Course Description
Each of us is part of various environments and forms relationships with nature every day of our lives such that our memories, identities and knowledge are wrapped up in how we understand nature and our links to environments. Environmental studies is fundamentally an attempt to integrate understandings of the natural world with knowledge about the social (or human) world. How we form connections among ourselves and with nature, what values underlie our understandings of nature, and how we can improve the environment are all questions worthy of exploration in this context. This introductory course to environmental studies will challenge students to investigate these questions through the themes of social justice, technology, sustainability, activism, and ethics. The overall purpose of this course is to develop greater knowledge and critical awareness about the complex relationships between natural environments and people. We will do this by actively engaging with the lecture materials, readings, tutorial discussions and case studies and by relating these ideas to our daily lives and our future hopes. Students who have taken SCIE 402 Introduction to Environmental Studies cannot take this course.
