Hum Bio 143: Globalization, Labor and Environment (spring 2005)
  

This is a service-learning course involving a 30-hour internship with a bay Area NGO involved with globalization issues. The course’s themes are the impacts of globalization on labor and environmental standards around the world.  Subthemes are corporate accountability and northern extractive industries collaborating with repressive governments—and the resulting harm that befalls local people, mostly in the south.  We will examine the three primary institutions of globalization -  the World Bank, the Int’l Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.  Following introductory readings, the class will read and discuss materials developed and assembled by class members on the above themes and subthemes (corporate accountability, the institutions of globalization, the labor side of globalization and the environmental side of globalization).

 HumBio 143: Globalization, Labor and Environment

Int’l Relations 134, Hum Bio 135: Global Environmental Policy and Law (winter 2005)

This course is designed to acquaint students with the international management of  regional and global environmental issues.  The focus is not only on the issues themselves, but on the international institutions and agreements that have been created to manage them.  The course will begin with an overview of facts and root causes of global enviro problems; IEL sources and norms, and how such norms are implemented.  Next, we will seek to develop a sense of what works in international environmental management and what does not.  Specific topics to be addressed include transboundary air and water pollution, ozone depletion, global climate change, biological diversity and endangered species, global forest protection, freshwater resources, the export and dumping of hazardous wastes, international trade and the environment, human rights and the environment, and North/South issues and the role of the World Bank.

IR 134, HumBio 135, PS 180R : Global Environmental Policy & Law

Hum Bio and Comp. Studies in Race and Ethnicity 141: Race, Poverty and Environment (fall, 2005)

The goal of this course is to enable class members to make the connection between race/poverty and environmental conditions, and to bring both a theoretical and practical perspective to the topic of environmental justice.  We will look at empirical evidence of environmental injustice
and hear stories of those victimized by the disproportionate distribution of environmental harms. We will try to identify the causes of these conditions and the barriers to remediating them.  We
will explore how the courts, legislative bodies, executive agencies, public interest organizations,
community groups and their lawyers have responded to the problem.  We will try to become informed participants in this dialog and contribute to knowledge on the subject.

Lawyers and scientists have a residual role in all this.  A community may have been fighting environmental burdens for decades and decide to get legal help as a last straw.  They may have neglected to get legal help while the polluter was going through the permitting process and seek help only after the permit has been granted.  They may seek legal help after seeing an onslaught of unusual diseases or a high rate of illness or mortality after years of a hazardous waste facilityÕs operations. Scientists help lawyers and activists interpret scientific and health data.  Everyone needs to understand how civil rights laws apply to the question of disproportionate impacts on poor and minority communities.

HumBio 141, CSRE 141: Race, Poverty & Environment

IR 135, Anthro Sci, and Hum Bio. 152 – Environment and Growth in Developing Countries  (fall 2004)

This advanced seminar will compare and contrast the environmental and development policies of eight developing countries as they cope with the pressures of economic growth and its attendant pollution and resource depletion.  Four of the eight countries are China, India, Nigeria and Brazil.  The class will choose the remaining four countries.  The seminar will open with a review of the dilemma facing most developing countries in industrializing and modernizing, while also protecting their environment.  Class members will organize the class reader from web and library sources.  We will spend a week on each of the eight countries—relying, when possible, on outside experts.  Each seminar member will select a developing country of his/her choice and will write a research paper analyzing that country’s environmental and development policies and their effectiveness.  The final week will be spent reviewing those papers and deriving common themes.

HumBio 152, Anthro 152, IR 152 : Environmental Institutions and Policies in Developing Countries

Hum Bio 125, Pol Sci 227: Enviro. Policy and Law   (spring 2005)          

In this course, we will examine the role of government and citizens in formulating, implementing and enforcing U.S. environmental policy.  Using case studies, background readings, law cases and statutes, we will investigate the formal and informal mechanisms involved in controlling pollution and protecting the environment.  We will explore the respective roles of the courts, legislatures, and executive agencies in shaping U.S. environmental policy.  We will also consider the pros and cons of regulatory and economic approaches to pollution control

HumBio 125: Environmental Policy and Law

Anthro Sci 165, Int’l Relations137, Pol Sci 181R, Hum Bio 163: South Asia: Environment, Development and Security (spring 2001)

This course will explore parallel movements and activities in environmental protection, economic development and security in India and Pakistan since 1947, with special focus on this decade.  The environment will cover air, water and land (agrochemical) pollution, population growth, equity issues and the Narmada Dam controversy.  Development issues will include new programs for economic and energy growth and their environmental consequences.  The nuclear arms and Kashmir competition between India and Pakistan and their destabilizing effects will also be examined.

Anthro Sci 165, HumBio 163, Int'l Rel 137: South Asia: Environment, Development and Security

History 285A, Anthro Sci 165A: Kashmir: History, Politics and Security  (winter 2003)                             

This course will introduce students to the history and complex politics and society of the mountain state of Kashmir. In large measure because of its cultural and religious antecedents, Kashmir has been a political flashpoint, fraught with religious, communal, and international strife since 1947 when Pakistan and India were divided.  Recently, there has been evidence that some Islamic militants are using Kashmir as a training ground. This course will focus on Kashmir’s cultural, social and political situation, and examine possible resolutions of the current conflict.

History 285A: Kashmir: History, Politics and Security

Biology, Geological and Environmental Sciences and Earth Systems 147/247: Controlling Climate Change in the 21^st Century (winter 2005)

Climate change is a worldwide environmental, social and economic challenge.  It touches on aspects of air pollution, land use, toxic waste, transportation, industry, energy, government policies, development strategies, and individual freedoms and responsibilities. Human use of the atmosphere as an unpriced dumping space has led to the buildup of gases and particles that can alter the radiant energy exchange between the earth’s surface and space.  Carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor are the principal heat-trapping greenhouse gases.  Carbon is the underpinning of most fuels used in transportation and power production.  It also makes up about half the dry weight of most vegetation.  Human modification of the carbon cycle has far-reaching implications for human welfare and the health of the biosphere.  Given the short term planning horizon of most political and economic institutions, climate change presents major policy challenges.  This course is designed to clarify the primary issues embedded in those challenges.

HumBio 147, Bio 147/247, Earth Systems 147/247: Controlling Climate Change in the 21st Century

Hum Bio 98Q (soph seminar): The Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 (fall 2003)

Int’l. Rel. 70Q (soph seminar): India and Pakistan: History, Politics and Security (fall, 2004)

This seminar will cover India and Pakistan from Partition (1947) to the present. We’ll look at aspects of both countries, including their different political developments, religions, cultures, national identities, internal communal rivalries, economic development paths, energy and environmental issues, and military and security issues.  We’ll focus special attention on the Kashmir conflict and the nuclear rivalry.  We’ll read a book each on India, Pakistan and Kashmir plus a novel about India, and view three films. The course will require a major research paper.

Research Paper Guidelines:

Research Paper Guidelines