GE 10

ENVIRONMENTAL
SCIENCE

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 MODULE 1

TITLE OF SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

MAJOR TOPIC: ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY

INTRODUCTION

This course deals on the interrelationships among components of the

natural world; environmental problems, their causes, associated risks,
preventive measures and alternative solutions. Central to the discussion is
the environment and sustainability. Furthermore, environmental economics
will be included, arguing that the field has undergone dramatic changes
since in its beginnings in 1970’s.

Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary study of how the earth

(nature) works, how humans interact with the environment and how
humans can live more sustainably. A key component of environmental
science is ecology, the branch of biology that focuses on how living
organisms interact with the living and the nonliving parts of their
environment. The major focus of ecology is the study of ecosystem. An
ecosystem is a biological community of organisms within defined area of
land or volume of water that interacts with one another and with the
nonliving chemical and physical factors in their environment.

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LESSON 1 – ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY

DISCUSSION

Sustainability is the capacity of the earth’s natural systems that

support life and human economic systems to survive or adapt to changing
environmental conditions indefinitely. The earth is a remarkable example
of a sustainable system. Life has existed on the earth for about 3.8 billion
years. During this time, the planet has experienced several catastrophic
environmental changes. They include gigantic meteorite impacts, ice ages
lasting millions of years, long warming periods that melted land-based ice
and raised sea levels by hundreds of feet, and five mass extinctions- each
wiping out more than half of the world’s species. Despite these dramatic
environmental changes, an astonishing variety of life has survived. Long
before humans arrived, organisms had developed abilities to use sunlight
to make their food and to recycle all of the nutrients they needed for
survival. Organisms also developed a variety of abilities to find food and
survive. For example, spiders create webs that are strong enough to
capture fast-moving flying insects. Bats have a radar system for finding
prey and avoiding collisions. These and many other abilities and materials
were developed without the use of the high temperature or high-pressure
processes that we employ in manufacturing (Miller & Spoolman, 2016).
Environmental science is a study of connections in the natural
environment nature. It is interdisciplinary study of how the earth works and
has survived and thrived, how humans interact with the environment and
how humans can live more sustainably. A key component of environmental
science is ecology, the branch of biology that focuses on how living
organisms interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment.
A major focus of ecology is the study of ecosystems. An ecosystem is a
biological community of organisms within a defined area of land or volume
of water that interact with one another and with the nonliving chemical
and physical factors in their environment. Environmental science and
ecology should not be confused with environmentalism, or environmental
activism, which is a social movement dedicated to protecting the earth’s
life support system for humans and other species (Miller & Spoolman,
2016).

How are we affecting the Earth?

As the world’s dominant animal, humans have an awesome power to
degrade or sustain the earth’s life support system. Humans decide
whether forests are preserved or cut down. Human activities affect the
temperature of the atmosphere, the temperature and acidity of ocean
waters, and which species survive or become extinct. According to a large
body of scientific evidence, humans are living unsustainably. People
continually waste, deplete, and degrade much of the earth’s life sustaining
natural capital- a process known as environmental degradation, or natural
capital degradation. A research conducted by the Wildlife Conservation
Society and the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science
Information Network, human activities directly affect about 83% of the
Earth’s land surface as human ecological footprints have impacted the
earth. This land us used for important purposes such as urban
development, growing crops, grazing livestock, mining, timber cutting, and
energy production. In many parts of the world, however, renewable forests
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are shrinking, deserts are expanding, 0and topsoil is eroding. The lower
atmosphere is warming, floating ice and many glaciers are melting at
unexpected rates, sea levels are rising, and ocean acidity is increasing.
There are more intense floods, droughts, severe weather, and forest fires
in many areas. In a number of regions, rivers are running dry, 20% of the
world’s species-rich coral reefs are gone, and others are threatened.
Species are becoming extinct at least 100 times faster than in prehuman

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times. And extinction rates are projected to increase at least another 100-
fold during this century, creating a 6th mass extinction caused by human
activities.

Environmental Impact Model

Another environmental impact model was developed in the early
1970s by scientist Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren. This IPAT model shows
that the environmental impact (I) of human activities is the product three
factors: population size, (P), affluence (A) or resource consumption per
person, and the beneficial and harmful environmental effects of
technologies (T):

The following equation summarizes the IPAT model:

Impact(I) = Population(P) x Affluence(A) x Technology(T)

The T factor can be either harmful or beneficial. Some forms of

technology such as polluting factories, gas-guzzling motor vehicles, and
coal-burning power plants increase our harmful environmental impact by
raising the T factor. Other technologies reduce our harmful environmental
impact by decreasing the T factor. Examples are pollution control and
prevention technologies, fuel efficient cars, and wind turbines and solar
cells that generate electricity with a low environmental impact.
Global Environmental Concerns
The new millennium arrived bringing with it a lot of human concerns,
particularly the global environment. The issues concerning global warming
and the depletion of the ozone layer has already been a big concern in the
70’s and the 80’s. Presently, more concerns arose based on a number of
surveys. Four global trends were of particular concern;
a. Population growth and economic development
b. Decline of vital life-support ecosystems
c. Global atmospheric changes
d. Loss of biodiversity.

a. Population Growth and Economic Development

The worlds human population, over 6.4 billion in 2004, has grown by
2 billion in just the last 25 years., It is continuing to grow adding nearly 77
million persons a year. It is projected by the United Nations Population
Division to grow to 8.9 billion by the year 2050. Why is this alarming?
Always remember that each person creates a certain demand on the
available resources of the planet. This demand can be calculated using the
ecological footprint, a concept developed by a team of scholars at the
University of British Columbia. A “footprint analysis “calculate the natural
areas required to satisfy human needs and demands in food, housing,
transportation, consumer goods and various services such as absorbing
wastes. The Ecological Footprint measures a population’s demand on
nature.

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 In 2012, the Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) funded a
national Ecological Footprint report of the Philippines co-authored by
Global Footprint Network and the Philippines’ Climate Change Commission
(CCC). The study revealed that since 1961, the Ecological Footprint of the
Philippines had tripled, with its population demanding nearly twice as
many ecological resources and services than were available within its
borders.

While the total Ecological Footprint of the Philippines has tripled

since 1961, its per-capita Footprint has increased only slightly, reflecting
the nation’s rapid population growth. The Philippines has an Ecological
Footprint of 1.01 global hectares (gha) per person which is below the world
average biocapacity per person of 1.7 gha, indicating that parts of the
population lack access to basic needs, such as food, clothing and shelter.
By the way, Biocapacity represents a region’s biologically productive land
and sea area available to meet the population’s demand.

Population increases beyond the carrying capacity of an ecosystem

often times result in low supply of resources such as food, water and
space. As evident in our present society, unemployment rate shoots up
and poverty proliferates.

Poverty is a condition in which people lack enough money to fulfill

their basic needs for food, water, shelter, health care and education.
According to the World Bank, about one of every three people, or 2.5
billion people, struggled to live on the equivalent of less than 3.10 dollars a
day in 2014. In addition, nearly 900 million people- almost three times the
US population- live in extreme poverty on the equivalent of less than 1.90
dollar a day, according to the World Bank. This is less than what many
people spend for a bottle of water or a cup of coffee. Could you do this? On
the other hand, the percentage of the world’s population living in extreme
poverty decreased from 52% in 1981 to 14% in 2014. Poverty causes a
number of harmful environment and health effects. The daily lives of the
world’s poorest people center on getting enough food, water, and fuel for
cooking and heating to survive. These individuals are too desperate for
short term survival to worry about long term environmental quality or
sustainability. Thus, collectively, they may degrade forests, topsoil, and
grasslands, and deplete fisheries and wildlife populations to stay alive.
Environmental degradation can have severe health effects on the poor.
One problem is life-threatening malnutrition, a lack of protein and other
nutrients needed for good health. Another effect is illness caused by
limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and cleans drinking water.
More than one-third of the world’s people have no bathroom facilities and
are forced to use backyards, alleys, ditches, and streams. As a result, one
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of every nine of the world’s people 0 water for drinking, washing, and
gets
cooking from sources polluted by human and animal feces. Another
problem for many poor people is indoor air pollution, mostly from the
smoke from open fires or poorly vented stoves used for heating and
cooking. This form of indoor air pollution kills about 4.3 million people a
year in less-developed countries, according to the World Health
Organization.

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 b. The decline of Ecosystems

Either natural or artificial/managed ecosystems support human life.

Increasing population cause the exhaustion of resources from these
ecosystems. Sources of water gets depleted, soils become infertile, rivers,
lakes and oceans are overfished, while forests are cleared.

Human encroachment into the different natural systems converting

them into agricultural lands as well as urban developments (buildings,
roads, other infrastructures) led to the decline and ultimately to the
collapse of an ecosystem. Different human activities have caused the
spread of pollution that alters the environment.

According to the report from the United Nations, entitled Pilot

Analysis of Global Ecosystems or PAGE, human activities are now
beginning to significantly affect the natural chemical cycles --- water,
carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus – on which all ecosystems depend.

c. Global Atmospheric Campaign

Previously, pollution has been treated as a local problem affecting

bodies of water (e.g. rivers, lakes) or the air in the city but today, scientists
are looking at it on a global level. The problem on the depletion of the
ozone layer led to the drafting of the Montreal Protocol in 1987. The main
concern of which is the reduction of the release of chlorofluorocarbon
refrigerants to our atmosphere.

To further address the problem of climate change, representatives of

166 nations met in Kyoto, Japan, in December of 1997 to draft a treaty
(Kyoto Protocol) aimed to reduce carbon dioxide emission and other
greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide, though needed by plants for
photosynthesis, can effectively absorb infrared energy that warms the
lower atmosphere in a phenomenon known as greenhouse effect.

U.S. Vice Pres. Al Gore addressing the delegates during the

drafting of the KYOTO Protocol in Kyoto, Japan (1997)

d. Loss of Biodiversity
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As the human population grows, the demand for food to feed
everyone has caused the conversion of natural ecosystems (like forest,
grasslands and wetlands) into farms and urban development. It results to
the loss of wild plants and animals that inhabit such natural habitats,
causing its extinction.

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 Pollution also degrades habitats – particularly aquatic and marine
habitats—destroying the species they support. Further, hundreds of
species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, as well as innumerable
plants are exploited for their commercial value. As a result, Earth is
rapidly losing many of its species.

Biodiversity is the number of different individuals, species, and

ecosystems within a environment. About 1.7 million species have been
described and classified, but scientists estimate at least 14 million species
may exist on Earth.

Losing diversity is considered critical since;

1. All domestic plants and animals used in agriculture are derived from
wild species, we still rely on introducing genes from the wild species
into our domestic species to keep them capable of adapting to
different conditions.
2. 80% of the human population depends on traditional medicines,
which in turn are highly dependent on biodiversity.

In order to address the major concerns about the environment

mentioned above, unifying themes – strategic and integrative- can be
applied to change our present interaction with the different natural
systems towards the right direction.

Strategic Themes
Strategic themes deal with how we should conceptualize our task of
forging a sustainable future. These themes are; sustainability, stewardship
and sound science.
1. Sustainability- property whereby a process can be continued
indefinitely without depleting the energy or material resources on
which it depends. It is the practical goal toward which our
interactions with the material world should be working.
Sustainable system - a system or process is sustainable if it can be
continued indefinitely, without depleting any of the material or
energy resources required to keep it running. The term was first
applied to the idea of sustainable yields in human endeavors such
as forestry and fisheries. Trees, fish and other biological species
normally grow and reproduce at rates faster than that required just
to keep their population stable.
Sustainable Societies – is a society in balance with the natural world,
continuing generation after generation, neither depleting its resource
base by exceeding sustainable yields not producing pollutants in
excess of nature’s capacity to absorb them.
Sustainable development - a form of development or progress that “
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.” There are many
dimensions to sustainable development --- environmental, social,
economic, political – and no societies today have achieved anything
resembling it. Nevertheless, as with justice, equality and freedom’ it
is important to uphold sustainable development as an ideal – a goal
toward which all human societies need to be moving, even if we
have not achieved it completely.

Key Principles of Sustainability

 Solar energy: The sun’s 4 energy0 warms the planet and provides
energy that plants use to produce nutrients, the chemicals that
plants and animals need to survive.
 Biodiversity: The variety of genes, species, ecosystems, and
ecosystem processes are referred to as biodiversity. Interactions
among species provide vital ecosystem services and keep any

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 population from growing too large. Biodiversity also provides ways
for species to adapt to changing environmental conditions and for
new species to arise and replace those wiped out by catastrophic
environmental changes.
 Chemical cycling: The circulation of nutrients from the environment
through various organisms and back to the environment is called
chemical cycling or nutrient cycling. The earth receives a continuous
supply of energy from the sun but it receives no new supplies of life
supporting chemicals.

Key Components of Sustainability

 Natural Capital: Natural resources and ecosystem services that
keep humans and other species alive and that support human
economies.
 Natural Resources: are materials and energy provided by nature
that are essential or used to humans. They fall into three categories:
inexhaustible resources, renewable resources and nonrenewable
resources.
 Inexhaustible resource is one that is expected to last
forever on a human timescale.
 Renewable resource is a source that can be used
repeatedly because it is replenished through natural
processes as long as it is used up faster than nature can
renew it. The highest rate at which people can use a
renewable resource indefinitely without reducing its
available supply is called its sustainable yield.
 Nonrenewable or exhaustible resources are those that
exist in a fixed amount, or stock, in the earth’s crust.
They take millions to billions of years to form through
geological processes. On the much shorter human
timescale, we can use these resources faster than nature
can replace them. Examples are oil, natural gas, and
coal.

Three Additional Principles of Sustainability

Full-cost pricing: Some economists urge us to find ways to include in
market prices the harmful environment and health costs of
producing and using goods and services. This practice, called full-
cost pricing would give consumers information about the harmful
environment impacts of the goods and services that they use.
Win-win solutions: Political scientists urge us to look for win-win
solutions to environmental problems, based on cooperation and
compromise, that will benefit the largest number of people as well as
the environment.
Responsibility to future generations: Ethics is a branch of philosophy
devoted to studying ideas about what is right and wrong. According
to environmental ethicists, we have a responsibility to leave the
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planet’s life-support systems condition as good as or better than
what we inherited for the benefit of future generations and for other
species.
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 2. Stewardship – it is an attitude of active care and concern for
natural lands. It is the ethical and moral framework that informs our
public and private actions.
Stewards are those who care for something – from the natural world
or from human culture – that it is not theirs and that they will pass
on to the next generation. Modern-day stewardship, therefore, is an
ethic that guides actions taken to benefit the natural world and other
people.

3. Sound science- the results of scientific work based on peer-

reviewed research. It is the basis for our understanding of how the
world works and how human systems interact with it.
Sound science is used to distinguish legitimate science from junk
science ( information that is presented as valid science but does not
conform to the rigors of the methods and practice of legitimate
science.)

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines science a systematic, organized

knowledge and this systematic nature sets science apart
from other types of understanding. Science is concerned with evidence
and with theory. Scientific evidence often comes from experiments or
research works. To explain the evidence, theories are put forward and
further evidence is often sought to see whether the theory accords with
additional observations. The exact relationship between theory and
evidence is very complex and at this stage science involves both.
A scientist is a person of inquiring mind, curious about natural
phenomenon, who ask questions and seeks answers supported by
dependable evidence. Absolute honesty in thought and action are basic
to the scientific method, which is the making of careful observations and
experiments, then using the data obtained to formulate general principles.
The steps of the scientific method are as follows;
a. Making initial observations
b. Formulation of questions
c. Generation of a testable hypothesis, a temporary working
explanation or an “educated guess”
d. Testing the hypothesis through controlled experiments and unbiased
observation.
e. Repeat the tests or devise new ones – the more, the better, for
hypotheses that withstand many tests are likely to have a higher
probability of being useful.
f. Objectively analyze and report the test results and the conclusions
you have drawn from them.
Experiments and results must be repeatable and can be validated by other
studies. When the hypothesis survived a number of independent tests, it
becomes a theory. A theory that has withstood repeated testing over a
period of time becomes elevated to the status of a law or principle.

Integrative Theme
Integrative themes on the other hand, deal with the current status of
interactions between human systems and the natural world. These themes
are;
1. Ecosystem capital- it is the sum of goods and services provided by
natural and managed ecosystems, provided free of charge and
essential to human life and well-being.
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The world economy depends heavily on many renewable resources
as we exploit the different ecosystems for goods, such as fresh
water, all of our food, much of our fuel, wood for lumber, and paper,
raw materials for fabrics, oils and alcohol, and much more.
The same ecosystems also provide a flow of services that support
human life and economic well – being such as regulation of the

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 climate, erosion control, pest management, the maintenance of
crucial nutrient cycles. In a very real sense, these goods and
services can be thought of as capital- ecosystem capital. The
products of this capital – its income – generate wealth.
Much of the ecosystem capital are renewable and therefore maybe
exploited, For example, fisheries and forests are harvested for food
and timber . but just because ecosystem capital is renewable, does
not necessarily mean that it will be exploited sustainably. There are
many threats to these ecosystem capital that come from other
human activities. For example, pollutants are discharged to air and
water, land is transformed to other uses such as highways and
housing. Unsustainable exploitation and its damaging impacts
represent a loss of the goods and services provided by these
ecosystems. It is, therefore a must that the ecosystem capital be
protected.

2. Policy and politics- the human decisions that determine what

happens to the natural world, and the political processes that lead
to those decisions.
In making environmental policies that will help solve environmental
problems, the following principles need to be considered;
 The humility principle – recognize that our understanding of nature
and of the consequences of our actions is quite limited.
 The reversibility principle - try not to do something that cannot be
reversed later if the decision turns out to be wrong.
 The precautionary principle - when much evidence indicates that an
activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment,
take precautionary measures to prevent or reduce such harm even
if some of the cause and effect relationships are not fully
established scientifically . in such cases, it is better to be safe than
sorry.
 The prevention principle - whenever possible, make decisions that
help prevent a problem from occurring or becoming worse.
 The integrative principle – make decisions that involve integrated
solutions to environmental and other problems.
 The environmental justice principle - establish environmental policy
so no group of people bears an unfair share of the harmful
environmental risks from industrial, municipal and commercial
operations or the execution of laws, regulations and policies

3. Globalization- refers to the accelerating interconnectedness of

human activities ,ideas, and cultures, especially evident in economic
and information exchange.

The increased dissemination of information through the internet has

made it possible for environmental organizations and government
agencies to connect with the public and enable people to become
politically involved with current issues.it also enabled consumers to
find more environmentally friendly consumer goods and services.

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