Understanding Our Environment

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Understanding Our Environment
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Outline

• Introduction
• Revolutions in Human History
• Historical Perspectives
• Pragmatic Resource Conservation
• Moral and Aesthetic Nature Conservation
• Modern Environmentalism
• U.S. Presidents and their Environmental Record
• Global Conservation
• Current Conditions
• A Divided World
• Sustainable Development

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Make it easy hint!

• Rather than taking notes again, add to your
  existing notes!
• Other tips
• When taking notes at home, either
• A. Fold the note paper longwise and write the
  notes on one side leave the other side for class
  additions.
• B. Write on one side of the notebook and keep the
  other page blank for additions.

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Introduction

• Humans have always inhabited both the natural
  world and the social world.
• Environment
• Circumstances or conditions that surround an
  organism or groups of organisms.
• The complex of social or cultural conditions that
  affect an individual or community.

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How Does Ecology Differ From Environmental Science

• Ecology is the scientific study of the processes
  influencing the distribution and abundance of
  organisms, the interactions among organisms, and
  the interactions between organisms and the
  transformation and flux of energy and matter.
• - The Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies
• Notice that there is no mention of the human
  influence!

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• Environmental Science Systematic study of our
  environment, and our proper place in it.
• Interdisciplinary
• Integrative
• Natural Sciences such as Biology, Chemistry,
  Physics, Engineering, Mathematics and Geology
• Social Sciences such as Sociology, Anthropology
  and Psychology
• Humanities, such as History and Literature
• Mission Oriented

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Environmental Science
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Revolutions in Human History that Affect the
Environment

• Agricultural Revolution
• Industrial-Medical Revolution
• Globalization-Information Revolution

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Good Term to Know!

• Upshot Final result of an outcome could be
  good or bad a final point.

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Agricultural Revolution

• 10,000 to 12,000 years ago
• Hunter-gatherer tribes settle down
• Domestication of wild animals
• Cultivation of wild plants
• Developed world-wide, usually in fertile riverine
  valleys
• Use of slash and burn technology
• Shifting cultivation in tropical regions
  abandonment of land no longer productive for new
  lands
• Previous land left fallow for 10-30 years until
  reusable

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Agricultural Revolution

• Good news
• More food
• Supported a larger population
• Longer life expectancy
• Higher standard of living
• Formation of villages, towns and cities
• Towns and cities serve as centers for trade,
  government and religion
• Development of reading and writing based on
  agricultural assets

• Upshot
• Destruction of wildlife habitats from clearing
  forests and grasslands
• Killing wild animals that feed on grass or crops
• Fertile land turned into desert by livestock
  overgrazing
• Soil eroded into streams and lakes
• Towns and cities concentrated wastes and
  pollution increased the spread of disease
• First record of plague in I Samuel IV, 1320
  B.C.E.
• Increase in armed conflicts and slavery over
  ownership of land and water resources

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Industrial-Medical Revolution (1750 to now)

• Shifting dependence on renewable wood and flowing
  water to nonrenewable fossil fuels
• First coal, later oil and gas
• Shift from localized, small-scale production of
  handmade goods to large-scale, machine produced
  goods in centralized factories and cities
• People migrate from the country to the cities for
  work
• Cities and surrounding areas become dirty, smoky
  places
• Smoke so thick it blocked the sun
• Rivers become vastly polluted

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Down on the Farm

• Fossil fuel-driven machinery
• Commercial fertilizers instead of manure
• Ammonium, phosphorus and potassium chemicals
• New plant-breeding techniques Mendel, G.W.
  Carver, Burbank
• Helped protect biodiversity
• Creation of monoculture farming
• Increased insect damage

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And the population goes BOOM!

• More reliable food sources
• Better medical treatments
• Vaccines (1796)
• Successful surgeries
• Anesthesia
• Antibiotics (1945)
• Fewer people dying
• Life span increases
• More people living on the planet!

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Industrial-Medical Revolution

• Good News
• Mass production of useful and affordable products
• Higher standard of life
• Greatly increased agricultural production
• Lower infant mortality
• Longer life expectancy
• Increased urbanization
• Lower rate of population growth

• Upshot
• Increased air pollution
• Increased water pollution
• Increased waste production
• Soil depletion and degradation
• Groundwater depletion
• Habitat destruction and degradation
• Biodiversity depletion

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Globalization-Information Revolution (1950s to
now)

• Use of new technologies for rapid access to gain
  information
• More reachable than ever before
• Those with the technology have superior advantage
  over those that dont!

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Globalization-Information Revolution

• Good news
• Computer-generated models and maps of earths
  environmental systems
• Remote-sensing satellite surveys of worlds
  environmental systems
• Ability to respond to environmental problems more
  effectively and rapidly

• Upshot
• Information overload can cause confusion and a
  sense of hopelessness
• Globalized economy can increase environmental
  degradation by homogenizing the earths surface
• Globalized economy can decrease cultural diversity

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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

• Four Distinct Stages
• Pragmatic Resource Conservation
• Moral and Aesthetic Nature Preservation
• Health and Ecological Damage Concerns
• Global Environmental Citizenship

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Henry David Thoreau, 1817 - 1862

• American writer and naturalist
• Author of Walden A Life in the Woods
• Eastern Massachusetts
• His writings mirrored the feelings of other
  Americans alarmed at the scope of resource
  depletion and degradation during the frontier era
  (1607 1890)

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Utilitarian Conservation vs. Altruistic
Preservation

• Utilitarian
• resources should be used for the greatest good
  for the greatest number for the longest time

• Altruistic Preservation
• Preserve nature for its own sake

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Can you think of a current events issue where
there is a dispute in these philosophies?
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Moral and Aesthetic Nature Preservation

• John Muir - President Sierra Club
• Nature deserves to exist for its own sake -
  regardless of degree of usefulness to humans.
  (Biocentric Preservation)

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Biocentric Preservation

• Belief that all organisms have fundamental rights
  to exist and pursue their own lives with little
  or no impact by man

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John Muir (1838 1914)

• Called the father of the national parks
• A poetico-trampo-geologist-botanist and
  ornithologist-naturalistwriter, he traversed the
  North American continent, writing about his
  experiences
• Inspired Theodore Roosevelt to create Yosemite
  National Park by presidential proclamation in 1892

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Pragmatic Resource Conservation

• George Perkins Marsh - Man and Nature
• Influenced Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford
  Pinchot.
• Greatest good for the greatest number for the
  longest time
• Multiple Use Policies of United States Forestry
  Service.
• Resource Conservation needed used the example
  of the rise and fall of great civilizations due
  to dwindling natural resources.

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Theodore Roosevelt (1858 1919)

• 26th President
• 1901-09 Golden Age of Conservation
• Considered the pioneer of environmentalism
• Effective preservation and protection of forests
  and wildlife
• Designation of public lands as federal wildlife
  refuges
• Creation of U.S. Forest Service
• "I would not have been President, had it not been
  for my experience in North Dakota."

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National Parks Created Under Roosevelt

• Yosemite National Park (1892)
• Crater Lake, Oregon (1902)
• Wind Cave, South Dakota (1903)
• Sullys Hill, North Dakota (1904)
• Mesa Verde, Colorado (1906)
• Platte National Park, Oklahoma (1906)

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Pro-Environmental Record of T.R.

• Acting under the Forest Reserves Act of 1891, he
  withdrew 235 million acres of public timberland
  from sale, to set aside as national forests.
• The National Reclamation Act of 1902 authorized
  western irrigation projects paid for by the sale
  of land in 16 semiarid states. Under this law,
  Roosevelt initiated the construction of western
  dams, and the task of reclaiming the desert
  Southwest was started.

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T.R. Taking Charge!

• Use of the National Reclamation Act (Newlands
  Act) of 1902. This law provided the federal
  government with responsibility and funding for
  dam construction and irrigation projects through
  the sale of public land in 16 semiarid states.
• 1906 Antiquities Act to extend federal control
  over the West's scenic wonders. Although the law
  had been enacted to protect Native American
  artifacts and relics, which were being
  systematically looted from archeological sites,
  Roosevelt expanded its use to preserve historic
  landmarks.
• 1908 National Conservation Commission was created
  as a result of a conference called to conserve
  lands in the then 41 states 41 states
  subsequently established conservation
  commissions.

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1908 A Banner Year

• Set aside 800,000 acres of public land in Arizona
  12 years later Congress created Grand Canyon
  National Monument

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T.R.s legacy

• 6 national parks
• 16 national monuments
• 51 wildlife refuges
•   "Keep it for your children and your children's
  children, and for all who come after you, as one
  of the great sights which every American, if he
  can travel at all, must see." - T.R.

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Gifford Pinchot

• 1st Chief of U.S. Forest Service
• First forester!
• Studied forestry in France since no college or
  university in the U.S. offered such a course
• Restructured and professionalized the management
  of the national forests
• Popularized conservation
• Regarded as the "father" of American conservation
  because of his great and unrelenting concern for
  the protection of the American forests.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

• 32nd President
• Development of the Civilian Conservation Corps
  (CCC) in 1933, during the Great Depression, which
  had a two-fold purpose
• A. reduce unemployment among young men
• B. preserve the nations national resources
• Projects centered around forestry, flood control,
  prevention of soil erosion and fighting forest
  fires.

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Health and Ecological Damage Concerns

• Increased pollution of air, water and land raised
  concerns in the U.S. and abroad
• These included
• 1948 - Six days of an air inversion in Donora, PA
  kills 20, makes 600 ill and 1400 seek medical
  attention out of a population of 16,000

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• 1954 2000 cars are involved in accidents due to
  smog pollution that decreases visibility in Los
  Angeles, CA
• 1969 Oil slicks and debris cause the Cuyahoga
  River in Ohio to catch fire and burn for three
  days

Cuyahoga River, Ohio
Smog in L.A., CA
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Rachel Carson (1907 1964)

• Controversial nonfiction bestseller, Silent
  Spring (1962) raises health concerns regarding
  the overuse of pesticides
• Attracts attention of Stewart Udall, Secretary of
  the Interior to J.F. Kennedy
• Leads to legislation that bans DDT and other
  pesticides considered too toxic for use in the
  U.S.A.
• Carsons work is considered to be the
  fountainhead of the modern environmental
  movement

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Other Works of Nonfiction that Influenced U.S.
environmental thinking

• The Population Bomb by Paul Erhlich
• A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
• Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick
  Nash
• The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
• Earth in the Balance Ecology and the Human
  Spirit by Al Gore
• Cadillac Desert The American West and Its
  Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner