Chapter 2: Addressing Environmental Problems, Part One

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Chapter 2 Addressing Environmental Problems,
Part One

• Michelle Vanderwist
• 7th period AP Enviro

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Objective One List and briefly describe the
five components of solving environmental
problems
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Scientific Assessment

• Gathering information through observations and
  experiments to form a model, which is a formal
  statement that describes the situation.

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Risk Analysis

• Analyze potential consequences of intervention,
  including adverse effects.

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Public Education

• Explain the problem, present all alternatives for
  action, and reveal probable cost and results of
  each choice.

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Political Action

• Public selects an action, but during political
  process there are differences of opinion.

VS.
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Follow-Through

• Results of any action should be carefully
  monitored make sure problem is being addressed
  AND judge/improve initial evaluation and model.

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Objective Two Given a simple problem, write a
hypothesis and design an experiment to test the
hypothesis, using the procedure and terminology
of the scientific method
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Recognize Question, Develop Hypothesis

• Scientific method never proves anythingonly
  disproves other hypotheses, which leaves the
  plausible ones

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Design/Perform Experiment

• Analyze data to reach a conclusion.
• Theory explanation of hypotheses,
• Principles highest level of confidence,
• Law principle of great basic importance.

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Share New Knowledge
Publish information to share findings with
others
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Inductive Vs. Deductive Reasoning
Inductive Specific information General
Conclusions

• Deductive
• General conclusions
• Specific information

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Objective Three

• Explain how Risk Assessment helps determine
  adverse health effects

?

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• Probabilities of risk are always calculated as
  fractions certain risk 1, certain not to
  occur 0.
• Example Smoking 0.0036 risk of cancer 1
  pack/day

(High Risk)
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• Step 12 - Hazard Identification
• Dose-Response Assessment

What is the relationship between a substance,
the amount, and the seriousness of effect?
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• Step 3 Exposure Assessment

How much? How often? How long?
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• Step 4 Risk Characterization

Use data from steps 2 and 3 to determine
probability
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Objective Four Describe how a dose-response
curve is used in determining the health effects
of environmental pollutants.
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Dose and Response

• Doseamt that enters the body of an exposed
  organism
• Responsetype and amt of damage caused by exposure

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Lethal Dose.LD50
Dose that is lethal to 50 of a population of
test organisms
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Effective Dose.ED50
Dose that causes 50 of a population of test
organisms to exhibit whatever response is under
study
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Threshold Level
Dose with no measurable response
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Objective Five Briefly describe the history of
the pollution problems in Lake Washington of the
1950s and how they were resolved
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The Problem

• Metropolitan expansion 75.7 million gallons/day
  of treated sewage dumped into Lake Washington
  LARGE amout of Oscillitoria cyanobacterium
  (blue-green algae)
• Gold Cup yacht races brought awareness

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Eutrophication
Nutrient enrichment of freshwater lakes,
undesirable because bacteria multiply and deplete
oxygen, other organisms die
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The Plan Edmondsons Three Steps
Comprehensive regional planning, elimination of
sewage discharge into lake, and research about
key nutrients causing bacteria growth
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The Lake Today
Edmondson was correct lake returned to normal
within a few years. Today it is clearer than ever
before.
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Objective Six Relate Garrett Hardins
description of the Tragedy of the Commons in
medieval Europe to the global commons today
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Medieval Europe
Inhabitants of village shared pastureland for
grazing, users destroyed commons they depended
upon by overgrazing
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Outcomes

• private ownership of land so that individual
  protects it
• government authority and rules to manage
• resources and protectotherwise DESERTIFICATION

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Global Commons

• Parts of our modern-day environment, like in
  medieval Europe, available to everyone but over
  which no individual has responsibility
  (atmosphere, fresh water, forests, wildlife,
  fish, etc).
• Tragedy of OUR global commons Increased
  environmental stress because susceptible to
  overuse without ownership.

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How We Can Fix This
We need legal and economic policies, no quick
fixes, need strong sense of stewardship shared
responsibility for sustainable care of our
planet. Cooperation and commitment at
international level
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Essay Question

• Explain how to follow the steps of analyzing risk
  and the importance this step plays in the
  process of addressing
  environmental problems.

 
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Response

• First, you must identify a hazard and determine
  if a certain substance causes increased
  probability of adverse health effects. Then,
  though a dose-response curve and careful
  observation and experimentation, you must
  determine the relationship between the dose, or
  amount of exposure, and the result, or effect
  upon health. Then you need to question how much,
  how often, and how long humans face exposure to
  the hazardous substance. Where people live in
  relation to the material or point of emission is
  also taken into account, and the concentration in
  the environment is determined. Finally, putting
  all of the information you have gathered
  together, you can begin to draw conclusions with
  the combined data and come up with an approximate
  probability of a certain consequence occurring
  due to exposure to that certain substance. This
  step, risk analysis, is important in addressing
  environmental problems because it can also be
  used to determine possible outcomes of different
  courses of action, which can impact the final
  decision in the solution to a problem. By looking
  at both the possible positive and possible
  negative consequences of a potential action, we
  can make a more educated decision about whether
  or not to take action on a particular problem, as
  well as which action we should take.

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The End