Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet

Just read the headlines. Whether it’s global warming, arctic drilling, or expanding industrial nations, the news is filled with stories about environmental issues. To understand the news, you have to understand the science. With Botkin and Keller’s Fifth Edition of Environmental Science, you’ll have the opportunity to develop a firm foundation of scientific knowledge, so you can think through environmental issues and make your own decisions regarding the environment.

Daniel B. Botkin is President of The Center for the Study of Environment and Professor Emeritus of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara. From 1978 to 1993, he was Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, serving as Chairman of the Environmental Studies Program from 1978 to 1985. For more than three decades, Professor Botkin has been active in the application of ecological science to environmental management. He is the winner of the Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development and the Fernow Prize for International Forestry, and he has been elected to the California Environmental hall of Fame.

Trained in physics and biology, Professor Botkin is a leader in the application of advanced technology to the study of the environment. The originator of widely used forest gap-models, his research has involved endangered species, characteristics of natural wilderness areas, the study of the biosphere, and attempts to deal with global environmental problems. During his career, Professor Botkin has advised the World Bank about tropical forests, biological diversity, and sustainability, the Rockefeller Foundation about global environmental issues, the government of Taiwan about approaches to solving environmental problems; and the state of California on the environmental effects of water diversion on Mono Lake. He served as the primary advisor to the National Geographic Society for their centennial edition map on "The Endangered Earth." He recently directed a study for the states of Oregon and California concerning salmon and their forested habitats.

He has published many articles and books about environmental issues. His latest books are Beyond the Stoney Mountains: Nature in the American West from Lewis and Clark to Today (Oxford University Press), Strange Encounters: Adventures of a Renegade naturalist (Penguin/Tarcher), The Blue Planet (Wiley), Our Natural History: The Lessons of Lewis and Clark (Putnam), Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the 21st Century (Oxford University Press), and Forest Dynamics: An Ecological Model (Oxford University Press).

Professor Botkin was on the faculty of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (1968-1974) and was a member of the staff of the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA (1975-1977). He received a B.A. from the University of Rochester, an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University.

Edward A. Keller was Chair of the Environmental Studies and Hydrologic Sciences Programs from 1993 to 1997 and is Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he teaches geomorphology, environmental geology, environmental Science, river processes, and engineering geology. Prior to joining the faculty at Santa Barbara, he taught geomorphology, environmental studies, and earth science at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He was the 1982-1983 Hartley Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton and a Visiting Fellow in 2000 at Emmanuel College of Cambridge University, England.

Professor Keller has focuses his research efforts into three areas: Studies of Quaternary stratigraphy and tectonics as they relate to earthquakes, active folding, and mountain building processes; hydrologic process and wildfire in the chaparral environment of southern California; and physical habitat requirements for the endangered southern California steelhead trout. He is the recipient of various Water  Resources Research Center grants to study fluvial processes and U.S. Geological Survey and Southern California Earthquake Center grants to study earthquake hazards.

Professor Keller has published numerous papers, and is the author of the textbooks Environmental Geology, Introduction to Environmental Geology and (with Nicholas Pinter) Active Tectonics (Prentice-Hall). He holds bachelors degrees in both geology and mathematics from California  State university, Fresno; an M.S. in geology from the University of California; and a Ph.D. in geology from Purdue University.