User:ScoobyDoo78263/Environmental science

Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates many fields with the goal of studying the environment, and the solutions to environmental problems such as contamination, pollution, climate change, environmental hazards and resource issues. Environmental science emerged from the fields of natural history and medicine during the Enlightenment. Environmental Science became popular in the 1960s and 1970s as a response to concern about environmental problems. Today it provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems. Some of the fields that encompass environmental science include: physics, biology, geography, ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geography, atmospheric science and other fields.

Environmental scientists seek to understand the earth’s physical, chemical, biological, and geological processes, and to use that knowledge to understand how issues such as alternative energy systems, pollution control and mitigation, natural resource management, and the effects of global warming and climate change influence and affect the natural systems and processes of earth. Environmental issues almost always include an interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes.

Environmental science came alive as a substantive, active field of scientific investigation in the 1960s and 1970s driven by (a) the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to analyze complex environmental problems, (b) the arrival of substantive environmental laws requiring specific environmental protocols of investigation and (c) the growing public awareness of a need for action in addressing environmental problems. Events that spurred this development included the publication of Rachel Carson's landmark environmental book Silent Spring along with major environmental issues becoming very public, such as the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, and the Cuyahoga River of Cleveland, Ohio, "catching fire" (also in 1969), and helped increase the visibility of environmental issues and create this new field of study.

Environmental studies incorporates social sciences for understanding human relationships, perceptions and policies towards the environment. Environmental engineering focuses on design and technology for improving environmental quality in every aspect. Environmental monitoring may be performed by environmental scientists and is the repeated testing or examining of environmental conditions to identify changes in ecological health or other environmental factors.

Geosciences includes environmental geology, environmental soil science, volcanic phenomena and evolution of the Earth's crust. In some classification systems this can also include hydrology, including oceanography.

As an example study, of soils erosion, calculations would be made of surface runoff by soil scientists. Fluvial geomorphologists would assist in examining sediment transport in overland flow. Physicists would contribute by assessing the changes in light transmission in the receiving waters. Biologists would analyze subsequent impacts to aquatic flora and fauna from increases in water turbidity.