You are about to embark on a study of the world around you--your physical and cultural environment. We will look at this topic from the perspective of environmental geology. Environmental geology is a science which objectively studies geologic information and applies it to contemporary environmental problems such as pollution, waste management, resource extraction, natural hazards, and human health.
Environmental geology, then, is an applied science which means it is used in the day-to-day world after being tested in laboratory or field studies. An environmental geologist might evaluate the risk and damage potential from natural hazards such as floods, landslides, volcanoes, or earthquakes. They might be involved in a land-use planning process which assesses a potential dam site for safety, or the impact a sanitary landfill would have on groundwater. They also examine earth materials like rocks, water, and soil for internal strength and the potential for movement.
Take a moment to consider the neighborhood or city where you live. Take a walk or a drive and observe as many small-scale features that you can relate to geological and environmental problems. (Those we have studied already like erosion, soils, floods, landslides, and general topics).
Here is an example of the type of observation required:
Here are some more examples of the kinds of small-scale situations we want you to describe.
ATTENTION: When module assignments are turned in, please include your full name and date in the text of the document, and identify yourself and the assignment in the filename for attached documents, such as:... "EnvGeo-Smith-1.doc".
You may print a pdf version of this assignment, just remember it isn't word for word the same. What you are assigned to do is the same though.
What we consider our "environment" can be subdivided into two fundamental aspects: the physical world of soil, water, air, plants, animals, etc. and the social/cultural world of economics, aesthetics, politics, and religion. It is important to remember that the two are inseparable and strongly influence one another.
To illustrate this key point, imagine you live in a temperate coastal rainforest which receives 100 inches of precipitation each year. That’s almost 8 feet of rain! Describe the landscape around you. How important is water to you? Now imagine you live in a hot desert which receives 14 inches of precipitation each year. Will your relationship to water be different? your sense of responsibility? would the aesthetics of the landscape be the same? imagine you are thirsty, how would you find suitable drinking water? how might political decisions regarding water use differ in each region?
Today, more than two-thirds of the world's tropical rainforests exist as fragmented remnants. Just a few thousand years ago, tropical rainforests covered as much as 12% of the land surface on earth, or about 6 million square miles (15.5 million square km), but today less than 5.3% of Earth's land is covered with these forests (about 2.6 million square miles). The largest unbroken stretch of rainforest is found in the Amazon river basin of South America. Over half of this forest lies in Brazil, which holds about one-third of the world's remaining tropical rainforests. Another 20% of the world's remaining rainforest exists in Indonesia and Congo Basin, while the balance of the world's rainforests are scattered around the globe in tropical regions. http://www.mongabay.com/0101.htm
CONSEQUENCES OF DEFORESTATION
People may wonder why we should care about deforestation of the rainforests. What is the difference if a few plants, animals, mushrooms, and microorganisms perish? For most people, the forests are not all that pleasant to visit: they are hot and humid, difficult to reach, insect ridden, and have wildlife that is relatively hard to see. Actually the concern should not be about losing a few plants and animals. Humanity will lose much more: by destroying the tropical forests we risk our own survival, the stability of the planet, the existence of other species that share our rights to life, and the valuable economic assets provided by biological diversity.
While in most areas environmental degradation has yet to reach a crisis levels where entire systems are collapsing, it is important to examine some of the effects of existing environmental impoverishment and to forecast some of the potential repercussions of forest loss. Continuing devastation of natural systems could make human activities increasingly vulnerable to ecological surprises.
The consequences of deforestation can be broken down into local and global sectors, with some overlap. The most immediate consequences from deforestation are evident on the local level, while many of the global consequences are predictable to occur in the long run, but not fully demonstrable in the short term.
In the early 1950’s, Aldo Leopold, a forester and professor of wildlife management at the University of Wisconsin, urged Americans to embrace a "land ethic," a new concept which enlarged our sphere of concern to include the entire physical environment including animals, plants, and landforms. This sense of responsibility has been strengthened by photographs of Earth taken from space. These images strongly suggest the earth is a single, whole biological/physical system surrounded by vast empty space.
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Aldo Leopold, photo courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |
"Land Ethic""The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land." "A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these 'resources,' but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state." Leopold, Aldo: A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There, 1948, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987, pg. 204 |
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Acton, USA: "Looking
outward to the blackness of space, sprinkled with the glory of a universe
of lights, Sigmund Jahn, German Democratic Republic
: "Before I flew I was
already aware of how small and vulnerable our Earth from space, courtesy of NASA |
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Each culture sees the environment from their own perspective--colored by their particular human history, sense of aesthetics, religion, and the physical properties of the land itself. Consequently, problems, as well as solutions, are perceived differently.
What, then, constitutes an "American perspective" towards the environment? According to many historians, many distinct cultural attitudes were prevalent as Europeans first arrived in North America hundreds of years ago.
The "environmental crisis" is the convergence of three entities: limited resources, human needs, and waste.
Unfortunately, there are no quick solutions to today’s worldwide environmental problems for three reasons:
The immediate causes for the crisis are overpopulation, urbanization, and industrialization, yet there remain reasons for optimism. The public is increasingly aware of the ubiquitousness of environmental problems and is pressing for political and social change.
Okay, here's a quick question (thanks to S. Estes): What is the oldest "Environmental Organization" in the United States? Who was responsible, and when was it formed? (Click here for the answer, but think about it first).
It is important to understand the philosophical and technical principles that underlie the environmental sciences. These concepts help scientists understand the causes of environmental stress and find long-term solutions.
The exponential growth of the human population was a local condition in the past, but has become a pressing global problem. "Exponential growth" is an important term which describes a population increase determined by a constant percentage (for example, 10%) of the current population. Its significance can be easily understood in the following analogy:
Imagine a certain microorganism living in a beaker of a certain size. Every hour the microorganism population doubles (that is, increases by 100%). Twelve hours later the beaker has reached its carrying capacity and no additional microorganisms of that type can live there.
Before revealing the answer to the above question, it is important to note that the issue of human population growth has no easy answers. In some countries, the absence of support systems (to care for children, the elderly, the poor, the sick or injured) forces the populace to rely on their families to supply these needs. Large families are a valuable resource to many people. The lack of mechanization makes large families with many children valuable pools of labor, especially for agriculture.
Human population growth is 1.7% annually, not 100% hourly as in our microorganism analogy. However, the above story makes an important point about the relentlessness of exponential population increase. Search World Population Clock (USA version) to learn how many people live on Earth today and multiply that number times 1.7% (X0.017) to learn how much the human population will increase in one year. Then add the increase in population to the total population to learn what the human population will be at the end of one year. Then, multiply that new figure times 1.7%. Repeat this sequence five times. What will the total human population be after five years?
Sustainability is generally acknowledged as a beneficial, long-term goal, but what does it mean? The Random House Dictionary’s definition, "supported from below," implies each organism on the planet is supported by other organisms in a way that is mutually beneficial or at least not destructive to either one. Applying the concept of sustainability to a global economy is one of the great challenges awaiting humans.
Systems can be large or small, simple or complex. By definition, a system’s component parts are interconnected. Like a stone thrown into a pool, a small change creates ripples which reach to distant shores. We call this concept environmental unity.
For example, a river is a linear system which gathers water along its length and discharges it, and whatever else it might contain, into the ocean. The atmosphere is a layered system that insulates the Earth from extremes of heat/cold and from the effects of solar radiation. Environmental scientists study systems such as these in order to predict potential natural or human-assisted changes and develop management strategies.The atmosphere is one part of the system we call Earth. It is a tenuous envelope of gasses composed of about 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, more than 99% of which is located within 30 miles (50 km) of the surface of the earth.
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4. Limitation of ResourcesDifferent viewpoints have emerged about the availability of future natural resources for human use. One perspective relies on human ingenuity and technology to discover new and different resources to meet our needs. The other perspective believes natural resource base is finite and, therefore, humans will come to a point where resources will not be adequate to meet the needs of our rapidly growing population. Fortunately, people representing both viewpoints are increasingly seeing pollutants as resources out of place, an idea which enlarges the concept of recycling. 5. UniformitarianismUniformitarianism is a fundamental concept in geology
which states that the present is the key to the past. In other words,
the physical processes which govern the evolution of the landscape now
have operated through time. Conditions may have changed through time,
but physics and chemistry determine the outcome of any earth process.
The concept of uniformitarianism is a framework based on science that
allows us to understand past processes and make predictions about what
will happen in the future. The more we know about something, the
better interpretations we can make. Sometimes new interpretations,
based on new information, supercede or change old interpretations.
That is why science is always changing. |
Natural earth processes, like floods, earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity, are hazardous to people and property. A popular misconception claims that natural disasters are getting more frequent and damaging, but actually there are just more people and better media coverage. To reduce risks to life and property, environmental geologists try to identify and analyze potentially hazardous processes and predict future occurrences. Think of some ways that human activities might aggravate natural processes? Visit EarthSat Home Page to get some ideas (this site is slow to load so be patient).
Until recently, developers considered only the financial costs and benefits when considering the worth of a project. However, a revolution in our thinking has inspired people to develop ways to measure less tangible aspects, such as an inspiring view or the joy of birdsong. Both aspects must be balanced. But how?
Different environments represent many potential, sometime contradictory, economic and aesthetic values. For example, a forest might be considered valuable because of its timber products, potential for solitude, watershed protection, or wildlife habitat.
Human activity is the most significant process shaping the surface of the planet. The effects of our actions are cumulative. We have an obligation to future generations.
"Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generations. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground"
The Peacemaker of the Iroquois Confederacy - He Who Keeps Them Awake
"This we know. The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man does not weave the web of life, he is but a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
Chief Seattle, 1852
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All of these places have their own beauty. |
What is beauty worth? |
Who decides what is beautiful? |
Today’s complex environmental problems require an interdisciplinary approach which considers biological, physical, and human factors and how their interactions. This broad-based approach is the domain of the environmental geologist through the study of geomorphology, petrology, sedimentology, hydrogeology, economic and engineering geology.
These terms are important for understanding the concepts and ideas we will study in the weeks ahead. Read through the list, and look up the ones you don't understand. As you look them up think about how they relate to topics in this module.
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