Intro To Environmental Scoence Flashcards
What is the environment?
Environment is the sum total of our surroundings And the interaction between the spheres
sum total of our surrounding
oceans and forest
plants and animal
desert and glaciers
farms and living spaces
building and infrastructure
interacting spheres
scientific and traditional knowledge
ethics
economics
politics
culture and society
environmental science is interdisciplinary. how?
reflects many diverse perspecitives and knowledge bases such as natural science and social science
why is environmental science not equal to environmentalism?❓
both deal in same subject
envr sci aim to maintain objectivity
what is resource management in a perfect world?
rate of renewal = rate of use
resource management is guided by …
political social and economic factors
renewable natural resources
sunlight
wind energy
wave energy
geothermal energy
both renewable to non renewable
agricultural crops
forest water
forest products
soils
non renewable resources
crude oil
natural gas
coal
cu, alu, and other metals
tragedy of the commons quickly leads to
resource depletion = exceeded carrying capacity
what is the combined human footprint ?
1.5 time the earths biocapacity
worlds population is ———– over the last century
quadripled
pop may be —– by 2050
9.8 billion
environmental problems that have emerged on a larger scale
-anthropic global warming
-air and water pollution
-species extinction from habitat destruction, overfishing. etc
-invasive species
effects of industrial revolution
fossil fuels
cities and factories
industrialized agriculture
better medicine
better sanitation
IPAT model
I (impact) = P(population) A(affluence) T(technology)
the three pillars of sustanaibilty
social
environmental
economic
whats the 2- word def of sustanibility
one planet
what happens is carrying capacity is exceeded?
user species will decline / collapse or the system itself will be altered or depleted