Topics Overview
One way to apply EcoTypes Axes and Themes to important issues, and to grasp these axes and themes in more concrete ways, is via the environmental topics listed below. Each includes (a) an overview suggesting theme relevance, (b) sample related axes, and (c) an opportunity to take sides on the topic.
The Take Sides discussion/debate opportunity for each topic consists of three positions—not just a pro/con of two sides—with citations to related publications to help those preparing each position. The three positions include a default position—with which students and those with environmental interests may be familiar—plus two others that oppose it (and each other) in various ways, all broadly connected to EcoTypes axes and/or themes, and suggestive of differences between classic and contemporary environmental thought.
Topics have been devised to complement other topics, such that all axes and themes are evenly represented. See here for a sheet summarizing the main axes and themes emphasized in each topic.
Activism is how we make an environmental difference. But there is debate over how to make the biggest difference—or even whether some forms of activism hurt vs. help. Maybe looking at ideas underlying activism will yield insights.
Climate change and climate policy may be the most important, yet controversial, environmental issues we face; perhaps EcoTypes can help us understand the ideas underlying climate that make it such a difficult topic to successfully address.
Conservation of nature has been a major theme in the modern U.S. environmental movement; but biodiversity continues to face threats, and conservation itself has been challenged. What ideas inform various positions on conservation?
Food is a highly popular way many people practice their environmental commitments. When one looks closer, though, important questions arise. EcoTypes may help us appreciate, and deepen, the ideas that inform the food movement.
Environmentalism has had a strong commitment to human health and well-being, at home and in the workplace. But what health means, and how to attain health and among whom, are debates that resonate with key EcoTypes ideas.