This course is a first introduction to the main topics of environmental science, with emphasis on human interactions with the environment. Sustainability is a unifying theme throughout the course. The knowledge and skills learned in this course will inform and guide students’ life-decisions and their impacts on the environment. Topics covered include the scientific process and critical thinking, matter and energy, ecosystem ecology and biomes, evolution, biodiversity, community ecology, human population growth, geologic processes, land resources and agriculture, nonrenewable and renewable energy, water resources and water pollution, air pollution, solid waste generation and disposal, human health risk, conservation of biodiversity, climate alteration and global warming.