ENVS 201 1 - The Science Behind the Environmental Classics

1.0

Certain great books have played key roles in capturing public attention and motivating citizen action in the modern environmental movement. This course will use these books as inspirations for in-depth study of the scientific ideas that underlie the ongoing environmental issues discussed in each text. Students will read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson while studying pesticide effects on the environment, Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez to motivate an examination of how climate change affects the arctic landscape, and Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey paired with Desert Cabal by Amy Irvine as an inspiration to explore desert ecology and environmental pressures on drylands. Newer works that are motivating current conversations among environmental scientists, such as Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, which explores merging Native American and western science perspectives on nature, and Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes, which documents organized deception on climate change by the fossil fuel industry, will also be incorporated. Scientific papers on the topics in each book will also be assigned and students will discuss the status of scientific knowledge on each environmental issue at the time each book was written as compared to our current understanding. We will also consider the importance of these books in the environmental movement and discuss the different roles that science and literature play in our human understanding, exploration and reactions to the natural landscape and environmental crisis.

**1st and 2nd year honors students only**