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Introduction: An Overview of Environmental Science 1516

  1. Science, Environmental Science, and Living Sustainably
  1. Science and Environmental Science
  1. Science—

b.

  1. Ecology--
  1. Environmental Science--
  1. The Scientific Method

1. Steps: Observation/Question



2. hypothesisvstheoryvs law

3. Controlled experiment

4. Results SHOULD be…and SHOULD NOT be…

  1. The “problem”(?) with environmentalists and environmental scientists
  1. What keeps us alive?
  2. all existence, lifestyles, economies, communities, etc inevitably depend on energy from:
  1. capital—to an economist, its wealth used to sustain wealth and make more wealth
  1. solar capital—energy from the sun
  1. natural capital/resources—anything obtained from the environment used to meet our needs and wants
  1. What is an environmentally sustainable society?

One that meets the resource needs of its people without depleting or degrading them, thus ensuring that future generations can do the same.

Perhaps the ultimate question of environmental science: Are we using our resources faster than we can replenish them?

  1. Major environmental problems and their causes
  1. Problems
  1. Underlying causes
  1. Population Growth and Economic Growth
  1. Linear vs exponential growth: The Two Babylonian Kings
  1. Linear growth—quantity increases by a fixed:

Ex: 2,3,4,5,65,10,15,20Graph:

  1. Exponential growth—quantity increases by a fixed:

Ex: 1,2,4,8,16,32Graph:

  1. Thomas Malthus

The human population grows ______, but food supply grows

______.This will lead to a consumption crises and population crash.

What made his prediction “wrong”? Will he eventually be proven “right”?

  1. Doubling Time
  1. The amount of time it takes a population growing exponentially to double in size…also can be used to figure DEPLETION time for a resource being used exponentially
  1. Rule of 70….D.T.= 70/rate of growth

The world population is currently growing at 1.1% per year. What is the doubling time?Reminder: show all work on all problems!!!!

The population of Nigeria is expected to double in 25 years. What is their rate of growth?

The Population in Hunkydoria is 1 million and is growing at a rate of 2% per year. Assuming no change in growth patterns, in what year will its population reach 8 million?

  1. Economic growth and development
  1. An increase in the capacity of a country to provide people with goods and services (growth), thereby improving the living standards (development).
  1. Gross National Product (GNP)—total market value of all g&s produced by a country in a year
  1. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—total market value of a g&s produced within a country in a year
  1. Per Capita GDP—the best indicator of quality of life, wealth, status, living standards, etc—GDP/ population
  1. Developed Countriesvs Developing countries

20% of pop80% of pop

Use 88% of resourcesuse 12% of resources

Industrializedagricultural

Make 75% of wastemake 25% of waste

Richpoor

Educatedilliterate

Slower pop growthrapid pop growth

U.S., Can, Jap, Aust, NZ, Europe

  1. Resources
  1. Classification
  1. ______-- inexhaustible on a human time scale

Ex:

  1. ______--can be replaced if not used too fast

Ex:

  1. ______--exist in fixed amounts; will run out

Ex:

  1. Sustainable yield
  1. economic depletion—costs of obtaining a resource>economic value
  1. options to extend sustainable yield
  1. recycle--

Ex:

  1. reduce--

Ex:

  1. reuse—

Ex:

  1. substitute

Ex:

  1. “The little I use/pollute won’t matter”: The Tragedy of the Commons
  1. Pollution
  1. the presence of substances at high enough levels in air, water, soil, or food to threaten the health, survival, or activities of organisms
  1. Sources
  1. point source—
  1. nonpoint source—
  1. Classify these as point (P) or nonpoint (N) sources of pollution

_____ A ruptured sewer line_____ All boats on LakeNorman

_____ A coal fired power plant_____ Fertilizer runoff from corn fields in Wilkes county

  1. Dealing with pollution
  1. prevention (front of the pipe)/an ounce of prevention…
  1. cleanup (end of the pipe)
  1. Classify these as pollution prevention (P) or cleanup (C)

_____ Clean Air Act requiring installation of catalytic converters on cars, which removes sulfur dioxide from exhaust

_____ carpooling

_____ adopting a section of highway and picking up the trash along it every two weeks

_____placing a filter on a factory smokestack that removes pollutants as they move up the smokestack

_____ Treating water to remove industrial waste from drinking water

  1. Loss of Biodiversity
  1. Biodiversity--variety of different species, genetic variety within species, variety of ecosystems, and variety of functional ecology in a community
  1. Degrees of decline
  1. threatened—
  1. endangered—
  1. extinct –
  1. #1 reason for decline:
  1. Assessing environmental impact: I= P x A x T
  1. The ecological footprint
  1. The sickness we have?