The understanding of environmental science.

Byline: Laraib Ehtasham

When people hear the term 'environmental science', the concept that most probably pops up in their minds is 'pollution'; and if they process their thoughts a little further, they might think of another concept, that is 'climate change'. This is because most of the people are not familiar with the depth and complexity of environmental science. This makes it a very misunderstood field of study and results in the association of only the two aforementioned concepts with this field.

In fact, the scope of environmental science is way beyond our perception about it. At one moment we might be standing in a laboratory to detect heavy metals in water samples; on the other moment we might be sitting in front of a computer to analyze the land cover changes through any GIS software; and on another moment we might be conducting a survey to calculate the economic value of a natural recreational site. This is how it works. Environmental science is the amazing amalgamation of many fields of study; like biology, chemistry, physics, sociology, meteorology, geography and epidemiology to name a few. In this way it merges these different fields and makes an interesting unit.

Environmental biology, for instance, is a sub-field of environmental science that includes biodiversity conservation along with the relation between biological systems and their environment (ecology). On the other hand, environmental chemistry deals with the study of the ongoing chemical processes taking place in the environment and the impact of human activities on these processes. Plus, it also deals with the alterations in these environmental chemical processes (including pollution) along with the impact of these alterations on living organisms and non-living environment. In short, environmental chemistry involves the study of aquatic, atmospheric, and soil chemistry.

Moreover, environmental physics studies and applies the principles of physics on environment. It includes the study energy and heat flow (in and out) of ecosystems; circulation of ocean currents; transport of greenhouse gases through atmosphere etc. In addition, environmental geology focuses on the interaction between Earth processes (involving rocks, fluids and sediments) and human beings. Along...