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This course covers the basic concepts, processes and principles of major environmental and resource management problems in two general categories in the contemporary world. One is natural hazards primarily caused by extreme events in the natural environment. The other is environmental change and sustainability driven primarily by human activities and economic development. The course is divided into three parts. First, we examine the physical and human dimensions of natural hazards including typhoons, tornadoes, floods and droughts. The focus is on the causes of these natural hazards, their geographical distribution, risk and disaster to human society, and human response to prepare, prevent and mitigate negative impacts. Second, we introduce the causes, trends, impacts and human responses of global warming and climate change. Thirdly, we discuss environmental protection and sustainability in the context of sustainable development, water pollution and management, air pollution and solid waste management. Study of the interaction between human society and living environment will help students better understand the human-environment relationship and the importance of sustainable development. The importance of geographical regions in understanding environmental problems and their socio-economic impacts is highlighted throughout the course. While the coverage will be broad and global, case studies of a variety of environmental and resource management challenges in China are emphasized.
This book is a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary treatment of everyday climatic and geological hazards that can be explained, predicted, and alleviated, including large-scale storms, localized storms, drought, flooding, fires in nature, oceanic hazards, earthquakes, tsunami, volcanoes, and land instability. It describes and explains how hazards occur, examines prediction methods, considers recent and historical hazard events, and explores the social impact of such disasters. Over 150 maps, diagrams and photographs are used to support this text. This revised edition makes good use of the wealth of recent research into climate change and its effects.
This book provides an introduction to environmental science. It views environmental problems and possible solutions to them through the lens of sustainability, the integrating theme of the book. Six principles of sustainability play a major role in carrying out this book’s sustainability theme. Three of them are scientific principles of sustainability- solar energy, chemical cycling, biodiversity, and three others are based on economics, political science, and ethics. After an overview of the principles, the book proceeds to discuss sustaining biodiversity, sustaining natural resources, sustaining environmental quality, and sustaining human societies in detail.
This book attempts to identify major factors that will shape the global future and to evaluate their probabilities and potential impacts. The book first looks at rare but cataclysmic events, both natural and human-produced, then at trends of global importance, including the transition from fossil fuels to other energy sources and growing economic and social inequality. It also considers environmental change—in some ways an amalgam of sudden discontinuities and gradual change—and assesses the often misunderstood complexities of global warming. Smil argues that understanding change will help us reverse negative trends and minimize the risk of catastrophe.
