Introduction to Environmental Science
Introduction to
Environmental Science
Enviornmental Science 150
Greg Hueckel
– (360) 866-8564 home
– (360) 888-5667 cell
– Email [email protected]
Required Text
Sustaining the Earth (Seventh Edition)
G. Tyler Miller Jr.
Confusing terms
• environmental science (or studies)
• environmentalism
• ecology
• ecosystem
Definitions
• environmental science (or studies)
• interdisciplinary studies in natural sciences,
including geology, climatology, hydrology,
ecology, and their interaction with social
sciences such as economics, political
science, sociology, anthropology, geography
The Role of Science and People
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Definitions
• environmentalism
• social movement for protecting earth’s life
support systems for us and other species
More definitions
• ecology
• study of the interactions between organisms
and between organisms and their
environment (example)
• ecosystem
• includes all organisms living in an area and
the physical environment with which these
organisms interact.
What is environment?
• Environment is everything that affects a living
organism.
• Environment can include both living (biotic) and
non-living (abiotic) components.
• Biotic components are the living things that
shape an ecosystem
• Abiotic components are non-
living chemical and physical factors in
theenvironment, which affect ecosystems
What Keeps Us Alive?
Fig. 1-2, p. 7
• Solar Capital
• Natural Capital
• natural resources are natural capital
Ecosystem Economics
Biological income must not exceed
biological expenditures.
Protect your capital and live off the income
it provides.
Resources
Perpetual– Solar – renewed
continuously
Renewable– Replenished fairly
rapidly through natural processes
Non-renewable– minerals
Renewable Resources
Sustainable yield
– Highest rate at which a potentially renewable
resource can be used without reducing its available
supply throughout the world or in a particular area.
Environmental Degradation
– Depletion or destruction of a potentially renewable
resource such as soil, grassland, forest, or wildlife
that is used faster than it is naturally replenished. If
such use continues, the resource becomes
nonrenewable (on a human time scale) or nonexistent
(extinct).
Tragedy of the Commons
Depletion or degradation of a potentially
renewable resource to which people have
free and unmanaged
access.
An example is the depletion of
commercially desirable fish species in the
open ocean beyond areas controlled by
coastal countries.
How do we avoid this?
Ecological Footprint
Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply each person or population with the renewable resources they use and to absorb or dispose of the wastes from such resource use. It measures the average environmental impact of individuals or populations in different countries and areas.
www.redefiningprogress.org
Non-Renewable Resources
Resource that exists in a fixed amount (stock) in various places in the earth's crust and has the potential for renewal by geological, physical, and chemical processes taking place over hundreds of millions to billions of years.
Energy, metals, and other minerals
Examples are copper, aluminum, iron, salt, clay, coal, and oil.
Any potentially renewable resource can become non-renewable if used improperly
Theoretically, never exhaust due to economic feasibility for extracting.
Non-renewable resources and natural
capital degradation
Extracting, processing and use come at
an environmental expense
ECOLOGY: Integrative levels, scope, and scale of organization
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Ecology: Habitat
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Ecology: Community
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Ecology: Ecosystem
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BIOTIC component of
environment
Food chain
BIOTIC component of
environment
Food Web
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ABIOTIC component of
environment
ABIOTIC component of
environment
ABIOTIC component of
environment
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Renewable: Sustainable yield
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