Basics of Environmental Science

Basics of Environmental Science

The introduction is followed by four chapters, each of which deals with an aspect of the

fundamental earth and life sciences on which environmental science is based, in each case

emphasizing the importance of process and change and, where appropriate, relating the

scientific description of what happens to its environmental implications and the possible

consequences of perturbations to the system. The fifth and final chapter deals with

environmental management, covering such matters as wildlife conservation, pest control, and

the control of pollution.

You do not have to be a scientist to understand Basics of Environmental Science. Its language is

simple, non-technical, and non-mathematical, but there are suggestions for further reading to guide

those who wish to learn more. Nor do you have to read the book in order, from cover to cover. Dip

into it in search of the information that interests you and you will find that each short block is quite

self-contained.

It is the grouping of a range of disciplines into a general topic, such as environmental science,

which makes it possible to provide a broad, non-technical introduction. The grouping is natural,

in that the subjects it encompasses can be related to one another and clearly belong together, but

it does not resolve the difficulty of scientific specialization. Indeed, it cannot, for the great

volume of specialized information that made the grouping desirable still exists. Except in a

rather vague sense, you cannot become an ‘environmental scientist’, any more than you could

become a ‘life scientist’ or an ‘earth scientist’. Such imprecise labels have very little meaning.

Were you to pursue a career in the environmental sciences you might become an ecologist,

perhaps, or a geomorphologist, or a palaeoclimatologist. As a specialist you would contribute to

our understanding of the environment, but by adding detailed information derived from your

highly specialized research.

Environmental science exists most obviously as a body of knowledge in its own right when a

team of specialists assembles to address a particular issue. The comprehensive study of an

important estuary, for example, involves mapping the solid geology of the underlying rock,

identifying the overlying sediment, measuring the flow and movement of water and the sediment

it carries, tracing coastal currents and tidal flows, analysing the chemical composition of the

water and monitoring changes in its distribution and temperature at different times and in different

parts of the estuary, sampling and recording the species living in and adjacent to the estuary and

measuring their productivity.1

The task engages scientists from a wide range of disciplines, but

their collaboration and final product identifies them all as ‘environmental scientists’, since their

study supplies the factual basis against which future decisions can be made regarding the

environmental desirability of industrial or other activities in or beside the estuary. Each is a

specialist; together they are environmental scientists, and the bigger the scale of the issue they

address the more disciplines that are likely to be involved. Studies of global climate change

currently engage the attention of climatologists, palaeoclimatologists, glaciologists, atmospheric

chemists, oceanographers, botanists, marine biologists, computer scientists, and many others,

working in institutions all over the world.

You cannot hope to master the concepts and techniques of all these disciplines. No one could, and to

that extent the old definition of an ‘educated person’ has had to be revised. Allowing that in the

modern world no one ignorant of scientific concepts can lay serious claim to be well educated, today

we might take it to mean someone possessing a general understanding of the scientific concepts

from which the opinions they express are logically derived.