Environmental Science: Understanding Our Changing Earth

Book excerpt: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: UNDERSTANDING OUR CHANGING EARTH, offers a unique Earth Systems approach to teaching both Earth Science and Environmental Science. Earth system science provides a framework for developing a truly innovative environmental science curriculum. An interdisciplinary environmental science curriculum that emphasizes Earth systems helps students develop the underlying science and knowledge that forms the foundation for understanding and policy discussion. Moreover, the critical component of environmental science is the focus on how earth systems interact with human society. This subject uniquely ties the physical sciences with social sciences, constituting an opportunity to demonstrate the widest application of science to life. Within this context of human interaction is the need to address concepts of risk and cost-benefit. Students begin to understand the process of decision-making made by policy-makers when using earth system information. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.