When entering ENVS 160 know that it is not going to be anything like your AP environmental science class. This class will open you up to different ways of thinking about environmental issues and will likely challenge your current held beliefs. ENVS 160 is more focused on thinking about the world around us and less on the science aspect of this topic. This class also strongly encourages you to think about how you can take what you learn and apply it to the real world in terms of taking action. Though it is likely that the class is run differently depending on the professor, these are the 4 areas of focus that each address different approaches to environmental thought and how you can use what you learn to take action.
In the first section you will be focusing on a very relevant issue in environmental science which is climate change. In this section you will have many in-depth discussion(group and class) based around the book Why We Disagree About Climate Change by Mike Hulmes. This book can be summarized as a look into what the word climate means and how people’s values and morals shape their overall opinion pertaining to climate change. You will find yourself thinking about how people’s economic or religious background shape their perspectives around climate change. This book made me realize that the argument around the existence of climate change isn’t as simple as I was made to believe and that there are a lot of factors that go into people’s view of the subject. In this section you will also get to further your learning by completing a project pertaining to climate change. This project will have you and a group of your peers surveying people in Portland or the general area about climate change. You will ask them questions about how important of an issue climate change is compared to other issues. You will then take your responses and compile it into a report in which you and your team members will present, observe and reflect upon your findings. Here is my project to give you an example of what this will look like. Portland Considers Climate Change
The second area of focus is around a book called Making the Modern World by Vaclav Smil. This book focuses and the extraction, production, and various purposes and uses of materials like concrete or aluminum. The book also focuses on dematerialization and whether that is something we are doing or not. It should be noted that this has been regarded as the most challenging section in the class and could potentially leave you very confused and frustrated at times. Know however, that despite the confusing reading, you will learn something beneficial that you can then utilize later in life if you intend on taking action just like every other section of this course. Just like the last section, you will be required to complete a project that pertains to the overall themes and lessons of the section. In this project you and a group will chose a mineral to do research on. Just like Vaclav Smil, you will write about the minerals popular sites of production, what the mineral is used for, and the social and cultural importance of the mineral to the said region. Here is my project as an example in which we focused on the mineral titanium. Titanium: It’s in your Toothpaste!
The third area of focus is on classic vs contemporary environmental thought. In this section you will do several readings such as the famous Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin which explores overexploitation. You will also read up on things that counter the classic environmental thought like Austerity Ecology by Leigh Phillips. The book counters the idea of carrying capacity which is very commonly discussed in classic environmental thought. This was the section of the course that really allowed me to see past the typical environmental opinions and instead open my mind to new ways of thinking. For the group project that pertains to this section, you will be looking into an “ism” of your choice. You will then explore the meaning of this ism and whether you think the belief system behind it is viable or not. Here is my group’s project as an example in which we looked into ecomodernism. Ecomodernism.
The last section which was my personal favorite will have you reading Who Rules the Earth by Paul Steinberg. This book focuses on who is responsible for the continued environmental problems we face and that the solution is more than just the little things we do. The book highly advocates long term institutional change and changing our moral behaviors as a solution. You will engage in various discussions with your peers and upperclassmen about this topic. This is the book that really informed me about how I can enact real change to the environment and I am certain it will do the same for you. During this section you will comprise 4 individual blog posts in which you synthesise and reflect upon the course material of ENVS 160. The first post will ask you to reflect upon some key lessons that you have learned up to this point in ENVS 160. The second post will ask you to draw connections from all the course readings. The third post will ask you to summarize the main arguments being made in Who Rules the Earth. The final post will then ask you how you intend to take what you have learned in ENVS 160 and apply it to your personal life. Here is what each of these posts should look like:
You should leave ENVS 160 feeling like you have gained some new perspective about environmental thought and issues. You should also leave feeling like you have a better idea of how you can take what you learned and apply it to the real world. My advice is to be as open minded as possible and critically think about everything you learn in this class. If you do that then you will get a lot out of it and be prepared to continue in the major if that is your plan.
Works Cited:
Hulme, Mike. 2009. Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Phillips, Leigh. 2015. Austerity Ecology & the Collapse-Porn Addicts: A Defence of Growth, Progress, Industry and Stuff. Winchester, UK: Zero Books.
Smil, Vaclav. 2014. Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley.
Steinberg, Paul F. 2015. Who Rules the Earth?: How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.