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Understanding Environmental Science: Human Impact and Resource Management

This comprehensive overview of environmental science explores the five major fields of study, emphasizing the significant effects of hunter-gatherers, the Agricultural Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution on our environment. It elucidates the distinction between renewable and nonrenewable resources and categorizes environmental problems into three major types. Additionally, the text addresses issues such as pollution, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion while highlighting the importance of responsible resource use and sustainability to confront today's environmental challenges.

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Understanding Environmental Science: Human Impact and Resource Management

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  1. Science and the Environment Understanding Our Environment

  2. Section Objectives • List the five major fields of study associated with Environmental Science • Describe the major effects of hunter-gatherers, the Agricultural Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. • Distinguish between renewable and nonrenewable resources • Classify environmental problems into three major categories

  3. Environmental Science • The study of air, water, and land surrounding an organism or a community • Included: • Impact of humans • Small areas • Earth’s biosphere

  4. Interdisciplinary Science

  5. Environmental Science • To understand and solve environmental problems • Studies human use of resources • Studies impact of human use

  6. Environment Through Time • Hunter-gatherers- Obtained food by collecting plants, hunting and/or scavenging animals • Burned grasslands • Killed buffalo in large numbers • Over hunting caused extinctions of: • Giant sloth • Giant bison • Mastadons • Cave bears • Saber-toothed cats

  7. Hunted to Extinction

  8. Hunter-Gatherers

  9. Environment Through Time • The Agricultural Revolution- Growing and raising food for human consumption • Started over 10,000 years ago • Human populations increased dramatically • Concentrations of people affected environment • Domesticated plants from wild plants • Slash and burn • Causes soil loss, floods, and water shortage • Poor farming practice rendered = useless land

  10. The Agricultural Revolution

  11. Environment Through Time • Industrial Revolution- Shift to using fossil fuels • Efficiency of agriculture, industry, and transportation • Mass production = lower cost • Machinery reduced land and human labor needed • Human populations grew at an extraordinary rate • Urban areas grew = more pollution and habitat loss • Improvements: • Inventions- Light bulb, plastics, pesticides, fertilizers • Sanitation • Nutrition • Medical care

  12. The Industrial Revolution

  13. Local

  14. Spaceship Earth • Earth is a closed system • Nothing enters but energy from sun • Nothing leaves except for heat • Some resources are limited • Waste produced faster than disposal

  15. Today’s Problems • Local problems- Landfills • Regional problems- River water shortage • Global problems- Ozone depletion & global warming

  16. Resource Depletion • Resource depletion- Large fractions used up • Natural resources- • Renewable- Can be replaced within a human lifetime • Nonrenewable- Can’t be replaced within a human lifetime

  17. Pollution • Undesirable change in environment caused by introducing harmful substances, excessive waste, heat, noise or radiation • Biodegradable-Can be broken down by natural processes • Build up faster than broken down • Nondegradable-Can’t be broken down by natural processes • Build up at dangerous levels

  18. Pollution

  19. Loss of Biodiversity • Biodiversity- Variety of organisms in a given area • Genetic variety in a population • Variety of species in community • Variety of communities in ecosystem • Extinction- none left • Preservation important

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