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Instructor Information
Instructor Email Office Location & Hours
Engr. John Lemar M. Tirao johnlemartirao@gmail.com TBA (By appointment)
General Information
Description
This course examines people’s impacts on the environment over a local, regional and global spatial scale. In
particular, this course will examine people, people’s historic and contemporary impacts on climate, landscapes,
the ocean, endangered species and habitats in the Philippines and the world.
Course Materials
Required Materials
Any environmental engineering books can be used for this class, therefore, students are not required to purchase
books. However, it is expected that students have already read relevant sections in the prescribed set of books
prior to coming to class.
“Visualizing Environmental Science” by David M. Hassenzahl, Mary Catherine Hager, and Linda R. Berg
Course Schedule
Course schedule GEE11B-M People and Earth Ecosystem is shown below. In the event that the proposed schedule
was not followed due to certain reasons (i.e. cancellation of classes, holidays, discussion not finished due to
time constraints) arrangement of topics will still be pushed through as stated.
Week Topic Sub-topics
Week 1 Aug. 7 Class orientation
Week 2 Aug. 14 Science and art of Human impacts on the environment, environmental
geography ecosystems science, sustainability, handling environmental
problems
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Week Topic Sub-topics
Week 7 Sep. 18 Land resources Land use in the Philippines, forest management,
deforestation, rangelands, conservation of land
resources
Week 8 Sep. 25 Agriculture and World food problems, principal types of agriculture,
food resources challenges of producing more crops and livestock,
solutions to agricultural problems
Week 9 Oct. 2 Biodiversity and conservation Species richness and biological diversity, endangered
and extinct species, conservation biology, conservation
policies
Week 10 Oct. 9 MIDTERM EXAMINATION
Week 11 Oct. 16 Freshwater resources Importance of water, water resource problems, water
and water pollution management, water pollution, improving water quality
Global atmospheric changes Atmosphere and climate, global climate change, ozone
depletion, acid deposition
Week 13 Oct. 30 Solid and hazardous waste Solid waste, reducing solid waste, managing hazardous
waste
Week 14 Nov. 6 Nonrenewable energy resources Energy consumption, coal, oil and natural gas, nuclear
energy
Week 15 Nov. 13 Renewable energy resources Direct solar energy, indirect solar energy, other
renewable energy sources, conservation of energy
Week 16 Nov. 20 Environmental history, politics, Conservation and preservation of resources,
and economics environmental history, legislation and economics
Week 17 Nov. 27 Risk analysis and environmental A perspective on risks, environmental health hazards,
hazards movement of toxicants, determining health effects of
pollutants
Week 18 Dec. 4 FINAL EXAMINATION
Exam Schedule
Date Topics covered
September 4 Case Study 1
September 25 Case Study 2
October 9 MIDTERM EXAMINATION
October 30 Case Study 3
November 20 Case Study 4
December 4 FINAL EXAMINATION
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Grading System
Grading system for this course follows the grading system of the University. Passing rate is 75%. No rounding-off
of decimals.
Case Studies
Quizzes for this course are reorganized as Case Studies, where students will be given relevant case study
questions to think scientifically for solutions. Answers to each case study should be supported and properly
sourced. If you copy and paste anything from the internet and/or someone else’s work is plagiarism. Plagiarism
will be given 0% for the respective case study where it was committed.
Case studies should be in .pdf format and must bear student’s name and student number. You may add photos,
graphs, maps, and charts (must be sourced) to support your answer/argument.
Question 2: What limits, if any, should there be on how private landowners use their land? If you were a
landowner, what are some land use decisions you might have to make that could affect both the public and the
environment?
Question 2: Identify the major sources of particulate matter near where you live. What actions could you take to
reduce particulate matter? What laws or regulations limit particulate matter in your region?
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