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Table of Contents

UNIT 1 FOUNDATIONS AND TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Chapter 1 Environmental Literacy
On the Road to Collapse
What lessons can we learn from a vanished Viking society?

Chapter 2 Science Literacy and the Process of Science
Science and the Sky
Solving the mystery of disappearing ozone

Chapter 3 Information Literacy
Toxic Bottles?
On the trail of chemicals in our everyday lives

Chapter 4 Environmental Economics and Consumption
Wall to Wall, Cradle to Cradle
A leading carpet company takes a chance on going green

Chapter 5 Human Populations
One-Child China Grows Up
A country faces the outcomes of radical population control

Chapter 6 Environmental Health
Eradicating a Parasitic Nightmare
Human health is intricately linked to the environment

UNIT 2 ECOLOGY, PATTERNS, AND PROCESSES

Chapter 7 Ecosystems and Nutrient Cycling
Engineering Earth
A desert experiment gone awry

Chapter 8 Population Ecology
The Wolf Watchers
Endangered gray wolves return to the American West

Chapter 9 Community Ecology
What the Stork Says
A bird species in the Everglades reveals the intricacies of a threatened ecosystem

Chapter 10 Biodiversity
Nature’s Medicine Cabinet
Will the bark of an ordinary tree in Samoa become a cure for cancer?

Chapter 11 Preserving Biodiversity
A Forest Without Elephants
Can we save one of Earth's iconic species?

Chapter 12 Evolution and Extinction
A Tropical Murder Mystery
Finding the missing birds of Guam

UNIT 3 EARTH’S RESOURCES, CURRENT CHALLENGES, AND SUSTAINABLE OPTIONS

Chapter 13 Forests
Returning Trees to Haiti
Repairing a forest ecosystem one tree at a time

Chapter 14 Grasslands
Restoring the Range
The key to recovering the world’s grasslands may be a surprising one

Chapter 15 Marine Ecosystems
Science Under the Sea
Aquanauts explore an ecosystem on the brink

Chapter 16 Fisheries & Aquaculture
Fish in a Warehouse?
How one Baltimore fish scientist could change the way we eat

Chapter 17 Freshwater Resources
Toilet to Tap
A California county is tapping a controversial source for drinking water

Chapter 18 Water Pollution
Saving the Bay
Teams of researchers try to pin down what’s choking the Chesapeake

Chapter 19 Mineral Resources
No Stone Unturned
A bevy of unfamiliar minerals are crucial for our everyday
technologies—but they come with a slew of problems

Chapter 20 Feeding the World
A Gene Revolution
Can genetically engineered food help end hunger?

Chapter 21 Agriculture: Raising Livestock
The Carnivore's Conundrum
Disease, pollution, and the true costs of meat

Chapter 22 Agriculture: Raising Crops
Fine-Feathered Farming
Creative solutions to feeding the world

UNIT 4: ENERGY: A WICKED PROBLEM WITH MANY CONSEQUENCES
Chapter 23 Coal
Bringing Down the Mountain
In the rubble, the true costs of coal

Chapter 24 Petroleum
A Dangerous Dependence
Drilling for answers after an oil rig explosion

Chapter 25 Air Pollution
The Youngest Scientist
Kids on the frontlines of asthma research

Chapter 26 Climate Change
When The Trees Leave
Scientists grapple with a shifting climate

Chapter 27 Nuclear Energy
The Future of Fukushima
Can nuclear energy overcome its bad rep?

Chapter 28 Sun, Wind, and Water Energy
Fueled by the Sun
A small island makes big strides in renewable energy

Chapter 29 Biofuels
Gas from Grass
Will an ordinary prairie grass become the next biofuel?

UNIT 5: TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Chapter 30 Managing Solid Waste
A Plastic Surf
Are the oceans teeming with trash?

Chapter 31 Environmental Policy and Law
Counterfeit Cooling
In the global effort to thwart climate change, some lessons are
learned after the fact

Chapter 32 Urbanization and Sustainable Communities
The Ghetto Goes Green
In the Bronx, building a better backyard

Authors

Anne Houtman

Anne Houtman, PhD, is Professor and Head of the School of Life Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, which includes programs in Environmental and Biological Sciences. Her research interests are in the behavioral ecology of birds, and currently research in her laboratory focuses on the ecology and evolution of hummingbird song. She also has an active research program in science pedagogy. Anne received her doctorate in zoology from the University of Oxford and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto.

Susan Karr

Susan Karr, MS, is an Instructor in the Biology Department of Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee, and has been teaching for over 15 years. She has served on campus and community environmental sustainability groups and helps produce an annual “State of the Environment” report on the environmental health of her county. In addition to teaching non-majors courses in environmental science and human biology, she teaches an upper-level course in animal behavior where she and her students train dogs from the local animal shelter in a program that improves the animals’ chances of adoption. She received degrees in Animal Behavior and Forestry from the University of Georgia.

Jeneen InterlandI

Jeneen Interlandi is a science writer who contributes to Scientific American and The New York Times Magazine. Previously, she spent four years as a staff writer for Newsweek, where she covered health, science, and the environment. In 2009, she received a Kaiser Foundation fellowship for global health reporting and traveled to Europe and Asia to cover outbreaks of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Jeneen has worked as a researcher at both Harvard Medical School and Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. She holds Masters degrees in Environmental Science and Journalism, both from Columbia University in New York.

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