Environmental Geology, 3e focuses on the fascinating interaction between humans and the geologic processes that shape Earth’s environment. Because this text emphasizes how human survival is highly dependent on the natural environment, students should find the topics to be quite relevant to their own lives and, therefore, more interesting. One of the key themes of this textbook centers on a serious challenge facing modern society: the need to continue obtaining large quantities of energy, and at the same time, make the transition from fossil fuels to clean sources of energy that do not impact the climate system. Environmental Geology provides extensive coverage of the problems associated with our conventional fossil fuel supplies (Chapter 13), and an equally in-depth discussion of alternative energy sources (Chapter 14). The two chapters on energy are intimately linked to a comprehensive overview of global climate change (Chapter 16), which is arguably civilization’s most critical environmental challenge.

Environmental Geology is a new textbook that focuses on the fascinating interaction between humans and the geologic processes that shape Earth’s environment. Because this text emphasizes how human survival is  highly dependent on the natural environment, students should fi nd the topics to be quite relevant to their own lives, and therefore, more interesting. One of the  key themes of this textbook centers on a serious challenge facing modern society: the need to continue obtaining large quantities of energy, and at the same time, move from fossil fuels to clean sources of energy that do not impact the climate system. Environmental Geology provides extensive coverage of the problems associated with our conventional fossil fuel supplies (Chapter 13), and an equally in-depth discussion on alternative energy sources (Chapter 14). The two chapters on energy are then intimately linked to a comprehensive overview of global climate change (Chapter 16), which  is arguably civilization’s most critical environmental challenge<...>

The environment is the sum of all the features and conditions surrounding an organism that may infl uence it. An individual’s physical environment encompasses rocks and soil, air and water, such factors as light and temperature, and other organisms.
One’s social environment might include a network of family and friends, a particular political system, and a set of social customs that affect one’s behavior.  

Environmental magnetism is a relatively new science. It essentially grew out of numerous interdisciplinary studies involving sediments in British lakes, but soon expanded to include sediments in other natural archives that also retain records of past global changes. Prominent among these are marine sediments, windblown deposits on land, and the thin layer of soil covering much of the continents. The materials residing in these various settings are of two main types: one transported in from elsewhere, the other created in situ. Material flux takes place in the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the cryosphere, the most important agents being rivers, ocean currents, ground water, wind, rain, snow, glaciers, ice sheets, and icebergs. We will be looking at examples of all of these. <...>