This course introduces students to fundamental issues in environmental science with a multi-disciplinary focus on human impacts on physical and biological systems, and on identifying pathways to sustainability. Key themes will include energy and resources, climate change, land use, contaminants and protecting biodiversity in the context of the Anthropocene. The course challenges students to apply the scientific method to environmental monitoring, research and problem solving through project design, data collection and analysis. The course also emphases information literacy, skills to distinguish science from pseudo-science, and considerations around representation of environmental science in the media. This seminar course briefly reviews the origins and development of the international system from the 17th century through the age of empires and the great wars of the 20th century. It then concentrates on the clash of nationalism with internationalism in the world since 1945, looking at such issues as what drives nationalism and what alternatives there are to it. We will study ideas and ideologies as well as the institutions that make up the current geopolitical world. Topics will include an examination of new forms of international collaboration that have developed in the wake of crises in the years following the Second World War.
This course introduces students to fundamental issues in environmental science with a multi-disciplinary focus on human impacts on physical and biological systems, and on identifying pathways to sustainability. Key themes will include energy and resources, climate change, land use, contaminants and protecting biodiversity in the context of the Anthropocene. The course challenges students to apply the scientific method to environmental monitoring, research and problem solving through project design, data collection and analysis. The course also emphases information literacy, skills to distinguish science from pseudo-science, and considerations around representation of environmental science in the media. This seminar course briefly reviews the origins and development of the international system from the 17th century through the age of empires and the great wars of the 20th century. It then concentrates on the clash of nationalism with internationalism in the world since 1945, looking at such issues as what drives nationalism and what alternatives there are to it. We will study ideas and ideologies as well as the institutions that make up the current geopolitical world. Topics will include an examination of new forms of international collaboration that have developed in the wake of crises in the years following the Second World War.
