APES Getting Started Guide

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APES Getting Started Guide

• What do I have to do to be successful and still
  keep my sanity in tact, while trying to have a
  life ?

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• 1. Be familiar with the APES Web Page,
  www.ehsscience.com
• Read assigned pages at home and learn the
  objectives.
• Go the textbook web page and answer all quiz
  questions.
• Dont wait till the last minute to begin your
  project.
• Know how to write a lab report, as posted on the
  web page.
• Always ask questions when you get stuck or dont
  understand something.
• Dont get intimidated, I am always here to help
  you.
• Visit the web page often., keep a journal!
• Use study groups or a study buddy to learn
  concepts.
• Relax and take a genuine interest in
  Environmental Science

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Your Journal!Only fools represent themselves in
court and rely on memory alone!

1. Includes chapter notes!
2. Includes class notes!
3. Returned papers!
4. On-line quiz and essay questions!
5. Chapter and class objective answers!
6. Class and web research!
7. Project information!

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Define environmental science and explain why
environmental sustainability is an important
concern of environmental science.
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"Meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs" is one widely accepted
definition of sustainability.
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Stated differently, it involves reorganizing our
life support systems - agriculture,
transportation, energy production, etc. - so that
life on Earth can be sustained indefinitely.
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• With approximately 6.7 billion people on Earth
  now and a projected 9 billion by mid-century, we
  must find ways of reducing consumption of
  resources if we are to avoid dramatic
  environmental degradation and the potential of
  global ecosystem collapse.

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• Sustainability does not just consider the
  environmental dimension the social and economic
  dimensions are what round out the triple bottom
  line, a standard of ethical responsibility many
  corporations, institutions, and governments have
  adopted as a guiding principle.

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Summarize human population issues, including
population size and level of consumption.
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Approximately 6.6 billion humans now inhabit the
Earth. By comparison, there might be 20 million
mallard ducks and, among a multitude of
threatened and endangered species, perhaps
100,000 gorillas, 50,000 polar bears, and less
than 10,000 tigers, 2,000 giant pandas and 200
California condors
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Describe the three factors that are most
important in determining human impact on the
environment and solve a problem using the IPAT
equation.
What is the IPAT Equation, or I P X A X T?
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• It describes the multiplicative contribution of
  population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T)
  to environmental impact (I). Environmental impact
  (I) may be expressed in terms of resource
  depletion or waste accumulation population (P)
  refers to the size of the human population
  affluence (A) refers to the level of consumption
  by that population and technology (T) refers to
  the processes used to obtain resources and
  transform them into useful goods and wastes.

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• In Summary
• The IPAT equation made a contribution to
  understanding the multiple causes of
  environmental impact, and it continues to be
  developed as a method for improving our
  understanding of these issues. It has not helped
  in identifying sustainable scale, but it is a
  useful framework to assist in thinking about ways
  of reducing environmental impacts by reducing
  various types of throughput.

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Briefly describe some of the data that suggest
that certain chemicals used by humans may also
function as endocrine disrupters in animals,
including humans.
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Provide an overview of how human activities have
affected the following the Georges Bank fishery,
tropical migrant birds, wolf populations in
Yellowstone National Park, and invasive species
such as comb jellies and zebra mussels.
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• The Tragedy of the Commons on Georges Bank, and
  Elsewhere
• In the Massachusetts State Capitol there is a
  wooden statue of the Sacred Cod, a tribute to the
  massive fishing ground called Georges Bank. For
  200 years codfish from Georges Bank have enriched
  New England. Now, says the Northeast Fisheries
  Center, the cod population of Georges Bank is
  collapsing.

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• Zebra mussels can severely effect native mussels
  and clams by interfering with their feeding,
  growth, movement, respiration, and reproduction.
  For example, zebra mussels can colonize a clam
  shell to such an extent that the clam cannot open
  its shell to eat. Some native mussels have been
  found with more than 10,000 zebra mussels
  attached to them. In addition to colonizing
  native mussels and clams, zebra mussels may
  attach to slow-moving species such as crayfish
  and turtles.

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• Neotropical migrant birds are the songbirds that
  represent over 50, more precisely, 340 of the
  600 species, of North American birds. As spring
  begins, more than 300 species of Neotropical
  migratory birds head north to breed and raise
  young in the United States and Canada. In the
  fall they return to warmer climates in tropical
  regions of Mexico, Central America, South
  America, and the Caribbean.

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Characterize human impacts on the global
atmosphere, including stratospheric ozone
depletion and climate warming.
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• No environmental issue as vividly demonstrates
  the impact human-produced chemicals can have on
  nature as the destruction of stratospheric ozone.

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• Ozone is a relatively unstable form of molecular
  oxygen containing three oxygen atoms (O3).
  Radiation from the sun continuously bombards the
  Earth's atmosphere, causing molecules to break
  apart into component elements that form into new
  chemical compounds. Ozone is produced when
  upper-atmosphere oxygen molecules (O2) are broken
  apart by ultraviolet light. Most of the freed
  oxygen atoms immediately bond with nearby oxygen
  molecules to form ozone (O O2 O3).

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• Ozone is a gas that occurs both in the Earth's
  upper atmosphere and at ground level. In the
  troposphere, the air closest to the Earth's
  surface, ground-level or "bad" ozone is a
  pollutant that is a significant health risk,
  especially for children with asthma. It also
  damages crops, trees and other vegetation. It is
  a main ingredient of urban smog.

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Describe some of the consequences of tropical
rainforest destruction.
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• Although tropical forests cover only about 7
  percent of the Earths dry land, they probably
  harbor about half of all species on Earth.

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• Many species are so specialized to microhabitats
  within the forest that they can only be found in
  small areas. Their specialization makes them
  vulnerable to extinction.

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• Global markets consume rainforest products that
  depend on sustainable harvesting latex, cork,
  fruit, nuts, timber, fibers, spices, natural oils
  and resins, and medicines.

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• In addition, the genetic diversity of tropical
  forests is basically the deepest end of the
  planetary gene pool. Hidden in the genes of
  plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria that have
  not even been discovered yet may be cures for
  cancer and other diseases or the key to improving
  the yield and nutritional quality of foodswhich
  the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says
  will be crucial for feeding the nearly ten
  billion people the Earth will likely need to
  support in coming decades.

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• Finally, genetic diversity in the planetary gene
  pool is crucial for the resilience of all life on
  Earth to rare but catastrophic environmental
  events, such as meteor impacts or massive,
  sustained volcanism.

Varieties of Soy Beans
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Define environmental ethics and discuss
distinguishing features of the Western and deep
ecology worldviews.
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• Environmental ethics is the discipline that
  studies the moral relationship of human beings
  to, and also the value and moral status of, the
  environment and its nonhuman contents.