an introduction to 1 environmental...
Post on 04-Feb-2021
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1An Introduction to Environmental ScienceU
nit
1
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Brainstorm: Individually
• What is the environment?
• What are some of the most significant environmental problems in the world today?
• List some environmental problems in your area.
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What Is Environmental Science?
• Def: The study of how humans interact with environment
• Major goal is to understand and solve environmental issues, as everything is connected to everything else
• Two major areas of study:
• How we use natural resources
• How human’s alter the environment
Lesson 1.1 Our Island, Earth
National Marine Fisheries Service scientists
studying whether commercial boats are
harming endangered killer whales
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• Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary field
• Biology (ex. zoology, botany, microbiology, ecology)
• Earth Science (ex. geology, paleontology, climatology, hydrology)
• Physics (ex. engineering)
• Chemistry (ex. biochemistry and geochemistry)
• Social Sciences (ex. geography, economics, law, anthropology, and sociology)
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Environmental Science vs. Environmentalism
• Environmental Science:
Objective, unbiased pursuit
of knowledge about the
workings of the environment
and our interactions with it
• Environmentalism: Social
movement dedicated to
protecting the natural world
Environmentalists protesting the
use of nuclear power
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Our Environment Through Time
• Environmental change is not a new phenomenon
• Major periods that impacted the environment
1. Hunter-Gatherers
2. Agricultural Revolution
3. Industrial Revolution
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Hunter-Gatherers
• Collect plants and hunt/scavenge wild animals
• Small groups that migrated to find food
• Some still exist today (ex. in Amazon rainforest, in New Guinea)
• Affect their environment• Ex. Over hunting, burning of prairies, spread of non-native
species
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Agricultural Revolution
• Agriculture: Growing, breeding, and caring for plants and animals that humans use for various purposes (ex. food, clothing, housing, transportation, etc.)
• Started over 10,000 years ago
Pros
• Increased human population
• Created domesticated crops out of wild plants
Cons
• Habitats were destroyed to create farmland (ex. slash and burn)
• Soil became infertile due to over use
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The Industrial Revolution (1700s)
• Defintion: a shift from using energy sources, such as animal muscle and running water to using fossil fuels, such as coal and oil
Pros
• Less demand for land to farm
• Improved quality of life (ex. better nutrition, medical care, etc.)
Cons
• Increased urban areas and habitat loss
• Air pollution from fossil fuels
• Invention of non biodegradable materials (plastics)
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What are Our Main Environmental Problems?
Population?• Rev Thomas Malthus (1798) published An Essay on the
Principle of Population and stated that the "power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man".
Vs.
Rapid rise in consumption?• Other environmental thinkers, such as Jared Diamond,
George Monbiot and Fred Pearce disagree
• More than enough resources, but inequalities
• Ex. the average American has the same carbon footprint
as 250 Ethiopians
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World Population Landmarks
1805 – 1 billion people
1960 – 3 billion people
1999 – 6 billion people
2011 – 7 billion people
*The UN predicts that growth will plateau at nine billion around mid-century before beginning to fall
Did You Know? The human population
increases by about 200,000 people every day.
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Distribution of Wealth
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Three Main Categories of Environmental Problems
1. Resource Depletion
2. Pollution
3. Loss of Biodiversity
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Ecological Footprints
• Calculate the total amount of land and water required to:
• provide the raw materials an individual or population consumes
• dispose of or recycle the waste an individual or population consumes
Did You Know? By one calculation, the ecological footprint of the average American is 3.5 times the global average.
Ecological footprints include land and
water used to grow food at farms
hundreds or thousands of miles away.
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