Introduction to Environmental Science ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE IS AN

INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE
• Environment
- means the surrounding external conditions • Environmental science and the issues that it
influencing development or growth of people, studies are complex and interdisciplinary.
animal or plants; living or working conditions, - Includes concepts and ideas from multiple
etc. (Singh, 2006) fields of study.
• All things around us with which we interact: - Decisions have impacts in all these fields of
- Living things (Animals, Plants, Fungi, etc.) study.
- Non- living things (Soil, Water, Rocks, etc.)
- Our built environment (Buildings, human-
created living centers)
- Social relationships and institutions

UNDERSTANDING THE ENVIRONMENT

• Lithosphere – Solid Earth

ELEMENTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

• Physical Elements
• Biological Elements DRAWING A BRIDGE OF INFORMATION
• Cultural Elements
- A community decides to use coal for electricity,
The Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy. as it is the cheapest source available.
(Economics)
- “IN OUR EVERY DELIBERATION, WE
- The coal must be mined from under the soil.
MUST CONSIDER THE IMPACT OF OUR
(Geology) •
DECISIONS ON THE NEXT SEVEN
- The coal must be transported to the population
GENERATIONS.”
center by road or rail. (Engineering)
• ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
- When it is burned at a power plant, air pollution
- Is define as the interdisciplinary study of
is released. Some of that pollution is converted
humanity’s relationship with other organisms
to acid in the atmosphere. (Chemistry)
and the nonliving physical environment.
- This falls as acid rain somewhere downwind.
- It is the academic field that takes physical,
(Meteorology)
biological, and chemical sciences to study the
- The acid stresses plants by affecting their
environment and discover solutions to
nutrient absorption. (Ecology)
environmental problems.

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- Laws are passed requiring the plant to install • Ecocentrism
pollution scrubbers. (Politics) - It is a perspective that places importance on the
ecosystem as a whole.
WHY WE STUDY ENVIRONMENTAL
- The preservation of ecosystems or other living
SCIENCE?
things takes priority over human needs.
- We depend on our environment
Hetch Hetchy Debate
- Environmental Science is our modern way of
seeking answers to the questions - The debate about whether to build a dam in the
- Our environment improves the quality of our Hetch Hetchy valley was one of the first big
lives debates between these two philosophies.
- Environmental science teaches us how to - When the growing city of San Francisco,
protect our environment in the face of rising California proposed building a dam in the
human population and anthropogenic activities Hetch Hetchy Valley to provide a steady water
that degrade natural resources and ecosystems. supply, Congress debated whether to make a
water resource available or preserve a
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
wilderness between 1908 and 1913.
• Environmental ethics is the discipline that - The dam was eventually constructed.
studies the moral relationship of human beings - The justification for building it was best stated
to the environment. by Gifford Pinochet, the first man in charge of
- What is the value of the environment? the U.S. Forest Service.
- What moral responsibility do we have in
"Where conflicting interests must be reconciled,
dealing with the major environmental problems
the question shall always be answered from the
that result from our resource consumption?
standpoint of the greatest good of the greatest
- Which needs should be given the highest
number in the long run.“
priority in our decision making?
RESOURCES CONSERVATIONIST
TWO MAIN CATEGORIES OF ETHICS IN
HUMAN CULTURE IN MODERN HISTORY - The focus of the resource conservationists was
to protect open land.
• Anthropocentrism
- The National Parks system, and the National
- It is the view or belief that human beings are
Forest system were both created during this
superior to all other organisms
time.
- This set of ethics protects and promotes of
human interests or well-being at the expense of MODERN ENVIRONMENTALISM
all other factors.
- Rachel Carson published a book in 1962
- Often places an emphasis on short-term
entitled Silent Spring about the effects of
benefits while disregarding long-term
pesticides on large predatory birds, particularly
consequences.
the bald eagle.

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- Rachel Carson documented the impacts that - Higher standard of living
pesticides like DDT were having on wildlife. - Higher rates of consumption
DDT is persistent, meaning it is not
FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLES OF
biodegradable and will not break down
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
naturally.
- This began a public awakening to threats of 1. Systematic principle of environment

pollution and toxic chemicals to humans as 2. Principle of environmental capacity

well as other specie. 3. Symbiosis principle between human and

- This movement is called Modern environment

Environmentalism. 4. Entropy principle

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTALISM

- Global environmentalism explores issues and

Following the 1970s, environmentalism began to

- Biodiversity loss
- Food production
- Climate Change
- Human population growth
- Economic inequality between nations

THE DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDE

Countries are classified across an economic

• Developing Countries
- Economically poor
- Less educated
- Higher fertility rates
- Lower standard of living
- Lower rates of consumption
• Developed Countries
- Economically wealthy
- More educated
- Lower fertility rates

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