ESc 301.

01
The Environmental Dimension

I-INTRODUCTION
Ferhan Çeçen
 What is the Environment?
• The environment
encompasses the whole of
life on earth and the
complex interactions that
link the living world with
the physical world.
• In a general sense, this
covers everything
contained within the air,
land and water. A collection of all the Earth’s ecosystems:
-biosphere
-hydrosphere
-atmosphere
-lithosphere
 A Little Environmental History
Before 1960, few people had ever heard the word ecology,
and the word environment meant little as a political
or social issue. Then came the publication of Rachel Carson’s
landmark book, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1962). It is a classic book on problems associated with toxins
in the environment.

At about the same time, several major environmental

events occurred, such as oil spills along the coasts of
Massachusetts and southern California, and highly publicized
threats of extinction of many species, including whales,
elephants, and songbirds. The environment became a popular
issue.
 Elements of the Scientific Method

Science
A body of knowledge (facts and explanations)
about the natural world and the process used to get
that knowledge.

Scientists
collect evidence (observations) and use this evidence
to draw conclusions (inferences) in an effort to
understand the natural world.
Elements of the Scientific Method
Elements of the Scientific Method
 Environmental Science
Environmental science is the study of the interactions among the physical,
chemical and biological components of the environment. It focuses on pollution
and degradation of the environment related to human activity; and the impact on
biodiversity and sustainability.

Environmental science attempts to explain

❖ how life on the Earth is sustained,
❖ what leads to environmental problems,
❖ how these problems can be solved.

Many sciences are important to environmental science. These include: biology

(especially ecology, that part of biology that deals with the relationships among
living things and their environment),
geology, hydrology, climatology, meteorology, oceanography, soil science etc. Also
engineering sciences are required to deal with most of environmental problems.

Environmental science includes also other fields that have to do with how we
value the environment, from environmental philosophy to environmental
economics.
Environmental Science
 Environmental Science

The goals of environmental science are to learn:

• how nature works.
• how the environment affects us.
• how we affect the environment.
• how we deal with environmental problems
• how we can live more sustainably without degrading our life-support
system.
We have made significant progress in many areas of
environmental science (although our scientific understanding of
the environment still lags behind our need to know). We have
also begun to create legal frameworks for managing the
environment, thus providing a new basis for addressing
environmental issues.
Thinking like a scientist
 Approaches to environmental science
➢ Human population growth
The global population has risen dramatically during the last century. Underlying nearly all
environmental problems is this rapid rise in human population.

The Black Death, also known as the Great Plague, the Black Plague, or the Plague, resulted
in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people from 1347 to 1351.
 Approaches to environmental science
➢ Sustainability

Sustainability means that a resource is used in such a way that

it continues to be available.
Some would define it as follows: we have the right to use the
Earth’s resources and Earth capital to meet our needs, but we
have the obligation to pass on the Earth’s resources and services
to future generations in as good or better shape than these
conditions were passed on to us.
Sustainability
 Approaches to environmental science
➢Resources
Nonrenewable resource:
A resource that forms at a rate that is
much slower than the rate at which it is
consumed

Renewable resource:
A natural resource that can be replaced at
the same rate at which the resource is
consumed. It can be replenished with the
passage of time, either through biological
reproduction or other naturally recurring
processes.

Potentially renewable resource:

This resource can be replenished fairly
rapidly through natural processes. They
can be depleted if used beyond
sustainable yield.
➢ Earth’s Carrying Capacity

It is difficult to determine Earth’s carrying

capacity. Estimates of Earth’s carrying capacity for
people range from 2.5 to 40 billion, but about 15
billion is the upper limit with today’s technology.
The differences in capacity have to do with the
quality of life projected for people—the poorer
the quality of life, the more people can be packed
onto the Earth.
➢A global perspective
We now know that human activities can affect the
environment globally. Recognition that civilization can change
the environment at a global level is relatively recent. For
example, as we discuss in detail in later parts, scientists now
believe that emissions of modern chemicals are changing the
ozone layer high in the atmosphere.

Critical thinking issue: What is more important: the quality of

your local environment or the quality of the global
environment—the environment of the entire planet?
Environmental problems are global
➢An urban world
In part because of the rapid growth of the human population
and in part because of changes in technology, we are
becoming an urban species, and our effects on the
environment are more and more the effects of urban life.
Cities and towns get larger. Agricultural lands and coastal
wetlands are lost. Species loose their habitats. As urban areas
expand, wetlands are filled in, forests cut down, and soils
covered over with pavement and buildings.
➢Values and the Environment
Deciding what to do about an environmental problem
involves both values and science. Many people see
the earth as a resource to be mined rather than as a
trust to be cared for.
We must choose what we want the environment to
be. But to make this choice, we must first know what
is possible. That requires knowing the scientific data
and understanding its implications.
Three common worldviews
 Case Study: Birds at Mono Lake:

Applying science to solve an environmental problem

This case study highlights the problems of Mono Lake in California where over
a million birds use a lake that is drying up and becoming salty due to the
diversion of water to the city of Los Angeles. The questions posed to a panel
of scientists studying the lake were
1) without stream input how small would the lake become and
2) would it become too salty to support aquatic life and when?

The answers were yes, too salty by 2003.

What to do was a question of values, water for Los Angeles or water for the
lake. In the end, the courts sided with the lake.
 Placing a Value on the Environment
The value of the environment is based on five justifications:

The utilitarian justification is that some aspect of

the environment is valuable because it benefits individuals
economically or is directly necessary to human survival.
For example, conserving lions in Africa as part of tourism
provides a livelihood for local people.

The ecological justification is that an ecosystem is

necessary for the survival of some species of interest to
us, or that the system itself provides some benefit.

Aesthetic and recreational justifications have to do

with our appreciation of the beauty of nature and our desire
to get out and enjoy it. For example, many people
find wilderness scenery beautiful and would rather live in
a world with wilderness than without it. One way we enjoy
nature’s beauty is to seek recreation in the outdoors.
 Placing a Value on the Environment

Moral justification has to do with the belief that various aspects of the
environment have a right to exist and that it is our moral obligation to
help them, or at least allow them, to persist.

Cultural justification refers to the fact that different cultures have many
of the same values but also some different values with respect to the
environment. This may also be in terms of specifics of a particular value.
All cultures may value nature, but, depending on their religious
beliefs, may value it in different degrees of intensity.

Analysis of environmental values is the focus of a new discipline,

known as
environmental ethics.
 UNDERLYING CAUSES OF
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Major environmental and
resource problems
 Environmental Pollution
• Pollution is the harmful
alteration of our
environment by our own
actions.

• Pollutants – either
unwanted by-products or
our activities or the
obnoxious residues of
things we have made,
used, and thrown away.
Pollutants can have three types of unwanted effects:

• Can disrupt / degrade life-support systems.

• Can damage health and property.
• Can create nuisances such as noise and unpleasant smells,
tastes, and sights.

Three factors determine how severe the harmful effects

of a pollutant are:

• The concentration level: ppm, ppt etc.

• Chemical nature: how active and harmful it is in nature?
• Half-life or the persistence of the pollutant. (DDT is an example
of a persistent pollutant).
 Types of Pollution
• Air pollution
– Most air pollution is caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
• Water pollution
– Sewage
– Eutrophication
– Infectious agents
– Organic chemicals
– Inorganic and miscellaneous chemicals
– Sediments from land corrosion
– Radioactive substances
– Waste heat from power plants and industry
Pharmaceuticals and
personal care products
(PPCPs):

Many different
substances are being used in
medicines
such as painkillers,
antibiotics, contraceptives,
beta-blockers, lipid regulators
etc.

The world’s people consume

enormous quantities of skin
care products, dental care
products, soaps, sunscreen
agents, and hair styling
products—to name just a
few.
 Types of Pollution (Continued)
• Land pollution
– Pesticides – chemicals used to kill insects defined as pests.
– Herbicides – chemicals used to kill plant life, particularly
weeds.
– Chemical wastes
– Radioactive fallout
– Acid rain
– Garbage
• Global warming
– Since the late 1800’s the average global surface
temperature has increased about 0.75 degrees C.
– Most warming has occurred since 1950.
 Solutions to Pollution

• Pollution Control
• Pollution Prevention