CHAPTER 1 · The environment includes: ? Biotic (living) -- > animals, plants, soils, microbes, people o Abiotic (continents, oceans, clouds, rivers, ice caps) ? Built environment: urban centers, living spaces, infrastructure created by humans · Our definition of "environment" must be comprehensive enough to include its legal, social, and scientific aspects. · Mandate of Environment Canada (department of the federal government most directly responsible for the protection of the environment). O Very comprehensive. o A science-based organization. o preserves/enhance the quality of the natural environment, protecting and conserving renewable/water resources, enforcing Canada's sovereignty over its boundary water, forecasting water/warnings. · Environmental science: the study of how our natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we interact with our environment o Emerged because we need to understand the impacts of the consumption of resources. o Science: a systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it. · Knowledge can be applied to societal problems · Developing new technologies and informing policy and management decisions · Environmentalism: a social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world from undesirable changes brought about by human choices. · Environmental science is DISTINCT from politics, law, commerce, philosophy, religion, art, activism · Jared Diamond's book Collapse identified five factors that determine the survival of civilizations: 1. Climate change 2. Hostile neighbors 3. Trade partners 4. Environmental problems 5. Society's response to environmental problems
. The Lesson of Rapa Nui o A small remote island in the Pacific that used to be lushly forested and supported a prosperous society. o Islanders were desperate for forest resources and cropland: trees replaced by ferns and grasses, charcoal in soil -> slash and burn farming o Wild animals disappeared; "ecocide" Different interpretation: when colonizers came, they brought rats who ate palm nuts, making trees unable to regenerate · Another different interpretation: illness brought by colonizers · Natural resources: substances and energy sources provided by the environment that are of economical value and need for survival and functioning of modern society. o Renewable: replenished over short periods of time. · Sunlight, wind, wave energy · Resource management: strategic decision making and planning aimed at balancing the use of a resource with its protection and preservation. o "Stock and flow of resources": if the stock is harvested at a faster rate than it can be replenished, then the stock will be depleted eventually. Can also be applied to groundwater and soil. · Nonrenewable resources: fossil fuels and mineral deposits-> depletable. Will not be replenished at a humanly accessible scale · Goods: tangible material things that can be extracted from the environment. o Food, water, mineral, and energy resources. Easily valued in monetary terms. · Services: functions and processes that are useful/vital in the support of living organisms. o Nutrient cycling by soils in support of crop growth, detoxification of contaminated groundwater by wetlands, climate regulation by the ocean and atmosphere. The intangible equivalent of goods. Difficult to place an economic/monetary value. · Carrying capacity: