Environmental Science Ch' 1: Environmental Science: A Global Perspective

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Environmental Science Ch. 1Environmental
Science A Global Perspective
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Ch. 1-1 Understanding Our Environment

• Key Terms
• Biosphere
• Developed Countries
• Developing Countries
• Environment
• Environmental Science
• Natural Resource
• Nonrenewable Resource
• Renewable Resource

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California Content Standards for Science
Addressed

• Life Science
• 6. Stability in an ecosystem is a balance
  between competing effects. As a basis for
  understanding this concept
• (b) Students know how to analyze changes in an
  ecosystem resulting from changes in climate,
  human activity, introduction of nonnative
  species, or changes in population size.

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Why Do I Need To Know This?

• Because we are all part of an ecosystem and
  humans are having a profound effect on the
  worlds ecosystems.
• Because in your lifetime you will make thousands
  of decisions that will affect our environment and
  ecosystem.
• Because if you do not make good choices about the
  environment and our ecosystem, it will cost us
  billions or trillions of dollars.

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Key Sections Ch. 1-1

• Understanding Our Environment
• Solving Environmental Problems
• What Are Our Main Environmental Problems?
• Resource Depletion
• Pollution
• Extinction
• A Global Perspective
• Developed and Developing Countries
• Population and Consumption
• A Sustainable World

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Understanding Our Environment

• Environmental Science is a new field that tries
  to solve problems that affect how and where we
  live.
• The environment refers to all the things that
  surround us, including those things that are
  natural and those that are produced by humans.

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Solving Environmental Problems

• About 40 years ago, most people did not think
  much about the environment.
• However, since then, most people agree that
  humans have altered the planet so much that we
  are hurting our way of life.
• While environmental problems may seem large,
  expensive or time consuming, we still have time
  to solve many of our problems.

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What Are Our Main Environmental Problems?

• While there are many environmental problems, most
  of them fall into 3 main categories. They are
• Resource Depletion
• Pollution
• Extinction

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Resource Depletion

• A natural resource is anything that living things
  use.
• Resources can either be renewable or
  nonrenewable.
• Renewable resources are replaced by nature in a
  relatively short period of time.
• Examples include wood, freshwater, flowers, soil.
• Nonrenewable resources are not replaced by nature
  in a fast manner
• Examples include oil, coal, gold.
• Presently, humans are using almost all resources
  faster than they can be replacedeven if they are
  renewable!

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Pollution

• Pollution is the introduction of something
  harmful or unwanted into an ecosystem
• Pollution can wipeout entire ecosystems and can
  harm human health.
• Even if the pollution is emitted in areas where
  most humans do not go, it can still harm humans
  because we eat plants and animals that are often
  affected by pollution.

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Extinction

• Every year, thousands of species are going
  extinct.
• Although extinction does happen naturally,
  scientists estimate that extinction is happening
  about 1000 times faster than normal.
• Most species are becoming extinct because the
  areas in which they live are being destroyed.

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A Global Perspective

• Because the entire Earth is connected, what
  happens in one part of the planet affects all
  other parts of the planet.
• All life on Earth resides in the biosphere, which
  is covers about 8 km above the ground and 8 km
  below the ground.
• Consequently, most environmental problems are
  global problems.
• And, most solutions to environmental problems
  require global cooperation.

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The Biosphere
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Developed and Developing Countries

• Developed countries are those countries where the
  people have high incomes and high standards of
  living.
• Examples include the United States, England,
  Sweden and Canada.
• Developing countries are those countries where
  the people have low incomes and low standards of
  living.
• Examples include China, Ethiopia, Romania and
  Mexico.

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Population and Consumption

• The population crisis results from the fact that
  the human population is growing in many regions
  faster than the region can support.
• The population crisis is most severe in
  developing countries, which is why many
  developing countries often have major famines.
• This leads to the consumption crisis which is
  that humans are consuming resources faster than
  they can be replaced by nature.
• The consumption crisis is the worst in the
  developed countries because they are consuming
  far more resources than the larger populations in
  the developing countries.

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A Sustainable World

• The goal of environmental science is to create a
  sustainable world.
• A sustainable world is one in which we can
  continue to live indefinitely with a high
  standard of living and health.
• If we start now, we can achieve a sustainable
  world without sacrificing too much and before
  environmental problems become too massive to
  control.

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Ch. 1-2 Using Science To Solve Environmental
Problems

• Key Terms
• Applied Science
• Ecology
• Experiment
• Hypothesis
• Pure Science

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California Content Standards for Science
Addressed

• Investigation and Experimentation
• (1) Scientific progress is made by asking
  meaningful questions and conducting careful
  investigations. As a basis for understanding this
  concept and addressing the content in the other
  four strands, students should develop their own
  questions and perform investigations. Students
  will
• (d) Formulate explanations by using logic and
  evidence. (f)Distinguish between hypothesis and
  theory as scientific terms.
• (g) Recognize the usefulness and limitations of
  models and theories as scientific representations
  of reality.
• (m) Investigate a science-based societal issue
  by researching the literature, analyzing data,
  and communicating the findings. Examples of
  issues include irradiation of food, cloning of
  animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer, choice
  of energy sources, and land and water use
  decisions in California.
• (n) Know that when an observation does not agree
  with an accepted scientific theory, the
  observation is sometimes mistaken or fraudulent
  (e.g., the Piltdown Man fossil or unidentified
  flying objects) and that the theory is sometimes
  wrong (e.g., the Ptolemaic model of the movement
  of the Sun, Moon, and planets).

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Why Do I Need To Know This?

• Because science is based on a certain method of
  determining theories.
• Because scientific theories apply to almost every
  aspect of your lifewhether it is from a
  medication prescribed to a doctor or how the
  battery in a gameboy works.
• Because the Scientific Method is an ideal way to
  approach any problem that you may encounter in
  your life..

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Key Sections Ch. 1-2

• Using Science to Solve Environmental Problems
• What Is Science?
• Hypothesizing and Predicting
• Experimenting
• Organizing and Interpreting Data
• Using Graphics and Sharing Information
• Communicating Results

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Using Science To Solve Environmental Problems

• Science can be divided into two types of fields
• Pure Science and
• Applied Science
• A pure science seeks to explain how the natural
  world works
• Physics, chemistry and biology are pure sciences.
• An applied science uses the information from pure
  sciences to solve modern problems.
• Environmental science is an applied science.

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What is Science?

• Science consists of 2 things
• All the information that scientists know and
• The Scientific Method which allows scientists to
  learn new things.

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Observing

• All science begins and rests upon observation.
• Therefore, science requires good, accurate and
  detailed observations.
• For information to be valuable, it needs to be
  recorded so that it can be shared with others.

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Hypothesizing and Predicting

• A hypothesis is a testable explanations for an
  observation.
• A hypothesis does not have to be right.
• Often, much can be learned by testing false
  hypothesis.
• The key is to formulate a hypothesis and test it.

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Experimenting

• In order to check a hypothesis, an experiment
  needs to be done.
• In an experiment, there are usual two groups
  which are identical in every way except one
• The group that receives the difference is called
  the Test Group.
• The group that does not receive the difference is
  the Control Group.

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Organizing and Interpreting Data

• Once the experiment is done, scientists need to
  organize and assemble all the facts that they
  gathered.
• Often scientists use math to determine whether
  their observations are important and to explain
  relationships in their observations.

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Using Graphics and Sharing Information

• Scientific data and information is often best
  shown in charts and graphs.
• Charts and graphs can show different
  relationships between things that may not be seen
  using other methods.

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Communicating Results

• The last step in conducting scientific
  experiments is to communicate the results to
  others.
• This is very important as it allows other
  scientists to check to see if the information is
  accurate and to use that information for other
  purposes.
• The best science comes from scientists who write
  and publish their findings in journals that and
  papers that are reviewed by other scientists and
  open for everyone to see.

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Ch. 1-3 Making Environmental Decisions

• Key Terms
• None.

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California Content Standards for Science
Addressed

• Investigation and Experimentation
• (1) Scientific progress is made by asking
  meaningful questions and conducting careful
  investigations. As a basis for understanding this
  concept and addressing the content in the other
  four strands, students should develop their own
  questions and perform investigations. Students
  will
• (d) Formulate explanations by using logic and
  evidence. (f)Distinguish between hypothesis and
  theory as scientific terms.
• (g) Recognize the usefulness and limitations of
  models and theories as scientific representations
  of reality.
• (m) Investigate a science-based societal issue
  by researching the literature, analyzing data,
  and communicating the findings. Examples of
  issues include irradiation of food, cloning of
  animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer, choice
  of energy sources, and land and water use
  decisions in California.
• (n) Know that when an observation does not agree
  with an accepted scientific theory, the
  observation is sometimes mistaken or fraudulent
  (e.g., the Piltdown Man fossil or unidentified
  flying objects) and that the theory is sometimes
  wrong (e.g., the Ptolemaic model of the movement
  of the Sun, Moon, and planets).

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Why Do I Need To Know This?

• Because you will have to make many environmental
  decisions in your life, ranging from easy ones
  (such as recycling) to difficult ones (such as
  supporting government bonds to protect wetlands).
• Because you can use this decision-making model in
  any aspect of your life.

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Key Sections Ch. 1-3

• Making Environmental Decisions
• An Environmental Decision-Making Model
• A Hypothetical Situation
• How To Use the Decision Making Model
• Gather Information
• Consider Values
• Explore Consequences
• Make A Decision

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Making Environmental Decisions

• Making good environmental decisions requires
  balancing many needs and answering many
  questions.
• These include
• How much will it cost?
• Who or what will benefit?
• Is it possible to do that?
• What alternatives are there?

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An Environmental Decision-Making Model

• There are 4 steps to the Environmental
  Decision-Making Model.
• They are
• Gather Information
• Consider Values
• Explore Consequences
• Make a Decision

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A Hypothetical Situation

• The environmental decision-making model can apply
  to real situations or hypothetical situations.

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How To Use The Decision-Making Model

• You can use the decision-making model for any
  situation that you encounter.
• The key is to follow it in order.
• The more information that you gather AND the more
  consequences that you consider, the better your
  decision will be.
• As with anything in life, not making a decision
  is a decision in and of itself.