EnviSci1

• Environment (from the French environner: to encircle or surround)
• the circumstances or conditions that surround anorganism or a group of organisms.

  Environment
• the complex social or cultural conditions that affect an individual or a community.

  Environment
• is the systematic study of our environment andthe ways in which we both depend on it and influence it.

  Environmental science
• is interdisciplinary, integrating natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities in a broad, holistic study of the world around us.

  Environmental science
• Global human population, 2025

  8 billion
• Replacement fertility rate (children/woman)

  2.1
• CO2 per person in least developed countries

  0.3 tons
• In most developed countries

  11 tons
• Number of planet Earths to satisfy our global footprint

  1.7
• Major themes in environmental science

  sustainable development, climate change and climate action
• How do we foster healthy, rewarding livelihoods under conditions of population growth, shifting food systems, precarious water resources and water quality, air pollution, and growing demands for energy?

  sustainable development
• the single most urgent issue of our time. It willaffect human health, economies, poverty, and conflict, as well as dramatically changing environmental systems, including water resources, weather, food production, and biodiversity, on which we depend.

  climate change and climate action
• Major topics challenging in environmental science

  Population and resource consumption, Hunger, Biodiversity loss and conservation efforts, Energy, Pollution and environmental health, Water resources, Information and education
• The impacts of that many people on our natural resources and ecological systems is a serious concern.

  Population and resource consumption
• The UN estimates that 800 million people suffer from chronic hunger. Leading causes include: violent conflict, unequal access to resources, and increasingly, climate change, all of which displace people from farms and homes.

  Hunger
• Cause of eliminating species at a rapid rate:

  Habitat destruction, Overexploitation, Pollution, Introduction of exotic organisms
• Fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) presently provide around 80 % of the energy used in industrialized countries

  air and water pollution, mining damage, shipping accidents, political conflict
• are also nonrenewable resources, with finite supplies, at least on a human time scale.

  fossil fuels
• a “brown cloud” of air pollution (composed of acidic aerosols, dust,and photochemical smog from industry, vehicle exhaust, andagriculture)

  Pollution and environmental health
• Increasing access to education and information are transforming lives around the world. Rates of illiteracy are falling in many areas.

  Information and education