Environmental Science Unit 1

Governments play a role in dealing with environmental problems by developing environmental policies that establish and enforce environmental laws, regulations, and programs and by providing environmental security. Governments play a key role in dealing with environmental problems. They do this by developing environmental policy. It consists of environmental laws, regulations, and programs that are designed, implemented, and enforced by one or more government agencies. During the 1950s and 1960s, the United States experienced severe pollution and environmental degradation as its economy grew rapidly without pollution control laws and regulations. This changed in the late 1960s and 1970s when massive protests by millions of US citizens led Congress to pass a number of major environmental laws and establish government regulatory agencies to develop environmental regulations and implement them. These agencies include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) (OSHA). Implementing these laws has provided millions of jobs a

1969 National Environmental Policy Act created Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and required environmental impact statements for all major federal actions 1970 Clean Air Act led to national air quality standards National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established to monitor ocean ecosystem quality 1971 Congress restricted use of lead-based paint in homes 1972 Clean Water Act limited emissions of raw sewage and other pollutants into surface waters Marine Mammal Protection Act protected all marine mammals from hunting, capture, and harassment DDT banned in the United States 1973 Endangered Species Act called for identifying endangered species and protecting their habitats EPA began phasing out use of leaded gasoline 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act directed EPA to set and monitor national water quality standards 1975 Congress set national tailpipe emissions standards to prevent automotive air pollution Eastern Wilderness Areas Act protected over 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of forest 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act set controls on PCBs and other toxins Resource Conservation and Recovery Act gave EPA power to manage all toxic wastes 1977 Soil and Water Conservation Act set national standards for controlling soil erosion and water waste 1978 Federal ban on chlorofluorocarbons (ozone-depleting chemicals) enacted 1980 Superfund law established fund for cleaning up hazardous waste dumps while holding polluters responsible 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act requires certain industries to report to EPA on storage, release, and transfer of toxic substances

Each element has a unique atomic number equal to the number of protons in the nucleus of its atom. Carbon (C), with 6 protons in its nucleus, has an atomic number of 6, whereas uranium (U), a much larger atom, has 92 protons in its nucleus and thus an atomic number of 92. Because electrons have so little mass compared to protons and neutrons, most of an atom's mass is concentrated in its nucleus. The mass of an atom is described by its mass number, the total number of neutrons and protons in its nucleus. For example, a carbon atom with 6 protons and 6 neutrons in its nucleus has a mass number of 12 and a uranium atom with 92 protons and 143 neutrons in its nucleus has a mass number of 235 . Each atom of a particular element has the same number of protons in its nucleus. However, the nuclei of atoms of a particular element can vary in the number of neutrons they contain, and, therefore, in their mass numbers. The forms of an element having the same atomic number but different mass numbers are called isotopes of that element. Scientists identify isotopes by attaching their mass numbers to the name or symbol of the element. For example, the three most common isotopes of carbon are carbon-

A second building block of matter is a molecule, a combination of two or more atoms of the same or different elements held together by chemical bonds. Molecules are the basic building blocks of many compounds. Examples are water, hydrogen gas, and methane (the main component of natural gas). A third building block of some types of matter is an ion. It is an atom or a group of atoms with one or more net positive (+) or negative (−) electrical charges from losing or gaining negatively charged electrons. Chemists use a superscript after the symbol of an ion to indicate the number of positive or negative electrical charges, as shown in. The hydrogen ion and sodium ion are examples of positive ions Ions are important for measuring a substance's acidity, a measure of the comparative amounts of hydrogen ions (H+) and hydroxide ions (OH-) in a particular volume of a water solution. Scientists use pH as a measure of acidity. Pure water (not tap water or rainwater) has an equal number of and ions. It is called a neutral solution and has a pH of 7. An acidic solution has more hydrogen ions than hydroxide ions and has a pH less than 7. A basic solution has more hydroxide ions than hydrogen ions and has a pH greater than 7. Each single unit change on the pH scale represents a tenfold increase or decrease in the concentration of hydrogen ions in a liter of solution. Scientists refer to such a scale as a logarithmic scale.

The lifestyles of the world's expanding population of consumers are built on growing affluence, or resource consumption per person, as more people earn higher incomes. As total resource consumption and average resource consumption per person increase, so does environmental degradation, wastes, and pollution from the increase in environmental footprints. The WWF and the Global Footprint Network estimate that the United States, with only 4.3% of the world's population, is responsible for about 23% of the global environmental footprint. The average American consumes about 30 times the amount of resources that the average Indian consumes and 100 times the amount consumed by the average person in the world's poorest countries. On the other hand, affluence can allow for widespread and better education that can lead people to become more concerned about environmental quality. Affluence also makes more money available for developing technologies to reduce pollution, environmental degradation, and resource waste along with ways to increase our beneficial environmental impacts.

According to the World Bank, about one of every three people, or 2.6 billion people, struggled to live on less than $3.10 a day in 2015. In addition, 1 billion people living in in extreme poverty struggled to live on the equivalent of less than $1.90 a day—less than what many people spend for a bottle of water or a cup of coffee. Poverty is a condition in which people lack enough money to fulfill their basic needs for food, water, shelter, health care, and education. The daily lives of the world's poorest people center on getting enough food, water, and cooking and heating fuel to survive. Typically, these individuals are too desperate for short-term survival to worry about long-term environmental quality or sustainability. Thus, they may be forced to degrade forests, topsoil, and grasslands, and deplete fisheries and wildlife populations to stay alive. Poverty does not always lead to environmental degradation. Some of the poor increase their beneficial environmental impact by planting and nurturing trees and conserving the soil that they depend on as a part of their long-term survival strategy.

Lipids (energy storing organic molecule such as fats, oils, and waxes.), a fourth building block of life, are a chemically diverse group of large organic compounds that do not dissolve in water. Examples are fats and oils for storing energy, waxes for structure, and steroids for producing hormones.

All organisms are composed of one or more cells—the fundamental structural and functional units of life. The idea that all living things are composed of cells is called the cell theory. It is the most widely accepted scientific theory in biology. DNA molecules are made up of sequences of nucleotides called genes. Each of these segments of DNA contains instructions, or codes, called genetic information. The coded information in each segment of DNA is a trait that passes from parents to offspring during reproduction in an animal or plant. Thousands of genes make up a single chromosome, a double helix DNA molecule wrapped around one or more proteins. Genetic information coded in your chromosomal DNA is what makes you different from an oak leaf, a mosquito, and your parents.

Thinking critically involves three steps: Be skeptical about everything you read or hear. Evaluate evidence and hypotheses using inputs and opinions from a variety of reliable sources. Identify and evaluate your personal assumptions, biases, and beliefs and distinguish between facts and opinions before coming to a conclusion.

Another important and reliable outcome of science is a scientific law, or law of nature—a well-tested and widely accepted description of what we find always happening in the same way in nature. An example is the law of gravity. After making many thousands of observations and measurements of objects falling from different heights, scientists developed the following scientific law: all objects fall to the earth's surface at predictable speeds. Scientific laws cannot be broken. scientific law: description of what scientists find happening in nature repeatedly in the same way, without known exception.

Nutrient cycling, driven by the energy of the sun, circulates chemicals needed for life through living organisms and back to the environment. Species diversity keeps populations in check and ensures that there are species able to adapt to changing environmental conditions should there be a catastrophic event. Ecosystem services provide clean water, clean air, pollination of crops, etc., all critical to providing natural resources needed for our survival and by our economy.

Basic causes of environmental problems are population growth, wasteful and unsustainable resource use, poverty, avoidance of full-cost pricing, increasing isolation from nature, and different environmental worldviews. Our environmental worldviews play a key role in determining whether we live unsustainably or more sustainably.

Scientists divide energy resources into two major categories: renewable energy and nonrenewable energy. Renewable energy is energy gained from resources that are replenished by natural processes in a relatively short time. Examples are solar energy, wind, moving water, firewood from trees, and heat that comes from the earth's interior (geothermal energy). Nonrenewable energy is energy from resources that can be depleted and are not replenished by natural processes within a human time scale. Examples are energy produced by the burning of oil, coal, and natural gas, and nuclear energy released when the nuclei of atoms of uranium fuel are split apart. About 99% of the energy that keeps us warm and supports the plants that we and other organisms eat comes from the sun. This is the basis of the solar energy principle of sustainability. Without inexhaustible solar energy, the earth would be frozen and life as we know it would not exist.

Commercial energy—energy that is sold in the marketplace—makes up the remaining 1% of the energy we use to supplement the earth's direct input of solar energy. About 90% of the commercial energy used in the world and 90% of that used in the United States comes from the burning of nonrenewable fossil fuels—oil, coal, and natural gas. They are called fossil fuels because they were formed over hundreds of thousands to millions of years as layers of the decaying remains of ancient plants and animals were exposed to intense heat and pressure within the earth's crust. Energy quality is a measure of the capacity of energy to do useful work. High-quality energy is concentrated energy that has a high capacity to do useful work. Examples are high-temperature heat, concentrated sunlight, high-speed wind, and the energy released when we burn wood, gasoline, natural gas, or coal. By contrast, low-quality energy is so dispersed that it has little capacity to do useful work. The enormous number of moving molecules in the atmosphere or in an ocean together has such low-quality energy, and such a low temperature, that we cannot use them to move things or to heat things to high temperatures.

The first law of thermodynamics, also known as the law of conservation of energy. According to this scientific law, whenever energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed. This law is one of nature's basic rules that we cannot violate. Thousands of experiments have shown that whenever energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, we end up with lower-quality or less-usable energy than we started with. This is observation is known as the second law of thermodynamics. The low-quality energy usually takes the form of heat that flows into the environment. The random motion of air or water molecules further disperses this heat, decreasing its temperature to the point where its energy quality is too low to do much useful work. In other words, when energy is changed from one form to another, it always goes from a more useful to a less useful form. This is another scientific law that cannot be violated. This means we cannot recycle or reuse high-quality energy to perform useful work. Once the high-quality energy in a serving of food, a tank of gasoline, or a chunk of coal is released, it is degr

Dimensional analysis is a problem-solving strategy that utilizes the relationship between quantities using their fundamental units of measure. The equation must be written so that units cancel, meaning that there should be x above the division bar and x below. When x cancel, the remaining unit indicates that the result is expressed in y.

Most systems are affected by feedback, any process that increases (positive feedback) or decreases (negative feedback) a change to a system. Such a process, called a feedback loop, occurs when an output of matter, energy, or information is fed back into the system as an input and changes the system. A positive feedback loop causes a system to change further in the same direction. When a natural system becomes locked into a positive feedback loop, it can reach an ecological tipping point. Beyond this point, the system can change so drastically that it suffers from severe degradation or collapse. Reaching and exceeding a tipping point is somewhat like stretching a rubber band. We can get away with stretching it to several times its original length. At some point, however, we reach an irreversible tipping point where the rubber band breaks. A negative, or corrective, feedback loop causes a system to change in the opposite direction. A simple example is a thermostat, a device that controls how often and how long a heating or cooling system runs. When the furnace in a house turns on and begins heating the house, we can set the thermostat to turn the furnace off when the temperature in the h

Ecological tipping point: point at which an environmental problem reaches a threshold level, which causes an often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system.

Environmental science is a study of connections in nature. It is an interdisciplinary study of: how the earth (nature) works and has survived and thrived, how humans interact with the environment, and how we can live more sustainably. To answer such questions, environmental science integrates information and ideas from fields such as biology, chemistry, geology, engineering, geography, economics, political science, and ethics.

Ecology: Biological science that studies relationships between living organisms and their environment Species: Groups of similar organisms. For sexually reproducing organisms, they are a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring. Every organism is a member of a certain species; a group of organisms having a unique set of characteristics that set it apart from other groups. Ecosystem: One or more communities of different species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving environment; a set of organisms within a defined area of land or volume of water that interact with one another and with their environment of nonliving matter and energy. Biosphere: The parts of the earth's air, water, and soil where life is found. Environmentalism: Social movement dedicated to protecting the earth's life-support systems for us and other species; a social movement dedicated to protecting the earth's life and its resources. Environmentalism is practiced more in the realms of politics and ethics than in science.

According to environmental economists, we could live more sustainably and increase our beneficial environmental impact by including the harmful environmental and health costs of the goods and services into market prices and placing a monetary value on the natural capital that supports all economies. This practice is called full-cost pricing, and is one of the six principles of sustainability. Another problem can arise when governments (taxpayers) give companies subsidies such as tax breaks and payments to assist them with using resources to run their businesses. This helps to create jobs and stimulate economies. However, some subsidies can encourage the depletion and degradation of natural capital. Examples include depletion subsidies and tax breaks for extracting minerals and fossil fuels, cutting timber on public lands, and irrigating with low-cost water. Environmental scientists and economists call for phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies and tax breaks and phasing in environmentally beneficial subsidies and tax breaks. More subsidies and tax breaks would go to businesses involved in pollution prevention, waste prevention, sustainable forestry and agriculture, conservation

Economics is a social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services to satisfy people's needs and wants. In a truly free-market economic system, all economic decisions are governed solely by the competitive interactions of supply and demand. Market price equilibrium occurs when the supplier's price matches what consumers are willing to pay for some quantity and a sale is made.

Ecological economists and most sustainability experts regard human economic systems as subsystems of the biosphere. We can use resources more sustainably by including the harmful environmental and health costs of producing goods and services in their market prices (full-cost pricing), by subsidizing environmentally beneficial goods and services, taxing pollution and waste instead of wages and profits, and using environmental indicators.

Economics is the social science that deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services to satisfy people's needs and wants. Most economic systems use three types of capital, or resources, to produce goods and services. Natural capital includes resources and ecosystem services produced by the earth's natural processes that support all life and all economies. Human capital includes the physical and mental talents of the people who provide labor, organizational and management skills, and innovation. Manufactured capital includes the machinery, materials, and factories that people create using natural resources. Economic growth is an increase in the capacity of a nation, state, city, or company to provide goods and services to people. Today, a typical industrialized country depends on a linear high-throughput economy, which attempts to boost economic growth by increasing the flow of matter and energy resources through the economic system to produce more goods and services. Such an economy produces valuable goods and services. However, it also converts large quantities of high-quality matter and energy resources into waste, pollution, and low-quality heat, which tend to flow into planetary sinks (air, water, soil, and organisms). The high-throughput economies of most of the world's more-developed countries rely on continually increasing the flow of energy and matter resources to promote economic growth. Ecological economists have a biosphere-based model for an economy. They view human economic systems as subsystems of the biosphere that depend heavily on the earth's irreplaceable natural resources and ecosystem services. Ecological economists see all human economies as subsystems of the biosphere that depend on natural resources and ecosystem services provided by the sun and the earth. Conventional economists often depict a market based system as a circular flow of economic goods and money between households and businesses. People in households spend money to buy goods that firms produce. And firms pay money to buy factors and production, such as labor and raw materials. Ecological economists see all economies as human subsystems of a greater whole, the earth and the sun. A

Economic growth is usually measured by the percentage of change per year in a country's gross domestic product (GDP): the annual market value of all goods and services produced by all firms and organizations, foreign and domestic, operating within a country. A country's economic growth per person is measured by changes in the per capita GDP: the GDP divided by the country's total population at midyear. GDP and per capita GDP indicators provide a standardized, useful method for measuring and comparing the economic outputs of nations. However, the GDP was deliberately designed to measure such outputs without taking into account their beneficial or harmful environmental and health impacts. Environmental and ecological economists and environmental scientists call for the development and widespread use of new indicators—called environmental indicators—to help monitor environmental quality and human well-being.

Economics requires natural capital, human capital, and manufactured capital. Natural capital is the natural resources and ecosystem services that nature supplies. Without preservation and sustainable use of natural capital, the human economy will collapse. A high-throughput economy produces valuable goods and services, but at the cost of high energy use and high production of waste and pollution. A low-throughput economy is more sustainable in that it reuses and recycles resources, utilizes renewable energy, is more efficient, and reduces waste and prevents pollution. Full-cost pricing involves including the harmful environmental and health costs of producing and using goods and services in their market prices. The full-cost pricing model is more realistic because it accounts for the economic, health, and environmental impacts from each step of the product life cycle, and places an actual monetary value on the natural capital that we consume and degrade. A subsidy is a tax break or government payment of taxpayer dollars that a company receives that helps them use resources more cheaply in order to create jobs or compete more effectively.

Ecosystem services are natural services provided by healthy ecosystems that support life and human economies at no monetary cost to us; Natural services or natural capital that support life on earth and are essential to the quality of human life and the functioning of the world's economies. For example, forests help purify air and water, reduce soil erosion, regulate climate, and recycle nutrients. Thus, our lives and economies are sustained by energy from the sun and by natural resources and ecosystem services (natural capital) provided by the earth. Without nutrient cycling in topsoil, there would be no land plants, and no humans or other land animals. This would also disrupt the ecosystem services that purify air and water. Human activities can degrade natural capital. We do this by using renewable resources faster than nature can restore them. Many of the plastics and other synthetic materials people use poison wildlife and disrupt nutrient cycles because they cannot be broken down and used as nutrients by other organisms. Conflicts can arise when environmental protection has a negative economic effect on groups of people or certain industries. Dealing with such conflicts often i

Economics, politics, and ethics can provide us with three additional principles of sustainability: Full-cost pricing (from economics): Some economists urge us to find ways to include the harmful environmental and health costs of producing and using goods and services in their market prices. This practice, called full-cost pricing, would give consumers information about the harmful environmental impacts of products. Win-win solutions (from political science): Political scientists often look for win-win solutions to environmental problems based on cooperation and compromise that will benefit the largest number of people as well as the environment. Responsibility to future generations (from ethics): Ethics is a branch of philosophy devoted to studying ideas about what is right or wrong. According to environmental ethicists, we should leave the planet's life-support systems in a condition that is as good as or better than it is now as our responsibility to future generations.

When matter undergoes a physical change, there is no change in its chemical composition. When a chemical change, or chemical reaction, takes place, there is a change in the chemical composition of the substances involved. Chemists use a chemical equation to show how chemicals are rearranged in a chemical reaction. We can change elements and compounds from one physical or chemical form to another. We cannot, however, create or destroy any of the atoms involved in the physical or chemical change. All we can do is to rearrange atoms, ions, or molecules into different spatial patterns (physical changes) or chemical combinations (chemical changes). This finding, based on many thousands of measurements, describes an unbreakable scientific law known as the law of conservation of matter: Whenever matter undergoes a physical or chemical change, no atoms are created or destroyed. Chemists obey this scientific law by balancing the equation for a chemical reaction to account for the fact that no atoms are created or destroyed.

Elements are the simplest chemical substances and cannot be broken down further. Compounds are the combination of elements in a particular fixed proportion. Ions are charged particles (either positively charged by losing an electron or negatively charged by gaining an electron). Ionic compounds are held together by the attraction of positive to negative ions.

Living more sustainability means learning to live within limits imposed on all life by the earth and the unbreakable scientific laws that govern our use of matter and energy. Doing this requires: Learning from nature Protecting natural capital Not wasting resources (there is no waste in nature) Recycling and reusing nonrenewable resources Using renewable resources no faster than nature can replenish them Incorporating the harmful health and environmental impacts of producing and using goods and services in their market prices Preventing future ecological damage and repairing past damage Cooperating with one another to find win-win solutions to the environmental problems we face Accepting the ethical responsibility to pass the earth that sustains us on to future generations in a condition as good as or better than what we inherited

Environmental problems are so complex and widespread that it may seem hopeless, but that is not true. There is plenty of reason to hope and to act. For instance, consider these two pieces of good news from the social sciences. First, research suggests that it takes only 5% to 10% of the population of a community, a country, or the world to bring about major social and environmental change. Second, this research also shows that such change can occur much faster than most people believe. Anthropologist Margaret Mead summarized the potential for social change: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Engaged citizens in communities and schools around the world are proving Mead right. Living sustainably ensures that future generations will live on a planet that in as good a condition or better than what we have now. We can ensure a more sustainable future by relying more on energy from the sun and other renewable energy sources, protecting biodiversity through the preservation of natural capital, and avoiding the disruption of the earth's vital chemical cycles. A major goal for achieving a more sustainable future is full-cost pricing—the inclusion of harmful environmental and health costs in the market prices of goods and services. We will benefit ourselves and future generations if we commit ourselves to finding win-win solutions to environmental problems and to leaving the planet's life-support system in a condition as good as or better than what we now enjoy. The tragedy of the commons is the degradation of potentially renewable resources to which people have free and unmanaged access. An example is the depletion of Atlantic cod by commercial fishing boats. When technology allowed fishing fleets to overharvest cod populations, it led to the collapse of the fishery and the loss of jobs for people who depended on the fishery for their livelihood. It is important to live sustainably because destroying or degrading a common or shared resource is a serious threat to many of the natural resources and ecosystem services that support all life and human economies.

According to the law of conservation of matter, no atoms are created or destroyed whenever matter undergoes a physical or chemical change. Thus, we cannot do away with matter; we can only change it from one physical state or chemical form to another. According to the first law of thermodynamics, or the law of conservation of energy, whenever energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, no energy is created or destroyed. This means that in causing such changes, we cannot get more energy out than we put in. According to the second law of thermodynamics, whenever energy is converted from one form to another in a physical or chemical change, we always end up with a lower-quality or less-usable form of energy than we started with. This means that we cannot recycle or reuse high-quality energy.

Negative feedback loops work to maintain stability in systems. Each element has a specific atomic number and a particular mass number. The atomic number describes the number of protons in the nucleus of its atom, and the mass number describes the total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of its atom. Scientific theories are rarely overturned. Synergy occurs when two or more processes interact so that the combined effect is greater than the sum of their separate effects.

Reliable science consists of data, hypotheses, models, theories, and laws that are accepted by most of the scientists who are considered experts in the field under study. Scientific results and hypotheses that are presented as reliable without having undergone peer review, or are discarded as a result of peer review or additional research, are considered to be unreliable science. Preliminary scientific results without adequate testing and peer review are viewed as tentative science. Some of these results and hypotheses will be validated and classified as reliable. Others may be discredited and classified as unreliable. This is how scientific knowledge advances. A scientific law is a predictable outcome of what happens in nature under a set of stated circumstances. A scientific theory is a broad base of knowledge that explains a particular phenomenon based on observations, hypotheses, and scientific laws.

Environmental science and science in general have several limitations. First, scientists cannot prove anything absolutely because there is always some degree of uncertainty in measurements, observations, models, and the resulting hypotheses and theories. Instead, scientists try to establish that a particular scientific theory has a very high probability or certainty (typically 90-95%) of being useful for understanding some aspect of the natural world. A second limitation of science is that scientists are human and not always free of bias about their own results and hypotheses. However, the high standards for evidence and peer review uncover or greatly reduce personal bias and falsified results. A third limitation is that many systems in the natural world involve a huge number of variables with complex interactions. This makes it too difficult, costly, and time consuming to test one variable at a time in controlled experiments. To deal with this, scientists develop mathematical models that can take into account the interactions of many variables and run the models on high-speed computers. In addition, science and engineering projects can fail and teach us lessons. A fourth limitation of science involves the use of statistical tools. For example, there is no way to measure accurately the number of metric tons of soil eroded annually worldwide. Instead, scientists use statistical sampling and mathematical methods to estimate such numbers.

According to a significant number of environmental and social scientists, the major causes of today's environmental problems are: population growth wasteful and unsustainable resource use poverty omission of the harmful environmental and health costs in market prices increasing isolation from nature competing environmental worldviews

Exponential growth: Growth in which some quantity, such as population size or economic output, increases at a constant rate per unit of time; Exponential growth occurs when a quantity increases at a fixed percentage per unit of time, such as 0.5% or 2% per year. Exponential growth starts slowly but after a few doublings it grows to enormous numbers because each doubling is twice the total of all earlier growth. When we plot the data for an exponentially growing quantity, we get a curve that looks like the letter J.

Another form of kinetic energy is heat, or thermal energy, the total kinetic energy of all moving atoms, ions, or molecules in an object, a body of water, or a volume of gas such as the atmosphere. If the atoms, ions, or molecules in a sample of matter move faster, the matter will become warmer. When two objects at different temperatures make contact with each another, heat flows from the warmer object to the cooler object.

Heat is transferred from one place to another by three methods—radiation, conduction, and convection. Radiation is the transfer of heat energy through space by electromagnetic radiation in the form of infrared radiation. This is how heat from the sun reaches the earth and how heat from a fireplace is transferred to the surrounding air. Conduction is the transfer of heat from one solid substance to another cooler one when they are in physical contact. It occurs when you touch a hot object or when an electric stove burner heats a pan. Convection is the transfer of heat energy within liquids or gases when warmer areas of the liquid or gas rise to cooler areas and cooler liquid or gas takes its place. As a result, heat circulates through the air or liquid such as water being heated in a pan.

Scientists collect data and develop hypotheses, theories, and laws about how nature works. Science is a field of study focused on discovering how nature works and using that knowledge to describe what is likely to happen in nature. Science is based on the assumption that events in the natural world follow orderly cause-and-effect patterns. These patterns can be understood through observations (by use of our senses and with instruments that expand our senses), measurements, and experimentation. the scientific method, a research process in which scientists identify a problem for study, gather relevant data, propose a hypothesis that explains the data, gather data to test the hypothesis, and modify the hypothesis as needed. Within this process, scientists use many different methods to learn more about how nature works. A well-tested and widely accepted scientific hypothesis or a group of related hypotheses is called a scientific theory, which is one of the most important and certain results of science. An important part of the scientific process is peer review. This involves scientists publishing details of the methods they used, the results of their experiments, and the reasoning behin

In 1977 she established the Jane Goodall Institute, an organization that works to preserve great ape populations and their habitats. In 1991 Goodall started Roots & Shoots, an environmental education program for youth with chapters in more than 130 countries. She has received many awards and prizes for her scientific contributions and conservation efforts. She has written 27 books for adults and children and has been involved with more than a dozen films about the lives and importance of chimpanzees.

The United Nations (UN) classifies the world's countries as economically more developed or less developed, based primarily on their average income per person. More-developed countries—industrialized nations with high average incomes per person—include the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, Germany, and most other European countries. These countries, with 17% of the world's population use about 70% of the earth's natural resources. The United States, with only 4.3% of the world's population, uses about 30% of the world's resources. All other nations are classified as less-developed countries, most of them in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Some are middle-income, moderately developed countries such as China, India, Brazil, Thailand, and Mexico. Others are low-income, least-developed countries including Nigeria, Bangladesh, Congo, and Haiti. The less-developed countries, with 83% of the world's population, use about 30% of the world's natural resources.

In 1997, biologist Janine Benyus coined the term biomimicry—the scientific effort to understand, mimic, and catalog the ingenious ways in which nature has sustained life on the earth for 3.8 billion years. She realized that 99% of the species that have lived on the earth became extinct because they could not adapt to changing environmental conditions. She views the surviving species as examples of natural genius that we can learn from. Benyus says that when we need to solve a problem or design a product, we should ask: Has nature done this and how did it do it? We should also think about what nature does not do as a clue to what we should not do, she argues. For example, nature does not produce waste materials or chemicals that cannot be broken down and recycled. 3.8 billion years during which organisms have developed their genius for surviving. Since 1997, Benyus and others working in the field of biomimicry have identified several principles that have sustained life on the earth for billions of years. They have found that life: Runs on sunlight, not fossil fuels Does not waste energy Uses only what it needs Adapts to changing environmental conditions Depends on biodiversity for population control and adaptation Creates no waste because the matter outputs of one organism are resources for other organisms Does not pollute its own environment Does not produce chemicals that cannot be recycled by the earth's chemical cycles.

In scientific terms, work is done when any object is moved a certain distance, work = force x distance. Energy: capacity to do work by performing mechanical, physical, chemical, or electrical tasks or to cause heat transfer between two objects at different temperatures. Energy quantities are typically expressed in measurement units such as joules, kilojoules (1,000 joules), calories, and kilocalories (1,000 calories). There are two major types of energy: moving energy (called kinetic energy - energy that matter has because of its mass and speed, or velocity.) and stored energy (called potential energy). Matter in motion has kinetic energy. Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred through a wire or other conducting material. It is commonly expressed in units of watts or megawatts (1 million watts) per hour.

In another form of kinetic energy called electromagnetic radiation, energy travels from one place to another in the form of waves formed from changes in electrical and magnetic fields. There are many different forms of electromagnetic radiation. Each form has a different wavelength—the distance between successive peaks or troughs in the wave—and energy content. Those with short wavelengths have more energy than do those with longer wavelengths. Visible light makes up most of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the sun. The electromagnetic spectrum consists of a range of electromagnetic waves, which differ in wavelength (the distance between successive peaks or troughs) and energy content.

Chemists use a chemical formula to show the number of each type of atom or ion in a compound. The formula contains the symbol for each element present and uses subscripts to show the number of atoms or ions of each element in the compound's basic structural unit. A solid crystal of an ionic compound such as sodium chloride (NaCl) consists of a three-dimensional array of oppositely charged ions held together by the strong forces of attraction between oppositely charged ions. many ionic compounds tend to dissolve in water and break apart into their individual ions Other compounds called covalent compounds are made up of uncharged atoms. An example is water, H2O . The bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water molecules are called covalent bonds and form when the atoms in the molecule share one or more pairs of their electrons.

Independent variable: This variable, plotted on the x-axis, is intentionally changed to observe the effect on the dependent variable. Examples of independent variables are concentration of a solution, time, and distance. Dependent variable: The variable, plotted on the y-axis, which changes as a function of the independent variable. Examples of dependent variables are rate of growth, temperature, and volume. Title: Every graph should have a title that explicitly states the dependent variable as a function of the independent variable (y vs. x). Axes: The x-axis is the horizontal axis, the y-axis is the vertical axis. The independent variable is always placed on the x-axis, and the dependent variable on the y-axis. It is necessary to include axis labels that designate clearly what is being plotted on each axis and specify the units being used. Scale: The divisions, or increments, on each axis of a graph should be part of an easily identifiable scale (steps of 1, 2, 5, 10, or some multiple of one of these). To determine the value of a horizontal or vertical square on the graph paper, divide the range of the data by the number of squares available and round to the nearest common number.

One way to deal with the difficult problem of the tragedy of the commons is to use a shared or open-access renewable resource at a rate well below its estimated sustainable yield. Many coastal fishing communities have developed allotment and enforcement systems for controlling fish catches in which each fisher gets a share of the total allowable catch. This cooperative approach has sustained fisheries and fishing jobs in many communities for thousands of years. However, the rise of international industrialized fishing fleets has reduced the effectiveness of this approach. Today, some coastal fishing communities and the government work together to manage fisheries to prevent overfishing. Another approach is to convert open-access renewable resources to private ownership. The reasoning is that if you own something, you are more likely to protect your investment. However, history shows that this does not necessarily happen. In addition, this approach is not possible for open-access resources such as the atmosphere, ocean fisheries, and our global life-support system, which cannot be divided up and sold as private property. As population grows, demand for finite resources like water, energ

Key factors that has helped sustain life on Earth for the past 3.8 billion years: Recycling of chemical nutrients throughout Earth's natural systems. The influx of renewable energy from the Sun. Variation in traits among all living things on the planet Ecological footprint: Amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a population with the renewable resources it uses and to absorb or dispose of the pollution and wastes from such resource use. Biocapacity: The ability of a productive ecosystem to regenerate renewable resources

Plastics, table sugar, vitamins, aspirin, penicillin, and most of the chemicals in your body are called organic compounds, which contain at least two carbon atoms combined with atoms of one or more other elements. The exception is methane (CH4), with only one carbon atom. (Compounds containing carbon atoms combined with each other and with atoms of one or more other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, and fluorine. All other compounds are called inorganic compounds.) The millions of known organic (carbon-based) compounds include hydrocarbons—compounds of carbon and hydrogen atoms - the main component of natural gas. Simple carbohydrates (simple sugars) are organic compounds that contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. An example is glucose (C6H12O6), which most plants and animals break down in their cells to obtain energy.

Larger and more complex organic compounds, called polymers or macromolecules, form when a large number of simple organic molecules (monomers) are linked together by chemical bonds, somewhat like rail cars linked in a freight train. Four types of macromolecules—complex carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids—are the molecular building blocks of life. Complex carbohydrates (molecules consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that provide energy to living organisms. Sugar, starch, and cellulose are examples.) consist of two or more monomers of simple sugars (such as glucose) linked together. One example is the starches that plants use to store energy and to provide energy for animals that feed on plants. Another is cellulose, the earth's most abundant organic compound, which is found in the cell walls of bark, leaves, stems, and roots. Proteins (structural molecules consisting of a specific sequence of amino acids that serve as components of body tissue and as enzymes.) are large polymer molecules formed by linking together long chains of monomers called amino acids. Living organisms use about 20 different amino acid molecules to build a variety of proteins. Some proteins store energy. Others are components of the immune system and chemical messengers, or hormones, that turn various bodily functions of animals on or off. In animals, proteins are also components of hair, skin, muscle, and tendons. In addition, some proteins act as enzymes that catalyze or speed up certain chemical reactions. Nucleic acids (informational molecules such as DNA or RNA in a double-helix shape consisting of complementary nucleotides in a specific sequence.) are large polymer molecules made by linking large numbers of monomers called nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of a phosphate group, a sugar molecule, and one of four different nucleotide bases (represented by A, G, C, and T, the first letter in each of their names). Two nucleic acids—DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid)—help build proteins and carry hereditary information used to pass traits from parent to offspring. Bonds called hydrogen bonds between parts of the nucleotides in DNA hold two DNA strands together like a spiral staircase, formin

The cumulative effect of large numbers of people trying to exploit a readily available renewable resource can degrade it and eventually exhaust or ruin it. Then no one benefits and everyone loses. Biologist Garrett Hardin called such degradation of open-access renewable resources the tragedy of the commons. For centuries, commercial fishing boats have been removing Atlantic cod from the fishing grounds off the coast of Newfoundland. However, in the 1960s and 1970s advances in commercial fishing technology greatly increased catches of the cod. By the 1990s, populations of Atlantic cod were so low that the Grand Banks fishing industry collapsed. This put at least 35,000 fishers and fish processors out of work in more than 500 coastal communities. Since then, Atlantic cod populations have remained low, and some scientists doubt that the fishery will ever recover.

Life on the earth has been sustained for billions of years by solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling. Our lives and economies depend on energy from the sun and on natural resources and ecosystem services (natural capital) provided by the earth. The environment is everything around you. It includes all the living things (such as plants and animals) and the nonliving things (such as air, water, and sunlight) with which you interact. You are part of nature and live in the environment. Despite humankind's many scientific and technological advances, our lives depend on sunlight and on the earth for clean air and water, food, shelter, energy, fertile soil, a livable climate, and other components of the planet's life-support system.

Without laws and policies, natural capital (resources and ecosystem services) would be degraded or destroyed. Our economy depends on natural capital and without it, the economy would ultimately collapse. Governments are legitimately concerned with military security and economic security. However, ecologists and many economists point out that all economies are supported by the earth's natural capital. They call for governments to increase their efforts for providing environmental security and recognizing that environmental, economic, and national security are interrelated

Living sustainably means living on the earth's natural income without depleting or degrading the natural capital that supplies it. An environmentally sustainable society protects natural capital and lives on its income. Such a society would meet the current and future basic resource needs of its people. Imagine that you win $1 million in a lottery. Suppose you invest this money (your capital) and earn 10% interest per year. If you live on just the interest income made by your capital, you will have a sustainable annual income of $100,000. You can spend $100,000 each year indefinitely and not deplete your capital. However, if you consistently spend more than your income, you will deplete your capital. Even if you spend just $10,000 more per year while still allowing the interest to accumulate, your money will be gone within 18 years. The lesson here is an old one: Protect your capital and live on the income it provides. Deplete or waste your capital and you will move from a sustainable to an unsustainable lifestyle. The same lesson applies to our use of the earth's natural capital. This natural capital is a global trust fund of natural resources and ecosystem services available to people now and in the future and to the earth's other species. Living sustainably means living on natural income, which is the renewable resources such as plants, animals, soil, clean air, and clean water, provided by the earth's natural capital. By preserving and replenishing the earth's natural capital that supplies this income, we can reduce our environmental footprints and expand our beneficial environmental impact.

Natural capital: Natural resources and natural services that keep us and other species alive and support our economies. Natural Capital = Natural Resources + Ecosystem Services, (Natural Resources like air, renewable energy, nonrenewable energy, life, water, nonrenewable minerals, soil, and land) (Ecosystem Services like air purification, climate control, UV protection from the ozone layer, population control, pest control, water purification, waste treatment, soil renewal, food production, nutrient recycling)

Natural resources are materials and energy provided by nature that are essential or useful to humans. They fall into three categories: inexhaustible resources, renewable resources, and nonrenewable (exhaustible) resources. Solar energy is viewed as an inexhaustible or perpetual resource because it is expected to last for at least 5 billion years until the death of the star we call the sun. A renewable resource is any resource that can be replenished by natural processes within hours to decades, as long as people do not use the resource faster than natural processes can replace it. Examples include forests, grasslands, fertile topsoil, fishes, clean air, and fresh water. The highest rate at which people can use a renewable resource indefinitely without reducing its available supply is called its sustainable yield; Highest rate at which a potentially renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing available supply. Nonrenewable or exhaustible resources exist in a fixed amount, or stock, in the earth's crust. They take millions to billions of years to form through geological processes. On the much shorter human time scale, we can use these resources faster than nature can replace them. Examples of nonrenewable resources include fossil fuel energy resources (such as oil, coal, and natural gas), metallic mineral resources (such as copper and aluminum), and nonmetallic mineral resources (such as salt and sand).

The earth is the best example that we have of a sustainable system. Life on the earth has existed for around 3.8 billion years. During this time, the planet has experienced several catastrophic environmental changes. They include gigantic meteorite impacts, ice ages lasting millions of years, long warming periods that melted land-based ice and raised sea levels by hundreds of feet, and five mass extinctions—each wiping out more 60% to 95% of the world's species. Despite these dramatic environmental changes, an astonishing variety of life has survived. Three scientific principles of sustainability based on how nature has sustained a huge variety of life on the earth for 3.8 billion years, despite drastic changes in environmental conditions: Dependence on solar energy: The sun's energy warms the planet and provides energy that plants use to produce nutrients, the chemicals that plants and animals need to survive. Biodiversity: The variety of genes, species, ecosystems, and ecosystem processes are referred to as biodiversity (short for biological diversity). Interactions among species provide vital ecosystem services and keep any population from growing too large. Biodiversity also pro

Nutrients: Any chemical an organism must take in to live, grow, or reproduce. Biodiversity: Variety of different species (species diversity), genetic variability among individuals within each species (genetic diversity), variety of ecosystems (ecological diversity), and functions such as energy flow and matter cycling needed for the survival of species and biological communities. Nutrient cycling: The circulation of chemicals necessary for life, from the environment through organisms and back to the environment.

Another basic cause of environmental problems has to do with how the marketplace prices goods and services. Companies providing goods for consumers generally are not required to pay for most of the harmful environmental and health costs of supplying such goods. For example, timber companies pay the cost of clear-cutting forests but do not pay for the resulting environmental degradation and loss of wildlife habitat.

Research indicates that experiencing nature can lead to better health, reduced stress, improved mental abilities, and increased imagination and creativity. It also can provide a sense of wonder and connection to the earth's life-support system that keeps us alive and supports our economies. Urban environments and the increasing use of cell phones, computers, and other electronic devices are isolating people, especially children, from the natural world. Some argue that this has led to a phenomenon known as nature deficit disorder.

To many poor people, having more children is a matter of survival. Their children help them gather firewood, haul water, and tend crops and livestock. The children also help take care of their aging parents, most of whom do not have social security, health care, and retirement funds. This daily struggle for survival is largely why populations in some of the poorest countries continue to grow at high rates. Environmental degradation can have severe health effects on the poor. One problem is life-threatening malnutrition, a lack of protein and other nutrients needed for good health. Another effect is illness caused by limited access to adequate sanitation facilities and clean drinking water. As a result, about one of every nine of the world's people get water for drinking, washing, and cooking from sources polluted by human and animal feces. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that these factors—mostly related to poverty—cause premature death for about 7 million children under age of 5 each year. Some hopeful news is that this number of annual deaths is down from about 10 million in 1990. Even so, every day an average of at least 19,000 young children die prematurely from the

Scientists analyze fluctuating populations in order to understand the relationship between a population and its environment. Doubling time is the amount of time it takes for a population to double in size. When a population grows at its maximum rate, it demonstrates exponential growth. Changes to population size are the result of the number of births minus the number of deaths within a population per year. This is called the percent annual natural increase. Imagine that within a population of humans, there were 28 births per 1000 people (called the crude birth rate) and 17 deaths per 1000 people (called the crude death rate). The percent annual natural increase for this population would be calculated as: (28 births - 17)/1000 * 100 = 1.1% The doubling time of this population or of any exponentially growing quantity can be calculated by using the rule of 70. Doubling time in years = 70/percent annual natural increase

The environment is everything around us. Environmental science is an interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment. Many human activities can degrade natural capital by using normally renewable resources such as trees and topsoil faster than nature can restore them. Solar energy is an inexhaustible resource. Biocapacity is a measure of the ability of the earth's ecosystems to regenerate the renewable resources used by a population and to absorb the resulting waste and pollution indefinitely. An ecological footprint is the amount of land and water needed to supply a person or an area with renewable resources such as food and water, and that are needed to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use. The agricultural revolution began 10,000-12,000 years ago when humans learned how to grow and breed plants and animals for food, clothing, and other purposes. Poverty is a condition in which people are unable to fulfill their basic needs for adequate food, water, shelter, health care, and education. Your environmental worldview is your set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world

Sustainability is the capacity of the earth's natural systems that support life and human social systems to survive or adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely. Ability of the earth's various systems, including human cultural systems and economies, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely. Some of the resources we use are renewable and can be used on a sustainable basis repeatedly. Example is the air in atmosphere: We are alive because natural processes purify the earth's air as long as we do not add pollutants to the air faster than the earth's natural processes can dilute or remove them. The air, water, topsoil, and living species that make up the earth's life-support system are open-access renewable resources that are subject to the tragedy of the commons.

A watt is a measurement of power that expresses the rate at which a device uses electricity. Electricity is measured in kilowatt hours. One kWh represents the amount of energy needed by a 1000-watt device to operate for one hour.

Systems have inputs, flows, and outputs of matter and energy, and feedback can affect their behavior. A system is any set of components that function and interact in some regular way. Examples are a cell, the human body, a forest, an economy, a car, a TV set, and the earth. Most systems have three key components: inputs of matter, energy, and information from the environment; flows or throughputs of matter, energy, and information within the system; and outputs of matter, energy, and information to the environment. Inputs: energy resources, matter resources, information -> Throughputs: system processes -> Outputs: work or products, waste and pollution, heat

Whenever matter undergoes a physical or chemical change, no atoms are created or destroyed (the law of conservation of matter). Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. It can exist in three physical states—solid, liquid, and gas—and two chemical forms—elements and compounds. Element: a type of matter with a unique set of properties and that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical means. Chemists refer to each element with a unique symbol such as C for carbon and Au for gold. They have arranged the known elements based on their chemical behavior in a chart known as the periodic table of elements. The periodic table contains 118 elements, not all of which occur naturally. Compounds: combination of atoms, or oppositely charged ions, of two or more elements held together by attractive forces called chemical bonds. Most matter consists of compounds, combinations of two or more different elements held together in fixed proportions. For example, water is a compound containing the elements hydrogen and oxygen.

The basic building block of matter is an atom—the smallest unit of matter into which an element can be divided and still have its distinctive chemical properties. The idea that all elements are made up of atoms is called the atomic theory and is the most widely accepted scientific theory in chemistry. If you could view atoms with a super-microscope, you would find that each different type of atom contains a certain number of three types of subatomic particles: neutrons, with no electrical charge; protons, each with a positive electrical charge (+); and electrons, each with a negative electrical charge (−). Each atom has an extremely small center called the nucleus, which contains one or more protons and, in most cases, one or more neutrons. Outside of the nucleus, we find one or more electrons in rapid motion. In a simplified model of a carbon-12 atom. It consists of a nucleus containing six protons, each with a positive electrical charge, and six neutrons with no electrical charge. Six negatively charged electrons are found outside its nucleus.

Environmental ethics: Human beliefs about what is right or wrong with how we treat the environment. Aldo Leopold—wildlife manager, professor, writer, and conservationist—laid the groundwork for the field of environmental ethics through his writings, especially his 1949 book A Sand County Almanac. He argued that the role of the human species should be to protect nature, not conquer it. Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) became a leading conservationist and his book, A Sand County Almanac, is considered an environmental classic that helped to inspire the modern conservation and environmental movements.

The predominant planetary management environmental worldview is that we are in charge of nature and that nature exists primarily to meet our needs and wants. The role of humans and how individuals believe the world works define a person's environmental world view. This view is also influenced by a person's environmental ethics—what one believes about what is right and what is wrong in our behavior toward the environment. Most environmental worldviews are human-centered. They include: planetary management with humans managing nature mostly for their own benefit, stewardship with humans managing nature for their benefit and for the rest of nature, environmental wisdom based on learning how nature has sustained life for 3.8 billion years and integrating these lessons from nature into our actions

Controlled Experiments: One is the experimental group, in which a chosen variable is changed in a known way. The other is the control group, in which the chosen variable is not changed.

The scientists found that, without plants to help absorb and retain water, the amount of water flowing out of the deforested valley increased 30-40%. This excess water ran over the ground rapidly, eroded soil, and removed dissolved nutrients from the topsoil. Overall, the loss of key soil nutrients from the experimental forest was six to eight times that in the nearby uncut control forest.

Many scientists contend that the earth is the only real example of a sustainable system. Natural capital refers to the natural resources and services that keep us alive and other species alive. During most of the 10,000 years since humans invented agriculture, civilization has lived on the sustainable yield of the earth's natural systems. The United States is said to be an ecological debtor. What does it mean to be an ecological debtor (to have an ecological deficit)? The ecological footprint is greater than biocapacity. What principle do scientists recognize as always applying to biomimicry? It creates no wastes. Ecological footprint is the amount of land and water needed to supply a person or an area with renewable resources and that are needed to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use. What three major cultural changes have occurred over the past 10,000-12,000 years? The agricultural revolution, the industrial-medical revolution, and the information-globalization revolution

This Statement is False: A scientific theory is a well-tested and widely accepted description of what we find happening repeatedly and in the same way in nature. Reliable science consists of data, hypotheses, models, theories, and laws that are widely accepted by all or most of the scientists who are considered experts in the field under study. One limitation of science is that scientists, being human, are not totally free from bias about their own results and hypotheses. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. Atoms consist of protons, neutron, and electrons. A molecule is a combination of two or more atoms of the same or different elements held together by forces called chemical bonds. Hydrocarbons are organic compounds. There are two major types of energy: moving energy (called kinetic energy) and stored energy (called potential energy). A system is a set of components that function and interact in some regular way.

The other major type of energy is potential energy (energy stored in an object because of its position or the position of its parts.), which is stored and potentially available for use. Examples of this type of energy include a rock held in your hand, the water in a reservoir behind a dam, the chemical energy stored in the carbon atoms of coal or in the molecules of the food you eat, and nuclear energy (energy released when atomic nuclei undergo a nuclear reaction such as the spontaneous emission of radioactivity, nuclear fission, or nuclear fusion.) stored in the strong forces that hold the particles (protons and neutrons) in the nuclei of atoms together.

You can change potential energy to kinetic energy. If you hold this book in your hand, it has potential energy. If you drop it on your foot, the book's potential energy changes to kinetic energy during its fall.

Countries such as China increasingly have people attaining a middle-class status. This has led to all of the following: less arable land available for farming two-thirds of the world's most polluted cities being in China increased harmful effects of resource consumption Which of the following is a primary factor used by the United Nations in classifying a country as developed or developing? Degree of industrialization The environmental impact of a population on a given area depends on population size combined environmental effects of technologies affluence level or consumption patterns within the population

environmental wisdom worldview, which holds that the success of our species depends on learning how the planet sustains itself and then using this information to help determine how humans should think and act. People who support this worldview also believe that humans are part of, and dependent on, nature, and the planet's resources exist not just for humans but for all species. These beliefs do not follow the planetary management worldview or the stewardship worldview because they do not support the view that humans are separate from nature.