Environmental scientists study issues like climate change, pollution, and natural resource protection. Their work involves monitoring greenhouse gases, investigating melting ice sheets, and exploring renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. They use tools like ground penetrating radar and resistivity measurements to map underground structures and contaminated soil at former industrial sites being cleaned up through remediation efforts. A variety of science backgrounds can prepare people for careers in environmental science.

1. WHO BECOMES AN
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

2. GREENHOUSE GASES
• Overall, greenhouse gases are a good thing.
• Without them, our planet would be too cold,
and life as we know it would not exist.
• But there can be too much of a good thing.
• Scientists are worried that human activities are
adding too much of these gases to the
atmosphere.

3. GREENLAND’S MELTING ICE
Because temperatures are higher than normal,
Greenland’s ice is melting and raising sea levels.

4. BLUE WHALE SCIENCE
Just so you can picture this:
A blue whale weighs 115 tons.
The amount out melted ice put into the ocean by rising sea levels is
equal to the weight of 5,217,391,304 blue whales (over 5 billion
blue whales)

5. SALT WATER INTRUSION

6. WHAT THE FORESTS LOOKED LIKE BEFORE US
DEFORESTATION
• Deforestation is the permanent removal
of trees to make room for something
besides forest.
• This includes clearing land for agriculture,
timber for fuel, construction,
manufacturing.
• Before hoomans could walk really really
well, there was 666,666,670,000 trees.
(A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away…not really…it was Earth in
the Milky Way)
• Thats 7 times the amount of dollars that
Bill Gates has in his bank account!

7. TREES HELP WITH GREEN HOUSE EFFECT
• Growing trees is one of the simplest and most cost effective ways of combating greenhouse effects.
• As trees grow they absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), a major greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
• When communities plant trees they can help to reduce the impacts of climate change in their local area and
around the world.
• This is something you could do to help fight the greenhouse effect!

8. WHAT ARE SOME OTHER ENERGY RESOURCES
• Can anyone name a few?
• Hydroelectric
• Solar
• Wind
• Nuclear
• Biofuels

9. HOW MANY RENEWABLE RESOURCES ARE USED
• Many of the energy sources use a
turbine generator
• In a turbine generator, a moving fluid—
such as water, steam, gases, or air—
pushes a conductor in a circle.
• Just outside the conductor is a huge
magnet
• Remember moving magnets by a
conductor move electrons.
• The reverse is also true, a moving
conductor by magnets moves electrons.
Keep this in mind for the future slides

10. DOMINO EFFECT
Something very small (like melting ice) can have large
consequences (like no salt water taffy)

11. NUCLEAR POWER (FUSION)
• The Sun uses Nuclear Fusion which mixes two atoms together by throwing them at
each other at really really really high speeds.
• What if we could use nuclear fusion?
• Well, that’s where Tokamaks come into the story.

12. THE
ORIGINS
OF THE
EARTH

13. AN ORIGIN STORY (LIKE IN THE COMICS)
EARTH THE BABY
• Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago (along with the
rest of the solar system)
• So, there was this big dust cloud that collapsed in on
itself.
• Most of the dust went to the center and formed the Sun
• While the other bits that didn’t make formed planets, like
the earth.
• The earth formed by what is known as accretion (like
when you mix flour, eggs, and butter together to make
cookies!)

14. THE EARTH (THE TEENAGER)
• The earth had tons of volcanoes on it.
• Outgassing is probably wha created our
atmosphere.
• This is like when a balloon releases all
the air you put into it back into the
atmosphere.
• That’s what the volcanoes were doing!

15. THE EARTH’S CRUST
• As the earth cooled, a crust formed.
Thats what we are are enjoying walking
and sitting on today.
• The opposite of sandwich bread crust!

16. EARTH THE 30 YR OLD ADULT
• If you dug a hole from one side of the
earth to the other, the earth has a
diameter of 7891 miles.
• This is approximately the length of
America times two!
• So, you could drive from your home in
New Jersey to California and back
again! That’s the diameter of the earth.

17. THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
• We know the earth has to have a solid
center.
• When we drill into the ground
temperatures rise and rise and …you
know
• If temperatures kept getting hotter
and hotter then the center of the
earth would be hotter than the sun.
And we know that cannot be true!

18. EARTH’S MAGNETIC SHIELD
THE ARMOR OF THE EARTH
• Remember that molten lava center of the earth.
• Well, some of the lava is molten iron. Remember metals are great conductors!
• Because of this, there are electric currents moving all throughout the center of the
earth.
• These electric currents create a huge magnetic field around the earth!

19. EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD
THE ARMOR OF THE EARTH
• The magnetic field protects us
from the harmful rays of the sun
and only lets in a little of the suns
rays.
• There are also charged particles
that bombard the earth all the
time!
• The magnetic field protects from
most of those as well!
• These are called cosmic rays!

20. A BIRDS SUPER POWER!
THE QUANTUM ROBIN
• Many birds have migration patterns
• They move to warm places where ever the
warmth is.
• The birds actually follow the magnetic field
of the earth!
• The bird has a chemical in their eyes called
Crytochrome
• This creates a chemical reaction with the
suns light and allows the birds to SEE the
magnetic field of the earth!

21. NEAR SURFACE GEOPHYSICS
• What are our tools?
• Take conductivity measurements
• We take resistivity measurements
• We use Ground Penetrating Radar

22. FARADAY’S LAW
ELECTROMAGNETIC INDUCTION
• Every circuit has a magnetic field around it!
• If you place a circuit which has a magnetic field close to another conductor, then,
you can create another circuit!
Magnetic Field
Current No CurrentNo CurrentCurrent! No Current

23. FARADAY’S LAW
ELECTROMAGNETIC INDUCTION
• Geophysicist use this concept in
a slightly different way
• Instead of inducing a current in a
copper wire,
• We induce currents in the soil
(The soil is a conductor)
Magnetic Field
Soil

24. HALOPHYTE
PICKLE WEED
• The red plant is nicknamed pickle
weed.
• It is considered a halophyte
• Halophytes really really really like salt!
• They tell us where a build up of salt is!

25. SOIL CONDUCTIVITY
• The pickle weed likes salt water.
• Remember salt is really really really
conductive
• So high conductivity is the location
of the pickle weed!
• Where do you guys think the pickle
weed is?

26. HOW DEEP CAN WE SEE DOWN

27. UNMARKED SOLDIER GRAVES
BELLEVILLE GRAVEYARD
• Another use is to find
unmark graves.
• Behind this church is a
lot of land with
unmarked revolutionary
war soldiers

28. WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK
RESISTIVITY PROFILES
• Remember that resistivity is something
that lets very little electricity through.
• Soil can be a resistor too!

29. WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK
RESISTIVITY PROFILES
• Remember that resistivity is something that lets very little electricity through.
• Soil can be a resistor too!

30. GROUND PENETRATING RADAR
• We send radar waves down into the
earth!
• All we have to do is time how long it
takes for the waves to come back to the
machine.

31. WHAT DOES THE DATA LOOK LIKE
GROUND PENETRATING RADAR

32. WHAT DOES THE DATA LOOK LIKE
GROUND PENETRATING RADAR
These little
curves are the
representation
of the graves!

33. WHERE DO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST DO EXPERIMENTS?
• Thousands of contaminated sites exist nationally due to hazardous waste being
dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed.
• These sites include manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills and mining
sites.
• In the late 1970s, toxic waste dumps such as Love Canal and Valley of the
Drums received national attention when the public learned about the risks to human
health and the environment posed by contaminated sites.
• There are 147 Superfund sites in New Jersey

34. SUPERFUND SITES
WHAT ARE THESE SITES FOR
• Since these sites need what is called remediation or fixing, they cannot be places
that have buildings are any real use.
• So, Environmental scientist use them to test “new ways” to clean up oil spills,
chemical leaks, and so much more.
• Something that is so bad, like an oil spill, can have use for scientist who want to
help prevent and remediate this environmental problems.

35. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE GO INTO THIS FIELD?
• Anyone who has a passion for wanting to help the earth.
• Chemist
• Physicist
• Biologist
• Archeologist
• Math People

36. MEME AWARDS

37. MEME AWARDS

38. DONEC QUIS NUNC
MEME AWARDS

39. MEME AWARDS