Learning Skills - Environmental Science - page 1

L earn ing Skills

Students who can begin early in their lives to think of things
as connected, even if they revise their views every year, have
begun the life of learning.
M ARK V AN D OREN

course in your education. What could be more important
than learning how the earth works, how we are affect-
ing its life-support system, and how we can reduce our
environmental impact?
We live in an incredibly exciting and challenging
era. There is a growing awareness that during this cen-
tury we need to make a new cultural transition in
which we learn how to live more sustainably by not
degrading our life-support system. I hope this topic
will stimulate you to become involved in promoting
this change in the way we view and treat the earth that
sustains other life, all economies, and us.

Why Is It Important to Study
Environmental Science?
Environmental science may be the most important
course you will ever take.
Welcome to environmental science —an interdisciplinary
study of how nature works and how things in nature
are interconnected. This topic is an integrated and sci-
ence-based study of environmental problems, connec-
tions, and solutions.
The following themes are interwoven throughout
this topic: sustainability, natural capital, natural capital
degredation, solutions to environmental problems, trade-
offs in finding acceptable solutions, the importance of
individual actions in implementing solutions (individuals
matter), and sound science (see Figure 1-2, p. 7).
Here are the key ideas in this topic.

How Did I Become Involved with
Environmental Problems?
I became involved in environmental science and
education after hearing a scientific lecture in 1966.
In 1966, I heard Dean Cowie, a physicist with the U.S.
Geological Survey, give a lecture on the problems of
population growth and pollution. Afterward I went to
him and said, “If even a fraction of what you have said
is true, I will feel ethically obligated to give up my re-
search on the corrosion of metals and devote the rest of
my life to research and education on environmental
problems and solutions. Frankly, I do not want to be-
lieve a word you have said, and I am going into the lit-
erature to try to show that your statements are either
untrue or grossly distorted.”
After six months of study, I was convinced of the
seriousness of these and other environmental prob-
lems. Since then, I have been studying, teaching, and
writing about them. This topic summarizes what I
have learned in more than three decades of trying to
understand environmental principles, problems, con-
nections, and solutions.

■ We are in the process of degrading the earth's re-
sources and services—called natural capital —that sup-
port all life and economies (see Figures 1-3, p. 7).
■ There are four interconnected principles of sus-
tainability based on understanding how nature has
sustained itself for billions of years (see Figure 6-18,
p. 125).
■ We can learn to live more sustainability during this
century by applying these four principles to our
lifestyles and economies (see Figure 6-19, 126).
■ There are always tradeoffs involved in making
decisions about environmental problems and
solutions.
■ Evaluating our environmental choices requires
critical thinking based on an ecological understanding
of how the earth works.

Improving Your Study and Learning Skills
Learning how to learn is life's most important skill.
Maximizing your ability to learn should be one of
your most important lifetime educational goals. It in-
volves continually trying to improve your study and
learning skills.
This has a number of payoffs. You can learn more
and do so more efficiently. You will also have more
time to pursue other interests besides studying with-
out feeling guilty about always being behind. Learning

Environmental issues affect every part of your life
and are an important part of the news stories pre-
sented on television and in newspapers and maga-
zines. The concepts, information, and issues discussed
in this topic and the course you are taking should be
useful to you both now and in the future.
Understandably, I am biased. But I strongly believe
that environmental science is the single most important