Why Study

Environmental
Geology?
Poorna Pal, MS MBA Ph.D.

Professor of Geology
Chair: Geology & Oceanography Program
Glendale Community College
Disaster mitigation has become
 a socioeconomic necessity because of increasing
– Fatalities
– damage and destruction
 an increasingly complex task because of intricate public policy
choices

in addition to the perennial problems of

 a seemingly insatiable demand for the natural resources and
 the attendant problems of environmental degradation and
climate change.
Fatalities
Since the 1970s, natural disasters have
produced two-thirds of all disaster-related
fatalities worldwide.

FOR MORE INFO...

Fatalities are more common in the
economically less developed Third World
than in the economically developed world.

FOR MORE INFO...

Disasters*
by type: 1971-96
High wind: 21%

Man-made
disasters: 34% Total
Fatalities
worldwide:
(1971-96)
8,219,000 Flood: 19%

Other natural
disasters: 21%
Volcanoes: 1% Earthquakes: 8%
Landslides: 3% Drought & Famine: 6%
* International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (The Economist, Sept 6, 1997)
back
 DISASTER FATALITIES* (1971-96: IN THOUSANDS)
0 4 8 12 16

ETHIOPIA 48.4 MOSTLY FAMINE

BANGLADESH 31.9 MOSTLY FLOODS
CHINA
SUDAN MOSTLY MASS STARVATION
INDIA MOSTLY FLOODS
MOZAMBIQUE
NICARAGUA
IRAN
PHILIPPINES
SOVIET UNION/CIS STATES
COLUMBIA
GUATEMALA
SOMALIA
* International Federation of Red Cross
HONDURAS
and Red Crescent Societies
PERU
(The Economist, Sept 6, 1997)
MEXICO
NIGERIA back
 Changes, in this century, in the number of
deaths and cost of damage, in U.S. hurricanes
(cost in billion 1996$)

Deaths

Damage

Source: Harvey Blatt: OUR GEOLOGIC ENVIRONMENT (Prentice Hall, 1997) back
The Complexities of Disaster
Mitigation Strategies
 Predictive value of the scaling law
and its implications for the public-
policy choices. FOR MORE INFO...

 Population Growth, Technology and

Environmental Stress
FOR MORE INFO...
 The U.S. 20th Century
Floods
Natural Disaster Fatality-
10
Frequency Plots
Number of events per year

Tornadoes
1

Hurricanes

0.1
Earthquakes

0.01
1 10 100 1,000 10,000
This exponential scaling
gives us three alternative
choices
 Flatten the curve
 Steepen the curve
 Lower the intercept
 50
World Stock
Market2 Gross World
All indexed to 1920 = 1

Product1
10
World
5 Population1

1
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020
1
J. Bradford DeLong: http://econ161.berkeley.edu/
2
P. Jorion & W. Goetzmann: Journal of Finance, 54(3), June 1999
 10000 10000

GDP, per capita, in inflation

1000

adjusted 2000 PPP$

World Population

100 1000
(in million)

10

1 100
10000 1000 100 10 1
Years Before the Present
 Earthquake fatalities,
(per million inhabitants)

10
100

0.1
1500
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
0
2
4
6

World population (in billions)

 Economic prosperity and energy
consumption are closely correlated
100
USA
Energy consumption

China
(in terrajoules)

Russia
Germany
India Japan
10 Brazil France
Italy U.K.
Mexico
Saudi Arabia Spain
Netherlands Australia
Sweden
1 Norway
Swtizerland
Singapore

0.1
0.01 0.1 1 10
GDP (PPP) in trillion US $
… and so are economic prosperity
and carbon emmissions
3
(billion tons C equivalent)

USA
Total Emission

1
China

Russia
0.3
Japan
Ukraine Australia India Germany
Poland
Canada U.K.
0.1 Kazakstan Italy
France
South Brazil
North Africa South
Korea Mexico
0.03 Iran Korea
0.03 0.1 0.3 1 3 10
GDP (PPP) in trillion US $
Flow of Colorado River below all major dams and Colorado River
40
United States

30
diversions (billion m3/yr)

Mexico

20

10

1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Sandra Postel: Forging a Sustainable Water Strategy (STATE OF THE WORLD 1996: Worldwatch Institute , 1996)
 Drying of the Aral Sea
80
Stream Flow into Aral Sea (billion m/year)
3

Aral Sea
60

40

20

0
1940 1960 1980 2000
Sandra Postel: Forging a Sustainable Water Strategy (STATE OF THE WORLD 1996: Worldwatch Institute , 1996)
Thus, the environmental stress
attendant to population growth
presents a catch-22 situation:
 Poverty and deprivation enhance
environmental stress.
 But this stress is only aggravated
by the technology that is needed
to ameliorate the deprivation.
What to Regulate???
 ENERGY USAGE
– Global warming - from an increase in atmospheric
carbon dioxide produced by the burning of coal, oil,
and natural gas, as well as other greenhouse gases
including methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and CFCs.
– SOLUTIONS?
• Legally binding limits on emissions of
greenhouse gases (The Kyoto Protocol)
• Develop ‘cleaner’ sources of energy. Alternatives
include solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear
energy.
What to Regulate???
 THE LAND
– The number of people supported by earth is
limited by the amount of useful land for
agriculture.
– PROBLEM
• Degradation from poor agricultural
practices, contamination, natural erosion,
and erosion accelerated by deforestation
• Lack of soil is the cause of famine
What to Regulate???
 WATER
– Water is a finite resource and needs to be
managed.
– On average, seventy percent of water that is
diverted from rivers or pumped from
underground is used for irrigating crops.
Simply put, NO WATER - NO FOOD.
What to Regulate???
 FORESTS
– Deforestation caused by:
• Clearing soil for agriculture
• Logging for wood, especially in the Tropics
• Demand for wood fuel and forest products
– Leads to
• loss of habitat and decreased biodiversity.
• Contributes to climate change by adding carbon
dioxide to the atmosphere.
• soil degradation due to erosion.
What to Regulate???
 RESOURCES
– “Throw-Away” Society
• Our resources are dwindling
• Geologic and environmental consequences of
mining and energy consumption
• Trash disposal has become very expensive,
especially in urban areas.
– RECYCLE
• Most of what we used to discard is now
recycled: paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, steel
 Mobile Phones Rules
 Are disruptive to tutors and other
students
 Out of respect for others, please switch
off your mobile phone now and refrain
from using it at all times during classes
 Please be considerate to others and
either switch off your phone
completely or turn it to silent mode.
 You will be asked to leave the class if
you use a mobile phone
inappropriately