*updated October
3, 2004*
Geography 2412
Environment and
Culture
Fall 2004
Instructor:
Professor E. Yeh
Lecture:
Wednesdays and Fridays,
Office:
Guggenheim 103A, 492-5438, yehe@colorado.edu
Office hours:
Wednesdays
Class webpage:
http://www.colorado.edu/geography/courses/geog_2412_f04/
Please check the class website frequently for class-related
announcements,
recitation
assignments,
lecture
outlines (put up after class), and updates or minor changes to
reading and
schedules. Students
are
responsible for being aware of any changes, which will also be
announced in
class.
Teaching assistants:
Lead TA:
Margaret Tilton, Margaret.Tilton@Colorado.edu
TAs:
Vanessa
Empinotti, Vanessa.Empinotti@Colorado.edu
Brendan Soennecken, Brendan.Soennecken@Colorado.edu
Yaffa
Truelove, Yaffa.Truelove@Colorado.edu
Mariam
Medovaya, medovaya@Colorado.edu
Monica Smith, Monica.Smith@Colorado.edu
Meredith Knauf, Meredith.Knauf@Colorado.edu
TA office hours will be handed out in the
individual
recitation sections and posted on the class webpage
Course topic
The goal of this class is to increase your understanding of
contemporary
environmental issues, in order to help you become a more educated
environmental
citizen. In pursuit of this goal, the class will survey global
and
regional environmental issues and problems, with an emphasis on their
social
and cultural dimensions. The interaction between society and nature has
long
been an important theme in the field of geography. The
study of
this topic evokes one of the profound questions of our times: What is,
and what
ought to be, the relationship between humans and the environment?
Throughout the semester, we will address this question through an
examination
of environmental problems, varied social responses to environmental
change, and
the many different ways in which human societies have transformed the
earth. Topics you will learn about include different approaches
to
thinking about the environment; population and consumption;
agriculture;
conventional and sustainable forms of energy; anthropogenic climate
change; and
water use. Through this class, you should find that geography
offers an
integrated way of understanding that is increasingly useful for
addressing some
of the world’s most pressing problems and their potential solutions.
Required textbooks
There are two required textbooks which are
packaged
together at the University Bookstore.
Cunningham,
et al. Environmental Science – A Global Concern. Eighth
Edition
[“Cunningham”]
Annual
Editions – Environment – 04/05.
Twenty-third Edition. 2004 [“Annual Editions”]
The former is a standard textbook, and the latter is a collection of
recent
articles about the environment from newspapers, magazines, and
journals. The textbook has a website which you can visit
for study
aids, web exercises, etc. Go to http://www.mhhe/com/environmentalscience,
click on the picture of the Cunningham textbook, then click on "Student
Edition" and then use the scroll-down menu to go to the chapter you
want.
Class Schedule and
WEEK ONE
No recitation this week
Wed. Aug 25
Introduction
to class
to learn” (pp. 1-14) by the beginning of Week 3.
Fri. Aug 27
Ways of thinking about
environment
and society – environmental ethics
WEEK TWO
Recitation: introductions, explanation of assignment 1
Wed. Sept 1
American
environmental
thought, global environmentalism, sustainable development
Fri. Sept 3
Human
transformations of ecosystems
WEEK
THREE
EXERCISE 1 DUE IN RECITATION: Human transformations of ecosystems
Note: due to Labor Day,
Monday recitations will not be held. Monday recitations will have two
assignments due the following week.
Wed. Sept 8
Energy and material flows; properties of systems
(stop at "marine ecosystems")
Fri Sept
10
Ecosystems, Global
cycles and systems; energy; ecosystem properties
WEEK FOUR
EXERCISE 2 DUE IN RECITATION: Your ecological footprint
Wed Sept 15
Ecosystems (continued); types of agriculture
Annual
Editions, Article 21,pp. 168-172
Fri Sept 17
Environmental
effects of agriculture; sustainable agriculture
Annual
Editions, Articles 8, 9, 20; pp. 69-77; 155-167
WEEK FIVE
EXERCISE 3 DUE IN RECITATION: Farming and the environment
Wed. Sept 22
GMOs and factory farming; evidence of climate change
Fri. Sept
24
Anthropogenic climate change (Rising
Waters)
WEEK SIX
Note: Thursday and Friday recitations will not be held this week due to
Fall
break. No
recitation exercise is due this week. Mon-Wed. recitations will be held.
Wed. Sept 29
Atmosphere
and climate change – the greenhouse effect
also one –page article "Equity and greenhouse gas responsibility"
available on web on class web-page AND at
.
http://www.ecoequity.org/docs/science.pdf
Fri. Oct
1
No class – Fall Break
on the same day to make
arrangements to change their final exam schedule.
WEEK SEVEN
EXERCISE 4 DUE IN RECITATION: Carbon calculator/climate change
Wed Oct
6
The
politics of anthropogenic
climate change
No
reading (but be sure to have everything up through Wed. September 29)
Fri Oct 8
Population and consumption I: Human
population growth
Technology
and Scarcity”; stop at “Natural Resource Accounting, top of 507)
WEEK EIGHT
Wed. Oct 13
Population
and consumption II: Consumption (in-class film)
Fri. Oct
15
MID-TERM REVIEW
No reading
WEEK NINE
Wed. Oct 20
IN-CLASS
MID-TERM, OCTOBER 20
Bring a #2 pencil and eraser to all exams!
Fri Oct
22 Cultures and the environment
No
reading
WEEK TEN
EXERCISE 5 DUE IN RECITATION: Population and
consumption
Wed. Oct 27
Garbage and recycling
Fri Oct
29
Automobility
No reading for today, but start reading for next week
WEEK ELEVEN
EXERCISE 6 DUE IN RECITATION: The car in American life
Wed Nov 3
Conventional
energy
Annual Editions, Article 12, pp. 97-100
Fri Nov 5
Sustainable energy
WEEK TWELVE
EXERICSE 7 DUE IN RECITATION: Energy
Wed Nov 10
Water use
Annual Editions, Article 23, pp. 177-180
Fri Nov 12
Air
and water pollution
WEEK THIRTEEN
EXERCISE 8 DUE IN RECITATION: Water
Wed. Nov 17
Environmental justice, guest lecturer from COPEEN
Fri. Nov 19
Hazardous
waste
WEEK FOURTEEN
Note Thursday/Friday recitations will be held on Tuesday/Wednesday;
thus Tuesday/Wednesday recitations will not meet this week.
No
recitation
exercise due this week because of Thanksgiving holiday.
Wed. Nov 24
Biodiversity
and Forests
Annual Editions, Article 19, pp. 144-151
Fri. Nov
26
No
class
– Thanksgiving
WEEK FIFTEEN
EXERCISE 9 DUE IN RECITATION: Environmental justice/environmental
hazards
Wed. Dec 1
Parks and
preserves
Fri. Dec
3
Ecological economics
WEEK SIXTEEN
EXERCISE 10 DUE IN RECITATION: Endangered species/biodiversity
*NOTE: because Thursday December 9 is the last
day of classes, the two Friday recitations
will make arrangements for handing
in this homework to recitation instructors.
Wed. Dec 8 - Wrap-up and review
for final
Final
Exam:
Wednesday, December 15th,
Bring a #2 pencil and eraser to all exams!
course
requirements,
policies, and helpful hints
Course Structure
Lectures on Wednesdays and Fridays will cover a few key points
which
will build upon the reading that you have already done for that day.
On occasion, I will show a relevant film related to the
topic of
the day. Exam questions will be taken from lectures, films, as
well as
the textbook. A brief outline of the lectures will also be made
available on
the class website after lectures are over.
Recitations will focus on key issues and arguments in
environmental
geography. Recitations are your opportunity to discuss your analysis of
contemporary environmental debates.
A recitation topic is listed for each week on the syllabus. Written
exercises
will be posted on the class website for printing out. The purpose of
these
written exercises is to deepen your understanding of the material
presented in
lecture, and to prepare you for recitation discussion. Be sure to
print
out and bring the exercise sheet to recitation session the week
before the
exercise is due, so that you can ask any questions you may have
about the
assignment. You will then turn in the assignment the following
week.
Unless otherwise noted, these written exercises are to be typed, preferably
in 12-point font. For exercises which require short answers, you
can
enter the answers directly on the page downloaded from the website, and
print
it out.
Because discussion of the class materials is a key component of the
learning
process for this class, failure to attend recitations will have a
very
negative effect on your grade.
Note that if you do not attend at least one of the first two
recitations,
you may be dropped from the class to free space for those on the wait
list.
Lecture, recitation, and critical thinking
Note also that some of the topics in this class can be quite
controversial. The lecture will provide facts, frameworks, and a
guide to
interpretation of these topics. Students are welcome to offer
additional
points, but please note that given the format of the class, it is
during discussion
sections and through the students’ written answers that each student
will have
the greatest opportunity to confront issues and defend particular
positions. Hopefully, over the course of the semester, each
student’s
personal position will develop or evolve, or perhaps even change.
The
only important thing is that each student confront the issues and have
a
position that can be defended in the face of critique and facts.
Developing
your ability to articulate your position, during recitation discussions
and in
written form, is developing the ability to think critically. This
ability,
rather than one’s particular position, will be a very useful tool in
further
university coursework as well as life after college.
Assignments and grades are as follows:
There will be a good deal of work and reading for this class. A
good rule
of thumb is that three hours of work are necessary for each hour of
in-class
time. (That means 9 hours a week outside of class) You should
review the
material continuously throughout the semester and ask questions about
material
that you do not understand. Budget your time accordingly.
Recitation assignments: Best 8 out of
10
40% of final grade
Attendance and participation in
recitation
10%
Mid-term
examination
25%
Final
examination
25%
100%
Recitation assignments should be turned in to
your
recitation leaders (TA) at the regularly scheduled meeting time. For
each day
that your assignment is late, you will lose 10% of your grade.
Extra Credit Option
Students will have the opportunity to do one
extra
credit assignment. This assignment will be put on the web and explained
in
recitation during the third week of class. It will be due no later than
Wednesday November 24. The assignment, which will be graded by
the
professor, consists of reading a short (10 page) article about media
coverage
of climate change and writing a brief (4-6 page) reaction paper. Extra
credit
will consist of an additional 1-5 percentage points added to the final
average
for the entire class. Number of points added will depend on the
mechanics
of the essay (whether it is grammatically correct, spell checked, etc)
as well
as the content (whether or not it reflects having actually read and
thought
about the essay).
Examinations
The mid-term exam will be held on Wednesday, October 20 in
class. The
final exam will be held Wednesday, December 15th at
In general there will be no make-up exams given. Therefore, please note
the
date/time of the mid-term and final, and make your travel plans around
it, not
the other way around.
The only exceptions to the make-up exam policy are as follows:
The
University allows students with 3 or more exams scheduled for a single
day to
take one of them on an alternate day. The University deadline to let me
know
that you want to exercise this option for either the mid-term or final
is Monday,
October 4. However, the sooner, the better.
Students
with serious religious observance conflicts must notify the TA or
professor by
September 29. This scheduling will be resolved according to the
University’s
Religious observances policy (see below).
In cases of
serious illness with hospital documentation, students may be permitted
to
reschedule after discussion with the professor.
Missing an exam for any other reason will
result in a
grade of 0 for that exam.
How can I get an A
in this
class?
There are a number of things you can do to
help you do
well in this class.
In taking your notes, think about trends, processes, orders of
magnitude, and
general principles, rather than trying to memorize every last
detail.
Campus Policies
Accommodations for students with disabilities
If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please
submit to
your TA or the professor a letter from Disability Services as soon as
possible,
and definitely by September 29 (the sixth week of class), so
that your
needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines
accommodations
based on documented disabilities. (303-492-8671, Willard 322, http://www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices)
Religious observances
Students who have serious religious obligations which conflict with
scheduled
exams must notify the professor or TA as soon as possible. If
this is the
case, the student and professor will meet and work out a mutually
satisfactory
agreement for the particular situation. However, it is the student’s
responsibility to immediately examine the course schedule for
anticipated
conflicts and notify the professor or TA by September 29 at
the very
latest.
Honor Code and authorized assistance
The Student Honor Code system has now been implemented in all schools
and
colleges. The Honor Code will be upheld in this
course. The
pledge reads as follows:
“On my honor, as a
You will be required to sign this statement
on both
the mid-term and final exam.
Further information on the Honor Code can be
found at:
http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html
and at http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/
For this class, authorized assistance will be limited to your own
personal
knowledge during exams, and your own work on all written exercises.
When
preparing the weekly recitation assignments, you may discuss the
readings and
the answers to your questions with others but your written answers
should be
your own. You are encouraged to use the services of the writing
center
(see http://www.colorado.edu/pwr/)
and to have someone else proofread or offer suggestions on your writing
assignments before submitting them.
You must use quotation marks for direct quotes and cite all of your
sources.
Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism. It is not acceptable to cut
and paste
text from web sites into your papers without providing both quotation
marks and
proper citation. Web sites are to be cited fully, just as any
other
source would be. If you do not know how to cite your sources or
have
questions, please see “Citing sources” on the class webpage.
Downloading papers
written by others to submit (either in part or in their entirety)
constitutes
unauthorized assistance. Finally, note that according to the
Honor Code,
"An assembly of huge blocks of other individuals' existing material,
even
when cited, does not constitute an appropriate representation of this
expectation (that the papers will be written by the student)".
The bottom line of the Honor code: if you cheat or plagiarize
on any
test or assignment, you will receive an F for the class; further action
may
also be taken at the discretion of the Honor Council.
Classroom etiquette
As common courtesy to fellow students and the instructors, students are
requested to pay attention to the following:
Department
of Geography Code of Conduct:
In the Department of Geography,
instructors
strive to create an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect in which
learning,
debate, and intellectual growth can thrive. Creating this atmosphere,
however,
requires that instructors and students work to achieve a classroom in
which
learning is not disrupted. At the most basic level, this means that
everyone
should attend class, and be prepared with readings and assignments
completed,
and that students pay attention. This means no conversations with
friends,
reading the newspaper, coming late, or leaving early. Such behavior is
disruptive to the instructor and to your fellow classmates.
These basics of classroom etiquette
are an
important means of building and showing mutual respect. Inevitably,
however,
disagreements will arise. Sometimes these disagreements will be about
content,
sometimes about grades or course procedures, and sometimes they will be
about
the treatment of participants in the class. In order to facilitate the
resolution of these disagreements, the following guidelines should be
followed.
All interactions must be guided by mutual respect and trust.