WEEK 7 - The Atmosphere

Atmosphere is mainly consisted of nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2) - 78% of the atmosphere´s volume is nitrogen and 21% is oxygen - and in smaller amounts we have argon (Ar), carbon dioxide (CO2), neon (Ne), helium (He), methane (CH4), krypton (Kr), hydrogen (H2), nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon monoxide (CO), xenon (Xe), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), iodine (I2) and ammonia (NH3).  Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone are greenhouse gases which absorb ultraviolet solar radiation and help by keeping the Earth warm enough for life to exist.  moreover, those gases help on reducing temperature extremes between day and night. In addition, we need atmosphere´s gases for breathing  and photosynthesis. So atmosphere has a major role on life existence on Earth.

References:

• Wikipedia(2011).  Atmosphere of Earth.Retrieved on March 30, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth

Week 5- What Do Enviromental Scientists Do Summary

Those few years, we have  had  the  worst  weather,  with  lot  of  phenomena  like hurricane  Katrina.  Environmental Scientists become  very  important  in helping  to  manage  the  environment.  Actually,  environmental  science  is a  field  of  study  that  aims  to  find  the interactions  between  human  society  and  environmental and helps to manage and protect the  fauna  and  flora.  Is a combination of  physics, geology ,  geography,  biology  and  chemistry.  Also, is including tasks  like  identifying  sources of pollution, assessing the level of flood risk to a new housing development. Moreover, environmental scientists are employed by government, or in the private sector, in public companies. One common career path is in environmental analysis, where they decide ways, how the developments can be completed without effect the environment. Another, common area is environmental compliance, where they check that companies are not breaking the environmental laws and reduce the effects they have on the environment. Finally, environment scientists will play an increasing role in the future because of humans increasing effect on ecosystems.