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INTRODUCTION TO INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE: BASIC PRINCIPLES II

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Title: INTRODUCTION TO INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE: BASIC PRINCIPLES II


1
INTRODUCTION TOINTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCEBASIC
PRINCIPLES II
  • Science 1102

2
The General Education Program
  • Develop productive habits of mind
  • Develop effective communication skills
  • Expand knowledge and understanding
  • Expand creative capabilities
  • Exhibit understanding of the impact of ethical
    and aesthetic values

3
How often have you seen headlines and news
stories about environmental problems in your area?
  • Ozone Levels in Atlanta Hit Record
  • Raw Sewage Found in Chattahoochee
  • Dangerous Levels of Dioxin in Georgia Waterways
  • Water Wars Between Georgia and Alabama
  • Georgia Declared a Disaster Area
  • Dump Smells Complain Residents
  • Run-off Contains High Nitrogen Levels

4
Some problems are global.
  • Global warming
  • Energy shortages
  • Fish populations depleted
  • Acid rain
  • Species extinction
  • Invasive species
  • Drought
  • Low whale populations
  • Loss of ozone layer

5
Environmental problems are not new.
  • Ancient Greece denuded forests and suffered
    erosion problems.
  • Roman citizens used up the wood in the area and
    had to use remains of old buildings to build new
    ones.
  • Lack of human waste disposal brought cholera
    plagues to London.
  • Dodo birds and passenger pigeons hunted out of
    existence.New evidence that first homo sapiens
    caused species to become extinct.

6
ENVIRONMENTALISM
  • There have been advocates for the environment.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • David Henry Thoreau
  • John Muir
  • Aldo Leopold
  • President Teddy Roosevelt
  • Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson
Teddy Roosevelt
7
The environmental movement grew quickly as more
problems came to light.
  • Population growth
  • Deforestation
  • Nuclear power concerns
  • Habitat destruction
  • Loss of species
  • Water and air pollution
  • Increasing ocean temperatures
  • Rivers igniting

8
Conflicts arise when actions intended to save
the environment threaten economic and social
well-being of citizens.
  • Saving old-growth forests results in fewer jobs
    for lumber-jacks, lower company profits, and
    higher prices for wood products.
  • Preserving populations of commercial fish reduces
    income for fishermen and increases fish prices.
  • Using turtle-exclusion devises allows shrimp to
    escape from shrimp nets and lowers crew profits.
  • Preserving western grasslands requires a drop in
    the number of cattle grazing on the land.
  • Decreasing pollution requires companies to
    install expensive scrubbing devices or make
    costly changes their procedures.
  • Preserving rainforests prevents indigent farmers
    from making their living using time-honored
    practices.

9
SUSTAINABILITY
10
Sustainability combines two goals.
  • Ensuring that resources will continue to be
    available to us and to our descendents. In the
    past we have used resources faster than they can
    be replaced.
  • Maintaining ecosystems. Ecosystems are the
    infrastructure of the biosphere. Without them
    the world as we know it would not exist.

11
Achieving Sustainability
  • In order to achieve sustainability, we must limit
    our total impact on the environment so that
    Earths ecosystems have sufficient time and
    resources to regenerate the resources we use.

12
Our Impact on the Environment
  • Two primary factors affect our impact on the
    environment..
  • Population size - the higher the population, the
    more resources our environment must provide.
  • Resources used per person - the more resources
    each person needs, the more resources our
    environment must provide.

13
Resource Use Per Person
  • People in developed countries, such as those in
    North America and Europe, use substantially more
    resources per person than those in underdeveloped
    countries such as many of those in Africa and
    Southeast Asia.
  • For example, the average American requires 120
    gallons of water per day to meet needs, while the
    average African requires less than 20 gallons per
    day.

14
Waste produced is also a factor in resources used
per person.
  • The more waste or pollution produced, the longer
    it will take the ecosystem to remove it.
  • Too much waste or pollution can destroy
    ecosystems.
  • People in developed countries produce
    substantially more waste per person than those in
    underdeveloped countries.

15
Impact of the Environment
  • Our impact on the environment is the product of
    population size multiplied by the average amount
    of resources used by each person.
  • I N x R
  • I total impact on the
    environment
  • N population size
  • R average amount of
    resources used per person

16
Sustainability
  • Sustainability requires balancing population size
    and the resources used per person at a level that
    allows both continued harvesting of natural
    resources and maintenance of the ecosystem over
    time.
  • Many questions remain unanswered, such as
  • How many people is too many?
  • What standard of living is acceptable?
  • How much government regulation do we want?
  • Whose responsibility is it?

17
The Role of Science in Achieving Sustainability
  • Scientists cannot, and should not, answer all of
    these complex questions.
  • Scientists can provide helpful data.
  • What is the maximum amount of a resource that can
    be harvested without harming the ecosystem?
  • How much waste can a system decompose per year?
  • What factors affect how quickly a resource can be
    regenerated?
  • How can we replace non-renewable resources?

18
Your Role in Achieving Sustainability
  • Exercise your right to vote.
  • Reduce your environmental footprint.
  • Educate yourself so that you can make appropriate
    choices.

19
Energy and the Environment
This semester, we are going to discuss energy
usage and itsimpact on the environment
  • What is energy?
  • Basic geology and Earth systems
  • The different forms of energy we use
  • One area of impact the atmosphere
  • Population projections
  • Politics

20
Basic Skills
  • You will need to understand basic mathematics
  • Be able to plug numbers into an equation
  • Be able to solve an equation for a particular
    variable Ex F ma, solve for a
  • Be able to do simple word problems

21
How to Succeed
  • This course will require that you
  • Read the stated portions of the book
  • Read the additional reading material assigned
  • Spend 6-9 hours a week studying EVERY WEEK
  • Ask questions when you do not understand
    something
  • Not wait until the end of the semester to start
    working
  • Discuss materials with others in the class

22
Truth in Advertising
I have taught this course for 3 years. Over
that time, the grade distribution issuch that
the average gradeis a 2.38
The departmental averagefor the last term was a
2.73
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