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ESS Unit 1
ESS Unit 1
ESS Unit 1
Unit 1
1,1 environmental news and history impact
EVS: world view that shapes the way an individual or group perceives and evaluates
environmental issues
EV major categories
- ecocentrism- nature centred
i) protect the environment because all living things deserve to be sustained
- anthropocentric- people centred
i) manage the environment for use of future human needs
- technocentric- technology centred
i) technology will solve environmental problems and be able to control nature
they can be
- living
- non-living
- theoretical
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Examples of systems
- atmosphere
- hydrosphere
- lithosphere
- ecosphere
each of these are systems but they form part of an even bigger one which is the BIOSPHERE
types of system
- photosynthesis
types of models
- physical (aquarium)
- software (computer climate change model)
- data flow diagram (food web)
1) first law
``energy is neither created or destroyed´´
Example: a person eats 500 calories, a lion is going after him, while running he loses 60
calories burned by heat and when the lions eat him, he has gained only 440 of the
calories
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2) 2nd law
``in an isolated system, entropy (measures the disorder of a system) tends to increase
spontaneously´´
Example: your room, no energy to clean and so it will get disordered
- The universe, on its own, will get disordered
This means that energy is lost as heat when it moves up the food chain
What is equilibrium?
- Tendency to return to an original state following a disturbance, a state of balance
Types:
Feedback loops- information that starts a reaction in turn may input more information which
may start another reaction
Types of feedback
- Positive (unstable)
One action promotes another away from equilibrium
Example: high temperature=warms oceans= more evaporation= more greenhouse
gases= high temperature……
- Negative (stable)
One action depresses another
Example: predator-prey relationship
System resilience
Tipping point
1,4 sustainability
Natural capital- resource used by humans
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- Non-renewable- finite
Example: fossil fuels
- Marketable good
Example: timber, meat
- Ecological
Example: flood protection
Sustainability: use and management of resources so that full natural replacement of exploited
resource can take place (harvesting)
Sustainable development
- Research programme that focuses on how ecosystems have changed over the last
decades and predicts the changes that will happen
- Studies carried out before a development project is under taken to assess possible
damage to the environment
Assess, predict and prevent
- Weaknesses- diff countries have diff standard for the EIAs so hard to compare, hard to
determine the boundary, hard to consider all the indirect impacts.
Ecological footprint
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Major types:
- Combustion of fossil fuels: co2 (greenhouse gas), sulphur dioxide (acid deposition)
- Domestic waste: organic waste (eutrophication), plastics (too much)
- Industrial waste: heavy metals (poisoning, eg: mercury)
- Agricultural waste: nitrates (eutrophication), pesticides (accumulate up food chains)
Point source- from a specific source, often acute (a lot of pollution but from one-time thing)
Non-point source- not from one specific source (often chronic- long term and not easily
noticed)
Biodegradable- can break down into simplified substances by microorganisms over a period of
time (paper, wood…)
Persistent- cannot break down naturally and remains in the environment (plastic, heavy
metals…)
Secondary pollutant- becomes active after primary pollutant and has been physically or
chemically changed (acid rain from the sulfuret dioxide from smoke mixes with water)
Political factors