Chapter One

Environment includes the living organisms and nonliving components of the world around you ◦ Living: plants, animals, microorganisms

◦ Non-living: soil, air, water, temperature

Everything that influences how you function in your lives is part of your environment

Environmental conditions vary around the world

Scientific field which studies the interaction between nature and human “systems” ◦ Human “systems” are interacting components that

can affect nature

Driving cars, farming, manufacturing

Environmental issues can be small local issues (small populations) to global systems affecting all living organisms on the planet

Ecosystem: a location on the Earth whose interacting components include living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) factors

Environmentalism: a social movement that has a goal of protecting the environment. ◦ Done by political action, lobbying, education, ….

Environmentalist: a person who participates in environmentalism

John Muir: Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. Went to UW-Madison.

Environmental Science: includes topics such as chemistry, Earth science, soil science, physics, geology, atmospheric science, and biology. It is actually a subset of environmental studies.

Environmental Studies: includes additional subjects like ethics, literature, economics and environmental policy (more of the social sciences)

Check figure 1.1 on page 3

You are a biotic factor. You impact your environment. ◦ List some ways

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◦ Were all items from your list negative? Were most?

◦ Why do you think that is?

All you need to do is look around to know that this is a true statement

We convert natural land ◦ Agriculture/Industrialization

◦ Housing

◦ Transportation

Humans alter the chemistry of the environment ◦ Pollution (intentional and unintentional)

◦ Adding fertilizer

Good Bad

Dramatic innovations in technology

Greater affluence

Modern conveniences for more humans ◦ Running water

◦ Sewage treatment

Less disease

Increased resource consumption

Increased pollution Dramatic increase in

population Less available land for

agriculture Reduction in acreage

of natural habitats Climate change

Items that scientists use to determine the health and quality of the environment ◦ Human population ◦ Sea level change ◦ Annual precipitation ◦ Fish harvest numbers ◦ Average global surface temperature ◦ Carbon dioxide levels ◦ Habitat loss rate ◦ More on page 5 Table 1.1 in the text

Like a fever for a human telling you there is a problem none of items on the previous list will tell you for certain why a change is occurring

We will cover most of these item this year

Living within the planets means

Environmental indicators help guide us towards sustainable living

Using things but not using them up

Not depriving the future generations of the same things that we have

Probably human’s SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT CHALLENGE for future existence of our species and those that sustain us

Diversity in all three scales ◦ Genetic Diversity

High genetic diversity allows a species to better be able to cope with adversity (ie. Disease, think black footed ferrets and bottle neck occurrences)

◦ Species Diversity Relates to the number of species in an area

Species are unique organism distinct form one another

Thought to be between 5-100 million species on Earth

Only ~2 million cataloged so far

The more species in an area the more productive, and resilient it is (ie. Coral reefs, rain forests,...)

◦ Ecosystem Diversity Greater # of healthy ecosystems = healthier environment

overall on Earth (Biosphere II 1987-present)

World threat to river biodiversity This image represents the first global-

scale initiative to quantify the impact of these human-induced stressors on human water security and riverine

biodiversity. Nature 2010

Speciation: the evolution of a new species ◦ Happens very slowly, 1-5 new species per year on

the entire planet. Not keeping of with extinction rate. May be as high as between 5-100 per year.

Background extinction rate: rate of extinction not attributed to human interaction ◦ 2 million categorized species, means 2 extinctions

per year

Taxonomy Source of Estimate Species Average Lifespan years (MYA)

All Invertebrates Raup (1978) 11

Marine Invertebrates Valentine (1970) 5–10

Marine Animals Raup (1991) 4

Marine Animals Sepkoski (1992) 5

All Fossil Groups Simpson (1952) .5–5

Mammals Martin (1993) 1

Cenozoic Mammals Raup and Stanley (1978)

1–2

Diatoms Van Valen 8

Dinoflagelates Van Valen (1973) 13

Planktonic Foraminifera

Van Valen (1973) 7

Cenozoic Bivalves Raup and Stanley (1978)

10

Echinoderms Durham (1970) 6

Silurian Graptolites Rickards (1977) 2

The growth in food production could be a sign that the renaissance of agricultural aid (after the post-Integrated Rural Development-era pessimism) is enjoying some success. But despite these positive trends, the global food crisis continues, and climate change severely undermines prospects for increasing food production.

Grain production has been increasing for the last 60 years

Production level per person are level off showing that we are reaching a level where increasing production is not keeping up with demand

Solutions? ◦ Technology

◦ Farming practices

◦ Bio engineering new and better crops

◦ Pest and disease control

◦ Population control

Stable climates are critical for survival of species (the evolve under certain conditions)

Liquid water allows life to exist (humans included)

Greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases help to stabilize earth’s temperatures

Green house gases have risen, however temperatures can still fluctuate (general upward trend though….)

Many scientist believe the cause in in part anthropogenic (cause by humans)

Many human activities contribute to warming

Two main factors ◦ Burning fossil fuels

◦ Burning forest and depletion of vegetation which would otherwise remove CO2 from the atmosphere

Water, food, and other resources are all under heavy demands

1million new people are added to the human population each 5 days. WOW!

Where do we go from here?

What do you think?

Supporting information regarding chart

Come up with your top 5 list of what you think will be seen as limiting factors for the human species

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Natural resources are critical for survival ◦ Limited on Earth

◦ Destruction of Earth to get them into usable forms for human consumption

Mining

Waste production

Pollution

Renewable vs. Non-renewable

Over use of soil

Deforestation

Spreading disease

Limited food production capabilities

Downfall of a civilization

1. Do not damage the environment beyond its ability to recover naturally

2. Don not use renewable resources faster than the planet can regenerate them

3. Non-renewable resources must be used sparingly and must be recycled upon their use

Sustainable development set a goal of fulfilling the previously listed goals

Balance human well being and economic advancement with resource availability for the benefit of future generations

Recycling is key to sustainability

Developing alternatives to current unsustainable resources

Conservation of resources

Amount of resources consumed are set by physical needs ◦ Food, water, air, place to live

Developed countries tend to consume more resources

Or love of life, Biophilia, also makes critical our connection to nature for pleasure and relaxation

Developed in 1995

Your E.F. is a measure of how much you consume expresses in an area of land ◦ In other words, how much land would be required

to sustain your style of living

If all humans lived like Americans we would require five planet Earths to sustain or lifestyles

If we just keep constant with no other advancement of societies outside of the United States we would need 1.25 Earths

There are only about 27 billion acres of productive agricultural land on Earth

Process by which problems are solved

Done in a logical order

(H) Hypothesis: A testable conjecture (guess) about how something works

(H) Null hypothesis: A statement or test that can be proved false. ◦ i.e. Studying has no effect on doing well on tests.

(T) Sample size: the number of times a measurement is replicated. This is why TTW employs multiple schools to test the Milwaukee River

(T) Accuracy: How close are measurements to the actual value. Accuracy is key.

(T) Precision: How close are repeated measurements of a similar sample

(T) Uncertainty: How much does a certain measurement differ from an actual value. Eliminating uncertainty is crucial.

(I) Inductive Reasoning: Making a general statement based on specific facts or examples. Broad statement.

(I) Deductive Reasoning: Apply a general statement to specific facts. Specific statement.

Theory: A claim that can be made after repeated finding have been observed that are related to the same experiment. ◦ Theories may change based on new findings

Natural Laws: Do not change because there are no known exceptions. Law of gravity is an example.

Generally done observationally as a result of a natural event. Flooding, volcanic events, reforestation, forest succession, …

It is often difficult to interpret result because of the lack of control of variables.

We have no second planet Earth as a “control group”

Personal judgments and opinion affect choices and decisions made by people

◦ Paper vs. Plastic or Electric vs. Gas vehicles

Complex interaction between human and environmental systems ◦ This includes consumer behavior, laws, economics