Assignment 1 Environmental Science PHS 102

1. Describe Aldo Leopold's land ethic. How did Leopold define the "community" to which ethical standards should be applied? Aldo Leopold's land ethic was an essay in which Aldo Leopold's land ethic called on people to include the environment in their ethical framework. The land ethic basically enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. Aldo Leopold's wanted to expand ethics to include the land and every organism in it. 2. What is environmental Science? Name several disciplines involved in environmental science. Environmental science is the study of how the natural world works. How our environmental affects us, and it deals with how we affect our environment. There are so many disciplines involved in environmental science such as: Economics, ethics, ecology, biology, chemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, geology, geography, archaeology, anthropology, history, political science and engineering. 3. What does the study of ethics encompass? Differentiate two classic ethical standards. What is environmental ethics? Ethics is a branch of philosophy that involves the study of good and bad, of right and wrong. It includes theories such as relativism and universalism. Virtue, Categorical Imperative, and the principle of utility are the ethical standards. Environmental ethics is the application of ethical standards to relationships between humans and nonhuman entities. 4. What is the scientific method? What are the sequences of steps? Why is the process important? Scientific Method is objective way to explore the natural world, draw inferences from it and predict outcome of certain events, processes, or changes. The steps are: •

Make observations -sets the scientific method in motion and also function through the process. • Ask questions -determining which questions to ask is one of the most important steps in investigative process. • Develop a hypothesis/Do Background Research -hypothesis is a statement that explains a phenomenon or answers a scientific question. • Make a prediction/Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment - prediction is a specific statement that can be directly and unequivocally tested. • Test predictions/ Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion - an experiment is an activity designed to test the validity of a hypothesis. it involves variables. • Communicate Your Results 5. What is sustainable development, and why is it important? Sustainable Development is to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is important because, as needs of human beings escalate on a daily basis, the consumption of resources increases. This development is commonly accepted and cannot be changed within a month, year or even in a decade. The more the consumption of resources increases the more it becomes a barrier to the sustainable development of the world. Define the following terms: Renewable natural resources - are natural resources that are replenished over short periods Nonrenewable natural resources - (minerals and crude oil) are in finite supply and are formed much more slowly than we use them Ecosystem services - A service the ecosystem provides that supports life and makes economic activity possible. Agricultural revolution - period of agricultural development between the 18th century and the end of the 19th century, which saw a massive and rapid increase in agricultural productivity and vast improvements in farm technology. Industrial Revolution -The shift beginning in the mid- 1700s from rural life, animal powered agriculture, and manufacturing by craftsmen to an urban society powered by fossil fuels. Ecological foot print- Expresses environmental impact in terms of the cumulative area of biological productive land and water required to provide the resources a person or population consumes and to dispose of or recycle the waste the person or population uses. It measures the total area of earth's biologically productive surface that is used once all direct and indirect impacts are totaled. Environmentalism - The social movement dedicated to protecting the natural world - and people by extension from undesirable changes from human actions Hypothesis - a statement that attempts to explain phenomena or answer a question, used to generate predictions. Variables any item, factor, or condition that can be controlled or changed. Independent variable - The variable that scientist manipulate in an experiment. Dependent variable - quantity that results from experiment. Data facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis or things known or assumed as facts, making the basis of reasoning or calculation. Theory - A widely accepted well tested explanation of the cause and effect relationship that has been extensively validated by a great amount of research. Ethics - A branch of philosophy that involves the study of good and bad, right and wrong. Tells us how we ought to behave. Relativists - Believe ethics do and should vary with social context. Universalists - Believe there exist objective notions of right and wrong that hold across cultures and contexts. Ethical standards - Criteria that help differentiate right from wrong. Environmental Ethics - The application of ethical standards to relationships between people and nonhuman entities. Anthropocentrism- Describes a human centered view of our relationship with the environment Biocentrism- Assigns value to certain living things or to the biotic realm in general. Ecocentrism - Judges actions in terms of their effects on whole ecological systems (living and non- living) and the relationships among them. Natural capital - the world's stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things. Answer the following from Chapter 2 1. What are feedback loops? Describe a positive and negative feedback loop. How do they influence natural systems? Sometimes a system's output can serve as an input to that same system in a circular process called a feedback loop. In a negative feedback loop, output driving the system in one direction acts as input that moves the system in the other direction. Negative feedback loops usually stabilize a system. In a positive feedback loop, the output drives the system further toward one extreme. Positive feedback loops tend to destabilize a system. Positive feedback is rare in natural systems not impacted by human behavior. The inputs and outputs of a natural system often occur simultaneously, keeping the system constantly active. But even processes moving in opposite directions can be stabilized by negative feedback so that their effects balance out, creating a state of active equilibrium. 2. Describe energy flow through an ecosystem. Ecosystems maintain themselves by cycling energy and nutrients obtained from external sources. At the first level, primary producers (plants, algae, and some bacteria) use solar energy to produce organic plant material through photosynthesis. Herbivores—animals that feed solely on plants—make up the second level. Predators that eat herbivores comprise the third trophic level