Chapter 1 - Notes

Understanding Our Environment 1.1

All life on Earth exists in the biosphere - it extends about 8km into the atmosphere, where insects, bacteria and pland seeds may be found, ans as much as 8 km into the ocean.

Three categorgies that all environmenetal problems fall into are; Resource depletion, pollution and extinction.

 Examples -

 Resource Depletion - the rapid consumption of fossil fuels

• Nonrenewable resources are things like fossil fuels, iron, and precious metals
• to avoid running out of nonrenewable resources like copper, we must use them wisely and recylcle whenever possible
• renewable resources are things like, wind, sun and trees
• If we use renewable resources no faster than nature replaces them, there may be enough of these resources in the future.

 Pollution - contamination of wayerways by pesticides

• The amount of carbon dioxide in our planet's atmosphere is increasing, which may cause the climate of the Earth to change.
• Trees and other plants revmove carbon dioxide from the air

 Extinction - The death of all passenger pigeons

• The bald eagle was once on the brink of extinction.  Today it is making a comeback, thanks to efforts to preserveits habitat and reduce pollution fromteh pesticide DDT

Why our Main Environmental Problems

• The population crisis is the result of human opulation growing larger than the Earth can support.
• Consumption crisis is the result of people using, wasting or polluting natural resources faster tha they can be renewed, replaced or cleaned up.
• Developed nations are most affected by consumption crisis - where resources are used up, wasted or polluted faster than they can be renewed, replaced, or cleaned up
• Developing nations account for most of the population crisis -  where human populations are growing too quickly for the regions to support
• Three ways to maintain a sustainable environment; preserving habitats, converting garbage into harmless substances, using nonrenewable resources no faster than they can be replaced

Section 1.2 - Using Science to Solve Environmental Problems

• The difference between pure science and applied science is that pure science, such as Chemistry seeks to answer questions about the how the natural wold works, and applied science such as Environmental Science, uses pure science to slove problems.
• Ecology is the study fo the interrelationships amoung living things. Environmental science draws healvily on the information gained by ecology, ecology differs from envionmental science in that ecology is a pure science and environmental science is an applied science.
• Scienctists use scienctific methods to answer questions about the natural world. These methods include observing, hypothesizing and predicting, experimental, oraganizing and interpreting data, and sharing information.
• Two essential componets of an experiement are testing a single variable and using a control.  It is important that a single variable be tested to establish a one-to-one correspondence between possible causes and observed effects. The control is important becaues it accounts for all factors expect the variable being tested.
• Scientists often use mathematics to determine wether the results they get are meaningful or just he result of change
• Graphs and tables are used for data
  • tables are used to organize and summerize information
  • line graphs show data ove time
  • bar graphs allow scienctis to compare infomration
  • pie charts show percentages, with the centire circle representing 100 percent

Section 1.3  Making Environmental Decisions

• A decison making model is a good tool to use when making an environmental decisions.  The components of the model include; personal values, short and long term postivie consequences, and short and long term negative consequences.
• Some values that could be considered when making an environmental decision are economic, environmental, aesthetic, educational, scientific, ethical/moral, health, social/cultural.
• These values often come into conflict with each other when making a decision