| Course Description |
Course Overview/Short Description
This course will consider various ways that changing environmental conditions put stress on humans and our societies and political systems, with an emphasis on conditions in the Global South. Among other topics it will consider influences of climate change on violent conflict migration and impacts of heat and air pollution on human health and wellbeing. Students will develop data analysis skills to explore these relationships and complete projects on environmental security cases and questions of their own choosing.
Longer Description/Purpose/Intention of the Course
Variation and shifts in environmental conditions have challenged societies throughout human history. Today, climatic variability and change, along with resource extraction, pollution and other forms of environmental degradation, influence society in myriad ways, through water resources and agriculture, storms, sea level rise, and direct impacts of heat on living things, among others. Moreover, different human populations, across race, ethnicity, class, gender, age, occupation and other lines face different levels of exposure and vulnerability to climatic and other environmental stressors and tend to experience them inequitably. Students will consider the influence and disparate impacts of environmental conditions on human security, through pathways such as human health, food and water security and education; various sectors of the economy from agriculture to mining to manufacturing; governance and social capacities; and broader social and political conditions like conflict, leadership change and migration. We will also consider the various approaches humans are taking to adapt to these stressors, mitigate their harms and build resilience. Throughout, emphasis will be placed on how natural and social scientists studying these phenomena engage in the research process to learn about and detect these impacts and the disparities among them.
This is a highly collaborative and project-based course that aims to offer students the power to choose the resources they want to use and the topics and cases they want to study. There will be no exams, outside of possible brief quizzes to determine whether students are engaging with the course material. Instead, in the first portion of the course, the instructor will guide students through the study of a collection of key topics and cases in environmental security AND the development of key skill sets for gathering and proce |
