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.
 

The course requires students to:

• fill in the Course's Student Information Form  (providing background information -- name, address, e-mail, etc.), available by clicking the appropriate link in the Week 1 Resources and Assignments page. This form needs to be submitted only once in the first week of term. If however, there is a change in your e-mail address, your Harvard ID or any other information in the form, please fill out the form an additional time and submit the information.
• attend lectures and study class lecture notes made available in most cases via the Internet. 
• complete "in-class," "take-home" or "online" short assignments that will be presented occasionally throughout the term;
• complete Assigned Reading -- and suggested readings, where appropriate. Regularly consult, study and absorb the material listed under Weekly Assignments (ie. Week 1, Week 2, etc.) where appropriate. Class and online discussions will often assume you know about and are familiar with this material.

       [N.B. Beyond the works listed below, additional Assigned Reading and handouts may be distributed in class or via the World Wide Web from time to time during the semester. These materials form an integral part of the course, and they are to be read and reflected upon as well as those readings listed below.];

• complete and submit a Prospectus with an Annotated Bibliography for their Term Research Paper. The deadline for submitting the prospectus is 2 November in class.  Suggestions  on the  prepartion of the research paper and corresponding class presentation are outlined in the web document:  Guidelines for ENVR-E-120 Prospectus Term Paper and Class Presentation.
• prepare and deliver a class presentation covering the issues and perspectives on environmental ethics reflected in the term paper.
• complete and submit a Term Research Paper with supporting Annotated Bibliography on a selected topic concerning environmental ethics and land management. . To receive a grade in the course, all papers must be received in "hardcopy," printed format on or before January 11, 2007  Submission in electronic form of this paper will not be accepted as valid.

 

        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 4 total elements:

1. in-class and/or online participation in discussions and completion of ongoing Weekly Assignments (Week 1, Week 2, etc.)  (approximately 15%);
2. on-time submission by November 2, 2006 of the research Prospectus with Annotated Bibliography (approximately 15 %);
3. completion of the oral presentation by the end of January 11, 2007 (approximately 20%).
4. on-time submission of the term research paper by January 11, 2007.  (approximately 50%)
   [N.B. all papers must be received in "hardcopy," printed format on or before January 11, 2007.  Submission in electronic form of this paper will not be accepted as valid.]
    

   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.

 

Month/Day	Thursday
September	21 (1)
	28 (2)
October	5(3)
	12 (4)
	19 (5)
	26 (6)
November	2 (7)
	9 (8)
	16 (9)
	30 (10)
December	7 (11)
	14 (12)
	21 (13)
January 2007	4 (14)
	11 (15)
	18 (16)

 

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1. Introduction to Course
2. Basic Concepts of Ecology
3. Elements of Ethical Reasoning - An Anthropologist's Approach
4. Selected Writers on Environmental Ethics
5. Our Historical Context: Colonialism, Imperialism and Sprawl
6. Public Lands: Mining, Timber & Grazing Lands
7. Private Lands: Agriculture - Prospectus & Annotated Bibliography is due by end of class
8. Land Management and the Emerging Water Crisis
9. Land Management and Waste: Toxic & Nuclear Waste
10. Land Management and the Global Commons: Air, Oceans, Forests
11. Land Management and Public Health
12. Principles of Ecosystem Management and Global Sustainability
13. Class Presentations - NB: "Great Expectations"
14. Class Presentations - NB: "Great Expectations" - NB All Papers Must Be Submitted by the end of this session
15. Class Presentations - NB: "Great Expectations"
16. Final Lecture Session:  Environmental Ethics  - Where can we go from here?

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1. Introduction to Course - 

Sept. 21, 2006

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

2. Basic Concepts of Ecology - 

Sept. 28, 2006

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


 

3. Elements of Ethical Reasoning - An Anthropologist's Approach 

October 5, 2006

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

4. Environmental Ethics: The Terrain and Main Components of Debate 

October 12, 2006

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:
		Aldo Leopold   1949 1968 A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches here and there (New York, Oxford University Press, 1968), Parts 1 and 2 Recommended 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

5. Our Historical Context: Colonialism, Imperialism and Sprawl 

October 19, 2006

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.
	Week 5 -- Resources and Assignments

6. Public Lands: Mining, Timber & Grazing Lands 

October 26, 2006

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?

	Assigned 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

7. Private Lands: Agriculture 

November 2, 2006

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:
		Editors of Science Magazine   2006 Science Magazine's State of the Planet 2006-2007 (AAAS, Washington, D.C., 2006), especially, pp.5-28, 39-58.  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

8. Land Management and the Emerging Water Crisis 

Nov. 9, 2006

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 8 -- Resources and Assignments

9. Land Management and Waste: Toxic & Nuclear Waste Issues 

Nov. 16, 2006

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).
	Week 9 -- Resources and Assignments

10. Land Management and the Global Commons: Air, Oceans, Forests 

November 30, 2006

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. Timothy C. Weiskel 2005 “From Sidekick to Sideshow—Celebrity, Entertainment, and the Politics of Distraction Why Americans Are ‘Sleepwalking Toward the End of the Earth,’” American Behavioral Scientist, 49, 3, (November 2005), pp. 393-409.     also, please read:  Shaw, Jonathan   2002  "The Great Global Experiment," Harvard Magazine.(November-December 2002).
	Week 10 -- Resources and Assignments

11. Land Management and Public Health 

December 7, 2006

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 Great Expectations for Class Presentations

12. Principles of Ecosystem Management and Global Sustainability 

December 14, 2006

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:
		James Lovelock   2006  The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity (Basic Books, 2006).  Weiskel, Timothy C. & Richard Grey   1992  Environmental Decline and Public Policy: Pattern, Trend and Prospect (Michigan, Pierian Press, 1992), pp. 179-216.
	Week 12 -- Resources and Assignments

13. Student Class Presentations 

December 21 , 2006

In class presentations from students: Great Expectations for Class Presentations

Week 13 -- Resources and Assignments

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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: Writing with Internet Sources: A Guide for Harvard Students [Downloadable RTF format - Zip file] Printed copies of this important style manual are available at the Extension School offices at 51 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

14. Student Class Presentations 

January 4, 2006

In class presentations from students:  Great Expectations for Class Presentations

	Week 14 -- Resources and Assignments
	[ Note Bene: All Papers are Due in Class 11 January 2007 ]

15. Student Class Presentations 

January 11, 2006

In class presentations from students:  Great Expectations for Class Presentations

	Week 15 -- Resources and Assignments
	[ Note Bene: All Papers are Due in Class 11 January 2007 ]

 

16. Final Class Lecture:  Environmental Ethics  - Where can we go from here? 
     

January 18, 2006

	Assigned Reading:
		TBA
	Week 16 - Resources and Assignments

 

Assigned Reading for the Course are drawn from: