Environmental Value Systems and Models

Environmental Value Systems (EVS)

• Significant historical influences on the environmental movement include literature, media, environmental disasters, international agreements, and technological developments.
• An EVS is a worldview/paradigm that shapes how individuals/groups perceive and evaluate environmental issues. It's influenced by cultural, religious, economic, and sociopolitical contexts.
• EVSs are systems with inputs (education, experience, culture, media) that lead to consistent outputs (decisions, evaluations).
• EVS types range from ecocentric (holistic, ecological and social wellbeing central) to anthropocentric (human-centered sustainability) to technocentric (optimistic about technology solving problems).
• Deep ecologists are an example of an extreme ecocentric EVS, while cornucopians exemplify an extreme technocentric EVS.

Systems and Models

• A system approach visualizes complex interactions (ecological or societal). System interactions produce emergent properties.
• Systems can be categorized by size, levels, or processes.
• Systems consist of storages and flows. Flows can be from transfer (change in location) or transformations (change in nature, state, or energy).
• System diagrams use boxes for storages and arrows to show energy and matter flows. Open systems exchange energy and matter; closed systems only energy. Isolated systems exchange neither.
• Ecosystems are open systems.

Energy and Equilibria

• The first law of thermodynamics states energy cannot be created or destroyed but can be transformed.
• The second law states a system's entropy (disorder) increases over time.
• Entropy reductions in an energy transformation reduce available energy.
• An ecosystem typically exists in a steady-state equilibrium in an open system, often maintained by stabilizing negative feedback loops.
• Positive feedback loops can destabilize systems and push towards tipping points. Ecosystem resilience describes the tendency to avoid these points.
• System stability can be affected by diversity and the size of storages.

Sustainability

• Sustainability is using and managing resources that allow for natural replacement and ecosystem recovery.
• Natural capital encompasses natural resources that produce natural income (goods/services).
• Ecosystems provide life-supporting services (e.g., water, flood protection).
• Environmental indicators measure sustainability on various scales (local-global).
• ElAs (Environmental Impact Assessments) precede projects to evaluate impacts and propose mitigation strategies.
• Ecological footprint (EF) calculates the area needed to sustain a population's consumption rate. Unsustainable populations have EF exceeding available area.

Humans and Pollution

• Pollution is adding substances/agents to an environment faster than it can render them harmless, affecting organisms.
• Pollutants can range from substances to energy (light, sound, thermal) and biological agents.
• Pollution can be point-source (specific origin) or non-point-source. It can be primary or secondary.
• Strategies to manage pollution occur at multiple levels (changing human activity, regulating pollutants, clean-up/restoration).

Species, Populations, Communities, and Ecosystems

• A species is a group of interbreeding organisms sharing common characteristics.
• A habitat is a species' normal environment.
• A niche describes abiotic/biotic conditions and resources a species requires.
• Populations are groups of the same species living and interacting in an area.
• Communities are groups of populations interacting within a habitat.
• Ecosystems combine the community with the physical environment.

Biomes, Zonation, and Succession

• Biomes are large-scale ecosystems grouped by similar climatic conditions (aquatic, forest, grassland, desert, tundra).
• Zonation describes community changes across environmental gradients. Examples include altitude, distance from shore, and tidal levels.
• Succession is a directional directional change in community structure over time, from pioneer to climax communities.

Explore the concepts of Environmental Value Systems (EVS) and their historical influences on the environmental movement. This quiz covers different types of EVS, their inputs and outputs, and the significance of systems and models in understanding ecological and societal interactions.