Chapter 2: Frameworks for Understanding: Science, Systems, and Ethics

1. Chapter 2:Frameworks for Understanding: Science, Systems, and Ethics

2. Outline • What is Science? • Cooperation and Consensus in Science • Systems • Environmental Ethics and World Views • Religious and Cultural Perspectives • Environmental Justice

3. 2.1 What is Science? Science assumes the world is knowable and is: • a methodical, logical process for producing knowledge about natural phenomena • a cumulative body of knowledge produced by scientists • a process based on careful observation and hypothesis testing that may lead to a theory.

5. Science Depends on Skepticism and Accuracy • Ideally scientists are skeptical and unbiased. • Scientists strive for: • accuracy - correctness of measurements • reproducibility - repeatability of results • Repeating studies or tests is called replication.

7. Deductive & Inductive Reasoning • Deductive reasoning - logical reasoning from general to specific • Inductive reasoning - reasoning from many observations to produce a general rule • It is also important to recognize the role of insight, creativity, aesthetics, and luck in research.

8. Hypotheses and Theories • Hypothesis - a testable explanation • Scientific theory - a description or explanation that has been supported by a large number of tests and is considered by experts to be reliable

9. Probability • Probability is a measure of how likely something is to occur. • Scientists often increase confidence in a study by comparing results to a random sample or a larger group.

10. Statistics • Many statistical tests focus on calculating the probability that observed results could have occurred by chance. • Usually ecological tests are considered significant if this probability is less than 5%. • The amount of confidence scientists have in the results depends upon the sample size as well. A large sample size is better than a small sample.

11. Experimental Design • Natural experiment - involves observation of events that have already happened • Manipulative experiment - conditions are deliberately altered for one variable and all other variables are held constant • Controlled study - comparing a treatment group to a control group which has not received the treatment • Blind experiment - researcher doesn’t know which group has been treated until after the data have been analyzed. Eliminate the “placebo effect” • Double-blind experiment - neither the subject nor the researcher knows who is in the treatment group. Minimizes risk of bias.

12. Variables • In each study there is one dependent variable and one or more independent variables. • The dependent variable is affected by what happens to the independent variable. • In a graph, the dependent variable is on the vertical (Y) axis and the independent variable is on the horizontal axis (X).

13. Models • Models are simple representations of phenomena. They can be physical models, model organisms, mathematical models, or other types of models. • They allow scientists to study complex systems and predict the effect of conditions that are too difficult to create and control. • When multiple models agree, scientists gain confidence.

14. Case Study: John Snow and Cholera • London in 1854 was suffering from a severe cholera outbreak. • Symptoms: Diarrhea, vomiting, paralysis, death. • John Snow did interviews and mapped the locations of the disease.

15. Cholera in London

16. 2.2 Consensus and Conflict • Scientific consensus (general agreement among informed scholars) stems from a community of scientists who collaborate in a cumulative, self-correcting process. • Paradigm shifts (great changes in explanatory frameworks) occur when a majority of scientists agree that an old explanation no longer works very well.

17. Critical Thinking • Table 2.2 (p42) has several “Baloney Detection” questions.

18. Environmental Science vs. Environmentalism • Environmental science - use of scientific method to study processes and systems in the environment • Environmentalism - working to influence attitudes and policies that affect our environment

19. Pseudoscience • Appears or claims to be science, but does not follow scientific principles. • Examples…..

20. The Earth is Flat

21. Geocentric Solar System

22. Spontaneous Generation

23. Alchemy

24. y2k! • Many computers only used two digits to store the date, so when the new year hit, they would revert to 1900 instead of 2000. • Fears: Computers controlling power grids, nuclear reactors, weapons, would fail. • Reality: • Japan had a nuclear power plant false alarm go off. • Australia had two bus station ticket machines shut down. • 150 slot machines in Delaware shut down. • The clock on the U.S. Navy’s website had the incorrect date.

25. Doomsday: 2012 • The Mayan Calendar ends on December 21, 2012. • A huge sunspot or sunflare will cause a polar reversal, causing the Earth to spin in the opposite direction. • Earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions will follow.

26. 2.3 Systems • Systems - networks of interactions among many interdependent factors • Examples: ecosystems, climates systems, geologic systems, economic systems • Systems are composed of processes. We can think of them in terms of flows and storage compartments. Example: Fish tank

28. System Characteristics • Positive feedback loop - when a flow leads to compartment changes that further enhance the flow • Negative feedback loop - dampens flow • Equilibrium - dynamic state in which system is changing little over time (homeostasis) • Disturbance - periodic destructive events such as fire or flood • Resilience - ability of system to recover quickly from disturbance

29. System Characteristics • System can be closed or open. • Closed -self contained and receives no inputs of energy or materials from the outside • Open -system that takes inputs from its surroundings • Emergent properties - characteristics of a whole, functioning system that are quantitatively or qualitatively greater than the sum of the system’s parts • Example: The human body is a system of flows and compartments but from that system emerge emotions, ideas, painting, dance, etc.

30. 2.4 Environmental Ethics & World Views • Ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with what actions are right and wrong. • Environmental ethics deals with our moral obligations to the world around us. • Worldviews - sets of basic beliefs, images and understandings that shape how we see the world around us. Worldviews also determine what questions are valid to ask.

31. Who or What has Moral Value? • Moral extensionism - extending moral values to others • Should moral extensionism include granting some degree of moral value to animals, plants and the environment? • Value - a measure of the worth of something • Inherent value - intrinsic or innate worth • Instrumental value - items have worth only because they are valued by another person

33. Ecofeminism • Ecofeminists argue most philosophers came from a patriarchal system based on domination and superiority. • Contend domination, exploitation, and mistreatment of women, children, minorities, and nature are intimately connected and mutually reinforcing • Argue that we need more cooperation with both nature and other people to achieve a peaceful, sustainable society

34. 2.5 Faith-Based Conservation and Environmental Justice • Stewardship - taking care of the resources we are given • Calls for environmental stewardship and for human domination of the environment can be found in the writings of most major faiths. Which of these ideas is emphasized has varied throughout human history. • In 1995, representatives of 9 major faiths met in Ohito, Japan to outline common beliefs and responsibilities towards protecting the Earth.

35. Religious and Cultural Perspectives

36. Environmental Justice • Environmental justice combines civil rights with environmental protection to demand a safe, healthy environment for everyone. • Poor and minorities often live in polluted neighborhoods. • Environmental racism is inequitable distribution of environmental hazards based on race. Example: Lead poisoning in children • Toxic colonialism is the practice of targeting poor communities or communities of color in developing nations as waste disposal areas.