environmental science

3/10 Lecture 1

Why we need a class on forests & humans?
a. cultural and spiritual values : trees/ wildlife who live in forests have spiritual values for almost every culture in this world (trees part of folklore date back 4000 years, native people still practice nature-based culture)
b. humans/ plants/ animals survive on food, water and energy that from forests and their ecosystem services:
* Forests provide subsistence survival (for half the globe) & commercial products globally (energy, food, materials)
* Trees equates to lots of money
c. humans/ plants/ animals con't :
* Plant/ animal biodiversity higher in forests because of abundant survival resources
* Food security is higher when forests grow adjacent to agricultural fields
d. forests mitigate environmental & climate change impacts:
* forests sequester(隔绝) carbon& pollutants emitted by human land-use activities or energy production using fossil fuels.
* Forests are renewable resources
BUT…..We live in an Anthropocene world= geologic epoch (新纪元) where human impacts are as important as natural processes.
Anthropocene Result: Amazon rainforest ability to soak up carbon dioxide is falling. by Eli Kintisch(某记者)
BUT…we the people of the industrialized world have a problem…
Today, our reverence for forests is a highly controlled experience that isolates us from the forest but provides us a non-threatening scenic view or experience.
(eg: no predator is waiting to make dinner out of you)
Repercussions (反响，反射) of our nature education:
The western world connections to nature…look but not touch nature
Reasons why lost real connections to nature:
a. Much of environmental education today…museum mentality
b. Nature is a composed exhibit (展览品) on the other side of the glass. (Children can look at it and study it, but they can't do anything with it)
c. The message is: nature is fragile. Look, but don't touch.
BUT…there is a hope for us: reverence (尊敬) for forests is alive today—not just in the past!
Eg 1: participants astride(跨着) a huge log slide down a hill
Eg2: huge timber used as sacred pillars (柱子)
Wood is good for your body and brain
a. residents in aged care facilities interact more with each other when surrounded by wood
b. students in classrooms that feature more wood have lower heart rates and stress responses than students in classrooms with plastic and metal
c. two out of three workers prefer offices with wooden chairs, desks and blinds(百叶窗)over the same office with those items made from plastic.
Attitudes towards forests in the past— Reverence, fear, utilitarian.
[Q 4: Why is human food security linked to adjacent forest areas? 
Many people around the world are dependent on gathering food from the forest. For example, parts of Africa gather bugs, plants, and fruits to eat or sell. The forest provides people with food to eat and sell, which allows people to have food security, without the forests, people would not have the resources to live. However, the declining number of trees is not looking promising for the future generations.
Q5: Where does most of our fresh drinking water come from in the US? 
Water comes from forest lands that capture it from rain or 'mine' from ground water in the US.
Q 9: in industrialized countries, what kind of nature experience is typical for people when they 'walk on the wild side'?
Like the Bellevue Botanical Garden, where second-growth forest]


3/31 Lecture 2
一. Why do humans like trees? (why do humans have a psychological link to trees?)
二. 3 reasons why past global societies revered trees:
a. respect for tree longevity—seasonal cycles of life
In past: tree cults(祭仪) glorified the fertility, strength, longevity of trees (human life short in past, so they value sth that lives a long time，
Also, trees keep a record of climates, fires that it experienced)
Eg: in Central African Republic, oubangui people plant a tree for a newborn child, child's development is linked to the growth of the tree.
b. human values codified in mythology to protect forests (human values codified(将..变成法典) as behavioral rules in nature centric societies)—trees represent what society values most for their own survival
eg: women of Indian villages worshipping peepal tree.
Eg: Silvanus—the roman god of forests, groves, wild fields
Today, some forestry terms derived from Silvanus(the roman god), groves and wild fields—silva
—silvical
—silvics
—silviculture
* Story included in Nordic folklore—use of story to pass on knowledge.
Eg: Baldur was beautiful, he is the god of peace, beauty and tranquility (宁静)
c. symbols of traditional science, culture, political, religious enlightenment
* Some trees linked to enlightenment, for example, Nordic mythology had the ash tree as a tree of life.
* Nordic (北欧的) mythology:　Norse god = Odin, to get wisdom, Odin gave one eye to drink from well and hung himself upside down for 9 days upon the world tree Yggdrasil.
Conclusion:　In Nordic mythology a branch of the tree of life or Yggdrasil was used to 'make humans' but to also hold together the nine world.
Tree of life myth from north America: the world on the turtle's back. Sky woman built north America on the turtle's back by planting bark taken from the tree in the sky.
Another example: Newton found the law sitting under the tree.
*What do creation stories of the world tell us?
---teach us how to make sustainable decisions and how parts of the world work together.
Today, forestry terms derived from Silvanus (the roman god of forests):
a. the mistletoe—symbol of love
三. Values trigger global conflicts over resources/ land:
* Dark side of revering or symbolizing trees (Importance of symbols reflect beliefs of a group of people) ----A tree symbolizing a people's belief, therefore destroyed
Until recently, Industrialized country's saw :
a. forests are pristine/natural if humans are kept out of them
b. forests conservation only possible without humans
How do you design protected areas if you hold this industrialized world view?
a. establish biosphere reserves—zones where humans not allowed to collect resources
b. build parks—remove indigenous people from lands for conservation purposes since only degrade these lands and eat animals of conservation interest.
Get the biosphere reserve model:
The old biosphere reserve model (Biosphere reserve zonation, from source "UNESCO") : a. core area—no people for protected areas
b. butter zone—people collect forest materials
c. transition zone—people can live
parks, biosphere reserves—eviction(驱逐) indigenous peoples:
A. Industrialized world: a. value forests for their conservation values—not indigenous cultures
b. remove indigenous groups from their customary lands to conserve them
c. practice still continues today
B. parks cannot be separated from people
*Conflicts—a. international conservation groups & industrialized countries
b. regional/ national governments economic profit cutting forests (eg: developing countries or emerging economy countries)
c. political elites & national governments
d. forest dependent people & indigenous communities
e. international economic markets
* However, today industrialized societies revere unique collectible things.
We value "pets" or "rare collectable animals" or animal parts as medicinal or aphrodisiacs (春药)


4/ 1 Lecture 3
Protected areas are the earliest and most widespread conservation tools used by human societies. Protected area 分成两种
1. Small scale, bottom up control――Sacred groves.
Sacred groves definition: set-up & controlled by local communities, village.
Few trees to several acres of forests or natural vegetation dedicated to local folk deities.
Types of sacred groves: a. traditional sacred groves—places where village deity resides and has survival resources that community controls, protects its uses.
Once established outside all settlements.
NOTE: primary forest means is old forest that has not been cut down
b. temple groves—created around a temple and conserved
c. groves around burial or cremation grounds
2. Large scale, top-down control:
Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism—established edicts for how to interact with nature.
*　sacred groves resource uses & protected (What resources do sacred groves provide communities?)
---materials protected in traditional sacred groves were human survival resources:
a. non-timber products : grazing for domesticated animals, honey….
b. provide hunting grounds
c. conservation of soil and water
* Ecological benefits of sacred groves:
a. conservation of biodiversity
b. recharge of aquifers
c. soil conservation
Why have sacred groves persisted to today (why early protected areas survived)?
a. locally controlled by small, flexible societies
b. community members protect the grove
c. protection of sacred sites and natural resources inseparable
d. regulated by cultural taboos, constraints passed down through oral history.
* the park concept vs. sacred groves:
a. parks designed as public space using public lands held in trust by a government
b. parks designed for public recreation/wilderness areas—not to protect consumed resources by local communities
c. parks are large scale, top-down controlled
* Why us developed the model of parks?
……need to go back to European colonial period in North America:
2 negatives of Colonization—a. did not pay attention to indigenous community rights
b. was over-exploiting forests & resources in unenvironmental way
Details: to control new conquered lands, us government gave federal domain--------land given away in place of money
--sovereignty: land given away to us citizens
--privatization: minimize government control of citizens
Conclusion: how the land was disposed off (处理掉) is what stimulated the development of conservation values!!
Impact of railroad land grants:
a. corruption and misallocation
b. deforestation(森林采伐)
c. fires
Results: all these behaviors then call for change & conserving resources
The arts raised people's consciousness of nature which supported the idear of establishing public parks!!
Establishing first national park was not easy…
Evidence of Lack of Public Support:
a. Bills to create the Park Service failed continually in Congress
b. Public didn't know about parks or care about their condition
c. Public visitation was low.* establishing Yellowstone national park in 1872 was a war on native Americans:
Established on federal government set aside land. eg: public domain lands
native Americans were relocated
US Calvary managed, guarded gates & borders of Yellowstone until 1917
Native Americans were not allowed to enter Yellowstone National Park to practice their traditional culture until 12 years ago.
A WORM took to implement the 1st conservation movement in the US!
Story:　a. british needed to find a solution to shipworms
b. they found a tree species that is resistant to worms
c. Pinchot (American ) started " Conservation Movement"
Why did the Conservation Movement not originate in Spain or Portugal and in the lands they conquered?
---Squatters Rights : there is the inherent right of latin American people to enter and hold government land
Conclusion: after 800 yrs or 30 generations (700 - 1500), Spain & Portugal became nations of fighters: the best and most brutal fighters the world had ever known! A legacy: any person could hold on to land by force if necessary and lay claim to the land.
Why does the park model need to change?
Results of US park model concept:
Parks viewed as Scenic vistas & public playgrounds, wilderness
1. People separate from protected areas. Top-down management, no local knowledge.
2. Parks became biological islands.


4/6 Lecture 4
*Fear of forests: 2 terms describes it—Hylophobia: fear of the dark or of night
Nyctohylophia: fear of dark wooded areas or of forests at night.
Repercussions of fearing forests: a. no impact on forests since people avoid going into them.
b. total destruction of forests, get rid of them.
* Utilitarian attitudes towards forests:
Definition of utilitarian=a doctrine that everything has a use& should be used.
History fact: forest over exploitation (leads to) societal collapse.
Societal collapse:
The 1st example: Sumer civilization in Mesopotamia
1st recorded epic recounting (叙述) a mythological story—epic of Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh, king of sumer, was searching for immortality, he didn't want to die.
This epic describes the overexploitation of the cedar forests in present day Mesopotamia. The world's first great culture and civilization is sumer in Mesopotamia.
The Sumerians fouded the great city of Ur at the peak of the "bronze age".
(Bronze tools such as axes, hammers, hoes, and sickles facilitated common labor)


Q : why do you need wood during a bronze age?
-- Wood used to make charcoal(木炭) which burned at a high enough temperature to heat foundry(铸造) furnaces to melt rock ore(矿石) to get copper to then make bronze.
So then, Sumerians ultimately destroyed forests.
Q: what finally caused them to reach a tipping(倾翻) point?
a. Trees were felled and placed in the river systems causing salt, silt, and logs wooden debris to fill the upper reaches of the waterways.
b. Hillsides and mountainous areas were bared and the salt-rich sedimentary rocks of the north eroded rapidly. Then increased salinization caused decline in crop yields.
Conclusion: Declining food production due to soil-salinization was the main factors in collapse of the Sumerians.The 2st example: Easter Island:
a. Competition to build big statues
b. Cut forests down to move statues around the island
c. Ate everything edible on island
d. No wood to build boats for fishing
Result: human food security lost, starvation and death
One theory why Easter Island collapsed: deforestation caused by building of large statues for religious purposes.
Wood used to build: massive sleds(雪橇) to hold the statues.
Wooden skids(滑道)
Large ropes
Furthermore, the islanders ate dolphin, but due to deforestation, islanders unable to fish to maintain dolphin in their diet.
3st example— the start of European deforestation:
In Europe before 1200 CE (Medieval Europe):
a. Forests mainly controlled and used by rulers for hunting or as private reserves
b. The Church was more powerful than Kings and unified societies during this time
c. Forests had little economic value
d. Forests were given away by noblemen to the church to gain the church's favor or to not pay a tithe. (税)
First, Catholic Church started deforestation in Europe:
Benedictine orders have an important role to play in deforestation. 400 Benedictine monasteries(修道院) are built, that is why European forests began to be cut down.