Earth: The Living Planet

Earth is the Only Planet with a BIOSPHERE!!! Only planet known to support life Home to millions of kinds of living things Organisms = anything that has or once had any of the characteristics which define life

What is environmental science??? Definition: interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with living and nonliving parts of their environment Three goals: Learn how life on earth has survived and thrived Understand how we interact with the environment Find ways to deal with environmental problems and live more sustainably

General Theme: Sustainability The capacity of the earth’s natural systems and human cultural systems to survive, flourish and adapt to changing environmental conditions into the very long-term future. A Sustainable Ecosystem: An ecosystem that is still able to maintain its essential functions and properties even though we are harvesting one of its resources

General Theme: Sustainability 3 Principles of Sustainability: how nature has sustained a huge variety of life despite change -Dependence on solar energy -Great biodiversity -Constant chemical cycling of nutrients Solar energy: sun warms planet, provide energy for plants, powers indirect forms of solar energy (ie. Wind/flowing water) Biodiversity: variety of genes, organisms, species and ecosystems in which organisms exist and interact; provides ecosystem services and countless ways for life to adapt to change Chemical cycling: circulation of chemicals necessary for life

General Theme: Sustainability Other Principles from Social Sciences Economics (full-cost pricing): include environmental costs into products/services Politics (win-win solutions): idea of working together Ethics (responsibility to future generations): who will enjoy it in the future? Idea of looking at all points of view-when everything is combined we can create a sustainable environment

Happy Fishing! The Tragedy of the Commons 1968 Biologist Garrett Hardin wrote an article “The Tragedy of the Commons” Idea of natural resources being commonly held or used by anyone-currently environmentally degraded How does this relate to our Happy Fishing Lab???

Our Ecological Footprint The amount of land/water needed to supply a person with renewable resources AND that are needed to absorb & recycle the wastes/pollution Three reasons our ecological footprints have changed: Agricultural revolution Industrial/medical revolution Information globalization revolution Agri revolution: humans learned how to grow/breed plants & animals for food, clothing, other purposes Industrical-medical revolution: invented machines for large-scale production of goods in factories, involved learning how to get energy fro fossil fuels, grow large quantities of food, included medical advances for healthier/longer lives Information-globalization revolution: developed new technologies for gaining rapid access to all kinds of information and resources on a global scale. Think about your phones-you can access information from around the world

Source of Environmental Problems Population Growth 7.1 billion Wasteful and unstainable resource use Poverty: 900 million people (3X US population) Failure to include harmful environmental costs of goods/services in market prices Increasing Isolation from nature Population growth: human population growing exponentially-adding 84 million/year Resource use: growing wealth= high levels of resource consumption = environmental degradation, wastes and pollution Poverty: focus of getting enough food, water, fuel to survive, desperation causes environmental problems Costs: do not include most of harmful environmental and human health costs, subsidies (tax breaks) given to companies to use resources Isolated: most people do not know the full story of where food/water/other goods come from, idea of “nature deficit disorder”-not having enough nature, can have stress, health issues, aggression, less susceptible to change

Differing Points of View Your environmental worldview: the set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role is Environmental ethics: study of our various beliefs about what is right and wrong with how we treat the environment. Raises one important question

The Big Question DO we have a moral obligation to future generations? (to leave the environment in good condition for our descendants) OR are we at liberty to use environmental resources to the point of depletion within our own lifetime?