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GLY 120-010 Class Syllabus

Geology provides important information on locating resources and protecting our environment for future generations. In this course, we will discuss the wide variety of natural resources on Earth and how humans use and abuse these resources. By the end of the semester, you should become more familiar with the Earth's natural resources, the human use and consumption of the resources, and current and future issues in resource management and sustainability.


Class Announcements

 

DUE TO LACK OF ATTENDANCE, UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, NO NOTES WILL BE POSTED ONLINE - SO YOU MUST COME TO CLASS TO GET THE NOTES.

 

Homework Exercise 2 is due on Monday, June 2, 2008. You can access it through the "Assignments" link.
 

Test 4 will be given  on Tuesday, June 3. You can access the review sheet through the "Exams" link.

 

Don't forget about the extra credit opportunity. Check out the Extra Credit page. All extra credit is due NO LATER THAN Friday, May 30, 2008.

 

Textbook for the Class: Resources of the Earth: Origin, Use and Environmental Impact, 3rd Ed., Craig Vaughn, and Skinner, 2001. The text is optional.


Updated: Tuesday, May 27, 2008

 

Suggested Links to Add to Your Experience


Recommended Reading: Here are some books that I have found to be both interesting and enlightening. If you are looking for a more detailed look at some of the resources and topics that we cover in class, I would suggest you start with some of these books...

 

    Hubbert's Peak: the Impending World of Oil Shortage, by Kenneth S Deffeyes

        (2001)

 

    Resource Wars: the New Landscape of Global Conflict, by Michael T Klare (2001)

 

    Cadillac Desert: the American West and It's Disappearing Water, by Marc Reisner

        (1993)

 

    Twilight in the Desert: the Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, by

        Matthew R. Simmons (2005)

 

    A Thousand Barrels a Second: the Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges of

        Facing an Energy Dependent World, by Peter Tertzakian (2006)

 

Chris Jordon - Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption

Exploring around our country's shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake.

http://www.chrisjordon.com/


Copyright © 2005 Chris Jordon.