Environment 98/99

, by Allen, John L.

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ISBN: 9780697417909 | 0697417905
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 4/1/1998

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Supplemental Materials

To the Reader

Topic Guide

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Selected World Wide Web Sites

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UNIT 1 The Global Environment: An Emerging World View Four selections provide information on the current state of Earth and the changes we will face.

Overview

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1. Computing the Risks: A Global Overview of Our Most-Pressing Environmental Challenges The international scientific community often seems hopelessly divided over fundamental environmental issues: climate change and its effects, the loss of biodiversity, and decreasing agricultural productivity. Despite the conflicting opinions, some patterns have emerged, including what may be the unifying theory of environmental problems: population growth.

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Don Hinrichsen, International Wildlife, March/April 1996

2. The Global Challenge The world's atmosphere and oceans are truly global commons, shared by all nations and peoples. Because the two interlocked systems circulate freely around the globe, impacts on air and water quality produced by human action are also shared. The capacity of the global atmospheric and oceanic systems to withstand human modifications is being tested by increasing human demands.

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Michael H. Glantz, The World & 1, April 1997

3. Regions at Risk: Exploring Environmental Criticality The concept of environmental criticality-areas of the environment so degraded by human action that they are either unusable for economic activity or unsuitable for human habitation, or both-has received great attention from scientists during the last few years. Application of the concept to current areas of environmental degradation shows that the causes of "criticality" are well rooted in many of the world's regions.

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Jeanne X. Kasperson

Roger E. Kasperson

B.L. Turner II, Environment, December 1996

4. Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems Human domination of the planet is measured by the facts that between one-third and one-half of the world's surface has undergone land transformation by humans, atmospheric change from increased carbon dioxide is under way, more than half of the available surface freshwater systems are used by people, and many plant and animal species have become extinct, with more on the way.

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Peter M. Vitousek

Harold A. Mooney

Jane Lubchenco

Jerry M. Melillo, Science, July 25, 1997

UNIT 2 The World's Population: People and Hunger Five selections examine the problems the world will have in feeding its ever-increasing population.

Overview

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5. How Many People Can the Earth Support? The biological concept of carrying capacity provides an estimate of how many people can be supported in a given environment at a given level of technology. When estimating the ability of Earth to support a human population, however, social, cultural, economic, and political choices are as important as environmental constraints on population size.

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Joel E. Cohen, The Sciences, November/December 1995

6. How Much Food Will We Need in the 21st Century? Most of the recent debate over food scarcity has focused on the potential for increasing the food supply. Scientists are now growing concerned over the ways in which intensive land use and the heavy applications of agricultural chemicals necessary to grow more food have damaged environmental systems. The answer is "low-fat" agriculture, with less reliance on animal products and more on grain.

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William H. Bender, Environment, March 1997

7. Population, Consumption, and the Path to Sustainability Rapid population growth is less of a problem than population growth that follows the American model of high levels of consumption, air and water pollution, and damage to the natural resource base. Population policies need to be developed with the ecological and environmental security of future generations in mind.

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Janet Welsh Brown, Current History, November 1996

8. Closing the Nutrient Loop An important worldwide phenomenon is an increasing rate of urbanization, or the tendency of populations to cluster in cities. In terms of the closed nutrient cycle, the urban trend causes massive shifts of nutrients to cities without a corresponding return to agricultural areas, diminishing the capacity of farmlands. The urban trend can be made more sustainable by growing food inside urban agglomerations rather than bringing it from the outside.

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Toni Nelson, World Watch, November/December 1996

9. The Myth of Global Hunger The specter of a global food crisis may be a false one, created by what some perceive as shrinking food reserves but that are really economic adjustments in the form of intentionally reduced agricultural production. While the amount of land farmed has risen only slightly in the last 50 years, food production has actually soared as the result of new, improved crop varieties. Coupled with stabilizing population growth, more productive crops should greatly reduce food insecurity.

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Dennis T. Avery, The World & 1, January 1997

UNIT 3 Energy: Present and Future Problems Four articles consider the problems of meeting present and future energy needs. Alternative energy sources are also examined.

Overview

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10. Power Shock: The Next Energy Revolution Many energy experts think that the old fossil fuel-based energy systems will not change rapidly. However, developments in many parts of the world are already proving them wrong. A major transition may be occurring as new modular, mass-produced energy systems based on sustainable energy resources enter the market and replace costlier and less flexible traditional energy systems.

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Christopher Flavin, World Watch, January/February 1996

11. Mideast Oil Forever? The United States has taken the lead in new energy technology that could generate jobs, reduce environmental degradation, and limit American dependency on fossil fuels from the unstable Persian Gulf region. Unfortunately, congressional action during the past year threatens to end America's leadership in the development of renewable energy systems.

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Joseph J. Romm

Charles B. Curtis, The Atlantic Monthly, April 1996

12. Sunlight Brightens Our Energy Future Solar energy has been the ultimate goal of those in search of the perfect energy source, largely because of its potentially inexpensive utilization and its nonpolluting character. New technologies are being developed that could make solar power a conventional energy source within the next 5 to 10 years. The most promising technology is that based upon converting sunlight directly into electricity through photovoltaics.

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Randy Quinn, The World & 1, March 1997

13. Inherit the Wind The use of wind power to generate electricity is the world's fastest-growing energy source. But in the United States, because of Americans' addictions to fossil fuel and nuclear power, uncertainty over public utility deregulation, and the media's tendency to downplay wind power as a viable renewable energy source, what once seemed to be a promising technology has faltered.

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Harvey Wasserman, The Nation, June 16, 1997

UNIT 4 Biosphere: Endangered Species Six articles examine the problems in the world's biosphere. Not only are plants and animals endangered, but so are many human groups who are disastrously affected by deforestation and primitive agricultural policies.

Overview

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14. Life on the Brink Many biological scientists are concerned about the world's shrinking biodiversity, produced by what seems to be an increasing rate of plant and animal extinction. Less-diverse ecosystems are more fragile than complex ones and for that reason a reduction in biodiversity is alarming. What we do not know is whether human action is producing mass extinction or whether declining numbers of species may be a natural phenomenon.

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Karen Schmidt, Earth, April 1997

15. The Work of Nature Global changes in land use and climate produce a reduction in plant and animal species and the diversity of ecosystems is threatened. Loss of natural biodiversity creates costly changes in water or nutrient cycles, fire regimes, rainfall, and soil vitality. It also threatens human health as emergent or resurgent diseases occupy opened ecological niches.

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Yvonne Baskin, Natural History, February 1997

A. PLANTS

16. Saving the Forest for the Trees: Alternative Products from Woodlands Recently, the concept of "green marketing," or emphasizing the use of sustainable forest products from the tropics as opposed to clearing land for agriculture, has attracted attention as a way of promoting sustainable yield forestry. More than just an environmental tool, sustainable forestry turns out to have significant cultural benefits as well.

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David A. Taylor, Environment, January/February 1997

17. An Explosion of Green The reforestation of the eastern United States is partly the result of conservation efforts and partly the result of accident. But the region's forest recovery can show the developing world how to make room for people, farming, industry, and endangered species and still maintain a viable ecosystem.

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Bill McKibben, The Atlantic Monthly, April 1995

B. ANIMALS

18. The Yellowstone Massacre During the winter of 1997, the bison herd of Yellowstone National Park was reduced from nearly 4,000 to just more than 2,000 animals. Partly responsible for the reduction was an extremely harsh winter; more responsible was a policy of wildlife management that saw park rangers killing animals who wandered out of the park in a questionable attempt to prevent the spread of brucellosis, a disease of large herbivores, to domestic cattle.

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Doug Peacock, Audubon, May/June 1997

19. Wild Success For millions of African farmers who must compete with protected wildlife species for scarce resources, the idea of locking up large tracts of land in wildlife preserves is a threat to continued human existence in adjacent areas. In southern Africa, changes in conservation strategy give villagers an economic stake in wildlife preservation and could alter the way we think about and profit from natural resources.

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Karl Hess Jr., Reason, October 1997

UNIT 5 Resources: Land, Water, and Air Seven selections discuss the environmental problems affecting our land, water, and air resources.

Overview

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A. LAND

20. Asia Is Losing Ground Throughout the Pacific Rim area of burgeoning economies, rapid development of industrialization is threatening land formerly used for farming. Since few of the "Asian tigers" are agriculturally self-sustaining, the loss of precious farmland is crucial. The need to import more food reduces many of the economic benefits of development and produces new national problems in the form of potential food shortages.

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Gary Gardner, World Watch, November/December 1996

21. Assault of the Earth The world's supply of productive soil is dwindling as a result of intensive farming. Virtually all of the world's most fertile farmland is already in cultivation. As population grows, farmers will have to increase their yields, and this cannot be done without increasing already severe problems of soil depletion.

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Elena Wilken, World Watch, March/April 1995

B. WATER

22. The Rising Seas Many scientists are concerned that global warming will lead to a melting of the glacial ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica, producing coastal flooding everywhere on Earth. The problem is that it is so difficult to predict the amount of such flooding over the next 50 or 100 years, that environmental planning and management of the predicted sea level increase become nearly impossible.

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David Schneider, Scientific American, March 1997

23. A Bay Is Sick. Will the Cure Make It Worse? The 600-square-mile Florida Bay-between Florida's Everglades and the Keys-is undergoing a process of cultural eutrophication in which aquatic vegetation dies and once-clear water turns the color of pea soup, driving out or killing fish. The ultimate cause is reduced water flow from the Everglades, but scientists remain uncertain as to whether the immediate cause is increased water salinity or agricultural runoff.

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William K. Stevens, New York Times, April 15, 1997

C. AIR

24. It's Time to Reconsider Global Climate Change Policy The primary objective of a global policy on climate change should be the identification of actions that preserve material well-being and the path to increased standards of living for people in developing nations. Unfortunately, not enough is known about global warming to accurately shape such policy, but in the long run the debate will be as much over social management as it is over environmental planning.

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William F. O'Keefe, USA Today Magazine (Society for the Advancement of Education), March 1997

25. A Sky Full of Holes: Why the Ozone Layer Is Torn Worse than Ever The environmental problem of the breakdown of stratospheric ozone and the formation of holes in the ozone layer was believed to have been fixed by reduction in the use of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. Recent evidence suggests that the problem of ozone depletion is still with us, and new chemical culprits such as methyl bromide are being identified as ozone-destroying agents just as damaging as CFCs.

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Mark Dowie, The Nation, July 8, 1996

26. Hot Air Predicting the consequences of global warming is impossible, but among the effects of a warming trend will probably be increased storminess, more extremes (both more droughts and more floods), and quite possibly significant disruptions of agriculture, industry, and the natural food chain. Unfortunately, the mainstream media continue to treat climate change as something that is remotely possible rather than highly probable.

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David Edwards, Z Magazine, February 1997

UNIT 6 Pollution: The Hazards of Growth Five selections weigh the environmental impacts of the growth of human population

Overview

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27. Nowhere to Hide: The Global Spread of High-Risk Synthetic Chemicals The world production of synthetic organic chemicals has risen exponentially in this century. The risks of exposure to these chemicals through accidental contact, biological accumulation, and unpredictable synergistic effects are increasing as well, with unfavorable consequences that are only now becoming known. Unfortunately, the burden of proof as to whether a chemical compound may be released for sale is often up to regulatory agencies rather than chemical manufacturers.

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Jennifer D. Mitchell, World Watch, March/April 1997

28. A Down-to-Earth Approach to Clean Production The practice of industrial symbiosis, modeled on the natural world where organisms rely on one another for nutrients, promises to substantially cut the environmental costs-and the economic costs as well-of manufacturing. The authors describe how the new industrial ecology offers ways to reduce traditional conflicts between economic development and environmental health.

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Nicholas Gertler

John R. Ehrenfeld, Technology Review, February/March 1996

29. Earth's Last Gasp? Scientists have been observing the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere for decades and have become increasingly concerned over the potential for global warming that such an increase portends. If atmospheric pollution is not controlled, the average rate of warming over the next century will probably be greater than during any period in the last 10,000 years.

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Daniel A. Lashof, USA Today Magazine (Society for the Advancement of Education), May 1997

30. China Takes a Deep Breath After decades of unchecked economic growth, China now faces an environmental degradation problem of unprecedented magnitude as soil, water, and air pollution have risen to levels dangerous to human health. While there is some evidence that the Chinese bureaucracy is beginning to recognize the problems, economic development still remains of paramount importance.

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U.S. News & World Report, September 9, 1996

31. Chemical Chokehold The collapse of the Soviet Union left in its wake a number of newly independent countries with severe pollution problems. Typical in many ways is the new republic of Azerbaijan, home of one of the world's worst hotspots of industrial chemical pollution. Cleanup of toxic wastes and renovation of the country's industrial base will require huge capital investments and significant international aid

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Gordon Feller, The World & 1, May 1997

Environmental Information Retrieval

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Glossary

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Index

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Article Review Form

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Article Rating Form

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Environment 98/99

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