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Environmental Science: Interdisciplinary Study and Sustainable Solutions

Environmental science is a complex, interdisciplinary study of humanity's relationship with the environment. This field addresses issues such as human numbers, natural resources, pollution, sustainability, and non-sustainable behaviors. Factors like population growth, consumption, pollution, and habitat fragmentation contribute to environmental degradation. Addressing these problems requires scientific assessment, risk analysis, public education, political action, and follow-through. This text explores key concepts in environmental science, including risk assessment, perception of risk, dose-response relationships, and addressing environmental problems through case studies like Lake Washington's phosphorous issue.

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Environmental Science: Interdisciplinary Study and Sustainable Solutions

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Environmental Science Introduction Doing Science

  2. Environmental Science • Interdisciplinary study of humanity’s relationship with other organisms and the nonliving physical environment. • Encompasses many complex and interconnected problems • Human numbers • Natural Resources • Pollution

  3. Environmental Sustainability • Ability of the environment to function indefinitely without going into a decline from the stresses imposed by human society on natural systems that maintain life

  4. Non-Sustainable Human Behaviors • Using nonrenewable resources as if they were present in unlimited supplies • Using renewable resources faster than they can be replenished naturally • Pollution the environment with toxins as if the capacity to absorb them were limitless • Increasing in numbers despite the Earth’s finite ability to support us.

  5. Factors Contributing to Environmental Degradation • Population • Consumption

  6. Environmental Impacts

  7. Thomas Multhus and Population

  8. Human Population Growth

  9. Pollution, Population and Consumption

  10. Endocrine Disrupters

  11. Overfishing: Georges Bank

  12. Subsistence Fishing

  13. Factory Fishing Boat

  14. Overfishing

  15. Declining Bird Populations • Habitat fragmentation • Nest parasitism

  16. Nest Parasitism and Habitat Fragmentation • Fragmentation of habitat for songbirds is a result of development • Increases edges • Associated with increased populations of cowbirds

  17. Reintroduction of Wolves

  18. Exotic Species

  19. Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

  20. Global Warming

  21. Global Warming

  22. Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

  23. Rain Forest Destruction

  24. Addressing Environmental Problems

  25. Components to Addressing an Environmental Problem • Scientific Assessment • Risk Analysis • Public Education • Political Action • Follow-through

  26. Scientific Method

  27. Decision Making and Risk Assessment • Hazard Identification • Exposure Assessment • Toxicity Assessment • Risk Characterizatin

  28. Perception of Risk

  29. Dose-Response: Threshold

  30. Dose-Response: No Threshold

  31. Cancer Slope Factor

  32. Mixtures of Chemicals • Additivity • Synergy • Antagonism

  33. Risk Assessment Focus • Human Health • Ecological

  34. Assessing and Managing an Environmental Problem: A Case Study

  35. Lake Washington

  36. Phosphorous and Lake Washington

  37. Phosphorous and Algal Blooms

  38. Transparency

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