Environmental Science Intro
Scientific Research
• Approach the study of the environment from
a scientific perspective
• Four goals of science (ordered progressively)
– Description
– Prediction (modeling)
– Explanation – why it exists
– Control – prevention
Scientific approach
• Empirical approach – evidence is derived from
systematic observation of the world; often aided
by technology.
– Scientific empiricism strives to be repeatable
• Deductive reasoning: general to specific
reasoning
• Inductive reasoning: specific to general
reasoning.
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Scientific research
• Empirically and systematically test
theories and hypotheses
– What is a theory?
• A possible explanation about how something
works, operates, or occurs
– What is a hypothesis?
• A tentative statement about how something works,
operate, or occurs
Order of statements in science
• Hypotheses – educated guess based on
observations
– Personal
• Theories – explanation about a set of
observations
– Plate Tectonics theory
• Laws – accepted to be true by scientific
community
– Law of gravity
– Law of supposition
Paradigm
• Basic model of reality in science
• Framework that underlies a scientific
discipline
• Paradigm shift: change in the way
something is thought of
– Plate Tectonics Theory
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Environmental attitudes
• Development: anthropocentric - human race
is and should be the master of nature and
earth and its resources exist solely for our
benefit
• Preservation: ecocentric – nature has
intrinsic value or worth separate from human
• Conservation – middle road between two
above viewpoints
– Interested in promoting human well-being
Environmental Movement in U.S.
• Includes grassroots and governmental
agencies, public and private citizens
– Among groups and individuals belief in problems
or scale of issues are not universal
– No one agency, national or international, is
leader
• Awareness that environment needs
protection, is important, and that there are
issues/problems that may harm living things
Early acts: Preservation and
conservation
• Preservation examples
– Yosemite Park set aside as state park in 1864
– 1872 Yellowstone National Park established
• Conservation examples
– Division of Forestry, precursor to National
Forest Service, established in 1881– to
manage resources
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Early grassroots presence
• Appalachian Mountain Club - 1876
– Original charter: “explore and preserve the
White Mountains in New Hampshire”
• Sierra Club -1892
– First goals included: Preserving Glacier and
Mount Rainier and moving Yosemite from
control of CA to Feds
Early regulations
• 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act – navigable
waters
• 1948 Federal Water Pollution Control Act
– Control water pollution through state-led
efforts
– Enforcement left to governors (states)
Evolution of environmental
protection/awareness
• 1950s – 1960s: Cities enact laws to control (not
necessarily prevent) pollution within their boundaries,
eventually states joined in with some federal
regulation
– Not effective – pollution not necessarily within area governed
by laws
– Enforcement and regulation not uniform
• Series of events led up to increased awareness of
state of environment and need to more protection
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Regulations
• 1956 - Water Pollution Control Act
• 1960 - First Clean Water Act
• 1965 - Water Quality Act passes, setting
standards for states
• 1965 - Congress passes Water Quality
Act, Noise Control Act and Solid Waste
Disposal Act
• 1967 - Congress passes Air Quality Act /
Clean Air Act which authorizes planning
grants to state air pollution control
agencies
Silent Spring (1962)
• Written by Rachel Carson,
scientist and naturalist
– Showed through series of
scientific studies, medical case
histories, and data synthesized
that DDT was harmful
– Pesticide used extensively,
including spraying public areas,
neighborhoods
– Overriding assumption that it was
not harmful
– Brought awareness of effects of
chemicals on the environment
1969 Cuyahoga River
Fire
Cuyahoga River
1936
• Oil slick and debris
• Caught fire 9 times previously, beginning in
1860s
• Time magazine description, post-fire:
– Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with subsurface
gases, it oozes rather than flows. The Federal
Water Pollution Control Administration noted:
"The lower Cuyahoga has no visible signs of life,
not even low forms such as leeches and sludge
worms that usually thrive on wastes."
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1969 Santa Barbara, CA
oil spill
• Union Oil Co. platform 6 mi
off coast spilled 235,000
gallons of crude oil creating
800 mi2 slick
• Co. given permission by
Feds to operate below
existing federal and CA
state standards
• Considered by many to be
the impetus to
environmental movement
and founding of Earth Day
First Earth Day (1970) – April 22
• Considered by many to be the birth of the
modern environmental movement.
• Creates a national presence for
environmental concerns.
• 20 million Americans demonstrate, approx.
10% of population at time
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EPA founded 1970
• Combined 15 smaller agencies
into one to regulate pollutants for
both the environment and human
health
– Charged to protect human health
and the environment, by writing and
enforcing regulations based on laws
passed by Congress
State of water in early 1970s
• 1965: commercial shrimp harvest of 10,000
lbs (6.3 million lbs in 1936)
• 1966-1968: 26 million fish killed in Florida
due to food-processing plant discharge
• 1969: Hudson River had 170x the safe level
of bacteria
• 1970: 30% of drinking water samples
exceeded recommended chemical limits
• 1971: 85+% swordfish contained mercury
exceeding safe limits
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