| Unique, contemporary, and visually stunning, Environmental Geology guides students toward a personal understanding of Earth's varied environments, the whole-Earth system that connect them, and the local and global ramifications of natural events and human intervention. |
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| WHY WE WROTE THIS BOOK |
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| We are among the growing number of geologists who are convinced that the integrated, Earth system science approach to environmental geosciences provides essential insights into the workings of the whole Earth and is crucial to the development of scientific literacy. Our primary goal is to guide students toward a personal understanding of Earth's varied environments, the whole-Earth system that connects them, and the local and global ramifications of natural events and human intervention.
Increasingly, geology departments are offering courses with titles such as Environmental Geosystems, Environmental Earth Science, and Earth Systems. The integrated Earth system approach is advocated by the American Geophysical Union, Keck Geology Consortium, and the National Science Foundation. In developing our course, however, we found no textbook that consistently weaves together basic concepts of Earth system science and environmental geosciences. To compensate, we created, class-tested, and refined a set of course materials so comprehensive that they evolved into this book.
We discovered that our colleagues in the environmental geosciences wished for many of the same things we wished for in a textbook--chapters on scientific and systems thinking; on individual systems such as soils, surface water, groundwater, and energy; and on interpreting and predicting environmental change. These topics are treated more fully in this textbook than in most others at the introductory level. At the same time, we were careful to select and cover the fundamentals of physical geology that are essential to understanding Earth systems and contemporary environmental and resource issues.
The Earth sciences have seen profound and numerous changes in the 20th century. It is our hope that this modern new textbook will take students and teachers into the 21st century with a new perspective on how Earth works and how geology should be taught.
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| ORGANIZATION |
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This book is arranged in four parts that move from general concepts to individual systems to global environmental change.
- Part I, Fundamental Concepts, is a set of three chapters that ground the reader in scientific thinking; the concept of systems in general and Earth systems in particular, with emphasis on budgets, cycling, and residence time; and the meaning of environmental change over geologic time.
- Part II, Solid Earth Systems, consists of three chapters covering lithosphere and pedosphere systems and their effect on the environment. These chapters examine planetary evolution, processes, and materials; the resources and hazards of the lithosphere, and soils and soil-forming processes.
- Part III, Fluid Earth Systems, contains chapters on surface water, groundwater, atmosphere, and ocean.
- Part IV, Energy and the Changing Earth, explores what drives all processes and change on Earth, with chapters on energy as a system; geological evidence of environmental change; and significant events in the evolution and probable future of Earth's environment.
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| FEATURES |
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- Each chapter opens with a story and photograph relating the subject of the chapter to Earth systems and environmental issues
- The art program includes vividly rendered and thoroughly labeled Process Diagrams, appealing and easy-to-follow Flowcharts, and striking Color Photographs and Digital Images
- Unique cycling examples illustrate the cycling of matter and energy throughout the Earth system
- A program of boxed features includes interesting Case Studies of actual environmental geology situations that help students develop analytic thinking, Geologist's Toolboxes that provide mathematical and technical background, and essays on Environmental Change
- Unique "Closing Thoughts" essays give the authors the opportunity to think with their readers about the philosophical and economic aspects of a problem and contrast them with the scientific aspects
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