Envioronmental Studies
Welcome to Environmental Studies!
The goal of this course is to provide students with the scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies to understand the interrelationships of the natural world, to identify and analyze environmental problems both natural and human-made, to evaluate the risks associated with these problems and examine alternative solutions for resolving and/or preventing them.
Environmental science is interdisciplinary; it embraces a wide variety of topics from different areas of study. Yet there are several major unifying constructs, or themes, that cut across the many topics included in the study of environmental science. The following themes provide a foundation for the structure of the course:
1. Science is a process.
● Science if a method of learning more about the world.
● Science constantly changes the way we understand the world.
2. Energy conversions underlie all ecological processes.
● Energy cannot be created; it must come from somewhere.
● As energy flows through systems, at each step more of it becomes unusable.
3. The Earth is one interconnected system.
● Natural systems change over time and space.
● Biogeochemical systems vary in ability to recover from disturbances.
4. Humans alter natural systems.
● Humans have had an impact on the environment for millions of years.
● Technology and population growth have enabled humans to increase both the rate and scale of their impact on the environment.
5. Environmental problems have a cultural and social context.
● Understanding the role of cultural, social, and economic factors is vital to the development of solutions.
6. Human survival depends on developing practices that will achieve sustainable systems.
● A suitable combination of conservation and development is required.
● Management of common resources is essential.