1. Sponge What is environmental science?
How has man influenced the environment through the ages?

2. Environmental Science Chapter 1 Notes

3. Section 1: Science and the Environment

4. Environmental Science:
Is a interdisciplinary field of science that draws from many sciences (as well as other fields)
Ex. Biology, chemistry, ecology,
geology, earth science, geography
Is considered an applied science.
Focuses on three main areas:
conservation and protection of natural resources
environmental education and communication
environmental research
Fields: ecology , biology , chemistry , geology , geography

5. Biodiversity: Renewable Resource:
The number and variety of species that live in the area.
Earth has been home to millions of species. Yet only a fraction of those species are alive today.
Biodegradable:
Are pollutants that can be broken down by natural processes. Ex: food waste
Non-degradable: pollutants that cannot be broken down by natural processes. Ex: plastics, lead, mercury
Mass Extinction:
Large scale extinction (some natural and some man made)
A resource that can be replaced relatively quickly by natural processes.
ex. Fresh water, air soil, trees, crops
Nonrenewable Resource:
A resource that forms at a much slower rate than it is consumed

6. Agriculture: Agriculture Revolution:
The practice of growing, breeding, and caring for plants and animals that are used for food, clothing, housing, transportation, etc.
Dramatic changes that impacted human societies and their environment when man began practicing agriculture more than 10, 000 years ago.
Closed System:
Earth has been compared to a “spaceship” traveling through space, unable to dispose of waste or take on new supplies as it travels.
The only thing that enters Earth’s atmosphere in large amounts is energy from the sun.
The only thing that leaves is heat.

7. Species Extinction
Three popular theories as to how and why the megafauna (extremely large animals) ceased to exist in North America:
The blitzkreig (overkill) : they were over hunted
Rapid climate shifts associated with the last ice age
Disease (similar to influenza or rabies) was
introduced with the arrival of humans
Megafauna in North America: mammoths, camels, giant ground sloths, beavers as large as bears, saber-toothed cats, maned lions, giant short-faced bears, dire wolves 7

8. Hunter-Gathers
People who obtain food by collecting plants and by hunting wild animals / scavenging their remains
Usually migrated from place to place
Still some remain in Amazon rain forest
Cleared grassland by setting fires

9. Which of the following was not caused by Hunter-Gatherers?
Clearing of land
Introduction of non-native species
Smog and industrial waste
Extinction of plants and animals

10. Impacts made by the hunter-gatherers
Changed the landscape by moving plants.
Skeletal remains of hunter-gatherers from as many as 20, 000 years ago show signs that these humans were responsible for the pollutions of their environment and even suffered deformities as a result.

11. Agricultural Revolution
Caused human population growth, habitat loss, soil erosion, domestication of plants and animals
Changed the food we eat
Grasslands, forest, and wetlands were replaced with farmland (**habitats were destroyed)
Caused floods, water shortage, infertile soil

12. Industrial Revolution
Few restrictions were placed on air pollution during I.R. (burning of fossil fuels became extensive – leading to major pollution)
Humans and animals had powered tools for almost
10, 000 years (prior to I.R.) now machines do.
Greatly increased the efficiency of agriculture, industry, and transportation
Urban areas grew –people moved from farms

13. Main Environmental Issues
Resource depletion
Pollution
Loss of biodiversity

14. Sponge
What are renewable and nonrenewable resources and give an example of each?
How do we determine how resources are allocated?
What is the tragedy of the commons?

15. Exit Ticket
Discuss other roles in which Tragedy of the Commons occurs.

16. Sponge
Humans have influenced 83% of the Earth’s surface. Does this number seem like a lot or a little? Some areas are more vulnerable to human influenced than others- why might this be?

17. Exit Ticket
American make up 5% of the world’s population, own 30% of the world’s cars, and consume 25% of the world’s energy. By their first birthday, the average American will be responsible for more carbon dioxide emissions than a person in Tanzania generates in a lifetime.
Why do different cultures use and consume things at different rates? What do these numbers indicate about contemporary American culture?

18. Section 2: The Environment and Society

19. “The Tragedy of the Commons”
Written by Garrett Hardin (in 1968)
Influential essay
Described the relationship between the short-term interest of the individual and the long-term interest of society
Overall point is that someone or some group has to take responsibility for maintaining a resource
“If I don’t use this resource, someone else will.”

20. Earth’s Modern Commons are our “Natural Resources”
Anything within the “Biosphere”
World’s Oceans / Waterways ; Air ; Migrating Animals ;
Forest ; Fossil Fuels / Nuclear Materials

21. Economics and the Environment
Supply and Demand: the greater the demand for a limited supply of something, the more it’s worth.

22. Economics and the Environment Continued
Cost benefit analysis: balances the cost of the action against the benefits one expects from it.
The cost of environmental
regulations are often passed
on to the consumer.
“The cost to clean up after an oil
spill is added to the price of gas”
Risk Assessment: a tool to
help create cost-effective
ways to protect our health
and the environment.

23. Developed v’s Developing Countries
Developed Country: have higher average incomes, slower population growth, diverse industrial economies, stronger support systems.
Include US, Canada,
Japan, and the countries
of Western Europe
Developing Countries: lower
average incomes, simple and
agricultural-based economies,
and rapid population growth.
Ex: Ethiopia, China

24. Population and Consumption
Environmental problems in
developed countries tend
to be related to consumption.
The major environmental
problems in developing
countries are related to
population growth.

25. Ecological Footprint
Shows the productive area of Earth needed to support one person in a particular country.
It estimates the land used for crops, grazing, forest products, and housing.
It also estimates the ocean area used to harvest seafood and the forest are needed to absorb the air pollution.

26. A Sustainable World
Sustainability: the condition in which human needs are met in such a way that a human population can survive indefinitely.
Is a primary goal of environmentalist.