What students can expect to learn from this course:
Students can expect to learn about: 1) a survey history of
American resource use practices & environmentalism; 2) basic
economic concepts as applied to natural resource management and
their critique; 3) major ecosystem concepts and processes; 4) natural (e.g., thermodynamic) and historical-geographic
human-economic processes, and problems bearing on
local, national and global energy use & climate change; 5) the strengths and shortcomings of various strategies and policies
for environmental and resource protection; and 6) some appreciation
for the complexities involved in the controversies
surrounding the energy use, concept(s) of Òsustainable development.Ó I wish to strongly emphasize that the purpose and perspective of this course is as much to develop critical thinking and questioning skills, as it is to
convey a specific body of information. Accordingly, expect this class to
generate more questions than answers.
General methods of instruction:
The primary methods of instruction which will be employed
include: 1) lecture and class
discussions/debates, 2) small group activities and issue oriented debates, 3) relevant energy and climate change videos, 4) classroom Òwalk throughÓ of sample benefit-cost problems,
B-C treatment of uncertainty and the inherent problems of only using B-C or economic analyses to evaluate energy and climate
policies and 5) possibly even short field trips
to energy installations - wind, hydro, solar, in the region.