Living With Earth An Introduction To Environmental Geology

For many students with no science background, environmental geology may be one of the only science courses they ever take. Living With Earth: An Introduction to Environmental Geology is ideal for those students, fostering a better understanding of how they interact with Earth and how their actions can affect Earth's environmental health. The informal, reader-friendly presentation is organized around a few unifying perspectives: how the various Earth systems interact with one another; how Earth affects people (creating hazards but also providing essential resources); and how people affect Earth. Greater emphasis is placed on environment and sustainability than on geology, unlike other texts on the subject. Essential scientific foundations are presented - but the ultimate goal is to connect students proactively to their role as stakeholders in Earth's future.

For courses in Environmental Geology taken by introductory, non-science majors. Also appropriate for Physical Geology courses emphasizing an environmental perspective. As the human population increases, many decisions concerning our use of natural resources will determine our standard of living and the quality of our environment. This text helps non-science majors develop an understanding of how geology and humanity interface. Ed Keller the author who first defined the environmental geology course focuses on five fundamental concepts of environmental geology: Human Population Growth, Sustainability, Earth as a System, Hazardous Earth Processes, and Scientific Knowledge and Values. These concepts are introduced at the outset of the text, integrated throughout, and revisited at the end of each chapter. Included with every text, the Hazard City CD-ROM gives instructors meaningful, easy-to-assign, and easy-to-grade assignments based on the idealized town of Hazard City.

Presents an introduction to environmental geology, including the causes and results of environmental changes.

Intended for the introductory-level college course, the principal aim of this text is to present the student with a broad overview of environmental geology. The text looks both at how the earth developed into its present condition and where matters seem to be moving for the future. It is hoped that this knowledge will provide the student with a useful foundation for discussing and evaluating specific environmental issues, as well as for developing ideas about how the problems should be solved.

Environmental Geology: geology and the human environment provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject of environmental geology - the interaction of humans with the geological environment. As a subject, environmental geology has grown in popularity with the rise of interest in environmental issues. Despite this, environmental geology is not a new subject but a meld of three related earth science disciplines: economic geology, engineering geology and applied geomorphology, each of which has been given a new focus through the need for greater environmental management. This book is the first of its kind to recognise that the true challenge of environmental geology does not lie in rural areas or in the green issues, but in the urban environment and its resource hinterland. By the year 2000, over 3.5 billion people, over 50% of the world's population, will live in urban areas covering just 1% of the earth's surface. It is here that human interaction with the geological environment is at its most intense: it is here that the practical challenges in environmental geology lie. Urban growth fuels the demand for mineral and water resources, tests our skills as engineering geologists, produces vast volumes of waste which must be managed, and increases human vulnerability to natural hazards. All of these topics are covered within this book. Environmental geology is a practical subject, and environmental geologists have a crucial role in managing our interaction with the geological environment. This textbook demonstrates how environmental geologists can make a practical contribution to managing this interaction allowing both sustained development and environmental conservation.