environmental science homework help

environmental science homework help

Exploring the Interconnected World of Environmental Science

1. Introduction to Environmental Science

It is not difficult to identify that living in today’s complex world comes with a host of environmental problems. The common list is often related to the air that people breathe, the quality and quantity of their water supplies, the land that provides much of the food that people eat, their energy supplies, gardens and parks in their neighborhood, the oceans and atmosphere that make life on Planet Earth really possible in the first place, the conservation, preservation, and sustainability of resources and ecosystems, and the elimination or reduction of various kinds of pollution. Some points of the environmental agenda seem to be in contradiction with other key concerns of society, such as poverty, vulnerability, inequality, political or economic development, technology, and population. Furthermore, the environmental agenda of many nations seems complex and difficult enough and, therefore, the true worldwide agenda is even more intricate to comprehend and manage.

What is environmental science? Why do we need to study the environment? What are some goals for conducting studies in the field? All of these are important questions that will have different answers based on personal opinions, ideas, values, experiences, backgrounds, and ways of thinking about what it means to be human and what the rest of nature needs as well. This chapter introduces a general and broad overview of the field of environmental science, which is increasingly recognized to be an overall framework needed to help solve today’s complex global environmental challenges. Issues concerning the quality and the state of the environment extend into a wide number of specific issues, topics, problems, and questions.

2. Key Concepts and Principles in Environmental Science

Scientists explore the anatomy of living and non-living systems. Life refers to the complex and dynamic collection of interacting systems found on the Earth. All of Earth’s systems are a part of, and interact with, the living systems. Earth is one of the smallest in the solar system and is the only one we know that has life on it. The science of biology seeks to understand the intricate relationships and mechanisms that make life work. Throughout human history, biological shortfalls have been solved through trial and error learning or through information and knowledge passed down from one generation to another. The burgeoning insight of the relationships in life can be impressively revealed by studying the energy and material flows that move through ecological systems. These interdependent interactions, feedback loops, or controlling activities are what drive Earth’s systems to be self-perpetuating.

Science deals with the relationships among the organisms of the world, as well as with their relationship with the environment in which they find themselves. The role of science is to seek a consistent arrangement of some or all of the physical, biological, and social phenomena in the objective reality of the universe. Science is based both on inductive and deductive reasoning and offers generalizations and explanations which seek to make sense out of the chaotic nature of the universe. Science allows humans to manipulate environmental systems increasingly to the advantage of its species and may also provide the appropriate information and understanding for humans to achieve a balance between development of the environment and ecological interrelationships.

3. Human Impact on the Environment

Part II of this book takes an in-depth “on-site” look at our impacts on many components of the environment. In the chapter journals, specific categories of environmental effects of national and international scale are highlighted. The decreasing availability of material resources for utilization and increasing expense of waste-clearing and environmental mitigation mandates the need for future generations of citizens, including scientists and engineers, who are aware and who possess an understanding of the environments in which they live; these scriptures could serve as focal points in urban studies courses.

The human race has achieved extraordinary progress in its many brief generations. With a tremendous surfeit of many constituents of the physical environment comes the realization that there are limits to the amounts of those materials that can be used and that, at the same time, the quality of the biological environment cannot continue to be excessively degraded without irreversible damage to our planet. Recent studies of the impacts of our activities on various components of the environment are beginning to help us set those limits. It has become evident that both the rate of population growth and our high levels of material consumption per person are the causes of the environmental problems. Yet, by using our intelligence, understanding, and reflecting upon the knowledge of our impact, simplifying activities using less of the materials that affect the environment, and working toward a future absence of necessity or suffering, we might be able to prevent or minimize such damage.

4. Sustainable Solutions and Practices

This list is by no means exhaustive. Social scientists, engineers, legal scholars, and specialists in business, agriculture, and communications actively contribute to providing solutions, as well as to addressing ongoing challenges. Relying on the expertise of many fields requires an interdisciplinary approach, integrating the tools, methods, and concepts from multiple scientific disciplines to address environmental challenges at many scales. Although not every scientist who works in environmental science emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach, those who frame their questions in the context of these larger issues and recognize the need to address the diversity of issues and stakeholders. Integrative perspectives can help scientists make connections among different fields and among the myriad types of knowledge about the natural, managed, and built environments.

– Environmental management – Regulatory enforcement of environmental laws – Environmental policy – Economics – Urban and regional planning – Philosophy and ethics – Environmental education – Experiential learning, such as service learning – Legal defense and enforcement – Sociological studies of environmental understanding and activity – Consumer and proactive marketing – Human health assessments – Event planning

Solving complex problems associated with the environment depends not only on scientific knowledge but also on economic, political, social, and ethical considerations. The fields that contribute to the study of sustainable solutions and practices are as varied as the challenges being addressed. They include:

As scientists gain a better understanding of problems such as toxicity, the sources of pollution, or the relationships between people and the environment, they can guide the development of management and regulatory practices and promote the use of environmentally friendly products and processes. Ideally, scientists are able to help communities by providing tools that can prevent or reduce negative human-health and environmental effects. The goal of such sustainable solutions is to enable people to use the environment without it interfering with the needs of others now and in the future.

5. Current Issues and Future Directions in Environmental Science

New developments and breakthroughs in the traditional environmental areas of measurement science and technology continue to be necessary to further our detailed knowledge of the sources, reactions, chemical and biological processes, and dynamics of constituents in the environment. Specifically, the key scientific and technological advances being sought involve improved prediction and precision associated with the chemical and physical determinations of variable quantities or in time-dependent system properties under controlled or complex sometimes uncharted experimental conditions. This point cannot be overstated. It is well recognized that many major scientific and technological problems that impede progress in environmental science are at root related to measurement capabilities. In many such cases, our ability to prove or disprove existing or paradigm-embodied hypotheses is considerably limited by our lack of adequate, sufficiently accurate instruments or reliable calibration standards for trace species or transient reactions in specific environmental compartments.

Although several remarkable scientific and technological advances have been made in environmental applications, there are many situations where urgent and challenging scientific problems in environmental science remain. The range and scope of these unsolved problems, as well as those of the future, are diverse and span almost the entire range of the scientific endeavor. Atmospheric science, for example, with its focus on meteorology and forecasting, precipitation, cloud and convection processes and microphysics, remote-sensing techniques, radiative transfer parameters, species degradation and transport properties, as well as trace gas and aerosol properties, still requires the support and contributions of specialists primarily in the physical sciences. Any number of further examples could illustrate the broader diversity of unsolved problems and future challenges of the scientific component of environmental science.