Part 3: How Do We Engineer Solutions to Reduce Human Impact on the Environment?

Unit 1: Ecosystem Dynamics and Interactions

Part 3: How do we engineer solutions to reduce human impact on the environment?

Part 3 Vocabulary

•  Anthropogenic

•  Climate change

•  Criteria

•  Constraints

•  Global warming

•  Greenhouse effect

•  Invasive species

•  Tradeoffs

•  Urbanization

•  Endangered species

•  Genetic variation

Human Impact

•  We already know that the human population is growing at an rate.

•  Humans are due to better sanitation, medicine, and nutrition.

•  As the population grows, so will our dependence and use of ecosystem resources like food, water, shelter, electricity, etc.

•  As the population , so will our on the environment.

Some countries put on the environment than others.

•  Developing Countries

Africa, India, Indonesia, China

Contains most of the world’s population

Has a population growth rate

•  Developed Countries

US, Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan

Has the greatest wealth

Uses of the resources

Creates the most

What are humans doing?

•  Environmental problems can be from natural causes or anthropogenic causes.

•  Anthropogenic – induced by

•  Almost all environmental problems fall into three categories:

1. Resource

•  Water, soil, plants, animals, forests, minerals, etc.

2. ______

•  Chemicals, fuel combustion, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer runoff, smog, ozone depletion, excess carbon dioxide, etc.

3. Loss of Biodiversity ( )

•  Due to habitat loss, overharvesting, overhunting, competition, etc.

·  Our planet’s air, water, land and organisms are ______. Environmental problems connect across national boundaries, so solutions will require ______.

·  At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, ______countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal.

What is the carbon cycle?

•  Carbon is exchanged, or " " through Earth's oceans, atmosphere, ecosystem, and geosphere.

•  All living things are made of carbon; It is

.

•  Atmospheric form = CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) and (methane)

•  Source = anything that CO2 - e.g. breathing, burning fossil fuels

•  Sink = anything that CO2 - e.g. plants, oceans

Why is it important?

•  While carbon dioxide is only a very small part of the atmosphere (0.04%), it plays a in the energy of the planet.

•  Planet’s – absorb heat and keeps Earth warm

•  We are overloading the cycle – !

•  CO2 levels have been since Industrial Revolution

•  Accelerating over last 50 years

Why do we care?

•  Used to future climate change

•  Affects ocean’s chemistry and therefore it’s marine life

•  Makes oceans acidic, dissolves shells and skeletal material of marine organisms

•  Impacts land ecosystems – environments and temperatures are faster than organisms can adapt

•  Snowball effect…

Scientific Models

•  Scientific models are testable ideas or explanations of nature created by the human mind to and things about similar situations in nature.

•  Models are used to make a particular part or feature of the natural world easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate.

•  Models are created through creativity of a scientists and data from observations.

•  Models can as new knowledge is .

The Carbon Cycle Model

1.  Name the carbon sinks shown in the model.

2.  Name the carbon sources shown in the model.

3.  Why is this picture considered a model of the carbon cycle?

Science and Engineering

•  are the ones who the theories;

are the ones who them. They complement each other, and often work together, the scientists telling the engineers what to make and the engineers telling the scientists the constraints that said thing to be made doesn't meet. They are indeed different, but they work very close together.

•  Scientists tend to explore the natural world and discover new knowledge about the universe and how it works.

•  Engineers apply that knowledge to , often with an eye toward optimizing cost, efficiency, or some other parameters.

Engineering Vocabulary you need to know:

•  – things you want the solution to have or do

•  – the limitations, sometimes called specifications, or restrictions that should be part of the solution.

Examples include cost of construction or materials, type of materials available, size or weight the solution must meet, the specific tools or machines you have available, or time you have to complete the task

•  – a balancing of risks and benefits associated with choosing a course of action; giving up one thing in favor of another

•  – made less severe, i.e.. environmental impacts