ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Environment
- French environner w/c means to
encircle or surround
- conditions that surround an organism
Environmental science
- systematic study of environment and
our proper place in it
- how human activities affect the
natural ecosystems
- studies how the earth works, our
interaction with the earth, and ways to
deal with environment problems
- is an interdisciplinary study of
connections between the earth’s life –
support system and human activities.
Components of Environmental Science
1. Ecology
2. Geoscience concerns with the study of
geology , soil science, volcanoes and
earth’s crust as they relate to the
environment
3. Atmospheric science is the study of
the earth’s atmosphere
4. Environmental chemistry is the
study of the changes chemicals make
in the environment such as
contamination of the soil, pollution of
water.
Environmental Science is Mission –
Oriented
- It seeks new, valid and contextual
knowledge about the natural world and
our impacts on it, but obtaining this
information creates a RESPONSIBILITY
to get involved in trying to do
something about the problems we have
created.
Ecological Levels of Organization
Cell Tissue Organ System
Organism Population Community
Ecosystem Landscape Biosphere
(encompasses all the ecosystems on the
earth).
Levels of Ecological Study
Ecological study within several biological levels
of organization, which include organisms,
population, community (in a forest, each
pine tree is an organism. Together, all the pine
trees make up a population. All plants and
animal species in the forest comprise a
community), and ecosystem (the coastal
ecosystem in the southeastern US includes
living organisms and the environment in which
they live).
Ecology
- Study of the interaction of living
organisms with their environment.
Individual / Organismal Ecology
- Focuses on the morphological,
physiological, and behavioral
adaptations that let an organism
survive in specific habitat.
Population Ecology
- Studies the number of individuals in an
area, as well as how and why their
population size changes over time.
Community Ecology
- Focuses on the processes driving
interactions between differing species
and their overall consequences.
Ecosystem Ecology
- Studies all organismal, population, and
community components of an area, as
well as the non – living counterparts.
Landscape Ecology
- It deals with the exchange of energy,
materials, organisms, and other
products of ecosystems.
- Throws light on the role of human
impacts on the landscape structures
and functions.
Biosphere
- Global Ecology
o it deals with the interaction
among earth’s ecosystems,
land, atmosphere, and oceans.
o It helps understand the large –
scale interactions and their
influence on the planet.
many generations rather than just a
few years.
Poverty has harmful environmental and
health effects
• Poverty occurs when the basic needs
for adequate food, water, shelter,
health, and education are not met
• One in every five people live in
extreme poverty (<$1.25/day), and
more are susceptible
Harmful effects of poverty

Environmental Science is related to

Information Technology

- Example is project noah

Current Global Conditions

According to environmental scientists the

causes of environmental problems are
population growth, unsustainable
resource use, poverty, and excluding
environmental costs from market prices.

The human population is growing

exponentially at a rapid rate

• Human population is increasing at a Prices of goods and services not include

fixed percentage so that we are
experiencing doubling of larger
populations
• Human population in 2009 was about
6.8 billion.
• Based on the current increase rate
there will be 9.6 billion people by 2050
Sustainable Development
- Meeting the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own
needs.
- Progress in human well – being that
can be extended or prolonged over
harmful environmental and health costs
• company’s goal is often to maximize
the profit
• often consumers do not know the
damage caused by their consumption.
• develop ways to include harmful costs
of goods and services
2016 World Environmental Performance
(Yale 2016 report)
• More deaths globally occur due to poor
air quality than water
 • More than 3.5 billion people –half of 80 percent of the energy used in
the world’s population – live in nations industrialized countries
with unsafe air quality
• Biodiversity Loss - over the past
• Number of people lacking access to century, more than 800 species have
clean water has been nearly cut in half disappeared and at least 10,000
from 960 million in 2000 to 500 million species are now considered threatened
today, around 8% of the world’s (UNEP)
population
Importance of Environmental Science
• 2.4 billion people lack access to
sanitation 1. Realize that environmental problems
are global.
• 34% of the global fish stocks are over- 2. Understand the impacts of
exploited or collapsed development on the environment.
3. Discover sustainable ways of living.
• 15.4% of the terrestrial habitats and 4. Shed light on how to conserve
8.4% of marine habitats in 2014 were biodiversity.
protected 5. Learn and create awareness about the
environmental problems at local,
• 2.52 million km2 for tree cover was lost
national, and international levels.
in 2014- an area roughly twice the size
of Peru Distinguished economist Barbara Ward
pointed out, for an increasing number of
• 23% of the countries have no
environmental issues, the difficulty is not to
wastewater treatment
identify remedies. Remedies are now well
understood.
• around 1/3 of countries scored on
climate and energy are reducing their
The problem is to make them SOCIALLY,
carbon intensity
ECONOMICALLY, and POLITICALLY
acceptable.
Current Global Conditions

• Climate Change - over the past 200

years, atmospheric CO 2
concentrations have increased about
35%.

• By 2100, mean global temperatures

will probably increase 2° to 6°C
compared to 1900 temperatures

• Soils - about two-thirds of all

agricultural lands show signs of
degradation

• Water and Sanitation - at least 1.1

billion people lack an adequate supply
of safe drinking water, and more than
twice of that don’t have modern
sanitation

• Energy - fossil fuels (oil, coal, and

natural gas) presently provide around