This document discusses environmental issues related to PCB contamination of the Hudson River from General Electric dumping, dredging proposals, and natural breakdown timelines. It also covers the introduction to environmental biology class including the scientific method, models, statistics, and history of environmentalism from conservation to current global problems. Key questions are examined like humanity's role in nature and how to protect the Earth.

1. Introduction to
Environmental Biology,
Scientific Methodology and
Environmental Problems

2. Dredging the Hudson
 General Electric (GE)
 PCB’s are shown to
cause cancer
 1976:Use of PCB’s is
banned
 1977: GE stops
dumping
 1976:$40 million fishing
industry is shut down

3. Current status…..
 PCB’s released from sediments
 Still warnings on fish consumption
 Environmentalist support dredging (removal of
sediments)
 EXPENSIVE!
 GE wants a natural solution
 BREAKDOWN WILL TAKE CENTURIES
Who is right?

4. Why study environmental
science?
 How can science help us understand these
problems?
 What do we need to know to make reasoned
and responsible judgments?

5. What makes Earth unique?
 Temperatures
 Oxygen/clean air
 Fresh water
 Fertile soil
 Diversity of LIFE

6. Central Questions
 What is our proper place in nature?
 What should we do an what can we do to
protect the Earth?

7. Environmental Science
 We inhabit 2 worlds
 Natural world
 Plants, animals, soil, air, water
 “Built” world
 Social institutions, technology, politics

8. Environment
 Circumstances and conditions that surround an
organism/group of organisms
 Social and cultural conditions that affect an
individual or community.

9. Environmental Science
 Systematic study of our environment and our
place in it
 Related fields:
 Biology
 Chemistry  Sociology
 Geography  Politics
 Agriculture  Humanities
 Others
Figure 1.4

10. What is science?
 Process for producing knowledge
 Precise observation
 Formulating theories

11.  Scientific Assumptions Knowable
 Patterns are uniform
 Choose the simple explanation
 Ever changing
 No absolute proof
 Becomes more accurate
 Practical solutions
(Table 1.1)

12. Scientific Methodology
 Before scientist accept the accuracy of their
results they demand
 Reproducibility: consistently getting the same
results
 Natural systems are hard to study
 Controlled studies: factors are controlled
 Everything is identical except the factor being studied

13.  Blind Experiments: those collecting the data
do not know what to expect
 Double-blind Experiments: neither the subject
and the experimenter know what to expect

14. Deductive vs. Inductive

15. Hypothesis
 Conditional explanation that can be tested by
further observation
Example:
 “The batteries are dead”
 Try new batteries
 “The bulb is burned out”
 Eventually isolate the problem and solve it

16. Scientific Method
 Make observations
 Formulate hypothesis
 Test hypothesis
 Collect data
 Interpret data
 Draw conclusions (can lead to making new
observations)

17. Scientific Theories (Scientists View)
 Large amount of support
 Experts reach a general consensus

18. Scientific Theory
(General Public View)
 Speculative
 Unsupported by facts

19. Natural experiments
 Not everything is simple and direct as the
flashlight
 Evolution
 Mountain formation
 Historic evidence
 Looking at what has already happened
 What could you look for?

20. Models
 Substitute organism
 Lab rats substituted for human
 Physical mock-up
 Scale model of a mountain
 “living streams”
 Set of mathematical equations
 Simultaneous variables
 Example: temperature, day length, elevation

21. Drawbacks of Models
 Represent researchers’ assumptions on how a
system works
 However: suggestions of how things may work
and understand relationships in a system

22. Statistics
 What numbers do and do not mean
 Example of forest fires in US
 6.7 million acres in 2002
 Little or a lot?
 A big change?
 Normal range?
 Severity of the burned areas

23. Probability
 How likely something is
 Also called risk and chance
 Does not tell what will happen, just what might
happen
 Rarely 100% sure, but scientists consider a 95%
probability (confidence level)
 We are 95% sure that the average area burned falls
within the 100 year average.

24. Sample Size
 How many individuals would you need to have a
reliable estimate of the population?
 Is it better to sample multiple small areas over a
large area or one large area?

26. Replication
 How many times do you
need to replicate your
study to be sure you are
getting reliable results?

27. Experimental Control
 Looks for
natural variation
in your results

28. Paradigms Shifts
 Overtime, scientists accept that the old explanation no
longer explains new observations very well
 Can cause a lot of debates because a new model may
undermine whole careers based on one sort of research.
 Example:
 Old: Noah’s flood changing fish distributions
 New: Mountain formation separating/glaciers changing fish
distributions

29. History of Environmentalism
 Four distinctive stages
 Pragmatic resource conservation
 Moral and aesthetic nature preservation
 Growing concern about health and ecological
damage caused by pollution
 Global environmental citizenship

30.  Concerns on human misuse
 Plato: Greece, 4th century B.C.
 Greece once was blessed with fertile soil and abundant forest
 “skeleton of a body wasted by disease”
 Tolba, former director of U.N.
 “the problems that overwhelm us today are precisely those we
failed to solve decades ago”

31. Pragmatic Resource Conservation
 Roosevelt’s and Pinchot’s Policies
were utilitarian conservation
 Forests should be saved because
they provide homes and jobs for
people
 THEY WERE FORGETTING
ABOUT BEAUTY AND
WILDLIFE!

32.  National forest preserves were established in
1873 to protect dwindling timber supplies

33. Moral and Aesthetic Nature
Preservation
 John Muir opposed
utilitarian policies
 Argued nature deserves to
exist for it’s own sake
 Biocentric preservation:
emphasizes fundamental
rights of other organisms

34.  The National Park Service (Yosemite) which
were for preservation of nature in it’s purest
state
 Often at odds with the Forest Service

35. Current Environmental
Conditions
 In 2000 175 scientists assessed
global health
 Widespread decline
 Reduced ability to produce
good/services we depend on
 Examples
 ½ the world’s wetlands have been lost
 ¾ the world’s marine fish stock is over
fished
 ⅔ of the world’s farmlands have soil
degradation

36. Why is the environment
suffering?
 Over 6 billion people on Earth
 Adding over 85 million per year
 Some predict numbers will
stabilize over the next 50 years
 Others say we are beyond the
carrying capacity of Earth’s
resources

37.  Food shortages and famines
 May continue to increase in severity if:
 Keep increasing human populations
 Depleting soil nutrients
 Increasing soil erosion

38. Fossil Fuels
 Supplies are finite (only so much)
 Problems limiting how we use remaining fossil fuels:
 Air and water pollution
 Mining damage
 Shipping accidents
 Political insecurity

39.  Fossil fuels  release carbon dioxide and other
heat-absorbing gases  cause global warming,
sea-level rises, catastrophic climate changes
 Artic
 Growing seasons are 3 weeks longer
 Annual temperatures risen

40.  Human health factors
 Burning releases toxic compounds
 At least 100 million Americans breathe air
pollutants that cause high cancer risks!

41. Destruction of the Rainforests, Coral
Reefs and Wetlands
 Reduces biological variety of
plants and animals
 Limit future options
 Rare and endangered species
 Undiscovered species

42. Industrial Countries
 Toxic air
 Water pollutants
 Solid and hazardous
wastes

43. Is there hope?
 Progress in air and water
pollution
 Some populations have
stabilized
 Life threatening infectious
diseases have fell
 More efficient technology
 Still we can do more to protect Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons
Plant, located just north of
and restore our environment! Denver, Co

44. Have’s and Have-not’s
 1/5 of the World’s
population is in acute poverty
 Income of less than $1 per day
 70% of these are women and
children
 Poor diets, housing, sanitation,
clean water, education, medical
care and other essentials

45. Poverty – Environmental
Protection
 Linked
 To meet their short term survival needs at the
cost of environmental degradation
 Farm virgin forests
 Cultivate steep erosion prone soils
 Crowding in major cities with no waste disposal, foul
water supplies, and contaminate the air

46.  Survival may only be possible by
over harvesting resources
 The cost?
 Diminish their own options
 Diminish options of future
generations

47. The Rich
 1/5 of the world’s
population lives in the 20
richest countries
 Annual income above
$25,000
 North America, Western
Europe, Japan, Singapore,
Australia….

48. The Poor
 4/5 of the World’s population lives in middle-
or low-income countries
 Annual income is below $620 per year
 China, India, sub-Saharan Africa…..

49. Food for thought
“The richest 200 people in the world have a
combined wealth of $1 trillion. This is more
than the total owned by the 3 billion people who
make up the poorest half of the worlds
population”

50. Fair Share of Resources?
 Richer countries enjoy lifestyles which
consume large portion of the worlds natural
resources
 They produce a high proportion of pollutants
and waste
 US (less than 5% of the World’s population)
 consumes ¼ of most commercially traded
commodities
 produces ¼ - ½ the most industrial waste

51.  If everyone tried to consume at our rate, it
would be disastrous!
 Find ways to curb desires
 Less destructive productions
Can human life be sustained on Earth??

52. Sustainability
 Ecological stability and human progress that can
last over the long term
 Sustainable development- meeting the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs