UNIT 3: CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

1
UNIT 3 CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES

• CHAPTERS 3, 4 and 5
• (ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE)

2
WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE?

• Def The study of how humans impact their
  environment
• What book is this?
• Once-ler
• Truffula Trees
• Barbaloots
• Swomee-Swans
• Humming Fish
• Thneeds
• Lorax

• Environmental Issues
• Class List
• Key People and Events
• John Muir Sierra Club
• Teddy Roosevelt National Refuges/Parks
• Rachel Carson Silent Spring

3
ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION-MAKING

• TYPES OF ISSUES
• RESOURCE USE
• RENEWABLE VS NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES
• POPULATION GROWTH
• FASTER THAN EVER ? EXPONENTIAL GROWTH
• DOUBLE PROBLEM MORE PEOPLE ? MORE RESOURCES
  NEEDED MORE PEOPLE ?LESS AVAILABLE LAND TO GET
  THESE RESOURCES
• TECHNOLOGY HAS TO MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE
• POLLUTION

4
ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION-MAKING

• WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN MAKING AN ENVIRONMENTAL
  DECISION?
• IDENTIFY ISSUE
• CONSIDER VALUES ideas that people think are
  important different for different groups of
  people
• Economic money
• Environmental environment
• Convenience how will it make life easier
• Recreational fun
• Health is it safe
• Scientific/Educational what can we learn
• Religious/Cultural family or society values
  traditions
• Aesthetic pleasing to the senses
• Political how the public will react (public
  opinion)
• ANALYZE CONSEQUENCES
• PROS AND CONS (COSTS AND BENEFITS)
• IMMEDIATE, SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM

5
ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION-MAKING

• YELLOWSTONE WOLF REINTRODUCTION
• For background article click here
• 1995 14 wolves reintroduced
• Why did they do it?
• Why were some people opposed?
• What do you think?
• Would your thinking be different if it was around
  here?
• Mountain Lion Article
• Mountain Lion Video

6
LIVING RESOURCES

• SUSTAINABLE YIELD the amount of a renewable
  resource that can be used without reducing the
  supply for the future
• Managing without overusing
• FORESTRY managing the forests to get the
  resources from trees, while keeping the same
  amount of forests year after year
• Products from Trees (why are forests important?)
• Logging Methods (know pros and cons)
• Clear cut taking all trees from an area
• Selective Cut only take certain species or size
  of tree

7
LIVING RESOURCES

• FISHING INDUSTRY
• Products from the sea
• Fishery areas of the ocean with large
  populations of valuable organisms
• 70 have been overfished
• Ways to help maintain sustainable yield
• Laws and Limits
• Use Better Techniques
• Dolphins and tuna example
• Aquaculture fish farming
• Raise the fish in artificial environments and
  harvest
• Can be used for freshwater resources as well
• Find New Resources

8
LAND USE

• Development
• Construction of roads, buildings, dams etc. for
  human use
• Mining
• The removal of nonrenewable resources
• Shaft Mining digging deep into the ground for
  resources
• Coal
• Strip mining scraping the surface of the Earth
  for resources
• Minerals, iron, copper
• Dangers
• Cave-ins
• Fires
• Acid-mine drainage
• Land Reclamation the process of restoring the
  land back to its original ecosystem
• Agriculture

9
(No Transcript)
10
SOIL CONSERVATION

• Layers of Soil (from top to bottom)
• Litter dead leaves and organic material
• Important for returning nutrients to soil
• Topsoil rock fragments, nutrients, water, air,
  plant roots
• Most important for growing plants
• Subsoil larger rock fragments
• Bedrock solid rock
• What ground water lays on (aquifers)

11
PROBLEMS OF SOIL CONSERVATION

• Erosion the loss of topsoil by wind or water
• Usually held in place by roots of plants
• Windbreaks hedgerows
• Tree buffer between field and stream
• Strip cropping/contour farming
• Terrace farming
• Nutrient Depletion overusing a single piece of
  land, stripping it of its nutrients
• Removing crops over and over from a single piece
  of land
• Fallow leave the crops on the field
• Crop rotation plant different crops in the
  field each year
• Different crops use different nutrients
• Add Fertilizer
• Natural or synthetic

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
PROBLEMS OF SOIL CONSERVATION

• Desertification climate changes and fertile
  land turns to desert like conditions
• Can be caused by cutting too many trees down
  (deforestation)
• Disrupts water cycle
• Solutions
• Forest management
• irrigation
• Last 50 years 5 billion hectares of land

15
The Solid Waste (Trash) Problem

• Municipal Solid Waste wastes produced in homes
  (trash)
• Sanitary Landfill an area designated to bury
  and hold solid waste
• Must meet many regulations
• Leachate the polluted runoff from trash mixing
  with rainwater
• Leak-proof linings
• Methane gas ? energy
• Incineration burning trash
• Takes up less space than landfills
• Causes air pollution expensive to build Still
  need landfills for ash

16
The Solid Waste (Trash) Problem

• The Three Rs
• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle ? glass, plastic, aluminum, paper
• Composting promoting decomposition of foods and
  other biodegradable materials at home
• Biodegradable a substance that can be broken
  down and decomposed by bacteria (and other
  decomposers)
• Can be used as a natural fertilizer

17
Hazardous Wastes

• Any waste that can cause extreme harm to
  individuals or the environment
• Categories
• Toxic Poisonous
• Explosive react quickly with air or water
• Flammable easily caught on fire
• Corrosive eats away dissolve
• Radioactive unstable atoms that release energy
  (radiation)
• Nuclear wastes ? Yucca Mountain national waste
  site
• Medical Wastes ? cancer treatment x-ray

18
Hazardous Wastes

• Health Effects
• Short term irritation, breathing difficulties,
  internal bleeding, paralysis, coma, death
• Long term cancer, birth defects, death
• Disposal
• Burial
• Incineration
• Living organisms
• Recycle
• Superfund sites areas identified as polluted
  with hazardous wastes and are being treated
• BE SMART AND MAKE ENVIRONMENTALLY GOOD DECISIONS!

19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)