Tara Howe
ENV/100
Tolulope Awosika
March 4th, 2013
Environmental Fundamentals
In the year 1800 the human population on earth reached 1 billion. In 200 years, the population soared to 6 billion (Berg & Hager, Chapter 1, 2009). With industrialization and technologies developed in those 200 years, humans have been depleting the earth’s natural resources at an alarming rate. Environmental science is the branch of science concerned with the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the environment and their effect on organisms ("Dictionary.com", 2013). Knowing and understanding the environment and what can be done to sustain it will help humans survive on this planet without destroying it more.
Science and technology can go hand in hand when it comes to affecting the environment. Science enables humans to understand how things work, what the affect may be, and how it can be fixed. Technology can be used to improve the way things are done in order to protect the environment. Sometimes technology does not take into account scientific facts and actually cause a problem. The same can be said of science. Science may not apply the latest technology to an issue and will not reap the best rewards.
Environmental sustainability is only using what is needed on an individual, regional, national, and global level so that the environment will function indefinitely without going into a decline from the stresses that human society imposes on natural systems (Berg & Hager, Chapter 1, 2009). This concept is very important because sustaining the earth and all it has to offer is the key to human life. Food, shelter, air, and water are essential to human life. Without figuring out how to stabilize the environment in order to sustain these needs, all life will fail. Once man figured out how to mine coal, oil, and natural gas, these resources have been drastically depleted to keep up with demand. Many forests all
References: Berg, L.R., & Hager, M.C. (2009). Visualizing Environmental Science (2nd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. Dictionary.com. (2013). Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/environmental+science?s=t