Class Schedule | Course Readings | Zachery Zevitas - 617-395-4204
1 Story Street, Room 304, Wednesdays, 5:30-7:30
Required Discussion Section:1 Story Street, Room 304, Wednesdays, 4:30-5:30

Course Description:
        Our environmental circumstances pose problems of value and choice for each of us and challenge us to reconsider the way we act individually and collectively in an ever changing ecosystem.  Whether we like it or not there is no escaping the fact that ethical values are embedded in the premises and assumptions of all decisions we make concerning land and resource use.
        Responsible land management has come to include concern for land as habitat -- not just for humankind alone  -- but for other communities of species that inhabit it as well.  In addition, we have come to understand that land management needs to reflect an understanding of the land in its ecological context, including its local and larger significance in the hydrological cycle, the carbon cycle, public health, etc.
        This course invites students to reflect upon the problems confronting those who have to make decisions about land management and resource use.  It highlights different approaches to environmental ethics and examines the underlying assumptions of the scientific, managerial, economic, aesthetic, religious, judicial and public policy discourse on the environment. Emphasis will be given to the growing global recognition that humankind is now evolving toward a new consciousness of the ethics of sustainability.
 

The course requires students to:

        N.B. It is recognized that students from different levels of educational experience may well be taking this course, ranging from undergraduates through graduate and professional school students. All students taking the course will be expected to fulfill the requirements enumerated above, but the assessment of their work will take into account their respective levels of educational experience. The subject for the term research paper should be discussed with the course instructor.
 

Course Grading and Late Submission of Written Work:
        Grading for the course will be derived from 5 total elements:

  1. in-class and/or online participation in the course "Chat Room" during class as well as the Harvard Canvas "Class Discussion Sessions." Topics and questions will be posted under the link to "Weekly Discussion Questions" which will be linked to the appropriate space in which you should respond on the class Canvas site.. (approximately 30%);
  2. on-time online submission by 28 September 2016 of the "Statement of Research Intent." (approximately 10%)
  3. on-time online submission by 19 October 2016 of the research Prospectus with Annotated Bibliography (approximately 20%);
  4. on-time online submission of the term research paper PLUS "hardcopy" submission by December 7, 2016.  (approximately 40%) [N.B. all papers must be received in "hardcopy," printed format on or before December 7, 2016.  Submission in electronic form is required as well. All papers must be submitted to the Final Paper Dropbox on the Harvard iSites course website.]
     
    N.B. Late submission of the course written work (specifically the Prospectus with Annotated Bibliography and the final research paper) will normally result in a loss of one third of a grade per day (not per class session, but per 24 hour delay).  Thus, for example, a student who might normally receive a B+ for the written exercise should expect to receive a B if the paper is one day late.  Similarly a student who might normally receive an A for the submitted paper can expect to receive a B+ if it is received two days late.

Class Session Schedule
[Date (Class Session Number)]
 
Month/Day
Wednesdays
August 1(1)
September
7 (2)
 
14 (3)
21 (4)
 
28 (5)
October
5 (6)
 
12 (7)
19 (8)
 
26 (9) 
November 
2(10) 
 
  16 (12) 
  Thanksgiving
 
30 (13)
December 
7 (14)
 
14 (15)

  1. Introduction to Course
  2. Basic Concepts of Ecology
  3. Elements of Ethical Reasoning - An Anthropologist's Approach
  4. Environmental Ethics: The Terrain and Main Components of Debate
  5. Our Historical Context: Colonialism, Imperialism and Sprawl
         - Statement of Research Intention
  6. Public Lands: Mining, Timber & Grazing Lands
  7. Private Lands: Agriculture
  8. Land Management and Waste: Toxic & Nuclear Waste
          - Prospectus & Annotated Bibliography is due by end of class
  9. Land Management and the Emerging Water Crisis
  10. Land Management and the Global Commons: Air, Oceans, Forests
  11. Land Management and Public Health
  12. Sick Earth, Diseased Humans: "Geo-Engineering" vs. "Planetary Physiology"
  13. Principles of Ecosystem Management and the Ethics of Global Sustainability 
  14. Global Trends and Local Counter-Trends in Human Relations to the Land
       - NB All Papers Must Be Submitted by the end of this session
  15. From Beneith the Grassroots to The Sky Above -- Soils, Climate, Food and Visions for a Sustainable Future

  1. Introduction to Course - 
  2.   Aug 31, 2016     Introduction to the scope, character and requirements of the course.  An overview discussion of topics to be covered and an introduction to how to get access to the related resources for each course session.
    Assigned Reading:
    [no reading assigned for the first class session]
    Week 1 -- Resources and Assignments

  3. Basic Concepts of Ecology - 
  4.   Sept. 7, 2016      All living species live in ecosystems.  No organism can live apart from an environment, and the ecosystem can be understood as the ensemble of organisms and the environments needed to sustain them. Environmental ethics -- if it is to be more than a simple academic exercise in logic -- needs to be grounded in a firm understanding of the structure and function of ecosystems.
         This class will outline some of the fundamental characteristics of ecosystems and emphasize basic concepts of ecology that will serve as a foundation for further discussions of ethical behavior in  an ecosystem. 
    Assigned Reading:
     Weiskel, Timothy C. & Richard Grey
      1992  Environmental Decline and Public Policy: Pattern, Trend and Prospect (Michigan, Pierian Press, 1992), pp.v-xi and pp. 1-12. (Preface and Chapter I)
    Week 2 -- Resources and Assignments


     

  5. Elements of Ethical Reasoning - An Anthropologist's Approach 
  6.   Sept. 14, 2016      All societies possess at least some form of ethical reasoning, and often many conflicting systems.   Ethical systems -- like linguistic systems -- are a "built in" feature of human cultural life.  Ethics have to do with people think "ought to be done,"  and all societies struggle with the tension between the way things are and the way they think they ought to be
         Yet although the existence of ethical systems is universal, individual ethical systems themselves-- like languages -- are far from universal.  We are presented with several questions to resolve:  Where do societies get their sense of what "ought to be?"   How is it possible to compare different ethical systems?  If there is no such thing as a single "universal" ethic, are there nevertheless  common elements in all ethical reasoning? 
    Assigned Reading:
    Timothy C. Weiskel
    1983 "Rubbish and Racism: The Problem of Boundary in an Ecosystem," The Yale Review, (Winter, 1983), pp. 225-244.
    Week 3 -- Resources and Assignments

  7. Environmental Ethics: The Terrain and Main Components of Debate 
  8.   Sept. 21, 2016

         A number of thinkers and writers have contributed to the development of thinking about environmental ethics, and it is worth considering some of their specific contributions.  Aldo Leopold, wrote his influential Almanac nearly sixty years ago -- before there was much consciousness of humans acting as destructively as we now know they can in an ecosystem. What relevance can his observations possibly have for us today?

    Assigned Reading:
    Timothy C. Weiskel
    1989 '"While Angels Weep..." Doing Theology on A Small Planet.' (The Harvard Divinity Bulletin, XIX, 3 (1989)
    Timothy C. Weiskel
    1990 "The Need for Miracles in the Age of Science," The Harvard Divinity Bulletin, XX, 2, (Summer 1900)

    Recommended

    Aldo Leopold
     

    1949
    1968

    A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches here and there (New York, Oxford University Press, 1968), Parts 1 and 2
    Marc D. Hauser
     

    2006

    Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong (New York, Harper Collins, 2006)
    Week 4 -- Resources and Assignments

  9. Our Historical Context: Colonialism, Imperialism and Sprawl 
  10.   Sept. 28, 2016      Although some writers seem to transcend their circumstances while considering issues of environmental ethics, most thinkers are thoroughly grounded in the conditions of a particular time and place.  This is also true of cultures as a whole.  The values of a culture are "artifacts" of historical circumstance and collective experience. 
         It is important to keep this in mind in assessing statements about "what ought to be done" to or with the land.  The contemporary concern for land and resource management comes into play only after a particular history of colonial expansion and imperial domination that has characterized global history for the last five hundred years.
        What impact does this history have upon statements of environmental ethics?  Should the sensitivities and sensibilities of the "First Nations" be taken into account in developing contemporaty environmental ethics?  With the recent history of colonialism in mind, what is an appropriate "baseline" for ethical judgments about behavior in the environment?
    Assigned Reading:
    Crosby, Alfred
      1993 Ecological Imperialism : The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (Studies in Environment and History) (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993). [ Entire volume ].
     Weiskel, Timothy C. & Richard Grey
      1992  Environmental Decline and Public Policy: Pattern, Trend and Prospect (Michigan, Pierian Press, 1992, pp. 13-52.
      N.B. - Statement of Research Intent is due - to be submitted in class or, for distance learners, via the course "Assignment" dropbox.
    Week 5 -- Resources and Assignments

  11. Public Lands: Mining, Timber & Grazing Lands 
  12.   October 5, 2016      The United States government owns a considerable amount of land throughout the entire United States.  How should this public land be managed?  What are the historical patterns of mining, timber and grazing practices on public lands?  Many of these practices were put in place over a century ago.  Should these practices be reformed?  If so, according to what principles should these lands be managed? 
    Recommended Reading:
    Klyza, Christopher McGrory
      1996 Who Controls Public Lands (Chapel Hill, N.C., University of North Carolina Press, 1996). [ Entire volume ]
    Week 6 -- Resources and Assignments

  13. Private Lands: Agriculture 
  14.   October 12, 2016      One of the most intensive uses of privately held land in America is that involved with agriculture.  How have agricultural lands been managed in the past?  What are the factors that lead farmers to manage their lands poorly?  What affect has the changing structure of American agriculture had upon land management in agriculture? 
    Assigned Reading:
    UNEP
    2007 Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4), (Nairobi, Keny, New York, New York, UNEP, 25 October 2007).
     Weiskel, Timothy C. & Richard Grey
      1992  Environmental Decline and Public Policy: Pattern, Trend and Prospect (Michigan, Pierian Press, 1992), pp. 53-136.
       

    Week 7 -- Resources and Assignments

  15. Land Management and Waste: Toxic & Nuclear Waste Issues 
  16.   October 19, 2016      From their earliest archeological remains, humans have been identified by their garbage piles.  In the industrial and nuclear era some forms of human waste have left toxic and lethal legacies on the land.  How should these wastes be managed?  Who should bear the brunt of these residues?  What the environmental justice issues reflected in waste placement and management?
    Assigned Reading:
    Felicity Arbuthnot
      1999 Depleted Uranium: A Post-War Disaster for Environment and Health (Laka Foundation, 1 May 1999).
    Herman Damveld and Robert Jan van den Berg
      2000 Nuclear Waste and Nuclear Ethics: Social and ethical aspects of the retrievable storage of nuclear waste, (Amsterdam, Laka Foundation, January 2000).
       

    N.B. - Prospectus is due - to be submitted in class or, for distance learners, via the Assignment "Dropbox" by the beginning of class - 4:30pm

    Any questions? Ask them in:

    "Virtual Office Hours - 16 October 1:00pm

    Week 8 -- Resources and Assignments

  17. Land Management and the Emerging Water Crisis 
  18.   October 26, 2016      Land use constitutes an important component of the hydrological cycle.  Land management practices profoundly effect the quality of both surface and ground water.  Since these two sources of water provide virtually all the water available for industrial use and human consumption, land management practices will largely determine the nature of both localized and regional water crises. What responsibilities does society have to manage "wetlands"?  or underground "aquifers"?  How can changes in land management practices effect current and future generations?
    Assigned Reading:
    Vandana Shiva
      2002 Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit (Boston, South End Press, 2002), entire.
    Peter H. Gleick
      2006 "Global Freshwater Resources: Soft-Path Solutions for the 21st Century," Science Magazine's State of the Planet 2006-2007 (AAAS, Washington, D.C., 2006), especially, pp. 59-68.
      Week 9 -- Resources and Assignments

  19. Land Management and the Global Commons: Air, Oceans, Forests 
  20.   November 2, 2016      Some resources are by nature fluid, and for that reason, they cannot be adequately understood as simply localized assets.  Land management decisions in some specific regions affect the health of oceans and the composition of the global atmosphere upon which the whole world community depends for its well being.  How should land management principles be crafted to preserve and protect the global commons of air, oceans, fisheries and forests? 
    Assigned Reading:
    Editors of Science Magazine
      2006 Science Magazine's State of the Planet 2006-2007 (AAAS, Washington, D.C., 2006), pp. 22-36, & 101-153,
    Timothy C.  Weiskel, & Richard Grey
      1992  Environmental Decline and Public Policy: Pattern, Trend and Prospect (Michigan, Pierian Press, 1992), pp. 137-178.

    also, please read:

     Shaw, Jonathan
      2002  "The Great Global Experiment," Harvard Magazine.(November-December 2002).
    Week 10 -- Resourcs and Assignments

  21. Land Management and Public Health 
  22. November 9, 2016      Scientists who are aware of the way in which healthy ecosystems function have been emphasizing that changes in land management practices can have profound public health implications.  In the long run it is widely acknowledged that the health of human populations rests upon the health of the underlying ecosystems upon which they depend.   Abrupt or even gradual changes in land management practice over time can lead to the rapid growth of vector species or the rapid disappearance of keystone species, causing massive public health crises for humans or their domestic animals.  . 
    Assigned Reading:
     Garrett, Laurie
      2000  Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. (New York, Hyperion, 2000), [ Entire volume ].

    Week 11 -- Resourcs and Assignments

  23. Sick Earth, Diseased Humans: "Geo-Engineering" vs. "Planetary Physiology" 
  24. November 16, 2016   
    Assigned Reading:
     Weiskel, Timothy C. & Richard Grey
      1992  Environmental Decline and Public Policy: Pattern, Trend and Prospect (Michigan, Pierian Press, 1992), pp. 179-216.
    Recommended Reading:
    James Lovelock
      2006  The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity (Basic Books, 2006).
    Week 12 -- Resources and Assignments

    Nota Bene - Remember that your papers should contain different levels of analysis, elaborating:

      A Problem - the topic you are investigating should present some kind of problem, dispute or dilemma.
      The Parties - there are different parties to  the disputes or contested issues.
      The Principles - each of these parties bases its position on explicit or implicit ethical priorities and principles which, in turn, manifest the 6 fundamental theories emphasized in class (a theory of community, system, authority, change, agency, and time).

             Your paper ought, then, to assess the “adequacy” of the contending ethical principles. Finally it should conclude with a description of

             The Policy Recommendations you would offer for the problem at hand along with a discussion of the ethical principles that you feel make this option the most compelling you can think of.

      In writing your paper, please make sure to conform to the best writing practices as outlined in the student guide booklet, entitled:

      Harvard Guide to Using Sources
      Harvar Writing Guide
      &

      The Chicago Manual of Style Online

      & the:

      Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide

      In addition you may wish to draw upon:

      Writing with Internet Sources

  25. Principles of Ecosystem Management and the Ethics of Global Sustainability 
  26. November 30, 2016      Numerous international efforts have been launched to articulate and codify ethical principles of sustainability.  These include principles adopted at the first global  environmental summit known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janiero in 1992.  In addition, the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) has drawn up a list of ten principles, and the international Earth Charter movement has developed others that it will seek to place before the United Nations in 2002. 
          How can these efforts be assessed?  What is their value? What can be said to be "fair" or ethically justified given the history of global development until the dawn of the 21st Century?
    Assigned Reading:
     Weiskel, Timothy C. & Richard Grey
      1992  Environmental Decline and Public Policy: Pattern, Trend and Prospect (Michigan, Pierian Press, 1992), pp. 179-216.
    Suggested Reading:
    James Lovelock
      2006  The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity (Basic Books, 2006).
    Heinberg, Richard & Daniel Lerch (eds.)
      2010 The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century's Sustainability Crises (Berkley, University of California Press, 2010) entire, beginning with chapters that interest you the most.
    Week 13 -- Resources and Assignments

  27. Global Trends and Local Counter-Trends in Human Relations to the Land
  28.   December 7, 2016

     

       
    Suggested Readings:
    James Lovelock
      2009  The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning (New York, Penguin, 2009).
    Dianne Dumanoski
      2009  The End of the Long Summer: Why We Must Remake Our Civilization to Survive on a Volatile Earth (New York, Crown Publishers, 2009).
    Heinberg, Richard
      2011 The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality(New York, New Society Publishers, 2011).
           
        Week 14 -- Resources and Assignments
       

    [ Note Bene: + All Final Research Papers are Due in Class
    7 December 2016 - AND in the appropriate Course Dropbox (see "Final Paper Checklist") Hardcopy versions should be sent to the address indicated in the instructions. The hardcopy need not arrive by 8 December, but it should be "postmarked" by then.]

     

     










     

     

  29. From Beneath the Grassroots to The Sky Above -- Soils, Climate, Food and Visions for a Sustainable Future
  30.   December 14, 2016

    In addition to centralizing, standardizing and mechanizing trends in the evolution of global agriulture, we are also beginning to see counter trends on a local basis. Some of this impulse emerges from a recognition that current global trends are destroying the topsoil around the world, and the response has been to re-examine the fundamental mechanisms of restoring and maintaining soil fertility. Another major impulse for reform has emerged from a growing awareness that the world's increasingly petro-intensive food system is currently designed primarily for delivering profit to large corporate entities rather than providing healthy or nutritious food to those who need it.

    We will consider the approach to two specific alternative approaches -- one focused on restoring foil fertility and the second focusing upon healthy and sustainable food systems.

    James Howard Kunstler
     

    2012

    Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation (New York, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012).
    Week 15 -- Resources and Assignments

     

Assigned Reading for the Course are drawn from:

Weiskel, Timothy C. & Richard Grey
  1992  Environmental Decline and Public Policy: Pattern, Trend and Prospect (Michigan, Pierian Press, 1992), 
Crosby, Alfred
  1993 Ecological Imperialism : The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (Studies in Environment and History) (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993).
Garrett, Laurie
  2000  Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. (New York, Hyperion, 2000).
Wendall Berry
 

1996

The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture (Counterpoint; Revised edition, 1996)
Richard Manning
 

2005

Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization (North Point Press, 2005).
Andrew Nikiforuk
 

2014

The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude (Greystone Books, 2014).
James Howard Kunstler
 

2012

Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation (New York, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012).
Vandana Shiva
  2002 Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit (Boston, South End Press, 2002).
Vandana Shiva
  2008 Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis (South End Press, 2008)
Pope Francis
  2015 Laudato Si'
(The Vatican, 2015)
Pope Francis
  2015 Laudato Si'
with Introduction by Naomi Oreskes (The Vatican, Melville House,2015}
Pope Francis
  2015 Laudato Si' - Presentation & Commentary
(SDSN, The Vatican, 2015)

 

Further Suggested Readings:
Dianne Dumanoski
  2009  The End of the Long Summer: Why We Must Remake Our Civilization to Survive on a Volatile Earth (New York, Crown Publishers, 2009).
James Lovelock
  2009  The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning (New York, Penguin, 2009).
Arran Stibbe
  2009  The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: Skills for a Changing World (New York, Green Books, 2009).

 

+ The Unassigned, Recurrent, Required Reading:

 


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