environmental awareness & global warming
TRANSCRIPT
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
BCC 207
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS
(Connection and Relationship)
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Environment
in general, environment refers to thesurroundings of an object
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Scope of Environment
Natural environment, all living and non-living thingsthat occur naturally on Earth
Built environment, constructed surroundings thatprovide the setting for human activity, ranging from
the large-scale civic surroundings to the personalplaces
Environment (biophysical), the physical and biologicalfactors along with their chemical interactions thataffect an organism
Environment (systems), the surroundings of a physicalsystem that may interact with the system byexchanging mass, energy, or other properties
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment
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ENVIRONMENT is the physical and biotic
habitat which surround us; that which we can
see, hear, touch, smell and taste.
SYSTEMa set or arrangement of things so
related or connected as to form a unit or
organic whole; as a solar system, irrigation
system, supply system, the world or universe.
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Connections between
Environments
Built environment responds to the local
natural environment
Thus, different types of buildings are found in
different parts of the world climate is amajor factor
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Connections between
Environments
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Natural vs Built Environment:
Interactions and Issue
Consumption of non-replenishable resources
like fossil fuel
Consumption of resources without
replacement, such as hardwood forests
Harmful changes to local habitat, such as
deforestation
Harmful changes to global habitat, such as
climate change
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
An interdisciplinary study of how the earth
works, how human activities affect the earthand ways to resolve the environmental
problems
Environmental science provides an integrated,quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to
the study of environmental systems
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ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
aim : satisfies basic needs of people food clean
air, clean water and shelter into indefinite future
not depleting or degrading earths natural
resources
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HOW TO ACHIEVE?
By knowing :
ECOLOGY
ECOSYSYEMS
SUSTAINABILITY
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An ecosystem contains all the interactions among living (plants, animals, soil
organisms) and nonliving (nutrients, minerals, moisture, disturbances)
components. Examples of interactions include nutrient, mineral, and water
cycles, and natural disturbances like fire.
Native plant
communities
provide habitat
for plants andanimals.
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ECOLOGY
The scientific study of the interactionbetween organisms and their environment
Involves the understanding ofbiotic and
abiotic factors influencing the distributionand abundance of living things (Krebs, 1994)
Greek wordoikos house/place to live
- ology - the study of- ecology the study of living
things in their environment
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SYSTEM
A grouping of parts that operates together for acommon purpose. Each part has a specific functionthat allows the group to work as a greater whole,sort of like an assembly line
ECO and SYSTEM interaction between living andnon-living things within a given area
The characteristics that make up an eco-system will
vary from region to region, area to area and problemto problem
No two eco-systems are alike
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Major Components of Ecosystems
Ecosystems are composed of a variety of abiotic and biotic components that function in an
interrelated fashion. Some of the more important components are: soil, atmosphere, radiationfrom the Sun, water, and living organisms.
Relationships within an ecosystem
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Inputs and outputs of energy and matter in a typical ecosystem.
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SUSTAINABILITY
The word sustainability is derived from the Latin sustinere (tenere,to hold; sus, up)
Since the 1980s sustainabilityhas been used more in the sense ofhuman sustainability on planet Earth.
This has resulted in the most widely quoted definition ofsustainability and sustainable development,
[ Brundtland Commission of the United Nations on March 20, 1987] sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meettheir own needs
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A representation of sustainability showing how botheconomy and society are constrained by
environmental limits
Scheme of sustainable development: at the confluence of three constituent parts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nested_sustainability-v2.gif -
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- Richard Register (Founder ofThe global EcoCity movement
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Products extracted from ecosystem
Food
Fiber
Timber /building materials Minerals (for manufacturing)
Medicines
Water
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Services provided by ecosystem
Water and Air cleansing
Detoxification of harmful chemical compound
Erosion control Flood attenuation
Habitats animal, plants and micro-organisms
Nutrients
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Consequences of Human Activities
Intended results
Improved
Quality of LifeFood productionShelter
Water supplyMaintenance ofCultureJobs EnjoymentKnowledgeWealthEsteemSpirituality
Human
ActivitiesLand clearingAgricultureForestry
GrazingWater Diversionand DetentionIrrigationMineral/EnergyExtraction
Road BuildingRecreationVegetationManipulationPreservation
Unintended Results:
Environmental CostsRiparian DestructionHabitat alterationErosion
SedimentationSoil degradationLoss of productivityAltered biodiversitySpecies extinctionDesertification
DeforestrationPollutionClimate changeEconomic declineSocial decline
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ENVIRONMENTAL DISTURBANCES
Major Improvements to human standard of living such as:-The production of more and better quality food
-Creation of housing as protection from extremes of climate and as living space
-Building of fast and reliable means of transportation
-Invention of various system of communication
-Invention of machines to replace human or animal power
-The supply of safe water and the good system of waste disposal-The elimination of many infectious diseases
-The elimination of most waterborne diseases in the developed world through improved
water technology
-The availability of leisure time through greater productivity, providing the opportunity
for cultural and recreational activities
-The protection from the worst effects of natural disasters such as floods, droughts,Earthquakes and volcanic eruption
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Video presentation
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Lecture 2
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Greenhouse Effect
The "greenhouse effect" is the warming that
happens when certain gases in Earth's
atmosphere trap heat.
These gases let in light but keep heat from
escaping, like the glass walls of a greenhouse
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First, sunlight shines onto the Earth's surface,
where it is absorbed and then radiates back
into the atmosphere as heat.
In the atmosphere, greenhouse gases trap
some of this heat, and the rest escapes into
space. The more greenhouse gases are in the
atmosphere, the more heat gets trapped
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History: study of greenhouse effect
Scientists have known about the greenhouseeffect since 1824, when Joseph Fouriercalculated that the Earth would be much
colder if it had no atmosphere. This greenhouse effect is what keeps the
Earth's climate livable.
Without it, the Earth's surface would be anaverage of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit cooler[15.5oC].
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In 1895, the Swedish chemist Svante
Arrhenius discovered that humans could
enhance the greenhouse effect by making
carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
He kicked off 100 years of climate research
that has given us a sophisticated
understanding of global warming.
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Aren't temperature changes natural?
The average global temperature and concentrations of
carbon dioxide (one of the major greenhouse gases)have fluctuated on a cycle of hundreds of thousands ofyears as the Earth's position relative to the sun hasvaried.
As a result, ice ages have come and gone.
Now, humans have increased the amount of carbondioxide in the atmosphere by more than a third sincethe industrial revolution.
Changes this large have historically taken thousands ofyears, but are now happening over the course ofdecades.
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Why is this a concern?
The rapid rise in greenhouse gases is a
problem because it is changing the climate
faster than some living things may be able to
adapt.
Also, a new and more unpredictable climate
poses challenges to all life.
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What is Global Warming?
Simply put global warming is the warming of the Earth'stemperature.
This applies both to the Earth's surface temperature and tothe Earth's air temperature.
The Earth's atmosphere contains many different kinds ofgases, some of these Scientists have termed greenhousegases (these are mostly water vapour and carbon dioxide).
The purpose of greenhouse gases is to help the earthmaintain a constant temperature.
Without greenhouse gases then the earth would lose a lotof heat from itself
This would mean the earth would be a lot cooler then it isnow, an extreme example would be Pluto.
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Excess greenhouse gases means that the Earthcannot release excess heat generated both fromitself and again from solar radiation.
This causes a slow gradual temperature increase
in the lower atmosphere which causes the Earthto be warmer then it should.
While greenhouse gases are needed to create asolar balance, emitting excess greenhouse gases
in the form of carbon dioxide and methane onlycause the Earth to retain heat rather then havingsolar balance.
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The atmosphere is essentially transparent to incoming solarradiation.
After striking the Earth's surface, the wavelength of this
radiation increases as it loses energy. The gases that are involved are opaque to this lower energy
radiation, and thus trap it as heat, thereby increasing theatmospheric temperature.
As these gases increase, due to natural causes and humanactivity, they enhance the Greenhouse Effect, and may raisetemperatures even more.
If the climate warms, the vegetation belts will tend to movenorthward, changing global ecological and biome patterns.
Other effects may be discerned in precipitation patterns, sealevel changes, and more.
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Global Warming: Causes
The only way to explain the pattern of Global Warmingis to include the effect of greenhouse gases (GHGs)emitted by humans.
To bring all this information together, the United
Nations formed a group of scientists called theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, [IPCC].
The IPCC meets every few years to review the latestscientific findings and write a report summarizing all
that is known about global warming. Each report represents a consensus, or agreement,
among hundreds of leading scientists.
http://www.ipcc.ch/http://www.ipcc.ch/ -
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One of the first things scientists learned is that there areseveral greenhouse gases responsible for warming, andhumans emit them in a variety of ways.
Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars,factories and electricity production.
The gas responsible for the most warming is carbondioxide, also called CO2.
Other contributors include : methane released from landfills and agriculture (especially from
the digestive systems of grazing animals) nitrous oxide from fertilizers
gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes
loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2.
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Different greenhouse gases have very different heat-trapping abilities.
Some of them can even trap more heat than CO2.
A molecule of methane produces more than 20 timesthe warming of a molecule of CO2.
Nitrous oxide is 300 times more powerful than CO2.
Other gases, such as chlorofluorocarbons (which have
been banned in much of the world because they alsodegrade the ozone layer), have heat-trapping potentialthousands of times greater than CO2.
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But because their concentrations are much lowerthan CO2, none of these gases adds as muchwarmth to the atmosphere as CO2 does.
In order to understand the effects of all the gases
together, scientists tend to talk about allgreenhouse gases in terms of the equivalentamount of CO2.
Since 1990, yearly emissions have gone up by
about 6 billion metric tons of "carbon dioxideequivalent" worldwide, more than a 20 percentincrease
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Source:http://www.globalwarming.org.in/images/Greenhouse_Gas_by_Sector.gif
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Source: http://www.news.wisc.edu/news/images/map_CO2_emissions_Patz05.gif
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GLOBAL WARMING EFFECT
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Global Warming: Effects
The effects of risingtemperatures arehappening right now.
Signs are appearing allover, and some of themare surprising.
The heat is not onlymelting glaciers and seaice, its also shifting
precipitation patterns andsetting animals on themove.
H A i l Fi h Gl b l W i ?
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How Animals Fight Global Warming?
Struggling to adapt to global warming, wild
animals are changing what they eat and howthey live
Desperate change in diet
Changes habitat Affects reproduction of some species
Some species signal genetic revolution [changes in
chromosomes] not all species can adapt..CAN WE?
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Eff t f Gl b l W i bi
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Effects of Global Warming: a bigger
perspective
Rising Sea Levels Climate Change Refugees
Mass Extinctions and Migrations
Loss of Coral Reefs
Stronger Hurricanes
Economic Consequences ??
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Climate Change refugees..
People affected by rising sea levels will move
inland in large numbers.
Mass migrations never come easy, especially
when they involve some of the worlds
poorest, with Vietnam, Bangladesh, China,
India, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria
and Egypt expected to be hit especially hardby rising waters.
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It is estimated that around 200 million people
could be affected by sea level rise by the year
2050.
As climate change refugees migrate inincreasingly high numbers, political systems
will be tested.
In all likelihood, some wont pass
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Mass Extinction & Migration The polar bear being a species that has
become the poster child for the effects ofglobal warming.
Polar bears have started drowning as theyhave had to swim longer distancesbetween ice flows, and the U.S. GeologicalSurvey has predicted that if the Arctic ice
cape continues melting at its current rate,two-thirds of the world's polar bear sub-populations will be extinct by mid-century.
Of course, it is not just the polar bear thatis affectedone study predicts that aquarter of land animals and plants could
become extinct because of globalwarming over the next 45 years.
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Animals are migrating northwards or to higheraltitudes, with a recent study of nearly 2,000species of plants and animals showingmovement towards the poles at an average rate
of 3.8 miles per decade. Such migrations can disrupt delicate ecosystems
that have taken millennia to develop.
Changing temperature and daylight cues can also
alter animal behavior. For example, processes like egg-laying and
flowering could shift with the weather.
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Loss of Coral Reef
Corals get their food from analgae called zooxanthellae,which lives in the coral.
This algae is extremelysensitive to temperaturechanges, and an increase ofjust 1.8 degrees Fahrenheitcan cause corals to expel theiralgae, or bleach.
Over a prolonged period oftime, bleaching leads to death.
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A second contributing factor to the current sea-widedecline in coral reefs is that, as atmospheric concentrationsof carbon dioxide (CO2) increase, oceans are becomingmore acidic.
This reduces the availability of free carbonate ions in the
water, making it more difficult for the polyps that buildcoral reefs to extract the calcium carbonate they need tosurvive.
For more extensive discussion of the loss of coral and ocean
acidification you can read the following:- Coral Bleaching- Ocean Acidification.
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Stronger Hurricanes
There is little evidence linking global warming to anincrease in the number of hurricanes, but there is evidencelinking global warming with more powerful hurricanes.
The oceans warm water vapor fuels hurricanes, and as thatwater gets warmer the amount of evaporation increases,
thus fueling more powerful storms. In the 1970s, the number of tropical storms worldwide
reaching categories 4 and 5 was 11 per year.
Since 1990, the world has had about 18 category 4 or 5storms per year.
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Economic Consequences
If after reading about a drastic decline in biodiversity,climate change refugees, and stronger hurricanes doesntconvince you of the seriousness of global warming,
Maybe this will: coral reefs provide about $375 billioneach year in food and tourism income.
Source:http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/page.cfm?tagID=258
Yes, global warming is an economic matter as well.
As of now, no one can perfectly predict what the economic
or other consequences of global warming will look like, butthose not ignoring the facts will have a clearer picture and ahead start.