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9780130920416

Environmental Issues : Measuring, Analyzing and Evaluating

by ;
  • ISBN13:

    9780130920416

  • ISBN10:

    013092041X

  • Edition: 2nd
  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 2002-01-01
  • Publisher: Pearson College Div
  • View Upgraded Edition

Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.

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Supplemental Materials

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Summary

Would you like your students to be able to critically analyze the environmental issues they hear about in the news? This unique case study book provides the basic tools they will need to probe and examine relevant issues. Features topical and timely cases rather than hypothetical situations. These include population growth, energy and natural resources, transportation, and air and water pollution. Presents the tools of critical thinking and applies them throughout the book. This allows students to understand the nature of critical thinking before they are asked to think critically about an issue. Includes simple math to understand environmental issues. Mathematical formulas are explained in a non-threatening, step-by-step manner that demystifies math and helps students gain confidence. Suggests examples for further research while encouraging students to explore the implications, significance, and validity of their work. Written in a clear and straightforward style.

Author Biography

Daniel C. Abel currently teaches in the Marine Science Department at Coastal Carolina University, where his research focuses on the sharks of Winyah Bay. Robert L. McConnell is Professor of Geology and Environmental Science at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia

Table of Contents

Preface vii
Basic Concepts and Tools: Using Math and Critical Thinking 1(16)
Part One Population and Migration
Human Population Growth: How Long Will It Take to Fill Up the Earth?
17(13)
Coastal Growth Case Study: Bangladesh
30(8)
Population Growth, Carrying Capacity, and Ecological Footprints
38(10)
Population Growth, Migration, and Fertility
48(7)
Local Population Growth I: ``Sprawl'' or ``Smart Growth''?
55(11)
Local Population Growth II: Case Studies, Maryland and Colorado
66(7)
Part Two Consumption and Quality of Life
Global Grain Production: Can We Beef It Up?
73(10)
Soil Degradation and Erosion
83(10)
Automobiles and the Environment
93(11)
Automobiles and the Environment II: Global Trends
104(8)
Waste Packaging, and Subsidies: The All-Aluminum Can
112(15)
Whacker Madness? The Proliferation of Turfgrass
127(17)
The Impact of Interjurisdictional Waste Disposal: Truckin' Trash
144(10)
Part Three Energy Use and Conservation
Oil Resources and Reserves
154(15)
Bringing the World to the U.S. Standard of Living
169(6)
Renewable Energy: Is the Answer Blowing in the Wind?
175(10)
Part Four Pollution and Climate Change
Energy Waste and Avoidable Air Pollution: Getting the Picture About VCRs, TVs, and Iced Drinks
185(10)
Greenhouse Gases, Global CO2 Emissions, and Global Warming
195(11)
Part Five The Hydrosphere
Estuarine Pollution: Chesapeake Bay
206(10)
Illegal Immigration: Ballast Water and Exotic Species
216(9)
Catch of the Day: The State of Global Fisheries
225(10)
Aquaculture
235(10)
Dolphin-Safe Tuna
245(10)
Coral Rocks! The Value of the World's Coral Reefs
255(11)
Part Six Environmental Health
Lead
266(11)
``Mad as a Hatter'': Mercury in the Environment
277(13)
Organochlorines
290(7)
Index 297

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Excerpts

TO THE INSTRUCTOR The idea for this book arose when we were colleagues at Mary Washington College. We grew impatient with a teaching style centered on the faculty member as "lecturer" and expert and the student as "scribe" and novice. We feel that such an approach encourages students to be passive rather than active learners and leads to an unhealthy dependency on the faculty person as "expert." Although students generally are both capable and dedicated, many are also afraid of math, rusty in its use, or were superficially trained in arcane fields of calculus. This lack of math skills often leaves students unprepared to deal with the complexity of today's environmental issues. Moreover, we are continually surprised to discover how many bright students can't do three things: understand and confidently manipulate the units of the metric system, use scientific notation, or critically evaluate complex environmental issues. Most of a student's discomfort with math is generally founded in frustration. For example, making one error in a series of calculations can render the whole effort useless. We believe that, in the absence of a real learning disability, to solve most math problems requires no special aptitude, only clear sequential instructions, attention to detail, and hard work. That is why step-by-step calculations are included in your Answer Key. One of our major objectives is thus to help develop math literacy (numeracy) among today's students. We understand that many students have some "math anxiety," so we have included in this second edition a section entitledUsing Math in Environmental Issues,in which we use a step-by-step method to take students through examples of the calculations in the Issues. We even show sample keystrokes involved in using common calculators. We believe this method will gradually build the student's confidence enough to trust in his or her own efforts. Math proficiency is one of the important skills necessary for fully understanding environmental issues, and without these skills, the student's only option is to make choices on the basis of which "expert" is most "believable." Such skills involve the ability to manipulate large numbers using scientific notation and exponents, the ability to use compound growth equations containing natural logs, and so on. It is our goal that this book be provocative, factually accurate and up-to-date.Environmental Issues: Measuring, Analyzing, and Evaluatingis meant to be the basis for an issues-oriented introductory, seminar, upper-level, or laboratory course in environmental science or studies. However, it can also be used as a supplement to traditional texts in environmental science, geology, biology, and other natural sciences and in humanities courses that seek to cultivate an awareness of and knowledge about environmental issues (ecolacy). These issues may be viewed as projects that use pressing environmental issues as a means to develop students' critical thinking skills in a deliberate and structured way. By their nature, they require students to integrate topics from across subdisciplines to measure, analyze, and evaluate each issue using the discipline and method of a scientist. But becoming educated is much more than simply acquiring skills. Therefore, we have two additional objectives: to provide students with the knowledge and intellectual standards necessary to apply critical thinking to environmental studies and to foster their ability to critically evaluate issues. As such,Environmental Issues: Measuring, Analyzing, and Evaluatingis as much aninteractive workbookas a traditional textbook. We expect students to have access to standard references in environmental, physical, and natural sciences and to have access to and know how to use the World Wide Web. Indeed, every Issue contains URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) to websites for up-to-the-minute inf

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