Environmental science

 Etymology- “ Environ”- means surrounding or enveloping

 Derived from the French word ‘Environner’ which means
to encircle, around or surround.
 Is a multidisciplinary science
 Jacob Van Uerkal (1864-1944) introduced the term
‘environment’ in Ecology

- The study of interaction between human systems and

natural systems.

 Natural systems involve the earth itself and life.

 Human systems are primarily the population of earth

- The academic field that takes physical, biological,

chemical sciences, forestry agricultural science, public
health environmental engineering to study the environment
and discover solutions to environmental problems

The environment consist of four segments or spheres namely:

 Biosphere
 Hemisphere
 Troposphere
 Stratosphere
- includes the study of climate change, natural resources,
energy, pollution and environmental issues

The Elements of the environment:

The Environment is made of interacting systems of physical,

biological and cultural elements inter-related in different
ways, individually as well as collectively.

Physical Elements - Refers to the actual space where living

things are living, the landforms, water bodies, soil, minerals,
rocks and climate.

Biological elements- Refers to the living components living

in the biosphere

Cultural elements - Refers to the economical, social and

political elements that affects the cultural background of the
people

Scope of Environment:

A great number of environment issues have grown in size and

make the system more complex day by day, threatening the
survival of mankind on earth

Environmental studies have become significant for the

following reasons:
  Makes us aware about the importance of protection
and conservation of our mother earth
 Awaken us about the destruction of our environment
and the planet due to the release of different kinds of
pollutants (global)
 The increase in human and animal population
 Industries and other issues or concern that degrade and
destroy nature (industrialization and urbanization)

It is of utmost importance for us to save humanity from

extinction because of our activities constricting the
environment and depleting the biosphere, in the name of
development.

Not only Environmental Science deals with issue and

problems it also finds solution or alternative solution:

1. Goal of development with environmentally sound and

sustainable development.

2. A common goal that will own by all citizens (global aim) to

address different forms of waste that pollute our resources

3. Need for an Alternative solution

4. Need for wise planning of development

Six Major themes that serve as the main concerns of
environmentalist:

1. human population growth

2. sustainability of the human population and nature

3. the global perspective

4. an urbanizing world

5. The connection between people and nature

6. science and values

Misra (1991) has recognized four basic requirements of

environmental management as under:

1.Impact of human activities on the environment

2.Value system

3.Plan and design for sustainable development

4.Environment education

Atmosphere

 the area of air and gas enveloping objects in space, like

stars and planets, or the air around any location
  78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.9 percent
argon, and 0.1 percent other gases.
 Trace amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, water
vapor, and neon are some of the other gases that make
up the remaining 0.1 %.
5 LAYERS OF THE ATMOSPHERE

• Exosphere

 outermost layer of our atmosphere. “Exo” means outside

 very edge of our atmosphere.
 fades away into the realm

• Thermosphere

 raising its temperature to hundreds or at times thousands

of degrees.
 Importance: protect our planet by absorbing harmful
radiation

• Mesosphere

 “Meso” means middle

 coldest region of Earth's atmosphere, close to -100°C
 meteors burn up into small fragments of dust before they
crash to the ground
• Stratosphere

 Helps protect us from ultraviolet radiation (UV) from the

sun
 Ozone layer absorbs most of the UV radiation the sun
sends to us
 Life as we know it wouldn't be possible without this layer
of protection.

Troposphere

 “Tropo” – turning or changing (more weather changes)

 all weather occurs in this lowest layer.
 water or hydrologic cycle (the formation of clouds and
rain)
 lowest layer of our atmosphere
 extends upward to about 10 km (6.2 miles or about
33,000 feet) • densest layer
 air we breathe and the clouds in the sky
 Contains 75% of atmosphere’s mass

How thick is the troposphere in km?

 About 10KM
 Mt. Everest has a highest peak of 8.85 km.
2 notable properties of the troposphere?

• Temperature decreases as you go higher

• Air pressure also decreases as you go higher

WHICH LAYER OF THE ATMOSPHERE CONTAINS THE OZONE

LAYER? STRATOSPHERE

WHICH LAYER OF THE ATMOSPHERE DOES ALL WEATHER TAKE

PLACE? TROPOSPHERE

WHICH LAYER OF THE ATMOSPHERE HAS THE HIGHEST

TEMPERATURE? THERMOSPHERE

REFLECTION - solar radiation bounces back from an object

or surface that it strikes in the atmosphere, on land, or water,
and is not transformed into heat.

SCATERRING - When sunlight enters the atmosphere of the

earth, the atoms and molecules of different gasses present in
the air absorb the light. Then these atoms re- emit light in all
directions

Wind is horizontally moving air. When air is moving

horizontally, we feel it as a wind or breeze.

• Air can also move vertically, it can go up, it can go down

or sink. However, we cannot feel air moving vertically.
Air near the ground surface is heated, gets warmed and rises.
This air has low pressure.

Cold air which has high pressure sinks and replaces the rising
warm air producing the horizontal movement of air called
wind

Winds are named after the direction they come from. You
have probably heard in weather reports the easterly winds
or the easterlies. They were name as such because they
come to our country from the east direction.

The land heats up faster than the sea, but it also cools down
faster than the sea.

Evaporation

 Water to gas (water vapor)

• Condensation

 Water vapor to water droplets

• Precipitation
 • Water fall from sky in forms of
 Rain
 Hails
 snow

Population - consists of all the organisms of a particular

species living in a given area.

Population size

• world population continues to grow,

• As of 1 January 2022, the population of Philippines was

estimated to be 112,321,991 people. This is an increase of
1.58 % (1,748,172 people) compared to population of
110,573,819 the year before...

The impact of so many humans on the environment takes

two major forms:

Consumption of resources such as

 land, food, water, air, fossil fuels and minerals

Waste products as a result of consumption

 pollutants, toxic materials and greenhouse gases


Green House

 are not green in color they are mostly transparent

because they are made of glass
 Clear glass has a special property that permits heat to
enter and trap it inside
 As seen on the diagram with snowman, it allows heat to
enter but does not exit the glass house
 In reality, these glass resembles the gaseous atmosphere
that envelops the earth allowing the heat the reaches to
earth, got trapped inside that gives warmth and heat to
our planet
 To keeping our planet at a suitable temperature for life

Natural Green House Gases(GHGs) occur naturally in the

atmosphere, such as:

 carbon dioxide (CO2)

 methane (CH4)
 nitrous oxide (N2O)
 water vapour (H2O)

Most potent in producing global warming?

 sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

  23,500 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse
gas.

Fluorinated gases

- are man-made / Synthetic GHG

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

 primarily used for cooling and refrigeration

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)

 Coatings for refrigerators , engines.

Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

 electrical switchgear
1800, Environmentalist urged the government to create
National Parks

• preserving these lands to maintain their ecological

biodiversity as well as provide wilderness resources

EARTH DAY

• Senator Gaylord Nelson

• as a way to force this issue onto the national agenda

• First Earth Day in April 1970

• “Earth Day 1970” would come to provide a voice to this
emerging environmental consciousness / awareness

Gaia hypothesis

 also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle,

 proposes that all organisms and their inorganic
surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a
single and self- regulating complex system, maintaining
the conditions for life on the planet
 observing how the biosphere and the evolution of life
forms contribute to the stability of global temperature,
ocean salinity, oxygen in the atmosphere and other
factors of habitability feed back mechanism to maintain
the earth’s homeostasis
 formulated by the chemist James Lovelock and co-
developed by the microbiologist Lynn Margulis

The number one GHG in your list is probably carbon dioxide.

It is the number one GHG because it is the most abundant
among the other GHG’s, comprising 76% of GHG’s emitted
globally. Carbon dioxide is a natural GHG.

Carbon dioxide is part of the natural carbon cycle in our

planet, and this cycle is in a balance. Man’s activities have
disrupted this balance.
Carbon cycle sources :

Carbon moves from the atmosphere to plants.

Carbon moves from plants to animals.

Carbon moves from plants and animals to soils.

Carbon moves from living things to the atmosphere.

Carbon moves from fossil fuels to the atmosphere when fuels

are burned.

Carbon moves from the atmosphere to the oceans.

Global Warming

After Green House and the Greenhouse Gases we will look

into its impacts or effects on our climate.

 We know that Green House Gases are heat trapping

gases that retain heat to make life sustainable on earth.
 These heat trapping gasses usually come from the
different natural processes on earth.
 Because of industrialization and urbanization, the
amount of these gasses increases way beyond the
normal and ideal amount.
  We all know that anything in excess is harmful, same
goes with the amount of these gasses to our climate.
 They increase excessively in amount therefore
atmospheric temperature increases and as an effect of
increase in temperature our climate all over the world,
this is known as Global warming.

 Global Warming Exists Because The Carbon dioxide

(CO2) and other air pollutants and greenhouse gasses
collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar
radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface.
 This Radiation Would Escape Into Space—but these
pollutants, which can last for years to centuries in the
atmosphere, trap the heat and cause the planet to get
hotter.
 That's what's known as the greenhouse effect
 The Earth's temperature had already warmed by 1°C
compared to pre-industrial levels.
 This temperature rise may appear small, but small rises in
temperature translate into big changes for the world’s
climate.

• This is because the amount of extra energy needed to

increase the world’s temperature, even by a little, is vast.
• This extra energy is like force-feeding the global climate
system

Hotter days - Yearly recorded increase in temperature.

Records show that 2015 was the hottest year on record, the
previous record was broken in 2014, and 2016 is expected to
set a new record for the third year in a row. Base on the
Bureau of Meteorology they added purple and magenta
color to forecast map for temperatures up to 540 C

Ocean water warming - oceans have absorbed most of the

extra heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) more than the air –
making the seas both warmer and more acidic. threatens
shellfish, including the tiny crustaceans without which marine
food chains would collapse Warming waters are bleaching
coral reefs and driving stronger storms.

Thermal expansion - temperature increases, seawater

expands contributing to sea level rise, changes in ocean
circulation and higher seabed water temperature

Permafrost and Polar regions melting Increased ocean

temperatures are melting glaciers and ice caps all over the
world. Melted ice increases the volume of water in our
oceans.
Rising sea levels Warmer temperatures also result in the
expansion of the water's mass, which causes sea levels to
rise, threatening low-lying islands and coastal cities (coastal
erosion

Extreme weather conditions

 El Niño and La Niña events are a natural part of the

global climate system.
 occur when the Pacific Ocean and the atmosphere
above it change from their neutral ('normal') state for
several seasons
 El Niño events are associated with a warming of the
central and eastern tropical Pacific, while La Niña events
are the reverse, with a sustained cooling of these same
areas.
 changes in the Pacific Ocean and its overlying
atmosphere occur in a cycle known as the El Niño–
Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
 atmosphere and ocean interact, reinforcing each other
and creating a 'feedback loop' that amplifies changes
in the state of the ocean into ENSO event

Climate Change
  The temperature of the troposphere is now slightly under
1°C above the pre-industrial period and is continuing to
rise due to increasing emission of greenhouse gasses.
 This warming is characterized by less predictable,
increasingly severe weather events, which include the
following

Temperatures: Extremes temperature are setting new

records : heat waves are experienced in some countries ,
fewer days of extreme cold, though these do occur in the
northern hemisphere due to distortion of the polar vortex.

Droughts: affecting farmland and habitat are becoming

longer lasting – in many cases lasting over 5 years and
reducing river flows.

Evaporation: Increased evaporation of water from soil and

lakes occurs because the troposphere is getting warmer and
able to hold more water in the form of vapor.

Wind Events such as cyclones and tornadoes may be less

frequent but are more powerful and destructive, their
strength increased by rising sea surface temperature.
Rainfall: In some areas rainfall has become less frequent but
heavier and of longer duration, while hail storms have
become more severe, often with larger hail stones.

Combined, these events result in ferocious bushfires which

are increasingly difficult to control, causing huge losses of
trees, vegetation, fauna and property – including livestock –
all becoming more and more costly to replace, more often
forcing abandonment.

They also enable pathogens and pests such as mountain

pine beetles to invade and kill millions of trees and the
spread of vectors carrying human diseases into areas
hitherto free of them.

Wind events, often accompanied by heavy rainfall, are

becoming more frequent and often result in flooding, loss of
human life, damage to property, the environment and crop
losses.

They produce tidal surges which erode coastlines and flood

low lying land.

Global warming is the gradual increase of Earth's Surface

temperature.
Climate change is the long term change in global weather
patterns.

Ozone

 is a part of the gaseous envelop that protects us against

radiation (UV rays)
 Invisible protective layer of earth
 much less stable than regular (O2) oxygen molecules
 Ozone gas- composed of three atoms of oxygen (O3)
 very prone to react chemically with other substances
 located both in the Earth's upper atmosphere and at
ground level
 can be good or bad, depending on where it is located.

 90% of the ozone in the atmosphere sits in the

stratosphere, the layer of atmosphere between about 10
and 50 kilometers altitude.
 The total mass of ozone in the atmosphere is about 3
billion metric tons.
 The peak concentration of ozone occurs at an altitude
of roughly 32 kilometers (20 miles) above the surface of
the Earth. can be as high as 15 parts per million (0.0015
percent)
  Ozone concentration varies with altitude
 Peak concentrations, an average of 8 molecules of
ozone per million molecules between an altitude of 30
and 35 kilometers.

Good ozone :

 occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere where it forms

a protective layer that serve as protective shield against
the harmful ultraviolet rays
 partially destroyed by different human activities and the
use of different kinds of chemicals
 forms when a photon of ultraviolet "light" from the Sun hits
a normal oxygen molecule (O2), breaking it apart

Ground-level ozone/smog (Bad Ozone)

 •also called Tropospheric Ozone

 •A range of chemical reactions forms this bad ozone
when the sun hits various human-created pollutants
including nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and
hydrocarbons or the volatile organic compounds (VOC)
 • Ozone concentrations can reach unhealthful levels
when the weather is hot and sunny with little or no
wind.
 •Ground ozone can irritate the throat and lungs and
causes a burning sensation in eyes.
 •Ozone also harms plants and damages some types of
materials, especially objects made of rubber.

Ozone hole:

 A certain part of the atmosphere where the ozone layer

is thinnest
 Not literally hole
 Antarctic Pole/region ( Antarctic Ozone Hole)
 Thickness of ozone varies with altitude
 Average is about 300 Dobson (unit in measuring ozone)
 Equivalent into 3 mm

The Chemical Reaction:

 Chemicals- CHC’s- release in the lower atmosphere-

persist for
 years and eventually reach the stratosphere
 The UV light acts upon these chemicals and break the
bonds
 between chlorines
  Free chlorine participate in chemical reaction that
destroys O3
 Since in the polar Antarctic stratospheric region is cold
and sunlight
 is low, the concentration of these molecules pile up and
air is calm the temperature is cold, high in moisture and
almost pollutants are there
 And when the sun returns to its position and hit these
pollutants and chlorine breaks apart and attached to
the O3 ( catalytic reaction)

Halogen source gases that contribute to ozone depletion

are mostly chlorine- and bromine- containing chemicals

Equivalent Effective Stratospheric Chlorine (EESC) is a

convenient parameter we use to estimate the amount of
stratospheric ozone depletion

The higher the values of EESC the more chlorine is available

for the destruction of ozone.

Montreal protocol, 1987:

The depletion of the ozone layer is a global issue, and

environmentalists are developing strategies to control the
thinning of the ozone layer. The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) successfully negotiated an agreement
between the nations to limit CFCs production to half the level
of 1986. All manufacturing companies are now required to
produce CFC-free refrigerators all around the world.

Different kinds of winds

SEA breezes

• Clockwise direction

LAND breezes

• Counter clock