APES Getting Started Guide

1. APES Getting Started Guide What do I have to do to be successful and still keep my sanity in tact, while trying to have a life ?

2. 1. Be familiar with the APES Web Page, www.ehsscience.com Read assigned pages at home and learn the objectives. Go the textbook web page and answer all quiz questions. Don’t wait till the last minute to begin your project. Know how to write a lab report, as posted on the web page. Always ask questions when you get stuck or don’t understand something. Don’t get intimidated, I am always here to help you. Visit the web page often., keep a journal! Use study groups or a study buddy to learn concepts. Relax and take a genuine interest in Environmental Science

3. Your Journal!Only fools represent themselves in court and rely on memory alone! Includes chapter notes! Includes class notes! Returned papers! On-line quiz and essay questions! Chapter and class objective answers! Class and web research! Project information!

4. Define environmental science and explain why environmental sustainability is an important concern of environmental science.

5. "Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" is one widely accepted definition of sustainability.

6. Stated differently, it involves reorganizing our life support systems - agriculture, transportation, energy production, etc. - so that life on Earth can be sustained indefinitely.

8. With approximately 6.7 billion people on Earth now and a projected 9 billion by mid-century, we must find ways of reducing consumption of resources if we are to avoid dramatic environmental degradation and the potential of global ecosystem collapse.

9. Sustainability does not just consider the environmental dimension; the social and economic dimensions are what round out the “triple bottom line,” a standard of ethical responsibility many corporations, institutions, and governments have adopted as a guiding principle.

10. Summarize human population issues, including population size and level of consumption.

13. Approximately 6.6 billion humans now inhabit the Earth. By comparison, there might be 20 million mallard ducks and, among a multitude of threatened and endangered species, perhaps 100,000 gorillas, 50,000 polar bears, and less than 10,000 tigers, 2,000 giant pandas and 200 California condors

14. Describe the three factors that are most important in determining human impact on the environment and solve a problem using the IPAT equation. What is the IPAT Equation, or I = P X A X T?

15. It describes the multiplicative contribution of population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T) to environmental impact (I). Environmental impact (I) may be expressed in terms of resource depletion or waste accumulation; population (P) refers to the size of the human population; affluence (A) refers to the level of consumption by that population; and technology (T) refers to the processes used to obtain resources and transform them into useful goods and wastes.

16. In Summary The IPAT equation made a contribution to understanding the multiple causes of environmental impact, and it continues to be developed as a method for improving our understanding of these issues. It has not helped in identifying sustainable scale, but it is a useful framework to assist in thinking about ways of reducing environmental impacts by reducing various types of throughput.

17. Briefly describe some of the data that suggest that certain chemicals used by humans may also function as endocrine disrupters in animals, including humans.

18. Provide an overview of how human activities have affected the following: the Georges Bank fishery, tropical migrant birds, wolf populations in Yellowstone National Park, and invasive species such as comb jellies and zebra mussels.

19. The Tragedy of the Commons on Georges Bank, and Elsewhere In the Massachusetts State Capitol there is a wooden statue of the Sacred Cod, a tribute to the massive fishing ground called Georges Bank. For 200 years codfish from Georges Bank have enriched New England. Now, says the Northeast Fisheries Center, the cod population of Georges Bank is collapsing.

20. Zebra mussels can severely effect native mussels and clams by interfering with their feeding, growth, movement, respiration, and reproduction. For example, zebra mussels can colonize a clam shell to such an extent that the clam cannot open its shell to eat. Some native mussels have been found with more than 10,000 zebra mussels attached to them. In addition to colonizing native mussels and clams, zebra mussels may attach to slow-moving species such as crayfish and turtles.

21. Neotropical migrant birds are the songbirds that represent over 50%, more precisely, 340 of the 600 species, of North American birds. As spring begins, more than 300 species of Neotropical migratory birds head north to breed and raise young in the United States and Canada. In the fall they return to warmer climates in tropical regions of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

22. Characterize human impacts on the global atmosphere, including stratospheric ozone depletion and climate warming.

23. No environmental issue as vividly demonstrates the impact human-produced chemicals can have on nature as the destruction of stratospheric ozone.

24. Ozone is a relatively unstable form of molecular oxygen containing three oxygen atoms (O3). Radiation from the sun continuously bombards the Earth's atmosphere, causing molecules to break apart into component elements that form into new chemical compounds. Ozone is produced when upper-atmosphere oxygen molecules (O2) are broken apart by ultraviolet light. Most of the freed oxygen atoms immediately bond with nearby oxygen molecules to form ozone (O + O2 = O3).

25. Ozone is a gas that occurs both in the Earth's upper atmosphere and at ground level. In the troposphere, the air closest to the Earth's surface, ground-level or "bad" ozone is a pollutant that is a significant health risk, especially for children with asthma. It also damages crops, trees and other vegetation. It is a main ingredient of urban smog.

26. Describe some of the consequences of tropical rainforest destruction.

28. Although tropical forests cover only about 7 percent of the Earth’s dry land, they probably harbor about half of all species on Earth.

29. Many species are so specialized to microhabitats within the forest that they can only be found in small areas. Their specialization makes them vulnerable to extinction.

30. Global markets consume rainforest products that depend on sustainable harvesting: latex, cork, fruit, nuts, timber, fibers, spices, natural oils and resins, and medicines.

31. In addition, the genetic diversity of tropical forests is basically the deepest end of the planetary gene pool. Hidden in the genes of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria that have not even been discovered yet may be cures for cancer and other diseases or the key to improving the yield and nutritional quality of foods—which the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says will be crucial for feeding the nearly ten billion people the Earth will likely need to support in coming decades.

32. Finally, genetic diversity in the planetary gene pool is crucial for the resilience of all life on Earth to rare but catastrophic environmental events, such as meteor impacts or massive, sustained volcanism. Varieties of Soy Beans

33. Define environmental ethics and discuss distinguishing features of the Western and deep ecology worldviews.

34. Environmental ethics is the discipline that studies the moral relationship of human beings to, and also the value and moral status of, the environment and its nonhuman contents.