ENVS 160 is a challenging course, though it is a course, I would argue, that will provide students with useful skills and knowledge that can be applied outside of the classroom. ENVS 160 is all about challenging perceptions and developing new ones; what you think you know can and will change, just don’t be afraid […]
Individual Posts
The Pillars of ENVS160: Disagreement and Communication
Introduction to Environmental Studies was not the class I thought it would be. My idea of the semester included an overview of contemporary environmental problems; the evaluation of attempted solutions; and the provision of new solutions to implement global and local change. Instead I was surprised to find my views of the environmental studies discipline slowly […]
Easy Enough
I’m taking this course as a declared biology major and as someone with an undeniable preference for the natural and hard rather than social sciences. This course has been challenging and frustrating. It hasn’t been easy to adapt my true / false mentality of scientific facts to the complicated interwovenness of an environmental studies course. […]
Think, Feel and Act
Since I can remember, my life goal has always been to make a ‘change in the world’. In the past I attempted reaching this goal by individual action, blogging, photography and educating myself through documentaries and my own research. However, these steps only looped me back around to where I began and the world remained unchanged. ENVS […]
Progress Isn’t Always Linear
I’m not going to major in environmental studies. But as a biology major hoping to work in the field of conservation biology there are many relevant themes that I’ll carry with me. Before taking this class, my understanding of the issues regarding the implementation of applied biology practices were quite one-sided. I’ve always been more […]
If You Can’t Solve a Problem, It’s Because You’re Playing By the Rules
Our last text of the ENVS-160 course: Who Rules the Earth by Paul Steinberg is centred around the idea of scaling up (Steinberg, 2015) when dealing with environmental issues and the future of sustainability. Steinberg seeks to examine the environmental problems of our time through a social-science lens, by looking at the idea of “social rules” […]
The world is ours… Now take it!
ENVS 160 has taught me a variety of interesting and useful ways to engage with environmental discourse. Below, I will outline a few of the ways I hope to conduct myself both personally and academically over the course of my life after taking this class. My newfound appreciation for hybridity has urged me to rethink […]
You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
ENVS 160 has been a whirlwind of new experiences, learning opportunities, and real life applications. It may seem like another environmental science class from the outside, but remember, never judge a book by its cover. ENVS 160 adds so many more aspects of environmental theory and ideas to the class. Over the course of the […]
Great Ideas Come In System-Altering Packages
Social rules are what I like to call “important.” In Who Rules the Earth?, Paul Steinberg explains to his readers how socially constructed rules shape and govern different areas of the earth (Steinberg 2015). He claims that “… these rules — which social scientists call institutions — are the machinery that makes coordinated social activity […]
Seen that, heard that, know that.
ENVS-160 has required to us to examine different texts throughout the semester. There has been a significant and distinct thread of common concepts that have been apparent in many of the texts. It is possible to make visible and clear connections between many of the author’s ideas and views, despite the differences in their scholarly […]
Road of Rules
Who Rules the Earth centers around the common theme of how social rules and practices work to solve issues of environmental degradation. Steinberg attempts to evaluate the methods that social rules can bring about real change in the long-run. His end goal for this book is to encourage readers to initiate methods for following certain […]
Steinberg’s Overarching Constraints
By: Max Lorenze For eons humans have fought for control of land, water, minerals, in the end for the end goal of power. Who Rules the Earth? by Paul Steinberg asks the very question who rules the world? Paul Steinberg is the Malcolm Lewis Professor of Sustainability and Society and Professor of Political Science and […]
Hammer and Sickle
Environmental Background Growing up in Phoenix, AZ, most of the people around me were climate change deniers. Living in a red state did have a drastic effect on my overall ideologies, mostly in strong rebellion. By the end of high school, my economic and social views had been solidified, but one thing I was lacking […]
Rules To Live By
A common belief today is that individual action has the ability to make a change for the good. People focus on what companies they are buying their products from, turning off the lights when no one’s in the room, and bringing reusable bags to the market, revealing how actions to combat climate change has largely […]
The Danger of Social Norms in Environmentalism
Who Rules the Earth by Paul Steinberg (2015) is a book focused on challenging the social rules in place in order to enact widespread change within the realm of environmentalism. Especially in regards to moving towards a more sustainable future, to ensure the Earth will be around for generations to come. A recurring theme in […]
Individual Action+Institutional Action=Change
Argument Overview In the final leg of this ENVS 160 course, we read Paul Steinberg’s Who Rules the Earth: How Social Rules Shape Our Planet and Our Lives. Though the book is highly controversial, the argument laid out in the book is so strong, that many, including myself, who do not completely agree with his […]
The World in the Mirror
The basic premise of Who Rules the Earth, by Paul Steinberg, is that we must change the social rules that govern society, if we are to properly combat climate change and pollution. He argues that there are four misconceptions many of us hold when it comes to combating climate […]
If You Build It, They Will Come… destroy it and build something else
My confusion and disillusionment with consumer and “awareness” raising based modes of change has been a long time coming, although I have dabbled in these complacency-inducing actions. Increasingly, especially given that not everyone has the time and money to make such lifestyle changes, I’ve grown frustrated. I just can’t see any examples or evidence of its […]
New Horizons: Where Should We Go With Social Rules?
The objective of Paul Steinberg’s book, ‘Who Rules The Earth?’ can be summarized in the following quotation: “All forms of social organization, from the European Court of Justice to your favorite restaurant, operate through that other mode of human connectedness: social rules.” (Steinberg 2015, 266). Steinberg has attempted to show the reader how to engage […]
Rules Rule Rules!
When reading Who Rules the Earth? (2015), I was given the opportunity to examine several very important topics in the field of environmental studies ranging all the way from pesticide regulation to cap and trade in China. Over the course of the semester, the class has covered a vast number of topics and discussed so many different pressing concerns […]
Institutions Rule the Earth
Who Rules the Earth? (Steinberg 2015) is a book about action. The text highlights many examples of successful and unsuccessful environmental policy throughout the past and how we can use this information to make better decisions in the future. It also discusses different ideas and problems with our current attempts at solving the problems that […]
Reversing Previous Outlooks
In Who Rules the Earth?, Paul F Steinberg reflects on the various ways that the social rules that govern how we interact with one another also govern the way we interact with our planet (2015). The reader is walked through various scenarios that demonstrate how the rules our society has implemented affect the outcomes, and […]
Does This Look Like a Vacuum to You?
In his book Who Rules the Earth?, Paul F. Steinberg makes many compelling points about what effective environmental action looks like. The overarching argument made in this text is that we do not live in a vacuum. Existing structures dictate how we must go about making new rules as well as how these rules will […]
The Method Behind The Madness
In Who Rules the Earth by Paul Steinberg, the question of governments, their effects, how best to act on them, with them, and around them comes (predictably) to the center stage. One of the important messages I understood from the text specifically is the role of governments in global life and for the average citizen. On a global […]
Social Rules Rule on a Global Scale
“Who rules the Earth?” asks Paul Steinburg, whose book ENVS students like myself have been studying rigorously throughout the last portion of the semester. The answer to this question is not a simple one that can be meticulously picked apart in a short reflection post, but Steinburg makes sure to develop a theme throughout his […]