Living in the environment / Scott Spoolman

Humans and sustainability: an overview -- 1 Environmental problems, their causes, and sustainability -- Science, ecological principles, and sustainability -- 2 Science, matter, energy and systems -- 3 Ecosystems: what are they and how do they work? -- 4 Biodiversity and evolution -- 5 Biodiversity, species interactions, and population control -- 6 The Huma n population and its impact -- 7 Climate and biodiversity -- 8 Aquatic biodiversity -- Sustaining biodiversity -- 9 Sustaining biodiversity: The species approach -- 10 Sustaining terrestrial biodiversity: The ecosystem approach -- 11 Sustaining aquatic biodiversity -- Sustaining natural resources -- 12 Food, soil, and pest management -- 13 Water resources -- 14 Geology and nonrenewable mineral resources -- Chapter reviews and critical thinking -- Glossary .

"We wrote this book to help instructors achieve three important goals: first, to explain to their students the basics of environmental science, including how life on the earth has survived for billions of years; second, to help their students to use this scientific foundation in order to understand the multiple environmental problems that we face and to evaluate possible solutions to them; and third, to inspire their students to make a difference in how we treat the earth on which our lives and economies depend, and thus in how we treat ourselves and our descendants. -- Preface