The presence of substances in the environment that inconvenience or endanger humans.
Human activity adds to the natural occurrence of contaminants.
Smoke from wood and coal fires
Fossil fuel combustion
Industrial pollution
Synthetic chemistry.
Industrialized nations greatly reduce the overall burden of disease by lowering exposures to lethal nonindustrial pollutants. The main advances are access to unpolluted water and the transition from dirty solid fuels to electricity used in homes.
Biosphere
The biosphere is the small area above the earth’s surface that supports life.Multiple ecosystems exist within the biosphere.
Forests
Oceans
Deserts
Ecosystem Services
The productivity of natural ecosystems in creating food and fiber and in regulating climate, water, soil, nutrients and other forms of natural capital.
Coral Reefs
Rain Forests
Forests
Glaciers
Industrial activity and sustainability
Nonpolluting economic growth that raises standards of living without depleting the net resources of the earth.
The environmental kuznets curve
An inverted U-shaped curve illustrating that as GDP rises in emerging economies pollution goes through stages of rapid increase, leveling off and decline.
Environmental attitudes
Dualism: Humans are separate from nature due to the power of reason.
Progress: History is a narrative of improvement.
Capitalism: Private individuals and corporations own the means of production, are motivated by the desire for profit and compete in free markets.
Utilitarianism: The greatest good for the greatest number. Economic benefit of pollution outweigh environmental costs.
Land Ethic: Humans are part of an ethical community that includes other humans but all elements of the natural environment.
Deep Ecology: Theory that rejects human domination of nature. Humans have equal rights with other species, not superior rights.
Speciesism: Bias by humans toward members of their own species and prejudice against members of other species. When humans compete with plants and animals, the latter will lose.
Environmental regulation in the united states
To protect the environment, the US has passed laws strictly regulating emissions, effluents and wastes.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an executive branch regulatory agency. Its mission is to protect human health and to preserve the natural environment.
Superfund
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980.
A federal program set up in 1980 to clean up toxic waste sites. Money in the fund comes from congressional appropriations and from payments by the parties responsible for toxic waste sites.