ENV 099 Queens College Chapter 1
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Our population, technological power, and resource consumption all increase
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like alter our surroundings and damage the very systems that keep us alive
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environment
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consists of all living and nonliving things around us - people exist with the environment and are part of nature
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air and water pollution, soil erosion, species extinction
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compromise our well being and jeopardize our ability to build a society that will survive in the long term
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Environmental science
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scientific study of how the natural world works, how our environment affects us and how we effect our environment
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natural resources
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the substances and energy sources we take from our environment and that we rely on to survive
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Renewable natural resources
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Natural Resources that are replenished over short periods
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Nonrenewable natural resources
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Natural Resources that are in limited supply and are formed much more slowly than we use them
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Ecosystem services
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An essential service an ecosystem provides that supports life and makes economic activity possible. For example, ecosystems purify air and water, cycle nutrients, provide for plants to be pollinated by animals and receive and recycle the waste we generate
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Agricultural revolution
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The shift around 10,000 years ago from a hunter gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural way of life in which people began to grow crops and raise domesticated animals
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Industrial Revolution
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The shift in the mid 1700's from rural life, animal powered agriculture and manufacturing by craftsmen to an urban society powered by fossil fuels
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fossil fuels
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A nonrenewable natural resource such as crude oil, natural gas, or coal: produced from the decomposition and compression matter from ancient life
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Ecological footprint
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The cumulative area of biologically productive land and water required to provide raw materials a person or population consumes and to dispose of recycle or waste that is produced
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overshoot
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The amount by which humanity's resource use, as measured by its ecological footprint has surpassed Earth's long term capacity to support us
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Easter Island
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a society that self destructed after depleting its resources
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Environmental scientists
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examine how earth's natural systems function, how these systems affect people, and how we influence these systems
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Interdisciplinary
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Borrowing techniques form multiple traditional fields of study and bringing together research results from these fields into a broad synthesis
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Natural sciences
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Academic disciplines that study the natural world
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social sciences
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Academic disciplines that study human interactions and institutions
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Environmental Studies
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An academic environmental science program that emphasizes the social sciences as well as the natural sciences
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Environmentalism
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A social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world, and by extension, people
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The Science behind the story: What are the lessons of Easter Island?
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A. Any population must learn to live within its means B. But with care and ingenuity, there is hope that we can
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Science
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(1) A systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it (2) The accumulated body of knowledge that arises from this dynamic process
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Scientific knowledge
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is applied in engineering and technology and in policy and management decisions
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Energy efficient electric automobiles
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are technological advances made possible by materials and energy research
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Prescribed burning
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is a forest management practice informed by ecological research
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Descriptive Science (Observational Science)
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Research in which scientists gather basic information about organisms, materials, systems or processes that are not yet well known
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hypothesis driven science
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Research in which scientists pose questions, that seek to explain how and why things are the way they are. Generally proceeds in a somewhat structured manner using experiments to test hypothesis
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Scientific method
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A formalized method for testing ideas with observations, that involves a more or less consistent series of interrelated steps
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hypothesis
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A statement that attempts to explain a phenomenon or answer a scientific question
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Prediction
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A specific statement, generally arising from a hypothesis, that can be tested directly or unequivocally
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Experiment
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An activity designed to test the validity of a hypothesis by manipulating variables.
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Variable
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In an experiment, a condition that can change
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Independent variable
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The variable that the scientist manipulated in an experiment
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dependent variable
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the variable that is affected by the manipulation of the independent variable
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Controlled experiment
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An experiment in which a treatment is compared against a control in order to test the effect of a variable
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control
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The portion of an experiment in which a variable has been left unmanipulated, to serve as a point of comparison with the treatment
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Data
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Information, generally quantitative information
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correlation
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A statistical association among variables
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peer review
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The process by which a manuscript submitted for publication in an academic journal is examined by specialists in the field, who provide criticism (generally anonymous) and judge whether the work merits publication in the journal
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Theory
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A widely accepted, well tested explanation of one or more cause and effect relationships that has been extremely validated by a great amount of research
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paradigm
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a dominant philosophical and theoretical framework within a scientific discipline
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Ethics
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The academic study of good and bad, right and wrong: the term can also refer to a group's set of moral principles or values
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relativists
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an ethicist who maintains that ethics do and should vary with social context
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universalist
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an ethicist who maintains that there exist objective notions of right and wrong that hold across cultures and situations
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Ethical standard
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A criterion that helps differentiate right from wrong
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environmental ethics
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the application of ethical standards to environmental questions
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Anthropocentrism
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A human centered view of our relationship with the environment
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Biocentrism
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A philosophy that ascribes relative values to actions, entities or properties on the basis of their effects on all living things or on the integrity of the biotic realm in general. The Biocentrist evaluates an action in terms of its overall impact on living things. Including- but not exclusive to- human beings
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Ecocentrism
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A philosophy that considers actions in terms of their damage or benefit to the integrity of whole ecological systems: including both living and nonliving elements. For an Ecocentrist, the well being of the individual is less important than the long term well being of a larger integrated ecological system
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preservation ethic
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an ethic holding that we should protect the natural environment in a pristine, unaltered state
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Sierra Club
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A leading environmental organization led by John Muir
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gifford pinchot
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founded the US forest preserve
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Conservation ethic
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An ethic holding that people should put natural resources to use but also have a responsibility to manage them wisely
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Aldo leopold
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A wildlife manager, author and philosopher who articulated a new relationship between people and the environment. In his essay \"The Land Ethic \" he called on people to embrace their environment in their ethical outlook
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Environmental justice
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The fair and equitable treatment of all people with respect to environmental policy and practice, regardless of their race, or ethnicity. Responds to the perception that minorities and the poor suffer more pollution than whites and the rich
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Sustainability
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A guiding principle of environmental science, entailing conserving resources, maintaining functional ecological systems, and developing long term solutions, such that Earth can sustain our civilization and all life for the future, allowing our descendants to live as least as well as we have lived
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natural capital
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Earth's accumulated wealth of resources
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sustainable developement
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Development that satisfies our current needs without compromising the future availability of natural capital of our future quality of life
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Campus sustainability
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A term encompassing a wide variety of efforts by students, faculty, staff and administrators of colleges and universities to make campus operations more sustainable. It includes efforts toward energy efficiency, water efficiency, emissions reduction, transportation improvements, sustainable dining, landscape improvement, renewable energy, curricular changes and more
