1. Environmental Science
 Why study
Environmental
Science?

2. Environmental Science
Environmental Science is…
An interdisciplinary study of how
the earth works
How we interact with the planet
How to deal with environmental
problems
It affects all aspects of your life

3. Interdisciplinary
 Biology
 Ecology
 Chemistry
 Physics
 Geology
 Meteorology
 Anthropology
 Economics
 Political Science
 Ethics

4. Global Environmental Concerns
Population Growth
Economic Development
Decline of Vital Ecosystems
Loss of Biodiversity
Global Atmospheric Changes

5. Population Growth -

6. Population Growth
Human population today is
approximately 7 billion
Global estimates for the year
2050 could reach over 9 billion
people

7. Population Growth -

8. Population Growth
 Concernover economic growth in
developing nations, e.g. China and India
 Most developing
countries have the
desire for a westernized
middle class life style

9. Population Growth
USA is the largest consumer of
fossil fuels and largest producer
of carbon emissions
With rapid economic growth what
is the impact on the environment?

11. Ecological Footprint
What is your Ecological Footprint?
 The ecological footprint is a measure of
human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.
It compares human demand with planet
Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate.
 Ecological Footprints measures
humanities demands on Nature.
Everything we do has consequences…
 www.myfootprint.org/

13. Vocabulary Definitions
Resource: is anything
obtained from the environment
to meet our needs and wants
Renewable Resources: can be
replenished fairly rapidly
Nonrenewable Resources:
exist in a limited quantity

14. Vocabulary Definitions
Conservation: the
management of natural
resources for future
generations
Environmental Degradation:
occurs when resource demands
exceed its replacement rate

15. Vocabulary Definitions
Ecosystem: A group of plants,
animals, and other organisms
that work/interact with each
other in a specific
environment.
Organism: Any living thing;
plant, animal or microbe

16. Vocabulary Definitions
Biodiversity: The variety of
organism found within an
ecosystem
Species: A single kind of any
plant, animal or microbe that
can reproduce and have viable
offspring

18. Decline of Ecosystems
What is the importance of healthy
ecosystems?
 Provides support for all life on this
planet

19. Decline of Ecosystems
How do you feel about habitat
loss?
What about animal extinction?
Why should we care about the
environment?

20. Easter Island

22. Loss of Biodiversity
Endangered Species
-every day one species goes extinct
-there are thousands of
animals on the
Endangered Species List
-this number increases
every year
-few animals ever get de-listed

26. Loss of Biodiversity
Risks of losing biodiversity?
-animal species once gone can never
be replaced
-stability within the environment
decreases

28. Sustainable Future
Sustainability
A habitat that
can continue indefinitely
without depleting
its resources

29. Stewardship
 What is Stewardship?
-taking responsibility for our actions
and how they effect the planet

30. Stewardship
 Transition Generation…
Are you a part of the solution?

31. Science & Scientific Method
 Science: A way of gaining knowledge
 Scientific Method:
1. Problem/Observation
2. Hypothesis
3. Experiment
4. Theory/Solution
 Data:Information that is gathered from
observations and measurements drawn
from experiments

33. Science & Scientific Method
 Theories:An explanation of how
things work
 Theory of Evolution
 Theory of Relativity
 Theory of Gravity

34. Science & Scientific Method
What is scientific objectivity?
-All information is considered when
developing conclusions
What is scientific rationality?
-All information is considered and
presented is a clear and logical
fashion
 All scientific research is peer reviewed
for accuracy, clarity and rationality.

35. Science & Scientific Method
 Sound Science: (reliable) is peer
reviewed research that can be
duplicated
 Junk Science: (unreliable) usually
doesn’t have a solid scientific basis of
reasoning, challenges other scientific
data with the intent of causing
confusion and damage to further their
own interests

36. Science & Scientific Method
Cause & Effect
A cause is something that makes something
else happen. Out of two events, it is the
event that happens first
 An effect is what happens as a result of the
cause. Of two related events, it’s the one
that happens second or last
-pollution and acid rain

37. Science & Scientific Method
Correlation
a statistical measure of a relationship
between two or more variables, gives an
indication of how one variable may predict
another
-Body versus Brain size

38. Science & Scientific Method
Observation
Interpretation
-When looking at scientific
evidence, you need to see thing
objectively without emotional
interpretation!