Ch01 Overview

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Cunningham and Cunningham: http://physics.hpa.edu/physics/apenvsci/cc15/

Enger: http://physics.hpa.edu/physics/apenvsci/enger/

Course Syllabus: http://physics.hpa.edu/physics/apenvsci/_pdf/APES-syllabus-11-12.pdf

Online exams:

login with your student number for both fields.

Test for chapter one:

Chapter one of our text:

Please remember that these questions are due by 6 PM Sunday night, 8.21.11

Slides from our Thursday class on Global Footprint:

Chapter topics

• Describe several of the most important environmental problems facing the world.

• Are there signs of hope for solving these problems?

• What do we mean by sustainability and sustainable development?

• Why does science support—but rarely prove—particular theories?

• How can scientists know if their research is reliable and important?

• How can critical thinking help us understand environmental issues?

• Explain how we can use graphs and statistics to answer questions in environmental
science.

• What are some arguments for conservation or preservation of nature?

Chapter discussion questions:

Please email your answers to bill@hpa.edu by Wednesday. We can discuss any/all of these in class Monday, or in the review session:

1. Our big island has the capacity to demonstrate sustainability: energy, food, water, culture. Why would we be such a compelling example, and how are we similar to the Apo islanders?
2. What do you think our role is on the planet? Stewards or other?
3. Do you agree with Ward's contention that we have enough solutions, we just need more willpower or education? Explain.
4. What would your version of environmental literacy include? How would you change this for different countries, regions or cultures?
5. One recent study cited that providing clean water for lesser developed countries (LDC) has been the major factor in increasing infant survival and overall health. Our next challenge might be the connection between water and energy. Why do you think this could be so?
6. Recent studies predict an ice-free arctic certainly in your lifetime, perhaps even as early as 2030 (18 years from now). Why then is there a push today to claim underwater resources there? Who has the best claim? Why?
7. If climate change increases as the book indicates, cite several impacts you can imagine.
8. Can you explain why air quality might be hard to enforce, and pollution hard to trace?
9. Biodiversity is a critical topic globally, and we have examples of this here in Hawaii. Humpback whales were hunted almost to extinction, largely by ships based in Lahaina, Maui. Why would this make all surviving humpbacks less robust?
10. Fishing is like farming on land you do not own, and gathering crops you neither fertilize, irrigate, or plant. Why is this so prevalent in LDC countries, and why is it hard for European/American cultures to recognize? Think of the tragedy of the commons.
11. Why would population decline in a country (like Japan, Italy or Russia) be a threat?
12. Renewable energy is sustainable, clean, and avoids many economic and political issues prevalent in our current system. Explain.
13. What does IPAT mean?
14. Sustainability is described as "thinking of forever" Why?
15. Why would indigenous peoples' economic situation lead to biodiversity loss?
16. Why is the scientific tenet of reproducibility difficult today? Recall the Korea example from class.
17. A professor recently stated that since Churchill, Kennedy and King suffered from depression, that leaders without depression could not be great leaders. What is the logical flaw in this reasoning? (look up "Monty python witch scene" on youtube)
18. Statistics are used to describe, compare and explain. Dr. Ravaglia has said "numbers will tell you anything if you torture them enough" and Twain said there were "lies, damn lies, and statistics". Explain.
19. In the statistics exercise, what is the mean fish per hour?
20. How does a random sample clean up any bias in your data?
21. Explain how a histogram might help to clarify outliers, and what is an outlier?
22. Is the age of students in our class a normal or Gaussian distribution?
23. What would a box plot of our class ages show?
24. Significance is often used in studies, called the "t test" or the P value (P<0.05). Look these up and describe each.
25. Use your math skills to describe independent (x) and dependent (y) variables, using an example.
26. What is a "positive relationship" (not including dating)?
27. Fig 1.19 in the text shows a transect. Why is this used?
28. What is a double blind test, and why is it controversial in the case of life saving drugs?
29. Your class is going through many paradigm shifts. List at least two.
30. Look over the baloney detection kit in table 1.3, and give an example in the news today.
31. Take a guess as to why Teddy Roosevelt's interior department might have been corrupt. What did they control?
32. Look up the TVA in wikipedia. Why was it so controversial?
33. "Greatest good, greatest number, greatest time" from Roosevelt sounds a bit like "from each according to his abilities, to each, according to his needs". Who said this, and when?
34. Compare Roosevelt's motives with those of John Muir.
35. Thoreau is often cited as a paragon of naturalism. How would you compare Thoreau to Aldo Leopold?
36. Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring about what?
37. Note this trend: nature as a resource, nature as beauty, nature and pollution, nature and social justice, then nature as global concern. Link each of these to a character cited in the chapter.