INTRODUCTION TO

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Chapter 1
 UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

I. Environmental Principles
II. Environmental Ethics
 OBJECTIVES

1. State and reflect on the seven environmental principles.

2. Analyze the relationship between the individual, society, economy,
culture, and environmental issues.
3. Declare some philosophical and ethical views, issues, and arguments
as they relate to the environment.
4. Establish your critical thinking to consider and scrutinize arguments
about different environmental problems.
ENVIRONMENTAL
PRINCIPLES
 ENVIRONMENT

• Environment - all the living

and nonliving things around
us with which we interact.
 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

• Is the systematic study of our environment and

our place in it.
• the connections and interactions in nature and
concerned with environmental problems/issues.

• How species interact with one another and the

nonliving environment (matter and energy).
• It is an interdisciplinary* field that includes both the
scientific and social aspects of human impact on the
world.

*it draws on other fields of academic inquiry; it cannot stand by itself.

 THE 7 ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES

1. Nature knows best.

2. All forms of life are important.
3. Everything is connected to everything else.
4. Everything changes.
5. Everything must go somewhere.
6. Ours is finite earth.
7. Nature is beautiful, and we are stewards of God's creation.
NATURE KNOWS BEST.

BALANCE IN NATURE
• Nature has its own way to control energy and nutrients.
• Dead animals, plants and their waste are easily managed by nature
through decomposers. The decomposers return the nutrients from the
decaying matter back to the soil..

• Humans have to appreciate and recognize the importance of nature

and follow its rules.
• We must not interfere with various natural processes to a continuous
and steady supply of resources provided to us.

• Any disruption in the cycle of nature can bring imbalance to our

ecosystem.
ALL FORMS OF LIFE ARE IMPORTANT

DIVERSITY AND STABILITY

• Each organism plays a vital role in nature.
• All forms of organism have important role and removing
any of them in ecosystem has a serious effect on the whole
ecosystem.

Role of Snakes
• controlling rat population, if they are killed the rats
continue to expand.
 EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED TO EVERYTHING ELSE.

INTERDEPENDENCE
• Each organism has an influence
on another organism.
• Example: food chain , food web
EVERYTHING CHANGES.
• Change
• The environment is continuously changing. All living
organisms adapt to these changes to survive.
These changes may be linear, random, or cyclical.
1. Linear - refers to growth & development.
2. Cyclic- refers to the repetitive set of events like seasons.
3. Random- refers to unexpected changes like eruption of
dormant volcano.
EVERYTHING MUST GO SOMEWHERE.

• MATERIAL CYCLES
• Everything ends up elsewhere.

• But humans invented materials that decomposers cannot

feed and break down like, plastic, Styrofoam, bottle, all this
thing when thrown remain garbage and remain harmful to
our ecosystem
OURS IS FINITE EARTH.

FINITENESS OF RESOURCES
• Natural resources have a limit.

2 Types of Earth Resources

• Non-renewable - resources that form much more slowly
than we use them
• resources like fossil fuel that provide us our
gasoline are limited.
• mineral ores and crude oil

• Renewable- resources like the sun is unlimited.

• sunlight, wind, and wave energy are perpetually available
• water, and soil renew themselves over time
 NATURE IS BEAUTIFUL, AND WE ARE STEWARDS OF
GOD'S CREATION.

STEWARDSHIP
• Humans as Steward of the environment
• Caretakers of nature
• We humans do not own nature but we are part of
it. The earth was entrusted to us so that we will
take care of it and not harm it.
ENVIRONMENTAL
ETHICS
 Click icon to add picture

SUPPOSE A NARRA TREE NEAR

YOUR HOUSE IS SCHEDULED TO BE
CUT DOWN FOR A CIVIC PROJECT
SUCH AS BASKETBALL COURT.

WOULD YOU SUPPORT THIS? WHY

OR WHY NOT?
 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

Ethics is one branch of philosophy; it seeks to define what is right and

what is wrong.
o Ethics can help us understand what actions are wrong and why they are
wrong.

Environmental ethics apply ethical thinking to the natural world and the
relationship between humans and the earth.
Despite the presence of some differences, there are many cases in which
ethical commitments can and should be globally agreed upon.
 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

• In the most general sense, environmental ethics invites us to consider three key
propositions:
1) The Earth and its creatures have moral status, in other words, are worthy of our
ethical concern.
2) The Earth and its creatures have intrinsic value, meaning that they have moral value
merely because they exist, not only because they meet human needs.
3) Based on the concept of an ecosystem, human beings should consider “wholes” that
include other forms of life and the environment.
 CONFLICTING ETHICAL POSITIONS

Sometimes an individual’s ethical commitments can conflict

with each other.
o A mayor might have an ethical commitment to preserving land in a city but also have an
ethical commitment to bringing in jobs associated with construction of a new factory.

In many cases, what is good for the environment is also

good for people.
o While forest protection may reduce logging jobs, a healthier forest might lead to new jobs in
recreation, fisheries, and tourism.
PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES TO ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

1. Anthropocentrism (Human-centered Ethics)

2. Biocentrism (Life-centered Ethics)
3. Eco-centrism
 ANTHROPOCENTRISM

The basic premise is:

Human beings are the central, most
important species in the universe.

• It sees the world focusing on people

and their needs and believed that
nature is provided for human
use/interest alone.
 BIOCENTRISM

It is a philosophy that imparts importance to all living

beings.
Biocentrism is the ethical belief that focuses on the
living elements of the environment, arguing that every
living thing holds equal value, independent from its use
to humans.
Biocentric ethics asks that, instead of focusing on
prioritizing the wellbeing of humans, equal priority is
given to all living organisms when making moral and
ethical decisions.
 ECOCENTRISM

• The environment itself has moral

worth.
• The environment should be
maintained and deserves direct moral
considerations and not a concern that
is merely derived from human or
animal interests.
ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES

Because ethical commitments pull in different directions at different times, it

is often easier to talk in terms of environmental attitudes or approaches.
• The three most common attitudes/approaches are:

1. Developmental Approach
2. Preservationists Approach
3. Conservationists Approach
 DEVELOPMENT

This approach is the most anthropocentric.

• It assumes humans is, and should be, master of nature.
• It assumes that the Earth and its resources exist solely for our
benefit and pleasure.
• It suggests that improvements in human condition require
converting ever more of nature to human use; thus, the environment
has value only insofar as human beings economically utilize it.
• It yields to industrialization and modernization.
 PRESERVATION

This approach is the most ecocentric.

• It is concerned with the preservation of
natural areas.
• Their primary goal is to ensure those
undisturbed natural areas are free from
harmful human activities.
Conservationists approach

• It is concerned with using natural areas and wildlife (fauna, flora,

and microorganisms) to benefit present and future generations of
human races and other forms of life.
• People who believe that land should be used only to a certain
extent, to what needs to be used.
• This approach finds a balance between unrestrained development and
preservationism.
• Conservationism promotes human well-being but considers a wider range of
long-term human goods in its decisions about environmental management.
• Many of the ideas in conservationism have been incorporated into an approach
known as sustainable development.
Environmentalist
• Any person concerned with the protection of the
environment or who believes that the sustainability of
civilization depends on conserving natural aspects of the
biosphere free from pollution and maintaining biodiversity.

Cornucopian
• Those who assume or believe that all parts of the
environment (natural resources) are to be exploited for the
advantage of humans.