FOR2060 1st Edition Lecture 1 Outline of Last Lecture Outline of Current Lecture I. The Problem of Human Population Growth A. Definition of Carrying Capacity II. What is Sustainability?III. Should We Be Worried About Our Forests?IV. Why the Forests are ImportantA. Ecosystem ServicesB. Definition of WatershedC. Carbon SequestrationCurrent LectureI. The Problem of Human Population GrowthAll of the environmental problems and issues in the world relate back to the human population. According to Thomas Malthus, “the power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man…”. Basically what he is saying is that people need the resources of the earth (wood for shelter, fruit to eat, water to drink, etc.) inorder to survive. However the are only so many resources on the earth which is why the carrying capacity is so important. The Carrying Capacity is defined as “the maximum number of a species a habitat can support.” In our case the species is the human population and the habitat is the world. During the mid 1000s, around the time of the plague, the human population was less than 1billon people, according to the world population graph in Dr. Hagan’s PowerPoint. Now, the population is about 7.3 billion. We are either going to hit our carrying capacity soon, continue to grow exponentially, or have another plague like event where a large amount of our population dies. II. What is Sustainability?Sustainability is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” according to the 1992 World Summit on the These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Environment, held in Rio de Janeiro. We have not been using our forests sustainability in thepast, which has lead to a decreasing forest area worldwide, and a loss of species diversity. The unsustainable practices that have lead to a decline in forest area include: agricultural conversion and forest fragmentations, urban and suburban development, and climate change. Since we have a lack of ability to predict the long term consequences of different forest management practices, it is difficult to achieve sustainability. It would be easy to achieve sustainability if we knew exactly what we needed to do and how we could do it, but all we can do is make changes and hope that they work. There is also a lack of an adequate ecological classification system, making it difficult to see the lack of species diversity. Lastly, politicians who pass laws do not have a great understanding and/or interest in achieving sustainability, which also makes it difficult. III. Should We Be Worried About Our Forests?The future is not as bleak as it may seem. The rates of deforestation have declined in the past several years and 30% of the world’s land area is forested. This may not seem like muchbut it is an improvement over the past. Forest cover is also increasing in many parts of the world due to the growing appreciation for the many values forests provide. If people know and care about how the forest helps them they will be more likely to help protect the forests. Sustainability initiatives have been put in place all over the world. Examples include the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the FSC. Both help plan the best ways to help make forestry practices sustainable. IV. Why the Forests are ImportantForests provide people with ecosystem services, which are services that benefit people’s lives. Forest products such as wood, paper, and fuel are considered to be ecosystem services. Imagine not having wood to build shelter/homes for all of the new people populating the earth. Without fuel how would you get from point A to point B? You would not have any gas for your car so you would be stuck. Another ecosystem service is recreation. The Clemson Experimental Forest is a great example of recreation – people are able to go hiking or fishing or just be in the great outdoors. This can help lower stress and lead to a healthier lifestyle. Forests also help with watersheds, which are just areas of land that drain to a certain body of water. The forests within these watersheds help filter the water, thus providing the population with clean drinking water. The last ecosystem service is carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is the process in which trees take carbon out ofthe atmosphere through photosynthesis. The trees store the carbon dioxide in their woodand underground, where it remains until the wood decomposes. Without trees, the carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere where it builds up, causing global