Lecture 1:

UNDERSTANDING

OUR
ENVIRONMENT
JESSA SABADO
 COURSE
OVERVIEW
• This course presents the connections and
relations between individual spheres of the
environment, namely natural science, engineering
and humanities and there covers the fields of
chemistry, biology, ecology, meteorology,
hydrology, economics, sociology and also
toxicology and health ecology.

• Particularly, it will highlight the contemporary

issues resulted from the activities of human
system towards the environment
COURSE REQUIREMENT
LECTURE PERCENTAGE

MAJOR EXAMINATIONS (MIDTERM AND FINALS) 40%

QUIZZES 30%

ASSIGNMENTS/ACTIVITIES 30%

TOTAL 100%

60% PASSING
 01
UNDERSTANDING
OUR
ENVIRONMENT
The Nature of
Environmental Science
Environment – (from the French environner: to
encircle or surround)

1) the circumstances and conditions that surround an organism

or a group of organisms or
2) the social and cultural conditions that affect an individual or a
community.

everything that affects an organism during its lifetime, both

living and non-living
- People exist within the environment and are part of nature

Science – an approach to studying the natural world

that involves formulating hypotheses and testing
them
The Nature of Environmental
Science cont.
Environmental science – the systematic study of our
environment and our place in it. (Biology, chemistry,
earth science, geography)

• an interdisciplinary field that includes both scientific and

social aspects of human impact on the world.

• must also deal with politics, social organization,

economies, ethics and philosophy

• * A mission oriented that we all have a responsibility to

get involved and try to do something about the
problems we have created.
Source: Enger, ED. & BF Smith.
2006. 10th ed. McGraw
Hill.476pp.
Source: Why is environmental science a
multidisciplinary science? (n.d.-b). Quora.
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-
environmental-science-a-multidisciplinary-
science
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 Some notable names in conservation (U.S.A)

Gifford Pinchot
• First director of the Forest Service, 1905

• Resources should be used “for the greatest good,

for the greatest number for the longest time”. This
is called a policy of utilitarian conservation.
• With the cooperation of Theodore Roosevelt, he
established the framework of our national park,
forest and wildlife refuge system.
• Multiple use policies of the Forest Service reflect
this pragmatic utilitarian conservation
 Some notable names in conservation (U.S.A) cont.

John Muir: altruistic

preservation.
• Opposed Pinchot's policies.

• Nature deserves to exist for its own sake, regardless of

its usefulness to us.
• Aesthetic and spiritual values formed the core of his
philosophy of nature protection.
• Emphasis on the fundamental right of other organisms to
exist; this point of view is called biocentric preservation
 Some notable names in conservation (U.S.A) cont.

Rachel Carson: Silent Spring,

1962: environmentalism
• Environmentalism was brought to consciousness by
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962)..
• Pointed out the threats of pollution and toxic waste to
humans and other organisms.
• Environmentalism includes resources and pollution
problems.
• Activism: litigation, mass media for campaigns, books,
intervention in regulatory hearings.
An American ecologist. He focused
his career on the issue of human
overpopulation, and is best known
for his exposition of the tragedy of
the commons in a 1968 paper of
the same title in Science, which
called attention to "the damage
that innocent actions by individuals
can inflict on the environment"
Garrett James Hardin
(April 21, 1915 – September 14, 2003)
Human dimensions of environmental science
- political economies
• According to the World Bank, one fifth of the world peoples live in acute poverty.
• -lack of adequate diet, housing, clean water, basic sanitation, health care, education,
medical care, and other essentials for a humane existence
• The poor of the world have become the victims and the agents of environmental
degradation and destruction.
• Elimination of poverty and protection of the environment are interlinked.
• The cycle of poverty, illness, and limited opportunities can become a self-sustaining
proves that passes from one generation to another.
• Rich countries tend to be in the north and are industrialized.
• Poor countries tend to be in the tropics and are agricultural.
 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• "…meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs.“
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Development/Intro.asp
• Our Common Future, the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development.
• Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norwegian Prime Minister and Chair of the Commission.

• Improving people's lives over many

generations rather than just a few years.
• Political stability, democracy and
equitable economic distribution are
needed to minimize poverty.
• Many see economic growth as the only
solution to poverty.
Thanks for
listenning!