Environmental Literacy

Environmental literacy can be defined as: “the degree to which people have an objective and well-informed understanding of environmental issues.” Today, it is extremely important to understand environmental issues. This is because the human economy is engaged in a wide range of activities that are causing enormous damage to the ecosystems that sustain both our species and Earth’s legacy of biodiversity. All around us, this is witnessed by pollution, climate warming, collapsing fisheries, deforestation, the degradation of agricultural soil, extinctions and endangerment of species, and other damages.

Nevertheless, we need not be overly pessimistic. If our society takes constructive actions now, or at least soon, it will not be too late to prevent or repair many of these important environmental problems, which threaten the welfare of people and most other species. Within limits, humans are prescient creatures, and our society is capable of implementing a sustainable economy that can support our livelihoods as well as healthy ecosystems.

It is clear, however, that any sustainable economy will involve ways of doing business that are different from those that have recently been dominant. It will also require fundamental changes in the lifestyles of many people, especially those living in wealthy countries such as the United States. Ultimately, such socio-economic transformations must involve much less use of energy, materials, and other resources, in comparison with what many of us take for granted today. A more respectful attitude toward the natural world is also badly needed.

Achieving such a transformation will depend on citizens having a sound understanding of environmental issues. Any imposition of restrictions on access to resources will initially be uncomfortable for many people. Nevertheless, we believe that people will be more willing to soften their lifestyle if they understand the reasons for those changes in the context of the livelihoods of future generations and ecological sustainability more generally. With such an understanding, most people will support economic and social changes that conserve the quality of their own and future environments.

A broad-based environmental literacy will be a key requirement if a country such as the U.S. is to achieve the difficult transition into an ecologically sustainable economy. Within that context, this book was developed to help students in universities and colleges to have an objective and well-informed understanding of important environmental issues.

Approach and Organization of the Book

Environmental science draws on knowledge and methods from many fields of the sciences and social sciences, including biology, chemistry, economics, ethics, geography, geology, medicine, physics, political science, sociology, and statistics. Many environmental specialists adopt an interdisciplinary approach to integrate these different ways of knowing to help understand and prevent environmental damage. This book also adopts an interdisciplinary approach by drawing on a variety of disciplines.

The book is organized into 30 chapters that are grouped into two parts:

Part I

“Humans and the Ecological Environment” (Chapters 1-16) serves as an introduction to the broad field of environmental science, and is used by students taking the course ENVI 101 at Binghamton University. These chapters offer an interdisciplinary approach to the study of relationships between the environment and humans, from an ecological perspective, and conclude by considering environmental policy and ethics.

• Chapter 1 defines environmental science, explains the principles of the ecosystem approach, gives an overview of environmental stressors caused by human activities, and describes various world views.
• Chapter 2 explains the scientific approach to identifying and understanding environmental problems
• Chapter 3 provides a basic understanding of matter and the kinds and transformations energy, along with practical implications
• Chapter 4 examines the geological, hydrological, and atmospheric characteristics of planet Earth
• Chapter 5 explains the flows and cycles of nutrients
• Chapter 6 is an overview of the various levels at which biodiversity can be examined, while also explaining why it is important for intrinsic reasons as well as the welfare of humans
• Chapter 7 examines the overarching implications of evolution for biological and ecological change
• Chapter 8 describes the major biomes of Earth, from both a global perspective, as well as a North American one
• Chapter 9 provides an explanation of the realm of ecology, while also explaining the underlying context of that subject area to many environmental problems
• Chapter 10 deals with the growth and implications of the human population
• Chapter 11 examines the relationship between resources and sustainable development, within the context of the fields of economics and the more recently emerged perspectives of ecological economics
• Chapter 12 examines renewable resources, and explains why they are the basic underpinning of any economy that is sustainable over the longer term
• Chapter 13 examines the environmental effects of agricultural activities
• Chapter 14 examines the biodiversity crisis, including extinctions and endangerment of species and even entire kinds of ecological communities, as well as mitigations that can be applied, such as the designation of protected areas and the use of softer management practices on working landscapes.
• Chapter 15 examines the evolution of environmental policy in the U.S., the American conservation movement, environmental risk management, sustainability and public policy, and public health and sustainability.
• Chapter 16 examines the human dimensions of sustainability (history, culture, and ethics), and anti-environmental discourse, behavior, and ideology.

Part II

“Humans and the Physical Environment” (Chapters 17-30) offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of how humans interact with their environment, emphasizing environmental geology and environmental chemistry, and concludes by considering environmental economics and sustainable development. These chapters are used by students taking ENVI 201 at Binghamton University.

• Chapter 17 examines the relationship between resources and sustainable development, within the context of the fields of economics and the more recently emerged perspectives of ecological economics
• Chapter 18 looks at the limited supplies of non-renewable resources, and their place in a sustainable human economy
• Chapter 19 explains the broader topics of environmental stressors, as well as the various kinds of pollution and disturbance
• Chapter 20 examines gaseous air pollution and the kinds of damage that are caused
• Chapter 21 looks at climate change and how its recent dynamics appear to be forced by anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases
• Chapter 22 focuses on metals and other toxic elements and some of their environmental effects
• Chapter 23 explains the causes of acidification, with particular attention to surface waters that have been affected by “acid rain”, or the deposition of acidifying gases and precipitation
• Chapter 24 examines problems of surface waters that are not covered in other chapters, such as eutrophication and hydroelectric development
• Chapter 25 looks at oil spills and the damage caused to marine and terrestrial environments
• Chapter 26 explains the various kinds of pesticides and their used, and described case studies of environmental damages that are associated with their use
• Chapter 27 looks at forestry operations and their environmental effects, with particular attention to ecological damages
• Chapter 28 explains urban ecology and the benefits that could be achieves by taking a more ecological approach to planning and the management of green spaces
• Chapter 29 discusses environmental and resource economics.
• Chapter 30 discusses the process of assessing environmental impacts, provides a synthetic overview of ecologically sustainable development, and it considers the prospects for the U.S. and for spaceship Earth.

Features

A special effort has been made to incorporate features that will facilitate learning and enhance an understanding of environmental science:

• Chapter Objectives are presented at the beginning of each chapter that summarize the anticipated learning outcomes
• Key terms are boldfaced where defined in the text, and are listed in a comprehensive glossary
• Focus boxes illustrate the application of important concepts to North American and Global case studies
• In Detail and Environmental Issues boxes provide additional technical information on selected topics
• Images, Figures, and Tables are abundant throughout, many of them being original analyses of publicly available data, and all with an explanatory caption that is further developed within the text
• Questions for Review are presented at the end of each chapter that provide opportunities to test students’ factual and conceptual understanding of the material presented in the chapter
• Questions for Discussion are also presented at the end of each chapter to provide thought-provoking queries that help to stimulate careful reflection and class discussion
• Exploring Issues questions at the end of each chapter provide activities and exercises that help students to delve deeper into environmental issues
• References are listed, by chapter, to help guide users to further reading

Acknowledgements

First, we would like to thank the Binghamton University Provost’s Office for providing financial support for the development of this book through the OER Grant program. We are also grateful for the help that many colleagues and students have provided over the time during which this book has been developed. The idea of developing an OER text for Environmental Studies students at Binghamton University was first suggested by ENVI faculty member Carl Lipo, and contributions have since been made by many individuals. The following people made significant contributions to the editing and production of this text: Sophia Brodie, Courtney Graham, Rachel Chen, Treysha Robinson, and Erin Pierchala. Finally, we are greatly indebted to Bill Freedman, who developed the original version of this OER for his students at Dalhousie University, and elsewhere in Canada.

George A. Meindl

Michael-Luca Natt

Sara Velardi

Environmental Studies Program
Binghamton University
Binghamton, New York