Welcome to Environmental Geography!

GEOG 101 (Section 02) – Day 1

(Photo by P. Regoniel in Picable).

Nanaimo is hosting a ZeroWaste conference, Oct. 2-4See http://www.zerowastecanada.ca/zero-waste-canada-conference-zwia14

Getting Oriented My name is Don Alexander. I’ve been involved with

environmental issues for about thirty years, both academically and as an activist. My main areas of focus have been solid and nuclear waste, protection of major green features in and around metropolitan areas, environmental philosophies and approaches, and sustainable cities. I’ve been teaching this course at VIU for the last ten years.

My office is across the street at Building 359, Room 215. My local is 2261, and my office hours are 3:00 to 4:00 on Wednesdays or by appointment. I am also available at the start and end of class. My phone is (250) 753-3245, ex. 2261.

The best way to reach me is by e-mail (don.alexander@viu.ca). Course info will be on my web site at http://web.viu.ca/alexander2.

Getting Oriented The textbook for this course is available in the

bookstore. There may be used copies of the previous edition at the bookstore or at the student union store, but I prefer if you have the current edition. It’s Environment: The Science Behind the Stories (2nd Canadian edition) by Withgott, Brennan, and Murck (Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2013) [see www.pearsoned.ca/highered/ myenvironmentplace/index.html for student support materials]. It's a good book, with lots of illustrations, case studies, and Canadian examples. Please note that we will be skipping Chapters 4 & 5 and probably 18 and 19.

There are also e-copies available (see the bookstore for the price). The Bookstore also maintains a website where you can compare the prices for textbooks, including theirs (see www.viubookstore.ca/buy_text.asp).

COURSE CONTENTS AND EXPECTATIONS So we can start to get to know one another, I would

like for five volunteers to say three things about themselves, two of which are true and one a lie, and we’ll guess which is the lie. I’ll do the same as well.

I’m interested to know what you think this course is about? Talk to your immediate neighbour about this.

Also: what do you think are fair expectations that a teacher should have of his or her students? One example that a colleague of mine enforces rigorously is not have cell phones go off during class. If they do, that person has to bring Timbits for the whole class!

What expectations do you have of me?

Course Focus This course is an introduction to the Earth’s

systems at a variety of scales from the ecosystem to the biosphere, and will examine the ecological impact of the human population and its land use and water-related activities.

Topics include population, agriculture, biodiversity, forestry, ocean and freshwater systems, climate change and air pollution, energy, resource consumption and waste, environmental ethics/ policy, and sustainable land use practices. Successful examples of social change towards a more sustainable society will also be highlighted.

Getting Oriented The course will be a mix of lectures, discussion,

occasional guest speakers, videos, assignments, and possible in-class debates.

We will go over some of the course outline today. Phones and laptops are not to be abused. If you suffer from a disability of any kind, you need to

register with Disability Services (in Building 200) and let me know as soon as possible

Regarding extreme weather and campus closures, what’s on the VIU home page is the final authority, so use that as your guide.

Keep in mind the Writing Centre (4th floor Library) as a useful resource if your writing could use some work.

Course ObjectivesBy the end of the course, you will be able todescribe and analyze ecological systems at a variety of scales, how humans impact on them, and have knowledge of emerging concepts and practices for transforming the way we live and do business (as measured by the assignments, the alternative to the mid-term quiz, and the final exam); analyze the role played by economic, social, and political institutions in relation to the decline of natural systems (as measured by the final exam); describe and then assess the ecological and social impacts of specific products and activities (as measured by the life-cycle analysis); dissect, analyze and establish an independent viewpoint on environmental controversies (as measured by the media analysis and the final exam);

Course Objectives transform analysis of environmental concepts into

action (as measured by the environmental education or action project);

identify what is happening in different sectors, such as forestry and agriculture (as measured by the final exam);

identify how sustainable management concepts and strategies are being applied to address the pressing environmental issues of our age, and how you can play a crucial role in building a more sustainable world (as measured by the action project and final exam);

demonstrate an improvement in your research, writing, speaking, and analytical skills, as well as your ability to present material in a graphically appealing format (all assignments).

Getting Oriented In addition to the final exam and a mid-term assign-

ment, there will be two major assignments. For these, you will choose from the four following options (outlines due October 9th):

a life-cycle analysis of an everyday product, a media analysis of a controversial environmental issue, getting involved in and writing up your experiences in

an action project (or planning one), and the development of an environmental education unit to

present in a local elementary or secondary school. You may also be asked to answer questions about

videos shown, and to participate in a debate on a key environmental topic. [more instructions soon!]

Getting Oriented EVALUATION

1. Attendance and Participation in in-class work- 10% 2. Mid-term assignment- 15% 3. Life-cycle Analysis or Action Project- 25% (see outline

for proposal and final due dates) 4. Media analysis or Elementary/ High School

Educational Outreach Exercise (ditto)- 25% 6. Final Exam- 25% (TBA)________________________

100% [more on the assignments soon]

You can also boost your participation marks by bringing relevant resources to my and your classmates' attention.

Ground Rules No late assignments unless there is some health or family

emergency. No plagiarism – all assignments must be original. If you have

any questions about what that means, we can talk about it. CRITICAL THINKING IS ENCOURAGED! For referencing use the parenthetical forms of APA (the

Writing Centre has handouts or see the Library’s on-line resource: http://libguides.viu.ca/citing).

If at all possible, print double-sided or on scrap paper. If you're going to miss a class, please let me know. When you do miss, it's your responsibility to keep up with

the readings, and see what was covered in lecture by viewing the lecture notes on my web site: http://web.viu.ca/alexander2 under “Courses.”

Introduction to 101 “Scientists alarmed by rapidly shrinking Arctic ice cap”

by David Kramer, Physics Today (2013). The focus of the course is the global ecological crisis [see

http://energyskeptic.com/2011/9-planetery-boundaries/] and what we can do to address it, including what is already being done in a number of sectors. If you have specific interests, let me know and I will try to accommodate them, if possible.

What are some key environmental issues facing our planet? What is causing them and how are they impacting on people and other species?

I would also like to take advantage of whatever knowledge or previous life experience you have that is relevant. What can you offer?

Chapter 1 focuses on: The meaning of the term

‘environment’ The importance of natural

resources and ecosystems That environmental science

and environmental geography are interdisciplinary

The scientific method and how science operates

Pressures facing the global environment

Sustainability and sustainable development

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Our Island, Earth – OverviewEnvironment: All the things around us with which we interact

Biotic (living things) • Animals, plants, forests, soils, etc.

Abiotic (nonliving things)• Continents, oceans, clouds, icecaps, freshwater,

rocks, nutrients Our built environment

• Structures, human-created living centres Social relationships and institutions, including

economics and politics1-14

Humans…• are altering the natural systems we need for

- resources, profits, health, life-span, wealth, mobility, & leisure

• Impacts:- natural systems have been degraded - this poses a long-term threat to health and survival of

ourselves, other species and ecosystems

• Environmental science and environmental geography study:- how the natural world works- how the environment affects humans and vice versa

• Environmental geography gives special emphasis to how things interrelate in space – for instance, the relationship between pollution, climate change, physical change, and agriculture in different parts of the world. Or how the spread of exotic species or diseases impact on indigenous ones.

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Natural resources: vital to human survival

• Renewable resources:- Perpetually available: sunlight, wind, wave energy- Those that renew themselves over longer periods: timber, water, soil

- can be overharvested• Nonrenewable resources: finite supply; can be depleted

- Oil, coal, minerals

FIGURE 1.1

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Global human population growth

• More than 7 billion humans (in 1800, only 1 billion, only 3% of whom lived in cities; today that number is over 50%)

• Why so many humans?- Agricultural revolution

- Stable food supplies- Industrial revolution

- Urbanized society powered by fossil fuels

- Sanitation and medicines (decline in death rate)

FIGURE 1.2 1-18

The “Tragedy of the Commons”

• With so many people and so many corporations, we run into what some people call the ‘tragedy of the commons.’•Unregulated exploitation of open access resources leads to resource depletion — some examples?• Resource users are tempted to increase use until the resource is gone; why is this?• Solution?

• Private ownership of all resources?• Voluntary organization to enforce responsible use?• Governmental regulations?

weighing

the issues by Garrett Hardin

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The “ecological footprint” concept

The environmental impact of an individual or population

Amount of biologically productive land + water required to provide raw materials a population consumes and absorb the wastes produced

Overshoot: humans have surpassed the Earth’s carrying capacity (the date when humans are said to have overshot the Earth's carrying capacity is said to fall earlier and earlier each year and this year it occurred on August 17th).

We are using more than 40% more of the planet’s resources than are available on a sustainable basis from all the land and water!

developed by Mathis Wackernagel& William Rees

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Environmental science

… can help us avoid mistakes made in the past.

The lesson of Easter Island: people’s culture collapsed because they destroyed their environment. Can we act more wisely to conserve our planet, or will we drive a bitumen-filled SUV straight into a cement wall? (see other examples in “Collapse”)

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Good planets are hard to find!

Housekeeping Items (Day 2) I will continue with the slides from Chapter 1

(which are up on the web site), and but first we will have a guest speaker who will talk about options for life cycle analyses where the information will actually be used. This Celia White, who is involved in the Campus Food Movement (CFM), and she’ll tell you a little bit about what she does and what the Campus Food Movement is. Incidentally, getting involved with the CFM is one option for the action project.

Does anyone need a course outline? I will pass around some items of possible interest.

What is an “environmental problem”?

The perception of what constitutes a problem varies between individuals and societies

e.g. DDT, a pesticide In developing countries: to

some degree welcome because it kills malaria-carrying mosquitoes

In developed countries: not welcome, due to health risks

FIGURE 1.4

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Environmental science/ geography are interdisciplinary

• What experts would you need for: The construction of a new

hydroelectric dam Environmental review for the

Northern Gateway pipeline The proposed draining of a

wetland to build a new subdivision

A proposal to permit bear hunting in a national park

The management of a large oil spill offshore from a coastal ecosystem

FIGURE 1.3

weighing

the issues

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Environmental science is not environmentalism

Environmental science The pursuit of knowledge about the natural world Scientists try to remain objective (though sources of

funding can and do influence questions studied and conclusions arrived at, or whether they’re even able to talk about them)

Environmentalism A social movement dedicated to protecting the natural

world, though some environmental scientists (e.g. David Suzuki, Andrew Weaver, James Hansen of NASA) become environmentalists because they feel the 'facts' about the environment demand that we take action as a society and as a species.

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The nature of science

Science: A systematic process for learning about the world and testing

our understanding of it A dynamic process of observation, testing, and discovery The accumulated body of knowledge that results from this

process Science is essential for

Sorting out fact from fiction Developing solutions to the problems we face

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Current controversy over federal government cancelling evidence-based science projects/ centres and muzzling scientists. This has led to recent protests (“Death of Evidence” in Ottawa) and to editorials in the prestigious science journal, Nature [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7407/full/487271b.html]

Science: Critically examining evidence

Scientists design tests: are ideas supported by evidence?

Explanations must: Be testable Resist repeated attempts to disprove them Eventually ‘consensus’ results, as with the notion of

human-induced climate change.

Accepted ideas can be applied in policy and management decisions (e.g. prescribed burning in the case of forestry)

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The scientific method

A technique for testing ideas with observations

Assumptions:• The universe works

according to unchanging natural laws

• Events arise from causes and cause other events

• We use our senses and reason to understand nature’s laws

FIGURE 1.7

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The scientific method A scientist makes an observation and asks questions of some phenomenono The scientist formulates a hypothesis, a statement that attempts to explain the scientific question.o The hypothesis is used to generate predictions, which are specific statements that can be directly and unequivocally tested.o The test results either support or reject the hypothesis

FIGURE 1.7

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There are different ways to test hypotheses

Manipulative experiments yield the strongest evidence • Can show causation• Not always possible to use

Natural or correlational tests show real-world complexity• Cannot show causation

FIGURE 1.8

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The scientific process is part of a larger process

The scientific process includes peer review, publication, and debate A consistently supported hypothesis becomes a theory, a well-tested and widely accepted explanation With enough data, a paradigm shift – a change in the dominant view – can occur (any examples?)

FIGURE 1.9

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Sustainability and the future of our world

Human population growth exacerbates all environmental problems (when I was born, the population was just 2.7 billion)o The growth rate has slowed, but we still

add more than 200,000 people to the planet each day

Our consumption of resources has risen even faster than our population growth. o Life has become more pleasant for us (for

some of us much more than others) so far

o However, rising consumption amplifies the demands we make on our environment.

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Ecological footprints are not all equal

The ecological footprints of countries vary greatly

Canada uses far more than its equal share of the world’s resources

Developing countries have much smaller footprints than developed countries

FIGURE 1.10

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We face challenges in agriculture

Expanded food production led to increased population and consumption

It’s one of humanity’s greatest achievements, but at an enormous environmental cost

• Nearly half of the planet’s land surface is used for agriculture that depends heavily on• chemical fertilizers • pesticides, and produces• erosion, water degradation, and• decreased biodiversity

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We also face challenges in pollution

• Waste products and artificial chemicals used in farms, industries, and households

Each year, millions of people die from air and water pollution…

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We face challenges in climate

Scientists have firmly concluded that humans are changing the composition of the atmosphere The Earth’s surface is warming and we are seeing a

o catastrophic decline in Arctic sea iceo melting glacierso rising sea levelso impacted wildlife and cropso increasingly destructive weather

Since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have risen by 38%, to the highest level in 650,000 years – 400 parts per million.

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“UN climate report offers a strong warning…” – Nanaimo Daily News, August 30th, 2014

Headlines of Mayhem –Becoming More and More Frequent

We face challenges in biodiversity• Human actions have driven many species extinct, and biodiversity

is declining dramatically

• We are on the verge of a mass extinction event

Biodiversity loss may be our biggest environmental problem; once a species is extinct, it is gone forever

FIGURE 1.12

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The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)

The most comprehensive scientific assessment of the condition of the world’s ecological systems, carried out by the UN

Major findings:o humans have drastically altered ecosystems

o these changes have contributed to human well-being and economic development, but at a cost

o environmental degradation could get much worse

o degradation can be reversed, but it requires a lot of work (and leadership, which is in short supply)

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Our energy choices will affect our future The lives we live today are due to fossil fuels

o machines o chemicals o transportation o products (e.g. plastics)

Fossil fuels are a one-time bonanza; supplies will certainly decline. The party will then be over.

We have used up ½ of the world’s oil supplies; how will we handle the imminent shortage of fossil fuels?

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Sustainable solutions exist

We must develop solutions that protect both our quality of life and the environment. Components include:

organic agriculture new technology pollution reduction conservation of

resources and species recycling renewable energy

sourcesFIGURE 1.13

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Are things getting better or worse? Many people think environmental conditions are better

o Cornucopians: Human ingenuity will solve any problem

Some think things are much worse in the worldo Cassandras: they predict doom and disaster

How can you decide who is correct?o Are the impacts limited to humans, or are other

organisms or systems involved, and with what impact on us?

o Are the proponents thinking in the long or short term?o Are they considering all costs and benefits?o Are they thinking in terms of a ‘triple bottom line’?

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Sustainability: a goal for the future

How can humans live within the planet’s means?o Humans cannot exist without functioning natural

systems, as was shown by Biosphere 2 Sustainability

o Leaves future generations with a rich and full Eartho Conserves the Earth’s natural resources [leaves

‘natural capital’ intact]o Maintains fully functioning ecological systems

Sustainable development: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”(ambivalent meaning??)

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Conclusion Environmental science helps us understand our

relationship with the environment and informs our attempts to solve and prevent problems.

Identifying a problem is the first step in solving it (e.g. scientific understanding of climate change)

Solving environmental problems can move us towards health, longevity, peace and prosperity

Environmental science and geography can help us find balanced solutions to environmental problems.

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Question for Small Groups

What do you think the most important global environmental problems are and how did they get that way?

QUESTION: Review

The term “environment” includes

a) Animals and plantsb) Oceans and riversc) Soil and atmosphered) All of the above are included in this term

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Will we develop in a sustainable way?

The triple bottom line: sustainable solutions that meeto environmental goalso economic goalso social goals

Requires that humans apply knowledge from the sciences too limit environmental impacts o maintain functioning ecological systems

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QUESTION: Review

Which of the following is correct about the term “environmentalism”?

a) It is very science-orientedb) It is a social movement to protect the environmentc) It usually does not include advocacy for the

environmentd) It involves scientists trying to solve environmental

problems

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QUESTION: Review

Adding various amounts of fertilizer to plants in a laboratory is a _____ type of experiment

a) Correlativeb) Naturalc) Manipulatived) Rare

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QUESTION: ReviewWhat is the definition of “sustainable development”?

a) Using resources to benefit future generations, even if it means lower availability now

b) Letting future generations figure out their own problems

c) Using resources to satisfy current needs without compromising future availability

d) Letting each country decide what is its best interest

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QUESTION: Weighing the Issues

Which do you think is the best way to protect commonly owned resources (i.e., air, water, fisheries)?

a) Sell the resource to a private entityb) Voluntary organizations to enforce responsible

usec) Governmental regulationsd) Do nothing and see what happens

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QUESTION: Weighing the Issues

Do you think the rest of the world can have an ecological footprint as large as the footprint of the Canada?

a) Yes, because we will find new technologies and resources

b) Yes, because the footprint of Canada is not really that large

c) Definitely not; the world does not have that many resources

d) It does not matter; it’s not that important

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QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and Data

According to this graph, what has happened to the population over the last 500 years?

a) It has grown exponentially

b) It has grown linearly

c) It has decreased

d) It has slowed down recently

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QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and Data

What happens if test results reject a hypothesis?

a) a) The scientist formulates a new hypothesis

b) b) It shows the test failedc) c) The hypothesis was

supportedd) d) The predictions may not

have been correct

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