In this activity, students conduct an energy audit to determine how much carbon dioxide their family is releasing into the atmosphere and then make recommendations for minimizing their family's carbon footprint.

This is a collection of five short videos that show how climate change is affecting fishing, native populations and access for the oil and gas industry in the Arctic. The videos include personal reflections by writers Andrew C. Revkin and Simon Romero, scientists, and residents about their experience of the impacts of the climate change in the Arctic.

This course explores the physical, ecological, technological, political, economic, and cultural implications of big plans and mega-urban landscapes in a global context. It uses local and international case studies to understand the process of making major changes to urban landscape and city fabric, and to regional landscape systems. It includes lectures by leading practitioners. The assignments consider planning and design strategies across multiple scales and time frames.

This series looks at the Oxford Martin School's academics and how their research is making a difference to our global future. The series will be of interest to people who are concerned about the future for the planet, how civilisation will adapt to emerging problems and issues such as climate change, over population, increased urbanisation of populations and the creation of vaccines to fight against future pandemics. The Oxford Martin School academics explain their various research topics in an accessible and thoughtful way and try to find practical solutions to these issues.

This set of interactive data visualizations show the weather and climate events that have had the greatest economic impact on the US from 1980 to 2016.

Satellite observations that detect and map fires provide important insight into the widespread nature of fire activity around the world. This visualization, which shows global satellite observations of fires in 2002 and 2003, goes on to focus on a region where fire plays a dominant role in the landscape: Southern California. The wildfires that roared through Southern California in the autumns of 2003 and 2007 were particularly fast-burning and destructive because people have actively suppressed fires in the region where residential development is expanding further and further into wild land areas.

Have you ever asked what “biobased” means or wondered about the key aspects in developing and commercializing biobased products? This course will answer those questions and more; highlighting the opportunities, hurdles, and driving forces of the bioeconomy.

Today’s industries face enormous global challenges when it comes to the fossil-based economy. Fossil resources are no longer a desirable feedstock for many products and governments’ climate goals put various limitations to its usage. Moreover, consumer perception has become an increasingly important factor. With biobased products as an alternative to the fossil-based economy, the bioeconomy can provide viable solutions to these challenges.

The course describes the different types of biomass, the methods of refinery and typical conversion technologies used for biobased products. You’ll also engage in a study of the practical and real-life examples emerging in the market: biopolymers, bioenergy, bioflavours, and biosurfactants.

The course has been developed by a team of experts from seven different institutions and universities in three different countries, all sharing their personal perspectives on the opportunities and challenges faced by the biobased industry. The three top-ranked institutions Delft University of Technology, RWTH Aachen University, and Wageningen University & Research offer additional, more advanced courses to continue your learning journey:

Industrial Biotechnology: a more advanced course that digs deeper into engineering aspects of bio-based products.
MicroMasters Chemistry and Technology for Sustainability: Help drive the transition from fossil sources to renewable energy ones and engineer a biobased future.
Sustainable Development: The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Introduction to sustainable development and its relation to the Water-Energy-Food Nexus.

Short Description:
The aim of this book is to build a bridge between conservation theory and practice. The narrative is focused specifically on Canada. This permits an integrated treatment, where conservation theory is presented in the context of the social and institutional framework responsible for its implementation. Special attention is given to topics that are the subject of debate or controversy, as they provide valuable insight into the practical aspects of conservation. The result is a comprehensive synthesis of applied biodiversity conservation, tailored to the needs of conservation students and practitioners in Canada.

Long Description:
Conservation is often portrayed as an applied science—a body of knowledge about how ecological systems function, how they are threatened, and how they can be maintained. Conservation is also a form of management. It entails working with people to achieve desired ecological outcomes, grappling with conflicting land-use objectives, and making optimal use of available conservation resources. The aim of this book is to build a bridge between these two perspectives, linking theory with practice.

Major topic areas include the history of conservation, the social and scientific foundations of conservation, threats to biodiversity, applied conservation methods at both the species and ecosystem levels, the accommodation of climate change, and structured decision making. Special attention is given to topics that are the subject of debate or controversy, as they provide valuable insight into the practical aspects of conservation. The narrative is focused specifically on Canada. This permits an integrated treatment, where conservation theory is presented in the context of the social and institutional framework responsible for its implementation. The result is a comprehensive synthesis of applied conservation, tailored to the needs of conservation students and practitioners in Canada. Learning is supported by an engaging and clear writing style and 196 colour illustrations.

Word Count: 160462

ISBN: 978-1-55195-494-3

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Biofuels are an energy currency derived from renewable biological sources, such as plants, algae, and organic waste materials. They can replace fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel. However, current feedstock use and production methods raise debates and concerns related to their environmental impact, land use, and competition with food production. Biofuels are mainly used for transportation, but they are a very small contributor to transportation energy. Demand for biofuels is expected to grow in the next five years due to climate goals and policy mandates.

This case study describes a practical exercise developed for students in the School of Geography and Environmental Science at Monash University. The exercise is based around simple bioclimatic modelling techniques and designed for first-year university students of biogeography, ecology and climatology. It incorporates aspects of past, present and future climates and their impact on species distributions, particularly in Victoria, but could be easily modified to suit any part of Australia. The practical exercise has three main parts: the first is on animal distributions under current and future climates; the second concerns plant distributions in the past and present; and the third part looks at how rare and endangered species may respond to future climate change in alpine environments.

Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Identify significant threats to biodiversityExplain the effects of habitat loss, exotic species, and hunting on biodiversityIdentify the early and predicted effects of climate change on biodiversity

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Define global climate changeSummarize the effects of the Industrial Revolution on global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrationDescribe three natural factors affecting long-term global climateList two or more greenhouse gases and describe their role in the greenhouse effect

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Describe how soils are formedExplain soil compositionDescribe a soil profile

What is biology? In simple terms, biology is the study of living organisms and their interactions with one another and their environments. This is a very broad definition because the scope of biology is vast. Biologists may study anything from the microscopic or submicroscopic view of a cell to ecosystems and the whole living planet (Figure 1.2). Listening to the daily news, you will quickly realize how many aspects of biology are discussed every day. For example, recent news topics include Escherichia coli (Figure 1.3) outbreaks in spinach and Salmonella contamination in peanut butter. Other subjects include efforts toward finding a cure for AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. On a global scale, many researchers are committed to finding ways to protect the planet, solve environmental issues, and reduce the effects of climate change. All of these diverse endeavors are related to different facets of the discipline of biology.