ENVIRONMENT - Biofuels

- Tidal energy
- Environment is everything that isn’t me
- Bioenergy
- Everything around us
 Non-renewable resources - natural
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE substances that are consumed faster than
they can be replenished. They are finite
- Interdisciplinary science connecting information resources.
and ideas from natural sciences (ecology,
biology, geology, chemistry), social sciences Examples:
(geography, politics, economics), humanities
- Fossil fuels
(ethics, philosophy).
o Coal
WHAT DO WE LEARN IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE? o Oil
o Natural gas formed from remains of
- How the environment affects us
prehistoric plants and animals
- How to live more sustainably
Nuclear energy (e.g. uranium)
- How nature works
 Natural services – Important nature
- How we affect the environment
processes such as renewal of air, water, and
Nature’s Survival Strategies Follow Three Principles of soil.
Sustainability
- also known as ecosystem services, are the
1. Reliance on solar energy – sun provides warmth benefits that people receive from nature.
and fuels photosynthesis
Examples:
2. Biodiversity – astounding variety and
adaptability of natural systems and species. - Food
3. Chemical cycling – circulation of chemicals - Water purification
forms the environment to organisms and then - Flood control
back to the environment. It is also called the - Pollination
nutrient cycling. - Carbon sequestration
- Soil stabilization
COMPONENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY
- Recreation
 Natural capital - the value of the world's natural - Cultural value
resources, which include land, water, air, and all - Metallic and nonmetallic resources
living things. - Energy resources
- It includes both living and non-living aspects of
> Humans degrade natural capital
ecosystems.
 Natural resources - resources that come > Scientific solutions needed for environmental
from the environment, such as water, air, and sustainability.
forests.
> Nutrient cycling - the process by which nutrients move
o Renewable and non-renewable
between living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem
resources
 Renewable resources - natural resources that - a cyclic process that encompasses the movement of
are replenished faster than they are used. nutrients from the physical environment to living
organisms and back to the environment. Nutrients are
Examples:
present on the earth where they are recycled,
- Wind (wind turbines convert currents into transformed into different forms and reutilized.
electricity)
Natural capital degradation
- Solar power
- Hydropower - the decline of the Earth's natural resources and
- Geothermal ecosystems. This includes the loss of
 biodiversity, deforestation, soil degradation, and Perpetual energy: a natural resource that can
water pollution. be used without limit because it is constantly
Causes: replenished by the Earth and Sun
- Overexploitation, such as deforestation, o Solar energy
pollution, and land use mismanagement o Wind power
- Climate Change o Tides
- Irreversible loss, such as topsoil and o Geothermal energy
underground water aquifers can take
generations to regenerate. SUSTAINABLE YIELD – highest rate at which we can use
a renewable resource without reducing available supply.
Effect:
- the amount of a renewable resource that can be
- Human health – air pollution and disease harvested without damaging the resource or
outbreaks the ecosystem.
- Agriculture – oil degradation impacts
agriculture, drought, calamities WE SHOULD REUSE, REDUCE, AND RECYCLE
- Business – rising prices for raw materials ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT – refers to the amount of land
- Ecosystem services – can lose their ability to and water needed to supply a population or an area
provide goods and services like freshwater, with renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the
food, energy, and medicines. wastes and pollution produced by such resources.
CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS - a situation in which
1. Population growth - the increase in the number individuals with access to a public resource—also called
of people in a population over time. It's a result a common—act in their own interest and, in doing so,
of many factors, including fertility rates, life ultimately deplete the resource.
expectancy, migration, and urbanization. IPAT (Environment, Population, Affluence, Technology)
2. Unsustainable resource use
3. Poverty - Environment
4. Not including the environmental costs of - Population
economic goods and services in their market - Affluence - It represents the average
prices consumption of each person in the population.
5. Trying to manage and simplify nature with too As the consumption of each person increases,
little knowledge about how it works the total environmental impact increases as
well. A common proxy for measuring
PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY consumption is through GDP per capita or GNI
per capita.
- Technology

Zeroth law of thermodynamics

- states that if two bodies are each in thermal

equilibrium with some third body, then they are
also in equilibrium with each other.
RESOURCE – anything we obtain from the environment Example:
to meet our needs - After some time, the cup of tea will become
cold.
- Like sunlight, it is use directly by living
- hot water and cold water
organisms here on earth. Petroleum is one of
- fruits in your refrigerator
our resources that is not use directly, crude oil
- Thermometer
needs to undergo distillation for it to be used.
- The thermostat in your room
First Law of Thermodynamics

- The first law of thermodynamics states

that energy can neither be created nor
destroyed, only altered in form. For any system,
energy transfer is associated with mass crossing
the control boundary, external work, or heat
transfer across the boundary.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

- states that the state of entropy of the entire

universe, as an isolated system, will always
increase over time. The second law also states
that the changes in the entropy in the universe
can never be negative.

System: A defined area or set of elements being

studied, which can exchange matter and energy with its
surroundings.

Input: Matter and energy entering a system from its

surroundings.

Output: Matter and energy leaving a system into its

surroundings, which is what we are referring to here.

 Carnivores
 Herbivores
 Omnivores
 Heterotrophs
 Terrestrial Biomes
 Autotrophs
 Average temperature
 Average precipitation

Examples: desert, boreal forest, tundra, temperate rain

forest

 Aquatic Biomes
 Salinity – amount of salt dissolved in the water
 Depth
 Water Flow
- Freshwater, e.g. lakes, ponds, streams, rivers,
wetlands
- Salt marshes and mangroves (border)
- Saltwater, e.g. intertidal zone, coral reef, open
ocean

ECOSYSTEM

- Organized in food chain

- An organized food chain is called a food web
 Producers -