BIO 140

the study of how the natural world works, how our environment affects us, and how we affect our environment.

the various substances and energy sources that we take from our environment and that we need to survive.

Sunlight, Wind, Wave energy

Mineral Oars and Cruide Oil

arise from the noral functioning of natural systems, and although these processes are not meant for our benefit, we could not survive without them.

Two phenomena that triggered a remarkable increase in population size.

1. Transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural way of life. Happened around ten thousand years ago.

2. Began in the mid 1700's....entailed a shift from rural life, animal-powered agriculture, and handcrafted goods to an urban society provisioned by the mass production of factory-made goods and powered by fossil fuels.

oil, coal, and natural gas

When publicly accessible resources are open to unregulated exploitation, they inevitably become overused and, as a result, are damaged or  depleted.

Garrett Harden of UCSB in 1968 in the journal Science, titled "The Tragedy of the Commons."

expresses environmental impact in terms of the cumulative area of biologically productive land and water required to provide the resources a person or population consumes and to dispose of or recycle the waste a person or population consumes and to dispose of or recycle the waste the person or the population produces.

one that borrows techniques from multiple disciplines and brings their research results together into a broad synthesis

disciplines that examine the natural world

disciplines that address human interactions and institutions

Encompasses both the natural sciences and social sciences

social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world-and, by extension people--from undesirable changes brought about by human actions.

systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it....also used to refer to the accumulated body of knowledge that arises from this dynamic process of questioning, observation, testing, and discovery.

Types of research in which scientists gather basic information about organisms, materials, systems, or processes that are not well known or that cannot be manipulated in experiments

Once enough general info. is known about a subject, scientists can begin posing more specific questions that ask how and why things are the way they are......

......research that proceeds in a more targeted and structured manner, using experiments to test hypotheses within a framework traditionally known as the scientific method.

a statement that attempts to explain a phenomenon or answer a scientific question

specific statements that can be directly and unequivocally tested

an activity designed to test the validity of a prediction or a hypothesis. It involves manipulating variables.

conditions that change

a variable the scientist manipulates

is affected by the independent variable

where the scientist controls for the effects of all variables except the one whose effect he or she is testing

an unmanipulated point of comparison for the manipulated point

an experiment in which the researcher actively chooses and manipulates the independent variable

experiments which compare how dependent variables are expressed in naturally different contexts

Statistical relationship....is not necessarily causation

Other scientists review and provide comments/criticism on a work

widely-accepted, well-tested explanation of one or more cause-and-effect relationships that has been extensively validated by a great amount of research

Dramatic upheavals in though, where one "paradigm," or dominant view, is abandoned for another

a guiding principle of modern environmental science....the primary challenge of how to live within our planet's means, such that earth and its resources can sustain us

accumulated wealth of resources

Researches estimate that we are drawing down our planet's natural resources 30% faster than it is being replenished

the cumulative number and diversity of living things

The most comprehensive scientific assessment of the condition of the world's ecological systems and their ability to continue supporting our civilization, completed in 2005. .....Over 2000 of the world's leading environmental scientists from nearly 100 nations 

Some people maintain that we will find ways to make Earth's natural resources meet all of our needs indefinitely and that human ingenuity will see us through any difficulty. This view is characterized as Cornucopian.

In Greek Mythology, cornucopia--literally "horn of plenty."

People who predict doom and disaster, regarding the sustainability of the human lifestyle on earth

the use of resources in a manner that ssatisfies our current needs but does not compromise the future availability of resources

where the goal is not simply the maximization of profit or economic advancement, but also environmental protection and the promotion of social equity