Reflections on the Evolution of the Environmental Conscience: from Walden Pond to ArcGIS

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.” This phrase from Thoreau’s Walden begins an examination of the roots of our environmental consciousness.  The course will explore changing attitudes toward our environmental philosophies, both as individuals and as a culture.  Our society’s approach to environmental issues has evolved over the last 200 years, with dramatic influxes of new ideas from Thoreau to Darwin, Muir to Carson, and Ehrlich to Quamman.  Many of these ideas have been the result of historical changes in the nature of society.  We will examine the changing concepts of wilderness, the introduction of a fossil fuel based society, and the changing uses of technology in a sustainable paradigm.  Examining the changing conscience of environmentalists reveals a lot about society itself and will help us to examine how some of the beliefs we hold today came to be.  Students will be required to read about these philosophically divergent ideas and engage in rigorous discussions concerning these changing thought patterns and their background assumptions. 

Throughout the semester we will be working on several short written projects based upon various opinions on our evolving environmental consciousness and creating oral presentations based upon these reflections. You will also be introduced to ArcGIS (a mapping and analysis software system for understanding our world) and begin to learn how to it is being used to navigate this strange new world.