Chapter 1

Basic Concept

ESM, NSU
1

May 27, 2019

Environment
Environmental Science

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Students response is needed 2
 Homo sapiens arrives

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Here, the span of Homo sapiens sapiens’ time on earth is compared with that of all life beginning about 3.5
billion years ago. If the length of this time line were 1 kilometer (0.6 miles), humanity’s time on earth would
occupy roughly the last 3 one-hundredths of a millimeter. That is less than the diameter of a hair on your 3
head—compared with 1 kilometer of time.

[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

Environment
“The environment is everything that isn’t me.” -Albert Einstein

• The periphery of environment starts from the time of

conception till the death of any living being

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• The environment is everything around us. It includes the
living and the nonliving things (e.g., air, water, and energy)
with which we interact in a complex web of relationships
that connect us to one another and to the world we live in.
[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

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Man and Environment

AIR POLLUTION

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Missing!!!!!!!
https://mycyberwall.co.za/save-your-planet/man-and-environment
Basic components of Environment

1) Atmosphere (or the air)

2)Hydrosphere (or the water)
3)Lithosphere (or the rocks and soil)

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4)Biosphere (living component of the
environment)

http://www.tutorvista.com/content/biology/biology-i/environment/biosphere.php
Environmental Science (ES)
• Environmental science is a field where numerous
subjects are being coincided in a single point.
• An interdisciplinary study of how humans interact
with the living and nonliving parts of their

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environment.
• It integrates information and ideas from the natural
sciences such as biology, chemistry, and geology; the
social sciences such as geography, economics, and
political science; and the humanities such as
philosophy and ethics. 7

[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

Goals of ES

• To learn how nature works

• To understand how we interact with
the environment, and

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• To find ways to deal with
environmental problems and to live
more sustainably
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Major themes of ES
• Human population
• Urbanization, and
• Sustainability

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These issues have to be evaluated in light of the interrelations
between people and nature.

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Human population

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Human population
• The human population grows, more and more
people seek to satisfy their needs and wants by
using more resources

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• As the human population continues to grow by
more than 80 million people a year, we deplete
more topsoil by increasing food production, we
drill more and deeper water wells, and we use more
energy and spend more money to transport fossil
fuels, water, minerals, and food farther 11
Urbanization

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Urbanization

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Urbanization
• Urbanization is one of the most powerful and visible
anthropogenic forces on Earth
• Since the second half of the twentieth century, the world has
experienced its fastest rate of urbanization, particularly in
developing countries

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• In 1957, 30% of the global population lived in urban areas, in
2008, it reached 50% and an estimated 70% is projected to live in
cities by 2050
• Today there are over 400 cities in the world with populations of
over 1 million and in the foreseeable future, virtually all of the
world’s population growth will be absorbed by the urban areas of
the less developed regions, whose population is projected to 14
increase from 2.4 billion in 2007 to 5.3 billion in 2050

[Cui and Shi, 2012]

Urbanization
• Therefore, urbanization has played an important role in the
development and modernization of underdeveloped and
developing countries, and increasing attention has been paid to
cities and urbanization from scientists and policy makers over the
last several decades

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• A process in which an increasing
proportion of a society live in cities and
the suburbs of cities
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[Cui and Shi, 2012]

 Effect of urbanization on
environment

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[students participation]
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Sustainability

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Three principles of sustainability: We derive these three interconnected principles of
sustainability from learning how nature has sustained a huge variety of life on the earth for at
least 3.5 billion years, despite drastic changes in environmental conditions [Miller and Spoolman, 2012]
Sustainability
• Reliance on solar energy: The sun warms the planet and
supports photosynthesis—a complex chemical process used by
plants to provide the nutrients, or chemicals that most organisms
need in order to stay alive and reproduce
• Without the sun, there would be no plants, no animals, and no

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food
• The sun also powers indirect forms of solar energy such as wind
and flowing water, which we can use to produce electricity

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Sustainability
• Biodiversity (short for biological diversity): This refers to the
astounding variety of organisms, the natural systems in which
they exist and interact (such as deserts, grasslands, forests, and
oceans), and the natural services that these organisms and living
systems provide free of charge (such as renewal of topsoil, pest

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control, and air and water purification)
• Biodiversity also provides countless ways for life to adapt to
changing environmental conditions. Without it, most life would
have been wiped out long ago

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Sustainability
• Chemical cycling: Also referred to as nutrient cycling, this
circulation of chemicals from the environment (mostly from soil
and water) through organisms and back to the environment is
necessary for life
• Natural processes keep this cycle going, and the earth receives no

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new supplies of these chemicals
• Thus, for life to sustain itself, these nutrients must be cycled in
this way, indefinitely
• Without chemical cycling, there would be no air, no water,
no soil, no food, and no life

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Sustainability
Sustainability has two formal scientific meanings
with respect to environment:
(1) Sustainability of resources, such as a species of fish
from the ocean, a kind of tree from a forest, coal

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from mines;
(2) Sustainability of an ecosystem

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Natural capital

These key natural

resources (blue) and
natural services

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(orange) support
and sustain the
earth’s life and
human economies

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[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

Causes of environmental problems
Environmental and social scientists have identified four basic causes
of the environmental problems we face

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[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

Exponential Growth

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http://math.tutorvista.com/algebra/exponential-growth.html
Exponential Growth
• The human population is growing exponentially at a
rapid rate
• Exponential growth occurs when a quantity such as the
human population increases at a fixed percentage per unit

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of time, such as 2% per year.
• Exponential growth starts off slowly. But eventually, it
causes the quantity to double again and again. After
only a few doublings, it grows to enormous numbers
because each doubling is twice the total of all earlier
growth.
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Exponential Growth

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[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

Exponential Growth
• Because of exponential growth in the human population,
in 2010 there were about 6.9 billion people on the planet.
Collectively, these people consume vast amounts of food,
water, raw materials, and energy, producing huge amounts
of pollution and wastes in the process.

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• Each year, we add more than 80 million people to the
earth’s population.
• Unless death rates rise sharply, there will probably be 9.5
billion of us by 2050.
• This projected addition of 2.6 billion more people within
your lifetime is equivalent to about 8 times the current U.S. 27
population and twice that of China, the world’s most
populous nation.
Carrying capacity
The maximum population of a given species that a particular
habitat can sustain indefinitely

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This graph tracks the logistic growth of a sheep population on the island of Tasmania
between 1800 and 1925. After sheep were introduced in 1800, their population grew 28
exponentially, thanks to an ample food supply and few predators. By 1855, they had
overshot the land’s carrying capacity. Their numbers then stabilized and fluctuated
around a carrying capacity of about 1.6 million sheep. [Miller and Spoolman, 2012]
Carrying capacity
It is a concept related to sustainability. It is
usually defined as the maximum number
of individuals of a species that can be
sustained by an environment without

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decreasing the capacity of the
environment to sustain that same number
in the future.

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 “Tragedy of the Commons”

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Environmental Management
Garrett Hardin (1915-2003) 30
Mohammad Sujauddin, PhD
http://mathbench.umd.edu/modules/env-science_tragedy-commons/page01a.htm
 Environmental Kuznets Curve

irreversible damage

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Environmental Management
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Mohammad Sujauddin, PhD
https://jfkoes.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/the-environmental-kuznets-curve/
Basic system concepts (the balance of nature)

Important terminologies we need to know-

1) System

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1.1) Open System
1.2) Close System
2) Input
3) Output

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Basic system concepts (the balance of nature)

1) System
• A system is a set of components, or parts, that
function together as a whole.
• A single organism, such as your body, is a system,

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as are a sewage-treatment plant, a city, and a river.
• On a much different scale, the entire Earth is a
system.
• In a broader sense, a system is any part of the universe
you can isolate in thought (in your brain or on your
computer) or, indeed, physically, for the purpose of 33
study.
Basic system concepts (the balance of nature)

In its relation to the rest of the environment, a

system can be open or closed.

1.1) Open System

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• In an open system, some energy or material (solid,
liquid, or gas) moves into or out of the system.
• The ocean is an open system with regard to water
because water moves into the ocean from the
atmosphere and out of the ocean into the
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atmosphere.
Basic system concepts (the balance of nature)

1.2) Close System

• In a closed system, no such transfers take place.
• For our purposes, a materially closed system is
one in which no matter moves in and out of the

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system, although energy and information can move
across the system’s boundaries.
• Earth is a materially closed system (for all practical
purposes).
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Basic system concepts (the balance of nature)

Systems respond to inputs and have outputs

Think of your body as a complex system and

imagine you are walking in Sundarbans and see a

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Royal Bengal Tiger. The sight of the tiger is an input.
Your body reacts to that input: The adrenaline level
in your blood goes up, your heart rate increases, and
the hair on your head and arms may rise. Your
response—perhaps to move slowly away from the
tiger—is an output. 36
Basic system concepts (the balance of nature)
Most systems have the following key components:
inputs from the environment, flows or throughputs of
matter and energy within the system, and outputs to the
environment

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[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

Basic system concepts (the balance of nature)
Input-output

(a) General equation for ways in

which a compartment

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of some material can change
(b) represents steady-state
conditions
(c) and (d) are examples of negative
and positive changes in storage.

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[Botkin and Keller 2011]

Basic system concepts (the balance of nature)
Input-output
Idealized diagram of a lake
system with MTBE (methyl
tertiary—butyl ether)
contamination.

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[Botkin and Keller 2011]

Basic system concepts (the balance of nature)

The balance of nature is a theory that proposes that

ecological systems are usually in a stable
equilibrium (homeostasis), which is to say that a
small change in some particular parameter (the size

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of a particular population, for example) will be
corrected by some negative feedback that will
bring the parameter back to its original "point of
balance" with the rest of the system.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_nature
System Feedback
Most systems are affected in one way or another by
feedback, any process that increases (positive
feedback) or decreases (negative feedback) a change
to a system

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Feedback occurs when the output of a system (or a
compartment in a system) affects its input. Changes
in the output “feed back” on the input.

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System Feedback
A good example of feedback is human temperature
regulation.

If you go out in the sun and get hot, the increase in

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temperature affects your sensory perceptions (input). If you
stay in the sun, your body responds physiologically: Your
pores open, and you are cooled by evaporating water (you
sweat). The cooling is output, and it is also input to your
sensory perceptions. You may respond behaviorally as well:
Because you feel hot (input), you walk into the shade (output)
and your temperature returns to normal. In this example, an
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increase in temperature is followed by a response that leads to
a decrease in temperature.
Positive Feedback
Positive feedback occurs when an increase in output leads
to a further increase in output.

A fire starting in a forest provides an example of positive

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feedback. The wood may be slightly damp at the beginning
and so may not burn readily. Once a fire starts, wood near the
flame dries out and begins to burn, which in turn dries out a
greater quantity of wood and leads to a larger fire. The larger
the fire, the faster more wood becomes dry and the more
rapidly the fire grows. Positive feedback, sometimes called a
“vicious cycle,” is destabilizing.
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Positive Feedback

This diagram represents a

positive feedback loop.
Decreasing vegetation
in a valley causes increasing

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erosion and nutrient losses
that in turn cause more
vegetation
to die, resulting in more
erosion and nutrient losses.

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[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

Negative Feedback
In the previous example of human temperature
regulation, an increase in temperature is followed by
a response that leads to a decrease in temperature.
This is an example of negative feedback, in which an

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increase in output now leads to a later decrease in
output.

Negative feedback is self-regulating, or stabilizing.

It is the way that steady-state systems can remain in a
constant condition. 45
 Negative Feedback

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This diagram illustrates a negative feedback loop. When a house being heated by a furnace
gets to a certain temperature, its thermostat is set to turn off the furnace, and the house 46
begins to cool instead of continuing to get warmer. When the house temperature drops
below the set point, this information is fed back to turn the furnace on until the desired
temperature is reached again. [Miller and Spoolman, 2012]
Environmental unity
The principle of environmental unity holds that everything
affects everything else. It emphasizes linkages among parts of
systems

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The principle of environmental unity, which states that one
action causes others in a chain of actions, is an important
principle in the prediction of changes in the Earth system

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Environmental unity
Brainstorming session by students

- Construction of dam in a river

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- Construction of nuclear plant in a remote area
- Construction of a tannery/paper-mill just beside a river

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Gaia hypothesis/theory/principle
According to the Gaia hypothesis, Earth and all living things
form a single system with interdependent parts,
communication among these parts, and the ability to self-
regulate.

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The hypothesis states that life manipulates the environment
for the maintenance of life. For example, some scientists
believe that algae floating near the surface of the ocean
influence rainfall at sea and the carbon dioxide content of the
atmosphere, thereby significantly affecting the global climate.
It follows, then, that the planet Earth is capable of
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physiological self-regulation.
Gaia hypothesis/theory/principle
• The Gaia hypothesis states (1) that life has greatly altered
the Earth’s environment globally for more than 3 billion
years and continues to do so; and (2) that these changes
benefit life (increase its persistence). Some extend this, non-
scientifically, to assert that life did it on purpose.

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• The Gaia hypothesis reminds us that we still know
very little about how our planet works and how
physical, biological, and chemical systems are linked.
What we do know is that we need more scientific
understanding. This understanding will be driven, in
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part, by the value we place on our environment and on
the well-being of other living things.
Urban world
4 minutes video
“Hans Rosling: Urbanization”

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Environmental resources
Materials and energy in nature that are essential or useful to
humans

They are often classified as renewable resources (such as air,

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water, soil, plants, and wind) or
nonrenewable resources (such as copper, oil, and coal).

Natural services are processes in nature, such as purification

of air and water and renewal of topsoil, which support life
and human economies.
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[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

Pollution and pollutant

Any presence within the environment of a chemical or other

agent such as noise or heat at a level that is harmful to the
health, survival, or activities of humans or other organisms.

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Polluting substances, or pollutants, can enter the environment
naturally, such as from volcanic eruptions, or through human
activities, such as the burning of coal or gasoline, and the
dumping of chemicals into rivers and oceans.

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Pollution and pollutant
The pollutants we produce come from two types of sources

Point sources are single, identifiable sources. Examples are the

smokestack of a coal-burning power or industrial plant, the
drainpipe of a factory, and the exhaust pipe of an automobile.

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Nonpoint sources are dispersed and often difficult to identify.
Examples are pesticides blown from the land into the air and the
runoff of fertilizers, pesticides, and trash from the land into
streams and lakes

It is much easier and cheaper to identify and control or

prevent pollution from point sources than from widely
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dispersed nonpoint sources.
Point Vs Non-point source

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[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]

Pollution and pollutant
There are two main types of pollutants

Biodegradable pollutants are harmful materials that natural

processes can break down over time. Examples are human

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sewage and newspapers.

Nondegradable pollutants are harmful chemicals that natural

processes cannot break down. Examples are toxic chemical
elements such as lead, mercury, and arsenic.

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Degradation

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These are examples of the degradation of normally renewable natural
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resources and services in parts of the world, mostly as a result of rising
populations and resource use per person.

[Miller and Spoolman, 2012]