Everyone's World - What YOU Need to Know re Your Environment

Environmental Science and Ecology can be fun, useful and easy to apply to today's environmental issues.

To be able to decipher confusing or conflicting information about the environment.
To gain a solid understanding of how the environment works.
To have familiarity with key creatures in the environment.
To grasp how energy and matter work through food webs, ecosystems and biomes.
To learn fundamental ideas of Environmental Science and Ecology that can be used to solve environmental problems.
To identify nine factors with the power to change our environment, often in detrimental ways.
To gain a balanced perspective that will enhance learning and communication about the environment.

We all live in the environment and it provides us with all our needs. Yet almost everything we do has an impact on the environment. How do we use our understanding of the environment to support its sustainability?

In this course, we will look at information, misinformation and disinformation about the environment and why the confusion exists. Since virtually everyone has a personal stake in the environment (such as nature appreciation, business interests, a focus on health or wealth, etc.), you can expect to find a wide range of extremely polarized opinion. But how can one determine which viewpoints are based on facts and which are biased by faulty information and selfish motives?

On the practical side, we’ll become familiar with key organisms and concepts that operate in our environment. We’ll focus on important details of how ecosystems, biomes, habitats and territories work in the environment and how they change with time and human impact.

We’ll examine some fundamental ideas of Environmental Science and Ecology that can be used to solve environmental problems.

We will have a brief survey of 9 specific factors that can affect our environment - often with negative impacts.

By the end of the course, you will have a balanced view of the environment, some solid ideas about a variety of environmental problems, and an enhanced ability to share your perspectives with the people around you.

Everyone's life and livelihood takes place in the environment so we all have a stake in it.
People with curiosity about the environment will learn more about how it works.
People who have doubts about environmental topics will gain clarity.
People who have expertise about the environment will gain ideas about how to more effectively share that information with others.