Explore the nature of environmental problems and gain an overall understanding of the complexity of these problems (LAC, gtP).
An introduction to basic culinary and food preservation techniques and management of garden vegetables.
Explore the tensions between individual and collective action of Food Systems in relation to social and agrarian change.
Analysis of the causes and proposed solutions of environmental problems and of environmental issues and their political resolution.
Prerequisite: ENST 100, can be taken concurrently. Overview of the Sustainable Development focusing on its origins and meanings in both theory and practice. A geographic focus on countries in the Global South, exploring how sustainable development policies and programs have impacted levels of poverty and inequality, use of natural resources, as well as rural and urban livelihoods.
Prerequisite: ENST 100 recommended. Examine interrelationships between human behavior and the environment. Review personal, social and structural dimensions of everyday life relating to the environment. Understand environmental problems and consider alternative behavior models.
Study past, present and future methods of energy production and limitations imposed by the laws of physics. Discuss applications to transportation, home and industry. Taught by the Physics department. (LAC, gtP)
Study the chemistry of natural waters, the atmosphere, and geosphere and the chemicals used for agriculture, industry, home, and energy production that pollute them. (LAC, gtP)
Course offered Summer only. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach toward understanding modern and traditional agriculture, and the ways in which these agricultural forms both clash and coalesce.
Air pollution and temperature inversions, global circulation of pollutants, acid rain, human impact on the ozone layer, carbon dioxide and climatic change, nuclear winter and other climate/human relationships.
Concurrent prerequisite: ENST 100. Learn about the water cycle and how water moves through an environment. Students will build an understanding of how to identify pollutants within water and be able to assess different ways in which contaminants can be eliminated.
Learn the characteristics of the major natural resources and the scientific basis behind current resource use practices. The environmental consequences of their use and abuse will be emphasized.
Concurrent prerequisite: ENST 100. Explore the nature of environmental conflict and work toward understanding the range of processes and skills used to resolve them.
An introduction to the study of the psychological relationships that exists between humans and the environment. Students will learn what attitudes, values and ethics humans have in terms of the natural world.
This course uses multiple theoretical perspectives to provide a cultural analysis of modernization, economic development, and globalization and their gendered effects on people in developed and underdeveloped countries. (LAC)
Use case studies to explore a general overview of commerce, economics, and business as it relates to the environment and human interactions.
Analyze problems in nature-society relationships by exploring geographic theory surrounding environmental politics, surveying local and global actors in these conflicts, and addressing varied contemporary issues in resource management.
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor. An exploration and analysis of the historical development of perceptions and worldviews about the environment and the natural world using the United States as a case study.
Prerequisites: SCI 291. Sophomores or above. This course examines principles, procedures, methods, and applications of environmental impact assessment. Specific emphasis is on the history and implementation of the NEPA in the USA with some discussion of international impact assessment.
Identify and analyze relationships between the physical and cultural patterns, including land use, resource development, social, political and economic problems.
Anthropological perspectives and methods are used to critically examine the assumptions and actions underlying social and environmental contemporary human problems as well as those involved in efforts to address them.
Prerequisite: ECON 205. Students will examine the strengths and weaknesses of economic theory in analyzing the seriousness of resource and environmental issues facing society.
Explore community-based approaches to designing sustainable food systems that draw from permaculture and urban agriculture principles and strategies.
Explore community-based approaches to designing sustainable food systems that draw from permaculture and urban agriculture principles and strategies.
Prerequisite: GEOG 220 or GEOG 230. Examine selected environmental issues, including climate change, environmental degradation, and resource depletion, focusing on the physical processes underlying these problems and how human activities contribute to environmental problems.
Discussion of the relationships of environmental pollution to the ecosystem and health of humans. Analyze major areas of environmental pollution: water, air, solid wastes, pesticides, radioactive wastes and population.
Examination of economic principles governing water planning, development and law. Discussion of supply and demand, quality and political issues. Relationship to Colorado and local situation. Can also be taken as ECON 356.
Concurrent prerequisite: ENST 100. Understand the leadership role of the individual and groups in building sustainable communities that enhance and capacity building for positive societal change.
Explore human relationships with nature writing from various periods and cultures. Economic, scientific, philosophic and religious attitudes emerge from attitudes about nature. Do these influence human treatment of natural things?
This course examines the dominant trends and challenges affecting energy systems and policy around the world, including the evolution and economics of fossil fuels, alternative energy technologies, and clean energy policies. Can be taken as ECON 378.
Examine the sustainability of contemporary living patterns. Explore alternative approaches to meeting transportation, domestic power and heating, food production and waste disposal needs on the personal and community levels.
Investigate and participate in the process of art as it relates to the different environments of human existence.
Prerequisite: ENST 100 or ENST 215 or permission of the instructor. Exploration of human perception as it adapts to the built environment, including theories of environmental psychology.
Prerequisite: ENST 100 or consent of instructor. Exploration of materials used in the built environment including: Properties and characteristics of a material, sustainable features, history of use, fabrication process, common uses for the material, and installation methods.
Prerequisite: ENST 100 or permission of the instructor. Exploration of the built environment including the characteristics of sustainability in: site selection, recyclable and renewable resources, embodied energy, building materials, and indoor air quality.
Discuss current environmental issues in depth and in detail, on the basis of student background, library resources, interviews and guest speakers. Individuals and small groups analyze and present problems.
Individualized investigation under the direct supervision of a faculty member. (Minimum of 37.5 clock hours required per credit hour.) Repeatable, maximum concurrent enrollment is two times.
Prerequisites: GEOG 220 or GEOG 230 or ENST 100. Identify meaningful patterns in the distributions of plants and animals and explain how/ why those patterns developed. Includes an examination of the role humans have played in shaping those patterns.
An examination of what causes climate to change across different time scales; how climate has changed in the past; how scientists use models, observations and theory to make predictions about future climate; and the consequences of climate change for our planet. One field trip required.
This course is a base to accompany an experiential practicum in organic farming and gardening.
Prerequisite: Juniors or above. Determinants and consequences of behavior and response to environmental extremes, technological emergencies, and acts of mass violence.
Prerequisite: Permission of Environmental Studies coordinator. Practical experience and training in areas related to the environment. Credit hours and nature of experience arranged individually. Repeatable, maximum of 15 credits.
Concurrent prerequisite: ENST 364. Give students experience in community engagement and service learning through a real community immersion process.
Prerequisite: ENST 100. Consent of ENST coordinator required. Experience in assisting in instruction of an introductory environmental studies course. Repeatable, maximum of 6 credits. S/U graded.
Study for undergraduate and graduate students in various topics of sustainability (junior or above, or consent of instructor). Repeatable under different subtitles, maximum of nine credits.