Environmental Problems

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Environmental Problems
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Foundations of Science

• Natural Cause The universe behaves in a
  predictable way under rules that can be
  determined through observation and
  experimentation.
• Uniformity The rules are constant through
  space and time.

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Foundations of Science

• Parsimony All other things being equal, the
  simplest explanation is the best.
• Efficient Cause
• cause effect
• Objective

4
Scientific Method

• Observation
• Question
• Hypothesize
• Test Observe
• Publish
• Repeat (as necessary)

• Theorize
• Publish
• Repeat (as necessary)

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Environmental Science

• interdisciplinary
• a way of looking at things
• scientific ( objective)
• interconnected systems
• human impact vs naturally occurring
• attempt to assign responsibility

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What is the Environment?

• definitions
• circumstances or conditions that surround an
  organism or group of organisms
• the complex of social or cultural conditions that
  affect an individual or community
• for humans - our home - well suited to our
  existence
• natural world
• plants
• animals
• earth
• air
• water

• man-made
• sociological
• scientific
• technological

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Tragedy of the Commons

• common property
• usually owned by all (or the government)
• examples
• air
• water
• air waves
• public land
• commons are subject to poor use
• open, unregulated access
• benefits of use are focused
• costs are widely distributed

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Common Property

• must be carefully managed
• may privatize
• cost of use effects
• internalization of costs
• laws and taxes
• commons (difficult)
• sale of public land
• sale of right to use

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Global Climate Change

• Earths climate has been changing for over 4.5
  billion years
• wide scale of variability
• causes of variability
• Sun
• physical Earth
• life

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Research Priorities

• What is the scale of the current change?
• What are the causes of the current warming?
• What are the effects of human activity?

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Tools to Study Global Change

• geologic record
• historical record
• real time observation
• mathematical modeling

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Energy Balance

• almost all energy ultimately from sun
• earths energy cycle
• incoming energy
• reflected 30
• absorbed 70 (visible IR)
• outgoing energy emitted as IR
• (as much energy as received)
• Earth warmed by energy between absorption and
  emission
• energy circulated by air and water movement

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Earths Temperature

• atmospheric retention of heat
• greenhouse effect
• H2O vapor, CO2, CH4, CFCs
• released by natural human processes

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Earths Temperature

• historically
• over last billion years warmer with ice ages
• current ice age
• 2MYA to present cooler with interglacials
• last glacial advance ended 10,000 yrs ago
• generally warming since
• warming rapidly in last 150 years

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Earths Temperature

• CO2 changes
• currently 0.03 of atmosphere
• recent highs
• interglacial periods
• 125K yrs ago and now
• releasing stored CO2 from rocks plants
• natural
• humans
• current increase started in 1800's
• other greenhouse gasses
• humans have increased release rate

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Potential Effects of Global Warming

• local climate change
• more rain
• more violent storms
• sea level rise
• change in ocean circulation
• complex response

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Current Research On-line

• http//www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/cu
  rrent/lectures/samson/climate_patterns/
• http//www.giss.nasa.gov/research/
• http//www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html
• http//www.mos.org/cst/article/3369/
• http//www.scotese.com/climate.htm
• http//www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ei/ei_cover.html
• http//www4.nas.edu/onpi/webextra.nsf/web/climate?
  OpenDocument

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More research and advocacy on-line

• American Petroleum Institute
• http//api-ec.api.org/environ/index.cfm
• industry site
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• http//www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/
• environmental organization
• Global Warming Information Page
• http//www.globalwarming.org/
• astroturf site (no direct supporters listed)
• Global Warming Early Warning Signs
• http//www.climatehotmap.org/
• environmentalist site (supporters listed)
• the Global Simulation Workshop
• http//www.osearth.com/workshops/
• commercial environmentalist site

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worldwide use of energy

• overall
• oil - 36
• coal - 26
• natural gas - 23
• nuclear - 7
• biomass 6
• hydro - 2
• geothermal wind - 1
• U.S. consumes ¼ of worlds energy