Mildly agree Unsure Mildly disagree Strongly disagree Ques 1 DSP 6 39 44 167 122 NEP Ques 2 DSP Strongly agree 24 113 70 129 41 NEP 148 175 Ques 3 DSP 9 23 21 Ques 4 DSP 26 68 146 104 33 NEP Ques 5 DSP 9 86 67 160 54 NEP Ques 6 DSP 95 142 73 NEP 49 14 NEP Ques 7 DSP 7 22 16 79 254 NEP Ques 8 DSP 6 46 70 167 88 NEP Ques 9 DSP 4 13 47 116 197 NEP Ques 10 DSP 18 73 79 131 75 NEP Ques 11 DSP 11 38 37 166 123 NEP Ques 12 DSP 27 52 59 106 133 NEP Ques 13 DSP 4 45 66 161 101 NEP Ques 14 DSP 23 78 111 95 67 NEP Ques 15 DSP NEP 6 30 66 140 134 Strongly agree Mildly agree Unsure Mildly disagree Strongly disagree Ques 1 DSP 67 107 140 168 185 NEP Ques 2 DSP 27 189 61 225 161 NEP Ques 3 DSP 75 27 251 298 NEP Ques 4 DSP 156 143 162 151 NEP Ques 5 DSP 10 62 17 235 341 NEP Ques 6 DSP 162 17 231 75 116 79 NEP Ques 7 DSP 38 85 31 214 297 NEP Ques 8 DSP 7 49 75 205 328 NEP Ques 9 DSP 5 19 36 208 396 NEP Ques 10 DSP 26 119 92 172 256 NEP Ques 11 DSP 32 89 50 241 252 NEP Ques 12 DSP 89 135 54 158 225 NEP 52 Ques 13 DSP 9 94 39 218 305 NEP Ques 14 DSP 21 134 161 186 164 NEP DSP 24 94 113 207 229 NEP Ques 15 Overall our class top leaned a bit more toward DSP than did the Washington State University Dunlap sample bottom but as a discerning student pointed out both groups evince NEP attitudes e g modes on NEP side of Unsure except for Q 6 Here are the questions again for comparison 1 We are approaching the limit of the number of people the earth can support 2 Humans have the right to modify the natural environment to suit their needs 3 Humans are severely abusing the environment 4 Human ingenuity will insure that we do NOT make the earth unlivable The earth has plenty of natural 5 When humans interfere with nature it often produces disastrous consequences 6 The earth has plenty of natural resources if we just learn how to develop them resources if we just learn how to 7 Plants and animals have as much right as humans to exist develop them 8 The balance of nature is strong enough to cope with the impacts of modern This question is ambiguous maybe plenty of natural industrial nations 9 Despite our special abilities humans are still subject to the laws of nature 10 The so called ecological crisis facing humankind has been greatly exaggerated resources is interpreted as 11 The earth is like a spaceship with limited room and resources plenty of coal oil and timber or maybe as plenty of solar wind and other renewable and learn how to 12 Humans were meant to rule over the rest of nature 13 The balance of nature is very delicate and easily upset 14 Humans will eventually learn enough about how nature works to control it 15 If things continue on their present course we will soon experience a major ecological catastrophe development them can mean sustainable development Bio geochemical Cycles or Nutrient cycling We ve taken up energy radiation balance and the hydrological cycle Next we go into biogeochemical cycles in which nutrients like carbon nitrogen and phosphorus are moved around earth systems These elements cycle among the lithosphere or geosphere in some diagrams the hydrosphere biosphere and atmosphere They do so in solid gaseous and liquid form in varying amounts and over different rates of time e g it take along time for carbon to be stored as coal Theme 2 The Human Transformation of the Earth We ll take up only the global carbon cycle This diagram traces carbon fluxes in gigatons of carbon GtC per year and storages in GtC in and thru the solid earth atmosphere oceans and bio sphere mostly vegetation but also animals The Main storages of carbon in earth systems Gaseous in atmosphere and in solution in oceans key is CO2 in air Fixed in bio mass wood 50 carbon Fixed in sedimentary layers e g limestone coal etc in lithosphere stored in solution in deep oceans The Main fluxes of carbon are From air to biosphere oceans lithosphere Land use change mostly Extraction and burning of fossil clearing forest and settlement carbon also increases net flux have caused a net flux of C to from solid earth to atmos from biosphere to atmosphere Though global net is still the opposite human re vegetation and re forestation in some places results in local C flux back to biosphere photosynthesis fixes C into biomass plants absorption by oceans and storage in deep cold ocean water Fixed into the bodies shells of ocean organism like phytoplankton which can photosynthesize and then fall to the ocean floor and slowly become sedimentary layers in the solid earth 1 From biosphere oceans lithosphere to atmosphere Respiration vegetation releasing carbon as it grows Outgassing volcanoes and other gases seeping out of the earth s crust Release from oceans ocean spray can move carbon back into atmosphere up welling can bring C rich water up into contact with air Human caused anthropogenic burning and decay of biomass forest clearing and burning of fossil carbon like coal and oil Result of this last one anthropogenic flux increase is a net increase in atmospheric storage the basis for concerns over enhanced greenhouse effect Introduce the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment The Millennial Ecosystems Assessment is a UN project to measure the status of the world s ecosystems changes caused by human and natural forces and the effects of those changes on human well being Read more http www millenniumassessment org en About Overview aspx We focus on just a small part of this huge effort and document Summary Human Interventions in Carbon Cycle De vegetation clearing forests settlement that clears vegetation vegetation then decays oxidizes releasing carbon as CO2 Extraction and burning of sedimentary carbon fossil fuels increases flux to atmosphere Sequestering of carbon in various ways incidental and purposeful we may increase vegetation in some cases revegetation and aforestation and some cropping system put more organic matter C into soils and we may preserve biomass wood used in construction that otherwise might have decayed and oxidized carbon into the atmosphere We ll examine these two elements the Indirect and Direct rivers of ecosystem change on earth And of course we re mostly interested in anthropogenic drivers so we ll skip the very last bullet of Natural Physical and Biological drivers Direct and Indirect Drivers of Ecological Change Chap 3 Summary Biodiversity Chap 4 sections Main Messages 4 3 4 4 and 4 6 Synthesis Chap 28 Indirect Drivers of Ecological Chap 3 MA The Millennium Ecosystems Assessment didn t use the I PAT