1. Science and the Environment
Chapter 1

2. Understanding the Environment
Chapter 1, Section 1

3. What is an environment? Class discussion:
What do you think of when you hear the word environment?

4. Did anyone think of the environment in their own backyard?

5. What is the environment?
The environment is not only the landscape and animals that you can see, it is also how they interact

6. Environmental Science
Definition:
The study of how humans interact with the environment
Involves the following interactions between human and the environment:
How humans use natural resources
How human beings relate to the nonliving environment
How human actions alter the environment
(All of the above)

7. Environmental Science
What is studied in environmental science?
Interactions between living organisms and their nonliving environment
Impact of humans on the environment
Interaction between organisms
(All of the above)

8. The Goals of Environmental Science
To understand and solve environmental problems
Do this in two ways:
Study how humans use natural resources
Study how our actions alter the environment

9. Environmental Science Studies Many Fields of Science
Ecology – The study of how living things interact with each other and with their nonliving environment

10. Fields Continued Biology – the study of living organisms
Zoology – the study of animals
Botany – the study of plants
Microbiology – the study of microorganisms
Ecology - the study of the home

11. Fields Continued
Earth Science – the study of the Earth’s nonliving systems and the planet as a whole
Geology – the study of the Earth’s surface, interior processes, and history
Paleontology – the study of fossils and ancient life
Climatology – the study of the Earth’s atmosphere and climate
Hydrology – the study of the Earth’s water resources

12. Fields Continued Physics – the study of matter and energy
Engineering – the science by which matter and energy are made useful to humans in structures, machines, and products

13. Fields Continued
Chemistry – the study of chemicals and their interactions
Biochemistry – the study of the chemistry of living things
Geochemistry – a branch of geology, is the study of the chemistry of materials such as rocks, soil, and waste

14. Fields Continued Social Science – the study of human population
Geography – the study of the relationships between human populations and Earth’s features
Anthropology – the study of the interactions of the biological, cultural, geographical, and historical aspects of humankind
Sociology – the study of human population dynamics and statistics
NOT linguistics and physics (d)

15. Scientists as Citizens, Citizens as Scientists
Environmental Science starts with the non-scientists
What would you do if you came across a creature that looked like this?

16. Our Environment Through Time
Humans changed environment over time through:
Hunting
Agriculture
When they settled

17. Hunter-Gatherers For most of history, people were hunter gatherers
They obtained food through:
Collecting plants
Hunting wild animals
Scavenging their remains
Humans lived in tribes, using fires to maintain the prairie
They would migrate as groups throughout the year to where resources were bountiful
Would you be willing to move every month to obtain food?

18. Early Environmental Problems
Native American tribes and Aborigines would burn down forests and grasslands to drive out animals such as Buffalo
They would carry plants with them where they traveled – invasive exotic species

19. Endangered Species Led to extinction of mammals such as: Giant bison
Mastodons
Cave Bears
Saber-Toothed Cats
Would trap in pits and then kill them

20. The Agricultural Revolution
Agriculture – the practice of growing, breeding, an caring for plants and animals that are used for food, clothing, housing, transportation, and other purposes.
It happened 10,000 years ago
It had such an impact on humans that it became a revolution
Plants and animals were domesticated, human populations grew

21. One area of land could now support up to 500 times the amount of people that could be supported by hunting and gathering
Communities began to grow
Population growth in the 20th century led to
Resource depletion
Habitat destruction
Pollution
(all of the above)

22. This agriculture changed the foods that we eat today
We eat descendents of the plants first found by hunters and gatherers
Over time, they picked desired traits in plants and began to only harvest those desired traits

23. As environments were replaced by agriculture, they were destroyed
Slash-and-burn – cut down and burn old environments to plant crops – currently ocurring in rainforest

24. Industrial Revolution
Occurred in the middle of the 1700’s
Involved a shift from energy resources such as animal muscle and running water to fossil fuels
Allowed for machinery to take over in mass producing goods and agriculture
People began to travel more and move to cities
Society shifted to fossil fuels
When most of today’s environmental problems began answer C

25. Improving Quality of Life
Brought us things such as the light bulb and mass agriculture
Also brought us pollution and habitat loss

26. Included the start of artificial substances in place of raw animal and plant products
Plastics, artificial pesticides and fertilizers, etc.
These products made our life easier, but what about the rest of the environment?

27. Spaceship Earth Earth is a closed system
It is like a spaceship travelling through space that cannot dispose of waste or take on new supplies

28. Problems occur on different scales:
Local
Regional
Global

29. Population Growth: A Local Pressure
Our population is growing faster than our resources can support
The Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions gave us power to grow much faster than before
Are we growing to fast?

30. What are the main environmental problems?
Resource Depletion
Pollution
Loss of Biodiversity

31. Resource Depletion
Natural Resource – Any natural material that is used by humans
Either renewable or nonrenewable
Renewable resources can be replaced quickly by natural processes
Nonrenewable resources - natural material formed at a slower rate than it is depleted
Resource Depletion - rate of resource use depletes resources and creates pollution and wastes

32. Depleted Resource
When a large fraction of the resource has been used up

33. Pollution Pollution – an undesired change in air, water, or soil
Two types of pollutions
Biodegradable – pollutants that can be broken down by natural processes
Nondegradable – those that can’t – plastics, mercury, lead, etc.

34. Loss of Biodiversity
Biodiversity – the number of variety of species that live in an area
Extinction – a natural process
Mass Extinction – several extinctions happening at the same time
The loss of the worlds biodiversity is a concern because:
Humans depend on other organisms for food and oxygen

35. The Environment and Society
Chapter 1, Section 2

36. The Tragedy of the Commons
Garrett Hardin – 1968
Describes conflicts associated with sharing resources
Commons are patches of grassland
If everyone lets too many sheep on the grasslands, they will destroy the environment
If people divide the commons and maintain the sheep population, the environment will survive
We need to do the same with our environment

37. The Law of Supply and Demand
The law of supply and demand describes:
Reduced demand resulting from lack of available resources

38. Market Equilibrium
Market Equilibrium - Listing both the merits and expenses involved in implementing a particular environmental solution

39. Economics and the Environment
Supply and Demand – the greater the demand for a limited supply of something, the more that thing is worth
Cost and Benefits – This balances the cost of the action against the benefits one expects from it (is an environmental action worth it?)
Risk Assessment – A tool that helps us create cost-effective ways to protect our health and the environment

40. Developed and Developing Countries
Developed Countries – characterized by high personal wealth, and high levels of consumption
Typically have a larger ecological footprint
Developing Countries – characterized by high population growth rate, extreme poverty

41. Population and Consumption
Local Population Pressures
Consumption Trends
Ecological Footprints

42. Local Population Pressures
Often, populations increase in developing nations
It increases faster than resources can be provided
Of the 4.5 billion people in developing countries, fewer than half have access to enough food, safe drinking water, and proper sanitation

43. Consumption Trends
Population control, pollution depletion, and resource abundance has improved in the wealthier part of the world
This is only done by hogging the resources from developing countries that need them as well

44. Ecological Footprint
An ecological footprint shows the productive area of Earth needed to support one person in a particular country

45. Environmental Science in Context
Environmental problems are large
Simple answers are rare

46. Critical thinking and the Environment
Environmental Information is often construed by political pull or for sales
How to approach it:
1. Be prepared to listen to many viewpoints
Understand their reasoning before reacting to their ideas
If you want your opinion to be heard, you must also be willing to listen to others
2. Investigate the source of any information you encounter

47. A Sustainable World
The key goal of environmental science is to achieve sustainability
Sustainability – the condition in which human needs are met in such a way that a human population can survive indefinitely
This goal requires everyone’s participation
The 21st Century is a critical time in finding sustainability
What will you do to make a change?