ENVI 303
Cultures of Climate Change Fall 2015
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed SOC 303
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This course asks why people think and talk about climate change in such very different ways. Climate change is a physical phenomenon that can be observed, quantified, and measured. But it is also an idea, and as such it is subject to the vagaries of cultural interpretation. Despite scientific agreement about its existence and its causes, many people do not see climate change as a serious problem, or as a problem at all. Many others see it as the most serious problem our species has ever faced. What are the sources of this disparity? Why can’t we agree about climate change? How does something as complex and confusing as climate change become a “problem” in the first place? This course will explore a broad array of factors, from religion to race, class to colonialism. It will focus especially closely on the communication of scientific knowledge, risk perception, and environmental ethics, and it will apply a range of theories from the social sciences and humanities to a set of concrete case studies.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 19
Class#: 1451
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: a 15- to 18-page research paper and several shorter writing assignments
Prerequisites: ENVI 101 or permission of instructor
Enrollment Preferences: Environmental Policy & Environmental Science majors and Environmental Studies concentrators first; Anthropology and Sociology majors second
Distributions: Division II Writing Skills
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
SOC 303 Division II ENVI 303 Division II
Attributes: ENVI Humanities, Arts + Social Science Electives
ENVP PTL Theory/Method Courses
ENVP SC-A Group Electives
ENVP SC-B Group Electives

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