Ah, nice to see you young grasshopper. This path is long, twisted, and difficult to navigate, but the enlightenment you receive makes it all worth it. This class is designed to show you what lies in store further on in the environmental studies curriculum and to give you a sense of the type of work involved. Specifically, ENVS 160 covers survey taking and opinions, situating a place and all the factors that affect it, various schools of environmental thought and overall connectedness thought. Its a lot of variety of content, and its not for everyone, but I believe it to be worth it.
Unit 1: Why We Disagree About Climate Change
This unit, focused on the text Why We Disagree About Climate Change, covers various perspectives on climate change, culminating in a survey analysis of Portlandians’ opinions about climate change. For me, the main takeaway was that regardless of how similar or different we are, there is bound to be some disagreement, and that’s okay. It’s important to remember that there are a variety of perspectives to consider, including economic, social, and environmental. My group’s post is linked above if that intrigues you.
Unit 2: Making the Modern World
This unit switches it up from the first, switching from ideas to more analytical data. Focused around the text Making the Modern World, this unit covers stuff, whether it be raw materials or refined goods for day to day use. the culminating research project focuses on situating a material in a few locations around the globe. The biggest takeaway from this unit for me was that everyday objects are made from components from around the world, and each component material has an impact on where it comes from, including a different perspective that you haven’t considered before as an outsider. My group’s post is linked above in case you want to learn about Asbestos, Canada and Asbest, Russia and their namesake mineral, asbestos.
Unit 3: Classic and Contemporary Thought
Unlike the previous two units, this unit is centered around several articles and the Ecotypes survey, and the various schools of environmental thought. Its a great juxtaposition to the previous two, providing an opportunity for overall thought and different concepts pertaining to the environment that you might not have thought of before. At certain points in this unit, I was lost and unable to grasp the concepts being taught. However, I found that it helped to put each ‘ism’ in the context of the Ecotypes survey. The culminating project centered around examining an ‘ism’ in depth, providing a deeper understand of that particular ‘ism’ and other closely related ‘isms’. My takeaway is that there is always a way to relate ideas to each other, expand upon them, then tie that back into the real world.
Unit 4: Who Rules the Earth
Centered around Who Rules the Earth, this unit’s primary focus is understanding the inter-connectedness of everything, and how to move forward to solve current environmental problems. Instead of one culminating post, there are a series of four posts, touching on lessons learned so far in ENVS, connections between the previous readings, a summary of Who Rules the Earth, and the transfer of skills learned in ENVS 160 to our personal and academic lives. The biggest thing I learned from this unit is that, whether we like it or not, everything is connected in some way and that, if we have any hope to survive ourselves, we need to start working together.
As you can see, there’s a lot of content in ENVS 160, spanning various levels of thought and analysis, so if a unit is super difficult, there will be one that is more your speed. Also it’s a lot of writing with all the posts, but coming from someone who doesn’t like writing that much, it’s tolerable if you can find a way to relate to and understand to content. Best of luck and I hope you stick around the major.