Introduction Flashcards
What is Environmental Science?
Is an interdisciplinary field that integrates physical and biological sciences to study the environment and the solutions to environmental problems.
What does Environmental issues effect?
Environmental issues effect every part of your life.
How do we asses what’s important in Environmental Issues?
Critical thinking - develop skills to analyze and evaluate the validity of information - decide what to believe
What is critical thinking?
Observing something you see on a day to day basis and questioning its validity.
What are Resources?
the use and abuse of nonrenewable and renewable natural resources
What is Environmental Damage?
the effects of pollution, disturbances and other issues.
What are examples of human population growth having diverse causes and consequences?
Death rate decrease
Birth rate declining, woman independence
Decrease through war and resource hungry
What are examples of Environmental Concerns?
Air pollution
Land use and waste management
Water management
Greenhouse gas emissions
Invasive species
Drinking water supplies
What is Environmental ethics?
Values, rights and obligations
What are Utilitarian Values?
are based on the usefulness of something to human welfare.
What are Ecological values?
are related to the utility of something to both humans and other species, as well as natural ecosystems
What are Aesthetic values?
are based on an appreciation of beauty including that of the natural world
What are Intrinsic value?
insist that all entities have inherent worth and a right to exist regardless of the needs of people
What is scire?
to know
What is the scientific method?
A body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge or correcting and integrating previous knowledge
To be termed scientific a method of inquiry must be based on “empirical” and “measurable” evidence subject to specific principle of reasoning
Repeatability
Never prove things in science
What is reproducibility?
the capacity for a particular result to be observed or obtained more than once.
What is replication?
repeating studies or tests to verify reliability
What is deductive reasoning?
Deriving testable prediction about specific cases from general principles
Derive things from big picture to smaller picture?
Taking bigger observation to infer smaller the smaller picture
What is inductive reasoning?
hindering general principles from specific examples
Taken experience through repetition
Small observation to make a bigger observation/picture
(seeing a certain fish appear during seasons every year to assume or predict a reasoning that they always appear that season)
What is ecology?
is the study of the relationships of organisms and their environment, oikoc, “house”
What does the realm of Ecology encompasses?
Individual organisms
Populations
Communities
Landscapes and seascapes
What is the difference between Inter and intraspecific species?
Inter = between two species
Intra = within a species
What is biophysical environment?
the complex of biotic,
climatic, and edaphic factors that act upon an organism
and determine its form and survival
What is an ecosystem approach?
does not view an ecosystem as a random
grouping of populations, species, communities, and environments —
rather, it confirms them as intrinsically connected and interdependent,
although in varying degrees
What is an ecological footprint?
is a measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems
