Encyclopedia of Environmental Science

The purpose of this book is a straightforward one to present a fair reflection of approaches currently employed to address environmental issues and to provide the reader with a working knowledge of the science that underpins them and to understand the essential facts and deeper cultural connections of topics and issues related to the scientific study of the environment and its impacts on humanity. Human biological and cultural origins are, of course, deeply tied to the environment.

But just as earth’s environment shaped humanity, human activity (anthropogenic activity) now leaves an unmistakable stamp upon the natural world. Encyclopedia of Environmental Science places special emphasis on exploring the impacts of human habitation and economic activity on the environment. This book also reflects the scientific consensus regarding global climate change that it is real and an urgent global problem and offers topics devoted to explaining both the science and the social challenges.

We wrote this book to convey these exciting scientific insights to a readership including undergraduate, postgraduate environmental studies majors and environmental conservation professionals that is not intimately familiar with environment as a scientific discipline. Our hope is that readers will come to appreciate the intricate ways that humans are connected to their environment and how their interactions can alter the sustainability of the very ecosystems of which they are a part and from which they derive vital services.

We do not consider ourselves to be environmentalists, which we define as someone who advocates particular ways of solving problems. As a scientist who studies the workings of environmental systems, we feel it is our duty to present the science as clearly and as objectively as possible and in ways that illuminate the consequences of different actions so that each reader can make informed decisions about how he or she chooses to interact with the environment.

Most importantly, we hope to provide readers the very humbling understanding that the consequences of our decisions today will be felt by our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. These are the timescales at the least on which environmental functions operate and on which we need to anticipate our impacts.