GLY 2030C 1

Case History: Surface Water Development

Aral Sea

• Location – central Asia

• Tourism, Commercial fishing

• 1918: Soviet instituted water diversion for agriculture-Uzbek cotton

• Results: 20-m water level drop, climate modification, desertification, health issues, increased salinity

GLY 2030C 2

Land Ethic – responsibility to more than just humans & society

• Species vs. individual • Humanity is an integral part of the

environment• A moral obligation to those who follow• The Land Ethic and American

Experience• Aldo Leopold: Sand County Almanac• Set the stage for modern

conservationist movement

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

GLY 2030C 3

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

•Land Ethic – American Experience• Pilgrims

• Technology (ax, gun, wheel)• Organizational skills• Concept of land ownership

• Myth of Superabundance – inexhaustible resources

• Hydraulic Mining• Seeds of Conservation

• John Wesley Powell

GLY 2030C 4

Deforestation and soil erosion Mining

Surface and groundwater development

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

5

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

Concept 1: Population Growth

•#1 environmental “problem”

•From 1830 to 1930, population doubled to 2 billion

•From 1930 to 1970, doubled again to 4 billion

•2000 estimate is about 6 billion

6

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

Concept 1: Population Growth in Florida

Florida in the 1980s and 1990s, averaged ~2%/year (same rate as a developing country)

GLY 2030C 7

Constant Doubling time

•Exponential growth curve (J-shaped)

• Blackboard example of equation:

•N=Noekt

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

GLY 2030C 8

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

Concept 2: Sustainability

•Resources•Food• Leads to idea of a Global Economy

•Populations in harmony with ecosystem•Energy policy (pollution-free or acceptable risk)•Use plan for renewable resources•Use plan and reservation of non-renewable resources•Sustainable legal, political, and legal systems

•To achieve sustainable global economy:•Effective population control•Restructured energy program•Global economic planning•Social, legal, political, and educational systems to support global environment

GLY 2030C 9

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

Concept 3: SystemsHydrosphereBiosphereAtmosphereLithosphere

GLY 2030C 10

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

•Open system- energy exchanges•Closed system- material is continuously recycled;

•Earth is a coalition of closed systems•Feedback-output becomes input; causes change (e.g. neighbor and loud music)

•Negative- outcome moderates/decreases process(river model)•Positive -outcome of change amplifies the initiating event(Off-road vehicles)

GLY 2030C 11

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

• Growth rates• Measured as a percentage

– N=N0ekt or t=(1/k)ln (N/N0)

• Doubling time – 70 divided by rate of change

• Predicting Change in Systems

• Input-Output analysis • Blackboard Example of Avg.

residence time

GLY 2030C 12

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

GLY 2030C 13

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

GLY 2030C 14

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

•Complex systems and Earth System Science•Natural systems are seldom at equilibrium•Systems are often complex with thresholds and disturbance (chaos)

•Earth system science: studying entire Earth

•Gaia Hypothesis•James Hutton (Father of Geology) believed the Earth is a super organism•James Lovelock and his ideas stimulated interdisciplinary studies on how the planet works

GLY 2030C 15

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

•Concept 4: Limitation of Resources•Earth

•Only place to live that is accessible•Resources are limited; some renewable, some not

•Natural resources•Cornucopian concept (we’ll find a way)•Resource crisis

•Medical technology and overpopulation•Economies based on waste and obsolescence •Finite accessible mineral base•Irreversible environmental damage from all the above

•Concept 5: Uniformitarianism (James Hutton)•The present is the key to the past•Uniformity of Process, not magnitude and frequency•EG-The present is the key to the future

GLY 2030C 16

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

•Concept 6: Hazardous Earth Processes

•There have always been geohazards•Can be recognized and avoided where possible•Minimize threat to human life and property

•Concept 7: Geology: Basic Environmental Science

•Fundamental component of everyone’s environment•environment requires an understanding:

•Engineering geology•Economic geology•Hydrology•Geomorphology•Sedimentology

Philosophy and Fundamental Concepts

• Concept 8: Our Obligation to the Future• Early Hominids didn’t influence the Earth until the discovery and use of fire

• Development of agriculture (5,000 B.C.) spurred population growth driving increased land clearing (positive feedback)

• Human activity (45 GT/yr) – cf. tectonic activity (34 GT/yr), river transport (24 GT/yr)

• Ducktown, Tennessee (1840s-1850s, copper rush) - Beginning of environmental law