ENVS 160 is the entrance to an interdisciplinary major that attracts many of us Pios, but it is not like most introductory classes at Lewis and Clark. This class demands an open mind, technological skills, teamwork, and dedication. Throughout the semester we were all a bit shocked at the contemporary ideas that seemed to denounce our common beliefs, but we learned how we could be effective citizens who care about this planet. We created several individual and team blog posts that increased our comfort with one another and technology and also improved our writing style. After finishing ENVS 160, I feel prepared to think, write, and act as a more well rounded, sophisticated college student.
Why We Disagree About Climate Change
Our first text of the semester was a book written by Mike Hulme titled Why We Disagree About Climate Change. This text served as the foundation of our first section of ENVS. The title is self-explanatory; each chapter we discussed the sources of disagreement in regard to climate change. Although it was interesting to have a clearer understanding of these various sources of disagreement, at times the book made me feel hopeless for the future. Hulme argues that climate change is not a problem to be solved because there is no solution to it which was definitely challenging to hear. I asked myself, why are we are all in an Environmental Studies class then?. However, by the end of the book Hulme suggests that climate change can in fact bring us together- it can reveal to us our personal and social identities (Hulme 2009).
After reading Why We Disagree About Climate Change we did our first team blog post which involved going to downtown Portland to survey various people regarding climate change. We primarily focused on how people’s opinions of climate change differed depending on their age, race, zip code, and gender. It was a great experience to actually be taking action. At times I have felt like I am not really doing anything that is making a difference by being in this class, but after reflecting on this past semester I have realized that I learned the skills I need in order to think about the planet with multiple perspectives that reveal how I can actually make a difference.
Making the Modern World
The following section of ENVS 160 was somewhat of a hard transition. We read Vaclav Smil’s Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization. Smil offers an overwhelming amount of quantitative evidence that reveals the trends and importance of the materials we use everyday, like paper, steel, and concrete. It was hard to keep all the facts straight when reading this book, so I made sure to use the reading guides that are available so that I could zone in on what was really important. After finishing the book, we came to conclusion that absolute dematerialization is a very unlikely occurrence, but that relative dematerialization will likely continue to ensue (Smil 2014).
Smil’s book lead us to our next team blog post which was involved situating minerals. Through examining multiple locations of production for certain minerals, this team assignment exposed the deeper meaning of place. A place includes nature, social relations, and meaning. This is another instance in ENVS 160 when I came to realize that simplicity is almost always a misunderstanding. Sometimes it is frustrating that everything has these underlying complexities, but I have learned to appreciate them because it means you have deeper understanding of how the world works.
Classic and Contemporary Environmental Thought
The third section of ENVS 160 made the distinction between classic and contemporary environmental thought. Rather than studying only one text we read multiple articles as well as Leigh Phillips’ Austerity Ecology which shed light on the misconceptions of the common, anti-growth, liberal minded environmentalist, which many of us here at Lewis and Clark may identify with. Discussing classic and contemporary environmental thought was one of the more interesting parts of ENVS 160 for me because almost everything we read made me rethink my beliefs. I was under the impression that nuclear power was dangerous, but now I know that there is a chance that it is a beneficial alternative energy source. Therefore, I must keep an open mind. Classic environmentalism still has a strong presence among the population- we have all been told that if we all make individual changes, they will collectively make a difference, but contemporary environmental thought argues that we need institutional change. Paul F. Steinberg goes further in depth on this idea of institutional and individual change in the final section of the semester.
Classic and contemporary environmental thought also allowed us to investigate -isms, in the third team post. This post was one of the most challenging of the semester because it required conceptual analysis, but I learned that we cannot just fling words around without knowing their definitions. We must be as specific as possible and avoid big words like environment or sustainable. I know this must sound crazy, we cannot use the word environment in an Environmental Studies class, but it has so many different implications and meaning depending on who you are so we have to use specific example of what we are talking about to avoid confusion. I still struggle with the a naive use of big words so as you continue in ENVS 160 be sure to be careful with this!
Who Rules the Earth
Our final section of the class revolved around the book Who Rules the Earth by Paul F. Steinberg which I mentioned earlier. This text wrapped up everything we learned in the semester in such as way that explained how we must go about creating change. We must act institutionally. Social rules are everywhere, whether we realize it or not, and as a result it is necessary to work with the institutions that control our everyday lives. Recycling is great, but is it really doing anything to stop deforestation or extinction? I know this is a tough question, but we have to ask ourselves what it is we are attempting to do when we recycle. If the answer is make the world a better place then we have to become more involved in higher institutions that exercise an overwhelming amount of power. When we only focus on our individual actions we are limiting our potential to make a difference (Steinberg 2015).
The final section of ENVS also required four individual posts that were reflections and syntheses of everything we learned over the past few months. It was interesting to see how everything we learned connected and built on one another. The first post simply stated what we learned in ENVS 160.The following post was making connections between the various sections of the class and I was so impressed with the multitude of varying connections everyone was able to make. The third post was a summary of Steinberg’s Who Rules the Earth and lastly the final post highlighted how we can apply what we learned in ENVS 160 on an academic and personal level. I am sure this sounds a bit overwhelming, but these final posts actually clarified and sorted all the information we learned.
Conclusion
While many of the things you will learn in ENVS 160 might be new, complex ideas that possibly challenge your previous mindset, stick with it and by the end of the class you will feel better prepared to think about the Big forbidden word- the environment.
Works Cited
Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Phillips, Leigh. 2015. Austerity Ecology & The Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defense of Growth, Progress, Industry and Stuff. Winchester, UK ; Washington, USA: Zero Books.
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, United States: Oxford University Press.