ABSTRACT
The entire world is the environmental scientist's laboratory. Environmental science takes for its own the study of the composition of the atmosphere, water, soil, and how materials are taken up and given off by plants and animals. It examines the transport of various chemical species, elements, and compounds, among the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the geosphere, and the biosphere. Of great importance in the development of this branch of science has been the realization that human activities are having an increasing effect, frequently not for the better, on the natural environment.
