Alyn Smith
 Established in 1972
 Establishes basic structure for the regulation of
discharged pollutants into water supplies.
 Made it unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a
point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was
obtained.
 Put into effect in 1970
 Comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions
from both stationary and mobile sources.
 Authorizes the EPA to establish National Ambient Air
Quality Standards (NAAQS)
 Established in 1975
 Only treaty that ensures international trade in plants
and animals does not threaten their survival
 Requires participants to regularly submit reports on
how they are implementing the Convention
 Est. 1973
 Provides a program for the conservation of threatened
and endangered species and their respective habitats
 Requires federal agencies, in consultation with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service and/or the NOAA Fisheries
Service, to ensure that their actions are not likely to
threaten species of any listed species.
 Est. 1969
 Establishes a broad national framework for protecting
the environment.
 Assures that all branches of government give proper
consideration to the environment before undertaking
any major federal action that involves impacting the
environment.
 Est. 1976
 Gives the EPA the authority to control hazardous waste
from its beginning to its end.
 Set framework for hazardous waste management
 Est. 1980
 Provides a federal “superfund” to clean up
uncontrolled hazardous-waste sites as well as
accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of
pollutants/contaminants into the environment
•This cycle is also known as the Hydrological
•
Cycle(H2O Cycle).
The Cycle consists of 5 different stages.
1.
Evaporation
2. Condensation
3. Precipitation
4. Infiltration
5. Runoff
 The water cycle involves the exchange of heat, which
eventually leads to temperature change.
 The water cycle purifies water as well as replenishes
the land with freshwater.
 The water cycle is completely dependent on the Sun, to
heat the water in oceans and rivers, to cause
evaporation to turn water vapor into the air.
 Air currents move the water vapor around the globe,
causing them to collide with cloud particles, which
become to heavy and creates precipitation.
 The water cycle describes the processes that drive the
movement of water throughout the hydrosphere.
 The water cycle affects the climate due to the fact that
it is powered by solar energy, causing the reduction of
evaporative cooling, which helps in reducing the
greenhouse affect.
 Runoff is responsible for almost all of the transport of
eroded sediment and phosphorus from land to water
bodies.
 Precipitation occurs mostly in rain, but it also includes
snow, hail, fog, and sleet.
Sierra Hedrick
APES 3 rd Pd.
1. All types of fossil fuels are formed from decayed
plant and animal matter. They are all unrenewable.
2. The three types of fossil fuels (in order of
abundance from most to least) are: Coal, Oil, and
Natural Gas.
3. The largest reserves of coal in the world are
located in the U.S., Russia, China, and India, the
largest reserve of oil in the Persian Gulf, and those of
natural gas in Kazakhstan, Persian Gulf, and Russia.
4. Coal is extracted through deep or surface
mining, while oil and natural gas are welled and
pumped.
5. As of the year 2000, the United States used
oil the most, followed by natural gas, with coal a
close third.
6. Because of extraction, coal causes the most
habitat destruction, followed by oil, then natural
gas.
7. Natural gas is being
considered the “fuel of the
future” when compared to
coal and oil.
8. All three types of fossil fuels
produce carbon dioxide (CO2), which
contributes to global warming. Coal
burning releases the most CO2 (per
unit of energy produced), followed by
oil, and natural gas.
9. Coal produces the worst pollution
because of acid deposition, global
warming, and mercury emissions. Oil
comes in second because of the
possibility of spills. The only
pollution caused by natural gas is
CO2 emissions.
10. We can reduce the amount of pollution by
burning and using less fuels, and by using catalytic
converters to reduce NOx emissions. Most
industrial “solutions” to pollution are expensive,
and only transfer the pollution problem away from
the air, but do not solve anything.
Fact Number 1
The Branch of Science concerned
with the nature, effects, and
detection of poisons.

On of the first known examples of unwanted toxicity
was in the roman times where may people got lead
poisoning from the lead plumbing and lead dishware.
This is the start of understanding that chemicals can
be used to do things to people unexpected...

There are three laws to toxicology.



The first is that “the dose makes the poison.” This
statement says that all things can be poisonous with
enough of it. That way too much of something can
cause you to get poisoned.
The First law was derived from a German physicist in
the fifteenth century. His name was Paracelsus and he
created the oldest law of toxicology.
•


The second law of toxicology states that
biological
actions of each chemical are specific to each chemical.
Yes it is simple, and seems very logical, but all this is
saying is that lead will act like lead and alcohol will
act like alcohol.
They may share common ailments, or even act very
similar, but lead poisoning will never be alcohol
poisoning.



The founder of the second law of toxicology was
Ambroise Paré, a sixteenth-century French surgeon who
recognized that toxic agents have different effects
dependent upon their inherent nature.
Understanding the specific action of chemicals, known
as hazard identification, depends upon recognizing the
structural determinants of the activity of chemicals, and
the biological niches in which chemicals interact.
Very subtle changes in chemical structure can make an
enormous difference in biological effects.


The third and last law of toxicology is that humans are
animals.
Once again this seems simple, but this law is
important, because if we take the full understanding
that people are animals, then we will realize that
chemicals react similarly in our bodies, whether we
die from snake venom or not, is not 100% relevant, it
is the reason why we don't that matters.

There are two types of dose relationships that people
in the toxicology world recognize. The first is that a
drop of hydrochloric acid can burn a hole in your skin,
but if you take that same drop and put it in a bathtub
full of water it will dilute it so much it won't do
anything to cause actual physical harm.

The second dose relationship is that the chemical will
mutate. This can be described as a linear one-hit
relationship between the dose of a mutational agent
and the likelihood that the mutation will occur. The
theoretical risk for any one molecule causing a
mutation is infinitely small—there are about 1 trillion
molecules of benzene, a known cause of leukemia, in
every breath taken in an average American city, yet
very few people develop leukemia.

A major challenge in modern toxicology is to prevent
unwanted effects of otherwise valuable chemicals,
including therapeutic agents. Understanding
chemical mutagenesis and carcinogenesis has
permitted the development of bacterial mutagenesis
assays, such as the Ames test.

Goldstein, Bernard D.. "Toxicology." Encyclopedia of
Public Health. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 27 Mar. 2013
<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
•Is an international agreement among the
United Nations to lower emissions.
• Japan adopted the Kyoto
Protocol in 1997, but didn’t
enforce it until 2005.
 An international treaty designed to phase out ozone
depleting materials.
 This protocol is widely accepted and expects the
ozone layer to recover by 2050.
 Protects all marine mammals in the U.S.
 The only acceptations are if you get a government waiver, are
conducting scientific research, or your native to Alaska.
 Aimed at reconciling the economic and environmental
goals of our communities.
 The first conference of its kind was held in Rio in
1992, and they established the climate change
convention, which lead to the Kyoto Protocol.
 An international conference on population and
development.
 It focused mainly on
human rights, reaching
demographic targets, and
sustainable living.
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Ethics
1. Environmental history is the study of human
interaction with the natural world over time. In
contrast to other historical disciplines, it
emphasizes the active role nature plays in
influencing human affairs.
2. Environmental history emerged in the United States
out of the environmental movement of the 1960s and
1970s, and much of its force still stems from presentday global environmental concerns.
3.
Environmental history can be divided into three
components: natural itself and its change over time,
how humans use nature, and the way attitudes,
beliefs, and values influence interaction with
nature.
4. Many of the themes of environmental history
includes what challenges global sustainability:
population, climate change, deforestation, species
extinction, and urban development.
5. The American Society for
Environmental History was
founded in 1975 and the first
institute devoted specifically to
environmental history in
Europe was established in 1991,
based at the University of St.
Andrews in Scotland.
Brianna Valentine
3 rd
 95% of our solid waste is disposed of in almost-filled landfills.
 Every year about 45,000 tons of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s
oceans.
 Packaging accounts for 50% of all paper produced in North America
 Paper products make-up over 405 by weight, slightly higher by volume of this
country’s municipal solid waste, by far the largest contributor.
 Every year about 900,000,000 trees are cut down to provide raw materials for
America paper and pulp mills.
 The United States generates approximately 208 million tons of municipal




solid waste a year, that’s 4.3 pounds per person per day.
Every Sunday, more than 500,000 trees are used to produce the 88% of
newspapers that are never recycled.
If we put all of the solid waste collected in the U.S. in a line of average garbage
trucks, that line of trucks could cross the country, extending from NYC to LA
more than 100 times.
Waste is the source of almost 4% of the world’s greenhouse gases. *Mostly in
the form of methane from rotting food. Methane is a green house gas 21 times
more potent than CO2.
Only 3 ways to get rid of waste : Bury it, Burn it, or Recycle it!
The beginning(2006):
 Process of restoring land that has been mined to a
natural or economically usable purpose.
 Mining reclamation occurs once mining is complete,
but the preparation of reclamation occurs far prior to
the mine’s beginning.
 Surface Mining and Reclamation Act, officially
brought to light the legal importance of reclaiming
abandoned mines, and the regulation of active mines
in 1977.
 The FRA, or the Forestry Reclamation Approach, is the
leading force in mining reclamation, because of their
supporting of forested land.
 The FRA establishes the guidelines for achieving
successful reforestation on mined lands.
 The steps of reclamation are mainly focused on
establishing a suitable environment to plant and grow
trees, to reclaim the land as environmentally sound;
sustainable over a long period of time.
 Prior to the year of establishment, there were no federal
laws regulating surface mining of the coal mining industry.
 Reinforcement from state to state was widely inconsistent,
and usually ineffective, as they often lacked proper
funding.
 Under the SMCRA, guidelines are enforced in existing and
future mines, and trust funds are created to finance
reclamation attempts of abandoned mines.
 SMCRA balances the need to protect the environment from
the effects of surface coal mining with the nation’s need for
coal as an primary source of energy in most places.
The end(2008):
Lyndsee Miniard
During the time period from 1950 to 2005, the
world experienced the greatest population
increase ever(2.5 billion to 6.5 billion).
2. Anthropologists believe the human species dates
back about 3 million years and had about 10
million individuals.
3. By 1 AD, the population expanded to 300 million
and grew at a moderate rate partly due to an
increase in agriculture.
4. After the start of the Industrial Revolution(living
standards rose and epidemics diminished),
population had increased to 760 million in 1750
and reached 1 million by 1800.
1.
5. World population growth accelerated after World
War II, when the population of developing
countries increased rapidly.
6. After years of slow growth, the population
exploded; a million people were added between
1960 and 1975 and another million between 1975
and 1987.
7. Throughout the 20th century, each additional
billion has been achieved in less time. We entered
the 20th century with 1.6 billion and ended with 6.1
billion.
8. The overall effects of the explosive population
growth on living standards, resource use, and the
environment will continue to change the world
landscape long after we’re all gone.
9. The only time in human history that the
population decreased was the Black Plague in the
15th and 16th centuries.
10. The human population continues to increase
exponentially and is expected to reach 9 billion by
the year 2050.
 1. Agricultural production is one of the largest and most
important economic activities in the world, especially in
countries that have low income, because the GDP growth is
impacted.
 2. One of the largest sectors in agriculture production is grain,
coffee and, tea.
 3. Farmers, on average, spend 4.1 billion dollars every year on
pesticides. They justify this by claiming they earn 3% more on
the crops, due to the effectiveness of the pesticides.
 4. The word pesticide means a branch of agrochemicals that is
used to protect crops from certain bacteria, insects, and other
potentially damaging organisms
 5. Many countries have banned certain pesticides, such as DDT and
chlordane, because of their dangerous and disruptive qualities.
 6. Pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are all categorized in the
agrochemical field. These items have been in wide use since the 1940s.
 7. Through today’s requirements of pesticides having to be deemed safe
for humans, the environment has been overlooked and is still being
harmed by the effects of the pesticides.
 8. Modern application equipment (including backpack sprayers)
allow a fairly safe and efficient application of pesticides of all
kinds.
 9. Originally, the purpose for pesticide laws and regulations was
to protect consumers from outrageous claims about the quality
of the products. The purpose has since shifted to focus on
protecting the people and environment.
 10. The Safe Drinking Water Act and the Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act have been implemented to
protect the groundwater and surrounding environment from
pollution courtesy of pesticides.
Abigail Smith
 A “species” is composed of any individuals that
resemble each other and may interbreed.
 An “Endangered species” is considered to be close to
extinction and may in fact disappear from the planet.
 Technically, there is a category of “extinct in the wild”
 There are six different classifications of endangered
species (eight if you count “data deficient” and
“extinct”).
 Extinct in the Wild
 Critically Endangered
 Endangered
 Vulnerable
 Near Threatened
 Least Concerned
 Any at the rank of “vulnerable” to “critically
endangered” are considered to be at risk of extinction.
 This Is about one third of the earth’s recognized species.
•Habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting
and poaching, invasive species, climate
change, pollution, disease, collection and pet
trade are all causes of extinction and also all
causes of endangered species becoming
endangered.
 Endangered species are being protected in a myriad of
ways.
 Habitat preservation and restoration
 Ex-situ conservation (captive breeding)
 Anti-poaching measures
 Wildlife corridors
 Laws and policies
 There are currently more endangered amphibians than
any other group (1900 species)
 Turtles are among the world’s most endangered
vertebrates, with more than half the turtle species
facing extinction.
 Many consider the Javan Rhino to be the most
endangered animal. There are currently less than 50
remaining in the wild.
 The Abingdon Island tortoise is the rarest reptile in the
world. Sadly only a single male of this species,
‘Lonesome George’, remains alive today.
By Tanner Carroll
 Soil color can revile info on soil content, drainage, and
fertility.
 Soil is made of several materials such as minerals and
dad matter and decayed.
 Healthy soil is 45% minerals 25% water 25% air and 5%
organic material.
 One ounce of soil contains 5000-7000 species of
Bacteria
 Takes 5 centuries to form one inch of topsoil
 The tests are for levels of elements such as





phosphorous.
The test also verify the ph value.
The test can be used to guess the amount of fertilizer
to use.
To start a test samples must be take 3 months before.
Each soil test such represent on soil or area.
 Plate tectonics is the movement of the Earth’s crust




through convection currents that occur in the mantle.
The rock cycle is a continuous process by which rocks are
created
Igneous rocks are formed from the cooling of molten rocks.
Basalt which is an igneous rock makes up the bulk of
oceanic is formed at divergent plate boundaries the role of
sea floor spreading and consequently, volcanism.
Volcanic igneous rocks are formed from molten rock that
cooled quickly on or near the earth’s surface.
 Sedimentary rocks are formed when areas are uplifted which
occurs when areas of the crust move up due to plate tectonic
movement, which allows rock to weather or erode.
 More subsidence means there is more room for sediments to
deposit and this for sedimentary rocks to form.
 The rate of plate motions is directly related to rate of
metamorphic rock production. Metamorphic rocks formed at
areas of compression are formed at convergent plate boundaries.
 Elements that make rocks are never created or destroyed
although they can be redistributed transforming on rock
element to another.
By : Lauren
Prichard
1. Water Pressure
The ocean obtains an
incredible water
pressure. This point is
considered as the
deepest spot in this
ocean. The dimension
is for about eighty for
every square inch. As a
comparison, you can
think of a man who
tries to hold fifty
jumbo jet planes.
2. Water Amount
 Some scientists have
made a research about it
and speculate that 50
million billion tons or 50
quadrillion tons of water
are available in the ocean
 The ocean covers 71% of
earth’s surface and
contains 97% of the
planet’s water.
3. Salt
.
The ocean is 3-3.4% salt.
If this particle is eliminated
from the water in the
ocean, it can form 166 m of
thickness in the surface of
the planet. In comparison,
it is just like the thickness
of the four stories of
skyscrapers.
5. Melted Ice
The water in the ocean will rise for
about 66 meter or 200 feet if the
entire ice found in the world melted.
If we made a comparison from the
10,000 years ago, you need to know
that the level of the ocean now is 110
meter higher.
4. Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the
world's largest reef system.
The Great Barrier Reef is
composed of over 2,900 individual
reef
The Great Barrier Reef can be seen
from outer space
The Great Barrier Reef has over
900 islands stretching for over
2,600 kilometers.
6. Volcanic Activity
7. Plant Life Importance
The scientists state
that the volcanic
Ocean plants produce almost
half of the oxygen we breathe.
activity in the earth
Ocean plants provide shelter and
usually is found in
protection for much of the ocean
the ocean. The South
animal life.
Pacific Ocean is
8. Job Opportunities
regarded as the
Fisheries support 170
largest one. It is
million jobs. Oceans carry
estimated that the
10. Harmful Affects
90 per cent of world
sea floor contains
trade. Marine and coastal
Plastic waste kills up to 1 million sea tourism, aquaculture and
1,333 active
birds, 100,000 sea mammals and
other uses of marine
volcanoes.
9. Gold
The worlds oceans
contain nearly 20
million tons of gold.
countless fish each year. Plastic
remains in our ecosystem for years
harming thousands of sea creatures
everyday.
environments (excluding
fisheries) provide
livelihoods for millions
more people.
By: Michayla Evans
 River and stream load is where solid matter and
particles are carried.
 This has three types:
1.)Suspended load- Load is carried on top.
2.)Dissolved load- Middle level load.
3.)Bed load- Load on the bottom of the river.
 Rivers and streams have four areas:
1.)Source zone- High gradient.
2.)recharge zone- Medium gradient.
3.)Floodplain zone- Slow gradient.
4.)River Delta- Mixture of salt and fresh water and is
nutrient rich.
 Lakes have three main layers:
1.)Epilimnion- Top layer.
2.)Thermocline- Temperature changing level.
3.)Hypolimnion- The bottom layer.
 There are three types of lakes:
1.)Oligotrophic- Poorly nourished and usually old lakes.
2.)Mesotrophic- Medium nourishment.
3.)Eutorophic- Very nourished.
 Since plants need nourishment to live the more
clear plant free lakes are Oligotrophic.
 Wetlands are covered with water for most of the year
like swamps, marshes, and mangrove forests.
 They are very important because they act as a buffer
against hurricanes, erosion control, water storage, and
they filter out toxins.
 Watersheds feed from wetlands. These watersheds
feed rivers.
 Also wetlands act as a habitat to many species such as
plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and
invertebrates. These species can find the food they
need and they also have the ideal climate there.
Caci Gibson
 Weathering and
Erosion work in
unison, as parts of the
Rock Cycle, to create
earth’s rock
formations.
 Weathering – the
mechanical and
chemical hammering
that breaks down and
sculpts rocks
 Erosion – transports
rock fragments and
sand away, eventually
into the ocean
 Natural processes in the environment, like the Water Cycle,




weather, and the growing of plants, can all change the
earth’s surface.
Water can crack rocks by trickling into cracks and crevices
and freezing, later washing the debris away.
Temperature cycles cause rocks and clay to expand, shrink,
and eventually crumble.
Wind and waves can chip away at ocean cliffs and polish
rocks smooth.
The movement of animals, the invasiveness of plant roots,
and the loss of plant life for food can all cause rocks to
crack and rocks to travel.
 Acids mixed with rainwater eat away at rocks.
 Glaciers push slowly down hill under the force of
gravity, carving out a path, and eventually melting and
dumping tons of soil and rock into rivers.
 Rivers dump millions of tons of eroded sediment into
the ocean each year.
 Without these processes, rock debris and soil would
pile up and cover the land.
Weathering is split
into two processes:
•mechanical
weathering - the
physical
breakdown of an
object
•chemical
weathering - the
breakdown of an
object into
particles of a
different mineral
composition
 Erosion is usually a
long, slow process.
 However, it can
occasionally be
dramatic and fast
acting.
 Landslides are an
extreme example of
this: they quickly
move sediment down
a slope and deposit it
at the bottom.
Succession:
1.
Succession that begins in new habitats,
uninf luenced by pre-existing communities is
called primary succession.
2.
Succession that follows disruption of a pre-existing
community is called secondary succession.
3.
Succession may be begin either by creation of a
new, unoccupied habitat or by some form
of disturbance of an existing community.
Biodiversity:
1.
There are four types of biodiversity; Functional, Ecological,
Genetic, and Species.
2.
Functional Diversity is the biological and chemical processes
such as energy f low and matter recycling that occur within
ecosystems as species interact with one another in food
webs/chains.
3.
Ecological Diversity is the variety of deserts, grasslands, forests,
mountains, oceans, lakes, rivers, and wetlands.
4.
Genetic diversity is the variability in the genetic makeup among
individuals in a single species.
5.
Species Diversity are the important characteristics of a
ecosystem and the communities within it, or the quantity of
different species present.
Island Biogeography
1.
2.
The "Theory of Island Bio-geography" is used to exam the factors
that effect species richness. The "island" is any habitat that is
surrounded by an unsustainable habitat.
The theory is that a species richness is determined by immigration
and extinction.
Energy Flow, Trophic Roles, and Productivity
 Ecosystems maintain themselves by cycling energy and nutrients obtained
from external sources.
 Organisms that feed at several trophic levels are classified at the highest of the
trophic levels at which they feed.
 On average about 10 percent of net energy production at one trophic level is
passed on to the next level.
 The low rate of energy transfer between trophic levels makes decomposers
generally more important than producers in terms of energy flow because they
process large amounts of organic material back into nutrients which are reused
by producers.
 Energy is not recycled during decomposition, but rather is released, mostly as
heat.
 Remember- the arrows on a food chain/web represent the flow of energy, not
what eats what
 Law of Thermodynamics 1; Matter/Energy cannot be created or destroyed.
 Energy Webs and Pyramids show how energy is transferred throughout an
ecosystem.
 Three types of pyramids:
Energy Flow—shows the available energy at each trophic level
Energy pyramids are usually the same shape.
Biomass—shows the available biomass at each trophic level
Numbers—shows the total numbers of organisms at each trophic levels

Productivity is the rate of generation of biomass in an ecosystem. It is usually
expressed in units of mass per unit surface per unit time (Ex. grams per square
metre per day). Productivity of autotrophs such as plants is called primary
productivity, while that of heterotrophs such as animals is called secondary
productivity.