JAN 309 - Finding the Human Place in Nature

Instructor(s):  Worthy, Kenneth
Email:  kaw9@stmarys-ca.edu

The twenty-first century is afflicted by a dizzying array of human-caused environmental problems. The seas are rising and storms and wildfires are becoming fiercer due to global climate change, which also threatens global food security; species are going extinct at a thousand times the rate they normally would, and whole ecosystems such as coral reefs are dying in some places; nuclear disasters have made large swaths of places like Ukraine, Belarus, and Japan uninhabitable; freshwater supplies in many parts of the world are nearing critically low levels (wars over clean water may dwarf wars over oil); toxic chemicals inhabit our food and bodies; and precious topsoil, the substrate of most life, is being eroded at frightening rates. An alien observer might think that humans have lost their way and are headed toward planetary catastrophe. This course seeks to make sense of and respond to this predicament. First, we take an accelerated tour through world environmental history to understand the historical arcs that have culminated in global environmental crisis. Second, we consider lived alternatives-non-modern environmental interactions and thought-through ethnographic films and readings in comparative environmental ethics. Third, we survey modern alternatives embraced in various schools of contemporary environmental philosophy. Finally, each student composes a personal environmental ethic inspired and informed by ways that non-modern peoples and modern environmental theorists have thought about the human place in nature. The course includes field trips to study the water supply of the east bay and the impacts of the drought on it as well as the destinations of our wastes, along with some nature hiking. The course will be taught in-person for all class sessions.

Prerequisites & Notes
None

Credits: 3-CU