13.1 - Human Impact on the Environment

Recognizing Change

• Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832)
  • Discovered fossils of extinct animals
  • Opened the door for the science of paleontology
• Jens Esmark (1763 - 1839)
  • Scandinavian scientist
  • Found explanation for rocks moved by glaciers
• Anthropocene (1750)
  • The era where we live now, with great environmental damage
• Theodore Roosevelt
  • US President
  • Early American Conservationist
  • Established national park system

Resource Depletion

• Neo-Malthusians (“prophets”):
  • William Vogt
    • human activity will drain resources
    • "Cut back! Cut back!" was his mantra
    • wrote "A Road to Survival"
  • Paul Ehrlich
    • Biologist at Stanford
    • Wrote "the Population Bomb"
    • Believed that mass human extinction was imminent
• Cornucopians (“wizards”)
  • Norman Borlaug
  • Julian Simon
    • Professor at University of Chicago Urbana-Champagne
• Easter Island
  • used to have numerous palm trees
  • tree trunks may have been used to move the Moai statues 🗿
  • Tanked the quality of life on the island
• groundwater (aquifer)
  • Being depleted very quickly
• Yemen
  • extremely dry
  • Wells need to go 1200 meters to reach water; used to be 30
  • They may run out of water
• fossil fuels
  • At the heart of the industrial revolution
• “Peak Oil"

Pollution

• "Great Acceleration"
  • The pace at which we consume resources is rapidly increasing
• laterite
  • Top soil that comes from deforestation
  • Red colored & iron rich soil
  • Can't support agriculture
• simplification of ecosystems
  • humans make ecosystem work for a very few number of organisms
  • crowds out other animals/plants
• Sixth Extinction
  • Unprecedented loss of species
  • Could be devastating
• Great Pacific Garbage Patch
  • Texas sized areas of unusually large amounts of waste
• Thomas Midgley (1899 - 1944)
  • Developed leaded gasoline
  • Developed CFC's (freon)
  • probably had more impact on the environment than any other single person
• acid rain
• ozone depletion (1970s)
  • CFCs lead to dissolving ozone layer
• Montreal Protocol
• climate change (global warming)