Module 1
ENVIRONMENTAL
INTERRELATIONSHIPS
45:211: Environmental Geography
Outline
• Nature of Environmental Geography
– Interrelatedness
• Humans and The Environment
• Environmental systems - Ecosystem Approach
– Environmental Commons
• Who “owns” Earth?
– Regional Concerns
• Political versus Natural Boundaries
45:211: Environmental Geography
Environmental Geography
• The role of
Environmental
Geography is to:
– understand the natural
interactions within our
environment, and
– integrate this
understanding with the
uses that humans make of
the natural world and their
impacts.
45:211: Environmental Geography
The Environment
• Elements of the physical environment
– Water
– Air
– Soil and Land
• Physical connections
– Hydrologic Cycle
– Atmospheric Circulation
– Food Chains and Webs
45:211: Environmental Geography
Human Activities
• Human settlement and Land use
• Resource extraction
– Agriculture
– Forestry
– Energy and Mining
• Consumption and Waste
– Consumption is waste
45:211: Environmental Geography
An Environmental Lesson
• What can we learn from Walkerton?
– Things are connected
– Bad things happen from neglecting the
environment
– Tackle the cause not the symptom
• Humans are a part of nature
– Not apart from nature
45:211: Environmental Geography
First Law of Ecology
• You can never do only one thing
(Garrett Hardin)
45:211: Environmental Geography
Connectedness
• “When you tug at a single thing in nature,
you find it is attached to the rest of the
world”
John Muir (1876)
Founder of the Sierra Club of North America
• The environment is interconnected, and we
are connected to the environment
45:211: Environmental Geography
Interrelatedness
• The “environment” is everything that
affects an organism during its lifetime.
– biotic - living component
– abiotic - non-living component
45:211: Environmental Geography
Ecosystem Approach
• Ecosystem: A region in which organisms
and the physical environment form an
interacting unit.
• An ecosystem approach requires looking at
the way the natural world is organized and
how different components act and interact.
45:211: Environmental Geography
Natural versus Political
Boundaries
• Most social and political decisions are made
with respect to political boundaries and
jurisdictions.
– But environmental systems and environmental
problems rarely coincide with these boundaries.
45:211: Environmental Geography
Rivers and Watersheds
45:211: Environmental Geography
Trans-Boundary Water
45:211: Environmental Geography
Other Transboundary Issues
• Quantity of water
• Quality of water
• Air pollution
– local, regional , global
– smog, acid rain, ozone depletion
• Habitat loss for migratory species
• Global climate change
45:211: Environmental Geography
Global Commons
• Those natural systems and cycles that
underpin the functioning of ecosystems
everywhere.
–
–
–
–
Atmosphere
Oceans
Hydrologic Cycle
Biogeochemical (nutrient) Cycles
45:211: Environmental Geography
Global Commons (2)
• These provide us with
–
–
–
–
–
–
air
water
soil
nutrients
climate stability
natural resources
45:211: Environmental Geography
Atmospheric Circulation
45:211: Environmental Geography
Ocean Circulation
45:211: Environmental Geography
Hydrologic Cycle
45:211: Environmental Geography
Rivers and Oceans
45:211: Environmental Geography
45:211: Environmental Geography
Tragedy of the Commons
• Ecologist Garrett Hardin reiterated
Aristotle's wisdom that
"... what is common to the greatest number of
people gets the least amount of care ..."
• The "tragedy of the commons" emerges
whenever the benefits to an individual of
(over-)exploiting an open-access (common)
resource exceed that individual's share of
the resulting damage costs.
45:211: Environmental Geography
Regional Environmental
Concerns
• Out of necessity (political and realistic)
most countries, and regions within
countries, focus on specific, local issues that
apply directly to them.
– If you live in the middle of Toronto, how “real”
is the problem of biodiversity loss in Brazil ??
45:211: Environmental Geography
Regional Environmental Issues
45:211: Environmental Geography
Geography Matters
• The physical environment is variable in
geographic space
• Human society and culture are variable over
geographic space
• Environmental interactions are thus rooted
in their geographical location
– So that geography matters!
45:211: Environmental Geography
Great Lakes
• The Great Lakes Region is dominated by
large metropolitan areas. Many of these
large industrial centers have declined,
leaving behind abandoned sites, and
environmental pollution.
• One of the greatest problems associated
with the industrial uses of this area is water
contamination from toxic chemicals.
– Bioaccumulation - Fish Advisories
45:211: Environmental Geography
Environmental Indicator
• A selected key statistic that represents or
summarizes a significant aspect of the state
of the environment, natural resource
sustainability or related human activity.
45:211: Environmental Geography
Environmental Indicator
• Environmental indicators focus on
– trends in environmental changes,
– the stresses that are causing them,
– how ecosystems and their components are
responding to these changes, and
– societal responses to prevent, reduce or
ameliorate these stresses.
• Example: Stratospheric ozone and CFC's
45:211: Environmental Geography
A qualitative indicator
45:211: Environmental Geography
Atmospheric CO2
• Trend is a measure of the rate of change with time
45:211: Environmental Geography
Trend and Variation
• Variation is the oscillation around the trend (or mean)
45:211: Environmental Geography
Summary
• Humans are a part of nature
– Not apart from nature
• Environmental interactions are rooted in
their geographical location
• Most ecosystems do not coincide with
political boundaries
– This raises issues for the life-support systems of
the planet (global commons)
45:211: Environmental Geography