EnvironmentalScienceInteractionsWiki.pptVIP

Environmental Science Welcome to SVN 3E! What is Environmental Science? The study of how humans interact with their environment “…the earth enables our people to survive, the environment must be respected and maintained. As long as the earth remains healthy, the people remain healthy.” (Long and Fox, 1996) Brainstorm With your partner/group, brainstorm at least 10 ways in which destruction to the environment and depletion of resources can affect our overall well being as a population What are the challenges we face? What are the environmental issues we are facing today? Come up with at least 10! * * Our environment is everything that surrounds us, both natural and man-made. Environment: the total of our surroundings All the things around us with which we interact: Living things Animals, plants, forests, fungi, etc. Nonliving things Continents, oceans, clouds, soil, rocks Our built environment Buildings, human-created living centers Social relationships and institutions Natural resources: vital to human survival Renewable resources: Perpetually available: sunlight, wind, wave energy Renew themselves over short periods: timber, water, soil These can be destroyed Nonrenewable resources: can be depleted Oil, coal, minerals Natural resources = substances and energy sources needed for survival Global human population growth More than 6.7 billion humans Why so many humans? Agricultural revolution Stable food supplies Industrial revolution Urbanized society powered by fossil fuels Sanitation and medicines More food Human population growth exacerbates all environmental problems The growth rate has slowed…but we still add more than 200,000 people to the planet each day We depend completely on the environment for survival Life has become more pleasant for us so far (Increased wealth, health, mobility, leisure time) But…natural systems have been degraded and environmental changes threaten long-term health and survival Environmental science: how does the natural wo