Environmental Sustainability
A Global Perspective
LA 370, NRES 370, ENSU 300
University of Illinois
Syllabus
Instructors
William Sullivan, Dongying Li, & Negar Tabibian
Classroom: 103 Mumford Hall
3:30 to 4:50 Tuesday & Thursday
Email: dli13@illinois.edu, tabibia2@illinois.edu, wcsulliv@illinois.edu
Portland, Oregon
Chicago, Illinois
Great Zimbabwe, near Masvingo,
Zimbabwe
Class website: http://willsull.net/la370/
Course Description
Environmental Sustainability: A Global Perspective explores the challenge of creating a
sustainable world. We engage this topic by examining: a) trends and conditions of the
earth’s major ecosystems, b) ways in which our economic system has created levels of
consumption that threaten sustainability, c) the extent to which equity and justice
contribute to sustainable systems, and d) evidence demonstrating how human creativity
and innovation can create a more sustainable world. Learning in this course grows from
a series of readings, active participation in class discussion, and several short papers.
Overview
The necessity to move toward environmental sustainability has never been more pressing – and the opportunities never more exciting. Global warming is upon us. Ecosystems
have been degraded to the point that many no longer contribute life-preserving functions. In many areas, biodiversity is in freefall. The threat of pandemics is rising. Persistent pockets of severe poverty exist around the world. We are rapidly depleting our
supply of oil and fresh water.
Together, these conditions threaten the way we live and place our security in considerable jeopardy. Yet, these conditions also present tremendous opportunities to connect
your disciplinary expertise to the most pressing challenges of the 21st Century.
In Environmental Sustainability, you will engage in a broad-range of readings and
exercises that will provide you with the analytical skills, knowledge, and wherewithal to
help address the challenges of sustainability.
Course Goals
Through this course, you will learn of the:
• necessity to pursue environmental sustainability;
• components of sustainability and their inter-relationships;
• reasons to be hopeful and the urgency of taking action today.
Course Objectives
Upon completing this course, you should be able to:
• describe the most significant challenges to sustainability and the major domains
that are under threat;
• describe the current trends and conditions of the major ecosystems on Earth;
• describe some of the ways in which our economic system has created levels of
consumption that threaten the sustainability of ecosystems and communities;
• describe how equity and justice contribute to sustainability;
• discuss evidence that demonstrates how human creativity and innovation can be
used to create a more sustainable world;
• communicate your understanding of environmental sustainability and the need
for action to individuals who have no expertise in this field.
These are ambitious goals and objectives. The extent to which we meet these goals
depends on your active participation. Thus, you will earn a grade for your participation
in discussions, exercises during class, and short writing assignments during class. You
cannot make up class activities or exercises that you miss. No exceptions.
We will treat this course as a seminar. That is, we will actively engage the material and
each other throughout the semester. There will be few traditional lectures. Instead,
together, we will discuss readings and work on exercises.
Course Sequence
The class is organized into six sections. We’ll begin with an opening section that
examines the challenges we face and the necessity of framing our solutions in positive,
hopeful ways. We’ll follow with a couple of weeks each examining Ecological,
Economic, and Equity issues as they relate to sustainability. We’ll then examine a set of
potential solutions that will include some policy recommendations that you make to the
United States Senate that might promote sustainability. We’ll end the course with an
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exercise that helps you practice communicating the important points you learned to
people who are not experts in sustainability.
Here is a short description of each of the six sections of the course.
Section 1: Threats and the importance of hope
We will begin the course by discussing the challenges to sustainability, the extent to
which humans contribute to these challenges, and the power of having a positive vision
to create a more sustainable world.
Section 2: Threats to healthy ecosystems
In this section, we’ll examine the relationships between ecosystem health and
functioning and human wellbeing.
Section 3: Threats to healthy economic functioning
In this section, we’ll examine how our pricing of goods and services interacts with our
behaviors as consumers and our use of energy to place sustainability at risk. We’ll
explore ways we might change modern economics so that economic activity both
protects and restores natural ecosystems.
Section 4: Equity, justice, and sustainability
In this section, we’ll examine the relationships between our activities and behaviors as
consumers of natural resources and equity among people and other living things on
earth today – and their decedents many generations into the future.
Section 5: Hope and potential solutions
If we are to become environmentally sustainable, we’ll get there not with a silver bullet,
but with silver buckshot. That is, we’ll develop and test thousands of potential solutions.
In this section, we’ll examine some ideas and innovations that give hope.
Section 6: Bringing it all together
This is the final section. Research on teaching and learning makes it clear that reviewing
and summarizing your work from an entire semester helps you learn the material in a
deeper, more comprehensive way than if you had not done so. In the quest for better
learning, we’ll engage in just such an activity for our final exercise.
Course Requirements
Most days, there will be readings to do before you come to class. Please bring your
readings with you to class – you’ll need them for class exercises.
There are four short graded assignments due over the course of the semester and a final
paper due in December.
Detailed instructions for each assignment will be available on the class website several
days before the assignment is made. Your written work should be completed in a
professional manner (please do not give us loose sheets of paper that have not been
stapled together, or poorly formatted pages). An important part of creating professional
work is that your work has been proofread and that it has a minimum of spelling and
grammatical errors. It is my policy to stop reading an assignment after the third such mistake
and return the paper to its author for revisions. I reduce the grade two points for each such return.
If you anticipate that you’ll need extra time to complete an assignment, let me know
well in advance of the due date. I can often accommodate such requests. But do not ask
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for an extension within 24 hours of the deadline. Assignments turned in late will be
assessed a 10-point penalty. Papers are due at 3:30pm.
I strongly recommend that you identify a note buddy. You and your note buddy can
share class notes on those rare occasions when you or your buddy miss class. Best not to
ask me to fill you in when you miss class – that’s what your note buddy is for. If you
anticipate that you’ll be missing class regularly, please do not register for this course.
All the other readings can be downloaded from the class website. Simply go to the day
that the reading will be discussed and click on the title of the article. Your computer will
transfer the file as a pdf to your hard drive.
Please do not use a cell phone or your computer for non-class activities during class.
Office Hours
We hold office hours by appointment and are happy to meet with you to discuss your
work or your plans for courses or for your career. If you would like to see us, please
make an appointment by emailing one of us at the address on the front of this syllabus.
i>clicker Registration
You are required to purchase an i>clicker remote or i>clicker GO subscription for inclass participation. i>clicker is a response system that allows you to respond to
questions we pose during class, and you will be graded on that feedback and your inclass participation (i>clicker GO works the same way). In order to receive this credit,
you will need to register your i>clicker remote or set up your i>clicker GO account by
Tuesday September 3. If you have decided to use i>clicker GO instead of a remote, please
see the registration instructions below.
You must have come to class at least once and voted on at least one question in order to
complete this registration properly. Once you have responded to a question with your
i>clicker remote, go to http://www.iclicker.com/registration. Complete the fields with
your first name, last name, student ID, and remote ID. The remote ID is the series of
numbers and sometimes letters found on the bottom of the back of your i>clicker
remote. i>clicker will be used every day in class, and you are responsible for bringing
your remote daily.
i>clicker GO Registration
To create an i>clicker GO account, visit https://iclickergo.com and download the app
for iOS or Android. Creating an account automatically starts a free 14-day trial
subscription. Please use this trial period to make sure i>clicker GO will work for all of your
i>clicker classes before purchasing a subscription as there are no refunds afterwards.
Once you create your i>clicker GO account, you do not need to do anything else to
register. Just be sure that your account has the following profile information:
Student ID:
School ZIP/Postal Code:
School Name:
At the end of your trial, should you decide to purchase i>clicker GO, you can purchase
access to i>clicker GO in a variety of subscription lengths using your credit card online
or through in-app purchase with your smartphone; this subscription includes an
unlimited number of courses.
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If you have more questions on i>clicker registration, please visit
http://support.iclicker.com for FAQs and other resources.
Grading
Class participation will be assessed through your scores on i>clicker quizzes. We will
drop the lowest 3 scores from your record. Each day, you’ll earn i>clicker points simply
for taking the quizzes. You’ll earn additional points for answering correctly on the
quizzes. You can earn up to 30 points for class participation. The written assignments
and your presentation are each worth 100 points. The final paper is worth 150 points.
Thus, there are a total of 580 points that can be earned over the course of the semester.
The grading scale is:
As 522-580
Bs 464-579
Cs 406-463
Ds 348-405
If, after we return a paper to you, you would like to rewrite your paper (or a portion of
your paper), you are welcome to do so. We will re-grade your paper and record the
higher grade. You can re-submit a paper as many times as you like within 3 weeks of the
assignment due date identified on the course website.
Course Readings
There are no required textbooks in this course. Course readings and other resources are
provided on the course website.
Many of the readings for this course are drawn from the following books and articles. In
most cases, we will read just a chapter or two from any one book.
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