GLS 592: Environmental Ethics, Made Local
Instructor: James Brewster
Syllabus
Environmental ethics is framed by several broad questions: “What is environmental stewardship?” “What is the appropriate use of natural resources?” “How critical are environmental problems?” “How can we reconcile nature and technology?” We need also ask “What are the problems in our area, and what can we do, privately and publicly about them?” This course will highlight several mentors who shape the modern debate and challenge us to a twenty-first century ethic. Part of the class focus: On-site investigation of problem areas here and student papers/projects on local problems, their solutions and the student’s personal response.
Course Assumptions:
1. There is a lengthy history of environmental problems in North Carolina.
2. These problems are not isolated, but related to an “American” ethic regarding the usage of natural resources and the rise of technology.
3. While the course will deal with ethics and ideals on a broad scale, our study will be anchored in the locale.
4. Emphasis shall be given to resource persons, mentors who have lived in times of environmental crisis and responded to environmental challenges and can serve as models in our ethical dilemmas.
Course Requirements:
15 page term research paper or project to include three parts:
1) a local or area environmental problem,
2) a corrective public policy regarding this problem and
3) one’s personal response. This project/paper will be presented during one of the final classes. (see schedule)
Graded reading assignments and class participation will also be included in the evaluation.
Paper/project 40%
Graded Assignments: 30%
Class Participation: 30%
Noting that A’s and B’s are the only passing grades for the Master’s Degree program.
Texts:
Portions of the following:
Abbey, Edward, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness (New York, Touchstone Book, 1968)
Berry, Thomas, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (New York, Bell Tower, 1999)
Wirzba, Norman (editor), The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry (Emeryville, CA, Shoemaker and Hoard, 2002)
Additional resources including:
White, Jr., Dr. Lynn “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” (article)
Discussion Topics (Assignments and graded assignments not included)
Session One Introductory Materials
Reviewing the syllabus: course requirements, assumptions and overall plan
Ethical Guidelines: A review of the ethical questions to be raised during the course…
Lecture, discussion of public and private ethics framing the topic at hand.
Session Two Technology, Technopoly (A review of our framework for ethics)
Lecture, discussion on the history, growth and influence of technology and culture.
Dr. Brewster’s presentation is based on Neil Postman’s book, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, and portions of Dr. Brewster’s manuscript, Michelangelo, Who Does God Have His Arm Around?
Session Three Geo-biography and Environmental Ethics
Discussion: Thomas Berry’s meadow and Wendell Berry’s native hill. Elaborate one’s own “geo-biography.”
Nineteenth century antecedents, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Dr. Brewster will read from his solo drama, “Henry,” based on the life and words of this environmental and non-violent pioneer.
Discussion following: Defining HDT’s geo-biography.
Session Four The Roots of the Present Conflict
In the early twentieth century, Gifford Pinchot, first head of the U.S.Forestry Service, was opposed by John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club and champion of Wilderness, over the construction of the Hetch Hechy Dam in Yosemite National Park, California. The question: How should we use national park lands?
Video: “The Battle for Wilderness”
Lecture: “The Religious Overtones in the Conflict”
Session Five Cosmic Perspective
Geologist-theologian Thomas Berry provides a new paradigm in the relationship between humankind, technology and Nature. His thinking is an antidote to those who think that Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for the sins of New Orleans.
Video presentation: Thomas Berry:The Great Story (VHS, 49 minutes)
Session Six The Role of Religion in our Environmental Crisis.
Discuss the major ideas of Dr. White’s article and Wendell Berry’s response in the two essays noted above.
Additional resource:
Genesis Chapters 1-3
Proverbs 8:22-31 (including ideas from Dr. Brewster’s Michelangelo, Who Does God Have His Arm Around?)
Session Seven Voices from Indigenous People and Women, Part One
Discussion of Thomas Berry’s fourfold wisdom and its importance.
The Native American community speaks: Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) wisdom literature---Oren Lyons and Audrey Shenandoah; Eastern Band, Cherokee Nation, here in North Carolina, highlighted.
Session Eight Voices from Indigenous People and Women, Part Two
Emphasis given to the specific roles of women in the environmental movement, e.g. Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us, Silent Spring and Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Tree Movement and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 2004
Video presentation “Silent Spring” (45 minutes, PBS, “American Experience” series)
Video Presentation: section on Wangari Maathai from “Nobelity”
Session Nine The Necessity of Good Science
The Jacksonville Daily News vs. The United Nations, the Nobel Prize Committee and Al Gore
Opposing viewpoints re: Global Warming
- Editor of the Jacksonville Daily News and the Heartland Institute
- Video: “An Inconvenient Truth”
Session Ten Ethics of Protest
Seeds of the radical left environmental movement are sown by Edward Abbey, an important writer from the Southwest, best known for his essays, Desert Solitaire and novel The Monkey Wrench Gang.
Video: “Edward Abbey: A Voice in the Wilderness” (VHS, Eric Temple Productions)
Session Eleven The Radical Fringe
Edward Abbey’s novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang, unleashed a host of angry environmentalists, including the left wing “EarthFirst” movement. Discussion: What role does anger play in environmental ethics?
Resources will include A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching. Particular attention to Julia Butterfly Hill’s lengthy battle to save a major redwood.
Session Twelve The Agrarian Alternative, Part One: Loving the Land
Farmer/ essayist-poet/professor Wendell Berry of Kentucky challenges us with a new look at stewardship of the land, Amish economics and why he won’t buy a computer. He offers guidelines for technology in one’s ethic, all included in his agrarian approach to living in the contemporary age.
Session Thirteen The Agrarian Alternative, Part Two
Discussion continues on the importance of local economy and ownership.
Session Fourteen Grass Roots Ethics in Eastern North Carolina:
Highlighting the ethic, strategy and challenges of local citizens dealing with specific environmental issues, e.g. factory hog farming, development, coastal problems.
Economic and environmental issues, individual and political response will be discussed. A representative from the local New River Foundation will discuss its formation and history against a background of this affected body of water. As schedules permit, the class may be held aboard “The Protector,” the NRF pontoon boat.
Potential Resource person(s): Brian Wheat, New Riverkeeper, Betty Sanders-Seavey, Executive Director, NRF.
Session Fifteen In class presentations: students’ topics and papers re: local environmental problems.
Group discussion and questions…
Session Sixteen Summary and Evaluation
The above schedule is tentative. As time permits, other topics/activities may be included
Potential topics for papers/presentations will be distributed to class at first session.
Last Update: November 12, 2008
