Transcript environmental science

BELL WORK
• Pick up a notes packet on the back table.
• Turn-in any forms that you have.
• Take out a writing utensil.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
CHAPTER 1
THE ENVIRONMENT
• Includes the natural world and things
made by humans.
• It is a very complex web of relationships
that connect us with the world we live in.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
• The study of the impact of humans on the
environment
• GOAL: to understand and solve environmental
problems
• It uses ecology-the study of how living things
interact with each other and with their nonliving
environment
• Chemistry, Geology, Botany, and Zoology also
provide information to help environmental
science succeed
• Human populations also impact our environment
How did it start?
• Observations from non-scientists
are often the first steps in
addressing a problem in the
environment.
• Where ever humans have
hunted, grown food, or settled
they have changed the
environment.
• CAN YOU THINK OF ANY
PROBLEMS IN OUR
ENVIRONMENT?
Hunter Gatherers
• People who obtain food by collecting
plants, hunting wild animals, or
scavenging their remains.
Agriculture
• The practice of growing, breeding, and
caring for plants and animals that are used
for food, clothing, housing, transportation,
etc.
Agricultural Revolution
• People stopped wandering and started
raising their own animals and plants by
collecting wild ones and domesticating
them –this started over 10,000 years ago!
• This drastically impacted human societies
and the environment.
Agricultural Revolution Cont.
• Populations Soared! More individuals
could be supported via farming than by
hunting/gathering in one area
• It changed the food we eat! –All food that
we eat today use to be wild. Take a look
at page 10 in your book.
Farmlands Take Over!
• Grasslands, forests, and wetlands were
replaced with farmland-habitats were
destroyed.
– Slash and burn agriculture was popular BUT
when forests were replaced with farmland on a
large scale: soil loss, floods, and water
shortages made the land unfarmable.
Industrial Revolution
• Shifted energy sources from animal muscles, humans,
and running water to machines and increased fossil
fuels.
– QUESTION: WHAT IS A FOSSIL FUEL?
Industrial Revolution Cont.
• POSITIVE OUTCOMES: populations grew,
transportation became faster, inventions
improved the quality of life, agriculture was
more productive, and sanitation, nutrition, and
medical care also greatly improved.
• NEGATIVE OUTCOMES: increased
environmental problems
– Started using artificial substances instead of raw
animal and plant products such as plastics
• NOTE: We link a LOT of our environmental
problems today, to what started to happen way
back here!
EARTH IS CLOSED
• Earth is a closed
system
– Only thing that enters
in a large quantity is
energy from the sun
– Only thing that leaves
in large quantities is
heat
• The problem on earth: some resources are
limited, if we use them up, they are gone forever.
• Environmental Problems occur on
different scales: local, regional, or
global.
• Pressure on the environment will
continue to increase as human
population continues to grow-so
does the need for food and
resources.