Master Syllabus PS1323, Environmental Science

PH130-01 Environmental Interrelationships: Describe the nature of environmental science and list the major regional environmental concerns.

PH130-02 Environmental Ethics: Describe environmental ethics, attitudes, and justice. Describe societal environmental ethics, corporate environmental ethics, individual environmental ethics, and global environmental ethics.

PH130-03 Environmental Risk: Describe environmental risk and economics. Describe using economic tools to address environmental issues and the concepts of sustainable development.

PH130-04 Matter, Energy, and Environment: Describe the nature and limitations of science. Describe the structure of matter. Describe environmental implications of energy flow.

PH130-05 Environments and Organisms: Describe ecological concepts, natural selection and evolution, organism interactions, and community and ecosystem interactions.

PH130-06 Ecosystems and Communities: Describe succession. Describe why biomes are determined by climate. Describe the roll and function of major aquatic ecosystems.

PH130-07 Characteristics and Issues of Populations: Describe general population characteristics, including population growth curve, factors that limit population size, categories of limiting factors, carrying capacity, reproductive strategies and population fluctuations. Describe general human population characteristics and implications, factors that influence human population growth, population growth rates and standard of living, hunger, food production, and environmental degradation.

PH130-08 Patterns of Energy Consumption: Describe the history of energy consumption, how energy is used, the economics and politics of energy use, and energy consumption trends.

PH130-09 Energy Sources: Describe energy sources, resources and reserves, fossil-fuel formation, issues related to the use of fossil fuels, renewable sources of energy, and energy conservation.

PH130-10 Nuclear Energy: Describe the history and nature of nuclear energy, nuclear fission reactors, the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear concerns, the future of nuclear power, and nuclear alternatives.

PH130-11 Biodiversity Issues: Describe the value and threats to biodiversity in terms of loss and extinction. List the actions that are being done to preserve biodiversity.

PH130-12 Land Use Planning: Describe the need for land use planning, the historical forces that shaped land use, the migration from the central city to the suburbs, factors that contribute to sprawl, problems associated with unplanned urban growth, land-use planning principles, mechanisms for implementing land-use plans, special urban planning issues, and federal government land use issues.

PH130-13 Soil and Its Uses: Describe the geologic processes of soil formation. Describe soil properties, soil conservation practices, conventional versus conservation tillage, and concepts to protect soil on nonfarm land.

PH130-14 Agricultural Methods and Pest Management: Describe the history of the development of agriculture, the impact of fertilizer and chemical use, the problems with pesticide use, and alternatives to conventional agriculture.

PH130-15 Water Management: Describe the hydrologic cycle, human influences on the hydrologic cycle, kinds of water use, kinds and sources of water pollution, and water-use planning issues.

PH130-16 Air Quality Issues: Describe pollution of the atmosphere, categories of air pollutants, control of air pollution, acid deposition, ozone depletion, global warming and climate change, and indoor air pollution.

PH130-17 Solid Waste Management and Disposal: Describe the different kinds of solid waste, municipal solid waste, and methods of waste disposal.

PH130-18 Hazardous Substances and Wastes: Describe and define hazardous and toxic materials in our environment, the environmental problems caused by hazardous wastes, and health risks associated with hazardous wastes. Describe hazardous waste dumps and management choices related to these dumps. Describe international trade in hazardous wastes and hazardous waste management program evolution.

PH130-19 Environmental Policy and Decision Making: Describe the development of environmental policy in the U.S. and current environmental policy and regulation. Describe international environmental policies.