The ENVS 160 course with Jim Proctor covers a wide breadth of knowledge and material. It’s difficult to grasp the range of obvious lessons each book conveys, let alone the underlying objectives present in each text. The class is no less than difficult, it comes with vigorous hours of reading, writing, and discussing. But saying that, it is 100% worth your energy. At first you will barely understand the significance of the texts, then you will start to process them and make connections and suddenly realize how they apply to your personal and scholarly life. Your whole view of environmental studies and climate change will be challenged, and stable doctrines you’ve leaned on regarding such studies will be unhinged. But as they say “If it’s not hard, it’s not worth doing.”
The course starts with Why We Disagree About Climate Change by Mike Hulme which voices thoughts that are tremendously crucial pertaining to our generation and the actions that need to be taken. Hulmes discussion is based around the key aspects of why as a human race we can’t seem to agree on about any aspect of climate change. He considers the dual origin of climate change- its physical side that can be observed and quantified and its social portion that is adapted to each culture and social setting. He talks about the history of science climate and the expectations put on climate science. He goes into the difficulty of assigning economic value to climate and the risk of how we communicate environmental destruction. Hulme addresses how risk perception varies between different individuals due to the fact that we have different recognition of and relationships with the natural world. Risks that vary on our exposure to climate risk, and how our cultural identities perceives risks. He talks about the connection between religion and climate change, and ties it back to risk perception. FInally, he points out that there are difficult questions of governance and development that hover around climate change action.
climate change public opinion assignment: /2017/02/05/the-portland-perspective/
Making the Modern World by Vaclav Smil examines the rate of material consumption in the world, and what comes along with that consumption. Smil discusses the array of materials used throughout history, the transforming production of certain products and the energy costs and environmental implications of our material consumption. He discusses dematerialization and recycling, and explains how even at their best, they can only reverse so much damage. Vaclav when speaks of minimizing entropy said calls for a new society where citizens who have basic material needs taken care of stop their consumption there and no longer attain material possessions in the hope of striving for life satisfaction from. He states that this has great potential of reaping benefits due to recent studies that have shown that materialism is negatively related to life contentment.
situating minerals assignment:/2017/02/27/nickel-me-this/
Classic and contemporary environmental thought play a significant role in understanding the approaches taken to climate change and action. Classic environmentalist are weary of development and consumerism and are skeptical of its sustained growth and prosperity, a classic view focuses on individual and small scale action. The classic view is much more conservative regarding nature and our interactions with it and they don’t view technology as a positive mechanism to further the pro-environment movement. Contemporary environmentalist on the other hand question previous assumptions made by classic thinkers and attempt to redefine terms commonly used in environmental discourse. They view development as a tool to help pro-environmental thinking and actions. They are in strong favor of using technology to their advantage to help further pro-environment oriented goals.
interrogating isms assignment: /2017/03/22/through-the-lens-of-a-political-ecologist/
Paul Steinbergs book Who Rules the World addresses how to confront climate change by taking a step back and focusing on social rules. In his introduction to his research, Steinberg explaining the abundance and importance of social rules. He claims that what hinders us from progress is the barrier of the problem of collective action and its lack of incentive. Steinberg claims that in order to change social rules we must address who is in charge of creating those rules. Steinberg then focuses on the role that social rules play in the operation of market economies and the role those economies play in environmental policy. The rules that create economies can either foster or destroy innovation. Steinberg argues that the rise of the European Union and the trend of political decentralization is changing the answer to ‘who rules the world?’ because the UN values environmental prosperity, and decentralization is giving more local governments more power. Steinberg ends his book by explaining the importance of replacing old rules with new rules that can endure time. This book creates an easy to follow demonstration of why the environmental legislation is the way it is, and shows that rules are mutable and that we must work to change them in order to create environmental prosperity.
Individual Posts:
#1: /2017/04/04/continuing-the-conversation/
#2: /2017/04/10/connect-the-dots-to-form-a-constellation/
#3: /2017/04/17/a-mosaic-of-rules/
As you can see, a lot is covered in the short amount of time you have with Jim Proctor in ENVS 160. The workload is hard, and you will feel overwhelmed sometimes but the outcomes of this course are worth every second of stress. The doctrines taught to you will slither into every crevice of your academic life, and you will be given hope about the sustainability of the future. I hope that you will enjoy this class, both its hard and easy times, as much as I did.
Citation:
Smil, Vaclav. 2014. Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization. Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley.
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who Rules the Earth?: How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Meadows, Donella H., Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens. 1974. The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York: Universe Books.
Hardin, Garrett. 1968. “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Science 162.
Shellenberger, Michael, and Ted Nordhaus, eds. 2011. Love Your Monsters: Postenvironmentalism and the Anthropocene. Breakthrough Institute.
Leigh Phillips. 2015. Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defence of Growth, Progress, Industry and Stuff. Winchester, UK ; Washington, USA: Zero Books.