1. Ch. 1: Understanding our Environment
“Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system.”
~ Wangari Maathai
(Winner of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize)

2. Learning Outcomes
1. Define the study of environmental science and the term environment, and identify some important environmental concerns that we face today.
2. Discuss the history of conservation and the different attitudes toward nature revealed by utilitarian conservation and biocentric preservation.
3. Briefly describe some major environmental dilemmas and issues that shape our current environmental agenda.
4. Understand the connection between poverty and environmental degradation, as well as the division between the wealthy, industrialized countries and the poorer, developing countries of the world.
5. Define the term sustainable development, and describe some of its requirements.

3. Introduction Define Environment-
Conditions that surround an organism or group (s) of organisms
Complex of social or cultural conditions that affect an individual or community
Humans have always inhabited both a natural environment and a social environment.
Current Environmental Problems?

4. What is Environmental Science?
Environmental Science is the systematic study of our environment as well as our proper role in it
Interdisciplinary and Integrative
Natural Science
Social Science
Humanities
Mission oriented: seeks new, valid, contextual knowledge about the natural world and our impacts – responsibility to get involved and do something about the problems we’ve created.

5. Many kinds of knowledge contribute to our understanding in Environmental Science

6. Current Conditions Human Population is > 7.1 Billion
Climate Change: burning fossil fuels causes global climate change.
Hunger: food is inequitably distributed across the globe and 2/3 of agricultural lands show signs of degradation.
Clean Water: may be the most critical resource in the 21st century.
Energy: fossil fuel use causes pollution, there is a shift to using more renewable energy resources.
Biodiversity Loss: species are being lost at a rapid rate.
Air Pollution: air quality has worsened dramatically in many areas.

7. Signs of Hope Progress has been made on many fronts.
Population & Pollution: Many cities are more livable today than a century ago due to human birth rate stabilization and clean technology use.
Health: Incidence of life-threatening diseases has been reduced in most countries.
Information & Education: Expanding access to knowledge is essential to progress.
Sustainable Resource Use: Finding ways to use resources more sustainably
Habitat Conservation: Tropical forest destruction has slowed & habitat protection has improved in some areas.
Renewable Energy: Progress is being made in the transition to renewable energy sources.
Carbon Markets and Standards: Cap and trade programs
International Cooperation: helps solve global environmental problems.

8. History of Conservation and Environmentalism
George Perkins Marsh (lawyer, politician, and well-traveled diplomat) – publishes Man and Nature in 1864
He was alarmed by the destruction and waste of resources along the American frontier and warned of ecological consequences.
As a result:
National Forests Reserves were established (1873) to protect timber supplies and watersheds
Majorly influenced President Theodore Roosevelt and his chief conservation advisor Gifford Pinchot to establish the framework for our national forest, park and wildlife refuge systems

9. Pragmatic Utilitarian Conservation
The basis of Roosevelt’s and Pinchot’s polices, concerned about resource waste
Forests should be saved “not because they are beautiful or because they shelter wild creatures of the wilderness, but only to provide homes and jobs for people.”
Resources should be used “for the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time.”
The pragmatic approach still reflected today in the Multiple Use Policies of USFS

10. Biocentric Preservation
Inspired by ethical and aesthetic concerns
Emphasizes the fundamental right of other organisms to exist and purse their own interests.
John Muir – first President Sierra Club
He opposed Pinchot’s view.
Nature deserves to exist for its own sake - regardless of degree of usefulness to humans.
Influenced the founding of National Parks Service (1919) which values preserving nature in its purest state
Aldo Leopold (1935) –
A student of Pinchot’s
“we abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

11. Modern Environmental Movement
The industrial expansion after WWII added new concerns to the environmental agenda.
Rachel Carson: awakened the public to the environmental threat posed by pesticides in her book Silent Spring (1962)
David Brower: introduced the use of litigation, regulatory intervention, and the use of mass media to environmental activists.
Barry Commoner: an activist scientist who spoke out about environmental hazards emphasized the link between science, technology and society .
Wangari Maathai: founded the Green Belt Movement in 1997 to organize poor rural African women to restore the local environment by planting trees, also promoting justice and equality

12. Environmental Quality Is Linked to Social Progress
Sustainable development: economic improvement for the world’s poorest populations is possible without devastating the environment.
Global environmentalism: shifting our attention from our local concerns to the life-support systems of the whole planet.
Modern information technology now allow for increased international communications. Local and regional environmental leaders increasingly have a worldwide impact.

13. We Live in an Inequitable World
We live in a world of haves and have-nots.
World Bank estimates more than 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty earning less than $1.25 (U.S.) per day.
The poorest of the poor lack access to an adequate diet, decent housing, basic sanitation, clean water, medical care, education, etc.
People in poverty often try to meet their short term survival needs at the cost of long term sustainability.

14. Is There Enough for Everyone?
Wealthy nations consume an inordinate share of the world’s resources and produce an unsustainable amount of pollution.
The U.S. makes up 4.6% of the world’s population, but consumes 25% of all oil production and generates 50% of all toxic wastes in the world.
If all the residents of China were to match American consumption, it would take four extra planet Earths to support them using current technology.

15. Sustainable Development
Improving economics for the world’s poorest populations without devastating the environment.
Benefits must be available to all humans, rather than to a privileged few.
Economic growth alone is not enough. Political stability, democracy, and equitable economic distribution are needed to ensure that all benefit.

16. Sustainable Development
Many ecologists view continual growth as impossible in the long run due to limits imposed by nonrenewable resources and the capacity of the biosphere to absorb wastes.
Others argue that through the use of technology and social organization, we can manage to meet our needs and provide long-term (but not infinite) growth.
Stewardship - taking care of the resources we are given.

17. Indigenous People are Important Guardians of Nature
Indigenous or native peoples are generally the least powerful, most neglected groups in the world.
The 500 million people that remain in traditional homelands possess valuable ecological knowledge and remain the guardians of little disturbed habitats.
Recognizing native land rights is often one of the best ways to safe guard ecological processes and biodiversity.
“Where there are forests, there are native people, and where there are native people, there are forests.”
~ saying from the Kuna Indians of Panama

18. Environmental Ethics & World Views
Ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with what actions are right and wrong.
Environmental ethics deals with our moral obligations to the world around us.
Worldviews - sets of basic beliefs, images and understandings that shape how we see the world around us. Worldviews also determine what questions are valid to ask.
How we relate to the environment depends largely on our values and world view. 18

19. Who or What has Moral Value?
Moral extensionism - extending moral values to others
Should moral extensionism include granting some degree of moral value to animals, plants and the environment?
Value - a measure of the worth of something
Inherent value - intrinsic right to exist or innate worth
Instrumental value - items have worth only because they are of use to or valued by another person

20. Religious Traditions
Ethical and moral values are often rooted in religious traditions.
Stewardship - taking care of the resources we are given.
Calls for both environmental stewardship and human domination over nature can be found in most world religions.
Increasingly, many churches and religious leaders today are promoting faith based environmental stewardship and conservation.

21. Environmental Justice
Because of their economic status, minorities in the US and globally may be subjected to a disproportionate amount of environmental health risks in their neighborhoods and work places. The field of environmental justice combines civil rights with environmental protection to demand a safe and healthy environment for everyone.

22. Environmental Racism
Environmental Racism is an inequitable distribution of environmental hazards based on race. Lead poisoning in children as a result of drinking water from aging plumbing or eating paint chips in older buildings is an example of this phenomenon. At all income levels, black children are 2 to 3 times more likely suffer lead poisoning in the US than are white children.