BELL WORK

• Pick up a notes packet on the back table.

• Turn-in any forms that you have.

• Take out a writing utensil.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

CHAPTER 1

THE ENVIRONMENT

• Includes the natural world and things made by humans.

• It is a very complex web of relationships that connect us with the world we live in.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

• The study of the impact of humans on the environment

• GOAL: to understand and solve environmental problems

• It uses ecology-the study of how living things interact with each other and with their nonliving environment

• Chemistry, Geology, Botany, and Zoology also provide information to help environmental science succeed

• Human populations also impact our environment

How did it start?

• Observations from non-scientists are often the first steps in addressing a problem in the environment.

• Where ever humans have hunted, grown food, or settled they have changed the environment.

• CAN YOU THINK OF ANY PROBLEMS IN OUR ENVIRONMENT?

Hunter Gatherers

• People who obtain food by collecting plants, hunting wild animals, or scavenging their remains.

Agriculture

• The practice of growing, breeding, and caring for plants and animals that are used for food, clothing, housing, transportation, etc.

Agricultural Revolution• People stopped wandering and started

raising their own animals and plants by collecting wild ones and domesticating them –this started over 10,000 years ago!

• This drastically impacted human societies and the environment.

Agricultural Revolution Cont.

• Populations Soared! More individuals could be supported via farming than by hunting/gathering in one area

• It changed the food we eat! –All food that we eat today use to be wild. Take a look at page 10 in your book.

Farmlands Take Over!• Grasslands, forests, and wetlands were

replaced with farmland-habitats were destroyed.

– Slash and burn agriculture was popular BUT when forests were replaced with farmland on a large scale: soil loss, floods, and water shortages made the land unfarmable.

Industrial Revolution• Shifted energy sources from animal muscles, humans,

and running water to machines and increased fossil fuels.– QUESTION: WHAT IS A FOSSIL FUEL?

Industrial Revolution Cont.

• POSITIVE OUTCOMES: populations grew, transportation became faster, inventions improved the quality of life, agriculture was more productive, and sanitation, nutrition, and medical care also greatly improved.

• NEGATIVE OUTCOMES: increased environmental problems– Started using artificial substances instead of raw

animal and plant products such as plastics

• NOTE: We link a LOT of our environmental problems today, to what started to happen way back here!

EARTH IS CLOSED

• Earth is a closed system– Only thing that enters

in a large quantity is energy from the sun

– Only thing that leaves in large quantities is heat

• The problem on earth: some resources are limited, if we use them up, they are gone forever.

• Environmental Problems occur on different scales: local, regional, or global.

• Pressure on the environment will continue to increase as human population continues to grow-so does the need for food and resources.