EARTH OUR HOME

Environmental scientists study how the natural world works, and how humans and the environment affect each other.

The environment includes all the living and nonliving things with which organisms interact.

: Environment is often used to mean the nonhuman or “natural” world. But humans are a part of nature.

: Biotic factors: refer to the living organisms. Example: fish, bacteria, tree

Abiotic factors: refers to the non-living things. Example: water, soil, air

Environmental science is the study of how the natural world works, how the environment affects us, and how we affect our environment.

Understanding interactions between humans and the environment is the first step toward solving environmental problems.

Environmental science is interdisciplinary which means it will involve more than one study of science including ecology, earth science, chemistry, biology economics, political science and others.

Environmental science is the pursuit of knowledge about the world whereas environmentalism is a social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world.

POPULATION UP…RESOURCES DOWN

In the last several hundred years, both human population and resource consumption have increased dramatically. There are limits to our resources.

Renewable resources can be replaced in a short period of time.

Nonrenewable resources cannot be replaced or it takes millions of years to replace.

When they are used up, they are gone forever. Resources are considered sustainable if it can continue at the same rate into the foreseeable future.

Renewable resources: fruits, grains, sunlight, wind energy, etc.

Nonrenewable resources: crude oil, natural gas, coal, copper, etc.

Sustainable resources: timber, water, soil, agricultural crops

Recently our population has grown to about 7 billion people. We add about 78 million people to Earth every year, that’s more than 200,000 people a day. Population growth leads to many environmental problems. It’s not just the number of people but the amount of resources we consume.

Ecological footprint expresses the environmental effects of an individual or population in terms of the total amount of land and water required:

To provide the raw materials the individual/population consumes

To dispose of or recycle the waste the individual/population produces

The ecological footprint is usually applied to humans but every organism, natural or synthetic object has a footprint.