Journal Entry from Articles and Book

First Book :
McKibben, Bill. Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. New York: Times Books, 2010.

Second Book :
Kimball, Kristin. The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love. New York: Scribner, 2010.
Arts and Humanities / History and Society Foundation

Nature and Environment

Nobody likes it when you mention the unconscious, not because you are pointing out something obscene that should remain hidden—that is at least partly enjoyable. Nobody likes it because when you mention it, it becomes conscious. In the same way, when you mention the environment, you bring it into the foreground. In other words, it stops being the environment. It stops being That Thing Over There that surrounds and sustains us.
Timothy Morton, Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Ethics

I never gave anybody hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.

Harry S. Truman
33rd President of the United States
1. Course Description:

What is the nature of our long relationship with nature? We are simultaneously part of nature and apart from it. Nature provides us life and guarantees our death. Our relationships with the natural world are multi-dimensional and often ambivalent. In the face of ever-accelerating environmental changes and related concerns about the health of the planet and its life-forms, what is our responsibility as human beings, moral agents, ethical citizens?
This course focuses on nature and the environment; it explores both theory and practice in areas such as ethics, the accountability of individuals and institutions, the development and use of energy sources, and the critical examination of business practices and economic systems, cultural values and lifestyle choices, and social, economic and legal policies. We will explore (some of) the following questions:

• What are some of the ways in which people respond to the natural world, and what are some of the theories that inform our responses?
• What do we mean by progress? By development? How do we define the “good life”?
• What ethical responsibilities and moral obligations do we have to human and non-human species?
• How do we manage the conflict between short-term needs and desires, and long-term sustainability?
• How do economic systems and the theories that inform them affect natural resources? How do economic systems affect the relationship that humans have to nature generally and to human and non-human life specifically?
• Given the urgency of climate change, along with other threats to the balance of life as we know it, how should we imagine the future of the human species, as well as our own lives?
2. Curriculum Context and Learning Goals

AHS: The Arts and Humanities / History and Society Foundation courses engage a combination of perspectives, including aesthetic, ethical, historical and societal, to explore a particular topic or theme. Exploring a topic such as nature, justice, or memory through a rich array of perspectives aims to develop the ability to see that all interpretations depend on the context, values, and attitudes of the interpreter—including, of course, our own. We use course materials from a range of media and genres to explore the topic and learn to use complexity and ambiguity to enrich and deepen our inquiry. This theme-based course aims to establish a foundation of skills that anticipate the more disciplinary and interdisciplinary analytical skills that are introduced at the Intermediate Level of the Liberal Arts Curriculum.
By the end of the course, you should have made progress toward the following general learning goals for Babson’s undergraduate school:

? Rhetoric: Babson graduates can explore, reflect, analyze and communicate critically and effectively.
? Global and Multicultural Perspectives: Babson graduates know the historical and cultural contexts in which they live; they operate and meet the challenges presented by a world characterized by diverse cultures and ways of knowing.
? Ethics and Social Responsibility: Babson graduates are prepared and willing to be responsible members of society; they are committed to continually developing intellectual, ethical, social, and professional character and abilities.
? Critical and Integrative Thinking: Babson graduates utilize an integrated, holistic approach to learning and decision making.

3. Texts:

Available in the bookstore:

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There. Special Commemorative Edition. With an Introduction by Robert Finch. New York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989.

Wessels, Tom. The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future. Revised and Expanded Edition. Burlington: Vermont UP, 2013.

McKibben, Bill. Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. New York: Times Books, 2010.

Kimball, Kristin. The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love. New York: Scribner, 2010.

Other materials will be available on our course’s Blackboard site; most are also accessible from the links indicated in the course calendar below. Please print out all texts, put them in your folder, and bring them to class with you on the days they are discussed.

From time to time, I may hand out additional texts, or post them on Blackboard for you. If they are assigned as pre-class reading, you will be notified in a timely fashion.
4. Course Format, Assignments, and Grades:

• Reading and Participation: Reading, viewing and listening assignments should be completed by due date. Not only should you take notes while reading or listening, but you should also note your responses and write down questions and ideas in your journal, and be ready to share them with our class. I will also administer frequent quizzes on the reading of the day to assess your comprehension. These will be short, but each of them will require that you have completed the reading assigned for the day.

Your success in this class will be directly proportional to your involvement. If you keep up with the assignments, think about them, participate in class (i.e. ask or answer questions, join in discussions, raise issues or topics to be addressed) and offer yourself the chance to enjoy thinking and feeling, you will do well.

If you need help, or if you would just like to discuss things face to face, don’t hesitate to see me. I welcome the chance to meet each of you personally.

Because class participation is so important, attendance at every class is expected. (Of course, attendance alone is not participation; it is a necessary but not sufficient condition for participation.) If you must miss a class, please leave a message on my voice mail or send me an e-mail – in advance, if possible. Even if you have an excused absence (confirmed by your Class Dean), you are still responsible for the work covered or due that day.

In order to promote a high quality of class conversation, notebook computers and other electronic devices are not permitted during class time.

• Journal: I will ask you to keep a journal in which you enter observations and reflections on a regular basis – every day, if you can, but at the very minimum twice a week. The purpose of this assignment is to heighten your attention to the world around you, to respond to our assigned readings for class, and to reflect on any independent readings and research you have done on your own. These readings will be shared with the class on an ongoing basis and serve the purpose of mutual education in our learning community. Over the course of the semester, your journal will include entries from each of the following categories.

a. Environmental news and current events, including weather. Here are some excellent sources:
i. www.grist.org: a highly readable, hard-hitting and often humorous environmental blog run by energized 20-somethings in Seattle. If you make this your starting page for this semester, you can get your daily dose of amusement and exacerbation (whether you agree with its politics or not).
ii. www.dailyclimate.org is a science-oriented, politically neutral compilation of articles about climate change from around the English-speaking world.
iii. www.thedailygreen.com is a consumer guide that rocks few boats but has some good recommendations.
iv. www.alternet.org does try to rock a few.
v. www.theguardian.com/environment features the writings of such well-known bloggers as George Monbiot and Nafeez Ahmed.
vi. http://science.time.com/category/going-green/ has great articles and columns by Bryan Walsh.
vii. If you’d rather listen than read, you can visit the audio archive at http://www.loe.org/, National Public Radio’s “Living on Earth Show” show hosted by Steve Curwood (on the dial, it’s at 90.0 FM, broadcasting every Sunday morning from 7 to 8 a.m.; online, you have the choice between listening and reading the transcripts, or you can do both at the same time). This show is politically neutral and international in orientation, taking you all around the globe, and it offers ideas for solutions as well as information about problems.
viii. A good source for innovative “green” solutions is also at NPR: WGBH’s Innovation Hub hosted by former Babson instructor Kara Miller: http://blogs.wgbh.org/innovation-hub/tag/green/. –

All of these sources make for great journal entries, and some will provide heated discussions!

b. The assigned reading for the next class. What did you find most interesting, infuriating, or thought-provoking? What questions about these readings do you have that we should address in our class discussion?
c. Observations about the natural world in which we live; about human behavior towards the environment; about food, housing, transportation, etc. Start with your immediate environment, our campus, and train yourself to become an observer in any environment you enter!

Please keep your journal entries, printed or handwritten, in a folder that you bring to each class (it will not suffice to have your journal on your laptop, as you must be ready to read from it when called upon). At the beginning of class, I will cold-call on a number of you to read your journal entries for the day aloud to the class community. The journal entries will provide you with a quarry of thoughts and observations that you can also mine for the formal written work that will be asked of you.—Twice in the semester, I will collect your journal folders to see what you have been writing.

• Papers: you will write two short essays (5-6 pages):
a. The first essay will be an individual essay that performs a critical analysis of some of our course readings. No outside research will be required.
b. The second essay is a group effort. It will start with your research proposal for the group project (see below) and, after feedback from me at a group meeting, will evolve into your group presentation and your final research report (see “Group Project” below).

On all your writing and speaking assignments (except journals):

Get help from the Writing Center and the Speech Resource Center:
• Writing Center (Babson Hall 205) peer and faculty consultants are available to help you at any stage of your writing process.
• At the Speech Resource Center (Olin Hall 009), you can work with a speech consultant on such issues as organization, delivery, and speech anxiety.
• Sign up for appointments at either Center via the Babson Portal (you will find the links under “Smart Tools”).

I encourage you to talk about your ideas with other students and to read each other’s
papers for correctness and style. But the preparation of papers themselves must be your
own work and the ideas presented must be your own. Papers with similar outlines,
organization, evidence, or phrasing will be regarded as the result of excessive
collaboration. Remember to acknowledge in a footnote any help you receive.

• Group Project:

This course seeks to create a learning community in which each of us is both a learner and a teacher; the course narrative is a joint work in progress. As part of this effort, you will participate in a group research project (on a topic you may select, in consultation with me) and produce a formal presentation to our class (as well as a written group report to me). Details about this assignment will be made available in due time.

• Quizzes: there will be unannounced short quizzes on the day’s reading.

Your grade for the semester will be calculated as follows:

• Journal and class participation 20%
• Quizzes 10%
• Mid-term exam 10%
• individual essay 20%
• group project (research proposal; class presentation; 20%
final report)
• final exam 20%

5. Academic Policies

a. Honesty and Integrity: the standards and expectations of the Babson Honor Code and its academic honesty and integrity policies apply to this course as well as to any other course you are taking here at Babson. The policy is articulated in your Undergraduate Handbook. Failure of any student to take appropriate steps to fully understand the Code will not be an acceptable or tolerated excuse for any violations.

For your coursework, you will be required to affirm your understanding of and commitment to the academic honesty and integrity expectations set forth in the Code. You will be required to write the following pledge on every exam, paper, project, or other academic exercise submitted for evaluation:
I pledge my honor that I have neither received nor provided unauthorized assistance during the completion of this work.
b. Accommodations for Disability: any student who feels he or she may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately and in a timely fashion to discuss his or her specific needs. Students must also contact the Coordinator of the Learning Center at 781-239-5509 or in Hollister Hall 122 to coordinate reasonable academic accommodations.

c. Documentation and Appropriate Style: please use Modern Language Association (MLA) documentation style for your papers and reports. All sources must be cited, including course texts, internet sources, and ideas that are paraphrased. Lack of proper citation suggests academic dishonesty, or plagiarism. Babson policy requires that faculty forward all plagiarism cases to the campus Honor Board.
Guidelines for the MLA documentation style can be found in The Little Seagull Handbook by Richard Bullock et al. (this is the handbook adopted by Babson faculty for all Rhetoric classes); online at http://libguides.babson.edu/citing, http://libguides.babson.edu/citing; and at Babson’s Writing Center (Babson Hall 205) and Speech Resource Center (Horn 209).
d. Religious Observance: any student who faces a conflict between the requirements of a course and the observance of his or her religious faith should contact me as early in the semester as possible. In such an event, I will work with you on reasonable accommodations that do not unduly disadvantage you.

e. Policy on Late Papers: if you feel that you cannot submit your work in time, please contact me as early as possible to get help, or request an extension. Extensions without penalty are only granted if they are requested at least 24 hours before the time the paper is due. After that, the penalty for late papers is one grade step (e.g., down from a B- to a C+) for every (full or partial) day after the original deadline.
6. Course Schedule (always in progress; subject to changes): please note that new materials and activities will constantly be added as the semester advances.
I: Paying Attention, Seeking Balance: “Nature” as Wilderness and Resource

Wed 9/2 Introduction: “nature,” “environment,” “civilization.”
The pastoral, the sublime, and the supernatural.

Mon 9/7 LABOR DAY: NO CLASS.

Wed 9/9 Leopold, Sand County Almanac: 3-18; 26-34; 41-50.

Mon 9/14 Leopold, 66-92; 95-116.

Wed 9/16 Leopold, 129-137; 188-201.

Mon 9/21 Leopold, 201-226.
Film: The Story of Stuff (YouTube video; in class).

II. Seeking Sustainability: The Limits of Growth

Wed 9/23 Wessels, Myth of Progress, xiii-33.

Mon 9/28 Wessels, 34-79.
Group projects assigned.

Wed 9/30 Wessels, 80-114; Nafeez Ahmed blog entries (Bb):
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/04/mineral-resource-fossil-fuel-depletion-terraform-earth-collapse-civilisation and

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/04/scientists-limits-to-growth-vindicated-investment-transition-circular-economy

Mon 10/5 Wessels, 115-141.
Assignment for individual essay distributed.

Wed 10/7 No class (professor at conference). Make-up date or activity TBD.

Mon 10/12 Columbus Day holiday – no class.

Tues 10/13 “Babson Monday.” McKibben, xi-46.

Wed 10/14 Midterm exam.

Mon 10/19 McKibben, 47-101.

Wed 10/21 McKibben, 102-150.

Film: The Age of Stupid (in class)

Mon 10/26 Group project proposal due by e-mail before noon.

McKibben, 151-212.

McKibben, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” (Bb):

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719 and
Wed 10/28 Individual paper due by e-mail before noon.
Chris Berdik, “David Keith hopes we don’t have to use his ideas to reverse global warming” (Bb):

http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2013/10/19/how-geoengineering-and-harvard-david-keith-became-hot-topic/JBkPRydP1Tnd86oclwJT8K/story.html?s_campaign=8315

Mon 11/2 Elizabeth Kolbert, “Can Climate Change Cure Capitalism?” (Bb):

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/dec/04/can-climate-change-cure-capitalism/?pagination=false&printpage=true and

Margaret Atwood, “It’s not Climate Change – it’s Everything Change” (Bb)

https://medium.com/matter/it-s-not-climate-change-it-s-everything-change-8fd9aa671804 and

Lauren Landry, “’Save the World in Your Underwear’ with Babson Students’ New Game” (Bb):

http://bostinno.streetwise.co/all-series/saveohno-kickstarter-campaign-game-to-help-fight-climate-change/
IV. Departures: What is the Good Life?

Wed 11/4 Film: Dirt: The Movie
Kimball, The Dirty Life, 1-51

Mon 11/9 Kimball, The Dirty Life, 55-124

Wed 11/11 Group presentation.

Mon 11/16 Kimball, 127-192.
Group presentations.

Wed 11/18 Film: Food, Inc.

Mon 11/23 Thanksgiving Break
Wed 11/25 Thanksgiving Break

Mon 11/30 Kimball, 195-273.
Group presentations.

Wed 12/2 Group presentations.

Mon 12/7 Group presentations.

Wed 12/9 Last day of classes.