Sustainability, Inexhaustible and Renewable Resources, and Nonrenewable Resources

Sustainability, inexhaustible and renewable resources, and nonrenewable resources.Capacity of the earth’s natural systems and human cultural systems to survive.Environment is everything around us.Ecology is the biological science that studies how living things interact with one another and with their environment, environmental science is an interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment, environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to trying to protect the earth’s life support systems for all forms of life. Three forms of sustainability are dependence of solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling. Solar energy warms plants and provides energy so they can provide nutrients, also indirectly powers wind and flowing water. Biodiversity is the variety of genes, organisms, species, and ecosystems in which organisms exist and interact. It provides vital ecosystem services and keeps any population from growing too large.Nutrients are substance that provides nourishment essential for growth and the maintenance of life. Chemical cycling is the circulation of chemicals necessary for life from the environment through organisms and ack to the environment. It’s important because it means there is little waste in nature other than in the human world because the wastes of any organism become nutrients or raw materials for other organisms.

3.Natural capital is the natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species and support human economics(energy from sun and freshwater). Natural resources are materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans(energy from sun and win).Ecosystem services are processes provided by healthy ecosystems(purification of air and water). Degrading natural capital by cutting down trees faster than they grow,adding chemicals to water and building on forests. In making tradeoffs, each side gets something they want so they don't complain. Individuals matter inventing more sustainable ways of doing things. Full cost pricing, win win solutions, a responsibility to future generations. Full cost pricing gives consumers better information about the environmental impacts of their lifestyles, and it would allow them to make more informed choices about the goods and services they use.

4. A resource is anything we can obtain from the environment to meet our needs and wants. Inexhaustible resources have unlimited supply and renewable resources resupply itself after a short period of time. Solar energy is inexhaustible and wood is renewable Sustainable yield is the highest rate at which a resource can be used without indefinitely reducing its available supply. Nonrenewable resources are resources that exist in a fixed quantity, copper and oil. It helps to extend supplies and to reduce the environmental impacts of using these resources.Recycling should be the last resort. Recycle at least 80% of the metals and other nonrenewable materials that we currently use. More developed countries are industrialized nations with high average income and have 17% of the world’s population that include the U.S , Canada, Japan, and Australia. The rest, 83%, most of them Africa, Asia, and Latin America. United States is a high income country, Brazil is a middle income, and Haiti is a low income country.

5.As our ecological footprints grow, we are degrading more of our natural capital. Natural capital degradations involve using resources at an unsustainable rate, cutting down trees, topsoil eroding and deserts expanding. About 60% of the earth’s natural capital has been degraded by humans. Pollution is a presence in the environment that is harmful to the health, survival or activities of humans or other organisms. Point sources have single sources but nonpoint sources are dispersed and could have from anywhere. Output control involves cleaning up after the pollutants have been released. And may involve physically removing a pollutant from the environment, while input control involves reducing or eliminating the production of pollutants, which may involve trapping the pollutants before they are released and then properly disposing of them. The tragedy of commons is environmentally degrading many openly shared renewable resources. Ways to deal with it is to use resources at a sustainable rate and another is to convert shared renewable resources to private ownership.

6.Affluence is wealth. Ecological footprints refers to the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to provide the people in a particular country or area with an indefinite supply of renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use.The per capita ecological footprint is the average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area. The total ecological footprint for the U.S in millions of hectares is 2810 versus 2060 for China. The per capita was about 6 times larger than China’s per capita. We are living unsustainably by over extracting resources , and not allowing adequate time for the processes of recycling and regeneration.

Doing Environmental Science

My ecological footprint is way bigger than I expected. I can start recycling more, eat more unprocessed food and maybe bike instead of going in a car.

Ecological Footprint Analysis

1.United States and United Kingdom because of affluence and overconsumption.

2. Brazil has an ecological credit of 7.8 and Canada has one of 6.9. This is due to low population sizes relative to available resources.

3.U.S, Canada, UK, Germany, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, China, India

Pg 48 #2,8,9

2.Scientists collect data and develop hypotheses, theories, models, and laws about how nature works. Identify a problem, find out what is known about the problem, ask a question to investigate, perform an experiment and collect and analyze data to answer the question, analyze data, propose a hypothesis to explain data, use hypothesis to make testable projections, perform an experiment to test projections. Data is information. A model is an approximate representation or simulation of a system. Scientific hypothesis is a possible and testable answer to a scientific question or explanation of what scientists observe in nature,scientific theory is a well tested and widely accepted scientific hypothesis,and scientific law is a well tested and widely accepted description of what we find happening repeatedly and in the same way nature. Jane Goodall researched chimpanzees. She discovered that chimps have more complex social interactions. Also that chimps make and use tools. She established an institute to preserve great ape populations and