growing at a steady and pre-dictable
encourage technological innovation for efficiency within the solar rate without causing instability in supplies.
industry, thereby creating a stronger industry that can sustain As a result, in 2016 Germany’s leaders revised the national
growth overthe long term and outcompete foreign companies energy policy, replacing feed-in tariffs for large-scale producers
for international business. Indeed, boosted by domestic demand, with an auction system. Under the new system, the govern-ment
German renewable energy industries have become global lead-ers, decides how much new capacity of each type of renew-able
designing and selling technologies around the world while energy it will allow each year, and then auctions off permits
employing nearly 400,000 people. Germany is second in PV pro-duction
for this development to the lowest bidders. Proponents of this
behind China, leads the world in production of biodiesel, policy change predict that it willlower costs for ratepayers,
and has built several cellulosic ethanol (p. 394) facilities. strengthen industries through competition, and allow time for
By 2050, Germany aims to obtain 80% ofits electricity from the grid to expand along with the new mix of energy sources.
renewable sources. To achieve this historic energy transition—or Critics of the auction system say it favors powerful firms over
small start-ups, creates risk and uncertainty that will discourage
private investment, and threatens to stifle Germany’s progress
50 toward its renewable energy targets.
Feed-in tariff
Small-scale PV solar installations are still eligible for feed-in
60 Installed PV solar capacity 45
tariffs under the revised law, so ordinary homeowners wish-ing
40
to “go solar” are unaffected, but the impact of this major
50
35 policy change on Germany’s overall energy situation remains to
40 30 be seen.
Germany’s experience has served as a model for other
kilowatt-hour
25
30 countries. As of 2017, morethan 100 nations, states, and prov-inces
20
per Gigawatt

had implemented some sort of feed-in tariff for renewable

20 15 energy. Nations with high tariff rates such as Spain and Italy
10 ignited their wind and solar development as a result. In North
10
America, Vermont and Ontario established feed-in tariff systems
Euro-cents

5
similar to Germany’s, while California, Hawai‘i, Maine, New York,
0 0
Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and utilities in several addi-tional
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 states conduct more-limited programs. In 2010, Gaines-ville,

Year Florida, became the first U.S.city to establish feed-in tariffs,

and solar power grew quickly there as a result. Moreover, utili-ties
FIGURE 16.1 PV solar power rose steeply in Germany,
in 46 U.S. states now offer net metering, in which utilities
thanks to feed-in tariffs. The rapid rise in installed capacity of
PV solar then slowed as the feed-in tariffs were reduced. Data from
credit customers who produce renewable power andfeed it into
International Energy Agency, 2016. Photovoltaic power systems programme
the grid. As more nations, states, and cities encourage renew-able

annual report 2015; and AGEE-Stat, Federal Ministryfor Economic Affairs and energy, we may soon experience a historic transition in the
Energy, Germany. way we meet our energy demands.

376 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives

 RenewableEnergySources Geothermal
(2.2%)

Solar (5.8%)
Germany’s bold federal policy is just onefacet of a global shift
Wind (20.8%)
toward renewable energy sources. Across the world, nations
are seeking to move away from fossil fuels while ensuring a
Hydropower
reliable, affordable, and sustainable supply of energy. Nuclear
8.7% (24.4%)

Wehave alternatives to fossil fuels Renewables

10.5%
Fossil
Fossil fuels drove the industrial revolution and helped to fuels
80.9% Bioenergy
create the unprecedented material prosperity we enjoy
(46.8%)
today. Our global economy is still powered by coal, oil,
and natural gas, which together provide over four-fifths of
the world’s energy and two-thirds of our electricity (see
(a) U.S. consumption of energy, by source
Figure 15.4, p. 344). However, easily extractable supplies
of these nonrenewable energy sources are in decline, while
Geothermal
the economic and social costs, security risks, and health and
(2.8%)
environmental impacts of fossil fuel dependence continue
Solar (8.9%)
to intensify (Chapter 15). For these reasons, most energy
Bioenergy
experts accept that we will need to shift to energy sources
(9.9%)
that are less easily depleted and gentler on our health and
Nuclear
environment. Wind (36.1%)
19.7%
Wehave developed a range of alternatives to fossil fuels
(see Table 15.1, p. 343). These include nuclear power (nonre-newable
Renewables
because it relies on uranium, a mineral in finite sup-ply) 15.4%
Fossil
and a diverse array of renewable energy sources. Of our
fuels Hydropower
renewable sources, hydroelectric power and energy from bio-mass 64.9% (42.3%)
are well established and already play substantial roles in
our energy and electricity budgets. Although hydropower and
bioenergy are renewable, supplies of water and biomass can
(b) U.S. electricity generation, by energy source
be locally depleted if overharvested.
Perpetually renewable sources include energy from the FIGURE 16.2 Renewable energy sources contribute a
small but growing portion of the energy we consume.
sun, wind, Earth’s geothermal heat, and ocean water. These
In the United States, about 10.5% of total energy consumption
energy sources are often called “new renewables” because
(transport, heating, electricity, etc.) (a) is from renewable energy,
(1) they are just beginning to be used on a wide scale in our
mostly bioenergy and hydropower. Of electricity generated in the
modern industrial society, (2) they are harnessed using tech-nologies
United States (b), about 15.4% comes from renewable sources,
still in a rapid phase of development, and (3) they
predominantly hydropower and wind. Data arefor 2016, from Energy
will likely play much larger roles in the future. Information Administration.
Thus far, renewable sources are being used more for
generating electricity than for fueling transportation. In the • What percentage of overall U.S. energy consumption

United States, renewable sources account for 10.5% of total does solar power contribute? • What percentage of
overall U.S. electricity generation does wind power contribute?
energy use (FIGURE 16.2a) and 15.4% of electricity gener-ated
(FIGURE 16.2b), but for just 4.8% of transportation Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
needs.

Renewable sources are growing fast

Renewable energy offers advantages
Over the past four decades, energy production from solar,
wind, and geothermal sources has grown far faster than energy Renewable energy offers a large number of substantial ben-efits
production from other sources. However, because these “new for individuals and for society. Unlike fossil fuels, most
renewable” sources started from such low levels of use, it renewable sources are inexhaustible on timescales relevant
will take them some time to replace fossil fuels. One hurdle to our society, thus providing us long-term security. Renew-able
constraining their growth is that so far welack infrastructure alternatives also help us economically, by diversifying
to transfer huge volumes of power from them inexpensively an economy’s energy mix and thereby reducing price volatil-ity
on a continent-wide scale. However, rapid growth in renew-able and reliance on imported fuels. Some renewable sources
energy seems likely to continue astechnology improves, generate income and property tax for rural communities,
prices fall, conventional fossil fuel supplies decline, and peo-ple and some help people in developing regions of the world to
demand cleaner environments. produce their own energy. And of course, replacing fossil

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 37

 Ocean energy Renewable sources

Hydropower

Wind power

Concentrated
solar power

Biomass

Geothermal
energy

PV solar

Nonrenewable JOBS CREATED

Nuclear power
sources PV solar: 3,095,000
Natural gas Hydropower: 1,730,000
Biofuels: 1,724,000
Oil Wind power: 1,155,000
Solar heating: 828,000

Coal Biomass: 723,000

Other: 538,00

0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750

Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions FIGURE 16.4 Renewable energy creates green-collar jobs. As
(g CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour) of 2016, more than 9.8 million people worldwide were employed in

FIGURE 16.3 Renewable energy sources release far fewer jobs directly or indirectly connected to renewable energy. Datafrom

greenhouse gas emissions than do fossil fuels. Shown are REN21, 2017. Renewables 2017: Global statusreport. REN21, UNEP, Paris.

medians and ranges of estimates from scientific studies of each

source when used to generate electricity. Datafrom Intergovernmental Germany and many other industrialized nations are
Panel on Climate Change, 2012. Renewable energy sources and climate gradually replacing fossil fuels with alternative sources
change mitigation. Special report. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
while continuing to raise living standards for their citizens.
For example, since 1970, Sweden has decreased its fos-sil
For every unit of emissions released from 1 kilowatt-hour
fuel use from 81% to 38% of its national energy budget
of electricity generated by PV solar power, roughly how
(p. 367). Bioenergy, hydropower, and nuclear power now pro-vide
many units would be released from 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity
generated by coal combustion? Sweden with over 60% of its energy and virtually all of
its electricity, and the nation’s economy is as strong as ever.
Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
Worldwide, recent research makes a strong case that we can
transition quickly to renewable energy and gain substantial
fuels with clean, renewable energy benefits our health by benefits by doing so (see THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY,
reducing air pollution (Chapter 13). Perhaps most impor-tantly, pp. 380–381).

FaQ
replacing fossil fuels with
renewable energy is the prime
way to slow the greenhouse gas Policyandinvestment can
Isn’t renewable energy too emissions (FIGURE 16.3) that
accelerate ourtransition
expensive and untested to drive global climate change
rely on? (Chapter 14). In all likelihood, Most renewable energy remains more expensive than fossil

Not at all. For decades now, stopping climate change will fuel energy (FIGURE 16.5), but prices are falling fast and renew-able

renewable energy sources and require a full transition to clean energy has already become cost-competitive with fossil

technologies have been supply-ing renewable energy. fuel energy in many places. Today electricity from wind power
power to many millions of Shifting to renewable energy is cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels across large por-tions
people. This goes for hydropower also creates employment oppor-tunities. of the United States. Where renewable energy is given
and bioenergy, but also for most The design, installation, political support, its market prices become still cheaper and it
“new renewable” sources. These maintenance, and management spreads faster. Feed-in tariffs like Germany’s hasten the spread
range from geothermal power and required to develop technolo-gies of renewable energy by creating financial incentives for busi-nesses
ground-sourceheat pumpsto solar and to rebuild and oper-ate and individuals. Governments are also setting goals or
water heating and PV solar cells to our energy infrastructure mandating that certain percentages of power come from renew-able
onshore and offshore wind power. are becoming major sources sources. As of 2017, nearly all the world’s nations and
All have become far more afford-able, of employment today, through 30 U.S. states had set official targets for renewable energy use.
andin many places electricity green-collar jobs (FIGURE 16.4). Governments also invest in research and development of tech-nologies,
from windis now cheaper than
Already, nearly 10 million peo-ple lend moneyto renewable energy businesses asthey
electricityfrom fossil fuels.
work in renewable energy start up, and offer tax credits and tax rebates to companies and
jobs around the world. individuals who produce or buy renewable energy.

378 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives

 Renewable sources
Wind power Nuclear
$185.38 billion
Biomass (1947–1999)
Biofuels
Geothermal $32.34 billion
(1980–2009)
PV solar
New renewables
Concentrated Oil and gas
$5.93 billion
solar power $446.96 billion
(1994–2009)
(1918–2009)
Natural gas Nonrenewable
sources
Coal

Nuclear power (a) Total subsidies

0 $50 $100 $150 $200 $250

5
Levelized cost of electricity (dollars/megawatt-hour)
$4.86
FIGURE 16.5 Renewable energy is becoming cost-competitive 4

with nonrenewable energy. Shown areranges for the price of dollar

$3.50
3
electricity from major sources, as of 2016. Prices for renewable of

sources are lower than shown here if subsidies are included or if 2

external costs (pp. 96, 104) are considered. Moreover, 2017 data
Billions

1
from the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast that prices $1.08 $0.37
for renewables will be still cheaper for plants that begin operation 0
in the near future. Datafrom Lazard, 2016. Lazard’s levelized cost of energy Oil and gas Nuclear Biofuels New renewables
analysis—Version 10.0. New York, NY: Lazard. (1918–2009) (1947–1999) (1980–2009) (1994–2009)

(b) Per-year subsidies

When a government boosts an industry with such
FIGURE 16.6 Fossil fuels and nuclear power have received
policies, the private sector often responds with investment far more in U.S. government subsidies (mostly tax breaks)
of its own as investors recognize an enhanced chance of than have renewable energy sources. This is true both for
profit. Indeed, global investment (public plus private) in (a) total amounts over the past century and for (b) average
renewable energy has risen to exceed $200 billion each amounts per year. Data arein 2010 dollars, from Pfund, N., and B. Healey,
year since 2010. Yet the eco-nomics
weighingthe
2011. What would Jefferson do? The historical role offederal subsidies in shaping

of renewable energy
ISSUeS
America’s energy future. DBLInvestors.

have been erratic. Technolo-gies

evolve quickly, and poli-cies
how to transition to vary from place to place past century. Theirreport revealedthat in total, oil and gas
renewable energy?
and can change unpredictably. have received 75 times more subsidies—and nuclear power
As a result, renewable markets has received 31 times more—than new renewable sources
Manyapproaches are being
havebeensomewhat volatile. (FIGURE16.6a). Moreover,on a per-yearbasis(controlling for
pursued to help our society transi-tion
Critics of public subsidies the differing amounts of time each source has been used), oil
from fossil fuels to renewable
energy. Reducing subsidies for fos-sil
for renewable energy complain and gas have received 13 times moresubsidies—and nuclear
fuels is one approach. Increas-ing that funneling taxpayer money power over 9 times more—thansolar, wind,and geothermal
subsidies for renewables is
to particular energy sources power (FIGURE 16.6b). Otherresearch concludes that acrossthe
another. Usingfeed-in tariffs or net is inefficient and skews the world today, for every $1 in taxpayer moneythat goestoward
metering are two specific ways of market. Instead, they propose, renewableenergy,$4 continuesto gotoward fossil fuels.
boosting support for renewables. we should let energy sources Many feel that the subsidies showered on fossil fuels
Governments can also pass laws compete freely. However, pro-ponents
have helped to enhance America’s economy, national
mandating greater use ofrenew-able of renewable energy security, and international influence by supporting thriv-ing
energy by utilities. Orthey can point out that governments have global energy industries dominated by U.S. firms. Yet
establish carbon taxes (p. 332) or long subsidized fossil fuels and by this logic, if America wants to be a global leader to
cap-and-trade programs (pp. 113, nuclear power far more than rival nations such as China and Germanyin the transition
333). Describean advantageand they now subsidize renewables. to renewable energy, then political and financial support
a disadvantage of each of these As a result, there has never been will likely need to be redirected toward renewable energy
approaches. Can you propose a level playing field, nor atruly sources.
any additional approaches? What
free market. Let’s now begin our tour of today’s renewable energy
steps do you think our society
In onerecent study, research-ers sources. We’ll start with the new renewables (solar, wind,
should take to transition to renew-able
duginto dataonthe U.S.gov-ernment’s
geothermal,and ocean energy), proceedthrough the well-established
energy?
many energy subsidies hydropower and bioenergy sources, and then briefly
andtax breaks(p. 113) overthe examinehydrogenfuel cells.

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 379

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Goto Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

Can WePowerthe World

with RenewableEnergy?
Despite the rapid growth of renewable with clean renewable sources alone. They proposed a quantita-tive
energy, many experts remain skeptical breakdown of the various wind, water, and solar technolo-gies
that we will ever be able to replace needed to power the worldin 2030 (TABLE 1).
fossil fuels entirely. Yet some recent To achieve this transition, society would need to greatly
scientific research has aimed to expand its transmission infrastructure, construct fleets of fuel-cell-powered
outline in detail how we might vehicles and ships, and more. To deal with inter-mittency
power our society completely of sun and wind and prevent gaps in energy supplies,
with clean renewable energy—without
we would need to link complementary combinations of sources
fossil fuels, biofuels, or across large regions and, when there is oversupply, use the
nuclear power. extra energy to produce hydrogen fuel. Achieving all this in afew
For years, Mark Jacobson, decades would clearly be ambitious, but Jacobson and Deluc-chi
director of the Atmosphere/ argued that most barriers to achieving a transition to renew-ables
Energy Program at Stanford Uni-versity, are social and political, not technological or economic.
has been assessing energy With an eye toward impacts, Jacobson and Delucchi also
sources with the goal of finding solu-tions added up the total area of land that all of this new renewable
to pollution, climate change, energy infrastructure would require. The researchers calculated
and energy insecurity. In 2009 he that 0.74% of Earth’s land surface would be occupied directly
Mark Jacobson of published a full life-cycle analysis by energy infrastructure, with 0.41% being newly required
Stanford University (p. 410) of the social, health, and beyond what is already taken up. An additional 1.18% of area
environmental impacts of all major would be needed for spacing between structures (mostly wind
energy sources and found that new renewable sources based turbines), but half of this area could be over water if half our
on wind, water, and solar power were lower-impact than bio-fuels, wind power is offshore, and most land between turbines could
nuclear power, and fossil fuels. be used for farming or grazing.
Jacobson then teamed up with Mark Delucchi of the Uni-versity Jacobson and Delucchi estimated that the overall economic
of California–Davis to examine whether and how the cost of energy in their proposed scenario would be roughly the
world could meet 100 percent of its energy needs with clean same as the cost of energy today. One main challenge, however,
renewable energy from the sun, wind, and water.In 2011 these
researchers published a pair of scientific papers in the jour-nal
Energy Policy. Jacobson and Delucchi first calculated the TABLE 1 Renewable Energy Infrastructure
likely global demand for energy in the years 2030 and 2050, Needed to Power the World in 2030
using government projections. Theythen examined the current
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF
outputs and limitations of renewable energy technologies and
PLANTS OR GLOBAL DEMAND
selected those that were technically and commercially proven
TECHNOLOGY DEVICES NEEDED SATISFIED
and established. Because electrical power is more energy-efficient
Wind turbines 3,800,000 50
than fuel combustion, they chose to propose only elec-trical
technologies (for example, battery-electric vehicles rather Wave devices 720,000 1

than gasoline-powered vehicles).

Geothermal plants 5350 4
The researchers then calculated what it would take to man-ufacture
Hydroelectric plants 900 4
these technologies at the needed scale and to build
infrastructure for renewable energy storage and transmission Tidal turbines 490,000 1
throughout the world. Because sources such as solar power
Rooftop PV systems 1,700,000,000 6
and wind power are intermittent (varying from hour to hour and
day to day), Jacobson and Delucchi judged what balance of Solar PV plants 40,000 14

sources was needed to compensate for intermittency and CSP plants 49,000 20
ensure a consistent, reliable energy supply.
Datafrom Jacobson, M.Z., and M.A. Delucchi, 2011. Providing all global
Once all the math was done, Jacobson and Delucchi con-cluded
energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: Technologies, energy
that the world can, in fact, fully replace fossil fuels, resources, quantities and areas ofinfrastructure, and materials. Energy
nuclear power, and biofuels and meet all its energy demands Policy 39: 1154–1169.

380 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternative

 is the limited availability of a handful of rare-earth metals (such would also save an estimated $3.3 trillion in costs from pre-dicted
as platinum, lithium, indium, tellurium, and neodymium) used climate change impacts worldwide due to U.S emissions
in certain materials and equipment for wind, water, and solar in 2050. As a result, they calculated, the average Americanin
technologies. While additional reserves of these metals may be 2050 would save $260 in energy costs, $1500 in health costs,
discovered and mined, we would likely need to enhance efforts and $8300 in climate change costs each year.
to recycle them. In a related paper in 2015 in Proceedings of the National
Jacobson and Delucchi’s work drew both praise and criti-cism. Academy of Sciences, Jacobson and his colleagues ran simu-lation
Critics, such as Australian energy expert Ted Trainer, felt that models, aiming to demonstrate how hydropower and
they underestimated the costs of their proposal, overestimated energy storage systems could solve the challenge of peaks and
efficiency gains from electrification, and failed to offer persuasive troughs from intermittent wind and solar energy production.
quantitative evidence that intermittency can be overcome. Their analysis purported to show that this challenge could be
More recently, Jacobson and Delucchi worked with eight overcome, enabling a full transition to an energy economy run
colleagues to design plans for how each of the 50 U.S. states purely on wind, water, and solar.
might power itself entirely with wind, water, and solar sources. Many researchers disagreed with this conclusion. In 2017,
This research team evaluated each state’s resources and energy a team of 21 scientists headed by energy expert Christopher
demands, and in 2015 published a study in the journal Energy Clack authored a paper in the same journal vehemently rebut-ting
and Environmental Science that summarized its state-specific many aspects of the Jacobson team’s analysis. They found
“roadmaps.” The researchers determined a mix of renewable fault with its methods and felt many assumptions made were
sources and technologies that could feasibly meet the energy unrealistic. Clack’s team felt that energy research overall sup-ports
demand forecast for the United States in 2050. FIGURE 1 the idea that we can transition to an economy dominated
shows their overall plan for transitioning to 100% renewable by renewable energy, but that we will need to continue using
energy across the United States. Footprints of the infrastructure nuclear power and fossil fuels to some degree.
required would be 0.47% of land area (0.42% new), with spac-ing Jacobson’s team responded to its critics, and a lengthy
area of 2.4% (1.6% new). debate between the two camps has ensued. Such open
Across all 50 states, the team estimated that a full conver-sion debate—and the further research it spurs—is precisely how
to renewable energy would raise the number of energy jobs science as a whole moves forward. As a result, we can look
from 3.9 million to 5.9 million and would eliminate up to 62,000 forward to better and better scientific guidance as our society
premature deaths caused by pollution each year. The proposal accelerates its transition to renewable energy.

Projected energy demand

Energy use in 2010 in 2050 without transition
= 2.40 TW = 2.62 TW

FIGURE 1 Fossil fuels and

Reduced demand due nuclear power can be phased
source to conversion from fuel out and replaced entirely by
combustion to electricity renewable energy by 2050 in
Reduced demand due to the United States, research
energy

efficiency improvements indicates. This graph summa-rizes

Estimated energy use
the transition to renewables
in 2050 with transition
Onshore wind power (30.9%) proposed by Jacobson’s team.
= 1.59 TW
various

of

Fossil fuels and Heights of each colored band at

nuclear power a given year show percentages
Offshore wind power (19.1%)
of total U.S. energy demand to
be met by each energy source
contribution
in that year. Datafrom Jacobson, M.,
Utility-scale solar (CSP & PV)
et al., 2015. 100% clean and renew-able
(38.0%)
wind, water, and sunlight (WWS)
all-sector energy roadmaps for the 50
Relative

Rooftop PV solar (7.2%)

Hydropower, United States. Energy Environ. Sci.
geothermal, 8: 2093–2117.
2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045 2050
ocean (4.8%)
Year

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 381

 Solar Energy
Overhang shades
Thesun releases astounding amounts of energy by converting summer sun from
Plants buffer
hydrogen to helium through nuclear fusion. The tiny propor-tion above.
house from
of this energy that reaches Earth is enough to drive most temperature

processes in the biosphere, helping to makelife possible on swings.

our planet. Each day, Earth receives enough solar energy,

or energy from sunlight, to power human consumption for a Thermal massin floors
quarter of a century. On average, each square meter of Earth’s and walls absorbs heat
and then slowly
surface receives about 1 kilowatt of solar energy—17 times
releases it.
the energy of a lightbulb. As a result, a typical home has
enough roof area to meet all its power needs with rooftop
panels that harness solar energy.
South-facing porch
lets in low-angle
sunlight in winter.

Wecan collect solar energy using

passive or active methods FIGURE 16.7 Passive solar design elements can be seen in this
house built by college students. Stanford University students and
The simplest wayto harness solar energy is by passive solar
staff designed and constructed this solar-powered house as part of
energy collection. In this approach, buildings are designed the sixth biannual Solar Decathlon, in which college and university
to maximize absorption of sunlight in winter yet to minimize teams compete to build the best houses fully powered by solar energy.
it in summer (FIGURE 16.7). South-facing windows maximize
the capture of winter sunlight. Overhangs shade windows
in summer, when the sun is high in the sky and cooling is Concentrating sunlight focuses
desired. Planting vegetation around a building buffers it from
energy
temperature swings. Passive solar techniques also use mate-rials
that absorb heat, store it, and release it later. Such ther-mal Wecan intensify solar energy by gathering sunlight from
mass (of straw, brick, concrete, or other materials) can a wide area and focusing it on a single point. This is the
make up floors, roofs, and walls,
or can be used in portable blocks.
All these approaches reduce
1 Sunlight shines on flat
energy costs. plate solar collector
Active solar energy collec-tion
makes use of technology to
4
Flat plate solar collector, warmed
focus, move, or store solar energy.
by sun, heats fluid in pipe
For instance, flat plate solar col-lectors
(FIGURE 16.8) heat water
and air for homes or businesses. 5 Heated fluid flows to water
These panels generally consist tank, where pipes transfer
of heat-absorbing metal plates heat to water in tank

mounted on rooftops in flat glass-covered

boxes. Water, air, or anti-freeze Flat plate Hot water
to tap
runs through tubes that pass solar collector
Water
through the collectors, transferring tank
6 Boiler heats
heat from them to the building or
water as
its water tank. More than 300 mil-lion needed when

households and businesses solar energy is

not available
worldwide heat water with solar 2
Controller senses Controller
Boiler
collectors. China is the world’s when collector is
warm enough
leader in this technology, but Ger-mans
motivated by feed-in tariffs
installed 200,000 new systems
in one year (2008) alone. Many
remote rural communities in the
Cold water
3 Pump switches on,
developing world also take advan-tage Pump supply
circulating fluid
of active solar technology
through system
for heating, cooling, and water
purification. FIGURE 16.8 Solar collectors use sunlight to heat water for homes and businesses.

382 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternative

 FIGURE 16.9 Utilities concentrate
solar power to generate electric-ity
at large scales. At this CSP plant
in Spain, 624 mirrorsreflect sunlight
onto a centralreceiver atop a 115-m
(375-ft) power tower.

principle behind solar cookers, simple portable ovens that pose considerable environmental impacts. All land beneath
use reflectors to cook food and that are proving useful in the the mirrors is cleared and graded, destroying sensitive habi-tat
developing world. for desert species, while maintenance requires enormous
At much larger scales, utilities are using the principle amounts of water, which is scarce and precious in desert
behind solar cookers to generate electricity at large central-ized regions. In recent years, global electricity generation by CSP
facilities and transmit power to homes and businesses via plants has grown almost as fast as electricity generation from
the electrical grid. Such concentrated solar power (CSP) photovoltaic rooftop panels.
is being harnessed by several methods in sunny arid regions
in Spain, the U.S. Southwest, and elsewhere. In one method,
PVcells generate electricity
curved mirrors focus sunlight onto synthetic oil in pipes. The
superheated oil is piped to a facility where it heats water, The most direct way to generate electricity from sunlight
creating steam that drives turbines to generate electricity. involves photovoltaic (PV) systems. Photovoltaic (PV) cells
In another method, hundreds of mirrors focus sunlight onto convert sunlight to electrical energy when light strikes one of
a central receiver atop a tall “power tower” (FIGURE 16.9). a pair of plates made primarily of silicon, a semiconductor
From here, air or fluids carry heat through pipes to a steam-driven that conducts electricity (FIGURE 16.10). The light causes one
generator. plate to release electrons, which are attracted by electrostatic
Concentrated solar power holds promise for produc-ing forces to the opposing plate. Connecting the two plates with
tremendous amounts of energy, but CSP developments wires enables the electrons to flow back to the original plate,
(which typically sprawl across huge stretches of arid land) creating an electrical current (direct current, DC), which can

Sunligh
Sunlight

–
n-type layer
(phosphorus-enriched)

Electricity
generated
Junction
Photovoltaic
cell
p-type layer
Array
(boron-enriched) +
Electron flow

FIGURE 16.10 A photovoltaic (PV) cell converts sunlight to electrical energy. When sunlight hits the
silicon layers of the cell, electrons are knocked loose from some of the silicon atoms and tend to move from the
boron-enriched “p-type” layer toward the phosphorus-enriched “n-type” layer. Connecting the two layers with
wiring remedies this imbalance as electrical current flows from the n-type layer back to the p-type layer. This
direct current (DC) is converted to alternating current (AC) to produce usable electricity.

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 383

 be converted into alternating current (AC) and used for resi-dentialregional electrical grid, homeowners can sell excess solar
and commercial electrical power. Small PV cells may power to their utility through feed-in tariffs or net metering.
power your watch or your calculator. Arrays of PV panels can Developing, manufacturing, and deploying solar technol-ogy
be seen on the roofs of the German houses in the photo that also creates green-collar jobs; PV-related jobs now employ
opens this chapter (p. 374). nearly 3.1 million people worldwide. Finally, a major advan-tage
Researchers are experimenting with variations on PV of solar energy over fossil fuels is that it does not emit
technology, including thin-film solar cells, photovoltaic mate-rials greenhouse gases and other air pollutants (see Figure 16.3).
compressed into ultra-thin sheets. Although less efficient The manufacture of equipment currently requires fossil fuels,
at converting sunlight to electricity, they are cheaper to pro-duce. but once up and running, a solar system produces no emissions.
Thin-film technologies can be incorporated into roofing
shingles and potentially many other surfaces, even highways! Location, timing, and cost can be
Photovoltaic cells of all types can be connected to batter-ies
drawbacks
that store the accumulated charge until needed. Or, pro-ducers
of PV electricity can sell power to their local utility if Solar energy currently has three main disadvantages—yet
they are connected to the regional electrical grid. In parts of all three are being resolved. One limitation is that not all
46 U.S. states, homeowners can sell power to their utility in a regions are equally sunny (FIGURE 16.11). People in Seattle
process called net metering, in which the value of the power or Anchorage will find it more challenging to rely on solar
the homeowner provides is subtracted from the homeowner’s energy than people in Phoenix or San Diego. However,
utility bill. Feed-in tariff systems like Germany’s go a step observe in Figure 16.11 that Germany receives less sunlight
further by paying producers more than the market price of the than Alaska, and yet it is the world leader in solar power!
power, offering producers the hope of turning a profit. A second limitation is that solar energy is an intermittent
resource. Poweris only produced whenthe sun shines, so daily

Solar energy offers manybenefits or seasonal variation in sunlight can limit stand-alone solar sys-tems
if storage capacity in batteries or fuel cells is not adequate
Thefact that the sun will continue shining for another 4–5 bil-lion or if backup power is not available from a municipal electrical
years makes it inexhaustible as an energy source for human grid. However, at the utility scale, nonrenewable energy sources
civilization. Moreover, the amount of solar energy reaching or renewable pumped-storage hydropower (p. 391) can help
Earth should be enough to power our society once we deploy compensate for periods of low solar production. And for indi-viduals,
technology adequate to harness it. These advantages of solar battery storage is fast becoming efficient and affordable;
energy are clear, but the technologies themselves also provide indeed, the majority of German homeowners installing solar
benefits. PV cells and other solar technologies use no fuel, are panels are also now storing excess energy in batteries to uselater.
quiet and safe, contain no moving parts, and require little main-tenance. The third drawback of current solar technology is the
An average unit can produce energy for 20–30 years. up-front cost of the equipment. However, recent declines
Solar systems allow for local, decentralized control over in price and improvements in efficiency have been impres-sive.
power. Homes, businesses, rural communities, and isolated Solar systems continue to become more affordable and
areas in developing nations can use solar power to produce now can sometimes pay for themselves in less than 10 years.
electricity without being near a power plant or connected After that time, they provide energy virtually for free as long
to a grid. In places where PV systems are connected to the as the equipment lasts.

FIGURE 16.11 Solar radiation varies from

place to place. Harnessing solar energy is more
profitable in sunny regions such as the south-western
GERMANY United States than in cloudier regions
such as Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. How-ever,
compare solar power leaders Germany and
Spain with the United States. Spain is similar to
UNITED STATES
Kansas in the amount of sunlight it receives, and
Germany is cloudier than Alaska! This suggests
that solar power can be used with success just
SPAIN
about anywhere. Datafrom National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy
Hawai‘i
• Roughly how much more solar radi-ation
Alaska
Solar radiation does southern Arizona receive
(kWh/m2/year) than Germany? • How does your own state
>2600 2000–2200 1400–1600 compare to Germany in its solar radiation?
2400–2600 1800–2000 1200–1400
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering
2200–2400 1600–1800 <1200
Environmental Science

384 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives

 80 300 led to so muchproductionthat supply has outstrippedglobal
demand in recent years. Highly subsidized Chinese firms
70
watt)

250
have been selling solar products abroad at low prices (often
at a loss), driving Americanand Europeansolar manufac-turers
60
per

(gigawatts

out of business. In response, the United States and

200
50 European nations have slapped tariffs on Chinese imports,
while both sides havefiled complaints withthe WorldTrade
(dollars

Production
capacity

40 150
price
Organization.
Price As production of PV cells rises, prices fall (FIGURE 16.12).
30 power

100 Atthe sametime, efficienciesareincreasing, makingeachunit

module

20 solar
more powerful. Use of solar technology should continue to
50
expand as prices fall, technologies improve, and governments
Average
10
Global
enacteconomicincentivesto spurinvestment. Similar trends
are apparent for wind power, another major and growing
0 0
source of renewable energy.
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Year

FIGURE 16.12 Global production

grown rapidly, while prices have fallen
of PV solar power
sharply.
has
Datafrom REN21,
WindPower
2017. Renewables 2017: Global status report. REN21, UNEP, Paris; Bloomberg Asthe sun heatsthe atmosphere, it causes air to move, pro-ducing
New Energy Finance; and pvXchange. wind. Today weare harnessing wind power by using
the energyof windto generateelectricity.

Solar energyis expanding

Windturbines convert kinetic
Solar energy contributes just 0.61%—61 parts in 10,000—of energy to electrical energy
the U.S.energy supply, and just 1.4% of U.S. electricity gen-eration.
Evenin Germany,which gets moreof its electricity To produce wind power, we use wind turbines, mechani-cal
from solar than any other nation, the percentage is only 7%. assemblies that convert wind’s kinetic energy (p. 33), or
However, solar energy use has grown by nearly a third each energy of motion, into electrical energy. Wind blowing into
year worldwide overthe pastfour decades.Solaris proving aturbine turns the blades of the rotor, whichrotate machin-ery
especially attractive in developing countries rich in sun but atop a tower (FIGURE 16.13). Today’s towers average
poor in infrastructure, where hundreds of millions of people 80 m(260 ft) in height, and the largest are taller than a
still live withoutelectricity. football field is long. Higheris generally better,to mini-mize
PV technology is the fastest-growing power source today, turbulence (and potential damage) while maximizing
having recently doubled every two years. Germany led the wind speed. Engineers design turbines to rotate in response
worldin installation of PVtechnology until China(with its to changesin wind direction, sothat the motorfaces into
muchlarger economy) passedit in 2015. Today China leads the wind at all times. They also design them to begin turn-ing
the world in production of PV cells, followed by Germany at specified wind speeds to harness energy efficiently.
andJapan, while U.S.firms accountfor only 2% of theindus-try. Turbines are often erected in groups called wind farms.
The Chinese government’s support of its solar industry Today’s largest wind farms contain hundreds of turbines.

FIGURE 16.13 A wind turbine

converts wind’s energy of motion Gearbox Generator
into electrical energy. Wind (increases rotational (produces
spins a turbine’s blades, turning a speed of blades) electricity)
shaft that extends into the nacelle.
Inside the nacelle, a gearbox con-verts Blade
the rotational speed ofthe
blades into much higher speeds,
providing adequate motionfor the
generator to produce electricity.

Tower
Nacelle

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 385

 60 500 Wind power’s growth in the United States has been hap-hazard
because Congress has not committed to a long-term
450
federal tax credit for wind development, but instead has
50
400 passed a series of short-term renewals, leaving the industry
(cents/kWh)

350
(gigawatts

uncertain about how to invest. However, experts agree that

40
wind power’s growth will continue, because only a small por-tion
wind

Production 300
of this resource is currently being tapped and because
capacity

250
from

30 wind power at favorable locations already generates electric-ity

at prices lower than fossil fuels (see Figure 16.5).
200
Price
power

20
150
Offshoresites are productive
electricity

wind

of

100
10
price
Wind speeds on average are 20% greater over water than over
50 Global

U.S.
land, and air is less turbulent (more steady) over water. For
0 0 these reasons, offshore wind turbines are becoming popular.
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Costs to erect and maintain turbines in water are higher, but
Year
the stronger, steadier winds make offshore wind potentially
FIGURE 16.14 Global production of wind power has been more profitable.
doubling every three years in recent years, and prices have Denmark erected the first offshore wind farm in 1991,
fallen. Datafrom Global WindEnergy Council; and U.S. Department of Energy, and soon more came into operation across northern Europe.
EERE, 2016. 2015 Wind technologies market report.
Germany raised its feed-in tariff rate for offshore wind sharply
in 2009, and within just five years 14 new wind farms were
Windpoweris growing fast operating. By 2016, more than 3500 wind turbines were pow-ering
80 wind farms in the waters of 11 European nations. In
Like solar energy, wind currently provides just a small propor-tion the United States, a small project in Rhode Island waters is
of the world’s power needs, but wind power is growing America’s first commercial offshore wind farm. As of 2017,
fast (FIGURE 16.14). Five nations account for three-quarters of roughly 20 more U.S. offshore wind developments were in
the world’s wind power output (FIGURE 16.15), but dozens of the planning stages, mostly off the North Atlantic coast.
nations now produce wind power.
Denmark leads the world in obtaining the highest per-centage
of its energy from wind power. In this small Euro-pean
Windpower has manybenefits
nation, wind supplies nearly 40% of electricity needs. Like solar power, wind power produces no emissions once the
Texas generates the most wind power of all U.S. states—fully equipment is manufactured and installed. As a replacement
one-quarter of the United States’ wind power. Iowa for fossil fuel combustion in the average U.S. power plant,
obtains more than 30% of its electricity from wind, while running a 1-megawatt wind turbine for 1 year prevents the
South Dakota and Kansas get roughly 25% of their electric-ity release of morethan 1500 tons of carbon dioxide, 6.5 tons of
from wind. sulfur dioxide, 3.2 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 60 lb of mer-cury,
according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The amount of carbon pollution that all U.S. wind turbines
together prevent from entering the atmosphere is equal to the
emissions from 24 million cars or from combusting the cargo
of 17 hundred-car freight trains of coal each and every day.
Under optimal conditions, wind power is efficient in its
China
energy returned on investment (EROI; p. 345). Studies find
(34.7%)
United States that wind turbines produce roughly 20 times more energy
(16.9%) than they consume—an EROI value superior to that of most
energy sources.
Wind turbine technology can be used on many scales,
Germany from a single tower for local use to large farms that supply
(10.3%) whole regions. Small-scale turbine development can help
Rest of world
(27.5%) make local areas more self-sufficient, just as solar energy
India
can. Farmers and ranchers can also make money leasing their
(5.9%)
Spain land for wind development. A single large turbine can bring
(4.7%) in $2000 to $4500 in annual royalties while occupying just a
quarter-acre of land. This also increases property tax income

FIGURE 16.15 Most of the world’s wind power capacity for rural communities.
is concentrated in China, the United States, and Germany. Lastly, wind power creates job opportunities. More than
Data are for 2016, from Global Wind Energy Council. 100,000 Americans and nearly 1.2 million people globally are

386 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives

 employed in jobs related to wind power. Morethan 100 col-leges
and universities now offer programs that train people in
the skills needed for jobs in wind power and other renewable
energy fields.

Windpower haslimitations
Wind is an intermittent resource; we have no control over
when it will occur. This limitation is alleviated, though,
if wind is one of several sources contributing to a utility’s
power generation. Pumped-storage hydropower (p. 391) can
help to compensate during windless times, and batteries or
hydrogen fuel (p. 395) can store energy generated by wind
and release it later when needed. Average wind speed
Just as wind varies from time to time, it varies from at 80 m above ground (m/sec)
place to place. Resource planners and wind power compa-nies >9.5 5.5–6.5

study wind patterns revealed by meteorological research 8.5–9.5 4.5–5.5

before planning a wind farm. A map of average wind speeds 7.5–8.5 0–4.5

across the United States (FIGURE 16.16a) shows that moun-tainous 6.5–7.5

regions, offshore sites, and areas of the Great Plains (a) Annual average wind speed
are best. Based on such data, the wind industry has installed
much of its generating capacity in states with high wind
speeds (FIGURE 16.16b). However, most Americans live near
the coasts, far from the Great Plains and mountain regions.
Thus, continent-wide transmission networks would need to
be enhanced to send wind-powered electricity to these popu-lation
centers, or numerous offshore wind farms would need
to be developed. When wind farms are proposed near popu-lation
centers, though, local residents often oppose them for
aesthetic reasons.
Turbines also pose a hazard to birds and bats, which are
killed when they fly into the blades. Large open-country rap-tors
such as golden eagles are known to be at risk, and tur-bines
located on ridges along migratory flyways are likely
most damaging. One strategy for protecting birds and bats
Generating capacity (megawatts)
is to select sites that are not on migratory flyways or amid
>10,000 100–1000
prime habitat for species likely to fly into the blades, but more
5000–10,000 0–100
research on impacts on wildlife and how to prevent them is
1000–5000
urgently needed.
(b) Installed wind power through 2017

FIGURE 16.16 Wind speed varies from place to place. Maps

GeothermalEnergy of average
farms. Another
wind speeds
map (b)
(a)
shows
help guide the
wind power
placement
generating
of wind
capacity
installed in each U.S. state through 2017. Datafrom (a) U.S. National
Geothermal energy is thermal energy that arises from
Renewable Energy Laboratory; and (b) American Wind Energy Association,
beneath Earth’s surface. The radioactive decay of elements
2017. Second quarter 2017 market report.
(p. 31) amid high pressures deep in the interior of our planet
generates heat that rises to the surface in molten rock and Compare parts (a) and (b). Which states or regions have
through cracks and fissures. Wherethis energy heats ground-water, high wind speeds but are not yet heavily developed with
spurts of water and steam rise from below and may commercial wind power?
erupt through the surface as geysers or as submarine hydro-thermal
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
vents (p. 35).

Weharness geothermal energy

for heating and electricity Hot groundwater can be piped up and used directly for heating
buildings and for industrial processes. The nation of Iceland
Geothermal energy can be harnessed directly from geysers heats nearly 90% of its homesin this way. Such direct heating
at the surface, but most often wells must be drilled down is efficient and inexpensive, but it is feasible only where geo-thermal
hundreds or thousands of meters toward heated groundwater. energy is readily available. Iceland has a wealth of

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 38

 geothermal resources because it is Where natural Wells tap underground
2 3 4 Steam is cooled and condensed,
located along the spreading boundary fissures or cracks heated water or steam and water is injected back into

of two tectonic plates (pp. 232–234). appear, heated to turn turbines and the aquifer to maintain pressure.
water or steam generate power.
Geothermal power plants har-ness
surfaces in
naturally heated water and geysers or Turbine and Cooling
steam to generate electricity hot springs. generator tower
(FIGURE 16.17). A power plant
Geyser
brings groundwater at tempera-tures
Fault
of 150–370°C (300–700°F)
or more to the surface and converts
Impermeable
it to steam by lowering the pres-sure
rock Steam
in specialized compartments.
Confined
The steam turns turbines to gener-ate
aquifer
electricity. The world’s largest
geothermal plants, The Geysers in Impermeable
rock
California, provide electricity for
725,000 homes. Heat source
(magma) Magma heats Injection
1
Heat pumps make groundwater. well

use oftemperature FIGURE

water from
16.17 Geothermal
underground.
power plants generate electricity using naturally heated

differences
Heated groundwater is available only in certain areas, but transferring heat from buildings into the ground. This heat
we can take advantage of the mild temperature differences transfer is accomplished with a network of underground
that exist naturally between the soil and the air just about plastic pipes that circulate water and antifreeze. Morethan
anywhere. Soil varies in temperature from season to season 600,000 U.S. homes use GSHPs. Compared to conven-tional
less than air does, and ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs) electric heating and cooling systems, GSHPs heat
make use of this fact (FIGURE 16.18). These pumps provide spaces 50–70% more efficiently, cool them 20–40% more
heating in the winter by transferring heat from the ground efficiently, can reduce electricity use by 25–60%, and can
into buildings, and they provide cooling in the summer by reduce emissionsby upto 70%.

SUMMER WINTER

Heat
pump

Cool water
Underground
Warm water
pipes

In summer, soil underground is cooler than surface air. Water In winter, soil underground is warmer than surface air. Water flowing
flowing through the pipes transfers heat from the house to the through the pipes transfers heat from the ground to the house, warming
ground, cooling air in ducts or radiant cooling system under floor. air in ducts, water in tank, or radiant heating system under floor.

FIGURE 16.18 Ground-source heat pumps provide an efficient way to heat and cool air and water in
a home. A network of pipes filled with water and antifreeze extends underground. Soil is cooler than air in the
summer (left), and warmer than air in the winter (right), so by running fluid between the house and the ground,
these systems adjust temperatures inside.

388 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternative

 Geothermalpower has pros and cons
All forms of geothermal energy—direct heating, electrical
power, and ground-source heat pumps—greatly reduce emis-sions
relative to fossil fuel combustion. Geothermal energy
is renewable, but not every geothermalpower plant will be
able to operate indefinitely. If a plant uses heated water more
quickly than groundwater is recharged, it will eventually run
out of water.This wasoccurringat The Geysers
in California,so
operators beganinjecting municipal wastewaterinto the ground
to replenish the supply! Moreover,patterns of geothermal activ-ity
in Earth’scrustshift naturally overtime, soan areathat pro-duces
hot water may not always do so. In addition, some hot
groundwater is laced with salts and mineralsthat corrode equip-ment Ocean

and pollutethe air. Thesefactors mayshortenthelifetime Barrage

of plants,increase maintenancecosts, and addto pollution. Basin
Incoming tide pushes
Thegreatestlimitation of geothermalpoweris that it is
water from ocean into
restricted to regions where wecan tap energy from naturally tidal basin, spinning
heated groundwater. Places such as Iceland, northern Cali-fornia, turbines to generate
and Yellowstone National Park are rich in naturally electricity

heated groundwater, but most areas of the world are not.

Engineers are trying to overcome this limitation by develop-ing
FIGURE 16.19 We can harness tidal energy by allowing
enhanced geothermal systems(EGS),in which wedrill ocean water to spin turbines. At the world’s largest tidal power
deeply into dry rock, fracture the rock, and pump in cold facility at Sihwa Lake, South Korea, water flows from the ocean
water. The water becomes heated deep underground and is into a huge enclosed basin as the tide rises, spinning turbines to
then drawn back up and usedto generatepower.In theory, generate electricity.
we could use EGS widely in manylocations. Germany, for
instance, has little heated groundwater, but feed-in-tariffs
enabledan EGSfacility to operateprofitablythere. However, emissions, but they can affect the ecology of estuaries and
EGS appears to trigger occasional minor earthquakes. Unless tidal basins.
wecan develop waysto use EGS safely and reliably, our use Scientists and engineers are also working to harness
of geothermalpower willremain localized. the motion of ocean waves and convert their energy into
electricity. Many designs for machinery to harness wave

OceanEnergySources energy have been invented.

involve floating
Some designs for
devices that move up and down
offshore facili-ties
with
The oceans are home to several underexploited sources the waves. Some designs for onshore facilities funnel waves
of energy resulting from natural patterns of motion and from large areas into narrow channels and elevated reservoirs,
temperature. from which water then flows out, generating electricity. Other
coastal designs use rising and falling waves to push air into
Wecan harness energy from tides, and out of chambers, turning turbines. The first commercial

waves,and currents wave energy facility began operating in 2011 in Spain.

Athird way to harness marine kinetic energy is to use the
Kinetic energy from the natural motion of ocean water can be motion of ocean currents (p. 260), such as the Gulf Stream.
usedto generateelectrical power. Therise and fall of ocean Underwater turbines have been erected to test this approach.
tides (p. 263) twice each day moveslarge volumes of water
past any given point on the world’s coastlines. Differences in The ocean stores thermal energy
height betweenlow and hightides areespecially greatin long,
narrow bays such as Alaska’s Cook Inlet or the Bay of Fundy Each day the tropical oceans absorb solar radiation with the
between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Suchlocations are heat content of 250 billion barrels of oil—enough to provide
bestfor harnessingtidal energy, by erecting damsacrossthe 20,000 times the electricity used daily in the United States.
outlets oftidal basins. Astidal currents passthrough the dam, The ocean’s sun-warmed surface is warmer than its deep
waterturns turbines to generate electricity (FIGURE 16.19). water, and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) relies
The world’s largest tidal generating station is South on this gradient in temperature. In one approach, warm surface
Korea’s Sihwa Lake facility, which opened in 2011. The old-est water is piped into a facility to evaporate chemicals, such as
is the La Rancefacility in France, which has operated for ammonia, that boil at low temperatures. The evaporated gases
nearly 50 years.Thefirst U.S.tidal station beganoperatingin spin turbines to generate electricity. Cold water piped up from
2012 in Maine, and one is now being installed in New York ocean depths then condenses the gases so they can be reused.
City’s East River. Tidal stations releasefew or no pollutant In another approach, warm surface water is evaporated in a

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 38

 vacuum, and its steam turns turbines and then is condensed by Hydropower usesthree approaches
cold water. So far, no OTEC facility operates commercially,
but research is being conducted in Hawai‘i and elsewhere. Most hydroelectric power today comes from impounding
waterin reservoirs behind concrete damsthat block the flow
of river water and then letting that water pass through the
Hydroelectric Power dam. Because wateris stored behind dams, this is called
the storage technique. As reservoir water passes through
In hydroelectric power, or hydropower, we use the kinetic a dam, it turns the blades of turbines, which cause a gen-erator
energy of flowing river water to generate electricity. Hydroelec-tric to generateelectricity (FIGURE16.20). This electric-ity
power provides nearly one-sixth of the world’s electricity. is transmitted by transmission lines to the electrical
We examined hydropower and its environmental impacts in grid that serves consumers, while the water flows into the
our discussion of freshwater resources (pp. 272–273). Now riverbed below the dam and continues downriver. By stor-ing
we will take a closer look at hydropower as an energy source. water in reservoirs, dam operators can ensure a steady

(a) Ice Harbor Dam, Snake River, Washington (b) Generators inside McNary Dam, Columbia River

Reservoir

1 Water flows from

the reservoir through
5 Electricity is
the dam.
Transmission transmitted
Dam lines through power
lines to consumers
via the electrical
Intake Powerhouse grid, while water
2 The flowing flows out of the
waterturns
dam and
the turbine.
downriver.

3 The turbine turns

the rotor, which
consists of a series
of magnets.
Stator
Generato
4 Electricity is produced as the rotor spins past Rotor
the stator, which is the stationary part of the
generator made of coils of copper wire. Outflow Turbine

(c) Hydroelectric power

FIGURE 16.20 We generate hydroelectric power with large dams. Inside these dams (a), flowing water
turns massive turbines (b) to generate electricity. Wateris funneled from the reservoir through the dam andits
powerhouse(c) andinto the riverbed below.

390 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives

and predictable supply of electricity, even during periods of dams, hydroelectric power has been a keystone of their devel-opment
naturally low river flow. and wealth. Canada, Brazil, Norway, Venezuela, and
An alternative approach is the run-of-river technique, certain other nations obtain the majority of their electricity
which generates electricity without greatly disrupting a riv-er’s from hydropower.
flow. One method is to divert a portion of a river’s flow Today the world is witnessing some gargantuan hydroelec-tric
through a pipe or channel, passing it through a powerhouse projects. China’s Three Gorges Dam (p. 272) is the world’s
and returning it to the river. Run-of-river systems are useful largest. However, hydropower may not expand much more,
in remote areas far from electrical grids and in regions with-out because most of the world’s large rivers are already dammed.
the economic resources to build and maintain large dams. In addition, as people have grown aware of the ecological
This approach cannot guarantee reliable water flow in all sea-sons, impacts of dams, residents of some regions are resisting dam
but it minimizes many impacts of the storage technique construction. In the United States, 98% of rivers appropriate
by leaving most water in the river channel. for dam construction already are dammed, while many of the
To better control the timing of flow, pumped-storage remaining 2% are protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers
hydropower can be used. In pumped storage, water is Act. Some dams that are no longer functional are being dis-mantled
pumped from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir at times so that river habitats can be restored (p. 272).
when demand for power is weak and prices are low. When
demand is strong
through a turbine,
and prices are high,
generating
water is sent downhill
electricity. Although energy
Bioenergy
must be input to pump the water, pumped storage can be prof-itable. Like hydropower, bioenergy is well established and has
When paired with intermittent sources such as solar long provided a great deal of humanity’s energy. Bioenergy
and wind power, it can help balance a region’s power supply is energy obtained from biomass (p. 74), which consists of
by compensating for dips in power availability. organic material derived from living or recently living organ-isms.
Biomass contains chemical energy that originated with
Hydropoweris clean andrenewable, sunlight and photosynthesis. We harness bioenergy by burn-ing

yet hasimpacts biomass for heating, using biomass to generate electricity,

and processing biomass to create liquid fuels for transporta-tion
Hydroelectric power has three clear advantages over fossil (TABLE 16.1).
fuels. First, it is renewable; as long as precipitation falls from
the sky and fills rivers and reservoirs, we can use water to
turn turbines. Second, hydropower is efficient. It has been
shown to have an EROI ratio of more than 80:1, higher than
TABLE 16.1 Sources and Uses of Bioenergy
any other modern-day energy source. Third, hydropower BIOMASS FOR DIRECT COMBUSTION FOR HEATING
emits no carbon dioxide or other pollutants into the atmo-sphere.
• Wood cut from trees (fuelwood)
Fossil fuels are used in constructing and maintaining
dams, and large reservoirs may release the greenhouse gas • Charcoal
methane as a result of anaerobic decay in deep water. But
• Manurefrom farm animals
overall, hydropower produces only a small fraction of the
greenhouse gas emissions typical of fossil fuel combustion. BIOMASS FOR GENERATING ELECTRICITY (BIOPOWER)

Damming rivers (p. 272), however, destroys habitat for • Crop residues (such as cornstalks) burned at power plants
wildlife as ecologically rich riparian areas above dam sites are
• Forestry residues (wood waste from logging) burned at
submerged and those below often are starved of water. Because
power plants
water discharge is regulated to optimize electricity generation,
the natural flooding cycles of rivers are disrupted. Suppress-ing • Processing wastes(from sawmills, pulp mills,paper mills, etc.)
flooding prevents river floodplains from receiving fresh burned at power plants
nutrient-laden sediments. Instead, sediments become trapped
• “Landfill gas” burned at power plants
behind dams, where they begin filling the reservoir. Dams also
modify water temperatures and generally block the passage of • Livestock wastefrom feedlots for gasfrom anaerobic digesters
fish and other aquatic creatures. Along with habitat alteration,
BIOFUELS FOR POWERING VEHICLES
this has diminished biodiversity in many dammed waterways.
• Corn grown for ethanol
These ecological impacts generally translate into negative
social and economic impacts on local communities. • Bagasse (sugarcane residue) grown for ethanol

Hydroelectric poweris widely used, • Soybeans, rapeseed, and other crops grown for biodiesel

butit maynot expand much more • Used cooking oil for biodiesel

Hydropower accounts for one-sixth of the world’s electricity • Algae grown for biofuels

production (see Figure 15.4b, p. 344). For nations with large • Plant mattertreated with enzymes to produce cellulosic ethanol
amounts of river water and the economic resources to build

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 39

 biomass is vaporized at high temperatures in the absence of
oxygen (a process called gasification), creating gases that turn
a turbine to propel a generator. Another method of heating bio-mass
in the absence of oxygen results in pyrolysis (p. 347), pro-ducing
aliquid fuel that can be burned to generate electricity.
By enhancing energy efficiency and putting waste products
to use, biopower conserves resources and helps reduce green-house
gas emissions. When biomass replaces coal in co-firing
and direct combustion, we reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide
as well, because plant matter, unlike coal, contains no apprecia-ble
sulfur. One disadvantage is that when we burn plant matter
for power, we deprive the soil of nutrients and organic matter it
would have gained from the plant matter’s decomposition, thus
requiring other actions to restore soil fertility.

FIGURE 16.21 More than a billion people in developing

countries rely on wood from trees for heating and cooking.
In principle, biomass is renewable, but in practice it may not be if
SUCCESS Turning Waste into Energy
STORY
forests are overharvested.
The Swedish city of Kristianstad is best known as

Fuelwood is used widely the home of Absolut Vodka. But Kristianstad is now
gaining attention for its capacity to produce energy from waste.
in the developing world Back in 1999, this city of 81,000 people—the hub of an agri-cultural
and food-processing region—aimed to free itself of a
More than 1 billion people use wood from trees as their prin-cipal
dependence on fossil fuels.
energy source. In rural regions of developing nations,
After building a power plant
people (generally women) gather fuelwood to burn in their Waste
that burns forestry waste, it
homes for heating, cooking, and lighting (FIGURE 16.21).
constructed a facility to turn
Although fossil fuels and electricity are replacing traditional
waste into biogas (a mix of
energy sources as developing nations industrialize, fuelwood,
methane and other gases Biogas plant
charcoal, and livestock manure constitute almost half of all
that results from breaking
renewable energy used worldwide.
down organic matter amid
These traditional biomass sources are renewable only if
alack of oxygen). Kristian-stad’s
they are not overharvested. Harvesting fuelwood at unsustain-ably
biogas plant receives
rapid rates can lead to deforestation, soil erosion, and
household garbage, crop
desertification (pp. 195, 148). Burning fuelwood for cooking
waste, food industry waste,
and heating also poses health hazards from indoor air pollu-tion
and animal manure and
(see Figure 13.23, p. 306).
uses anaerobic digestion to

Wecan generate electricity turn

In
this

addition,
waste into

the
biogas.

city’s landfill Biogas Liquid waste

using biomass and wastewater treatment

plant each collect methane,

Electricity, Fertilizer
Biomass can be burned to generate electricity. Such biopower
adding to the city’s biogas home heating,
can be produced in many ways. A variety of waste products vehicle fuel
supply. The biogas is burned
are being combusted for biopower, including woody debris
to generate electricity and
from logging, liquid waste from pulp mills, organic waste Kristianstad’s biogas plant
to heat homes by district
from landfills or feedlots, and residue from crops (such as uses organic waste to produce
heating. It is also refined and
electricity, home heating,
cornstalks and corn husks). Weare also starting to use certain
used to fuel hundreds of vehicle fuel, and fertilizer.
fast-growing plants as crops to burn for biopower, including
cars, trucks, and buses
grasses such as bamboo, fescue, and switchgrass, and trees
engineered to run on biogas. In total, this waste-to-energy
such as specially bred willows and poplars.
system replaces about 7% of Kristianstad’s gasoline and
At small scales, farmers, ranchers, or villagers can operate
diesel fuel each year, all of its district heating, and much
modular biopower systems that use livestock manure to gener-ate
ofits electricity, while excess biogas is sold to neighboring
electricity. Small household biodigesters provide portable,
communities. A by-product of biogas production is liquid
decentralized energy production for remote rural areas. At large
organic fertilizer, and nearly 100,000 tons per year are sold
scales, power plants can be built or retrofitted to burn biomass
to area farms.
to generate electricity. At some coal-fired power plants, wood
chips or pellets are combined with coal in a high-efficiency EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Scienc

boiler in a process called co-firing. At other power plants,

392 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives

 Biofuels can power vehicles Hydropower
Coal (total energy)
Somebiomasssourcescan be convertedinto biofuels,liquid
Oil & gas (total energy)
fuels used primarily to power automobiles. The two primary
Wind power
biofuels developed so far are ethanol (for gasoline engines)
Nuclear power
and biodiesel(for dieselengines).
Coal (electricity)

Photovoltaic solar
Ethanol Ethanol is the alcohol in beer, wine, andliquor.
Geothermal
It is produced as a biofuel by fermenting biomass, generally
from carbohydrate-rich crops, in a process similar to brewing Shale oil

beer.In fermentation, carbohydratesare convertedto sug-ars Natural gas (electricity)

and then to ethanol. Spurred by the 1990 Clean Air Act Ethanol

amendments, a 2007 congressional mandate, and generous Oilsands

subsidies, ethanolis widely addedto gasolinein the United Biodiesel
States to conserve oil and reduce automotive emissions. In 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
2016 in the United States, over 58 billion L (15.3 billion gal)
EROI
of ethanol wereproduced—47gallonsfor every American—mostly
from corn (FIGURE 16.22). Fully 40% of today’s FIGURE 16.23 EROI (energy returned on investment) ratios
U.S. corn crop is usedto makeethanol. (Some by-products vary from more than 80:1 for hydropower down to 2:1 for

of ethanol production are usedin livestock feed; with this biodiesel. EROI values for ethanol vary by crop and location; esti-mates

accounted for, 28% of U.S. corn goestoward ethanol.) for U.S. corn ethanol are lower than the overall ethanol aver-age
shown here. Adapted from Hall, C., et al., 2014. EROI of different fuels
Any vehicle with a gasolineengineruns well on gaso-line
and the implications for society. Energy Policy 64: 141–152.
blended with upto 10% ethanol, but automakers are also
producing flexible-fuel vehicles that run on E-85, a mix of
85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Morethan 17 million such Theenthusiasm for ethanol shown by U.Spolicymakers is
cars are on U.S.roads today. In Brazil, almost all new cars not widely shared by scientists. Growing corn to produce etha-nol
are flexible-fuel vehicles, and ethanol from crushed sugar-cane takes up millions of acres of land and intensifies the use of
residue(called bagasse)accountsfor half of all fuel that pesticides, fertilizers, and fresh water. It also requires substan-tial
Brazil’s drivers use. inputs of fossil fuel energy (for operating farm equipment,
making petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers, transport-ing
corn to processing plants, and heating water in refineries to
distill ethanol). In the end, corn ethanol yields only a modest
30
amount of energy relative to the energy that needs to be input.
United States Scientific estimates of the EROI (energy returned on invest-ment)
25
Brazil ratio (p. 345) for corn-based ethanol vary, but recent
Rest of world calculations place it around 1.3:1 (FIGURE 16.23). This means
20
that we need to expend 1 unit of energy just to gain 1.3 units
of energy from ethanol.
15
(billions

Gallons

10
Biodiesel Drivers of diesel-fueled vehicles can use
biodiesel, a fuel produced from vegetable oil, used cook-ing

5 grease, or animal fat. The oil or fat is mixed with small

amounts of ethanol or methanol in the presence of a chemi-cal

0 catalyst. In Europe, rapeseed oil is the oil of choice,

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 whereas U.S. biodiesel producers use mostly soybean oil.
Year Vehicles with diesel engines can run on 100% biodiesel, or

FIGURE 16.22 Ethanol production in the United States, biodiesel can be mixed with conventional diesel; a 20% bio-diesel

Brazil, and elsewhere has grown rapidly in recent mix (called B20) is common. Many buses, recycling
years. Datafrom RenewableFuelsAssociation. trucks, and state and federal fleet vehicles now run on bio-diesel
or biodiesel blends.
• Roughly what percentage of the world’s ethanol is Replacing diesel with biodiesel cuts down on emis-sions.
produced bythe United States? • Based purely on the
Biodiesel’s fuel economy is nearly as good, it costs
data shown in the graph, give one explanation for why we might
just slightly more, and it is nontoxic and biodegradable. Most
predict that U.S. and world ethanol production will be much
biodiesel today, like most ethanol, comes from crops grown
higher in the future. • Now explain one reason why we might
specifically for the purpose—and this has impacts. For exam-ple,
predict that U.S. and world ethanol production will be about the
samein the future asit is today. growing soybeans in Brazil and oil palms in Southeast
Asia hastens the loss of tropical rainforest (pp. 192, 197).
Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
A more sustainable option is to fuel vehicles with biodiesel

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 393

 labs in closed tanks or transparent tubes. Algae grow faster
and produce more oil than terrestrial biofuel crops, and they
can grow in seawater, saline water, or nutrient-rich waste-water
from sewage treatment plants.
Relying on any monocultural crop for energy may not
be sustainable. With this in mind, researchers are refining
techniques to produce cellulosic ethanol by using enzymes
to produce ethanol from cellulose, the substance that gives
structure to all plant material. This would be a substantial
advance because ethanol made from corn or sugarcane uses
starch, which is nutritionally valuable to us. Cellulose, in
contrast, is of no food value to people yet is abundant in all
plants. Converting plant material to fuel would still deprive
the soil of organic matter from decomposition, but if we can
produce cellulosic ethanol in a commercially feasible way,
FIGURE 16.24 At Loyola University Chicago, students and staff
then ethanol could be made from low-value crop waste (such
produce biodiesel from waste vegetable oil from the dining
as corn stalks and husks), rather than from high-value crops.
halls and use it to fuel this van. They transport this mini-diesel
reactor to local high schools to teach students about alternative fuels.
Is bioenergy carbon-neutral?
made from waste oils. Some college students are creating In principle, energy from biomass is carbon-neutral, releasing
biodiesel from food waste from dining halls and restaurants no net carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is because
(FIGURE 16.24). burning biomass releases carbon dioxide that plants recently
pulled from the air by photosynthesis. Thus, in theory, when
Novel biofuels Because the major crops grown for bio-diesel wereplace fossil fuels with bioenergy, we reduce net carbon
and ethanol exert heavy impacts on the land, farm-ers flux to the atmosphere, helping to fight climate change.
and scientists are experimenting with other crops—from In practice, burning biomass for energy is not carbon-neutral
wheat, sorghum, cassava, and sugar beets to less known if forests are destroyed to plant bioenergy crops. Forests
plants such as hemp, jatropha, and the grass miscan-thus. sequester more carbon (in vegetation and soil) than croplands
One promising next-generation biofuel crop is algae do, so cutting forests to grow crops increases carbon flux to
( FIGURE 16.25a). Several species of these photosynthetic the atmosphere. Bioenergy also is not carbon-neutral if we con-sume
organisms produce large amounts of lipids that can be con-verted fossil fuel energy to produce the biomass (for instance,
to biodiesel. Alternatively, carbohydrates in algae can by using tractors, fertilizers, and pesticides to grow biofuel
be fermented to create ethanol. In fact, we can use algae to crops). Wehave a diversity of options in the realm of bioenergy,
produce a variety of fuels, even jet fuel (FIGURE 16.25b). however, and researchers are working hard to develop ways of
Algae can be grown outdoors in open circulating ponds or in using bioenergy that are truly renewable and sustainable.

(a) Algae in the lab (b) Fueling jets with biofuels

FIGURE 16.25 Novel biofuels are being developed for many uses. Researchers are studying algae
(a) as a promising source of next-generation biofuels. Several commercial airlines (b) are already powering
flights with biofuels sourced from algae and various waste products.

394 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternative

 Hydrogenand 3 The electrons move from the

Fuel Cells
negative electrode to the
positive electrode, creating a
current and generating
electricity.
Each renewable energy source
we have discussed can be used to Hydrogen fuel, H2 Oxygen, O2
generate electricity more cleanly
than can fossil fuels. However,
electricity cannot be stored eas-ily
in large quantities for use
when and where it is needed. 2
The protons
This is why most vehicles rely traverse the
– +
membrane.
on gasoline, instead of electric-ity,
for power. The development 4
Water is formed
of fuel cells and of fuel consist-ing when oxygen
1 combines with
of hydrogen—the simplest Hydrogen
the protons and
and most abundant element in the molecules are
H+ electrons that
stripped of
universe—holds promise as a way flow from the
electrons at
positive electrode.
to store sizeable quantities of the negative
energy conveniently, cleanly, and electrode,
leaving
efficiently. Like electricity and like
hydrogen ions
batteries, hydrogen is an energy (protons, H+).
Negative Proton (H+) Positive
carrier, not a primary energy exchange electrode
electrode
source. It holds energy that can membrane
Water,
be converted for use atlater times
H2O
and in different places.
FIGURE 16.26 Hydrogen fuel drives electricity generation in a fuel cell. Water and heat
are the only waste products that result

Some yearn for a

“hydrogen economy”
energy.In electrolysis, electricity is usedto split hydrogen
Some energy experts envision that hydrogen fuel, along atoms from the oxygen atoms of water molecules:
with electricity, could serve as the basis for a clean, safe,
and efficient energy system. In such a system, electric-ity electricity + 2H2O ¡ 2H2 + O2
generated from intermittent renewable sources, such as Electrolysis produces pure hydrogen, and it does so with-out
wind or solar energy, could be used to produce hydrogen. emitting the carbon-or nitrogen-based pollutants of fossil
Fuel cells—essentially, hydrogen batteries (FIGURE 16.26)—couldfuel combustion. However, whether this strategy for produc-ing
then use hydrogen to produce electricity to power hydrogen will cause pollution over its life-cycle depends
vehicles, computers, cell phones, home heating, and more. on the source of electricity used for electrolysis. If coal is
In fact, NASA’s space programs have used fuel-cell technol-ogy burned to generate the electricity, then the process will not
since the 1960s. reduce emissions. The “cleanliness” of a hydrogen economy
Basing an energy system on hydrogen could alleviate would, therefore, depend largely on the source of electricity
dependence on foreign fuels and help fight climate change. used in electrolysis.
For these reasons, governments have funded research into The environmental impact of hydrogen production also
hydrogen fuel and fuel-cell technology, and auto compa-nies depends on the source material for the hydrogen. Besides
have developed vehicles that run on hydrogen. Today, water, hydrogen can be obtained from biomass or from fos-sil
Germany is one of several nations with hydrogen-fueled city fuels. This generally requires less energy input but results
buses, and it is planning a network of hydrogen filling sta-tions in pollution. For instance, extracting hydrogen from methane
for hydrogen cars that are being designed. (CH4) in natural gas produces one molecule ofthe greenhouse
gas carbon dioxide for every four molecules of hydrogen gas.

Hydrogen fuel maybe produced Once isolated, hydrogen gas can be used as fuel to
produce electricity with a fuel cell. The chemical reac-tion
from water orfrom other matter involved in a fuel cell is simply the reverse of that for

Hydrogen gas (H2) tends not to exist freely on Earth. Instead, electrolysis:

hydrogen atoms bind to other molecules, becoming incor-porated

2H2 + O2 ¡ 2H2O + electricity
in everything from water to organic molecules. To
obtain hydrogen gas for fuel, we must force these substances Figure 16.26 shows how this occurs within one common type
to release their hydrogen atoms, and this requires an input of of fuel cell.

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 395

 Hydrogen andfuel cells havecosts and—depending on its source and the source of electricity

and benefits for its extraction—it mayproducefew greenhousegasesand

other pollutants. Water and heat are the only waste prod-ucts
Onedrawback of hydrogen atthis point is alack of infrastruc-ture from a hydrogen fuel cell, along with negligible traces
to makeuse of it. Toconvert a nationsuch as Germany of other compounds. Fuel cells are also energy-efficient;
or the United Statesto hydrogen would require massiveand depending on the type, 35–70% of the energy released in
costly development of facilities to transport, store, and pro-vide the reaction can be used—or up to 90% if the system is
the fuel. Anotherconcern,accordingto someresearch, designedto capture heat as well as electricity. Unlike bat-teries
is that leakage of hydrogen might deplete stratospheric ozone (which also produce electricity through chemical
(p. 301) and lengthen the atmospheric lifetime of the green-house
reactions), fuel cells generate electricity whenever hydro-gen
gas methane. fuel is supplied, without ever needing recharging. For
Hydrogen’s benefits include the fact that we will never all these reasons, hydrogen fuel cells could soon be used to
run out of it, becauseit is the mostabundant element in powercars, muchasthey already power busesonthe streets
the universe. Hydrogen can be clean and nontoxic to use, of some German cities.

closing the LOOp

Rising concern over air pollution, cli-mate example of how government policy can accelerate such a
change, health impacts, and transition. Its feed-in tariff programs ignited the widespread
security risks resulting from our reli-ance adoption of PV solar, wind, and other renewable energy tech-nologies.
on fossil fuels has driven a desire In fact, Germans began producing so much electric-ity
to shift to renewable energy sources that from renewable sources that concerns rose over questions
pollute far less and that will not run out. of pricing, timing, and grid capacity. In the 2016 revision of its
Solar energy, wind power, geothermal energy, national energy policy, Germany introduced a new strategy
ocean energy, hydropower, and bioenergy all hold promise of competitive auctions—and once again, nations around the
to sustain our civilization far into the future while exerting less world are watching to see what unfolds.
impact on our environment. By using electricity from renew-able Other nations are showing leadership in renewable energy
sources to produce hydrogen fuel, we may be able to use as well. The United States has produced a great deal of
fuel cells to produce electricity when and where it is needed, research and technology; Denmark is a leader in wind power;
enabling us to manufacture nonpolluting vehicles. and many other European nations obtain high proportions of
Renewable energy has long been held back by limited their energy from renewable sources. Developing nations are
funding for research and development and by competition generating power off the grid, and China has thrown its eco-nomic
with established nonrenewable fuels whose market prices might behind renewable energy, producing and deploy-ing
have not covered external costs. Despite these obstacles, staggering amounts of technology. With these steps by
recent progress offers hope that we can replace fossil fuels many nations around the world, our global civilization is moving
with renewable energy. Germany’s actions provide a prime faster and faster toward a future fueled by renewable energy

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. What proportion of U.S. energy today comes from 6. Define geothermal energy, and explain three main ways
renewable sources? Whatis the most prevalent form of in which it is obtained and used. Describe one sense in
renewable energy used in the United States? What form which it is renewable and one sense in which it is not.
of renewable energy is most used to generate electricity? 7. List and describe four approaches for obtaining energy
2. What factors and concerns are causing renewable from ocean water.
energy use to expand? Which two renewable sources 8. Compare and contrast the three major approaches to
are experiencing the most rapid growth? generating hydroelectric power. List one benefit and one
3. Describe several passive solar approaches. Now explain negative impact of hydropower.
how photovoltaic (PV) cells function and are used. 9. List five sources of bioenergy. What is the world’s
4. List several advantages of solar power. What are some most used source of bioenergy? Describe two
disadvantages? potential benefits and two potential drawbacks of

5. Describe how wind turbines generate electricity. List bioenergy.

several environmental and economic benefits of wind 10. How is hydrogen fuel produced? Whatfactors determine
power. Whatare some drawbacks? the amount of pollutants hydrogen production will emit?

396 Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives

 SEEKINGSolutions

1. For each source of renewable energy discussed in strategies do you think our society should focus on
this chapter, whatfactors stand in the way of an investing in?
expedient transition to it from fossil fuel use? In each 4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION Explain how Germany
case, what could be done to ease a shift toward these accelerated its development of PV solar power and other
renewable sources? Would market forces alone suffice renewable energy sources by establishing a system of
to bring about this transition, or would we also need feed-in tariffs. What steps did it take, and what have been
government? Do you think such a shift would be good the results so far? What future challenges does Germany
for our economy? Why or why not? face? Do you think the United States should adopt a
2. Do some research online to find out which energy similar system of feed-in tariffs to promote renewable
sources produce the most (a) energy and (b) electricity in energy across the nation? Explain in detail why, or why not.
your own state. Create diagrams like those in Figure 16.2 5. THINK IT THROUGH You are an investor seeking to
showing a quantitative breakdown of the energy your invest in renewable energy. You’re considering buying
state’s residents use. Which renewable energy sources stock in companies that (1) build corn ethanol refineries,
does your state use morethan the United States as a (2) are developing algae farms for biofuels, (3) construct
whole, and which does it use less? What might be the turbines for hydroelectric dams, (4) produce PV solar
reasons for these patterns? panels, (5) install wind turbines, and (6) plan to build a
3. There are many different sources of biomass and many wave energy facility. For each company, what questions
ways of harnessing energy from biomass. Discuss one would you research before deciding how to invest your
that seems particularly beneficial to you, and one with money? How do you expect you might apportion your
which you see problems. What bioenergy sources and investments, and why?

CALCULATINGEcologicalFootprints
Energy sources vary tremendously in their energy returned on 1. How many units of energy would you generate by
investment (EROI) ratios. Examine the EROI data for each of investing 1 unit of energy into producing hydropower? To
the energy sources as provided in Figure 16.23 on p. 393, generate that same amount of energy, about how many
and enter the data in the table below. units of energy would you need to invest into producing
nuclear power? Roughly how many units of energy would
ENERGY RETURNED
ENERGY SOURCE you need to invest into producing electricity from coal if
ON INVESTMENT (EROI)
you wanted to generate that same amount of energy?
Coal (electricity) 12 2. Based on EROI values, is it more efficient to obtain
Natural gas (electricity) energy from electricity from natural gas or from wind
power? Whichsource would you guess has alarger
Nuclear power
ecological footprint, based on EROI values?
Hydropower 3. Let’s say you wantedto generate 100 units of energy
from biodiesel. About how many units of energy would
Photovoltaic solar
you need to invest? Explain your calculations.
Windpower 4. Based on EROIratios alone, which energy sources would
Ethanol you advocate that we further develop? Which would you
urge that we avoid? What other issues, besides EROI,
Biodiesel
are worth considering when comparing energy sources?

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Goto Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Goto Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

Chapter 16 Renewable Energy Alternatives 39

 Managing
OurWaste
1

CHAPTER

398 Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste

 central CASESTUDY

A Mania
for Recycling
on Campus
An extraterrestrial At that time of year when NCAA
observer might conclude that basketball fever sweeps Ameri-ca’s Miami Ohio
conversion of raw materials campuses, there’s another University University
to wastes is the real purpose kind of March Madness now tak-ing
of human economic activity.
hold: a maniafor recycling.
—Gary Gardner and Payal Sampat,
It began in 2001, when waste managers at two
Worldwatch Institute

Ohio campuses got the idea to use their schools’ long-standing

Recycling is one of the best athletics rivalry to jump-start their recycling pro-grams.
environmental success stories Ed Newman of Ohio University, in Athens, and
of the late 20th century. Stacy Edmonds Wheeler of Miami University, across the
—U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
state in Oxford, challenged one another to see whose
campus could recycle more in a 10-week competition.
Come April, Miami University had taken the prize, recy-OHIO
cling 41.2 pounds per student. Recyclemania was born.
Students at other colleges and universities heard about the event and wanted to get
in on the action, and year by year more schools joined. Today Recyclemania pits several
hundred institutions against one another, involving several million students and staff across
North America. The event has grown to have a board of directors and major corporate
sponsors.
Student leaders rouse their campuses to compete in two divisions and 11 categories
over eight weeks each spring. Each week, recycling bins are weighed and campuses report
their data, which are compiled online at the Recyclemania website. The all-around winner
gets a funky trophy made of recycled materials (a figure nicknamed “Recycle Dude,” whose
body is a rusty propane tank)—and, moreimportant, fame and bragging rights for a year.
In spring 2017, more than 300 colleges and universities slugged it out. In the end, the
Upon completing this
battlefield waslittered with stories of the victors and the vanquished (FIGURE 17.1). Loyola
chapter, you will be able to:
Marymount Universitytook top honors, recycling animpressive 84 percent ofits waste,top-ping
• Summarize major approaches to
runners-up Walters State Community College, University of Missouri–Kansas City, and
managing waste, and compare
Berkshire Community College. North Lake College minimized its waste the best; students
and contrast the types of waste
here limited their waste to just 4.14 pounds per person. The Rhode Island School of Design
we generate
won the competition for most recyclables per capita, with 76.1 pounds per student. And
• Discuss the nature and scale of
in total weight of items recycled, Rutgers University took home the prize, having
the waste dilemma
recycled a staggering 2,333,670 pounds.
• Evaluate source reduction, reuse, Campuses also compete to see which can collect the most
composting, and recycling as of certain types of items per person. In 2017,
approaches for reducing waste
Loyola Marymount University collected the
• Describe landfills and incineration most paper, cardboard, bottles, and cans,
as conventional waste disposal whereas Union College saved the most
methods food waste. Southwestern College recy-cled
• Discuss industrial solid waste and the most electronic waste per capita,
principles of industrial ecology and Agnes Scott College won the new

• Assess issues in managing

category ofleast waste per area of build-ing
hazardous waste space. Lastly, Drexel University and
Ohio University were champions in the
competition to see who can best reduce
waste at a home basketball game.

Students at Pacific Lutheran The world’s biggest collegiate waste reduction event
University compete in the
Recyclemania tournament. 39
 prevent the release of nearly 2.37 million
Miami University Rhode Island School
Co-founder of Recyclemania Ohio University of Design metric tons of carbon dioxide—equal to
Co-founder of Recyclemania Most recyclables removing more than 500,000 cars from the
per student
roads for a year. By focusing the attention
of administrators on waste issues, Recy-clemania
facilitates the expansion of campus
waste reduction programs. Most important,
it gets a new generation of young people
revved up about the benefits of recycling.
Recyclemania is the biggest of a
Rutgers University growing number of campus competitions
Most material recycled in the name of sustainability. Recyclemania
has led this trend because recycling is the
most widespread activity among campus
sustainability efforts (pp. 19, 435). These
Loyola Marymount University efforts include water conservation, energy
Highest recycling rate
efficiency, green buildings, transportation
North Lake College
options, campus gardens, and sustainable
Least wasteperstudent
food in dining halls. Students are restor-ing

FIGURE 17.1 Four schools were top winners among 320 participating in native plants and habitats, promoting
Recyclemania 2017. The event began over 15 years ago at Ohio University renewable energy, and advocating for car-bon
and Miami University. neutrality on campus. Campus sus-tainability
is thriving because for students,
By encouraging all this recycling, Recyclemania cuts down faculty, staff, and administrators, it’s satisfying to do the right
on pollutionfrom the mining of new resources andthe manufac-turething and pitch in to help make your campus more sustain-able....
of new goods. Since the event’s debut in 2001, millions of And it’s even more fun when you can compete and
students at nearly 800 institutions have recycled and composted show that you can do it better than your rival school across
more than 890 million pounds of waste. This has helped to the state!

Approachesto Wehaveseveral waysto reducethe amount of material

in the waste stream, the flow of wasteas it movesfrom its
Waste Management sources toward disposal destinations (FIGURE 17.2). Mini-mizing
wasteat its source—called source reduction—is
Asthe world’s population rises, and as we produce and consume the preferred approach. The next-best strategy is recovery,
more material goods, we generate more waste. Waste refers to which consists of recovering, or removing, waste from the
any unwanted material or substance that results from a human wastestream. Recoveryincludes recycling and compost-ing.
activity or process. Wastecan degrade water quality, soil quality, Recycling is the process of collecting used goods and
air quality, and human health. Wastealso indicates inefficiency—so sending them to facilities that extract and reprocess raw
reducing waste can save money and resources. For these materialsthat canthen be usedto manufacturenew goods.
reasons, waste management has become a vital pursuit. Composting is the practice of recovering organic waste
For management purposes, we divide waste into sev-eral (such as food and yard waste) by converting it to mulch
categories. Municipal solid waste is nonliquid waste or humus(p. 144) through natural biological processesof
that comes from homes, institutions, and small businesses. decomposition.
Industrial solid waste includes waste from production of Even after we decrease the waste stream through
consumer goods, mining, agriculture, and petroleum extrac-tion source reduction and recovery,there will still be wasteleft
and refining. Hazardous waste refers to solid or liquid to dispose of. Disposal methodsinclude burying wastein
waste that is toxic, chemically reactive, flammable, or cor-rosive.landfills and burning wastein incinerators. Thelinear move-ment
Another type of waste is wastewater, water we use in of productsfrom their manufactureto their disposal
our households, businesses, industries, or public facilities and is described as “cradle-to-grave.” As much as possible,
drain or flush down our pipes, as well as the polluted runoff however, the modern waste manager attempts to follow a
from our streets and storm drains (pp. 277, 279). cradle-to-cradle approachinstead—onein whichthe mate-rials
There are three main components of waste management: from products are recovered and reused to create new
products. We will first examine how waste managers use
1. Minimizing the amount of waste we generate source reduction, recovery, and disposalto managemunici-pal
2. Recovering discarded materials and recycling them solid waste, and then we will turn to industrial solid
3. Disposing of waste effectively and safely wasteand hazardous waste

400 Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste

 municipal solid waste (FIGURE 17.3a). Paper
WASTE STREAM STEPS TO REDUCE WASTE
is recycled at a high rate and yard trim-mings
are composted at a high rate, so after
recycling and composting reduce the waste
Makeindustrial practices more efficient stream, food scraps and plastics are left as
the largest components of U.S. municipal
solid waste (FIGURE 17.3b).
Minimize packaging for products
Most municipal solid waste comes from
packaging and nondurable goods (products

Purchase “green” consumer products meant to be discarded after a short period of

use). In addition, consumers throw away old
durable goods and outdated equipment as
Reuse items they purchase new products. Plastics, which
came into wide consumer use only after
1970, have accounted for the greatest rela-tive
Recycle items
increase in the waste stream during the
past several decades

Compost materials at home

Consumptionleads
Adopt municipal composting to waste
As we acquire more goods, we generate more
waste. In the United States since 1960, waste
generation (before recovery) has nearly tri-pled,
and per-person waste generation has
Waste FIGURE 17.2 The more material we withdraw
risen by 66%. Today Americans produce
disposal from the waste stream, the less we need to
(landfill, more than 250 million tons of municipal
send to disposal. Source reduction (top three
incinerator) solid waste (before recovery) each year—close
steps) is the most effective wayto minimize waste.
to 1 ton per person. The average U.S.
resident generates 2.0 kg (4.4 lb) of trash per

Municipal Solid Waste day—considerably morethan people in most

other industrialized nations. The relative wastefulness of the
Municipal solid waste is what we commonly refer to as American lifestyle, with its excess packaging and reliance on
“trash” or “garbage.” In the United States, paper, food scraps, nondurable goods, has caused critics to label the United States
yard trimmings, and plastics are the principal components of “the throwaway society.”

Other (3.2%) Other (4.2%)

Paper
(26.6%) Paper
Glass(4.4%) Glass(5.2%)
(14.3%)
Food
scraps
Wood
Food scraps (21.6%) Wood
(6.2%)
(14.9%) 8.1%

Metals
(9.0%) 7.9% 9.4%
Yard
Metals
trimmings Yard
Plastics 10.8%
(13.3%) (9.5%) trimmings
Plastics (18.5%)
(12.9%)
Rubber, leather, Rubber, leather,
and textiles and textiles

(a) Before recycling and composting (b) After recycling and composting

FIGURE 17.3 Components of the municipal solid waste stream in the United States. Paper products
make up the greatest portion by weight (a), but after recycling and composting remove manyitems (b), the
waste stream becomes one-third smaller. Food scraps are now the largest contributor, because so much paper
is recycled and yard wasteis composted. Datafrom U.S.EnvironmentalProtectionAgency,2016. Advancingsustainable
materials management: 2014 fact sheet. Washington, D.C.: EPA.

Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste 401

 However, Americans are beginning to turn this around.
Thanks to source reduction and reuse (especially by busi-nesses
looking to cut costs), total waste generation has been
roughly flat since about 2005. Americans now generate less
waste per capita than they have since the late 1980s.
In developing nations, people consume fewer resources
and goods, and as a result, generate less waste. However,
consumption is intensifying in developing nations as they
become more affluent, and these nations are generating more
and more waste. As a result, trash is piling up and littering
the landscapes of countries from Mexico to Kenya to Indone-sia.
Like U.S. consumers in the “throwaway society,” wealthy
people in developing nations often discard items that can still
be used. In fact, at many dumps and landfills in the develop-ing
world, poor people support themselves by selling items
that they scavenge (FIGURE 17.4).
In many industrialized nations, per capita generation
FIGURE 17.4 Affluent consumers discard so much usable
rates have begun to decline in recent years. Wealthier nations
material that some people in developing nations sup-port
also can afford to invest more in waste collection and dis-posal,
themselves by scavenging items from dumps. Tens of
so they are often better able to manage their waste and
thousands of people used to scavenge each day from this dump
minimize impacts on health and the environment. Moreover, outside Manila in the Philippines, selling material to junk dealers for
enhanced recycling and composting efforts—fed by a con-servation
100–200 pesos (U.S. $2–$4) per day. The dump was closed after
ethic growing among a new generation on today’s an avalanche of trash killed hundreds of people.
campuses—have been removing more material from the
wastestream (FIGURE 17.5). As of 2014, U.S. waste managers
were recovering 34.6% of the waste stream for composting
One means of source reduction is to reduce the materi-als
and recycling, incinerating 12.8%, and sending the remaining
used to package goods. Packaging helps to preserve fresh-ness,
52.6% to landfills.
prevent breakage, protect against tampering, and provide
information—yet much packaging is extraneous. Consum-ers

Reducing wasteis our best option can give manufacturers incentive to reduce packaging
by choosing minimally packaged goods, buying unwrapped
Reducing the amount of material entering the waste stream fruit and vegetables, and buying food in bulk. Manufacturers
is the preferred strategy for managing waste. Recall that can reduce the size or weight of goods and materials, as they
preventing waste generation in this way is known as source already have with aluminum cans, plastic soft drink bottles,
reduction. This preventative approach avoids costs of disposal personal computers, and much else.
and recycling, helps conserve resources, minimizes pollution, Some policymakers have taken aim at a major source of
and can save consumers and businesses money. waste—plastic grocery bags. These lightweight polyethylene

FIGURE 17.5 As recycling and

250 composting have grown in the
United States, the proportion
Recovery for composting
of waste going to landfills has
tons

Recovery for recycling

of

200
declined. As of 2014, 52.6% of
Combustion U.S. municipal solid waste wentto
(millions Landfill, other disposal landfills and 12.8% to incinerators,
whereas 34.6% wasrecovered for
150
waste
composting and recycling. Data
from U.S. Environmental Protection

solid Agency, 2016. Advancing sustainable

100
materials management: 2014 fact sheet.

Washington, D.C.: EPA.

municipal

50 Has the amount of

U.S.
solid waste that is com-busted
(incinerated) increased or
0 decreased since 1960?
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on
Year Mastering Environmental Science

402 Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste

bags can persist for centuries in the environment, choking and On some campuses, students collect unwanted items and
entangling wildlife and littering the landscape—yet Americans resell them or donate them to charity. Students at the Univer-sity
discard 100 billion of them each year. A number of cities and of Texas at Austin run a “Trash to Treasure” program.
more than 20 nations have now banned or restricted their use. Each May, they collect 40–50 tons of items that students dis-card
Financial incentives are also effective. WhenIreland began tax-ing as they leave and then resell them at low prices in August
these bags, their use dropped 90%. IKEA stores began charg-ing to arriving students. This keeps waste out of the landfill, pro-vides
for them and saw similar drops in usage. Many businesses arriving students with items they need at low cost, and
now give discounts if you bring your own reusable canvas bags. raises $10,000–20,000 per year that goes back into campus
sustainability efforts. Hamilton College in New York runs a

Reusingitems helpsto reduce waste similar program, called “Cram & Scram.” It reduces Hamil-ton’s
landfill waste by 28% (about 90 tons) each May.
To reduce waste, you can save items to use again or substitute
disposable goods with durable ones. TABLE 17.1 presents a sam-pling
of actions we all can take to reduce waste. Habits as sim-ple
Composting recovers organic waste
as bringing your own coffee cup to coffee shops or bringing Composting is the conversion of organic waste into mulch or
sturdy reusable cloth bags to the grocery store can, over time, humus (p. 144) through natural decomposition. Wecan place
have an impact. You can also donate unwanted items and shop waste in compost piles, underground pits, or specially con-structed
for used items at yard sales and at resale centers run by orga-nizations containers. As waste is added, heat from microbial
such as Goodwill Industries or the Salvation Army. action builds in the interior, and decomposition proceeds.
Besidesreducing waste,reusing items saves money. Useditems Banana peels, coffee grounds, grass clippings, autumn leaves,
are often as functional as new ones, and they are cheaper. and other organic items can be converted into rich, high-quality
compost through the actions of earthworms, bacteria, soil mites,
sow bugs, and other detritivores and decomposers (p. 74). The
TABLE 17.1 Some Everyday Things You Can compost is then used to enrich soil.
Doto Reduce and Reuse On campus, composting is becoming popular. Ball State
University in Indiana shreds surplus furniture and wood pal-lets
• Donate used items to charity
and makes them into mulch to nourish campus plantings.

• Reuse boxes, paper, plastic wrap, plastic containers, alumi-num Ithaca College in New York composts 44% of its food waste,
foil, bags, wrapping paper, fabric, packing material, etc. saving $11,500 each year in landfill disposal fees. The com-post
is used on campus plantings, and experiments showed
• Rent or borrow items instead of buying them, when
that the plantings grew better with the compost mix than with
possible—and lend your items to friends
chemical soil amendments.
• Buy groceries in bulk Municipal composting programs divert yard debris (and,
increasingly, food waste as well) out of the waste stream and
• Bring reusable cloth bags shopping
into composting facilities, where it decomposes into mulch
• Make double-sided photocopies that community residents can use for gardens and landscaping.
About one-fifth of the U.S. waste stream is made up of mate-rials
• Keep electronic documents rather than printing items out
that can easily be composted. Composting reduces land-fill
• Bring your own coffee cup to coffee shops waste, enriches soil, enhances soil biodiversity, helps soil
to resist erosion, makes for healthier plants and more pleasing
• Pay a bit extra for durable, long-lasting, reusable goods
gardens, and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers.
rather than disposable ones

• Buy rechargeable batteries

Recycling consists ofthree steps
• Select goods withless packaging
Recycling, too, offers many benefits. It involves collecting
• Compost kitchen and yard wastes used items and breaking them down so that their materials
can be reprocessed to manufacture new items.
• Buy clothing and otheritems atresale stores and garage sales
The recycling loop consists of three basic steps. The first
• Use cloth napkins and rags rather than paper napkins and step is to collect and process used goods and materials. Some
towels towns and cities designate locations where residents can drop
off recyclables or receive money for them. Others offer curbside
• Tell businesses what you think about their packaging and
recycling, in which trucks pick up recyclable items in front of
products
homes, usually along with municipal trash collection. Items are
• When solid waste policy is being debated, let your govern-ment taken to materials recovery facilities (MRFs), where workers
representatives know your thoughts and machines sort items using automated processes including
magnetic pulleys, optical sensors, watercurrents, and air classi-fiers
• Support organizations that promote waste reduction
that separate items by weight and size. The facilities clean
Adapted from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. the materials, shred them, and prepare them for reprocessing.

Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste 40

 Once readied, these materials are used to manufacture
90 50
new goods—the second step in the recycling loop. News-papers
and many other paper products use recycled paper, 80
many glass and metal containers are now made from recycled tons/year)

Total amount 40
70
materials, and some plastic containers are of recycled origin. recovered
of

Benches, bridges, and walkways in city parks may now be 60

made from recycled plastics, and glass can be mixed with 30

(millions
50
asphalt (creating “glassphalt”) to pave roads and paths.
(percentage

If the recycling loop is to function, consumers and busi-nesses 40

Recovery rate

20
must complete the third step in the cycle by purchasing rate
recovered
30
ecolabeled products (p. 114) madefrom recycled materials. Buy-ing
recycled goods provides economic incentive for industries to 20 10
Recovery

recycle materials and for recycling facilities to open or expand. amount

10

0
Recycling has grown rapidly
Total

0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year
Today nearly 10,000 curbside recycling programs across all
50 U.S. states serve 70% of Americans. These programs, and FIGURE 17.6 Recovery has risen sharply in the United

the 800 MRFs operating today, have sprung up only in the States. Today more than 89 million tons of material are recovered
(66 million tons by recycling and 23 million tons by municipal
past few decades. Recycling in the United States rose from
composting), making up one-third of the waste stream. Datafrom
6.4% of the waste stream in 1960 to 25.7% in 2014 (and
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
34.6% if composting is included; FIGURE 17.6).
Recycling rates vary greatly from one product or mate-rial • From the data in this graph alone, what would you
type to another, ranging from nearly zero to almost 100% infer has happened to the total amount of municipal
(TABLE 17.2). Recycling rates among U.S. states also vary solid waste generated (before recovery) since 1960? • Explain
greatly, from 1% to 48%. This variation makes clear that how you can determine this.

opportunities remain for further growth in recycling. Go to Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
Many college and university campuses run active recy-cling
programs, although attaining high recovery rates can be
challenging in the campus environment. The mostrecent sur-vey encouraging recycling and reducing waste (see THE SCIENCE

of campus sustainability efforts suggested that the aver-age BEHIND THE STORY, pp. 408–409).

recycling rate was only 29%. Thus there appears to be The growth of recycling has been propelled in part by

much room for growth. Fortunately, waste management ini-tiatives economic forces as businesses see prospects to save money
are relatively easy to conduct because they offer many and as entrepreneurs see opportunities to start new businesses.

opportunities for small-scale improvements and because peo-ple It has also been driven by the desire of community and cam-pus

generally enjoy recycling and reducing waste. leaders to reduce waste and by the satisfaction people take
in recycling.
Besides participation in Recy-weighing These latter two forces have driven the rise of

the clemania, there are many ways recycling even when it has not been financially profitable. In

ISSUeS
to promote recycling on campus. fact, many of our popular municipal recycling programs are

Louisiana State University stu-dents

initiated recycling efforts
TABLE 17.2 Recovery Rates for Various
Managing Waste on Your at home football games, and
Materials in the United States
Campus over three seasons they recycled

Does your campus have arecy-cling 68 tons of refuse that otherwise PERCENTAGE THAT
program? Does it have would have gone to the landfill. IS RECYCLED OR

composting initiatives? Does it “Trash audits” or “landfill on MATERIAL COMPOSTED

run programs to reduce or reuse the lawn” events involve empty-ing

Lead-acid batteries 99
materials? Think about the types dumpsters and sorting out
and amounts of waste generated recyclable items (FIGURE 17.7). Newspapers 68

on your campus. Describe several Whenstudents at Ashland Univer-sity

Paper and paperboard 65
examples of this waste that you feel in Ohio audited their waste,
could be prevented or recycled, they found that 70% was recy-clable, Yard trimmings 61
and describe how this might be and they used this finding
Aluminum cans 55
done in each case. If you could do to press their administration to
one thing on campus to improve Glass containers 33
support recycling programs. On
your school’s waste management
some campuses, students have
practices, what would it be?
Plastics 10
even helped to conduct scientific
research to find better ways of Data are for 2014, from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

404 Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste

 Financialincentives help
address waste
To encourage recycling, composting, and source reduction,
waste managersoften offer consumerseconomicincentives
to reduce the waste stream. In “pay-as-you-throw” garbage
collection programs, municipalities charge residents for home
trash pickup accordingto the amount of trash they put out.
Theless wasteone generates, the less one hasto pay.
Bottle bills are another approach hinging on financial
incentives. In the 10 U.S.states and 23 nationsthat have
adopted these laws, consumers pay a deposit on bottles or
cansupon purchase—often5 or 10 cents per container—and
then receive a refund when they return them to stores after
use. U.S. states with bottle bills report that their beverage
containerlitter hasdecreasedby 69–84%,their total litter has
decreased by 30–65%, and their per capita container recy-cling
rates have risen 2.6-fold. Beverage container recycling
FIGURE 17.7 In a trash audit, students sort through rubbish ratesfor states with bottle bills are 3.5 times higherthan for
and separate out recyclables. Events like this “Mt. Trashmore” states without them.
exercise at Central New Mexico Community College show pass-ersby
just how many recyclable items are needlessly thrown away.
Sanitarylandfills are our main
run at an economic loss. The expense required to collect, sort,
method of disposal
process, and transport recycled goods is often morethan recy-clables
are worth in the marketplace. In addition, the more Material that remains in the wastestream following source
people recycle, the more glass, paper, and plastic is available reduction and recovery needsto be disposed of, andland-fills
to manufacturers for purchase, which drives down provide our primary method of disposal. In modern
prices.
When recycling is no longer profitable for those in the recy-cling sanitary landfills, wasteis buried in the ground or piled
industry, MRFs mayshut down, municipalities maycan-cel up in huge moundsengineeredto prevent wastefrom con-taminating
contracts, and recycling companies may go out of business. the environment and threatening public health
(FIGURE 17.8). Most municipal

FaQ
Recycling advocates, however, point out that market
prices do not take into account external costs (pp. 96, 104)—in landfills in the United Statesare
particular, the environmental and health impacts of not regulated locally or by the states,
recycling. Each year in the United but they must meet national stan-dards
how much does garbage
set by the U.S. Environ-mental
weighingthe States, recycling and composting
decompose in a landfill?

ISSUeS
together save energy equal to that Protection Agency (EPA)
You might assume that a banana
of 230 million barrels of oil, and under the Resource Conserva-tion
peel you throw in the trash will
prevent carbon dioxide emissions and Recovery Act(p. 107),
soon decay away to nothing in
Costs of recycling and of equal to those of 39 million cars. a major federal law enacted in
alandfill. However, it just might
Not recycling Recycling aluminum cans saves 1976 and amended in 1984.
survivelonger than you do! This
Should governmentssubsidize 95% of the energy required to In a sanitary landfill, waste is because surprisingly little
recycling programs even if they are make the same amount of alumi-num is partially decomposed by bacte-ria decomposition occurs in landfills.
run at an economic loss? What from mined virgin bauxite, and compresses under its own Researcher William Rathje, aretired
types of external costs—costs its source material. weightto take upless space. Soil archaeologist known as “the Indi-ana
notreflected in market prices—do As more manufacturers use is layered along with the wasteto Jones of Solid Waste,” made a
you think would be involved in not recycled products and as more speed decomposition, reduce odor, career out of burrowinginto landfills
recycling, say, aluminum cans? Do technologies are developed to and lessen infestation by pests. and examining their contents to
you feel these costs justify spon-soring use recycled materials in new Some infiltration of rainwater learn about what we consume and
recycling programs even ways, markets should continue into the landfill is good, because what we throw away. Hisresearch
when they are not financially self-supporting?
to expand, and new business it encourages biodegradation by teams wouldroutinely come across
Whyor why not? opportunities may arise. We are bacteria—yet too much is not whole hot dogs, intact pastries that

just beginning to shift from an good, because contaminants can were decades old, and grass clip-pings

economy that moves linearly, escape

if watercarriesthem out. that were still green. News-papers

from raw materials to products to waste, to a more sustain-able To protect against environ-mental 40 years old were often still
legible, and the researchers used
economy that movescircularly, taking a cradle-to-cradle contamination, U.S.regu-lations
them to date layers of trash.
approach and using waste products as raw materials for new require that landfills be
manufacturing. located away from wetlands and

Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste 40

 FIGURE 17.8 Sanitary landfills are
Methane gas Soil Solid
engineered to prevent waste from recovery well waste
contaminating soil and groundwater.
Groundwater Leachate
Wasteis laid in alarge depression lined
monitoring well treatment
with plasticandimpervious clay designed facility
to prevent liquids from leaching out. Pipes
draw out these liquids from the bottom of
the landfill. Wasteis layered with soil, fill-ing
the depression, and then is builtinto a
mound until the landfill is capped. Landfill
gas produced by anaerobic bacteria may
be recovered, and waste managers moni-tor
groundwater for contamination.

Leachate
collection
Granular
pipes
drainage Gravel Aquifer
layer Plastic
liner Compacted
impermeable
clay

earthquake-prone faults and be at least 6 m(20 ft) above the Despite improvements in liner technology and landfill siting,
water table. The bottoms and sides of sanitary landfills must however, liners can be punctured and leachate collection systems
be lined with heavy-duty plastic and 60–120 cm (2–4 ft) of eventually cease to be maintained. Moreover, landfills are kept
impermeable clay to help prevent contaminants from seep-ing dry to reduce leachate, but dryness slows waste decomposition.
into aquifers. Sanitary landfills also have systems of In fact, the low-oxygen conditions of mostlandfills turn trash into
pipes, ponds, and treatment facilities to collect and treat a sort of time capsule. Researchers examining landfills find many
leachate, liquid that results when substances from the trash of their contents perfectly preserved, even after years or decades.
dissolve in water as rainwater percolates downward. Once In 1988, the United States had nearly 8000 landfills,
a landfill is closed, it is capped with an engineered cover yet today it has fewer than 2000. Waste managers have con-solidated
consisting of layers of plastic, gravel, and soil, and manag-ers the waste stream into fewer landfills of larger size.
are required to maintain leachate collection systems for Some landfills that were closed are now being converted
30 years thereafter. into public parks or other uses (FIGURE 17.9). The world’s

FIGURE 17.9 Old landfills, once capped,

can serve other purposes. Visitors to
Freshkills Park in New York City enjoy this
panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline from
THEN: Fresh Kills Landfill in operation NOW: Fresh Kills Landfill site today atop what used to be an immense mound of
trash.

406 Chapter 17 Managing Our Wast

largest landfill conversion project is at New York City’s for-mer landfills (p. 414). Moreover, when trash is burned, hazardous
Fresh Kills Landfill. This site, on Staten Island, wasthe chemicals—including dioxins, heavy metals, and polychlori-nated
primary repository of New York City’s garbage for half a biphenyls (PCBs) (Chapter 10)—may be created and
century, and its mounds rose higher than the nearby Statue released into the atmosphere. As a result, most developed
of Liberty! Today New York is transforming the site into a nations regulate incinerator emis-sions,
world-class public park—a verdant landscape of ball fields, and some have banned weighingthe
playgrounds,
with wildlife.
jogging trails, rolling hills, and wetlands teem-ing incineration
have also developed
outright. Engineers
technologies ISSUeS
to mitigate emissions. Scrubbers
(see Figure 13.8, p. 293) chemi-cally environmental Justice?
Incinerating trash reduces pressure treat the gases produced in Do you know where your trash

onlandfills combustion to neutralize acids goes?

incinerator
Whereis your landfill
located? Are the
or
people
and remove hazardous compo-nents.
Just as sanitary landfills are an improvement over open dump-ing, Particulate matter, called who live closest to the facility

incineration in specially constructed facilities is better fly ash, contains some of the wealthy, poor, or middle class?

than open-air burning of trash. Incineration, or combustion, worst dioxin and heavy metal Whatrace or ethnicity are they?
Did the people of this neighbor-hood
is a controlled process in which garbage is burned at very pollutants in incinerator emis-sions.
protest against the introduc-tion
high temperatures (FIGURE 17.10). At incineration facilities, To physically remove these
ofthe landfill orincinerator?
waste is generally sorted and metals are removed. Metal-free tiny particles, facilities may use a
wasteis chopped into small pieces and then is burned in a fur-nace. huge system of filters known as
Incinerating waste reduces its weight by up to 75% and a baghouse. In addition, burning
its volume by upto 90%. garbage at especially high temperatures can destroy certain
The ash remaining after trash is incinerated contains pollutants, such as PCBs. Even all these measures, however,
toxic components and must be disposed of in hazardous waste do not fully eliminate toxic emissions.

3 Steam turns aturbine, powering a

2 Wasteis burned at generator to generate electricity.
high temperatures,
heating water that
turns to steam.

Boiler
Turbine Generator
Crane 5 Particulate matter
is filtered physically
Scrubber Baghouse
in a baghouse.
Stack

6 Scrubbed
and filtered
air is emitted
from the
stack.
Furnace

1 Solid waste
Water
is delivered.

Ash

4 Toxic gasesfrom
combustion are
treated chemically 7 Residual ash
by a scrubber. is disposed of
in alandfill.

FIGURE 17.10 In a waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerator, solid waste is combusted, greatly reducing its
volume and generating electricity atthe same time.

Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste 40

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Goto Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

CanCampusResearchHelpReduceWaste?
Thousands of students on college and uni-versity
campuses are engaged in efforts
Items
to reduce waste. The campus envi-ronment
belonging
also provides opportuni-ties in trash
to conduct scientific research (17.3%)

on how to better manage waste.

The descriptive research
Compostable
involved in atrash audit (p. 404)
items Recyclable
is straightforward to conduct (52.2%) items
yet can yield valuable data (30.6%)
with practical relevance. At
the University of Washington,
students and faculty in the UW
Garbology Project studied waste
on their campus for several years.
FIGURE 1 At the University of Washington, students found
Working withinstructor Dr. Jack John-son
that most material in trashcans could be recycled or com-posted.
and university waste managers,
As an example, the pie chart shows the average contents
A student does her students sorted through the contents
of trash from one floor of a building in 2014; only 17% was actually
part to recycle of trashcans, recycling bins, and com-post
trash. Datafrom UWGarbologyProject.
receptacles, and discovered that
morethan 80% of the material thrown in the trash wasin fact
recyclable or compostable (FIGURE 1). This was helpful infor-mation, data from an experimental treatment condition (such as after
because if the university could devise better ways to new recycling bins are introduced) with baseline conditions
divert recyclable items and compostable food matter from the used as a control.
waste stream, it could save $225,000 per year on landfill fees. An early such study was that of Timothy Ludwig and oth-ers,
At Western Michigan University, students in Dr. Harold who in 1998 examined student behavior with recyclable
Glasser’s course in 2012 audited food waste in three campus aluminum drink cans at Appalachian State University. The
dining halls to test what strategies best minimized waste. They researchers compared recycling rates when recycling bins
found that a dining hall providing made-to-order servings ended were in the hallways (the baseline condition) with recycling
up with 0.23 lb/meal of wasted food, whereas a dining hall with rates when the bins were brought into classrooms. Because
a traditional buffet-style serving produced 0.27 lb/meal of food many students consumed drinks in classrooms, the classroom
waste. A third dining hall, which featured trayless dining, location
per-formed proved more convenient, and so recycling increased
best, showing only 0.18 lb/meal of waste. The students’ (FIGURE 2). This research showed that making recycling con-tainers

data thus seemed to support the idea that people waste less easier to find and more convenient to use can boost
food when trays are not provided. recycling rates.
Students and faculty on multiple campuses have also run Similar results were found by Ryan O’Connor and col-leagues
manipulative experiments to determine how best to encourage at University of Houston–Clear Lake in 2010. Sam-pling
recycling and reduce waste. Such research involves comparing plastic drink bottles from trashcans and recycling bins

Wecan gain energy from trash These facilities have a total capacity to process 95,000
tons of wasteper day.
Incineration reduces the volume of waste, but it can serve Combustion in WTE plants is not the only way to gain
to generate electricity as well. Most incinerators now are energy from waste. Deepinside landfills, bacteria decompose
waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities, which use heat wastein an oxygen-deficient environment. This anaerobic
produced by waste combustion to boil water, creating decomposition produceslandfill gas, a mix of gases,roughly
steam that drives electricity generation or that fuels heat-ing half of which is methane(pp. 32, 314). Landfill gas can be
systems. Whenburned, wastegeneratesabout 35% of collected, processed,and usedin the same wayas naturalgas
the energy generated by burning coal. Roughly 80 WTE (p. 346). Today hundreds of landfills are collecting landfill
facilities are operating across the United Statestoday. gasandselling it for energy

408 ChAptER 17 Managing Our Waste

 100 from incorrectly sorted items and saved money because fewer
Bins in hallways Bins in Bins in hallways receptacles were needed.
classrooms
Researchers have also experimentally tested the influence
80
of educational efforts on recycling behavior. At University of
recycled

Wisconsin–Stout, student Jessica Van Der Werffran an experi-ment

60
cans

in 2008 comparing recycling rates of freshmen who took a

recycling workshop during freshman orientation with those who
of

40
did not. Van Der Werff monitoredthe trash and recycling from
two residence halls throughout the fall semester. She found that
20
Percentage
students from the residence hall who had attended the work-shop
showed nearly 40% higher recycling rates (FIGURE 3).
0 Taken together, campus research into waste management
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
has revealed that we can increase recycling rates through educa-tion
Days since start of experiment
and strategic location of bins. Students engaged in this work

FIGURE 2 At Appalachian State University, recycling have generated many practical suggestions for reducing waste;

rates rose when recycling bins were moved from hallways they urge that campuses provide enough receptacles, clarify
to classrooms. Datafrom Ludwig,T., etal., 1998.Increasingrecyclingin how to sort items correctly, and make it convenient and easy
academic buildings: A systematic replication. J. Appl. Behavior Analysis to recycle and compost. By taking such lessons to heart, every
31: 683–686. campus should be able to significantly reduce its waste stream.

in three academic buildings, they found that making recy-cling

80
bins more colorful or adding more bins had no effect Non-workshop Workshop

on recycling rates, but that moving them from hallways and

70 students students
common areas into classrooms increased recycling rates 60
greatly.
recyclable

of
50
In 2017, researchers at Western Michigan University chal-lenged
40
the idea that moving bins to places where people use (kg)

recyclable items was necessarily the best solution. Instead, 30

Katherine Binder and others tested the hypothesis that remov-ing weight

20
trashcans from classrooms and placing them only in com-mon
10
areas side by side with recycling bins would lead to better
Mean

recycling rates. These researchers compared recycling rates 0

on two floors of a campus building where this was done with September October November December
recycling rates on two floors where classrooms retained trash-cans. Month
Their data supported their hypothesis: Recycling rates
FIGURE 3 At University of Wisconsin–Stout, students who
rose when trashcans were removed from classrooms, forcing
took a workshop on recycling recycled items at a higher
people who needed to dispose of items to walk to centrally
rate than those who did not. Datafrom Van Der Werff,J.,2008. Teach-ing
located areas, where they encountered clearly markedrecy-cling recycling: The relationship between education and behavior among college

and trash receptacles to choose between. The research freshmen and its effect on campus recycling rates. Undergraduate project report,

team concluded that this strategy also reduced contamination University of Wisconsin–Stout.

Wecanrecycle material profitable when market prices for the metals are high
enough. For instance, Americans throw out so many alu-minum
from landfills cans that at 2017 prices for aluminum, the nation
Landfills offer us useful by-products beyond landfill gas. buries $5.5 billion of this metal in landfills each year. If
With improved technology for sorting rubbish and we could retrieve all the aluminum from U.S. landfills, it
recyclables, businesses and entrepreneurs are weighing would exceed the amount the world produces from a year’s
the economic benefits and costs of rummaging through worth of mining ore.
landfills to salvage materials of value that can be recy-cled. Landfills also offer soil mixed with organic wastethat
Steel, aluminum, copper, and other metals are abun-dant can be mined and sold as premium compost. In addition, old
enoughin somelandfills to makesalvage operations landfill waste can be incinerated in newer, cleaner-burning

Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste 409

 WTE facilities to produce energy. Some companies are Industrial ecology seeksto make
even looking into gaining carbon offset credits (p. 337) by
harvesting methane (a greenhouse gas that contributes to
industry moresustainable
climate change) leaking from open dumps in developing
To reduce waste, growing numbers of industries today are
nations. experimenting with industrial ecology. A holistic approach
that integrates principles from engineering, chemistry, ecol-ogy,
and economics, industrial ecology seeks to redesign
Industrial Solid Waste industrial systemsto reduceresourceinputs andto maximize
both physical and economic efficiency. Industrial ecologists
Industrial solid waste includes waste from factories, min-ing wouldreshape industry so that nearly everything produced in
activities, agriculture, petroleum extraction, and more. a manufacturingprocessis used,either withinthat processor
Each year, U.S. industrial facilities generate more than in a different one. Theintent is that industrial systems should
7 billion tons of waste, according to the EPA, about 97% function morelike ecological systems,in which organisms
of which is wastewater. Thus, very roughly, 230 million use almost everything that is produced. This principle brings
or so tons of solid waste are generated by 60,000 facili-ties industry closer to the ideal of ecological economists, in which
each year—an amount approaching that of municipal economiesfunction in a circular fashion rather than alinear
solid waste. one (p. 98).
Industrial ecologists pursuetheir goalsin several ways:

Regulation and economics • Theyexaminethe entirelife-cycle of a product—from

eachinfluence industrial waste its origins in raw materials,through its manufacturing,
to its use, andfinally its disposal—and look for ways
generation to make
the processmoreefficient.Thisstrategyis called
life-cycle analysis.
Most methodsand strategies of wastedisposal, reduction,
and recycling by industry are similar to those for munici-pal • They take a cradle-to-cradle approach and try to iden-tify
solid waste. Businessesthat dispose of their own waste how wasteproductsfrom one manufacturingpro-cess
on site mustdesign and managetheir landfills in waysthat might be used asraw materialsfor another. For
meetstate, local, or tribal guidelines. Other businesses pay instance, used plastic beverage containers can be shred-ded
to have their waste disposed of at municipal disposal sites. andreprocessedto makeitems such asbenches,
Whereas
the federal governmentregulates municipalsolid tables, and decks.
waste, state or local governments regulate industrial solid • They seek to eliminate environmentally harmful prod-ucts
waste(with federal guidance). Regulation varies greatly and materialsfrom industrial processes.
from place to place, but in most cases, state and local reg-ulation• Theystudythe flow of materials
throughindustrial sys-tems
of industrial solid wasteis less strict than federal to look for waysto create products that are more
regulation of municipalsolid waste.In manyareas,indus-tries durable, recyclable, or reusable.
are not required to have permits, install landfill liners
or leachate collection systems, or monitor groundwater for
contamination. Businessesare adopting
The amount of waste generated by a manufacturing industrial ecology
process is a good measure of its efficiency; the less waste
produced per unit or volume of product,the moreefficient Attentivebusinessesaretaking advantageof the insights of
that process is, from a physical standpoint. However, physi-cal industrial ecology to save money while reducing waste. For
efficiency is not always reflected in economic effi-ciency. example, the Swiss Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives
Oftenit is cheaperfor industry to manufactureits (ZERI) Foundationsponsors dozens of innovative projects
products or perform its services quickly but messily. That worldwide that attempt to create goods and services without
is, it can be cheaper to generate waste than to avoid gen-erating
generating waste. Oneexample involves breweries in Canada,
waste.In such cases, economic efficiency is maxi-mized,
Sweden,Japan,and Namibia(FIGURE17.11).
but physical efficiency is not. Because our market Few businesses have taken industrial ecology to heart
system rewards only economic efficiency, all too often as much asthe carpet tile company Interface, which founder
industry hasnofinancial incentive to achieve physical effi-ciency.
Ray Andersonset on the road to sustainability years ago.
The frequent mismatch between these two types of Interface asks customers to return used tiles for recycling and
efficiency is a major reason why the output of industrial for reuse as backing for new carpet. It modified its tile design
wasteis so great. and production methodsto reduce waste.It adaptedits boil-ers
Rising costs of waste disposal enhance the financial to uselandfill gas for energy. Through such steps, Ander-son’s
incentive to decrease waste. Once either government or the company cut waste generation by 80%, fossil fuel use
market makesthe physically efficient use of raw materi-als by 45%, and wateruse by 70%—all whilesaving $30 mil-lion
economically efficient as well, businesses gain financial per year, holding prices steady for customers, and raising
incentivesto reducetheir waste. profits by 49%

410 Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste

 FIGURE 17.11 Creative use
Raw material Reused waste product
of waste products can help
Waste product Final product
us approach zero-waste
systems. Traditional brewer-ies
Grain Water Grain Water (a) produce only beer while
generating much waste, some
of which goes toward animal
Beer Beer
feed. Breweries sponsored by
the Zero Emissions Research
Spent Waste Spent Waste and Initiatives (ZERI) Founda-tion
grain water grain water (b) use their waste grainto
make bread and to farm mush-rooms
(photo). Wastefrom
Animal Bread Substrate for
feed mushrooms the mushroom farming, along
with brewery wastewater, goes
(a) Traditional brewery process to feed pigs. The pigs’ waste
Spent is digested in containers that
substrate capture natural gas and collect
nutrients used to nourish algae
Pigs for growingfish in fish farms.
The brewer derives income from
Waste bread, mushrooms, pigs, gas,
and fish, as well as beer.
Digester
Fertilize
algae for fish

Fish in ponds Bio-gas

(b) ZERI brewery process

SUCCESS Creating an Industrial Ecosystem

STORY
One place the ideals of industrial ecology have
come to life is the city of Kalundborg, Denmark. Cement Wallboard
plant manufacturer
Here, starting in 1972, dozens of private and public enter-prises
gradually formed a network of business relationships
Gypsum from
that are conserving resources while saving money. Anchoring Fly ash
scrubber
the Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Parkis a coal-fired power plant, Homes
the Asnaes Power Station. It sends its excess steam to a Power
Waste heat
nearby Statoil petroleum refinery and a Novo-Nordisk pharma-ceutical station

factory, which use the steam to run their operations. Waste gas, Fish farm
The Statoil refinery sends Asnaes its wastewater, cooling wastewater, Steam
water, and waste gas, which the power plant uses to generate cooling water
Fertilizer
electricity, and also sells sulfur to alocal acid manufacturer.
The power plant sends its waste fly ash to a cement company
Oil Pharmaceutical
and sells gypsum removed from its waste gas by a scrubber Fertilizer Farms
refinery plant
to a Gyproc factory that makes drywall. Power plants also rou-tinely
create large amounts of waste heat, and in Kalundborg,
Sulfur
this heat is piped to more than 3000 homes as district heating
and to a regional fish farm. Treated sludge from both the fish In a model for industrial ecology, networked
Acid
farm and the pharmaceutical plant is sent to area farms as enterprises in Kalundborg, Denmark, use one
plant
fertilizer. By efficiently using one another’s waste products, the another’s waste materials as resources.

Kalundborg Eco-Industrial Park has conserved resources like

water, coal, and oil; reduced pollution; and cut greenhouse
gas emissions, all while saving hundreds of millions of dollars
for the enterprises involved. EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste 41

 Hazardous Waste pigments, and dyes.
when paints, electronic
Heavy
devices,
metals enter the
batteries,
environment
and other materi-als
Hazardous wastes are diverse in their chemical composi-tion are disposed of improperly. Lead from fishing weights

and may be liquid, solid, or gaseous. By EPA definition, and hunting ammunition accumulates in rivers, lakes, and

hazardous wasteis waste that is one of the following: forests. In older homes, lead from pipes contaminates drink-ing
water, and lead paint remains a problem, especially for
• Ignitable. Likely to catch fire (for example, gasoline or
infants. Heavy metals that are fat soluble and break down
alcohol).
slowly are prone to bioaccumulate and biomagnify (p. 222).
• Corrosive. Apt to corrode metals in storage tanks or All these contaminants can make their way into the tissues of
equipment (for example, strong acids or bases). organisms, poisoning them and making their way up the food
• Reactive. Chemically unstable and readily able to react chain to people.
with other compounds, often explosively or by produc-ing
noxious fumes (for example, ammonia reacting with
chlorine bleach). E-waste has grown
• Toxic. Harmful to human health when inhaled, ingested, Today’s proliferation of computers, printers, smartphones,
or touched (for example, pesticides or heavy metals). tablets, TVs, DVD players, MP3 players, and other elec-tronic
technology has created a substantial new source of
waste(FIGURE 17.12). These products have short life spans
Hazardous wastes are diverse
before people judge them obsolete, and most are discarded
Industry, mining, households, small businesses, agriculture, after just a few years. The amount of this electronic waste—often
utilities, and building demolition all create hazardous waste. called e-waste—has grown rapidly, and now makes
Industry produces the most, but in developed nations indus-trial up more than 1% of the U.S. solid waste stream by weight.
wastedisposal is often highly regulated. This regulation More than 7 billion electronic devices have been sold in the
has reduced the amount of hazardous waste entering the envi-ronmentUnited States since 1980, and U.S. households discard more
from industrial activities. As a result, households are than 300 million per year—two-thirds of them still in work-ing
now the largest source of unregulated hazardous waste. order.
Household hazardous waste includes a wide range Most electronic items we discard have ended up in
of items, including paints, batteries, oils, solvents, clean-ing conventional sanitary landfills and incinerators. However,
agents, lubricants, and pesticides. Americans generate electronic products contain heavy metals and toxic flame-retardants,
1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste annually, and and research suggests that e-waste should instead
the average home contains close to 45 kg (100 lb) of it in be treated as hazardous waste, so the EPA and a number of
sheds, basements, closets, and garages. states are now taking steps to do so.
Many hazardous substances become less hazardous over Fortunately, the downsizing of many electronic items
time as they degrade, but some show especially persistent and the shift toward mobile devices and tablets mean that
effects. Radioactive substances are an example, and the dis-posal
of radioactive waste poses a serious dilemma (p. 370).
Other types of persistent hazardous substances include
organic compounds and heavy metals.

Organic compounds and heavy

metals pose hazards
In our daily lives, we rely on synthetic organic compounds
and petroleum-derived compounds to resist bacterial, fungal,
and insect activity. Plastic containers, rubber tires, pesticides,
solvents, and wood preservatives are useful to us precisely
because they resist decomposition. We use these substances
to protect buildings from decay, kill pests that attack crops,
and keep stored goods intact. However, the capacity of these
compounds to resist decay is a double-edged sword, for it also
makes them persistent pollutants. Many synthetic organic
compounds are toxic because they are readily absorbed
through the skin and can act as mutagens, carcinogens, terato-gens,
and endocrine disruptors (p. 218). FIGURE 17.12 Each day, Americans throw away about
Heavy metals such as lead, chromium, mercury, arse-nic, 350,000 cell phones. Phones that enter the waste stream can
cadmium, tin, and copper are used widely in indus-try leach toxic heavy metals into the environment. Alternatively, we can
for wiring, electronics, metal plating, metal fabrication, recycle phones for reuse and to recover valuable metals

412 Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste

 3.5

3.0 E-waste
generated
Shift to
tons 2.5 smaller
devices
of

2.0

(millions
1.5 Increase in
recycling

1.0 E-waste
E-waste
recycled
0.5 FIGURE 17.14 Medals awarded to athletes at the 2010 Winter
Olympic Games in Vancouver were made partly from
0 precious metals recycled from discarded e-waste.
2000 2005 2010
Year

FIGURE 17.13 More and more electronic waste is being Several steps precede the disposal
recycled. The total number of electronic devices sent to the waste
stream each year in the United States continues to rise, but the of hazardous waste
shift to mobile devices and tablets has enabled us to hold the over-all
Many communities designate sites or special collection days
tonnage of e-waste (blue line) steady for several years. Mean-while,
to gather household hazardous waste (FIGURE 17.15). Once
the amount as well as proportion of e-waste recycled each
year (red line) is growing. Datafrom U.S.EnvironmentalProtectionAgency. consolidated, the wasteis transported for treatment and dis-posal.
Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,
the EPA sets standards by which states manage hazardous
waste. The Act also requires large generators of hazard-ous
fewer raw materials by weight are now going into elec-tronics waste to obtain permits. Finally, it mandates that hazard-ous
being manufactured—and, as a result, U.S. e-waste materials be tracked “from cradle to grave.” As hazardous
generation appears to have recently leveled off. In addi-tion, wasteis generated, transported, and disposed of, the producer,
more and more electronic waste today is being recy-cled carrier, and disposal facility must each report to the EPA the
(FIGURE 17.13; and see Success Story in Chapter 11, type and amount of material generated; its location, origin,
p. 250). Campus e-waste recycling drives are proving espe-cially and destination; and the way it is handled.
effective (see Figure 1.17c, p. 20). Americans now Because current U.S. law makes disposing of hazard-ous
recycle 42% of their e-waste, by weight. Devices collected waste quite costly, irresponsible companies sometimes
are shipped to facilities and taken apart, and the parts and illegally dump waste, creating health risks for residents and
materials are refurbished and reused in new products. financial headaches for local governments forced to deal
There are serious concerns, however, about health risks
that recycling may pose to workers doing the disassembly.
Wealthy nations ship much of their e-waste to develop-ing
countries, where low-income workers disassemble the
devices and handle toxic materials with minimal safety
regulations.
Although these environmental justice concerns need
to be resolved if electronics recycling is to be conducted
safely and responsibly, e-waste recycling does help to keep
toxic substances out of our waste stream. It also can help
us recover trace metals used in electronics that are rare
and lucrative. A typical cell phone contains up to a dollar’s
worth of precious metals (p. 250). By one estimate, 1 ton of
computer scrap contains more gold than 16 tons of mined
ore from a gold mine, while 1 ton of iPhones contains over
300 times more. Every ounce of metal we can recycle from
a manufactured item is an ounce of metal we don't need to
mine from the ground. Thus, “mining” e-waste for metals
helps reduce the environmental impacts of mining the earth.
In one example, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Van-couver
produced its stylish gold, silver, and bronze medals FIGURE 17.15 Many communities designate collection sites
(FIGURE 17.14) partly from metals recovered from recycled or collection days for household hazardous waste. Here,
and processed e-waste! workershandle wastefrom a collectioneventin Brooklyn,NewYork.

Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste 413

 allowed to evaporate, leaving a residue of solid hazardous
waste on the bottom. This process is repeated, and eventu-ally
the dry residue is removed and transported elsewhere for
permanent disposal. Impoundments are not ideal. The under-lying
layer can crack and leak waste. Some material may
evaporate or blow into surrounding areas. Rainstorms may
cause waste to overflow. For these reasons, surface impound-ments
are used only for temporary storage.
In deep-well injection, a well is drilled deep beneath
the water table into porous rock, and wastes are injected
into it (FIGURE 17.17). The process aims to keep waste deep
underground, isolated from groundwater and human contact.
However, wells can corrode and can leak wastes into soil,
contaminating aquifers. Roughly 34 billion L (9 billion gal) of
hazardous waste are placed in U.S. injection wells each year.

Contaminated sites are being

cleaned up, slowly
Many thousands of former military and industrial sites remain
contaminated with hazardous waste in the United States and
many other nations. For most nations, dealing with these
messes is simply too difficult, time-consuming, and expen-sive.
FIGURE 17.16 Unscrupulous parties sometimes dump
In 1980, however, the U.S. Congress passed the Com-prehensive
hazardous waste illegally to avoid disposal costs.
Environmental Response Compensation and
Liability Act (CERCLA; p. 107). This law established a fed-eral
with the mess (FIGURE 17.16). Companies from industrial-ized
program to clean up U.S. sites polluted with hazardous
nations sometimes dump hazardous waste illegally in
waste. The EPA administers this cleanup program, called the
developing nations—a major environmental justice issue. The
Superfund. Under EPA auspices, experts identify polluted
Basel Convention (p. 110) was crafted to limit such practices.
sites, take action to protect groundwater, and clean up the
High costs of disposal, however, have also encouraged
pollution. Later laws also charged the EPA with cleaning up
conscientious businesses to invest in reducing their hazard-ous
waste. Some biologically hazardous materials can be
broken down by incineration at high temperatures. Others can
be treated with bacteria that break down harmful components
and synthesize them into new compounds. In addition, vari-ous Injection

plants have been bred or engineered to take up specific well

contaminants from soil and break down organic contaminants

into safer compounds or concentrate heavy metals in their tis-sues.
The plants are harvested and disposed of. Unconfined
aquifer

Impervious
Weusethree disposal methods soil

for hazardous waste Confined

aquifer
We have developed three primary means of hazardous waste
Impervious
disposal: landfills, surface impoundments, and injection soil
wells. These do nothing to diminish the hazards of the sub-stances,
but they help keep the waste isolated from people, Porous
wildlife, and ecosystems. Design and construction stan-dards rock

for hazardous waste landfills are stricter than those for

ordinary sanitary landfills. Hazardous waste landfills must
have several impervious liners and leachate removal systems
and must be located far from aquifers. Injected hazardous
waste
Liquid hazardous waste, or waste in dissolved form,
maybe stored in surface impoundments, shallow depres-sions
FIGURE 17.17 Liquid hazardous waste is pumped deep
lined with plastic and an impervious material, such as underground by deep-well injection. The well must be drilled
clay. The liquid or slurry is placed in the pond, and water is below any aquifers, into porous rock isolated byimpervious clay

414 Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste

brownfields, lands whose reuse or development is compli-cated
by the presence of hazardous materials.
Two well-publicized events spurred creation of the
Superfund legislation. In Love Canal, a residential neigh-borhood
in Niagara Falls, New York, more than 800 families
were evacuated in 1978–1980 after toxic chemicals buried by
a company and the city in past decades rose to the surface,
contaminating homes and an elementary school and appar-ently
leading to birth defects, miscarriages, and other health
impacts (FIGURE 17.18). Outside of Louisville, Kentucky, at a
site called Valley of the Drums, hazardous waste began leak-ing
from 100,000 metal drums, contaminating waterways
with 140 types of chemicals.
Once a Superfund site is identified, EPA scientists
evaluate how near the site is to homes, whether wastes are
confined or likely to spread, and whether the pollution threat-ens
drinking water supplies. Sites judged to be harmful are
placed on the National Priorities List, ranked by the level
of risk to human health that they pose. Cleanup proceeds
as funds are available. Throughout the process, the EPA is
required to hold public hearings to inform area residents of its
findings andto receive feedback.
The objective of CERCLA was to charge the pollut-ing FIGURE 17.18 This boy was one of hundreds of people evacu-ated
parties for the cleanup of their sites, according to the from Love Canal. Outrage over the contamination of this
polluter-pays principle (p. 113). For many sites, however, neighborhood in NiagaraFalls helped lead to the Superfund program.

the responsible parties cannot be found or held liable, and

in such cases—roughly 30% so far—cleanups have been
covered by taxpayers and from a trust fund established by or otherwise deleted from the list. The average cleanup has
a federal tax on industries producing petroleum and chem-ical cost over $25 million and has taken nearly 15 years. Many
raw materials. However, Congress let the tax expire sites are contaminated with hazardous chemicals we have no
and the trust fund went bankrupt in 2004, so taxpayers effective way to deal with. In such cases, cleanups aim sim-ply
are now shouldering the entire burden. As the remaining to isolate waste from human contact, either by building
cleanup jobs become more expensive, fewer are being trenches and barriers or by excavating contaminated material
completed. and shipping it to a hazardous waste disposal facility. For all
As of 2017, 1336 Superfund sites remained on the these reasons, the current emphasis is on preventing hazard-ous
National Priorities List, and only 393 had been cleaned up waste contamination in the first place.

closing the LOOp

We have made great strides in of the iceberg. Most campuses have their own recycling and
addressing our waste problems. waste reduction programs, and these continue to grow and
Modern methods of waste manage-ment evolve as students and staff find new and innovative ways of
are far safer for people and inspiring people to reduce waste. Across the larger society,
gentler on the environment than past continued growth of recycling and composting—driven by
practices of open dumping and open market forces, public policy, and consumer behavior—shows
burning. Recycling and composting efforts potential for further advances.
are advancing steadily, and Americans now divert one-third Still, our prodigious consumption habits are creating
of all solid waste away from disposal. The continuing growth as much waste as ever. Our waste management efforts are
of recycling, driven by market forces, public policy, and con-sumer marked by a number of challenges, including the cleanup of
behavior, shows potential to further alleviate our waste Superfund sites and the safe disposal of hazardous waste.
problems. These dilemmas make clear that the best solution is to reduce
Students on college and university campuses are making our generation of waste and to pursue a cradle-to-cradle
great contributions in accelerating these trends. The enthu-siasm approach. Finding ways to reduce, reuse, and efficiently
of students for recycling is apparent each year in the recycle the materials and goods that we use stands as a key
success of Recyclemania—and this competition is just the tip ongoing challenge for our society.

Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste 41

 tEStING Your Comprehension
1. Describe the three major components of managing 6. Describe the process of incineration, or combustion.
waste. Why do we practice waste management? Whatis one drawback ofincineration?
2. Why have some people labeled the United States 7. In your own words, describe the goals of industrial
“the throwaway society”? How much solid waste ecology.
do Americans generate, and how does this amount 8. What four criteria are used to define hazardous waste?
compare to that of people from other countries? What makes heavy metals and synthetic organic
3. Whatis composting, and how does it help reduce the compounds particularly hazardous?
waste stream? 9. What are the largest sources of hazardous waste?
4. What are the three elements of the recycling process? Describe three ways to dispose of hazardous

5. Name several guidelines by which sanitary landfills are waste.

regulated. Describe three problems with landfills. 10. Whatis the Superfund program? How does it work

SEEKINGSolutions
1. How much waste do you generate? Look into your how it has done so, how successful its efforts were,
waste bin at the end of the day, and categorize and and how this success might be improved. If not,
measure the waste there. List all other waste you describe what events, programs, or strategies might
generated elsewhere during the day. How much ofthis be effective on your campus to giveit a shot at
waste could you have avoided generating? How much winning one of the categories in Recyclemania? For
could have been reused or recycled? information, consult the Recyclemania Web page,

2. Some people have criticized current waste http://recyclemaniacs.org.

management practices as merely moving waste from 5. THINK IT THROUGH You are the president of your
one medium to another. How might this criticism college or university and want to make the school
apply to the methods now in practice? What are some a leader in waste reduction. Consider the industries
potential solutions? and businesses in your community and the ways they
3. Ofthe various waste management approaches covered interact with facilities on your campus. Bearing in mind

in this chapter, which ones are your community or the principles of industrial ecology, what novel ways
campus pursuing? Would you suggest pursuing any new might your school and local businesses mutually use

approaches? If so, which ones, and why? and benefit from one another’s services, products, or
waste materials? Whatsteps would you propose to take
4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION Does your college or
as president?
university participate in Recyclemania? If so, describe

CALCULAtING Ecological Footprints

The biennial “State of Garbage in America” survey documents manytourists) generate the most (15.5 lb/day). The average for
the ability of U.S. residents to generate prodigious amounts of the United States as a whole is 6.8lb MSW per person per day.
municipal solid waste (MSW). According to the most recent Calculate the total amount of MSW generated in 1 day and in
survey, on a per capita basis, Missouri residents generate the 1 year by each group listed, if they were to generate MSW at
least MSW (4.5 lb/day), whereas Hawai‘i residents (and its each of the rates shown in the table.

AMOUNT OF MSW GENERATED, AT THREE PER CAPITA GENERATION RATES

GROUPS GENERATING U.S. AVERAGE (6.8 LB/DAY) MISSOURI (4.5 LB/DAY) HAWAI‘I (15.5 LB/DAY)

MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE DAY YEAR DAY YEAR DAY YEAR

You 6.8 2482

Your class

Your state

United States

World

Data from Shin, D., 2014. Generation and disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the United States—A national survey.

Columbia University Earth Engineering Center.

416 Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste

 1. Suppose your town of 50,000 people has just approved times more than this does the average U.S. citizen
construction of a landfill nearby. Estimates are that it generate?
will accommodate 1 million tons of MSW. Assuming the 3. The same study showed that the average resident
landfill is serving only your town, and assuming that your of alow-income nation generates 1.17 pounds of
town’s residents generate waste at the U.S. average waste per day and that the average resident of a high-income
rate, for how many years willit accept waste before nation generates 2.64 pounds per day. Why
filling up? How muchlonger would alandfill ofthe same do you think U.S. residents generate so much more
capacity serve a town of the same size in Missouri? MSW than people in other “high-income” countries,
2. One study has estimated that the average world citizen when standards of living in those countries are
generates 1.47 pounds of trash per day. How many comparable?

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Go to Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Go to Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

Chapter 17 Managing Our Waste 41

1
TheUrban
Environme
CHAPTER CreatingSustainableCities

418 Chapter 18 The Urban Environment

 central CASESTUDY

ManagingGrowth
in Portland, Oregon
Pacific
Ocean
Sagebrush subdivisions, With fighting words, Oregon Portland

coastal condomania, Governor Tom McCall chal-lenged

OREGON
and the ravenous rampage his state’s legislature
of suburbia . . . all threaten to in 1973 to take action against
mock Oregon’s status as
runaway sprawling development, which many Orego-nians
the environmental model
feared would ruin the communities and landscapes
for the nation.
they loved. McCall was echoing the growing concerns of
—Oregon Governor Tom McCall, 1973
state residents that farms, forests, and open space were
being gobbled up and paved over.
We have planning boards.
We have zoning regulations. Foreseeing a future of subdivisions, strip malls,
We have urban growth and traffic jams engulfing the pastoral Willamette Valley,
boundaries and ‘smart Oregon acted. The state legislature passed Senate Bill
growth’ and sprawl 100, a sweeping land use law that would become the
conferences. And we still focus of acclaim, criticism, and careful study for years
have sprawl. afterward by other states and communities trying to
—Environmental scientist

Donella Meadows, 1999

manage their own urban and suburban growth.
Oregon’s law required every city and county to draw
up a comprehensive land use plan in line with statewide
guidelines that had gained popular support from the state’s electorate. As part of each land
use plan, each metropolitan area had to establish an urban growth boundary (UGB), aline
on a map separating areas desired to be urban from areas desired to remain rural. Develop-ment
for housing, commerce, and industry would be encouraged within these urban growth
boundaries but restricted beyond them. The intent was to revitalize city centers; prevent
suburban sprawl; and protect farmland, forests, and open landscapes around the edges of
urbanized areas.
Residents of the area around Portland, the state’s largest city, estab-Upon
lished a new regional planning entityto apportion land in their
region. The Metropolitan Service District, or Metro, rep-resents
25 municipalities and three counties. Metro
adopted the Portland-area urban growth boundary
completing this in 1979 and has tried to focus growth on existing
chapter, you will be able to: urban centers and to build communities where
people can walk, bike, or take mass transit
• Describe the scale of urbanization
between home, work, and shopping. These
• Define sprawl and discuss its
policies have largely worked as intended.
causes and consequences
Portland’s downtown and older neighbor-hoods
• Outline city and regional planning
have thrived, regional urban centers
and land use strategies
are becoming denser and more community
• Evaluate transportation options, oriented, mass transit has expanded, and
urban parks, and green buildings farms and forests have been preserved on
• Analyze environmental impacts land beyond the UGB. Portland began attract-ing
and advantages of urban centers international attention for its “livability.”

• Assess urban ecology and the

To many Portlanders today, the UGB remains

pursuit of sustainable cities the key to maintaining quality oflife in city and country-side
alike. In the view of its critics, however, the “Great
Wall of Portland” is an elitist and intrusive government

Mount Hood overlooking downtown Portland

Concert below the St. John’s Bridge
in Portland, Oregon 41
 regulatory tool. In 2004, Oregon voters approved a ballot mea-sure The state legislature, under pressure from opponents and
that threatened to eviscerate their state’s land use rules. supporters alike, settled on a compromise: to introduce a new
Ballot Measure 37 required the state to compensate certain land-owners ballot measure. Oregon’s voters passed Ballot Measure 49 in
if government regulation had decreased the value of their 2007. It restricts development outside the UGB that is on a
land. For example, regulations prevent landowners outside UGBs large scale or that harms sensitive natural areas, but it protects
from subdividing their lots and selling them for housing develop-ment. the rights of small landowners to gain income from their prop-erty
Under Measure 37, the state had to pay these landowners by developing small numbers of homes.
to make up for theoretically lost income or else allow them to In 2010, Metro finalized a historic agreement with its
ignore the regulations. Because state and local governments did region’s three counties to determine where urban growth will
not have enough money to pay such claims, the measure was be allowed over the next 50 years. Metro and the counties
on track to gut Oregon’s zoning, planning, and land use rules. apportioned more than 121,000 ha (300,000 acres) of unde-veloped
Landowners filed morethan 7500 claims for payments or land into “urban reserves” open for development and
waivers affecting 295,000 ha (730,000 acres). Although the mea-sure “rural reserves” where farmland and forests would be preserved.
had been promoted to voters as a wayto protect the rights of Boundaries were precisely mapped to give clarity and direction
small family landowners, most claims were filed bylarge develop-ers. for landowners and governments alike.
Neighbors suddenly found themselves confronting the pros-pect People are confronting similar issues in communities
of massive housing subdivisions, gravel mines, strip malls, throughout North America, and debates and negotiations like
or industrial facilities being developed next to their homes—and those in Oregon will determine how our cities and landscapes
many who had voted for Measure 37 began to have misgivings. will change in the future.

OurUrbanizing World 5.5

5.0
In 2009, we passed a turning point in human history. For the Rural
4.5
Urban
first time ever, more people wereliving in urban areas(cities
4.0
and suburbs)than in rural areas. As weundergothis historic
shift from the countryside into towns and cities—a process 3.5

called urbanization—two pursuits become ever moreimpor-tant. (billions

3.0
Oneis to makeour urbanareas morelivable by meeting 2.5
Developing
nations
residents’ needs for a safe, clean, healthy urban environment.
2.0
Theotheris to makeurbanareassustainable by creating cit-ies
Developed
Population

that can prosper in the long term while minimizing our 1.5
nations
ecological impacts. 1.0

0.5

Industrialization has driven 0

urbanization 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

Year
Since 1950, the world’s urban population has multiplied
FIGURE 18.1 Population trends differ between poor and
by morethan five times, whereasthe rural population has
wealthy nations. In developing nations, urban populations are
not even doubled. Urban populations are growing because growing quickly, and rural populations will soon begin declining.
the human population overall is growing (Chapter 6), and Developed nations are already largely urbanized, so their urban
because morepeople are movingfrom farms to cities than populations are growing slowly, whereas rural populations are fall-ing.
are moving from cities to farms. Industrialization (p. 5) has Solid lines in the graph indicate past data, and dashed lines
reduced the need for farm labor while enhancing commerce indicate future projections. Datafrom UN Population Division, 2015. World

andjobs in cities. Urbanization,in turn, hasbredtechnologi-cal urbanization prospects: The 2014 revision. By permission.

advances that boost production efficiencies and spur fur-ther

Beginning in what decade willthe majority of people in
industrialization.
developing nations be living in urban areas?
United Nationsdemographersprojectthat the urbanpop-ulation
will rise by 63% between now and 2050, whereasthe Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

rural population will decline by 4%. Trends differ between

developedand developing nations,however(FIGURE18.1).In
developed nations, urbanization has slowed because three of
every four people already live in cities, towns, and suburbs,
the smaller communities that ring cities. In contrast,today’s
developing nations, where most people still reside on farms,
are urbanizing rapidly. In China,India, Pakistan, Nigeria,
and most other nations, rural people are streaming to cities
in search of jobs and urban lifestyles, or to escape ecologi-cal
degradationin the countryside. Asaresult, demographers
estimate that urban areas of developing nations will absorb
nearly all of the world’spopulation growthfrom now on.

420 Chapter 18 The Urban Environment

 cansustainthemselves as oil and waterbecomeincreasingly
scarce in the future is animportant question.
In recent years, many cities in the southern and west-ern
United Stateshave grown as peoplehave movedthere in
search of warmer weather, morespace, new economic oppor-tunities,
or places to retire. Between 1990 and 2016, the pop-ulation
of the Dallas–Fort Worthand Houston metropolitan
areas each grew by about 80%; that of the Atlanta area grew
by 96%; that of the Phoenix region grew by 108%; andthat of
the Las Vegasmetropolitanareagrew bya whopping153%.
(a) St. Louis, Missouri

People have movedto suburbs

Americancities grewrapidly in the 19th and early 20thcentu-ries
as a result of immigration from abroad andincreased trade
asthe nation expanded west. The bustling economic activity of
downtown districtsheldpeoplein cities despitecrowding, pov-erty,
and crime. However, bythe mid-20th century, manyafflu-ent
city dwellers were choosing to move outward to cleaner,
less crowdedsuburbancommunities. Thesepeople werepur-suing
morespace, better economic opportunities, cheaper real
estate,less crime, and better schools for their children.
Asaffluent people movedto the suburbs,jobs followed.
This hastened the economic decline of downtown districts,
and American cities stagnated. Chicago’s population declined
(b) Fort Worth, Texas to 80% of its peakasresidents movedto its suburbs.Philadel-phia’s
FIGURE 18.2 Cities develop along trade corridors. St. Louis population fell to 76% of its peak, Washington, D.C.’s
(a) is situated on the Mississippi River near its confluence with the to 71%, and Detroit’s to just 55%.
Missouri River, where river trade drove its growth in the 19th and Portlandfollowed this trajectory: Its population growth
early 20th centuries. Fort Worth, Texas (b), grew in the late 20th stalled in the 1950s to 1970s as crowding and deteriorat-ing
century as a result of the interstate highway system and a major economic conditions drove city dwellers to the suburbs.
international airport.
Butthe city bouncedback. Policiesto revitalize the city cen-ter
helped reboot Portland’s growth (FIGURE18.3).
Environmental factors influence
the location of urban areas
6
Real estate agents use the saying, “Location, location, loca-tion,” Revitalization
to stress how a home’s setting determines its value. of city center

Location is vital for urban centers as well. Think of any major 5

city, and chances are it’s situated along a major river, sea-coast, Exodusto
railroad, or highway—some corridor for trade that has suburbs
(100,000s

4
driven economic growth (FIGURE 18.2).
Well-located cities often serve as linchpins in trading Portland Urban growth
networks, funneling in resources from agricultural regions, 3 boundary adopted,
of

Growth driven by 1979

processing them, manufacturing products, and shipping those
shipping trade
products to other markets. Portland is situated where the Wil-lamette 2 Forest Park dedicated,
River joins the Columbia River, just upriver from 1948
Population

where the Columbia flows into the Pacific Ocean. The city
1 Bennett Plan, 1912
grew as it received, processed, and shipped overseas the pro-duce
from farms of the river valleys, and as it imported prod-ucts Olmsted parks report, 1903
shipped in from other ports. 0
Today, powerful technologies and cheap transportation 1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010
enabled by fossil fuels have allowed cities to thrive even in Year
resource-poor regions. The Dallas–Fort Worth area prospers
FIGURE 18.3 Portland grew, stabilized, and then grew again.
from—and relies on—oil-fueled transportation by interstate
Jobs in the shipping trade boosted Portland’s economy and
highways and a major airport. Southwestern cities such as Los population in the 1890s–1920s. City residents began leaving for
Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix flourish in desert regions by the suburbs in the 1950s–1970s, but policies to enhance the city
appropriating water from distant sources. Whether such cities center revitalized Portland’s growth. Datafrom U.S. Census Bureau.

Chapter 18 The Urban Environment 421

 The exodus to the suburbs in 20th-century America was Urban areasspread outward
aided by the rise of the automobile, an expanding road network,
and inexpensive and abundant oil. Millions of middle-class Thespatial growth of urbanand suburbanareasis clearfrom
people could now commute by car to downtown workplaces mapsand satellite images of rapidly spreading cities such as
from new homes in suburban “bedroom communities.” By Las Vegas(FIGURE 18.4). Another example is Chicago, whose
facilitating long-distance transport, fossil fuels and highway metropolitanarea spreadsover a region 40times the size of
networks also made it easier for businesses to import and the city. All in all, housesandroads supplant morethan 2700 ha
export resources, goods, and waste. The federal government’s (6700 acres) of U.S.land every day.
development of the interstate highway system was pivotal in Sprawl results from developmentapproachesthat place
promoting these trends. homes on spacious lots in residential tracts that spread over
In most ways, suburbs have delivered the qualities people large areas but are far from urban centers and commercial
sought in them. The wide spacing of homes, with each one on amenities(FIGURE18.5). Suchapproachesallot each person
its own plot of land, has given families room and privacy. How-ever, morespace than in cities. For example, the average resident
by allotting more space to each person, suburban growth of Chicago’s suburbs takes up 11 times morespace than a
has spread human impact across the landscape. Natural areas resident of the city. Asaresult, the outwardspatial growth of
have disappeared as housing developments are constructed. suburbs generally outpaces growth in numbers of people.
Our extensive road networks have eased travel, but we find In fact, manyresearchersdefinesprawl asthe physical
ourselves needing to climb into a car to get anywhere. People spread of development at a rate that exceeds the rate of popu-lation
commute longer distances to get to work, shops, and ameni-ties, growth. For instance, the population of Phoenix grew
and they spend more time stuck in traffic. The expand-ing 12times larger between1950and 2000,yetits land area grew
rings of suburbs surrounding cities have grown larger than 27 times larger. Between 1950 and 1990, the population of 58
the cities themselves, and towns are merginginto one another. major U.S. metropolitan areasrose by 80%, but the land area
These aspects of growth inspired a new term: sprawl. they coveredrose by 305%. Evenin 11 metroareas where
population declined between 1970 and 1990 (as with Rust Belt

Sprawl
cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh), the amount
of land coveredincreased.

The term sprawl has become laden with meanings and sug-gests
different things to different people, but we can begin our
Sprawl has several causes
discussion by giving sprawl a simple, nonjudgmental defini-tion:
the spread of low-density urban or suburban develop-ment There are two main components of sprawl. One is human pop-ulation
outward from an urban center. growth—quite simply, more of us are alive each year.

(a) Las Vegas, Nevada, 1986 (b) Las Vegas, Nevada, 2013

FIGURE 18.4 Satellite images show the rapid urban and suburban expansion commonly called
sprawl. Las Vegas, Nevada, is one of the fastest-growing cities in North America. Between 1986 (a) and 2013
(b), its population and its developed area each tripled.

422 Chapter 18 The Urban Environmen

 Pollution By promoting automobile use,sprawl increases
pollution. Carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles con-tribute
to climate change(Chapter 14), and nitrogen-and
sulfur-containing air pollutants lead to smog and acid depo-sition
(Chapter 13). Motor oil and road salt from roads and
parkinglots run off readily and pollute waterways.

Health Beyondthe health impacts of pollution, some

research suggests that sprawl promotes physical inactiv-ity
and obesity becausedriving carslargely takes the place
of walking during daily errands. A 2003 study found that
people from the most-sprawling U.S. counties show higher
blood pressureand weigh2.7 kg(6 lb) morefor their height
than people from the least-sprawling U.S. counties.

Land use As morelandis devel-oped, weighingthe

less is left asforests, fields,
farmland, or ranchland. Natural ISSUeS
FIGURE 18.5 Sprawl is characterized
lands
by the spread of devel-opment
and agricultural lands pro-vide
across large areas of land. This requires people to drive vital resources, recreation, Sprawl Near You

cars to reach commercial amenities or community centers. aesthetic beauty, wildlife habitat, Is there sprawl in the area where

and air and water purification. you live? Does it bother you, or

Many children now grow up with-out not? Has development in your area
The other is per capita land consumption—each person is tak-ing
had any of the impacts described
up moreland than in the past, because most people desire the ability to roam through
here? Do you think your city or
space and privacy and dislike congestion. Better highways, woods and fields, which usedto
town should encourage outward
inexpensive gasoline, telecommunications, and the Internet be a normal part of childhood.
growth? Why or why not?
have all fostered movement away from city centers by giving
workers more flexibility to live where they desire and by free-ing Economics Sprawl drains tax
businesses from dependence on the centralized infrastruc-ture dollars from communities and
a city provides. funnels moneyinto infrastructure for new development on
Economists and politicians have encouraged the unbri-dled the fringes of those communities. Funds that could be spent
spatial expansion of cities and suburbs. The conven-tional maintaining downtown centers areinstead spent on extend-ing
assumption has been that growth is always good and the road system, water and sewer system, electricity
that attracting business, industry, and residents will enhance a grid, telephone lines, police and fire service, schools, and
community’s economic well-being, political power, and cul-tural libraries. Althoughtaxes on new developmentcanin theory
influence. Today, this assumption is being challenged as pay back the investment, studies find that in mostcases tax-payers
growing numbers of people feel negative effects of sprawl on end up subsidizing new development.
their lifestyles.

Whatis wrong withsprawl?

CreatingLivable Cities
To respond to the challenges presented by sprawl, architects,
To some people, the word sprawl evokes strip malls, traffic
planners, developers, and policymakers are trying to revital-ize
jams, homogenous commercial development, and tracts of
city centersandto plan and managehow urbanizingareas
cookie-cutter houses encroaching on farmland, ranchland, or
develop. They aim to makecities safer, cleaner, healthier, and
forests. For other people, sprawl is simply the collective result
more pleasant for their residents.
of choices made by millions of well-meaning individuals
trying to make a better life for their families. What does scien-tific
research tell us about the impacts of sprawl? Planning helpsto createlivable
urban areas
Transportation Moststudiesshow that sprawl constrains
transportation options, essentially forcing people to own a How can wedesign cities to maximize their efficiency, func-tionality,
vehicle, drive it most places, drive greater distances, and spend and beauty? These are the questions central to city
more time in it. Sprawling communities suffer more traffic planning (also known as urban planning). City planners
accidents and have few or no masstransit options. Across the advise policymakers on development options, transportation
United States in the 1980s and 1990s, the average length of needs, public parks, and other matters.
work trips rose by 36%, and total vehicle miles driven rose Washington,D.C.,is the earliest example of city plan-ning
three times faster than population growth. A car-oriented cul-ture in the United States. President George Washington hired
encourages congestion and increases dependence on oil. Frencharchitect Pierre CharlesL’Enfant in 1791to design a

Chapter 18 The Urban Environment 42

 capital city for the new nation on undeveloped land along Regional planners deal with the same issues as city planners,
the Potomac River. L’Enfant laid out a Baroque-style plan of but they work on broader geographic scales and coordinate
diagonal avenues cutting across a grid of streets, with plenty their work with multiple munici-pal
of space allotted for majestic public monuments (FIGURE 18.6). governments. In some places, weighingthe
A century later, a new generation
restriction on new buildings
of planners imposed
to keep the monuments from
a height
being
regional planning
in formal
has been insti-tutionalized
governing ISSUeS
crowded and dwarfed by modern skyscrapers. This preserved bodies; the Portland area’s Metro
Your Urban area
the spacious, stately feel of the city. is the epitome of such a regional
City planning in North America came into its own at the planning entity. When Metro Think of your favorite parts ofthe

turn of the 20th century, as urban leaders sought to beautify and and its region’s three counties in city you know best. What do you

impose order on fast-growing, unruly cities. In Portland in 1912, 2010 announced their collabora-tive like about them? What do you dis-like
about your least favorite parts
planner Edward Bennett’s Greater Portland Plan proposed plan apportioning 121,000 ha
of the city? What could this city
to rebuild the harbor; dredge the river channel; construct new (300,000 acres) of undeveloped
do to improve quality oflife for its
docks, bridges, tunnels, and a waterfront railroad; superimpose land into “urban reserves” and
residents
wide radial boulevards on the old city street grid; establish civic “rural reserves,” it marked a his-toric
centers downtown; and greatly expand the number of parks. accomplishment in regional
In today’s world of sprawling metropolitan areas, planning. The agreement enables
regional planning has become more and more important. homeowners, farmers, developers, and policymakers to feel
informed and secure knowing what kinds of land uses lie in
store on and near their land over the next half-century.

Zoningis a keytool for planning

One tool that planners use is zoning, the practice of classi-fying
areas for different types of development and land use.
For instance, to preserve the cleanliness and tranquility of
residential neighborhoods, industrial facilities may be kept
out of districts zoned for residential use. By specifying zones
for different types of development, planners can guide what
gets built where. Zoning also gives home buyers and business
owners security, because they know in advance what types of
development can and cannot be located nearby.
Zoning involves government restriction on the use of pri-(a)
vate land and represents a top-down constraint on personal
property rights. Yet most people feel that government has a
proper and useful role in setting limits on property rights for
the good of the community. When Oregon voters passed Bal-lot
The L’Enfant plan, 1791 Measure 37 in 2004, this shackled government’s ability to
enforce zoning regulations withlandowners who bought their
land before the regulations were enacted. However, many
Oregonians soon began witnessing new development they did
not condone, so in 2007 they passed Ballot Measure 49 to
restore public oversight over development. In general, people
have supported zoning over the years because the common
good it produces for communities is widely felt to outweigh
the restrictions on private use.

Urban growth boundaries are now

widely used
Planners intended Oregon’s urban growth boundaries (UGBs)
to limit sprawl by containing growth within existing urbanized
(b) Washington, D.C., today areas. The UGBs aimed to revitalize downtowns; preserve
working farms, orchards, ranches, and forests; and ensure
FIGURE 18.6 Washington, D.C., is an example of early city
planning. The 1791 plan (a) for the new U.S. capital laid out splen-did urban dwellers accessto open space (FIGURE 18.7). UGBs also
diagonal avenues cutting across gridded streets, allowing space save taxpayers money by reducing the amounts that munici-palities
for the magnificent public monuments (b) that grace the city today. need to pay for infrastructure. Since Oregon instituted

424 Chapter 18 The Urban Environment

 Inside the UGB Outside the UGB

Vancouver WASHINGTON

Columbia River
Pacific
Portland
5

Ocean
Forest
Grove
84

Hillsboro 26 Portland
Gresham
205

Beaverton
OREGON Multnomah Co.
Washington Co.
217

Milwaukie
Tigard
5

FIGURE 18.7 The Portland region’s urban growth Sherwood

Oregon City
boundary separates areas earmarked for high-density OREGON
Wilamette River
urban development (left photo) from rural
areas where development is more restricted Wilsonville Clackamas Co.
(right photo).

its policies, many other states, regions, and cities have adopted anti-sprawl efforts and that livable cities can fall victim to
UGBs—from Boulder, Colorado, to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, their own successif they arein high demand as places to live.
to manyCaliforniacommunities.
In most ways,the Portland region’s urban growth bound-ary
has worked asintended. It has preserved farms and forests “Smart growth” and “new urbanism”
outsidethe UGB whileincreasingthe densityof new housing aimto counter sprawl
inside it. Withinthe UGB, homes are built on smaller lots and
multistory apartments replace low-rise structures. Downtown As more people feel impacts of sprawl on their everyday
employment hasgrown as businessesand residentsinvest in lives, efforts to managegrowth are springing upthroughout
the central city. North America. Proponents of smart growth seek to rejuve-nate
Nonetheless,the Portland region’s urbanized area grew the older existing communities that so often are drained
by 101 km2(39 mi2)in the decadeafter its UGB wasestab-lished,
andimpoverished by sprawl. Smart growth means“building
because 146,000 people wereadded to the population. up, not out”—focusing development and economic invest-ment
Rising population pressure hasled Metroto enlarge the UGB in existing urban centers and favoring multistory shop-houses
three dozentimes since its establishment.In addition, UGBs and high-rises(TABLE18.1).
tend to increase housing prices within their boundaries, and A related approach among architects, planners, and
in Portland, housing has become far less affordable. Today in developers is new urbanism, which seeks to design walkable
the city, demandfor housing exceedssupply, rents are soar-ing, neighborhoods with homes, businesses,schools, and other
andlow-and middle-income people are being forced out amenities all nearby for convenience. The aim is to create
functional neighborhoods in which families can meet most of
of neighborhoods they havelived in for years asthese neigh-borhoods
their needscloseto home without using a car. Theseneigh-borhoods
experiencegentrification, atransformation to con-ditions
that cater to wealthier people. These trends suggest are often served by public transit systems, enabling
that relentless population growth maythwart eventhe best peopleto travel mostplacesthey needto go bytrain andfoot.

Chapter 18 The Urban Environment 42

 TABLE 18.1 Ten Principles of “Smart Growth”

• Mixland uses

• Take advantage of compact building design

• Create arange of housing opportunities and choices

• Create walkable neighborhoods

• Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong

sense of place

• Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical

environmental areas

• Strengthen existing communities, and direct development

toward them

• Provide a variety of transportation choices

• Make development decisions predictable, fair, and

cost-effective FIGURE 18.8 Bicycles provide a healthy alternative to trans-portation
by car. This Portland bicycle lot accommodates riders
• Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in who commute downtown by bike, and is conveniently located at
development decisions a streetcar stop.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Transit options help cities SUCCESS Creating A World-Class Transit System

STORY
Traffic jams on roadways cause air pollution, stress, and
Establishing a masstransit system is not easy.
countless hours of lost time. They cost Americans an esti-mated
Strong and visionary political leadership may
$74 billion yearly in fuel and lost productivity. To
be required. Such was the case in Curitiba, a metropolis of
encourage more efficient transportation, policymakers can
2.5 million people in southern Brazil. Faced with an influx of
raisefuel taxes, chargetrucks for road damage,tax inefficient
immigrants from outlying farms
modesof transport, andreward carpoolers with carpool lanes. in the 1970s, city leaders led
But a key component of improving the quality of urban life is by Mayor Jaime Lerner under-took
to giveresidents alternativetransportation options. an aggressive planning
Bicycle transportation is one key option (FIGURE 18.8). process so that they could
Portland has embraced bicycles like few other American cit-ies, direct their city’s growth rather
andtoday 6% of its commutersride to work by bike(the than being overwhelmed by it.
national average is 0.5%). The city has developed nearly 400 They established alarge fleet
miles of bike lanes and paths, 5000 public bike racks, and of public buses, drew up mea-sures
special markingsatintersectionsto protect bicyclists. Amaz-ingly, to encourage bicycles and
all this infrastructure wascreated for the typical cost of pedestrians, and reconfigured
just 1 mile of urban freeway. Portland also has a bike-shar-ing Curitiba’s road system to maxi-mize
Commuters boarding a bus in
programsimilar to programsin cities such as Montreal, its efficiency. Today Curitiba
Curitiba, Brazil
Toronto, Denver, Minneapolis, Miami, San Antonio, Boston, has an internationally renowned bus system with 340 routes,
and Washington, D.C. 250 terminals, and 1900 buses. Each day the system is used
Othertransportation options include masstransit sys-tems:by three-quarters ofits population. All of this has resulted in
public systems of buses, trains, subways, or light rail a steep drop in car use, despite a rapidly growing population.
(smaller rail systems powered by electricity). Masstransit Besides its outstanding bus network, Curitiba provides recy-cling,
systems movelarge numbers of passengersat once while environmental education, job training for the poor, and
easing traffic congestion, taking up less space than road net-works,
free health care. Surveys show that its residents are unusually
and emitting less pollution than cars. Studies show happy and better off economically than people in other Bra-zilian
that aslong as an urban centeris large enoughto support cities. Curitiba’s lesson for the rest of the world is that
the infrastructure necessary, both train and bus systems are investing thoughtfully in well-planned transportation infrastruc-ture
cheaper, moreenergy-efficient, and less polluting than road-ways can pay big dividends.
choked withcars(FIGURE18.9).
In Portland, buses, light rail, and streetcars together EXPLORE THE DATA at Mastering Environmental Science

carry 100 millionriders per year. America’s most-usedtrain

426 Chapter 18 The Urban Environment

 States chose instead to invest in road networks for cars and
Sedan
trucks largely because (relative to most other nations) its pop-ulation
SUV density was low and gasoline was cheap. As energy
costs and population rise, however, mass transit becomes
Pickup truck
increasingly appealing, and people begin to desire train and
Bus (off-peak) bus systems in their communities.

Bus (peak)

Commuter rail
Vehicle Other
Urbanresidents need parklands
operation sources
Light rail City dwellers often desire some escape from the noise, com-motion,
and stress of urban life. Natural lands, public parks,
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 and open space provide greenery, scenic beauty, freedom of
Megajoules per 1000 passenger-km movement, and places for recreation. These lands also keep
(a) Energy consumption for different modes of transit ecological processes functioning by helping to regulate cli-mate,
purify air and water, and provide wildlife habitat.
One newly developed and instantly popular city park is The
Automobile (Small city) High Line Park in Manhattan in New York City (FIGURE 18.10).

Automobile (Medium city) An elevated freight line running above the streets was going to
be demolished, but a group of citizens saw its potential for a
Automobile (Large city) park, and they pushed the idea until city leaders came to share

Bus
their vision. Todaythousands of people usethe 23-block-long
High Line for recreation or on their commute to work.
Heavy rail Vehicle Roadway Large city parks are vital to a healthy urban environment,
operation costs but even small spaces make a difference. Playgrounds give
Commuter rail
Parking children places to be active outdoors and interact with their
Light rail costs peers. Community gardens allow people to grow vegetables
and flowers in a neighborhood setting. “Greenways” along

$0.00 $0.20 $0.40 $0.60 $0.80 $1.00 $1.20 $1.40 $1.60 $1.8

Cost per passenger-mile

(b) Operating costs for different modes of transit

FIGURE 18.9 Rail transit consumes less energy (a) and

costs less (b) than automobile transit. Bustransit is highly
efficient in places and at times of high use(“peak” in figure). Data
on greenhouse gas emissions (not shown) are very similar in their
patterns to datain the part (a) graph. Datafrom (a) Chester,M.,and
A. Horvath, 2009. Environmental assessment of passenger transportation

should include infrastructure and supply chains. Environmental Research

Letters 4: 024008 (8 pp); and (b) Litman, T., 2005. Rail transit in America:

A comprehensive evaluation of benefits. © 2005 T. Litman.

• In part (a), describe how the energy consumed by

driving an SUV compares withthe energy consumed by
taking commuter rail. • How would you predict the greenhouse
gas emissions for each mode of transport would compare? • In
part (b), automobile traffic creates two types of operating costs
that are not created byrail traffic. What are they?

Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science

systems are those of its largest cities, such as New York City’s
subways, Washington, D.C.’s Metro, the T in Boston, and the
San Francisco Bay Area’s BART. Each of these carries more
than one-fourth of its city’s daily commuters.
In general, however, the United States lags behind most
nations in mass transit. Many countries, rich and poor alike,
have extensive bus systems that are easily accessible to peo-ple. FIGURE 18.10 The High Line Park was created thanks to a
Japan, China, and many European nations have entire visionary group of Manhattan residents. They pushed to make
systems of modern high-speed “bullet trains.” The United a park out of an abandoned elevated rail line.

Chapter 18 The Urban Environment 427

 rivers, canals, or old railway lines can provide walking trails, forested ridge on the northwest side of the city. At 11 km
protect water quality, boost property values, and serve as cor-ridors (7 mi)long, today it is one of the largest city parks in North
for the movement of wildlife. America.
America’s city parks arose in the late 19th century as
urban leaders established public spaces using aesthetic ideals
Green buildings bring benefits
from European parks and gardens. The lawns, shaded groves,
and curved pathways of many American city parks grew from Although we need parklands, we spend most of our time
these ideals, as interpreted by America’s leading landscape indoors, so the buildings in which we live and work affect
architect, Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted designed Central our health. Buildings also consume 40% of our energy and
Park in New York City and many other parks. 70% of our electricity, contributing to the greenhouse gas
Portland’s quest for parks began in 1900, when city emissions that drive climate change. As a result, there is a
leaders created a parks commission and hired Olmsted’s thriving movement in architecture and construction to design
son, John Olmsted, to design a park system. His 1904 plan and build green buildings, structures that are built from sus-tainable
proposed acquiring land to ring the city generously with materials, limit their use of energy and water, con-trol
parks, but no action was taken. A full 44 years later, resi-dents pollution, recycle waste, and minimize health impacts on
pressured city leaders to create Forest Park along a their occupants (FIGURE 18.11).

Solar collectors Photovoltaic solar

Natural lighting comes heat water panels produce
through well-placed electricity
Metal or light-colored
windows and skylights
FSC-certified lumber roof reflects summer sun
protects forests

Insulation reduces
energy use
Efficient sinks and
toilets save water
Ventilation system
integrated with heating/
cooling system saves energy
Energy-efficient
light fixtures and
appliances use less Fiber cement siding
electricity usesfewer resources and
lasts 50 years

Rain garden
Planted rooftop (ecoroof
reduces runoff
or green roof) insulates,
reduces runoff, absorbs CO2

Overhangs over south-facing

windows block
summer sun but let in
winter sun
Landscaping with
native plants reduces
irrigation and
maintenance

Deciduous vegetation
shields building in
summer and lets in light
Recycled and/or locally
in winter
sourced construction Low-E windows
materials reduce provide insulation
oil and resource use

Radiant heating Barrels or catchment

and cooling system Low-VOC paints
basin harvest rainwater
saves energy
and flooring reduce
exposure to health
hazards

FIGURE 18.11 A green building incorporates design features to minimize its ecological footprint.

428 Chapter 18 The Urban Environmen

 The U.S. Green Building Council promotes sustain-able Urban centers bring a mix
building efforts through the Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program.
of environmental effects
Builders apply for certification (for new buildings or renova-tion
You might guessthat urban living has a greater environmental
projects) and, depending on their performance, may be impact than rural living. However,the pictureis not sosimple;
granted silver, gold, or platinum status.
instead, urbanization brings a complex mix of consequences.
Green building techniques add expense to construction,
yet LEED certification is booming. Portland features several Pollution Any location with large numbers of people
dozen LEED-certified buildings, including the nation’s first
is going to generate some amount of waste and pollution.
LEED-gold sports arena (the Moda Center, where the Trail-blazers
Indeed, urban dwellers are

and
basketball
waste at the refurbished
team plays). The savings on energy,
Moda Center paid for the cost of
water, exposedto smog,toxic industrial
compounds, fossil fuel emissions,
FaQ
its LEED upgrade after just one year.
noise pollution, and light pollu-tion.
aren’t cities bad for the
Schools, colleges, and universities are leaders in sus-tainable
City residents even suffer
environment?
building. In Portland, the Rosa Parks Elementary
thermal pollution, in the form
School was built with locally sourced and nontoxic materi-als, Stand in the middle of a city and
of the urban heatisland effect
uses 24% less energy and water than comparable build-ings, look around. You see concrete,
(FIGURE 18.12). Pollution and
cars, and pollution. Environmentally
and diverted nearly all of its construction waste from
the health risks it poses are not
bad, right? Not necessarily. The
the landfill. Schoolchildren learn about renewable energy in
evenly shared among residents. widespread impression that urban
their own building by watching a display of the electricity
As environmental justice advo-cates
living is less sustainable than rural
produced by its photovoltaic solar system. Portland State
point out (p. 16), those who living is largely a misconception.
University, the University of Portland, Reed College, and receivethe brunt of pollution are Considerthat in a city you can walk
Lewis and Clark College are just a few of the many colleges
often those who are too poor to to the grocery store instead of driv-ing.
and universities nationwide that are constructing green
live in cleaner areas. You can take the bus orthe
buildings as a part of their campus sustainability efforts Cities export some of their train. Police, fire, and medical ser-vices
(pp. 19, 435).
wastes. In so doing, they trans-fer are close at hand. Waterand
the costs of their activities electricity are easily supplied to your

to other regions—and maskthe entire neighborhood, and waste

UrbanSustainability costs from their own residents. is easily collected. In contrast, if

Citizens of Indianapolis, Colum-bus,you livein the country, resources

Most of our efforts to make cities safer, cleaner, healthier, and or Buffalo maynot realize must be used to transport all these

more beautiful also help to make them more sustainable. A that pollution from nearby coal-firedservices for long distances, or you
sustainable city is one that can function and prosper over the power plants worsens acid need to burn gasoline traveling to

long term, providing generations of residents a good quality of rain hundredsof milesto the east. reach them. By clustering people
together, cities distribute resources
life far into the future. In part, this entails minimizing the city’s New York City residents may not
efficiently while also preserving
impacts on the natural systems and resources that nourish it. It recognize how much garbage
natural lands outside the city.
also entails viewing the city itself as an ecological system (see their city producesif it is shipped
THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY, pp. 430–431). elsewhere for disposal.

FIGURE 18.12 Cities produce

HOT
urban heat islands, creating
Heat emanates
from urban areas temperatures warmer than
surrounding areas. People,
buildings, and vehicles gener-ate
heat, and buildings and dark

WARM WARM paved surfaces absorb daytime

heat and release it at night.

Farmland Suburbs City center Suburbs Forest

Vegetation keeps forests, Pavement and other surfaces in

farms, and park land cities absorb sunlight and Cars, buildings, industry, and
relatively cool re-radiate heat at night people radiate heat in urban areas

Chapter 18 The Urban Environment 42

 the SCIeNCebehindthe story Go to Process of Science on Mastering Environmental Science

Do Baltimoreand PhoenixAct as Ecosystems?

Researchers in urban ecology examine how Baltimore scientists can see ecological effects of urbaniza-tion
ecosystems function in cities and sub-urbs, by comparing the urban lower end of their site’s watershed
how natural systems respond to with its less developed upper end. In the lower end, pavement,
urbanization, and how people inter-act rooftops, and compacted soil prevent rain from infiltrating the
with the urban environment. soil, so water runs off quickly. The rapid flow cuts stream-beds
Today, Baltimore and Phoenix deeply into the earth while leaving surrounding soil drier.
are centers for urban ecology. As a result, wetland-adapted trees and shrubs are vanishing,
These two cities are very replaced by dry-adapted upland trees and shrubs.
different: Baltimore is a port city The fast flow of water also worsens pollution. In natural
on the Chesapeake Bay with areas, streams and wetlands filter pollution by breaking down
a long history, whereas Phoe-nix nitrogen compounds. But in urban areas, where wetlands dry
is a young and fast-growing up andrunoff from pavement createsflash floods, streams lose
southwestern metropolis sprawl-ing their filtering ability. In Baltimore, the resulting pollution ends up
across the desert. Each was in the Chesapeake Bay, which suffers eutrophication and alarge
selected bythe U.S. National Sci-encehypoxic dead zone (p. 28). Baltimore scientists studying nutrient
Foundation as a research cycling (p. 39) found that urban and suburban watersheds have
site in its Long Term Ecologi-cal far more nitrate pollution than natural forests (FIGURE 1).
Sampling water beneath Research program, which Baltimore research also reveals impacts of applying salt to
an overpass in Baltimore. funds multidecade ecological icy roads in winter. Road salt makes its wayinto streams, which
research. Since 1997, hundreds become up to 100 times saltier. High salinity kills organisms
of researchers have studied Baltimore and Phoenix explicitly (FIGURE 2), degrades habitat and water quality, and impairs
as ecosystems, examining nutrient cycling, biodiversity, air and streams’ ability to remove nitrate.
water quality, environmental health threats, and more. To study contamination of groundwater and drinking water,
Research teams in both cities are combining old maps, aer-ial researchers are using isotopes (p. 31) to trace where salts in
photos, and new remote sensing satellite data to reconstruct the most polluted streams are coming from. Baltimore is now
the history oflandscape change. In Phoenix, one group showed improving water quality substantially with a $900-million upgrade
how urban development spread across the desert in a “wave of its sewer system.
of advance,” affecting soils, vegetation, and microclimate as it Urbanization also affects species and ecological commu-nities.
went. In Baltimore, mapping showed that development frag-mented Cities and suburbs facilitate the spread of non-native
the forest into smaller patches over the past 100 years, species because people introduce exotic ornamental plants
even while the overall amount of forest remained the same. and because urban impacts on the soil, climate, and land-scape
For each city, study regions encompass both heavily urban-ized favor weedy generalist species over more specialized
central city areas and outlying rural and natural areas. To native ones.
measure the impacts of urbanization, many research projects Compared with natural landscapes, cities offer steady and
compare conditions in these two types of areas. reliable food resources—think of people’s bird feeders, or food

Resource use and efficiency Cities are sinks (p. 40) without cities would likely require more transportation to pro-vide
for resources, importing nearly everything they needto people the same degree of access to resources and goods.
feed, clothe, and house their inhabitants and power their Moreover, once resources arrive, cities are highly efficient in
commerce. People in cities such as New York, Boston, San distributing goods and services. The density of cities facili-tates
Francisco, and Los Angeles depend on water pumpedin the provision of electricity, medical care, education,
from faraway watersheds. Urban communities rely on large water and sewer systems, waste disposal, and public transpor-tation.
expanses of land elsewhere for resources and ecosystem Thus, although a city has a large ecological footprint
services, andthey burn fossil fuels to import resourcesand (p. 5), its residents may have moderate or small footprints in
goods. per capita terms
However, imagine that the world’s 4 billion urban resi-dents
wereinstead spreadevenly acrossthe landscape. What Land preservation Because people pack densely
would the transportation requirements be, then, to move together in cities, moreland outside cities is left undevel-oped.
resources and goods around to all those people? A world Indeed, this is the very idea behind urban growth

430 Chapter 18 The Urban Environment

 10 Rural Suburban Urban
Agricultural area
Suburban area 500
(mg/L) 8 Forested area
400
6 chloride
(mg/L)
Chronic toxicity to
300 freshwater life
4 annual 200
concentration

Damage to
2 Mean
100 land plants
concentration

Nitrate

0
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 200 Percentage impervious surface in watershed

Year FIGURE 2 Salt concentrations in Baltimore-area streams

FIGURE 1 Streams in Baltimore’s suburbs contain more are high enough to damage plants in the suburbs and to

nitrates than streams in nearby forests, but fewer than kill aquatic animals in urban areas. Adapted from Kaushal, S. S.,

those in agricultural areas, where fertilizers are applied et al., 2005. Increased salinization of fresh water in the northeastern United

liberally. Datafrom BaltimoreEcosystemStudy, www.lternet.edu/research/ States. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102: 13517–13520, Fig 2. ©2005 National

keyfindings/urban-watersheds. Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. By permission.

• At what percentage ofimpervious (paved) surface

would you expect to begin seeing damage to land
scraps from dumpsters. Growing seasons are extended and plants as a result of salty road runoff entering streams? • At what
seasonal variation is buffered in cities, as well. The urban heat percentage would you expect to begin seeing chronic toxicity to
island effect (p. 429) raises nighttime temperatures and equal-izes freshwater life?

temperatures year-round. In a desert city like Phoenix, Goto Interpreting Graphs & Data on Mastering Environmental Science
watering gardens boosts primary productivity and lowers day-time
temperatures. Together, all these changes lead to higher
population densities of animals but lower species diversity as
generalists thrive and displace specialists. of industrial pollution tend to be located in neighborhoods that
Urban ecologists in Phoenix and Baltimore are studying are less affluent and that are home to people of racial and ethnic
social and demographic questions as well. Some research mea-sures minorities. Phoenix researchers mapped patterns of air pollu-tion
how natural amenities affect property values. One study and toxic chemical releases and found that minorities and
found that proximity to a park increases a home’s property the poor are exposed to a greater share of these hazards. As a
values—unless crime is pervasive. If the robbery rate surpasses result, they suffer from higher rates of childhood asthma.
6.5 times the national average, then proximity to a park begins Whether addressing the people, natural communities, or
to depress property values. changing ecosystems of the urban environment, studies on
Other studies focus on environmental justice concerns urban ecology like those in Phoenix and Baltimore will be vitally
(pp. 16–17). These studies have repeatedly found that sources informative in our ever more urban world.

boundaries. If all 7 billion of us were evenly spread across as engines of technological and artistic inventiveness. This
the planet’s land area, no large blocks of land would be inventiveness can lead to solutions to societal problems,
left uninhabited, and we would have far less room for including ways to reduce environmental impacts.
agriculture, wilderness, biodiversity, or privacy. The fact
that half the human population is concentrated in discrete
locations helps allow space for natural ecosystems to con-tinue Urban ecology helps cities toward
functioning
which all of us, urban and rural,
and provide the
depend.
ecosystem services on
sustainability
Cities that import all their resources and export all their
Innovation Cities promotea flourishing cultural life and, wastes have a linear, one-way metabolism. Linear mod-els
by mixing diverse people and influences, spark innovation of production and consumption tend to destabilize envi-ronmental
and creativity. The urban environment can promote educa-tion systems. Proponents of sustainability for cities
and scientific research, and cities have long been viewed stress the need to develop circular systems, akin to systems

Chapter 18 The Urban Environment 431

 found in nature, which recycle materials and use renew-able 2030. By 2014, the city had improved energy efficiency in
sources of energy. Researchers in the field of urban 174 city buildings, planted 950,000 trees, opened or reno-vated
ecology hold that the fundamentals of ecosystem ecology 234 school playgrounds, established 129 commu-nity
and systems science (Chapter 2) apply to the urban envi-ronment. gardens, upgraded wastewater treatment, and acquired
Urban ecologists suggest that cities follow an 36,000 acres to protect upstate water supplies. It had
ecosystem-centered model by striving to maximize the effi-cient expanded recycling, installed solar panels, cleaned up pol-luted
use of resources, recycle waste and wastewater, and sites, installed bike lanes and bike racks and launched a
develop green technologies. Urban agriculture that recycles bike-sharing program, retrofitted ferries to reduce pollution,
organic waste, restores soil fertility, and produces locally introduced electric vehicles, and converted hundreds of taxis
consumed food is thriving in many places, from Portland to to hybrid vehicles. These actions helped to improve air qual-ity
Cuba to Japan. Urban ecology research projects are ongo-ing and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 19%. Since then,
in Baltimore and Phoenix, where scientists are studying Mayor Bill de Blasio has continued the program under a new
these cities as ecological systems (see The Science behind name, OneNYC, while adding new dimensions to address
the Story.) economic equity.
In 2007, New York City unveiled an ambitious plan that Successes from New York City to Curitiba to Portland
then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg hoped would make it “the show how we can make cities more sustainable. Indeed,
first environmentally sustainable 21st-century city.” PlaNYC because they affect the environment in many positive ways
was a 132-item program to make New York City a better and can promote efficient resource use, urban centers are a key
place to live as it accommodates 1 million more people by element in achieving progress toward global sustainability.

closing the LOOp

As the human population shifts from beginning to strain the smart-growth vision that has worked
rural to urban lifestyles, our environ-mental thus far. Portland’s leaders engaged citizens in a planning
impacts become less direct process to design solutions to keep their city “prosperous,
but more far-reaching. Fortunately, we healthy, equitable, and resilient,” and they recently com-pleted
are developing sustainable solutions a Comprehensive Plan to help guide decision making
while making urban and suburban areas through 2035.
better places to live. Portland is just one of many urban centers seeking to
Portland, Oregon, is one city that has been enhancing expand economic opportunity and enhance quality of life
the quality of life for its residents. However, as people stream while protecting environmental quality. Planning and zon-ing,
to Portland in droves, the city risks becoming a victim of its smart growth and new urbanism, mass transit, parks,
own success. Growth forecasts estimate that the number and green buildings all are ingredients in sustainable cities,
of households in the Portland region will jump 56–74% by and we should be encouraged about our progress in these
2035. As density increases inside the urban growth bound-ary, endeavors. Ongoing experimentation will help us determine
new challenges—such as rising rents, increased traffic, how to continue creating better and more sustainable com-munities
and parking congestion in residential neighborhoods—are in which to live

TESTINGYour Comprehension
1. What factors lie behind the shift of population from effects, positive and negative, do urban growth
rural areas to urban areas? What types of nations are boundaries tend to have?
experiencing the fastest urban growth today, and why? 6. Describe several apparent benefits of rail transit systems.
2. Why have so many city dwellers in the United States and Whatis a potential drawback?
other developed nations moved into suburbs? 7. How are parks thought to make urban areas morelivable?
3. Give two definitions of sprawl. Describe five negative Give three examples of types of parks or public spaces.
impacts that have been suggested to result from sprawl. 8. Whatis a green building? Describe several features a
4. Whatis city planning? Whatis regional planning? LEED-certified building may have.
Contrast planning with zoning. Give examples of some 9. Describe the connection between urban ecology and
of the suggestions made by early planners such as sustainable cities. List three actions a city can take to
Edward Bennettin Portland. enhance its sustainability.
5. How are some people trying to prevent or slow sprawl? 10. Name two positive effects of urban centers on the
Describe some key elements of “smart growth.” What natural environment.

432 Chapter 18 The Urban Environment

 SEEKINGSolutions
1. Describe the causes of the spread of suburbs, and density is high and growing. If you take the second, you
outline the environmental, social, and economic impacts willlive in one of Portland’s suburbs, where you have
of sprawl. Overall, do you think the spread of urban and more space but where commute times are long and
suburban development that is commonly labeled sprawl sprawl may soon surround you for miles.If you select
is predominantly a good thing or a bad thing? Do you the third, you willlive in a rural area outside the urban
think it is inevitable? Give reasons for your answers. growth boundary with plenty of space and scenic beauty

2. Would you personally want to live in a neighborhood but few cultural amenities. You are a person who aims to
developed in the new-urbanist style? Why or why not? live in an ecologically sustainable way. Where would you

Would you like to live in a city or region with an urban choose to live? Why? What considerations will you factor
growth boundary? Why or why not? into your decision?

3. All things considered, do you feel that cities are a 5. THINK IT THROUGH You are the facilities manager
positive thing or a negative thing for environmental on your campus, and your school’s administration

quality? How much do you think we may be able to has committed funds to retrofit one existing building
improve the sustainability of our urban areas? with sustainable green construction techniques so
that it earns LEED certification. Consider the various
4. CASE STUDY CONNECTION After you earn your college
buildings on your campus, and select one that you feel is
degree, you decide to settle in the Portland, Oregon,
unhealthy or that wastes resources in some way and that
region, where you are being offered three equally
you would like to see retrofitted. Describe for an architect
desirable jobs, in three very different locations. If you
three specific ways in which green building techniques
accept the first, you willlive in downtown Portland, amid
might be used to improve this particular building.
commercial and cultural amenities but where population

CALCULATINGEcologicalFootprints
One way to reduce your ecological footprint is with alterna-tive For an average North American who travels 12,000 miles
transportation. Each gallon of gasoline is converted dur-ing per year, calculate and record in the table the CO2 emitted
combustion to approximately 20 pounds of carbon dioxide yearly for each transportation option. Then calculate and
(CO2), which is released into the atmosphere. The table lists record the reduction in CO2 emissions that one could achieve
typical amounts of CO2released per person per mile using vari-ous by relying solely on each option.
modes of transportation, assuming typical fuel efficiencies.

CO2 PER PERSON CO2 PER PERSON CO2 EMISSION YOUR ESTIMATED YOUR CO2 EMISSIONS
MODE OF TRANSPORT PER MILE PER YEAR REDUCTION MILEAGE PER YEAR PER YEAR

Automobile (driver only) 0.825 lb 9900 lb 0

Automobile (2 persons) 0.413 lb

Bus 0.261 lb

Walking 0.082 lb

Bicycle 0.049 lb

Total = 12,000

1. Which transportation option provides the most miles over the course of a year. Which transportation option
traveled per unit of carbon dioxide emitted? accounts for the most emissions for you?
2. In the last two columns, estimate what proportion of 3. How could you reduce your CO2 emissions? How many
the 12,000 annual miles you think that you actually pounds of emissions do you think you could realistically
travel by each method, and then calculate the CO2 eliminate over the course of the next year by making
emissions that you are responsible for generating changes in your transportation decisions

Mastering Environmental Science

Students Goto Mastering Environmental Science for assignments, Instructors Goto Mastering Environmental Science for
the etext, and the Study Area with practice tests, videos, current events, automatically graded activities, current events, videos, and reading
and activities. questions that you can assign to your students, plus Instructor Resources.

Chapter 18 The Urban Environment 433

EPILOGU
Sustainable
Solutions

The notion of sustainability has run throughout this book. In a healthy and functioning natural environment for our basic
one case after another, we have seen how people are devising needs and our quality of life, so protecting Earth’s natural
creative solutions to the dilemmas that arise when resources capital is vital. Yet sustainability also means promoting eco-nomic
for future generations are being depleted. Our challenge as well-being and social justice. Meeting this triple bot-tom
a society is to continue developing innovative and workable line (p. 115) is the goal of sustainable development. It is
solutions that enhance our quality of life while protecting and our primary challenge for this century and likely for the rest
restoring the natural environment that supports us. of our species’ time on Earth.

Students areleading sustainability Environmental protection can

efforts on campus enhance economic opportunity
In today’s quest for sustainable solutions, students at colleges
Our society has long labored under the misconception that
and universities are playing a crucial role. They are creating
economic well-being and environmental protection are in
models for the wider world by leading sustainability initia-tives
conflict. In reality, our well-being depends on a healthy envi-ronment,
on their campuses (TABLEE.1).
and protecting environmental quality can improve
Students are pioneering ways to enhance efficiency in
our economic bottom line.
energy use and water use on their campuses. They are running
For individuals, businesses, and institutions, reducing
programs to recycle and cut down on waste. They are growing
resource consumption and waste often saves money. For soci-ety,
organic gardens and restoring natural areas on campus. They
promoting environmental quality can enhance economic
are advocating with administrators for renewable energy,
opportunity by creating new types of employment. As we
sustainable green buildings, and the reduction of greenhouse
transition to a more sustainable economy, some resource-extraction
gas emissions. Most efforts are home-grown and local, like
industries may decline, but a variety of recycling-oriented
the sustainable food and dining initiatives at Kennesaw State
and high-technology industries are springing up to
University (pp. 139–140). Others are part of national or inter-national
take their place. As wereduce our dependence on fossil fuels,
programs, such as Recyclemania (pp. 399–400).
green-collar jobs (p. 378) and investment opportunities are
These diverse efforts by students, faculty,
staff, and admin-istrators
opening up in renewable energy.
are reducing the ecological footprints of college and
Moreover, people desire to live in areas with clean air,
university campuses. You can find links to resources for cam-pus
clean water, intact forests, public parks, and open space. Envi-ronmental
sustainability efforts in the Selected Sources and Refer-ences
protection enhances a region’s appeal, drawing resi-dents,
section online at MasteringEnvironmentalScience.
increasing property values, and boosting the tax revenues
that fund social services. As a result, regions that safeguard

Wecan develop sustainably their environments tend to retain and enhance their wealth,
health, and quality of life. In all these ways, environmental pro-tection
Whether on campus or around the world, sustainability means enhances economic opportunity. Indeed, a recent U.S.
living in a way that can be lived far into the future. It involves government review concluded that the economic benefits of
conserving resources to prevent their depletion, reducing environmental regulations greatly exceed their economic costs
waste and pollution, and safeguarding ecological processes (p. 117). Both the U.S. economy and the global economy have
and ecosystem services, to ensure that our society’s practices expanded rapidly in the past 50 years, the very period during
can continue and our civilization can endure. Wedepend on which environmental protection measureshave proliferated.

434 EPILOGUE Sustainable Solutions

TABLE E.1 Major Approaches in Campus Sustainability

Waste reduction Green buildings

Reusing, recycling, and compost-ing Constructed from sustainable materi-als,
offer abundant opportunities for “green buildings” feature designs
tangible improvements, and people and technologies to reduce pollution,
understand and enjoy these activities. use renewable energy, and encour-age
Waste reduction events such as trash efficiency in water and energy
audits and recycling competitions can use. These sustainable buildings are
be fun and productive. Compost can certified according to LEED standards
be applied to plantings to beautify (pp. 428–429)
the campus. Some schools aim to
become “zero-waste.”
Wayne State University Oberlin College

Water conservation Energy efficiency

Indoors, schools areinstalling water-saving Campuses today are installing energy-efficient

faucets, toilets, urinals, and lighting, motion detectors to
showers in dorms and classroom shut off lights when rooms are empty,
buildings to reduce water waste. Out-doors, and sensors to record and display
students are helping to land-scape a building’s energy consumption.
gardens that harvest rainwater Students are mounting campaigns to
and to build facilities to treat and reuse reduce thermostat settings, distribute
wastewater. efficient bulbs, and publicize energy-saving
tips to their peers.

Loyola University Chicago Xavier University of Louisiana

Renewable energy Food and dining

Many schools are switching from fossil More and more schools grow their
fuels to renewable heating and elec-tricity. own food on campus farms and in
Some are installing solar panels; gardens, supplying students with
others use biomass in power plants; a local, healthy, organic food. In dining
few have built wind turbines on cam-pus. halls, trayless dining cuts down on
Students have persuaded admin-istrators—and waste (on average, 25% offood taken
have voted for student is wasted otherwise) because people
fees—to buy “green tags” or carbon take only what they really want. Food
offsets to fund renewable energy. scraps are composted on many
campuses.
The Catholic University of America Yale University

Transportation Plants and landscaping

Halfthe greenhouse gas emissions of Students are helping to restore native

the average college or university come plants and communities, remove
from commuting to and from cam-puses invasive species, improve habitat for
in motor vehicles. To combat wildlife, and enhance soil and water
pollution, traffic congestion, delays, quality. Some schools have green
and parking shortages, schools are roofs, greenhouses, and botanical
investing in bus and shuttle systems; gardens. Enhancing a campus’s natu-ral
hybrid and alternative-fuel fleet vehi-cles; environment creates healthier, more
and programs to promote car-pooling, attractive surroundings, and makes for
walking, and bicycling. educational opportunities in ecology
University of Virginia University of Arizona
and natural resources.

Carbon-neutrality Fossil fuel divestment

To combat climate change, many Endowment money in U.S. higher

campuses aim to become carbon-neutral, education is estimated at morethan
emitting no net greenhouse $400 billion, and some ofthis is
gases. These schools seek to power invested in stocks of coal, oil, and gas
themselves with clean renewable corporations. Since 2012, students
energy, although for most, buying car-bon have lobbied their administrators,

offsets is also necessary. Nearly boards of trustees, and fund manag-ers

700 presidents have signed the Ameri-can to divest from, or sell off, stocks in

College and University Presidents’ fossil fuel companies.

Climate Commitment, with carbon-neutrality

University of Maine at Presque Isle Tufts University
as a goal.

EPILOGUE Sustainable Solutions 435

 Wecanfollow ten strategies toward (Chapter 5). The market might then become a truly free mar-ket
and a powerful tool for improving the quality of our lives.
sustainable solutions
Truly lasting Population
win-win solutions for humanity and our envi-ronment stability Just as continued growth in con-sumption
are numerous,and wehaveseen specific examples is unsustainable, so is growth in the human popula-tion.
Sooner or later our population, like all populations, will
throughout this book. Let’s now summarize 10 broad strate-gies
stop growing. The question is how: through war, plagues, and
that can help generate sustainable solutions (TABLEE.2).
famine, or through voluntary means? Thanks to urbaniza-tion,

Political engagement Sustainable solutions often wealth, education, and the empowerment of women, the
demographic transition (p. 128) is already well advanced in
require policymakers to usher them through, and policymak-ers
respondto whoeverexertsinfluence. You can exercise many developed nations. If today’s developing nations also
pass through the demographic transition, then humanity may
your power at the ballot box, by attending public hearings,
be able to rein in population growth while creating a more
by volunteering or donatingto advocacygroups,and by writ-ing
prosperous and equitable society.
letters and making phone calls to officeholders. The envi-ronmental
and consumer protection laws we all benefit from
today cameabout becausecitizens pressuredtheir representa-tivesGreen technologies Technology has facilitated our
population growth and has magnified our impacts on Earth’s
to act. As weenjoy today’s cleaner air, cleaner water,
systems—yet it also gives us ways to reduce our impacts.
and greater prosperity, we owe a debt to the people who
fought for the policiesthat enabledthese advances(pp. 106–108).Scrubbers and catalytic converters have lowered emissions
(pp. 293–294). Recycling technology and wastewater treatment
Weowe it to future generations to engage ourselves so
are reducing waste. Solar, wind, and geothermal energy technol-ogies
that they, too, can enjoy a better world.
are producing cleaner, renewable energy. Technological
Consumer power Each of us also wields influence advances such as these help explain why people of the United
States and western Europe today enjoy cleaner environments—although
through the choices we make as consumers. When products
such asrecycled paper,organic produce, or sustainablesea-food they consume far more—than people of eastern
Europe or rapidly industrializing nations such as China.
are ecolabeled (p. 114), we can “vote with our wallets”
by purchasing these products.
Mimicking nature Asindustries developgreentechnolo-gies
Quality of life Economicgrowth haslargely beendriven and sustainable practices, they have an excellent model:
nature itself. Environmental systems tend to operate in cycles
by rising consumption of material goods and services (and
thus the use of resourcesfor their manufacture).Advertisers featuring feedback loops and the circular flow of materials.
Forward-thinking industrialists are transforming linear path-ways
seek to sell us more goods more quickly, but accumulating
into circular ones, in which wasteis recycled and reused
possessions does not always bring contentment. Affluent peo-ple
oftenfail to find happinessin their material wealth. (pp. 410–411). Their ultimate vision is to create truly closed-loop
processes, generating no waste.
Wecan enhance our quality of life by prioritizing friends,
family, leisure time, and memorable experiences over mate-rial
consumption. Economistsand policymakers can help Local and global approaches Encouraginglocal self-sufficiency
is an important element of building sustainable
shift the current focus on economic growth toward a focus
societies. When people feel closely tied to the area in which
on people’squality oflife byincorporating external costsinto
they live, they value it and seek to sustain its environment and
market prices, introducing green taxes, eliminating harm-ful
its human community. Relying on locally made products also
subsidies, and adopting full cost accounting practices
cuts down on fossil fuel use from long-distance transportation.
At the same time, globalization enables people of the
world’s diverse cultures to communicate, making us more
TABLE E.2 Major Strategies for Sustainability aware of one another’s cultures and more likely to respect
and celebrate, rather than fear, cultural differences. Moreover,
• Be politically active
globalization may foster sustainability because Western
• Vote with our wallets
democracy, as imperfect as it is, serves as a model and a bea-con
• Pursue quality oflife, notjust economic growth
for people living under repressive governments. Open
• Limit population growth societies allow for entrepreneurship and the flowering of cre-ativity
• Encouragegreentechnologies in business, art, science, and education. When millions
• Mimic natural systems by promoting closed-loop processes of minds can think freely, we are more likely to come up with
sustainable solutions to our challenges.
• Enhance local self-sufficiency, yet embrace some aspects of
globalization
Long-term perspective To be sustainable, a solution
• Think in the long term
must work in the long term (FIGURE E.1). Policymakers often
• Pursue systemic solutions
act for short-term good, seeking to produce quick results that
• Promote research and education
will help them be reelected. Yet many environmental dilemma

436 EPILOGUE Sustainable Solutions

 did not yet exist. Yet just eight years later, astronauts walked
on the moon. America accomplished this historic milestone
by harnessing public enthusiasm for a goal and by supporting
its scientists and engineers.
Today humanity faces a challenge more important than
any other. Attaining sustainability is a larger and more com-plex
process than traveling to the moon. However, it is one
to which every person can contribute, and toward which all
nations can work together. If America was able to reach the
moon in a mere eight years, then certainly humanity can pur-sue
sustainability with comparable speed.
Fortunately, in our society today we have many thousands
of scientists who study Earth’s processes and resources. Thanks
to their efforts, we are amassing a detailed knowledge and a
growing understanding of our dynamic planet, what it offers
us, and what impacts it can bear. Environmental science, this
study of Earth and of ourselves, offers us hope for our future.
FIGURE E.1 Sustainable solutions require long-term
thinking. These students in India are caring for tree seedlings at
their school’s nursery and, by planting them on eroded hillsides, Earthis anisland
are helping to reforest the valley in which they live. In doing so,
We began this book with the vision of Earth as an island, and
they areinvesting in their own future.
indeed it is (FIGURE E.2). Islands can be paradise, as Easter
Island (pp. 8–9) likely was when Polynesians first reached it.
are cumulative, worsen gradually, and can be resolved only
Yet when Europeans arrived centuries later, they witnessed the
over long periods. Often the costs of addressing an environ-mental
aftermath of a civilization that had collapsed once its island’s
problem areshortterm but the benefitsarelong term.
resources were depleted and its environment degraded.
Forthis reason, keeping pressure on policymakers is vital.
It would be tragic folly to let such a fate befall our planet
as a whole. By recognizing this fact, by encouraging sustain-able
Systemic solutions There are two general ways to
practices, and by employing science to help us achieve
respond to a problem. Oneis to addressthe symptoms (a symp-tomatic
these ends, we may yet be able to live happily and sustainably
approach), and the other is to address the root cause
on our wondrous island, Earth.
(a systemicapproach).Addressing
symptomsis easier,but gen-erally
it is not effective in resolving a problem. Forinstance, as
we deplete easily accessible fossil fuel deposits, weare choos-ing
to reachfurther for newfossil fuel sources,evenin the face
of mounting environmental and health repercussions. A sys-temic
solution to our energy demands wouldinvolve develop-ing
cleanrenewablesourcesinstead. For manyissues weface,
it will prove bestto pursue systemic solutions.

Research and education Finally, weeachcan magnify

our influence by educating others and by serving asrole mod-els
through our actions. Environmental science provides infor-mation
weall can useto makewisedecisionson a diversity of
issues. By promoting scientific research and by educating oth-ers
about environmental science, weall can assistin the pursuit
of sustainablesolutions.

Timeis precious
Wecan bring sustainablesolutions withinreach, buttime is
getting short, and human impacts continue to intensify. Even
if wecan visualize sustainable solutions, how can wefind the
time to implement them before wedoirreparable damageto
our environment and our future?
In 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced that FIGURE E.2 This photo of Earth, taken by astronauts orbit-ing
withina decadethe UnitedStateswouldbe“landing a manon the moon, shows our planet as it truly is—an island in
the moonand returning him safely to the Earth.” It wasa bold space. Everything we know, need, love, and value comes from
and astonishingstatement;the technology to achievethis feat and resides on this small sphere—so we had best treat it well.

EPILOGUE Sustainable Solutions 43

 APPENDIX
A
Answers
to DataAnalysisQuestions
NOTE: The calculations shown in the answers below Chapter 3 ($22.6 trillion/yr), enabling recreation ($20.6 trillion/yr),

use actual data values that are sometimes more precise and controlling erosion ($16.2 trillion/yr).
Fig. 3.6 All vertebrate groups shown, except for lam-preys,
than those you will be able to approximate from your
are shown branching off “after” (to the right of)
Fig. 5.5 In 1950, GDP was just over $3000 per capita
visual inspection of the graphs involved. As a result,
the hash mark for jaws. This indicates that lampreys
and GPI was just over $2000 per capita, making for a
your answers may differ slightly from those given here.
diverged before jaws originated (and thus lack them),
ratio of about 1.5 to 1. In 2004, GDP was nearly $10,000
The most important thing is that the steps or reasoning
whereas all other vertebrate groups possess jaws.
per capita and GPI was almost $4000 per capita, making
you use to arrive at the answer match the steps or rea-soning
Birds are more closely related to crocodiles than to
for a ratio of about 2.5 to 1. For most people, the ratio
described.
amphibians. We can tell this because birds and croco-diles
for the year they were born will be between these two
share a recent common ancestor, having diverged
values. Together these changes indicate that GDP has

Chapter 1 from this ancestor much more recently than the line-ages
been growing faster than GPI.
that lead to birds and to amphibians diverged in
Fig. 1.3 The graph shows that nearly 1 billion people
the tree. Fig. 5.12 Oil, coal, and natural gas have together
were alive in 1800, whereas over 7 billion are alive
received about $594 billion, while all other energy
today. Thus, for every person alive in 1800, there are Fig. 3.15 Because exponential growth cannot last for-ever,
sources received about $244 billion in the United
slightly more than 7 alive today.
we would expect that growth of the western U.S.
States during the period covered by the figure. If we
population of Eurasian collared doves will eventually
Fig. 1.5 The global ecological footprint today is roughly divide 594 by 244, we get 2.43. Thus, about $2.43
slow down and that the population will reach carrying
1.68 planet Earths. The global ecological footprint half a has been spent on fossil fuel subsidies for every $1.00
capacity. Thus the population growth graph for the west-ern
century ago (1961) was roughly 0.73 planet Earth. This that has gone to all other energy sources combined.
United States would come to have a shape more like
makes for a difference of 0.95 planet Earth, and it means Renewable energy sources consisting of wind, solar,
the current graph for Florida, showing logistic growth.
that today’s footprint is 2.3 times larger than the footprint geothermal, and biofuels together received about $81

half a century ago. billion in the United States during the period covered

by the figure. If we divide 594 by 81, we get 7.33.

Chapter 4
Fig. 1.9 In part (a), time in weeks is shown on the Thus, about $7.33 has been spent on fossil fuel sub-sidies
x-axis, the horizontal axis. In part (b), the dependent Fig. 4.7 In the generalized example shown, there are
for every $1.00 that has gone to renewable
variable is the percentage of pond surface area covered 100 units of energy among primary consumers (such
energy.
by algae, because this is on the y-axis and depends as grasshoppers) for every 10 units among secondary

on whether ponds were fertilized. In part (c), the data consumers (such as rodents). Therefore, there is 1/10 as
show a positive correlation, with values of pond cover much energy among secondary consumers as among pri-mary Chapter 6
increasing along with increases in fertilizer applica-tion. consumers. Thus, if a system had 3000 kcal/m2/yr
Fig. 6.4 By examining the key that links colors on the
In part (d), Species #1 is most numerous because of energy among primary consumers, we would expect
map to growth rates, we see that Africa has the highest
it has the largest percentage and the largest pie slice, 300 kcal/m2/yr of energy among secondary consum-ers
overall growth rate of any region. Europe has the low-est
whereas Species #5 is least numerous. The thin black (300/3000, a 1:10 ratio). Likewise, in the example
growth rate of any region, as evidenced by its many
lines in part (b) are called error bars. They indicate the shown there is 1 unit of energy among tertiary consum-ers
nations with very low or negative growth rates.
amount of variation the data show around the mean, or (such as hawks) for every 10 units among second-ary

average, value (which is indicated by the height of each consumers—again, a 1:10 ratio. Thus if there were Fig. 6.12 The transitional stage has the greatest growth

colored bar). 300 kcal/m2/yr of energy among secondary consumers, of any stage in the demographic transition, because that

there would be 30 kcal/m2/yr of energy among tertiary is the period when birth and death rates are far apart
Fig. 1.16 Of the nations shown in the figure, Canada consumers. and population increase is substantial. The growth is the
has the largest per capita footprint, and Haiti has the
greatest toward the end of the transitional stage, about
smallest per capita footprint. The Canadian footprint Fig. 4.17 Average monthly temperatures for temperate
three-fourths of the way through, when the difference
(8.8 ha) is 14.7 times larger than Haiti’s footprint grassland are similar to those for temperate deciduous
between birth and death rates is the greatest.
(0.6 ha), because 8.8 divided by 0.6 equals 14.7. forest in the summertime, but in the wintertime, grass-land
temperatures tend to get colder. As for precipitation, Fig. 6.14 The best approach to answer a question such

temperate grassland receives substantially less precipita-tion as this one is to draw a “best-fit” line (see Appendix B)
Chapter 2 all year than temperate deciduous forest. This is the through the points on the figure that minimizes the dis-tance

Fig. 2.16 Tropical rainforest has a net primary produc-tivity driving factor causing it to be grassland, because trees between each point and the line you draw. Doing
of about 2200 g C/m2/yr, whereas cultivated land require more water than grass. There is also slightly this produces a line that slopes downward from left to

has around 600 g C/m2/yr. Dividing 2200 g C/m2/yr by more variability (difference between low and high right, suggesting a negative relationship between total
600 g C/m2/yr shows that the hectare of land would have extremes) in precipitation in the grassland biome. fertility rate and the rate of enrollment of girls in second-ary

been around 3.7 times more productive as rainforest than school. This relationship makes sense—one would
as cultivated land. As productive ecosystems absorb expect that as more girls pursue education, they delay

more carbon dioxide than less productive ecosystems, Chapter 5 childbirth and reduce the nation’s TFR.
one approach for combating climate change is to slow or Fig. 5.2 The arrows show the directions in which items
Fig. 6.16 Africa will add about 1.3 billion people to the
eliminate the conversion of highly productive rainforest are moving. When you work at a job, you give labor and
global population by 2050, more than the roughly 900
to less productive farmland in tropical regions, such as you receive wages. When you buy a product, you pay
million people added by Asia. Africa will also increase
the Amazon. money and you receive the product in terms of goods
by the largest percentage, some 108%. This value is
or services. The environment provides to the economy
Fig. 2.24 Reducing nitrogen inputs into the Chesa-peake calculated by dividing the number of people added to
both ecosystem goods (natural resources) and ecosystem
Bay through enhanced nutrient management Africa’s population (1.3 billion) by its 2016 population
services (such as waste acceptance). Some ecosystem
programs costs $21.90 per pound, whereas a 1-pound (1.2 billion) and then multiplying by 100 to convert the
services (such as climate regulation, nutrient cycling,
reduction from forest buffers costs only $3.10. Divid-ing resulting proportion to a percentage: (1.3/1.2) × 100 =
and air and water purification) act as natural recycling
$21.90 per pound by $3.10 per pound shows us that 108%. Possible explanations for Africa growing the fast-est
processes, helping to repurpose waste materials into the
for the same price, we could keep about 7 pounds of of any world region would include relatively lower
creation of new resources.
nitrogen out of waterways by using forested buffers levels of women’s rights than other regions, significantly

versus 1 pound of nitrogen by using nutrient manage-ment Fig. 5.4 The ecosystem services that provide the less contraceptive use than other regions, and the lowest

programs. most benefits in dollar terms are: treating waste per capita income of any world region. Because all of

A-
these factors are correlated with high fertility, it follows threatened species of amphibians. For non-threatened a percentage) of molybdenum reserves are economically
that Africa’s population growth will likely surpass that species, we need to look at the yellow portions of the recoverable. Nickel (60%) comes in second when simi-lar

of other regions in coming decades. bars. Comparing these, we see that the portion for calculations are performed. The metal with the lowest
fires is shorter than that for pollution; thus, pollution percentage of economically recoverable reserves is lead.

is a greater cause of declines. Lead’s 18 years of economically recoverable reserves

Chapter 7
divided by its 415 years of technically recoverable
Fig. 7.2 Overall growth of the human population pro-vides Fig. 8.17 In 2016, there were 276 condors in the wild—more
reserves show that only 4% of the world’s known lead
the answer. Between the two periods specified, our than the 170 that were in captivity. In the 1980s
reserves are currently economically recoverable.
global population increased by several hundred million and 1990s, there were far more birds in captivity than in

people, with the vast majority of this growth occurring the wild. The proportion and number of wild birds have Fig. 2 (SBS) Answering this question requires some

in developing nations. Thus, although the absolute num-ber generally increased since then, and wild birds have out-numbered estimation to determine the values shown by the height

of undernourished people in the developing world captive birds since 2011. Today there are about of the bars in the figure. Make your estimate more accu-rate

rose slightly, a great many people were added to the total 446 condors alive, which is over 22 times more than in by using a ruler to find the spot on the y-axis that

population, so the percentage of people who were under-nourished the 1980s, when the number was down to about 20. corresponds with the top of the bar you’re measuring.

still fell. The wild condor population in 1890 was about 500 If you do this, you should see that the greatest change

birds, so today’s wild population is about 55% of that in the number of earthquakes was from 2013 (approxi-mately
Fig. 7.15 Beef requires 17.5 times more land to pro-duce
(276/500), and today’s total (wild plus captive) popula-tion 125 earthquakes) to 2014 (around 675 earth-quakes).
than chicken (245 m2/14 m2 = 17.5). Beef requires
is about 89% of the 1890 total (446/500). Dividing 675 by 125 yields 5.4, showing that
15 times more water to produce than chicken (750 kg/50
there were more than five times more earthquakes of
kg = 15). Beef releases 8.6 times more greenhouse gases
magnitude 3 or greater in the central and Eastern United
than chicken (342 kg/40 kg = 8.6).
Chapter 9
States in 2014 than in 2013. As shown in the figure, both
Fig. 9.13 The ratio of growth to removal is greatest for
of these values are significantly higher than the historic
Fig. 7.18 In 2007, around 50 million hectares of GM
the land type for which the relative height of the two
average of 10 to 20 large quakes per year that occurred
crops were growing in developing nations, and by
bars is most different. This is the case for the national
from the early 1970s to the late 2000s.
2011 it had risen to roughly 80 million hectares—an
forests, where annual growth exceeds 4 billion ft3 while
increase of 30 million hectares over those 5 years. In
annual removal totals less than 0.4 billion ft3.
2012, about 85 million hectares of GM crops were Chapter 12
being cultivated in developing nations, and by 2016 it Fig. 2 (SBS) According to the data in the graph, the
Fig. 12.2 Consulting the figure, note that 2.5% of the
had grown to nearly 100 million hectares—an increase forest plot held about 55 bird species in the 4 years
water on Earth is fresh water and that 1% of all fresh
of around 15 million hectares. Comparing the two val-ues, researchers monitored it before its fragmentation in
water is surface water. Within this surface water, 52%
we see that the global increase in GM crop acreage 1984. After the plot became a fragment, the average
is found in lakes. To determine the percentage of water
was therefore about half as fast in recent years as it was number of bird species dropped to about 20 species.
found in freshwater lakes, multiply 2.5% (0.025) by
in the previous five year period. While GM crops have
1% (0.01) and by 52% (0.52). Multiplying these three
Fig. 3 (SBS) According to the data in the graph, a tree
been readily embraced by farmers in Latin American
values reveals that although freshwater lakes (such as the
275 meters in from the edge of a forest fragment would
nations, they have been slow to gain adoption in Africa
Great Lakes) seem massive, all of the world’s freshwater
be susceptible to elevated tree mortality (an edge effect
and Asia. In some cases, African and Asian farmers
lakes combined contain only 0.013% of Earth’s water.
that extends 300 min) and increased wind disturbance
choose not to plant GM crops due to local concerns
(which extends 400 min).
about their safety and potential ecological impacts. In Fig. 12.7 Released off the southeastern coast of Japan,

other cases, farmers do not grow GM plants because the buoy would be carried northeast by the Kuroshio
the nations to which they export their harvest—Japan Chapter 10 Current and then eastward across the ocean on the

and European nations—refuse to import GM foods. North Pacific Current. Upon reaching North America,
Fig. 10.3 In 2015, respiratory infections claimed
it could turn southward on the California Current and
approximately 3.2 million lives and diarrheal diseases
float by the western coast of the United States, passing
about 1.8 million, for a total of 5 million lives. There
Chapter 8 Washington, Oregon, and California. Alternatively, the
were about 1.7 million deaths from AIDS. Dividing
Fig. 8.3 The rightmost pie chart in the figure shows that buoy might follow the Alaska Current northward upon
5 million by 1.7 million reveals that about three times
there are 5900 species of mammals. The middle pie chart reaching North America and pass Alaska, then return to
more lives were lost to respiratory infections and diar-rheal
shows that there are about 66,000 species of vertebrates. Japan. So although Japan is closer to Australia, ocean
diseases than were lost to AIDS. As this example
Because 5900 is 0.089 of 66,000, this means that mam-mals currents would carry the buoy to the United States first.
shows, the diseases that garner the most attention are
make up about 8.9% of all vertebrates. The leftmost
not always the ones that cause the greatest impacts on
Fig. 12.17 Among the three regions, Latin America
pie chart shows that there are about 1,552,000 known and
human health.
and the Caribbean have the greatest amount of water
described species of animals. Because 5900 is 0.0038 of
per capita. With its abundant river systems (including
1,552,000, this means that mammals make up just 0.38% Fig. 10.11 The odds of perishing in a motor vehicle
the mighty Amazon) and relatively small population
of all animals. One can add up the numbers in the left-most accident is 1 in 113, whereas the chance of dying in an
compared to that of Africa and Asia, the per-person
pie chart to find that there are about 2,118,000 likely air and space transport incident is 1 in 9737. Dividing
water quantities in the nations of this region are con-sistently
species of organisms in total. Because 5900 is 0.28% of 9737 by 113 shows that the odds of dying in a car acci-dent
large. Although Africa and Asia do contain
2,118,000, this means that mammals make up just 0.28% are about 86 times those of dying in a plane crash—even
abundant river systems, they also have larger popula-tions,
of all organisms (or about 1 out of 350). In reality, the though our instinctive risk assessment often makes
which means that less water is available per
percentage is actually much lower, because virtually all us feel safer “behind the wheel.”
person. Africa and Asia are also home to large regions
mammal species have already been discovered, yet most
with arid climates, another factor that reduces the
species of other types of organisms have not yet been
Chapter 11
quantities of available water.
discovered. Finally, the center pie chart shows 1,014,000
Fig. 11.5 Comparison of the two figures reveals that
insect species; therefore, there are 1,014,000/5900 = 172
Fig. 12.29 In 2014, the total global fisheries production
this belt of intense earthquake and volcanic activity cor-responds
insect species for every mammal species.
was about 170 million metric tons, with around 90 mil-lion
closely to the subduction zones at the bounda-ries
metric tons coming from capture fisheries and about
Fig. 8.12 In the winter of 2016–2017, monarchs occu-pied of the tectonic plates that surround the Pacific
80 million metric tons from aquaculture. To determine
just 2.91 hectares (ha), whereas in 1994–1995 Ocean. As shown in Figure 11.2, convergent plate
the percentage of the total derived from aquaculture,
(the first year of data), they occupied 7.81 ha. Thus in boundaries dominate the length of the ring of fire. Note
you divide 80 million metric tons by 170 million metric
2016–2017 they occupied just 37.3% (2.91/7.81) of their that other locations that experience earthquakes and
tons (and then multiply the answer by 100 to convert it
original area. Compared with the year of greatest area volcanic activity—such as Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, and
to a percentage) and find that about 47% of the world’s
occupied (18.19 ha in 1996–1997), monarchs in 2016–2017 southern Italy—are similarly located along convergent
seafood originated from aquaculture operations in that
occupied just 16.0% of that area (2.91/18.19). plate boundaries.
year. Similar calculations for 1980 (65 million metric
Fig. 8.13 The bar for pollution stretches to a value of Fig. 11.22 At present rates of consumption, molybde-num tons from capture, 5 million metric tons from aquacul-ture)

nearly 1200 species, second only to habitat loss; this has technically recoverable reserves that would last reveals that only about 7% of total fisheries pro-duction
indicates that pollution is the second-greatest cause around 85 years, of which about 66 years of reserves came from aquaculture. One explanation for this

of amphibian declines overall. For threatened spe-cies are economically recoverable. Dividing increase
66 years of eco-nomically is that as ocean stocks of wild fish dwindled
alone, we need to look at the red portions of the recoverable reserves by 85 years of technically due to overharvesting, it became more costly to locate

bars. Comparing red portions of the bars, we can see recoverable reserves yields the value 0.78, indicating schools of large fish, opening the door for aquaculture as
that habitat loss is the primary cause of declines for that 78% (multiply 0.78 by 100 to present the value as an economically viable alternative to wild capture.

APPENDIX A Answers to Data Analysis Questions A-

 Chapter 13 diverging from the blue-shaded area. The observed data produced 15.3 billion gallons. Thus U.S. production
track with the red-shaded area because human-caused is about 15.3/26.6 = 0.58. Therefore, U.S. production
Fig. 13.7 Population has increased by 57% since 1970.
emissions have raised global temperatures, so it is to be makes up about 58% of the world total. From the data
Emissions have decreased by 71%. Thus, emissions per
expected that the data actually observed on Earth would alone, we might reasonably predict ethanol produc-tion
person have decreased by over five times. (Imagine a
match what is simulated by a model that takes human, as to rise sharply in the future because that has been
population rising from 100 to 157, and emission drop-ping
well as natural, impacts into account. the overall trend since 1980 and especially since 2000.
from 100 to 29. 29/157 = 0.185, or less than one-fifth
However, we might just as reasonably predict that etha-nol
of the original 1-unit-per-person rate.)
production will level off in the future, because pro-duction
Chapter 15
Fig. 13.10 Answers will vary. For example, a person has remained fairly constant for the most recent
Fig. 15.3 Answers will vary. One should take the value
living in Los Angeles would be breathing dirtier air than seven years. This illustrates the uncertainties of extrapo-lating
at the far right end of the data line for oil (4.42 billion
people in most other cities, yet would find that L.A.’s air data into the future; your predictions of trends can
tons in 2016) and divide it by the value of that line in
had improved over time, with only about 40% as many depend on how far back in time you reach to assess past
the year one was born. For example, for a person born
unhealthy days in 2015 as in 1985. All 29 cities on the data. Ideally, you would want to go beyond the data and
in 1999, when oil consumption was about 3.5 billion
map have improved their air quality in recent years. Fac-tors learn as much as you can about the many factors driving
tons per year, the percentage change by 2016 would be
influencing air quality could include topography and ethanol production before making predictions.
roughly 4.42/3.5 = 1.26, or about a 26% increase. For
climate, pollution sources such as power plants and the
most people, coal has risen fastest since they were born;
type of fuel they use, intensity of vehicle traffic, and more.
the same type of calculation can be performed, and note
Chapter 17
Steps for reduction could include various policy measures
how the data line for coal rises more steeply than those Fig. 17.5 The amount of solid waste that is combusted
and adoption of better pollution control technology.
for oil or gas. (incinerated) is shown in green. To determine increase
Fig. 13.14 According to the data in the bars of the graph, or decrease, note whether the green band widens or
Fig. 15.18 Answers will vary. One should take the
in the late 1970s the L.A. basin suffered about 210–215 narrows over time. (This is separate from the overall
value at the far right end of the black (“Total”) data
days per year of unhealthy air, and in recent years it has height of the graph data, which reflects cumulative,
line and divide it by the value of that line in the year
suffered about 125 such days—this is roughly a 41% summed, totals.) Examining the green band, we see that
one’s mother or father was born. For example, if one’s
reduction. According to the data in the line of the graph, the amount of solid waste that is combusted (inciner-ated)
parent were born in 1970, when emissions were about
in the late 1970s peak daily ozone levels averaged about decreased from 1960 until about 1985, and then it
4.0 billion tons per year, then the percentage of change
0.30 ppm, and in recent years they have averaged about increased until about 2002. As of 2014, the amount was
by 2014 would be about 9.8/4.0 = 2.45, or roughly a
0.12 ppm, representing about a 60% reduction. Thus, roughly equal to the amount back in 1960.
145% increase.
both data sets show similar declines, with the decline
Fig. 17.6 Between 1960 and 2014, the total amount of
of peak daily ozone levels being somewhat greater. One
Fig. 15.21 The United States extracts 15.1 million bar-rels
waste that was recovered increased by almost 15 times
can tell this at a glance because the slopes of the two
of oil per day and consumes 19.5 million barrels per
(from about 6to about 89 million tons). However, in that
data sets each head downward through time, but the
day. Thus, for every barrel extracted, 19.5/15.1 = 1.29
same time period the recovery rate (percentage of waste
slope of the red line is a bit steeper than the slope of
barrels are consumed.
generated that is recovered) increased by just under
the bars.
6 times (from about 6% to nearly 35%). From this we

Fig. 13.22 Answers will vary, but in virtually all loca-tions, Chapter 16 can infer that the total amount of waste generated must

precipitation has become less acidic. For exam-ple, also have risen. This is because had the total amount
Fig 16.2 Note that in both part (a) and part (b), the
in many parts of the northeastern United States, pH generated stayed the same, the amount recovered and
bar on the right gives a breakdown of data from the
increased from about 4.3 to about 5.0. percentage recovered would have changed by the same
pie slice for renewable energy. In part (a), the pie chart
amount. Had the total amount generated fallen, the per-centage
for energy consumption tells us that renewable energy
recovered would have increased by more than
as a whole provides 10.5% of U.S. energy consump-tion.
Chapter 14 the amount recovered.
The bar tells us that solar energy provides 5.8%

Fig. 14.3 Since 1750 the atmospheric carbon dioxide of renewable energy. Therefore, solar contributes 5.8%

concentration has increased from about 280 ppm to of 10.5%—or 0.6%—of total U.S. energy consump-tion. Chapter 18
more than 400 ppm—a 43% increase. Similarly, in part (b), the pie chart for electricity
Fig. 18.1 The dashed red line (which projects the urban
generation tells us that renewable energy as a whole
population) for developing nations surpasses the dashed
Fig. 14.4 Changing land use accounts for 6 metric tons
provides 15.4% of U.S. electricity generation. The bar
blue line (which projects the rural population) for devel-oping
of carbon dioxide emissions per year, and industry emits
tells us that wind power provides 36.1% of renewable
nations between the year 2010 and the year 2020.
26 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Because 26/6 =
energy. Therefore, wind contributes 36.1% of 15.4%—or
4.33, this means that for every 1 metric ton released by
5.6%—of total U.S. electricity generation. Fig. 18.9 In part (a), driving an SUV consumes about
changing land use, 4.33 tons are released by industry.
4 MJ/passenger-km of energy, whereas riding com-muter
Fig 16.3 Using median values indicated by the
rail consumes only about 1.4 MJ/passenger-km—a
Fig. 14.9 Answers will vary. In most regions tempera-ture
thin black vertical lines within the colored bars,
difference of 2.6, and a ratio of 2.9 to 1. Greenhouse
rose. In some areas of the Southeast it was stable
1 kilowatt-hour of electricity from PV solar results
gas emissions from vehicles are generally the result of
or fell slightly.
in roughly 35 g CO2-equivalent emissions, whereas
fossil fuel combustion, so all else being equal, we can
1 kilowatt-hour of electricity from coal results in roughly
Fig. 14.29 Many of the nations that reduced emissions predict that the difference in greenhouse gas emissions
1000 g CO2-equivalent emissions. Thus, for every unit
are European. Three of the nations where emissions per passenger-mile from driving an SUV versus taking
of emissions from PV solar, we would expect roughly
increased (Australia, Canada, and the United States) commuter rail would be roughly the same as the differ-ence
1000/35 = 29 units from coal.
are large and less densely populated. Because they are in energy consumption. Indeed, as the figure cap-tion

geographically more spread out, long-distance transpor-tation notes, data on greenhouse gas emissions look very
Fig 16.11 On average, southern Arizona receives
consumes more petroleum, giving rise to more similar to the energy data in part (a). Roadway costs and
roughly 2400–2600 kilowatt-hours per square meter
emissions. In addition, these nations are more politically parking costs are created by automobile traffic, but not
per year, and most of Germany receives fewer than
conservative than most European nations, and many by rail traffic. Note the yellow and orange portions of
1200 kWh/m2/yr. Thus, southern Arizona receives more
conservatives tend to fear that emissions reductions will the bars in the figure for part (b). These costs make auto-mobile
than twice as much sunlight as does Germany. For one’s
suppress economic activity. traffic more costly overall than rail traffic.
own state, answers will vary, but the comparison would

be made in the same way.

Fig. 3 (SBS) The red-shaded area reflects modeling Fig. 2 (SBS) The blue curve represents the expected dis-tribution
results of temperature change with both natural factors of values based on the data obtained. The blue
Fig 16.16 Answers will vary, but regions that appear
and human factors considered. Human impacts (in par-ticular, curve crosses the threshold for damage to land plants at
underutilized for wind power include (on land) North
greenhouse gas emissions) increased greatly dur-ing about 14% of impervious surface, so that is the percent-age
and South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, and
the course of the 20th century due to steep growth at which one would expect to begin seeing this effect.
New Mexico; and (offshore) the Great Lakes and the
in our population and resource consumption. Because The blue curve crosses the threshold for chronic toxicity
entire Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts.
the right-hand side of the graph shows data for the lat-ter to freshwater life at about 36% of impervious surface, so
portion of the century, it is here that the influence Fig. 16.22 In 2016, 26.6 billion gallons of ethanol were that is the percentage at which one would expect to begin

of human impacts moves the red-shaded area upward, produced across the world, of which the United States seeing this effect.

A-3 APPENDIX A Answers to Data Analysis Question

 APPENDIX
B
HowtoInterpretGraphs
Presenting data in ways that help make trends and patterns spaced so that when the data are plotted, the graph gives an
visually apparent is a vital element of science. For scientists, accurate visual representation of the scale of quantitative
businesspeople, journalists, policymakers, and others, the pri-mary change in the data.
tool for expressing patterns in data is the graph. The As a simple example, FIGURE B.1 shows data from the
ability to interpret graphs is a vital skill that you will want to Breeding Bird Survey that reflect population growth of the
cultivate. This appendix guides you in how to read graphs, Eurasian collared dove following its introduction to North
introduces a few key conceptual points, and surveys the most America. The x-axis shows values of the independent vari-able,
common types of graphs, giving rationales for their use. which in this case is time, expressed in units of years.
The dependent variable, presented on the y-axis, is the aver-age
number of doves detected on each route. For each year, a

Navigating a Graph data point is plotted on the graph to show the average number
of doves detected. In this particular graph, a line (dark red
A graph is a type of diagram that shows relationships among curve) wasthen drawn through the actual data points (orange
variables, which are factors that can change in value. The dots), showing how closely the empirical data match an expo-nential
most common types of graphs relate values of a dependent growth curve (p. 63), a theoretical phenomenon of
variable to those of an independent variable. As explained in importance in ecology.
Chapter 1 (p. 10), a dependent variable is so named because Now that you’re familiar with the basic building blocks
its values “depend on” the values of an independent varia-ble. of a graph, let’s survey the most common types of graphs
In other words, as the values of an independent variable you’ll see, and examine a few vital concepts in graphing.
change, the values of the dependent variable change
in response. In a manipulative experiment (p. 11),
Value of Data point
changes that a researcher specifies in the value of
y = 1.53 birds
the independent variable cause changes in the value per route
of the dependent variable. In observational studies, 8

there may be no causal relationship, and scientists

7
y-axis
may plot a correlation (p. 11). In a positive corre-lation,
values of one variable go up or down along 6

with values of another. In a negative correlation, val-ues

5
of one variable go up when values of the other rout

go down. Whether we are graphing a correlation or 4

per

a causal relationship, the values of the independent 3

variable are known or specified by the researcher, Birds

2
whereas the values of the dependent variable are Value of
unknown until the research has taken place. The val-ues x = 2008
1
of the dependent variable are what we are inter-ested Dependent
variable 0
in observing or measuring.
By convention, independent variables are gener-ally 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015

represented on the horizontal axis, or x-axis, of Year

a graph, while dependent variables are represented x-axis

Independent
on the vertical axis, or y-axis. Numerical values of
variable
variables generally become larger as one proceeds
rightward on the x-axis or upward on the y-axis. Note FIGURE B.1 Exponential population growth, demonstrated by the Eur-asian
that the tick marks along the axes must be uniformly collared dove in North America in recent years. (Figure 3.13, p. 63)

Mastering Environmental Science

Once you've explored this appendix, take advantage of the graphing resources at www.masteringenvironmentalscience.com.
The tutorials allow you to plot your own data. The Interpreting Graphs and Data exercises guide you through critical-thinking
questions on graphed data from recent research in environmental science. The Data Analysis Questions help you hone
your skillsin reading graphed data. Allthese features willhelp you expand your comprehension and use of graphs.

B-1
 GraphType:Line Graph Yearly data show an increase in ozone
hole size before the Montreal Protocol
and stabilization afterwards.
Aline graphis used whena data setinvolves a sequence of some
kind, such as a series of values that occur one by one and change 30

through time or across distance. In aline graph, aline runs from

Montreal
25
one data point to the next. Line graphs are most appropriate Protocol
km
when the y-axis expresses a continuous numerical variable, and
20
the x-axis expresses either continuous numerical data or discrete sq

of

sequential categories (such as years). FIGURE B.2 shows values 15

for the size of the ozone hole over Antarctica in recent years.
10
Note how the data show that the size of the hole increases until Millions

1987, when the Montreal Protocol (p. 303) came into force, and 5
then begins to stabilize afterwards.
0
1979 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Year

FIGURE B.2 Size of the Antarctic ozone hole before and after
80 300 a treaty that was designed to address it. (Figure 13.17, p. 303)

watt)
70 Plotting these two data sets
together reveals that one rose while 250
per
60 the other fell, suggesting that they
mayinfluence one another. (gigawatts)

200
50
(dollars

Production
40 150
capacity

price
One useful technique is to plot two or more data sets
Price together on the same graph. This allows us to compare trends
30 power

100 in the data sets to see whether they may be related and, if so,
module

20 solar
the nature of that relationship. For example, FIGURE B.3 shows
50 how the generation of electrical power from solar energy has
10
Average
Global
increased as prices for solar equipment have decreased, sug-gesting
a possible connection.
0 0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Year

FIGURE B.3 Rising generation of solar power and falling

prices of solar equipment. (Figure 16.12, p. 385)

Key Concept: Projections 5.5

5.0 Projected future

Besides showing observed data, graphs can show data that are
Rural data are plotted
predicted for the future. Such projections of data are based 4.5
Urban as a dashed line.
on models, simulations, or extrapolations from past data, 4.0
but they are only as good as the information that goes into Known past data
3.5
them—and future trends may not hold if conditions change are plotted as a
(billions)
3.0 solid line.
in unforeseen ways. Thus, in this textbook, projected future
Developing
data are shown with dashed lines, as in FIGURE B.4, to indi-cate 2.5
nations
that they are less certain than data that have already been 2.0
observed. Be careful when interpreting graphs in the popu-lar
Population
Developed
1.5
nations
media and on the Internet, however; often newspapers,
1.0
magazines, websites, and advertisements will show projected
future data in the same way as known past data! 0.5

0
FIGURE B.4 Past population change and projected future
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 205
population change for rural and urban areas in more devel-oped
and less developed nations. (Figure 18.1, p. 420) Year

B-2 APPENDIX B How to Interpret Graphs

 GraphType: Bar Chart 3.5

A bar chart is mostoften used when one variable is a category 3.0 Bar height represents
value of variable in each
and the other is a number. In such a chart, the height (or length)
category.
of each bar represents the numerical value of a given category. 2.5
(millions)

Higher or longer bars signify larger values. In FIGURE B.5,the

2.0
bar for the category “Respiratory infections” is higher than
deaths

that for “Malaria,” indicating that respiratory infections cause

1.5
more deaths each year (the numerical variable on the y-axis)
than does malaria.
Annual

1.0

0.5

0
Respiratory Diarrheal AIDS TB Malaria Meningitis
infections diseases
(influenza,
pneumonia, etc.)

FIGURE B.5 Leading causes of death from infectious

disease. (Figure 10.3b, p. 214)

20

Extraction
Saudi Arabia Consumption
day

extracts
15
more oil.
As we saw with line graphs, it is often instructive to
per

United States graph two or more data sets together to reveal patterns and
oil

consumes
of

10 relationships. A bar chart such as FIGURE B.6lets us compare

more oil.
two data sets (oil extraction and oil consumption) both within
barrels

and among nations. A graph that does double duty in this

5 way allows for higher-level analysis (in this case, suggesting

which nations depend on others for petroleum imports). Most
Million

bar charts in this book illustrate multiple types of information

at once in this manner.
0
Saudi Iran
United Japan
Arabia States Germany

FIGURE B.6 Oil extraction and consumption by selected

nations. (Figure 15.21, p. 362)

GraphType:Pie Chart
Corn comprises
A pie chart is used when we wishto compare the numeri-cal 30% of all

proportions of some wholethat aretaken up by each of GM crops.

Corn
several categories. Each category is represented visually like (30%)
a slice from a pie, withthe size of the slice reflecting the per-centage
Soybeans
of the wholethat is taken up by that category. For
(51%)
example, FIGURE B.7 compares the percentages of genetically
modified crops worldwide that are soybeans, corn, cotton, and Cotton
canola. Canola
(13%)

(5%

Other crops (1%)

FIGURE B.7 Genetically modified crops grown worldwide,

by type. (Figure 7.19a, p. 161)

APPENDIX B How to Interpret Graphs B-3

 GraphType: Scatter Plot
Ascatter plot is often used when data are not sequential and 8

when a given x-axis value could have multiple y-axis values. Each data point is
7
independent of others;
A scatter plot allows us to visualize a broad positive or nega-tive Ethiopia
note Syria and India have
correlation between variables. FIGURE B.8shows a nega-tive 6 nearly the same x-value.
correlation (that is, one value goes up while the other goes
5
Cambodia Guatemala
down): Nations with higher rates of school enrollment for girls (1995–2000

Kenya
tend to have lower fertility rates. For example, Jamaica has 4 Syria South
Egypt
rate

Africa
high enrollment and low fertility, whereas Ethiopia has low
3 India Colombia Peru
enrollment and high fertility.
Vietnam Jamaica
2
fertility

1
Total

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Female secondary school enrollment rate (percentage)

FIGURE B.8 Fertility rate and education of girls,

by nation. (Figure 6.14, p. 133)

KeyConcept: Sometimes shading is used to express variation

mean. The black data line in FIGURE B.10 shows
around a
mean global

StatisticalUncertainty sea level readings from tide gauges since 1880. This data line
is surrounded by gray shading indicating statistical variation.
Most data sets involve some degree of uncertainty. When a Note how the amount of statistical uncertainty is exceeded by
graphed value represents the mean (average) of many measure-ments,
the sheer scale of the sea level rise. This gives us confidence
the researcher may want to use mathematical techniques that sea level is truly rising, despite the statistical uncertainty
to show the degree to which the raw data vary around this wefind around mean values each year.
mean. Results from such statistical analyses may be expressed The statistical analysis of data is critically important in
in a number of ways, and the two graphs in this section show science. In this book, we provide a broad and streamlined
methods used in this book. introduction to many topics, so we often omit error bars from
In a bar chart or a scatter plot (FIGURE B.9), thin black our graphs and leave out details of statistical significance
lines called error bars may be shown extending above and/or from our discussions. Bear in mind that this is for clarity
below each mean data value. In this example of likelihood of of presentation only; the research we discuss analyzes its
death from air pollution, error bars show the most variation at data in far more depth than any textbook could possibly
the highest measured concentration of pollutants and no vari-ation cover.
atthe lowest measuredconcentration.

20 25
death
Most
variation
20
of

15 Gray shading
Least shows variation
variation 15 around mean.
10
(cm)

likelihood

10
rise

in

5
level

change
5
Sea

0 Tide gauge data

0 Satellite data
Percent
Statistical uncertainty
–5
Lowest Highest –5
Concentration of
1880 1920 1960 2000
particulate matter Year

FIGURE B.9 Likelihood of death due to air pollution. (Figure 3, FIGURE B.10 Change in global sea level, measured since
SBS,p. 299) 1880. (Figure 14.15, p. 324)

B-APPENDIX
4 B How to Interpret Graphs
 APPENDIX
C
MetricSystem
UNIT AND METRIC TO ENGLISH ENGLISH TO METRIC

MEASUREMENT ABBREVIATION METRIC EQUIVALENT CONVERSION FACTOR CONVERSION FACTOR

Length 1 kilometer (km) = 1000 (103) meters 1 km = 0.62 mile 1 mile= 1.61 km
1 meter (m) = 100 (102) centimeters 1 m= 1.09 yards 1 yard = 0.914 m
= 3.28 feet 1foot = 0.305 m
= 39.37 inches = 30.5 cm
1 centimeter (cm) = 10 millimeters 1 cm = 0.394inch 1inch = 2.54 cm
= 0.01 (102) meter
1 millimeter (mm) = 0.01(102) centimeter 1 mm= 0.039inch
Area 1 square meter(m2) = 10,000 square 1 m2= 1.196 square yards 1 square yard = 0.8361 m2
centimeters = 10.764 square feet 1 square foot = 0.0929 m2
1 hectare (ha) = 10,000 square meters 1 ha = 2.47 acres 1 acre = 0.405 hectare
1 square kilometer (km2) = 1,000,000 square 1 km2 = 0.386 square mile 1 square mile = 2.59 km2
meters

Mass 1 metric ton (t) = 1000 kilograms 1t = 1.103tons 1ton = 0.907t

1 kilogram (kg) = 1000 grams 1 kg = 2.205 pounds 1 pound(lb) = 0.4536 kg
1 gram (g) = 1000 milligrams 1 g = 0.0353 ounce 1 ounce = 28.35 g
1 milligram (mg) = 0.001 gram
Volume (solids) 1 cubic meter(m3) = 1,000,000 cubic 1 m3= 1.3080 cubic yards 1 cubic yard = 0.7646 m3
centimeters
1 cubic centimeter = 0.000001 cubic meter 1 cm3 = 0.0610 cubic inch 1 cubic inch = 16.387 cm3
(cm3 or cc)
1 cubic millimeter(mm3) = 0.001 cubic centimeter
Volume (liquids 1 kiloliter (kl or kL) = 1000 liters 1 kL = 264.17 gallons 1 gallon = 3.785 L
and gases) 1liter (l or L) = 1000 milliliters 1 L = 0.264 gallon 1 quart = 0.946 L
= 1.057 quarts = 946 ml
1 milliliter (ml or mL) = 0.001 liter 1 ml = 0.034 fluid ounce 1fluid ounce = 29.57 ml
= 1 cubic centimeter = approx. 1/5 teaspoon 1teaspoon = approx. 5 ml
Temperature Degrees Celsius (°C) 5 9
°C = (°F - 32) °F = (°C) + 32
9 5

Energy and 1 gigawatt (GW) = 1,000,000,000 (109) watts

Power 1 megawatt (MW) = 1,000,000 (106) watts
1 kilowatt (kW) = 1000 (103) watts
1 watt (W) = 0.001 kilowatt
= 1joule/second
1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) = 3,600,000 joules
= 3412 BTU
= 860,400 calories
1 calorie (cal) = The amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram (1 cm3) of water
by 1 degree Celsius
1joule = 0.239 cal
= 2.778 * 107 kilowatt-hours

Pressure 1 atmosphere (atm) = 1013.25 millibars(mbar)

= 14.696 pounds per square inch (psi)
= 760 millimeters of mercury(mmHg)

C-
 APPENDIX
D
Periodic
Tableofthe Elements
as

ele-ments
have
He Ne Ar Kr Rn Og
2
Xe
Lu Lr some
10 18 36 54 86
222 118 294 71
Neon 83.8 103 262
VIIIA 4.003 Argon
Helium Xenon Radon
20.180 39.948 131.29
Krypton occupy
174.967
Oganesson Lutetium valence exist

by
Lawrencium
Elements

of

F Cl Br At Ts No
9 17 35 53 I 85 Yb black
70
210 117 293 generally pressure);
VIIA 102 259

18.998 35.453 79.904

Chlorine Iodine Astatine 173.04
Fluorine Bromine 126.905
Nobelium

Tennessine Ytterbium
created
electrons in of

liquids.

and
number be

as
filled.

Se Po Tm Md
Lv
8
S
Te
VIA
NO 16 34 52 84
209
116 293 69
101 258
some

Sulfur 78.96
Oxygen are
15.999 32.066 127.60
Thulium the
Selenium Tellurium Polonium 168.934 printed must
group)
Livermorium metals exist
Mendelevium

in

elements

VA
atmosphere and
(main are shells

C
blue
Representative
7 15
P
33
As
51
Sb
83
Bi

115
Mc

289 68
Er
Fm 1
100 257

14.007 30.974 74.922 Arsenic 121.76

167.26 Erbium
Nitrogen Antimony 208.980 Bismuth elements,
Fermium
Moscovium
symbols
Phosphorus

dark
and
changes
nature
deeper

in
with
these
Ge
6
Si Sn Pb Fl Ho Es
14 32 50 82
Tin 67 99 in
IVA Lead
114 289 252 elements,

72.61 207.2
12.011 Carbon 28.086 118.71
Silicon
164.93 In the
Holmium
Flerovium
Germanium
Einsteinium (25°C

those

reflects exist

before
B Al Ga Tl Nh Dy and
Cf
5
13 31 49 In 81 66 98
113 286
251 elements not
IIIA Boron
Gallium 162.5
10.811 26.982 69.723 114.82
Indium 204.383 Thallium
This
Aluminum Nihonium transition
Californium
Dysprosium
electrons.

do

or

conditions
shells
gases;
table,

Zn Cd Hg Cn
Tb Bk shell
30 48 80 285 65 97
112
Zinc 247
IIB 65.39 as
VIIIA.
200.59 Mercury
112.411
Cadmium 158.925 Terbium green
Berkelium
Copernicium
elements

reaction

in

electron exist
elements, standard

periodic

earth valence

IB 29
Cu
47
Ag
79
Au
Rg
Gd Cm B

64 96 group
Gold 111 281 247
Silver
63.546 Copper Curium
157.25 red
107.868 196.967

Gadolinium
nuclear
Roentgenium

Rare
in two this
under
in
distant
electrons. symbols
Class of

or In

28
Ni
46
Pd
78
Pt Ds
63
Eu
95
Am
110 281
243
58.69 more
Nickel
106.42 195.08 with
gases) one
151.964 shell solids
Palladium
Platinum
Europium
Americium
type

Darmstadtium

27
Co

45
Rh

77 Ir
Mt

62
Sm 94
Pu
109 278
244
VIIIB
Cobalt
58.933 192.22 the
150.36
102.906 Iridium IIA
Rhodium
Meitnerium Samarium
Plutonium

weight
(noble

group’s
physical have and

contrast,
electron,
elements

26
Fe
44
Ru
76
Os Hs
61
Pm 93
Np

108 269 145

Iron the
In
IA
55.845 101.07 190.23 Osmium
Hassium 237.048 and

Ruthenium the
Neptunium groups.
Promethium
metals
shell
atomic by
group
of

elements
five.

symbol
Mn Re Bh Nd U
and
Tc
25 43 98 75 60 92
107 groups
VIIB called
weight 270
number
54.938 144.24
186.207 Rhenium Bohrium Uranium
238.029 have
Manganese
Technetium Neodymium
chemical inert
valence
of

Transition

particular indicated

properties
the
Chemical Name
Atomic Atomic W
number a
one
Cr Mo Sg Pr Pa is
24 42 74 59
VIB 106 91
269 columns
95.94
51.996 183.84 of to
140.908 231.036
Chromium Tungsten
similar
Molybdenum
Seaborgium
Protactinium elements
Praseodymium

right,
have

which
VA properties

VIIA
atomic
to
have

VB V Nb Db
Ta Ce Th
23 41 73 58 90 vertical
105 268
A
by
50.942 92.906 Cerium
Niobium 180.948 Dubnium Thorium members
140.115 232.038
Vanadium Tantalum
left

and
group

group
12.011 Carbon metallic
elements

Class
that
from
Zr Hf Rf
Ti electrons,
22 40 72 of
104 267 and
IVB
47.88 IA
91.224 178.49
Hafnium
Titanium in
Zirconium
elements

Rutherfordium fact very

periods

shell
two, period

**Actinides the

group
Y a the
group
Sc La Ac *Lanthanides
21 39 57* 89**

IIIB

44.956 88.906 Yttrium

138.906 227.028 Actinium
Scandium
called
have
properties
Lanthanum

arranges

each valence
from

across
reflects

rows of of
Be Mg Ca Sr Ba Ra
4
12 20 38 56 88
table example,
IIA
87.62
9.012 Barium
24.305 40.078 Calcium Radium
137.327 226.025
Beryllium This
Strontium
Magnesium

elements
group)

For
varying

progress nonmetallic

elements number
IIA
H K
Li Na Rb Cs Fr
IA 1 3
11 19 37 55 87
(main 223 periodic horizontal Elements

Representative 6.941
1.0079 22.990 Sodium 39.098 85.468 Cesium
Lithium 132.905
Hydrogen Rubidium
Francium you
Potassium
the

The
number.

D-1
properties. group change,
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
into same as
to
 APPENDIX
E
Geologic
TimeScale
Eon Era Period
0 0 Quaternary First humans
Neogene 2.6 Numerous glaciations
23

CENOZOI
Paleogene
K-Pg mass extinction
66
PHANEROZOIC
Rocky Mountains form
0.5
100
Cretaceous

145
First birds
MESOZOIC
Jurassic
1.0

200 Atlantic Ocean opens

201

ago Triassic First dinosaurs and mammals

Largest massextinction
years 252
1.5 of

Permian
Supercontinent Pangaea
300
PROTEROZOIC
299
Millions

Carboniferous Coal-forming swamps

widespread

2.0 359
Insects begin to diversify

Devonian
ago 400
PALEOZOIC

419
First vascular plants
Silurian
years

of

443
2.5
Ordovician
Billions

485
500

Cambrian First vertebrates

Marine animals diversify

3.0 541

ARCHEAN
First eukaryotes

3.5

Oxygen builds up
in atmosphere

Oldest evidence of life

4.0
Age of bombardment

HADEAN

4.5

Origin of Earth

E-1
 Glossary
acid deposition The settling of acidic or acid-formingagriculture The practice of cultivating soil, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) A naturally occur-ring
pollutants from the atmosphere onto producing crops, and raising livestock for soil bacterium that produces a protein that
Earth’s surface. This may take place by pre-cipitation, human use and consumption. kills many pests, including caterpillars and the
fog, gases, or the deposition of dry larvae of some flies and beetles.
air pollutant A gas or particulate material
particles. Compare acid rain.
added to the atmosphere that can affect climate background extinction rate The average
acid mine drainage A process in which or harm people or other living things. rate of extinction that occurred before the
sulfide minerals in newly exposed rock surfaces
air pollution The release of air pollutants. appearance of humans. For example, the fossil
react with oxygen and rainwater to produce sul-furic
record indicates that for both birds and mam-mals,
airshed The geographic area that produces air
acid, which causes chemical runoff as it
one species in the world typically became
pollutants likely to end up in a waterway.
leaches metals from the rocks. Acid drainage
extinct every 500–1000 years. Compare mass
is a natural phenomenon, but mining greatly allergen A toxicant that overactivates the
extinction event.
accelerates it by exposing many new surfaces. immune system, causing an immune response
when one is not necessary. basic The property of a solution in which
acid rain Acid deposition that takes place
the concentration of hydroxide (OH) ions is
through rain. alloy A substance created by fusing a metal
greater than the concentration of hydrogen (H+)
with other metals or nonmetals. Bronze is an
acidic The property of a solution in which the
ions. Compare acidic.
alloy of the metals copper and tin, and steel is
concentration of hydrogen (H+) ions is greater
an alloy of iron and the nonmetal carbon. bedrock The continuous mass of solid rock that
than the concentration of hydroxide (OH)
makes up Earth’s crust.
ions. Compare basic. anthropocentrism A human-centered view of
our relationship with the environment. Com-pare benthic Of, relating to, or living on the bottom
active solar energy collection An approach
biocentrism; ecocentrism.
in which technological devices are used to of a water body. Compare pelagic.
focus, move, or store solar energy. Compare aquaculture The cultivation of aquatic organ-isms
bioaccumulation The buildup of toxicants in
passive solar energy collection. for food in controlled environments.
the tissues of an animal.
acute exposure Exposure to atoxicant occur-ring aquifer An underground water reservoir.
biocentrism A philosophy that ascribes relative
in high amounts for short periods of time.
artificial selection Natural selection con-ducted values to actions, entities, or properties on the
Compare chronic exposure.
under human direction. Examples basis of their effects on all living things or on
adaptation (re: climate change) The pursuit of include the selective breeding of crop plants, the integrity of the biotic realm in general. The
strategies to protect ourselves from the impacts pets, and livestock.
biocentrist evaluates an action in terms of its
of climate change. Compare mitigation.
asbestos Any of several types of mineral that overall impact on living things, including—but

adaptation (re: evolution) (1) The process by form long, thin microscopic fibers—a struc-ture not exclusively focusing on—human beings.

which traits that lead to increased reproduc-tive that allows asbestos to insulate buildings Compare anthropocentrism; ecocentrism.
success in a given environment evolve for heat, muffle sound, and resist fire. When
biodiesel Diesel fuel produced by mixing veg-etable
in a population through natural selection. inhaled and lodged in lung tissue, asbestos
oil, used cooking grease, or animal fat
(2) A trait that confers greater likelihood that an scars the tissue and may eventually lead to
with small amounts of ethanol or methanol
individual will reproduce. lung cancer.
(wood alcohol) in the presence of a chemical
adaptive management The systematic test-ing asthenosphere A layer of the upper mantle,
catalyst. A majortype of biofuel.
of different management approaches to just below the lithosphere, consisting of espe-cially
soft rock. biodiversity The variety of life across all levels
improve methods over time.
of biological organization, including the diver-sity
aerosols Very fine liquid droplets or solid par-ticles atmosphere Thethin layer of gases surround-ing
of species, genes, populations, and commu-nities.
aloft in the atmosphere. planet Earth. Compare biosphere; hydro-sphere;
The term is short for biological diversity.
lithosphere.
age structure The relative numbers of indi-viduals
biodiversity hotspot An areathat supports an
of different ages within a population. atmospheric deposition The wet or dry
especially great diversity of species, particu-larly
Age structure can have a strong effect on rates deposition onto land of a wide variety of pol-lutants,
including mercury, nitrates, organo-chlorines, species that are endemic to the area.
of population growth or decline and is often

expressed as a ratio of age classes, consist-ing

and others. Acid deposition is one bioenergy Energy harnessed from plant and
type of atmospheric deposition.
of organisms (1) not yet mature enough animal matter, including wood from trees, char-coal

to reproduce, (2) capable of reproduction, and atom The smallest component of an element from burned wood, and combustible animal
(3) beyond their reproductive years. that maintains the chemical properties of that waste products, such as cattle manure. Fossil
element. fuels are not considered biomass energy sources
agricultural revolution The shift around
10,000 years ago from a hunter-gatherer life-style autotroph (primary producer) An organism because their organic matter has not been part

to an agricultural way of life in which that can use the energy from sunlight to pro-duce of living organisms for millions of years and

people began to grow crops and raise domestic its own food. Includes green plants, algae, has undergone considerable chemical alteration

animals. Compare industrial revolution. and cyanobacteria. since that time. Also called biomass energy

G-1
biofuel Liquid fuel produced from biomass bottle bill A law establishing a program carbon footprint The cumulative amount of
sources and used primarily to power automo-biles. whereby consumers pay a deposit on bottles or carbon, or carbon dioxide, that a person or
Examples include ethanol and biodiesel. cans upon purchase—often 5 or 10 cents per institution emits (directly or indirectly) into
container—and then receive a refund when the atmosphere, contributing to global climate
biogeochemical cycle See nutrient cycle.
they return them to stores after use. Bottle bills change. Compare ecological footprint.
biological control Control of pests and weeds reduce litter, raise recycling rates, and decrease
carbon monoxide (CO) A colorless, odorless
with organisms that prey on or parasitize them, the waste stream.
gas produced primarily by the incomplete com-bustion
rather than with chemical pesticides. Com-monly
bottleneck In environmental science, a step in of fuel. An EPA criteria pollutant.
called biocontrol.
a process that limits the progress of the overall
carbon-neutrality The state in which an indi-vidual,
biological diversity See biodiversity. process.
business, orinstitution emits no net car-bon
biomagnification The magnification of the breakdown product A compound that results to the atmosphere. This may be achieved

concentration of toxicants in an organism from the degradation of atoxicant. by reducing carbon emissions and/or employ-ing
caused by its consumption of other organisms carbon offsets to offset emissions.
brownfield An area of land whose redevelop-ment
in which toxicants have bioaccumulated.
or reuse is complicated by the presence or carbon offset A voluntary payment to another
biomass (1) In ecology, organic material that potential presence of hazardous material. entity intended to enable that entity to reduce

makes up living organisms; the collective mass the greenhouse gas emissions that one is una-ble
bycatch (1) The accidental capture of nontar-get
or unwilling to reduce oneself. The pay-ment
of living matterin a given place andtime. (2) In
organisms while fishing for target species.
thus offsets one’s own emissions.
energy, organic material derived from living or
(2) That portion of a commercial fishing catch
recently living organisms, containing chemical consisting of animals caught unintentionally. carbon pricing The practice of putting a price
energy that originated with photosynthesis. on the emission of carbon dioxide, through
Bycatch kills many thousands of fish, sharks,
marine mammals, and birds each year. either carbon trading or a carbon tax, as a
biome A major regional complex of similar
means to address global climate change. Car-bon
plant communities; a large ecological unit campus sustainability A term describing a
pricing compensates the public for the
defined by its dominant plant type and vegeta-tion wide array of efforts taking place on college
external costs of fossil fuel use by shifting costs
structure. and university campuses by which students,
to emitters, and creates financial incentives to
biophilia An inherent love for and fascina-tion
faculty, staff, and administrators are trying to
reduce emissions.
reduce the environmental impacts oftheir insti-tutions.
with nature and an instinctive desire peo-ple
carbon tax A type of green tax charged to
have to affiliate with other living things.
entities that pollute by emitting carbon diox-ide.
Defined by biologist E.O. Wilson as “the con-nections cap-and-trade Atype of emissions trading sys-tem
Carbon taxation is one approach to carbon
that human beings subconsciously in which government determines an accept-able
pricing, and gives polluters a financial incen-tive
seek with the rest of life.” level of pollution and then issues polluting
to reduce emissions in order to address
parties permits to pollute. A company receives global climate change. Compare carbon
biopower Power attained by combusting bio-mass
credit for amounts it does not emit and can then
sources to generate electricity. trading; fee-and-dividend; revenue-neutral
sell this credit to other companies.
carbon tax.
biosphere The sum total of all the planet’s liv-ing
captive breeding The practice of keeping carbon trading A form of emissions trading
organisms and the nonliving portions of the
members of threatened and endangered spe-cies that focuses on the emission of carbon dioxide.
environment with which they interact.
in captivity so that their young can be bred
In a carbon trading market, emitters buy and
biosphere reserve Atract ofland with excep-tional and raised in controlled environments and sub-sequently sell permits to emit CO2. Carbon trading is one
biodiversity that couples preservation reintroduced into the wild.
approach to carbon pricing, and gives pollut-ers
with sustainable development to benefit local
carbohydrate An organic compound consist-ing a financial incentive to reduce emissions in
people. Biosphere reserves are designated by
of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. order to address global climate change. Com-pare
UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, carbon tax.
Scientific, and Cultural Organization) follow-ing carbon The chemical element with six protons
and six neutrons. A key element in organic carcinogen A chemical or type of radiation
application by local stakeholders.
compounds. that causes cancer.
biotechnology The material application of
carbon capture and storage Technologies carrying capacity The maximum population
biological science to create products derived
or approaches to remove carbon dioxide from size of a given organism that a given environ-ment
from organisms. The creation of transgenic
can sustain.
emissions of power plants or other facilities,
organisms is onetype of biotechnology.
and sequester, or store, it (generally in liquid case history Medical approach involving the
birth control The effort to control the number
form) underground under pressure in loca-tions observation and analysis of individual patients.
of children one bears, particularly by reducing
where it will not seep out, in an effort to
catalytic converter Automotive technol-ogy
the frequency of pregnancy. Compare contra-ception; mitigate global climate change. We are still a
that chemically treats engine exhaust to
family planning. long way from developing adequate technol-ogy
reduce air pollution. Reacts exhaust with met-als
bisphenol A An endocrine-disrupting chemical and secure storage space to accomplish
that convert hydrocarbons, CO, and NOX
found in plastics. this reliably.
into carbon dioxide, water vapor, and nitrogen

boreal forest A biome of northern conifer-ous

carbon cycle A major nutrient cycle consisting gas.
of the routes that carbon atoms take through
forest that stretches in a broad band across cellular respiration The process by which a
the nested networks of environmental systems.
much of Canada, Alaska, Russia, and Scan-dinavia. cell uses the chemical reactivity of oxygen to
Also known as taiga, boreal forest carbon dioxide (CO2) A colorless gas used split glucose into its constituent parts, water
consists of alimited number of species of ever-green by plants for photosynthesis, given off by res-piration, and carbon dioxide, and thereby release chemi-cal
trees, such as black spruce, that domi-nate and released by burning fossil fuels. energy that can be used to form chemical

large regions of forests interspersed with A primary greenhouse gas whose buildup bonds or to perform other tasks within the cell.

occasional bogs and lakes. contributes to global climate change. Compare photosynthesis.

GLOSSARY G-
 cellulosic ethanol Ethanol produced from plants, imposes limits on emissions from new among species, ranging from one-to-one inter-actions
the cellulose in plant tissues by treating it with sources, funds a nationwide air quality moni-toring to complex interrelationships involving
enzymes. Techniques for producing cellulosic system, enables citizens to sue parties entire communities.
ethanol are being developed because of the violating the standards, and introduced an
community-supported agriculture (CSA)
desire to make ethanol from low-value crop emissions trading program for sulfur dioxide.
A system in which consumers pay farmers in
waste (residues such as corn stalks and husks),
clean coal technologies An array of tech-niques, advance for a share of their yield, usually in the
rather than from the sugars of high-value crops.
equipment, and approaches to remove form of weekly deliveries of produce.
chaparral A biome consisting mostly of chemical contaminants (such as sulfur) during
competition A relationship in which multi-ple
densely thicketed evergreen shrubs occurring the process of generating electricity from coal.
organisms seek the same limited resource.
in limited small patches. Its “Mediterranean”
clear-cutting The harvesting of timber by cut-ting Competition can take place among members of
climate of mild, wet winters and warm, dry
all the trees in an area. Although it is the the same species or among members of differ-ent
summers is induced by oceanic influences.
mostcost-efficient method, clear-cutting is also species.
In addition to ringing the Mediterranean Sea,
the most ecologically damaging.
chaparral occurs along the coasts of California, compost A mixture produced when decompos-ers

Chile, and southern Australia. climate The pattern of atmospheric conditions break down organic matter, such as food and
that typifies a geographic region over long crop waste, in a controlled environment.
chemical energy Potential energy held in the
periods of time (typically years, decades, cen-turies,
bonds between atoms. composting The conversion of organic waste
or millennia). Compare weather.
into mulch or humus by encouraging, in a con-trolled
chemistry The study of the different types of
climate change See global climate change. manner,the natural biological processes
matter and how they interact.
of decomposition.
climate diagram A visual representation of a
chemosynthesis The process by which bac-teria
region’s average monthly temperature and pre-cipitation.compound A molecule whose atoms are com-posed
in hydrothermal vents use the chemical
Also known as a climatograph. of two or more elements.
energy of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to transform

inorganic carbon into organic compounds. climate model A computer program that com-bines concentrated solar power (CSP) A means
Compare photosynthesis. what is known about weather patterns, of generating electricity at a large scale by

atmospheric circulation, atmosphere–ocean focusing sunlight from a large area onto a

Chernobyl Site of a nuclear power plant in
interactions, and feedback mechanisms, to smaller area. Several approaches are used.
Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), where
simulate climate processes.
in 1986 an explosion caused the most severe concession The right to extract a resource,

nuclear reactor accident the world has yet coal A solid blackish fossil fuel formed from granted by a government to a corporation.

seen. The term is also often used to denote the organic matter (generally, woody plant mate-rial) Compare conservation concession.

accident itself. Compare Fukushima Daiichi; that was compressed under very high
confined (artesian) aquifer A water-bearing,
Three Mile Island. pressure and with little decomposition, creat-ing
porous layer of rock, sand, or gravel that is
dense, solid carbon structures.
chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) Atype of halo-carbon trapped between an upper and lower layer of

consisting of only chlorine, fluorine, coevolution The process by which two or less permeable substrate, such as clay. The

carbon, and hydrogen. CFCs were used as more species evolve in response to one another. water in a confined aquifer is under pressure

refrigerants, as fire extinguishers, as propel-lants Parasites and hosts may coevolve, as may flow-ering because it is trapped between two impermeable

for aerosol spray cans, as cleaners for plants and their pollinators. layers. Compare unconfined aquifer.
electronics, and for making polystyrene foam.
cogeneration A practice in which the extra conservation biologist A scientist who stud-ies
They were phased out under the Montreal Pro-tocol
heat generated in the production of electricity the factors, forces, and processes that influ-ence
because they are ozone-depleting sub-stances
is captured and put to use heating workplaces the loss, protection, and restoration of
that destroy stratospheric ozone.
and homes, as well as producing other kinds biodiversity within and among ecosystems.
chronic exposure Exposure to a toxicant of power.
conservation biology A scientific discipline
occurring in low amounts for long periods of
colony collapse disorder A mysterious mal-ady devoted to understanding the factors, forces,
time. Compare acute exposure.
afflicting honeybees, which has destroyed and processes that influence the loss, protec-tion,
city planning The professional pursuit that roughly one-third of all honeybees in the and restoration of biodiversity within and
attempts to design cities in such a way as to United States annually over the past decade. among ecosystems.
maximize their efficiency, functionality, and Likely caused by chemical insecticides, path-ogens
conservation ethic An ethic holding that peo-ple
beauty. Also known as urban planning. and parasites, habitat and resource loss,
should put natural resources to use but also
or combinations of these factors.
classical economics Founded by Adam have a responsibility to manage them wisely.
Smith, the study of the behavior of buyers and command-and-control Atop-down approach Compare preservation ethic.
sellers in a capitalist market economy. Holds to policy, in which a legislative body or a regu-lating
Conservation Reserve Program U.S. policy
that individuals acting in their own self-interest agency sets rules, standards, or limits and
in farm bills since 1985 that pays farmers to
may benefit society, provided their behavior is threatens punishment for violations of those
stop cultivating highly erodible cropland and
constrained by the rule of law and by private limits.
instead place it in conservation reserves planted
property rights and operates within competitive
community In ecology, an assemblage of pop-ulations with grasses and trees.
markets. Compare neoclassical economics.
of interacting organisms that live in the
conservation tillage Agriculture that lim-its
Clean Air Act U.S. legislation to control air same area at the same time.
the amount of tilling (plowing, disking,
pollution, first enacted in 1963 and amended
community-based conservation The prac-tice harrowing, or chiseling) of soil. Compare
multiple times since, most significantly in
of engaging local people to protect land no-till.
1970 and 1990. Funds research into pollution
and wildlife in their own region.
control, sets standards for air quality, encour-ages consumptive use Use of fresh water in which

emissions standards for automobiles and community ecology The scientific study of water is removed from a particular aquifer or

for stationary point sources such as industrial patterns of species diversity and interactions surface water body and is not returned to it

G-3 GLOSSARY
 Irrigation for agriculture is an example of con-sumptive derive nourishment from photosynthetic symbi-otic Darwin, Charles (1809–1882) English natu-ralist
use. Compare nonconsumptive use. algae known as zooxanthellae. who proposed the concept of natural
selection as a mechanism for evolution and as a
continental collision The meeting of two coral reef A mass of calcium carbonate com-posed
way to explain the great variety of living things.
tectonic plates of continental lithosphere at a of the skeletons of tiny colonial marine
Compare Wallace, Alfred Russel.
convergent plate boundary, wherein the con-tinental organisms called corals.

crust on both sides resists subduction data Information, generally quantitative

core The innermost part of Earth, made up
and instead crushes together, bending, buck-ling, information.
mostly of iron, that lies beneath the crust and
and deforming layers of rock and forcing
mantle. deep-well injection A hazardous waste dis-posal
portions of the buckled crust upward, often method in which a well is drilled deep
correlation Statistical association (positive or
creating mountain ranges. beneath an area’s water table into porous rock
negative) among variables. The association
contour farming The practice of plowing fur-rows below an impervious soil layer. Wastes are
may be causal or may occur by chance.
sideways across a hillside, perpendicular
then injected into the well, so that they will be

to its slope, to help prevent the formation of corridor A passageway of protected land absorbed into the porous rock and remain deep
established to allow animals to travel between underground, isolated from groundwater and
rills and gullies. The technique is so named
islands of protected habitat. human contact. Compare surface impoundment.
because the furrows follow the natural contours

of the land. cost-benefit analysis A method commonly deforestation The clearing and loss of forests.
used in neoclassical economics, in which
contraception The deliberate attempt to pre-vent demographer A social scientist who studies
estimated costs for a proposed action are
pregnancy despite sexual intercourse. the population size; density; distribution; age
Compare birth control.
totaled and then compared to the sum of ben-efits structure; sex ratio; and rates of birth, death,
estimated to result from the action. immigration, and emigration of human popula-tions.
control The portion of an experiment in which a
covalent bond A type of chemical bonding See demography.
variable has beenleft unmanipulated, to serve as
in which atoms share electrons in chemical demographic fatigue An inability on the part
a point of comparison with the treatment.
bonds. An example is a water molecule, which of governments to address overwhelming chal-lenges
controlled experiment An experiment in
forms when an oxygen atom shares electrons related to population growth.
which a treatment is compared against a con-trol
withtwo hydrogen atoms.
in order to test the effect of a variable. demographic transition Atheoretical model
cradle-to-cradle An approach to waste man-agement of economic and cultural change that explains
convective circulation A circular current (of
and industrial design in which the the declining death rates and birth rates that
air, water, magma, etc.) driven by temperature
materials from products are recovered and occurred in Western nations as they became
differences. In the atmosphere, warm air rises
reused to create new products. industrialized. The model holds that industri-alization
into regions of lower atmospheric pressure,
caused these rates to fall naturally by
criteria pollutant One of six air pollutants—carbon
where it expands and cools and then descends
decreasing mortality and by lessening the need
monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
and becomes denser, replacing warm air that
for large families. Parents would thereafter
dioxide, tropospheric ozone, particulate mat-ter,
is rising. The air picks up heat and moisture
choose to invest in quality of life rather than
and lead—for which the Environmental
near ground level and prepares to rise again,
quantity of children.
Protection Agency has established maximum
continuing the process.
allowable concentrations in ambient outdoor demography A social science that applies the
Convention on Biological Diversity A 1992 principles of population ecology to the study of
air because of the threats they pose to human
treaty that aims to conserve biodiversity, use statistical change in human populations.
health.
biodiversity in a sustainable manner, and
crop rotation The practice of alternating the denitrifying bacteria Bacteria that convert the
ensure the fair distribution of biodiversity’s
kind of crop grown in a particular field from nitrates in soil or water to gaseous nitrogen and
benefits.
one season or year to the next. release it back into the atmosphere.
Convention on International Trade in
cropland Land that people use to raise plants density-dependent The condition of a lim-iting
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
factor whose effects on a population
for food and fiber.
Flora (CITES) A 1973 treaty facilitated by
increase or decrease depending on the popu-lation
the United Nations that protects endangered crude oil Oil in its natural state, as it occurs
density. Compare density-independent.
species by banning the international transport once extracted from the ground but before pro-cessing
density-independent The condition of a
of their body parts. and refining.
limiting factor whose effects on a population
conventional law International law that arises crust The lightweight outer layer of Earth,
are constant regardless of population density.
from conventions, or treaties, that nations agree consisting of rock that floats atop the malle-able
Compare density-dependent.
to enter into. Compare customary law. mantle, which in turn surrounds a mostly
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) A double-stranded
iron core.
convergent evolution The evolutionary pro-cess
nucleic acid composed of four
by which very unrelated species acquire current The flow of aliquid or gasin a certain nucleotides, each of which contains a sugar
similar traits as they adapt to similar selective direction. (deoxyribose), a phosphate group, and a nitrog-enous
pressures from similar environments. base. DNA carries the hereditary infor-mation
customary law International law that arises

convergent plate boundary The area where for living organisms and is responsible
from long-standing practices, or customs,
tectonic plates converge or come together. Can held in common by most cultures. Compare for passing traits from parents to offspring.

Compare RNA.
result in subduction or continental collision. conventional law.

Compare divergent plate boundary; transform dependent variable The variable that is
dam Any obstruction placed in a river or stream
plate boundary. affected by manipulation of the independent
to block the flow of water so that water can be
variable in an experiment.
coral Tiny marine animals that build coral reefs. stored in a reservoir. Dams are built to prevent

Corals attach to rock or existing reef and capture floods, provide drinking water, facilitate irri-gation, deposition The arrival of eroded soil at a new
passing food with stinging tentacles. They also and generate electricity. location. Compare erosion.

GLOSSARY G-
 desalination (desalinization) The removal of dose-response curve A curve that plots the ecology The science that deals with the dis-tribution
salt from seawater to generate fresh water for response of test animals to different doses of a and abundance of organisms, the
human use. toxicant, as aresult of dose-response analysis. interactions among them, and the interac-tions

downwelling In the ocean, the flow of warm between organisms and their nonliving
descriptive science Research in which scien-tists
surface water toward the ocean floor. Down-welling environments.
gather basic information about organisms,

materials, systems, or processes that are not occurs where surface currents con-verge. economic growth An increase in an econ-omy’s
yet well known. Compare hypothesis-driven Compare upwelling. activity—that is, an increase in the
science. production and consumption of goods and
drainage basin The entire area of land from
which water drains into a given body of water. services.
desert The driest biome on Earth, with annual

precipitation of less than 25 cm. Because Dust Bowl An area that loses huge amounts of economics The study of how we decide to use
deserts have relatively little vegetation to insu-late topsoil to wind erosion as a result of drought potentially scarce resources to satisfy demand
them from temperature extremes, sunlight and/or human impact. First used to name the for goods and services.
readily heats them in the daytime, but daytime region in the North American Great Plains
economy Asocial systemthat converts resources
heat is quickly lost at night, so temperatures severely affected by drought and topsoil loss
into goods and services.
vary widely from day to night and in different in the 1930s. The term is now also used to
seasons. describe that historical event and others like it. ecosystem In ecology, an assemblage of all

organisms and nonliving entities that occur and

desertification A form of land degradation in dynamic equilibrium The state reached when
interact in a particular area at the same time.
which more than 10% of a land’s productivity processes within a system are moving in oppos-ing
is lost due to erosion, soil compaction, forest directions at equivalent rates so that their ecosystem-based management The attempt

removal, overgrazing, drought, salinization, cli-mate effects balance out. to manage the harvesting of resources in ways

change, water depletion, or other factors. that minimize impact on the ecosystems and eco-logical
e-waste See electronic waste.
Severe desertification can result in the expan-sion processes that provide the resources.
of desert areas or creation of new ones.
earthquake Arelease of energy that occurs as
ecosystem diversity The number and variety
Compare land degradation; soil degradation.
Earth relieves accumulated pressure between
masses of lithosphere and that results in shak-ing of ecosystems in a particular area. One way to
development The use of natural resources for express biodiversity. Related concepts consider
at the surface.
economic advancement (as opposed to simple the geographic arrangement of habitats, com-munities,
ecocentrism A philosophy that considers
subsistence, or survival). or ecosystems at the landscape level,
actions in terms of their damage or benefit to the
directional drilling A drilling technique (e.g., including the sizes, shapes, and interconnected-ness
integrity of whole ecological systems, including
for oil or natural gas) in which a drill bores of patches of these entities.
both living and nonliving elements. For an eco-centrist,
down vertically and then bends horizontally to the well-being of an individual is less ecosystem ecology The scientific study of
follow layered deposits for long distances from important than the long-term well-being of a how the living and nonliving components of
the drilling site. This enables extracting more larger integrated ecological system. Compare ecosystems interact.
fossil fuels with less environmental impact on anthropocentrism; biocentrism.
ecosystem services Processes or the out-comes
the surface.
ecolabeling The practice of designating on a of processes that naturally result from
discounting A practice in neoclassical eco-nomics product’s label how the product was grown, the normal functioning of ecological systems
by which short-term costs and benefits harvested, or manufactured, so that consumers and from which human beings draw benefits.
are granted more importance than long-term can judge which brands use more sustainable
Examples include nutrient cycling, air and
costs and benefits. Future effects are thereby processes.
water purification, climate regulation, pollina-tion,
“discounted,” becausethe idea is that an impact
ecological economics Aschool of econom-ics wasterecycling, and more.
far in the future should count much less than
that applies the principles of ecology and
ecotone Atransitional zone where ecosystems
one in the present.
systems thinking to the description and analy-sis
meet.
disturbance An event that affects environmen-tal of economies. Compare environmental eco-nomics;
conditions rapidly and drastically, resulting neoclassical economics. ecotourism Visitation of natural areas for
tourism and recreation. Most often involves
in changes to the community and ecosystem.
ecological footprint A metric that measures
tourism by more-affluent people, which may
Disturbance can be natural or can be caused
the cumulative area of biologically produc-tive
generate economic benefits for less-affluent
by people.
land and water required to provide the
communities near natural areas and thereby
divergent plate boundary The area where resources a person or population consumes and
provide economic incentives for conservation
tectonic plates push apart from one another to dispose of or recycle the waste the person or
of natural areas.
as magma rises upward to the surface, creat-ing population produces. The total area of Earth’s

new lithosphere as it cools and spreads. biologically productive surface that a given ED50(effective dose–50%) The amount of a
A prime example is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. person or population “uses” once all direct and toxicant it takes to affect 50% of a population
Compare convergent plate boundary; trans-form indirect impacts are summed together. oftest animals. Compare LD50;threshold dose.

plate boundary. ecological modeling The practice of con-structing

edge effect An impact on organisms, popu-lations,
and testing models that aim to explain or communities that results because
dose The amount of toxicant a test animal
and predict how ecological systems function. conditions along the edge of a habitat fragment
receives in a dose-response test. Compare

response. ecological restoration Efforts to reverse the differ from conditions in the interior.

effects of human disruption of ecological sys-tems El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

dose-response analysis A set of experiments
and to restore communities to their con-dition
that measure the response of test animals to dif-ferent A systematic shift in atmospheric pressure, sea
before the disruption. The practice that
doses of atoxicant. The response is gener-ally surface temperature, and ocean circulation in
applies principles of restoration ecology.
quantified by measuring the proportion of the tropical Pacific Ocean. ENSO cycles give

animals exhibiting negative effects. ecologist A scientist who studies ecology. rise to El Niño and La Niña conditions

G-5 GLOSSARY
electricity Asecondary form of energy that can energy efficiency are one mainroute to energy quality, setting standards, enforcing those
be transferred over long distances and applied conservation. standards, assisting the states in meeting stand-ards
for a variety of uses. and goals for environmental protection,
energy intensity A measure of energy use
and educating the public.
electrolysis A process in which electrical cur-rent per dollar of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

is passed through a compound to release Lower energy intensity indicates greater environmental science The scientific study

ions. Electrolysis offers one way to produce efficiency. of how the natural world functions, how our

hydrogen for use as fuel: Electrical current is environment affects us, and how we affect our
energy returned on investment See EROI.
passed through water, splitting the water mol-ecules environment.
enhanced geothermal systems A new
into hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
environmental studies An academic environ-mental
approach whereby engineers drill deeply into
electron A negatively charged particle that science program that emphasizes the
rock, fracture it, pump in water, and then pump
moves about the nucleus of an atom. it out once it is heated belowground. This social sciences as well as the natural sciences.

electronic waste Discarded electronic prod-ucts approach would enable usto obtain geothermal environmental toxicology The study of
energy in manylocations. toxicants that come from or are discharged
such as computers, monitors, printers, tel-evisions,
DVD players, cell phones, and other environment The sum total of our surround-ings, into the environment, including the study of

devices. Heavy metals in these products mean including all of the living things and non-living health effects on humans, other animals, and

that this waste may be judged hazardous. Also things with which weinteract. ecosystems.

known as e-waste.
environmental economics A school of eco-nomicsenvironmentalism A social movement dedi-cated
element A fundamental type of matter; a that modifies the principles of neo-classical to protecting the natural world and, by

chemical substance with a given set of prop-erties, economics to address environmental extension, people.
which cannot be broken down into challenges. Most environmental economists
epidemiological study A study that involves
substances with other properties. Chemists believe that we can attain sustainability within
large-scale comparisons among groups of peo-ple,
currently recognize 92 elements that occur in our current economic systems. Whereas eco-logical
usually contrasting a group known to have
nature, as well as morethan 20 others that have economists call for revolution, environ-mental
been exposed to some toxicant and a group that
been artificially created. economists call for reform. Compare
has not.
ecological economics; neoclassical economics.
emissions trading The practice of buying and
EROI (energy returned on investment)
selling government-issued marketable permits environmental ethics The application of ethi-cal
The ratio determined by dividing the quantity
to emit pollutants. Under a cap-and-trade emis-sions standards to environmental questions.
of energy returned from a process by the quan-tity
trading system, the government deter-mines
environmental health The study of environ-mental of energy invested in the process. Higher
an acceptable level of pollution and then
factors that influence human health EROI ratios meanthat more energy is produced
issues permits to pollute. A company receives
and quality of life and the health of ecological from each unit of energy invested. Compare net
credit for amounts it does not emit and can then
systems essential to environmental quality and energy.
sell this credit to other companies.
long-term human well-being.
erosion The removal of material from one
endangered In danger of becoming extinct in environmental impact statement (EIS) A place and its transport to another by the action
the near future. report of results from detailed scientific studies of wind or water. Compare deposition.

Endangered Species Act The primary leg-islation, that assess the potential effects on the environ-ment
estuary An area where a river flows into the
enacted in 1973, for protecting bio-diversity that would likely result from development
ocean, mixing fresh water with saltwater.
in the United States. It forbids the projects or other actions undertaken by the gov-ernment.
ethanol The alcohol in beer, wine, and liquor,
government and private citizens from taking
produced as a biofuel by fermenting biomass,
actions (such as developing land) that would environmental justice The fair and equitable
generally from carbohydrate-rich crops such as
destroy threatened and endangered species or treatment of all people with respect to environ-mental
corn or sugarcane.
their habitats, and it prohibits trade in products policy and practice, regardless of their
made from threatened and endangered species. income, race, or ethnicity. This principle is a ethical standard A criterion that helps differ-entiate

endemic Restricted to a particular geographic

response to the perception that minorities and right from wrong.
the poor suffer more pollution than the major-ity
region. An endemic species occurs in one area ethics The academic study of good and bad,
and the more affluent.
and nowhere else on Earth. right and wrong. The term can also refer to a
environmental literacy A basic understand-ing person’s or group’s set of moral principles or
endocrine disruptor Atoxicant that interferes
of Earth’s physical and living systems and values.
with the endocrine (hormone) system.
how weinteract with them. Some people take
eutrophic Term describing a water body that
energy The capacity to change the posi-tion, the term further and use it to refer to a deeper
has high-nutrient and low-oxygen conditions.
physical composition, or temperature of understanding of society and the environment
Compare oligotrophic.
matter; aforce that can accomplish work. and/or a commitment to advocate for sustain-ability.
eutrophication The process of nutrient enrich-ment,
energy conservation The practice of reduc-ing
increased production of organic matter,
energy use as a way of extending the life-time environmental policy Public policy that per-tains
and subsequent ecosystem degradation in a
of our fossil fuel supplies, of being less to human interactions with the environ-ment.
water body.
wasteful, and of reducing our impact on the It generally aims to regulate resource use

environment. Conservation can result from or reduce pollution to promote human welfare evaporation The conversion of a substance

behavioral decisions or from technologies that and/or protect natural systems. from a liquid to a gaseous form.

demonstrate energy efficiency.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) evolution Genetically based change in popu-lations

energy efficiency The ability to obtain a given An administrative agency of the U.S. federal of organisms across generations.

result or amount of output while using less government charged with conducting and Changes in genes may lead to changes in the

energy input. Technologies permitting greater evaluating research, monitoring environmental appearance, physiology, and/or behavior of

GLOSSARY G-
 organisms across generations, often by the floodplain The region of land over which a Fukushima Daiichi Japanese nuclear power
process of natural selection. river has historically wandered and periodi-cally plant severely damaged by the tsunami associ-ated
floods. with the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake
experiment An activity designed to test the
that rocked Japan. Most radiation drifted over
validity of a hypothesis by manipulating vari-ables. flux The movement of nutrients among pools or
the ocean away from population centers, but
See controlled experiment. reservoirs in a nutrient cycle.
the event was history’s second most serious
exponential growth The increase of a popula-tion food chain A linear series of feeding nuclear accident. Compare Chernobyl; Three
(or of anything) by a fixed percentage each relationships. As organisms feed on one Mile Island.
year. Results in a J-shaped curve on a graph. another, energy and matter are transferred
full cost accounting An accounting approach
Compare logistic growth.
from lower to higher trophic levels. Com-pare
that attempts to summarize all costs and ben-efits
food web.
external cost A cost borne by someone not by assigning monetary values to entities
food security The guaranteed availability of
involved in an economic transaction. Exam-ples without market prices and then generally sub-tracting
an adequate, safe, nutritious, and reliable food costs from benefits. Examples include
include harm to citizens from water pol-lution
supply to all people at all times.
or air pollution discharged by nearby the Genuine Progress Indicator, the Happy

factories. food web A visual representation of feeding Planet Index, and others. Also called true cost

interactions within an ecological community accounting.

extinction The disappearance of an entire spe-cies
that shows an array of relationships between
from Earth. Compare extirpation. gene Astretch of DNAthat represents a unit of
organisms at different trophic levels. Compare hereditary information.
extirpation The disappearance of a particular food chain.
General Mining Act of 1872 U.S. law that
population from a given area, but not the entire
forensic science The scientific analysis of legalized and promoted mining by private indi-viduals
species globally. Compare extinction.
evidence to make an identification or answer on public lands for just $5 per acre,
family planning The effort to plan the number a question relating to a crime or an accident. subject to local customs, with no government
and spacing of one’s children to offer children Often called forensics. oversight.
and parents the best quality of life possible.
forest Any ecosystem characterized by a high generalist A species that can survive across a
farmers’ market A market at which local density of trees.
wide array of habitats or can use a wide array
farmers and food producers sell fresh, locally of resources. Compare specialist.
forest type A category of forest defined by its
grown items. predominant tree species. genetic diversity A measurement of the differ-ences
fee-and-dividend A carbon tax program in forestry The professional management of in DNA composition among individuals
which proceeds from the tax are paid to con-sumers forests. within a given species.
as a tax refund or “dividend.” This
fossil The remains, impression, or trace of an genetic engineering Any process scientists
strategy seeks to prevent consumers from los-ing
animal or plant of past geologic ages that has use to manipulate an organism’s genetic mate-rial
money if polluters pass their costs along
been preserved in rock or sediments. in the lab by adding, deleting, or changing
to them.
segments of its DNA.
fossil fuel A nonrenewable natural resource,
feedback loop A circular process in which a
such as crude oil, natural gas, or coal, pro-duced genetically modified organism (GMO) An
system’s output serves as input to that same organism that has been genetically engineered
by the decomposition and compression
system. See negative feedback loop; positive using recombinant DNA technology.
of organic matter from ancient life. Fossil fuels
feedback loop.
have provided most of society’s energy since gentrification The transformation of a neigh-borhood
feed-in tariff A program of public policy the industrial revolution. to conditions (such as expensive
intended to promote renewable energy invest-ment, housing and high-end shops and restaurants)
fossil record The cumulative body of fossils
whereby utilities are mandated to that cater to wealthier people. Often results in
worldwide, which paleontologists study to
purchase electricity from homeowners or busi-nesses infer the history of pastlife on Earth. longtime lower-income residents being “priced

that generate power from renewable out” of their homes or apartments.

fracking See hydraulic fracturing.
energy sources and feed it into the electrical
Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) A full
grid. Under such a system, utilities must pay Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for
cost accounting indicator that attempts to
guaranteed premium prices for this power under the 21st Century Act U.S. legislation,
differentiate between desirable and undesir-able
long-term contract. Compare net metering. enacted in 2016, that updates the Toxic Sub-stances
economic activity. The GPI accounts for
Control Act and directs the EPA to
feedlot A huge indoor or outdoor pen benefits such as volunteerism and for costs
monitor and regulate industrial chemicals.
designed to deliver energy-rich food to ani-mals such as environmental degradation and social
free rider A party that fails to invest in conserv-ing upheaval. Compare Gross Domestic Product
living at extremely high densities. Also
resources, controlling pollution, or carry-ing (GDP).
called a factory farm or concentrated animal
feeding operation.
out other responsible activities and instead
geoengineering Any of a suite of proposed
relies on the efforts of other parties to do so.
efforts to cool Earth’s climate by removing
fertilizer A substance that promotes plant For example, a factory that fails to control its
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or reflect-ing
growth by supplying essential nutrients such
emissions gets a “free ride” on the efforts of
sunlight away from Earth’s surface. Such
as nitrogen or phosphorus. other factories that do.
ideas are controversial and are not nearly ready
first law of thermodynamics The physical fresh water Waterthat is relatively pure, hold-ing to implement.
law stating that energy can change from one very few dissolved salts.
geographic information system (GIS)
form to another, but cannot be created or lost.
fuel cell A device that can store and transport Computer software that takes multiple types
The total energy in the universe remains con-stant
energy to produce electricity, much as a battery of data (for instance, on geology, hydrol-ogy,
and is said to be conserved.
can. A hydrogen fuel cell generates electricity vegetation, animal species, and human

flooding The spillage of water over a river’s by the input of hydrogen fuel and oxygen, pro-ducing development) and overlays them on a common

banks due to heavy rain or snowmelt. only water and heat as waste products. set of geographic coordinates. GIS is used t

G-7 GLOSSARY
 create a complete picture of a landscape and a market-based incentive to correct for market radiation and decay. Different radioisotopes
to analyze how elements of the different data-sets failure. Compare subsidy. have different half-lives, ranging from fractions
are arrayed spatially and how they may of a second to billions of years.
greenhouse effect The warming of Earth’s
be correlated. A common tool of geographers,
surface and atmosphere (especially the tropo-sphere) halocarbon A class of human-made chemical
landscape ecologists, resource managers, and
caused by the energy emitted by green-house compounds derived from simple hydrocarbons
conservation biologists.
gases. in which hydrogen atoms are replaced by halo-gen

geology The scientific study of Earth’s physi-cal atoms such as bromine, fluorine, or chlo-rine.
greenhouse gas A gas that absorbs infrared
features, processes, and history. Many halocarbons are ozone-depleting
radiation released by Earth’s surface and then
substances and/or greenhouse gases.
geothermal energy Thermal energy that warms the surface and troposphere by emit-ting

arises from beneath Earth’s surface, ultimately energy, thus giving rise to the greenhouse harmful algal bloom A population explosion

from the radioactive decay of elements amid effect. Greenhouse gases include carbon diox-ide of toxic algae caused by excessive nutrient

high pressures deep underground. Can be used (CO2), water vapor, ozone (O3), nitrous concentrations.

to generate electrical power in power plants, for oxide (N2O), halocarbon gases, and methane
hazardous waste Liquid or solid waste that
(CH4).
direct heating via piped water, or in ground-source is toxic, chemically reactive, flammable, or
heat pumps. greenwashing A public relations effort by a corrosive. Compare industrial solid waste;

corporation or institution to mislead custom-ers municipal solid waste.

global climate change Systematic change
or the public into thinking it is acting more
in aspects of Earth’s climate, such as tempera-ture, herbivory The consumption of plants by
sustainably than it actually is.
precipitation, and storm intensity. Gener-ally animals.

refers today to the current warming trend Gross Domestic Product (GDP) The total
heterotroph (consumer) An organism that
in global temperatures and the many associated monetary value of final goods and services
consumes other organisms. Includes most
climatic changes. Compare global warming. produced in a country each year. GDP sums
animals, as well as fungi and microbes that
all economic activity, whether good or bad,
global warming An increase in Earth’s aver-age decompose organic matter.
and does not account for benefits such as vol-unteerism
surface temperature. The term is most fre-quently homeostasis The tendency of a system to
or for external costs such as envi-ronmental
used in reference to the pronounced maintain constant or stable internal conditions.
degradation and social upheaval.
warming trend of recent decades. Global
Compare Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). humus A dark, spongy, crumbly mass of mate-rial
warming is one aspect of global climate change
gross primary production The energy that made up of complex organic compounds,
and in turn drives other components of climate
resulting from the partial decomposition of
change. results when autotrophs convert solar energy
organic matter.
(sunlight) to energy of chemical bonds in sug-ars
globalization The ongoing process by which
through photosynthesis. Autotrophs use a hydraulic fracturing A process to extract
the world’s societies have become more inter-connected,
portion of this production to power their own tight oil or shale gas, in which a drill is sent
linked in many ways by diplomacy,
metabolism, which entails oxidizing organic deep underground and angled horizontally
commercial trade, and communication tech-nologies.
compounds by cellular respiration. Compare into a shale formation; water, sand, and
net primary production. chemicals are pumped in under great pres-sure,
Great Pacific Garbage Patch A portion of fracturing the rock; and gas migrates
ground-source heat pump A pump that har-nesses
the North Pacific gyre where currents concen-trate up through the drilling pipe as sand holds the
geothermal energy from near-surface
plastics and other floating debris that pose fractures open. Also called hydrofracking or
sources of earth and water to heat and cool
danger to marine organisms. simply fracking.
buildings. Operates on the principle that tem-peratures
green building (1) A structure that minimizes belowground are less variable than hydrocarbon An organic compound consisting
the ecological footprint of its construction and temperatures aboveground. solely of hydrogen and carbon atoms.
operation by using sustainable materials, using groundwater Water held in aquifers under-ground.hydroelectric power The generation of
minimal energy and water, reducing health Compare surface water. electricity using the kinetic energy of moving
impacts, limiting pollution, and recycling water. Also called hydropower.
gyre An area of the ocean where currents con-verge
waste. (2) The pursuit of constructing or reno-vating
and floating debris accumulates. hydrogen The chemical element with one pro-ton.
such buildings.
The most abundant element in the universe.
habitat The specific environment in which an
green-collar job A job resulting from an Also a possible fuel for our future economy.
organism lives, including both biotic (living)
employment opportunity in a more sustainably
and abiotic (nonliving) elements. hydrologic cycle The flow of water—in liq-uid,
oriented economy, such as a job in renewable
gaseous, and solid forms—through our
energy. habitat fragmentation The process by which
biotic and abiotic environment.
an expanse of natural habitat becomes bro-ken
Green Revolution An intensification of the
up into discontinuous fragments, often hydropower See hydroelectric power.
industrialization of agriculture in the devel-oping
as a result of farming, logging, road building,
world in the latter half of the 20th cen-tury hydrosphere All water—salt or fresh, liquid,
and other types of human development and
that dramatically increased crop yields ice, or vapor—in surface bodies, underground,
land use.
produced per unit area of farmland. Practices and in the atmosphere. Compare biosphere;
habitat selection The process by which lithosphere.
include devoting large areas to monocultures of
organisms select habitats from among the
crops specially bred for high yields and rapid hypothesis A statement that attempts to
range of options they encounter.
growth; heavy use of fertilizers, pesticides, and explain a phenomenon or answer a scientific
irrigation water; and sowing and harvesting on habitat use The process by which organisms question. Compare theory.

the same parcel of land more than once per year use habitats from among the range of options
hypothesis-driven science Research in
or per season. they encounter.
which scientists pose questions that seek

green tax A levy on environmentally harm-ful half-life The amount of time it takes for one-half to explain how and why things are the way

activities and products aimed at providing the atoms of a radioisotope to emit they are. Generally proceeds in a somewhat

GLOSSARY G-
 structured manner, using experiments to test inorganic fertilizer Afertilizer that consists of kelp Large brown algae, or seaweed, that can
hypotheses. Compare descriptive science. mined or synthetically manufactured mineral form underwater “forests,” providing habitat
supplements. Inorganic fertilizers are gener-ally for marine organisms.
hypoxia The condition of extremely low dis-solved
more susceptible than organic fertilizers
oxygen concentrations in a body of keystone species A species that has an espe-cially
to leaching and runoff and may be morelikely
water. far-reaching effect on a community.
to cause unintended off-site impacts.
igneous rock One of the three main categories kinetic energy Energy of motion. Compare
integrated pest management (IPM) The
of rock. Formed from cooling magma. Granite potential energy.
use of multiple techniques in combination to
and basalt are examples of igneous rock. Com-pare
achieve long-term suppression of pests, includ-ing Kyoto Protocol An international agreement
metamorphic rock; sedimentary rock.
biological control, use of pesticides, close drafted in 1997 that called for reducing, by

incineration A controlled process of burning monitoring of populations, habitat alteration, 2012, emissions of six greenhouse gases to lev-els

solid waste for disposal in which mixed gar-bage crop rotation, transgenic crops, alternative till-age lower than those in 1990. It was extended

methods, and mechanical pest removal. to 2020 as nations worked toward the Paris
is combusted at very high temperatures.
Accord. An outgrowth of the U.N. Framework
Compare sanitary landfill.
intercropping Planting different types of crops
Convention on Climate Change.
independent variable The variable that a sci-entist in alternating bands or other spatially mixed
arrangements. La Niña An exceptionally strong cooling of
manipulates in an experiment.
surface water in the equatorial Pacific Ocean
indoor air pollution Air pollution that occurs interdisciplinary Involving or borrowing tech-niques
that occurs every 2–8 years and has widespread
indoors. from multiple traditional fields of study
climatic consequences. Compare El Niño.
and bringing together research results from
industrial agriculture Agriculture that uses land trust Alocal or regional organization that
these fields into a broad synthesis.
large-scale mechanization and fossil fuel com-bustion, preserves lands valued by its members. In most
intertidal Of,relating to, or living along shore-lines
enabling farmers to replace horses and cases, land trusts purchase land outright with
between the highest reach of the highest
oxen with faster and more powerful means of the aim of preserving it in its natural condition.
tide and the lowest reach of the lowest tide.
cultivating, harvesting, transporting, and pro-cessing
landfill gas A mix of gases that consists of
crops. Other aspects include large-scale introduced species A species introduced
roughly half methane and that is produced by
irrigation and the use of inorganic fertilizers. by human beings from one place to another
anaerobic decomposition deep inside landfills.
Use of chemical herbicides and pesticides (whether intentionally or by accident). Some
reduces competition from weeds and herbivory introduced species may become invasive spe-cies. landscape ecology The study of how land-scape

by insects. Compare traditional agriculture. structure affects the abundance, dis-tribution,

and interaction of organisms. This

industrial ecology A holistic approach to invasive species A species that spreads
approach to the study of organisms and their
industry that integrates principles from engi-neering, widely and rapidly becomes dominant in a
environments at the landscape scale focuses on
chemistry, ecology, economics, and community, interfering with the community’s
broad geographic areas that include multiple
other disciplines and seeks to redesign indus-trial normal functioning.
ecosystems.
systems in order to reduce resource inputs inversion layer A band of air in which tem-perature
landslide The collapse and downhill flow of
and minimize inefficiency. rises with altitude (that is, in which
large amounts of rock or soil. A severe and sud-den
the normal direction of temperature change is
industrial revolution The shift beginning in form of mass wasting.
inverted). Cool air at the bottom of the inver-sion
the mid-1700s from rural life, animal-powered
layer is denser than the warm air above, lava Magma that is released from the litho-sphere
agriculture, and manufacturing by craftsmen to
so it resists vertical mixing and remains stable. and flows or spatters across Earth’s
an urban society powered by fossil fuels. Com-pare
A key feature of a temperature inversion. surface.
agricultural revolution.
ion An electrically charged atom or combina-tion law of conservation of matter The physi-cal
industrial smog “Gray-air” smog caused by
of atoms. law stating that matter may be transformed
the incomplete combustion of coal or oil when
from one type of substance into others, but that
burned. Compare photochemical smog. ionic bond A type of chemical bonding in
it cannot be created or destroyed.
which electrons aretransferred between atoms,
industrial solid waste Nonliquid waste that is
creating oppositely charged ions that bond due LD50 (lethal dose–50%) The amount of atoxi-cant
not especially hazardous and that comes from
to their differing electrical charges. Table salt, it takes to kill 50% of a population of test
production of consumer goods, mining, petro-leum
sodium chloride, is formed by the bonding of animals. Compare ED50; threshold dose.
extraction and refining, and agriculture.
positively charged sodium ions with negatively
leachate Liquid that results when substances
Compare hazardous waste; municipal solid
charged chloride ions.
from waste dissolve in water as rainwater per-colates
waste.
IPAT model A formula that represents how downward. Leachate may sometimes
industrial stage The third stage of the demo-graphic humans’ total impact (I) on the environment seep through liners of a sanitary landfill and
transition model, characterized by fall-ing results from the interaction among three fac-tors: leach into the soil underneath.
birth rates that close the gap with falling population (P), affluence (A), and tech-nology
leaching The process by which minerals dis-solved
death rates and reduce the rate of population (T).
in a liquid (usually water) are trans-ported
growth. Compare post-industrial stage; pre-industrial
irrigation The artificial provision of water to to another location (generally downward
stage; transitional stage.
support agriculture. through soil horizons).
infant mortality rate The number of deaths of
isotope One of several forms of an element lead (Pb) A heavy metal that may be ingested
infants under 1 year of age per 1000 live births
having differing numbers of neutrons in the through water or paint, or that may enter the
in a population.
nucleus of its atoms. Chemically, isotopes of atmosphere as a particulate pollutant through

infectious disease A disease in which a path-ogen an element behave almost identically, but they combustion of leaded gasoline or other processes.

attacks a host. Compare noninfectious have different physical properties because they Atmospheric lead deposited on land and water

disease. differ in mass. can enter the food chain, accumulate within bod

G-9 GLOSSARY
 tissues, and cause lead poisoning in animals and malnutrition The condition of lacking nutri-ents metamorphic rock One of the three main cat-egories
people. An EPA criteria pollutant. the body needs, including a complete of rock. Formed by great heat and/or

complement of vitamins and minerals. pressure that reshapes crystals within the rock
lead poisoning Poisoning by ingestion or
and changes its appearance and physical prop-erties.
inhalation of the heavy metal lead, causing mangrove A tree with a unique type of roots
Common metamorphic rocks include
an array of maladies including damage to that curve upward to obtain oxygen, which is
marble and slate. Compare igneous rock; sedi-mentary
the brain, liver, kidney, and stomach; learn-ing lacking in the mud in which they grow, or that
rock.
problems and behavioral abnormalities; curve downward to serve as stilts to support the

anemia; hearing loss; and even death. Lead tree in changing water levels. Mangrove for-ests methane hydrate Anice-like solid consisting

poisoning can result from drinking water that grow on the coastlines of the tropics and
of molecules of methane embedded in a crys-tal
passes through old lead pipes or ingesting dust subtropics.
lattice of water molecules. Mostis found in
or chips of old lead-based paint. sediments on the continental shelves and in the
mantle The malleable layer of rock that lies Arctic. Methane hydrate is an unconventional
Leadership in Energy and Environmental beneath Earth’s crust and surrounds a mostly fossil fuel.
Design (LEED) Theleading set of standards iron core.
for certification of a green building. Milankovitch cycle One of three types of
marine protected area (MPA) An area ofthe variations in Earth’s rotation and orbit around
legislation Statutory law passed by a legisla-tive
ocean set aside to protect marine life from fish-ing the sun that result in slight changes in the rela-tive
body.
pressures. An MPA may be protected from amount of solar radiation reaching Earth’s

Leopold, Aldo (1887–1949) American scien-tist, some human activities but be open to others. surface at different latitudes. As the cycles

scholar, philosopher, and author. His book Compare marine reserve. proceed, they change the way solar radiation is

The Land Ethic argued that humans should distributed over Earth’s surface and contribute
marine reserve An area of the ocean des-ignated
view themselves and the land itself as mem-bers to changes in atmospheric heating and circula-tion
as a “no-fishing” zone, allowing no
of the same community and that humans that have triggered glaciations and other
extractive activities. Compare marine protected
are obligated to treat the land ethically. climate changes.
area (MPA).

levee A long raised mound of earth erected mineral A naturally occurring solid element or
market failure The failure of markets to take
along a river bank to protect against floods by
inorganic compound with a crystal structure,
into account the environment’s positive effects
holding rising water in the main channel. Syn-onymous
a specific chemical composition, and distinct
on economies (for example, ecosystem ser-vices) physical properties. Compare ore; rock.
with dike.
or to reflect the negative effects of eco-nomic
mining (1) In the broad sense, the extraction
life-cycle analysis A quantitative analysis of activity on the environment and thereby
of any resource that is nonrenewable on the
inputs and outputs across the entire life-cycle on people (external costs).
timescale of our society (such as fossil fuels
of a product—from its origins, through its pro-duction,
mass extinction event The extinction of a or groundwater). (2) In relation to mineral
transport, sale, and use, and finally its
large proportion of the world’s species in a resources, the systematic removal of rock, soil,
disposal—in an attempt to judge the sustain-ability
very short time period due to some extreme or other material for the purpose of extracting
of the process and makeit moreecologi-cally
and rapid change or catastrophic event. Earth minerals of economic interest.
efficient.
has seen five mass extinction events in the past
mitigation (re: climate change) The pursuit
life expectancy The average number of years half-billion years.
of strategies to lessen the severity of climate
that individuals in particular age groups are
mass transit A public transportation system change, notably by reducing emissions of
likely to continue to live.
for a metropolitan area that moves large num-bers greenhouse gases. Compare adaptation.
limiting factor A physical, chemical, or bio-logical of people at once. Buses, trains, subways,
model Asimplified representation of a complex
characteristic of the environment that streetcars, trolleys, and light rail are types of natural process, designed by scientists to help
restrains population growth. mass transit. understand how the process occurs and to make
lipids A class of chemical compounds that do predictions.
mass wasting The downslope movement of
not dissolve in water and are used in organisms
soil and rock dueto gravity. Compare landslide. molecule A combination of two or more atoms.
for energy storage, for structural support, and
materials recovery facility Arecycling facil-ity monoculture The uniform planting of a single
as key components of cellular membranes.
where items are sorted, cleaned, shredded, crop over alarge area. Characterizes industrial
lithosphere The outer layer of Earth, consist-ing
and prepared for reprocessing into new items. agriculture. Compare polyculture.
of crust and uppermost mantle and located
Often abbreviated as MRF.
Montreal Protocol International treaty rati-fied
just above the asthenosphere. More generally,
matter All material in the universe that has in 1987 in which 180 (now 196) signatory
the solid part of Earth, including the rocks,
mass and occupies space. See law of conserva-tion nations agreed to restrict production of chloro-fluorocarbons
sediment, and soil at the surface and extend-ing
of matter. (CFCs) in order to halt strato-spheric
down many miles underground. Compare
ozone depletion. This was a protocol of
atmosphere; biosphere; hydrosphere. maximum sustainable yield The maxi-mal
the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the
logistic growth The pattern of population harvest of a particular renewable natural
Ozone Layer. The Montreal Protocol is widely
growth that results as a population at first grows resource that can be accomplished while still
considered the most successful effort to date
exponentially and then is slowed and finally keeping the resource available for the future. in addressing a global environmental problem.

brought to a standstill at carrying capacity by meltdown The accidental melting of the ura-nium mosaic In landscape ecology, a spatial config-uration
limiting factors. Results in an S-shaped curve
fuel rods inside the core of a nuclear of patches arrayed across alandscape.
on a graph. Compare exponential growth.
reactor, causing the release of radiation.
mountaintop removal mining A large-scale
macromolecule A very large molecule, such
metal A type of chemical element, or a mass form of coal mining in which entire mountain-tops
as a protein, nucleic acid, carbohydrate, or
of such an element, that typically is lustrous, are blasted away in order to extract the
lipid.
opaque, and malleable and that can conduct resource. While this process is economically

magma Molten, liquid rock. heat and electricity. efficient, large volumes of rock and soil slide

GLOSSARY G-1
 downhill, causing extensive impacts on sur-rounding
natural sciences Academic disciplines that niche The functional role of a species in a com-munity.
ecosystems and human residents. study the natural world. Compare social
sciences.
Muir, John (1838–1914) Scottish immigrant nitrification The conversion by bacteria of
to the United States who eventually settled in natural selection The process by which ammonium ions (NH4 +) first into nitrite ions
California and made the Yosemite Valley his traits that enhance survival and reproduction (NO2 ) and then into nitrate ions (NO3 ).
wilderness home. Today, he is most strongly are passed on more frequently to future gen-erations
nitrogen The chemical element with seven
associated with the preservation ethic. He of organisms than traits that do not,
protons and seven neutrons. The most abun-dant
argued that nature deserved protection for its thereby altering the genetic makeup of popu-lations
element in the atmosphere, a key ele-ment
own intrinsic value (an ecocentrist argument) through time. Natural selection acts
in macromolecules, and a crucial plant
but also claimed that nature facilitated human on genetic variation and is a primary driver of
nutrient.
happiness and fulfillment (an anthropocentrist evolution.
argument). nitrogen cycle A major nutrient cycle con-sisting
negative feedback loop A feedback loop
of the routes that nitrogen atoms take
municipal solid waste Nonliquid waste that is in which output of one type acts as input that
through the nested networks of environmental
not especially hazardous and that comes from moves the system in the opposite direction. The
systems.
homes, institutions, and small businesses. Com-pare input and output essentially neutralize each
hazardous waste; industrial solid waste. other’s effects, stabilizing the system. Compare nitrogen dioxide (NO2) A foul-smelling red-dish
brown gas that contributes to smog and
mutagen A toxicant that causes mutations in positive feedback loop.
acid deposition. It results when atmospheric
the DNA of organisms. neoclassical economics A mainstream eco-nomic
nitrogen and oxygen react at the high tempera-tures
mutation An accidental change in DNA that school of thought that explains market
created by combustion engines. An EPA
mayrange in magnitude from the deletion, sub-stitution, prices in terms of consumer preferences for
criteria pollutant.
or addition of a single nucleotide to a units of particular commodities and that uses
nitrogen fixation The process by which inert
change affecting entire sets of chromosomes. cost-benefit analysis. Compare classical eco-nomics;

ecological economics; environmental

nitrogen gas combines with hydrogen to form
Mutations provide the raw material for evolu-tionary
ammonium ions (NH4 +), which are chemically
change. economics.
and biologically active and can be taken up by
mutualism Arelationship in which all partici-pating net energy The quantitative difference between
plants.
organisms benefit from their interaction. energy returned from a process and energy
nitrogen-fixing bacteria Bacteria that live
Compare parasitism. invested in the process. Positive net energy val-ues
independently in the soil or water and can
meanthat a process produces more energy
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
than is invested. Compare EROI.
fix nitrogen, or those that form mutualistic
A U.S.law enacted on January 1, 1970, that
relationships with many types of plants and
net
created an agency called the Council on Envi-ronmental metering Process by which homeown-ers
provide nutrients to the plants by converting
Quality and requires that an environ-mental or businesses with photovoltaic systems gaseous nitrogen to a usable form.
impact statement be prepared for any or wind turbines can sell their excess solar
major federal action.
nitrogen oxide (NOX) One of a family of
energy or wind power to their local utility.
compounds that include nitric oxide (NO) and
Whereas feed-in tariffs award producers with
national forest An area of forested public land
nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
prices above market rates, net metering offers
managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The sys-tem
consists of 191 million acres (more than
market-rate prices. nonconsumptive use Use of fresh water in
which the water from a particular aquifer or
8% of the nation’s land area) in many tracts net primary production The energy or bio-mass
spread across all but a few states. surface water body either is not removed or is
that remains in an ecosystem after auto-trophs