Chapter 1

Science and Sustainability: An Introduction to

Environmental Science
Chapter Objectives
This chapter will help you:
Define the term environment and describe the field of environmental science
Explain the importance of natural resources and ecosystem services in our lives
Discuss the effects of population growth and resource consumption
Characterize the interdisciplinary nature of environmental science
Understand the scientific method and the process of science
Diagnose and illustrate some of the pressures on the global environment
Evaluate the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development

Lecture/Reading Outline

I. Our Island, Earth

1. The astronaut’s view of Earth suggests that its systems are finite and
limited.
2. Increases in population, technological powers, and resource
consumption alter our planet and damage the systems that keep us
alive.
A. Our environment surrounds us.
1. Our environment consists of all the living and non-living things around us.
2. It encompasses built environments – structures and living spaces – as
well as natural components such as plants and animals.
3. The fundamental insight of environmental science is that we humans
are a part of the natural world, not separate from it, and we are dependent
on a healthy, functioning planet.

B. Environmental science explores our interactions with the

world.
1. Environmental science is the study of how the natural world works,
how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment.
 2. Environmental scientists study issues of central importance to our
world and its future. Rapidly changing global conditions
demand that we act now to solve problems.
C. We rely on natural resources.
1. Natural resources are the various substances and energy sources
we need to survive. Our island, Earth, is finite and bounded, and it
places limitations on the availability of these resources.
2. Renewable natural resources, such as sunlight, wind, and wave
energy, are essentially inexhaustible while others, such as timber,
water, and soil, can be replenished by the environment over periods
varying from months to decades.
3. In contrast, resources such as mineral ores and crude oil are formed
more slowly than we use them and are considered to be
nonrenewable natural resources. Once we deplete them, they are
no longer available.
4. Renewability is a continuum. Some renewable resources may
turn nonrenewable if we deplete them too drastically. Pumping
groundwater from underground aquifers faster than it can be
restored is an example of this.
D. We rely on ecosystem services.
1. Earth’s natural systems provide ecosystem services such as air and
water purification, climate regulation and plant pollination. We
could not survive without these processes.
2. We have degraded nature’s ability to provide these services by depleting
resources, destroying habitats, and generating pollution.
E. Population growth amplifies our impact.
1. Two phenomena triggered remarkable increases in the Earth's
population, from less than a million people for most of its history to
over 6.9 billion today.
2. The agricultural revolution occurred around 10,000 years ago as
humans transitioned from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an
agricultural way of life.
3. The industrial revolution began in the mid-1700s. It was a shift
from rural, agricultural life to an urban society provisioned by
mass-produced manufactured goods and powered by fossil fuels.

4. Environmental science tries to answer the question of

natural systems of the planet can sustain current and
future populations.
F. Resource consumption exerts social and environmental pressures.
1. The “tragedy of the commons.”
a. Garrett Hardin analyzed how people approach resource use.

b. Resources that are open to unregulated exploitation, the “commons,”

will eventually be depleted. Hardin called this the tragedy of the
 commons.

c. He disputed the economic theory that individual self-interest, in the

long term, serves the public.
2. Our ecological footprint.
a. Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees developed the concept
of the ecological footprint. It expresses the environmental
impact of an individual or a population by the cumulative
amount of land and water required to provide the raw materials
they consume and to recycle the waste they produce.
b. The ecological footprint is the sum of the amount of Earth’s surface “used”
once all direct and indirect impacts are totaled.
c. Wackernagel and his colleagues used these calculations to
determine that we are depleting our resources about 30% faster
than they are being replenished. Overshoot describes the
actions of humans surpassing the planet’s productive capacity.
G. Environmental science can help us avoid past mistakes.
1. Most great civilizations have fallen after degrading their
environments, leaving devastated landscapes behind.
2. The stakes are higher than ever today. If we cannot forge
sustainable solutions, there will be global societal collapse.

II. The Nature of Environmental Science

1. Scientists seek to understand how Earth’s natural systems function and how we
are influencing those systems.

2. Solutions are applications of environmental science.

A. Environmental science is an interdisciplinary pursuit.
1. Environmental science is an interdisciplinary field, drawing
techniques from multiple disciplines and bringing their research
into a broad synthesis.
2. An interdisciplinary approach to addressing environmental
problems can produce effective and lasting solutions.

3. Environmental science is broad because it encompasses both

the natural sciences and the social sciences. Environmental
studies is often used to describe programs that incorporate the
social sciences extensively.
B. People vary in their perception of environmental problems.
1. A person’s age, gender, class, race, nationality, employment, and educational
background can all affect whether he or she considers an environmental
change a “problem.”
2. In other cases, people from different cultures and homelands may
vary in their awareness of problems.
 3. Economic status can affect both your knowledge of risk and how
you react to that knowledge.
C. Environmental science is not the same as environmentalism.
1. Environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to protecting
the natural world from undesirable changes brought about by
human choices.
2. Environmental science is the pursuit of knowledge about
the environment, how it works, and our interactions with it.

III. The Nature of Science

1. Modern scientists describe science as a systematic process for
learning about the world and testing our understanding of it.
2. Knowledge of science and technology is increasingly important as
our society becomes more dependent on it for the crucial elements
of transportation, communications, medicine, and agriculture.
3. This knowledge is important because it allows society to make
informed decisions.
A. Scientists test ideas by critically examining evidence.
1. Scientists make observations, take measurements, and design tests
to determine if ideas are supported by evidence.
2. An explanation that resists attempts to disprove it is accepted as a
true explanation.
B. Science advances in different ways.
1. Most scientific work is observational science or descriptive
science based on information gathering.
2. If enough is known about a subject, scientists pursue hypothesis-
driven science, trying to answer specific questions.
C. The scientific method is the traditional approach to science.
1. The scientific method is a technique for testing ideas with
observations. It includes several assumptions and a series of
interrelated steps.

2. The assumptions are:

a. The universe functions in accordance with fixed natural laws.
b. All events arise from some cause and, in turn, cause other
events.
c. We can use our senses and reasoning abilities to detect and describe natural
laws.
3. The steps of the scientific method are:
a. Make observations.
 b. Ask questions. Determining which questions to ask is one of
the most important steps in the investigation process.
c. Develop a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a statement that explains
a phenomenon or answers a scientific question.
d. Make predictions. A prediction is a specific statement that can
be directly and unequivocally tested.
e. Test the predictions. An experiment is an activity designed to
test the validity of a hypothesis; it involves manipulating
variables, or conditions that can change. The independent
variable is the variable that the scientist manipulates, while the
dependent variable is the one that depends on the first
variable. Scientists conduct controlled experiments by
controlling for the effects of all variables except the tested one.
Often, controlled experiments have a treatment area that is
manipulated and another that is not, called a control.
f. Analyze and interpret results. Scientists record data from their
studies and analyze the data using statistical tests to see if the
hypothesis is supported. If the results disprove a hypothesis, the
hypothesis is rejected and a new one may be proposed. If the
repeated tests fail to reject a particular hypothesis, it will
ultimately be accepted as true.
D. We can test hypotheses in different ways.
1. A manipulative experiment is an experiment in which the
researcher actively chooses and manipulates the independent
variable.
2. When variables cannot be manipulated - climate change is an
example of this - a natural experiment is performed. In such
experiments, researchers test their hypothesis by searching for
correlation, a statistical relationship between variables.
3. Natural experiments provide evidence that is weaker than
manipulative experiments but can still make for strong science.
E. The scientific process does not stop with the scientific method.
1. Peer review. Research results are submitted to a journal for publication.
Other scientists who specialize in the subject area are
asked to provide comments and critiques and judge whether the work
merits publication. This process is known as peer review.
2. Conference presentations. Scientists frequently present their work at
professional conferences and receive informal comments on their
work prior to publication.
3. Grants and funding. Most scientists spend considerable time writing
grant applications to private foundations or government agencies
for support of their research. These applications are also usually
subjected to peer review. Conflicts of interest sometimes arise when
results are in conflict with the interests of the funding agency. This
 has occurred in the case of private industry funding. Government
agencies have also occasionally suppressed findings to avoid policy
implications.
4. Repeatability. The careful scientist may test a hypothesis repeatedly
in various ways before submitting it for publication. After
publication, other scientists will attempt to reproduce the results in
their own analyses.
5. Theories. If a hypothesis survives repeated testing by numerous
research teams, it may be incorporated into a theory. A theory is a
widely accepted, well-tested explanation of one or more cause-and-
effect relationships that has been extensively validated by a large
amount of research. In science, a theory is not speculation or
hypothesis.
6. Applications. Knowledge gained from scientific research may be applied
to help fulfill society’s needs and address society’s problems. A correct social
response may still be difficult even when the scientific information is
clear, however.

F. Science may go through “paradigm shifts.”

1. A paradigm is a dominant view regarding a topic, based on the
facts and experiments known at that time.
2. Thomas Kuhn argued that science goes through periodic revolutions
in which one dominant view is abandoned for another as more
information becomes available.

IV. Sustainability and the Future of Our World

A. Achieving a sustainable solution is vital.
1. The primary challenge in our increasingly populated world is how to
live within our planet’s means. This is the challenge of sustainability.

2. We have been drawing down Earth’s natural capital, its

accumulated wealth of resources, 30% faster than it is being
replenished. This cannot be sustained.
B. Population and consumption drive environmental impact.
1. The ways we modify the environment have been influenced by the
steep and sudden rise in human population.
2. Our consumption of resources rises even faster than our population.
3. Large differences in the benefits of rising affluence exist among the
World’s nations. The discrepancies in income lead to large differences in the
ecological footprint of citizens from different nations.

C. We face challenges in agriculture, pollution, energy, and biodiversity.

 1. Advances in technology have enabled us to grow more food per
unit of land. Extensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides,
and their resulting runoff and pollution, along with the widespread
conversion of natural habitats, are some environmental costs of
conventional agriculture.
2. Synthetic chemicals pollute land, water, and air. Pollution causes
the death of millions of people and significant loss of wildlife.
3. Our most pressing challenge might be the looming specter of global
climate change. Our use of fossil fuels in concert with deforestation
has increased the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases in the
atmosphere, bringing warming to its highest level in at least
800,000 years.
4. Overharvesting, the introduction of nonnative species, and habitat
alteration cause serious problems with biodiversity -- the number
and diversity of living things -- which is declining dramatically, as
well as on other ecological systems. The Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment clearly states that we have degraded many
environmental systems.
D. Our energy choices will influence our future enormously.
1. Our reliance on fossil fuels, while bringing us material affluence,
has intensified virtually every impact that we have on the
environment.
2. In addition to the environmental problems caused, we will soon
have to deal with the depletion of these fuels and the energy crisis
that this could precipitate.
E. Sustainable solutions abound.
1. Renewable energy and efficiency efforts are gaining ground.
2. Legislation and technological advances are decreasing pollution in
wealthier countries.
3. Advances in conservation biology enable scientists and policymakers
to work together to protect habitat and organisms. Soil conservation,
irrigation, and organic methods are improving agriculture.
4. Steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are increasing.
F. Are things getting better or worse?
1. Some environmental thinkers, whose views are characterized as
Cornucopian, claim that the quality of human existence is
improving.
2. Others prophesize imminent doom. These people are often called
Cassandras.
3. What questions do we need to ask to discover the likely realities?
 G. Sustainable development involves environmental protection,
economic well-being, and social equity.
1. Our civilization cannot exist without an intact natural environment.
Portrayals of environmental protection as threatening people’s economic and
social needs fail to account for the importance of environmental quality.
It is also the poorest members of our society who suffer most from the
degradation of the environment.
2. Development in an economic sense describes the use of natural
resources for economic advancement. Sustainable development is
the use of these resources in a manner that does not compromise the
future availability of resources. Otherwise, future generations may
not have the present quality of life.
3. Interpretations of the phrase sustainable development vary. To
meet the goals of the original United Nations definition, we need to
satisfy a triple bottom line, which encompasses economic
advancement, environmental protection, and social well-being.
4. Environmental science holds the key to answering the question of
whether we can develop in a sustainable way.

V. Conclusion
A. Finding effective ways of living peacefully, healthfully, and sustainably
on our diverse and complex planet will require a thorough scientific
understanding of both natural and social systems.
B. Identifying a problem is the first step in devising a solution to it.
C. Science in general and environmental science in particular, can help
efforts to develop balanced and workable solutions to the many
challenges we face and to create a better world for us and our children.
Key Terms for Chapter 1
agricultural revolution Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
biodiversity natural capital
Cassandras natural experiment
control natural resources
controlled experiment natural sciences
Cornucopian nonrenewable natural resources
correlation observational science
data overshoot
dependent variable paradigm
descriptive science peer review
ecological footprint prediction
ecosystem services probability
environment renewable natural resources
environmentalism science
environmental science scientific method
environmental studies social sciences
experiment sustainability
hypothesis sustainable development
hypothesis-driven science theory
independent variable tragedy of the commons
industrial revolution treatment
interdisciplinary triple bottom line
manipulative experiment variables