GEOG 150: Introduction to Sustainability

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Class Program

Geography

Credits

Weekly Contact Hours

Course ID

091573

Meets Degree Requirements For

Diversity,

Social Science

Description

Introduction to sustainability and issues that impact sustainable development globally, nationally and locally. Examines our role in natural resource depletion and waste both in urban and rural spaces while envisioning ways to sustain ecosystems, support social justice, and reduce our ecological footprint. Includes a service learning component.

Grading Basis

Graded

Course Learning Outcomes

Define and communicate the concept of sustainability, including forms of practice, from a geographic perspective.

Reflect on the role of sustainability in their personal lives and their local community to create an ethics of caring for a common home, which expresses their cultural awareness, sensitivity, diversity and cultural competency.

Analyze and explain the interconnections of natural and human systems (ecological, social, economic, cultural, and political) at local, national, and global scales.

Apply an understanding of environmental racism in the U.S. while also exploring the meaning of power and privilege, along with historical patterns, marginalization and demographics of American society, in terms of ethnicity, gender and socio-economic status.

Use maps and other geographic tools to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective

Articulate an inter-generational perspective to envision the elements of a socially just and sustainable society.

Define and communicate the concept of sustainability, including forms of practice, from a geographic perspective.

Core Topics

Big Ideas in Sustainability—ecology, economics, equity
Natural Resource Use—water, energy, forests, and soils
Waste (and how we can re-value it)
Environmental Externalities and True Cost Accounting
Carbon Footprint and a Post-Carbon Economy
Climate Change (impacts on eco-systems, migration, and health)
Environmental Racism
Social Justice and Social Inequality
Sustainable Food and Agriculture Systems
Green City Design
Managing the Global Commons
Intergenerational Thinking (having resources for future generations)

Optional:

Biomimicry