Lecture 1 Flashcards
(12 cards)
The term “Environment” was derived from a French word
“environner”
1798, English economist and demographer
* Theory that population growth will always
tend to outrun the food supply and that
betterment of humankind is impossible
without stern limits on reproduction. This
thinking is commonly referred to as
Principle of the Population by Thomas Robert
Malthus
It meticulously described how DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane)
entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissues of
animals, including human beings, and caused cancer and genetic
damage.
* The book’s most haunting and famous chapter, “A Fable for
Tomorrow,” depicted a nameless American town where all life—from
fish to birds to apple blossoms to human children—had been
“silenced” by the insidious effects of DDT.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (DDT)
1968
* Explored the concept of the environment as a common area, subject
to misuse in the absence of regulation.
* The proliferation of publications and community protests sent the
message to state and national government that the pollution
problem needed to appear on their agendas.
* According to the commons theory,
- each individual gains much more than he or she loses by
overusing a commonly held resource, so its destruction is
simply an inevitable consequence of normal and rational
behavior.
Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin
A period of growth for the environmental movement. The movement
began with a newfound interest in preservationist issues.
* Wilderness Act of 1964 - which permanently set aside certain federal
lands from commercial economic development in order to preserve
them in their natural state.; controlling pollution.
* Clean Air Acts of 1963 and 1967 ; Clean Water Act of 1960, and the
Water Quality Act of 1965.
1960s-1970s
In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed into law the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which required an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) for all “major federal actions significantly
affecting the quality of the human environment.“
* Congress passed important legislation to control pollution. The most
significant of these new laws included the
* Clear Air Act of 1970,
* Pesticide Control Act of 1972,
* Ocean Dumping Act of 1972,
* Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972
* Clean Air Act of 1974
* Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974,
* Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976
1960s-1970s
The 1980s: Environmental Backlash And Radical Environmentalism
- Espousing a conservative, pro-business ideology, Reagan sought to
free American corporations from an expanding regulatory apparatus.
Reagan capitalized on the late 1970s Sagebrush Rebellion - On Earth Day 1990, President Bush stated that “Every day is Earth
Day“
- 1980s-1990s
The Global Environment And The 1990s
B. Protocol
* Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
(1987, United States)
* The protocol pledged the signees to eliminate the production of
chlorofluorocarbons, which cause destruction to the ozone
layer.
- Kyoto Protocol
- which set forth timetables and emission targets for the
reduction of greenhouse gases that cause global warming
1980s-1990s
a plethora of things, including how a specific species or a group of
living creatures are influenced by their environment or some specific
aspects of it.
Ecology
Environmental chemistry goes into more detail, and it explores things
like chemical effects on different plants, the chemical degradation of
the environment, and the way chemicals get transported through the
environment.
Chemistry
broadly the study of the relationship between individuals in their
context within society – and its application to our understanding of
environmental issues.
Social Science
as the branch of physics concerned with the measurement and
analysis of interactions between organisms and their environment.
Most commonly, the organisms are plants and animals, and the
environment is the atmospheric or soil environment in which they
are surrounded.
Physics
