Green Resistance (teaching, organizing, and eco-thinking)

Welcome EVSC 100 (Introduction to Environmental Sciences) students!

This will be an exciting, fun semester — with your participation and energy. On this page, you’ll find your readings and your assignments.

Here is your first assignment:

Due October 8 (yes, tomorrow) by 5 pm: Email me (to rania.masri@balamand.edu.lb), e-mail me: Email me – as a MS Word Attachment – answers to the following questions: (1) What is the environment? What does that word mean? (give me your thoughts and not a definition that you find online.) (2) What, in your opinion, are the main environmental problems that afflict us in Lebanon? (3) What are the main global environmental problems? (4) What environmental issues do you care about? (5) Why do you care about those issues?

Please write in correct English.

October 9: topic for the class: Environmental Ethics.

Reading Assignment: You must read these essays by the next class period. You also need to read them do to your writing assignment due Monday.

Readings:

(1) leopold-1949-the-land-ethic

(2) armstrong-1996-sharing-one-skin

(1) the gifts from the four directions

(4) the lessons of nature

Writing assignment:  Due by 8 am, Monday October 13: Reflect on the readings.  Be sure your essay includes answers to the following questions. As always, send me your essay in an email as a MS Word Attachment, and be sure *not* to send me a blank email. Questions your essay must answer: (1) What is Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic? Answer this question in your own words, and do not merely quote directly from Leopold. (2)In the article, Aldo Leopold writes, “There is as yet no ethic dealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it.” Is this still true today, or have we begun to develop a set of ethic principals towards the land and animals since Leopold’s time? (3) Do you agree or disagree with his view? Why or why not? State your answer in an essay format.

Note: You are welcome to include Armstrong’s essay ‘sharing one skin’ in your essay as well.

This essay will be graded.

Attention: October 14: You all have (almost) two more days to work on your essay.  You all need that time. Re-read it. Edit it carefully. Re-write it, if need be. And then submit it to me by midnight tomorrow via email. Again: You must submit a proper email message with your attachment. If you e-mail me a blank email message (as some of you have done), in which you simply include the attachment without a subject heading and without a proper email body, I will delete the email. Again: This essay will be graded. Note: From now on, unless you have a medical reason, all assignments that are late will receive a 10 point deduction for every 24 hour delay.

October 21:

–Reading –> Environmental History Timeline (read all the different time periods) and read Environment and Sustainability Timeline

– Reading –> two different perspectives: Jared Diamond on Easter Island and Benny Peiser on Easter Island ee-16-34_peiser2

Climate Change Presentations in the class

Climate Change: science-of-cc1
climate change in the arab world: cc-here

Exam 1 – November 4, in class. You must have read all the readings on this page, plus the first 2 chapters of a ‘cartoon guide to the environment’ plus the information on climate change in the two slide presentations. Plus – review your notes in class carefully.

JANUARY 13: Readings: (1) Finish the book ‘Cartoon Guide to the Environment.’ (2) Read this economic analysis (download economics_in_context_goals_issues_and_behavior1)

January 22: Readings: (1) Read Macroeconomic measurements (Download macro_measurement_environmental_and_social_dimensions1) and (2) Read Consumption and the Consumer Society (Download consumption_and_the_consumer_society1) . Homework assignment due January 29 (last-assignment)