Environment

• French environner which 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
 Environmental Science

interaction between

natural system human system

earth life people

interaction
global change
land/water energy pollution
https://www.elsevier.com/connect/corona
virus-information-center

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/mining-coronavirus-genomes-clues-outbreak-s-origins
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-pandemic-linked-to-destruction-of-wildlife-and-worlds-ecosystems/a-53078480
Environmental Science is Interdisciplinary
 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,
• obtaining this information creates a RESPONSIBILITY to get involved in trying
to do something about the problems we have created.
 Ecology

• Study of the interactions of living organisms with their

environment
Levels of ecological study: Ecologists study within several biological levels of organization,
which include organism, population, community, and ecosystem.

A self-contained community of
microorganisms, animals, and
plants that interact with each other
and with their physical
environment

Examples :deserts, rainforests,

coral reefs, grasslands,
tundra(treeless land), savanna
(grasslands with scattered trees)
and polar ice caps.
Types of Ecology
Individual / Organismal Ecology

Organismal ecology focuses on the morphological, physiological, and behavioral

adaptations that let an organism survive in a specific habitat.
Population Ecology

Population ecology studies the number of individuals in an area, as well as

how and why their population size changes over time.
Community Ecology

Community ecology focuses on the processes driving interactions between

differing species and their overall consequences.
Ecosystem Ecology

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. Landscape ecology throws light on the role of
human impacts on the landscape structures and functions.
 Biosphere

Global Ecology
It deals with interactions among earth’s ecosystems, land, atmosphere, and
oceans. It helps to understand the large-scale interactions and their influence on
the planet.
ECOLOGICAL LEVELS OF
ORGANIZATION
ECOLOGICAL LEVELS OF
ORGANIZATION
 Organism
Brown pelican

Spinal cord
Organ system
Nervous system

Brain Organ
Nerve
Brain
Tissue
Nervous tissue

Atom

Cell Nucleus
Nerve cell

Organelle
Nucleus Molecule
DNA
 Biosphere

Ecosystem
Florida coast

Community
All organisms on
the Florida coast

Population
Group of brown
pelicans

Organism
Brown pelican
Environmental Science is an applied
science
 Environmental Science is an applied
science

Hydrangeas different colors

Environmental Science
is related to
Information Technology
Project Noah
Project Noah
Project Noah
Current Global
Conditions
 According to environmental
scientists…
Causes of Environmental Problems

Population Unsustainable Poverty Excluding

growth resource use environmental costs
from market prices
The human population is growing
exponentially at a rapid rate
• Human population is increasing at a fixed percentage so that
we are experiencing doubling of larger populations
• Human population in 2009 was about 6.8 billion while 2020
was about 7.8 billion
• Based on the current increase rate there will be 9.6 billion
people by 2050
 13
12
11
10
9
?

Billions of people
8
7
6
5
4
3
Industrial revolution
2
Black Death—the Plague
1
0
2–5 million 8000 6000 4000 2000 2000 2100
years Time B. C. A. D.
Hunting and Agricultural revolution Industrial
gathering revolution
Fig. 1-11, p. 16
Unsustainable Use of Resources
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 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
Table 7. Updated Poverty Incidence among Families and Population in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao: 2015 and 2018

Poverty Incidence among Poverty Incidence among

Families (%) Population (%)
Major Island
Group
2015u 2018u 2015u 2018u

         
PHILIPPINES 18.0 12.1 23.5 16.7
       
Luzon* 10.9 6.6 14.8 9.3
NCR* 2.8 1.4 4.1 2.2
Rest of Luzon* 13.3 8.1 17.9 11.4
Visayas* 24.2 15.2 30.2 20.2
Mindanao* 30.9 23.8 38.7 31.6
         
u=updated; The 2018 estimates were updated following the availability of the final 2018 Family Income and
Expenditure Survey (FIES), which now includes the new urban-rural classification based on the results of the 2015
Census of Population (POPCEN 2015), in addition to other changes that were made. To ensure consistency, the
2015 estimates were also updated using 2015 FIES with the new urban-rural classification from the POPCEN 2015.

*= significant change; The increase or decrease of the poverty incidence among families and among population
between 2015 and 2018 is significant at 10% level of significance (α = 0.10).
Poverty Incidence
 Prices of goods and services not include 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
2020 EPI ranks 180
countries in
environmental health
and ecosystem vitality
based on 32
performance indicators
in 11 issue categories:
air quality, sanitation and
drinking water, heavy metals,
waste management,
biodiversity and habitat,
ecosystem services, fisheries,
climate change, pollution
emissions, agriculture, and
water resources
2020 EPI Results - Environmental Performance Index - Yale ...
https://epi.yale.edu › epi-results › component › epi
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 the world’s
population – live in nations with unsafe air quality
•Number of people lacking access to clean water has
been nearly cut in half from 960 million in 2000 to 500
million today, around 8% of the world’s population
•2.4 billion people lack access to sanitation
•34% of the global fish stocks are over-exploited or
collapsed
2016 World Environmental
Performance (Yale 2016 report)
• 15.4% of the terrestrial habitats and 8.4% of marine habitats
in 2014 were protected
• 2.52 million km2 for tree cover was lost in 2014- an area
roughly twice the size of Peru
• 23% of the countries have no wastewater treatment
• around 1/3 of countries scored on climate and energy are
reducing their carbon intensity
Current Global Conditions
• Climate Change - over the past 200 years, atmospheric CO2
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
Current Global Conditions
• Energy - fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas) presently
provide around 80 percent of the energy used in
industrialized countries
• Biodiversity Loss - over the past century, more than 800
species have disappeared and at least 10,000 species are now
considered threatened (UNEP)
 Importance of Environmental Science
1. Realize that environmental problems are global
2. Understand the impacts of development on the environment
3. Discover sustainable ways of living
4. Utilize natural resources efficiently
5. Shed light on how to conserve biodiversity
6. Learn and create awareness about environmental problems at local, national,
and international levels
• Distinguished economist Barbara Ward pointed out, for an
increasing number of environmental issues, the difficulty is
not to identify remedies. Remedies are now well understood.
• The problem is to make them SOCIALLY,
ECONOMICALLY, and POLITICALLY acceptable.