Elec 421: Environmental Issues

and Policies
 JAMELA B. SAMPULNA, MAST
Instructor I
College of Education
Cotabato Foundation College of Science and
Technology
Session Decorum
All gadgets will be kept during lectures.
Limit your going out. Do it silently.
Students who are late 15mins and beyond are
considered absent.
If you are late, just enter the room discreetly.
Four(4) absences without valid reason is considered
as dropped.
Students who are not in proper uniform are
considered absent.
 Elec 421: Environmental Issues
and Policies
• This interdisciplinary field that examines the
relationships between people and their
environments; explores social science and
humanities approaches to environmental
issues. To promote a more holistic framework
of environmental issues, the approached
adopted must necessarily be interdisciplinary,
involving inputs from various fields related to
the issues being studied. This course aims to
train leaders, develop new knowledge, and
devise solutions that will restore and sustain
the health of our planet.
 Elec 421: Environmental Issues
and Policies
• At the end of the course, the students must
have:
1. Articulated the impacts of environment on
society, specifically Philippine society.
2. Explained how do make environmental policy
decisions.
3. Acquired and apply scientific knowledge about
environmental issues so as to understand the
underlying scientific concepts.
4. Developed a deeper understanding of
environmental issues by relating scientific
knowledge with other respective
 Elec 421: Environmental Issues
and Policies
5. Acquired the necessary problem-solving skills
that would enable them to examine and propose
alternatives to a variety of environmental issues.
6. Developed pro-environmental values and
attitudes that foster environmental responsibility,
and
7. Critically evaluate their attitudes, behaviour
and values and consequently adopt a more
sustainable lifestyle.
8. Illustrated how the social media and
information age impact their understanding of
climate change.
 Grading System
*Quizzes – 20 %
*Performance 40%
Project – 20 %
Reporting/Oral Presentation – 20 %
* Examination (Midterm and Final) – 30 %
*Class Attendance – 10 %
Total = 100%

 
 
Guidelines for the Requirements:
A. Quizzes

1. There will be 6 written quizzes for the term.

2. There will be 6 oral tests for the term

( conducted individually)from.

3. The test is in the form of a 2-minute talk focusing

on the concepts presented during the lecture. A
scoring rubric will be used for this purpose.
•Lesson: 1. Introduction: Goals, history global environmental problems 
•Lesson: 2. Environmental Jurisprudence
2.0 Definitions; History of Environmental Law
2.1 Environmental Protection Laws of the Philippines, Declaration of Principles and State
Policies, National Economy and Patrimony;
2.3 PD 1151; Law of Fisheries; Law on Fisheries; Law on Flood Control and Natural
Calamities; Forestry Law ; Land Use Planning and Management; Mining; Pollution and Traffic
Management; Waste and Water Quality Management; Presidential Decree and Republic Acts
•Lesson: 3. Freshwater and Water Pollution
3.0 Contamination of Drinking Water
3.0 1a Water Pollution (oceans, subsurface water, coastal waters, lakes & rivers, enclosed and
semi-enclosed seas).
3.0 1b Water Pollution (general properties and dynamics of water pollutants: dispersal,
biodegradation, size of emissions, volume of water considered, and residence time of
water/pollutant)
•Lesson: 4.0 Dams
•Lesson: 5.0 Mining

 
 
• Lesson: 6.0 Wildlife Conservation 
• Lesson: 7.0 Stability of Ecosystem
7a. Resistance and resilience of ecosystem 
• Lesson: 8.0 Agriculture
8.0a. Soil Erosion and Contamination
8.0b. Land use and Land Degradation
8.0c. Soil conservation Techniques (terracing, windbreaks, multicropping,
contour farming, reducing ploughing, and alteration of land use) 
• Lesson: 9.0 Climate Change and the Energy Crisis
9.0a Environmental Awareness
9.0b Human Drives and Solutions 
• Lesson: 10.0 Exploitation of Natural Resources
10.0a Harvesting of biotic resources: ( Logging, Grazing , and Hunting &
Fishing)
10.0b Extraction and use of abiotic resources: (Fossil fuels, Mineral Resources,
and Non-mineral resources)
10.0c Environmental Impacts: (Loss of land & habitat, Subsidence & Flooding,
and Nuclear accidents and Nuclear waste disposal)
• Lesson: 11.0 Atmospheric Pollution
11.0a Global climate change as a consequence of
atmospheric pollution(greenhouse gases: CFCs,
Methane, water vapor, carbon dioxide and tropospheric ozone)
• Lesson: 12.0 Nanotechnology
 
• Lesson: 13.0 Carbon Footprint
 
• Lesson: 14. Culminating Activity and Final Exam
A 15- minutes creative presentation that reflects student
summative learning’s in Environmental Issues and Policies
 What is Environmental Science?
What are its concerns?

• It is an interdisciplinary academic
field that integrates physical,
biological and information
sciences(Ecology, Biology, Physics,
Chemistry, Zoology, Mineralogy,
Oceanography, Limnology, Pedology,
Climatology and Geodesy)
• It is an applied science.
• It is concerned with solutions of
environmental problems.
 What Is the
Environment?
• It's everything that makes up our
surroundings and affects our ability
to live on the earth—the air we
breathe, the water that covers most
of the earth's surface, the plants and
animals around us, and much more.
Why do environments
change?
• All of the environments on Earth change over
time. Some changes are caused by people,
and these usually occur in relatively short
period of time.
• A change or disturbance of the environment
most often caused by human influences and
natural ecological processes.
• Environmental changes can include any
number of things, including natural disasters,
human interference, or animal interaction.
• Environmental change does not only
encompass physical changes, but it can be
things like an infestation of invasive species is
also environmental changes
How do we make
environmental policy
decisions?
• Environmental policy and decision
making explores the protection of
long-term natural resource use and
environmental quality through
changes in human behavior and
policy.
• Law considered as “instruction from
the maker”
• how can the human machine be
made to function well?