CULTURES OF SUSTAINABILITY: CENTRAL, EASTERN, AND NORTHERN EUROPE

ENVIRST 215

An introduction to the dynamic and emerging transdisciplinary field of sustainability. A broad survey of the global sustainability science challenges and their potential solutions using an integrated social-environmental systems approach. Applies a sustainability and systems thinking lens to various topics, such as complexity, resilience, ecological literacy, global climate change, economics, food systems, energy, sustainable development, and social equity. Facilitates the exploration of complex interrelationships among contemporary environmental, social, and economic problems and the solutions to support more sustainable systems. Focuses on the skills, knowledge, and attitudes to implement sustainable practices and to enact sustainable development through sustainability science and education.

ENVIRST/GEOG 339

Examines major environmental conservation approaches in the U.S. and developing countries and how they are influenced by sociopolitical factors, cultural values and scientific understandings of nature. Historical and contemporary cases are explored with emphasis on biodiversity and climate change issues.

ENVIRST 112

Explores different social science approaches to interpreting the relationship between environment and society at various scales, from the local to the global. Traces the social origins of environmental concerns, their social impacts, and the different responses they engender.

ENVIRST/GEOG 537

Geographic approaches to culture-nature relationships, including human perception of, use of, and adaptation to the physical environment, with emphasis on traditional subsistence systems; selected topics from contemporary and historical sources.

ENVIRST/HISTORY 328

Explores a new approach to a part of the world with a very old history, but one that is now as 'modern' as any. The changing, complex relations between Europeans and their environments from antiquity to the twenty-first century offer instructive comparison with American and current global environmental concerns. Approaching Mediterranean and Western civilizations from an environmental viewpoint also offers fresh perspective on these enduring cultures.