Environmental Science

• Sustainability


  The capacity of the earth's natural systems and human cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt to changing environmental conditions into the very long-term future
• Environment


  Everything around us, including living and non-living things that interact in a complex web of relationships that connect us to one another and to the world we live in
• Humans are utterly dependent on the earth for clean air and water, food, shelter, energy, fertile soil, and all other components of the planet's life-support system
• Environmental Science


  An interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment, integrating information and ideas from natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities
• Environmental Science


  • To learn how life on the earth has survived and thrived
  • To understand how we interact with the environment
  • To find ways to deal with environmental problems and live more sustainably
• Organization of Life


  • Atom
  • Molecule
  • Organelles
  • Cell
  • Tissue
  • Organ
  • Organ system
  • Organism
  • Population
  • Community
  • Ecosystem
  • Biosphere
• Ecology


  The biological science that studies how living things interact with one another and with their environment
• Ecosystem


  A set of organisms within a defined area of land or volume of water that interact with one another and with their environment of nonliving matter and energy
• Environmentalism


  A social movement dedicated to trying to sustain the earth's life-support systems for all forms of life
• Sustainability


  Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs, the capacity of earth's natural systems and human cultural systems to survive
• 3 Scientific Principles of Sustainability

  • Dependence on solar energy
  • Biodiversity
  • Chemical cycling
• Natural Capital


  The natural resources and ecosystem services that keep species alive and support human economies
• Natural Resources


  Materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to humans (inexhaustible, renewable)
• Ecosystem Services


  Processes provided by healthy ecosystems that support life and human economies at no monetary cost to us (e.g. air and water purification, renewal of topsoil, nutrient cycling, pollination, pest control)
• Natural Capital Formula


  Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Ecosystem Services
• Components of Sustainability


  • Natural capital is supported by energy from the sun
  • Recognize that many human activities can degrade natural capital by using normally renewable resources
  • Environmental scientists search for scientific solutions to problems
• Social Science Principles of Sustainability

  • Full-cost pricing (from economics)
  • Win-win solution (from political science)
  • A responsibility to future generations (from ethics)
• Resource


  Anything that we can obtain from the environment to meet our needs and wants
• Classification of Resources


  • Inexhaustible (e.g. solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy)
  • Renewable (e.g. trees, topsoil, fresh water)
  • Nonrenewable (e.g. fossil fuels, iron, copper)
• Sustainable Yield


  Using a renewable resource indefinitely without reducing its available supply at the highest rate
• Ecological Footprint


  The amount of land and water needed to supply a population or an area with renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use
• Per Capita Ecological Footprint

  The average ecological footprint of a given country or area
• Causes of Environmental Problems

  • Population growth
  • Unsustainable resource use
  • Poverty
  • Excluding environmental cost from market prices
  • Increasing isolation from nature
• Environmental Worldview


  Your set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be
• 3 Major Categories of Environmental Worldviews

  • Human-centered environmental (Planetary management worldview, Stewardship Worldview)
  • Life-centered environmental worldview
  • Earth-centered environmental worldview
• Environmental Degradation


  A process of living unsustainably by wasting, depleting, and degrading the earth's natural capital
• Science


  Systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world
• Scientific Method


  • Used in science
• Reliable science


  • Data
  • Hypotheses
  • Models
  • Theories
  • Laws
• Unreliable science


  Without having undergone the rigors of peer review, or that have been discarded as a result of peer review or additional research
• Tentative science


  Preliminary scientific results that have not been widely tested and accepted by peer review or tested and reproduced by other scientists
• Limitations of Science


  • Cannot prove or disprove anything because of the uncertainty in science measurements
  • Scientists are human and thus are not totally free of bias about their own results and hypotheses
  • Many systems in the natural world involve a huge number of variables with complex interactions, making it too difficult, costly, and time consuming to test one variable at a time in controlled experiments
  • Involves the use of statistical tools
• Matter


  Anything that has mass and takes up space
• Physical states of Matter

  • Solid
  • Liquid
  • Gas
• Chemical forms of Matter

  • Elements
  • Compounds - combination of two or different elements held together in fixed portions
• Atomic Theory


  The idea that all elements are made up of atoms and is the most widely accepted scientific theory in chemistry
• Subatomic particles


  • Protons
  • Neutrons
  • Electrons
• Atomic Number


  The number of protons in the nucleus of its atom
• Atomic Mass


  The total number of neutrons and protons in its nucleus
• Isotopes


  The forms of an element having the same atomic number but different mass numbers