Envs 4950 Integrative Seminar in Environmental Studies, Spring 2020


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Links
last update: January 16, 2020

 

Notes:

- Here are various texts and sites that will interest students in the course. These are not all necessarily assigned readings. For week-by-week reading assignments, see "Calendar," above.

- I will update this site periodically throughout the semester. If you have any suggestions for additional links, please send me an email. -- KOD, instructor --odonnell@etsu.edu

 

Readings, Organized Loosely by Topic

 

A. Environmental Studies

- "What is Environmental Studies?" Michael E. Soule and Daniel Press. BioScience 48, 5 (May 1998): 397-405. (Click here for a cached version.)

- "Environmental Sciences vs. Studies."  The University of Wisconsin Environmental Sciences Major website.  No date.  envirosci.cals.wisc.edu/environmental-sciences-vs-studies/ 

- "Environmental Studies" Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_studies

 

B. Conservation

- "Can the World Really Set Aside Half of the Planet for Wildlife?  The eminent evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson has an audacious vision for saving Earth from a cataclysmic extinction event."  By Tony Hiss.  Smithsonian Magazine, September 2014.  Online: www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-world-really-set-aside-half-planet-wildlife-180952379/

 

C. Fossil Fuels / Climate

- "Australia Shows Us the Road to Hell: The political reaction is scarier than the fires." By Paul Krugman. The New York Times, January 9, 2020. 

- "How Rupert Murdoch Is Influencing Australia’s Bushfire Debate: Critics see a concerted effort to shift blame, protect conservative leaders and divert attention from climate change." By Damien Cave. The New York Times, January 8, 2020.

- "How Trump’s war on science is borrowing from the tobacco industry playbook: Calls for transparency at the EPA are a smokescreen." By David Merritt Johns and Karen Levy. The Washington Post, Dec. 13, 2019. Click here for a cached version.

 

- "The Insect Apocalypse is Here."  By Brooke Jarvis.  The New York Times Magazine, November 27, 2018.  www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html 

- "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change."  By Nathaniel Rich.  Photographs and Videos by George Steinmetz.  The New York Times Magazine, August 1, 2018. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html 

- "Mountain Valley Pipeline protesters targeted by Virginia anti-terrorism center: Monitoring of activists in Virginia is part of a growing national trend."  By Mark Hand.  ThinkProgress dot org, JUN 8, 2018.  thinkprogress.org/state-police-work-with-anti-terrorism-center-to-spy-on-pipeline-protesters-7cf02f5be875/  

- "How Much Has ‘Climate Change’ Been Scrubbed From Federal Websites? A Lot." By Coral Davenport. The New York Times, January 10, 2018. www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/climate/climate-change-trump.html  

- "The Siege of Miami: As temperatures climb, so, too, will sea levels."  By Elizabeth Kolbert.  The New Yorker, December 21 & 28, 2015.  www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/the-siege-of-miami 

- "Climate Catastrophe, Coming Even Sooner?"  By Elizabeth Kolbert.  The New Yorker, March 31, 2016.  www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/climate-catastrophe-coming-even-sooner 

- "‘Climate Change Is Real’: Many U.S. Companies Lament Paris Accord Exit." By Daniel Victor. The New York Times, June 1, 2017.  www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/business/climate-change-tesla-corporations-paris-accord.html 

- "How Climate Change Deniers Rise to the Top in Google Searches." By Hiroko Tabuchi. The New York Times, Dec. 29, 2017.  www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/climate/google-search-climate-change.html

- "We had all better hope these scientists are wrong about the planet’s future."  By Chris Mooney.  The Washington Post, March 22, 2016.  www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/22/we-had-all-better-hope-these-scientists-are-wrong-about-the-planets-future/ 

- "Climate of Doubt: Frontline goes inside the groups who shifted the direction of the climate change debate." Runtime: 53:46. October 23, 2012. WGBH Blueridge PBS. www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/climate-of-doubt/

 

D. Food Systems

- "Stop Making Us Guinea Pigs [about GMO Agriculture and the WHO study of glyphosate]."  By Mark Bittman.  The New York Times Opinion Pages.  March 25, 2015.  www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/opinion/stop-making-us-guinea-pigs.html

- "Why Do G.M.O.’s Need Protection?" By Mark Bittman. New York Times online, April 2, 2013. opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/why-do-g-m-o-s-need-protection/

- "Should You Eat Chicken? [Contributing Op-Ed Writer]." By Mark Bittman. The New York Times, October 15, 2013. www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/opinion/bittman-should-you-eat-chicken.html

 

E. Rachel Carson

- "Denial Rides Again: The Revisionist Attack on Rachel Carson."  Chapter 7 of Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.  By Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.  Bloomsbury Press, 2010.  Pages 216-239.  Posted online at a private blog: beforeness.tumblr.com/post/97396882093/denial-rides-again-the-revisionist-attack-on

- "Margaret Atwood: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, 50 years on." By Margaret Atwood. The Guardian [Manchester, England]. Friday, December 7, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/07/why-rachel-carson-is-a-saint

- "Rehabilitating Carson: Why do some people continue to hold Rachel Carson responsible for millions of malaria deaths?" By John Quiggin. Prospect Magazine, May 24, 2008. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/rehabilitatingcarson/

''Rachel Carson, Mass Murderer?: The creation of an anti-environmental myth.'' Aaron Swartz, ''Extra!'' [F.A.I.R.], September/October, 2007.

RachelWasWrong.org. "Uncovering Silent Spring's Deadly Consequences," by the Competitive Enterprise Institute 

 

F. Other Issues

- "The Incredible True Story of the Henrietta C." By Earl Swift. Outside Magazine, June 20, 2018. 

- "The Violent Remaking of Appalachia: When mining a century’s worth of energy means ruining a landscape for millions of years."  By Jedediah Purdy.  The Atlantic Monthly, March 21, 2016.  www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/the-violent-remaking-of-appalachia/474603/ 

- "Researchers Propose Earth’s ‘Anthropocene’ Age of Humans Began With Fallout and Plastics."  By Andrew Revkin.  New York Times online, January 15, 2015.  dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/researchers-propose-earths-anthropocene-age-of-humans-began-with-fallout-and-plastics/ 

- "Genetically Modified Forest Planned for U.S. Southeast: International Paper and MeadWestvaco are planning to transform plantation forests of the southeastern U.S. by replacing native pine with genetically engineered eucalyptus." By Paul Voosen. Scientific American, Jan 29, 2010. www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eucalyptus-genetically-modified-pine-tree-southwest-forest 

- "Officials Don’t Really Know How Dangerous the Chemical Spilled in West Virginia Is: Authorities have virtually no way of regulating many industrial chemicals. The latest spill could change that." By Bryan Walsh. Time Magazine online, Jan. 14, 2014. science.time.com/2014/01/14/how-dangerous-is-chemical-spilled-in-west-virginia/

- "Our Toxicity Experiment in West Virginia." Posted by Deborah Blum, January 18, 2014. "Wired Science Blogs," at Wired Magazine online. www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/chemistry-experiments-west-virginia-dont-try-home/