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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

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

 Herald-Leader: Lexington Carbon

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


http://www.carbonmap.org

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

Mountaintop Removal

2/18

6.2

Reading TBA

climate feedbacks

Germany's energiewende policy in disarray

Davis. 'Dead West: Ecocide in Marlboro Country'

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

ENERGYCONCEPTS
Soft Paths, Hard Paths and Energy Futures

Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Conservation: Why not?

W7

2/23

L7

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

 Baer, 'The Clothesline Paradox'

Emissions Embedded in Trade (or Figures Only version)

Northern Nuclear Power

Nuclear Power in the Global South: Mexico

2/25

CONSERVATION STRATEGIES

ENERGY Nuclear Decommissioning vs. Sustainable

Nuclear fuel cycles and proliferation

W8

3/2

L8

commodity chains

NewScientist: 'Replumbing the planet'

ATOMIC CAFE: Nuclear Power

FOOD, AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY

Commodity Chains and Consumption

3/4

Fukushima: tsunamis, nuclear power and environmental catastrophes

Burning Coal on the University of Kentucky’s Campus

Dynamics of Habitat Destruction: commodification of nature

W9

3/9

Midterm Exam


 Biofuels and environmental destruction

Jesse Ribot: Charcoal production in Senegal

Food alternatives, organics and biodiversity, certified,

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

FOOD 
& ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION

Ecological agriculture and peasant farming

W11

L11

3/23

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

FOOD & TOXICS

3/25

Aquaculture and Toxics!

Ocean Dead Zones

Agriculture & Toxics

Epidemiology: Studying Toxics and Workers

W12

3/30

L12

Fast Food Nation
p.111-147 ('why the fries taste good')
p. 193-222 (what's in the meat?)

Schroeder R, 1997, Re-Claiming Land in the Gambia: Gendered Property Rights and Environmental Intervention

Biotech

4/1
L13

Ecological Agriculture

W13

4/6

Woodhouse, Philip. Environmental Degradation and Sustainability
Figure 7.4; Box 7.5; and 'sustainable development' section from pages 154-162
Article is located in a Blackboard folder under week 13 readings

POLLUTION: Toxics

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

4/8
L14.1

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

Robbins and Sharp. 2003. 'Producing and Consuming Chemicals: The Moral Economy of the American Lawn'

Electronic E-Waste: The Story of Stuff

CONSERVATION:

Strategies for Territorial & Non-Territorial Conservation:

W14

4/13

L14-15.1

Mutersbaugh territorial vs. non-territorial conservation strategies

Susanna Hecht: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Garifuna land rights

OFRANEH Garifuna Organization

CONSERVATION..

ENDANGERED SPECIES

4/15

Rhino Horns/ Elephant Ivory

record ivory seizures 2013

China combats Ivory smuggling

Shark Fins/

Orangutans fight for survival

Sea Shepard anti-Whaling Campaign

LAND GRABS Fighting Global Land Grabs and 'Green'-grabbing:
Tepoztlan

W15

4/20

Chico Mendes: Amazon Rubber-Tappers Union

Mafia Destroying Rainforests

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.

Urban environments

4/22

L15.2

Mexico City Urban Environment

South Korea: Urban Environmental Struggles: the following short article and videos detail the contemporary Korean debate over hyper-urban development versus environmental conservation, in which the so-called 'ubiquitous city' (particularly the brand new Songdo city) and new forms of energy development are portrayed as environmentally-friendly by some, while others counter that this development is environmentally destructive:

1. "A Conflict of Greens": Short overview piece:

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

2. Video "1,000 Days Promise" . A tragi-comic, triumphalist, somewhat melodramatic (and more than a little propagandistic) portrayal of 'river restoration' based upon agricultural dispossession and urban expansion.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VDZuQ9mq7c8

3. 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

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

http://vimeo.com/12198089

ENERGY Conservation and Energy Alternatives

W16

4/28

L16

DEAD WEEK!!!!!!!!!

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

4/30