Envs 345
Environmental Ethics
Class & Academic News:
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1)Final Exams are due on Tuesday, 12/4 before 4:30pm in the ENVS Main Office (144 COL).
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2)Field Trip REPORTS are due on Friday, 11/30 (last day of class) by 9:00pm via email. Please email an e-copy to Nicolae - and attach only the field trip report to the email - file type for the report: doc, rtf, or pdf. Format: journal description of this experience – one page single-spaced (normal margins).
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3)Extra Credit Papers are due on Friday, 11/30 (last day of class) by 9:00pm via email. Please email an e-copy to Nicolae - and attach only the EC paper to the email - file type for the paper: doc, rtf, or pdf. Format: summary of the lecture/movie – one page single-spaced (normal margins).
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4)Midterm Exam - Questions will be posted on BB on Friday 10/26. Paper are DUE the next Friday, 11/2 in ENVS Main Office before 4:30pm.
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5)NEW RULE - Reading Summaries
Deadline Extension (from 10pm - it moves to ‘before 12am’ to send us your RS).
The new rule says: "Each week, either on Sunday or Tuesday, you will have the opportunity to submit via email (before midnight (12:00am) - to both Paul and Nicolae) a summary of the next day’s assigned reading(s)."
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6)Academic Calendar - Fall 2012 - November 22-23: Thanksgiving Holiday
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7)Academic Calendar - Fall 2012 - Deadlines: November 11 - Last day to: Drop a class (mark of W recorded); Change Grade Option (Graded or P/N); Change Variable Credits.
Extra-credit opportunities:
Each EC paper will count as 1.25% towards your final grade. In order to get this credit, you have to go to one of the lectures (see list below) or see the movie Food Inc, write 1p (single spaced) about the lecture/movie (summary), and send it to me (via email) before the end of the term - by Friday, 11/30 @ 9:00pm.
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4)Movie: Food Inc. 2008 - Director: Robert Kenner
Available on Netflix (with subscription) and also at the Knight Library (DVD)
[please do not check out the library copy of the DVD in order to allow as many students as possible to see the movie] - format: summary of the movie 1p (single spaced normal margins)
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3)Human Rights
Speaker: Henry Shue, The State of Human Rights
Thursday, November 15th, 7:00pm - Room 110, UO Law School
Speaker: Joni Adams, Rethinking the Commons
Keynote - William Rodgers, Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, and Human Rights
Invited Speakers:
Week 8 - Climate Change and Environmental Justice (Wednesday, November 14th)
Henry Shue, Merton College, University of Oxford
a) Required: Deadly Delays, Saving Opportunities
b) Recommended: Climate Hope, Implementing the Exit Strategy
Week 7 - Ecology, Biodiversity, and Climate Change (Wednesday, October 31st)
Brendan Bohannan, Director of CEE, U of O
a) G. Griffith - A Conservation Movement for Microbes (Slate)
b) C. Cockell & H. Jones - Advancing the Case for Microbial Conservation
Class related events:
Field Trip to the to the Deck Family Farm, Junction City, OR
SAT Nov, 17th - 8:30am-12pm
Additional Readings/Infos (recommended):
Week 1 The Environment
Here is a recent piece on the question of Animal Extinction as the greatest threat to mankind by Julia Whitty.
Week 2 Non-Human Animals
Great Ted lecture with primatologist Francis de Waal about Moral Behavior in Animals (thanks to Rebecca Cudmore).
Abstract: “Empathy, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity -- caring about the well-being of others seems like a very human trait. But Frans de Waal shares some surprising videos of behavioral tests, on primates and other mammals, that show how many of these moral traits all of us share.”
Week 4 Environment and Legal Frameworks
Goodpaster claims in his article “On Being Morally Considerable” that his account could take into consideration also ecosystems as being alive - thanks to the Gaia Hypothesis. For a critical view on this hypothesis, see J. Kirchner, The Gaia Hypothesis: Fact, Theory, and Wishful Thinking (published in Climate Change, 2002).
In New Zealand, the Whanganui River will become a legal entity and have a legal voice under a preliminary agreement signed between Whanganui River iwi and the Crown. For more details, see the New Zealand Herald Tribune, Aug, 30. 2012.
Week 5 - Ecocentrism
The Green Fire is a recent movie about Leopold’s life and about the impact of his Land Ethic onto the conservation movement. “Leopold biographer and conservation biologist Dr. Curt Meine serves as the film's on-screen guide. Green Fire describes the formation of Leopold's idea, exploring how it changed one man and later permeated through all arenas of conservation.” Here is a great introduction to The Green Fire Film Project
Week 6 - Biodiversity
PBS has devoted a very interesting movie to The Loneliest Animals.
“Around the globe, unique and fascinating species face extinction from hunting and habitat destruction, which affects vulnerable animals in every kind of environment. Biologists, conservationists, wildlife preservation centers and zoological parks work to breed and shelter rare and critically endangered animals when and where they can, but many species are down to the last few individuals and face an increasingly uncertain future. For some, however, the future is all too clear. Lonesome George, a Pinta Island tortoise from the Galapagos Islands, is the very last of his kind. For centuries, until they were believed to be extinct, his species kept sailors and pirates well-fed on the high seas. George alone survived. But when George dies, millions of years of evolution will come to an end. Other species, like Spix’s macaws, lemurs, Iberian lynxes, rhinos, black-footed ferrets and Chinese rafetus turtles, were well on their way to joining George as the loneliest animals in the world until help arrived, providing hope for a better outcome.”
E.O. Wilson and other conservationists define Biodiversity here.
“Humanity is using all its ingenuity to wipe out a large part of the rest of planet.”
Week 7 - Biodiversity
If you are interested in reading more about the Bohannan Challenge to Biodiversity, you are welcome to read his interview in the journal Cascade, called “Google This: The Story of Science”. For a more scholarly approach to the question of microbial biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest, there is a forthcoming paper in PNAS (not available yet).
Week 8 - Sustainability, Climate Change, and Justice
The reading for Wed (for Dr. Shue’s visit) is part of the first anthology on Climate Ethics edited by Steve Gardiner, Simon Caney, Dale Jamieson, and Henry Shue and published in 2010 by Oxford U Press. For more infos about this great book, here is a link to its webpage.
Fall Quarter 2012 - ENVS 345
Schedule:
Lecture
MW 4:00-5:20pm - 229 MCK
&
Discussion Sessions on FR
with Paul Guernsey
Section 12862 - 8:00-8:50am 142 COL
Section 12863 - 9:00-9:50am 142 COL
Office Hours:
Nicolae - TU - 12:00-2:00pm (244 COL)
Paul - M&W - 3:00-4:00pm (240 COL)
& by appointment
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