Understanding the Environment

• The lecture introduces the term environment, the importance of natural resources, and how environmental science is interdisciplinary.

Environment

• It's the total of our surroundings, encompassing all the things around us with which we interact.
• Living things are biotic factors, including animals, plants, forests, and fungi.
• Non-living things are abiotic components, such as continents, oceans, clouds, soil, and rocks.
• Built environment includes buildings and human-created living centers.
• Social relationships and institutions also form part of the complete environment.

Humans

• They exist within the environment and are considered part of nature.
• Human survival depends on a healthy and functioning planet.
• Humans rely entirely on the environment for survival, which provides enriched and longer lives, increased wealth, health, mobility, and leisure time.
• Environmental science suggests we are part of the natural world, and our interactions with its other components matter greatly.

Natural Resources

• They're substances and energy sources needed for survival.
• Renewable resources are perpetually available like sunlight, wind, and wave energy.
• Renewable resources can renew themselves over short periods of time like timber, water, and soil. These can be destroyed.
• Non-renewable resources like oil, coal, and minerals can be depleted.

Global Human Population Growth

• There are over 8 billion humans.
• The agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution explain the growth
• The agricultural revolution increased stable food supplies.
• The industrial revolution urban society is powered by fossil fuels, providing sanitation and medicine, and more food.

Thomas Malthus

• Population growth must be controlled, as it will outstrip food production, resulting in starvation, war, and disease.
• Neo-Malthusians believe population growth has disastrous effects.
• Paul and Anne Ehrlich wrote "The Population Bomb (1968)", and agricultural advances have only postponed crises.

Resource Consumption

• Garret Hardin suggested the "tragedy of the commons" (1968)
• Unregulated exploitation causes resource depletion in grazing lands, forests, and air/water.
• No one is incentivized to care for a resource, everyone will take what they can until it is gone.
• Possible solutions to prevent overuse include private ownership, voluntary organization to enforce responsible use, and governmental regulations.

Ecological Footprint

• This is the environmental impact of a person or population measured by the amount of biologically productive land and water needed for resources and to dispose/recycle waste.
• Humans have surpassed the Earth's capacity to support us, resulting in overshoot.
• People are using 30% more of the planet's resources than are available on a sustainable basis.

Environmental Science

• It can help us avoid mistakes made by past civilizations because human survival depends on how we interact with our environment.
• Our impacts are now global.
• Many civilizations have fallen after depleting their resources.

Environmental Science Purpose

• The goal is to work how the natural world works and to develop solutions to environmental problems.
• The field is interdisciplinary.
• Natural sciences study information about the natural world, where environmental science programs are created.
• Social sciences study human interactions and behavior, and environmental studies programs are created.

Environmental Science vs Environmentalism

• Environmental science tries to pursue knowledge about the natural world, and scientists try to remain objective.
• Environmentalism is an environmental activism, a social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world.

Explore the concept of the environment, encompassing biotic, abiotic, and human-built elements. Discover how humans exist within and depend on this environment for survival. Learn about the interdisciplinary nature of environmental science and our interactions with the planet.