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BES 126
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
UNDERSTANDING OUR
ENVIRONMENT
Author/s
Nurfaina L. Gumaga
Kino Jio P. Hadap
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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WESTERN MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY
Copyright © by Western Mindanao State University
All rights reserved. Published (Year)
Printed in the Philippines
ISBN 978-971-0487-42-4
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed
in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or
retrieval system, without prior written permission of
WESTERN MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Background of the Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Objectives of the Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Topic outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Try this . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Think ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Read and ponder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Answer to check your progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

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BACKGROUND OF THE MODULE
This module was made to provide knowledge and help the students understand the
environment. Through this topic, students know what to do when it comes to our
environment.
OBJECTIVES OF THE MODULE
The objectives are presented to you in the following way.
1. Information: This is learning material containing information about our environment.
2. Practice exercises: These activities have answers that appear immediately after the
questions.
INTRODUCTION
An Environment is everything that is around us, which includes both living and nonliving
things such as soil, water, animals, and plants, which adapt themselves to their
surroundings. It is nature’s gift that helps in nourishing life on earth.
Objectives:
Lesson Title: Dynamic Equilibrium in Translation. Lesson Outcomes:
At the end of this topic the learner should be able to:
1. Understand where our ideas about the environment come from.
2. Identify some early thinkers on environment and resources and contrast some of
their ideas.
3. Describe sustainable development and its goals.
Topic Outline:
 Definition of Environment
 The four distinct stages
 Definition of Sustainable Development
 The UN identified Sustainable Development Goals

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Try This!
 What is the basis of Roosevelt’s and Pinchot’s policies?
Think A Head!
Answer the following questions.
1. Biocentric Preservation is a philosophy that resources should be used for the
greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time. (true/false)
2. Environmentalism is an active participation in attempts to solve environmental
pollution and resource problems.(true/false)
3. There are 3 Distinct Historical Stages. (true/false)
Read and Ponder!
1.2 WHERE DO OUR IDEAS ABOUT OUR ENVIRONMENT COME FROM?
Utilitarian Conservation
A philosophy that resources should be used for the greatest good for the greatest number
for the longest time.
Biocentric Preservation
A philosophy that emphasizes the fundamental right of living organisms to exist and to
pursue their own goods.
Environmentalism
Active participation in attempts to solve environmental pollution and resource problems.
Sustainable Development
Improving well-being and the standard of life over the long term; that is, meeting the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.
Global Environmentalism
A concern for, and action to help solve global environmental restoration.

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Four Distinct Historical Stages
We can divide conservation history and environmental activism into at least four distinct
stages: (1) pragmatic resource conservation, (2) moral and aesthetic nature preservation, (3)
a growing concern about health and ecological damage caused by pollution, and (4) global
environmental citizenship.
STAGE 1. RESOURCE WASTE-INSPIRED PRAGMATIC, UTILITARIAN
CONSERVATION
George Perkins Marsh
Many historians consider the publication of Man and
Nature in 1864 by geographer George Perkins Marsh as the
wellspring of environmental protection in North America.
Marsh, who also was a lawyer, politician, and diplomat,
traveled widely around the Mediterranean as part of his
diplomatic duties in Turkey and Italy.
President Theodore Roosevelt
In 1905, Roosevelt, who was the leader of the populist,
progressive movement, moved the Forest Service out of
the corruption-filled Interior Department into the
Department of Agriculture.
Gifford Pinchot
Was the first native-born professional forester in North
America, became the founding head of this new agency.
He put resource management on an honest, rational, and
scientific basis for the first time in our history.

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STAGE 2. ETHICAL AND AESTHETIC CONCERNS INSPIRED THE
PRESERVATION MOVEMENT
John Muir
John Muir was a geologist, author, and first president of the
Sierra Club. He strenuously opposed Pinchot’s utilitarian
approach. Muir argued that nature deserves to exist for its
own sake, regardless of its usefulness to us.
Aldo Leopold
In 1935, pioneering wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold bought a
small, worn-out farm in central Wisconsin. He wrote of “the
land ethic,” by which we should care for the land because
it’s the right thing to do—as well as the smart thing.
STAGE 3. RISING POLLUTION LEVELS LED TO THE MODERN
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson wrote the Silent Spring and published in 1962,
awakened the public to the threats of pollution and toxic
chemicals to humans as well as other species.

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David Brower
David Brower, who fought to protect public lands from
industrial destruction and biologist Barry Commoner. Brower,
while executive director of the Sierra Club, Friends of the
Earth, and the Earth Island Institute, introduced many of the
techniques of modern environmentalism, including litigation,
intervention in regulatory hearings, book and calendar
publishing, and using mass media for publicity campaigns.
Barry Commoner
Barry Commoner was principally interested in
environmental health—an issue that is especially urgent
for low-income, minority, and inner-city residents.
Trained as a molecular biologist, Commoner protested
the health impacts of nuclear testing and of industrial
pollution, hazards revealed by his work as a biologist.
Many of today’s efforts to curb climate change or reduce
biodiversity losses are led by scientists who raise the
alarm about environmental problems.
STAGE 4. ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY IS TIED TO SOCIAL PROGRESS
Wangari Maathai
In 1977, Dr. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in
her native Kenya as a way of both organizing poor rural
women and restoring their environment. Beginning at a
small, local scale, this organization has grown to more than
600 grassroots networks across Kenya.

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1.3 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
∙ Poverty affects quality of life in many ways.
∙ Poverty has declined dramatically in recent years, but so has environmental quality.
∙ Sustainable development aims to reduce poverty without damaging environmental resources.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: MEETING CURRENT NEEDS WITHOUT
COMPROMISING FUTURE NEEDS
Most poor nations, and most poor families, desperately want to become wealthier, to have more
material goods, more food, and more cars, lights, computers, and other amenities. Can everyone
have their share without destroying our shared environment? One answer that has been proposed
for this dilemma is sustainable development, the idea that the needs of the present can be met
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. . Development
means improving people’s lives. Sustainable development, then, means progress in human well-
being that can be extended or prolonged over many generations.

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THE UN HAS IDENTIFIED SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Beginning in 2016, the United Nations initiated a program to promote 17 Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs). The goals are ambitious and global, and they include eliminating the most severe
poverty and hunger, promoting health, education, and gender equality, providing safe water and
clean energy, and preserving biodiversity. This global effort, developed by representatives of the
member states of the UN, seeks to coordinate data gathering and reporting, so that countries can
monitor their progress, to share resources, and to promote sustainable investment in developing
areas.
COULD WE ELIMINATE ACUTE POVERTY THROUGH AID?
Economist Jeffery Sachs, director of the UN Millennium Development Project, says we could end
extreme poverty worldwide by 2025 if the richer countries would donate just 0.7 percent of their
national income for development aid in the poorest nations. These funds could be used for universal
childhood vaccination against common infectious diseases, access to primary schools for everyone,
family planning and maternal health services, safe drinking water and sanitation for all, food
supplements for the hungry, and microcredit loans to promote self-employment.
The United States, the world’s largest total donor, sets aside only 0.16 percent of its gross domestic
product for development aid. That amounts to about 18 cents per citizen per day for both private
and government aid to foreign nations. As former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien said, “Aid

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1.4 Core Concepts In Sustainable Development
●“Ecosystem services” is a term for goods, services, and products we rely on; often these are
invisible.
●Shared resources and ecosystem services can be described as “common property,” or as a
“commons.” Managing common property is a key challenge
●Indigenous peoples often protect biodiversity.
A household that consumes abundant consumer goods, foods, and energy brings in a great deal of
natural resource–based materials; that household also disposes of a great deal of materials.
Conversely, a household that consumes very little also tends to produce little waste.
How do we describe resource use?
The natural world supplies the water, food, metals, energy, and other resources we use.
Because we use so many kinds of resources, one widely used measure for evaluating resource
consumption is the ecological footprint.
Another widely used concept for describing resource use is throughput, the amount of material or
resources that flow through a system. A household that consumes abundant consumer goods, foods,
and energy brings in a great deal of natural resource–based materials; that household also disposes
of a great deal of materials. Conversely, a household that consumes very little also tends to produce
little waste.
How can we protect these services over the long term?
One of the answers to this basic question was given in an essay entitled “Tragedy of the
Commons,” published in 1968 in the journal Science by ecologist Garret Hardin.
Hardin argued that population growth leads inevitably to overuse and then destruction of common
resources—such as shared pastures, unregulated fisheries, fresh water, land, and clean air.
Hardin proposed that there are only two ways to avoid this destruction: a system of private
property, in which owners protect resources because of self interest , or coercive regulation by the
state.

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What conditions can help communities manage their commons over the long
term?
Many strategies exist, but Ostrom and her colleagues found that some conditions occur frequently in
successful cases.
Among these are (1) effective and inexpensive monitoring of resource use;
(2) an ability to exclude outsiders, who don’t understand rules of use; and
(3) frequent face-to-face communications and strong social networks among users, which reduce
distrust and promote communication about the state of the resource
What type of institution is best for managing a global commons, such as
climate or biodiversity?
Garret Hardin, with many others, has argued that local solutions to climate change are irrelevant as
long as countries and international institutions fail to make policy changes.
It is also important to invest in smaller, local, even individual policy changes, whose effects and ideas
may spread contagiously or inform broader improvements in resource management
Indigenous peoples often protect biodiversity
Indigenous lands make up around 20% of the Earth's territory, containing 80% of the world's
remaining biodiversity—a sign Indigenous Peoples are the most effective stewards of the
environment.
Development challenges are especially severe for indigenous peoples in both rich and poor
countries. Typically, descendants of the original inhabitants of an area taken over by more powerful
outsiders, indigenous peoples are distinct from their country’s dominant language, culture, religion,
and racial communities.
Consequently, these groups often generally are the least powerful, most neglected groups in an
area. Of the world’s nearly 6,000 recognized cultures, 5,000 are indigenous; and these account for
only about 10 percent of the total world population.
At least half of the world’s 6,000 distinct languages are dying because they are no longer taught to
children. When the last elders who still speak the language die, so will the culture that was its origin.
Recognizing native land rights and promoting political pluralism can be among the best ways to
safeguard ecological processes and endangered species. A few countries, such as Papua New Guinea,
Fiji, Ecuador, Canada, and Australia, acknowledge indigenous title to extensive land areas. As the
Kuna Indians of Panama say, “Where there are forests, there are native people, and where there are
native people, there are forests.”
Try This!
●What is the role of indigenous people to biodiversity?

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1.5 Environmental Ethics, Faith, And Justice
●Moral extensionism means extending value beyond ourselves.
●Many faiths encourage stewardship because they see divine value in our environment
● Environmental justice involves human rights and environmental justice.
The ways we interpret environmental issues, or our decisions about what we should or
should not do with natural resources, depend partly on our basic worldviews. Perhaps you have a
basic ethical assumption that you should be kind to your neighbors, or that you should try to
contribute in positive ways to your community.
Do you have similar responsibilities to take care of your environment? To conserve energy?
Your position on these questions is partly a matter of ethics, or your sense of what is right and
wrong. Some of these ideas you learn early in life; some might change over time.
In ancient Greece, many philosophers who were concerned with ethics and morality owned slaves. A
slave owner could mistreat or even kill a slave with little or no consequences.
most societies now consider land, water, forests, and other natural resources as private property. It
is the owner’s right to conserve or degrade those private resources as they like.
Often, our core beliefs are so deeply held that we have difficulty even identifying them.
We can extend moral value to people and things
The Greeks granted moral value (value or
worth, based on moral principles) only to
adult male citizens within their own
community.
Women, slaves, and children had few rights
and were essentially treated as property.
an idea known as moral extensionism; that is,
extending moral value to a larger circle of
people, organisms, or objects. In most
countries, women and minorities have basic
civil rights, children cannot be treated as
property.
How we treat other people, animals, or things
can also depend on whether we believe they
have inherent value (an intrinsic right to exist)
or instrumental value (usefulness to
someone).

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Does this apply to other species?
Does this apply to other species? Domestic animals clearly have an instrumental value because they
are useful to (or give comfort to) their owners. But some philosophers would say they also have
inherent values and interests
Some people believe that even nonliving things also
have inherent worth. Rocks, rivers, mountains,
landscapes, and certainly the earth itself, have value.
Mineral King Valley at the southern border of Sequoia
National Park was the focus of an important
environmental law case in 1969. The Disney
Corporation wanted to build a ski resort here, but the
Sierra Club sued to protect the valley on behalf of the
trees, rocks, and native wildlife.
Many faiths promote conservation and justice
Ethical and moral values are often rooted in religious traditions, which try to guide us in what is right
and wrong to do.
religious organizations have begun to take stands on environmental concerns. They recognize that
some of our most pressing environmental problems don’t need technological or scientific solutions.
Are we willing to take the steps necessary to stop global climate change? Do our values and ethics
require us to do so? In what ways might religious views influence our attitudes toward nature?
Environmental scientists have long been concerned about religious perspectives. In 1967, historian
Lynn White Jr. published a widely influential paper, “The Historic Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.” He
argued that Christian societies have often exploited natural resources carelessly because the Bible
says that God commanded Adam and Eve to dominate nature: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon
the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
many Christians to insist that it is our responsibility to
act as stewards of nature, and to care for God’s
creations. The idea of stewardship, or taking care of the
resources we are given, inspires many religious leaders
to promote conservation.
“Creation care” is a term that has become prominent
among evangelical Christians in the United States. In
1995, representatives of nine major religions met in
Ohito, Japan, to discuss their various traditions’ views
of environmental stewardship. In recent years, religious
organizations have played important roles in nature
protection. A coalition of evangelical Christians has
been instrumental in promoting stewardship of many

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aspects of our environment, from rare plants and animals to our global climate.
Many religious organizations are also working for integrated justice and environmental goals.
Interfaith Power and Light is an organization promoting indigenous interests, clean energy, and
greenhouse gas reduction.
. The Koran teaches that “each being exists by virtue of the truth and is also owed its due according
to nature,” a view that extends moral rights and value to all other creatures. Hinduism and
Buddhism teach ahimsa, or the practice of not harming other living creatures, because all living
beings are divinely connected.
Many religions emphasize the divine relationships among humans and
the natural world.
Environmental justice integrates civil rights and environmental protection
People of color in the United States and around the world are subjected to a
disproportionately high level of environmental health risks in their neighborhoods and on their jobs.
Minorities, who tend to be poorer and more disadvantaged than other residents, work in the dirtiest
jobs where they are exposed to toxic chemicals and other hazards.
Environmental justice combines civil rights with environmental protection to demand a safe,
healthy, life-giving environment for everyone.
A recent study using “distance-based” methods found an even greater correlation between race and
location of hazardous waste facilities.
Racial prejudice is a belief that people are inferior merely because of their race. Environmental
racism is inequitable distribution of environmental hazards based on race. Evidence of
environmental racism can be seen in lead poisoning in children. Evidence of environmental racism
can be seen in lead poisoning in children.
The practice of targeting poor communities of color in the developing nations for waste disposal or
experimentation with risky technologies has been described as toxic colonialism.
Poor minority communities at home and abroad are being increasingly targeted as places to dump
unwanted wastes. Although a treaty regulating international shipping of toxics was signed by 105
nations in 1989, millions of tons of toxic and hazardous materials continue to move—legally or
illegally— from the richer countries to the poorer ones every year.

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Answers to Check Your Progress
TRY THIS!
 Pragmatic Utilitarian Conservation
THINK A HEAD!
1. False
2. True
3. False
REFERENCE:
BYJU’s (2020). The Environment. dcaclassroomportal.com.
URL: https://dcaclassroomportal.com/courses/science-skills-grade-6/lessons/the-
environment/
Zzzyyyjjj1. (2018). Where do our ideas come from? Quizlet.com
URL: https://quizlet.com/cn/309189102/12-where-do-our-ideas-about-our-
environment-come-from-flash-cards/
Cunningham, W., & Cunningham, M. A. (2018). ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: A
GLOBAL CONCERN, FOURTEENTH EDITION. Understanding our Environment.
McGraw-Hill Education.

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