Doing science

But what would a working environmental scientist actually do, in the real world?  Well, like most science, a lot of what we’re actually doing is gathering data.  So that might include designing your experiment, being out in the field, creating and running digital models, or navigating online databases.

Sometimes this work is basic science, trying to understand natural systems better.  But often the work we do is directed at trying to support decision makers and stakeholders with the information that will allow them to choose appropriate policies and practices.  Basic science does this, too, of course, but often the applied science that environmental scientists do is, for example, assessing the environmental impacts of proposed construction projects, or surveying an area for endangered species.

And of course, as with so much of science, a big part of WHY we’re doing all this is to be able to predict the future.  We’re understanding the systems and processes so that we can predict their behavior, and figure out how to impact them so that they come out how we want them to.  We might study river systems to have a clean reliable water supply for our community, or to design effective flood control infrastructure.  We might build models of future climate in order to predict where and how much surface water to expect.  Or we might survey a river-side building site for potential environmental hazards, to protect the neighborhood and everyone downstream.

Environmental Science Faces Certain Unique Challenges.

• Complex systems and wicked problems.  So much of what we study are these infinitely intricate, interlaced, and dynamic systems.  They can’t be reproduced in the lab, they can’t be isolated, and in many cases they’re changing faster than we can really understand.  There is no “control” planet to compare treatments to, or to experiment on.  We’re all living in the experiment.
• Highly interdisciplinary.  There are so many interacting parts and systems, any one of which you could spend a career specializing in.  It makes understanding the interactions among them all that much more challenging.
• Highly politicized.  Many of the systems, issues, and problems that we are trying to understand are very important to people to life on Earth, and they are also highly intertwined with human systems like transportation, food production, and manufacturing.  So people have very strong opinions about them!

Environmental Metrics

We use environmental indicators or environmental metrics to monitor natural systems. We look for signs of stress, study environmental services, and track changes. We do this by gathering and analyzing data. But much of the skill and craft of what we do is in knowing what to measure, what data to gather.  Environmental metrics are measurable and quantifiable (meaning they can be expressed as a number) aspects of the physical world which tell us something about the environmental question we are interested in. They can be direct measures, such as counting the total number of plant species in a certain area, and comparing that number to other areas or watching is change over time. Others are most subtle and indirect, when you measure a physical quality which indirectly gives you the information you are interested in.  For example, how do we use air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice cores to find global temperatures in the distant past?  That air is all the same temperature now.  Well, it turns out that atmospheric oxygen can exist as several different isotopes (atoms of the same element that contain equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei, so they have atomic mass but the same chemical properties).  The ratio of those oxygen isotopes in the atmosphere is controlled by global temperature, but once it is trapped in little air bubble in a glacier those isotopes are stable so their ratios don’t change.  So through a thorough, interdisciplinary understanding of environmental systems, and some pretty impressive technology and hardware, we can measure the weight of oxygen to learn about climate history!

Forests — Deforestation remains a main issue. 1 million hectares of forest were lost every year in the decade 1980-1990. The largest losses of forest area are taking place in the tropical moist deciduous forests, the zone best suited to human settlement and agriculture. Recent estimates suggest that nearly two-thirds of tropical deforestation is due to farmers clearing land for agriculture. There is increasing concern about the decline in forest quality associated with intensive use of forests and unregulated access.

Soil — As much as 10% of the earth’s vegetated surface is now at least moderately degraded. Trends in soil quality and management of irrigated land raise serious questions about longer-term sustainability. It is estimated that about 20% of the world’s 250 million hectares of irrigated land are already degraded to the point where crop production is seriously reduced.

Fresh Water — Some 20% of the world’s population lacks access to safe water and 50% lacks access to safe sanitation. If current trends in water use persist, two-thirds of the world’s population could be living in countries experiencing moderate or high water stress by 2025.

Marine fisheries — 25% of the world’s marine fisheries are being fished at their maximum level of productivity and 35% are overfished (yields are declining). In order to maintain current per capita consumption of fish, global fish harvests must be increased; much of the increase might come through aquaculture which is a known source of water pollution, wetland loss and mangrove swamp destruction.

Biodiversity — Biodiversity is increasingly coming under threat from development, which destroys or degrades natural habitats, and from pollution from a variety of sources. The first comprehensive global assessment of biodiversity put the total number of species at close to 14 million and found that between 1% and 11% of the world’s species may be threatened by extinction every decade. Coastal ecosystems, which host a very large proportion of marine species, are at great risk with perhaps one-third of the world’s coasts at high potential risk of degradation and another 17% at moderate risk.

Atmosphere — The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has established that human activities are having a discernible influence on global climate. CO2 emissions in most industrialized countries have risen during the past few years and countries generally failed to stabilize their greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by 2000 as required by the Climate Change convention.

Toxic chemicals — About 100,000 chemicals are now in commercial use and their potential impacts on human health and ecological function represent largely unknown risks. Persistent organic pollutants are now so widely distributed by air and ocean currents that they are found in the tissues of people and wildlife everywhere; they are of particular concern because of their high levels of toxicity and persistence in the environment.

Hazardous wastes — Pollution from heavy metals, especially from their use in industry and mining, is also creating serious health consequences in many parts of the world. Incidents and accidents involving uncontrolled radioactive sources continue to increase, and particular risks are posed by the legacy of contaminated areas left from military activities involving nuclear materials.

Waste — Domestic and industrial waste production continues to increase in both absolute and per capita terms, worldwide. In the developed world, per capita waste generation has increased threefold over the past 20 years; in developing countries, it is highly likely that waste generation will double during the next decade. The level of awareness regarding the health and environmental impacts of inadequate waste disposal remains rather poor; poor sanitation and waste management infrastructure is still one of the principal causes of death and disability for the urban poor.

Attribution: A. Geddes; and Essentials of Environmental Science by Kamala Doršner, licensed under CC BY 4.0, modified from the original by A. Geddes, Matthew R. Fisher.