Chapter 1

Key Themes in Environmental

Sciences
Major Themes of Environmental
Science
• Human population growth
• An urbanizing world
• Sustainability of our population and all
of nature
• People and nature
• A global perspective
• Science and values
 Human Population Growth
• The human population grew at a rate
unprecedented in history in the
twentieth century.
• Population growth is the underlying
environmental problem.
• Famine is one of the things that happen
when a human population exceeds its
environmental resources. An example
is African Famine.
© 2008 John Wiley and Sons Publishers
 An Urban World
• When the impact of technology is
combined with the impact of population,
the impact on the environment is
multiplied.
• In an increasingly urban world, we must
focus much of our attention on the
environments of cities and on the
effects of cities on the rest of the
environment.
 Sustainability and Carrying
Capacity
• What is the maximum number of
people the Earth can sustain?
 Sustainability
• Sustainable resoruce harvest
– An amount of a resource that can be
harvested at regular intervals indefinitely
• Sustainable ecosystem
– An ecosystem that is subject to some human
use, but at a level that leads to no loss of
species or of necessary ecosystem functions
 Science and Values
• To make decisions about an
environmental problem we:
– Know what is possible based on science
– Choose the best option based on our values
 Precautionary Principle
• Precautionary Principle states that we
should not wait for scientific proof
before taking action to prevent
environmental damage.
• Ex. San Francisco