GEOG-120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Ecological Footprint, Acid Rain, Resource Depletion
24 Sep 2020
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Document Summary
Economic and social structures impact environmental degradation, resource depletion and overall ecological functioning. Troubling impacts: nuclear waste disposal, toxic emissions, oil spills, acid precipitation, smog, deforestation, habitat loss, greenhouse gases, global climate change. Consumption patterns have a significant impact on the environment. Ecological footprint: a measurement of land area required to sustain a population (wackernagel and rees 1996). Worldviews: sets of commonly shared values, ideas, and images concerning the nature of reality and the role of humanity within it. (taylor 1992, 31-32) It is the lens or the mental glasses we look through that gives us the intellectual framework to understand the world. Different worldviews lead to different decisions about the use of the environment. Beliefs, ideas and values shape attitudes towards human-environment relationships. Faith in science, rational thought and technology to control nature. Accumulation of wealth to satisfy material wants. The exploitation of nature to meet human ends. Nature is a resource to be used, not protected.
