NC Essential standards for human impact and global climate change

1. Human IMPACT
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Objectives:
Explain the
consequences of
humans and
consumption on
Earth’s Spheres

2. Humans and Nature: An Overview
“The environmental crisis is an outward manifestation of a
crisis of mind and spirit. There could be no greater
misconception of its meaning than to believe it is concerned
only with endangered wildlife, human-made ugliness, and
pollution. These are part of it, but more importantly, the
crisis is concerned with the kind of creatures we are and
what we must become in order to survive.”
~ Lynton K. Caldwell

3. If you really got a hold
of anything in the
Universe, you find out
that it’s hitched to
everything else.—
John Muir, Founder,
Sierra Club
Diagram makes it clear that environmental science is
multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.
That is, “it takes all kinds” of observations and inputs to “do”
environmental science.

4. The Human Impact Problem?
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Several themes—recurring and inter-connected
Human population x demand for resources = root
problem.
(Problem for each other as individuals, communities,
nations; for the rest of the ecosphere.)
The impact of environment on human health

5. Assignment – Cats of Borneo
A simple exercise to get you thinking about the
interconnectedness of man, environment and how one
decision can cause a domino effect in the scheme of
environment!
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Complete “Cats of Borneo” activity
You will receive an envelope with 13 statements
which are numbered.
Your job as a group is to order them by event
(not numerically!)
Based on a true story

6. Change in the Biosphere
= change in the environment
Changes in the Lithosphere
•Leads to local and global
health issues
•Competition for resources
•Destruction of habitats and
upheaval of human populous

7. Changes in the Atmosphere

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Increased global
temperatures –
greenhouse effect?
Normal or enhanced?
Loss of ozone due to
chlorfluorocarbons
(CFCs)
Increase of natural
gases (Sulfur and
CO2) due to volcanic
eruptions

8. The Great American Hypocrite

9. Aquatic and
marine
resources—
longneglected,
overexploited,
directly and
indirectly*
impacted.
Changes in the hydrosphere
*remember, water flows downhill—The 1st Law of Ecology

10. What characteristics of Earth make life possible?


Water
Air (nitrogen, oxygen,
carbon dioxide and
water vapor)
 Soil

Sun – driving force
behind all life
processes.

11. Biosphere (Ecosphere)
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All the parts of Earth that
support and contain life.
Reaches from the floor of
the ocean to the tops of
the mountains.
Approximately 20 km
(12.4 mi) thick.
If the earth were an apple, the
ecosphere would be no thicker
than the apple’s skin!

12. Environment

Everything that
surrounds a
particular organism.

13. Ecology
 Study of the interaction between
organisms and their environment,
composed of abiotic (NON-Living) and
biotic (living) factors

14. Ecosystem Structure
 Food Web – a network of food chains
representing the feeding relationships
among the organisms in an ecosystem
(complicated).

16. Biological Magnification
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
The increasing
concentration of a
pollutant in organisms at
higher trophic levels in a
food web.
Ex. In 1972 the US
banned the use of DDT.
By 1991 bald eagle
population rebounded 4X.

17. Diversity and Stability
 A deciduous forest is an example of a
stable ecosystem that has a food web with
many links.
 A small disturbance has a small effect on
a deciduous forest. Conversely, a tundra
has few links in the web, therefore a small
disturbance can have a larger impact.

18. Energy in the Ecosystem
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The ultimate and only significant source
of energy in most ecosystems is that
radiated by the sun.
This energy is the driving force of
photosynthesis. Of the total sunlight
received on the earth, only 20-25% is
available for photosynthesis because
only the longer wavelengths are used in
photosynthesis.

19. Key players in ECOLOGY:
Producers, Consumers and Decomposers
 All biomes (and ecosystems within
biomes) contain three different kinds of
living things:
1) Decomposers
2) Producers
3) Consumers

20. Producers (Autotrophs)
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Organisms that make
their own food from
inorganic molecules
and energy.
EX. - Plants

21. Consumers (Heterotrophs)
1) Cannot produce their own food
(animals, humans- any living thing
that does not have chlorophyll)
2) Must eat other organisms (plants
and/or animals) to get their energy
and food.
 EX: animals, fungi, protists and
bacteria

22. 

Bacteria and fungi that consume the bodies of
dead organisms and other organic wastes.
Decomposers complete the cycle of matter in
the ecosystem.

23. Trophic Level


What scientists
call the different
feeding levels of
organisms in a
ecosystem.
From the root
“troph” –
meaning to feed
or nourish.

24. Trophic Levels

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Number pyramid
the higher one
moves, each
consecutive layer or
level contains fewer
organisms than the
level below it.

25. Biomass
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The total amount of
organic matter present
in a trophic level.
Potentially food for the
next trophic level.
As organisms do work,
they use energy, and
must continue to take
in additional fuel to
continue doing work

26. Cycles of Matter
 Chemical composition of human body
 Water Cycle
 Carbon Cycle
 Nitrogen Cycle

27. Water Cycle – All the water on Earth which is
continually cycled from hydrosphere to atmosphere and
lithosphere

28. Carbon Cycle

Plants use CO2 and
sunlight to make
sugars and starches
during photosynthesis

30. Nitrogen Cycle
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Organisms require nitrogen in order to
make amino acids, the building blocks of
proteins.
80% of Earth's atmosphere is made up of
nitrogen in its gas phase.
Plants take up the nitrates and convert
them to proteins that then travel up the
food chain through herbivores and
carnivores. When organisms excrete
waste, the nitrogen is released back into
the environment.

32. Competitive Exclusion
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The extinction of a population due to direct
competition with another species for a resource.
If two species try to share the same niche in the
same habitat, they will compete for resources.
If one is better than the other, one will have to
move to another area or extinction may occur.

33. Population Growth

Exponential Growth –
population growth in
which the rate of
growth in each
generation is a
multiple of the
previous generation.

34. City Lights from Space
Geospatial demographers, such as Deborah Balk, use satellite images of the Earth at
night to estimate population densities.

35. Human Population on the 50th Earth Day

The following is from an insert to a solicitation
letter from the group Zero Population Growth.
In the seconds it takes you to read this sentence, 24 people will be added to
the Earth’s population.
Before you’ve finished this letter, that number will reach 1,000. Within an
hour ... 11,000. By day’s end ... 260,000.
Before you go to bed two nights from now, the net growth in human numbers
will be enough to fill a city the size of San Francisco.
It took four million years for humanity to reach the 2 billion mark. Only 30
years to add a third billion. And now we’re increasing by 95 million every
single year.
No wonder they call it the human race.

36. Carrying Capacity
 The number of individuals of a species
that can be supported by an ecosystem.
 As population grows, it takes more from its
habitat.
 Resources such as food and living space
become scarce.
 As resources become scarce, individuals
begin to compete.

37. Managing Land Use

38. Ecological Succession
 Change is a fact of life!
 Living things have evolved in response to
change.
 As an environment changes, the
community changes with it.
 In many cases, different communities
follow one another in a definite pattern.

39. Evolution and Adaptation

Ecosystems change
over time and
changes in the
environment affect
the evolution of
populations.

40. Interdependence
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Health depends on
resources.
Good health depends
on accessibility to
sustainable
resources.

41. Interdependence
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Bad health results
from inaccessibility to
sustainable resources
or exposure to a
hazard.
Both exist in the
environment.
Therefore, quality of
health depends on
the environment.

42. Community Action and the
Environment
 What are the environmental problems that
we face as communities, as states, as a
country, and as part of the global
community?
 How many environmental problems are
you aware of?

43. Human Population and
Carrying Capacity
 What impact does an ever increasing
population have on global health issues?

44. What characteristics of life allow it to influence the
environment on the global scale?
1.
Life spreads exponentially
7 BILLION
The environmental problems we face –
population growth, wasteful use of
resources, destruction and degradation of
wildlife habitats, extinction of plants and
animals, poverty, and pollution – are
interconnected and are growing
exponentially.

45. More People = More Competition
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According to the United
Nations, world population
reached 7 billion on
October 31, 2011
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According to the most
recent estimates, world
population is expected to
reach 8 billion people in
the spring of 2024.
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What matters is that we
are competing for
essential resources

46. Which leads to global environmental
problems like….
 Competition
 Resource Depletion
 Pollution
 Risk, Toxicology and Human Health
 Climate, Global Warming and Ozone
Depletion
 Water resources and water quality
 Solid and hazardous waste disposal

48. Global Warming?
 TRUE or NOT???
 Regardless of whether you believe that
man is enhancing global warming or we
are just in a “normal” warming period – the
ensuing environmental changes will have
an impact on both animals and humans!
 60 Minutes Video on evidence in Antartica

49. What impact will climate change (global
warming) have on the human species?
 Food shortages
 Loss of fresh water
 Increase in disease
6 of Change!
o

50. Climate Change and Food
Climate Change and Food Security: Out of

51. Now that scientists agree? What do
we do…..
 How
to feed the world in 2050: actions
in a changing climate

52. Climate
and
Human Human Health
 What impact will global warming have on
our human health?
 Think about disease and the spread of
disease – can you make a connection
between climate change and the spread
of diseases?

53. Kinds of health impacts resulting
from climate change:
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Direct- result from
weather extremes.
Consequences from
ecological disruption.
Consequences
resulting from
climate-induced
economic disruption,
e.g. traumatic,
infectious, nutritional,
psychological

54. Social factors affecting health
 Population density
 Level of economic development of the
country
 Food availability
 Pre-existing health status
 Availability of health care

55. Human Population Dynamics
What have we learned about the impact of
population on:
•Resources?
•Global Health?
•Global Warming?
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