Name: Loren Mae Detalo Date: November 22, 2022

Course/Year: BSEM 3 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Introduction to Environmental Science

1. What is environmental science?

- Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology,
and geography to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems.
2. The environment includes:
a. land
b. air
c. water
d. animals
3. Environmental science is interdisciplinary because.
- Environmental science is an interdisciplinary science whose research focus is on the
culmination of interacting systems, all of which are specialists in particular systems and populate
entire scientific disciplines.
4. Define these two concepts illustrated by the collapse of civilization in Mesopotamia:
1. The Law of Unintended Consequences 􏰀
- The law of unintended consequences is a frequently observed phenomenon in which any action
has results that are not part of the actor's purpose. The superfluous consequences may or may not
be foreseeable or even immediately observable and they may be beneficial, harmful or neutral in
their impact.
2. Unsustainability 􏰀
- In managing natural resources, wise decisions must result in desirable ecosystem conditions
that are maintained indefinitely.

Tragedy of the Commons

5. What is a commons?
- The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society,
including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in
common even when owned privately or publicly.
6. What is resource depletion?
- Resource depletion is the consumption of a resource faster than it can be replenished. Natural
resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources. Use
of either of these forms of resources beyond their rate of replacement is considered to be
resource depletion.
7. Give two modern examples of the Tragedy of the Commons:

1. Coffee Consumption

While a simple cup of coffee might seem harmless, coffee consumption is a prime example of
the tragedy of the commons. 

2. Overfishing

As the global population continues to rise, the food supply needs to increase just as quickly.
However, overhunting and overfishing have the potential to push many species into extinction.

Environmental History
8. Differentiate between each of these land designations made during the Progressive Era:
1. National Parks
- A national park is a natural park that is used for conservation purposes and is created and
protected by a country's government. It is often a natural, semi-natural, or developed land reserve
declared or owned by a sovereign state.
2. National Forests
- In the United States, national forests are a protected and managed state classification. National
forests are, in most cases, forests and woodland areas collectively owned by U.S. citizens
through the federal government and managed by the U.S. Forest Service, a division of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
3. National Wildlife Refuges
- National Wildlife Refuge System is a designation for certain protected areas of the United
States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge
System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife,
and plants.
9. Define environmental ethics
1. Anthropocentrism
- Anthropocentrism is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity in the
universe. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the
concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism.
2. Eco-centrism
- Ecocentrism is a term used by environmental philosophers and ecologists to denote a nature-
centered, as opposed to human-centered, system of values. The justification for ecocentrism
usually consists in an ontological belief and subsequent ethical claim.

10. What was the result of the Hetch Hetchy debate?

- In the end, Congress passed legislation that enabled the creation of a dam in the Hetch Hetchy
Valley. President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill into law on December 19, 1913.
a. Describe the conservation ethic philosophy that this decision was based on.
- Environmental ethics is a branch of applied philosophy that examines the conceptual
underpinnings of environmental values and the more specific issues of social attitudes, behavior,
and policies for protecting and conserving biodiversity and ecosystems.
11. Describe each of these designations of natural resources made during the Progressive
Era:
1. Inexhaustible resources
- Virtually unlimited resources, such as solar energy and hydrothermal energy. Air, wood, cotton,
food, water, land, trees, fish, fertile agriculture, soil, crops and wildlife are renewable natural
resources.
2. Renewable resources
- A renewable resource, also called a flow resource, is a natural resource that replenishes itself
through natural regeneration or other iterative processes within a finite amount of time on the
human timescale to replace the portion depleted through use and consumption.
3. Nonrenewable resources
- A non-renewable resource is a natural resource that cannot be replaced by natural means fast
enough to keep up with consumption. One example is carbon-based fossil fuels. The original
organic matter becomes fuel, such as oil and gas, with the help of heat and pressure.
4. Recyclable resources
- Recyclable materials include many types of glass, paper, cardboard, metals, plastics, tires,
textiles, batteries and electronics. Composting and other reuse of biodegradable waste such as
food and garden waste is also a form of recycling.
12. Explain each of these issues that were raised during the modern environmentalism era:
1. Air pollution
- Air pollution is the pollution of indoor or outdoor environments by chemical, physical, or
biological agents that alter the natural properties of the atmosphere. Domestic combustion plants,
automobiles, industrial plants, and forest fires are common sources of air pollution.
2. Carcinogenic
- A carcinogen is a carcinogen, or any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes the
development of cancer. This may be due to its ability to damage the genome or perturbation of
the cell's metabolic processes.
3. Water pollution
- Water pollution is the contamination of water sources with substances that make the water
unsuitable for drinking, cooking, cleaning, swimming and other activities. Contaminants include
chemicals, debris, bacteria, and parasites. All forms of pollution end up in the water.

13. What is the difference between persistent and biodegradable pollutants?

- When persistent molecules are adsorbed to soil, they have less harmful effects than if they were
bioavailable. Biodegradable substances, unlike persistent molecules, do not survive long in the
environment.
14. What is extinction?
- Extinct simply refers to a plant or animal species that no longer exists on this planet. This
process is called extinction. This type of organism that no longer exists anywhere on Earth is
called an extinct species.
a. Extinction lowers the number of species in a habitat, called _________________.
- Biodiversity.
15. What is famine, and why was it such a concern during this time?
- Famine is declared when certain conditions are met. This criterion includes at least 30% of
children in a given area suffering from severe malnutrition. This means that by the time famine is
declared, children are already starting to die because their parents cannot provide them with
enough food to survive.
16. What is the difference between normal waste and hazardous waste?
- Solid waste consists of two main types, municipal waste and industrial waste, which are a wide
variety of non-hazardous substances resulting from the production of goods and products.
Conversely, hazardous waste is waste that is harmful or potentially harmful to our health or the
environment.
Developed vs Developing Countries
17. What is a developing country?
- A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower
Human Development Index relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally
agreed upon. There is also no clear agreement on which countries fit this category.
18. What does fertility rate measure?
- The TFR estimates the number of children a cohort of 1,000 women would bear if they all went
through their childbearing years exposed to the age-specific birth rates in effect for a particular
time. The TFR is the sum of the age-specific birth rates multiplied by five or (351.4 x 5 =
1757.0).
a. Is it higher or lower in developing countries?
- In general, poor countries tend to have higher birth rates than rich countries. A woman typically
gives birth to as many as three children in a country where her GDP per capita is less than $1,000
per year.
19. What is consumption?
- Consumption is the activity by which an institutional unit consumes goods or services.
Consumption can be either intermediate consumption or final consumption. The use of goods
and services to meet individual or collective human needs and desires.
a. Is it higher or lower in developing countries?
- The increase in domestic energy consumption in developing countries also has global
implications. Developing countries now consume more than half of the world's energy (although
they consume significantly less per capita than developed countries).
20. What does ecological footprint measure?
- The Ecological Footprint measures the amount of biologically productive land and sea areas for
individuals, regions, humanity as a whole, or human activities competing for biologically
productive space.
a. What countries tend to have greater ecological footprints?
- United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain.
21. What is the goal of a cost-benefit analysis in environmental science?
- This helps decision makers get a clear picture of how society will cope under different policy
options in order to achieve specific goals. This is especially true for environmental policy
formulation, where cost-benefit analysis is central to policy design and implementation in many
countries.
a. What are hidden cost?
- Expenses that are not normally included in the purchase price for a piece of equipment or
machine e.g. maintenance, supplies, training, support and upgrades.

Environmental Worldviews
22. Explain the planetary management worldview.
- The planetary management worldview is the human-centered environmental worldview that
guides most industrial societies. Variations include the no-problems school, the free-market
school, the responsible planetary management school, the spaceship school, and the stewardship
school.
a. Is this an anthropocentric or eco-centric worldview?
- There are a few key environmental worldviews that can be anthropocentric, focused on human
welfare or biocentric which are focused on individual species, the entire environment and more.
The planetary management worldview is one such anthropocentric worldview.
23. Explain the stewardship worldview.
- According to the stewardship view, as we use the earth's natural capital, we are borrowing from
the earth and from future generations. We have an ethical responsibility to pay this debt by
leaving the earth in at least as good a condition as what we now enjoy.
a. What is sustainability?
- Sustainability is a societal goal that broadly aims for humans to safely co-exist on Earth over a
long time. Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and therefore vary in the
literature and over time.
24. Explain the environmental wisdom worldview.
- According to the environmental wisdom worldview, learning how to work with the earth,
instead of thinking of ourselves as being in charge of it and thus working against it, is the key to
environmental sustainability and thus to the sustainability of the human species.
a. Is this an anthropocentric or ecocentric worldview?
- This helps decision makers get a clear picture of how society will cope under different policy
options in order to achieve specific goals. This is especially true for environmental policy
formulation, where cost-benefit analysis is central to policy design and implementation in many
countries.
25. The Earth is a closed system. What does this mean?
- A closed system is a system in which only the exchange of energy is allowed and the exchange
of matter is not allowed. If you boil water with the lid closed, you can exchange heat, but you
can't.