Welcome to Environmental

Geography!
(Photo by P.
Regoniel in
Picable).

GEOG 101 (Section 01) Day 1

Getting Oriented
My name is Don Alexander. My office is

across the street at Building 359, Room

215. My local is 2261, and my office hours
are noon to 1:00 on Tuesdays and
Thursdays or by appointment. My phone is
(250) 753-3245, ex. 2261.
How many of you are at VIU for the first
time? If so, if you need a hand figuring
anything out, let me know.
I will hand out the course outlines (read
carefully!).

Getting Oriented
The textbook for this course is available in the

bookstore. There may be used copies of the

previous edition at the bookstore or at the
student union store. Its Environment: The
Science Behind the Stories (2nd Canadian
edition) by Withgott, Brennan, and Murck
(Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2013) [see
www.pearsoned.ca/highered/
myenvironmentplace/index.html for student support
materials]. It's a good book, with lots of

illustrations, case studies, and Canadian

examples. Please note that we will be skipping
Chapters 4 & 5 and probably 18 and 19.
Apparently, there are some privacy issues in
accessing the on-line textbook resources, and
also issues related to my e-mailing students
who have hotmail or gmail accounts (but this
mainly involves communication of grades).

Course Focus
This course is an introduction to the Earths

systems at a variety of scales from the

ecosystem to the biosphere, and will
examine the ecological impact of the human
population and its land use and waterrelated activities.
Topics include population, agriculture,
biodiversity, forestry, ocean and freshwater
systems, climate change and air pollution,
energy, resource consumption and waste,
environmental ethics/ policy, and sustainable
land use practices. Successful examples of
social change towards a more sustainable
society will also be highlighted.

Course Objectives
By the end of the course, you will be able to
describe and analyze ecological systems at a
variety of scales, how humans impact on them,
and have knowledge of emerging concepts and
practices for transforming the way we live and
do business (as measured by the assignments,
the mid-term quiz, and the final exam);
analyze the role played by economic, social,
and political institutions in relation to the
decline of natural systems;
describe and then assess the ecological and
social impacts of specific products and
activities (as measured by the life-cycle
analysis);
dissect, analyze and establish an independent
viewpoint on environmental controversies (as
measured by the media analysis and the final
exam);

Course Objectives
transform analysis of environmental

concepts into action (as measured by the

environmental education or action project);
identify what is happening in different
sectors, such as forestry and agriculture;
identify how sustainable management
concepts and strategies are being applied to
address the pressing environmental issues
of our age, and how you can play a crucial
role in building a more sustainable world;
demonstrate an improvement in your
research, writing, speaking, and analytical
skills, as well as your ability to present
material in a graphically appealing format.

Getting Oriented
The course will be a mix of lectures,

discussion, occasional guest speakers,

videos, assignments, and possible in-class
debates.
We will go over some of the course outline
today.
Phones and laptops are not to be abused.
If you suffer from a disability of any kind,
you need to register with Disability Services
(in Building 200) and let me know as soon as
possible
Regarding extreme weather and campus
closures, whats on the VIU home page is
the final authority, so use that as your
guide.

Getting Oriented
In addition to the final exam and a mid-term

assignment, there will be two major assignments.

For these, you will choose from the four following
options:
a life-cycle analysis of an everyday product,
a media analysis of a controversial environmental
issue,
getting involved in and writing up your experiences
in an action project (or planning one), and
the development of an environmental education
unit to present in a local elementary or secondary
school.
You may also be asked to answer questions about
videos shown, and to participate in a debate on a
key environmental topic. [more instructions soon!]

Getting Oriented
EVALUATION
1. Attendance and Participation in in-class

work- 10%
2. Mid-term assignment- 15%
3. Life-cycle Analysis or Action Project- 25%
(see outline for proposal and final due dates)
4. Media analysis or Elementary/ High School
Educational Outreach Exercise- 25%
6. Final Exam- 25% (TBA)

________________________

100% [more on the assignments soon]

You can also boost your participation marks

by bringing relevant resources to my and the
class' attention.

Ground Rules
No late assignments unless there is some health or

family emergency.
No plagiarism all assignments must be original. If
you have any questions about what that means,
we can talk about it.
CRITICAL THINKING IS ENCOURAGED!
For referencing use the parenthetical forms of APA
or University of Chicago (The Writing Centre has
handouts or see http://libguides.viu.ca/citing).
If at all possible, print double-sided or on scrap
paper.
If you're going to miss a class, please let me know.
When you do miss, it's your responsibility to keep
up with the readings, and see what was covered in
lecture by viewing the lecture notes on my web
site: http://web.viu.ca/alexander2 under Courses.

Introduction to 101
Scientists alarmed by rapidly shrinking

Arctic ice cap by David Kramer, Physics Today

(2013).
The focus of the course is the global ecological
crisis [see http://energyskeptic.com/2011/9-planetery-boundaries/] and
what we can do to address it, including what is
already being done in a number of sectors. If you
have specific interests, let me know and I will try
to accommodate them, if possible.
What are some key environmental issues facing
our planet? What is causing them and how are
they impacting on people and other species?
I would also like to take advantage of whatever
knowledge or previous life experience you have
that is relevant. What can you offer?

Chapter 1 will help you understand:

The meaning of the term

environment
The importance of natural
resources and ecosystems
That environmental science
and environmental geography are interdisciplinary
The scientific method and
how science operates
Pressures facing the global
environment
Sustainability and
sustainable development
1-12

Our Island, Earth -- Overview

All the things around us with which we
interact:

Biotic (living things)

Abiotic (nonliving things)

Animals, plants, forests, soils, etc.

Continents, oceans, clouds, icecaps,
freshwater, rocks, nutrients

Our built environment

Structures, human-created living

centres

1-13

Humans

are altering the natural systems we need for

resources, health, life-span, wealth, mobility, & leisure
Impacts:
natural systems have been degraded
this poses a long-term threat to health and survival of
ourselves, other species and ecosystems
Environmental science and environmental geography
study:
how the natural world works
how the environment affects humans and vice versa
Environmental geography gives special emphasis to how
things interrelate in space for instance, the relationship
between pollution and climate change and health impacts
on humans or ecosystems, or the spread of exotic species
and how they impact on indigenous species.
1-14

Natural resources: vital to human survival

FIGURE 1.1

Renewable resources:
Perpetually available: sunlight, wind, wave energy
Those that renew themselves over longer periods: timber, water, soil
can be overharvested
Nonrenewable resources: finite supply; can be depleted
Oil, coal, minerals
1-15

Global human population growth

More than 7 billion humans

(in 1800, only 1 billion, only
3% of whom lived in cities)
Why so many humans?
-

Agricultural revolution
-

Stable food supplies

Industrial revolution
-

Urbanized society
powered by fossil
fuels
Sanitation and
medicines (decline in
death rate)
FIGURE 1.2

1-16

weighing
the issues

The Tragedy of the Commons

by Garrett Hardin

With so many people and so many corporations, we

run into what some people call the tragedy of the
commons.

Unregulated exploitation of open access resources

leads to resource depletion -- some examples?

Resource users are tempted to increase use until the

resource is gone

Solution?

Private ownership of all resources?

Voluntary organization to enforce responsible

use?

Governmental regulations?

1-17

The ecological footprint

concept
developed by Mathis Wackernagel
& William Rees
The environmental impact of an individual or population

Amount of biologically productive land + water

required to provide raw materials a population
consumes and absorb the waste produced

Overshoot: humans have surpassed the Earths

capacity (the date when humans are said to have
overshot the Earth's carrying capacity is said to fall
earlier and earlier each year and last year it occurred
on August 20th).
We are using more than 40% more of the planets
resources than are available on a sustainable basis from
all the land!

1-18

Environmental science
can help us avoid mistakes made in the past.

The lesson of Easter Island: people annihilated their

culture by destroying their environment. Can we act
more wisely to conserve our planet, or will we drive a
bitumen-filled SUV straight into a cement wall?
1-19

weighing
the issues

Environmental science/ geography

are interdisciplinary

What experts would you need for:

The construction of a new

hydroelectric dam

Environmental review for the

Northern Gateway pipeline

The proposed draining of a

wetland to build a new
subdivision

A proposal to permit bear

hunting in a national park

The management of a large oil

spill offshore from a coastal
ecosystem

FIGURE 1.3

1-20

What is an environmental problem?

The perception of what

constitutes a problem varies
between individuals and
societies
e.g. DDT, a pesticide

In developing countries: to
some degree welcome
because it kills malariacarrying mosquitoes
In developed countries: not
welcome, due to health risks

FIGURE 1.4

1-21

Environmental science is not

environmentalism
Environmental science

The pursuit of knowledge about the natural

world
Scientists try to remain objective (though
sources of funding can and do influence
questions studied and conclusions arrived at)

Environmentalism

A social movement dedicated to protecting the

natural world, though some environmental
scientists (e.g. David Suzuki, Andrew Weaver)
become environmentalists because they feel the
'facts' about the environment demand that we 1-22
take action as a society and as a species.

The nature of science

Science:

A systematic process for learning about the world and

testing our understanding of it

A dynamic process of observation, testing, and discovery

The accumulated body of knowledge that results from

this process
Science is essential for

Sorting out fact from fiction

Developing solutions to the problems we face

Current controversy over federal government cancelling
evidence-based science projects/ centres and muzzling
scientists. This has led to recent protests (Death of Evidence
in Ottawa) and to editorials in the prestigious science journal,
Nature [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7407/full/487271b.html]
1-23

Science: Critically examining evidence

Scientists design tests: are ideas supported

by evidence?
Explanations must:

Be testable

Resist repeated attempts to disprove them

Eventually consensus results, as with the notion of

human-induced climate change.

Accepted ideas can be applied in policy and

management decisions (e.g. prescribed
burning in the case of forestry)
1-24

The scientific method

A technique for testing

ideas with observations
Assumptions:

The universe works

according to
unchanging natural
laws

Events arise from

causes, and cause
other events

We use our senses

and reason to
understand natures
laws

FIGURE 1.7
1-25

The scientific method

A scientist makes an
observation and asks
questions of some
phenomenon

The scientist formulates a

hypothesis, a statement that
attempts to explain the scientific
question.

The hypothesis is used to

generate predictions, which
are specific statements that can
be directly and unequivocally
tested.

FIGURE 1.7

The test results either support

1-26
or reject the hypothesis

There are different ways to test hypotheses

Manipulative experiments yield

the strongest evidence

Can show causation

Not always possible to use

Natural or correlational tests

show real-world complexity

Cannot show causation

FIGURE 1.8
1-27

The scientific process is part of a larger process

The scientific process
includes peer review,
publication, and debate

A consistently
supported hypothesis
becomes a theory, a
well-tested and widely
accepted explanation

With enough data, a

paradigm shift a
change in the dominant
view can occur
(examples?)

FIGURE 1.9
1-28

Housekeeping Items
I will continue with the slides from

Chapter 1 (which are up on the web

site), and then in about 45 minutes we
will have a guest speaker who will talk
about options for life cycle analyses
where the information will actually be
used.
Does anyone need a course outline?
I will pass around some items of
possible interest.
I may be gone for part of next week
because of a family emergency, but I
will try to ensure that this course is
covered.

Sustainability and the future of our world

Human population growth

exacerbates all environmental
problems

The growth rate has slowed, but

we still add more than 200,000
people to the planet each day

Our consumption of resources has

risen even faster than our population
growth.

Life has become more pleasant for

us (for some of us much more than
others) so far
However, rising consumption

1-30

Ecological footprints are not all equal

The ecological
footprints of countries
vary greatly

Canada uses far more

than its equal share of
the worlds resources
Developing countries
have much smaller
footprints than
developed countries
FIGURE 1.10

1-31

We face challenges in agriculture

Expanded food production led to increased

population and consumption
Its one of humanitys greatest achievements,
but at an enormous environmental cost

Nearly half of the planets land surface is

used for agriculture that depends heavily
on

chemical fertilizers

pesticides, and produces

erosion, water degradation, and

decreased biodiversity
1-32

We also face challenges in pollution

Waste products and artificial chemicals used in farms, industries, and

households

Each year, millions of people die from pollution

1-33

We face challenges in climate

Scientists have firmly concluded that humans are
changing the composition of the atmosphere

The Earths surface is warming

catastrophic decline in Arctic sea ice

melting glaciers

rising sea levels

impacted wildlife and crops

increasingly destructive weather

Since the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric carbon

dioxide concentrations have risen by 38%, to the
highest level in 650,000 years 400 parts per million.
1-34

Vicious storms smacked the Deep

South and toppled trees like
dominoes as tornadoes howled
through towns. Seven deaths were
reported in Alabama, when the
storm tossed a mobile home nearly
state highway
Email

Todays News

We face challenges in biodiversity

Human actions have driven many species extinct, and biodiversity

is declining dramatically

We are on the verge of a mass extinction event

FIGURE 1.12

Biodiversity loss may be our biggest environmental problem;

once a species is extinct, it is gone forever
1-36

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)

The most comprehensive scientific assessment of

the condition of the worlds ecological systems,
carried out by the UN
Major findings:

humans have drastically altered ecosystems

these changes have contributed to human wellbeing and economic development, but at a cost
environmental degradation could get much worse
degradation can be reversed, but it requires a lot of
work (and leadership, which is in short supply)
1-37

Our energy choices will affect our future

The lives we live today are due to fossil fuels

machines

chemicals

transportation

products (e.g. plastics)

Fossil fuels are a one-time bonanza; supplies will
certainly decline. The party will then be over.
We have used up of the worlds oil supplies;
how will we handle the imminent shortage of fossil
fuels?
1-38

Sustainable solutions exist

We must develop solutions that protect both our quality of life

and the environment. Components include:

organic agriculture

new technology

pollution reduction

conservation of
resources and species

recycling
renewable energy
sources
FIGURE 1.13

1-39

Are things getting better or worse?

Many people think environmental conditions are better

Cornucopians: Human ingenuity will solve any problem

Some think things are much worse in the world

Cassandras: predict doom and disaster

How can you decide who is correct?

Are the impacts limited to humans, or are other

organisms or systems involved?

Are the proponents thinking in the long or short term?

Are they considering all costs and benefits?

Are they thinking in terms of a triple bottom line?

1-40

Sustainability: a goal for the future

How can humans live within the planets means?

Humans cannot exist without functioning natural

systems
Sustainability

Leaves future generations with a rich and full Earth

Conserves the Earths natural resources [leaves

natural capital intact]

Maintains fully functioning ecological systems

Sustainable development: development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs(ambivalent
meaning??)
1-41

Conclusion

Environmental science helps us understand our

relationship with the environment and informs our
attempts to solve and prevent problems.
Identifying a problem is the first step in solving it
(e.g. scientific understanding of climate change)
Solving environmental problems can move us
towards health, longevity, peace and prosperity
Environmental science and geography can help us
find balanced solutions to environmental problems.
1-42

Question for Small Groups

What do you think the most important

global environmental problems are

and how did they get that way?

QUESTION: Review
The term environment includes
a)
b)
c)
d)

Animals and plants

Oceans and rivers
Soil and atmosphere
All of the above are included in this term

1-44

Will we develop in a sustainable way?

The triple bottom line: sustainable

solutions that meet

environmental goals

economic goals

social goals
Requires that humans apply knowledge
from the sciences to

limit environmental impacts

maintain functioning ecological systems

1-45

QUESTION: Review
Which of the following is correct about the term
environmentalism?
a)
b)
c)

d)

It is very science-oriented
It is a social movement to protect the environment
It usually does not include advocacy for the
environment
It involves scientists trying to solve environmental
problems

1-46

QUESTION: Review
Adding various amounts of fertilizer to
plants in a laboratory is a _____ type of
experiment
a)
b)
c)
d)

Correlative
Natural
Manipulative
Rare

1-47

QUESTION: Review
What is the

a)

b)

c)

d)

definition of sustainable development?

Using resources to benefit future generations,

even if it means lower availability now
Letting future generations figure out their own
problems
Using resources to satisfy current needs
without compromising future availability
Letting each country decide what is its best
interest
1-48

QUESTION: Weighing the Issues

Which do you think is the best way to protect

commonly owned resources (i.e., air, water,
fisheries)?
a)
b)

c)
d)

Sell the resource to a private entity

Voluntary organizations to enforce responsible
use
Governmental regulations
Do nothing and see what happens

1-49

QUESTION: Weighing the Issues

Do you think the rest of the world can have an
ecological footprint as large as the footprint of the
Canada?

a)

b)

c)

d)

Yes, because we will find new technologies

and resources
Yes, because the footprint of Canada is not
really that large
Definitely not; the world does not have that
many resources
It does not matter; its not that important
1-50

QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and Data

According to this graph, what has happened to the
population over the last 500 years?
a) It has grown
exponentially
b) It has grown
linearly
c) It has
decreased
d) It has slowed
down recently

1-51

QUESTION: Interpreting Graphs and Data

What happens if test
results reject a
hypothesis?
a)

b)
c)

d)

a) The scientist formulates

a new hypothesis
b) It shows the test failed
c) The hypothesis was
supported
d) The predictions may not
have been correct
1-52