Essentials of Ecology

vii

Learning Skills 1

HUMANS AND SUSTAINABILITY:

AN OVERVIEW

1 Environmental Problems,

Their Causes, and Sustainability 5

CORE CASE STUDY Living in an Exponential Age 5

KEY QUESTIONS AND CONCEPTS 6

1-1 What Is an Environmentally Sustainable

Society? 6

1-2 How Can Environmentally Sustainable Societies

Grow Economically? 10

1-3 How Are Our Ecological Footprints Affecting

the Earth? 12

CASE STUDY China’s New Affluent Consumers 15

1-4 What Is Pollution, and What Can We Do

about It? 16

1-5 Why Do We Have Environmental Problems? 17

CASE STUDY The Environmental Transformation

of Chattanooga, Tennessee 21

INDIVIDUALS MATTER Aldo Leopold’s

Environmental Ethics 22

1-6 What Are Four Scientific Principles

of Sustainability? 23

REVISITING Exponential Growth and

Sustainability 24

SCIENCE, ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES,

AND SUSTAINABILITY

2 Science, Matter, Energy,

and Systems 28

CORE CASE STUDY Carrying Out a Controlled

Scientific Experiment 28

KEY QUESTIONS AND CONCEPTS 29

2-1 What is Science? 29

SCIENCE FOCUS Easter Island: Some Revisions

to a Popular Environmental Story 31

SCIENCE FOCUS The Scientific Consensus over

Global Warming 33

SCIENCE FOCUS Statistics and Probability 34

2-2 What Is Matter? 35

2-3 How Can Matter Change? 39

Detailed Contents

Photo 1 The endangered brown pelican was protected in the first

U.S. wildlife refuge in Florida.

SuperStock