In this third edition Girard (chemistry, American U.) builds upon the second edition by adding topics of special interest drawn from current events and re-integrating dropped material on soil and agriculture. The textbook contains enough material for an in-depth year-long course in environmental chemistry, but can be adapted to a single-semester course by choosing highlights from later chapters. The first half of the book covers concepts of matter and energy flow, quantitative skills necessary to analyze environmental questions, and basic soil, atmospheric, and water chemistry, with the second half treating topics such as fossil fuels, nuclear and alternative energy sources, heavy metals and persistent organic compounds, sustainability and green chemistry, chemicals in farming, toxicology and waste disposal. The book includes an access code for online material. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)