BIOL 115 Environmental Science

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BIOL 115Environmental Science

• Professor
• Dr. E. Binney Girdler

To keep every cog and wheel is the first
precaution of intelligent tinkering. -Aldo
Leopold
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Pre-test Please explain this cartoon. If you
dont get it, dont worry, by the end of the
quarter, you will
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First, a story

• Once upon a time, there was an uninhabited island
  in the middle of the Pacific ocean

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The Island of Rapa Nui Settled around 1200 AD
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How did they get there?
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One of the greatest population expansions in
human history (arguably the worlds greatest
navigators)
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Settlers of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) found

• A colder environment than they had left (no reefs
  and accessible fish)
• A heavily forested island (including the largest
  palm species in the world)
• At least six native land birds (including herons,
  rails, parrots, and owls)
• Enormous nesting colonies of seabirds attracted
  by the islands complete lack of predators (until
  c.1200)

after Diamond 2005
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Trees were especially important

• Provided firewood (for cooking and heat in cold
  Easter Island nights)
• No tropical reefs, or lagoon, needed offshore
  boats to harvest marine food
• Provided fruit, cloth (and sails), timber for
  houses and for moving monumental statues

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Life seemed pretty good, so why then were the
statues found by European sailors like this?
from Englert 1970
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E. Brerendsen
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A Very Rough Schematic Of What Happened
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After a few hundred years of human occupation on
Easter Island

• All native land birds were extinct
• The only nesting seabirds were small colonies on
  islets off the coast
• The island was almost completely deforested (not
  a single tree over ten feet high at European
  contact)
• The population, at minimum stopped growing, or
  very likely crashed
• The culture underwent a wholesale change

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After the population peak

• Islanders were left burning grass in fires
• Lost nearly all marine resources (no wood no
  boats no food)
• Warfare became rampant
• Oral histories and anthropological evidence point
  to rampant cannibalism
• Monumental carvings ceased entirely (a new
  aesthetic dominated)

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this and following from Chauvet 2004
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Now, a small change in scale
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It started in one particular corner of Africa
million years before present
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P. Bronson
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Like the Easter Islanders, the human population
has grown to the point where we are bumping up
against the limits of our world which will
make the next century very interesting times
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What is Environmental Science?

• Earths physical and natural systems
• Land
• Water
• Atmosphere
• Life
• Dynamics of change
• Natural
• Human-induced

Erosion caused by deforestation sends a stain of
sediment into the sea off the Mekong Delta in
Vietnam (Photo by NASA)
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This fall, our goal will be for you to

• Gain a basic understanding of the earths systems
  and their interactions
• Fully understand the causes and consequences of
  several key environmental issues
• Add a scientific framework to your critical
  thinking toolbox, so that you may use it when you
  encounter future issues concerning the environment

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BIOL 115 Environmental Science

• How the World Works
• Case Studies
• Our burgeoning population
• Biodepletion
• Global climate change
• Independent Projects

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Independent projects
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To keep every cog and wheel is the first
precaution of intelligent tinkering. -Aldo
Leopold