Special Studies

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Environmental pollution is one the major problems that affects biodiversity, ecosystems, and human health worldwide by contaminating air, soil and water. This course will give you foundation knowledge of ecological principles which in turn will help you to ascertain how human activity may impact natural processes, often contributing to degradation of many natural ecosystems/climate change. Ecology is the study of the interactions of organisms - animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria - with each other and with their environment. And ecology matters on so many different levels. Ecology matters because of the impact humans are having on the natural world - directly, through fishing, harvesting, changing land use, urbanisation; and indirectly, most notably through the effects of climate change. Ecology matters because the natural world provides many benefits for people to live healthily on our planet. And ecology matters because, well, the natural world matters in itself. IR - Dublin, Ireland Effective climate action requires rapid reductions in emissions of CO2 across all sectors. However, reductions in gross emissions alone do not meet the EU 2030 climate action plan targets. Negative emissions technologies (NETs) are the sustained gross removals of CO2 from the atmosphere and subsequent secure, long-term storage of carbon in 'carbon sinks' A range of NETs measures are currently being explored across EU countries for integration in national inventory. Negative emissions technologies are either natural climate solutions or engineered solutions. This module will cover the carbon capture and storage potential of a range of measures such as afforestation, soil carbon sequestration, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, direct air carbon capture and storage, and enhanced weathering. The suitability of NETs for deployment for Ireland will be reviewed.