chapter 1 key themes in environmental sciences. major themes of environmental science human...
TRANSCRIPT
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Chapter 1
Key Themes in Environmental Sciences
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Major Themes of Environmental Science
• Human population growth
• An urbanizing world
• Sustainability of our population and all of nature
• People and nature
• A global perspective
• Science and values
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Human Population Growth
• The human population grew at a rate unprecedented in history in the twentieth century.
• Population growth is the underlying environmental problem.
• Famine is one of the things that happen when a human population exceeds its environmental resources. An example is African Famine.
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© 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers
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An Urban World
• When the impact of technology is combined with the impact of population, the impact on the environment is multiplied.
• In an increasingly urban world, we must focus much of our attention on the environments of cities and on the effects of cities on the rest of the environment.
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Sustainability and Carrying Capacity
• What is the maximum number of people the Earth can sustain?
• As of 2013, what is the population of the Earth?
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Sustainability
• Sustainable resoruce harvest– An amount of a resource that can be
harvested at regular intervals indefinitely
• Sustainable ecosystem– An ecosystem that is subject to some human
use, but at a level that leads to no loss of species or of necessary ecosystem functions
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Science and Values
• To make decisions about an environmental problem we:– Know what is possible based on science– Choose the best option based on our values
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Precautionary Principle
• Precautionary Principle states that we should not wait for scientific proof before taking action to prevent environmental damage.
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Chapter 2
Science as a Way of Knowing
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Science as Process
• Science is a process of discovery–Scientific ideas change
–Sometimes a science undergoes a fundamental revolution of ideas
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Science as Process
• The criterion by which we decide whether a statement is in the realm of science:
Whether it is possible, at least in principle, to disprove the statement.
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Disprovability• If you can think of a test that
could disprove a statement, then that statement can be said to be scientific.
• If you can’t think if a test, then the statement is said to be nonscientific.
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© 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers
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Science as Process• Scientific Method:
Actually a set of methods which are the systematic methods by which scientists investigate natural phenomena
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© 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers
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Assumptions of Science
• Events in the natural world follow patterns that can be understood through careful observation and scientific analysis.
• These basic patterns and rules that describe them are the same through the universe
• Science is based on a type of reasoning known as induction
• Generalizations can be subjected to tests that may disprove them.
• Although new evidence can disprove existing theories, science can never provide absolute proof of the truth of its theories.
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The Nature of Scientific Proof
• Deductive reasoning:– Drawing a conclusion form initial definitions
and assumptions by means of logical reasoning.
• Inductive reasoning:– Drawing a conclusion from a limited set of
specific observations.
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Measurements and Uncertainty
• Experimental errors:– Measurement uncertainties and other errors
that occur in experiments.
• Accuracy:– The extent to which a measurement agrees
with the accepted value
• Precision:– The degree of exactness with which a
quantity is measured
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Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses
• Observations:– The basis of science, may be made through any of
the five senses or by instruments that measure beyond what we can see.
• Inference:– A generalization that arises from a set of
observations.
• Fact:– When what is observed about a particular thing is
agreed on by all or almost all.
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Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses
• Hypothesis:– An explanation set forth in a manner that can
be tested and is capable of being disproved.
• Dependent variable:– A variable taken as the outcome of one or
more variables.
• Independent variable:– The variable that is manipulated by the
investigator; affects the dependent variable.
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© 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers
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Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses
• Model:– A deliberately simplified explanation of
complex phenomena.– Models are often
• physical• Mathematical• Pictorial
or• Computer-simulated
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© 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers
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Observations, Facts, Inferences, and Hypotheses
• Theories: Models that offer broad, fundamental explanations of many observations
• Hypothesis: A possible solution to a problem• Inference: Inference is the act or process of
deriving a conclusion based on what one already knows or on what one assumes
• Fact: Something that actually exists• Scientific Law: A scientific law or scientific
principle is a concise verbal or mathematical statement of a relation that expresses a fundamental principle of science
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© 2005 John Wiley and Sons Publishers
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Science, Pseudoscience, and Frontier Science
• Pseudoscience:– Some ideas presented as scientific are in fact
not scientific, because they are • untestable, • lack empirical support, • or are based on faulty reasoning or poor
scientific methodology
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© 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers
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Chapter 28
Dollars and Environmental Sense: Economics of Environmental Issues
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The Economic Importance of the Environment
• Environmental Economics– The study of relationships of the importance of the
environment to the economy– Includes:
• The impact of environment as a result of economic activity
• Regulation of the economy and economic processes• The objective of balancing environmental and economic
goals of society• Development of economic policy to minimize
environmental degradation• Finding solutions to environmental problems
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The Environment as a Commons
• Commons:– Land or another resources owned publicly
with public access for private uses
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Externalities
• Externality (Indirect Cost)– An effect not normally accounted for in the
cost-revenue analysis of producers and often not recognized by them as part of their costs and benefits
• Direct Costs– Those borne by the producer and passed
directly on to the user or purchaser
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Risk-Benefit Analysis
• Def: The riskiness of a present action in terms of its possible outcomes
• The relation between risk and benefit affects our willingness to pay for an environmental good
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• Evaluation of environmental intangibles is becoming more common in environmental analysis
• When quantitative, such evaluation balances the more traditional economic evaluation and helps separate facts from emotion in complex environmental problems
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How Do We Achieve an Environmental Goal?
• Moral suasion• Direct controls• Market processes• Government investment
• Many controls have been applied to the use of desirable resources and the control of pollution
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Marginal Costs and the Control of Pollutants
• Marginal Costs: the cost to reduce one additional unit of pollutant
• 3 methods of direct control of pollution– Setting maximum levels of emission– Requiring processes and procedures– Charging fees for emission