Environmental Studies Courses

Winter 2010

ENST 12402. Life through a Genomic Lens. (=BIOS 11125) PQ: BIOS 10100 or 10110, or consent of instructor. The implications of the double helical structure of DNA triggered a revolution in cell biology. More recently, the technology to sequence vast stretches of DNA has offered new vistas in fields ranging from human origins to the study of biodiversity. This course considers a set of these issues, including the impact of a DNA perspective on the legal system, on medicine, and on conservation biology. A. Turkewitz, M. Nobrega.

ENST 13106. The Hungry Earth: Light, Energy, and Subsistence. (=BIOS 13106) PQ: BIOS 10110. This course considers the continuing erosion of the resources of the Earth by the persisting pressures of a growing human population, which makes a broad knowledge and appreciation of biology essential. Discussion includes the principles of energy conversion by plants as primary producers, the evolution of the structures and mechanisms involved in energy conversion, the origin of crop plants, improvements of plants by conventional breeding and genetic engineering, and the interactions of plants with pathogens and herbivores. M. Ruddat.

ENST 13300. The Atmosphere. (=GEOS 13300) PQ: MATH 13200 or consent of instructor. This course introduces the physics, chemistry, and phenomenology of the Earth's atmosphere, with an emphasis on the role of the atmosphere as a component of the planet's life support system. Topics include (1) atmospheric composition, evolution, and structure; (2) solar and terrestrial radiation; (3) the role of water in atmospheric processes; (4) winds, the global circulation, and weather systems; and (5) atmospheric chemistry and pollution. We focus on the mechanisms by which human activity can influence the atmosphere and on interactions between atmosphere and biosphere. J. Frederick.

ENST 20500. Introduction to Population. (=SOCI 20122/30122) This course introduces the field of demography, which examines the growth and characteristics of human populations. It also provides an overview of our knowledge of three fundamental population processes: fertility, mortality, and migration. We cover marriage, cohabitation, marital disruption, aging, and population and environment. In each case we examine historical trends. We also discuss causes and consequences of recent trends in population growth, as well as the current demographic situation in developing and developed countries. L. Waite.

ENST 21301. Making the Natural World: Foundations of Human Ecology. (=ANTH 21303) This course considers the conceptual underpinnings of contemporary Western notions of ecology, environment, and balance, but it also examines several specific historical trajectories of anthropogenic landscape change. We approach these issues from the vantage of several different disciplinary traditions, including environmental history, philosophy, ecological anthropology, and paleoecology. M. Lycett.

ENST 23100. Environmental Law. (=HIPS 28801, LLSO 23100, PBPL 23100) PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing, or consent of instructor. This lecture/discussion course examines the development of laws and legal institutions that address environmental problems and advance environmental policies. Topics include the common law background to traditional environmental regulation, the explosive growth and impact of federal environmental laws in the second half of the twentieth century, regulations and the urban environment, and the evolution of local and national legal structures in response to environmental challenges.

ENST 23289. Marine Ecology. (=BIOS 23289) PQ: Prior introductory course in ecology or consent of instructor. This course provides an introduction into the physical, chemical, and biological forces controlling the function of marine ecosystems and how marine communities are organized. The structures of various types of marine ecosystems are described and contrasted, and the lectures highlight aspects of marine ecology relevant to applied issues such as conservation and harvesting. T. Wootton.

ENST 24705. Energy: Science, Technology, and Human Usage. (=GEOS 24705) PQ: Knowledge of physics or consent of instructor. This course covers the technologies by which humans appropriate energy for industrial and societal use, from steam urbines to internal combustion engines to photovoltaics. We also discuss the physics and economics of the resulting human energy system: fuel sources and relationship to energy flows in the Earth system, modeling and simulation of energy production and use. Our goal is to provide a technical foundation for students interested in careers in the energy industry or in energy policy. Fieldtrips required to major energy converters (e.g., coal-fired and nuclear power plants, oil refinery, biogas digester) and users (e.g., steel, fertilizer production). E. Moyer.

ENST 25500. Biogeography. (=BIOS 23406, EVOL 45500) PQ: Completion of the general education requirement for the biological sciences and a course in either ecology, evolution, or earth history; or consent of instructor. This course examines factors governing the distribution and abundance of animals and plants. Topics include patterns and processes in historical biogeography, island biogeography, geographical ecology, areography, and conservation biology (e.g., design and effectiveness of nature reserves). B. Patterson (odd years, lab); L. Heaney (even years, discussion).

ENST 25701. Feeding the City: The Urban Food Chain (1). (=GEOS 24714). PQ: 2nd or 3rd year students strongly though not exclusively preferred. Acceptance into program by application only. GEOS 24714 is a zero-unit, non-credit course that must be taken P/F. This is a three-quarter sequence (winter, spring, autumn), combined with a summer internship. This class focuses on energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions of small-scale, diversified farms serving Chicago. The primary goal for interns will be to gather data on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions at Chicago-area farms, both rural and urban. Other agriculture or food-related projects will be considered on a case by case basis. In Winter and Spring Quarters, students will participate in an interdisciplinary reading and research course to explore and discuss the environmental impacts, and social and economic issues of local and national food production. The class will include a series of field trips within Chicago as well as guest lecturers. In Summer Quarter, students will be matched with farm sites where they will work as farm interns as well as keep detailed records to document energy input/output and other data; stipend provided for summer internship. In Autumn Quarter, students will wrap up reading and research component as well as analyze collected data. There is also opportunity to develop theses - both science-based and social-science based, stemming from participation in the project. Two-quarters' credit (200 units) is granted in the final quarter after successful completion of all three quarters and the summer internship. To meet requirements for full-time student status, students must carry at least three additional courses while registered for this course. Satisfies Environmental Studies major field study/intern degree requirement. P. Martin.

ENST 26500. Environmental Economics. (=ECON 26500, PPHA 32800) PQ: ECON 20100. This course applies theoretical and empirical economic tools to environmental issues. We discuss broad concepts such as externalities, public goods, property rights, market failure, and social cost-benefit analysis. These concepts are applied to areas that include nonrenewable resources, air and water pollution, solid waste management, and hazardous substances. We emphasize analyzing the optimal role for public policy. G. Tolley, S. Shaikh.

ENST 29700. Reading and Research. PQ: Consent of faculty supervisor and program director. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. This course may be counted as one of the electives required for the major. This course is a reading and research course for independent study not related to B.A. research or B.A. paper preparation.

ENST 29802. B.A. Colloquium II. PQ: Open only to students with fourth-year standing who are majoring in Environmental Studies. Must be taken for P/F grading. This colloquium assists students in conceptualizing, researching, and writing their B.A. theses.

ENST 29900. B.A. Thesis (Reading and Research). PQ: Consent of instructor and program director. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. This is a reading and research course for independent study related to B.A. research and B.A. thesis preparation.

Autumn 2009

ENST 12100. Chemistry and the Atmosphere. (=PHSC 13500) PQ: MATH 10600, or placement in MATH 13100 or higher, or consent of instructor required. This course focuses on aspects of chemistry as they apply to the Earth's atmosphere. The first half considers atmospheric structure and fundamental chemical principles, while the second half presents examples of chemical systems that operate in the atmosphere. Topics include the chemical composition of the atmosphere, the structure of atoms and molecules, the nature of chemical reactions, the interaction of solar radiation with atmospheric gases, the properties of the water molecule, formation of an ozone layer, and the chemistry of urban air pollution. J. Frederick.

ENST 12300. Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast. (= PHSC 13400, GEOS 13400) PQ: MATH 10600, or placement in MATH 13100 or higher, or consent of instructor required; some knowledge of chemistry or physics helpful. During 8th week Course Request, register by lecture. During Add/Drop, register by lab/discussion activity. This course presents the science behind the forecast of global warming to enable the student to evaluate the likelihood and potential severity of anthropogenic climate change in the coming centuries. It includes an overview of the physics of the greenhouse effect, including comparisons with Venus and Mars; an overview of the carbon cycle in its role as a global thermostat; predictions and reliability of climate model forecasts of the greenhouse world; and an examination of the records of recent and past climates, such as the glacial world and Eocene and Oligocene warm periods. D. Archer.

ENST 21201. Human Impact on the Global Environment. (=NCDV 21201) The goal of this course is to analyze the impact of the human enterprise on the world that sustains it. Topics include human population dynamics, historical trends in human well-being, and our use of natural resources—especially in relation to the provision of energy, water, and food—and the impacts that these activities have on the range of goods and services provided by geological/ecological systems. We read and discuss diverse sources and write short weekly papers. R. Keller.

ENST 21800. Economics and Environmental Policy. (=LLSO 26201, PBPL 21800) PQ: ECON 19800 or higher, or PBPL 20000. This course combines basic microeconomic theory and tools with contemporary environmental and resources issues and controversies to examine and analyze public policy decisions. Theoretical points include externalities, public goods, common-property resources, valuing resources, benefit/cost analysis, and risk assessment. Topics include pollution, global climate change, energy use and conservation, recycling and waste management, endangered species and biodiversity, nonrenewable resources, congestion, economic growth and the environment, and equity impacts of public policies. S. Shaikh.

ENST 22209. Philosophies of Environmentalism and Sustainability. (=PHIL 22209, GNDR 22204). What does "going green" really mean? What is "sustainability?" How do different fundamental ethical and political perspectives yield different approaches to and understandings of "environmentalism," "conservation," "stewardship," and "sustainable development"? This course uses a combination of classic environmentalist texts (e.g., Thoreau, Leopold, Carson) and contemporary works to clarify and address the most hotly contested and urgent philosophical issues dividing the global environmental movement today. Various field trips and guest speakers help us philosophize about the fate of the earth by connecting the local and the global. B. Schultz.

ENST 22504. Losing the Farm: Globalization and Food Production in the 20th Century. (= HIST 17104). Who grows the food you eat? How do they grow it? Where do they grow it? And how is it that you can buy fresh fruit in the dead of winter? This course aims to answer these questions through an examination of the development of industrial agriculture in the 20th century. We will pay particular attention to how the development of industrial agricultural emerged in the 20th century as a global phenomenon—from the import and export of new and exotic foods to the global food crisis of the 1970s. Lastly, we will examine critiques of industrial and global agriculture, from the new agrarians to the rising popularity of the local foods movement. One Saturday field-trip required. V. Bivar.

ENST 24701. U.S. Environmental Policy. (=PBPL 24701, LLSO 24901) Making environmental policy is a diverse and complex process. Environmental advocacy engages different governmental agencies, congressional committees, and courts, depending on the issue. This course examines how such differentiation has affected policy making over the last several decades. R. Lodato.

ENST 25703. Feeding the City: The Urban Food Chain-3. (=GEOS 24714). PQ: 2nd or 3rd year students strongly though not exclusively preferred. Acceptance into program by application only. GEOS 24714 is a zero-unit, non-credit course that must be taken P/F. This is a three-quarter sequence (winter, spring, autumn), combined with a summer internship. This class focuses on energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions of small-scale, diversified farms serving Chicago. The primary goal for interns will be to gather data on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions at Chicago-area farms, both rural and urban. Other agriculture or food-related projects will be considered on a case by case basis. In Winter and Spring Quarters, students will participate in an interdisciplinary reading and research course to explore and discuss the environmental impacts, and social and economic issues of local and national food production. The class will include a series of field trips within Chicago as well as guest lecturers. In Summer Quarter, students will be matched with farm sites where they will work as farm interns as well as keep detailed records to document energy input/output and other data; stipend provided for summer internship. In Autumn Quarter, students will wrap up reading and research component as well as analyze collected data. There is also opportunity to develop theses - both science-based and social-science based, stemming from participation in the project. Two-quarters' credit (200 units) is granted in the final quarter after successful completion of all three quarters and the summer internship. To meet requirements for full-time student status, students must carry at least three additional courses while registered for this course. Satisfies Environmental Studies major field study/intern degree requirement. P. Martin.

ENST 26100. Roots of the Modern American City. (=GEOG 26100/36100, HIST 28900/38900). This course traces the economic, social, and physical development of the city in North America from pre-European times to the mid-twentieth century. We emphasize evolving regional urban systems, the changing spatial organization of people and land use in urban areas, and the developing distinctiveness of American urban landscapes. All-day Illinois field trip required. M. Conzen.

ENST 26400. Political Economy of Natural Resources in Southeast Asia. (=ANTH 26730) This course reviews historical development of resource use and management in Southeast Asia. In particular, we examine development of institutions and discourses that define and regulate the use and management of natural resources in Southeast Asia and discuss prevailing environmental issues in Southeast Asia. We also examine how state and non-state actors develop and define who has control over and access to resources and the process of territorializing natural resources. Y. Fujita.

ENST 27400. Principles of Epidemiology. (=HSTD30900, PPHA36400, STAT35000, BIOS29318) PQ: Introductory statistics recommended. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health and disease in human populations. This course introduces the basic principles of epidemiologic study design, analysis, and interpretation, through lectures, assignments, and critical appraisement of both classic and contemporary research articles. The course objectives include: (1) to be able to critically read and understand epidemiologic studies; (2) to be able to calculate and interpret measures of disease occurrence and measures of disease-exposure associations; and (3) to understand the contributions of epidemiology to clinical research, medicine, and public health. L. Kurina.

ENST 29000. Energy and Energy Policy. (=BPRO 29000, CHSS 37502, ECON 26800, PBPL 29000, PPHA 39201, PSMS 39000) PQ: Third or fourth-year undergrad or first-year grad students. For ECON majors only to register for ECON 26800: ECON 26500 and registration by consent of George Tolley. This course shows how scientific constraints affect economic and other policy decisions regarding energy, what energy-based issues confront our society and how we may address them through both policy and scientific study, and how the policy and scientific aspects can and should interact. We address specific technologies and the policy questions associated with each, as well as with more overarching aspects of energy policy that may affect several, perhaps many, technologies. S. Berry, G. Tolley.

ENST 29105. Spoons Full of Sugar: Economic, Political, & Social Repercussions of the Sugar Industry. (=INST 29105, HIST 17103, LACS 29105). This course introduces students to the political economy of sugar from its evolution as a medicinal treatment for the elite, to our daily morning coffee. Students will follow sugar's spread around the world and dissect its relationship to slavery, colonialism and the emerging global market. By the start of the revolutionary era, sugar was a major world commodity, serving as the underpinning of empires, countries and the slave trade. Throughout the nineteenth century new forces emerged attempting to regulate, protect, or challenge its continued dominance as a sweetener and as a major force in the world economy. Students will follow sugar through these changes and into the present day world of cartels, state regulation, global trade agreements, and zero calorie sweeteners. A central goal of this course is to expose students to the study of a global industry and methods on which academics draw to interpret the industry's effects on the economic, social, and political systems in which it operates. This course requires that students think critically about sources and their interpretations. Students who engage thoroughly with course themes will come away with a framework to think about the role of commodities in world history and its future. Students will also be challenged to gain effective communication and writing skills through discussion and essay assignments. A. Hughes.

ENST 29801. BA Colloquium I. PQ: Open only to students with fourth-year standing who are majoring in Environmental Studies. Must be taken for P/F grade. This colloquium is designed to aid students in their thesis research. Students are exposed to different conceptual frameworks and research strategies. The class meets weekly. A. Bauer.

ENST 29900. BA Thesis (Reading and Research). PQ: Consent of instructor and program director. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. This is a reading and research course for independent study related to BA research and BA thesis preparation.

The Program on the Global Environment