HU Credits:
3
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
Environmental Sciences
Semester:
2nd Semester
Teaching Languages:
Hebrew
Campus:
E. Safra
Course/Module Coordinator:
Yigal Erel
Coordinator Office Hours:
Monday 12-13
Teaching Staff:
Prof Yigal Erel Prof Shimshon Belkin Chana Kranzler Nivi Kessler
Course/Module description:
The course presents the most pressing environmental issues and the scientific methodology used to study environmental issues. The environmental issues to be presented and discussed are: demography, energy and the environment, bio-geochemical cycles, air, soil, and water pollution, soil erosion and degradation, waste and toxic waste, climate change, ecosystems and their functioning, bio-diversity and extinctions.
Course/Module aims:
To present the most pressing environmental issues and the scientific methodology used to study environmental issues
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
To list and explain the most important environmental problems globally
Attendance requirements(%):
100
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
lecture and exercise
Course/Module Content:
Survey of major environmental issues and the scientific methodology
Demography and providing food to humanity
Energy sources: fossil fuels and alternative energy sources
Bio-geochemical cycles and human effects
Climate and the atmosphere – greenhouse gases and atmospheric pollution processes
Water – quantities, pollution and algal blooms
Soils, open areas, agriculture, forestation, and deforestation
Oceans – overfishing, pollution, acidification, and coral bleaching
Ecology and biodiversity
Urban environment and solid waste management
Ethics of environmental quality and nature preservation
Required Reading:
Botkin D. B., Keller E. A., Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet, 5th/6th/7th/8th Edition (B&K), John Wiley & Sons, 2003/2005/2007/2008/2011
book report (only one):
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, J. M. Diamond, Viking Press
(2005)
Silent Spring, R. L. Carson, Houghton-Mifflin Press (1962)
Additional Reading Material:
none
Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 60 %
Assignments 10 %
Reports 30 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %
Additional information:
none
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