ENVIRON 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Environmental Ethics, Henry David Thoreau, Easter Island
Document Summary
Environ 201 lecture 2 chapters 1 and 6. Natural sciences: ecological and earth systems. Social science: values and human behavior. Our understanding of problems: example: ddt. People differ in their awareness and perception of a problem: policies only happen when something really bad happens. The nature of science: science: systematic process for learning about the world and testing our understanding of it. Scientific method: make an observation, ask a question, form a hypothesis, make a prediction and test it, results will support or reject the hypothesis. The scientific method is part of a larger process: guards against faulty research. Peer review, publication, competition for funding: have to take reports with a grain of salt. Theory: probable cause and effect relationship of evidence that has been observed: tested with a different hypothesis, well tested and accepted, never definitively proven, example: evolution, big bang. Law: indisputable principle that govern the universe: very few laws, need math in order to prove, example: gravity.
