ENVS 200: Introduction to Environmental Studies (Rev. C4)

This course is a junior-level, undergraduate, three-credit course in environmental studies. It is suitable for students who are interested in environmental and sustainability issues but have little or no background in these areas. This survey course presents an overview of key concepts related to environmental analysis, such as resilience, carrying capacity, and environmental justice, as well as a range of topics related to contemporary environmental issues such as water, biodiversity, and ecological design.

ENVS 243/GLST 243: Environmental Change in a Global Context (Rev. C4)

Environmental Studies 243/Global Studies 243: Environmental Change in a Global Context is devoted to the study of the interactions between human society and the rest of the ecological world. The course introduces the methodology needed for that study and examines topics such as atmospheric change, biodiversity loss, resource use, and agriculture. The course also explores how societies can move toward sustainable development and moderate their effects on the biosphere.

ENVS 305: Environmental Impact Assessment (Rev. C2)

Environmental Studies 305: Environmental Impact Assessment, a three-credit, senior-level course, is designed to introduce you to a systematic process for predicting and evaluating the significant environmental consequences of a proposed action or undertaking.

ENVS 343/GLST 343: Global Environmental Change (Rev. C1/C1)

This course is designed to assist you in framing global environmental change issues as socioecological and inherently political. In addition to becoming familiar with examples of critical global socioecological analyses, you will be asked to demonstrate how to apply an integrated systems, global studies, and political ecology analysis to highlight relationships between the local, regional, and global dimensions of environmental change, identify how human societies make environments and environments influence humanity over time, and critically reflect on how relations of power, production, and reproduction work in association with the web of life. While you are doing this, you will also have opportunities to learn how you learn, and in so doing, tailor this course to fit your interests and passions.

ENVS 435: Transformative Change in Building Sustainable Communities (Rev. C4)

ENVS 435 is a senior-level, 3-credit social science course. It’s an individualized-study version of an international field course in participatory education with an emphasis upon community-based environmental issues. Designed by adult educators and community workers in Canada and Asia, the course was field tested in Alberta and Newfoundland. A key to the design of the course is the contribution by groups involved in the environmental controversies and community development issues in Canada. Their issues form the basis for case studies on parks and tourism, consumerism, pulp mills, and river diversion.

ENVS 461: “Hatchet and Seed” – Tools of Political Ecology (Rev. C2)

Welcome to Environmental Studies 461: “Hatchet and Seed” – Tools of Political Ecology. This course introduces you to key concepts, debates, and analytical tools in political ecology. We begin from the premise that all environmental “problems” are political: how they unfold, how they affect people, and the stories we tell about them are all a product of contestation and struggle. In this course, you will examine some of these contestations, their effects, and the responses to them..