Date

Topic and readings

Part 1: What is nature and why is it important? In this unit, we explore classic American writings on nature, and consider different arguments for why nature conservation and preservation are important.

Jan 8

Introduction

Background: Wilderness by Mark Woods, A Companion to Environmental Philosophy

Powerpoint 1, 2

Jan
10

The Transcendentalists

Selections of Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson  (CC) http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/naturetext.html

If in a pinch for time, skip the sections on Language and Prospects.

“Walking;” “Ktaadn” from The Maine Woods; and selections of Walden by Henry David Thoreau http://www.thoreau.eserver.org/default.html

From Walden please read "Where I lived", "Solitude" and "Conclusion"

Powerpoint 1

Jan 15

The National Park Movement: Muir, Roosevelt, Pinchot

John Muir  "American Forests" and "Hetch Hetchy Valley (1908 version)"

http://www.yosemite.ca.us/john_muir_writings/

Gifford Pinchot,  1910, The Fight for Conservation, pp 1-25 (Chapters I-VII) http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?pageno=1&fk_files=49271

Powerpoint 1

Jan 17

Beauty, Wonder and Solitude: Aldo Leopold

Sand County Almanac

Powerpoint

Jan 22

Edward Abbey and Yellowstone Today

Edward Abbey, Exerpts from Desert Solitaire http://www.solstice.us/abbey/solitaire.html (Read all the available excerpts from this site)

Powerpoint 1

Jan
24

Challenges: Historical and Philosophical

William Cronon, "Trouble with Wilderness" http://history.wisc.edu/cronon/Trouble_with_Wilderness_Main.html

Elliott Sober, "Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism" pgs. 173-84 reserves.ucsd.edu

Part 2: Nature Restored. In recent years, there has been a growing movement to “restore” nature by removing invasive species and re-introducing depleted or even extinct ones.  Is this desirable? Does it make sense? Can it even be done?

Jan 29

 Mammoths in Montana? Lions in LA?  The Re-introduction Movement

 C. Josh Donlan, “Restoring America’s Big, Wild Animals,” Scientific American, June 2007, 70-77.

ppt slides

Jan 31

 Invasive Species

Guest Lecturer: Professor Marks Woods (cancelled)

Moriarty and Woods: "Strangers in a Strange Land: The Problem of Exotic Species http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/whp/ev/2001/00000010/00000002/art00002

ppt slides

Feb  5

Film: Cane Toads

Mark Sagoff: What's Wrong with Invasive Species? http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/IPPP/fall1999/exotic_species.htm
        

Feb 7

 Midterm

Bring blue book!

Study Questions

Part 3: Quantifying the Value of Nature. Economists have argued that you can place value on non material goods, such as beautiful vistas and fresh air.  Moreover, some believe you need to do this to demonstrate the rationality of paying the costs of preservation.  Others argue that such valuations are intrinsically faulty, and that nature always loses in a cost-benefit analysis.

Feb 12

Cost Benefit Analysis

http://www.ecosystemvaluation.org/essentials.htm

ppt slides

Feb 14

Utilitarianism and Ecosystem Services

Ecological Society of America, Issues in Ecology, “Ecosystem Services: Benefits
Supplied to Humans by Natural Ecosystems,” Ecological Society of
America. http://www.ecology.org/biod/value/EcosystemServices.html

Pimm, S.L. and C.N. Jenkins. 2005. Sustaining the Variety of Life. Scientific American 293(3): 66-73.
http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/pimm/publications/pimmreprints/192_PimmJenkins2005ScientificAmerican.pdf

ppt slides

Feb 19

Precaution and the Burden of Proof

Wingspread Statement on Precautionary Principle (1 page) www.gdrc.org/u-gov/precaution-3.html

European Environment Agency. 2001. Late Lessons from Early Warnings: The Precautionary
Principle 1896-2000, chapters 1 (Introduction) and 2 (Fisheries). http://reports.eea.europa.eu/environmental_issue_report_2001_22/en

slides 1, 2

Part 4: Case Studies

Feb 21

Fish and the Tragedy of the Commons

Guest Lecturer: Carmel Finley

Finley, The Tragedy of Enclosure, selected readings

Feb 26

Tragedy of the Commons

 Hardin, "Tragedy of the Commons" http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/162/3859/1243

Gardiner, "The Real Tragedy of the Commons"

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0048-3915(200123)30%3A4%3C387%3ATRTOTC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6

slides

Feb 28

Pesticides

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring , first half

Mar 4

Film: PBS American Experience Series production Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring , first half

Mar 6

Pesticides and the Critique of Carson

John Tierny, "Fateful Voice of a Generation Still Drowns Out Science" http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/science/earth/05tier.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Mark Lytle, "In the Case of John Tierney “Fateful Voice of a Generation Still Drowns Our Science" http://blog.oup.com/2007/06/carson/

Naomi Oreskes, "Science and Public Policy: What's Proof Got to Do with It?"

Mar 11

Climate Change

A report of Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Ted Nordhaus and Michael Schellingberger , Breakthrough: from the death of environmentalism to the politics of possibility," Houghton Mifflin, 2007, pp. 217-256; selection.

Mar 13

Climate Ethics and the Ethics of Dissent

Gardiner, "A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate Change, Intergenerational Ethics and the Problem of Moral Corruption", Environmental Values 15. August 2006, 397-413. http://faculty.washington.edu/smgard/GardinerStorm06.pdf or JSTOR

Dale Jamieson's "Adaptation, Mitigation and Justice."

slides