Earth System Science

Catalog description

Note: Field trips required when not offered fully online. <br> <br> Earth is a dynamic planet, changing in response to natural processes within the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Modern science is now viewing the Earth system in its entirety, the sum of its parts, in an effort to understand how processes in one sphere impact those in another. This course stresses the inter-relationships of these systems and reviews natural cycles and positive and negative feedback pathways that operate over various time scales to affect global environmental change. The impact of civilization on the Earth system is also analyzed as the course considers pollution, overpopulation, global warming, deforestation, desertification, resource depletion, and biologic extinctions, along with solutions developed within sustainable concepts and practices. This course may be offered in a distance education format.