Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Provides Environmental Science students the opportunity to investigate an environmental science topic in depth, through lecture and bi-weekly guest speakers from diverse sectors (academia, government, industry and NGOs). Students with credit for EVSC 399 or EVSC 499 may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

Modern Environmental Science deals with environmental problems where the fundamental problem may include a wide range of concerns that extend well beyond the scope of science. These concerns may be related to indigenous rights and land claims, economics, resource development, fundamental and perceived human rights, human health, or environmental protection. These issues are often conflated with scientific evidence in the media, by activists, by project development proponents, industry, and others.

There is perhaps no better example of this than in the ‘debate’ over climate change. The scientific evidence is unambiguous and clear -- the climate is warming due to human activity. However, what to do about this environmental problem is not entirely clear and open to debate. While governments and individuals come to grips with what needs to be done, it has become commonplace to include scientific evidence in the debate about what to do about it. This is problematic because it gives the public the impression that facts obtained using scientific methods can be debated outside of science, which is false.

This course offers Environmental Science students the opportunity to investigate an environmental problem in depth, through lecture and guest speakers from diverse sectors (academia, government, industry and NGOs). The goal of the class is to examine a current environmental problem, to explore the science underlying it and find out what role science is playing in discussions about that problem.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: