Week 1 - 3

• Metalanguage


  A language used to describe another language
• Environment


  • A place where different things are such as wet or hot environment
  • It can be living (biotic) or non-living (abiotic) community
  • ESSENTIAL FORCES: Physical, Chemical and Natural
• Science


  • The systematized body of knowledge
  • It builds and organizes a lot of information in a different form of testable experiments and predictions about everything in the universe
• Environmental Science


  • Interdisciplinary academic field in science
  • Integrates all the physical, biological, and information to the study of environment, and the solution to environmental problems
• Ecology


  • It is a branch of biology
  • It concerning interactions of organisms and their biophysical environment both biotic and abiotic components
• Chemistry


  The study of matter, its properties, how and why substances combine or separate to form other elements, and how elements interact with energy
• Biodiversity


  • A group of different individual life that inhibit the plant Earth
  • That varies on their genetic component and adaptation to the environment
• Habitat


  • An environment is naturally occurring to a specific organism to survive
  • A species habitat is those places where the species can find food, shelter, protection, and mates for reproduction
• Sustainability


  Ability of a system to exist continually at a cost, in a universe that evolves in the state of entropy
• Ethics


  • A branch of philosophy
  • A systematized, defend, recommend, and identify what right and wrong behavior is
• Environmental Ethics


  • A discipline in philosophy
  • It studies or focus on the moral relationship among human beings to the value and moral status of the environment, which includes plants and animals
• Ecosystem


  • A community comprised of living organisms
  • Conjunction or in relationship with the nonliving components of their specific environment that interact with each other
• Photosynthesis


  • It is the process of all plants that transform into the release of energy ATP
  • During this process, the light energy of the sun is captured
  • There is a conversion of water, some mineral and carbon dioxide, and a certain amount of oxygen needed by animals to survive
• Species


  A basic unit of classifying and identifying the taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity
• Food Chain


  A linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms and ending at apex predator species, detritivores, or decomposer species

  
• Food Web


  • The natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community
  • ANOTHER NAME: consumer-resource system

  
• The word science is simply an anglicized version of the Latin "SCIENTIA" mean knowledge
• Environment


  • The circumstances surrounding an organism or group of organisms or the complex social or cultural conditions
  • It is given to be biotic or abiotic community
  • Human being inhabits the natural world
  • All the technological, social, and cultural world, all constitute essential parts of our environment
• Environmental Science


  • The systematic study of our environment and our proper place in it
  • A highly interdisciplinary, integrating natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities in a broad, holistic study of the world around us
  • The foundation is ecology and is more concerned on human impact on the environment
• Knowledge Contributed to the Solution in Environmental Science Goals

  • Clean Energy Future
  • Ecology
  • Chemistry
  • Urban Planning
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Engineering
  • Economics
• Environmentalism


  Encompasses environmental health and protection and depicted ideology, philosophy, and social movement
• History of Environmentalism


  1. Began after the Industrial Revolution when there was an increase of smoke pollution and chemical discharge which led to the formation of modern environmental laws

  2. 1863 - Britain's Alkali Acts passed to combat air pollution

  3. 1898 - Coal Smoke Abatement Society established in response to coal combustion leading to heavy smoke in industrial cities

  4. 1948 - International Union for Conservation of Nature created to protect and preserve nature in its original form

  5. 1956 - Clean Air Act formed following the London Smog Episode (1952) to limit air pollution by controlling the emission of air pollutants

  6. 1966 - Green Revolution in Agriculture initiated to understand the negative impacts of uncontrolled and unregulated use of pesticides and fertilizers on the environment, improving agriculture using environmental-friendly techniques

  7. 1969 - NEPA aimed to ensure environmental health negotiation policies and acts

  8. 1970 - US EPA to monitor human activities that are negatively impacting the environment

  9. 1971 - Greenpeace campaign of committed individuals who tried to stop the American Nuclear Weapon test

  10. 1980 - Environmental Justice Movement an international movement that aims to encourage social, economic, and environmental justice by identifying the connection between health and environmental issues began in response to the unjust treatment of low-income communities that were exposed to environmental pollution

  11. 1986 - Chernobyl Disaster a massive environmental issue

  12. 1987 - Brundtland Report brought more consciousness among people

  13. 1992 - Earth Summit the socio-economic development along with ways to solve problems concerning environmental protection

  14. 2000 - Millennium Development Goals based on eight goals to be achieved before 2015

  15. 2015 - Sustainable Development Goals set during the United Nation General Assembly to be achieved before 2030 that aims for the future through sustainable approaches

  16. 2001 - International environmental treaties key focus was solving problems of the growing population along with increasing demand for energy, water, and food resources

  17. 2002 - Second Earth Summit dubbed as the World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in 2002 to discuss and organize sustainable development approaches

  18. 2015 - Paris Agreement aimed to limit the global emission of greenhouse gases to reduce rising global temperature, mitigating and adapting to climate change
• Environmental Ethics


  • It studies the ethical basis environment or discussion of the ethical basis of environmental protection
  • Deals with the moral relationship of human beings to and the value and moral status of the environment and its nonhuman content
  • Moral views in society changes overtime
• Ethical Extensions


  • It strives for honesty in all scientific communications
  • It extended our sense of moral value to a broader circle
• Inherent Value


  • The view of having good virtue of their own or preference that people care
  • It has value in its own right, independent in of human uses
  • The possibility that nature has value even if does not directly or indirectly benefit humans
• Instrumental Value


  • The value of ecosystem as merely means to and end
  • It has value to satisfy the human ends, needs, interest, or preferences
• Environmental Ethics and Principle

  • Profound respect for nature
  • Maintain a harmonious relationship with other species
  • Take responsibility for the impact on nature
  • Local and indigenous environmental knowledge should be respected
  • Plan for long term
• Matter


  Anything that can occupy space and has a mass
• Phases of Matter


  • Solid
  • Liquid
  • Gas
  • Plasma
  • Bosh Einstein Condensate
• All life is made of matter
• Law of Conservation of Matter


  It cannot be destroyed nor created, recycled nor transformed
• Energy


  Provides the force to hold matter together, tear it apart, and move from one place to another
• Types of Energy


  • Kinetic Energy
  • Potential Energy
  • Chemical Energy
• Conservation of matter has a direct bearing on human relationship with the biosphere
• Thermodynamics


  • A study that deals with how energy is transferred in natural processes
  • It deals specifically with the relationship of heat, work, and energy
  • ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS: governed by physical laws, such as law of conservation of matter and the law of thermodynamics
• Basis of the Cycles of the Elements: Recycling of Matter


  • It occurs in the ecosystem such as solar energy enters the system and is converted to chemical energy through photosynthesis
  • Likewise, the chemical energy stored in the bonds that hold the food molecules together is available for the metabolism of organism
• Homeostasis


  • "To stand equality"
  • The dynamic balance in living an ecosystem
• Law of Thermodynamics


  • Atoms and molecules cycle endlessly through organisms and their environment, but energy flows in a one-way path
  • CONSTANT SUPPLY OF ENERGY: Nearly all of it from the sun – needed to keep biological processes running
  • Energy can be used repeatedly as it flows through the system, and it can be stored temporarily
• Thermodynamics


  • How energy is transferred to natural processes
  • It deals with flow rates and the transformation of energy from one form or quality to another
  • Complex, quantitative discipline regarding the relationship between heat, work, and energy
• Heat


  Transfer or flow of energy because of temperature difference