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Contents:
1 - Introduction; 2 - Environmental chemist's toolbox; 3 - The atmosphere; 4 - The chemistry of continental solids; 5 - The chemistry of continental waters; 6 - The oceans; 7 - Global change.
Review:
As we become more sophisticated in our approach to environmental and ecological issues so our need grows for a fundamental set of tools with which to evaluate the range of material we face in our studies and decision-making. Chemistry is a key element and yet with universal concern over secondary education science there has never been a greater need for a basic text. Those that normally seek to fill this role have a tendency to be partial - normally covering only 1 or 2 areas. This text attempts to look at the whole range of environmental chemistry, thus trying together disparate areas.
The book opens with an overview of the development of the Earth but in terms of chemistry: the evolution, chemically of the lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere with some input of human action. It's chapter two which really sets the scene by providing a thorough grounding (or 'toolbox' in the authors' terminology) of all the ideas needed to make some sense of the subject. This starts with the table of elements and goes through bonding, molecular activity and radioactivity. There's also a highly useful table showing where each of these ideas fits into the rest of the text. The remainder of the book takes one aspect of the Earth in turn and demonstrated how chemistry is involved (as well as show a major area of human impact on the chemistry of the area). This starts with chapter three which turns to the atmosphere with an introduction to atmospheric chemistry and a longer look at air pollution. Chapter four focusses on the lithosphere with a study of basic mineralogy and crystal structures moving on to weathering, clays soils (a particularly fine overview) and contaminated land. The next area is freshwater. Here we get an outline of water chemistry with particular attention to dissolved solids and links to weathering. Aluminium is a key area here with its links to acid rain. The human impact side in this chapter is eutrophication and contamination. From fresh to marine water and a study, in chapter six, of the fate of river and estuarine sediments. Also there are studies of ionic action, precipitation (in terms of oolites and silica), deep ocean vents and ocean circulation. The final chapter looks at global change and the impact of the carbon and sulphur cycles and organic pollutants.
This book is an excellent introduction to the topic. Although it can't cover every topic in such a small space it does give a very good overview of all the key chemical concepts in each of the main areas. It's very well illustrated both in terms of concept and case study. The broad approach would make it suitable in a range of courses although some basic chemical understanding would be an advantage. Overall, a great introduction to holistic chemistry and one that deserves a wide readership.