1. Environmental Science Ch
Environmental Science Ch. 1: Environmental Science: A Global Perspective

2. Ch. 1-1: Understanding Our Environment
Key Terms
Biosphere
Developed Countries
Developing Countries
Environment
Environmental Science
Natural Resource
Nonrenewable Resource
Renewable Resource

3. California Content Standards for Science Addressed:
Life Science
6. Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing effects. As a basis for understanding this concept:
(b) Students know how to analyze changes in an ecosystem resulting from changes in climate, human activity, introduction of nonnative species, or changes in population size.

4. Why Do I Need To Know This?
Because we are all part of an ecosystem and humans are having a profound effect on the world’s ecosystems.
Because in your lifetime you will make thousands of decisions that will affect our environment and ecosystem.
Because if you do not make good choices about the environment and our ecosystem, it will cost us billions or trillions of dollars.

5. Key Sections Ch. 1-1 Understanding Our Environment
Solving Environmental Problems
What Are Our Main Environmental Problems?
Resource Depletion
Pollution
Extinction
A Global Perspective
Developed and Developing Countries
Population and Consumption
A Sustainable World

6. Understanding Our Environment
Environmental Science is a new field that tries to solve problems that affect how and where we live.
The environment refers to all the things that surround us, including those things that are natural and those that are produced by humans.

7. Solving Environmental Problems
About 40 years ago, most people did not think much about the environment.
However, since then, most people agree that humans have altered the planet so much that we are hurting our way of life.
While environmental problems may seem large, expensive or time consuming, we still have time to solve many of our problems.

8. What Are Our Main Environmental Problems?
While there are many environmental problems, most of them fall into 3 main categories. They are:
Resource Depletion
Pollution
Extinction

9. Resource Depletion
A natural resource is anything that living things use.
Resources can either be renewable or nonrenewable.
Renewable resources are replaced by nature in a relatively short period of time.
Examples include wood, freshwater, flowers, soil.
Nonrenewable resources are not replaced by nature in a fast manner
Examples include oil, coal, gold.
Presently, humans are using almost all resources faster than they can be replaced—even if they are renewable!

10. Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of something harmful or unwanted into an ecosystem
Pollution can wipeout entire ecosystems and can harm human health.
Even if the pollution is emitted in areas where most humans do not go, it can still harm humans because we eat plants and animals that are often affected by pollution.

11. Extinction Every year, thousands of species are going extinct.
Although extinction does happen naturally, scientists estimate that extinction is happening about 1000 times faster than normal.
Most species are becoming extinct because the areas in which they live are being destroyed.

12. A Global Perspective
Because the entire Earth is connected, what happens in one part of the planet affects all other parts of the planet.
All life on Earth resides in the biosphere, which is covers about 8 km above the ground and 8 km below the ground.
Consequently, most environmental problems are global problems.
And, most solutions to environmental problems require global cooperation.

13. The Biosphere

14. Developed and Developing Countries
Developed countries are those countries where the people have high incomes and high standards of living.
Examples include the United States, England, Sweden and Canada.
Developing countries are those countries where the people have low incomes and low standards of living.
Examples include China, Ethiopia, Romania and Mexico.

15. Population and Consumption
The population crisis results from the fact that the human population is growing in many regions faster than the region can support.
The population crisis is most severe in developing countries, which is why many developing countries often have major famines.
This leads to the consumption crisis which is that humans are consuming resources faster than they can be replaced by nature.
The consumption crisis is the worst in the developed countries because they are consuming far more resources than the larger populations in the developing countries.

16. A Sustainable World
The goal of environmental science is to create a sustainable world.
A sustainable world is one in which we can continue to live indefinitely with a high standard of living and health.
If we start now, we can achieve a sustainable world without sacrificing too much and before environmental problems become too massive to control.

17. Ch. 1-2: Using Science To Solve Environmental Problems
Key Terms
Applied Science
Ecology
Experiment
Hypothesis
Pure Science

18. California Content Standards for Science Addressed:
Investigation and Experimentation
(1) Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
(d) Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence. (f)Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms.
(g) Recognize the usefulness and limitations of models and theories as scientific representations of reality.
(m) Investigate a science-based societal issue by researching the literature, analyzing data, and communicating the findings. Examples of issues include irradiation of food, cloning of animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer, choice of energy sources, and land and water use decisions in California.
(n) Know that when an observation does not agree with an accepted scientific theory, the observation is sometimes mistaken or fraudulent (e.g., the Piltdown Man fossil or unidentified flying objects) and that the theory is sometimes wrong (e.g., the Ptolemaic model of the movement of the Sun, Moon, and planets).

19. Why Do I Need To Know This?
Because science is based on a certain method of determining theories.
Because scientific theories apply to almost every aspect of your life—whether it is from a medication prescribed to a doctor or how the battery in a gameboy works.
Because the Scientific Method is an ideal way to approach any problem that you may encounter in your life..

20. Key Sections Ch. 1-2 Using Science to Solve Environmental Problems
What Is Science?
Hypothesizing and Predicting
Experimenting
Organizing and Interpreting Data
Using Graphics and Sharing Information
Communicating Results

21. Using Science To Solve Environmental Problems
Science can be divided into two types of fields:
Pure Science; and
Applied Science
A pure science seeks to explain how the natural world works
Physics, chemistry and biology are pure sciences.
An applied science uses the information from pure sciences to solve modern problems.
Environmental science is an applied science.

22. What is Science? Science consists of 2 things:
All the information that scientists know; and
The Scientific Method which allows scientists to learn new things.

23. Observing All science begins and rests upon observation.
Therefore, science requires good, accurate and detailed observations.
For information to be valuable, it needs to be recorded so that it can be shared with others.

24. Hypothesizing and Predicting
A hypothesis is a testable explanations for an observation.
A hypothesis does not have to be right.
Often, much can be learned by testing false hypothesis.
The key is to formulate a hypothesis and test it.

25. Experimenting
In order to check a hypothesis, an experiment needs to be done.
In an experiment, there are usual two groups which are identical in every way except one:
The group that receives the difference is called the “Test Group”.
The group that does not receive the difference is the “Control Group”.

26. Organizing and Interpreting Data
Once the experiment is done, scientists need to organize and assemble all the facts that they gathered.
Often scientists use math to determine whether their observations are important and to explain relationships in their observations.

27. Using Graphics and Sharing Information
Scientific data and information is often best shown in charts and graphs.
Charts and graphs can show different relationships between things that may not be seen using other methods.

28. Communicating Results
The last step in conducting scientific experiments is to communicate the results to others.
This is very important as it allows other scientists to check to see if the information is accurate and to use that information for other purposes.
The best science comes from scientists who write and publish their findings in journals that and papers that are reviewed by other scientists and open for everyone to see.

29. Ch. 1-3: Making Environmental Decisions
Key Terms
None.

30. California Content Standards for Science Addressed:
Investigation and Experimentation
(1) Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
(d) Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence. (f)Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms.
(g) Recognize the usefulness and limitations of models and theories as scientific representations of reality.
(m) Investigate a science-based societal issue by researching the literature, analyzing data, and communicating the findings. Examples of issues include irradiation of food, cloning of animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer, choice of energy sources, and land and water use decisions in California.
(n) Know that when an observation does not agree with an accepted scientific theory, the observation is sometimes mistaken or fraudulent (e.g., the Piltdown Man fossil or unidentified flying objects) and that the theory is sometimes wrong (e.g., the Ptolemaic model of the movement of the Sun, Moon, and planets).

31. Why Do I Need To Know This?
Because you will have to make many environmental decisions in your life, ranging from easy ones (such as recycling) to difficult ones (such as supporting government bonds to protect wetlands).
Because you can use this decision-making model in any aspect of your life.

32. Key Sections Ch. 1-3 Making Environmental Decisions
An Environmental Decision-Making Model
A Hypothetical Situation
How To Use the Decision Making Model
Gather Information
Consider Values
Explore Consequences
Make A Decision

33. Making Environmental Decisions
Making good environmental decisions requires balancing many needs and answering many questions.
These include
How much will it cost?
Who or what will benefit?
Is it possible to do that?
What alternatives are there?

34. An Environmental Decision-Making Model
There are 4 steps to the Environmental Decision-Making Model.
They are:
Gather Information
Consider Values
Explore Consequences
Make a Decision

35. A Hypothetical Situation
The environmental decision-making model can apply to real situations or hypothetical situations.

36. How To Use The Decision-Making Model
You can use the decision-making model for any situation that you encounter.
The key is to follow it in order.
The more information that you gather AND the more consequences that you consider, the better your decision will be.
As with anything in life, not making a decision is a decision in and of itself.