A User's Guide for Planet Earth focuses on the fundamental components of Earth's environmental systems, their interactions, and the way society affects and is affected by alterations in climate, ecosystems, hydrology, and the many other factors that determine our environment. Rather than attempting to include an overwhelming series of environmental anecdotes and peripheral information, this text distills the essential concepts involved in environmental science into a readily understandable and easily digestible form. This will keep readers up to date with the latest understanding of the processes that maintain environmental goods and services, that drive alterations in the earth system, and that control the ways that the environment behaves as an integrated system at all scales. Readers will explore the role of scientific insight in environmental science, and how emerging ideas make it possible to solve problems rooted in the past.