1. Living in the Environment by Miller, 16th Edition
Unit 1: APES
Living in the Environment by Miller, 16th Edition

2. Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability
Chapter 1
Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

3. Introduction Environment Ecology Environmental Science
External conditions that affect living organisms
Ecology
Study of relationships between living orgasms and their environment
Environmental Science
Interdisciplinary study that examines the role of humans on the earth

4. Sustainability
ability of the earth’s various natural systems and human cultural systems and economies to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions INDEFINITELY

5. Sustainable Society
Manages economy and population size without exceeding all or part of the planet’s ability to
Absorb environmental insults
Replenish resources
Sustain human and other forms of life over a specified period (100’s-1,000’s of years)

6. Sustainable Resource Harvest
Certain quantity of that resource can be harvested each year and not be depleted over a specified period
Sustainable supply of fish or timber

7. Sustainable Earth Earth’s supplies of resources
Processes that make up earth capital are used and maintained over a specified period

8. Natural Capital Solar Capital Natural resources Natural services
Energy from the sun
Provides 99% of the energy used on earth
Natural resources
useful materials and energy
Natural services
purifications of air and water which support life and human economics.
ecosystems provide these services at no cost

9. Economic Growth - Key Terms
Gross National Product
Measures economic growth in a country
Market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced within and outside of a country by the country’s businesses during one year
Gross Domestic Product
Market value in current dollars of all goods and services produced only within a country during one year

10. Economic Growth - Key Terms
Per Capita GDP
Changes in a county’s economic growth per person
the GDP divided by the total population at midyear

11. Economics - Key Terms Economic Development
has the goal of using economic growth to improve living standards

12. Economic Growth - Key Terms
Developed Countries
1.2 billion people
Highly industrialized
High per capita GDP PPP(Purchasing Power Parity)
Developing Countries
Middle income , moderately developed – China, India, Brazil, Thailand, Mexico
Low income, least developed – Angola, Congo, Belarus, Nigeria, Nicaragua

13. Wealth Gap
The gap between the per capita GNP of the rich, middle-income and poor has widened
More than 1 billion people survive on less than one dollar per day
Situation has worsened since 1980

14. Sustainable Development
Assumes the right to use the earth’s resources and earth capital to meet needs
Obligation exists to pass the earth’s resources and services to future generations in as good or better shape than condition when passed to us
Intergenerational equity or fairness

15. Potentially Renewable
Resources
Renewable
Non-Renewable
Potentially Renewable
Direct solar energy
Fossil fuels
Fresh air
Winds, tides, flowing water
Metallic minerals (iron, copper, aluminum)
Fresh water
Nonmetallic minerals (clay, sand, phosphates)
Fertile soil
Plants and animals (biodiversity)

16. Nonrenewable Resources
Nonrenewable/Exhaustible Resources
Exist in a fixed quantity in the earth’s crust and can be used up
Mineral
Any hard, usually crystalline material that is formed naturally
Reserves
Known deposits from which a usable mineral can be profitably extracted at current prices

17. Biodiversity Depletion
Habitat destruction
Habitat degradation
Extinction

18. Pollution
Any addition to air, water, soil, or food that threatens the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms
Solid, liquid, or gaseous by-products or wastes

19. Point Source Pollutants
From a single, identifiable sources
Smokestack of a power plant
Drainpipe of a meat-packing plant
Exhaust pipe of an automobile

20. Nonpoint Source Pollutants
Dispersed and often difficult to identify sources
Runoff of fertilizers and pesticides
Storm Drains (#1 source of oil spills in oceans)

21. Solutions: Pollution Prevention
Input Pollution Control or Throughput Solution
Slows or eliminates the production of pollutants, often by switching to less harmful chemicals or processes

22. Water Pollution Sediment Nutrient overload Toxic chemicals
Infectious agents
Oxygen depletion
Pesticides
Oil spills
Excess heat

23. Air Pollution Global climate change Stratospheric ozone depletion
Urban air pollution
Acid deposition
Outdoor pollutants
Indoor pollutants
Noise

24. Solution: Four R’s of Resource Management
Refuse (don’t use)
Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

25. Solution: Pollution cleanup
Output Pollution Cleanup
Involves cleaning up pollutants after they have been produced
Most expensive and time consuming

26. Environmental Degradation
Common Property Resources
Tragedy of the Commons
Resources owned by none, but available to all users free of charge
May convert potentially renewable resources into nonrenewable resources

27. Model of Environmental Impact
Number of People x Number of units of resources used per person x Environmental degradation and pollution per unit of resource used = Environmental impact of population
P x A x T = I

28. Four Scientific Principles of sustainability
Reliance on solar energy
Biodiversity
Nutrient cycling
Population control

29. Chapter 2 – Science, Matter, Energy and Systems
Endeavor to discover how nature works and to use that knowledge to make predictions about what is likely to happen in nature.

30. Science. Models, systems
“Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty – some most unsure, some nearly sure, and none absolutely certain” – Richard Feynman

31. Scientific method HYPOTHESIS – proposed to explain observed patterns
Critical experiments
Analysis and conclusions

32. Scientific Methods What is the question to be answered?
What relevant facts and data are known?
What new data should be collected?
After collection, can it be used to make a law?
What hypothesis can be invented to explain this? How can it become a theory?

33. Experiments Variables are what affect processes in the experiment.
Controlled experiments have only one variable
Experimental group gets the variable
Control group does not have the variable
Placebo is a harmless pill that resembles the pill being tested.
In double blind experiments, neither the patient nor the doctors know who is the control or experiment group.

34. Inference To conclude from evidence or premises
To reason from circumstance; surmise: We can infer that his motive in publishing the diary was less than honorable
To lead to as a consequence or conclusion: “Socrates argued that a statue inferred the existence of a sculptor”

35. Theory and Law Scientific Theory A Scientific Law
A hypothesis that has been supported by multiple scientists’ experiments in multiple locations
A Scientific Law
a description of what we find happening in nature over and over again in a certain way

36. Scientific Laws Law of Conservation of Matter Atomic Theory of Matter
Matter can be changed from one form to another, but never created or destroyed.
Atomic Theory of Matter
All matter is made of atoms which cannot be destroyed, created, or subdivided.

37. Reasoning Inductive Reasoning Deductive Reasoning
Uses observations and facts to arrive at hypotheses
All mammals breathe oxygen.
Deductive Reasoning
Uses logic to arrive at a specific conclusion based on a generalization
All birds have feathers, Eagles are birds, therefore All eagles have feathers.

38. Frontier and Consensus Science
Frontier Science
Scientific “breakthroughs” and controversial data that has not been widely tested or accepted
String Theory
Consensus or Applied Science
Consists of data, theories, and laws that are widely accepted by scientists considered experts in the field involved
Human Genome Project

39. Accuracy Vs Precision
Accuracy – measurement agrees with the accepted correct value
Precision – measure of reproducibility

40. Matter and Energy Resources
Nature’s Building Blocks
anything that has mass and takes up space

41. Definitions Atomic Number - number of protons
Isotopes - same atomic number, different mass number
Ions - atoms can gain or lose one or more electrons
Mass Number - protons + neutrons

42. Building Blocks
atoms - smallest units of matter- protons,neutrons,electrons
ion - electrically charged atoms
molecules - combinations of atoms of the same or different elements

43. Isotope
Elements with same atomic number but a different mass number

44. Forms of matter elements – single type of atoms
110 elements – 92 natural +18 synthesized
compounds - 2 or more elements, held together by chemical bonds

45. Law of Conservation of Matter
elements and compounds changed from one form to another, can never be destroyed
no “away” in “throw away”

46. Matter quality
Measure of how useful a matter is for humans based on availability and concentration

47. Some Important elements- composition by weight – only 8 elements make up 98.5% of the Earth’s crust

48. Organic Compounds
with carbon
sugar, vitamins, plastics, aspirin

49. Environmental Organic Compounds
Hydrocarbons = methane gas
Chlorinated hydrocarbons =. DDT, PCB
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC)- Freon 12

50. Polymers larger and more complex organic compounds made up of monomers
complex carbohydrates
proteins - 20 amino acids
nucleic acids - nucleotides

51. Inorganic compounds no carbon,not originating from a living source
Earth’s crust – minerals,water
water, nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sodium chloride, ammonia

52. Energy capacity to do work and transfer heat
Kinetic Energy -energy in action
electromagnetic radiation, heat, temperature
Potential energy - stored energy that is potentially available

53. Energy sources 97% solar without it earth’s temperature - 240 C
1% - non commercial(wood, dung, crops) + commercial ( burning mineral resources)

54. Energy quality
Measure of how useful an energy source is in terms of concentration and ability to perform useful work

55. Electromagnetic radiation
different wave lengths shorter – high energy, disrupts cells with long term exposure

56. Use….radioisotopes Estimate age of rocks and fossils
Tracers in pollution detection and medicine
Genetic control of insects

57. Half - Life
time needed for one-half of the nuclei in a radioisotope to decay and emit their radiation.
Goes through 10 half –lives before it becomes a non-radioactive form

58. 1st Law of Energy or 1st Law of Thermodynamics
in all physical and chemical changes energy is neither created or destroyed
energy input always equal to energy output

59. 2nd Law of Energy or 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
when energy is changed from one form to another some of the useful energy is always degraded to lower quality, more dispersed, less useful energy(heat)

60. Nuclear Changes
nuclei of certain isotopes spontaneously change (radioisotopes) or made to change into one or more different isotopes
Alpha particles – fast moving (2 protons+2neutrons); Beta particles – high speed electrons ; Gamma particles - high energy electromagnetic radiation
radioactive decay, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion

61. certain isotopes (uranium 235) split apart into lighter nuclei when struck by neutrons
chain reaction releases energy
needs critical mass of fissionable nuclei
Nuclear Fission

62. Nuclear fusion
two isotopes (hydrogen) forced together at extremely high temperatures (100 million C)
uncontrolled nuclear fusion thermonuclear weapons

63. Environmental Science has limitations……………….
Cannot prove anything absolutely
Cannot be totally free of bias
Use of statistical tools
Huge number of interacting variables

64. Feedback Loops
A feedback loop occurs when an output of a system is fed back as an input
Two kinds of feedback loops
Positive
Negative

65. Positive feedback loop
Exponential growth of population – more individuals lead to increased number of births

66. Negative feedback loop
Temperature regulation in humans – increased temperature leads to decrease in temperature by sweating

67. Complex systems Chaos – unpredictable behavior in a system
Time lags – change in a system leads to other changes after a delay – lung cancer
Resistance to change – built in resistance – political, economic
Synergy-when two or more processes interact so that the combined effect is greater
Chaos – unpredictable behavior in a system

68. Synergy and Chaos
Synergy occurs when two or more processes interact so the combined effect is greater than the sum of the separate effects
Grapefruit and Statins
Chaos occurs in a system when there is no pattern and it never repeats itself
Noise versus Music

69. Implications for the environment – High waste society

70. Implications for the environment – Low waste society

71. Gaia Hypothesis (1970)
James Lovelock and Lynn Marguilis