Powerpoint on basics of Environmental Science Is the environment getting better or worse? o Both It depends on what aspect you are talking about Games.cos.ucf.edu his website IClicker
8/20/2014 Commons resources that were available to everyone Extractive resource taking it away Doing things in moderation will allow renewable resources. What is the nature of human nature? What is the nature of governments? What is the nature of corporations? Are we/they Altruistic? Economic system: Communism? Are we selfish? There are different degrees of everything. Competition can reduce the commons even more so when taken advantage of. Greed can collapse the balance of resources. India has the 2 nd largest population in the world. What is the ratio of cell phones to people? o A) 1:1 B)1:2 C) 1:3 D) 1:5 E)1:10 Ratio of bathroom to people? o 1:3; In India it is 1:500 o India tries to discourage peeing everywhere by putting religious symbols on the places Modern Commons: o Land Solid Waste (Litter) Poachers (animals, timber, plants) Wood (fuel) Overgrazing o Freshwater/Groundwater Liquid waste disposal (Pollution) Irrigation/Drinking o Marine Liquid Waste Disposal (pollution) Fisheries o Atmosphere (Pollution) o Space (Pollution) Trash dumps on National Forest a Growing Problem USDA 2014 Tire dump in West Palm Beach, FL, in attempt to create an artificial reef. o Tires are toxic? Not degradable. o Things didnt grow on the tires What is the most common trash item found on the beaches worldwide? o Cigarette 8.2 million cigarette butts from 1999-2004 Takes 12 years to biodegrade Toxic to invertebrates 9500 man-made objects officially tracked (up from 8,841 in July 1999) More than 4 million pounds of stuff More than8,000 objects orbiting Earth are bigger than a baseball. 100000 500000 total objects >1 cm Bits and pieces scream along at 17500 mph (28000 km/h) A speeding bullet ~2050 mph In 1965, during first American space walk, the Gemini 4 astronaut More than 200 objects, most of the rubbish bags, were released by the Mir space station during its first 10 years of operation Solutions to TOTC o Privatization works at some scales (to own it) Difficult to privatize the ocean and atmosphere Profit motive can focus on short term o Regulation Works at some scales Often requires broad compliance Needs enforcement = $ o Rethinking how we do stuff Requires education and technology = $
8/22/2014 Easter Island (Rapa Nui) o Isolated o Volcanoes o 2300 miles from S.A. o 1400 miles from nearest major island o Discovered by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, on Easter (April 5) in 1722 Now a tropical paradise, but of a grass wasteland o Captain James Cook 1774 described the islanders as Polynesians o Native population was ~2000 in 17 th and 18 th centures Lived in rock caves of volcanic origin Island became famous for its other inhabitants, the enormous statues Stones are called Moai ~200 are standing Up to 33 feet tall, 82 tons >700 more, in all stages of completion in quarries Up to 65 feet tall and weighing up to 270 tons Some were transported over 6 miles from the quarries o Q: How did they move the statues? A: Jared Diamond wrote Collapse: described how civilizations make decisions that led to the collapse of the civilizations. Pollen Grains Various shapes, sizes Record of previous vegetation Carbon Dating Radioactive C forms in the upper atmosphere. The rate of production of atmospheric 14C is assumed to be constant. Through photosynthesis 14CO2 is absorbed by plants. When plants die, they stop photosynthesizing. Carbon-14 decays at a constant rate Its half-life is 5370 years Which means that half of the radioactive carbon becomes non- radioactive after this amount of time. Thousands of year ago, more trees from lakes Historically had many trees, major change destroyed many tree life. Possible method of using wood to life it up. For ~30000 years before human arrival and during the early ywears of the Polynesian settlement, Easter Island was not a wasteland at all. Pollen records show Wasters forests well underway by the year of 800 AD 15 th century marked the end for Easters primary palm species and the forest itself. Easters first Polynesian colonists stepped ashore some 1600 years ago. Every species of native land bird became extinct Even shellfish were overexploited until people had to settle for small sea snails Porpoise bones disappeared abruptly from garbage heaps around 1500 Islanders couldnt harpoon porpoises anymore, since trees used for constructing the big seagoing canoes no longer existed In place of these meat supplies, the Islanders intensified their production of chickens Turned largest remaining meat source available: humans Is this story unique? No Trees were the principal fuel and building material of almost every society for the past 5000 years from the Bronze Age to the middle of the 19 th century Maya history example Population increased as forests decreases and soil erosion increases Caracol was no longer going on near the end Looked at land with lasers on a flying object Many terraces 90% of land are terraformed Main diff between Easter Island and other civ Cant move; trapped on island Couldnt expand 99% of Eastern U.S. are 2 nd growth (grown again)
8/25/2014 We are a part of nature, It supplies material requirements for life, absorbs our wastes, and provides life-support services, such as climate stabilization, all of which to make Earth hospitable for people. How big would the glass hemisphere need to be so that the city under it could sustain itself? o Biosphere was used to test how much we would need if we were contained in a container sustainability Biosphere II o This 1.2 hectare (=100 x 100 m=2.47 acres) greenhouse outside Tuscon, Arizona was built by Edward P. Bass, Space Biosphere Ventures and others for >$200 million. o Testing the sustainability of humans in a closed environment o Expensive, private funding o Ecological systems system within the domes o Basically a green house o Test if and how people could live and study in a closed biosphere, while carrying out scientific experiments o It explored the possible use of closed biospheres in space colonization. o On September 26, 1991, eight bionauts entered Biosphere II for a two year mission. o The crew had a 3-month supply of food to sustain them in case crop production fell too low to support their needs. o They attempted to recycle air, water, and the animals', wastes for fertilizing crops. o Their air supply was carefully monitored for oxygen content and loss of pressure due to leakage. o Didnt account for carbon dioxide rise. o O2 levels rose due to bacteria in the soil and the type of concrete used in construction. o Oxygen was pumped into the facility from an outside source to correct this problem. o Crop production was so meager that inhabitants reportedly had food smuggled inside. o Most of the animals brought into Biosphere II died,except for bugs such as ants and cockroaches. o The 4 men and 4 women lost between 10-18% of their body weight and their metabolism slowed down. o The experiment showed the difficulty of copying the functions of the natural Earth systems with infrastructural capital constructed with present technology. o Copying the natural environment of the Earth is difficult. Ecological Footprint o A measure of the "load" imposed on the natural environment by a given population and represents the area necessary to sustain current levels of resource consumption and waste discharge by the population. o Human activities such as eating, traveling, heating homes and purchasing consumer items all contribute to ecological footprints. o Footprints can be calculated for individuals, cities, nations, the world. o How much land is needed to support the lifestyle of peoples o Carbon dioxide is also included as the footprint o How much surface area is required for us to live the way we choose to live? o How much area do the other species on the Earth need if they are to survive? o If everyone lived this way, what would our world look like? o How can we take care of our needs and also take care of the Earth? o Accounts for the use of the planets renewable resources o It deals with demands placed on the environment o It is a snapshot estimate of biocapacity demandusually for a single year o It is an additive model o It sums mutually exclusive bioproductive areas, e.g., forests, arable land, pastures, sea space. o Areas are normalized by multiplying them by equivalence factors based on their bioproductivity o The model answers the question, how many planets are necessary to support this lifestyle if everyone consumed as much as those in region X. o Major components of foot print is: Fossil energy consumption, built environment, food land, and forest production o Ex: Biker 122 m^2 (one of the most efficient ways of transportation) Bus 3033 m^2 1530 m^2 o Flying airplanes leaves a large footprint o Ecological Footprints (circa 1999) Average U.S. citizen requires 24 acres (UCF campus is about 1,400 acres) of Earth surface area to support them every year Average Canadian: 17 acres Average Italian: 9 acres World average footprint is 5.7 acres/person There is less than 5 acres of space available /person 95% of the people on this planet have smaller ecofootprints than we do in the U.S. o Earths surface is 51 billion hectares 36.3 billion are sea 14.7 billion are land Only 8.3 billion ha of the land are biologically productive. Remaining 6.4 billion ha are marginally productive or unproductive for human use. o We only have a sliver of the land that we can use As time increases, footprint and hectares per person increases We are overshooting by at least 20% This overshoot is largely due to a few people consuming too much Carrying capacity limits can be overshot without a big bang. Harvests can still increase and money incomes rise, and while there may be indications of ecological stress, all else may seem normal. Ultimately, however, the consequences of eroded natural capital may be felt as eco- catastrophe and population crash. (Wackernagel & Rees 1996) It is a Tragedy of the Commons at a coarse scale. Were adding too many sheep or some sheep are grazing too much. Boiling Frog Syndrome o Take a frog and put it in water Heated it up slowly and frogs still happy If everyone on Earth lived like the average American, we would need at least 4 more Earths o Avg American ecological footprint = 24 acres
8/27/2014 Science involves scientific theory o A well-established idea about the way something functions that has undergone significant tests. Science is a way of knowing and observing the world o It is based on the idea that facts or observations govern the validity of generalizations or theories o Characteristics: It is guided by natural law It is explained by reference to natural law It is testable against the empirical world Its conclusions are tentative (it changes) It is falsifiable It doesnt show truth, it shows what is false Science isnt: o Art is the attempt to express an individuals feelings or ideas about something in a way that others find beautiful, graceful, or in some way aesthetically satisfying. o Technology Science does not make things. Scientists generate knowledge that may lead to technology. Engineers generate technology. o Religion Religions seek to: explain the origin, nature, and processes of the universe; explain the meaning of human existence; define the nature of the human soul; justify the existence of an afterlife; maintain a devotion to a diety or dieties. Religion is a culture of faith Science is a culture of doubt Richard Feynman, Nobel-prize winning physicist o Science generates a body of knowledge. Though scientists seek truth, they do this by proposing and testing theories. Theories are well-established, well-supported models of how Nature works. However, occasionally science may undergo a major change in thought, called a paradigm shift. Paradigm Shifts scientific ideas may grandually evolve or may rapidly change o Ex: Geocentrism or Ptolemaic system (Greeks 6 th century BC) Earth was the center of the universe There was a system of 56 concentric spheres that rotates around the Earth o Copernican System (1543) Earth and other planets revolve around the sun o Galileo (1610) used his telescope to refute the Ptolemaic System lending support to Copernicus o In 1633, he was condemned by the Holy Office in Rome and confined to his home in Siena. o Today the Copernican System is pretty much the accepted version of the Universe. o August 24, 2006 Pluto loses planet status; it is considered a dwarf planet (1 of 3), a step above smaller solar system bodies (~10,000s) Scientific Method o Observations Directly with our senses or indirectly with the help of instruments May be quantitative or qualitative; looking for patterns o Questions Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? First four questions describe the patterns of the natural world Last two focus on explanation of how the system works o Hypothesis (may be rejected by the results) An educated guess to a question o Predictions A specific statement that can be directly and unequivocally tested Science formulates models (or theories) which have predictive power. Make new observations from which correlations may be drawn to refute the hypothesis o Test Observational studies need to have a sufficient number of sample points to ensure that trends are not coincidental Experimental Design Controlled experiments should have replicates in order to determine the statistical significance of patterns o Results Using statistical methods, assess the probability that these results are unlikely to be a result of random processes If the hypothesis is rejected, science advances If the hypothesis cannot be rejected, alternative hypotheses should be developed and tested. Models are false, but our best guesses Avg Atlantic urricane system o Predicted in April 10, 2014 9 Atlantic storms 3 predicted hurricanes 1 major (3,4,5) 8/27: 3 atlantic storms become hurricanes The scientific standard permits 5% overlap, or a 1/20 chance 0f being wrong. Scientific Process o After scientific method Scientific Paper Peer review Paper Accepted (if rejected, revise scientific paper or go back to scientific method if its a fundamental flaw) Publication in Scientific Journal Further Research Funding Process o Write proposal o Peer Review o Proposal Accepted (If rejected go back to scientific method) o Begin Research o Complete Study and go to Scientific Process Primary sources purest source of information How does one distinguish science from pseudo-science or unbiased science Ask: o Is the hypothesis falsifiable, can it lead to predictions that can be tested o Was the scientific method followed? o Was the publication Peer-reviewed? o Where did the $ come from that sponsored the research? o What are the credentials of the researchers? o Before even examining the science are there any potential flags that may call into question the legitimacy of the study? Scientists do science for: o Money o Fame o Curiosity All of the above because of greed, close-mindedness and attention
8/29/2014 o Solar energy is more common in Germany because they are smaller. o Shibani Joshi She made a mistake about solar energy when it comes down to subsidies and political priorities. o Solar energy are making it easier to make money off of it and becoming cheaper for more people.
Environmental History o Galapagos Giant tortoise shell fossil excavated from Highlands Hammock State Park, Florida (1933) Human factor was why they are so big Reintroducing tortoise back to islands They have an impact on environment o Homo sapiens origins 60000-176000 year and were initially hunter-gatherers. o Agricultural revolution 10000-12000 years ago o Industrial Revolution is 275 years ago o Information and globalization 5 years ago Hunter-Gatherer Societies o Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) described the life of hunters as Brutish, etc. o Survived collecting edible plants and animals. o Small groups lived in small bands of less than 50 o Nomadic having few possessions they moved seasonally to find food resources o Survived by collecting wild edible plants, hunting, fishing, and scavenging o Discovered a variety of plants and animals that could be eaten and used as medicine o Understood how plant availability changed throughout the year o Understood the migratory patterns of some animals o High infant mortality, short life span (30-40 years)
o Most of the edible foods come from trial and error Trying things out More Advanced Hunter-Gatherer Societies o Used more advanced tools and fire to convert forests to grasslands o Altered the distribution of plants and animals by carrying them to new areas o Contributed to the extinction of the mastodon, saber-toothed tiger, giant sloth, cave bearr, mammoth, and giant bison. Otzi, the iceman or Glacier Mummy o Found in 1991 in the Alps between Italy and Austria o Carrying seeds, berries, and mushrooms When humans roamed, the trail left extinction of some mammals Pygmy Island Mammoths o 4-8 ft o Lived on Wrangle Island until ~3700 years ago BP o Also on the Channel Islands, most likely eliminated by Paloe-Native Americans 11000 BP Agricultural Revolution Affecting t he Environment o Allowed people to become less nomadic o Involved a gradual move from nomadic groups to settled communities where wild animals were domesticated and wild plants cultivated. o Slash-and-burn and shifting cultivation (clearing and burning of vegetation in small plots) was used in some of the tropical regions, o These farmers usually had little impact because they: Depended on human muscle power Used low technology tools Had small shifting populations o Consequences Domesticated work animals expanded agriculture supporting more people extensive land clearing results in loss of habitats increasing rates of extinction Erosion, Toxification and Desertification Accumulation of material goods Food storage and barter Urbanization concentrations of sewage and other wastes polluted air and water, diseases spread Consumerism created growing volumes of waste Conflict between societies Survival of wild plants and animals became less important o Did Agricultural Revolution affect the composition of the atmosphere? It created more carbon Led to a shift o How has the industrial revolution affect the environment? Began in England in the mid-1700s and spread to the U.S. in the 1800s expanded production, trade and distribution of material goods. Represented a shift from renewable wood (growing scarce due to unsustainable cutting) and flowing water to dependence on machinery operating on nonrenewable fossil fuels Factory towns grew into cities Conditions were harsh and dangerous. Coal smoke was so heavy that many died of lung ailments o Environmental Affects of Information Revolution (positives) It is estimated that scientific technology doubles every 12 years and general information doubles every 2.5 years Understand economic and ecological complexities Respond to environmental problems effectively and rapidly Remote sensing surveys of vast ecosystems Substitute data for materials, energy and communication to reduce degradation of environment Rapid exchange of data by environmental researchers 9/3/2014 (continued) Environnmental Affects of Information Revolution (negatives) o Provide an overload of information o Cause confusion, distraction, and a sense of hopelessness as we try to identify useful information in the vast sea of information o Decreased cultural diversity o Loss of native knowledge o The threat to humanity by the potential impacts of unevaluated new technologies The environmental history of U.S. can be divided into ffour eras o Tribal 10000 BC - 1607 o Frontier 1607 1890 o Conservation 1832 1960 o Environmental 1960 today? Indigenous people o Practiced hunting and gathering o Burned and cleared land for crops o Small populations and simple technology had low environmental impact o Many had a deep respect for the land and animals o Many did not believe in land ownership o These small agricultural groups grew Cahokia near present St. Louisiana? Had pyramids bigger than in Egypt What happened during the frontier era (1607-1890)? o Colonists found a vast continent with abundant forests and wildlife and rich soils o Viewed the continent as wilderness to be conquered o Forests were cleared not only for resources but because they were viewed as hostile wilderness full of wild savages and beasts o 1500s An estimated 30-60 million bison living in NA o 1830s Mass destruction of herds began o 1870 Estimated 2 million killed o 1876 Estimated 3-4 million killed o 1877 Few roaming bison in Texas were killed o 1882 10000 killed during a single hunt in the Dakota territory o 1884 - ~325 bison left in U.S, 25 were in Yellowstone o 2000 - ~25000 in public herds, ~250000 in private herds Frontier Environmental worldview result o Populations of wildlife, such as bison, beaver, wolf, grizzly bear decimated o British colonists traded skins, lumber, and other natural resources with Europe in exchange for manufactured goods Fashion in Europe dictated what would be hunted in NA o Contrast with that of the indigenous people o By 1850 US government owned about 80% of the land, with the tribal cultures occupying about 4%, mostly on reservation Land Ownership o By 1900 more than half of the countrys public land had been given away or sold cheaply to railroad, timber and mining co., land developers, schools. o Homestead Act of 1862- qualified settlers in the Great Plains were given 160 acres free of charge. Sooners are people who got their land before they were officially allowed to settle on it o They left some lands for the tribes to work on to keep the value of it The frontier view prevailed for more than 280 years, until the government declared it over later on in 1890
Next Chapter (Ethics) We (humans) are moral agents o i.e., we can act right (morally) or wrong (immorally) Children are moral subjects o i.e., they have moral interests of their own and can be treated rightly or wrongly by others Plato o Universalists There is a universal, permanent moral truth, e.g. Plato (~400 BC), Kant (1724- 1804) o Relativists There are situational, non-absolute ethics, e.g., Aristotle (~400 BC), Nietzhe (1844-1900) o Nihilists The world makes no sense. All is arbitrary. Therefore only power, strength and survival matter, e.g., Schopenhauer (1788-1860) o Utilitarians An action is right that produces the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people, e.g., Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), John Stuart Mill (1806- 1873) Gifford Pinchot (U.S. Forest Service) - Protect resources for the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time. o Utility Benefits the greatest number of people o Virtue justice, equal treatment of individuals o Categorical Imperative ~ Golden Rule, i.e. do unto others (Confucius, Hilliel, Jesus, Kant, etc.) HR 503: Horse Slaughter Prohibition bills o Bill passed in the House of representatives by roll call vote. The totals were 263 Ayes, 146 Nays. o Bill never became law According the Rene Descartes (1595-1650) animals are simply machines. They have no feelings or pain Do fish feel pain? o Fish cant feel pain or fear, university study concludes 2/9/03 o Yes it can o Still debated Expansion of Rights o English barons Magna Carta, 1215 o American Colonists Declaration of Independence, 1776 o Slaves Emancipation Proclomation, 1863 o Women 19 th Amendment, 1920 o Etc. Classification of Peoples Ethical Worldviews o Anthropocentric About people How it affects people o Biocentric Plants and animals Animals are our central view of religious beliefs o Ecocentric Environment.
9/5/2014 Midterm 1 o Covers ch 1, 6, 7 o All lectures since 8/20 What influences your environmental choices? o Age o Sex o Upbringing (past) o Religion o Personal Philosophy Religion o Anthropocentric Religions E.g., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam o Biocentric Religions Nature-based religion E.g., Buddhissm, Shintoism, Taoism, Shamanism o Ecocentric Religions Environmental Philosophies Transcendentalists Bartram traveled to Florida to explore the woods back then o Poem inspired Americans and Europeans John Muir(1838-1914) o Scottish immigrant, made most of the national parks in the US. He is a mechanical genius. Set off from Indianapolis down to Savannah from his job in a factory after the civil war. Wanted to preserve the land he walked on after his 100 mile walk book. o From Wisconsin Aldo Leopold (1887-1949) o From Wisconsin o Also shares ecocentric view Deep Ecology (1970s) Humans are inseparable from nature Ecofemminism (1960s-70s) Patriarchal society is the root cause of environmental problems. It is an alternative to domination of nature Economics = Oikos (home) + nomos (counting) Ecology = Oikos (home) + logo (logic) Example of economies o Subsistence economy comprised of people who rely on the natural environment to meet daily needs and do not purchase or trade for most of lifes necessities. o Capitalist economy Buyers and Sellers Economists o Adam Smith If you allow buyers and sellers to do their own things, it would go well. Supply and demand o The point where supply and demand intersect, that would be the price Assumptions of Neoclassical Economics o Resources are infinite or substitutable Easter Island o Long-term effects are discounted o Costs and benefits are internal Only affects buyer and seller o Growth is Good more and bigger leads to more opportunities for the poor Scarcity / Development cycles o New resources created o Prices fall and Demand rises o Easily accessible are exhausted o Scarcity of resources results o Rising prices stimulate research and development o New technologies lead to substitution, reuse, and recycling of materials o Repeat How do most politicians/economists measure the economic health of a nation? o Gross Domestic Product (GDP) = Total monetary value of the final good and services produced by a country annually? o When divided by the number of people in the nation, it is called Per capita GDP o When the element of inflation is factored out, it is referred to as Real GDP
Exams are on Images, titles, artists Dates, medium Cultures Geography/location of the sites Context; Religious/social/political 30 seconds per image Questions with and without images Hall of bulls in located in france Power of an akkadian king is represented by the victory of stele Composite view is twisted perspective
9/8/2014 Tues 5-6:30 midterm chat review Is economic wealth on Earth a Zero-sum game? Gains and losses are balanced to zero or that there is a limited amount of wealth that is divided up? (cont) o GDP counts up things that cost money, even if those things didn't actually contribute to human progress o For instance: If gang violence puts people in the hospital, the price of their hospital care is part of the GDP However, if people do volunteer work, that work is not part of the GDP, no matter how important it might be -- because no money changes hands Or if a tire factory creates acid rain, which kills a forest full of trees and destroys aquatic life in a lake, the sale of the tires adds to GDP -- but the loss of the forest and the fish is not subtracted from it! o GDP often increases as environmental quality decreases o Is there an alternative to the GDP? Genuine Progress Indicator of Index (GPI) takes into account more forms of economic activity than the GDP. It differentiates between economic activities that increase and decrease societal well-being The United Nations uses a comparable measurement called the Human Development Index that assess a nations standard of living, life expectancy, and education In 2010, U.S. was #4 HDI, Norway was #1 Life expectancy, U.S. was #20 (79.4), Japan #1 (82.6) In per capita GDP, U.S. was #7, Qatar was #1 o US is worst among developed countries in distribution of wealth between rich and poor o Capital are resources out there o In a Steady-State Economiy: GDP stays constant GPI increases, hopefully Not producing as much stuff, but our quality of life will increase
Policy o Movement of information driven by $$ o Setting Environmental Policy ~434k US children aged 1-5 years have blood lead levels higher than the CDC recommended level Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, behavorial problems, and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and even death Sawgrass lake is surrounded by houses, businesses and a public park that invites children to its environmental education center State Rep Dennis Baxley from Ocala, a funeral director in private life, wrote a bill Lead bullets take 1-6 inches of soil in 7-15 tonnes ESPTM Bullets Lead-free bullets Tungsten 5x the cost of standard lead bullets o 21% of land is federally owned (excluding Alaska) o The policy cycle Identify Problem Set Agenda Develop proposals Build support Enact law or rule Implement policy Evaluate results Suggest changes (repeat) o DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) Invented in 1874 by a German chemist Its use as a pesticide was discovered in the 1930s by Geigy Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland 1959 was the peak year for use in the U.S. when nearly 80 million pounds were applied As concentration of DDE (from DDT) the eggs thickness of birds, started to decrease. Kills bird species o Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring (1962) She put all the pieces together to what caused the decimation of birds In June of 1972, the US EPA cancelled all use of DDT on crops