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COURSE OVERVIEW PAGE

Topics: Lecture

Week / Date / Lectures

Readings

Additional readings 
NOT REQUIRED

BIODIVERSITY

Week 1: Intro: Syllabus; Readings; Course Organization

W1

1/14

Course introduction: syllabus, expectations, TA introductions, argument of course, exams, grading, etc.

Boris Worm et al.,  "Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem," Science (November 3, 2006) data projects global collapse of all taxa currently fished by the mid-21st

Gould Golden Rule Natural History

Biodiversity

Conservation Biology and Biodiversity: types of biodiversity, Evolutionary Processes, biodiversity loss

W2

1/21

Lecture 2


ONLINE: Biodiversity 101

Inventory of Planet Earth

United Nations 2010 Global Biodiversity Outlook (For Quiz, read ALL of Biodiversity 101, but for the UN reading, check figures only -- the blackboard readings quiz lists page numbers with questions)

Reading Guide 1. Due before class: These will be a set of questions available on blackboard beginning FRIDAY and due before the first class of each week as listed.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, from Ecosystems and Human Well-Being (Island Press, 2005) "Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber, and fuel."

IDEAS OF NATURE:

How do we (Westerners) understand nature? Bacon, Jaws, and Avatar: Techno-science, rationality, and nature

W3

1/26

Lecture 3.1

Francis Bacon: New Atlantis 



Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice: chapter 43 (just the first 3 paragraphs if you are pressed for time, although chapter 43 in its entirety does a nice job of weaving together notions of nature, beauty, character, improvement, and love)

Gould 1999. Bacon, brought home: philosophy of Francis Bacon about natural world. Natural History 108 (June): 28-33, 72-78.

History: Colonialism: where to environmental inequities arise? Hot spots and Colonial Histories 
Colonial maps

1/28

Lecture 3.2

Neumann Colonialism and the Serengeti (East Africa)

 READER Cronin 'The Wealth of Nature: Lumber' pg: 148-159 AND 200-206

Non-Western Ideas of Nature Concepts: Rights for Nature?

W4 2/2

Lecture 4.1 &

4.2.1

Shiva: Biodiversity, 
a 3rd World Perspective

Shiva: the Eucalyptus

Videos: Iskay Yachay - Two Kinds of Knowledge

Shoshtak: Nisa's life in the Kalajari Bush (Botswana)

Gonzalez: Zapotec Science 
'Maize has a soul' (Mexico)

Yoon: East Asian ideas of nature 
(read second part of article)

Neo-Malthusianism vs. Consumerism

2/4

Sen: 100 Million Women are Missing


Robert D. Bullard, from "Environmental Justice for All," The Crisis (January/February 2003)

  Mamdani: myth of population control

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVOU5bfHrM

Harvey, D. Population and Resources

CONCEPTS Environmental Justice & Environmental Racism

W5

Lecture w5

2/9

IPCC, 2013: Summary for Policymakers. The Physical Science Basis. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Examine graphics for readings quiz

 Bunyan Bryant: Environmental Justice overview

animal rights: the cove

CLIMATE AND ENERGY

CO2, climate and Ocean Acidification

2/11

IPCC 2013 also available: http://www.climate2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf


How do we measure Atmospheric CO2?

Bigfoot Lexington

W6

6.1

2/16

 Baer, 'The Clothesline Paradox'

Herald-Leader: Lexington Carbon

Scottish Government GHG (Greenhouse Gas) abatement planning

Marilyn A. Brown and Elise Logan: The Residential Energy and Carbon Footprints of the 100 Largest U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Southworth, Sonnenberg, and Brown: 
The Transportation Energy and Carbon Footprints 
of the 100 Largest U.S. Metropolitan Areas

2/18

6.2

Read pages 13-27, and also figures 1-3: Footprint/Brookings Carbon Footprint report


http://www.carbonmap.org

Davis. 'Dead West: Ecocide in Marlboro Country'

http://www.directaction.org/photopages/novel-IIa-pix.html 

ENERGYCONCEPTS
Soft Paths, Hard Paths and Energy Futures

ENERGY Nuclear and Mountaintop Removal vs. Sustainable Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Conservation:

W7

2/23

Hard Paths: Is Geo-engineering a bad idea?

Emissions Embedded in Trade (or Figures Only version)

The Ecological Footprint: (large document, takes a while to download!) READ pp. 8-10; 13-14, 18-23

climate feedbacks

Germany's energiewende policy in disarray

Finish up Hard versus Soft Paths

Commodity Chains and Environmental Analysis, Introduction

2/25

Readings Guide Due Wednesday: Fast Food Nation AVAILABLE IN BLACKBOARD FOLDER!p.111-147 ('why the fries taste good') & p. 193-222 (what's in the meat?)

NO FRIDAY SECTIONS,
EXTRA CREDIT ATTEND Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference

Burning Coal on the University of Kentucky’s Campus

NewScientist: 'Replumbing the planet'

Hard Paths: Fukushima: tsunamis, nuclear power and environmental catastrophes

POLLUTION: Toxicsin a commodity chain context

Toxics: Dead Zones: Fracking, Anoxia, Tar Sands, Nuclear wastelands, War Zones...

W8

3/2

Ghana accuses British Recycling Firm of Toxic Waste Dumping

Flowers in Colombia:

Pesticides:

http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=H2hTTkr2KuQ&NR=1

worker's rights

http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=y12Vc_hPes8

3/2: PROJECT PART I Due on MONDAY

NO READINGS GUIDE FOR WEEK 8!

FOOD, AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY

Commodity Chains and Consumption

3/4

the shrimp commodity chain

Guns, Money and Cell Phones (lecture material)

W9

3/9

Midterm Exam


 Biofuels and environmental destruction

Jesse Ribot: Charcoal production in Senegal

3/11

SECTIONS

Wendell Berry, from The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (Sierra Club Books, 1977) [F]ood is a cultural product; it cannot be produced by technology alone...

SPRING BREAK

W10

SPRING BREAK

SPRING BREAK

Territorial and non-territorial conservation/combining strategies; a bit of theory: metapopulations and island geography

W11

3/23

Conservation: Theory and Practice

Mutersbaugh territorial vs. non-territorial conservation strategies

Fairtrade-Organic Networks in New Geographies of Conservation
Pollan M. 2000. 'The Organic-Industrial Complex'

Conservation in imposed reserves: pluses and minuses:

3/25

IMPOSING CONSERVATION:

REDD Menace (http://sdep.beckman.illinois.edu/files/adding-insult-to-injury-intro-editorial.pdf). Imposing carbon conservation around the world

Indigenous Peoples Campaign against Carbon Colonialism (CO2lonialism)

Additional Examples of Territorial-Exclusionary Conservation or 'Green' Schemes

Guatemala Hydroelectric Dam

Two amazingly bad Songdo City Promo Videos!!! :)

Video: "Cities of the Future"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOHA_Fz8j2M

extra-silly: PSY promotes Songdo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6SLIW3NhrA

"A Conflict of Greens": Short overview piece:

http://www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/2011/May-June%202011/conflict-of-greens-full.html

South Korea: Urban Environmental Struggles: Short videos detail contemporary Korean debate over hyper-urban development versus environmental conservation. The 'ubiquitous city' is portrayed as environmentally-friendly by some, while others counter that this development is environmentally destructive.

Video "1,000 Days Promise" . 'river restoration' based upon agricultural dispossession and urban expansion.

Video “The Truths of the 4 Rivers Restoration Project”: A critique of Four Major Rivers Project and Dispossession:

 

W12

3/30

Reading Guide 7: Due Monday March 30

Participatory Reserves: Productive’ Conservation: Ecotourism? GENDER

4/1

Chico Mendes: Amazon Rubber-Tappers Union

Mafia Destroying Rainforests

Garifuna land rights

OFRANEH Garifuna Organization

FRIDAY SECTIONS,

PROJECT PARTS 2&3 NOW DUE APRIL 29

Woodhouse, Philip. Environmental Degradation and Sustainability Figure 7.4; Box 7.5; and 'sustainable development' 154-162 Article in Blackboard folder

W13

4/6

Non-Territorial Strategies: Regulating commodity-chains
Organic Farming as an exemplar. , criminalization – that virunga movie?

Ecological Agriculture

4/8

Certification

Certified Political Ecology

Organic Agriculture:

shade-grown coffee

Murder of Peruvian anti-logging activists:

Commodity-Chains: Illegal Logging: Peru

A terrible situation: if so inclined, please take a moment to:

Like the Title Saweto’s Land facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SawetoAltoTamaya

Write your name on our epetition.
/give-saweto-title-to-their-territory/

Pressure the Peruvian government to take the last two steps towards fulfilling Edwin’s dream of titling his community.

huffingtonpost.com/forest-trends/edwin-chotas-dream

Electronic E-Waste: The Story of Stuff

Video: Blood Coltan

Regulating the Ivory Trade: Rhino Horns/ Elephant Ivory

record ivory seizures 2013

China combats Ivory smuggling

The carbon productivity challenge: Curbing climate change and sustaining economic growth

Susanna Hecht: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

W14

4/13

Participatory Action, Non-Territorial: ELF, Anti-Nukes, Vandenberg, Sea Shepard, Anti-Logging Road Blockades (Philippines), Chico Mendez, Facebook shaming campaigns?

4/15

Edward Abbey: Monkeywrench Gang

Sea Shepard anti-Whaling Campaign

Shark Fins/

Pulido L, 2000, Rethinking environmental racism: White privilege and urban development in southern California

Homewood K, Brockington D Biodiversity, conservation and development in Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY 8 (3-4): 301-313 MAY-JUL 1999

Hughes, D, (2001) 'Rezoned for business: how eco-tourism unlocked black farmland in eastern Zimbabwe' Journal of Agrarian Change 1(4): 575-99.

W15

4/20

Biodiversity Revisited: Science and Politics

4/22

Singer: Animal Liberation

Two amazingly Bad Songdo City Promo Videos!!! :)

Video: "Cities of the Future"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOHA_Fz8j2M

extra-silly: PSY promotes Songdo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6SLIW3NhrA

"A Conflict of Greens": Short overview piece:

http://www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/2011/May-June%202011/conflict-of-greens-full.html

W16

4/28

DEAD WEEK!!!!!!!!!
4/30 Thursday!!: PROJECT PART II Due

4/30