Environmental Biology (Bio 206 )

Overview
Schedule & Readings
Lab & Field Schedule
Reaction Papers
Independent Projects
Policies

Fall 2002 Class Schedule and Reading Assignments:

Notes

  • Both the schedule and reading list are subject to change
  • Updates will be posted on the course web site ( http://beloit.edu/~greenlrr/bio206 )
  • Readings marked with " - Reaction " are to be reviewed in a Reaction Paper.

Tuesday, August 27

  • Introduction
  • "Stuff" quiz
  • Ehrlich's Fables activity

Thursday, August 29

  • Environmental global perspectives
  • International environmental research

Readings

  • Chapter 1 ("Basic Issues in Environmental sciences")
  • Orr, David, Ehrenfeld, David, 1995, None so blind, the problem of ecological denial, Conservation Biology 9(5): 985-987. – Reaction

Tuesday, September 3

  • Critical thinking and scientific methods
  • West Nile Virus: Critiquing media coverage

Readings

  • Chapter 2 ("Thinking Critically about the Environment")

Thursday, September 5

  • International environmental research
  • Baraboo Hills introduction

Readings

  • David Orr, 1999, Education for Globalization, The Ecologist, 29(3): 166-9.
  • Mann, Charles, 1994, Material world: A global family portrait, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, CA, Bhutan and US chapters pp. 72-79, 136-143

. Tuesday, September 10

  • International environmental research presentations
    (50-minute class because of Sunday, September 8 field trip)

Thursday, September 12

  • Systems Ecology
  • International environmental research presentations, continued

Readings

  • Chapter 3 ("Systems and Change")
  • Gretchen C. Daily, 1997, Introduction: "What are ecosystem services?"
  • "Ecosystem Services: A Fragmentary History" in Gretchen Daily, ed., Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems, Island Press.

Tuesday, September 17

  • Biogeochemical cycles
  • Ecosystem Services

Readings

  • Chapter 4 ("The Biogeochemical Cycles")
  • To be announced

Thursday, September 19

  • Ecosystems, communities and food webs

Readings

  • Chapter 6 ("Ecosystems and Ecosystem Management")

Tuesday, September 24

  • Human population and growth
  • Discussion: A full house? Simon vs. Ehrlich

Readings

  • Chapter 5 ("The Human Population as an Environmental Problem")
  • Pick one of the following two readings for the Reaction paper:
    • Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, 1990, Why isn't everyone as scared as we are? In The Population Explosion, New York, Simon and Schuster, pp.13-23, 57-59. – Reaction
    • Simon, J.L., 1990, Life on earth is getting better, not worse, in Populations Matters, People, Resources, Environment and Immigration, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, pp. 21-38. – Reaction

Thursday, September 26

  • Biodiversity, biogeography and exotic species

Readings

  • Chapter 7 ("Biological Diversity")
  • Chapter 8 ("Biogeography")
  • Van Driesche, Jason, Van Driesche, Roy, 2000, From endemic to generic: Feral pigs and the destruction of Hawaii's Native forests, in Nature Out of Place: Biological Invasions in the Global Age, Island Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 7-31.

Tuesday, October 1

  • Biological productivity and energy flow
  • Biota computer simulation-part 1

Readings

  • Chapter 9 ("Biological Productivity and Energy Flow")

Thursday, October 3

  • Conservation biology
  • Biota computer simulation-part 2

Readings

  • Chapter 13 ("Forests, Parks and Landscapes")

Tuesday, October 8

  • Endangered species
  • Discussion: what's an ecosystem worth to you?

Readings

  • Chapter 14 ("Wildlife, Fisheries, and Endangered Species")
  • Costanza, Robert, 1997, The value of the world's ecosystems and natural capital, Nature, 387:253-260. – Reaction

Thursday, October 10

  • Midterm

********************** FALL BREAK **********************

Tuesday, October 22

  • World food supply
  • "Cane Toads: an unnatural history"

Reading

  • Chapter 11 ("World Food Supply")
  • "From the Good Earth", chapter one ("Into the Past") by Michael Ableman

Thursday, October 24

  • Agriculture

    Readings
  • Chapter 12 ("Effects of Agriculture on the Environment")
  • Picone, Christopher, 2002, Natural systems of soil fertility: the webs beneath our feet, The Land Report, #73, pp 3-7.

Tuesday, October 29

  • Restoration ecology and ecological restoration

Readings

  • Chapter 10 ("Ecological Restoration")

    *** Pick one of the following two readings for the Reaction paper ***
    • Kettler, James S., 2001, A dependence on people: Examples of ecological restoration and land-based economies from three countries, Ecological Restoration, 19(1): 27-33. – Reaction
    • Pyle, Robert M., Resurrection ecology: Bring back the Xerces Blue!, fall 2000, Wild Earth, pp.30-34. – Reaction

Thursday, October 31

  • Land management: Urban and Suburban ecology - Campus ecology: Greening our grounds

Reading:

  • Chapter 27 ("Urban Environments"
  • Ecodemia; Campus Environmental Stewarship: Foreward (by David Orr), and Introduction

Tuesday, November 5

  • Energy: fossil fuels
  • Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)

Readings

  • Chapter 16 ("Energy: Some Basics")
  • Chapter 17 ("Fossil Fuels and the Environment")

Thursday, November 7

  • Energy: alternatives
  • Campus ecology: Greening our energy and utility use

Readings

  • Chapter 18 ("Alternative Energy and the Environment")
  • 'Cleaner Energy, Greener Profits', pages 1 - 7, Joel Swisher, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

Tuesday, November 12

  • Nuclear energy
  • The precautionary principle

Readings

  • Chapter 19 ("Nuclear Energy and the Environment")
  • "Precaution and Security", by Carolyn Raffensperger

Thursday, November 14

  • Water the Endarged Resource
  • "Cadillac Desert: An American Nile"

Readings

  • Chapter 20 ("Water Supply, Use, and Management')

    ***(Pick one of the following two readings below for a Reaction paper)***
    • "Life, Libery, and...Water?" (In the struggle over water, human rights and environmental ethics flow together.) by Kathleen Dean Moore, Orion Magazine, Winter 2002, pages 28 - 37. – Reaction
    • "Down the Drain?" (The Incredi ble Shrinking Great Lakes), National Geographic, September 2002, pages 34 - 51. – Reaction

Tuesday, November 19

  • Water pollution

Reading

  • Chapter 21 ("Water Pollution and Treatment")

Thursday, November 21

  • Global climate change

Readings

  • Chapter 22 ("The Atmosphere, Climate, and Global Warming")
  • To be announced

Tuesday, November 26

Greening our food system

Readings

  • Sobel, David. "Finding Your Foodshed" & "You Learn What You Eat: Cognition Meets Nutrition in Berkeley Schools." Orion Afield, summer 2001.
  • Berry, Wendell. 1990. The Pleasures of Eating. What are People For? North Point Press, San Francisco, CA.
  • Environmental Working Group. A Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce.

Thursday, November 28

**** THANKSGIVING BREAK ****

Tuesday, December 3

  • Environmental economics: is there a bottom line?

Reading

  • Chapter 26 ("Environmental Economics")

Thursday, December 5

  • Environmental planning and sustainability

Reading

  • Chapter 30 ("Planning for a Sustainable Future")

Tuesday, December 10

  • Environmental solutions and future visions

Reading

  • AVision Statement of the ESDA (Envisioning a Sustainable and Desirable America Network) 2001 – Reaction