APES: Chapter 1 Study Guide
Key Themes in Environmental Science
Exam Date: Monday, 9/14
Expect matching and free response questions. Remember free response
questions need to have complete sentences.
KEY TERMS
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Aesthetic justification
Carrying capacity
Cultural justification
Ecological justification
Gaia hypothesis
Megacities
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Moral justification
Precautionary Principle
Recreational justification
Sustainability
Utilitarian justification
Carrying Capacity
SUMMARY
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Six themes run through this text: the urgency of the population issue; the
importance of urban environments; the need for sustainability of
resources; the importance of a global perspective; people and nature; and
the role of science and values in the decisions we face.
People and nature are intertwined. Each affects the other.
The human population grew at a rate unprecedented in the history in the
20th century. Population growth is the underlying environmental issue.
Achieving sustainability, the environmental goal, is a long-term process to
maintain a quality environment for future generations. Sustainability is
becoming an important environmental paradigm for the 21st century.
The combined impact of technology and population multiplies the impact
on the environment.
In an increasingly urban world, we must focus much of our attention on the
environments of cities and the effects of cities on the rest of the
environment.
Determining Earth’s carrying capacity for people and levels of sustainable
harvests of resources is difficult but crucial if we are to plan effectively to
meet our needs in the future. Estimates of Earth’s carrying capacity for
people range from 2.5 to 40 billion, but about 15 billion is the upper limit
with today’s technology. The differences in capacity have to do with the
quality of life projected for people – the poorer the quality of life, the more
people can be packed onto the Earth.
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Awareness of how people at a local level affect the environmental globally
gives credence to the Gaia hypothesis. Future generations will need a
global perspective on environmental issues.
Placing a value on various aspects of the environment requires a
knowledge and understanding of the science, but it also depends on our
judgments about the uses and aesthetics of the environment and on our
moral commitments to other living tings and to future generations.
The Precautionary Principle is emerging as a powerful new tool for
environmental management.
REEXAMINING THEMES AND ISSUES
Human Population: What is more important: the quality of life of people alive
today or the quality of life of future generations?
Sustainability: What is more important: abundant resources today – as much as
we want and can obtain – or the availability of these resources for future
generations?
Global Perspective: What is more important: the quality of your local
environment or the quality of the global environment – the environment of the
entire planet?
Urban World: What is more important: human creativity and innovation,
including arts, humanities, and science, or the persistence of certain endangered
species? Must this always be a trade-off, or are there way to have both?
People and Nature: If people have altered the environment for much of the time
our species has been on Earth, what then is “natural”?
Science and Values: Does nature know best, so that we never have to ask what
environmental goal we should seek, or do we need knowledge about our
environment so that we can make the best judgments given available
information?
CASE STUDIES:
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“Easter’s End” – by Jared Diamond
“The Lorax” – by Dr. Seuss