Page 12 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

• Chapter 2: The Tohoku Earthquake: Has it Shaken • Chapter 20: Health Impacts of Chernobyl and
the World’s Trust in Nuclear Power? Fukushima
• Chapter 3: Saving Hawaii’s Native Forest Birds • Chapter 20: Assessing EROI Values of Energy
• Chapter 5: The Vanishing Oysters of the Sources
Chesapeake Bay • Chapter 21: Comparing Energy Sources
• Chapter 6: Costa Rica Values its Ecosystem Services • Chapter 21: What are the Impacts of Solar and
• Chapter 7: Hydrofracking the Marcellus Shale Wind Development?
• Chapter 9: Iowa’s Farmers Practice No-Till Agriculture
• Chapter 11: Will We Slice through the Serengeti? FAQ This new feature highlights questions frequently
• Chapter 15: Starving the Louisiana Coast of Sediment posed by students in introductory environmental
• Chapter 17: Clearing the Air in L.A. and Mexico science courses. Some FAQs address widely held miscon-
City ceptions, whereas others fill in common conceptual gaps
in student knowledge. This feature addresses not only the
• Chapter 19: Alberta’s Oil Sands and the Keystone
XL Pipeline questions students ask, but also the questions they some-
times hesitate to ask. In so doing, it shows students they
are not alone in having these questions, and it helps to
foster an environment of open inquiry in the classroom.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STORY
Fully 18 of our 42 Science Behind the Story fea-
tures are new to this edition, providing a current
and exciting selection of scientific studies to high- Each chapter now contains questions that help
light. Students will follow researchers as they help students to actively engage with graphs and
to restore an oyster fishery; monitor animal popula- other data-driven figures. The questions accompany sev-
tions; evaluate energy sources; and assess impacts eral figures in each chapter, challenging students to prac-
of smog, aquifer contamination, fallout from Fuku- tice quantitative skills of interpretation and analysis. To
shima, and oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. encourage students to test their understanding as they
Selected features are supported by new “Process of read, answers are provided in Appendix A.
Science” exercises online in MasteringEnvironmental-
Science that use these examples to help students explore Currency and coverage of topical issues To live up to our
how scientists conduct their work.
book’s hard-won reputation for currency, we’ve incorpo-
• Chapter 2: Tracking Fukushima’s Nuclear Legacy rated the most recent data possible throughout, and we’ve
• Chapter 3: Hawaii: Species Factory and Lab of enhanced coverage of issues now gaining prominence. As
Evolution climate change and energy concerns play ever-larger roles in
• Chapter 3: Monitoring Bird Populations at today’s world, our coverage has evolved. This edition high-
Hakalau Forest lights how renewable energy is growing, yet also how we
continue reaching further for fossil fuels with deep offshore
• Chapter 4: Chronicling Ecological Recovery at drilling, Arctic drilling, hydraulic fracturing for oil and shale
Mount St. Helens
gas, and extraction of oil sands. These choices make energy
• Chapter 5: “Turning the Tide” for Native Oysters returned on investment (EROI) ratios crucially important,
in Chesapeake Bay especially as climate change gathers force. Climate change
• Chapter 6: Do Payments Help Preserve Forest? connections continue to proliferate among topics throughout
• Chapter 7: Does Fracking Contaminate Drinking our text, and our climate change chapter includes new cov-
Water? erage of climate modeling, geoengineering, research into
jet stream effects on extreme weather, impacts of Hurricane
• Chapter 8: Did Soap Operas Reduce Fertility in Sandy and other events, the latest climate predictions for the
Brazil?
United States and the world, efforts toward carbon neutral-
• Chapter 9: Can No-Till Farming Help Us Fight ity, and political responses at all levels.
Climate Change? This edition also expands its coverage of a diversity of
• Chapter 11: Wildlife Declines in African Reserves topics including the valuation of ecosystem services,
• Chapter 16: Predicting the Oceans’ “Garbage introduced species and their ecological impacts on
Patches” islands, prospects for nuclear power and safety after
Fukushima, advanced biofuels, hormone-disrupting
• Chapter 17: Measuring the Health Impacts of substances, impacts on coastal wetlands, plastic pollu- PREFA CE
Mexico City’s Air Pollution
tion in the oceans, environmental policy, ocean acidi-
• Chapter 18: How Do Climate Models Work? fication, sustainable agriculture, green-collar jobs, and
• Chapter 19: Discovering Impacts of the Gulf Oil the rebound effect in energy conservation. We continue
Spill to use sustainability as an organizing theme throughout 11

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