1 / 7

Environmental Science

Environmental Science. Chapter 1: Studying the State of Our Earth. Let’s review some terms. Environment Environmental science System Ecosystem Biotic/abiotic Environmentalist Environmental studies. Environmental Indicators.

aretha
Download Presentation

Environmental Science

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Environmental Science Chapter 1: Studying the State of Our Earth

  2. Let’s review some terms Environment Environmental science System Ecosystem Biotic/abiotic Environmentalist Environmental studies

  3. Environmental Indicators • Are Earth’s life-support systems being degraded by human-induced changes? • Ecosystem services: clean water, timber, fisheries… ? • Indicators show the health and quality of a natural system – not necessarily the cause • Five to focus on in this course: • Biological diversity (genetic, species, ecosystem) • Food production • Global climate • Human population • Resource depletion

  4. Sustainable practices • Requirements: • Environmental systems cannot be damaged beyond their ability to recover • Renewable resources must not be depleted faster than they can regenerate • Nonrenewable resources must be used sparingly • Ecological footprint • Energy, settlements, timber and paper, food and fibers, seafood, carbon footprint, built-up land, forests, cropland and pastures, fisheries, minerals

  5. The process of science • Observations and questions • Forming a hypothesis – what, exactly, is an ‘educated guess’? • Null hypothesis – the statement that can be proved wrong • Collecting data • Important considerations: replication, sample size, accuracy, precision, uncertainty • Interpreting results • Inductive reasoning versus deductive reasoning • Disseminating findings • Terms to keep in mind: critical thinking, theory, natural law

  6. Experimental design • Controlled experiment • One variable to test!  independent variable • One group gets the test!  experimental group • The test causes the result!  dependent variable • The other group allows us to compare!  control group • Natural experiment • A natural event acts as an experimental treatment in an ecosystem • Example: study of forest regrowth after a volcano

  7. Challenges of environmental science Lack of baseline data for comparison – there is no ‘control’ planet without humans Subjectivity – one man’s trash is another man’s treasure… but what about the ecosystem? Interactions – natural systems are extremely complex Human well-being – people who are struggling to get their basic needs met are less concerned for environmental issues. These same people may be more impacted by environmental problems.

More Related