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1: Intro to Environmental Science

  • Page ID
    32350
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    • 1.1: What is Environmental Science?
      Environmental science is the dynamic, interdisciplinary study of the interaction of living and non-living parts of the environment, with special focus on the impact of humans on the environment. The study of environmental science includes circumstances, objects, or conditions by which an organism or community is surrounded and the complex ways in which they interact.
    • 1.2: Introduction to Sustainability
      This section introduces the concept of sustainability, which refers to the sociopolitical, scientific, and cultural challenges of living within the means of the earth without significantly impairing its function.
    • 1.3: Environmental Ethics and Environmental Justice
      This page discusses the "Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin, highlighting the risks of unregulated resource use and contrasting it with cooperative management advocated by critics like Elinor Ostrom. It explores different conservation ethics among figures such as Aldo Leopold, Gifford Pinchot, and John Muir, alongside issues of environmental justice and the challenges faced by indigenous groups.
    • 1.4: Environmental Policy
      This page traces the evolution of U.S. environmental policy through three significant periods: the 19th-century conservation movement, the emergence of environmental risk management, and the current focus on integrating social and economic elements into sustainability. It highlights the progression from conservation efforts to pollution management and the current handling of complex global challenges.
    • 1.5: The Process of Science
      This page explores environmental science, emphasizing its integration of biology, chemistry, and geology through the scientific method, which involves observation, hypothesis formulation, and experimentation. It discusses an experiment on phosphate's effect on algal growth, distinguishing between basic science—aimed at knowledge for its own sake—and applied science, which addresses real-world challenges.


    1: Intro to Environmental Science is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.