Earth and Human Activity

Agriculture careers — This site contains a database of some of the careers in the agriculture industry. Each career lists an overview, skills needed, preparation, wages, and outlook for the future. A few of the careers also have a video clip describing the job.

Biometrics online textbook — This online textbook called, Natural Resources Biometrics begins with a review of descriptive statistics, estimation, and hypothesis testing. The following chapters cover one- and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), including multiple comparison methods and interaction assessment, with a strong emphasis on application and interpretation. Simple and multiple linear regressions in a natural resource setting are covered in the next chapters, focusing on correlation, model fitting, residual analysis, and confidence and prediction intervals. The final chapters cover growth and yield models, volume and biomass equations, site index curves, competition indices, importance values, and measures of species diversity, association, and community similarity.

Carbon Footprint Calculator — Lifestyle choices make up our environmental carbon footprint. Measuring ... Calculate your footprint score using the answers you provide to this 5 minute quiz

Case studies Lesson plans — This site provides a comprehensive case study on the lack of environmental sustainability Through scientific research and communication, students work in team to address global problems.

Climate Change — This site has current events climate change articles.

Climate Change online course — This MIT course provides students with a scientific foundation of anthropogenic climate change and an introduction to climate models. It focuses on fundamental physical processes that shape climate (e.g. solar variability, orbital mechanics, greenhouse gases, atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and volcanic and soil aerosols) and on evidence for past and present climate change. During the course they discuss material consequences of climate change, including sea level change, variations in precipitation, vegetation, storminess, and the incidence of disease. This course also examines the science behind mitigation and adaptation proposals.

Ecological Footprint — This site has a means of measuring the global ecological footprint.

Energy hog game — Interactive game on building energy consumption awareness.

Environmental Current Events — This web site chronicles current events regarding the environment and climate change topics.

Global Warming and Climate Change Simulation — This interactive web-based simulation activity illustrates principles of global warming and climate change due to natural and human caused factors. Global Warming explores climate using an Energy Budget Model and predicts Future Climate Change using data in the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Global Warming Lecture — This video was recorded at MIT World Series: Earth System Revolutions - This video presentation validates that human activity played a significant part in global warming. The speaker gives forceful evidence that post-industrial society has brought about enormous change in earth systems, and may cause irreparable damage. Flash must be enabled on your computer to view this video.

Global Warming public health article — This article examines the effects of global warming that are becoming present in human health. This article also explains why this warming is occuring and ways of changing the rising effect.

Healing Earth online book — This online textbook, called Healing Earth, natural resources must be approached from the standpoint of an integral ecology--a standpoint that integrates science, ethics, spirituality, and action. This book promotes a change in human behavior will have to accompany any realistic attempt to preserve and protect Earth's precious natural resources.

Natural hazards database — The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), provides a series of data sets and slides related to natural disasters. These include: earthquake, tsunami, volcano and wildfire data sets. The web page also includes a link to pertinent Google earth maps, along with learning activities for children.

Natural Hazards resources — This portal provides access to maps, data, and other information on the distribution and frequency of natural hazards in the United States. The material is arranged into seven categories: earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanoes, and wildfires. There are also links to disaster emergency and relief organizations and to real-time resources such as RSS feeds, advisories, and the Natural Hazards Support System (NHSS), a system that enables users to monitor events as they occur anywhere on Earth.

Online environmental health course — This online course examines health issues, scientific understanding of causes and possible future approaches to control the major environmental health problems in industrialized and developing countries.

Science and Policy of Natural Hazards MIT online course — This course examines the science of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes and hurricanes and explores the relationships between the science of and policy toward such hazards. It presents the causes and effects of these phenomena, discusses their predictability, and examines how this knowledge influences policy making. This course includes intensive practice in the writing and presentation of scientific research and summaries for policy makers.

Sustainable Scale Project — This site provides a detailed explanation of the ecological footprint. The Ecological Footprint is connected to many of the other approaches to thinking about and measuring scale: Footprint and biocapacity is a way to measure historical human carrying capacity. Most Carrying Capacity studies try to answer a hypothetical quesiton: how many people could live on the planet. The Footprint indicates how much of the planet was occupied by people. This is an historical question that can be empirically determined rather than conjecturing on future possibilities. Footprint analysis provides a means of assessing the impact of population, affluence (consumption) and technology identified in the The IPAT Equation. Footprint was used extensivly in last update of the Limits to Growth to give a summary report of human demand on nature. Footprint translates material flows in areas necessary to support these flows (see Material Flow Analysis). Footprint translates some of the principles of The Natural Step into a resource account (particularly principle 1 and 3). Footprint is an ecological economics tool.

The Greenhouse Effect — This nasa site displays information on the effect of greenhouse gasses on the environment.