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Paths / Path 45

Environmental Science

How the planet works as one system, how people are changing it, and what the evidence says about the choices ahead.

For: anyone worried or curious about climate, nature or pollution, anyone thinking of studying environmental science, and anyone who wants the numbers behind the headlines.

Shaped by the UK QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Environmental Studies, the core of interdisciplinary programmes such as Stanford's and Yale's, and the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2021–23) as the shared scientific reference; told worldwide, with dated data, and with policy disagreements stated by each side in its own terms.

14readings
3.2 hoursof reading
4stages
10 reads · 4 deep dives
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Stage 1

Year 1 · The planet as a system

3 readings · 39 min
  1. 01Deep diveInteractiveQuiz15 min

    Earth Systems: Five Spheres, One Slow Machine

    Atmosphere, oceans, ice, rock and life, and the cycles that join them.
  2. 02ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    General Chemistry: Electrons Decide Everything

    The chemistry under every environmental process.
  3. 03ReadInteractiveQuiz12 min

    Probability & Statistics: Reasoning with Uncertainty

    The statistics behind every measurement and trend.
Stage 2

Year 2 · Climate and life

3 readings · 39 min
  1. 04ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Climate Science: A Heat Balance Sheet for the Planet

    The greenhouse effect, feedbacks, the carbon budget and what models can tell us.
  2. 05ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Ecology: Why Populations Boom, Crash and Balance

    Populations, food webs and nutrient cycles.
  3. 06ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Conservation & Applied Ecology: What Counts as Saving Nature

    Biodiversity, protected areas and restoration.
Stage 3

Year 3 · Resources

4 readings · 1 hours
  1. 07ReadInteractiveQuiz14 min

    Energy Systems & Transitions: What a Kilowatt-Hour Really Costs

    Where energy comes from and what changing it costs.
  2. 08ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Hydraulics & Water Resources: Moving Water Where People Need It

    Rivers, floods, dams and water supply.
  3. 09Deep diveInteractiveQuiz18 min

    Soils, Agriculture & Food Systems: Feeding Eight Billion From a Thin Skin of Earth

    Soil, farming and feeding eight billion people.
  4. 10Deep diveInteractiveQuiz15 min

    Pollution & Environmental Health: The Dose, the Plume and the Count

    Air, water and chemical pollution, and what it does to health.
Stage 4

Year 4 · Decisions

4 readings · 55 min
  1. 11Deep diveInteractiveQuiz16 min

    Environmental Economics & Policy: Putting a Price on What Nobody Was Charged For

    Externalities, carbon prices, regulation and international agreements.
  2. 12ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Environmental Data & GIS: Reading the Planet from Orbit

    Satellites, maps and environmental data.
  3. 13ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Public & Global Health: Health Beyond the Clinic

    Health beyond the clinic.
  4. 14ReadInteractiveQuiz13 min

    Public Policy: How Problems Become Policies, and What Then Goes Wrong

    How problems become policies.
When you finish

the IPCC's Summaries for Policymakers, free; Our World in Data's energy, climate and environment pages, free; NASA Earth Observatory; the textbooks named at the end of each subject.

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Linguistics

How the world's seven thousand languages work, how they change, how children learn them and how machines model them.