Hi. It’s Mr. Andersen and this is AP Environmental Science video 1. It is the first in a series
of videoes for AP Environmental Science, which is the study of the interactions between the
systems of the earth and the human systems. And I remember visiting Shanghai and looking
across the Bund and thinking, Wow. We have so many people on our planet. We are pushing
well beyond 7 billion. That is going to put pressure on the earth. And understanding how
that works is incredibly important. And so in AP Environmental Science we will study
the interactions between the natural systems and the human systems. So we will begin with
the earth itself. And then we will move through living systems. And finally we will get to
the populations that make up human systems. The rest of the course will be dedicated to
the interactions between these two worlds. And so we begin with land and water use. Then
energy. Finally pollution and climate change. Now since this is a science course it is incredibly
important that we study the practices of science, what it is to be an environmental scientist.
And so this is the outline for the course. We will begin with the earth. We will move
through climate change. But we are going to deal with the practices throughout. Now what
is most important to us as humans are the human populations. And so to live within those
boundaries, it is important that we understand the concept of sustainability. What happens
when you out-step those boundaries? Well we could look to Easter Island for an example.
We used to have a flourishing population there. But what happened was deforestation. They
put pressure on the island itself and their population dropped off dramatically. And so
as we study environmental science we will deal with very important figures. But I wanted
to begin with a very important figure named Rachel Carson. And she really brought us into
the modern age of environmental science. Her study of DDT and the negative consequences
of that, which are illustrated in her book Silent Spring, really brought that to the
forefront of our minds. What are we doing and how are we impacting the environment itself.
And so this is an environmental science course. And so like any other science course we are
going to deal with the scientific method. Now sometimes students will confuse that term
with environmentalism. Now that is going to be a belief system. So we are going to lobby
officials and try to get laws passed that protect the environment. That is not environmental
science. Environmental science is looking for that truth of how we can interact with
the environment. So maybe in the future science will say that DDT is an important tool that
we could use to fight malaria. Then we have to follow that pathway. And so why is this
course important? Well when I was young people used to wear t-shirts that said Save Our Planet.
And it is kind of a funny shirt because the planet, the earth, is going to do fine. It
is how we do on that planet that is important to us. And so a better slogan is Save Our
Society. And why is that a big deal right now? Well we are starting to exceed some,
what have been coined, planetary boundaries by Johan Rockstrom and his group at the Stockholm
Resilience Center. And so if we look at this model, we look at all the things that are
affecting the earth that can then affect society. And so the one that you are probably familiar
with is climate change. But we also have ocean acidification. We have ozone depletion. We
have changes in biogeochemical cycling. Increases in nitrogen and phosphorous. We have fresh
water use, or the availability of fresh water. Deforestation. Biodiversity loss. Particle
pollution and chemical pollution. And so what they have done is said, how can we exist within
the safe boundaries of the earth. So on this model if we say the blue represents where
we can safely live. This yellow dot represents where humanity was preindustrialization. Before
the industrial revolution and the spread of industry around the world, these were our
levels. But now if we look at where we are as far as those boundaries, as far as climate
change, we are increasing the climate, the temperature. And as a result we are going
to have consequences that are beginning to affect society and will continue to affect
society. We are looking at a thee degree increase which is incredible. But if we look at these
other ones, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, our increase in the amount of nitrogen in
the biosphere. Phosphorous. If we look at fresh water use. Deforestation. Biodiversity
loss. A lot of scientists are saying that we are headed into this sixth extinction,
that caused by humans. Now we do not have good models for pollution, but if you put
our earth back, we are exceeding these boundaries. We are putting pressure on the earth. Now
the earth will survive, but humans may not survive in the numbers that we are today.
And so that is why it is important. We have to live within the boundaries of the earth
itself. And so sustainability is incredibly important. Now a model that works is since
industry brought us to this point, industry is going to have to bring us back. And so
this model works for me. If you think of the earth as this boundary of life support and
society exists within that, then what is at the center? What drove industrialization?
It is the economy. And so as we come up with solutions for sustainability, it is not enough
to just say that we should save the earth because that is good. Or we should be altruistic
in that. It has to be an economical driver that is pushing that sustainability. Another
term that you will hear a lot is the idea of an ecological footprint. Since we, I live
in a developed country, I am using more resources on our planet than other people in developing
countries. And so as they become developed that is going to put even more pressure on
the planet. And so that is why this course is incredibly important. It is also why this
is unlike the other sciences that you have probably taken. It is not just going to be
science. It is going to contain the natural sciences but it will also have the social
sciences and the humanities as well. So we are going to be talking about science but
also we will be talking about ethics and law and politics. And so it is really going to
be a fun course to walk through. Also you should remember that this is a science course.
And so as we move forward the AP folks are focussing on the practices of science. So
inside the course itself you should be acting like an environmental scientist. And so you
should not just be learning about environmental sciences, you should be applying it. So if
we start with one of theses practices, asking questions, conducting investigations, this
would be a great field investigation for me to do. So this is the eastern Gallatin, right
outside of Bozeman. And so I could do studies here on water quality over time. But I could
also do studies in the laboratory. I should be doing investigations where I am coming
up with a question and trying to answer that question. Case studies will be incredibly
important as well. Making these connections between what we have learned in the course.
So you are probably familiar with the deep water horizon. There was a fire and that led
to this spread of oil. So this fire, eventually there was a breach of the pipe, and now we
have oil spreading. So to look at where we are, this is in the Gulf of Mexico. This is
Florida. And so we are looking at this area right here. You can see so much oil is spread
out. And in each of these case studies there is something happening to the environment.
And so we have to understand all the ramifications of that. And lots of times it takes decades
to figure out what really has happened. And then finally you are going to take an AP exam
at the end. And so understanding how that AP exam is important right now to understand
what can you do throughout the course to kind of prepare for that. And so analyzing data.
Using mathematics is going to be incredibly important. So let me briefly talk about the
test. And so the first section will be multiple choice. You are going to have 100 questions.
You get 90 minutes to answer those questions. Some will be discrete by themselves and some
will come in big sets. So you might have a map and try to point to different geology
on the planet. And then you will move into the free response. In the free response you
are going to have 1 question that is going to be based in a data set. And so understanding
how to analyze data, both on the multiple choice and the free response is incredibly
important. You will then have 1 document based question. It is always on the pretend city
named Fremont. So it is an article in the Fremont Gazette, for example. And so you are
going to have to analyze that. So connecting the knowledge that you have learned is incredibly
important. And you are also going to have to do a lot of calculating. And what is interesting
is there is no calculator. So prepare for that. So understanding how to solve simple
problems just using mathematics, dimensional analysis and scientific notation. That is
incredibly important as well. And so did you learn the following? Could you fill out this
concept map? Well you could pause the video right now and try to do that. But I will step
you through it. And so what is environmental science? It is the interactions between the
natural systems and the human systems. That will be the earth systems and the living systems
interacting with populations. And so this is interactions right here. We will start
with land water use, energy. We move towards pollution and the pressures we are putting
on the earth and global change. And remember that you want to focus on the practices.
So hopefully you have learned that. And I hope that was helpful.