Throughout ENVS 160, we studied concepts broken down into four different categories including the book Why We Disagree About Climate Change, the book Making the Modern World, many articles on Classic and Contemporary Environmental Thought, and the book Who Rules the Earth?.
We kicked off the class with Mike Hume’s fairly long and pretty complex book, Why We Disagree About Climate Change. Hulme tackles the many diverse reasons why individuals believe different things about climate change and have varying perspectives on it. He analyzes and breaks down many complex aspects of why we disagree including the the varying definitions of climate throughout society, risk assessment, the role of science, power, belief systems,d spiritual values, and governments. Honestly, for me, this book was pretty overwhelming and left me with way more questions than answers. But it was a very good basis for laying down the concepts that we discussed throughout the rest of the readings in the semester. Many of the concepts we can trace back to Hulme and connect them. During this unit, we did our first project, Climate Change Public Action, in which we went into Portland, either in the PDX downtown or in the periphery, and asked people how worried they were, on a scale of 1-10, about climate change. Doing this post allowed us to understand that even in Portland, a very liberal and “climate change conscious” city, some people still reported low scores in their level of concern. It challenged us to think again about what sort of factors lead to people’s disagreements about climate change. Also, this first post helps us to improve our digital skills in the DS Training site, which ENVS students continue to use to make posts on throughout 160 and beyond.
Our second book, Making the Modern World by Vaclav Smil, was completely different, focusing more on the physical aspect of material stuff that clutters our world today and the concept of dematerialization. This book for me was very interesting, although a little bit depressing considering that Smil’s conclusion was along the lines of the idea that no country will ever be able to fully dematerialize. During this section about stuff, we did a group post called Situating minerals.
In the third section of the class, classic and contemporary environmental thought, we read a series of articles first from classic authors, then from more contemporary authors. Classic thought is the more traditional theories from the around the 1960s 1970s that generally embody a more pure sense of nature as nature as pristine. Contemporary thought is more modern environmentalism, including examples like “market environmentalism” and nuclear energy. We also read a short book called Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defence of Growth, Progress, Industry and Stuff, by Leigh Phillips, which had a very contemporary view, almost too contemporary for my taste. He was in favor of capitalism, unlike most classic environmentalists, which was a little off putting for me. However, hearing his point of view made me more open. In this section we also discussed many “isms,”which are complex, terms that are useful and relevant to the realm of environmental studies, for example, eco-modernism or post-naturalism. At this point in the course, things start to fit together a little bit more. You will be able to draw connections betweens articles and authors, and among the various theories, and perhaps start to form your own opinions about what the authors are proposing. To finish off this section of the class, we did the Interrogating isms post, in which each group chose an ism and discussed its meaning and implications.
The last section of the class was a little more hopeful. We read a book that had some solutions to climate change in the form of institutional action called Who Rules the Earth by Paul Steinberg. This book changed my perspective completely on individual action. Steinberg tells us that ultimately, the individual actions that we have been taught to do since we were kids, like ride our bikes to school and bring reusable bags to the grocery store, really do not make a difference. By the end of this book, we had written individual reflection and synthesis posts (#1, #2, #3, #4) about our own learning and synthesizing of our knowledge of Who Rules the Earth, as well as all the other books and the conclusions that we had come to as a result of taking the course as a whole.
But ENVS 160 is only the beginning. By no means do I have a solid opinion or understanding of my own views on the extensive material and perspectives that we covered in ENVS 160. My best advice to you is to go in with an open mind, an open heart, empathy, and determination. The material you learn in this class is very interesting and you will enjoy the interdisciplinarity of it. And most importantly don’t lose hope and become pessimistic. Remember that even by taking ENVS 160, you are learning, and thus becoming a more well rounded and active citizen of the world. But don’t stop here. Let the knowledge and power you gain from this class guide your motivations for the future and be the change you wish to see in the world. Also, just a few tips: I’m not sure if your class will have the same structure, but if it does you will have a daily quiz. Don’t let these discourage you. They are not worth a large percentage of your grade and they are only an incentive to make students do the readings, which you should do because they are all very interesting and thought-provoking.
Best of luck,
Ivy