ESCI 1025 - Environmental Science

1. Introduction and basic concepts in environmental science
   1. Environmental problems, their causes, and sustainability
   2. Environmental history
2. Science, systems, matter, and energy
   1. Scientific method
   2. Systems theory and behavior
   3. Law of conservation of matter
   4. Laws of thermodynamics
3. The living world
   1. Ecosystem components, energy flow and matter cycling
   2. Evolution and biodiversity: origins, niches, and adaptation
4. Population
   1. Community ecology, structure, species interaction, succession, and sustainability
   2. Population dynamics, carrying capacity, and conservation biology
5. Land use
   1. Sustaining wild species
   2. Sustaining terrestrial biodiversity: the ecosystem approach
   3. Food resources
6. Geology: processes, hazards, and soils
   1. Geologic processes
   2. Soil formation and soil profiles
   3. Characteristics of soil
   4. Soil erosion, desertification, and salinization
7. Water use
   1. Properties of water
   2. Types of freshwater
   3. Water shortages
8. Pollution
   1. Air pollution
   2. Water pollution
   3. Solid and hazardous waste
9. Earth resources and energy resources and consumption
   1. Nonrenewable mineral resources and fossil fuel resources
   2. Renewable energy, both active and passive
10. Global change
    1. Natural greenhouse effect
    2. Global climate change and possible solutions
11. Ecological and human Health
    1. Risk, toxicology, and human health
    2. Bioaccumulation and bio magnification
12. Sustainable society
    1. This topic and the principles of sustainability are integrated and worked throughout the above topical areas and units in the course
    2. Principles governing sustainability include: the law of conservation of matter, the laws of thermodynamics, the principles of population ecology, as well as principles of ecology especially with respect to understanding the difference between nonrenewable and renewable resources, the concept of irreversible biological loss, and the concept of intergenerational equity.

1. apply the principles of biological ecosystems and the science of ecology to human interactions with the global biosphere and geosphere.
2. apply the principles of ecology, the law of conservation of matter, thermodynamics to humanity’s relationship to the Earth in the areas such as human population, human land use, human water use, human use of energy resources and their consumption, and pollution.
3. identify critical criteria of sustainability based upon the principles of ecology, law of conservation of matter, and the laws of thermodynamics.
4. evaluate the environmental and resource impacts on Planet Earth and human society from the growth of human population and its ecological footprint in the following areas: land-use, water use, energy resources extraction, energy consumption, environmental pollution, within the context of global change.
5. analyze and interpret information using a variety of methods from ecology and related disciplines to address human society’s environmental problems and our approach to them. 
6. evaluate alternative solutions to environmental problems: land-use, water use, loss of wild species and their habitats, depletion of non-renewable mineral resources, air and water pollution, depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuel resources, decline of ocean fisheries, and global climate change.
7. evaluate outcomes of alternative solutions and indicate choices that are viable pathways for a sustainable future human society. 

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