COURSES

 

ESS 134. Air Pollution and Resources. 

Atmospheric sciences and meteorology; chemistry of air pollutants and its fate; gas-to-particle conversion; nucleation and co- agulation of aerosol; oxidizing power of the troposphere; ozone pollution; wet and dry pollutants deposition; air quality model- ing; global climate change; impact on human health and natural environment.

ESS 100. Environmental Chemistry.

We will use a trans-disciplinary approach to study topics involving inorganic and organic chemistry in the Earth's hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, including acid-base chemistry, carbonate equilibria, aqueous speciation, liquid-gas-aqueous-mineral equilibria, oxidation-reduction, kinetics, and biogeochemical cycles. 

ES 291 / ESS 190. Environmental System Seminar Series. 

The ES seminar series (https://es.ucmerced.edu/seminars) is framed to encompass both disciplines covering natural-science, engineering, and social-science aspects of environmental systems, and also the ethical, political, and historical issues that bear on climate solutions. For the 2020-2021 academic year, we are aiming to have several of the seminars focus on research related to environmental justice, as well as seminars covering our normal disciplinary mix.

ES 269. Environmental Toxicology. 

This course aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the properties, behaviors, and effects of environmental contaminants on biological systems. A series of environmental toxicological topics will be covered, including how toxic chemicals are released and transported in the environment; how these chemicals can be detected and quantified in the environment; how they interact with living organisms to cause toxic responses; how toxic responses can be measured, and how chemical and toxicological data can be combined to enable better risk assessment and environmental management decision making.