Environmental Science
Offered By: Dartmouth College via Coursera
Course Description
Overview
The Introduction to Environmental Science course explores the field of environmental science and encourages participants to understand how environmental scientists think. It addresses some important questions such as:
1. What is the difference between environmental science and environmental studies?
2. How do both differ from environmentalism?
3. Why is energy so important in environmental science?
4. What do you mean by biodiversity?
You will also explore what global cycles are and how they impact our lives. You must be aware that the human impact on biodiversity and global change are two of the most important discussion points in environmental science. Have you ever wondered how we are affecting global change and biodiversity? How can we reconcile human population growth, resource demands and sustainability? The effects of global change on humans and natural ecosystems and additional factors in evaluating personal environmental impact will also be discussed in this course.
Syllabus
- Module 1: Basics of Environmental Science
- This module explores the importance of environmental science, the water pollution problems, and how cycling of matter takes place.
- Module 2: Biodiversity, Systems, and Feedback
- This module gives an overview of the three different levels of biodiversity (genetic, species, ecosystem) and explores concepts such as system, system analysis, MRT, and positive and negative feedback loop.
- Module 3: Global Cycles
- This module explores the carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen cycles and analyzes a local environmental problem.
- Module 4: Basics of Global Change
- This module explores global climate change and global warming. It also examines how solar radiation and greenhouse gasses warm our planet.
Taught by
Andy Friedland
Tags
Related Courses
Nitrogen: A Global ChallengeUniversity of Edinburgh via edX Nitrogen: A Global Challenge (Hungarian)
University of Edinburgh via edX Sustainable and Affordable Sanitation Solutions For Small Towns: Policy, Planning and Practice
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay via Swayam Environmental Pollution Events and Emergency Response Introduction
Peking University via edX Nitrogen: A Global Challenge (Hindi)
University of Edinburgh via edX