Introduction 1Part 1: Demystifying Science and the Environment 5Chapter 1: Investigating the Environment 7Chapter 2: Thinking Scientifically: The Scientific Method and Other Ways of Knowing 17Chapter 3: What's the Matter? Living and Nonliving Material 31Chapter 4: Making Things Happen: Energy 49Chapter 5: Studying the Environment and Your Place in It 59Part 2: Living on Earth's Surface: Ecosystems, Biomes, and Climate 71Chapter 6: Exploring Ecosystems 73Chapter 7: Biogeography: How Earth's Climate Shapes Global Ecosystem Patterns 91Chapter 8: Playing Well with Others: Population Biology 109Chapter 9: Heating Things Up: Living in a Changing Climate 133Part 3: Getting Your Needs Met: Earth's Natural Resources 157Chapter 10: Water, Water Everywhere: Freshwater Resources 159Chapter 11: This Land Belongs to You and Me: Land as a Resource 171Chapter 12: Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: Biodiversity 181Chapter 13: Dishing It Up: Food Resources 197Chapter 14: Hitting the Hard Stuff: Geologic Resources and Hazards 219Chapter 15: Shifting Gears: Alternative Energy 237Part 4: Giving a Hoot: Pollution and Environmental Quality 253Chapter 16: Breathing Room: Addressing Man-Made Air Pollution 255Chapter 17: Spilling Over: Water Pollution 269Chapter 18: What's Your Poison? Toxins and Infectious Disease 281Chapter 19: Wading Through the Waste Stream: Solid and Hazardous Waste 297Part 5: Expanding the Definition of Sustainability 311Chapter 20: Reevaluating the Value of the Environment 313Chapter 21: Decolonizing Environmental Science 327Part 6: The Part of Tens 343Chapter 22: Ten International Agreements on Planetary Stewardship 345Chapter 23: Ten Real-Life Examples of the Tragedy of the Commons 351Index 357
Alecia M. Spooner has 17 years' experience teaching Earth and environmental sciences. She specializes in the interdisciplinary study of paleoecology, paleoclimate, and archaeology. She is the author of Geology For Dummies.