chapter 25 lecture outline - ltcc onlinelimits of green consumerism (cont.) • focus on doing your...
TRANSCRIPT
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William P. CunninghamUniversity of Minnesota
Mary Ann CunninghamVassar College
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
Chapter 25
Lecture Outline
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What Then Shall We Do?
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Outline
• Making a Difference
• Environmental Education
Environmental Careers
• How Much is Enough?
Green Consumerism
• Working Together
Mainline and Radical Environmental Groups
• Campus Greening
• Sustainability is a Global Challenge
• Millennium Assessment
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Making a Difference
• Stewardship is everyone’s business.
• Many groups are working to solve
environmental problems-
Minorities
Religious groups
Farmers
Loggers
Business leaders
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Environmental Science
• Environmental Science involves-
Communications
Policy
Education
Economics
- AND
Science
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Environmental Education
• In 1990, Congress passed the National
Environmental Education Act establishing two
goals:
Improve understanding among the general public
of the natural and built environment and the
relationships between humans and their
environment
Encourage postsecondary students to pursue
careers related to the environment
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Environmental Literacy
• William Reilly, former EPA administrator, called for
environmental literacy in which every citizen is
fluent in the principles of ecology and has a working
knowledge of the environment.
Foster a stewardship ethic
Prepare ourselves for life in the 21st century
A lifelong process
Get out and enjoy the natural world
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Environmental Education
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Citizen Science
• Ordinary people join with established scientists to
answer real scientific questions
Community-based research was pioneered in
the Netherlands in when they combined
researchers with students and neighborhood
groups to work on research projects
The Audubon Society sponsors a annual
Christmas Bird Count.
Earthwatch and American River Watch are also
examples of enlisting the public in scientific
research projects.
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Environmental Careers
• Trained people in environmental professions, at
every level from support staff to managers to
educators are essential, and those roles will only
increase in importance.
• World Wildlife Fund estimates 750,000 new jobs in
renewable energy in next 10 yrs
• Other fields_
Environmental law
Environmental engineering
Environmental education
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Green Business
• Can resource conservation and environmental
awareness be an advantage in business?
Most large companies have an environmental
department.
Companies are beginning to design with
pollution control and waste disposal in mind.
Huge market for pollution control technology
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Environmental Technician Taking Samples
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How Much Is Enough?• Veblen in Theory of the Leisure Class one century
ago coined the term conspicuous consumption to describe buying things we do not need in order to impress others.
The average American now consumes twice as many goods and services as in 1950
- An average house in the U.S. is now more than twice as big as 50 years ago, even though the typical family has half the number of people.
- We need the additional space to hold all the stuff we buy.
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How Much Is Enough?
• Growing number of people find themselves stuck in
a vicious cycle:
Work frantically at a job they hate, to buy things
they don’t need, so they can save time to work
longer hours.
Some, however, take a cue from Thoreau and
are adopting more simple, less consumptive
lifestyles.
“Affluenza” refers to the drive to possess stuff.
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We Can Reduce Our Environmental
Impacts
• Even small steps can have significant
environmental effects:
Switching from a diet high in red meat to a
vegetarian one can save as much energy as
trading in a normal car for a hybrid.
- It takes only about 2 calories of fossil fuel to
grow most produce.
- The ratio is as high as 80 to 1 for cattle grown
in confined feeding operations.
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“Green Washing” Can Confuse
Consumers
• Many terms used in advertising are vague and have little meaning:
Nontoxic, biodegradable, recyclable, natural, organic, environmentally friendly
• Several national programs scientifically analyze the environmental impacts of products.
Blue Angel label in Germany
Green Seal program in the U.S.
The most comprehensive product analysis is called the life cycle analysis, as it follows a product through its manufacture, use and disposal.
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Life Cycle
Analysis of
Products
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Limits of Green Consumerism
• Often, consumers are faced with complicated choices.
Paper or plastic grocery bags?
- Both have good and bad points, and represent trade-offs in energy use, pollution production, ability to recycle, etc.
- If you have both paper and plastic recycling, plastic is probably better because it is easier to recycle and produces less pollution.
A better choice is to take your own reusable cloth bag.
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Limits of Green Consumerism (cont.)
• Focus on doing your best to recycle, buy green
products, and be involved.
• Green consumerism generally can do little about
larger issues of global equality, chronic poverty,
and oppression in the Third World.
There is a danger that an exclusive focus on our
own small steps, such as recycling, may divert
attention from greater environmental issues.
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How Can We Work Together?
• Collective action can magnify the power of
individuals. For this reason, many people join
environmental or social action groups.
• National Environmental Groups Include:
National Wildlife Federation
World Wildlife Fund
The Audubon Society
The Sierra Club
Ducks Unlimited
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Wilderness Society
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Growth of Environmental Organizations
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Environmental Groups
• Mass membership, large professional staffs, and
long history provide large, national groups a degree
of respectability and influence not found in newer,
smaller groups
Mainline environmental organizations are often
criticized by radical environmentalists for their
tendency to compromise and cooperate with the
establishment.
These groups have local chapters, a good way
for you to become involved
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Environmental Groups (cont.)
• Some groups have limited contact with members
and focus instead on land acquisition, litigation and
lobbying.
Environmental Defense Fund
Nature Conservancy
National Resources Defense Council
Wilderness Society
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Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)
• Rapid rise in international NGOs
Rio Summit in 1992 had 30,000 representatives
of environmental groups attending
Carry out public education and consciousness-
raising using protest marches and civil
disobedience
Conservation International does debt for nature
swaps
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Campus Greening
• Student Environmental Action Coalition
(SEAC) is largest group with some 5000
chapters.
Is there a chapter on your campus?
• Another important student organizing group
is the network of Public Interest Research
Groups.
• You can learn to organize, use social media
to get your message out.
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Schools Can Be Environmental Leaders
• Schools can do campus audits to study water and energy use, waste disposal, recycling, paper consumption, etc.
• New buildings should meet U.S. Green Building Council standards. It does not cost any more to build in an environmentally friendly way.
At Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, a kiosk in the dorm shows daily energy use and there are green dorms with natural lighting, clean air and few allergens.
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Colleges Showing Environmental
Leadership
• Dartmouth, Harvard, Stanford and Williams rank at
the top for green policies.
• Berea College in Kentucky got special
commendation.
Berea’s ecovillage has a student designed house
that produces its own electricity and treats waste
water in a living system.
College has a full time sustainability coordinator
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Your Campus Can Reduce Energy Usage
• Your campus can reduce energy use by
purchasing fuel efficient vehicles
using green building standards
purchasing energy from renewable sources
buying locally produced foods
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Sustainability is a Global Challenge
• Sustainable Development uses renewable resources in harmony with ecological systems
Developing countries need access to more-efficient, less-polluting technologies
- Technology transfer and financial aid
- Poverty is at the core of many problems.
The $350 billion/yr needed to address sustainability issues is small compared to the $1 trillion/yr spent on wars and military.
Need to find compromise between no-growth and unlimited growth
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A Model For Sustainable Development
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Millennium Assessment
• The Millennium Assessment was completed by the
U.N. in 2000.
All of us depend on ecosystems to provide
conditions for decent life.
We have made unprecedented demands on
ecosystems to meet growing demands for food,
water, fibers for clothing and energy.
These changes improved humans but weakened
nature’s ability to purify air and water, protect
from disasters.
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Millennium Assessment (cont.)
Outstanding problems include the dire state of the world’s fish stocks, the vulnerability of people living in dry regions, and the growing threat of global warming and pollution.
Human actions have taken the planet to the edge of a massive wave of extinctions.
Loss of ecosystem services is a barrier to reducing poverty, hunger, and disease. Pressures on ecosystems will increase globally unless we change our actions.
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Millennium Assessment (cont.)
Conservation is more likely to succeed if local communities are given ownership.
Today’s technology can reduce human impact, but it is unlikely to be deployed fully until we stop thinking of ecosystem services as free and limitless.
Better protection of natural assets requires coordinated efforts of governments, business, and international institutions.