1.

1 Environmental value systems

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) restricts trade in over 5,000 animal species and
25,000 plants species and the Red List is published by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to assess
threats to biodiversity.

Factors that contributed on development of environmental

movement:
- Bhopal / Chernobyl
- Gulf of Mexico oil spill
- Gaia’s theory
- Fukushima nuclear disaster
EVS: set of paradigms that shapes the perception of:
• Environmental threats
• How they may impact the environment
• Whether or not that matters.

Systems have inputs outputs and processes

INPUTS PROCESSES OUTPUTS

culture Ideas actions

education emotion answers

experience evaluation choices

family listening decisions

media Thinking perspectives

politics Viewpoints

science

Society

Peers
 Ecocentrism Anthropocentrism Technocentrism
Nature-centered People-centered Technology will keep
holistic view in which approach in which pace with and
environmental, people manage their provide solutions to
social, and spiritual environment and all problems. The
aspects are themselves with the emphasis is on the
integrated. They help of independent use of scienti c
propose self- regulatory analysis and
reliance, self- authorities. prediction to
restraint, and Population control understand and
minimal disturbance and resource control natural
of the management are processes. Science
natural .processes to given equal will nd alternative
achieve importance. Humans resources and the
sustainability for the are environmental market economy can
whole earth. managers of continue unheeded.
Conservation of the sustainable global Technocentrics
environment is systems. Economic emphasise the
central to ecocentric growth and resource importance of
values and a holistic exploitation are market and
worldview acceptable so long economic growth.
means there should as they are strongly This growth is based

Deep ecologist Self-reliance soft Cornucopians

Ecocentric ecologists We can carry on
Nature has Mainly ecocentric but with with
intrinsic values some anthropocentric development
in and of itself. elements. because
No Small scale development technology will
development. Community identity that solve any
keeps development in problems that
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
restricts trade in over 5,000 animal species and 25,000 plants species and
the Red List is published by the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) to assess threats to biodiversity.
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Factors that contributed on development of environmental
movement:
- Bhopal / Chernobyl
- Gulf of Mexico oil spill
- Gaia’s theory
- Fukushima nuclear disaster
EVS: set of paradigms that shapes the perception of:
• Environmental threats
• How they may impact the environment
• Whether or not that matters.

Systems have inputs outputs and processes

INPUTS PROCESSES OUTPUTS

culture Ideas actions

education emotion answers

experience evaluation choices

family listening decisions

media Thinking perspectives

politics Viewpoints

science

Society

Peers

1.2 : systems and models

A systems approach allows us to visualize a complex set of interactions. It
consists of a number of parts that interact with each other and the
surrounding environment

Types of systems:
- open systems- exchange matter and energy with its
surroundings
(A lake)
- Closed systems - exchange energy but not matter with
surroundings (carbon cycle / hydrological cycle)
 - Isolated systems - neither matter or energy can get in or out.
Only example is the universe

- Energy flows but matter cycles, meaning it moves from one place to
another and eventually back again.

Way energy flow occurs

Transfers simply move energy or matter from one place to another
without changing it in anyway.
- Matter moves through a system, water flows in rivers moving across
the land
- Ocean currents move energy around the planet
- The food web moves matter through the living organisms

Transformations move energy and matter but in the process of doing so

there is a change of state or form

• Water changes state from solid, to liquid to gas (matter).

• Incoming light is transformed into heat as it is re-radiated from the
earth’s surface (energy).
• Energy is converted into matter during photosynthesis.
MODELS
Advantages Disadvantages
Help illustrate complex concepts and formulate They lack detail so predictions may not be that
hypotheses. E.g. Climate change models do not accurate. It is impossible to take all elements
show all the elements of the climate but they of the climate into account and so we are not
illustrate the system more clearly and allow sure what impact changes will really have.
Bring out patterns. E.g. Ecosystems have similar If there are no gures on the models it gives a
patterns like food webs. false impression. Food webs just show the
patterns of feeding and no gures.
Simpli ed version of real life – easy to understand. Maybe over-simpli ed which can cause
E.g. Biochemical cycles. misunderstanding. The biochemical cycle
model may not show the processes or the
Can study things that are either too small or too May be misleading and affect our
large for us to deal with. E.g. Atoms and our solar understanding. Do we really understand how
system. small an atom is or how large the solar system
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1.3 Energy and equilibria

Laws of thermodinamics:
1st law —> Law of conservation of energy: that energy can neither
be created nor destroyed

Implications of 1st law

1. In an open system such as an ecosystem, once energy has entered it
will never increase. Energy has to keep entering to keep the
ecosystem functioning.
2. In a food chain, energy transforms from light to chemical to heat
energy. This increases entropy (second law) so there is less available
to do work, therefore at higher trophic levels there are fewer
animals.
3. Animals at higher trophic levels must eat a large number of smaller
animals, so if there are non-biodegradeable toxins in the chain they
will become progressively more concentrated the higher up the food
chain you go. (Bioaccumulations)
4. We can never create energy for our use. We have to take what is
available and transform it into a form that is most useful to us.
5. No new energy is being created in the universe.

2nd law —> states that the entropy of a system increases over time

Second law, entropy and food chains

The problem is that the use of chemical energy is not 100% efficient and
some of it is converted to heat (high entropy energy) that dissipates into
the atmosphere where it is useless for work purposes. So as energy
changes form, it becomes less and less concentrated and there is less
available to do work.

Implications of 2nd law

1. tropy will always increase, so in order to keep a body together
organisms must continually put in energy, such as food and sunlight.
 2. Increase in entropy is reduced by an input of food as a source of
energy. All living organisms respire, even at rest and energy stops
them disintegrating into a puddle of inorganic chemicals.

Negative feedback
promotes stability in a system as it reverses the change and returns the
system to the original state of equilibrium. There are many examples of
negative feedback in the world:
1. Predator prey relationship
2. Human body temperature
3. Toilet flush

Positive feedback
amplifies the change in the system and keeps it going in the same
direction. So a small disturbance in the system causes an increase in that
disturbance. For example in climate change, more CO2 in the atmosphere
causes rising temperatures, which causes permafrost to melt. That releases
methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) and so temperatures continue to
rise.

Tipping point
part of a system that kick-starts self-perpetuating positive feedback loops
that push the systems to a new state of equilibrium.
If tipping points are reached in the natural environment, a number of
problems may occur:
1. Environmental support services could collapse – for example, water
cycle regulation, clean air, pollination, soil conservation.
2. The land's food production capacity will deteriorate.
3. The seas’ food production capacity will be compromised.
4. Climate may spiral into a positive feedback cycle and become
unsuitable for human existence.

Equilibria
Systems have inputs, processes, outputs and feedback. If everything is in
balance, the system is said to be in equilibrium
The impact of the change varies over time and is dependent on the type of
equilibria - static or steady state.
Static - only applicable to non-living systems and the components of the
system remain constant over a long period of time
Stable equilibrium unstable equilibrium

Steady state equilibrium has many small changes over shorter periods of
time and the changes occur within limits. Small changes in part of the
system will be countered by negative feedback and the system is bought
back to the same state as before

Stability is the ability of an ecosystem to remain in balance. There are two

components of stability. Resistance is when the ecosystem continues to
function during a disturbance. Resilience is the ability of the ecosystem to
recover after a disturbance.

Resistance Resilience
A resistant ecosystem will respond to a A resilient ecosystem will respond to a
disturbance with self-regulating mechanisms disturbance with self-regulating mechanisms
(negative feedback) that maintain the system in a (negative feedback) that return the system to a
The normal patterns of nutrient cycling and The normal patterns of nutrient cycling
productivity continue despite a disturbance. and productivity are restored after a disturbance.
These differences are very subtle. The important point is that whether the system is resistant or
resilient, the end product is an ecosystem in the same state after a disturbance.
Different ecosystems have very different stability this can be due to
- Climate and limiting factors
- Biodiversity
- Trophic complexity
- nutrient stores
- Frequency and intensity of disturbances

1.4 Sustainability
Natural capital is natural resources that produce sustainable
natural income of goods and services
Natural income is the yield from natural capital.

Sustainable natural income of sh in pond:

Sustainability is the management of the exploitation of resources

that allows for replacement of the resources and full recovery of the
ecosystems that may be affected by extraction.

The ecological footprint (EF) is the amount of land and water that
is required to support a human population at a given standard of
living – providing all the resources and assimilating all the waste -
indication of demand people place on earth’s natural capital
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 According to the MA, ecosystem services are "the benefits people obtain
from ecosystems."
Category Explanation Example
Supporting These are needed for other Nutrient cycling, photosynthesis and soil
ecosystems to function and formation.
provide the other services such
Provisioning This gives actual products that Food, water, minerals, timber, genetic
can be extracted. resources, medicine and energy.
Regulating Regulation of ecosystem Clean air and water, pollination, waste
processes and the bene ts. disposal, erosion and ood control, carbon
sequestration and climate regulation disease
Cultural These are the non-material Building knowledge, creativity, recreation
bene ts that we obtain from and cultural symbols.

EIA
An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is "the process of identifying,
predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other
relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being
taken and commitments made”
The aim is to:
• Identify any impacts (good or bad) that may result from the project.
• Improve the decision making process that allows or blocks the
project.
• Lessen any potential impact.

Steps of EIA
1) scoping
2) Baseline study
3) Predicting and assesing effects
4) Mitigation
5) Encironmental statement
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1.5 humans and pollution

Pollution
- Point source pollution is a single identifiable source of pollution such as
a discharge from a wastewater treatment plant. This source of pollution is
easier to monitor and control.
- Non-point source pollution is pollution from diffuse sources. This is
difficult to monitor and control

Pollution comes in many forms and may be:

• Organic or inorganic matter.
• Persistent or biodegradable.
• Acute or chronic.
• Primary or secondary.
An organic pollutant is something that is or was living, such as human
sewage, silage, etc. They are carbon-based and they may or may not be
toxic. The organic compounds that are dangerous to the environment are
man-made.

An inorganic pollutant is one that is non-living and generally does not

contain carbon, such as nitrates and phosphates from arti cial fertilizers.

Persistent pollutants do not breakdown easily and the most dangerous

ones are the persistent organic pollutants (POP’s). These pollutants are
insoluble in water but often soluble in fat (lipid soluble) so they pass
through the food chain in ever increasing concentrations, for example DDT
and other pesticides.

Biodegradable pollutants are substances that will breakdown or

decompose due to the action of microorganisms, such as human sewage,
food waste etc.

Acute pollution occurs suddenly and in large quantities over a short period
of time, for example a sudden rupture in an oil pipe is an acute problem.
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Chronic pollution is the persistent long-term release of a pollutant at low
concentrations. For example run-off from urban areas washes oil from the
roads into rivers.

Primary pollutants are released into the environment directly from a

source in the form they are produced. For example dust, ash, CO2 from car
exhausts, CFC’s.

Secondary pollutants form when primary pollutants react with the

environment and other pollutants. They tend to be more toxic, such as
ground level ozone, acid deposition.

There is also a range of other types of pollution including:

• Smell
• Visual
• Biological agents such as invasive species
• Energy pollution
◦ Light
◦ Sound
◦ Thermal

Air pollution / water pollution / land pollution

Manage pollution
Educate: alter human activity
Legislate: make laws to stop pollution
Remediate: clean up the mess

DDT - persistent organic pollutant. Once sprayed in an ecosystem it is

absorbed by the soil