Engl 1028 Honors Composition II Special Topic: Global Warming

O'Donnell, ETSU, Fall 2016


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Calendar
last update: November 13, 2016

 

Notes:

Class meets TR 12:45-2:05pm, Burleson 301.

GWR = The Global Warming Reader, edited by McKibben, 2011

Reading assignments beyond week 7 will be added to this calendar as the semester proceeds.

 

Week 1 (Tues Aug 23; Thurs Aug 25)

Tuesday: Introductions

Thursday: Read the following five articles, online:

- "Think It’s Hot Now? Just Wait."  By Heidi Cullen. The New York Times, August 20, 2016. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/20/sunday-review/climate-change-hot-future.html 

- "Global Warming Explained, In About A Minute." By Tania Lombrozo. National Public Radio, December 16, 2013. www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/12/15/251437395/global-warming-explained-in-about-a-minute

- "Flooding in the South Looks a Lot Like Climate Change." By Jonah Engel Bromwich. The New York Times, August 16, 2016. mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/us/climate-change-louisiana.html (Also read the reader comments on the article--the ones filtered as "NYT Picks".)

- "In NC, dangerous delays and delusions on sea-level rise." Op-Ed. The News & Observer (Charlotte NC), July 9, 2016. www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article88567407.html

- "Nature Conservancy Study Shows Appalachian Mountains To Be A Climate Change ‘Stronghold’." By Russell McClendon. Huffington Post, June 6, 2012. www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/nature-conservancy-study-global-warming_n_1574671.html

- "Scientists Locate Natural 'Strongholds' across Southeast US that Could Protect Nature in the Face of Climate Change: Work continues to locate more climate-resilient landscapes across the United States." The Nature Conservancy website, June 2, 2014. www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/areas/centralappalachians/newsroom/central-appalachians-climate-change-strongholds.xml

Also on Thursday, bring the 3 required books to class: The Global Warming Reader; The Sixth Extinction; and Flight Behavior: A Novel.

 

Week 2 (Tues Aug 30; Thurs Sep 1)

Tuesday: Read the following, online:

- "Rachel Carson’s Critics Keep On, But She Told Truth About DDT." By Richard Conniff. Environment 360: Reporting, Analysis, Opinion & Debate. Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. September 10, 2015. e360.yale.edu/feature/rachel_carsons_critics_keep_on_but_she_told_truth_about_ddt/2908/

- "Rachel Carson Didn’t Kill Millions of Africans: How the 50-year-old campaign against Silent Spring still distorts environmental debates." By William Souder. Slate dot com, online magazine. September 4, 2012. www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/09/silent_spring_turns_50_biographer_william_souder_clears_up_myths_about_rachel_carson_.html

Also for Tuesday, browse the following three websites. Due: Write a memo to me and your classmates, commenting on those websites. Bring the memo to class, prepared to pass it around and to discuss.

insideclimatenews.org/

thinkprogress.org/tagged/climate

www.climatedepot.com/

 

Thursday: In GWR, read "Introduction" by McKibben, p9-15. Browse Part I and read "The 'Anthropocene'" by Crutzen and Stoermer, p69-72; "The Scientific Consensus..." by Oreskes, p75-78; and "Causes..." by Masters, p89-93.

 

Week 3 (Tues Sep 6; Thurs Sep 8)

Tuesday: Due: Mini review essay #1.

Also for Tuesday, read the following in GWR: Excerpt from Earth in the Balance by Al Gore, p97-103. Excerpt from "The Battle for Control of Reality" by Ross Gelbspan, p105-125.

Thursday: In GWR, read "This is Fucked Up..." by McKibben, p251-257; and "Climate Rage" by Klein, p239-248.

 

Week 4 (Tues Sep 13; Thurs Sep 15)

Tuesday: Due: Mini review essay #2.

Also for Tuesday, read the Prologue and Chapter 1 of The Sixth Extinction, by Kolbert.

Thursday: In Kolbert, read Chapters 2 and 3. 

 

Week 5 (Tues Sep 20; Thurs Sep 22)

Tuesday: Due: Topic proposal for your annotated bibliography and research project.

Also for Tuesday, in Kolbert, read Chapter 4. 

Thursday: In Kolbert, read Chapters 5 and 6.

 

Week 6 (Tues Sep 27; Thurs Sep 29)

Tuesday: Due: Mini review essay #3.

Also for Tuesday, in Kolbert, read Chapter 7. 

Thursday: In Kolbert, read Chapters 8 and 9.

 

Week 7 (Tues Oct 4; Thurs Oct 6)

Tuesday: Due: Mini review essay #4.

Also for Tuesday, in Kolbert, read Chapter 10. 

Thursday: In Kolbert, read Chapters 11 and 12.

 

Week 8 (Fall Break; Thurs Oct 13)

Thursday: Due: Mini review essay #5.

 

Week 9 (Tues Oct 18; Thurs Oct 20)

Tuesday: Due: Rough draft of annotated bibliography. Bring 2 extra copies (a total of 3 copies) to class, and be prepared to share your draft with classmates, in a writing workshop.

 

Thursday:  Read the following:

- "Coal Country Is Wary of Hillary Clinton’s Pledge to Help," by Coral Davenport, in The New York Times, August 28, 2016.  www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/us/politics/coal-country-is-wary-of-hillary-clintons-pledge-to-help.html 

- "We Can Stop Searching For The Clean Energy Miracle. It’s Already Here." By Joe Romm, ThinkProgress dot org climate blog, May 12, 2016.  thinkprogress.org/we-can-stop-searching-for-the-clean-energy-miracle-its-already-here-fcf5ec3b355f 

 

Week 10 (Tues Oct 25; Thurs Oct 27)

Tuesday:  Read the following:

- Algae Biofuel Still In Play Despite Low Oil Prices, Says NREL," by Tina Casey, at CleanTechnica dot com, February 10th, 2016.  cleantechnica.com/2016/02/10/algae-biofuel-still-play-despite-low-oil-prices-sez-nrel/

- "Science confirms it: Denial of climate change is all about the politics," by Chelsea Harvey, in the Washington Post, February 22.  www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/02/22/science-confirms-it-denial-of-climate-change-is-all-about-the-politics/ 

 

Thursday:  Class cancelled.

 

Week 11 (Tues Nov 1; Thurs Nov 3)

Tuesday: Due: Annotated bibliography, revised and submitted for a grade. 

Thursday:  Read the following:

- "Trump and the Truth: Climate-Change Denial," by Carolyn Kormann, The New Yorker, October 13, 2016  [one installment in the New Yorker's "Trump and the Truth" series]. 

www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-and-the-truth-climate-change-denial  

- "Keep it in the Ground: a poem a day.--A series of 20 original poems by various authors on the theme of climate change curated by the UK's poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy," The [Manchester, UK] Guardian, 2015.  Listen to and read at least a few of the poems.  www.theguardian.com/environment/series/keep-it-in-the-ground-a-poem-a-day 

 

Week 12 (Tues Nov 8; Nov 10)

Tuesday: Due: Rough draft of your research project. Bring 2 extra copies (a total of 3 copies) to class, and be prepared to share your draft with classmates, in a writing workshop.

 

Thursday:  Read Kingsolver's novel, Flight Behavior, at least through chapter 5 (through p122). 

Also read "How to Mark a Book," a short essay by Mortimer Adler, originally published in 1941, posted here: chuma.cas.usf.edu/~pinsky/mark_a_book.htm 

Due:  In the form of a memo, addressed to both me and your classmates, write a response to Kingsolver's novel, so far. Write at least a page or so, responding to any aspect of the book.  Consider: How do you like the writing?  Do you find any of the characters particularly interesting?  What do you think of the way the people of upper East Tennessee are portrayed?  How do you respond to the way science is discussed in the book? 

 

Week 13 (Tues Nov 15; Thurs Nov 17)

Tuesday:  Read Kingsolver at least through chapter 9 (through p245). 

Also for Tuesday, bring a grammar handbook to class. 

 

Thursday:  Read Kingsolver at least through chapter 12 (through p328). 

Also read "MLA Eight Edition: What's New and Different," at the Purdue University Online Writing Lab website, last updated August, 2016: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/22/ 

And read - "Lies in the Guise of News in the Trump Era."  By Nicholas Kristof.  The New York Times, November 12, 2016.  mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/opinion/sunday/lies-in-the-guise-of-news-in-the-trump-era.html 

 

Week 14 (Tues Nov 22; Thanksgiving)

Tuesday: Due: Second rough draft of your research project. (Bring only one copy.) 

 

Week 15 (Tues Nov 29; Thurs Dec 1)

Tuesday:  Finish Kingsolver. 

Thursday:  Research project due. 

 

 No final exam!