botkin & keller environmental science 5e chapter 1 key themes in environmental sciences

Botkin & KellerEnvironmental Science 5e

Chapter 1

Key Themes in Environmental Sciences


Learning Objectives

• People and nature are intimately connected• Rapid human population growth is the

fundamental environmental issue• Human beings affect the environment of the

entire planet• Urban environments need attention• Solutions to environmental problems involve

making value judgments based on scientific knowledge.


Major Themes of Environmental Science

• Human population growth

• An urbanizing world

• Sustainability of our population and all of nature

• People and nature

• A global perspective

• Science and values


Human Population Growth

• The human population grew at a rate unprecedented in history in the twentieth century.

• Population growth is the underlying environmental problem.

• Famine is one of the things that happen when a human population exceeds its environmental resources. An example is African Famine.


Human Population Growth

• John Eli Miller Family (p.3-4)– 1 man (and wife presumably)– 7 children (5 survived)– 63 grandchildren (61 survived)– 341 great-grandchildren (338 survived)


© 2005 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Fig 1.3


An Urban World

• When the impact of technology is combined with the impact of population, the impact on the environment is multiplied.

• In an increasingly urban world, we must focus much of our attention on the environments of cities and on the effects of cities on the rest of the environment.


An Urban World

• Technology– How people modify the modern world to suit

their own purposes• Survival• Comfort• Advancement


Using Common Resources Activity


Sustainability and Carrying Capacity

• What is the maximum number of people the Earth can sustain?


Sustainability

• Sustainability– Management of natural resources and the

environment w/ goals of allowing harvest of resources to remain at or above some specified level, and the ecosystem to retain its functions and structure.


Carrying Capacity

• The maximum abundance of a population or species that can be maintained by a habitat or ecosystem without degrading the ability of that habitat or ecosystem to maintain that abundance in the future.

• Maximum # of individuals that can be SUSTAINED


Sustainability

• Sustainable resoruce harvest– An amount of a resource that can be

harvested at regular intervals indefinitely

• Sustainable ecosystem– An ecosystem that is subject to some human

use, but at a level that leads to no loss of species or of necessary ecosystem functions


Tragedy of the Commons

• Commons– Any resource used as if it belongs to all. A

resource used simply because people want or need it. Public.

• Tragedy of the Commons– Usually occurs when the use of a commons is

not regulated.


Tragedy of the Commons

• Aristotle (384BC-322BC)– “That which is common to the greatest

number, has the least care bestowed upon it”

• Garret Hardin’s Essay: Tragedy of the Commons (1968)– Public land use for grazing cattle– Every man for himself


People and Nature

• Ways of thinking– Humans are separate from nature

• Simply stop human actions that cause environmental problems

– Humans are inextricably tied to nature• Use science to analyze environmental problems

and come up with cooperative, long lasting solutions


A Global Perspective

• Local Problems are Global Problems– Ranking Environmental Challenges Activity


Science & Values

• Environmental Value:– Utilitarian– Ecological– Moral– Asthetic

• Recreational• Inspirational• Creative


Science & Values

• Environmental Science:– Provides knowledge and understanding of

environmental issues through scientific data– Cause and effect– Provides possible solutions– Values must be considered when

implementing solutions


Major Themes of Environmental Science

• Human population growth

• An urbanizing world

• Sustainability of our population and all of nature

• People and nature

• A global perspective

• Science and values

botkin & keller environmental science 5e chapter 1 key themes in environmental sciences

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