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Science and Sustainability:

An Introduction to Environmental Science Chapter Objectives

This chapter will help students:

Describe the field of environmental science Compare renewable and nonrenewable resources, and explain the importance of natural resources and ecosystem services to our lives Discuss population growth, resource consumption, and their consequences Explain what is meant by an ecological footprint Describe the scientific method and the process of science Identify and illustrate major pressures on the global environment Discuss the concept of sustainability, and cite sustainable solutions being pursued on campuses and in the wider world Lecture Outline

• Our Island, Earth
• The astronaut’s view of Earth reveals that its systems are finite and

limited.

• As our population, technological power, and resource consumption

all increase, so does our capacity to alter our surroundings and damage the very systems that keep us alive.

• Our environment surrounds us.
• Our environment consists of all the living and nonliving things

around us.

• We are part of the “natural” world, and our interactions with the

rest of it matter a great deal.(Environment The Science Behind the Stories, 6e Jay Withgott, Matthew Laposata) (Instructor Manual, For Complete File, Download link at the end of this File) 1 / 4

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• Environmental science explores our interactions with the world.
• We have modified our environment.
• Environmental science is the scientific study of how the natural

world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment.

• Environmental scientists study the issues most centrally important

to our world and its future.

• We rely on natural resources.
• Natural resources are the substances and energy sources we take

from our environment and that we rely on to survive.

• Renewable natural resources, such as sunlight, wind, and wave

energy, are perpetually renewed and essentially inexhaustible.Nonrenewable natural resources, such as minerals and fossil fuels, are in finite supply and are formed far more slowly than we use them.Once we deplete a nonrenewable resource, it is no longer available.

• We rely on ecosystem services.
• Our planet’s ecological systems purify air and water, cycle

nutrients, regulate climate, pollinate plants, and recycle our waste.Such essential services are commonly called ecosystem services.

• In recent years, our depletion of nature’s goods and our disruption

of nature’s services have intensified, driven by rising resource consumption and a human population that grows larger every day.

• Population growth amplifies our impact.
• Today, our population has grown beyond 7 billion people.
• Two phenomena triggered our remarkable increase in population

size. The agricultural revolution occurred around 10,000 years ago as humans transitioned from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural way of life.

• The industrial revolution began in the mid-1700s. It entailed a

shift from rural life, animal-powered agriculture, and hand-crafted goods toward an urban society provisioned by the mass-production of factory-made goods and powered by fossil fuels (nonrenewable energy sources including oil, coal, and natural gas).

• Our sheer numbers are putting unprecedented stress on natural

systems and the availability of resources.

• Resource consumption exerts social and environmental pressures.
• Industrialization increased the amount of resources each of us

consumes. 2 / 4

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• One way to quantify resource consumption is to use the concept of

the ecological footprint, which expresses the cumulative area of biologically productive land and water required to provide the resources a person or population consumes and to dispose of or recycle the waste the person or population produces.

• Wackernagel and his colleagues calculate that our species is now

using 50% more of the planet’s renewable resources than are available on a sustainable basis. This excess use has been termed overshoot.

• People from wealthy nations have much larger ecological footprints

than do people from poorer nations.

• Conserving Earth’s natural capital is like maintaining a bank account.
• We can think of our planet’s vast store of resources and ecosystem

services—Earth’s natural capital—as a bank account. To keep a bank account full, we need to leave the principal intact and spend just the interest, so that we can continue living off the account far into the future. If we begin depleting the principal, we draw down the bank account.

• Environmental science can help us learn from mistakes.
• Historical evidence suggests that civilizations can crumble when

pressures from population and consumption overwhelm resource availability.

• If we cannot forge sustainable solutions to our problems, then the

resulting societal collapse will be global. Fortunately, environmental science holds keys to building a better world.II. The Nature of Environmental Science

• Environmental scientists aim to comprehend how Earth’s natural

systems function, how these systems affect people, and how we influence those systems.

• Solutions are applications of environmental science.
• Environmental science is interdisciplinary.
• Environmental science is interdisciplinary, bringing techniques,

perspectives, and research results from multiple disciplines together into a broad synthesis.

• Interdisciplinary fields are valuable because their practitioners

consolidate and synthesize the specialized knowledge from many disciplines and make sense of it in a broad context. 3 / 4

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• Environmental science is broad because it encompasses not only

the natural sciences but also the social sciences. Most environmental science programs focus more on the natural sciences, whereas programs that emphasize the social sciences often use the term environmental studies.

• An interdisciplinary approach to addressing environmental

problems can produce effective solutions for society.

• Environmental science is not the same as environmentalism.
• Environmental science involves the scientific study of the

environment and our interactions with it.

• Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to protecting

the natural world from undesirable changes brought about by human actions.III. The Nature of Science

• Science is a systematic process for learning about the world and

testing our understanding of it.

• Knowledge gained from science can be applied to address society’s

needs.

• Virtually everything in our lives has been improved by the

application of science.

• Scientists test ideas by critically examining evidence.
• Scientists examine how the world works by making observations,

taking measurements, and testing whether their ideas are supported by evidence.

• A great deal of scientific work is descriptive science, research in

which scientists gather basic information about organisms, materials, systems, or processes that are not yet well known.

• Once enough basic information is known about a subject, scientists

can begin posing questions that seek deeper explanations about how and why things are the way they are. At this point scientists may pursue hypothesis-driven science, research that proceeds in a more targeted and structured manner, using experiments to test hypotheses within a framework traditionally known as the scientific method.

• The scientific method is the traditional approach to research.
• The scientific method is a technique for testing ideas with

observations.

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