UNDERSTANDING OUR ENVIRONMENT.
Chapter 1.
ENVIRONMENT:
1. Circumstances and conditions that surround an organism or group of organisms.
2. Complex social or cultural conditions that affect an individual or community.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE:
Systematic study of our environment and our proper place in it.
Interdisciplinary: biology, chemistry, geology, economics, political science, sociology,
statistics, history, psychology, ethics, religion, business, etc.
Holistic study of the world around us.
Mission oriented: creates a responsibility to get involved in trying to solve the problems we
have created.
We know the remedies for environmental issues are often understood but there is an
increasing difficulty in making them socially, economically and politically acceptable.
ECOLOGY:
Scientific study of the relationships between organisms and their environment.
HISTORY:
Environmental Movement Timeline: http://www.ecotopia.org/ehof/timeline.html
There have been four stages:
1. Pragmatic resource conservation: utilitarian conservation.
2. Moral and aesthetic nature preservation: biocentric preservation, the fundamental
right of other organisms to exist.
3. Concern about health and ecological damage caused by pollution: environmentalism.
4. Global environmental citizenship: our modern human activities rival those of
geological forces, e. g. atmospheric changes.
Eighteen century French and British colonial administrators attempted to conserve some of
nature resources.
In U.S.A.
George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882): Man and Nature, 1864.
- Born in Vermont, Marsh was a member of the State House of Representatives and
served as ambassador to Turkey and Italy. He spoke at least six languages.
