What is the environment 09 02 2012 The terms ecosystem and environment do not mean the same thing Environment includes the earth Ecosystem is the community of things that interact in a certain environment Hierarchy of Ecosystems Organism any individual form of life plants and animals Species individual organisms of the same kind Population a collection of organisms of the same species living within a particular area Community populations of different organisms living and interacting in an area at a particular time Ecosystem communities and populations interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up the inorganic environment Biome large life and vegetation zones made of many smaller ecosystems Biosphere entire realm where life is found includes atmosphere ecosphere lithosphere and hydrosphere The ultimate source of earth s energy is solar radiation which converts to different forms that organisms can use First law of thermodynamics energy cannot be created or destroyed only converted to different forms however it cannot be recycled over and over when complex energies are used they usually downgrade to low grade energies that can no longer be used Second law of thermodynamics we cannot recycle or reuse high quality energy to perform useful work again Entropy the tendency for energy to run downhill Food chain the transfers of food energy from its primary producer sources through a series of consumer organisms where eating and being eaten is repeated a number of times Habitat location of an organism within an ecosystem Ecological niche an organism s role in a community of organisms that comprise an ecosystem Resource partitioning species inhabit and feed from different parts of their environment for the most part they all aren t after the same things and therefore share the wealth CLASS NOTES People will have different understandings of their surroundings based on the way they were brought up the media pop culture etc Discourse meaning intentions behind words symbols or actions we will work with environmental discourse Meaning can change depending on place time and perspective Exchanges and cycles like the water cycle and the carbon cycle which work separate from people but that people affect Ecosystem most basic unit of ecological analysis o Composition organism species population community Biomes are classified based on major vegetation a large life vegetation zone made up of many smaller ecosystems Every organism needs food water shelter space to survive they find these things in different ways in their ecological niche Carrying capacity maximum population that an ecosystem can support Sociocultural systems networks of interdependent actors that are relatively stable patterns of interaction and intercommunication they share both material and symbolic cultural patterns Social institutions nearly universal sociocultural formations status and roles Humans and human systems are part of the system and separate from the system Talk about it through dualism and think about it dialectically There are always different ways of thinking about the same problem Population and Scarcity 09 02 2012 Every family could live in a house with a yard in a landmass in a landmass the size of Texas World population about 7 billion people Huge percent of the population is in Asia Southeast Asia US Europe uses a huge amount of the world s energy and resources Aging crisis people that can t work healthcare baby boomer problems Density affects resource use sanitation More people means more workers and more efficient work Dense city population delays encroachment on farm resource rich land It matters where population is dense it affects how easy it is to get resources Income people with money use more resources The US and Canada uses the most energy per capita Global warming contribution relates to energy consumption Industrial Revolution caused a huge spike in population growth Ability for transportation and distribution of resources Medicine invention of antibiotics The more children you have the more money you make no child labor laws at this point Large number of people moved the urban areas because of the mechanization of farming o Caused a surplus of food and therefore people were able to have more kids this is not a direct cause Theorists Thomas Malthis late 18th century 09 02 2012 Studied the problem of geometric vs arithmetic growth he argued that population grew exponentially but out resources are not they grew linearly o Because of this issue he argued that we would reach carrying capacity and that the population would crash through disease famine and war which he says are an important part of population control o He argued that they should not protect the poor no social services Poor women were having too many children and so they should practice moral restraint however he places no blame on men o No blame on political and economic systems or the wealthy these groups have responsibilities in society that Malthis removes from them welfare queen a woman grows up on welfare and becomes dependant on it and will never be able to live apart from it almost always an urban black woman who is abusing the system the idea is racist and sexist just like Malthis Despite his fears nothing happened There were improvements in farming technologies we now have more food It is easy for us to move food from one place to another There are still problems with famine but we also have a huge problem with obesity patterned by geographical and economic situations No one these days agrees 100 with Malthis Neo Malthusians argue that population has the biggest impact on our environment I PAT equation included other factors besides population that affect our environment created by Ehrlich and Holdren o Impact on the environment o Population density o Affluence wealthy people use more resources o Technology increases environmental impact Critiques of I PAT o Some advances in technology reduce our impact on the environment o We are driven by development we place a monetary value on saving the environment therefore development is good Ecological Footprint and Carrying Capacity 09 02 2012 Carrying capacity how many people a certain area can support it is the ecological limit at which the local area can accommodate resource needs and waste of population Ecological footprint includes many more factors individual actions have a huge impact on the environment Population and innovation cornucopian