Environmental Science

• Main Authors: Kaufmann, Robert K. (Author), Cleveland, Cutler J. (Author)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Boston McGraw-Hill Higher Education 2008
• Subjects: Environmental sciences > Textbooks; Nature > Textbooks > Effect of human beings on; Human beings > Textbooks > Effect of environment on
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.

 The recent rise in oil prices is a real-world energy and economic challenge we face today. Often the natural and social sciences are viewed by students as sterile and irrelevant to the real world. But the effects of the interaction between energy and economics are evident everywhere around us and thus constitute the underlying theme of this text. A key propeller of our local and global economies and the driving force behind many governmental policies, energy is literally the powerhouse fueling both the problems and the progress of modern science. Not only will this text help students understand the faced by scientists grappling with the most critical challenge of our century-that is, the maintenance of an energy supply that will support the increasing population and the decreasing supply of fossil fuels- but it will make science relevant to students. The twenty-four chapters in this text go well beyond simple descriptions of coal mines and solar cells. Our chap ters integrate energy, economics, and policy to convey the nature of environmental challenges, such as rising oil prices, and to examine the root causes of these challenges and their wide-reaching effects. While doing this, we also emphasize our optimism regarding the resolution of these problems. Students will understand by the end of the course why oil's high costs extend far beyond paying more at the pump and how these costs affect our economic well-being and interactions with the environment.