OSU ENR 2100 Week 1 - Lecture notes 1 PDF

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Introduction to Environmental Science by Dr. Brian Lower and Kylienne A. Clark...

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OSU ENR 2100 Week 1 A. Physical Environment: Consists of Incoming radiant energy from the sun, air, water and soil, which is required for life on earth Biological Environment: encompasses the organic components, organisms (including humans) and their relationship to earth B. Environmental Science is the interdisciplinary study of humanity's relationship with other organisms and the earth. Other disciplines include biology, geography, chemistry, geology, physics, economics, sociology, anthropology, resource management, agriculture, law, politics, engineering, and ethics C. Challenges facing us today include: Energy Production and Climate change, Food Production, Air Pollution, Water Quantity and Quality, Ecosystem Conservation and Preservation, mining for coal, oil, natural gas, and minerals, hazardous waste, human population growth, loss of habitat and biodiversity, urbanization and transportation, and environmental inequality and justice. There are sustainable practices to combat these, which include: Relying on Renewable energy sources, use sustainable material and use materials sustainability, minimize toxins that we release into the environment, have some sort of population control, promote and depend on biodiversity, the three R's. D. Ecological footprints (how much land/resources do you need to support your lifestyle?) affect the potential carrying capacity (population size that an area can support indefinitely) because the higher you're ecological footprint the lower you're carrying capacity is. At the rate we are going if everyone lived like us in the United States we would need more than 6 earths to sustain ourselves. Different people do have different footprints. China has a much lower footprint than us, even though they have a much bigger population. This all depends upon the way in which we choose to live our lives. The people in China live their lives differently than we do here, and you can see that their way of life causes a smaller ecological footprint. E. Renewable vs Non-Renewable Non Renewable resources are finite in supply. Meaning they can't be replenished in a timely fashion. These include coal, oil, gas. Renewable Resources: resources or energy that comes from an infinitely available or easily replenished source. These include sun, wind, geothermal. F. Triple Bottom Line: Environmental literacy is the ability to understand environmental problems. We must consider (1) environment (2) economic (3) social G. Social Traps: Seem good in the short term, but are actually bad in the long term  Tragedy of the Commons There is a common resource that people are using. One person brings in more of something so the others do as well. Eventually there are too many things using the resources and it's not sustainable anymore. -Shared Resource. People trying to maximize their own profits.  Time Delay (modern fishing techniques) More fish are taken than can be replenished naturally by reproduction so the populations of fish decline. Overfishing keeps happening, so the populations become depleted over time. So basically people keep fishing and fishing at a rate that is not sustainable, so as time goes on the fish can't reproduce fast enough and their populations become depleted.  Sliding Reinforcer This is when tings become resistant to pesticide and other things over time bc of natural evolution.

-ex: A farmer uses pesticide on grasshoppers. Majority are killed, but as you keep spraying the same pesticides some develop a resistance through evolution. They then pass their now resistant genes onto their offspring creating a generation of grasshoppers that are resistant to the pesticide and so your crops are destroyed once again. H. Obstacles to Sustainable Practices (1) Lack of Education (2) Wealth Inequality  Lack of education causes people to think in the short term and not consider long term consequences.  With the wealth inequality 20% of people own 80% of the resources. Wealthier nations go to extract resources from less wealthy nations which causes all kinds of Environmental problems bc there is a big market for resources and not everybody has access to them equally. The rich make the decisions and sometimes they are in their own self interest not in the interest of the environment and how to sustain it. I. How has the natural world changed over time? Big Laws: *Clean Air Act *Clean Water Act *Superfund Act *Montreal Protocol (reduce CFC use)  1850's: expansion to west in US… Homestead Act  Early 1900's: resource management. We figured out resources weren't inexhaustible. Creation of National Parks, Forests, and Reserves to limit resource use (Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir)  Mid-Late 1900's: Pollution becomes an issue (Cuyahoga River catches on fire around this time) Events like this led to landmark laws such as the ones mentioned above (clean air, water act)  2000's: International effort. Montreal Protocol (Curb CFC (CFC causes a hole in the ozone layer)). Kyoto protocol (reduce greenhouse gasses). Non Profits are relevant now as well as the International Panel on Climate Change. J. Abiotic: non-living (minerals, sun, air, land) Biotic: living (organic, animals, plants, trees) K. Conflicting world views  Anthropocentric - human centered. Resources are here to meet the needs/wants of humans  Bio-centric- All life is equally important. All life has rights and we should protect those rights.  Eco-centric- ecosystem as a whole is given the most value. The physical non living parts (water, glaciers air, ect.) as well as living parts all function together as a system. They're interconnected and we need to protect all of these things because they all rely and function with one another.  Eco-Centric believes the ecosystem is the most important.  Ecosystem: A community of organisms and the surrounding physical environment. Consists of Biotic and Abiotic things.  The Ecosystem broken down into parts Ecosystem > Community > Population > Individual  Your view determines your environmental ethic because it shows what you value most and how you think in regard to the environment/environmental problems....