The modernist view is that knowledge leads to rational decisions. From an environmental perspective, however, this idea is seriously challenged. Never has society known so much about ecological and climate change; yet collective responses to these changes have failed to reverse the downward trends. This course examines this dynamic by examining the politics of the environmental crisis, and in particular the power struggles between those resisting change and those promoting alternative visions of a sustainable society. We consider how those alternative visions translate into public policy and how citizens can engage to make this happen. Prerequisites: ENVS 1013 and 2023, or permission of the instructor.
- Enseignant: Janice Harvey
Praxis is defined in two ways: reflection and action for social change AND action informed by theory. The idea is that citizen action on environmental problems needs to be grounded in an understanding of the root of the problem, the systems that need to change, and how change happens. Drawing on learning in ENVS 1013, you will connect environmental problems to our local context and develop local action strategies to effect change. This approach will foster citizenship skills and empower students in the face of global problems. This course qualifies for the STU Experiential Learning Certificate. Prerequisite: ENVS 1013.
- Enseignant: Janice Harvey
Course Description in Academic Calendar
Earth systems science reveals that the environmental conditions that supported the development of human civilization over the past 10,000 years are becoming increasingly destabilized. This course introduces students to the Earth's regulatory systems such as climate, nitrogen and phosphorus flows, forests, oceans and biodiversity, and the social structures and processes that are interfering with them. Students will come to understand that environmental problems cannot be solved by individual behavioural changes; solutions will require collective action to achieve systemic change.
- Enseignant: Tracy Glynn
This is an experiential learning course. Students will spend several hours per week working at an environmental organization, gaining important experience in how non-profit groups organize to address environmental problems in their local community, or at the provincial level. You will also spend time in class discussing your work experience and integrating your experience with learning objectives, which are developed in consultation with the course supervisor and workplace mentor. The course is a 6 credit hour course and counts as an elective for an ENVS Major.
- Enseignant: Janice Harvey
It is common, now, to hear about the climate crisis, the species extinction crisis, and the plastic waste crisis. Are we really facing a crisis? What does it mean to be in crisis? Are they connected somehow? How should we respond? In this course, we look at how the social systems - politics, economy, culture - in the industrialized world are undermining the Earth's life support systems on which we and very other species completely depend. Our starting point is our own personal involvement in those social processes through our ecological footprint analysis; from there we branch out to examine the broader social systems that are now global in scope. We will learn that consumer society of the Western world is unsustainable, that we have very little time to turn things around, and that a different, sustainable world is possible.
- Enseignant: Janice Harvey
"Welcome to the Anthropocene. It's a new geological era, so take a look around. A single species is in charge of the planet, altering its features almost at will. And what [is] more natural than to name this new era after the top of the range anthropoid, ourselves?" (Pearce, 2007:58).
This course focuses on the different perspectives or theories that help explain the environmental transformations that constitute the Anthropocene. While we can agree on some scientifically-explained 'facts' about the way human society has changed the natural world, there is a great deal of divergence on how these 'facts' should be interpreted, and therefore understood. In this course, we will explore those theories. This will help us to understand the public discourse on environmental problems, and how both governments and individuals respond to them.
This course does not study environmental problems per se, although students are expected to have a good grasp of the current ecological and climate crisis. Therefore, ENVS 1013 - Introduction to Environmental Problems - is a prerequisite for this course. Special permission may be given by the instructor if the student has taken an equivalent course elsewhere.
- Enseignant: Janice Harvey
This Moodle site contains several environmental issue case studies compiled by Prof. Harvey for use in her course, Introduction to Environmental Perspectives. Students in ENVS 2023 should enroll in this "course" as well as ENVS 2023.
- Enseignant: Janice Harvey