Washington University in St. Louis News & Information > University Groups > Arts & Sciences >
Environmental Studies
The natural systems that shape the Earth's environment are dynamic and highly interactive. As an example, ash injected into the upper atmosphere during volcanic eruptions, lowers atmospheric temperatures and leads to changes in weather. In addition to natural phenomena, human activities have begun to influence Earth's environmental systems in significant ways. The warming of the atmosphere by increased carbon dioxide associated with burning wood and fossil fuel - the "greenhouse effect" - and ozone destruction by the chlorofluorocarbon gases are examples of how human activities can also affect climate. The release of waste products into the Earth's rivers and oceans is another way in which human activities affect naturally dynamic systems. These and other processes profoundly affect the diversity and distribution of life on Earth and are major factors to contend with in conservation efforts.
| News Stories & Tip Sheets: |
Showing Stories 1 through 3 of 58.
- Show More |
|
Achieving a very small carbon footprint
Chase and Hellmuth discuss the trials and tribulations of building one of the greenest structures in North America
Sept. 17,
2009 -- The new Living Learning Center at Tyson Research Center was designed to be one of the greenest buildings in North America. Jonathan Chase, associate professor of biology in the Department of Biology and Environmental Studies in Arts & Sciences and Tyson's director; and Daniel Hellmuth, principal and co-founder of Hellmuth & Bicknese Architects, L.L.C., will deliver a talk about the Center and its challenges for the Assembly Series at 5 p.m. Thursday, September 24 in Wilson Hall Room 214. The program is free and open to the public.
|
Living Building Challenge
What could be one of North America's greenest buildings opened May 29
June 2,
2009 --
 |
| Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo |
| The Living Learning Center |
Download
|
An opening ceremony for what could be one of North America's greenest buildings — a flagship building on the cutting edge of sustainable design and energy efficiency — was held May 29 at Washington University in St. Louis' new Living Learning Center at the university's Tyson Research Center. The Living Learning Center is a 2,900-square-foot facility built to meet the Living Building Challenge — designed to be the most stringent green building rating system in the world — of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council (CRGBC). No building has met its standard yet, but the Living Learning Center is in the running to be the first in North America.
|
Living Building Challenge
What could be one of North America's greenest buildings set to open May 29
May 28,
2009 --
 |
| Photos courtesy Dan Hellmuth, Hellmuth Bicknese Architects |
| Tyson's own Eastern Red Cedar used for exterior siding |
|
Download
|
An opening ceremony for what could be one of North America's greenest buildings — a flagship building on the cutting edge of sustainable design and energy efficiency — will take place at 4 p.m. May 29 at Washington University in St. Louis' new Living Learning Center at the university's Tyson Research Center. The Living Learning Center is a 2,900-square-foot facility built to meet the Living Building Challenge — designed to be the most stringent green building rating system in the world — of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council (CRGBC). No building has met its standard yet, but the Living Learning Center is in the running to be the first in North America.
|
Showing Stories 1 through 3 of 58.
- Show More |
|
| Faculty Experts: |
Showing 5 Experts.
|
|
Richard Axelbaum
Professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering
Axelbaum is the Director of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization. He also heads the Laboratory for Advanced Combustion and Energy Research and has directed the Engineering section of the NASA Missouri Space Grant Consortium at Washington University in St. Louis since 1997. He served as the associate ...
Expertise: Clean coal, nanoparticles, nanotechnology, materials, synthesis, flames
Direct contact: (314) 935-7560
/
rla@wustl.edu
|
Tiffany Knight
Assistant Professor of Biology
 |
| Knight |
Knight is an ecologist who studies the population ecology of rare and invasive plant species, and addresses questions related to the causes and consequences of their abundances and distributions. Why are some species rare, while their closely related congeners are widespread? How does dispersal ability ...
Expertise: Ecology, biology, plants, ecosystems, habitat
Direct contact: (314) 935-8282
/
knight@wustl.edu
|
Jonathan Chase
Associate Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences and director of Tyson Research Center
 |
| Chase |
Jonathan M. Chase, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and director of the university's Tyson Research Center, focuses his research on the rules (or lack thereof) underlying the diversity, distribution, and abundance of animal and plant species from the population/community/ecosystem ...
Expertise: biology, ecology, ecosystem, natural history, evolution, biodiversity, food webs, …
Direct contact: (314) 935-4105
/
jchase@wustl.edu
|
Ralph Quatrano
Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., is the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts and Sciences and chair of the Department of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is internationally known for his plant science work on patterns of embryo formation, and how the patterns lead cells to acquire traits or ...
Expertise: Plants, plant biology, botany, moss, genome, algae, genes, …
Direct contact: (314) 935-6850
/
rsq@wustl.edu
|
Glenn Davis Stone
Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology and Environmental Studies in Arts & Sciences
Stone is an ecological anthropologist who has studied indigenous agricultural systems for the past 20 years. He has written extensively on intensification, labor organization, sexual division of labor, ethnicity and production, spatial organization and especially relationships between population, conflict ...
Expertise: ecological anthropology, political and historical ecology, agricultural biotechnology, settlement patterns, population, ethnoarchaeology, Web-based scholarship, …
Direct contact: (314) 935-5239
/
stone@artsci.wustl.edu
|
Showing 5 Experts.
|
|
| Related News Clips: |
Showing 2 Clips.
|
|
A Climate 'Policy Wonk' in the Making
NPR Morning Edition
April 14,
2008 -- WUSTL junior Kelley Greenman is featured is today's Morning Edition program on climate change with Richard Harris. Greenman is interested in cliimate change policy issues.
The story included a segment about an advising appointment with career counselor Karen Morton and Kelley.
Includes an audio link to the story.
|
Depression: hidden cause of heart attack?
The Wall Street Journal
and 2 others
April 26,
2004 -- You may have one of the biggest risk factors for heart attack, and your doctor doesn't even know it. While doctors screening for heart problems know to monitor smoking, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, few pay attention to a potentially more serious foe: depression. "In cardiology there have been dozens of studies done on hypertension," said Kenneth Freedland, professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, who has been studying the link between depression and heart disease since the 1980s. "We need to make sure the public and medical community understand that this is an important problem, too."
|
Additional Information: Environmental issues have achieved a prominent position on the agenda of many political systems in many societies. Today, these issues---and their economic consequences---are shaped by political leaders, interest groups, public opinion, and international concerns that invade both the industrial and the developing worlds. Several courses including Freshman Seminar in Environmental Studies (EnSt 181), Physics and Society (Phys 272A), Environmental Science (EPSc 220), Human Use of the Earth (EPSc 221A), Conservation Biology (Biol 317A), and Evolution of the Earth (EPSc 200A) provide introductions to many topics relating to environmental issues.
The Environmental Studies Program at Washington University offers students an opportunity to undertake a major or minor in natural sciences or in social sciences associated with the environment. The Program is interdisciplinary; it takes advantage of faculty expertise in Anthropology, Biology, Economics, Earth and Planetary Sciences, History, Political Science, and Engineering.
|
Email this page
Print ready page