Class notes
Bio 106 Chapter 1 -3 Lecture Notes
- Course
- Bio 106
- Institution
- Indiana Wesleyan University
This is a comprehensive and detailed note that contains chapters 1-3. *Essential Study Material!!
[Show more]
Content preview
Environment and Society spring 2017 NotesEnvironment: the total of our surroundings
- All the things around us with which we interact:
- Living things (biotic factors): Animals, plants, forests, fungi, etc.
- Non-living things (abiotic factors): continents, oceans, clouds, soil, rocks
- Our built environment: buildings, human created living centers
- Social relationships and institutional
- Humans exist within the environment
- Humans exist within the environment and we are a apart of nature
- Our survival depends on a healthy, functioning planet
- The fundamental insight of environmental science is that we are part of the natural
world
- Our interactions with its other parts matter a great deal. Generally, what does Scripture
say our role is in terms of the environment?
- Humans depend completely on the environment for survival
- Enriched and longer lives, increases wealth, health, mobility, leisure time
- But natural systems have been degraded
o Pollution, erosion, and species extinction
o Environmental changes threaten long term health and survival
- Environmental science is the study of:
o How the natural world works
o How the environment affects humans and vice versa
, - Natural resources: substances and energy sources needed for survival
- Renewable resources: perpetually available: sunlight, wind, waves, energy
- Renew themselves over short periods of time: timber, water, soil
- These can be destroyed
- Non-renewable resources can be depleted: oil, coal, minerals
Global human population growth
- More than 7.3 billion humans
- Why so many humans? Agricultural revolution, stable food supplies, industrial
revolution, urbanized society powered by fossil fuels, sanitation and medicine
Thomas Matthews and Human Population
- Population growth must be controlled, or it will outstrip food production
- Starvation, war, disease
- Neo-Malthusians
- Population growth has disastrous effects
- Paul and Anne Erlich, The Population Bomb (1968)
- Agricultural advances have only postponed crises
Resource consumption exerts impacts
- Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the commons” (1968)
- Unregulated exploitation causes resource depletion
- Grazing lands, forests, air, water
- No one has the incentive to care for a resource
- Everyone takes what he or she can until the resource is depleted
, - Solution? Private ownership? Voluntary organization to enforce responsible use?
- Government regulations?
The Ecological Footprint
- The environmental impact of a person or population
- Amount of biologically productive land and water
- For resources and to dispose/recycle waste
- Overshoot: humans have surpassed the Earth’s capacity to support us. Is this true?
- We are using more of the planet’s resources than are available to us on a sustainable
basis
Environmental science
- Can help us avoid mistakes made by past civilizations
- Human survival depends on how we interact with our environment
- Our impacts are now global
- Many great civilizations have fallen after depleting their resources
- The lesson of Easter Island: people annihilated their culture by destroying their
environment
Environmental science: How the natural world works
- Environment Impacts Humans
- Its goal: developing solutions to environmental problems
- An interdisciplinary field
- Natural sciences: info about the natural world
- Environmental science programs
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller anyiamgeorge19. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $12.89. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
57413 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now