Environmental Science Lecture Notes

Environmental Science Introduction

Core of Environmental Science
  • Environmental science is at the center, focusing on practices and interactions between communities and the physical world.
  • It integrates humanities and social sciences with basic sciences.
  • Ecosystems provide essential resources for sustaining daily life, including:
    • Habitat
    • Food resources
    • Shelter
  • Human behavior significantly impacts the environment, necessitating its examination.
Scientific Method in Environmental Science
  • Adapts scientific processes to address environmental conditions.
  • Emphasizes data examination and resource preservation for the future.
Environmental Challenges
  • Climate change
  • Habitat loss
  • Population growth
  • Property development
  • These issues exacerbate environmental crises.
Pressures on the Environmental System
  • Human interaction with the natural world leading to exploitation of resources.
  • Rapid urbanization transforming communities with long-term environmental implications.
Tragedy of the Commons
  • Popularized by Garrett Hardin, it describes the overexploitation of limited resources due to collective human interest.
  • Ecosystems have resource thresholds that are being overreached by population surges.
  • Rational individual behavior results in irrational collective outcomes.
  • The environment requires time to replenish resources (e.g., soil preparation, plant growth).
  • Without restraints or ethics, shared resources will be depleted and destroyed.
Real-World Applications of the Tragedy of the Commons
  • Overgrazing of public lands
  • Deforestation
  • Overfishing
  • Water and air pollution
  • The tragedy occurs across different ecosystem levels, globally and locally.
Climate Crisis
  • Impacts the atmosphere due to carbon dioxide emissions from burning fuels.
  • Short-term economic gains lead to long-term environmental costs.
  • Countries acting in their own interest contribute to climate degradation.
Implications of Environmental Crises
  • Deforestation and soil degradation from urbanization.
  • Conversion of vegetated land into subdivisions.
  • Limited access to fresh water and sanitation issues.
  • Pressure to increase marine fishery harvests, leading to pollution.
  • Habitat destruction and pollution threaten biodiversity.
  • Risk of extinction for endemic species.
  • Atmospheric carbon emission crises due to industrialization and urbanization.
  • Persistent organic pollutants (POCs) from waste mismanagement cause long-term ecological impacts.
  • Hazardous waste includes radioactive and heavy metal contamination, particularly from mining sites.
  • Local waste management problems and poor sanitation cause illness.
Waste Management Solutions
  • Implementing policies on waste management.
  • Mitigating waste through recycling and eliminating plastic.

Processes of Science

Objectives
  • Determine the use of the scientific method to appreciate environmental problems and challenges.
  • Analyze psychological, physical, social, and political principles involving environmental systems.
  • Apply system thinking to understand environmental interactions.
Scientific Method
  • A structured way of inquiring, asking questions, hypothesizing, and performing experiments.
  • Facilitated by careful observation, it's a way of thinking used to do science.
  • It is the gold standard for determining conceptual and procedural knowledge and applying science process skills.
Hypothesis
  • A testable idea or explanation for an event or pattern.
  • Hypothesis testing relies on quantifiable data to test assumptions.
  • Empirical data is crucial for hypothesis testing in basic and applied sciences.
Linear Fashion of Scientific Method
  • Observation leads to questions, which lead to hypothesis formation.
  • Hypothesis allows for the creation of predictions.
  • Discrete data is obtained and captured repeatedly with the same unit of measurement.
  • Measurements are integrated to generate predictions.
Experimentation
  • Determines whether a prediction is correct.
  • Involves steps to generate results that support or reject the hypothesis.
  • If the hypothesis is not supported, the process is iterated.
  • Iteration involves reflexivity to re-examine assumptions and improve protocols.
Reporting Results
  • Results are reported and communicated to stakeholders.
  • Contributes to scientific theory, which is a well-tested and widely accepted explanation of natural phenomena.
Positivist Research
  • Scientific method typically employs positivist research that requires experiments and quantitative data.
  • Differs from social science research, but scientific method principles can be adapted.
Application in Science Education
  • Scientific theory contributes to empirical data collection.
  • In environmental science, it provides constant knowledge about the environment.
  • Used for environmental monitoring through empirical data to provide acceptable explanations.
  • Data is compared to previous research to determine problems in current conditions.
Scientific Knowledge
  • Generating scientific theory based on the scientific method provides grounded scientific knowledge.
  • Reinforces scientific knowledge for students, especially through inquiry learning.
Science Skills
  • Also known as practical skills, classified into basic and integrated science process skills.
  • Integrated science process skills use two or more basic science process skills.
Basic Science Process Skills
  • Observation: Discovery begins with observation using senses to identify changes or problems (e.g., chemical leaks, water discoloration).
  • Inquiring: Transforming observations into questions to elicit further understanding.
  • Hypothesizing: Providing a temporary explanation based on prior knowledge.
  • Prediction: Being specific to test the statement, whether it is nullified or verified.
  • Testing: Model that allows iteration to solve problem and form conclusion.
  • Communication: Sharing information with stakeholders through oral presentations, dialogues, or publications.
Comprehensive Observation
  • Use three or more senses to gather multiple units of measurement.
  • More evidence provides clarity and enriches replicability.
  • Repeatability is important for other researchers to validate findings.
Experimental Design
  • Response Variable: The outcome being measured in the study.
  • Explanatory Variable: The treatment variable intentionally changed to observe its effect.
  • Control Variable: Used to determine the effect of explanatory or response variable.
  • Manipulative experiments alter the explanatory variable to determine the effect on the response variable.
  • Comparison between control and test groups using test statistics.
Social Research Integration
  • Integrates social research lenses into experimental design.
  • Incorporates social behavior or condition or attitude in the dependent variable.
  • Dependent Variable: The response.
  • Independent Variable: The cause.
  • Social status, education level, and media influence are predictors.
  • Control variables include age, gender, and culture.
Social Inquiry
  • Engaging in community immersion, surveys, and interviews.
  • Analyzing prevailing problems in the physical world.
  • Control groups are unmanipulated contexts, while focus groups receive intervention.
  • Ethics and reflexivity are critical, protecting participants' rights and confidentiality.
Basic Science Process Skills (Detailed)
  • Observing
  • Classifying
  • Measuring
  • Inferring
  • Predicting
  • Communicating
  • These skills are used to facilitate the scientific method and can be combined.
Observation and Classification

Observation is coupled with classification and measurement to compare observations

Inferences

Inferences are integrated, and inaccuracies can occur based on perceptions.

Measurement and Prediction

Measurement can be coupled with prediction using empirical data.

Communication
  • Communicate with brevity in academic and scholarly settings.
  • Fundamental in studying environmental science.

Environmental Literacy and System Thinking

Environmental System
  • Recognition of the goal of environmental literacy.
  • Cultural Literacy: Understanding the processes of the physical world, embedded in cultural practices (e.g., seasonal awareness).
  • Civic Literacy: Developing sound scientific information to participate in informed decisions and contribute to economic productivity (e.g., protesting mining activities).
  • Scientific Literacy: Promoting problem-solving as an active member of society.
  • Aesthetic Literacy: Appreciating the beauty of ecosystems for ecotourism.
System Thinking
  • A way to understand how systems are interconnected helping to explain connections to natural world.
  • Actions are dependent on interrelating the complexity of ecosystems and biodiversity.