Environmental issues are some of the most pressing problems facing the world today. Overlapping environmental problems threaten to destabilize societies, economies, and the earth systems that allow for a habitable planet. Despite the unified recommendations of scientists, countries, individuals, and regional governments often fall short in addressing these issues. This course aims to answer two questions: why does this happen, and what can be done to move in a more sustainable direction?
By the end of this seminar, students will:
- Identify and define key environmental problems.
- Understand and apply theoretical frameworks on environmental politics to contemporary and historic environmental issues.
- Analyze the root political and economic causes of environmental issues, identify potential solutions, and discuss roadblocks to their implementation.
- Effectively communicate independent thought on the above.
There are no required textbooks for this course. I will provide PDFs for all articles that are assigned, which are available through the Georgia Tech library.
The course will consist of the following:
- Participation (10%)
- Discussion/reflection posts (15%)
- Midterm (25%)
- International negotiation simulation (10%)
- Final project presentation (5%)
- Final project (30%)
A: 90-100
Superior performance
B: 80-89
Above-average, high-quality performance
C: 70-79
Average (not inferior) performance
D: 60-69
Below-average performance
F: 0-59
Unacceptable performance
This is an in-person course and as such there will not be remote attendance options nor recorded lectures (with some scheduled exceptions). We will have in-depth class discussions throughout the semester. I will provide multiple avenues to participate in these discussions. Students are expected to have completed the readings prior to class. Attendance, preparedness and level of engagement are both factors of the participation grade. I reserve the right to call on individuals at random or administer reading quizzes, although I prefer not to. You are allowed three unexcused absences; after this, failure to attend will negatively impact your participation grade.
Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.
Academic dishonesty in the form of cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated. In brief, plagiarism is defined, for the purposes of this class, as: copying, borrowing, or appropriating another person’s work and presenting it as your own in a paper or oral presentation, deliberately or by accident. Acts of plagiarism will be reported in accordance with the Honor Code. In order to avoid being charged with plagiarism, if you use the words, ideas, phrasing, charts, graphs, or data of another person or from published material, then you must either: 1) use quotation marks around the words and cite the source, or 2) paraphrase or summarize acceptable using your own words and cite the source. The plagiarism policy is not restricted to books, but also applies to video and audio content, websites, blogs, wiki’s, and podcasts. Plagiarism includes putting your name on a group project to which you have minimally contributed. For information on Georgia Tech’s Academic Honor Code, please visit https://policylibrary.gatech.edu/student-life/academic-honor-code. Any student suspect of cheating or plagiarizing on an assignment will be reported to the Office of Student Integrity, who will investigate the incident and identify the appropriate penalty for violations.
This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Social Sciences area. Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals. This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:
- How do I understand human experiences and connections?
Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcomes:
- Students will effectively analyze the complexity of human behavior, and how historical, economic, political, social or geographic relationships develop, persist or change.
Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:
- Intercultural Competence
- Perspective-Taking
- Persuasion