1. Understanding Our Environment

2. What is environmental science? Environment: the conditions that surround an organism or group of organisms Environmental science: the study of the environment, how the environment affects humans and how humans affect the environment Ecology : the study of relationships between living organisms and their environment

3. Environmental science is interdisciplinary which means that it has components of a lot of different studies.

4. Sustainability An environmentally sustainable society meets the current needs of its people for food, clean water, clean air, shelter, and other basic resources WITHOUT compromising the ability of future generations to meet THEIR needs. Living sustainably means living off natural income replenished by soils, plants, air, and water and not depleting or degrading the earth’s natural capital that supplies this biological income. Click for 1 min. video

5. Click for a 1 minute video.

6. Natural capital Examples: Air Water Soil Wildlife Forests Rangeland Fisheries Minerals Energy resources Natural capital is the earth’s natural resources.

7. Solar capital Solar capital is energy directly from the sun. Indirect solar energy is in the form of wind power, hydropower (energy from flowing water), biomass (solar energy converted to chemical energy and stored in biological sources of energy such as wood).

8. Imagine that you’ve won $1 million in the lottery.

9. You invest your money so that it makes 10% (or $100,000) per year. If you live on the $100,000 of interest each year, at the end of the year, you will still have your $1 million. If you live on $200,000 (the interest plus an extra $100,000 each year, all of your money will be gone by the 7 th year.

10. Our earth’s resources can be thought about like money. Protect your capital (the earth’s resources) and live off the income it provides. Deplete and waste your natural capital and you move form a sustainable to an unsustainable lifestyle.

11. We must understand what science is, understand the behavior of complex systems and have knowledge of the nature of the matter and energy that make up the earth’s living and nonliving resources. What is Science ? Scientific knowledge is the key to learning how to live more sustainably.

12. Science is an attempt to discover order in the natural world and use that knowledge to predict what could happen in the future.

13. Scientific Method 1. Ask a question 2. Research 3. Form a hypothesis 4. Experiment (test the hypothesis) 5. Analyze and interpret data 6. Form a conclusion

14. Experiments must be reproducible. Scientists are often skeptical of new ideas until they are able to review experimental procedures and results.

15. In an experiment, there is a dependent and independent variable. The dependent variable can be remember with (DRY) D : Dependent R : Response Y : Y-axis The independent variable can be remember with (MIX) M : Manipulated I : Independent X : X-axis Click for video (4 minutes)

17. Globalization Globalization is the process of social, economic, and environmental global changes that lead to the increasingly interconnected world. Click for 5 min. video.

18. Factors accelerating globalization: Technology and modern communication Human mobility International trade and investment

19. THINK GLOBALLY A sustainable community or country recognizes that it is part of a larger global economic and ecological system and that it cannot be sustainable unless the larger systems are also sustainable.

20. Resources Anything obtained from the environment to meet our needs and wants Examples: food, water, shelter, manufactured goods, transportation, communication, recreation

21. Perpetual, Renewable, and Nonrenewable Resources Perpetual – a resource that is renewed continually – Examples: solar energy Renewable – a resource that can be renewed fairly rapidly (hours to several decades) – Examples: forests, grasslands, wildlife, fresh water, fresh air, fertile soil Nonrenewable – a resource that exists in a fixed quantity, but could be renewed given billions of years – Examples: Energy resources (coal, oil, natural gas), metallic mineral resources (iron, copper, aluminum), nonmetallic mineral resources (salt, clay, sand, phosphates)

22. Renewable resources Can be depleted or degraded, even though they are renewed fairly quickly The highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply is called its sustainable yield. When we exceed a renewable resource’s natural replacement rate, the available supply begins to shrink, a process known as environmental degradation.

23. Free-Access Resources Renewable resources that are freely available to everyone can be degraded. One cause of environmental degradation of renewable resources is the overuse of free-access or common-property resources. No individual owns these resources, and they are available to users at little or no charge. Examples: clean air, open oceans and their fish supply, publicly owned lands (such as forests, beaches), the atmosphere, space

24. Tragedy of the Commons The degradation of renewable free-access resources Click for 1 minute video Everyone reasons, “If I do not use this resource, someone else will. The little bit I use or pollute is not enough to matter, and such resources are renewable.”

25. Solutions to the Tragedy of the Commons 1. Use free-access resources at rates WELL BELOW their estimated sustainable yields by reducing population, regulating access to the resources or both. – Rules, regulation, and laws are being developed to protect these resources 2. Convert free-access resources to private ownership The logic is if you own something, you will tend to take better care of it. BUT the want of money can lead to degradation. AND this is not practical for global resources (ex. space)

26. Ecological Footprint The amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply each person or population with the renewable resources they use and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from the resources. An areas ecological footprint is the average environmental impact of individuals in different countries and areas. Click for 2 minute video

27. The major environmental issues that we will discuss this year: 1. Population 2. Global water (amount of drinking water available, pollution) 3. Global food production 4. Energy (renewable and nonrenewable resources, pollution) 5. Global climate changes 6. Air quality 7. Habitat destruction