ENVSCI

The universe appears to be unlimited, but much remains unknown;

The earth is the only known habitable planet in the solar system;

Many dramatic events happened in the past such as the multiple extinction events, including the extinction of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, and historical ice ages;

Understand how the nature works;

Determine human-induced or accelerated changes;

Minimize harmful environmental impact and maximize beneficial environmental impact so that the life support system is sustained for as long as possible.

It is estimated that more than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on the Earth became extinct because they could not adapt to changing environmental conditions.

Key Massages:

The Universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars,

galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. While the spatial size of the

entire Universe is still unknown, it is possible to measure the observable universe. Mass (ordinary matter): At least 1053 kg

Age (within Lambda-CDM model): 13.799 ± 0.021 billion years

Main contents: Ordinary (baryonic) matter (4.9%); Dark matter (26.8%); Dark energy (68.3%)

Shape: Flat with only a 0.4% margin of error

Diameter: Unknown. Diameter of the observable universe: 8.8×1026 m (28.5 Gpc or 93 Gly)

Our Place in the Universe

The Ant 2 (Antlia 2) “ghost” galaxy is a large, dim dwarf satellite galaxy that scientists have discovered near the edge of the Milky Way. While low in mass, Ant 2 is about the same size as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). V. Belokurov and A. Smith (Cambridge, UK and CCA, New York, US) based on the images by Marcus and Gail Davies and Robert Gendler

A global (ESA) space astrometry mission, Gaia (Greek Goddess of the Earth)will make the largest, most precise three- dimensional map of our Galaxy by surveying more than a thousand million stars.

There are about 51 galaxies in the Local Group, on the order of 100,000 in our Local Supercluster, and an estimated 100 billion in all of the observable universe.

The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way. … It consists of two collections of galaxies in a "dumbbell" shape: the Milky Way and its satellites form one lobe, and the Andromeda Galaxy and its satellites constitute the other. … The group itself is a part of the larger Virgo Supercluster, which may be a part of the Laniakea Supercluster. The exact number of galaxies in the Local Group is unknown …; however, at least 80 members are known, most of which are dwarf galaxies.

The Milky Way … has several satellite galaxies and is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which form part of the Virgo Supercluster, which is itself a component of the Laniakea Supercluster. It is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars and at least that number of planets. The Solar System is located at a radius of about 27,000 light-years from the Galactic Center.

The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to 3.26 light-years or 206,000 astronomical units (au), i.e. 30.9 trillion kilometres (19.2 trillion miles).

A parsec (pc) is about

30,856,775,814,671,900

meters, or approximately

3.09 × 10¹³ km.

Our Position in Space and Time: How Did We Get Here?

This image released by NASA on July 12, 2022, shows the edge of a nearby, young,

star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula (approximately 8,500 light-years

from Earth). Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the

James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star

birth, according to NASA. Photo courtesy of NASA via AP

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed

primarily to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its

high infrared resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too early, distant, or

faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. This is expected to enable a broad range of

investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of

the first stars and the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric

characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led JWST's design

and development and partnered with two main agencies: the European Space

Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The NASA Goddard Space

Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland managed telescope development, the Space

Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore on the Homewood Campus of Johns

Hopkins University operates JWST, and the prime contractor was Northrop

Grumman. The telescope is named after James E. Webb, who was the administrator

of NASA from 1961 to 1968 during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25 December 2021 on

an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, and arrived at the Sun–

Earth L2 Lagrange point in January 2022 (about 1 million miles from the

Earth). The first image from JWST was released to the public via a press conference

on 11 July 2022. The telescope is the successor of the Hubble as NASA's flagship

mission in astrophysics.

https://www.wpr.org/part-latest-nasa-discovery-uw-madison-alum-reflects-james-webb-telescopes-breakthrough

The L2 point is rapidly establishing itself as a pre-eminent location for advanced spaceprobes and ESA has a number of

missions that will make use of this orbital 'sweet-spot' in the coming years. L2 will become home to ESA missions such as

Herschel, Planck, Eddington, Gaia, the James Webb Space Telescope and Darwin.

L2 is one of the so-called Lagrangian points, discovered by mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange. Lagrangian points are

locations in space where gravitational forces and the orbital motion of a body balance each other. Therefore, they can be used

by spacecraft to 'hover'. L2 is located 1.5 million kilometres directly 'behind' the Earth as viewed from the Sun. It is about four

times further away from the Earth than the Moon ever gets and orbits the Sun at the same rate as the Earth.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Herschel/L2_the_second_Lagrangian_Point

https://sci.esa.int/web/euclid/-/29537-the-second-lagrangian-point-l2

List of artificial objects leaving the Solar System Planetary exploration probes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_objects_leaving_the_Solar_System Pioneer 10 – launched in 1972, flew past Jupiter in 1973 and is heading in the direction of Aldebaran (65 light years away) in the constellation of Taurus. Contact was lost in January 2003, and it is estimated to have passed 120 astronomical units (AU; one AU is roughly the average distance between Earth and the Sun: 150 million kilometers (93 million miles)). Pioneer 11 – launched in 1973, flew past Jupiter in 1974 and Saturn in 1979. Contact was lost in November 1995, and it is estimated to be at around 100 AU. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila, northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Barring an incident, Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars in the constellation in about 4 million years. Voyager 2 – launched in August 1977, flew past Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1989. The probe left the heliosphere for interstellar space at 119 AU on 5 November 2018. Voyager 2 is still active. It is not headed toward any particular star, although in roughly 40,000 years it should pass 1.7 light-years from the star Ross 248. If undisturbed for 296,000 years, it should pass by the star Sirius at a distance of 4.3 light-years. Voyager 1 – launched in September 1977, flew past Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980, making a special close approach to Saturn's moon Titan. The probe passed the heliopause at 121 AU on 25 August 2012 to enter interstellar space. Voyager 1 is still active. It is headed towards an encounter with star AC +79 3888, which lies 17.6 light-years from Earth, in about 40,000 years. New Horizons – launched in 2006, the probe flew past Jupiter in 2007 and Pluto on 14 July 2015. It flew past the Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth on January 1, 2019, as part of the Kuiper Belt Extended Mission (KEM). Although other probes were launched first, Voyager 1 has achieved a higher speed and overtaken all others. Voyager 1 overtook Voyager 2 a few months after launch, on 19 December 1977. It overtook Pioneer 11 in 1983, and then Pioneer 10— becoming the probe farthest from Earth—on February 17, 1998. Depending on how the "Pioneer anomaly" affects it, New Horizons will also probably pass the Pioneer probes, but will need many years to do so. It will not overtake Pioneer 11 until the 22nd century, will not overtake Pioneer 10 until the end of that century, and will never overtake the Voyagers.

The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. Of the objects that orbit the Sun

directly, the largest are the eight planets, with the remainder being smaller objects, such as the five dwarf planets and sma ll Solar System bodies.

Known planets: 8 (Mercury; Venus; Earth; Mars; Jupiter; Saturn; Uranus; Neptune)

Star: 1 (Sun)

Nearest star: Proxima Centauri (4.25 ly); Alpha Centauri (4.37 ly)

Distance to Galactic Center: 27,000 ± 1,000 ly

The age of the solar system is near 5 billion years; that of the Earth is taken as 4.6 billion years. The oldest rocks on Earth are dated as 3.8 billion years.

The sun gives energy to life on Earth, and without this star, we wouldn't be here. But like

most things in space, even stars have limited lifetimes, and someday our sun will die.

Inside the sun, a churning fusion engine fuels the star, and it still has a lot of fuel left —

about 5 billion years' worth.

The five bodies recognized or named as dwarf planets by the IAU: Ceres, Pluto, Eris and its moon Dysnomia, Makemake and its moon, Haumea and its two moons Namaka and Hiʻiaka.

Known natural satellites 575 Known minor planets 796,354 Known comets 4,143 Identified rounded satellites 19 (5–6 likely in hydrostatic equilibrium)

Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and was originally considered to be the ninth planet from the Sun. After 1992, its status as a planet was questioned following the discovery of several objects of similar size in the Kuiper belt. In 2005, Eris, a dwarf planet in the scattered disc which is 27% more massive than Pluto, was discovered. This led the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term "planet" formally in 2006, during their 26th General Assembly. That definition excluded Pluto and reclassified it as a dwarf planet.

Earth as the only habitable planet in the solar system

The Blue Marble is an image of planet Earth taken on

December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17

spacecraft at a distance of about 29,000 kilometers

(18,000 miles) from the surface. It is one of the most

reproduced images in history.

Seeing the Earth over the moon’s horizon, finite and fragile, is credited with spurring pro- environmental legislation and the inception of Earth Day.

Earthrise is a photograph of Earth and some of the Moon's surface that was taken from lunar orbit by

astronaut Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. Nature photographer Galen

Rowell declared it "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken".

How Does the Earth’s Life-Support System Work? Four major components of the earth’s life-support

system

Atmosphere (air layer)

– Innermost layer is the troposphere

 Contains the air we breathe

78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1%

water vapor, dioxide, and

methane

– Stratosphere: contains ozone layer

 Filters out 95% of the sun’s

harmful UV radiation

Hydrosphere (water layer)

– All water vapor, liquid water, and ice

– Oceans cover 71% of the earth’s surface and contain 97% of the planet’swater

– About 2.5% of the earth’s water is freshwater and three-fourth of that is ice

Geosphere [lithosphere] (rock & soil layer)

– Upper portion of crust contains nutrients organisms need to live, grow, and

reproduce

– Contains nonrenewable fossil fuels and mineral resources

Biosphere (living things; life layer) – Parts of atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere where life is found

extending from the earth's surface to a height of about 3.7–6.2 miles (6–10 km)

Troposphere

Living at the surface of the Earth, we are usually only aware

of the events happening in the lowest layer, the troposphere,

where all weather occurs. The base of this layer is warmer

than its top because the air is heated by the surface of the

Earth, which absorbs the Sun’s energy.

Stratosphere

Above the troposphere lies the stratosphere where jet

airplanes fly. Temperatures increase with altitude because of

increasing amounts of ozone. The ozone layer within the

stratosphere absorbs harmful ultraviolet rays of sunlight.

Mesosphere

As the mesosphere extends upward above the stratosphere,

temperatures decrease. The coldest parts of our atmosphere

are located in this layer and can reach –90°C.

Thermosphere

In the forth layer from Earth’s surface, the thermosphere, the

air is thin, meaning that there are far fewer air molecules.

The thermosphere is very sensitive to solar activity and can

heat up to 1,500°C or higher when the Sun is active making

an aurora that lights up the night sky. Astronauts orbiting

Earth in the space station or space shuttle spend their time in

this layer.

Exosphere

The upper layer of our atmosphere, where atoms and

molecules escape into space, is called the exosphere.

An aurora, sometimes referred to as polar

lights, northern lights or southern lights, is a natural

light display in the Earth's sky, predominantly seen in

the high-latitude regions (around the Arctic andAntarctic).

The following fields of science are generally categorized within the earth sciences:

•Physical geography covers aspects of geomorphology, soil study, hydrology, meteorology, climatology, and biogeography.

•Geology describes the rocky parts of the earth's crust (or lithosphere) and its historic development. Major subdisciplines

are mineralogy and petrology, geochemistry, geomorphology, paleontology, stratigraphy, structural geology, engineering geology,

and sedimentology.

•Geophysics and geodesy investigate the shape of the Earth, its reaction to forces and its magnetic and gravity fields. Geophysicists explore

the earth's core and mantle as well as the tectonic and seismic activity of the lithosphere. Geophysics is commonly used to supplement the

work of geologists in developing a comprehensive understanding of crustal geology, particularly in mineral and petroleum

exploration. Seismologists use geophysics to understand plate tectonic shifting, as well as predict seismic activity.

•Soil science covers the outermost layer of the earth's crust that is subject to soil formation processes (or pedosphere). Major subdisciplines

include edaphology and pedology.

•Ecology covers the interactions between the biota, with their natural environment. This field of study differentiates the study of Earth from the

study of other planets in the Solar System, Earth being the only planet teeming with life.

•Hydrology, oceanography and limnology are a study revolved around the movement, distribution, and quality of the water and involves all

the components of the hydrologic cycle on the Earth and its atmosphere (or hydrosphere). "Sub-disciplines of hydrology include

hydrometeorology, surface water hydrology, hydrogeology, watershed science, forest hydrology, and waterchemistry."

•Glaciology covers the icy parts of the Earth (or cryosphere).

•Atmospheric sciences cover the gaseous parts of the Earth (or atmosphere) between the surface and the exosphere (about 1000 km).

Major subdisciplines include meteorology, climatology, atmospheric chemistry, and atmospheric physics.

Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth, including its lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_science).

Living Environment: Lithosphere (the rock & soil layer)

Hydrosphere (the water layer)

Atmosphere (the air layer) Biosphere (the life layer)

Life on Earth first appeared

as early as 4.28 billion

years ago, soon after

ocean formation 4.41

billion years ago, and not

long after the formation of

the Earth 4.54 billion years

ago.

The earliest known life forms are microfossils of

bacteria. Researchers generally think that current life

on Earth descends from an RNA world, although RNA-

based life may not have been the first life to have

existed. The classic 1952 Miller–Urey experiment and

similar research demonstrated that most amino acids,

the chemical constituents of the proteins used in all

living organisms, can be synthesized from inorganic

compounds under conditions intendedto replicate

those of the early Earth.

Complex organic molecules occur in the Solar

System and in interstellar space, and these

molecules mayhave provided starting material

for the development of life on Earth.

Dinosaurs may have been killed off by a comet

instead of an asteroid By Megan Marples, CNN

Updated 1:33 PM ET, Wed February 17, 2021 https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/world/dinosaur-extinction-comet-study-scn/index.html

(CNN)Dinosaurs might have been wiped out by a comet instead of an asteroid, a new study says. Harvard researchers theorized that a piece of a comet crashed into Earth over 66 million years ago to create the Chicxulub crater, according to a study published Monday in Scientific Reports. The Chicxulub crater is located on the Yucatán Peninsula of modern-day Mexico and spans about 110 miles. The impact that created the crater is linked to the Cretaceous- Paleogene extinction event, which killed off the dinosaurs and many other species, according to the study. …

Asteroid dust found at Chicxulub Crater confirms cause of dinosaurs’

extinction Although an asteroid impact has long been the suspected cause of the mass extinction 66 million

years ago, researchers think new evidence finally closes the case. By Jake Parks | Published: Friday, March 12, 2021

https://astronomy.com/news/2021/03/asteroid-dust-found-at-chicxulub-crater-confirms-cause-of-dinosaurs-extinction

Dinosaurs lived between about 245 and 66 million years ago, in a time known as the Mesozoic Era.

Homo sapiens

Human evolution is the evolutionary process that led to the emergence of anatomically modern humans, beginning

with the evolutionary history of primates – in particular genus Homo – and leading to the emergence of Homo

sapiens as a distinct species of the hominid family, the great apes. This process involved the gradual developmentof

traits such as human bipedalism and language, as well as interbreeding with other hominins.

The study of human evolution involves several scientific disciplines, including physical anthropology,

primatology, archaeology, paleontology, neurobiology, ethology, linguistics, evolutionarypsychology,

embryology and genetics. Genetic studies show that primates diverged from other mammals about 85 millionyears

ago, in the Late Cretaceous period, and the earliest fossils appear in the Paleocene, around 55 million years ago.

Within the Hominoidea (apes) superfamily, the Hominidae family diverged from the Hylobatidae (gibbon) family

some 15–20 million years ago; African great apes (subfamily Homininae) diverged from orangutans

(Ponginae) about 14 million years ago; the Hominini tribe (humans, Australopithecines and other extinct biped

genera, and chimpanzee) parted from the Gorillini tribe (gorillas) between 8-9 million years ago; and, in turn, the

subtribes Hominina (humans and biped ancestors) and Panina (chimps) separated 4-7.5 million years ago.

The hominoids are descendants of a common ancestor.

15–20 million years ago

14 million years ago

8-9 million years ago

4-7.5 million years ago

15–20 million years ago

14 million years ago

8-9 million years ago

4-7.5 million years ago

The earliest fossils of modern humans are from about 200,000 years ago.

Human prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period between the

use of the first stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the invention

of writing systems (c. 5,300 years ago).

The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age began around 3 million years ago when the first

evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in the current

archaeological record.

The Neolithic, the New Stone Age, began about 12,000 years ago when the first

developments of farming appeared, and lasted until about 6,500 years ago, marked

by the development of metallurgy, leading up to the Bronze Age (c. 3,000 – 1,200

B.C.) and Iron Age (c. 1,200 - 550 BC).

Hominins

0.2 Mya, H.sapiens

1.9 Mya, H.erectus

2.8 Mya, H.habilis

The earliest member of the genus Homo is Homo habilis which evolved around 2.8 million years ago. Homo

habilis is the first species for which we have positive evidence of the use of stone tools. They developed

the Oldowan lithic technology, named after the Olduvai Gorge in which the first specimens were found. Some

scientists consider Homo rudolfensis, a larger bodied group of fossils with similar morphology to the original H.

habilis fossils, to be a separate species while others consider them to be part of H. habilis—simply representing

intraspecies variation, or perhaps even sexual dimorphism. The brains of these early hominins were about the

same size as that of a chimpanzee, and their main adaptation was bipedalism as an adaptation to terrestrial

living.

0.6 Mya, H.heidelbergensis During the next million years, a process of encephalization began and, by the arrival (about 1.9 million years

ago) of Homo erectus in the fossil record, cranial capacity had doubled. Homo erectus were the first of the

hominins to emigrate from Africa, and, from 1.8 to 1.3 million years ago, this species spread through Africa,

Asia, and Europe. One population of H. erectus, also sometimes classified as a separate species Homo ergaster,

remained in Africa and evolved into Homo sapiens. It is believed that these species, H. erectus and H. ergaster,

were the first to use fire and complex tools.

The earliest transitional fossils between H. ergaster/erectus and archaic H. sapiens are from Africa, such

as Homo rhodesiensis, but seemingly transitional forms were also found at Dmanisi, Georgia. These

descendants of African H. erectus spread through Eurasia from ca. 500,000 years ago evolving into H.

antecessor, H. heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis. The earliest fossils of anatomically modern

humans are from the Middle Paleolithic, about 200,000 years ago such as the Omo remains of Ethiopia; later

fossils from Es Skhul cave in Israel and Southern Europe begin around 90,000 years ago (0.09 million years ago).

As modern humans spread out from Africa, they encountered other hominins such as Homo neanderthalensis and

the so-called Denisovans, who may have evolved from populations of Homo erectus that had left Africa

around 2 million years ago. The nature of interaction between early humans and these sister species has been a

long-standing source of controversy, the question being whether humans replaced these earlier species or whether

4.0 Mya, Australopithecus they were in fact similar enough to interbreed, in which case these earlier populations may have contributed

genetic material to modern humans.

This migration out of Africa is estimated to have begun about 70,000 years BP and modern humans

subsequently spread globally, replacing earlier hominins either through competition or hybridization.They

inhabited Eurasia and Oceania by 40,000 years BP, and the Americas by at least 14,500 years BP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_expansions_of_hominins_out_of_Africa#/media/File:Spreading_homo_sapiens_la.svg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_expansions_of_hominins_out_of_AfricaEarly expansions of hominins out of Africa

Several expansions of populations of archaic humans (genus Homo) out of Africa and throughout Eurasia took place in the course of the Lower Paleolithic, and into the beginning Middle Paleolithic, between about 2.1

million and 0.2 million years ago (Ma). The earliest presence of Homo (or indeed any hominin) outside of Africa dates to close to 2 million years ago. A 2018 study claims human presence at Shangchen, central China, as

early as 2.12 Ma based on magnetostratigraphic dating of the lowest layer containing stone artefacts. The oldest known human skeletal remains outside of Africa are from Dmanisi, Georgia (Dmanisi skull 4), and are dated

to 1.8 Ma. These remains are classified as Homo erectus georgicus. Later waves of expansion are proposed around 1.4 Ma (early Acheulean industries), associated with Homo antecessor and 0.8 Ma (cleaver-

producing Acheulean groups, associated with Homo heidelbergensis). Until the early 1980s, early humans were thought to have been restricted to the African continent in the Early Pleistocene, or until about 0.8 Ma.

In 2007, divers found the nearly

intact skeleton of a 15- to 16-year- old girl they called Naia. Multiple methods used to date her teeth and bones suggests that she lived between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago.

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/161-1501/features/2793-mexico-cave-clovis-dna-naia

The earliest generally accepted

archaeological evidence for human

habitation in South America dates to

14,000 years ago, the Monte Verde site in Southern Chile.

Homo erectus were the first of the hominins to emigrate from Africa, and, from 1.8 to 1.3 million years ago.

descendants of African H. erectus spread through Eurasia from ca. 500,000 years ago evolving into H. antecessor, H. heidelbergensis and H. neanderthalensis.

Modern humans begun to migrate out of Africa about 70,000 years.

https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2018/0808/When-science-meets-history-Sorting-out-the-path-of-the-first-Americans

Decades ago, scientists discovered stone tools in the United States dated to shortly after an ice-free corridor was thought to have opened up. The tools appeared to be about 13,500 years old, and the ice sheet is thought to have opened up about 14,000 to 15,000 years ago.

https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/nature/fossilized-footprints.htm

At White Sands, we find many remarkable fossilized footprints scattered across Lake Otero.

Footprints across White Sands have been found coexisting and interacting with extinct ice age animals. One set of

footprints shows what appears to be humans stalking a giant sloth. This is demonstrated by human footprints being found

inside the footprints of the sloth as they were tracked.

The latest research shows that humans have been living in North America and Tularosa Basin for at least 23,000

years. It was previously thought that humans arrived in North America closer to 13,500 – 16,000 years ago.

Research was conducted to see what could be found below the surface by digging a trench in the gypsum soil on the

park’s western playa. Human Footprints were found within different layers of sediment below the surface of the dig site.

Above and below these footprints were ancient grass seeds (Ruppia cirrhosa) which were analyzed using radiocarbon

dating. It was revealed that the calibrated dates were of 22,860 (∓320) and 21,130 (∓250) years ago.

Tens of thousands of years ago, during the ice age, a giant body of water, Lake Otero, rested within the Tularosa basin. The climate was less arid, and the vegetation was

abundant. One could have seen grasslands stretching for miles that would have looked more like the prairies of the Midwest rather than New Mexico’s deserts.

This paradise of lush green life naturally captured the attention of the larger animals of the ice age. Plant eaters such as ancient camels, Columbian mammoths and Harlan’s

ground sloth came to Lake Otero to feast on the grasses and trees of the Tularosa Basin. This attracted fearsome predators known as the dire wolf and American Lion.

The Tularosa Basin is an elongate, north-trending intermontane basin of the greater Rio Grande Rift system, occupying approximately 6,500 square miles in south-central New Mexico.

Hunting and gathering was humanity's first and most

successful adaptation, occupying at least 90 percent of

human history. A hunter-gatherer is a human living in a

society in which most or all food is obtained by foraging

(collecting wild plants and pursuing wild animals).

Pygmy hunter-gatherers in the Congo Basin in 2014

Hunter-gatherers (yellow) in 2000 BC Mbendjele meat sharing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer

A 19th century engraving of an Indigenous Australian encampment.

Göbekli Tepe, the first known man made place of

worship, was erected by hunter-gatherers, in the

Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, dating back to

the 10th–8th millennium BCE (c. 11,500 years ago).

The first permanent settlements in West Jordan were found at Wadi an-Natuf dating

back to 12,500-9,500 BC. The Natuf Culture became dependent on wild cereals

because of climate change forcing them to develop true farming with plants such as

einkorn wheat, millet and spelt and breeding dogs, goats, sheep, pigs and cows. This

culture extended into Palestine, Jordan and Syria. Very similar cultures were also

found at the time in southeast Anatolia and northeast Iraq.

http://paleolithic-neolithic.com/overview/first-human-settlement/

Jericho, located in the

West Bank region of

the Middle East, is the

oldest continuously

inhabited city on the

planet (established

about 14,000 years

ago).

The 8000 BCE Tower of Jericho at the site of Tell es-Sultan.

History of Agriculture https://www.crestcapital.com/tax/history_of_agriculture

Agriculture is the production of food, fiber, animal feed, and other goods by

means of growing and harvesting plants and animals.

Humans invented agriculture during the Neolithic era, or the New Stone

Age, which occurred between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago. There were

eight Neolithic crops: emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, peas, lentils, bitter

vetch, hulled barley, chick peas, and flax.

By about 14,000 years ago, the first settlements built with stone began to appear, in modern-day Israel and Jordan. The inhabitants, sedentary hunter-gatherers called Natufians, buried their dead in or under their houses, just as Neolithic peoples did after them. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-seeds-of-civilization-78015429/

Current scholarship generally identifies six sites where civilization emergedindependently:

•Fertile Crescent

• Tigris–Euphrates Valley

• Nile Valley

•Indo-Gangetic Plain

•North China Plain

•Andes

•Mesoamerica

Around 10,200 BC the first fully developed Neolithic cultures belonging to the phases Pre- Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (7600 to 6000 BC) appeared in the Fertile Crescent and from there spread eastwards and westwards. One of the most notable PPNA settlements is Jericho in the Levant region, thought to be the world's first town (settled around 8500 BC and fortified around 6800 BC). In Mesopotamia, the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers produced rich fertile soil and a supply of water for irrigation. The civilizations that emerged around these rivers are among the earliest known non-nomadic agrarian societies.

By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a series of inter-related cultures as far south as Sudan, demonstrating firm control of agriculture and animal husbandry, and identifiable by their pottery and personal items, such as combs, bracelets, and beads.

One of the earliest Neolithic sites in the Indian subcontinent is Bhirrana along the ancient Ghaggar-Hakra (Saraswati) riverine system in the present day state of Haryana in India, dating to around 7600 BC. Other early sites include Lahuradewa in the Middle Ganges region and Jhusi near the confluence of Ganges and Yamuna rivers, both dating to around 7000 BC.

Early evidence for Chinese millet agriculture is dated to around 7000 BC, with the earliest evidence of cultivated rice found at Chengtoushan near the Yangtze River (China), dated to 6500 BC.

The earliest evidence of agriculture in the Andean region dates to around 4700 BC at Huaca Prieta and Paredones.

The Coxcatlan caves in the Valley of Tehuacán (eastern Central Mexico) provide evidence for agriculture in components dated between 5000 and 3400 BC.

Archaeological evidence from central Mali shows that West African peoples had independently invented pottery in the region by that period (by at least 9400 BCE). It is believed that local peoples at that time had begun to become more settled, and to use pottery to store and cook indigenous grains (including pearl millet).

Year Lower Estimate Upper Estimate

1 AD 170 400

200 AD 190 256

400 AD 190 206

500 AD 190 206

600 AD 200 206

700 AD 207 210

800 AD 220 224

900 AD 226 240

1000 AD 254 345

1100 AD 301 320

1200 AD 360 450

1300 AD 360 432

1400 AD 350 374

1500 AD 425 540

1600 AD 545 579

1700 AD 600 679

1800 AD 813 1,125

1850 AD 1,128 1,402

1900 AD 1,550 1,762

Begin United Nations and U.S. Census Bureau, International Data

1910 AD 1,750

1920 AD 1,860

1930 AD 2,070

1940 AD 2,300

1950 AD 2,557

1960 AD 3,042

1970 AD 3,712

1980 AD 4,453

1990 AD 5,291

2000 AD 6,094

2010 AD 6,868

2020 AD 7,656

2030 AD 8,321

2040 AD 8,874

2050 AD 9,306

Population in millions* 1910 marks the beginning of more accurate

population census counts: United Nations and U.S. Census Bureau,

International Data Source from Historical Estimates:

•Biraben, Jean-Noel, 1980, An Essay Concerning Mankind’s Evolution,

Population, Selected Papers, December, table 2.

•Durand, John D., 1974, “Historical Estimates of World Population: An

Evaluation,” University of Pennsylvania, Population Center, Analytical and

Technical Reports, Number 10, table 2.

•Haub, Carl, 1995, “How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?”,

Population Today, February, p. 5.

•McEvedy, Colin and Richard Jones, 1978, “Atlas of World Population

History,” Facts on File, New York, pp. 342-351.

•Thomlinson, Ralph, 1975, “Demographic Problems, Controversy Over

Population Control,” Second Edition, Table 1.

•United Nations (UN), 1973, The Determinants and Consequences of

Population Trends, Population Studies, No. 50., p.10.

•United Nations, 1999, The World at Six Billion, Table 1, “World Population

From,” Year 0 to Stabilization, p. 5.

•U.S. Census Bureau (USCB), 2011, Total Midyear Population for the

World: 1950-2050.

World Population Statistics

•Population Estimates: Year One A.D. through 2050

•Population Growth Over Two Decades: 1990-2010

•Current World Population by Continent

•World Birth & Death Rates

•Population by Age

•Population by Country

•Population Change by Country

•Urban Population by City

•U.S. Population by State

•World Population by Continent

Population Estimates: Year One through 2050 A.D.

One birth every 8 seconds

One death every 12 seconds

One international migrant (net)

every 46 seconds

Net gain of one person every 16

seconds

U.S.

Population

(April 1, 2020)

331,449,281

The current world population is 7.9 billion as of September 2021 according to the most recent United Nations estimates elaborated by Worldometer.

Global Population Growth

• From the evolution of Homo sapiens to a total

population of two billion took 200,000 years (in 1927)

– It took less than 50 years to add another two billion

(in 1975)

– It took 25 years to add the third two billion (in 1999)

– Sixteen years later, the earth had 7.3 billion people

(in 2015)

• Factors impacting rapid rise of human population

– Emergence of agriculture increased food

production

– Technologies help humans expand into almost all

the planet’s climates and habitats

– Drop in death rates with improved sanitation and

health care

• What is a sustainable human population? No one

knows!

World population is expected to reach 8 billion people in 2023 according to the United Nations (in 2026 according to the U.S. Census Bureau).

The current world population is 7.9 billion as of November 2021 according to the most recent United Nations estimates.

Population Growth in the United States

European nations came to the Americas to increase their

wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs.

The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in

1607 (104 English men and boys).

The Pilgrims, founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts,

arrived in 1620 (102 passengers and about 30 crew

members, with one death during the Mayflower voyage).

European colonists viewed North America as a land with

inexhaustible resources and a wilderness to be

conquered and managed for human use.

Census year Population Census year Population

1790 3,929,214

1610 350 1800 5,308,483

1810 7,239,881

1820 9,638,453

1830 12,866,020

1840 17,069,453

1850 23,191,876

1860 31,443,321

1870 38,558,371

1880 50,189,209

1890 62,979,766

1900 76,212,168

1910 92,228,496

1920 106,021,537

1930 123,202,624

1940 132,164,569

1950 151,325,798

1960 179,323,175

1970 203,211,926

1980 226,545,805

1990 248,709,873

2000 281,421,906

2010 308,745,538

1620 2,302

1630 4,646

1640 26,634

1650 50,368

1660 75,058

1670 111,935

1680 151,507

1690 210,372

1700 250,888

1710 331,711

1720 466,185

1730 629,445

1740 905,563

1750 1,170,760

1760 1,593,625

1770 2,148,076

1780 2,780,369

Note that the census

numbers do not include

Native Americans until 1860.

One birth every 8 seconds

One death every 12 seconds

One international migrant (net) every 46 seconds

Net gain of one person every 16 seconds U.S. Population

(April 1, 2020) 331,449,281

“One crew member and one passenger died before they reached land.

A child was born at sea and named Oceanus.”

Human Population is Growing at a Rapid Rate

• Human population has

grown exponentially

– Current population: 7.9

billion people

– By 2050, population could reach

9.8 billion

• We don’t know how many people the

earth can support indefinitely.

The fastest-shrinking countries From 2017 to 2050, using UN projections: 1-5: Bulgaria (23% decrease), Latvia (22%), Moldova (19%), Ukraine (18%), Croatia (17%) 6-10: Lithuania (17%), Romania (17%), Serbia (15%), Poland (15%), Hungary (15%) 11-15: Japan (15%), Georgia (13%), Portugal (13%), Bosnia and Herzegovina(13%), Estonia (13%) 16-20: Lebanon (11.0%), Greece (11%), South Korea (10%), Albania (9%), Belarus (9%)

The current world population is 7.9 billion as of November 2021 according to the most recent United Nations estimates.

The United Nations projects world population to reach 10 billion in the year 2057.

Laozi (老子) "the elder" or "the old master “ (LI Er 李耳) - founder of philosophical Taoism

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%80%81%E5%AD%90/5448

Born around 571 B.C., served as the Head Librarian for the Emperors of Zhou Dynasty [Keeper of theArchives for the

royal archives of Zhou] (551-535 BC; 530-516 BC)

In 535 B.C., Confucius (Kong Qiu, 551-479 B.C., 17 years old in 535 B.C.) served as his assistant at a funeral;Met

Confucius again in 526 B.C. and 501 B.C.

Around 485 B.C., Laozi “departed to the West” (retreated to the mountains in the western part of China) of HanguPass (函谷关) in Henan Province of China

General YIN Xi persuaded Laozi to write The Book of the Way and of Virtue 《道德经》 [Tao Te Ching] (In 1973, two

versions were discovered in an ancient tomb between 193 and 168 B.C.; 5467 Chinese characters; In 1993, the

oldest known version of the text, written on bamboo tablets, was found in a tomb near the town of Guodian (郭店) in

Jingmen, Hubei, and dated prior to 300 BC)

Died in Qing around 471 B.C. at the age of 101.

Laozi by Zhang Lu; Ming dynasty (1368–1644)

Neolithic c. 8500 – c. 2070 BC Xia c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC Shang c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC Zhou c. 1046 – 256 BC

Western Zhou (1046–771 BC) Eastern Zhou (771–256 BC)

Spring and Autumn (771-476 BC) Warring States (476-221 BC)

Qin 221–206 BC

Socrates ( c. 470-399 BC) was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the

founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western

ethical tradition of thought.

Portrait of Socrates. 'Origin: Roman (1st century), perhaps a copy of a lost bronze statue

made by Lysippos (c. 390 – C. 300 BC). Material: Marble. Location: Louvre museum, Paris

Plato (428/427 or 424/423-348/347 BC) was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical

period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the

first institution of higher learning in the Western world.

He is widely considered the pivotal figure in the history of Ancient Greek and Western

philosophy, along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle.

Plato has also often been cited as one of the founders of Western religion and spirituality.

Roman copy of a portrait bust of Plato by Silanion for the Academia in Athens (c. 370 BC)

Aristotle (384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period

in Ancient Greece. He was the founder of the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school of

philosophy and Aristotelian tradition. Along with his teacher Plato, he has been called the

"Father of Western Philosophy".

Roman copy in marble of a lost Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos, c. 330 BC, with modern alabaster mantle

Introduction to Daoism http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1000bce_daoism.htm

The Tao Te Ching has been translated into Western languages over 250 times, mostly to English, German, and French.

The Chinese word dao means a way or a path. Confucians used the term dao to speak of the way human beings

ought to behave in society. In other words, dao, for them, was an ethical or moral way. From the point of view of

Daoism, however, the Confucian concept of dao was too limited. Daoists preferred to understand the dao as the Way

of Nature as a whole. They believed that Confucians, by insisting on a purely human Way, exaggerated the importance

of man and failed to pay attention to the lessons which Nature has to offer about time and change, gain and loss, the

useful and the useless.

The basic idea of the Daoists was to enable people to realize that, since human life is really only a small part of a

larger process of nature, the only human actions which ultimately make sense are those which are in accord

with the flow of Nature — the Dao or the Way. Their sensitivity to the way of Nature prompted them to reject human

ideas or standards which might lead to an overly assertive mode of behavior or too strong a commitment to the

achievement of worldly goals. For Daoists, such unnatural assertiveness was the root cause of violence and

aggression. While Confucians found moral reasons to counsel against violence and to urge rulers to govern by

virtue rather than by force, many Daoists went even further and denounced violence as reflecting the ultimate

ignorance of the Way of Nature.

Their solution to the problem of how human beings should behave is expressed in the typically

Daoist doctrine of wu-wei or non-action. This did not mean doing absolutely nothing but doing

nothing unnatural, nothing that was out of keeping with the Dao. Related to the doctrine of non-

action was the idea of no desires, which meant that no one should have excessive desires because

such desires are bound to cause injury both to oneself and to others. …

5 Beliefs That Make You Taoist POSTEDJULY 24,2015ABBEYGALEQUINN

https://abbeygalequinn.com/taoist-beliefs/

1. God Is Beyond Comprehension

2. Good and Evil Are Human Perceptions

3. Nature’s Laws Are God’s Laws

Chapter 25 of the Tao Te Ching states:

Humans follow the laws of Earth. Earth follows the laws of Heaven. Heaven follows the laws of Tao. Tao

follows the laws of nature.

In Taoism, God and nature are one in the same. Thus, God’s laws are the laws ofnature.

Living in harmony with the Earth, keeping your body healthy, taking care of your family, living a

simple, natural lifestyle – these are the ways to cultivate contentment, virtue, andlife.

Chapter 44 explains:

Fame or the self, which is dearer? The self or wealth, which is greater? Gain or loss, which is more painful? Thus

excessive love must lead to great spending. Excessive hoarding must lead to heavy loss. Knowing contentment avoids

disgrace. Knowing when to stop avoids danger. Thus one can endure indefinitely.

Striving to conform to society, acquire great wealth, and living a lavish lifestyle all inevitably lead to suffering.

In Chapter 3, Lao Tzu says:

The sages: empty their hearts, fill their bellies, weaken their ambitions, and strengthen their bones. Let the people have no

cunning and no greed, so those who scheme will not dare to meddle. Act withoutcontrivance, and nothing will be beyond

control.

4. God Doesn’t Need to Punish Us – We Punish Ourselves

5. All Is One

《道德经》 [Tao Te Ching]

The Book of the Way and of Virtue

The complete original text and English

Translation of Tao Te Ching are available at

https://taoism.net/tao/

Ecocentrism finds inherent (intrinsic) value in all of nature. It takes a much wider view of the world than does anthropocentrism, which sees individual humans and the human species as more valuable than all other organisms. … Ecocentrism goes beyond biocentrism (ethics that sees inherent value to all living things) by including environmental systems as wholes, and their abiotic aspects. It also goes beyond zoocentrism (seeing value in animals) on account of explicitly including flora and the ecological contexts for organisms.

Ecocentric (Earth-Centered) Environmental Worldview

Biocentric (Life-Centered) Environmental Worldview

Biocentric ethics argues that the only nonarbitrary ground for assigning moral standing is life itself and thus extends the boundary of moral standing about as far as it can go. All living beings, simply by virtue of being alive, have moral standing and deserve moral consideration.

Anthropocentric (Human-Centered) Environmental Worldviews

• Focus: needs and wants of people

– Planetary management worldview

 We can and should manage the earth for our own benefit

 No-problem school

 Free-market school

 Spaceship-earth school

– Stewardship worldview

 We have an ethical responsibility to be caring stewards

• Criticism of human-centered worldviews – Wrongly assumes we can be good stewards

– We do not know enough about the earth

– Unregulated global free market approach will degrade and deplete natural capital

Those who ascribe to this viewpoint believe that humans are the world's most important species and thus should manage Earth's resources for our own benefit.

we can manage the earth for our benefit but that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers, or stewards, of the earth. It calls for encouraging environmentally beneficial forms of economic growth and discouraging environmentally harmful forms.

Spaceship Earth (or Spacecraft Earth or Spaceship Planet Earth) is a worldview encouraging everyone on Earth to act as a harmonious crew working toward the greater good.

Environmental and resource problems are negligible. Such problems can be solved through better management.

Until the second half of the nineteenth century, the settlement of the

American frontier was predicated on the Judeo-Christian belief that it

was the responsibility of humankind to cultivate the wilderness, which was

traditionally perceived to be a desolate place located on the margins of

civilization and associated with terror and bewilderment. Joel Sanders, Professor Adjunct and Director of the Post-Professional Master of Architecture Program, Yale University

Joel Sanders is an architect practicing in New York City. Prior to joining Yale, he was an assistant professor at Princeton U niversity and the director of the

graduate program at Parsons School of Design.

http://joelsandersarchitect.com/humannature-wilderness-and-the-landscapearchitecture-divide-2/

Columbus left Castile in August 1492 with three ships, and after a stopover in the Canary Islands made landfall in the

Americas on 12 October (now celebrated as Columbus Day). His landing place was an island in the Bahamas, known

by its native inhabitants as Guanahani; its exact location is uncertain. Columbussubsequently

visited Cuba and Hispaniola, establishing a colony in what is now Haiti—the first European settlement in theAmericas

since the Norse colonies almost 500 years earlier. He arrived back in Castile in early 1493, bringing a number of

captive natives with him.

The Industrial Revolution, now also known as the First Industrial Revolution, was the transition to new

manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States, in the period from about 1760 to sometime between

1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical

manufacturing and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power and water power, the development

of machine tools and the rise of the mechanized factory system. The Industrial Revolution also led to an

unprecedented rise in the rate of population growth.

Ian McHarg, partnered with state and federal agencies to tackle

the infrastructural challenges of formulating ecologically minded

master plans that could transform entire metropolitan regions.

He outlined his ecological approach in Design with Nature. For

McHarg, writing in 1969, Olmsted’s worst predictions had been

realized—rapacious capitalism aided by remarkable

technological advances had tipped the precarious balance

between nature and civilization, resulting in environmental

casualties in America’s polluted, slum-ridden cities.

McHarg compared city dwellers to “patients in mental

hospitals” consigned to live in “God’s Junkyard” (McHarg

[1969] 1995: 20, 23).

http://joelsandersarchitect.com/humannature-wilderness-and-the-landscapearchitecture-divide-2/

The Nature-Culture Divide https://www.thoughtco.com/nature-culture-divide-2670633 byAndrea Borghini

Updated February 23, 2019

Nature and culture are often seen as opposite ideas—what belongs to nature cannot be the result of human intervention and, on the other hand, cultural development is achieved against nature. However, this is by far not the only take on the relationship between nature and culture. Studies in the evolutionary development of humans suggest that culture is part and parcel of the ecological niche within which our species thrived, thus rendering culture a chapter in the biological development of a species.

An Effort Against Nature Several modern authors—such as Rousseau—saw the process of education as a struggle against the most eradicated tendencies of human nature. Humans are born with wild dispositions, such as the one of using violence to achieve one’s own goals, to eat and behave in a disorganized fashion, and/or to act egotistically. Education is that process which uses culture as an antidote against our wildest natural tendencies; it is thanks to culture that the human species could progress and elevate itself above and beyond other species.

A Natural Effort Over the past century and a half, however, studies in the history of human development have clarified how the formation of what we refer to as "culture" in an anthropological sense is part of the biological adaptation of our ancestors to the environmental conditions in which they came to live. Consider, for example, hunting. Such an activity seems an adaptation, which allowed hominids to move from the forest into the savannah some millions of year ago, opening up the opportunity to change diet and living habits. At the same time, the invention of weapons is directly related to that adaptation—but from weapons descend also a whole series of skill sets characterizing our cultural profile, from butchering tools to ethical rules relating to the proper use of weapons (e.g., should they be turned against other human beings or against uncooperative species?). Hunting also seems responsible for a whole set of bodily abilities, such as balancing on one foot as humans are the only primates that can do that. Now, think of how this very simple thing is crucially connected to dance, a key expression of human culture. It is then clear that our biological development is closely tied to our cultural development.

Culture as an Ecological Niche The view that came to be most plausible over the past decades seems to be that culture is part of the ecological niche within which humans live. Just as snails carry their shell, so do we bring along our culture. Now, the transmission of culture seems not to be directly related to the transmission of genetic information. Certainly the significant overlap between the genetic makeupof humans is a premise for the development of a common culture that can be passed along from one generation to the next. However, cultural transmission is also horizontal among individuals within the same generation or among individuals belonging to different populations. You can learn how to make lasagna even if you were born from Korean parents in Kentucky just as you can learn how to speak Tagalog even if none of your immediate family or friends speak that language.

Further Readings on Nature and Culture The online sources on the nature-culture divide are scarce. Luckily, there are a number of good bibliographical resources that can help out. Here is a list of few of the more recent ones, from which older takes on the topic can be recovered: •Peter Watson, The Great Divide: Nature and Human Nature in the Old World and the New, Harper, 2012. •Alan H. Goodman, Deborah Heat, and Susan M. Lindee, Genetic Nature/Culture: Anthropology and Science Beyond the Two-Culture Divide, University of California Press, 2003.

•Rodney James Giblett, The Body of Nature and Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya

The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica. The Maya were centered in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala, Belize, parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas, and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork. The earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 B.C., or the beginning of what is called the Preclassic or Formative Period. The earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava (manioc). During the Middle Preclassic Period, which lasted until about 300 B.C., Maya farmers began to expand their presence both in the highland and lowland regions. The Classic Period, which began around A.D. 250, was the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque and Río Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000. Mysterious Decline of the Maya From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, one by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by A.D. 900, Maya civilization in that region had collapsed. Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military, family (by marriage) and trade alliances between them to break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power. As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their complex traditions of rituals and ceremonies dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic environmental change–like an extremely long, intense period of drought–may have wiped out the Classic Maya civilization. Drought would have hit cities like Tikal–where rainwater was necessary for drinking as well as for crop irrigation– especially hard. All three of these factors–overpopulation and overuse of the land, endemic warfare and drought–may have played a part in the downfall of the Maya in the southern lowlands. In the highlands of the Yucatan, a few Maya cities–such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapán–continued to flourish in the Post-Classic Period (A.D. 900-1500). By the time the Spanish invaders arrived, however, most Maya were living in agricultural villages, their great cities buried under a layer of rainforest green.

Forests Are Disappearing Rapidly.

In 1620, (a) when European settlers

were moving to North America,

forests covered more than half of the

current land area of the continental

United States. By 1920, (b) most of

these forests had been decimated. In

2000, (c) secondary and commercial

forests covered about a third of U.S.

land in the lower 48 states.

Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet. They produce vital oxygen and provide homes for people and wildlife. Many of the world’s most threatened and endangered animals live in forests, and 1.6 billion people rely on benefits forests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter. But forests around the world are under threat from deforestation, jeopardizing these benefits. Deforestation comes in many forms, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change. This impacts people’s livelihoods and threatens a wide range of plant and animal species. We’re losing 18.7 million acres of forests annually, equivalent to 27 soccer fields every minute.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation

Evergreen Needleleaf Forest

Deciduous Needleleaf Forest

Mixed Forest

. Water

Evergreen Broadleaf Forest

Deciduous Broadleaf Forest

Closed Shrubland

Woody Savannas

Grasslands

Croplands

Cropland/Natural Vegetation Mosaic

Open Shrubland

Savannas

Permanent Wetlands

Urban and Built-Up

Snow and Ice

Barren or Sparsely Vegetated

Land cover by IGBP

(International Geosphere-

Biosphere Programme) with

17 classes (published in 1997) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_cover

Land Cover (million ha = 10 000 km2)

FAO code

type 1992 2001 2015 share change from 92

note

[6970] Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) 26.04 34.33 55.40 0.37% 29.35

[6971] Herbaceous crops 1,716.22 1,749.58 1,712.15 11.50% -4.06 Arable land

[6972] Woody crops 162.86 181.32 199.90 1.34% 37.04 Arable land

[6973] Multiple or layered crops Arable land

[6974] Tree-covered areas 4,434.92 4,393.70 4,335.00 29.11% -99.93 large decrease

[6975] Mangroves 18.06 18.39 18.74 0.13% 0.67

[6976] Shrub-covered areas 1,685.00 1,669.65 1,627.34 10.93% -57.66 large decrease

[6977] Shrubs and/or herbaceous vegetation, aquatic or regularlyflooded 202.61 194.77 185.39 1.24% -17.23

[6978] Sparsely natural vegetated areas 891.78 878.69 868.07 5.83% -23.71

[6979] Terrestrial barren land 2,001.25 2,000.87 1,884.00 12.65% -117.25 large decrease

[6980] Permanent snow and glaciers 78.59 84.32 84.29 0.57% 5.70

[6981] Inland water bodies 432.60 435.00 444.57 2.98% 11.97

[6982] Coastal water bodies and intertidal areas

[6983] Grassland 1,793.65 1,806.50 1,801.14 12.09% 7.50

Total Land Mass 14,893.91 100%

Following table is Land Cover statistics by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) with 14 classes.

Core Case Study: The Gulf of Mexico’s Annual Dead Zone

• Spring and summer bring huge inputs of nitrogen (nitrates tripled since 1950s) and phosphorus plan nutrients from the Mississippi River basin

• Explosive growth of phytoplankton that eventually die, sink to the bottom, and are consumed by bacteria

• Causes severe depletion of dissolved oxygen in the Gulf’s bottom layer of water

• Resulting dead zone contains little marine life (many species cannot migrate away from area and die and causes deaths of seabird and marine mammal species that depend on dying fish and shellfish)

• Winter storms redistribute oxygen

Figure 20.1 Water containing sediments, dissolved nitrate fertilizers, and other

pollutants drains from the Mississippi River basin (top) into the Mississippi River and

from there into the northern Gulf of Mexico (bottom). This creates a dead zone with

low levels of dissolved oxygen (1–3 ppm), indicated by the dark and light red shaded

areas in the bottom figure for 2015.

One of 400 dead zones

throughout the world, 200 of

them in the United States

Dead zones are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world's oceans and large lakes, caused by "excessive

nutrient pollution from human activities coupled with other factors that deplete the oxygen required to

support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom water. A 2008 study counted 405 dead zonesworldwide.

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as

permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

Our Growing Ecological Footprints

Figure 1.9 Per capita ecological

footprints for various countries in

2011 (the latest available data).

The simplest way to define ecological footprint would be to call it the impact of human activities measured in terms of the area of biologically productive land and water required to produce the goods consumed and to assimilate the wastes generated. More simply, it is the amount of the environment necessary to produce the goods and services necessary to support a particular lifestyle.

One can estimate the EF, measured in “global hectares” (gha), at various scales—for individuals, regions, countries, and humanity as a whole. (One hectare equals 2.47 acres.)

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in

a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

Countries Differ in Their Resource Use and Environmental Impact

• More-developed countries

– Industrialized nations with high average incomes per person

– 17% of the world’s population

– Use 70% of world’s natural resources

• Less-developed countries

– 83% of the world’s population

– Use about 30% of world’s natural resources

The United States has only

4.3% of the world’s

population, but uses about

30% of the world’s resources.

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as

permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

We Are Living Unsustainably

Figure 1.8 Natural capital use and degradation: The human ecological

footprint has an impact on about 83% of the earth’s total land surface.

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as

permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

Our Growing Ecological Footprints

Biocapability is the ability of the earth’s productive ecosystems to regenerate

the renewable resources used by a population, city, region, country, or the world

as well as to absorb the resulting wastes and pollution indefinitely.

Date

Event

Location Death toll (where

known; estimated)

2200–2100 BC The 4.2 kiloyear event caused famines and civilizational collapse worldwide global

800–1000 Severe drought killed millions of Maya people due to famine and thirst and initiated a cascade of internal Mayan areas

1,000,000+ collapses that destroyed their civilization of Mesoamerica

1230–1231 The Kanki famine, possibly the worst famine in Japan's history. Caused by volcanic eruptions. Japan 2,000,000

1315–1317 Great Famine of 1315–1317 Europe 7,500,000

One of the worst famines in all of Russian history, with as many as 100,000 in Moscow and up to one-third of

1601–1603 Tsar Godunov's subjects killed; see Russian famine of 1601–03.The same famine killed about half of Russia 2,000,000

the Estonian population.

1630–1632 Deccan Famine of 1630–32 India 7,400,000

1693–1694 Between 1.3 and 1.5 million French died in the fr:grande famine de 1693-1694 France 1,300,000

1702–1704 Famine in Deccan India 2,000,000

1769–1773 Great Bengal famine of 1770, 10 million dead (one third of population) India, Bangladesh 10,000,000

1783–1784 Chalisa famine India 11,000,000

1789–1793 Doji bara famine or Skull famine India 11,000,000

1810, 1811, Four famines in China China 45,000,000 1846, and 1849 1845–1849 Great Famine in Ireland killed more than 1 million people. Between 1.5–2 million people forced to emigrate Ireland 1,000,000

1850–1873 As a result of Taiping Rebellion, drought, and famine, the population of China dropped by more than 20

million China 20,000,000

1860–1861 Upper Doab famine of 1860–61 India 2,000,000

1866 Orissa famine of 1866 India 1,000,000

1869 Rajputana famine of1869 India 1,500,000

1870–1872 Persian famine of 1870–1872 Iran 2,000,000

List of famines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines

Date List of famines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines

Event

Location Death toll (where

known; estimated)

1876–1879

Famine in India, China, Brazil, Northern Africa (and other countries). Famine in northern China killed 9– 13 million people. 5.5 million died in the Great Famine of 1876–78 in India. 500,000 died in Brazil.

British policies and drought were responsible for the deaths in India. The famine in China was a result

of drought influenced by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

India, China, Brazil, Nor

thern Africa (and other

countries)

15,000,000–19,000,000 in Northern China, India and

Brazil.

1888–1892 Ethiopian Great famine. About one-third of the population died. Conditions worsen

with cholera outbreaks (1889–92), a typhus epidemic, and a major smallpox epidemic (1889–90). Ethiopia 1,000,000

1896–1902 Indian famine of 1896–97 and Indian famine of 1899–1900 due to drought and Britishpolicies. India

2,000,000 (British

Territories), Mortality

unknown in Princely States

1907, 1911 Famines in east-central China China 25,000,000

1917–1919

Persian famine of 1917–1919. As much as 1/4 of the population living in the north of Iran died in the

famine. Although the research of Mohammad Gholi Majd alleges as many as 8–10 million killed, this is

based on an original population estimate of 19 million. Other estimates place the original population at

only 11 million, calling Majd's numbers heavily into question.

Iran (present day)

2,000,000, butestimates range as high

as 10,000,000

1921 Russian famine of 1921 Russia 5,000,000

1921–1922 1921–1922 famine inTatarstan Russia 500,000–2,000,000

1928–1930 Chinese famine of 1928–1930 in northern China. The drought resulted in million ofdeaths China 3,000,000-10,000,000

1932–1933 Soviet famine of 1932–1933, including famine in Ukraine Russian

SFSR and Ukrainian SSR 5,500,000–8,000,000

1936 Famine in China China 5,000,000

1941–1944

Leningrad famine caused by a 900-day blockade by German troops. About one million Leningrad

residents starved, froze, or were bombed to death in the winter of 1941–42, when supply routes to the

city were cut off and temperatures dropped to −40 °C (−40 °F). Russia 1,000,000

Date List of famines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famines

Event

Location Death toll (where

known; estimated)

1942–1943 Chinese famine of 1942–43 Henan, China 2,000,000–

3,000,000

1942–1943 Famine in Iran caused by the Anglo-Soviet occupation Iran 3,000,000

1943 Bengal famine of 1943 Bengal, India 2,100,000

1944–1945 Java under Japanese occupation Java, Indonesia 2,400,000

1945 Vietnamese Famine of 1945 Vietnam 400,000–2,000,000

1946–1947 Soviet Famine of 1947 Soviet Union 1,000,000–

1,500,000

1959–1961 The Great Chinese Famine. According to government statistics, there were 15 million

excess deaths. China

15,000,000–

43,000,000

1967–1970 Biafran famine caused by Nigerian blockade Nigeria 2,000,000

1968–1972 Sahel drought created a famine that killed a million people Mauritania, Mali, Chad,

Niger and Burkina Faso 1,000,000

1974 Bangladesh famine of 1974 Bangladesh 27,000-1,500,000

1975–1979 Khmer Rouge. An estimated 1,500,000–2,000,000 Cambodians lost their lives to famine Cambodia 1,500,000–

2,000,000

1994–1998 North Korean famine. Scholars estimate 600,000 died of starvation (other estimates

range from 200,000 to 3.5 million). North Korea 200,000–3,500,000

1998–2004 Second Congo War. 2.7 million people died, mostly from starvation and disease Democratic Republic of

the Congo 2,700,000

Food security is a measure of the availability of food and individuals' accessibility to it, where accessibility includes affordability. There is evidence of food

security being a concern over 10,000 years ago, with central authorities in ancient China and ancient Egypt being known to release food from storage in

times of famine. At the 1974 World Food Conference the term "food security" was defined with an emphasis on supply. Food security, they said, is the

"availability at all times of adequate, nourishing, diverse, balanced and moderate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of

food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices". Later definitions added demand and access issues to the definition. The final report

of the 1996 World Food Summit states that food security "exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient,

safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life".

Household food security exists when all members, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Individuals who are food secure do

not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Food insecurity, on the other hand, is a situation of "limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe

foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways", according to the United States Department of Agriculture

(USDA). Food security incorporates a measure of resilience to future disruption or unavailability of critical food supply due to various risk factors including

droughts, shipping disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars. In the years 2011–2013, an estimated 842 million people were suffering from

chronic hunger. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, or FAO, identified the four pillars of food security as availability, access,

utilization, and stability. The United Nations (UN) recognized the Right to Food in the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and has since noted that it is

vital for the enjoyment of all other rights.

With its prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) indicator, the FAO reported

that almost 870 million people were chronically undernourished in theyears

2010–2012. This represents 12.5% of the global population, or 1 in 8 people.

Higher rates occur in developing countries, where 852 million people (about

15% of the population) are chronically undernourished. The report noted

that Asia and Latin America have achieved reductions in rates of

undernourishment that put these regions on track for achieving the

Millennium Development Goal of halving the prevalence of

undernourishment by 2015. The UN noted that about 2 billion people do not

consume a sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals. In India, the second-

most populous country in the world, 30 million people have been added to

the ranks of the hungry since the mid-1990s and 46% of children

are underweight. Number of people affected by undernourishment in 2010–12 (by region, in millions)

Key messages

Acute food insecurity global estimates in 2017 •Around 124 million people in 51 countries face Crisis food insecurity or worse (equivalent of IPC/CH Phase 3 or above). They require urgent humanitarian action to save lives, protect livelihoods, and reduce hunger and malnutrition. •The worst food crises in 2017 were in north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen and South Sudan, where nearly 32 million people were food- insecure and in need of urgent assistance. Famine (IPC/CH Phase 5) was declared in two counties of South Sudan in February 2017. Although humanitarian assistance has thus far contributed towards preventing large-scale famines, humanitarian needs remain exceptionally high across the four countries. • Last year’s Global Report on Food Crises identified 108 million people in Crisis food security or worse across 48 countries. •A comparison of the 45 countries included in both editions of the Global Report on Food Crises reveals an increase of 11 million people – an 11 percent rise – in the number of food-insecure people needing urgent humanitarian action across the world. •This rise can largely be attributed to new or intensified and protracted conflict or insecurity in countries such as Yemen, northern Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Myanmar. Persistent drought has also played a major role, causing consecutive poor harvests in countries already facing high levels of food insecurity in eastern and southern Africa. • Levels of acute malnutrition in crisis-affected areas remain of concern; there continues to be a double burden of high acute and chronic malnutrition in protracted crises. •The number of children and women in need of nutritional support increased between 2016 and 2017, mainly in areas affected by conflict or insecurity such as Somalia, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen and northern Nigeria. Some of these countries have also experienced severe outbreaks of cholera, exacerbating levels of acute malnutrition. Food insecurity and malnutrition: primary drivers in 2017 •Conflict and insecurity continued to be the primary drivers of food insecurity in 18 countries, where almost 74 million food-insecure people remain in need of urgent assistance. Half of these people were in countries affected by conflict or insecurity in Africa, and more than a third were in the Middle East. • Food-insecure people in need of urgent action in countries affected by conflict or insecurity accounted for 60 percent of the total population facing Crisis food insecurity or worse across the world. •Climate disasters – mainly drought – were also major triggers of food crises in 23 countries, with over 39 million food-insecure people in need of urgent assistance. Two thirds of these countries were in Africa, where almost 32 million people faced acute food insecurity.

International Food Policy Research Institute: Copyright ©

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Global Report on Food Crises 2018 Published on 21 Mar 2018

Physical water scarcity results from

inadequate natural water resources to

supply a region's demand, and economic

water scarcity results from poor

management of the sufficient available

water resources.

GEO-2000 estimate for 2025, 25 African countries are expected to suffer from water shortage or water stress.

Water scarcity is the lack of fresh water resources to meet water demand. It affects every continent and was listed in 2015 by the World Economic

Forum as the largest global risk in terms of potential impact over the next decade. It is manifested by partial or no satisfaction of expressed demand,

economic competition for water quantity or quality, disputes between users, irreversible depletion of groundwater, and negative impacts on

the environment. One-third of the global population (2 billion people) live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the

year. Half a billion people in the world face severe water scarcity all year round. Half of the world’s largest cities experience water scarcity.

A mere 0.014% of all water on Earth is both fresh and easily accessible. Of the remaining water, 97% is saline and a little less than 3% is hard to access.

Technically, there is a sufficient amount of freshwater on a global scale. However, due to unequal distribution (exacerbated by climate change) resulting in

some very wet and some very dry geographic locations, plus a sharp rise in global freshwater demand in recent decades driven by industry, humanity is

facing a water crisis. Demand is expected to outstrip supply by 40% in 2030, if current trends continue.

How long will world's oil reserves last? 53 years, says BP

Hasan Jamali/AP/File Oil pumps are shown in the desert oil fields of Sakhir, Bahrain.

The world's oil reserves will last 53 more years at current

extraction rates, according to BP's annual report.

Rank Country Barrels (Billions of Barrels)

1 Venezuela 300,878

2 Saudi Arabia 266,455

3 Canada 169,709

4 Iran 158,400

5 Iraq 142,503

6 Kuwait 101,500

7 United Arab Emirates 97,800

8 Russia 80,000

9 Libya 48,363

10 United States 39,230

11 Nigeria 37,062

12 Kazakhstan 30,000

13 China 25,620

14 Qatar 25,244

15 Brazil 12,999

16 Algeria 12,200

17 Angola 8,273

18 Ecuador 8,273

19 Mexico 7,640

20 Azerbaijan 7,000

The World’s Largest Oil Reserves By Country https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-largest-oil-reserves-by-country.html

The world has 53.3 years left to find an alternative to oil before current proved reserves run dry, according to BP. Of course, nations are finding new oil – meaning that number is rising – but new extraction methods are costly and can pose environmental threats.

July 14, 2014 By Andy Tully OilPrice.com https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2014/0714/How-long-will-world-s-oil-reserves-last-53-years-says-BP

70% of oil deposits existing today were

formed in the Mesozoic age (252 to 66

million years ago), 20% were formed in the

Cenozoic age (65 million years ago), and

only 10% were formed in the Paleozoic age

(541 to 252 million years ago).

Early crude production in the U.S.

Year Volume

1859 2,000 barrels (~270 t)

1869 4,215,000 barrels (~5.750×105 t)

1879 19,914,146 barrels (~2.717×106 t)

1889 35,163,513 barrels (~4.797×106 t)

1899 57,084,428 barrels (~7.788×106 t)

1906 126,493,936 barrels (~1.726×107 t)

The current level of U.S. crude oil production

as of September 2019 is 12,400.00 thousand

barrels per day (4,526,000,000 barrels/Year).

The first oil corporation was the Pennsylvania Rock Oil

Company which was formed to exploit oil found floating on

water surfaces near Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Edwin Drake is often associated with the discovery of oil.

The first oil well was successfully drilled on August 27, 1859.

Within a decade, John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil

Company would come to dominate the oil industry both in

Titusville and across the nation.

2020 2021 2022 2023

Production (million barrels per day)

Crude Oil 11.32 11.25 11.79 12.63

Extinction Eliminates Species

– Significant rise above background level

– 20–95% of species are eliminated

– Past causes most likely involved global changes in

environmental conditions

 Giant volcanic eruptions

 Collisions with meteors or asteroids

– Provides opportunity for evolution of new species

(each past mass extinction has been followed byan

increase in species diversity. Scientific evidence indicates that the

earth has experienced five mass

extinctions over the past 500 million

years and that human activities have

initiated a new sixth mass extinction.

• Extinction: Process in which an entire species ceases

to exist

• Background extinction (Natural Process)

– Typical low rate of extinction

 0.0001% of all species per year

About 1 extinct species/year/1 million species

• Mass extinction

• Human population has destroyed and degraded habitats

– Huge resource consumption and large ecological footprint

• Extinction rates have risen recently

– Current extinction rate is 1,000 times higher than natural background rate.

Top Five Extinctions

Cambrian Explosion: Early life-forms began to flourish. (540 million years ago)

Ordovician-silurian Extinction: Small marine organisms died out. (440 mya) Devonian Extinction: Many tropical marine species went extinct. (365 mya) Permian-triassic Extinction: The largest mass extinction event in Earth's history affected a range of species, including many vertebrates. (250 mya) Triassic-jurassic Extinction: The extinction of other vertebrate species on land allowed dinosaurs to flourish. (210 mya) Cretaceous-tertiary Extinction: A wide range of animals and plants died out, from tiny marine organisms to large dinosaurs. (65.5 mya)

Case Study:

Ocean

Garbage

Patches

• North Pacific Garbage Patch

– Two gigantic, slowly rotating masses of plastic and other solid

wastes (discovered in 1997)

– 80% of this trash comes from the land

• Tiny plastic pieces harmful to wildlife

• No practical way to clean up

Figure 20.16 The North Pacific Garbage

Patch is actually two vast, slowlyswirling

masses of small plastic particles floating

just under the water. Five other huge

garbage patches have been discoveredin

the world’s other major oceans.

– Best approach: prevent growth by reducing production of solid

wastes

Dead Whale Found With 88 Pounds of Plastic Inside Body in the Philippines

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/world/asia/whale-plastics-philippines.html

In 2007, a dead whale that washed ashore in California had 180 kilograms (400 pounds) of

plastic in its stomach.

DIMITAR DILKOFF VIA GETTY IMAGES Discarded plastic bottles and other garbage blocks the Vacha Dam, near the Bulgarian town of Krichim, on April 25, 2009. Single-use plastic

containers like bottles and plastic bags are “the biggest source of trash” found near waterways and beaches, according to the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy.

ERIK DE CASTRO/REUTERS A man collects plastic and other recyclable materials from debris in the waters of Manila

Bay in Manila, Philippines, July 30, 2012. Mismanaged waste from land is the primary cause of the ocean plasticscrisis.

GETTY IMAGES Trash builds up on the coast of Illulissat, a town in Greenland. Population of Greenland: 56,171 (2017)

Plastics in the Ocean https://www.earthday.org/2018/04/05/fact-sheet-plastics-in-the-ocean/

FACT #1 About 8 million metric tons of plastic are thrown into the ocean annually. Of those, 236,000 tons are microplastics – tiny pieces of broken-down plastic smaller than your little fingernail

FACT #2

There are five massive patches of plastic in the oceans around the world. These huge concentrations of plastic debris cover large swaths of the ocean; the one between California and Hawaii is the size of the state of Texas

FACT #3 Every minute, one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our oceans

FACT #4 The amount of plastic in the ocean is set to increase tenfold by 2020

FACT #5 By 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than there are fish (by weight)

FACT #6 Plastic is found in the ocean as far as 11km deep, meaning synthetic fibers have contaminated even the most remote places on Earth

FACT #7

Many marine organisms can’t distinguish common plastic items from food. Animals who eat plastic often starve because they can’t digest the plastic and it fills their stomachs, preventing them from eating real food

FACT #8

The likelihood of coral becoming diseased increases from 4% to 89% after coming in contact with marine plastic. It also damages the skin of coral, allowing infection. Coral reefs are home to more than 25% of marine life.

FACT #9

There is more plastic than natural prey at the sea surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which means that organisms feeding at this area are likely to have plastic as a major component of their diets. For instance, sea turtles by-caught in fisheries operating within and around the patch can have up to 74% (by dry weight) of their diets composed of ocean plastics.

FACT #10 Many fish humans consume, including brown trout, cisco, and perch, have at one time or another, ingested plastic microfibers.

• Crude and refined petroleum

– From natural sources (about 46%) and human activities

• Urban and industrial runoff from land

– Major source of ocean oil pollution from human activities

• Prominent pollution accidents

– 1989: Exxon Valdez, oil tanker

– 2010: BP Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico

• Volatile organic hydrocarbons

– Kill many aquatic organisms

• Tar-like globs on the ocean’s surface

– Coat animals’ fur and feathers

 Animals drown or die from loss of body heat

• Heavy oil components sink

– Smother bottom-dwelling organisms

• Faster recovery in warm water with rapid currents

– In cold, calm waters recovery can take decades

• Current cleanup methods

– Recover up to only 15% of oil from a major spill

• Methods of preventing oil spills

– Double-hulled tankers Ocean Pollution from Oil

Wounded Wilderness: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 30 Years Later On the surface, Prince William Sound appears to have recovered. But you don’t have to dig too deep—into the soil or into

memories—to find the spill’s lingering effects

Tim Lydon, March 22, 2019 https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/wounded-wilderness-the-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-30-years-later/

Digging into the beach at

certain sites around

Prince William Sound, it

doesn’t take long before

you strike oil. This photo

was taken on Eleanor

Island on July 26, 2018.

Photo courtesy of David

Janka/auklet.com

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in

a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

Case Study: The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil-Rig Spill

• Spill from deep-sea oil drilling

– Released 3.1 million barrels (130 million gallons)

of crude oil before well was capped

– Contaminated vast areas of coastline

– Killed at least 6,100 seabirds, oiled another

2,000

– Killed more than 600 sea turtles and 100

dolphins

– Caused by equipment failure and poor decisions

– BP paid $60.8 billion for the cleanup, damage

claims, and restoration projects

• Government developed new standards for offshore

drilling procedures

Figure 20.17 The Deepwater Horizon drilling

platform, located 64 kilometers (40 miles) off the

coast of Louisiana, exploded, burned, and sank in

the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010.

What is Superfund?

Thousands of contaminated sites exist nationally due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. These sites include manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills and mining sites.

In the late 1970s, toxic waste dumps such as Love Canal and Valley of the Drums received national attention when the public learned about the risks to human health and the environment posed by contaminated sites.

In response, Congress established the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in 1980.

CERCLA is informally called Superfund. It allows EPA to clean up contaminated sites. It also forces the parties responsible for the contamination to either perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-led cleanup work.

When there is no viable responsible party, Superfund gives EPA the funds and authority to clean up contaminated sites.

Superfund’s goals are to:

•Protect human health and the environment by cleaning up contaminated sites; •Make responsible parties pay for cleanup work; •Involve communities in the Superfund process; and •Return Superfund sites to productive use.

Superfund Sites: 1,317 US

Spots Where Toxic Waste

Was Dumped—Time

(magazine) (March 22, 2017)

Superfund sites are polluted locations requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations.

A map of Superfund sites as of October 2013. Red

indicates currently on final National Priority List,

yellow is proposed, green is deleted (usually meaning

having been cleaned up).

As of February 27,

2014, there were 1322

Superfund sites on the

National Priorities List in

the United States. Fifty-

three additional sites

have been proposed for

entry on the list. As of

February 27, 2014, 375

sites have been

cleaned up and

removed from the list.

Superfund Sites: 1,317 US Spots

Where Toxic Waste WasDumped—

Time (magazine) (March 22, 2017)

Massachusetts ( 31 sites)

Site Name City Site EPA ID Listing Date Site Score Federal Facility Indicator

Atlas Tack Corp. Fairhaven MAD001026319 02/21/1990 42.60 No Baird & McGuire Holbrook MAD001041987 09/08/1983 66.35 No BJAT LLC Franklin MAN000106144 09/30/2015 41.91 No Blackburn and Union Privileges Walpole MAD982191363 05/31/1994 50.00 No Charles-George Reclamation Trust Landfill Tyngsborough MAD003809266 09/08/1983 47.20 No Creese & Cook Tannery (Former) Danvers MAD001031574 05/24/2013 60.57 No Fort Devens Fort Devens MA7210025154 11/21/1989 42.24 Yes Groveland Wells Groveland MAD980732317 09/08/1983 40.74 No

Hanscom Field/Hanscom Air Force Base Bedford MA8570024424 05/31/1994 50.00 Yes

Haverhill Municipal Landfill Haverhill MAD980523336 06/10/1986 30.29 No Hocomonco Pond Westborough MAD980732341 09/08/1983 44.80 No Industri-Plex Woburn MAD076580950 09/08/1983 72.42 No Iron Horse Park Billerica MAD051787323 09/21/1984 42.93 No Microfab, Inc. (Former) Amesbury MAD001409408 08/03/2017 50.00 No Natick Laboratory Army Research, Development, and Engineering Center Natick MA1210020631 05/31/1994 50.00 Yes

Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant Bedford MA6170023570 05/31/1994 50.00 Yes

New Bedford Site New Bedford MAD980731335 09/08/1983 No Nuclear Metals, Inc. Concord MAD062166335 06/14/2001 58.31 No Nyanza Chemical Waste Dump Ashland MAD990685422 09/08/1983 69.22 No Olin Chemical Wilmington MAD001403104 04/19/2006 50.00 No Otis Air National Guard Base/Camp Edwards Falmouth MA2570024487 11/21/1989 45.92 Yes PSC Resources Palmer MAD980731483 09/08/1983 38.66 No Re-Solve, Inc. Dartmouth MAD980520621 09/08/1983 47.71 No Rose Disposal Pit Lanesboro MAD980524169 06/10/1986 33.03 No Silresim Chemical Corp. Lowell MAD000192393 09/08/1983 42.72 No South Weymouth Naval Air Station Weymouth MA2170022022 05/31/1994 50.00 Yes Sullivan's Ledge New Bedford MAD980731343 09/21/1984 32.77 No Sutton Brook Disposal Area Tewksbury MAD980520696 06/14/2001 57.12 No W.R. Grace & Co., Inc. (Acton Plant) Acton MAD001002252 09/08/1983 59.31 No Walton & Lonsbury Inc. Attleboro MAD001197755 05/24/2013 58.30 No Wells G&H Woburn MAD980732168 09/08/1983 42.71 No

Figure 18.12 This map shows regions where acid deposition is now a problem and regions with the potential to develop this

problem. Such regions have large inputs of air pollution (mostly from power plants, industrial facilities, and ore smelters) or

are sensitive areas with naturally acidic soils and bedrock that cannot neutralize (buffer) additional inputs of acidic

compounds.

Acid

Deposition

Annual wet deposition of SO2− 4 (in kg

SO2− 4 • ha–1 • yr–1) in the eastern

United States for 1983–1985, 1992– 1994, and 1995–1997

Declining Acidic Deposition Begins Reversal of Forest-Soil Acidification in the Northeastern U.S. and Eastern Canada

Gregory B. Lawrence, Paul W. Hazlett, Ivan J. Fernandez, Rock Ouimet, Scott W. Bailey, Walter C. Shortle, Kevin T. Smith,

and Michael R. Antidormi

Environ. Sci. Technol., 2015, 49 (22), pp 13103–13111

Air Pollution Has HarmfulEffects

Figure 18.4 Sulfuric acid and other air pollutants have damaged this statue

in Rome, Italy. The nose and part of the forehead have been restored.

• Air pollutants flow north from Europe, Asia, and North America to form arctichaze

• Since the 1970s, outdoor air quality has improved in more-developedcountries

In 2015, 138 million Americans or 43% of the U.S. population lived in areas where air pollution reached dangerous levels during parts of the year (American LungAssociation). Globally, more than 1.1 billion people live in urban areas where outdoor air is unhealthy to breathe (World Health Organization).

• Fine particles can get lodged in the lungs - Contributes to cancer, asthma, heart attack, and stroke

In 2014, WHO estimated that outdoor and indoor air pollutionkills about 7 million people each year.

2015 Study: outdoor air pollution kills about 1.4 million people per year in China and about 645,000 per year in India

18.5 What Are the Health Effects of Air Pollution?

• Air pollution can contribute to:

– Asthma

– Chronic bronchitis

– Emphysema

– Lung cancer

– Heart attack

– Stroke • WHO: each year, indoor and outdoor air

pollution kills about 7 million people

around the world

• 125,000 people develop cancer in the

United States each year from breathing

diesel fumes

• 14% of the U.S. population (46 million)

exposed to excessive particulate

pollution levels daily

Figure 18.20 Distribution of premature deaths from air pollution

in the United States, mostly from very small, fine, and ultrafine

particles added to the atmosphere by coal-burning power plants.

Asthma Capitals 2018 Asthma and Allergy Foundation o

America

f

w

e

n

Around 25 million Americans

have asthma. Tragically, 10

people die from it every day.

Most of these deaths can be

prevented with access to

medical care, education on ho

to properly manage the

disease, healthy housing and

clean air. But asthma is still on

of the most chronic diseases i

our nation. It also costs our

society $82 billion a year.

https://www.aafa.org/asthma-capitals/

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a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

Harmful Effects of Water Pollutants

• According to a National Academy of Sciences study, most serious threats to stream and lake water

quality

– Mercury

– Pathogens from broken sewer pipes

– Sediment from land disturbance and stream erosion

– Metals other than mercury

– Nutrients that cause oxygen depletion

• Exposure to infectious disease organisms (bacteria, viruses, and parasites) that are transferred into

water from the wastes of 2.5 billion humans that lack access to toilets and other forms of waste disposal

and other animals

– Contaminated drinking water

– Causes diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, hepatitis B, giardiasis, and cryptosporidium

– An estimated 1.6 million people die every year (WHO)

Water Pollution Comes from

Point and Nonpoint Sources • Water pollution

– Any change in water quality that can harm living

organisms or make water unfit for human use such

as drinking, irrigation, and recreation

• Point sources

– Discharge pollutants at specific locations

– Examples: factories, animal feed lots, underground

mines, oil wells, and oil tankers

• Nonpoint (dispersed) sources

– Broad, diffuse areas

– Rainfall or snowmelt washes pollutants from land

into surface water

– Examples: runoff of fertilizers and pesticides from

croplands, logged forests, lawns, and golf courses

Figure 20.2 Point

source of water

pollution from an

industrial plant

Figure 20.3 Point

source pollution:

acid draining from

an abandoned

open-pit coal mine

Figure 20.4 Nonpoint source pollution:

sediments in farmland runoff flowing

into a stream. By weight, sediment is the

largest source of water pollution.

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a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.

Case Study: Lead in Drinking Water

• 2014: residents of Flint, Michigan were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in tap

water

– A city of nearly 100,000 people with 40% living in poverty and about 9,000 children

under the age of 6

– Officials began withdrawing water from Flint River instead of Lake Huron

– Failed to add chemicals to reduce leaching from more than 15,000 lead pipes

– Children citywide with elevated blood levels of lead doubled from 2.4% to 4.9% and

to 15.7% in its poorest neighborhood (1 out of 6 children in Flint and 1 out of 3 in its

poorest neighborhood need medical help)

– Public outcry resulted in water source switched back to Lake Huron

– In 2015 almost 2,000 or 20% of the U.S. water systems tested have failed to

meet the EPA standard of 15 parts per billion for lead in drinking water

Rank Ice Age Name Period (in megannus)

Period and Era

1 Quaternary 2.58 – present Neogene, Cenozoic

2 Karoo 360 – 260 Carboniferous and Permian, Paleozoic

3 Andean-Saharan 450 – 420 Ordovician and Silurian, Paleozoic

4 Cryogenian (or Sturtian-Varangian)

850 – 635 Cryogenian, Neoproterozoic

5 Huronian 2400 – 2100 Siderian and Rhyacian, Paleoproterozoic

Five known Ice Ages have influenced life on Earth, comprising ofboth

glacial and interglacial periods.

In the past, ice ages have triggered mass extinction events on Earth and

threaten to do the same in the future as well.

An ice age is a moment in time when global temperatures can reach

drastically cold levels. The decreased temperatures prevent snow from

melting which creates a layer of ice under all of the accumulating snow.

This phenomenon causes the whole ice mass to move; in other words,

a glacier is created. Glaciers carve out the surface of the Earth, leaving

behind valleys and lakes. Once temperatures increase, glaciers melt

and fill those valleys and lakes with water. It is believed that these eras

are brought on by solar radiation and shifts in plate tectonics. A

glaciation period is marked by glacial and interglacial periods. Glacial

periods occur when temperatures are at their lowest and glaciers extend

far from the poles. Interglacial periods happen when the temperatures

are milder, and the edges of glaciers move closer to the poles.

The Glaciation Timeline

Nobody has the exact idea of what the future holds for

temperatures and glacial activity on Earth. Scientists agree that

the Earth's temperature has certainly been getting warmer, with

record-breaking warm annual temperatures. The melting of

glaciers expands ocean water, which makes many areas of the

world vulnerable to flooding. Among the effects of melting

glaciers are shoreline erosion and salt water intrusion.

Surprisingly, the earth is currently experiencing a glacial period. This

one started about 2.58 million years ago and is still going on, this

time with significantly milder temperatures. Antarctica first froze over

about 14 million years ago due to the creation of the Himalayan

mountains. The higher they grew, the more weathering they were

exposed to which decreased carbon dioxide levels. This time, the

glacial and interglacial periods were controlled by the orbiting of the

earth and the levels of sun that reached the surface. The periods

alternated every 41,000 years until 1 million years ago when the

glacial periods changed to a cycle of 100,000 years. These cooled

down temperatures possibly resulted in the evolution of homo-

sapiens. Human brains became larger and when the ice caps

moved closer to the poles, humans began to cultivate agriculture which led to today’s modern civilization.

Quarternary

Chronology of climatic events of importance for the

last glacial period (about the last 120,000 years)

The Last Glacial Period (LGP)

occurred from the end of the

Eemian interglacial to the end

of the Younger Dryas,

encompassing the period c. 115,000

– c. 11,700 years ago. This

most recent glacial period is

part of a larger pattern of

glacial and interglacial periods

known as the Quaternary

glaciation extending from c. 2,588,000

years ago to present.

The Laurentide Ice Sheet was a massive sheet of ice that covered millions of square kilometers,

including most of Canada and a large portion of the northern United States, multiple times during

the Quaternary glacial epochs— from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present. The last advance

covered most of northern North America between c. 95,000 and c. 20,000 years before the present day.

In its retreat, the Wisconsin Episode glaciation left terminal moraines that form Long Island, Block

Island, Cape Cod, Nomans Land, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Sable Island, and the Oak Ridges

Moraine in south central Ontario, Canada.

The deglaciation occurred from the last glacial maximum (21,000 years ago) until about 7,000 years

ago. Some of the lakes the southern Ungava Bay area were fully deglaciated c. 6,000 years ago.

Around 5,000 years ago the Laurentide had retreated as far as Baffin Island, Canada.

When the ice sheet was at its maximum extent, global sea level was 120 m lower thantoday's

level and the continental shelf south of Cape Cod was exposed as a coastal plain (Oldale, 2001).

According to Blue Marble 3000 (a video by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences), theaverage

global temperature around 19,000 BC (about 21,000 years ago) was 9.0 °C (48.2 °F). This is about

6.0 °C (10.8°F) colder than the 2013-2017 average (the average global temperature was 15.0

°C/58.9 °F for the 2013-2017 period).

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), permanent summer ice covered about

8% of Earth's surface and 25% of the land area during the last glacial maximum. Currently (as of

2012), about 3.1% of Earth's surface and 10.7% of the land area is covered in year-round ice.

The USGS also states that sea level was about 125 meters (410 feet) lower than in present times

(2012). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Glacial_Maximum

From the point of view of human archaeology, the last glacial period falls in the Paleolithic and early Mesolithic periods. When the glaciation

event started, Homo sapiens were confined to lower latitudes. Near the end of the event, Homo sapiens migrated into Eurasia and Australia.

Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Paleolithic humans survived the last glacial period in sparsely

wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high primary productivity while avoiding dense forest cover. The retreat of the glaciers 15,000

years ago allowed groups of humans from Asia to migrate to the Americas.

Global mean surface temperature from 1880 to 2018,

relative to the 1951–1980 mean. The black line is the

global annual mean, and the red line is the five-

year local regression line. The blue bars showa

Average global temperatures from 2014 to 2018

compared to a baseline average from 1951 to 1980,

according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

95% confidence interval.

Global warming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

Changes in ice sheet surface

elevation: These images show rates

of change in Greenland and

Antarctica from 2003 to 2007. Dark

blue indicates an increase of 0.5

meters per year, and dark red

indicates a decrease of 1.5 meters

per year. Image from Pritchard et al.

2009.

Monthly averages from 1979 - 2017. Data source via the Polar Science Center (University of Washington). Data visualisation by Andy Lee Robinson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_sea_ice_decline

Historical sea level reconstruction and

projections up to 2100 published in January

2017 by the U.S. Global Change Research

Program for the Fourth National Climate

Assessment.

As the climate change melts sea ice, the

U.S. Geological Survey projects that two-

thirds of polar bears will disappear by

2050.

A helicopter drops water on

a wildfire in California. Drought and

higher temperatures linked to climate

change are driving a trend towards

larger fires.

Scientist estimates that more than a billion

animals killed by Australian wildfires Jan. 8, 2020, 10:30 AM EST By Denise Chow https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/more-1-billion-animals-killed-australian-wildfires-n1112326

If all the ice covering Antarctica, Greenland, and in mountain glaciers around the world were to melt, sea level would rise about 70 meters (230 feet). The ocean would cover all the coastal cities. And land area would shrink significantly. However, all the ice is not going to melt. The Antarctic ice cap, where most of the ice exists, has survived much warmer times.

Aerial view over southern Bangladesh

after the passage of cyclone Cyclone Sidr.

A combination of sea level rise and

increased rainfall from cyclones makes

countries more vulnerable to floods,

impacting people's livelihoods and health.

The NASA earth data fire map accumulates the locations of fires detected by moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer

(MODIS) on board the Terra and Aqua satellites over a 10-day period. Each colored dot indicates a location where MODIS detected at

least one fire during the compositing period. Color ranges from red where the fire count is low to yellow where number of fires is large.

https://www.climatesignals.org/data/global-fire-map

July 2023 saw extreme heatwaves in several parts of the Northern

Hemisphere, including the Southwest of the US and Mexico,

Southern Europe and China. Temperatures exceeded 50C on the 16th

of July in Death Valley in the US as well as in Northwest China

(CNN,2023). Records were also reached in many other weather

stations in China and the all-China heat record was broken in Sanbao

on the 16th of July. In Europe, the hottest ever day in Catalunya was

recorded and highest-ever records of daily minimum temperature were

broken in other parts of Spain. In the US, parts of Nevada, Colorado

and New Mexico tied their all time high, parts of Arizona, Cayman

Islands, highest ever night time temperatures in Phoenix Arizona which

also had its record for longest time without falling below 90F/32.2C.

Several heat deaths have been confirmed in the US, including migrants

on the US Mexican border. In Mexico alone over 200 people died due to

the heat. Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Algeria, and China also reported

heat deaths, as well as a large increase in hospitalisation due to heat

related illnesses. Large parts of the population in Italy and Spain and

over 100 million people in Southern US are under heat alerts. In all

three regions, demand for power spiked and negatively impacted a

number of important crops, including olive oil in Spain and cotton in

China.

https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/extreme-heat-in-north-america-europe-and-china-in-july-2023-made-much-more-likely-by-climate-change/

Extreme heat in North America, Europe and China in July 2023 made much more likely by climate change

25 July, 2023

Hunger stones in Czech Republic

“If you see me, weep,” reads a carving in a stone at the

bottom of the Elbe River in the Czech Republic.

The inscriptions on the so-called hunger stones date

back as far as 1616 and memorialize famine years.

Drought dropped the river levels and exposed the

stones, allowing townspeople more than 400 years ago

to write about lost harvests due to lack of rain.

Drought exposes ‘Spanish Stonehenge’ for study

A shrinking reservoir exposed an oval of stones that scientists believe date

back to 5000 B.C. It is called the Dolmen of Guadaperal. An archeologist

discovered it in 1929.

The approximately 100 standing stones, up to 1.8 meters tall and arranged

around an oval open space, were submerged in the Valdecañas reservoir

after the construction of a dam on the Tagus River in 1963. The water has

receded a few times since, most recently in 2019.

Drought exposes lost cities, ancient treasures and

foreboding signs

By Hillary Andrews , FOX Weather

September 2, 2022 9:02pm Updated https://nypost.com/2022/09/02/drought-exposes-lost-cities-ancient-treasures-and-foreboding-signs/

As drought and record heat

span the globe, bodies of water

have evaporated and history

has appeared. Dozens of

ancient cities, sunken

treasures and grim reminders

have revealed themselves for

the first time in years and, in some cases, decades.

Lost city found in Iraq

Archeologists also scrambled to excavate and document a 3,400-year-old

city in Northern Iraq on the Tigris River. Extreme drought forced the

country to draw down the Mosul Reservoir to water crops, revealing the

ancient city. In a press release, scientists called the reservoir Iraq’s most

important water storage.

The German and Kurdish archeologists

in charge of the project think this could

be Zakhiku, a center of the Mittani

Empire that ruled large parts of northern

Mesopotamia and Syria between 1550

and 1350 B.C. They found a palace,

massive fortification walls and towers.

They also located multi-storied storage

buildings filled with pottery and tablets.

World War II bomb in Italy World War II shipwrecks in Serbia Drought rediscovers WWII warships in the Danube River in Central and Southeastern Europe 600-year-old Buddha statues in China Dinosaur tracks in Texas

… the western U.S. is experiencing the driest 22-year

stretch in over 1,200 years.

China just went through its most intense heat wave

since recordkeeping began in 1961, … … this is the worst European drought in over 500 years.

Global fossil CO2 emissions: 34.8 ± 2 GtCO2 in 2020, 53% over 1990 Projection for 2021: 36.4 ± 2 GtCO2, 4.9% [4.1%–5.7%] higher than 2020

The 2021 projection is based on preliminary data and modelling. Source: Friedlingstein et al 2021; Global Carbon Project 2021

Global Fossil CO2 Emissions

Uncertainty is ±5% for one standard deviation

(IPCC “likely” range)

Region / Country 2020 emissions

(billion tonnes/yr) 2020 growth

(percent)

2021 projected emissions growth

(percent)

2021 projected emissions

(billion tonnes/yr)

China 10.7 1.4% 4.0% 11.1

USA 4.7 -10.6% 7.6% 5.1

EU27 2.6 -10.9% 7.6% 2.8

India 2.4 -7.3% 12.6% 2.7

All others (incl. IAS*) 14.4 -7.0% 2.9% 14.8

World (incl. IAS*) 34.8 -5.4% 4.9% 36.4

Summary of fossil CO2 emissions in 2020 and 2021

*IAS: Emissions from use of international aviation and maritime shipping bunker fuels are not usually included in national totals Source: Friedlingstein et al 2021; Global Carbon Project 2021

Emissions Projections for 2021

Global fossil CO2 emissions are projected to increase by 4.9% [4.1%–5.7%] in 2021

The 2021 projections are based on preliminary data and modelling. Source: Friedlingstein et al 2021; Global Carbon Project 2021

2017 CO2 Emissions World Total: 36153 MtCO₂ http://www.globalcarbonatlas.org/en/CO2-emissions

China and India have seen particularly large increases in carbon dioxide emissions

from fossil fuel use in recent years, and 2018 continues that trend (left). But the

United States continues to rank well above other countries for the per person

amount of such carbon emitted each year (right).

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/global-carbon-dioxide-emissions-will-hit-record-high-2018

The global average atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2018 was 407.4 parts per million (ppm for short), with a

range of uncertainty of plus or minus 0.1 ppm. Carbon dioxide levels today are higher than at any point in at

least the past 800,000 years.

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide

Greenhouse gases

By their % contribution to the greenhouse effect on Earth the

four major gases are:

•water vapor, 36–70%

•carbon dioxide, 9–26%

•methane, 4–9%

•ozone, 3–7%

The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in

2016. The agreement's language was negotiated by representatives of 196 state parties at the 21st

Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Le Bourget, near Paris, France, and adopted by consensus on 12

December 2015. As of March 2019, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, and 186 have

become party to it. The Paris Agreement's long-term goal is to keep the increase in global average

temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels; and to limit the increase to 1.5 °C, since this

would substantially reduce the risks and effects of climate change.

Under the Paris Agreement, each country must determine, plan, and regularly report on the contribution that it

undertakes to mitigate global warming. No mechanism forces a country to set a specific target by a specific

date, but each target should go beyond previously set targets. In June 2017, U.S. President Donald

Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the agreement. Under the agreement, the

earliest effective date of withdrawal for the U.S. is November 2020, shortly before the end of President Trump's

current term. In practice, changes in United States policy that are contrary to the Paris Agreement have already

been put in place. In July 2017 French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot announced a plan to ban all petrol

and diesel vehicles in France by 2040 as part of the Paris Agreement. Hulot also stated that France would no

longer use coal to produce electricity after 2022 and that up to €4 billion will be invested in boosting energy

efficiency. To reach the agreement's emission targets, Norway will ban the sale of petrol and diesel-powered

cars by 2025; the Netherlands will do the same by 2030. Electric trains running on the Dutch national rail

network are already entirely powered by wind energy. The House of Representatives of the

Netherlands passed a bill in June 2018 mandating that by 2050 the Netherlands will cut its 1990 greenhouse-

gas emissions level by 95 percent—exceeding the Paris Agreement goals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement

Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.

The report highlights a number of climate change impacts that could be avoided by limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to 2°C, or more. For instance, by 2100, global sea level rise would be 10 cm lower with global warming of 1.5°C compared with 2°C. The likelihood of an Arctic Ocean free of sea ice in summer would be once per century with global warming of 1.5°C, compared with at least once per decade with 2°C. Coral reefs would decline by 70-90 percent with global warming of 1.5°C, whereas virtually all (> 99 percent) would be lost with 2°C.

The report finds that limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require “rapid and far-reaching” transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities. Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050. This means that any remaining emissions would need to be balanced by removing CO2 from the air.

Allowing the global temperature to temporarily exceed or ‘overshoot’ 1.5°C would mean a greater reliance on techniques that remove CO2 from the air to return global temperature to below 1.5°C by 2100.

https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/

People Are Increasingly Isolated fromNature

• Increasing populations in urban areas

• Lack of contact with nature

• Benefits of outdoor activities

• Better health

• Reduced stress

• Improved mental capabilities

• Increased imagination and creativity

• Sense of connection with the earth

Urban population (% of total)

United Nations Population Division

Countries/Economies 1960 2017

High income 63.77 81.53

Low & middle income 23.16 49.52

Low income 12.77 32.44

Lower middle income 19.62 39.91

Middle income 23.99 51.77

Upper middle income 27.54 65.45

United States 70.00 82.06 World 33.62 54.83

Urbanized population percentage by country as of 2018 Source of data points: CIA World Fact Book

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_by_country •Globally, more people live in urban areas than in rural areas, with 55 % of the world’s population residing in urban areas in 2018. In 1950, 30 % of the world’s population was urban, and by 2050, 68 % of the world’s population is projected to be urban. • Today, the most urbanized regions include Northern America (with 82 % of its population living in urban areas in 2018), Latin America and the Caribbean (81 %), Europe (74 %) and Oceania (68%). The level of urbanization in Asia is now approximating 50 %. In contrast, Africa remains mostly rural, with 43 % of its population living in urban areas. • The rural population of the world has grown slowly since 1950 and is expected to reach its peak in a few years. The global rural population is now close to 3.4 billion and is expected to rise slightly and then decline to around 3.1 billion in 2050. Africa and Asia are home to nearly 90 % of the world’s rural population. India has the largest rural population (893 million), followed by China (578 million). https://population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-KeyFacts.pdf