ESS SL - Semester 1 Term 1 - 1.1-1.5

What’s an Environmental Value System (EVS)?

It’s a worldview, that shape how individuals and groups approach environmental issues.

What’s a system?

Organized collection of interdependent components that perform a function and are connectod through transfer of energy and matter.

What're System Diagrams?

It is a system, that consists of storages (boxes), flows (arrows), inputs, and outputs.

What’s an Input?

Things that enters the system

What’s an Output?

Things coming out of the system

What are the 3 types of EVS?

Econcentric, Anthropocentric, and Technocentric.

What is Ecocentrism?

Environmental conservation is central to decision-making. Humans are part of nature and not more important than other species. It believes in individual responsibility and accountability. All life has inherent value. We should use resources sustainably.

What’s Anthropocentrism?

Environment is a source for humans to use as needed. Human health, and well-being are central for decision making. Humans are most important species. People that hold these views usually live in MEDC’s (More Economically Developed Countries).

What’s Technocentrism?

Nature is a model, and it can be replaced. Economic development, and growth is central to decision making. Technology can provide solutions to environmental issues. We can solve the issues we caused. Economic growth is good.

Extreme Econcetrics are known as?

Deep Ecologists (Nature is more important, than humans). Humans should consume less. Seek a holistic view of the world. Everyone should be involved in making decisions regarding the environment.

Soft Reliance are known as?

Soft Ecologists (Individuals make a difference). Against large scale profits, because they prefer small scale/ local markets.

Who are Environmental Managers?

Professionals responsible for overseeing and implementing policies, programs, and practices that aim to protect and sustain the environment

What are the Characteristics of Environmental Managers?

• Current economic growth can be sustained if environmental issues are managed by legal means.

• Environment can be used, if managed properly.

• No radical political agenda, but promote working to create change within social, and political structures.

Extreme Technocentric is known as?

Cornucopians; Humans are more important, than nature.

What are the Characteristics of Cornucopians?

1. Growth and Capitalism is the way to manage free-market economy.

2. Doesn’t care about the environment.

3. New resources and technology will solve environmental issues.

What’s the connection between Capitalism and the Environment?

Capitalists, believe that economic growth is put above all factors and this growth comes above environmental values. Private businesses are to blame for environment degradation.

What’s the connection between Communism and the Environment

Although these societies are meant to distribute wealth equally, most of these countries are victim of “tragedy of the commons”. When no one owns the resources no one cares for it.

What’s the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’?

Individuals, acting in their self-interest, deplete shared resources, leading to the overall detriment of the group.

What are the similarities of Capitalistic and Communistic EVS?

Its difficult for both to restrict environmental abuse since they emphasize short-term efficiency and profits whilst ignoring long-term consequences.

What are the differences of Capitalistic and Communistic EVS?

1. Both differ in economic principles that ties back to its environmental values.

2. Capitalism based in private businesses, as for socialism its based in government-owned businesses.

3. Capitalism allows free speech and greater environmental awareness compared to communism.

What are Common Native American EVS’s?

• They live in a community and share property.

• They use low-impact technology.

• Laws are passed on by oral tradition.

• Small population densities.

What are the similarities of Christianity and Islam EVS’s?

• Separation of spirit and matter.

• God is the creator of the universe.

• The idea of “dominion” over the earth.

• Earth is a gift to humans as caretakers.

• The animal world is a community equal to humans.

What are Buddhist’s EVS?

• All living things are dependent to each other.

• Humans are no more important than other living things

• Living in harmony with nature is crucial.

What’s a Reductionist Approach?

Looking at individual parts.

What’s a Holistic Approach?

Looking at how everything works together.

What are Examples of a system?

1. Universe

2. Earth

3. Rainforests

What are the 3 types of Systems?

1. Open system

2. Closed system

3. Isolated system

What’s an Open System?

The system exchanges matter and energy with its surroundings (eg. ecosystem).

What’s a Closed System?

The system exchanges energy, but not matter (eg. Biosphere II, experiment attempt to model this).

What’s Biosphere II?

Scientific experiment in the 1990s. Simulated a closed ecological system to study Earth's ecosystems. Included various biomes (rainforests, deserts) inside a large structure. A group of people lived inside to test if the system could sustain itself. In the end the CO2 levels were elevated and many say it was a failed experiment.

What’s an isolated system?

The system neither exchange with matter or energy. This doesn’t exist. But we can consider the universe as an isolated system (sometimes).

What’s the purpose of System Diagrams?

Visually represent a system

What’s Transfer?

Matter, and energy flowing through a system without changing form or state.

Transfer usually involve what?

A change of location.

What are examples of Transfer?

1. Food chain

2. Water carried to the ocean

3. Ocean current

What’s transformation?

Matter, and energy flowing through a system whilst changing form or state

Transformation leads to?

Interaction within a system in the formation of a new end product or involves a change of state.

What are examples of transformations?

1. Burning of fossil fuels

2. Water evaporating off the earth’s surface

3. Light energy to electrical energy in a solar panel

What are the benefits of models?

1. Show concepts on a scale that’s manageable.

2. Simplify complex systems.

3. Allow us to make predictions of future events.

4. Allow us to look at different scenarios so that we can look at the impacts to different changes in the system.

5. Allow us to discuss with experts.

What are the possible problems with models?

1. When oversimplified it could lose accuracy.

2. It depends on the skills and experience of people making them.

3. Interpreted differently

4. Different models of same system can predict different outcomes.

5. Data may be inaccurate so models could be used to manipulate for financial or political gain.

What’s a societal system?

• Value Systems

• Economic Systems

• Social Systems

What’s earth as a system?

The biosphere

• Atmosphere

• Hydrosphere

• Lithosphere

What does a system look like?

The flows in a system provides what?

Inputs and outs of energy and matter

Energy initially enters ecosystems from the sun as?

light

What’s the process of energy from sun converting to light?

• Converted and stored as chemical potential energy

• Organic molecules pass through down through chains

• Respiration releases this energy

• All energy enters an ecosystem, and lost again

How does matter cycles through an ecosystem?

• Nitrogen is fixed by bacteria

• Plants assimilate the nitrogen

• Herbivores consume these plants and the nitrogen compounds pass through the food chain

• Eventually the plants or animals will die and decomposers break down organic matter and return it to the soil

What does the forest ecosystem consist of?

• Plants fix light via photosynthesis

• air nitrogen is fixed by soil bacteria

• Herbivores may graze in other ecosystems

• Forest fires expose soil to erosion

What are the major global cycles?

• Nitrogen cycle

• Carbon cycle

• Hydrological cycle

Major global cycles has what type system?

Closed system

What’s the first law of thermodynamics?

Energy is an isolated system that can be transformed by cannot be created nor destroyed.

How does ecosystems maintain themselves?

By cycling energy and nutrients obtained from external sources

What are the laws of energy in an ecosystem?

• 1st law of thermodynamics

• 2nd law of thermodynamics

What are the implications of the 1st law of thermodynamics?

1. In an open system (ecosystem), once energy has entered it will never increase. Energy has to keep entering to keep the ecosystem functioning.

2. In a food chain, energy transforms from light to chemical to heat energy. This increases entropy (second law) so there is less available to do work therefore at higher trophic levels there are fewer animals.

How can the principle of conservation of energy be modelled with?

By energy transformations along food chains and energy production systems.

How does energy production model the principle of conservation of energy?

• Coal is burnt to alter the chemical bonds and release heat

• The heat turns water from a liquid to a gas (steam)

• The steam spins turbine (kinetic energy)

• Drives an electrical generator to produce electricity (electrical energy)

How does food chains model the principle of conservation of energy?

• Chemical energy passes along the food chain

• As consumers eat producers or other consumers, some chemical energy is converted into mechanical energy during respiration so that it can be used to fuel life processes.

What’s an entropy?

A measure of the amount of disorder in a system

What does an increase in entropy arising from energy transformations cause?

it reduces the energy available to do work

What’s the second law of thermodynamics?

It states that the entropy of a system increases overtime.

Living systems require what?

It requires constant input of new energy from the sun

What’s efficiency?

Comparison of the amount of work or energy done to the amount of energy that it consumed.

What’s the formula of efficiency?

Useful outputs/ inputs x 100

Why is it more efficient to eat plants?

Because there is less energy loss

What are the implications of the 2nd law of thermodynamics?

• Entropy will increase, so to keep a body together organisms must constantly put in energy (eg. food and sunlight).

• Increase in entropy is reduced by an input of food as a source of energy. All living organisms respire and energy stops them disintegrating.

• Energy is required at rest.

What’s a steady state equilibrium?

• Maintains a stable system due to constant flow of inputs and outputs.

• Ecological system requires inputs and output in order to function.

What’s static equilibrium?

• It doesn’t apply to natural systems as there are no inputs or outputs so no change occurs.

• Always in balance

• Inanimate objects

What’s stable?

Returns to balance after disturbance (eg. rubber)

What’s unstable?

Achieves new balance after disturbance (eg. car crash)

Eco-systems are said to be?

“Self regulating”

What maintains a system in its equilibrium state?

Feedback mechanisms (positive and negative)

What’s negative feedback?

dampens effects and promotes return to stability

• examples: predator prey relationships, and human body temperatures.

What’s positive feedback?

Amplifies change and leads to deviation from stability

• Diverge from equilibrium

• change in x causes change in u which causes a bigger change in x

What are the principles of negative feedback?

• More complex, more feedback looks more resilient.

• Absorb disturbance without shifting to an alternative state and losing function and services.

What are the examples of disturbance to the ecosystem?

• Fires

• Flooding

• Pesticide

• Deforestation

• Windstorms

• Insect population explosions

• Fracking

What’s fracking?

Process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas.

What’s a threshold?

Level, point, or value above which something is true or will take place and below which it is not or will not.

How can humans affect the resilience of systems?

Through reducing storages and diversity.

A small change within a global climate system can cause?

It can transform a relatively stable system to a very different state of the climate

What are tipping elements?

Its used to describe large scale components of the earth system which may be subject to tipping points.

• Examples: ice sheets, el nino, amazon rain forest, and arctic sea ice.

What’s pollution?

Addition of a substance or an agent to an environment through human activity at a rate greater than that at which it can be rendered harmless by the environment and which has an appreciable effect on the organisms in the environment.

What are the classifications of pollution?

• Matter (solids, liquid gases)

• Organic (containing carbon) - sewage

• Non-organic (plastics)

What are the sources of pollution?

• Fossil fuels

• Domestic waste

• Industrial waste

• Agricultural waste

How does fossil fuels cause pollution?

It releases greenhouse gases, and contributes to respiratory problems and acid rain.

How does domestic waste cause pollution?

Food waste, sewage, rubbish (glass, plastics, paper, wood, metals)

How does industrial waste cause pollution?

Heavy metals, heat (in air and/ or water), acids

How does agricultural waste cause pollution?

Fertilizers, animal waste, and pesticides contaminate water sources

Pollution may be?

non-point or point source and persistent or biodegradable, acute, or chronic.

What are examples of point source pollution?

• Drainage pipe

• Leaking storage tank

• Factory chimney

What’s non-point source?

Pollution which cannot be tracked back to a single origin or source.

What are the examples of non-point source pollution?

• Storm water runoff

• Water runoff from urban areas

• Failed septic systems

What are the regulations for non-point source pollution?

Its more challenging

• Identify multiple sources

• who is responsible

• different legal jurisdictions

• large-scale intervention

What’re Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)?

Resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological and photolytic processes.

What are the characteristics of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)?

• Can’t be broken down by living organisms

• Passed along food chains as a result

• Concentrations build with each higher tropic level resulting in biomagnification

What are examples of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)?

• Heavy metals

• PCBs

• Dioxin

• DDT

What’s biodegradable?

Capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms. Does not build up in individuals or get passed along food chains.

What are examples of biodegradable pollutants?

• Sewage

• Food waste

• Most modern pesticides

• Degradable plastic bags

What’s acute?

Large amounts of pollutant released at one time.

• Symptoms appear soon after short, intense exposure (eg. Bhopal Disaster 1984)

What’s chronic?

Long term release of small amount

• Symptoms appear after long term, low level exposure.

What’s primary pollution?

first released directly from the source.