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.