Professor Peter Bowler. 407 Steinhaus Hall. 824-5183. Office Hours. Monday and Tuesday 8:15-9:15 AM. email pabowler@uci.edu
Michael Burton. 4271 Social Science Plaza. 824-7208. Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 3-4. email mlburton@uci.edu
Secretary: Elizabeth Schiller. 5297 Social Science Plaza. 824-5938.
Teaching Assistant. Jim Hess. 4264 Social Science Plaza
Required Books
Lester Brown et. al. State of the World 1996. Alfred W. Crosby. Ecological Imperialism. Roderick Nash. American Environmentalism. Willett Kempton, James Boster, and Jennifer Hartley. Environmental Values in American Culture.
Course Requirements
Midterm. 30% of the grade. Final exam. 40% of the grade. Homework Assignments. 15% Discussion section participation, including quizzes. 15%
Schedule of Readings, lecture topics, and Exams.
4/1 LECTURE: Culture; Human subsistence systems. (Burton)
4/3 LECTURE: How ecologists study populations (Bowler)
READ: State of the World 1996. Ch. 1: The Acceleration of History. Ch. 2: Facing up to the Risks of Climate Change.
4/8 LECTURE: The Tragedy of the Commons (Burton)
READ: Garret Hardin. The tragedy of the commons.
Environmental Values in American Culture. Chapters 1-2, Introduction and Background.
4/10 LECTURE: History of human population growth; Demographic Transitions; Why population is not the entire problem. (Bowler and Burton)
REVIEW: BIO 65 lecture on population.
READ: Environmental Values in American Culture. Ch. 3, Cultural Models of Nature; Ch. 4, Cultural Models of Weather and Atmosphere.
FIRST HOMEWORK DUE
4/15 LECTURE: Cultural Survival and the Environment. (Burton)
READ: State of the World 1996. Ch. 8. Upholding Human Rights and Environmental Justice.
American Environmentalism, Pages 9-11 and Ch. 1. Native Americans Define the Natural Community.
Ecological Imperialism. Ch. 1, Prologue; Ch. 2, Pangaea Revisited; Ch. 3, The Norse and the Crusaders; Ch. 9, Ills.
4/17 LECTURE: History of Environmental Ethics; Biocentric versus Anthropocentric World Views (Bowler)
History of the American Environmental Movement (Bowler)
READ: American Environmentalism, Ch. 4: An artist proposes a national park; chapter 5: The value of wildness; Intro to part II; Ch. 11: The birth of conservation; Ch. 15: A voice for wilderness; Intro to part III; Ch. 25: Wilderness; chapter 27: A land ethic; chapter 28: The meaning of wilderness for American Civilization.
4/22 LECTURE: Cognitive Anthropology. (Burton)
VIDEO: John Muir and Gifford Pinchot.
READ: Environmental Values in American Culture. Ch. 5. Environmental Values
4/24 LECTURE: Deep Ecology and Environmental Radicalism. (Bowler)
READ: American Environmentalism, Intro to part IV; Ch. 36: respect for nature; Ch. 38: Mineral King and standing for trees; Intro to part V; Ch. 40: Wilderness advocacy; Ch. 46: Monkeywrenching; Ch. 47: Deep ecology.
Environmental Values in American Culture. Ch. 8. Patterns of Agreement and Disagreement.
4/29 LECTURE: Tropical Agriculture, Causes of Tropical Deforestation. (Burton)
VIDEO: Slash and Burn Agriculture
READ: Notes by Burton on Tropical Agriculture.
5/1 LECTURE: African Pastoralism and American Ranching. (Burton)
READ: Notes by Burton on the Maasai.
5/6 MIDTERM
5/8 LECTURE: The spread of non-native plants and animals. (Bowler)
READ: State of the World 1996. Ch. 6: Understanding the Threat of Bioinvasions; Ch. 7, Weeds.
5/13 LECTURE: Threatened Ecosystems: Arid Lands. (Bowler)
READ: Ecological Imperialism. Ch. 8. Animals.
VIDEO: Modern Range Wars.
5/15 LECTURE: Islands, reefs, fisheries. (Burton and Hess)
READ: Ecological Imperialism. Ch. 4, The Fortunate Isles; Ch. 10, New Zealand.
READ: Article on Easter Island (handout)
5/20 Freshwater Ecosystems & River Basins (Bowler)
READ: State of the World 1996. Ch. 3, Forging a Sustainable Water Strategy; Ch. 4, Sustaining Freshwater Ecosystems.
5/22 Conservation Strategies: Corridors for Wildlife and Corridors for Humans (Bowler)
READ: American Environmentalism. Ch. 6. Human Responsibility for the Land; Ch. 7, The Value and Care of Parks; Ch. 13, Publicizing Conservation at the White House.
SECOND HOMEWORK DUE
5/27 Land Use Planning. (Bowler)
READ: American Environmentalism Ch. 18, Conservation as Anxiety; Ch. 36, Respect for Nature; Ch. 39, Friendship with Earth; Ch. 49. Sustainability.
5/29 Industrial Agriculture. (Burton)
READ. State of the World 1996. Ch. 5. Preserving Agricultural Resources.
6/3 Social Science and Environmental Policy. (Burton)
READ: Environmental Values in American Culture. Chs. 6-7.
6/3 Sustainable Industrial Society. (Bowler)
READ. State of the World 1996. Ch. 9, Shifting to Sustainable Industries; Ch. 10, Harnessing the Market for the Environment.
FINAL EXAM: Thursday, June 12. 1:30-3:30.