1.1 The Earth, Humans, and the Environment
Note to those with a printed copy of this textbook: Some sections, like this one, contain links out to videos or other reasons why you might want to refer to an online or digital version. There aren’t very many sections like this. I have tried to note them.
What is Environmental Science?
What Exactly is “the Environment”?
“The complete range of external conditions, physical and biological, in which an organism lives. Environment includes social, cultural, and (for humans) economic and political considerations, as well as the more usually understood features such as soil, climate, and food supply.” – Oxford Dictionary of Ecology, 4th edition
So basically, the environment is everything. It is all of the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) surroundings or conditions that an organism (like you!) lives within. Environmental science, then, is how western science studies all that, and our relationship to it. It’s the dynamic, interdisciplinary study of the interaction of living and non-living parts of the environment, with special focus on the impact of humans on the environment. The study of environmental science includes circumstances, objects, or conditions by which an organism or community is surrounded and the complex ways in which they interact.
Why Study Environmental Science?
The need for equitable, ethical, and sustainable use of Earth’s resources by a global population that nears the carrying capacity of the planet requires us not only to understand how human behaviors affect the environment, but also the scientific principles that govern interactions between the living and non-living. Our future depends on our ability to understand and evaluate evidence-based arguments about the environmental consequences of human actions and technologies, and to make informed decisions based on those arguments.
From global climate change to habitat loss driven by human population growth and development, Earth is becoming a different planet—right before our eyes. The global scale and rate of environmental change are beyond anything in recorded human history. Our challenge is to acquire an improved understanding of Earth’s complex environmental systems; systems characterized by interactions within and among their natural and human components that link local to global and short-term to long-term phenomena, and individual behavior to collective action. The complexity of environmental challenges demands that we all participate in finding and implementing solutions leading to long-term environmental sustainability.
The Earth and the Humans
So basically, we’ll spend this term learning about the Earth, and our relationship to it.
(The rest of this section is videos and a long narrow infographic, none of which will work in the print. Please follow the links from the digital versions, to see these fun and informative resources.)
Let’s start with this 7 minute video, about this lovely planet you find yourself on.
Here is another short video from the same folks, about us humans and where we came from.
And we’ve done incredible things in the short time we’ve been here. Just in the last hundred years, even. I’ll leave you with one example and then we’ll go on to the rest of the chapter and textbook. Below is a long, skinny, informative infographic about temperature. (It is much too long to fit on a single page, so if you’re looking at a print or a pdf you’ll need to follow this link to see it.)