Introduction to Environmental Science
Powerpoint Lecture
This Powerpoint presentation is designed for the first meeting of a survey-level Introduction to Environmental Science course. The lecture briefly covers many of the fundamental ideas and issues behind the discipline and serves as a good preview for the material covered in the rest of the course.
The Powerpoint begins with an introductory a narrative to frame the rest of the material. In this case, I begin with the events leading up to the debate surrounding and eventual construction of the Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite National Park. This is a great example of an early clash between two distict types of environmental ethics -- the resource conservationists and nature preservationists. The rest of the lecture is spent discussing some of the broad environmental issues -- resource conservation, pollution, developed vs. developing countries, and sustainability.
Course Syllabus | Student Notes Outline | Study Guide | Pre-Test | Movies
Essential concepts: Environmental science, renewable resources, nonrenewable resources, pollution, biodiversity, environmental ethics, Tragedy of the Commons, developed countries, developing countries, sustainability.
Test questions: Available for purchase at the environmental science instructor resources subscription page.
