CHAPTER ONE

Fracking: hydraulic fracturing, method of oil/gas extraction that uses high pressure fluids to force open cracks in underground rocks -> cheaper & larger quantities of natural gas (decrease burning coal/air pollution)

• large amt of water usage (millions of gallons). is taken away from local rivers & @ risk of contamination

MODULE 1 - ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

• Environment: Conditions surrounding us that influence life. (living or nonliving) major impact on how we live our lives (heath, growth, necessary supplies)

• Environmental Science: The field of study that looks at interactions among human systems & those found in nature (relationship between humans and the environment)

• System: components that influence each other by exchanging energy / materials (any size)

Ei. Fracking: causes changes within a system by contaminating drinking water

• Ecosystem: Specific location w constant interactions between living & nonliving components

• Biotic: living

• Abiotic: nonliving

• Environmentalism: Environmentalists that helps protect the environment through activism, and education

• Environmentalist: A person who participates in environmentalism

• Environmental studies: Field of study (chemistry, biology and ecology, earth science, toxicology, atmospheric science, law, literature/writing, ethics, politics/policy, economics)

Humans alter natural systems

• Growing human population leads to manipulating systems by building cities, agricultural farms, neighborhoods & killing species (fertilizers)

• Humans often hunted large animals until extinction

• Humans used fire to capture animals -> prevented growth of trees & influence the increase of other species

Converting Between Hectares and Acres

• Hectare: land area (ha is 100m by 100m)

• 2.5 (2.47) acres = 1 ha

Module 1 summary: Fracking bad. as humans progress, habitats and species begin to suffer along

MODULE 2 - ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS & SUSTAINABILITY

• Ecosystem services: The processes by which life-supporting resources are produced (clean water, timber, fisheries, & agricultural crops)

• How do humans affect the ecosystem’s services (positive & negative)

• Humans take environment for granted

• Environmental indicators: Describes/measures the current state of an environmental system

• Biological diversity, food production, average global surface temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, human population, and resource depletion

Biological diversity

• Biodiversity (Biological diversity): Diversity of life forms in an environment (Ecosystem, species, and genetic)

• Genetic diversity: Measure of the genetic variation among individuals in a population

• Higher genetic diversity = responds better to change (vise versa)

• Species: A group of organisms that is distinct from other groups in its morphology (body form & structure), behavior, or biochemical properties

• Different sizes, shapes, colors, & roles

• Species Diversity: Number of species in a region or in a particular type of habitat

• Ecosystems with more species = more productive

• Scientists often focus on species diversity as a critical environmental indicator

• Ei. increase or decrease in population is an indicator

• Speciation: Evolution of new species (slow process)

• Natural evolutionary process: species naturally arise and others go extinct

• Background extinction rate: Average rate where species become extinct over a long period of time

• Stress to a species causes a faster extinction rate (habitat destruction, climate change, overharvesting, and other species)

• Ecosystem diversity: Measure of diversity of ecosystems/habitats that exist in a given region

• Measured in hectares (ha)

Food Production

• Food production: Ability to grow food to nourish the human population

• Healthy ecosystems leads to healthy species/organisms

• Growth of human population is restricting the growth of food species

• Humans have found more ways to efficiently produce food -> World grain production has increased (expanding irrigation & new crop varieties)

• Food shortages lead to higher food prices

• (2008) Grain production has not increased w human population (bc of soil degradation, crop diseases, drought, flood) -> government discourages food production which will soon lead to uncultivated/preserved land

• Per Capita: how much each person individually takes/consumes

Average Global Surface Temperature and Carbon Dioxide Concentrations

• Greenhouse gasses: Gasses in Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat near the surface (carbon dioxide) helps maintain a steady climate

• Anthropogenic: Derived from human activities (combustion of fossil fuels & lack of forests bc those two things store the most amt of CO2)

Human Population (7.79 billion)

• Population shows the health of the environment by testing the Earth’s resources

Resource Depletion

• Natural resources have been depleting since the human population began increasing

• Many human activities harm the environment (Pollution, mining, waste from manufactured products)

• Many natural resources are finite/can not be reused (coal, oil , and uranium)

• Many infinite resources do not have enough time to replenish

• Development: Improvement in human well-being through economic advancement (automobile use, meat consumption, living habits)

• As economics increase, so does resource consumption

The Impact of Consumption on the Environment

• Sustainability: Living on Earth that allows humans to use its resources without depriving future generations of those resources

• Ei. Easter Island was overpopulated. led to the overuse of the island’s soil/water resources. No more trees led to erosion/decrease of food production

• Environmental systems must not be damaged beyond their ability to recover

• Renewable resources must not be depleted faster than they can regenerate

• Nonrenewable resources must be used sparingly

• Sustainable development: Development that balances current human well-being/economic advancement with resource management for the benefit of future generations

• depends on the number of people using a resource along w how they are using it

• conserving and finding alternatives to nonrefundable resources, securing the environment, and allowing it to supply renewable resources

• Human’s needs has advanced & modified over many years (Biophilia: Love of life)

The Ecological Footprint

• Ecological footprint: Amt an individual consumes in their lifestyle (measured in area of land)

• Increase population = use of more resources

• Wealthier countries = ability to enforce pollution controls/invest to protect species

• Using or protecting one has chain effects on the others

MODULE 3 - SCIENTIFIC METHOD

• Scientific method: A method to explore the natural world, draw inferences from it, & predict the outcome of certain events, processes, or changes (helps scientists communicate data)

1. Observing and questioning: figure out where to begin the scientific research

2. Forming hypothesis: A testable conjecture about how something works.

3. Easier to prove smth wrong. null hypothesis: Prediction that there is no difference between groups/conditions, a statement that can be proved wrong

4. Collecting data:

5. Replication: The data collection procedure of taking repeated measurements

6. Sample size: Number of times a measurement is replicated in data collection

7. Accuracy: How close a measured value is to the actual or true value

8. Precision: How close the repeated measurements are to one another

9. Uncertainty: Estimate of how much a measured value differs from a true value

10. Interpreting results:

11. Inductive reasoning: process of making general statements from specific facts

12. Deductive reasoning: process of applying a general statement to a specific fact

13. Disseminating Findings

• Theory: A repeated hypothesis that has reached wide acceptance (can't be contradicted)

• Control group: A group that experiences exactly the same conditions as the experimental group, except for the single variable under study

• Natural experiment: A natural event that acts as an experimental treatment in an ecosystem

• Critical thinking: Question the source of the information, consider the methods/processes that were used to obtain the information, and draw your own conclusions

Environmental science presents unique challenges

• Lack of Baseline Data: nature experiments are not true bc of the alterations of the earth’s living environment

• Subjectivity: Choices may be difficult since it is unknown which one is more sustainable

• Interactions: Environmental systems have so many interacting parts that intertwine

• Human Well-Being: Ppl who are unable to meet their basic needs = less likely to be interested about the state of the natural environment -> The principle of environmental equity

• Environmental justice: the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race with respect to the development of sustainability

City: biodiversity; energy, climate change, & ozone depletion; food/agriculture; hazardous materials; human health; parks, open spaces, & streetscapes; solid waste; transportation; & water

CHAPTER TWO

MODULE 4 - SYSTEMS AND MATTER

Radioactivity

• Isotope’s nuclei can be stable or unstable depending on mass number and amt of neutrons

• Unstable = radioactive

• Radioactive decay: Spontaneous release of material from the nucleus of radioactive isotopes

• Half-life: The time it takes for one-half of an original radioactive parent atom to decay

• Helps protect humans from harmful radioactive decay

Chemical Bonds

• Polar molecule: Molecule in which one side is more positive & the other side is more negative

Surface Tension and Capillary Action

• Surface tension: A property of water that results from the cohesion of water molecules at the surface of a body of water and that creates a sort of skin on the water’s surface (allows it to resist an external force)

• Stronger the surface tension = stronger cohesive forces (ie. water)

• Capillary action: A property of water that occurs when adhesion of water molecules to a surface is stronger than cohesion between the molecules (ie. absorption of a paper towel) (the movement of water within the spaces w/out an outside force)

• Many substances dissolve well in water bc their polar molecules bond easily with other polar molecules

• Boils at 212* F and freezes at 32*F

Acids, Bases, and pH

• Acid: A substance that contributes hydrogen ions to a solution

• When dissolved in water, it dissociates into positive charged hydrogen ions

• Base: A substance that contributes hydroxide ions to a solution

• When dissolved in water, it dissociates into negative charged hydrogen ions & positive ions

• pH: The number that indicates the relative strength of acids and bases in a substance

• Pure water is 7 (# of hydrogen ions = # of hydroxide ions)

• +7 is basic (alkaline) & -7 is acidic

Chemical Reactions and the Conservation of Matter

• Chemical reaction: occurs when atoms separate or recombine with molecules

• Atoms are not created or destroyed but bonds between atoms may change

• Can occur in any direction

• Law of conservation of matter: A law of nature stating that matter can not be created or destroyed; it can only change form

• Not able to disprove of hazardous materials bc the atoms will enter the atmosphere

Module 4 summary: Atoms can completely change bc of radioactiveness, water has skin that can conflict w other materials, water can move all by itself, acid releases more hydrogen, bases release more hydroxide

MODULE 5 - ENERGY, FLOWS, AND FEEDBACK

• Joule: Amount of energy used when a 1-watt light bulb is turned on for 1 second

Forms of energy

• Potential energy: Stored energy that has not been released (water behind a dam)

• Kinetic energy: The energy in motion (water out of dam)

• Temperature: The measure of the average kinetic energy of a substance

• Changes in temp can convert matter (Fast moving molecules in ice turns into water)

Law of thermodynamics

• First law of thermodynamics: A physical law which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but can change from one form to another

• Gasoline burns energy

• Second law of thermodynamics: The physical law states that when energy is transferred, the quantity of energy remains the same, but its ability to do work diminishes

• Waste heat: Energy that is converted into a useless form of energy

• Energy efficiency: The ratio of the amount of energy expended in the form you want to the total amount of energy that is introduced into the system

• Energy quality: The ease with which an energy source can be used for work

• Entropy: Randomness in a system (Randomness always increasing in a system, unless new energy from outside the system is added to create order)

• Little amt of energy comes from digested food, most becomes body heat (heat has lots of entropy bc it is random)

System Dynamics

• Open system: Exchanges of matter of energy occur across system boundaries (majority)

• Closed system: Matter and energy do not occur across boundaries

• Input: An addition to a system

• Output: A loss from a system

• Systems analysis: An analysis to determine inputs, outputs, and changes in a system under various conditions

• Steady state: A state in which inputs = outputs so that the system is not changing over time

• First step - measure amt of energy and matter

• A system some things can be steady while other things are not

• Feedback: Adjustments in inputs or output rates caused by changes to a system (cycles)

• Negative feedback loop: A system responds to a change by returning to its original state, or by decreasing the rate at which the change is occuring

• Positive feedback loop: Change in a system is amplified