Welcome to Environmental Geography!

GEOG 101 (Section 01) – Day 1 Welcome to Environmental Geography! (Photo by P. Regoniel in Picable).

Getting Oriented • My name is Don Alexander. My office is across the street at Building 359, Room 215. My local is 2261, and my office hours are noon to 1 on Mondays and Wednesdays. • Welcome back event for geographers on 12th at 10:30 a.m. in Map Room. • How many of you are at VIU for the first time? If so, if you need a hand figuring anything out, just let me know. • Free Student Store in Lower Cafeteria on Thursday 9 to 2. • The textbook for this course is available in the bookstore. There may be used copies of the previous edition at the bookstore or at the student union store. It’sEnvironment: The Science Behind the Stories (Canadian edition) byJay Withgott, Scott Brennan, and Barbara Murck (Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2013) [see www.pearsoned.ca/highered/ myenvironmentplace/index.htmlfor student support materials]. It's a good book, with lots of illustrations, case studies, and Canadian examples. Please note that we will be skipping Chapters 2-4 and going straight to Chapter 5 for next week.

Course Focus • This course will provide an introduction to the Earth's biophysical systems from an environmental science/ environmental geography perspective, with a focus on the increasing impacts of human beings on these systems, and methods for analyzing and evaluating human-environment relationships. • Topics include: •carrying capacity •limits to growth •ecological footprints •ecosystems and energy flows •human population growth and dispersion •agriculture and food issues •biodiversity •forest management •water resources and fisheries •climate change and air pollution •energy use •waste management •urban sustainability •environmental ethics and policy, and other concepts and practices relevant to a sustainable world.

Getting Oriented • The course will be a mix of lectures, discussion, videos, and assignments. • Keep in mind that this course has a waitlist, so please decide this week if you are going to stay, or if you have a friend who is registered but is not here today, tell them to e-mail me right away. [check!] • Also: read the course outline carefully.... We will go over some of it today. • If you suffer from a disability of any kind, you need to register with Disability Services (in Building 200) and let me know as soon as possible.

Getting Oriented • The focus of the course is the global ecological crisis [see http://energyskeptic.com/2011/9-planetery-boundaries/] and what we can do to address it, including what is already being done in a number of sectors. If you have specific interests, let me know and I will try to accommodate them if at all possible. • What are some key environmental issues facing our planet? What is causing them and how are they impacting on people and other species? • I would also like to take advantage of whatever knowledge or previous life experience you have that is relevant. What can you offer? “Arctic Ice Decline Much Worse Than Expected…” (summer 2012 news story)

Getting Oriented • The course will involve two one and half hour lectures per week, occasional guest speakers, videos, class discussion, and hands-on activities. • In addition to the final exam and a mid-term quiz, there will be two major assignments. For these, you will choose from the four following options: a life-cycle analysis of an everyday product, a media analysis of a controversial environmental issue, a research and writing project on the ecological and social values associated with West Linley Valley, and the development of an environmental education unit to present in a local elementary or secondary school. You may also be asked to answer questions about videos shown, and to participate in a debate on a key environmental topic. [more instructions soon!]

Getting Oriented • EVALUATION • 1. Attendance and Participation in in-class work- 10% • 2. Mid-term quiz- 15% • 3. Life-cycle Analysis or Campus Problem-solving Project- 25% (see outline for proposal and final due dates)‏ • 4. Media analysis or Elementary/ High School Educational Outreach Exercise- 25% • 6. Final Exam- 25% (TBA)‏ ________________________ 100% [more on the assignments soon] • You can also boost your participation marks by bringing relevant resources to my and the class' attention.

Ground Rules • No late assignments unless there is some health or family emergency. • No plagiarism – all assignments must be original. If you have any questions about what that means, we can talk about it. • Critical thinking is encouraged! • For referencing use the parenthetical forms of University of Chicago or APA (The Writing Centre has handouts or see http://libguides.viu.ca/citing). • If at all possible print double-sided or on scrap paper. • If you're going to miss a class, please let me know. • When you do miss, it's your responsibility to keep up with the readings, and see what was covered in lecture by viewing the lecture notes on my web site:http://web.viu.ca/alexander2under “Courses.” • No abuse of laptops or phones in class (i.e. surfing or Facebook).

Chapter 1 will help you understand: • The meaning of the term environment • The importance of natural resources and ecosystems • That environmental science and environmental geography are interdisciplinary • The scientific method and how science operates • Some pressures facing the global environment • Sustainability and sustainable development 1-9

Our Island, Earth -- Overview All the things around us with which we interact: • Biotic (living things) • Animals, plants, forests, soils, etc. • Abiotic (nonliving things)‏ • Continents, oceans, clouds, icecaps • Our built environment • Structures, human-created living centres • Social relationships and institutions 1-10

Humans… • are altering the natural systems we need for • resources, health, life-span, wealth, mobility, & leisure • Impacts: • natural systems have been degraded • long-term threat to health and survival of ourselves, other species and ecosystems • Environmental science and environmental geography study: • how the natural world works • how the environment affects humans and vice versa • Environmental geography gives special emphasis to how things interrelate in space – for instance, the relationship between pollution and climate change and health impacts on humans or ecosystems, or the spread of exotic species and how they impact on indigenous species. 1-11

Natural resources: vital to human survival FIGURE 1.1 • Renewable resources: • Perpetually available: sunlight, wind, wave energy • Those that renew themselves over longer periods: timber, water, soil • can be overharvested • Nonrenewable resources: finite supply; can be depleted • Oil, coal, minerals 1-12

Global human population growth • More than 7 billion humans • Why so many humans? • Agricultural revolution • Stable food supplies • Industrial revolution • Urbanized society powered by fossil fuels • Sanitation and medicines (decline in death rate) 1-13 FIGURE 1.2

weighingtheissues The “Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin • Unregulated exploitation of open access resources leads to resource depletion -- examples? • Resource users are tempted to increase use until the resource is gone • Solution? • Private ownership? • Voluntary organization to enforce responsible use? • Governmental regulations? 1-14

The “ecological footprint” developed by Mathis Wackernagel & William Rees • The environmental impact of an individual or population • Amount of biologically productive land + water required to provide raw materials a population consumes and absorb the waste produced • Overshoot: humans have surpassed the Earth’s capacity (the date when humans are said to have overshot the Earth's carrying capacity is said to fall earlier and earlier each year and now occurs August 22nd). We are using 40% more of the planet’s resources than are available on a sustainable basis from all the land! 1-15

Environmental science … can help us avoid mistakes made in the past. The lesson of Easter Island: people annihilated their culture by destroying their environment. Can we act more wisely to conserve our planet, or will we drive a bitumen-filled SUV straight into a cement wall? 1-16

weighingtheissues Environmental science/ geography are interdisciplinary • What experts would you need for: • The construction of a new hydroelectric dam • Environmental review for the Northern Gateway pipeline • The proposed draining of a wetland to build a new subdivision • A proposal to permit bear hunting in a national park • The management of a large oil spill offshore from a coastal ecosystem FIGURE 1.3 1-17

What is an “environmental problem”? • The perception of what constitutes a problem varies between individuals and societies • e.g. DDT, a pesticide • In developing countries: welcome because it kills malaria-carrying mosquitoes • In developed countries: not welcome, due to health risks FIGURE 1.4 1-18

Environmental science is not environmentalism • Environmental science • The pursuit of knowledge about the natural world • Scientists try to remain objective (though sources of funding can influence questions studied and conclusions arrived at)‏ • Environmentalism • A social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world, though some environmental scientists (e.g. David Suzuki, Andrew Weaver) become environmentalists because they feel the 'facts' demand that we take action as a society and as a species. 1-19

Science: • A systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it • A dynamic process of observation, testing, and discovery • The accumulated body of knowledge that results from this process • Science is essential for • Sorting fact from fiction • Developing solutions to the problems we face The nature of science Current controversy over federal government cancelling evidence-based science projects/ centres and muzzling scientists. This has led to recent protests (“Death of Evidence” in Ottawa) and to editorials in the prestigious science journal, Nature[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7407/full/487271b.html] 1-20

Science: Critically examining evidence • Scientists design tests: are ideas supported by evidence? • Explanations must: • Be testable • Resist repeated attempts to disprove it • Eventually ‘consensus’ results, as with human-induced climate change. • Accepted ideas can be applied in policy and management decisions (e.g. prescribed burning)‏ 1-21

The scientific method • A technique for testing ideas with observations • Assumptions: • The universe works according to unchanging natural laws • Events arise from causes, and cause other events • We use our senses and reason to understand nature’s laws FIGURE 1.7 1-22

The scientific method • A scientist makes an observation and asks questions of some phenomenon • The scientist formulates a hypothesis, a statement that attempts to explain the scientific question. • The hypothesis is used to generate predictions, which are specific statements that can be directly and unequivocally tested. • The test results either support or reject the hypothesis FIGURE 1.7 1-23

There are different ways to test hypotheses • Natural or correlational tests show real-world complexity • Cannot show causation • Manipulative experiments yield the strongest evidence • Can show causation • Not always possible to use FIGURE 1.8 1-24

The scientific process is part of a larger process • The scientific process includes peer review, publication, and debate • A consistently supported hypothesis becomes a theory, a well-tested and widely accepted explanation • With enough data, a paradigm shift –a change in the dominant view – can occur (examples?) FIGURE 1.9 1-25

Sustainability and the future of our world • Human population growth exacerbates all environmental problems • The growth rate has slowed, but we still add more than 200,000 people to the planet each day • Our consumption of resources has risen even faster than our population growth. • Life has become more pleasant for us so far • However, rising consumption amplifies the demands we make on our environment. 1-26

Ecological footprints are not all equal • The ecological footprints of countries vary greatly • Canada uses far more than its equal share of the world’s resources • Developing countries have much smaller footprints than developed countries FIGURE 1.10 1-27

We face challenges in agriculture • Expanded food production led to increased population and consumption • It’s one of humanity’s greatest achievements, but at an enormous environmental cost • Nearly half of the planet’s land surface is used for agriculture that depends heavily on • chemical fertilizers • pesticides, and produces • erosion • changed natural systems 1-28

We face challenges in pollution • Waste products and artificial chemicals used in farms, industries, and households • Each year, millions of people die from pollution… 1-29

We face challenges in climate • Scientists have firmly concluded that humans are changing the composition of the atmosphere • The Earth’s surface is warming • catastrophic decline in Artic sea ice • melting glaciers • rising sea levels • impacted wildlife and crops • increasingly destructive weather • Since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have risen by 38%, to the highest level in 650,000 years 1-30

We face challenges in biodiversity • Human actions have driven many species extinct, and biodiversity is declining dramatically • We are at the onset of a mass extinction event FIGURE 1.12 Biodiversity loss may be our biggest environmental problem; once a species is extinct, it is gone forever 1-31

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment • The most comprehensive scientific assessment of the condition of the world’s ecological systems, carried out by the UN • Major findings: • humans have drastically altered ecosystems • these changes have contributed to human well-being and economic development, but at a cost • environmental degradation could get much worse • degradation can be reversed, but it requires a lot of work 1-32

Our energy choices will affect our future • The lives we live today are due to fossil fuels • machines • chemicals • transportation • products (e.g. plastics) • Fossil fuels are a one-time bonanza; supplies will certainly decline • We have used up ½ of the world’s oil supplies; how will we handle this imminent fossil fuel shortage? 1-33

Sustainable solutions exist • We must develop solutions that protect both our quality of life and the environment • organic agriculture • new technology • reduce pollution • conservation • recycling • renewable energy sources FIGURE 1.13 1-34

Are things getting better or worse? • Many people think environmental conditions are better • Cornucopians: Human ingenuity will solve any problem • Some think things are much worse in the world • Cassandras: predict doom and disaster • How can you decide who is correct? • Are the impacts limited to humans, or are other organisms or systems involved? • Are the proponents thinking in the long or short term? • Are they considering all costs and benefits? 1-35

Sustainability: a goal for the future • How can humans live within the planet’s means? • Humans cannot exist without functioning natural systems • Sustainability • Leaves future generations with a rich and full Earth • Conserves the Earth’s natural resources • Maintains fully functioning ecological systems • Sustainable development: the use of resources to satisfy current needs without compromising future availability of resources (ambivalent meaning??) 1-36

Conclusion • Environmental science helps us understand our relationship with the environment and informs our attempts to solve and prevent problems. • Identifying a problem is the first step in solving it • Solving environmental problems can move us towards health, longevity, peace and prosperity • Environmental science and geography can help us find balanced solutions to environmental problems 1-37

QUESTION: Review • The term “environment” includes • Animals and plants • Oceans and rivers • Soil and atmosphere • All of the above are included in this term 1-38

Will we develop in a sustainable way? • The triple bottom line: sustainable solutions that meet • environmental goals • economic goals • social goals • Requires that humans apply knowledge from the sciences to • limit environmental impacts • maintain functioning ecological systems 1-39

QUESTION: Review • Which of the following is correct about the term “environmentalism”? • It is very science-oriented • It is a social movement to protect the environment • It usually does not include advocacy for the environment • It involves scientists trying to solve environmental problems 1-40

QUESTION: Review • Adding various amounts of fertilizer to plants in a laboratory is a _____ type of experiment • Correlative • Natural • Manipulative • Rare 1-41

QUESTION: Review • What is the definition of “sustainable development”? • Using resources to benefit future generations, even if it means lower availability now • Letting future generations figure out their own problems • Using resources to satisfy current needs without compromising future availability • Letting each country decide what is its best interest 1-42

QUESTION: Weighing the Issues • Which do you think is the best way to protect commonly owned resources (i.e., air, water, fisheries)? • Sell the resource to a private entity • Voluntary organizations to enforce responsible use • Governmental regulations • Do nothing and see what happens 1-43

QUESTION: Weighing the Issues • Do you think the rest of the world can have an ecological footprint as large as the footprint of the Canada? • Yes, because we will find new technologies and resources • Yes, because the footprint of Canada is not really that large • Definitely not; the world does not have that many resources • It does not matter; it’s not that important 1-44

QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and Data According to this graph, what has happened to the population over the last 500 years? a) It has grown exponentially b) It has grown linearly c) It has decreased d) It has slowed down recently 1-45

QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and Data What happens if test results reject a hypothesis? a) The scientist formulates a new hypothesis b) It shows the test failed c) The hypothesis was supported d) The predictions may not have been correct 1-46

Welcome to Environmental Geography!