“Students of a Warming World” class offered for Winter Term 2009
Students of a Warming World: Ethics, Policy, and Action
Course Description:
Environmental problems can be incredibly complicated, in moral as well as in economic, political, and biological terms. It is easy to oversimplify the problems, and the solutions. When it comes to environmental problems, what are we responsible and accountable for as individuals? How are our responsibilities affected by the fact that we act in, create, and support institutions? What do we owe to ourselves, to each other, and perhaps to the biosphere itself? This course is intended to be an introduction to the questions and problems that arise in discussion on climate change. The “Action” component of the class will require students to participate in this year’s planning of Focus the Nation which includes a campus wide “Teach-In” and Community Expo.
More Details:
This class can be broken down into two main components:
The first is academic. We will aim to achieve a basic level of climate science literacy, focus on questions of moral obligation in concern with climate change, explore sustainability in education, and aim to introduce ourselves to state and federal environmental policies. The class will also work with the DePauw Environmental Policy Project group, a winter term class that will be taught by Kelsey Kauffman and is a continuation of a semester-long policy research class- also known as “DEPP”. The “Students of a Warming World” will serve as an audience for mock Legislative testimony, and observe DEPP testimony at the state legislature.
The second large component of the class will be planning this year’s “Focus the Nation” Event. Focus the Nation is comprised of a campus wide Teach-IN day where faculty and staff lead sessions and discussions on climate change across various disciplines and a Greencastle Community Expo where members of the community showcase their efforts on sustainability for a student and community-wide audience. Through this process, students will 1) become more aware of a cross-disciplinary approach to sustainability, 2) forge and sustain connections with the Greencastle community at large, and 3) become familiar with the legislative process.
Here is some background on Focus the Nation:
“This January nearly a million people at more than 1,900 Focus the Nation events began a conversation on global warming solutions with 64 members of Congress, 15 governors and countless local and state politicians. Colleges and Universities, K-12 schools, community and faith groups and businesses came together for a day of education and action.” -FTN website. DePauw hosted one of those events, it was hugely successful and we hope to continue it this year.
We described the event as a a time when “students, teachers, business and community leaders, politicians, and everyday citizens gathered on campuses across the country to participate in a non-partisan, interdisciplinary global warming superbowl of academic discussions, community-based meetings, workshops, and political forums. The goal is simple: Raise awareness in the first 100 days of the new administration.” -DePauw’s FTN website.
Contact Tiffany Briery at Tbriery at depauw.edu for more information.
