ENR 2000 (Section 1): Environment and Society Spring 2009
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:35– 10:50 am; Engineering 3108
Instructors:
Indy Burke, Director, Haub School and Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural
Resources, and Professor, Departments of Botany and Renewable Resources
Office 207 Wyo Hall; Phone 766-5150
Email: iburke@uwyo.edu
Robert Godby, Chairperson and Assoc. Professor of Economics and Finance
Office 12 Ross Hall; Phone: 766-3843
Office Hours:
Email: rgodby@uwyo.edu
<Insert GA info here>
Readings: Most readings will be provided either through the class website or by a handed out hard copy.
Required texts may be purchased through the University Bookstore or other book retailers. They are:
Carson, R. 1962. Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.
Diamond, J. 2005. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Purpose: This course will explore environmental and natural resource issues, in particular the ways in
which people approach, evaluate, and develop positions relative to these issues. The course will use case
studies to illustrate the contemporary and historical role of individuals and societies in identifying and
addressing environmental issues at scales ranging from local to global. Environmental issues will be
examined on a global scale within a number of cultural contexts. The universality of human experience
with the physical world is explored through consideration of contemporary western, indigenous and global
social systems, both historic and contemporary. The interconnectedness of global and local concerns will
also be addressed. Students’ own relationship with the environment will be challenged, and alternative
viewpoints for relating to the environment on a cultural and personal level will be explored.
USP Designation: This course fulfills the Global Awareness (G) requirement of the 2003 University
Studies Program. Global Awareness (G) courses strive to broaden our perspectives through the
exploration of viewpoints from other societies, cultures, religions, or geopolitical regions. With an eye on
both historical and contemporary experience, G courses are designed to challenge our assumptions about
the ways of the world and to help us understand and embrace global cultural diversity.
Objectives:
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Class objectives include the following:
to introduce students to the complexity of environmental and social issues and decision-making;
to consider how different cultures relate to the environment;
to develop individual critical thinking and writing skills;
to challenge students to separate feelings and values from knowledge, and to create awareness of
how feelings values, and knowledge can impact decision-making; and
to introduce students to classic ideas and current writings about environment and society.
Prerequisites: None.
Grading:
Grading will be on a straight scale:
A = 90-100%, B = 80-89%, C = 70-79%, D = 60-69%, F = < 60%.
Attendance and Participation
20% of total grade
This course requires active participation and engaged listening from all class members. You will be
expected to attend class and share your thoughts and ideas with the class. Good participation is a matter
of both quality and quantity. Good participation reflects the material or area of discussion of the given
class. If you do not volunteer thoughts, you may be asked to contribute. Complete attendance, with limited
(or no) unexcused absences, will be rewarded. More than three unauthorized absences during the course of
the semester will result in a reduction in your overall grade by one letter. Six absences will result in a
reduction of your overall grade by two letters. Nine absences will result in failure of the class. We consider
three (3) tardies as one (1) absence. Please refer to University Regulation 713 (Student Absence Policy) for
information on what constitutes an authorized absence. Please email one of the instructors as soon as
possible if you cannot attend class because of illness or an emergency situation.
Reading/Writing Activities
40% of total grade
Coming to class ready to discuss the readings will be essential to the success of the class. Activities that
gauge overall preparedness (e.g., quizzes, reaction papers, in-class free writing, written assignments) will be
employed as needed to ensure full class participation in reading-based discussions. All writing activities
using a rubric with criteria ranked on a 1-5 scale, addressing your quality of thinking and writing.
Writing Guidelines
Excellent written communication is essential to being an effective natural resource manager, policy maker,
involved and effective citizen, as well as a successful college student. Writing assignments require the
student to research a diversity of source materials and to cite these appropriately. All assignments will be
evaluated on content as well as writing mechanics (grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.) and style (clarity,
flow, etc.). All papers should be double-spaced and have the following: 1” margins on all sides; 12 point,
Times font; subheadings to organize content; and page numbers.
Independent Research Paper:
20% of total grade
Each student will select one of the authorized course texts as the basis for a report, 5-7 pages in length and
including a 10 minute oral presentation. More information on the requirements for this report will be
provided in a separate handout.
Final Exam:
20% of total grade
Class members will be divided into groups to prepare a paper and presentation. All team members will
receive the same grade on the project, although individual team members may be given a lower grade if
their participation is deficient based on a formal grading sheet provided by the instructors.
Late Policy:
Assignments are due upon arrival in class on the due date. Late assignments will be assessed a 20% per day
reduction.
Student Support
If you have a physical, learning, or psychological disability and require accommodations, please let the
instructors know as soon as possible. You will need to register with, and provide documentation of your
disability to, University Disability Support Services (UDSS) in SEO, room 330 Knight Hall, 766-6189,
TTY: 766-3073
Extra Credit
At the instructor’s discretion, each student may submit a 5-page review on an approved class topic
(properly referenced) on the material missed should a student be absent or underperform on an
assignment.
ENR Student Code of Conduct
1.
Students should exhibit respectful classroom values and behavior by:
•
engaging in appropriate communication, interaction and preparedness;
•
demonstrating trust, respect and civility;
•
approaching course content as important and necessary;
•
meeting all deadlines for assignments and team member obligations;
•
turning off cell phones in class;
•
avoiding unnecessary talking; and
•
refraining from reading outside material or doing other work during class.
2.
Students should contribute to a positive learning environment by:
•
coming to class prepared for the session’s activities as outlined in the class schedule;
•
arriving, attending and departing class in a respectful manner;
•
taking responsibility for team and individual assignments; and
•
developing cooperative relationships with other students and faculty.
3.
Students should support a professional learning environment by:
•
avoiding inappropriate language;
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refraining from unrealistic expectations in dealing with administration, faculty and staff;
and
•
communicating with the instructor if changes could be made to improve the learning
environment.
4.
Students must uphold the academic integrity standards expected by the University of Wyoming.
Academic integrity is conceptualized as doing and taking responsibility for one’s own work. This includes
individual assignments and the assumption of responsibility for work that is turned in as the “work
product” of a team. Each team member is equally responsible for the work presented as the output of that
team’s effort. Each team member must carefully collaborate and have jointly participated in the final
output. The University of Wyoming’s definition of Academic Dishonesty referenced in the Student Code
of Conduct: “An act attempted or performed which misrepresents one’s involvement in an academic task
in any way, or permits another student to misrepresent the latter’s involvement in an academic task by
assisting the misrepresentation.” These acts include, but are not limited to: “Representing as one's own
work material copied or borrowed from any source, written or otherwise, public or private, without proper
citation of the source.” See University of Wyoming Regulation 802. A good rule of thumb is to never use
more than five consecutive words from a source without providing a citation. Student work may be
evaluated for plagiarism using anti-plagiarism software if the instructor suspects academic dishonesty.
Texts for ENR 2000 Independent Research Paper Requirement*
Each student will read one book from the following list for a report and presentation to the class.
Unit I: Defining our environment:
Title
Desert Solitaire
Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land
Use in America
The Book of Yaak
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
The Solace of Open Spaces
Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Year with the Wild
Turkey
Into the Wild
Close Range: Wyoming Stories
Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2
Walden
Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert
The Last Season
One Man's Wilderness; an Alaskan Odyssey
Author
Abbey, Edward
Babbitt, Bruce
Date published
1985 (essays)
2005 (nonfiction)
Bass, Rick
Dillard, Annie
Erlich, Gretel
Hutto, Joe
1996 (literary nonfiction)
1998 (essays)
1986 (literary nonfiction)
2006 (literary nonfiction)
Krakauer, John
Proulx, Annie
Proulx, Annie
Thoreau, Henry D.
Williams, Terry Tempest
Eric Blehm
Richard Proenneke
1997 (literary nonfiction)
2000 (short stories)
2004 (short stories)
1910 (essays, memoir)
2002 (essays)
2005 (nonfiction)
1973
Unit II: Environment and indigenous society:
Title
Author
To Timbuktu: A Journey Down the Niger
Jenkins, Mark
All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and
Life
The Snow Leopard
Journeys to the Far North
Culture of Habitat: On Nature, Culture, and Story
What You See in Clear Water: Life On the Wind
River Reservation
Ceremony
Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars
of the American West
Matthiessen, Peter
Murie, Olaus
Nabhan, Gary
O'Gara, Geoffrey
Date published
1997 (literary nonfiction,
travel)
1999 (nonfiction, poetry,
folklore, philosophy)
1987 (literary nonfiction)
1964 (nonfiction)
1988 (essays)
2001 (nonfiction)
Silko, Leslie Marmon
Solnit, Rebecca
1977 (fiction)
1994 (nonfiction)
LaDuke, Winona
Unit III: Collapse: looking at patterns in history to bridge the present to the future:
Title
Author
Date published
Guns Germs, and Steel
Diamond, Jared
1999 (nonfiction)
River Teeth
Duncan, David James
1995 (stories, essays)
Tracks
Erdrich, Louise
1988 (fiction)
Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious
Lockwood, Jeff
2004 (nonfiction)
Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the
American Frontier
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age Quammen, David
1997 (nonfiction,
of Extinctions
adventure)
Cadillac Desert: The American West and its
Reisner, Mark
1993 (nonfiction)
Disappearing Water
Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for
Politics
Marking the Sparrow’s Fall: The Making of the
American West
The Abstract Wild
Solnit, Rebecca
2007 (essays)
Stegner, Wallace
1999 (essays, novella)
Turner, Jack
1996 (essays, philosophy)
Unit IV: Environmentalism and the modern environmental movement:
Title
Author
The Monkey Wrench Gang
Abbey, Edward
Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William
Callenbach, Ernest
Weston
Forcing the Spring
Gottlieb, Robert
Encounters with the Archdruid
McPhee, John
Control of Nature
McPhee, John
The Botany of Desire
Pollan, Michael
The Omnivore’s Dilemna
Pollan, Michael
Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Williams, Terry Tempest
Date published
2000 (fiction)
1975 (fiction)
1993 (nonfiction, history)
1971 (essays)
1989 (essays)
2001 (nonfiction)
2006 (nonfiction)
1991 (memoir)
*Students may also propose an alternative book for the book report assignment. The student should not
have previously read the book, and permission from the instructors must be granted in advance.
Tentative Class Schedule
Subject to change at instructors’ discretion
Unit I: Defining our environment
Date
13 Jan
Reading
Activity
Introductions, course overview (facilitated discussion around course
expectations.
15 Jan
Bring an image of the
environment for in-class writing
Lottery of books for independent research reports; written response
to personal image
20 Jan
Berry 1985, Galvin 1992, Hogan
1995
Reading response activity, human relationships to the environment
22 Jan
Cullinan 2008, White 1996
What is nature?; the value of landscapes; work, play and
environmentalism
27 Jan
Corbett 2006
Talking about the environment: why can “environmentalist” be a
dirty word?
Unit II: Environment and the indigenous society
Date
3 Feb
Reading
Tribe Land Ethic
Tribe website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/
Activity
Review of Unit I, what is a native or indigenous group?; book
reports
5 Feb
Barnhill 2005, Bol 1998, Chief
Seattle 1854
Reading response activity; cultural views of nature; book reports
10 Feb
Krech III 1998, Momaday 1998
Mid-semester evaluations; romance versus reality of indigenous
relationships with the environment; book reports
12 Feb
Film: In the Light of Reverence, discussion; book reports
17 Feb
Book reports; Film: In the Light of Reverence; Discussion wrap-up and
link to Unit III
Unit III: Collapse: looking at patterns in history to bridge the present to the future
Date
24 Feb
Reading
Diamond 2005
Activity
Introduction to Diamond and Collapse (prologue); book reports
26 Feb
Diamond 2005
Chapter 2: Easter Island; Discussion; book reports
3 March
Diamond 2005
Chapter 6 : Vikings, discussion; book reports
5 March
Diamond 2005
Chapter 10: Rwanda; Reading response activity; discussion; book
reports
10 March
Diamond 2005
Chapter 11: Dominican Republic and Haiti; Discussion; book
reports
ENR 2000: Spring 2008
12 March
Diamond 2005
Chapters 14 & 16; Discussion; wrap-up Unit III and link to Unit IV
Unit IV: Environmentalism and the modern environmental movement: redefining our
environment
Date
Reading
Activity
17 March
Spring Break
No class
19 March
Spring Break
No class
24 March
Leopold 1949
Reading response activity; discussion: pioneers of the modern
environmental movement; book reports
26 March
Carson 1962
Chapters 1-3; Reading response activity; discussion; book reports
31 March
Carson 1962 and Lockwood
(forthcoming)
SPECIAL LUNCHTIME SESSION: Jeff Lockwood (discussant) and
lunch
2 April
Carson 1962
Student presentation of Carson (1962) chapters 4-8; book reports
7 April
Carson 1962
Student presentations of Carson (1962) chapters 9-14; book reports
9 April
Carson 1962 and Maniates
2001
Carson (1962) chapters 15-17; discussion: who is responsible for the
state of the environment?; book reports
April 14
Shellenberger and Nordhaus
2004 and 2007
Reading response activity; discussion: the death of environmentalism as
we know it; book reports
Global Group Project and Discussion
Date
16 April
Reading
N.A.
Activity
Global group project work day
21 April
N.A.
Global group project presentations (2)
23 April
N.A.
Global group project presentations (2)
28 April
N.A.
Global group project presentations (1); peer evaluations; class
wrap-up
30 April
N.A.
Final course retrospection (in-class writing activity), course
evaluations
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