1An Introduction to Environmental ScienceU

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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.

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

• 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)

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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.

Distribution of Wealth

Three Main Categories of Environmental Problems

1. Resource Depletion

2. Pollution

3. Loss of Biodiversity

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.