Syllabus

The world has changed dramatically during the last one hundred years, both technologically and socially. We have seen dramatic increases in average lifespan in many countries, the result of an increasing ability to cultivate and supply food resources and a rapid advancement in medical knowledge. We have also seen tremendous advances in technology and production capacity in many countries. At the same time, however, human population density is at the highest level in recorded history and is continuing to grow rapidly. Human demands on available resources are thus increasing, and many feel that the Earth’s ability to accommodate unrestrained human population growth is limited. One of the biggest challenges of the future is to protect the health and welfare of humankind in the face of these changes.

This course, Principles of Environmental Studies, is intended to provide you with an overview of human impacts on the world ecosystem. In this course you will acquire fundamental knowledge about the physical and biological processes that structure the world as you know it, and you will see how human activities alter those processes. You will also be presented, whenever possible, with both sides of contentious environmental debates, since it is very likely that as a voter you will be asked to cast your vote on many of the issues presented in this course. Your opinions on these issues should be informed ones.

In each of the ten lessons, you will be presented with a particular component of environmental studies, and you will answer a series of questions that will help you to understand the issues and information. Because each lesson builds upon the previous ones, it is important to complete a given lesson before proceeding to the next one.

The first several lessons provide you with the firm scientific principles and concepts that are necessary to understand environmental problems and their causes. You then learn about the principles that underlie human population growth and explore how human population growth influences the consumption of natural resources. You also learn how this growth and consumption is associated with potential environmental costs such as water, air, and land pollution. Finally, you examine how resource use, pollution, and population issues are influenced by economics and public policy.

In addition to the lesson assignments, you are required to complete an environmental issue paper based on newspaper or periodical articles. This paper will give you the opportunity to explore a topic of your choosing in detail, using material other than your textbook.